Stop Right Now
Chapter 1
He'd always been shy. Even at the age of 13, with an appearance nothing short of absolutely amazing and a sense of humor that could rock the world, at a school he'd been attending since he was just young– even then he had trouble making friends.
So when he moved to a new school– 16, and painfully still awkward– well he wasn't expecting to make friends faster than he could mess up in front of the teachers. It was something simply bizarre: something shot right out of the ballpark.
The words, "hey new kid, what up? I'm Sora and you can tell because I'm an awesome ninja person" were 'never allowed in his house again'; that was how badly he was shocked when the boy next to him leaned over and actually spoke to him.
The introduction was sloppy and nervous and as usual he made a fool of himself– but Sora insisted that he had to "meet my partners in sneaky awesomeness. It'll be like, a ninja initiation."
Well he met Sora's partners in sneaky awesomeness alright, each of them as desperately obsessed with men in black that shot metal stars at people as the last was. But he stuck it through– he nodded when they talked about these new things they were getting– "wheels of wind and fire." That was what they called it. He took it to be some sort of ninja weapon.
He thought they seemed like ridiculous people.
He didn't realize that they thought the same of him until they were all laughing at him and trying to stand straight.
"Oh, man. We aren't actually ninjas–" Really, now? "–Seriously, though, my name is Sora. I'm– not a ninja, but whatever. And this– well his name isn't Dragonfire, this is Riku. And this is Tidus– but he actually does have a pet bunny named Greycloud the Destroyer. This is Wakka. And this is Axel."
Each of them nodding at him and still grinning, they were trying not to laugh again.
"I kind of figured."
"– Er. Figured that you weren't ninjas, that is."
"...Which is to say–"
"Ah, nevermind."
And at this point they probably all thought that he was crazy.
Nodding their heads still, "mmhmm." "Kay, new kid." "Right."
"Wait– what's your name?"
This from– Axel. He was nearly calling the red-headed boy FIRE-DEATH-BRINGER, or whatever they'd said his name was earlier.
"Roxas... Is my name. My name is–"
"Wha– and you get what I'm saying."
"Right."
"Wellll, Roxas–"and Sora was the one speaking again– "Welcome to Cardboard City."
"..."
"We call it that 'cause it sounds way better than– whatever this place is called. We don't actually know, because we've been calling it Cardboard City since, like– age 3. We could probably find out by paying attention to classes and signs and whatnot. But... Just... No."
"..You don't know the name of your own town?"
"(silence)"
"..."
"(roxas feels awkward)"
"The school. We call the school–""Seriously–""–Not that dumb""Cardboard City."
"That's what we call the school," Sora said, and Riku finished, "Not the town."
"Oh."
"...You don't know the name of your own school?"
They all sort of answered one on top of the other, ragged explanations coming one after the other.
"Well, no."
"Kind of."
"...No. Just– Well..."
"A little bit."
"Technically, yes."
"Not really."
"Very small rocks!"
They all laughed at that, Wakka's final answer. Roxas just didn't get it.
"We know what the school's called," Tidus said, trying to hold a sage expression on his face.
"Yeah, mon," was Wakka's follow-up. "It's uh... Glide... Memorial..."
"Dude, that's the church down the street," "oh."
Riku's lips pressed a tight line into shape.
"Victoria Lane High School..."
"...Or something like that."
"Victoria Lake, man. It's Victorian Lake," Sora told him.
Axel added, "Victoria Lake Senior High School. There's a senior in there. Since it's... grades 9 to 12, and not... 7, or whatever."
There was silence, until Roxas started to laugh. They all just stared at him, until he managed to say, "I like how it takes three of you to figure out the name of your school. That's... that's good. It's a good one."
He didn't mention that the sign outside just said "Victoria Lane High School."
Roxas supposed that it really wasn't important, otherwise, they would know.
He wasn't sure how he'd come under the mind set that these guys knew about anything important.