Can't Say That I Didn't Try

By: Demmy

DISCLAIMER: I, Demmy, do not own Kingdom Hearts. This fanfiction is for entertainment purposes only and cannot be redistributed without consent. No profit is being made off of this fanfiction.

Chapter One: Ninth Grade All Over Again

"Isn't a lovely morning for the first day of school, Zexion?"

"Indeed." I answered. Both of our voices were dripping with sarcasm as we stood on Mann Street, our bus stop. It was six O'clock in the morning and our sleepy expressions matched the sky. We had dark bags under our eyes due to two years of Pre-IB and staying up the last few nights to finish our summer reading assignment.

"Just wait, this year will make us want to prepare a noose for ourselves." We laughed together at Vexen's sadly truthful joke. It was friends like him and Lexaeus that made school bearable.

Vexen had moved over to the area the same time I did, so we were both new to the place and got along wonderfully. It was the summer before sixth grade begun. Vexen and I live right next to each other, which makes hanging out a lot easier. Unlike me, Vexen was tall where I was short. His hair was long and a pale blond shade, while mine was short and black. The one thing we shared physically was the fact that we were both skinny.

"Hey! Morning, Zexion! Hey, Vexen!" And here came one of the reasons why sometimes I disliked school very, very much. Said reason came bouncing along the grass toward us, locks of dirty blond hair swishing every way it could. This reason had a name, Demyx. Demyx was taller then me, but shorter then Vexen if that helps. He had been living here before we moved into the area and I learned right away that he was a pain.

"Good morning, Demyx," Vexen greeted with a formal tone. Vexen's formal tone was his subtle way of saying that he did not want to speak to you anymore then necessary.

I gave Demyx a small nod of acknowledgement and sighed inwardly as I saw the bus approach. Demyx normally didn't sit near me, so I was fine for now. I didn't want to be near Demyx for a couple of reasons, but one topped them all.

Demyx had been, and might still be, my stalker.

The three of us entered the bus and greeted our bus driver, Miss Mary. I took the second seat and began to stare out of the window and Vexen took the seat across from me. Demyx headed toward the back with his friends, Axel and Luxord.

She started the bus up when she noticed that everyone was seated.

While the fifteen minute bus ride begins, I'll tell you of Demyx, my top reason I dislike school. It started in sixth grade. At first, I thought it was just the fascination of having a new student, but he never obsessed over Vexen like he did with me. He would always ask me questions, about my interests and dislikes and hobbies.

Each school year had begun like that since I never spent summer here, my family and I would travel back up north to see our relatives. Except this year, we stayed here due to some family problems that "can't be shared with me right now". I guess that's why Demyx hasn't immediately asked how my summer went if I was here for his stalking pleasure.

I did catch him stalking me once. The first day of ninth grade I was walking to the cafeteria, completely lost. I just kind of wandered around the school, hoping to eventually smell the pungent scent of overcooked chicken and sweaty armpits. As I walked down the hallway (Which now I know as the foreign language building and that it opposite of the cafeteria.), I heard very light footsteps behind me and smelled cucumbers.

I turned around and saw a wisp of blond hair dash away and then heard a "THUNK". I ran down to where I heard the slam of face on pavement to find ninth grade Demyx sniveling. This next part is pretty rude, but I just smirked and laughed at the fallen Demyx and walked away, still looking for the cafeteria.

The bus hit the usual bump that I'm never prepared for. I banged my forehead on the window and groaned softly. The bump signified that we were near the school, about five more minutes. After riding the same bus to the same school for two whole school years, you learn those kinds of things.

I gathered my bag pack and saw that Vexen was doing the same. He slid to the edge of his seat and said, "This will be the only day our bag packs will be this light." He lifted his dark blue bag pack to emphasis on the lightness.

I laughed, IB jokes were funny.

The bus came to a halt in the bus zone of the school. It was located right next to the music room (It was completely cut off from all other buildings.) and the freshmen building which was wonderful for freshmen and upperclassmen who failed. Vexen and I were the first two off the bus and we headed straight to the library.

"Hey, look," Vexen said as we walked passed the music room and freshmen building. He pointed to a group of IB sophomores and laughed. That was where we stood in the mornings last year. We decided to move to the library this year due to Lexaeus' suggestion.

We passed the other students and hallways in silence, but that silence was soon pierced with a shout of "Zexion, wait up!"

Great, here came Demyx, disproving my theory that if I stayed home for a summer, he wouldn't need to go through his annual interrogation.

"What?" I answered. I didn't have time for this. I had thirty minutes before the bell rang and I'd rather talk with Lexaeus then Blondie.

"Uh, do you, um, know where Mr. Garrison's room is?" Demyx asked. Well, at least the theory wasn't exactly disproved.

I sighed, dumb blond. He didn't even know where his Algebra 1B class was. I stopped and dug through my bag pack for my agenda. Once I located it, I ripped out the school map in there and gave it to Demyx. If he couldn't read a map, then too bad for him.

I walked away from Demyx without saying a word and Vexen followed.

"Well, looks like you crushed Demyx's hope to get to talk to you today in your usual manner, cold and ruthless. I didn't know that Demyx was going to take geometry with Mr. Garrison."

"He's not. He's probably in his Algebra 1B class if he has Garrison." I said. Garrison was our Geometry teacher back in ninth grade. He taught Pre- IB Geometry, Pre-IB Algebra 1, and Algebra 1B regular. His Algebra 1B class was for the Laker kids.

Why did I call them Laker kids? Simple, the home high school, Laker High School, is the host campus for the International Baccalaureate program in this part of the county. The school is kind of divided between the Lakers and the IB kids.

Short explanation aside, we arrived at the library and found Lexaeus sitting at a table. Vexen and walked over to him, zipping through the other groups of students.

We exchanged hellos and then the mandatory questions of how each other as during the summer. I told him that I just spent my summer at home due to family problems and Vexen the same minus family problems.

"Ah, I see," Lexaeus said in his deep voice. Lexaeus had to be the biggest guy on campus, coming in at a whooping one hundred and ninety pounds of pure muscle. The only people who weighed more then him were fat. His weight came from his muscles. It ran in his family, being strong and muscular, according to Lexaeus. His family owned a chain of popular gyms.

Lexaeus was the black sheep of the family since he had the brains to back up the brawn. I met this budding giant in sixth grade on my first trip to the public library. The public library is now only a walk away from the high school, but back in middle school I had to get one of my parents to drive me there. We just started to talk, and we were friends just like that.

"You didn't do anything either?" I asked him. Vexen and I were still standing since we were going to leave soon to go to our first period.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. I just helped out around the gym."

"Should we get going now?" Vexen asked. I nodded and so did Lexaeus, who got up from his seat.

We left the library and I saw that we had fifteen minutes left. Time was going by pretty fast. I hope it kept up this pace for the rest of the day.

Our first period was Trigonometry and Analytical Geometry. It was one of the three classes we had together. The other two were second period, Physics II, and then Psychology. I wasn't looking forward to facing English and Spanish alone. American History was bearable, and then chorus. I took chorus solely due to the music theory.

"How do you think Physics will go this year?" Vexen asked. He was the one who wanted to take Chemistry, but since I and Lexaeus chose Physics, he changed his. Don't get the wrong idea; Vexen is superb at all sciences so it's not a loss on his part.

"All right. Nothing to worry about." I answered as we approached Mr.Hens' door and entered.

"Good morning boys," Mr. Hens greeted us. We returned his greeting as we placed our stuff on three desks located in the middle of the room. His room was pretty spacious, but he kept the traditional rows of desks in his room. Mr. Hens himself was an elderly man of sixty-nine. His hair was white, but no hair had fallen out yet. His way of teaching was very traditional.

I glanced at the clock at the back of the room, five more minutes until the bell rung. The three of us sat down and waited in silence. A few other students that recognized came in during our wait. Please, day, hurry up.

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I practically sprinted out of Mrs. Alderman's fourth period Spanish IV class. Nothing against the teacher, but I have had my fill for one day.

The whole school, minus the freshmen, migrated to the cafeteria with empty stomachs. The freshmen had a separate lunch since the Laker freshmen class was normally huge, around four hundred and that doesn't include the miniscule number of IB freshmen. That and I think it's also to keep the "Middle school feeling" for them. Personally, I thought it was stupid.

I walked passed the groups of various students and made my way to the courtyard. The courtyard was the area right outside the cafeteria and I already saw Vexen waiting, slouching against the brick wall behind him.

"Well, my bag pack is on its way back to being obese," Vexen joked. He lifted and opened his bag pack to reveal the textbooks he had gotten from his first four classes.

"Same here," I said, showing him my bag pack. I sat down next to him and pulled out my lunch from my bag pack. A sandwich made out of pork chop and cheese.

"Ah, well, look what I just found. Vexen and Zexion, good to see you guys again," said a familiar voice from above. God?

"Xaldin, good to see you too," Vexen said. Xaldin was in our grade, but he's a Laker. He used to be an IB kid, but he decided to keep his sanity and dropped out by the end of sophomore year. His hair was black and fairly long, so he kept it in a ponytail. He used to have his hair in braids, but stopped. His reason for stopping was that it took too long in the mornings. Xaldin's body was muscular, but not as much as Lexaeus'.

"So, what classes are you taking this year, Xaldin?" I asked.

Xaldin had already gotten his tray from the cafeteria and sat down in front of Vexen and me. "Well, let's see," he began, searching through his memory for the class schedule, "I'm taking AP English, Honors Trig, AP American History, AP Psychology, AP Bio, AP Chemistry, and Philosophy."

"Are you sure you dropped out of IB?" I said with a light tone. The three of us laughed and greeted Lexaeus as approached. Our giant friend sat down next to Xaldin.

"What took you so long, Lexaeus?" Vexen asked.

"Oh, um, Mrs. Anderson held us up for a few minutes after the bell," Lexaeus answered. Mrs. Anderson was the English teacher we had this year, I have her last period.

"Oh." Vexen said. We continued our lunch talking about random things like how our IB dropout list was going to jump this year and how we all seriously needed to get a job.

I stood up and told the guys I was going to the bathroom. I walked out of the courtyard and into the cafeteria where the closet (And thankfully cleanest) men's bathroom was located. As I entered, I noticed that there weren't a lot of guys. I sighed inwardly of relief.

"Zexion! Hey! So, how was your day so far?" Run, run my legs. I saw Demyx coming towards me so I did the natural thing to do in a bathroom; I locked myself in the nearest stall.

This wasn't smart on my behalf. Now I was trapped in a stinky bathroom stall, (I might have said it was the cleanest, but that doesn't mean much here.) with Demyx hovering around the door shouting, "Zexion, you okay? Did you get the runs?"

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A/N: This is pretty different then Denial and Perseverance. By a lot. But personally, I like this one better. I won't delete the original, but it won't be updated. The basic problem is still the same, Zexion trying to avoid his stalker.

I had to change the title since won't let me post another story under the same title. D: But I kinda like this title better.

I hope you all like this one too. I actually have a plan for this! (kinda) Whoo!

This chapter was intro for main characters, so not many chances to properly stick in my Zexion's sharp tongue. More of that will come later on, and no sexual pun of any kind intended.

Please review, they make me smile when school makes me frown.

I love you all and PLEASE no hate flamers please for not liking the new one. D: I only like flamers like Axel.

Until next chapter! ;D