CHAPTER 1

Disclaimer: Me es not owns KH.

"Tidus!"

"Sora, come on! We have to keep going."

My breathing was erratic, I couldn't understand how I could still be running with the pain I was in. I knew the bruises all over my body were completely visibly by now; there was a cut along my torso, and a light scratch on my face. I'm pretty sure I can get away with no one noticing the scratch, but I really needed to find a way to hide everything else. The worst of everything was the giant, pulsating bruise on my lower back slowing me down. I suppose that's what happens when a huge piece of metal hits you from behind. I should've been paying attention, but I wasn't. We couldn't stop running though, no matter how far away my house was, and how odd it would be for two fifteen year olds to be running for their lives at two o'clock in the morning. We just couldn't stop. Not now.

They were going to catch us if we stopped, and without a doubt they could kill us if they really wanted to. I was doing my best to stay close with my friend, Tidus Heart. We both lived in the richer end of town, and as we neared it we quickly crawled under the hole close to the gate to avoid getting caught by the security guards. We could see the flashlight scanning over the hole we just made it through, and we both let out a deep breath. We were safe. There was no danger beyond these walls. Tidus nodded towards me, and I did so back, our goodbye's for the night. Being careful to climb the tree into my room, I quietly picked up the window that I always left unlocked when I did this. I sighed, collapsing on my bed and picking up my flashing cell phone from my nightstand.

20 text messages from Kairi, I couldn't be bothered to answer them. It was too late, I was too tired, and the amount of pain I was in warranted a nice hot bath I the morning before anyone else was awake. I'd answer her in the morning, even though I'd probably forget by then.

-Monday 9:00am-

"Sora, wake up!" I heard the girl's voice, nudging me from my sleep. I was far too sleepy to even guess who it was, but I had a pretty good feeling. "Come on Sora, I know you can hear me!" Another nudge, "Sora Gainsborough, wake up or I'll put these frog organs in your hair!"

My hand snapped up instinctually, grasping my friend's Kairi Alexander's wrist. She held the frog over my head tauntingly, and I glared at the perky redhead. She was definitely not getting away with putting frog guts in my hair. I sat up in my chair, and let go of her thin wrist. It wasn't entirely my fault that she generally put me to sleep with her banter and useless girl drama, I fell asleep on her while she dissected the frog and told me about this girl that did that to this other girl that told this other… I lost track after that.

"What could you possibly want that you needed to wake me up?" I asked, while discreetly copying her answers from her lab sheet onto my own.

"You didn't answer any of my fucking texts last night!" Kairi scowled, her tone dripping with anger. "I kept texting and texting about our next date night, but I never got a reply back! What could you possibly be doing that was more important than answering your own girlfriend?" She always like putting emphasis on her self-proclaimed title of my girlfriend. Truth was, I only went on a few dates with her because I pitied her. Sure, we'd been best friends since Pre-K and she had this massive crush on me, but I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't feel the same way. "Do you want to go or not?" She asked, taking out her make-up kit and applying a light pink blush to her cheeks. I couldn't understand why girls cared so much about their looks, especially someone as flawless as Kairi. She really didn't need the make-up.

"Can I get back to you about it?" I said timidly, her eye twitched as she sighed, defeated, and nodded in agreement. I smiled warmly, and looked over to see Tidus and a girl our age with brown hair walking towards our desk. Selphie Tilmitt, the hyperactive twin as I liked to call her, seeing as how she was a lot like me, at least when I was a lot livelier than today. Today was definitely not looking like a lively day for me, the pain in my lower back was making me cringe every few minutes, and I was desperately hoping Kairi wouldn't notice.

"Hey guys, did you hear about the new students that just transferred?" Selphie asked, sitting on top of Kairi's desk.

"Miss Tilmitt!" Our biology teacher practically screamed from the front of the classroom. "What did I say about sitting on the desks?"

"Not to…" Selphie murmured, hurriedly jumping off. "Fucking old geezer."

"No, why?" I asked curiously, the bell rang and we all quickly grabbed our things as Selphie continued to talk on the way out. I couldn't remember the last time any new students ever came to our school. Destiny Islands was just kind of like that, you either grew up here, or you moved away. People rarely moved in.

"Because they have got to be the hottest pair I've ever seen!" Selphie squealed, turning around the corner to the hallway that led to our lockers. "And it turns out their stepbrothers! Riku Murisaki and Axel Lea are like the hottest pair of twelfth graders ever created." She was practically jumping with excitement. We all kind of stalled mid-walk, looking down the hall to see two people standing by my locker. Selphie nearly squealed again, pointing at them. I was not particularly happy that the new kids were standing at my locker, and I was pretty sure one of them was leaning against my best friend Roxas's locker.

The one leaning against Roxas's locker had fiery red hair and sea foam green eyes, while the one leaning on my locker had long silver hair, and his long bands covered whatever eye color he had. Selphie continued to talk in a whisper, "Riku's parents divorced and his dad married Axel's mom and the two are like the same age just with a two-month difference." She paused, "They're so hot."

"That's great." I said sarcastically, clearly not interested in hearing their background. They had good looks, I'd give them that, but they were standing in front of my locker, and I was trying not to come off too annoyed, "Excuse me, can you please move? That's my locker." I came off polite, but the older teen who I guess was Riku looked at me and from this angle I could get a clear view of his eyes. They were a delicate aquamarine, and I couldn't ignore how pretty they were. He stood there looking at me curiously as if he knew me from somewhere, and I couldn't help but stare back.

"We're sorry, we had no idea." He replied, moving away from me and smiling lightly. His voice was far more mature than mine, and it had its own sultry tinge that could make me melt. He held his smile until who I figured was Axel pulled him away. I looked around to see Roxas Strife, my locker buddy. The blond walked passed the redhead, who was eyeing him in a similar fashion Riku had been looking at me.

They knew us from somewhere, and had danger written all over them. I didn't like where this was going.

"What was that about?" Roxas asked, bending down to his bottom locker and spinning the combination lock.

"I don't know, but those two look familiar." I replied, waiting for him to get what he needed out of his locker. We had our next class together, gym.

"They do, don't they?" Roxas closed his locker and stood up, "My second period class had a few new odd people in it too. One was named Squall Leonhart, although he prefers to be called Leon, and the other was Zexion Yamato. Weird how we're all of a sudden getting new students." The blond shrugged, flipping subjects, "How's Kairi?" He had a slightly mocking tone I definitely didn't appreciate.

"Don't even joke," I whipped out a pissed look. "She's isn't my girlfriend! Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Maybe because she keeps saying it?" Roxas shrugged again. "Oh, and there's those rumours going around about all those DATES you two went on." Okay, he was just teasing me now. Stupid Roxas.

"Whatever man, now she's all suspicious about me after school because I never answer her phone calls or texts."

"Well make sure she never finds out about what we do." Roxas tone quickly turned serious, but he definitely didn't have to tell me twice. If I ever broke the rules, I could consider myself broke. "Are you sure you need to go to the gym today?" He asked as we rounded the corner towards the gymnasium. I knew what he meant, as soon as we needed to change for gym, I'd have to take off my shirt and everyone would be able to see the bruises hidden underneath, especially the one on my back.

"Then make sure she never finds out about what we do." Roxas didn't have to tell me twice, if I broke the rules something would be broke. "Are you sure you need to go to the gym today?" Roxas asked as we rounded the hall and headed towards the gymnasium. I wasn't sure thanks to what happened yesterday night and today was dress out day. If I took my shirt off everyone would see the bruises that were hidden under it, especially the one on my back.

"I have to." I couldn't be caught skipping, my parents would kill me. "Just make sure you cover me up when I get changed."

Roxas nodded as we headed for the boy's locker room. Much to my shock, the two new kids I'd seen earlier were in our class. Riku and Axel looked up as we walked into the change room, but seemed disinterested once Roxas and I went to change in the corner. The blond pulled out a towel and pretended to use it as a cape as he hid me behind it. My phone in my pocket chimed as I took off my shirt, and I couldn't suppress the choking sound I made reading the text.

Nasty bruise there, Sora. I wonder who could do such a thing…? (515-545-5675)

What the hell?

RikusChika778: Shout outs to my beta reader verovex. Thank you!