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D.I. Academy: Demyx Edition
Chapter One
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Puberty hit me like a ton of bricks.
No seriously. It mugged me in an alley and stole my wallet.
At the end of junior year, I was this pudgy, mullet-headed band geek with braces and acne for days. I liked pudgy me, I was comfortable with pudgy me. And then over the summer I got my braces off. And then my face cleared up out of the fucking blue. Anddd I dropped some weight touring with an internationally famous swim team. They also made me get rid of the mullet for a more swim-cap friendly style.
Did I mention the unreasonable tan I'd also picked up from swimming outdoors every day in a banana hammock?
In short, I would be returning to school looking like some completely random, skinny, mulletless ...man that nobody would recognize.
But I was still a bank geek, even if I had to miss all the summer practises for swim team. Being the best damned saxophone player around had it's advantages. I still wish I could rock my sitar on the field, but it's "not appropriate for marching band" according to the director, Xig.
I seriously felt like a stranger in my own body. I had to give away my entire wardrobe and buy new clothes because I dropped from an XL to a medium. Who does that?!
"Demyx, you're gonna be late for school!"
I snapped out of my daze and gave myself a once-over in the floor length mirror. I had to admit, the school uniform looked a lot better in a medium than it did in an extra large. Of course, baby blue plaid pants and a white dress shirt would look awful on anybody no matter what size they were. How thrilled was I that they switched over to uniforms my freshman year?
"Demyx!"
"I'm coming!" I shouted, trying to tame my pompadour a little. Yes, I'd shaved the sides and back of my head down super short and left the top long in an attempt at style. However, the cowlick in the middle of my forehead wanted to keep splitting it down the middle in a rather creepy, 90s-esque style.
I shoved my feet into my brown leather dress shoes and tightened my belt another notch for the third time since I'd gotten dressed that morning, then retreated downstairs only to be accosted by my lovely mother.
"Demy, you look so grown up! You're like an adult now!"
I rolled my eyes, grabbing a bottle of peach smoothie out of the fridge for breakfast and cracking it open, "I'm 18, ma. I've been an adult for a whole month already."
"I know, but you just look so polished in your uniform... I need a picture!"
"Mom," I leveled my eyes on her as she started to dig through her garbage bag of a purse for her phone, "No pictures. I've told you a million times."
She stopped her search to pout at me, "But you just look so handsome, Demy!"
"And you'll be seeing me every day this year. You don't need a picture," I told her, hugging her from the side before grabbing my bag. "I gotta go, momma. See you after school."
"I want details! Don't forget any of the new school year drama, okay?!" she called after me, making me chuckle a little. It'd just been me and my mom since I was ten, so we'd bonded quite a bit. She was like my very best girlfriend.
Except my very best girlfriend was Miss Namine Holt, and we were a force to be reckoned with. I loved that girl like a sister, and I'd barely seen her all summer with the swim tour.
"Does a very sexy lady need a very sexy ride?" I pulled up in front of her house in my brand new convertible, winking at her as her jaw hit the ground.
"Demy, is that you?!" she shrieked, hopping into the passenger's seat and giving me a huge hug, "Or rather, 30 pounds less of you?!"
I pulled off my sunglasses and flashed her a dashing white, perfectly straight smile, "One hundred percent pure Demyx! Now metal-detector friendly."
"Oh my God, Dem, you look fantastic! Swim team did wonders for you, babe," she squealed, pecking me on the cheek with a kiss.
Now before you go jumping into any conclusions about us, Nami and I are strictly friends. I love her to death, but not romantically. She's not exactly my type.
"And this car... How on Earth did you afford this, Dem?!"
"My mom might happen to be dating a fancy-schmancy car dealer who might have given her an epic discount on my birthday gift. It's an older model, a 2005, but it's gorgeous!"
I knew the drive to school from her house like the back of my hand, but I'd previously been making it in my mom's old station wagon, so having a set of navy blue wheels like this felt amazing.
"Demy, nobody is even gonna recognize you!"
"And look at you too with your fabulous hair," I glanced over at her, "Shorter and blonder?"
She blushed, "I didn't think anyone would notice... Yeah, I got it highlighted and had a few inches chopped off."
"You look wonderful, doll. Men will be falling at your feet," I told her, really wishing she could find a decent guy.
"Like... Terra McLaine?" she offered.
I let out a low whistle, "Damn, girl... You aim high. Captain of the football team, really?"
"I know... he'd never go for a girl like me..." she sighed, flipping her hair out of her face.
"Of course he would, Nam. You're perfect. And he's going to notice you this year," I assured her. He'd be fucking retarded not to notice her, she was one of the prettiest girls in school. And don't tell her twin sister, Kairi, but I think Nami wins in a side by side comparison. Not that Kairi isn't pretty, but there's just something so innocently sweet about Namine that Kairi doesn't have.
Her blush deepened, "You're too nice to me, Dem Dem."
"You're my little sister, I have to be nice!" I laughed, reaching over and ruffling her hair.
"Hey! You're gonna ruin it!" she shrieked, trying frantically to flatten it back down as I pulled into the parking lot.
My car was already turning heads, but I could tell that nobody recognized me in the slightest. Pudgy Dem hadn't exactly been popular or anything... so it didn't shock me that nobody knew who Sexy Dem was.
...What? I'm sexy. I know it and you know it.
The parking lot flooded with whispers of "who's the new guy?" and people staring quite blatantly at me. I mean, I figured I'd surprise some people, but I didn't think I'd make a scene or anything.
As we walked into the familiar school building, I threw my arm around Namine and sighed heavily, "I should just change my name and pretend I'm new here. Nobody would know any better."
"Are you kidding? Nobody could compare to the one-of-a-kind Demyx," she giggled, opening her planner to locate the locker number she'd scribbled on one of the blank pages along with her class schedule. "Hm... 323 this year. What about you, Mr. Senior?"
"481," I glanced down at my own schedule, "I wish we were in the same grade."
She sighed, "Yeah... my classes are so boring without someone to whisper with."
"So, we'll go to your locker first and then you can accompany me to mine. Lucky for us, we both happen to have a class in the science hallway first," I grinned, glad that we could at least walk to class together every morning.
"I can't believe you're in all advanced placement classes this year, Demy. How'd you get so smart?"
I shrugged, "Dunno. School's just never been hard for me. And if I can get some college credits at the end of the year? I'll take it."
"Right, so if you pass the AP test at the end of second semester, the class counts as a college credit hour, right?"
"It depends a lot on the university, but some of them will even let you skip that course entirely in college. Say... say I pass AP English, right? And then I find out that it's required to take one English course at my college. Since I passed it here in high school, I won't have to take it in college anymore. Cool, right?"
"Ugh... I wish I was smart enough for all that... I'm gonna be stuck in remedial course hell all year."
I snorted, "You're in Honors Art. I didn't even know that was a class. ...Or did they make it one specifically because you're a brilliant artist?"
"I can be brilliant in art all I want, but I'm dumb as a box of rocks. I'm amazed they haven't kicked me out of school yet for being so stupid."
"Give yourself more credit than that, blondie. You've got common sense, and that's a better skill to have than knowing how to divide fractions."
...It sounded like something I would say, but it hadn't come out of my mouth. I turned to see that some tall, grey-haired kid had fallen into step with us. He was honestly a bit unsettling in his appearance; long, unkempt, silvery grey hair, icy blue eyes, lip piercing, brow piercing... he looked like trouble.
"Hey, Seph. Did you have a good summer?" she asked him, blushing softly as we turned down the junior's locker hall.
"You mean my three months of sitting in my basement playing video games? Yeah... it was pretty sweet. And yours?"
I didn't like the tone of this guy's voice, nor did I like the smirk sitting on his lips. "Namine, who's this?" I cut her off before she could answer him.
"Oh... This is Sephiroth. He's been in a lot of my classes."
"Looks a little old for a junior..." I mumbled saltily, finding the way she said his name a bit off-putting.
Seph's smirk grew, "I was held back a year. You might know my brother, Cloud?"
Cloud Strife was in pretty much all of my classes... a golden student. This Sephiroth guy seemed quite the opposite. "Yeah, I've known Cloud for awhile. I didn't know he had a brother."
"Only a half brother, actually. Didn't find out till we were in middle school. Same dad, different moms."
"Right..." I trailed off, stopping in front of Nami's locker, "So you two are friends or something?"
There she went blushing again... "He helps me in math a lot. I guess we're friends, right?"
He leaned against the lockers and for a moment I saw his eyes scan her up and down, "You got it, doll."
I felt my lip twitch as I tried to stifle a growl, "Hurry up, Nam. We'll be late. ...And fix your skirt, it's riding up a little."
His eyes snapped to her hemline and I immediately regretted mentioning it, but thankfully she pulled it back down into it's rightful place. I hated the way this guy was ogling her.
"Hey Nami... Would you maybe like to-?"
"Namine, let's go," I cut him off, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from him. I knew exactly what he was going to ask, and I wasn't about to have it.
She huffed and followed me, just barely reaching to close her locker as I dragged her down the hall. "Demyx, what's your problem?!"
"What the hell was that, Namine?" I hissed, trying to keep my voice hushed, "That guy looks like nothing but trouble!"
"I don't know... he's just a guy I know from class. Why did you flip out like that? Talk about embarrassing..." she mumbled.
I sighed, pushing my pompadour back up into place as it started to slide down into my eyes, "What happened to your crush on Terra? You know, the actual decent guy that you were just fawning over this morning?"
"What about it? I mean, he's hot and everything, but-"
"But you'd rather throw your life away with a juvenile delinquent?"
She stopped me in the middle of the hall, standing in front of me with her hands on her hips and huffing angrily, "You know what, Demyx? You're not my brother, you're not my dad and you're certainly not my boyfriend, so stop acting like you have any input on my decisions! If I wanna hang out with Sephiroth, I'll damn well do it!"
We were turning heads again as she yelled at me, but I was too busy realizing how right she was to notice. "I'm sorry, Namine. I just don't want to see you get hurt, okay?"
"It's not like I'm gonna hop into bed with him, but if he's interested... why not hang out a little?" she started down the hall again, apparently accepting my apology. "Besides, he was pretty much the only reason I passed math last year, so could he really be that bad of a guy?"
"He's got an eyebrow piercing, Nam. And he's a little creepy, you gotta admit," I poked her in the side.
She giggled, "Okay, okay... so he's a little rough around the edges. We'll just have to see if he tries to ask me out again, I suppose. If you didn't scare him off, that is!"
"You just tell him to keep in mind that if he hurts you, I'll kick his ass. I've got muscles now, I could take him."
"Demyx, is that you?!"
I turned around at the mention of my name to find Axel, one of my classmates and pretty close friends, making a beeline for me. "Hey, Axe. Yeah, it's me!"
"Holy shit, bro! If it wasn't for Namine attached to your hip I wouldn't have even guessed! Man, you look fantastic!"
"Thanks, man... I like the hair, did you let it get longer?"
He nodded, spinning around to give us the full view, "Looks good, right?"
Namine snickered, "You still look like you were struck by lightening or something with the spikes."
"Wait a minute... I sense a certain lack of mullet," he stopped me, grabbing me so he could see the back of my head, "What?! Where'd it go?!"
"I think it was time to move on from that gem... Besides, I like the new style. It's much more modern and sexy."
Axel snorted, "Someone's quite full of himself, eh?"
I was about to make a snarky retort when the bell rang, signaling that there was only one minute until class started. "Shit... we'd better get going," I said, shoving my bookbag into my locker and only taking my planner and a binder full of various notebooks with me.
I made it to AP Anatomy by the skin of my teeth, the only seat left being next to some kid that I was sure I'd never seen before. In the anatomy lab, the layout was made up of a three by four grid of two-person lab tables, so it was just me and him at our table.
"Good morning and welcome back, students! My name is Mr. Fry and I'll be teaching your AP Anatomy course this year. Now I want you all to look at the person you're sitting beside, because regardless of whether you like it or not, this person is going to be your lab partner for the entire year."
"But Mr. Fry, we didn't-"
He cut off the irritated student with a raised hand, "Whether you like it or not. You sat there, that's where you're staying. I'll give you all a moment to introduce yourselves."
Some of the students were thrilled, because they'd chosen a seat next to a friend. Others were pissed because they were part of a group of three friends that got split up. I was indifferent... and it seemed like my lab partner could care less as well.
"Hi, I'm Demyx," I turned to him, holding out my hand.
He looked up under his thick, steel-blue bangs and quirked an eyebrow, "...Really?"
"...Last time I checked?"
"You seriously don't know who I am?"
I blinked, "Should I?"
"My name is Zexion. I've been in every one of your classes since we were in gradeschool..." he muttered softly, scowling.
"Oh... I guess you look kind of familiar, but-"
"Whatever. Don't bother apologizing ," he cut me off, looking back down at the book in front of him and hiding his face behind his bangs again.
As I sat there and thought about it, I definitely did remember him from all my classes. The blue-haired kid that always sat in the back with his nose in a book. But I'd never taken the time to learn his name, I guess. I never really thought someone could get more unpopular than I was, but I suppose I was wrong.
"Okay, now that you've all taken a moment to get to know each other, we'll start by passing out the textbooks. Can I get a volunteer?"
As they handed out the books, I was starting to feel worse and worse about offending Zexion the way I did. But... I guess I had all year to figure out how to make it up to him, right?
...
Author's Note: Okay, so this story is the first of a new series that I'm coming out with called D.I. Academy. Basically this one and all of the others that will be posted under this name will be following different pairings, all from the same AU. For instance, there will be a Sora edition and a Roxas edition. Obviously this is the Demyx edition. I feel like it's a better way to follow alllll of my absolutely favorite pairings without overloading you all on chapters filled with ten times the drama of a normal, one pairing story.
All of the different editions will kind of piece together in their own way and hint to the fact that they fall in the same universe. Let me know if you guys want a character guide posted, I'd be more than happy to put one together.
Also, I know that a Namine/Sephiroth pairing is totally random and offputting, but she's actually going to be paired with Cloud. ...Which is just as random. But I seriously didn't have anybody else for her! Here's a list of the pairings you'll be seeing from me in all their glory:
-Demyx and Zexion
-Demyx and ...?
-Namine and Sephiroth (briefly)
-Namine and Cloud
-Sora and Riku
-Axel and Roxas
-Kairi and Marluxia (I know...)
-Vanitas and Aqua
-Terra and Ventus
-Xion and ...Nobody. I hate Xion. :P
Keep an eye out for the other editions, as well as updates for this one! I have some pretty epic and original plotlines laid out for these pairings. I know you're thinking this'll be a typical Zemyx story, but you mighttt just be surprised. ;D
Remember to review and follow!
Love you guys,
Simply Rexene