"Riku!"
I called out to my friend, who had gotten to the island first. I guess his parents took him to the island earlier. It wasn't fair! But he was still my friend.
"You're late, Sora!"
"Am not!" I stuck my tongue out at him. My parents always told me not to do this, but I did it anyway.
"Come on! I found something!" Riku grabbed my hand and started dragging me with him. We ran toward the creek on the island. There was never anything around the creek, so it wasn't often that I went there.
He pointed to a hole that I hadn't seen before. "See?" Riku bent down. "There's a tunnel!"
"A-are you sure it's safe?" I looked uncertainly into the hole. It was really dark...
"Of course!" Riku grinned. "It's nothing to be afraid of!" He grabbed my hand again, and we crawled through the tunnel.
"What are you doing here?" My heart jumped when I heard the voice, and I saw another boy maybe the same age as me, standing there. He had spiked hair, kind of like mine, but it was blond.
"Oh, be nice, Roxas," said a different boy who stood in the corner. He was a little older, and his hair reminded me of a cardinal.
"Shut up, Axel."
"Hey, I haven't seen you around here, before!" Riku said. "Not on the island.."
"We're just visiting," Axel said. "Your names are...Riku and Sora, right?"
"How do you know?" Riku crossed his arms. He was always acting like that, acting like he was older than he really was.
"I got it memorized," the boy grinned. "This is my friend, Roxas," Axel put his hand behind the blond boy's back to guide him forward. "He's a lot like you, Sora."
"Am not!" Roxas pouted and sat down.
"You do remind me of him..." Riku said. "Sora pouts all the time."
"I do not!" I whined.
"How old are you now, Sora?" Axel asked.
"I'm...seven," I answered. "Why?"
"You'll find out soon," Axel shrugged. He came over and patted me on the head. "Long story."
"Axel," Roxas spoke, so Axel turned to face him. "Aren't we supposed to go, now?"
"Go? Go where?" I felt a bit sad as I asked this. I had hoped that we could be friends. "Will you come back?"
"No..." Axel shook his head. "I'm sorry. But you'll meet Roxas again, one day... and me, too."
I didn't get it. They weren't coming back, but I would meet them? Why couldn't we be friends now?
"It's okay," Riku put his hand on my shoulder. "We can wait...right, Sora?"
When Riku spoke like that, I felt like I had to listen. He was so bossy. But it didn't make me feel bad...
"Right," I nodded. "Roxas... Axel... See you later." I waved and gave a smile. Mommy said that smiles always made people feel better, even if they didn't act like it.
"See you," Roxas's tone was kind of mean, like he didn't like me. He turned around.
Axel waved goodbye to me. For a moment, I looked at Riku, to see what he felt... but when I looked back, Roxas and Axel were gone.
"Do you wanna race?" Riku asked, he was smiling.
"Yeah," I grinned back at him. "I'll race you to the bendy tree!"
I ran first, and I kept going forward.
