Chapter 1

I walked over to my two best friends, who were waiting outside to meet me. I smiled walking up to them.

"Xion!" Roxas said happily coming to meet me, with Axel following behind.

"hey Xion" Axel said experimenting with yet a different way of saying my name.

"hey guys" I smiled hugging each one in turn.

"how was your summer?" Roxas asked smiling.

"It was. . . . Okay. . . Not much really happened though. . . ." I shrugged. "I'd ask how your summers went but by your smiling faces im guessing it went well" I smiled.

Roxas and Axel exchanged looks and Roxas blushed. Axel bursts out into a fit of laughter and I laugh too. A bell rings telling us to go inside. We start walking towards the private school we all attend, and first met each other at.

The year we met. Roxas and myself were the new kids. Axel, being an upper classmen, was told to show us around. I still think, and Axel always disagrees when we bring the subject up, but I think he probably never would've hung out with us or became our friend if he hadn't been forced to show us around. You see from my perspective Axel was one of the, more popular people, you'd never think he'd be caught dead hanging with us. But after a few forced days of showing us around, he started hanging out with us during lunch and stuff when he could've been with his other friends. When ever we asked him about his other friends he would say:

"oh! Their still my friends. . . " he'd pause before finishing "I just felt like hanging with you guys today."

And that's how it was most of the year. So that's how we got our little group.

This year though, I don't see as much of Axel he has a different homeroom and different classes. I only see him at lunch and eighth period study hall. Though I have homeroom, Algebra, Science, English, Phy. Ed., lunch and a few other classes with Roxas, its probably because we're in the same grade but. . . ?

My morning classes fly by quickly, my morning teachers didn't have much for us to do, because 'they didn't plan anything for the first day' but I think they just forgot. I bet when they woke up this morning they looked at their calendars and the words 'SCHOOL STARTS' hit them in the face. Two reasons back this up. . . One. it's the first day and almost all of the teachers are annoyed and bitchy cause school started again. Two. Most of the teachers came in still wearing their summer clothes. Like swim trunks, skirts, random flower printed tee-shirts and tank tops.

I walk over to Roxas' locker and stand there waiting for him to meet me before we go to lunch. Its inconvenient that the class period right before lunch is practically the only one we don't have together. I waited a bit longer, starting to wonder if I should just go to the lunchroom, when I recognize a blonde about my height struggling down the hallway.

"woah…" I said amazed walking up to Roxas. "here…. Let me take some of those….." I reach out and take one of the piles of books he's carrying.

"thanks. . ." he says slightly out of breath

"ugh. . . .are these all for one class?" I stop at his locker.

"No. I'd die if I had to carry these around every morning" he laughs. "I need to carry them to the other history room"

"why do you have to. . . ? I mean there's other people in your class. . . Why you?" I asked

"well. . . . I kinda pissed off the teacher. . . . ." he said quietly.

"how?" I asked amazed.

"um. . . Well I came to class late, he got mad. . . Yelled at me. . . I yelled back. . . . And was forced to carry all these books to the other history room. Yup that's about it" he shrugged.

"well lets run these down and head to lunch. . . . Axel must be worried sick. . . ." I picked up my stack of books again and headed down the hall with Roxas following.

We showed up in the lunchroom late. Axel was practically fidgeting as we sat down. Roxas sat next to Axel and I sat across from him. He looked up and practically strangled Roxas with his hug.

"where have you been?" Roxas gasped from lack of air "I was so worried!"

"um. . . Axel. . . " I said quietly. He looked at me questioningly. "Roxas. . . . "

"hm..?" he looks at Roxas who now has an odd bluish tint to his skin, and lets go quickly. "oops!"

Roxas gasps for air for a moment then regains his composure.

Throught the entire lunch period we had to sit through Axel's rampage on how if we were late because someone as being mean to us we were to give him there name and he'd take care of them. But we assured him that no one needed beaten up, and that we were helping out a teacher. We figured he would want to hit the teacher who yelled at Roxas, so we purposefully left that part out and said we carried the books voluntarily.

The afternoon went by agonizingly slow, those teachers must've been looking forward to the first day just to torture us. Each period felt like hours. They went on forever to tell us how most of us are going to probably fail their class, and how we have to always bring our text books. And other teacher-ish stuff. I never realized how happy I'd be when the bell rang announcing we could leave, until it actually rang. I jumped up and ran into the hallway. Roxas smiled and laughed at me.

"couldn't wait to get out of there could you Xion?" he continued to laugh.

"yeah. . . . This year is going to be so weird. . ." I sighed.

"so. . . You want to come with Axel and me to get ice cream?" he asked kindly not wanting me to feel left out.

"no. that's okay you guys go. . . I have stuff I need to do" I said waving and started walking home.

I didn't really have anything to do. I just think they deserve time together, without me there dragging everything down.