Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Dear Riku…Sincerely Me

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Chapter One

Saturday, August 28th, 2002 1:49 PM
From: "Kairi Heartilly"
To: "Riku Himura"

Dear Riku,

How are you doing? Sora and I miss you tons! What have you been up to lately? Anything fun, interesting, exciting? Sora, Roxas and his gang, Tidus and I all just signed up for our freshmen classes. Sora, Roxas, Wakka, Tidus and I are going to have blitzball as our physical education elective. We also all made the varsity high school team. Jecht, Tidus' Dad, rented the sphere pool here in town (which isn't hard for him, considering he's the star player for the Zanarkand Abes) for us for hours everyday to practice over the last couple of years. We have so much fun! Sometimes, we actually got to practice with the Abes themselves. Oh! Also, I'm going to be taking Home Ec with Sora as well. He's only taking it because his mom wants him to…at least that's what he tells me. I think that he really does like to cook and sew, but I don't think that he'd ever tell anybody that. Lol.

Looking at today's date and considering that it's the end of summer, I noticed that it's been exactly six years since you left for Traverse Town. I miss you a lot more than I ever thought I would. You know how when you left I kind of gave you the cold shoulder? Well, as I always do, I want to apologize for being so mean to you. I can't wait until you come back to visit us! I hope it's soon.

Anyway, it's just about two o'clock and, well, it's Saturday! Yeah…Sora's mom still makes cookies for everyone and all of us, despite what "clique" we're in, still get together every Saturday for cookies. That's the one time, I guess, that we can all be together without worrying about judging each other…granted Sora's mom wouldn't really put up with bickering junior high and high school kids.

Write back soon!

Take care!

Kairi

Getting up from my computer chair, I couldn't help but to smile…My heart was pounding quickly. In the last few months, I had grown to like him as more than just my best friend from my childhood. I was infatuated with him, but by no means would I say that I was in love.

I needed to be downstairs in about five minutes to greet everyone. I had skipped out on helping Mom bake cookies and pour glasses of milk so that I could reply to Riku.

I was in a particularly good mood. Not only had I received an email from Mr. Traverse Town, but Roxas finally agreed to set me up on a blind date with one of his new friends. The only thing that concerned me was that he absolutely refused to give me any details on this mystery person.

I bounded down the stairs with a goofy grin on my face and made my way to the oversized kitchen. Mom, Yuna and Roxas were finishing up filling the glasses of milk.

My twin looked up and shot me a glare. "Where were you, Sora? Unlike Yuna and I, you actually like this cooking thing…you should've been down here helping us out!"

Shushing Roxas, I looked around suspiciously, hoping that nobody had heard his comment. Mom giggled as she finished her last glass in her set of ten before holding out the cookie dough covered spatula. "You boys are so silly! Here you go, honey."

I graciously accepted her more than generous offer and hungrily began to lick the thick sweetness off of the spatula and walked up behind Roxas, placing my chin on his shoulder. "I have to tell you something!"

"Hmmm…?"

"It's a secret," I brightly chirped.

"Then why are you going to tell me?" he sarcastically replied, holding the milk gallon to his lips.

"Roxas!" Mom scolded as he took the last swig of milk from the gallon. "You know better! Use a glass! There are ten of them in front of you!"

I laughed and took my chin off of Roxas' shoulder. I heard somebody knocking on the door and grinned. "I guess that's my cue!" I exclaimed, tossing the spatula into the sink.

"Sora! You know better than to throw things in the house…" Yuna warned.

"But Blitzball season is approaching quickly and Tidus and I are trying to get signed to a professional team this year!" I mock-whined and began heading toward the front door.

Yuna rolled her eyes and tossed her empty milk jug into recycling. "Yuna…Don't throw things in the house!" I heard Roxas tease.

I laughed to myself and opened the front door to find Seifer and the rest of the "Twilight Disciplinary Committee" standing on the porch.

"Hey!" I greeted and stepped to the side of the entrance. "Come on in guys."

I saw Roxas frown and mutter something under his breath before he looked up and waved. However, the gesture was only to please Mom. He, Seifer, Raijin and Fujin had never gotten along. Seifer and his crew had always picked on Roxas ever since preschool. I still didn't know. I got along with everyone just fine.

Our house was set up strangely. Our dad, Cloud, had studied architecture in high school and designed our house. When we walked through the front door to the living room, it was completely open, no wall on either side of the door for a good twenty-five feet. About twenty feet from the door was another wall…sort of. It was a wall with a giant rectangular window spanning the length of the counter in the kitchen. Actually, it was like that all the way around the kitchen with a doorway on the left-hand side. The kitchen was smack-dead in the middle of the house. All the way around the outer wall of the kitchen, there was a granite counter just below the window with the exception of where the entrance was. And there were also built-in "spinny" barstools all the way around.

To the left-hand side of the kitchen, if we looked from the front door, resided the pantry and the hallway to the garage. It was weird. Dad put the refrigerator and the freezer in the pantry. I guess it was to keep all the food together or something. Every time I asked him why, he just gave me an ambiguous smile and continued working.

To the right-hand side of the kitchen was a hallway that led to the family room, two bathrooms, a side-door to the backyard and the master bedroom.

Behind the kitchen there was a second living room (a study, I suppose…that was the room with the large bookshelf and a fireplace I think). In the "study", there were two black leather couches, four matching armchairs and several lamps. The backdoor was straight across from the front door and at the far right of that room resided the staircase to all of the bedrooms and Dad's office.

As if on cue, at exactly one fifty nine, Kairi burst through the door with a large bouquet of flowers. She brought flowers from her mother's garden for our mother. "Hi Mrs. Strife! I have wonderful news!" she loudly exclaimed. Her voice was full of glee.

"What is it, Kairi, dear?" Mom replied placing the plates of cookies on each of the counter tops.

"I got the job! I'm going to Radiant Garden next weekend for a photo shoot!" She waltzed into the kitchen and pulled a vase out of the cupboard.

"That's great!" Mom enthusiastically replied, smiling.

"And…I was wondering if Yuna could come. I really want to introduce her to my agent," she glanced at my sister, smiling.

My sister's eyes lit up and she grinned. "Please Mom…?"

"Pretty please, Mrs. Strife?" Kairi asked, batting her eyelashes.

"But Yuna…you have a big science project due Monday. Will you have it done before Friday?"

Roxas and I exchanged a look before Hayner and Pence came waltzing in. He immediately turned his attention to his friends. Moments later, Tidus threw open the door, carrying a blitzball. "Hey Sora!"

"Hey! We have practice today?" I asked, well-knowing that we did.

"Yup! At two-thirty. And I heard talent scouts from the Luca Goers, Kilika Beasts and Besaid Aurochs are going to be watching for the next two weeks during practice."

"Awesome! This is our big chance! Maybe we'll be good enough for the Luca Goers to notice us!"

"Yeah. I pray to Yevon that we aren't picked by the Besaid Aurochs. They haven't won a game in the last twenty-three years." he explained as we walked over to the counter to grab the last of the seats.

"Hey…it's better than not being picked at all though…" I replied, breaking a cookie in half to fit it into the glass.

"Yeah…but I'm pretty sure that they'll let just about anyone on their team. It would suck having to play for the worst team in the history of blitzball…" he said.

"It's not like you have the talent to make another team though…" Graav mocked. "Your Dad has more talent in his pinky than you have in your entire body."

"Shut up," Tidus grunted turning toward me. "You about ready to go Sora?"

I glanced up at the clock and nodded, snatching up three more cookies to take with me. "Tidus and I are leaving, Mom! I'll be home after practice!"

"Hey! Sora, Tidus! Wait for me!" Kairi exclaimed over the voices of the neighborhood. "Come on Roxas! We've got to go!" she said, grabbing onto his wrist, pulling him toward the front door.

"Bye guys! Bye Mom!"

"Later, Yuna!" Kairi waved before rushing to the front door. "Come on guys! We're going to be late!"

Zzzfffsshhh!

Tidus threw the ball through the water and it was coming right at me.

Svaap!

'He throws hard,' I thought as I caught the ball in my right hand. I was less than ten yards away from the goal. I bit my lip as I swam as fast as I could toward the goal but quickly found that Bickson and Graav, players from the other half of the team, were going to make it hard for me. 'Let's see here…Bickson tackles hard, but I think I can take his hit without dropping the ball…And Graav can't block the ball worth beans…'

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Wakka was open and knew what I had to. And it was going to hurt…but if it would impress the scouts…

Bickson came at me with full-force. His shoulder hit my chest and knocked the wind out of me. Heck, he knocked more than that out…I was almost seeing double. And I hurt like heck. Would I even be able to throw the ball to Wakka? 'I have to…'

I shook my head and noticed that Graav was gearing up to tackle. I threw the ball in Wakka's direction and was very pleased to see that Graav couldn't even get a hand on it. Time was just about up. Our half of the team had to make a goal in the next thirty seconds or we would lose…again.

Wakka caught the ball and swam another yard toward the goal before throwing the ball up in the water, using Tidus' favorite move, the Sphere Shot.

15...14...13...

Nimrook couldn't catch it. I couldn't help but grin and I threw my fist up through the water. With twelve seconds left on the clock, there was no way that they'd make another goal.

We positioned ourselves; Tidus left-front, Wakka middle-front, Roxas left-defense, Kairi right-defense, and I right-front. I was sure that Raijin was readying himself in the goalie's box.

A referee threw the ball up in the water. 'Blitzoff!'

Graav got his hand on the ball just before Wakka could and he began swimming toward our goal. Our half of the team got into the "Normal" position; Kairi and Roxas to the left and right of the goal, Wakka, Tidus and I surrounded Graav.

9...8...7...

Tidus tackled first; he was terrible at tackling.

5...4...3...

Graav got ready to shoot but the buzzer sounded through the water. Wakka and I high-fived each other and swam toward the exit of the sphere pool. 'If only we always worked that well together…'

Coach stood up, clapping his hands. "That's what I call teamwork kids! Now drop and give me twenty-six."

"That was a good practice today…" Roxas commented as we turned around the corner to our street.

"Agreed. I think our half worked well together today."

"Better than normal. But…I have a funny feeling that Coach Cid is going to mix things up next time, team-wise. I doubt we get to pick again," Roxas commented, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He looked over to me and grinned, "I bet that Tidus and Wakka are going to make the Goers…"

I shrugged. "If I make any team it'll definitely be the Beasts. I'm not good but I'm not bad either."

Roxas nodded. "Same here. But…I don't think that I want to play professionally. Especially while I'm still in high school…ya know?"

I shook my head. "I would totally go pro…"

"Why?"

"It's not like I'm super smart or anything like you so I can't be an astronaut…I'm not a writer like Dad nor can I sing or dance or even find the cure to aids…" I muttered as we approached our front gate.

"You could be a chef! Or a clothes designer!"

"I'm not gay," I stated firmly and opened up the picket gate.

"That's not what I've read in your diary," he snickered.

"It's a journal and---wait! What are you doing reading my journal?!"

He snickered. "Hey. What was it that you were going to tell me earlier?"

"Oh! Right!" I exclaimed, pulling him off the path up to our front door. "You wanna know?"

"Yeah. Get to it."

"I heard that Kairi's older brother is coming back from Deling City."

"And why is that a big secret…?"

"It's supposed to be a surprise for Kairi and everyone…" I said, pouting. "And plus…I've seen the pictures of him that you have on your computer…He's sent you some naughty ones." I winked and sauntered to the front door.

"Sora! Why are you going through my pictures?!"

"Why do you read my journal?!" I yelled back; his face had to be beat red.

With a smile on my lips, I walked up to my room, closing the door behind me. Moomba, my cat, was sitting on my bed. He looked up at me and laid his head back down on his paws.

Sitting down in my computer chair, I moved my mouse and opened up the website to check my email. I retyped my password, confirming that it was me and was stoked to find an email in my inbox from Riku. It didn't even take him a day to reply, let alone the usual week.

Saturday, August 28th, 2002 4:49 PM
From: "Riku Himura"
To: "Kairi Heartilly"

Hey Kai---

I'm doing fine. And once again, don't worry about what a jerk you were---it's been six years. A lot has changed since we were nine and ten. I wish that Sora would email me more often than he does! I mean, I get all of my information about what he's been doing through you. I miss him.

Anything interesting…huh? Actually…yes. I'm pretty excited…but I'm going to be coming over for a visit in about ten days. Mom has some business to attend to there on Bikanel Island and she said that we could stop in and say hi. I'm pretty excited! I can't wait to see you.

Blitzball…huh? I didn't think that you had it in you to play a game like that---it's a manly-man's game, ya know? How can you stand to be tackled by boys? I hope they go easy on you! Tidus and Sora have always been super enthusiastic about blitz…so I bet they're happy that they're going to be playing on the varsity team…as freshmen. That's pretty impressive. I bet Bickson, Graav and Nimrook bully you guys around a whole bunch…huh?

Gosh! I'm jealous. I wish that I was eating Aerith's cookies! I miss that. I've never met another mother that is that involved with kids. I remember how she used to do arts and crafts with us when we were little and never complained when we'd get paint on the carpet! She's so cool!

How are Seifer and Roxas getting along? I guess I'll find out when I get there, won't I? Oh! And one other thing, Kairi, it doesn't surprise me that Sora likes to cook and sew (look at what Aerith does!). Don't go calling him gay, mmkay? He's not. I promise. He used to have this thing for Rikku. He couldn't stop talking about her. So I know he's not gay. So don't even imply it.

Anyway, I've got to start packing. We're coming via boat so we leave the day after tomorrow. I want to make sure that I have everything together! TTYL!

Love,
Riku

A/N: Done with the first chapter! XD I hope you guys like it! If you think it's the best thing since sliced bread, tell me! If you guys think it's the worst thing since Jell-O, let me know! And tell me what you want to happen.

Happy Reading!

~Jayden

PS, It wouldn't let me upload the email addresses for the characters, websites at which they were located or even preserve the format I made for them. All of these things are saved on my computer. I apologize if the emails were unclear in any manner. If you'd like to know what the character's addresses are, shoot me an email (not a PM, they won't let you type those there either) and I'll gladly let you know.