Axel looked over the rows of students, blinking slowly. When Xemnas had told him they were opening a school, he hadn't told him that he'd actually have to teach anything! Of course, how could Axel refuse? He was only number VIII, and in no position to argue with the Superior. So he took the least painful subject: Musical Theatre. That didn't sound too bad. All he had to do was show a couple of musicals, movie musicals and other such things and rattle off a few pre-planned sentences; how hard could that be? Pretty hard, Axel thought, looking at all the blank faces he was going to have to start explaining Annie to. He cleared his throat.

"Hello, class! My name is Axel Flurry. You can call me Mr. Flurry or just simply Axel. If you can't remember either of those, you can call me sir or mister. I hope all of you will call me something at some point."

A hand went up. It belonged to a spikey-haired brunette with blue eyes and funny clothes. The kid had a huge smile on his face. "Sir?"

"Yes?" Axel asked. "Your name, please?"

"Sora Danielsen, sir!" the boy, Sora, said enthusiastically.

"Norwegian?" Axel couldn't help but ask. Sora nodded. "Me too," Axel said. "But I ditched the surname when I joined the Organization."

Sora nodded, looking slightly stricken as he began rummaging through his cluttered backpack. Finally, he pulled out a big, yellow notebook and a pen and turned back to the front of the room. Axel cleared his throat and started again.

"Today, we'll be learning about the musical—any votes, kids?"

Again, Sora's hand shot up. Axel nodded in his direction.

"Can we watch Phantom of the Opera, sir?"

"Yes, and we can read the book too! You read my mind!" He hauled a big box onto his desk and began tossing the books to the students. Some of them, like Sora caught them and began reading the information on the back. Others, like a silver haired boy, simply let them slide across the desk and sit there, untouched. Axel decided he was going to pick on the silver haired boy until he actually contributed to class on his own free will.

"Thank you, sir!" was the half-hearted chorus from the class. Axel opened up his copy and looked at his notes in the front.

"Can anyone tell me when this was written?" He looked pointedly at the silver haired kid. "You there in the back?"

The kid groaned and pulled out a blue and red iPhone. He punched in some letters and hit search. "1986?"

Axel shook his head, laughing a little. "No, that was the musical. Your name?"

"Riku. Riku Yukimura."

Axel nodded, writing it down on a little slip of blue paper. "Thanks, Riku! You'll be joining me for the inaugural detention this afternoon. Three thirty to five, thank you. Don't be late!"

Riku accepted the detention slip with a smile. "No problem, sir."

Axel frowned and shook his head. He didn't like the idea of having to give out a detention on his first day of teaching, but if Riku wanted to be difficult, he would.

"Riku," he warned. "Open your book."

The silver-haired boy grimaced and opened it lazily. Axel winced as he noticed the way Riku paged through. That was no way to treat a book! How could he do that? Sadly, he turned away and dragged a little TV into the middle of the room

"Anyone want to watch the movie?" Axel asked. Everyone except for Sora raised their hands. The brunette looked crushed. Axel smiled, knowing that that frown would be wiped off his face as soon as he heard the words, "Well too bad."

In the chorus of groans, Axel was pleased to see Sora's beaming face. The young man looked like he might pass out from relief. Axel personally agreed with the kid. When Xemnas had forced him to watch the movie, he'd almost thrown the TV across the room. He'd hated the way those actors seemed to think that blank faces were the height of human emotion.

Sora raised his hand. "Thanks, sir!"

"Anytime, kiddo!" Axel grinned. "Glad to help my fellow music-lover!"

"Can we watch the one with Ra—"

"Absolutely. That's the one we're watching, kid!"

Sora beamed, clapping his hands like a toddler. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but was stopped by a girl with auburn hair. Axel scanned the attendance list, looking at all the pictures, and found her. Kairi Jones.

"Kairi…" he said tiredly. "Let Sora speak."

"Fine!" she giggled. Sora looked at her and took her hand momentarily. It was clear that they'd been friends for a long while. Axel smiled. He'd never had that kind of friend before. Of course, he had Roxas, the cute, blond dance teacher. And he had Demyx, the ditzy music teacher. Then again, Demyx wasn't much company. He was just, well, Demyx. However, he was really the one who had taught Axel about musical theatre.

"So… can we… can we… um… umm… ummmmm…" Sora struggled for words. "Can we do scenes and songs from it, please?" The please was drawn out and whining. Axel nodded.

"Sure, kid. You're a piece of work, aren't you?" Axel asked teasingly. Sora blushed and nodded.

"Sorry…"

"Don't be!" Axel assured him. "It's nice to have someone with a little enthusiasm." He added a pointed stare at the rest of the class as he said the last words. They shifted uncomfortably under the green glare and a few of them actually raised their hands. Axel called on a girl with brown hair and shining, green eyes. He could tell right off the bat that she had been listening to every word he said, and had even taken down some notes!

"Mr. Flurry?" she started. "What if one of us doesn't feel comfortable singing or acting? Not that I don't, but just to check in."

"Well then they don't have to," Axel said after a moment's pause. "Of course, I would encourage it, as it will be for a grade."

"Oh," said the girl, whispering sympathy to the boy next to her. "Sorry, Pence."

Pence shrugged. "S'okay."

"Clearly it's not," said the girl, raising her hand. "What if acting brings on anxiety, sir?"

Axel shrugged. "Then I've gotta see a doctor's note. What's your name?"

"Olette."

"Are you anxious about acting?"

"No, but Pence is."

"Well, give me a parents' note, and you'll be fine. You'll just have to write me a few paragraphs about the scene, okay?"

Pence nodded and Sora's hand shot back into the air. This time, Axel didn't bother telling Kairi off when she wrestled it back down. It had been a long morning, and he still had three hours to go. Unfortunately, the High School they'd started had major classes that lasted for up to five hours! Axel also knew that most of these kids had thought that Musical Theatre Studies would be an easy A, and didn't really care about the plays. To be fair, Axel hadn't cared much either until Demyx gave him the whole "Theatre is Great!" speech.

Sora and Kairi were off in their own little world. Kairi tried to catch his attention, and he just sat staring at Riku, his eyes gleaming sympathetically. Riku glanced over every so often, sometimes throwing in a wink or a raised eyebrow, but he didn't seem too interested.

"Alright, my lovely students!" Axel tried to get their attention. "We're going to start the movie now!"

Dead silence, all eyes riveted on his face or the screen. Great, he thought. This is going to be one of those teacher-hating, movie-loving classes. Why didn't I teach math when it was offered to me?

Hi! This is my very first story, so I promise I won't bug you with many more of these Author's Notes. I just wanted to say that I'm really excited to share my writing and I hope you all like it! If you have any character suggestions or things that I could do to make my writing even BETTER, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks!

OperaGhost666