The fiery rage of the orange and yellow clashed violently against the calm waves of the blue and green as the sun finally was starting to submerge into the vast sea. I saw on the dock watching this phenomenon as though it were a one-of-a-kind experience, yet when you've lived here for so long, the sunset begins to lack in luster, the bold colors fade before my eyes. I wish I could remember my first sunset, it must have been spectacular. When you look straight out to sea, it seems sometimes that you can't even tell where the water line was, as it fought the heavens for boundary. Soon, the fire began to die out, leaving a faint purple and blue sky in the West, before the black mass of night swept in, easily taking its place.

I laid down on the dock with my feet still dangling over the edge. Resting my head on my hands, I gazed right up into the night sky. There are few stars yet, but I decided to be patient with them. This wasn't exactly something you could rush. Soon, the beautiful display of constellations was in clear view, not a single cloud to block out the radiance that is the stars of the mysterious, unending night sky. There's just something about it that gives me the feeling that they are trying to tell me something, something important, but they are always silent, as though, even if I needed to know what their secret was, it was forbidden. Or maybe there is a sacred barrier preventing their speech. Such a haunting feeling it brings, and still, it is passive, and calm. I watch the intricate patterns of the world above me, trying to decode their hidden properties. These thoughts of the stars lifted my spirits as I finally closed my eyes and drifted into a peaceful sleep.

The blaring, familiar light of the sun forced my eyes open. It seems that my eyelids were inept at being a good curtain. From what I could see, it was still early, so I could probably be able to brush off in time to make the bus. Stretching my sore shoulders and back, I sat up and rubbed my eyes, blinking furiously, trying to shake the drowsiness from them. Starting for the grey house towards the end of the road nearest the dock, I fumbled for the key in my pocket as anxiety rooted itself into the pit of my stomach. My mother must be worried sick, I thought as I fiddled with the lock. Finally getting the key in the lock, I was taken aback as the door swung open, revealing a very upset looking woman with her hands placed on her hips.

"I see you're not hurt, where have you been?" my mother demanded.

I shifted nervously, I hate when I think she's mad at me.

"I fell asleep on the dock," I replied quietly with my eyes to the floor.

"Do you know how worried I was about you? What if you were kidnapped? Gone, forever! I'd be so devastated. Don't you ever do that again, you hear? Come on," she opened her arms and I hugged her as she tightly gripped my back, "Get ready quickly now. You're almost late, it's quarter after six."

"Okay, Mom," I said as I kissed her cheek and headed upstairs to change.

Changing into some different clothes, I settled on a pair of blue jeans and a plain, black T-shirt. In the bathroom, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and tried, in vain, to drag a comb through my stubborn, unruly, brown spikes that I call hair. I grabbed the watch I left next to the sink and checked the time. 6:31, not bad. Still have about 5 minutes to get my school stuff together and head to the bus stop.
"Sora?" I heard my mom call from outside the door, "Are you almost done in there? You're going to miss your bus!"

"I'll be out in one sec, don't worry!" I shouted in reply. So, I darted out of the bathroom, grabbed my bag, and hit the door, yelling a quick goodbye as I left. It's a typical beautiful day – not too hot or cold or humid, lots of sunshine and a minimal amount of clouds.

I was thinking about what I might've had for homework and I figured ask like Riku or someone, if he's at the bus. He usually gets driven though. Squinting against the sun, I put my hand over my eyes as like a visor and tried to see if there was anyone at the corner. I could kid of see the outline of, from what I could make out, Riku. He apparently could see me because he waved over at my direction. Finally getting there I sat myself down on the aluminum bench and looked at Riku still standing, who was looking with eyes transfixed on the sign next to the stop.

"Hey, Riku, we have any homework in Lichwick's class?" I asked, skimming through the daily planner I never wrote in trying to remember if I had any.

"Yeah, we had to do chapters four and sixteen in the review book, don't you remember?" he answered.

Well, shit.

"Now I do, was it long?"

"Not really, maybe if you rush you can get it done before we're off the bus. I'd let you borrow mine, but I left it in my locker 'cause I finished in class. I'll help you it you want," Riku offered.

I thought over it for a second. Well. . . it is a gracious offer… and I only need answers, not 'right' ones, but right ones might help, and he's really smart.

"Sure, that'd be great, I guess."

So I pulled out my Regents review book and started the chapter on cells. Riku smiled and took a seat next to me, reading over my shoulder. I kind of hate when people do that, but I'll get over it for now. He'd barely glanced at the question before saying the answer. Made me feel a little stupid, but better that I had someone so smart to help me with this kind of stuff.

'Which statement regarding the function of the cell membrane of all organisms is not correct?
(1) The cell membrane forms a boundary that separates the cellular contents from the outside environment.
(2) The cell membrane is capable of receiving and recognizing chemical signals.
(3) The cell membrane forms a barrier that keeps all substances that might harm the cell from entering the cell.
(4) The cell membrane controls the movements of molecules into and out of the cell.'

"It's 3," Riku said quickly.
I starred (is that even a word? I doubt it) the answer and started reading the next question.

"The next one's 2," he said, pointing at the answer.

I looked at him funny, like one of those at-least-give-me-a-chance looks.

"Sorry," he mumbled, actually blushing slightly. That was actually very amusing, so I smiled dumbly in spite of myself.

"What?" he asked, now looking away, seeming very uncomfortable.

"It's nothing, you okay?" I asked.

I didn't get to hear his answer because the bus had come to a stop with a screeching halt. Climbing on the bus, I took my usual seat by the window fours rows down and Riku took the seat across from me. That's weird; he usually sat towards the back and listened to music or something. Maybe it was so I was close if I had a question with my bio homework. Well, that's pretty nice of him.

I stared blankly at the next question, more daydreaming about the bus crashing so I didn't have to go to school. It startled me when someone waved their hand in front of my face.

'Whoa!" I yelped, kind of loudly. I looked up in surprise at Riku, who was closer than I expected, so I jumped a bit.

"Hehe," he started, "did I interrupt you working so diligently on your work over here?"

"That you did, it was rather rude, I might add," I replied, pretending to snub him by raising my nose and facing the window, but I couldn't help smiling.

"Well, excuse me," he said, exaggerating the second syllable of 'excuse' more than necessary, "So, what question are you on now?"

"3," I said dumbly, I hadn't done a question on my own yet.

Looking at the book for a couple seconds, he said, "Answer's 1."

"Jeez, Riku, why are you so smart?" I asked somewhat sarcastically. Pretending to be deep in through, he scratched his head and made a 'hmm' sound.

"I dunno," he finally said simply, shrugging.

He kept telling me all the answers for the rest of the chapter when the bus came to a stop outside the school. Our school was a decent size, four stories in some areas and two on the side building.

"Hey, so…" I started, "Think maybe if I walked to your locker, I could, like, borrow your review book so I can check my answers?" I finished shyly.
"As in, 'can I copy your answers if I suck up?'" he said mockingly, then he added after a bit of thought, "Eh, sure, you can have it, but I'll need it back before class starts, you're lucky it's all multiple choice."

"Really? Thanks!" I exclaimed. My teacher would probably be suspicious if I got all the answers right, but I guess he wouldn't figure who I had copied from. I followed him to his locker which was on the very top floor. When I got to the top I was breathing a little heavy, but I'm not in the greatest shape. Riku, however, seemed unaffected and he smirked when he saw me breathing the way I was.

"We almost there?" I whined, but regretted it immediately. I knew I was about to be made fun of, so I mentally braced for impact. I was kind of surprised when he just smiled and nodded. He stopped at the fifth locked on the right side that was number 345A, not sure why I mentioned that, I think that number is cool. So, he put in his combination, mutter something incoherent about 'not combination, freaking permutation' before pulling his locked open. He opened his backpack and put a couple textbooks inside his locked, and he took a few folders and put them in his bag. Class work folders, I guess. Finally, he reached up to the shelf at the top of his locked and pulled out his review book.

"Here," he said, thrusting the notebook in my direction.

"Thanks again," I said, taking it and settling down on the floor to start copying his answers. I still felt bad about it, but Riku didn't seem to mind, he sat down next to me with one knee bent, the other leg stretched out. His pants were kind of cool looking, white with black stripes lining the pockets and two chains that went from above his pockets to meet in the middle of his back. They fit his waist well, but then very loose at his feet. Later on, I learned that these were known as Trip pants. He wore this with a black sleeveless shirt.

"I like your pants."

"..Thanks," he replied strangely, he put a hand on his leg, "I got them at Hot Topic last week, they were the only pair left when I got there, cost 55 dollars."

"Cool," I said, trying to seem interested, but then I stated trying to concentrate on my work. The hallways were really quiet; most people hung out downstairs until the warning bell rang.

"Think Lichwick's going to grade it?" Riku asked.

"He grades everything," I answered.

"He only checked the last one to see if we wrote something for every question," he pointed out.

"That's true, but we also took a quiz that day, was probably going easy on us," I said.

"Maybe."

I kept writing his answers down, well, more just circling them, but same thing. I was done in five minutes, just as the bell rang, signaling that we had one minute to get to class. I stood up and dusted off my pants and handed Riku his book back. He took it and put it in his backpack.
"Want to try to make the late bell?" he asked, smiling.

"Yeah," I kind of yelled and dashed towards the stairwell. Looking back, I saw Riku right behind me. I took the stairs two at a time, and jumped to the end of the flight from halfway. This is so intense. I freaked when Riku jumped the rail and landed right in front of me. Sending me a snide smirk, he kept going down the stairs. I sat there for a second gaping like retard. Well, I thought, two can play at that game. I waited until right before took the corner and jumped over the rail.

"Whoa!" he called out.

He saw me coming, but, I mean, he didn't exactly have time to move, and I landed right on him. He fell back from my weight and hit his head on the top stair.

"Ow…" he moaned, massaging the back on his head.

Surprising, he didn't push me off of him. Maybe he was as shocked as I was that I actually hit him. That was definitely unintentional, I swear. Awkwardly standing up, I offered my hand to Riku; he took it and used the rail to raise himself to his feet. He started slowly walking down the stairs as I followed.

"Hey. . ." I started; he didn't look up, "are you okay?"

Now he looked up, not at me, up at the wall.

"Amazing," he whispered to the air, I'm pretty sure he wasn't telling me that. It was a bit creepy.

"What has gotten into you?" I asked, in like a joking manner, but I think he forgot I was kidding.

"Nothing," he snapped and charged down the rest of the stairs. I was so confused, what did I do?

I took the first left into the hall where our biology room was, dodging several people along the way. I hate how it always seems like I'm going against the current. I was only when room away when the late bell signaled that I was late. (Hence the name "late bell")

"Shit," I muttered.

"Watch your fuckin' language," I heard someone nearby say.

I turned to shoot the guy that said that a dirty look, but then I caught the joke and tried to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from smiling. He had blond hair that was sort of spiked at the top and was wearing black pants with a single white stripe down the outside with a plain gray t-shirt and a black vest over that. He was leaning against the lockers giving me a snide look.

"Shouldn't you be in class and not trying to tell me how to act?"

"Who are you to tell me to be in class?" he said without missing a beat.
"Hmph, hell with you," I said under my breath.

I gathered myself together and knocked on Mr. Lichwick's door. He looked at me clearly through the rectangle shaped window.

"Hey Sora," he rang cheerily, "why are you late?"

"I was upstairs," I said, not lying, but not really a reason for being late. He opened the door for me and I made my way towards my seat.

"Okay then! Take out your notebooks!" he yelled.

I took out my notebook and started doing the "Do Now" that was on the board. Then I noticed that everyone had taken out their review book and put it in the corner of the desk, so I followed suit.

"So while you're doing this. . . I'm going to be checking your homework! Make sure it's on your desk!" he exclaimed, taking out his grade book and going to the person in the first seat of the first row, Alyssa Altman.

"Good morning, Princess, how are you this morning?" Mr. Lichwick asked overly perky.

"Hm," was all the little 'Princess' got out.

"Good, good. . ." he said, flipping through her review book, making sure she just answered every question. I looked over at Riku and he mouthed "told you so" at me and returned to his work.

Soon, he was at my desk and he opened my review book and flipped through the pages. I sat kind of toward the back because we were in alphabetical order.

"Very nice," he commented, and continued on his rounds around the classroom. When he went up to the board, it seems that someone drew a spider on it. He didn't really notice right away.

"We're going straight to – what the hell is this? Is this a spider?!" he shouted, then his voice dropped to just above a whisper, "Does . . . does that mean you know I'm Spider man?"

"You can't be Spider man, you're Asian!" Cow called out, I don't really know his first name, but everyone just calls him Cow, he's the skinny diabetic smartass.

"Just because I'm Asian doesn't mean I can't be Spider man! What do you mean? You think Asians are immune to a radioactive spider's venom!"

Much laughter ensues.

"But still!" Marissa yelled out.

"Fine, then I'm Superman!" he screamed in mock triumph.
Now, I'm giggling like crazy, I hate when I do that. The guy next to me gave me this strange "what the fuck?" look. He was wearing a blue cap with 'git er done!' embroidered into it. I think that's from some movie I never saw, but was told I'd like.

"Excuse me, Mr. Lichwick?" Caroline asked politely with her hand raised.

"Yes . . .?" he said with a purposeful dumb tone.

"I have lessons," she answered quietly.

"Oh, okay, be sure to get the notes, we're finishing evolution today," he started, as she headed to the door, he added, "You don't need a pass or anything, do you?"

"Actually, that would be nice, he forgets to mark you present sometimes when you're late."

"Sure thing," he said as he began to rifle through his desk drawers. He pulled put the yellow stack of '5-minute' passes, as they were called. He quickly filled it out and handed it to her.

"What does 5 minute pass mean?" Mr. Lichwick asked.

"It just means it only counts for 5 minutes," a girl in front of me said.

"Well then! You better get moving."

Biology went by pretty quickly, we learned about Darwin's Finches.

"Psst! Sora!" Jess whispered from behind me, "Sora?"

"Hi Jess," I said dully, she's always too chipper in the mornings too.

"Hi," she responded quickly, with a short wave. She also flicked the hair out her eye, which was now dyed a bright pink and cut so it covered her right eye. She also had a purple guitar-shaped barrette; I think it's called, pinned to her hair. Interestingly enough to look at as is, the left segment of hair was bleached with pink horizontal stripes. Under the florescent lighting, her hair looked almost blindingly bright.

"You dyed your hair, it looks . . ." I started, and tried to search for a good adjective, but decided to go with a crappy one that described it perfectly, "bright."

"Aw, thank you, you're so nice," she said, smiling brightly at me, seems today everything about her is bright. Well, not really, she was wearing this brown jacket with a kind of low-cut yellow shirt. I think she noticed me looking at her shirt for a second, as she closed her jacket and shrunk away to the side, "Stop looking at my boobs!"

"I wasn't!" I said defensively, but I felt heat rush into my cheeks.

"Aw, Sora, you're so cute when you're blushing," Jess commented, which just made it worse. Then she began to search through her purse and after a few moments rummaging, she pulled a small turtle from her purse and laid it on her desk. I just sat there with this blank look on my face.

"Where the hell did you conjure that up from?" I asked.

"My purse," she replied.

"Your purse?" I repeated.

"Yeah," she answered, "Isn't he awesome?"

"Uh, sure, 'he'?"

"Yeah, 'he,' his name's Aaron," remarked Jess. She held him up so I was nose-to-nose with Aaron. I freaked and jerked my head back.

"Is he going to bite me?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah, he'll bite you, really hard and he'll, like, take your finger and eat it," Jess said rolling her eyes.

"Of course he will, Jess, whatever you say," I responded in the same tone as her.

"Hey! No need to get snippy, that's not nice," she whined, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, well . . ." I tried to think of something clever to say and failed, "I'm sorry."

I looked down trying to look as guilty as possible as the bell rang. I turned to get my books and stuffed them in my bag.

"Hey," I heard Jess say. So, I looked over my shoulder at her and she threw her fist at me, but it stopped an inch from my face and I flinched. Her fingers seemed to be covered with black string, upon further inspection; I saw that she had those black spider rings on all her fingers.

"Where'd you get all those spider rings from?" I asked.

"From Aaron."

". . . Oh. How did you – wait, never mind," I said in reply. 'How did you get a spider ring from Aaron?' sounded stupid, "Hey, that one on your pinky is facing a different way than all the others."

"He's a rebel," she claimed.

"Right."

"So," she started, "what are you doing this weekend?"

I shrugged. I'm not one for plan making.
"Well Riku wanted me to ask you if you wanted to go to the movies with us. 'Us' being me, Riku, Kaori, Delroth . . . yeah, well, quite the group, so, do you?"

"Sure, when?" I asked. I pulled out a sharpie so I could write it down.

"We planned meeting around 5 on Friday; the movie starts at quarter of 7. Be sure to bring some money with you," she replied.

"Okay," I said, writing 'Fri 5pm movie' on my left hand in bright green ink.

"Cool, see ya," she said waving and grabbing her black backpack and heading towards the door. Almost like right on cue, Riku came over to me.

"Hey, Sora, what class do you have next?" he asked. I could already see what was coming and I sighed without meaning to.

"I have English, it's in room 306," I replied almost indifferently.

"Cool, I've got gym, want to start heading there?"

"Sure . . ." I answered.

"So, you guys reading anything in your class?"

'Reading in English class? Of course not!' is what I thought, what I said was, "Yeah, Romeo and Juliet. It's pretty boring though, my class only manages to read three pages per class because apparently we're all incompetent so the teacher had to stop and tell us what every single line means."

He laughed at this even though the comment wasn't that funny to begin with and dripping with sarcasm. Wait, maybe that's what made it funny, right.

We took a left into a hallway that had art rooms in it, there were drawings on display. I stopped and looked at one that caught my eye. I looked like a person. Wow, great description, let's try that again. There was a girl in the picture that seemed to be made with several segments collected together. Her hair was a brown, with several red highlights. When I looked closely, it seemed to be made with snippets of autumnal leaves, their bound veins made the lines in her hair. Then, her eyes, they were a breath-taking blue; they almost looked fake, but familiar. Then it hit me, Jess had these spectacularly blue radiant eyes. My own eyes left the picture and became transfixed into the air as I envisioned Jess as she smiled at me. Then, I think I imagined her shaking my shoulder.

"Sora . . .?" I heard a voice say, it didn't sound like Jess at all, then my gaze seemed to snap into focus, and there I was, looking at the picture of pictures as Riku continued to try to get my attention.

"What?" I asked annoyed, but maybe a little harshly, because I saw Riku's expression flash with a hurt look before returning to it's usual confident, even cocky, state.
"If you keep daydreaming like that, we're going to be late and I know you wouldn't want to miss and of the cute romantic scenes in Romeo and Juliet," he teased before waving it off and continued on his path to the stairs.

"I was not daydreaming!" I lied pitifully, I suck at lying.

"Of course not Sora," he retorted sarcastically, "Who ya thinking about?"

"No one," I lied again, shrinking into my shoulders. He gave me this 'yeah, right' look as we dove head-first into the usual stairway traffic, figuratively speaking.

"You can tell me," he assured, but I wasn't too sure I should tell him, I mean, they're friends and he'd probably tell her and she's be all, 'Awww . . . Sora . . .' or something like that.

"Er, I dunno," I muttered, trying to avert his eyes and failing miserably as I started to laugh nervously and I bite the inside of my lip to keep from smiling, but I failed at that too.

"Liar. Oh come on, do you want me to start guessing?" he suggested.

"No!" I yelped, going over to Riku, I whispered in his ear, "I was thinking about how the girl in the picture's eyes looked like Jess's."

I hung my head as we left the stairs and went to the bridge that connects the buildings. Surprisingly enough, the floor was kind of interesting to look at. I see why all those 'anti-social' people always stare at it.

"I see," he said, giving what I said a little thought, "Did you ask her out in Biology or something today? I saw you two talking – and you blushing just like you are now."

I could feel my cheeks blaring as he said this, but I didn't like Jess. . Just because I think about her doesn't mean I like her. If it does, I like a lot of people.

"No, I don't even like her in that way," I started and because of a suspicious glance from Riku, I continued, "I mean just because you think about someone doesn't mean you like them. Like," the statement sounded fine in my head, but once said aloud, it sounded like it needed an example, so I said the first thing that came to mind, "I think about you all the time."

He was a little flustered; he looked away as he responded, "Good to know."

I tilted my head to the side and looked at him funny, he never seemed the type to be caught off-guard, looked more like a 'cool and collected' one.

"So," he started, his composure regained, "What were you talking about then?"

"Oh, she said that you wanted to go out to the movies with me this Friday," I responded casually, without really thinking about what I said.
"Wait, what?" he sputtered out.

Haha, oops, my bad. This is funny though, no saying sorry yet.

"Yeah, she told me you wanted to meet up around 5 so we could go out to dinner first," I explained calmly. He's probably so torn . . . if he likes the fact that Jess asked me, that means he's gay, and he doesn't know how I'd take to that. On the other hand, if he's pissed, and I said I'd go, he doesn't know that either and probably wouldn't want to hurt my feelings.

"So what did you say?" he questioned.

Slight backfire . . .

"I said, 'yes' of course," responded with a smile as I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers and swung his arm a bit as we walked. I had no idea where I was going with this, but I think he knows I was just messing around. Well, I kind of hope.

"You know . . ." he said, removing his hand from my grasp, "I told Jess to ask you to go to the movies with like four other people, she did mention that, right?"

"Yeah, she did, I was just fooling around," I replied. He stared to take the right the right down to the gym.

"Right, good, well I'll see you around," Riku called with a small wave and started down the stairs.

"See ya!" I yelled back. English, yay. Maybe we'll actually accomplish something today. Yeah, that's wishful thinking.

Walking in the room, I took my seat and stared at the board. Notes from some other class were on it, something about reveries or dreams or whatever. I never liked English, I mean, I like to read and write and stuff, but I hate being given so many limits. Ms. Krivak's usually nice, but one time she gave us this really short book and I literally finished it in 20 minutes, and she had given us the entire period to read this 80 page sorry-excuse-for-reading-material and when I was done, I took out a different book (EXCELLENT book, by the way). So, I was still reading and she comes over to me and is all, 'You know, doing things unrelated to me class during it is the most obnoxious thing you can do. Put it away.' Oh. My. God. Is it a freaking crime to READ during ENGLISH class? Get over yourself. I can't change people, or pick my teachers, so oh well. Whatever.

"Talking to yourself, there foul mouth?" I heard someone whisper to me. I jumped all startled and looked over at the person who was sitting in the desk next to mine. Great, he's the guy from the hallway.

"How much did I say?" I asked, kind of embarrassed, looking sideways at the teacher.

"Not much, just 'whatever,'" he responded as he extended a hand, "I'm Roxas, just moved here from Coldspring."

Should've figured he was new, why else would I not know he was in my English class this entire time? I took his hand shook it weirdly and looked up at his eyes. Whoa . . . he's got eyes just like Jess does, that's weird. I think his are bigger though. Then he blinked his eyes and gave me this really strange look before moving his hand that apparently was still in mine.

"Oh, sorry," I began, letting his hand go, "I'm Sora, when did you move here?"

"Like three weeks ago, after my dad decided that he couldn't afford for me to live with him, so I moved in with my mom and sister," he answered coolly, shrugging.

"How old's your sister?"

"She's 16, you might know her. Her name's Jess and she's got bright pink hair – she's hard to miss," stated Roxas, or 'Jess's brother.' Wow, I mean, they DO have the same eyes, but Jess never said she had a brother. Wait, Jess has been going here for at least a year.

"'Course I know her, she's in my biology class. I'm guessing you're younger?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm still 14, 15 this December," he said. So, I guess I'll be honest with myself, he's kind of cute. There, I admitted it. God, just thinking that makes me blush. This is so wrong. I'll just hit my head on the desk and wait this out. Ow, that was stupid – and painful.

"Hey! Uh . . . you okay?" I heard a worried Roxas ask, "Your face is all red, you need to go to the nurse or something?"

Great, he noticed.

"I'm fine," I said to the desk, since my face was still against it.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," I responded, picking my head up and smiling. Maybe he's going to the movies with Jess this Friday too, that would be cool.

"So . . ." he started, "You're going to the movies this Friday?"

"Wow! Mind-read, much?" I asked, shocked, but then I realized it was written on my hand in huge neon letters, as he pointed out by lifting my hand to show me, ". . . Oh."

"Well, you know, my sister is taking me along so I can meet some of her friends. Maybe you could see the same movie as us,' Roxas suggested.

"Sure," I said. Well, that was kind of stupid since we're going to the same movie with the same people anyway. Oh, wait, he doesn't really know that, right.

"Everyone, quiet down," said the teacher as the late bell rang. Michelle and Michelle walked in and took their seats, both with those Push-Pop icepop things we used to have in elementary school, "Michelles, why are you late?"
"I'm not late, I was right outside," explained Michelle R – something.

"I expect you to be in this room before the bell, otherwise, you're late," Ms. Krivak replied sharply.

"What a bitch," I heard Michelle Damewood whisper to Jessica Maywald.

"I heard that," Ms. Krivak stated while she was trying to get her ipod to work, "Damn thing," she whispered, turning around she told us, "There are just some days where you want to smash this thing into the floor and stomp on it."

It was funny, I smiled to myself as I copied down the homework. Vocabulary quiz on Friday? Eh, doesn't faze me. What an interesting start of the day. Since I read ahead the other day, I could probably get away with not paying that much attention. I took out my pencil (mechanical, it's pretty sweet) and took a side glance at Roxas who seemed fairly uninterested at the book and was staring at it with unfocused eyes. I wonder what he's thinking about. Hmm . . . I took my notebook and opened to a fresh page. I lightly traced the outline of his head, looking over every few seconds. Then I did his profile, the bridge of his nose, lips, chin, and then jaw line. He started to look down and he rested his head on his right hand. Starting on his hair, it spiked up towards the right a bit. I looked again and his pinky was gently resting on his slightly pink lips. They were full and with little amount of sheen, so perfect. I wonder . . . No! I mentally slapped myself; mind needs to dig itself out of the gutter. Concentrate. Focus. I then started his eye, as big and round and startlingly blue imaginable. Their bold cerulean color drew my eye's gaze towards them. Suddenly they glanced at me for a second and I looked back towards my notebook until he was again staring forward. I lightly shaded the irises and left some area where the light reflected in them. I did some finishing touches on his hair and held it out in front of me when it as snatched away.

"Hey!" I complained, as I saw who was holding it. Apparently, we were watching the movie instead. I'm so oblivious.

"Oh, look at this!" Renia squealed. Renia, or as I call, 'Mini Mehni' was this little short girl with somewhat fluffy brown hair and an orange T-shirt and blue Capri pants. She turned around and blinded me momentarily with her neon blue and yellow backpack.

"Mehni! Give that back!" I hissed, not trying to make much noise.

"Holy crap, Sora, this is good, who is it?" Mehni commented, looking at my picture of Roxas with awe. I made a dive for it and got the corner of my notebook and yanked on it, but Mehni had a better grip on it and ripped it right back.

"Mehni . . ." I whispered helplessly.

"Why are you so shy? This is so freakin' good," she said, showing it to Michelle Damewood who looked from it, to Roxas, and started giggling.

"Can I see it?" Roxas asked Mehni.
I am going to have a fucking panic attack.

"No! Give it back!" I yelled, surprised I could get away with so much. Oh, duh, the teacher's not in the room.

"Why can't he see it?" she asked, relinquishing my notebook, and looking over at him. Her eyes widened and again she swiped it and looked from my drawing to him several times.

"Why do you keep looking at me?" Roxas said with a tone between uncomfortable and annoyed and curious.

"Holy shit," Renia said in disbelief, before handing my notebook to me, she came over to me and whispered in my ear, "You drew that guy? Why did you do that?"

I could feel myself turning red. I looked down and fiddled with my pencil.

"I-I was, uh, bored, and, like, he was right there and, well . . . I don't know," I stuttered out quickly, it wasn't REALLY a lie because I was bored and he was right there, right?

"Huh," she started, then turned her eyes to her next victim, her large brown ones gazed into the azure blue of Roxas's and she asked, "Who are you?"

"Er – I'm Roxas, it's nice to meet –," Renia extended her hand with an exaggerated motion towards him and you could hear the uncertainty, "you?"

"Oh, please, the pleasure is mine," she chimed, winking at Roxas, making him give her this 'what-the-fuck-are-you-doing' look as I like to call it.

"Right . . . so . . . um what's your name again?" Roxas tried to act polite, but there was too much drone in his voice to conceal.

"Renia, or otherwise known as Mehni, as you might have heard from Sora over here," she replied, obviously ignoring the fact that he didn't seem interested.

"Cool."

"Where're you from?" she questioned again, her voice thick with false interest, you would have to know her to catch it, usually.

"Why do you care?" he sighed. Probably been asked that fifty million times already. I don't blame him. I kind of hope I wasn't annoying him earlier. If I was, he didn't show it as much. I looked up at the movie for a moment to see Romeo and Juliet making out on the balcony with Juliet shouting stuff about her sending the Nurse for him in the morning. How she managed saying that with Romeo's tongue down her throat is beyond me.

"Wow, how can she talk during that?" Roxas whispered to me after Mehni had given up on him.
"Beats me, I was just thinking about that too," I responded honestly. Again, wow, mind read, much? He really needs to stop doing that.

"Guess girls never shut up no matter what you're doing to them," he said, smiling at me.

I blew out my nose in effort to stifle a laugh. What do I have next? Spanish? I bet I had to do like 15 Quia or something for homework. I never do that anyway so it's all good. The bell had rang just after Romeo and Juliet had finished their scene.

"See you, Roxas," I called after him, since he had grabbed his bag and started heading to the door already.

"Yeah, see ya," he said back. I watched the back of his head as he left, his blond spikes never faltering in their position as he walked.

"I hope. . ." I breathed.

"Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow."