Burn For You
By Childhood Aspirations
A/N- So I've finally succumbed. I've gone and written a high school fic. -Gasp- Oh, what a horrendous crime. I couldn't resist. The idea just popped into my head, begging to be written. So I wrote it, and here it is. As for the pairing, yes it's AxelKairi. In a high school setting. Shocking, I know. I don't know where the heck the idea came from, but oh well. Hope you enjoy anyway. -C.A.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, 'cause if I did, Axel would definitely not have died. Or if he did, he'd have come back to life before the end. And Roxas and Namine would have their own hearts and bodies. Yeah.
Chapter One: I Don't Wanna Get Up…
Oh yay. School.
Summer's over. Now the fun's going to start. Not.
Don't get me wrong. School's okay; I get good grades and everything, I have a nice group of friends…but it's just not my favorite thing.
I mean, honestly; how many teenagers do you know that do love school?
That's what I thought. So few you can count them on one hand, right?
I digress. The point is that I'm supposed to be out of bed and getting ready for school. But I'm not. I don't want to. And yes, that's my mother you hear shrieking at me from downstairs. She's a bit obsessed with punctuality, especially on the first day of school.
Stupid summer. Why'd you have to end?
Oh, by the way, my name's Kairi. Kairi Ivalice. This is my life.
Sometimes, life sucks. Right now…is one of those times.
Kairi groaned as her mother's shrill voice practically shook the house.
"Kairi Ivalice, you get out of bed this instant! You're going to be late for school, and then you'll miss your first classes and mess up your schedule and then I'm going to ground you for it! So get up!"
Yep, my mom's definitely paranoid and obsessed. I mentioned that, already, right? Why the heck does she have to be so darn loud? It's too early for this.
The redhead rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she threw back the covers and stumbled out of bed, stifling a yawn. She'd gone to bed late the night before, staying up well past midnight. It was an effort to enjoy the last few hours of summer before they slipped out of reach, fading away and taking her freedom with them for another nine months.
Awful, terrible, yucky thought…
At least she wouldn't the only one suffering from sleep deprivation. The entire gang had been out on the beach last night, goofing off late into the night. It had been their favorite thing to do all summer; not many people were on the beach in the dead of night, so it was the perfect time for the teenagers to enjoy themselves.
Although, in retrospect, trying to enjoy themselves the night before school started was probably not a good idea…
A hot shower served to wake Kairi up a little more, but it did nothing for her disgust over summer's end. The only possible good thing about school would be that she'd still be with her friends the entire time.
Unfortunately, communication for the majority of the day would be limited to passing notes in class and praying they didn't get caught in the act.
"Kairi! Are you up?!"
"Yes, Mom!" Kairi shouted back. "I'm up!!!!"
"It's about time," was the snippy response. Kairi rolled her eyes; her mother could be such a pain sometimes.
She finished brushing her hair quickly and walked from her bathroom back into her bedroom, selecting some a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved shirt from her closet. She was in the midst of applying the tiny amount of make-up she wore when she heard a tap against her window. And another. And another.
Since her bedroom was on the second story of the house, there was only explanation.
Kairi darted around her bed and opened her window, leaning out over the sill and looking down. A tan, smiling face stared up at her, set with bright blue eyes and framed with those familiar, chestnut colored spikes. The owner of said face and hair was tossing a small pebble up in the air repeatedly and then catching it.
"Geez, Kairi. You planning on taking forever to get ready? It's just the first day of school, you know."
Kairi glared. "I am not taking forever, Sora, and yes, I know it's just the first day of school. What I don't know is how you can possibly be so perky this early in the morning. It's only-" She stopped and glanced at her wrist watch. "-Seven thirty, and you stayed up just as late as I did last night."
He grinned impudently. "It appears you have yet to discover the miraculous invention called 'coffee.'"
"Oh, I've discovered it, alright. I just decided I'd rather fall asleep in class than have my growth stunted, like yours is," she jibed. Sora pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Are you implying something about my height?" he demanded.
"Face it, Sora; you're vertically challenged."
More pouting. The only person who could rival Sora for that pouting was his cousin Roxas. "You're a meanie."
"And apparently you've digressed to being a preschooler."
He held up his hands in mock surrender. "I yield, I yield! Just hurry up, okay? We have to go pick Riku up on the way to school."
"I'll be right down," Kairi called, smiling as she closed the window and grabbed her backpack off the floor, slipping on a pair of flip-flops. Even if summer was technically over, she could still pretend it wasn't. Yay for shorts and tank tops and, of course, flip-flops; the teenage method of rebellion against the coming autumn.
Kairi's mother was waiting for her downstairs, one hand on her hip and a cereal bar in the other. Kairi relieved her mother of the latter.
"I should warn you that there's no way you're staying up till one in the morning tonight," the older woman said sternly. "You need to be well-rested for school."
"Mom, I'm 17. I can handle it."
"I'm sure." She gave her daughter a quick kiss on the forehead and waved her off. "Go on, Sora's waiting for you outside. Have a good day, sweetie!"
"Thanks, Mom," Kairi said with a sigh. Her mother was bipolar; there was no other explanation for it. One minute she was screaming about obedience, the next she was wishing her daughter a good day at school, and the next she would be weeping in front of the kitchen sink because her baby was growing up so fast.
Oh wait…that sounds like things all moms do. Never mind.
Except I'm never going to really grow up, not to her, Kairi thought disgustedly as she closed the front door and walked down the porch steps to join Sora on the sidewalk. I'll always be her baby. Always.
"Hey, why the long face?" Sora inquired, leaning forward as they walked to catch a glimpse of her expression. Kairi shook her head.
"Just frustrated with my mother," she said ruefully. "She treats me like a kid."
Sora snorted. "Tell me about it. My mom is refusing to let me get my license until next year; she says there's a part of my brain that isn't developed enough to handle driving on my own." He scowled.
Kairi giggled. "Well, she's probably not far off about that…"
"Shut up, Kairi," the spiky-haired teenager said, trying to maintain his scowl. The way his lips threatened to tip upwards was a dead giveaway that he wasn't serious. The two teenagers walked in companionable silence until they reached their next stop.
"Riku!" Sora hollered, tapping his foot against the concrete impatiently. "Come on! We don't want to be late!"
"We're not going to be late, Sora," the silver-haired senior said irritably. "And stop yelling; you're going to give me a headache."
"You look like you already have one," Kairi noted. "I don't suppose it has anything to do with staying up till three in the morning, does it?"
"It's not as if you're completely awake either," Riku shot back with a smirk. Kairi smothered another yawn.
"Working on it," she promised. Sora glanced between the two of them, actually possessing the energy to bounce on the balls of his feet.
"Let's go!" he exclaimed. "You guys are too slow! It's the first day of school!" He took off at a sprint and then came back when his friends couldn't muster up more than a leisurely pace. Riku gave a groan just watching his best friend.
"How many cups of coffee did you have this morning?" he demanded.
Sora's grin nearly split his face in two. "Twenty!" he shouted.
"You're kidding," Kairi interjected. "I think you'd have blasted out of the atmosphere if you had twenty cups of coffee."
"No joke," Riku muttered.
"Okay, so maybe it was more like five, but it felt like twenty!" Sora insisted.
"Ten bucks says he'll crash during lunch and fall asleep in his cafeteria food," Kairi wagered. Riku shook his head.
"There's no way I'm taking that bet. Of course he's going to crash."
"Hello, I'm standing right here!" Sora pointed out, insulted, waving his hands in front of their faces while managing to walk backwards without tripping over his own feet. A miracle, considering the amount of caffeine he'd consumed.
"Believe me, we're well aware of that fact," Riku said sarcastically. "Stop jumping up and down and try to remember that you're a junior in high school, not a preschooler."
"I already used that insult to his intelligence this morning," Kairi said with a smirk. "It's unanimous, Sora. You belong in preschool."
The chestnut-haired boy pouted. "I do not! I'm 17 years old! I'm mature!"
"Like heck," Riku said with a rare grin.
This was the way life was: good and simple and hilarious. Kairi and Sora and Riku. That's how it had always been at the core, and as far as Kairi could tell, that's how it would remain for a good, long time. Sora, ironically, was sort of like the balance. He kept Riku from getting swallowed by angst and he kept Kairi from ever becoming too girly for her own good.
They'd been best friends forever, and they always would be.
Of course, there were others included in their group of friends. They'd known Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie since kindergarten. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were laughingly referred to as the "exchange students" from Twilight Town, even though the three of them had moved to Destiny Islands in middle school. Lastly and most recently was the addition of Roxas, Sora's cousin, and Namine, a shy blonde from Kairi's Art class; both had joined the group during freshman year of high school.
It was a good group. Together they would make school bearable for another year.
Junior year, here we come, Kairi thought, bracing herself. It's going to be interesting.
She really had no concept of how interesting it was going to be.
A/N- So there's the first chapter! I apologize if it was a little bit slow; I promise to try and make some stuff actually happen in the next chapter. Please review! -C.A.