Spring, Summer, and Fall
Spring (Sora)
A combination of exhaustion, sweat, and fulfillment forced Sora to stumble to the few front steps of the McCartney house that led to the porch, where he promptly sat down. Sitting in the shade of the light green and white house, he finally could let himself feel his own heart beat again. It was quick. He continued to struggle to catch his breath as he sat with his elbows back on the actual porch and fanning out his gray shirt, which was now somewhat drenched. He was too tired to fully give his lack of comfort priority.
Sora was a member of the Twilight Town High School's track and field team, and he specifically was a distance runner, going as far as he could in as short a time as possible. He started while he was in junior high school while still living in the Destiny Islands. Sora wasn't sure if it was because he was in high school now or because of the move to Twilight Town, but the competitiveness of the track and field time he was on now made his old one seem like a warm up at best. It didn't concern him as much as one might think though since he was still consistently among the best in his category. Out of the fifteen or so students who all competed with him, Sora never fell out of the top three, helping the team get ranked well at competitions consistently.
Sora was also an active participant in the school's choir. While he sang shamelessly when he was younger, garnering laughs and kind praise, he actually was interested in pursuing it as an activity. The move prior to high school seemed to be the jolt he needed, because he signed up the first day.
In keeping up with his determination that led him in all facets of his life, he actually practiced as much as recommended and his comments went from "keep the singing confined to the shower" to "sing that new one again". Sora replayed the latter sentence in his head repeatedly the entire day that he heard it. The teacher herself, Mrs. Belle, praised his skill after the two and a half years; she went so far as to offer him solos at performances, but Sora always turned them down. He prioritized track meets if scheduling interfered with choir performances anyway. Still, he considered saying yes at least a little bit every time.
"It's a good thing it's warmer out, right?" asked a mature and pleasant voice.
Sora turned around to see his aunt, standing in some comfortable jeans and a softly colored flannel shirt. Her shoulder-length blond hair was tied back and her blue eyes that matched Roxas's eyes were taking in the sight. She was very pretty, which plenty of guys told her often. She had her hands on her hips, taking in the view as the late afternoon sun had given everything a dark and orange tint. She then positioned herself on one of the support beams of the porch's little roof to be directly next to Sora.
"Oh, hey aunt Mia," greeted Sora with a small smile. "Enjoying your day?"
"Yeah, but I guess not as much as you've been enjoying yours Sora," she responded with an amused face.
Sora looked down again at his sweaty gray shirt and black shorts. Even his white sneakers seemed a bit worse for the wear already. "I thought I'd get some practice in while the sun was still out. I may have gone a little overboard though."
Sora immediately thought 'Nah' in his head.
"Nah…" said his aunt Mia in response. Sora couldn't help but chuckle. "How far did you run anyway?"
"Just around the block… multiple times. For like 45 minutes," Sora said somewhat proudly.
"Good job Sora. Now come on in to eat." His aunt Mia left him and he continued to sit.
Sora wiped his forehead and stared at the streets. It seemed all the streets, all the buildings, and the sky itself, were all orange. However Sora's sight changed from panoramic to focused on one of the houses across the street. Out of all the houses in the neighborhood, the house that Sora was looking at was distinctive in that while the other houses were painted simple and fiery colors, the house was just flat out red.
As Sora stared, one of its residents, Axel Flynn, just happened to be walking out. He stepped very casually, but Sora thought his face seemed hard and blank. Axel climbed into his red sedan, which was always a bit awkward because of his height, and pulled out onto the street quickly. While he was switching from reverse to drive, he looked directly at the McCartney house and saw Sora. A smile immediately appeared on his face and he gave a quick wave. Sora waved back as he drove off.
'I wonder what he's up to,' Sora questioned in his mind. He couldn't help but be a little curious after rumors that he'd been hearing lately.
Axel was one of the best friends of his cousin Roxas, so Sora was able to get to know him on a personal level. He had graduated high school in June of the previous year, but had stayed in town. It was now March and Axel had been working at a restaurant, trying to get money for school gathered up. Sora respected Axel for his ambition, especially since Sora's few visits to Axel's house had not painted a pretty picture of Axel's home life for him.
Sora finally stood up, lightly stretched, and walked in to the house, past the living room and into the dining room where he saw on the dark wooden and long dining table that three plates had already been set up.
"Hey aunt Mia, is Roxas coming?" Sora called out as he sat down close to the head of the table.
"Well he called me about fifteen minutes ago to tell me that he wasn't staying at Hayner's house for dinner so I told him I'd set up a plate for him." The sound of the front door opening and closing could be heard. "Speak of the devil."
Sora smiled as a greeting as his cousin Roxas walked into the dining room and nodded in acknowledgment to Sora. "Hey mom," he said simply.
"Welcome home Roxas," she called back.
"How was hanging out with Hayner?" Sora asked.
"It was good. We just played some video games to chill out," Roxas explained as he sat down across Sora. "Pence stopped by too, so that was pretty cool. How was running?"
"Running was good too. I'm glad it's warmer out, it lets me go outside and I can actually see the sights again."
"What sights? You mean the local park?"
"Among others, yes." The local public park was still refreshing to Sora since he didn't actually grow up in Twilight Town like Roxas did.
Sora was simply staying for high school. The public high schools in Twilight Town gave educations that were by far considered more valuable than those offered at the public schools in the Destiny Islands. Sora considered the move worth it, plus his aunt was willing to provide a place for him. He didn't really ask questions, he just considered it great luck that his aunt agreed.
"By the way," Sora began, "I just saw Axel leaving his house as I was coming in from running."
"Oh, did you?" Roxas seemed interested, but his tone also seemed to carry something else, though Sora couldn't really tell what it was.
Sora's aunt came in a few moments later carrying a large, lidded saucepan. "Here we go boys," she said as she placed it on the table. She took off the lid to unveil steaming fresh spaghetti. She popped back into the kitchen quickly to grab a canister of cheese and a jar of pasta sauce. "Dig in," she said as she sat at the head of the table.
The boys filled up their plates and filled the air with light conversation, helping Sora's aunt catch up on what they were up to. Sora told her about how excited he was that a track meet was coming up the next weekend, while still a little shy about being in choir. Roxas explained casually about how school was going and talked lightly of his band, The Tune Ups.
For the entire two and a half or so years that Sora had been living with this cousin, he had only been to about three concerts for The Tune Ups. The problem was best identified by Sora himself when he once said "band members come and go in that band as often as people in bathroom stalls do in a restaurant." The only consistent members were Roxas on guitar and Axel on drums, though Pence did play keyboard regularly for the band.
Two of the biggest reasons that Sora had seen them play so few times was because Roxas usually avoided telling him (or anyone) and the lack of a true singer. They both could be attributed to shyness, but they both had deeper reasoning as well. Roxas would tell so few people because of his belief that his performances had to be great before he boasted about them. As for the vocals, Roxas sang in 100% of the songs and most of the time the vocals were solo. Roxas had a good voice and could sing well, but he considered himself a guitarist first and had to simplify the vocals so he could multitask; the fact that the vocals lacked only contributed to his disbelief that he put on a good show.
Sora however did enjoy all three of the band's performances that he'd been to, which was why he was mystified by Roxas's lack of pride for the band.
After finishing and helping to clean, Sora headed upstairs to work on his homework, which was somewhat last minute since it was after dark on Sunday, meaning it was the last thing he'd be doing before heading to bed.
He had advanced algebra problems, a sheet of history questions to fill out, and a basic sketch for his art elective to do. He did the first two in half an hour's time each. For the sketch however, he drew a bowl of fruit and knew that it was hardly very artistic, but he figured it was enough for "Class Drawing 1".
His good friend Naminé had offered to help, since she was currently acing "Class Drawing 4", but Sora felt his gut was worth following.
The next morning Sora begrudgingly got up at seven A.M., which was actually on time, and stumbled out of bed. When he looked down the hall, he saw that he was the first one up and decided to eat first. It seemed like a good idea since he figured that eating cereal might give him the energy he lacked to change out of his sweatpants and white t-shirt.
Sora chowed down on Captain Crunch, his guilty breakfast pleasure and sat at the small table in the kitchen silently eating. He always liked to eat in the kitchen for breakfast because it seemed the most lived in. Roxas and himself left things out of place, a lot of the appliances were a little old, and the fridge was heavily disguised with photos. The photos were mostly of a younger Roxas and a younger aunt Mia, along with some of extended family, including an old one of Sora and his own family.
Roxas soon shuffled in, wearing black shorts, a Wonderland tourist shirt that he got on vacation, and a pair of black horn rimmed glasses.
"Good morning Roxas," Sora said.
Roxas grunted in response while he rubbed his eyes, which got a laugh out of Sora. Roxas then took a better look at what Sora was eating and laughed. "Of course!" he said sarcastically with a raw voice.
The two ate and went upstairs to change. They were going to walk to school since it was only a twenty-minute walk from the McCartney house. Aunt Mia was still sleeping, though she was due to wake up soon since she started work at nine. She worked an office job at ITS, which was short for Iban's T-shirts. They were actually one of the biggest suppliers of t-shirts, meaning they owned one of the biggest buildings in Twilight Town and had lots of employees in the area.
Sora slipped on dark blue jeans, a bright red shirt with a band logo in white on it and was packing his things into his black backpack. When he was shoving in his last book, his phone started ringing. Sora looked at the caller ID and saw that it was none other than his best friend Riku.
"Hey, what's up Riku?" Sora asked into his flip phone.
"Meet me outside in two minutes," was all Riku said before abruptly hanging up.
"Okay…?" Sora looked at his phone and figured it was strange that Riku would be outside soon. He lived a bit father from the school, so he usually drove and would sometimes pick up Sora and Roxas. He did walk anyway every now and then and Sora just assumed it was one of those days.
When Sora walked into the hall, he saw that Roxas must've been in the bathroom and in an elevated voice mentioned he was meeting Riku outside.
"That's cool; just go without me. I haven't even changed yet," Roxas responded.
Sora walked to the front door, threw on a black fleece jacket and his gray skate-style shoes and opened the front door. True to his word, Riku was standing at the end of the driveway on the sidewalk. He was dressed casually in some light jeans and a black hoody that had the school's baseball team logo on it. It had Riku's last name, Gallagher, and his jersey number, which was the number two, right underneath.
Riku was on the school baseball team as a right fielder and was one of the better batters. He was pretty popular because of it, but every time Sora saw him, including then, he considered him his buddy before any pretenses. That was a key reason that Riku always considered Sora to be his best friend, among other reasons.
The two had grown up together on the Destiny Islands, and it wasn't until Riku was about to get into high school that he found out that his father took a job offer in Twilight Town, working for IBN, like Sora's aunt Mia. Although the family moved into a bigger house and Riku got along perfectly well the one year they were apart, he made sure to keep in touch with Sora.
The two liked to thank destiny for having them be in high school together for three years, of which two and half were completed.
Sora met him at the end of the driveway, they shared a fist bump, and Sora immediately had them start walking. "No Roxas?" Riku asked.
"He was being slow so he said to go without him," Sora explained. "You decided to walk today?"
"Yeah, I wanted to make sure I talked to at least you this morning."
While Sora had been counting the sidewalk squares, he felt obliged to look at Riku's face at this point to try to read the situation. "What do you want to talk about?" Sora asked with large curiosity.
"Well as a senior you know that I'll be graduating in three months."
"I'm pretty sure that's how it goes, yeah." Sora said jokingly.
Riku smiled at his friend, then put on a serious face as he continued, "Well prom is coming up too; it's going to be in the middle of April."
'Please don't say what I think you're going to say…' Sora thought to himself.
"And I know you kind of have a thing for Kairi, but I kind of do to."
'Yep.' Sora kept a straight face as he thought of the girl he'd had a crush on since she reentered their lives.
"So I'm going to ask her to prom," Riku stated flatly.
"Well that's cool," Sora said nonchalantly. He knew in his head though that it probably sounded forced.
"But like I said, I know you have a thing for her."
"So what are you getting at?" Sora asked. He had an idea of what Riku was going to say.
"I'll race you the rest of the way to school. If I win, I ask Kairi to prom. If I don't, I won't." Riku had just confirmed that Sora knew him too well.
Sora looked ahead and saw that it was a moderate run, just less than ten minutes if they started running then.
"Alright, Riku?" Sora stopped walking completely and had a face as if he were about to object. Riku stopped as well.
"Yeah?" But before Riku could get a response, Sora started sprinting to school. "Cheater!" Riku called out before sprinting as well.
This was an introduction chapter, so only so much happened, but some seeds have been planted. The next chapter will be similar, except following Roxas.
Well after taking a long break from fanfiction due to life and lots of other stereotypical big things, I'm back with a new story after getting inspiration from seeing other people's stories the past couple months. If you're familiar at all with my Roxas/Naminé fic, "Sonic Dawn", then this can be considered a spiritual successor, except more grandiose and this one has two main characters, switching every chapter.