Chapter 1

Sora woke up to the sound of a continuous buzz from his alarm clock. Annoyed, he slammed his hand on the snooze button to silence it, deciding that it'd be better to get up now before his mom came up and got him. He ran his fingers through his messy spiked brown hair. This wasn't going to be fun combing out.

It had been a week since he had returned to Destiny Islands from defeating the darkness. As glad as he was to be back home, he missed the adventure that had taken place in his life. He had developed a sense of independence, and he had made new friends with each new world that he, Donald, and Goofy had visited. Even though fighting heartless wasn't a piece of cake, it was something that he had grown accustomed to. With the darkness defeated, there was no need for him to wield the Keyblade anymore. The darkness would never truly fade away, but how would he be able to get to other worlds if the darkness were to spread once again? He didn't have the help of Donald and Goofy's Gummy Ship any longer. He was stuck on Destiny Islands… forever.

Sora suddenly felt a chill up his back as he remembered that Riku had mentioned something similar before their whole adventure began, when the two of them and Kairi built their raft to go see other worlds. Sora shook his head of the memory and got up from his bed. He headed over to his closet and opened it up to retrieve his school uniform. The white dress shirt, blue pants and tie didn't exactly scream "him," but at least he only had to wear it to school. Right next to it hung his previously worn clothes from his past journey. The black outfit felt like it was calling out to him, but Sora ignored it's beckoning. Closing his closet door, he headed to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for the day.

Only shortly after stuffing a bowl of cereal into his mouth, Sora heard the doorbell ring. Being the only one left in the house for the morning, he quickly swallowed what was in his mouth and answered it. Sora found Riku standing on his steps as the door swung open, his silver hair in his eyes as he towered over Sora. Riku had always been tall, but still, dear lord! He still couldn't comprehend how much he had grown in the time Sora had been asleep in that pod.

"Hey, ready to head out?" Riku asked kind of neutral.

"Yeah, just have to grab my bag and we can go," Sora answered back with a little more cheer. He stepped back into the house, grabbing his bag sitting by the kitchen chair he sat at for breakfast. Quickly putting his bowl in the sink on his way out, Sora locked the door and the two boys set out to school.

The walk for the first little while was quiet. Riku wasn't too talkative, and Sora wasn't sure if he should break the silence, so he just walked silently beside his friend. He figured that Riku was feeling the same way he did; nervous. There was nothing to be nervous about when he thought about it. He had fought Xehanort's Heartless and Xemnas with Riku as well, but for some reason he felt more terrified of his first day back to school. I guess since it had been so long, Sora wasn't sure what to expect. He and Riku were much further behind in their studies than everyone else. Finally at some point, Riku broke the silence. "So, you nervous for our first day back?" Just as Sora thought.

"I'm not if you aren't." He gave Riku a grin.

Riku kind of gave a little chuckle to himself. "Not entirely. I think I'm just more or less worried about having to catch with homework and getting back into that groove of doing it."

"Yeah, we haven't done that in forever. That's going to be tricky to get back into that habit." Sora folded his arms behind his head with a big goofy grin. "Ha, not like we had much a habit for it before our little adventure began."

Giving Sora a little shove, Riku replied, "Speak for yourself. Don't drag me into your procrastination."

"Hey, give me a little credit here. I don't do it all the time."

A little grin escaped Riku's mouth from Sora's humor. Once the mood had mellowed again, they continued their walk in silence until they got to Kairi's to pick her up. The instant the red head came out of her home, she began to properly assemble the boys uniforms to the way they should look. Sora's tie was crooked and Riku had the top button of his shirt undone with his tie stuffed in his pocket, taking no care for it all (he said it felt like he was being suffocated with it on). Once she felt the boys looked proper, they all headed out to school.

"So, are you guys excited for your first day back," Kairi asked them as she got ahead to turn to face both boys. Sora and Riku both looked at each other and back at Kairi.

"Yup, excited," they both said at once. Sora couldn't speak for Riku, but he truly was. Even though it was weird not to battle the heartless any longer, it would be nice to just be a normal kid again.

Kairi smiled. "Good, I'm glad. I can't wait till lunch time. Everyone's missed you two so much. They'll have so much to ask you, so hopefully they don't swarm too much and…" She trailed off to saying something, but Sora drifted to his own thoughts. The thought of people at school suddenly reminded him of the friends he had made along the way… and would probably never see again.

The instant that the trio entered the school, it felt like the entire hall swarmed around them. Riku and Sora had a whole bunch of questions dumped on them at once. They had ran into some of the students that went to their old part of the island to hang out, but aside from that, most of the student body hadn't seen them since they disappeared. Thankfully, Kairi had prepared for this and called upon Selphie to help her create a path so that Riku and Sora could at least make it to their classrooms.

"Wow, I've never seen so many people go crazy over someone before. I mean, I know Sora and Riku have been away for along time, but c'mon." She lightly shoved someone out of her path trying to cut her off to get to Riku who was right behind her.

"Do you guys think this is really necessary?" Riku asked, a little embarrassed by the fact that he had to be escorted to class like this.

Sora looked at the crowd, mainly seeing girls than guys swarming around them. He feared them to be fan girls. "Maybe it might be best to stick with it until the school looses interest in us." He whispered into Riku's ear, "Besides, fan girls can be quite scary when they get to close to something they like." Riku looked around and figured he better not take any chances. One of the girls from the crowd looked like she was going to jump Kairi or Selphie to get to either of them.

Eventually Selphie and Kairi were able to get Riku and Sora to class in one piece. For their first class, they had History. Sora groaned when he received his time table the day before. If it was boring, History would probably be one of his weaker subjects.

A reluctant Sora took his place at his desk while Riku and Kairi did the same. Selphie headed off to her science class before the school bell would ring. The room was filled with chatter, no doubt about the two boys. Sora glanced over at Riku, who sat next to him to see his friend with a somewhat irritated face. They hadn't even started the day and already he was annoyed by all the attention they were receiving. Sora didn't know how much longer he could take it either. He also didn't know what they were going to tell their teachers when they'd all ask the same question "Where have you been all this time?" I guess they could lie like they did for their parents. Like they'd believe "Riku turned evil while I battled the Darkness, then he turned back to being good after I defeated one of the bad guys and helped me close the door to darkness. Apparently he helped to restore my memories after I went to a castle that made me loose them, and then we both teamed up later on and defeated the darkness for what we hope will be for good this time."

Suddenly, Sora's thoughts were interrupted as a girl in the class popped out in front of him out of nowhere. He nearly tilted backwards on his chair from surprise.

"Hey, you're Sora right?" She asked with excitement, her face almost inches from Sora's, which made him a little more than uncomfortable. He back up a bit.

"Yeah, that's me," Sora answered somewhat nervously.

"Wow, I almost didn't recognize you." She giggled, "You look even cuter now than you did befo-"

Kairi had grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away muttering "Honestly" under her breath. Sora felt his face get hot from this sudden bit of flattery. Riku laughed at this, barely dodging on of Sora's textbooks that was aimed for his face. A few other girls were going to try going for Riku while Kairi was distracted, but just as they were about to, the teacher walked into the room with the school bell following shortly after everyone sat down at their desks.

"Hello, students. Today, we have Sora and Riku rejoining school after a long absence, so let's make them feel welcomed back and help them with anything they may need." All the students chimed "Yes, Sir" at the same time.

"Now, let's begin on Lesson 7, on the history of Destiny Islands. Open your textbooks to page 210. Take notes if need be and follow along." He begins to read aloud the lesson to the students, the only other thing you can hear in the room is the scribbling of pens on paper.

"I guess that's it then," Sora thinks to himself. "I shouldn't expect anything more than this everyday." Sora lets out a quiet sigh to himself and tunes into the lesson, joining his classmates in taking notes.

After their morning classes end, Kairi reconvened with Sora and Riku (she had Bio after and they had English). Already, Sora felt his head pounding from all the information trying to be stuffed into his brain. He knew he was behind, but still. Riku was struggling, but he was still getting it more so than Sora was. Envy washed over him as he looked at Riku, trying to read some of "The Crucible" that they were just assigned in their English class.

Kairi slid into her seat next to Sora at the lunch table. "So, were things better in English?"

Sora groaned slightly, "Sort of," pointing at Riku sitting in front of him, "he's having hardly any trouble at all."

"English is easy for me," Riku said in defense as he looked up from his book. "As for History.." he plunged his face back into his book trying to forget the awful hour and a half that took place at the beginning of the day.

"Don't worry," Kairi reassured them, "you two will get the hang of it, and if you're having any trouble, I can help you guys out."

Sora felt a shimmer of hope for his grades. Kairi was probably the only person that he'd let tutor him without him feeling like a total idiot. He gave a little smile, "That'd be great. Thanks Kairi." Sora noticed that she blushed a bit, following it up with a small giggle. He felt his own cheeks begin to feel a little warm.

"It's not trouble at all," she replied, smiling back a soft smile at Sora.

They suddenly heard a little cough come from their silver haired friend, the two directing their attention to it. "Are you two finished?"

"Hey," Sora said in defense, "you're supposed to be reading your book."

Riku brought the book down enough so you could see his turquoise eyes, "I'm hungry, so I'm debating to stop."

Sora felt his own stomach grumble. "I guess we should eat something before our lunch hour's over." He dug around in his backpack and pulled out a stuffed lunch bag.

"God Sora, how much did you pack?" Riku asked with some shock in his voice, placing the book down. Sora opened up his lunch bag to reveal many items that looked like they were forced to fit inside the bag.

"My… my mom packed it," he replied sheepishly. "She thought she'd pack a lot in case, y'know, I got really hungry."

"You could end world hunger with what you've got." Riku pulled out his paper bag lunch from his own bag. He revealed a container with a sandwich, a juice box, a banana and an apple.

"And you look like you could restart it with what you've got." Sora received a smack in the head with Riku's sandwich container.

"Well," Kairi began to say, "unlike the two of you, I have to go buy my lunch today." She stood up from her seat and slid back out to go to the lunch line. "Hopefully I'll be back right away." She gave a wave and went to go stand in the long line of teens, waiting to purchase their lunch.

Sora took out a container with precooked noodles, accompanied chopsticks. "Well, time to eat," he said, snapping his chopsticks and began to devour the lunch before him. Riku followed suit and began to eat some of his sandwich in wait for Kairi's return from the lunch line.

It didn't take as long as she thought. Riku and Sora were halfway through their lunches by the the time Kairi reached their table again. For the most part the two boys were trying to help each other out with their newly assigned homework from that morning.

"I'm telling you," Sora debated, "we have to do questions 1-30 in history by the end of the week."

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he said 1-20."

Kairi rolled her eyes and addressed her presence with, "You're both wrong. The questions are due next week."

The two boys looked up and were somewhat shocked to see Kairi back so soon with her lunch in hand. Riku cleared away some of the stuff sprawled out on the table so Kairi had a place to put her lunch. She sat back down in her seat.

"Don't worry about it right now. We can have a study group later after school and I'll help you guys out then, okay?" The boys nodded their heads in agreement. They decided to meet up at Riku's locker after school since it was closest to the front doors.

With twenty minutes left, Kairi ate the salad that she had purchased, and then proceeded to share stories from her Bio class (some rather graphic things in fact). Sora gave an awkward smile to the stories while Riku was unafraid to share his uncomfortableness on his face to Kairi. She protested that it wasn't that bad, but clearly Sora and Riku thought otherwise. In no time at all, the boys had been saved by the bell from Kairi's Bio stories.

"So now what do you guys have." She asked the boys.

"Well, I have Math class," Riku answered.

Sora pulled his schedule out from his pocket and took a look at it. "Looks like I have gym." Great he thought to himself. After eating all of that food, he now had to jog around with it only being half digested into his system. Fun.

Riku chuckled, following with the sarcastic comment "Good luck."

"Well, I have a spare. Sora," Kairi looked in Sora's direction, "you know where you're going?"

He nodded in reply. "I have a pretty good idea."

"Aright, then I'll help Riku find his class."

"But Kairi," Riku beginning to protest, "I don't-"

"Oh nonsense. I have to make sure one of you gets to the right class." She gave one of those awkward chuckles and patted Riku on the back to get a move on. Turning around to face Sora who still sat at the table collecting his things, she said, "I might come by your class. Is that alright?"

Sora almost dropped the book he had in his hand. Kairi coming to see him in the gym? As much as he'd love to have her there, he didn't want her to see him in his first day back. Running, fine. Getting around to the sports part, that might be embarrassing. He hadn't played anything sport-like in two years, and I don't think fighting down heartless counted as a recreational sport. Unfortunately for him, he was a sucker when it came to letting Kairi have her way. Without showing his reluctance, he gave a smile. "Sure, you can come by. I don't mind." He so minded.

Kairi's face lit up. "Alright, see you in a bit, Sora." She turned back to Riku,"C'mon Riku!" She gave him a pat on the back and he began to walk.

"See ya later," he told Sora, giving him a little wave of the hand.

Once they were gone, Sora let out a little sigh. He just hoped that he didn't make a total fool of himself in front of Kairi. He imagined himself falling on his face right at the moment of truth in a game. Very much so did he wish that wouldn't happen.

Sora finished packing his bag and proceeded to exit the cafeteria, but out of nowhere, his head began to pound from the sharp pain that suddenly occurred. He dropped to his knees and held his hand over the spot on his head where the source of pain was coming from, just above his left brow. His vision began to blur from the pain, and peoples voices were fading away as he saw dark shapes surrounding him. Sweat was also beginning to form on his brow, he wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able withstand this. It was more than just some migraine. It was like someone was trying to take over him from the inside, like possession.

Right when he felt he was going to pass out, he felt a hand wrap around his arm and pull him up to his feet. Just before he passed out, he heard someone whisper "Sora" in a pleading like voice…. a familiar voice…. a boys voice.

"Roxas?" Sora whispered aloud, and then everything went black.