Once You've Moved
Chapter 1
Trams and Trains
Finally, she thought, Finally, I'm going to see them again, after all these years! It's going to be so great! I can't wait!
She danced round the corner and jumped onto the nearest tram to take her to the train station. From there, she'd take yet another tram to get to school.
She knew exactly where she was going; all the shortcuts; who to look out for; where people live; where people wait. She knew everything about the kids of Twilight Town. Or else she had known.
She didn't know if everything was still in place, whether the shortcuts had been boarded over, who was there, whether people still lived there, whether they still waited there. But nonetheless, Kairi marched onwards.
She boarded the tram, and sat down on one of the little seats placed inside. Her stomach squirmed inside of her as she fumbled with her fingers, not sure about anything. But, she was sure on one thing: she couldn't wait to see her old friends.
The tram seemed to be empty which Kairi thought was a little odd, as when she was little the tram would be stock full of students going to school. But she supposed that they walked now, or they had all coincidentally missed it, or they were all sick, or it was 'Walk to School' week.
As the tram came to a halt outside her stop, she turned to the front of it to pay the driver, but found that there was no driver there, instead a sign read:
'THIS TRAM IS ONE OF THE MANY TRAMS DONATED BY THE HOLLOW BASTION RESTORATION COMMITTEE AFTER THEY REDESIGNED HOLLOW BASTION. THESE TRAMS HAVE COMPUTER CHIPS IN THEM WHICH TELL THEM WHERE TO GO. THIS MEANS THAT IT IS FREE TO RIDE ON ANY ONE OF OUR TRAMS.'
Kairi laughed, How odd.
She skipped on her short walk, now, to the train station. There, she bought a ticket and waited for the train to arrive.
She could see other students there, all waiting boredly for the train to arrive. She knew that only one of her old friends would get on at this train, simply because he lived on the same side of town as her. All the others were on the same side as the school was.
She giggled, remembering when they were younger and her friend would make sure no one pushed her around on the train. They were like brother and sister, and in some aspects, looked like it.
She hoped no one would laugh at her hair like they had done in the place they had just moved away from.
She had been part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, and she could remember Yuffie telling her that they were going to send all the old trams to some random places, and keep the good ones for themselves. Kairi slowly started to regret raising her hand in agreement.
"Dammit..." she muttered, "Stupid Yuffie..."
She immediately regretted this, and flicked out her phone. It was not very 'flashy' or expensive. Just something she could use as a communication device. She pressed for the 'Menu' then 'Messages' then 'Write Message'. Her message was:
Hi Yuff! You having fun in HB? Can't wait to see my old friends. Tell everyone I love them and they're missed! Kai xx
She smirked, sent the message and turned her phone off to get on the train. As the train started to leave, Kairi wondered where her friend was. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he had moved too. Or maybe he was dead. Maybe all her friends were dead. Even the ones in Hollow Bastion, and she'd never get a text back from Yuffie. And maybe Leon'd never realised that Yuffie was defiantly the girl for him, and Cid would never manage to get revenge on that Gepetto guy for selling him. And Aerith would never be able to mother over them all again. And Cloud may never be able to find his 'light'. Even though he'd already found his 'light', as Tifa had told Kairi, "Me!" the older had added to the end.
Kairi's eyes widened and she turned her phone back on. She typed out another message, sent it, and put her phone back in her bag.
She relaxed after that and started humming the first tune that came into her head. It seemed to be some sort of mix between 'The World That Never Was' (she loved that song, it was all she ever listened to nowadays) and '100 Acre Wood' (which was another of her favourites).
The train started to slow down and people started busying themselves, as they prepared all their things to take off the train.
Once Kairi stepped off the train she was amazed. She could remember being little and being amazed, but she couldn't quite remember why. Now she could.
The place was thronging with people from all over, everywhere was crowded with about 10 people in a metre squared space. The girl took one step forward and soon realised what she had let herself into; a trap from which no one could escape. NO ONE!
She gulped, and tried to trek away from the business men in suits and the rushed looking mothers, and the crying babies, and just get to the teenagers over there with the uniforms on. She tried to trek away. Yet somehow found herself being pushed back into the train. So, Kairi thought she might try taking a different manner to this, she ran to end of the carriage and broke open the door at the side, and stepping onto the empty platform at the back, she felt refreshed and relieved.
She'd just curve round all the bustling people and make her way down the side gap.
And however crazy this plan may have seemed, it worked!
She breathed in the fresh air from the more crowded side of Twilight Town, and carried on her way to Tram Common. Once there, she took a tram to school.
The High School was still the same, with it's traditional looking front doors – that students aren't allowed through, they have to go through any one of the three side doors – only one one upper floor, in the main building for chemistry and social studies. But one upper room where the art sessions usually took place. Kairi remembered frequent visits here as her teachers liked to show the elementary students around.
She'd be a freshman here, along with her other friends.
She couldn't wait.
The headteacher had shown her around in the summer holidays, so she knew where to go and what to do there. She had a brown satchel, with darker brown straps. She grinned as she stepped into lower school. The place reeked of the 'Science' sort of odour. The walls were all grey and cold blue, posters and pieces of work scattered the boards situated in very formal ways down the corridor.
Kairi shivered.
She wasn't sure if she liked her new school.
But she knew she couldn't just stand there, she could have done that when the head had been showing her round. Right now, she had to go to her form room. She grinned, and stepped through.
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she cried.
End of Chapter
A/N: I am English. Please don't blame me if I got a load of stuff about school wrong. In fact, tell me, and I'll change it!! Kairi's15, right? And if you're a freshman in High school, you start when you're 14/15... right...?
That's basically all I know about the great 'American Schooling System'... or however you say it...
/whimper/
Please don't kill me. Please.
You can make a few educated guesses at who Kairi's 'friend' is. I think it's kind of obvious... but then again... I know...
So really, I don't know. O-o
Because the J-G virus in contagious.
!ALERT! Inside Joke. DO NOT READ TOO MUCH INTO IT.
Tell me what you think!