Namine woke at sunrise on a bleary January morning. She rose with the sun at around seven, even though it was a Saturday. When she threw the covers from her while wiping the drowsiness from her eyes, she remembered through her sleepy haze that it was the day of her very good friend's sixteenth birthday party. She glanced over to her closet door from which hung the dress she had picked out with her mother and her mother's friend Pardue the week before. It was a dark royal blue that, in the front, went down to just above her knee and down to her ankle in the back. The dress had a very low back and a little bit low front. When she tried it on, she felt that she exposed a little too much skin, but her mother and Pardue insisted that the dress had been made for her. Namine saw on her desk set just in front of the window the bag from EB games where she had bought Kairi's present. It was a game that came out in about 2003 and it was for Playstation II about this kid that went around killing monsters with a giant key. Kairi had only played the second one and would get all confused when Namine would mention things from the first one or the one in between for a handheld system. Also on the desk was the card she had picked out of ALL the cards in the local pharmacy – Namine read every single card before deciding on one. Hers had a picture of a guy sitting at a stand with a sign saying, "Church of Briantology" with a donation box. Under it, it read, "Not totally satisfied with any of the world's religions, Brian decided to create one of his own." When opened, it read, "May Brian bless you on your birthday and always." She had filled it out the day before with Dear Kairi, happy birthday, sincerely Namine, etc.
Taking a pair of socks from beside her bed, she put them on before venturing downstairs to the bathroom to take a shower. She used shampoo and conditioner on her hair, along with soap on all of her and a face cleanser that left her cheeks feeling all tingly. While still inside the shower, she dried herself off using a brown towel she had left hanging on the side of the stall. Throwing her hair into a wrap with the towel, she stepped out and brushed her teeth the proceeded to dress herself into a pair of jeans and a loose green T-shirt with "Marines" written across it in black. She then removed her now damp long blonde hair from the towel before putting the towel back on the rack. Namine brushed her hair roughly, ignoring the previous advice of her mother to start from the bottom figuring that it would just be done later and now it just needed to be free of knots so she was presentable to go shopping.
Heading back upstairs, she turned on the radio that sat in front of the full-view mirror and adjusted the station until she found a song she knew. She turned it up a bit before running downstairs to grab a roll of plain black wrapping paper and roll of blue ribbon. Namine sat on her floor with her gift-wrap tape, scissors, paper, ribbon, and copy of Kingdom Hearts and she measured off a piece of paper that would comfortably wrap around the box. The perfectionist in her was shown through the pristine package as she tied the final bow on the top exactly in the center. Feeling quite accomplished, she set this with her card on the top of her dresser so she would not forget it when her mother came to pick her up around 10 just as one of her favorite rock alternative songs came from the radio. Singly loudly and off-key immodestly while she took up the bag for her dress and carefully reinserted it into the bag before hanging it once again on her closet door.
After that, she went to her desk and turned on her computer. She opened up her iTunes library and created a playlist titled "Kairi's CD" and she scrolled up and down her extensive collection of music, deciding which bands she should introduce Kairi to next. Through much considering, she settled upon Nirvana and Pink Floyd, with a few other older songs too. With her now 15 song long playlist, she clicked the "Burn CD" button at the lower right hand side of the screen. Her computer's second driver opened and she carefully placed a blue CD inside it before gently coaxing it closed.
Just then, the telephone on her desk rang. Half-assuming it would be her mother saying when she was coming to pick her up; she was surprised to see that it was Kairi's number on the caller ID. She answered the phone in her usual fashion, even though she knew who it was already.
"Hello, who's calling please?" she asked.
"Hey Nam, it's Kairi and I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor," Kairi started on the other line, sounding tired as if she had just woken up.
"Sure, what's up?"
"Well, could you pick up Sora on your way to the party?" Kairi continued, "If it's okay with your dad and all, you could tell him I'll give him a big hug if he does this for me!"
"I'm sure it would be no problem either way. Why can't his dad drive him though?" Namine inquired curiously.
"His dad's car, like, died. Like the engine or something," Kairi explained.
"I see, well, could you tell me the address again? The invitation is at my mother's house."
"151 Bryant Pond road," Kairi answered.
"How do you spell that?" Namine asked while writing it down with a mechanical pencil on an extra sheet of paper on her desk.
"B-R-Y-A-N-T," Kairi recited as if she had gotten that a lot lately. Namine guessed a lot of people had lost their invitations.
"Okay, thank you, I'll see you there?"
"Okay, see you then!" Kairi responded.
"Bye." Namine hung up the phone then dialed her mother's number, checking her black sports-line watch as she put it on her right wrist. It was about 9:15. The phone rang three or four times before her mother answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Mom," greeted Namine as she started to pace around her room.
"Hey, look, I just got out of the shower; I'll be there around quarter after 10," her mother stated.
"Oh, okay, I hope we'll have enough time."
"Don't worry about it, we'll have three hours and Pardue's here to help pick out the makeup and we'll be dying your hair and shit so be ready when I get there," she slightly ordered.
Namine groaned at the sound of makeup, but then said, somewhat exasperated, "Okay, I'll see you then."
"Love you."
"Love you too, Mom." With that, Namine hung up and extracted the newly created CD from the computer and took an old Avenged Sevenfold case from her stack of empty cases and placed the CD in it. She then took a brown sharpie marker too it, labeling it, "Nirvana, Pink Floyd, and more!" Afterwards, she and flipped herself onto her bed, sighing, with almost an hour of free time.
With an idea, she sat up and picked up the spiral notebook on the floor right by her bed. Taking the pen from the spiral part, she opened up to her story that she had been working on for the past couple of months to where she had left off.
Haruka's excited face faltered before Aresia suggested, "Why don't we show Haruka the special meeting room, with chairs more than twice my height that the higher up of the Organization sits in."
"But Aresia-"
Haruka interrupted him, "What Organization?"
"Organization XIII, a highly secretive group of people that a trying to find the magical realm of Kingdom Hearts," Aresia explained as the three left the room and Aresia locked it.
"Wow, I've never been there before, what's it like?" Haruka asked. Kender, by nature, are a lot like children by their imaginative ways and lack of fear, by how they don't understand the concept of it, they see death just as a new adventure.
"Well, no one really knows, we don't know how to get there yet. . ."
Her dad's voice interrupted her concentration as he yelled, "Your mom's here!"
Namine jumped up and dropped her notebook to the ground and grabbed her dress by the hanger on her closet and grabbing her present off the dresser before shouting back, "Bye Dad, I'll call you!"
"Have fun," was the last thing she heard as she vacated the house from the back door and ran down the driveway to see the small tan car waiting for her in the driveway, Pardue and her mom waiting patiently. She opened the back door and hung her dress from the . . . thing you would hang a dress on in a car before siding in the backseat, setting the gift beside her.
"Hey, how you doing?" her mom asked as she started to back out of the driveway to take her down the plaza to get her some makeup.
"I'm doing well, how about you two?" she replied, buckling her seatbelt.
"We're good, listen. Gina and Joey are coming over tonight so I can't pick you up; you're going to have to get your dad to do that."
"Okay, I'll call him from . . . the place. How did that go last time, with Gina and Joey?" Namine asked.
Both her mother and Pardue burst into laughter, leaving Namine quite confused.
"It went well," her mother managed to say through fits of laughter, "Joey gave Tom a hug when he left," she said before laughing again, Pardue joining.
"So? Kairi hugs Pardue whenever she sees him and she doesn't even know his first name," Namine said.
"Well, they're guys. Guys usually don't hug," her mother explained.
" . . . Oh."
Her mother turned on the radio to a hip-hop station and started to dance in her seat and sing the words before asking Namine, "Namine, how often do I dance?"
"Whenever there's music playing," she answered.
"Do I dance the same way I do in front of you in public?" she questioned.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"See, Tom!" her mother exclaimed before changing the station, finding the song, "Another One Bites The Dust." Then, she turned up the volume and said, "For you, Pardue. Another one bites the dust, and another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust!"
Namine giggled from the back seat, knowing Queen had Pardue's favorite singer as they took the left into the plaza and started to look for a parking space reasonably close to the Beauty supplies place. Finding one in the third row, the three disembarked from the car, but not before memorizing the color of the dress to look for matching eyeliner. They walked up to the door and walked into the scent of several different types of lotions before going straight to look at the display of sample eye shadows. Her mother picked up a dark blue one which seemed to be the exact color of her dress and told Namine to hold it while she tested a lighter glitter one, decided she didn't like it, and set it back. Pardue then approached them with a few different types of eyeliner. Her mother tested them on the side of her hand. One was a very dark blue, one was a sparkly blue, and the last was the same color as the latter, but minus the sparkles.
Namine pointed at the two of the same shade, "I like those more than that dark one."
"Cool . . . here, hold these," her mother said, handing her the two pencils as Pardue asked the clerk about a certain brand of cloth waxing kits as her mother added, "What about that hair crap you said you liked? What was it called?"
"Biosilk," Namine responded, "It just makes my hair soft and it smells good on your hands after you use it."
"Go pick it out," her mother said, smelling the fragrances of sample lotions.
Namine approached the wall of hair product warily, seeing several brands on the shelves. Then, at long last, as she gazed up and down the row, she spied a small two ounce bottle of biosilk and she snatched it off the shelf, adding it to her collection of makeup. She then approached the others at the counter, where her mother was holding a small brown paper bag with a big smile on her face.
"Look what Tom got me!" she said, opening it to show mini containers of her favorite lotion made to go in the car.
"Very nice," Namine observed, handing the products to her mother to pay for. Her mom had grabbed a thing of clear lip gloss as the cashier rang it up. Paying for it accordingly, she took the second paper bag and handed it to Namine.
"Don't worry, Nam, you're going to look awesome," her mother reassured her.
Looking at the makeup, Namine wasn't so sure.
The three left the beauty supplier and made their way back to the car. When they reentered it, Namine's mother realized they had forgotten something.
"Shit, we forgot to get tights," she complained, before pulling out the parking space and then driving to in front of the Pharmacy of the plaza and asking Pardue, "Could you get her some? Size B, nude."
"Okay . . ." he droned, climbing out the car to buy a single pair of stockings.
"You nervous?" her mom asked her.
"Nah, not at all," Namine lied, but she wasn't really worried about the party, just in general.
"Alrighty then," she said as Pardue returned to the car, opened the door and climbed inside.
He pulled out a small box of stockings and showed their stats to her mother, "These good?"
"Perfect."
The three then made a game plan for what they were going to be doing once they got back to her mother's house. First, nails. Second, hair. Third, makeup (while Pardue looked up directions on Map Quest). Fourth, pictures. Fifth, pick up Sora. They were all set, they had their plans, it was just eleven according to Namine's watch as they walked inside, leaving them with two hours.
Like clockwork, Namine's mother started to do her nails silver as Pardue made them lunch of micro waved lasagna before cutting up pieces of tin foil into squares for when they dyed her hair. Namine's normally completely blank, visibly bitten nails turned into a shiny sliver with a diagonal slash of blue through the center. By the time they had dried, Pardue had brought out the container of blue hair dye and set it next to her mother along with the tinfoil squares. Her mom took up a small segment of hair from the front and coated it with blue dye using a small brush before wrapping it with tinfoil and folding it up so it was right in her face. For the rest of her head, however, she only colored the bottom two inches of hair with blue before wrapping the tin foil around it. Her hair was no stranger to dye, but it still made her nervous that it was going to stain her face or something. Namine ate her lasagna with her tin head that was surprisingly good. She waiting at the kitchen table for about 20 minutes as her mother cleaned up the blue dye mess with bleach from her precious wooden table before dragging Namine over to the sink the rinse the dye from her hair. They did get some blue on her face, but her mother said she'd take care of that later as she led Namine back to her seat where there was a curling iron and a hair dryer waiting for her anxiously. She remained silent through the rough hair pulling as the dry heat from the dryer left her hair straight, but with more body, as her mother put it. She checked her watch and the time was about noon as her mother started to curl the blue part of her hair. When the torturous hair process was finally over, Namine checked herself out in the bathroom mirror and was quite pleased with her appearance, and surprised.
"So what do you think?" her mother asked from behind her.
"I like it," she admitted.
"Good, now let's go do some makeup."
Sighing, she returned, once again, to the chair of agony as she looked to the ceiling as her mother applied copious amounts of eyeliner while telling her to look at Pardue while her head was angled up.
"But he keeps moving . . ." she whined.
"Hey, stand back over there," her mother snapped at him, and then he returned to his previous position, hovering next to the garbage.
She then applied the eye shadow and mascara with similar process and then showed her a handheld mirror. The makeup made her eyes look huge and really accented her blue pupils. She turned her head a bit to see a different angle, thinking it might be a bit too much, even as her mother kept saying how she looked great.
"Her eyes could not be any better," Pardue told her mother as he looked at her before suggesting, "A little blush?"
"Of course, close your eyes," her mother instructed, taking a brush to a container of pinkish powder before applying it to her cheeks to even out her skin tone.
Namine sighed, "I feel like a doll."
"You look like one too, now go put on your dress," her mother commented.
Taking the stockings off the table, she made her way to her room where she had hung her dress in the closet. She removed her shirt and bra, pants, shoes, and socks before putting on her tights.
"Aren't these supposed to be comfortable?" she complained to her mother, who was in the next room.
"No, they're supposed to be annoying!" she shouted back.
She then slipped into her dress, feet first, then pulled it up, stuck her arms through the holes, and pulled the top portion over her head. Self-conscious, she tugged at the low-cut front before sighing at the dress's lack of cooperation. After that, Namine took from the top shelf of her closet a box that contained sliver high-heeled shoes. She slipped them on and then walked out of her bedroom.
When her mother saw her, she gasped. "Oh my God, you look like a woman! Tom, Tom! Come look at her."
With slight difficulty, she made her way back into the kitchen and her mother fumbled for the camera. She pointed at a section of wall, indicating that Namine should stand there as Pardue came into the room.
"So what do you think, Pardue?" her mother asked him.
"Holy shit," he said in response, causing Namine it laugh a bit, and almost fall over if she hadn't caught the wall.
"Flip your hair, look sexy," her mother said.
Namine rolled her eyes as she flipped her head then fixed her part and smiling for a picture.
Her mother snapped the photo excitedly, stating, "You could be a model, look at that shape you're always hiding under those loose black sweatshirts!"
"Whatever," Namine muttered, looking off to the side as her mother did a close up shot.
"Come on, look at yourself," her mother said, showing her the camera and the shot of her looking off the side. It didn't even look like her and compared to a picture of her from December when Roxas had come to visit with her wavy, slightly frizzy hair that all she did to it was wash it and let air dry and her black sweatshirt and blue jeans. It was remarkable. She hardly recognized herself.
"Whoa."
"Yeah, that and my reaction sum it up pretty well," Pardue said from the door, holding the keys and directions.
"So, yeah, when do I get to put on my sneakers?" Namine asked, taking off the heels.
"Right now, but you're putting those back on for your big entrance, let's hit the road," her mother replied, heading outside.
Namine gladly returned to her black sneakers that read in blue sharpie on one, "Less QQ more Pew Pew" and in purple on the other, "ZOMG Lasers Pew Pew Pew" along the Nike symbol across the side. She then left the house, wearing her mother's black coat over her dress that left her knees down subject to the chilly January wind and carrying her silver heels in her left hand.
"I feel like a priss," she announced as she walked down the sidewalk to the car, which was already running with both Pardue and her mother in it. She took the backseat again and Pardue read off the directions. Namine noticed her mother's eyes kept glancing back at her.
"Sorry, you're just gorgeous right now," she explained before asking, "Are there going to be any boys there?"
She sighed before answering, "Yes, but I think they're all already taken."
Her mother chuckled, "Sucks to be them."
Namine then remembered something, "We have to go pick up Sora, and do you know where he lives?"
They started down the road as her mother replied, "Yeah, I've dropped him off a few times."
"Okay." They came up to Sora's road and her mother didn't look like she was about to make a turn. "Take this left!"
She took the left and then yelled, "He doesn't live this way!"
"Yes, he does!" Namine argued back.
"When did he move?"
"October."
"Well, which house is his?" she asked as they went up the road, which was littered with speed bumps without warning signs. Sora lived in an apartment with his dad on this road known as Fox Run. There were about 6 buildings, each with several apartments in them. Namine had only been to his road once, and only knew that he was in the 500's building, which she told her mother, and they drove the building, the very last one. Her mom honked the horn several times.
"Did he know we were picking him up?" Pardue asked.
"Kairi said he did," Namine responded, getting out of the car with her mother.
"Hey Sora!" her mom shouted, "Sora!"
"Mom!" Namine whispered, "That's rude!"
"It's rude that Sora isn't out here waiting for us," she said back. No one could argue with that logic.
Defeated, Namine returned to the car, feeling guilty. She checked her watch, it was quarter to one and she was late. Her mother tried to yell for him a few more times for before coming back inside. They waited for about five minutes before pulling away.
"Don't feel bad, we waited, he wasn't here, maybe he got a ride from someone else," her mom said to her, trying to make her feel better.
The ride to the party wasn't too long, maybe twenty minutes, but when they got to Bryant Pond road, Namine realized that Kairi hadn't told her what the place was called. We found a house number 151, but there wasn't even a car in the driveway. Come to find out, that side of the road was called Secore road. Then, they turned the other way and saw a blue steakhouse, according to the sign. They drove by it, thinking it couldn't be that, and then followed the other end of the road and came to farmland. Quite aggravated, her mother told Pardue to go inside the steakhouse when they drove back to it and ask if they had a payphone, since she had forgotten her cell phone. While Pardue was in there, which only took a few seconds before her ran back out and got in the car.
"The entrance is in the back, and this is it, I saw a bunch of kids running around in there her age," he said. With that, they drove around to the back and unloaded, Namine had her shoes and Kairi's present in hand. They were a half an hour late, and without Sora, but intact.
"I'm going to go talk to her mother," Namine's mom told her as they walked inside. Namine stayed outside for a moment, putting on her heels in exchange for her black sneakers.
When they entered the building, it was full of voices and music. To the immediate right, there was a coat rack, which was all Namine could see at that point in time. She saw Kaitlyn from Book Club who was wearing a flowery powder blue blouse and black dress pants. She came over to greet Namine with a hug, and was followed by Kairi.
"You're wearing makeup!" Kairi shouted after hugging her and accepting her present, "Be right back," she said as she went to drop it off on the gift table.
Namine took off her coat and set her sneakers on the floor before hanging up the coat.
Kaitlyn looked at her and said, "Meeeow, Nam, you look really nice!"
"Heh, thanks," she said modestly, trying to pull up her dress again as Kairi came over again.
"Ah! Nam's in a dress!" she exclaimed while in her own lighter blue, floor-length dress with sparkles on the front that made her look a little like a princess. Her hair was pulled back and curled and her mother must have pushed her into that little bit of eye shadow.
"So is Kairi!" Namine said in return.
"Nam also is wearing makeup! End of the world, much?" she asked before saying, "Sora called and said you didn't come."
"We did go! He just wouldn't come outside. My mother was freaking yelling his name in the parking lot for ten minutes," Namine explained.
Kairi laughed, "He thought you were coming to the door!"
"I didn't know the exact number just that it was in the 500's."
"518, dumb-dumb, I thought I told you on the phone," Kairi said.
"You only told me it was 151 for the party," Namine replied, before having an idea, "Maybe I could call my dad."
"Here," Kairi handed her her cellphone hurriedly.
Namine dialed her father's cell phone numbered and waited for him to answer.
"Hello?" her father asked.
"Hey, Dad? Could you do us a monumental favor?" Namine asked him.
"Eh, sure," he responded.
"Could you pick up Sora and bring him here?" she asked timidly.
"What! This party is your mother's deal, why didn't she do it?" he snapped.
Namine winced before replying, "We tried, but he didn't come out . . ."
Her father didn't listen, "So now your mother's there with fucking Pardue and is going to stay while I have to go get Sora?"
"They're not staying!" Namine objected.
"He could stay if he brought Sora and I'll give him the biggest hug ever!" Kairi offered.
Namine's mother had come back from talking to Kairi's, having heard Namine talking and said, "Let me talk to him."
Namine relinquished the phone gladly and watched her mom leave the building so it was quieter while they conversed.
"He's pissed," Namine explained.
"I could kind of tell," Kairi responded honestly.
Just then, Namine's mother returned with the phone already closed and handed it to Kairi.
"He's coming," she stated simply, "make sure he's outside when her father gets there or he's leaving."
"Okay," Kairi said and went to call Sora.
"Come on, let's go inside," Kaitlyn said, dragging Namine by the arm into the party where she was immediately greeted by several people.
Olette came over in her similarly colored dress that came down to her knee that had a brooch on her chest. Her hair had been straightened so now it was much longer, but she still had bangs on her forehead.
"Nam, holy crap! You look awesome," she shouted, being followed by similar comments by Savannah and Shannon, then by Courtney and Sam.
"Honestly, every one here looks beautiful," Namine said, instead of throwing compliments in return to everyone.
"True that!" Tosh agreed, in her own orange dress which suited her well.
Kairi came back over to Namine, who was standing in the middle of the room with a few people around her.
"Namine, you're too tall!" she said, crossing her arms across her chest. (In this case, Kairi is about 5'2" and Namine is about 5'8").
"I'm two inches taller than you than usual," she replied.
"Nuh-uh, one inch," Kairi corrected her, showing Namine her own heels hidden beneath her dress. (What's the point of wearing fancy shoes when no one can see them unless you lift up your dress?)
"I'm going to go get food," Kaitlyn announced, leaving the group to head to the food table.
Brandon came up to the girls and asked, "Tell me this isn't the end of the line."
"Nope," Namine replied.
"Thank God," he said before following Kaitlyn on the line.
"Come on, Nam, let's get food," Kairi said, tugging on her arm.
"I'm not really hungry, I'll see what they have," Namine replied, walking over to the food table, that started with plates, followed by salad, then chicken in lemon sauce, then tortellini alfredo, then pasta, then some type of steak, then bread and butter. Kairi had taken a little bit of everything, and Namine had simply asked what everything was and didn't even take a plate.
The tables had been set up with two horizontal ones in front of three vertical ones. The two horizontal ones and the outer two vertical ones were completely filled, so they sat in the center table with Kaitlyn. They had been talking about how good the food was for a steakhouse when Kaitlyn brought up the fact that she couldn't go to Book Club on Monday.
"Why not?" Kairi asked.
"Because I got a job," she explained.
"Congratulations, where at?"
"Rite-Aid," she answered.
Namine cut in with, ". . . I thought you said 'writer' for a second."
They both laughed at that, Kairi saying, "But that doesn't make any sense!"
Namine shrugged. "It made sense to me."
"That's because you're special," Kairi retorted, before barely picking at her food anymore.
"Full, Kairi?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Yeah . . ." she responded, putting her fork down.
Namine took up a fork from the table, reached over, and speared a tortellini and ate it, "You should at least finish that Kairi, it's delicious."
"Nah, I'm full," she said as she stood and left the table to go see Olette. When she was gone, Namine took another piece of her tortellini.
"Why don't you go get your own?" Kaitlyn suggested.
". . . I don't want my own," Namine said; as a waitress came and took Kairi's plate away, Namine added, "I was eating that!"
Kaitlyn laughed at her and poured herself some soda from a carafe set out on the table. Namine saw a cup with a napkin in it set in front of her, pulled out the napkin, and followed suit. Sipping at it, she saw Kairi with her head onto of Olette's while Liz took a picture of it.
"Nam, come here! We can be a totem pole!" Kairi called.
Smiling, she walked over to them and put her head on Kairi's as they took the picture.
"Hey, Kairi," someone greeted from behind them. Namine backed up, so Kairi could hug the newcomers. They were two boys Namine had never met before, both wearing similar sweaters with dress pants.
"Hiya," she said, before pointing to the first one and then the second saying, "This is Mark, and this is Will."
The first one looked insulted while the other looked amused. "Mark" huffed, "You called me Mark!"
"Oh, I'm sorry John! It's just . . . yeah, anyway," she corrected herself, "This is Nam, and she's my best friend."
"Nice to meet you," she said politely, extending her hand to each of them to shake, which they did. Not firmly though. She turned back to Kairi, "Can I put my sneakers on now?"
"Go ahead," Kairi replied before catching up with her two friends. She had known them from when she went to St. James, the catholic middle school.
Namine went back over to the entrance and slipped off her heels and put back on her sneakers, breathing a sigh of relief before returning back to Kairi.
The two then made their way to the dance floor, where it appeared that every other girl was already dancing while the boys talked amongst themselves a good 8 feet away from it.
The DJ on stage to the right was playing a song Namine had never heard before. She kind of stood there while other girls were singing out the lyrics and dancing like it was a second nature for them. Namine was never much of a dancer, neither was Kairi. Well, that was until "Ballroom Blitz" came on. Then THEY were the ones dancing and knowing every word, bouncing with the beat. Kaitlyn joined them during this song, complimenting Namine on her good taste since she was the one that gave the CD to Kairi. At the end of the song, Kairi and Namine high-fived each other.
As the next song began to play, Namine pointed out to Kairi that, "You have a segregated party!"
She tossed an evil glare over to the group of boys before approaching them, "Why aren't you guys dancing?"
Brandon answered her, "We'll dance if he plays Sandstorm, we already requested it and he said he'd play it next, but didn't. Maybe he will if you request it."
"Sandstorm?" Kairi repeated. She threw a questioning look at Namine, who shrugged.
"Let's go, Kairi, since it's your party you know he'll play it if you ask for it," Namine stated logically.
"But I don't wanna," she whined. Normally, at a girl's birthday party, the girl tends to get what she wants. Well, there are always exceptions to that rule. Namine grabbed her by her arms while someone started to push her and they, quite literally, dragged her across the floor to the DJ, who was watching, and looking amused at their antics.
Namine elbowed Kairi and she then said, quite reluctantly, "Can you play Sandstorm now?"
He nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm playing it next."
When Namine stepped down from the stage, she saw Sora with the other guys that were avoiding the dance floor like the plague. Walking right up to him, she put her elbow on his shoulder as if he were a shelf and said, "Hey Sora, why aren't you dancing with your lovely girlfriend?"
He sighed and muttered, "When ever I ask her, she doesn't want to."
Namine looked confused and asked herself, "Didn't he just get here?"
"Huh?" Sora asked, but when Namine shook her head, he said, "Could you stop leaning on me now?"
She did as Kairi walked over. As soon as Kairi came over, the DJ put on a slow song. Namine sighed exasperatedly, weren't they going to play Sandstorm next? Most of the girls left the dance floor, some to retrieve their boyfriends, others to sit back and awe at them.
Rachel came up to them, with Mark in tow, "Come on Sora, dance with her."
"Okay."
With that, the two awkwardly went to the dance floor to join a few couples and Shannon and Savannah who were dancing together and Brandon and Dan who were dancing together.
Someone from the sidelines yelled, "Watch your hands, Sora!" as he grabbed her waist and she put her arms around his neck. Several people in the crowd "Awwww"'d or snapped photographs of the cute couple. When Kairi looked over at Namine with a slightly helpless look and Namine gave her a thumbs-up, causing her to laugh a bit. Right after, Sandstorm started playing. All the boys headed for the dance floor and Kairi back away from Sora as they all crowded around him in a circle and started dancing. Namine went over to Kairi and told her to look at Sora. They both started laughing at him as Dan came over to them.
"Haha look at Sora getting party boy'd," he said as he started to take a video of it with his camera.
The girls tried to do the same to Kairi, but they just aren't as good at it as the boys are. The boys had moved on to do the same thing to Tidus, Kairi's younger brother. Poor thing must have been traumatized.
Now with everyone on the floor, the DJ played Cotton Eye Joe and the Cha-Cha Slide. After that, Namine decided to take a break, she said back down at the middle table and poured herself some more soda. She then realized there was a young girl sitting next to her that had short blonde hair. She was drinking what appeared to be Sprite out of a tall glass . . . that had a fork in it.
"Hey, what's your name?" she asked.
"Emily," she murmured, Namine could barely hear her over the music.
"What are you drinking there?"
"Soda," the little girl replied.
"Why do you have a fork in there?"
"Ice," she answered.
That would make perfect sense, you know, if her drink had any ice in it.
The party continued on, Namine checked her watch, it was about 3:30 when the music stopped playing and everyone returned to their seats for the candle lighting in which Kairi would honor people at the party by having them light one of her candles from the one she held.
"So, I have sixteen candles here-"
"Seventeen," Tidus corrected.
"No, I'm sixteen, dumbass," she retorted back and let the noise quiet down as people laughed at Tidus before continuing, "And the first person I'd like to honor is my mom."
Everyone clapped politely as each person was called up. After her mother was Tidus, then her grandparents, then her aunt and uncle, then a group of cousins, then her mother's friends, then a lot of her friends.
"The fifteen people I'd like to honor are Olette and Namine."
With that, the two girls went up to the front; Namine grabbed the candle from that stand that was in front of a parallelogram shaped cake as Olette hugged Kairi. Namine brought the candle to Kairi's and lit it before setting it back on the stand. Namine then hugged Kairi.
"You no take candle," she whispered to Kairi, adding sarcastically, "I wonder who that last candle is . . ."
"Shut up, Nam," she said in a friendly way. Namine winked at Sora as she returned to her seat.
Kairi cleared her throat, "The last person I'd like to honor is Sora, if you'll come light the candle for me."
Everyone clapped and cheered as Sora went up and took the last candle. He kissed Kairi as he lit the final candle before putting it back on the stand.
After Sora was seated, the room sang the Happy Birthday Song and Kairi blew out her candles. As the cake was taken away to be cut, the DJ started up another slow song.
"Hey, boyfriend!" he called to Sora, "That's your cue!"
Sora danced with Kairi again, along with pretty much the same people that danced to the slow song last time. The next song that played was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Namine had to go sing along with in the circle with everyone else for that one. After a few more well-known songs, Kairi and Namine left the dance floor to eat cake. They found slices in front of their seats.
While they were eating cake, the song "Every Time We Touch" had started to play. During the lines, "Your arms are my castle; your heart is my sky." Namine had sang, "This song is so mushy, I think I might die." Kairi had started to choke on her cake hearing that and had to sip at her soda so calm herself. Namine's eyes wandered over to the next table over and she saw Will and John, (or was it Mark?) sitting in the corner just with themselves. Thinking to herself that they were being way too miserable for her tastes, Namine made her way over to them and sat across from them.
"You know what?" she started loudly, gaining the boys' attention, "You two are being very unfestive right now. In fact, this reminds me of this New Year's Eve party I went to in which this one guy sat next to the door the entire time and was just a drag. So, Roxas and I had named him, Mr. Unfestive. Now, I think you both are worthy of the title."
"What?" Will asked.
Ignoring that, Namine asked, "You guys go to JFK, right?"
"Yeah," Will replied.
"How many periods does your school have?" she questioned.
"Well, they're forty-five minutes long," he responded.
"But how many of them are there?" she repeated.
"Oh, there are nine," John answered for him.
"I see, so you guys have about thirty six more minutes of school than we do. That sucks," Namine stated bluntly.
"We have to take religion," Will explained.
"I take it you're both catholic?" Namine implied watching John as he started to inhale a balloon.
"Yeah – dude, you are going to sound so weird!" Will said, seeing John too.
In his now, high-pitched voice, John squeaked, "Hi, I'm John. I like Chemistry."
Namine laughed at that, and Will took out his wallet.
"I'll give you a dollar if you do that again," he started, sifting through his wallet, looking for a one, not finding one, he said, "Never mind, I can't find a single."
Still high-pitched, John suggested, "Then give me a five."
"No way, it's not worth it," Namine advised Will.
Will handed her his wallet and told her about how his friend had gotten it for him. She noticed it said, 'Made in Italy.'
"Thanks," she said, putting it in her lap.
"Hey, give that back!" he shouted, Namine shrugged and handed it to him.
"You know what this reminds me off?" she asked them.
"What?" John asked, voice finally returning to its usual pitch.
"A time my friend Zexion went to the movies with Demyx and Zexion sat in the row behind Demyx and when the movie started, this other guy came in and sat next to Demyx and said, 'Hi, I'm John, and I'm bi!' and Demyx had replied, 'Hi, I'm Demyx, and I'm bi too!' then Zexion, who was behind them, said, 'If you guys start making out in front of me, I'll kill you both,'" Namine finished her story.
"Yeah, that's kind of gross," Will started while John forced a chuckle.
Namine raised an eyebrow at him, "Do you think being gay is bad?"
". . . A little," he admitted.
She threw him a very disappointed look, "Why?"
"I dunno," he said awkwardly, probably trying to avoid the attention just as Courtney came over.
"Courtney, he thinks being gay is wrong," she ratted him out.
"He didn't say that," she said disbelievingly.
"Well, not really," he denied the statement in its entirety.
Namine, in a kidding manner, gave Will a knowing look before nodding at Courtney, "I see he's just in denial."
Courtney, completely missing the joke said, astonished, "Did you just call him gay?"
Rolling her eyes, she said, "I was kidding."
"Good, cause I'm not gay," he stated, just so everyone was clear about that.
"So, you have any pets?" Namine changed the topic abruptly.
"I have a fish, a hamster, and a dog," Will replied.
"What kind of dog?" Namine asked.
Will nodded.
Laughing a bit, "That's not a type of dog, man."
"Oh!" Will said before correcting himself, "I have a terrier."
"I see. I'm more of a cat person myself. I have four, no, eleven cats. And they're this," Namine extended her right arm and used the other to point to her left shoulder, "big."
"Did you say, eleven?" John asked.
"Well," Namine started, "I have four adults and seven kittens. The kittens are so cute! They fit in your hand."
"Are you cats like fixed?" Will asked.
"Will that's so immoral, how would you like to be fixed?" John demanded.
"Well," she said, accenting her word to regain attention, "Two of my cats are fixed, two aren't. Those two had the kittens."
"How much would one of those cost?" Will inquired.
Namine smiled, saying, "More than you have in your wallet."
"More then 226 dollars?" he asked in disbelief.
"You don't have 226 dollars, you said you didn't have a single," Namine pointed out.
". . . Still."
"More like, 800, actually," she said offhandedly. Just then, she heard Enter Sandman by Metallica start to play and she got out of her seat immediately, "Hey, come dance with me."
Will started to stand, but then sat back down. Namine went over to their side of the table and said, "Come on, neither have you have danced yet!"
"I did the cha-cha slide," Will said in his defense, "but other than that, I can't dance."
"You can't really dance to this anyway, all you do is . . ." Namine started to bang her head, swing her blonde hair back and forth and bouncing with her knees before returning to her original posture, "that. Come dance with me!"
Kairi had come to Namine, Sora following behind, shouting, "Another awesome song you gave me, let's go!"
"But I can't get them to dance with me," Namine complained, and Kairi put her hands on her hips.
"Well, do you want to dance with me?" Kairi offered, and they shook their heads.
"Go on, dance with her. It'll make her happy," then Sora muttered, "Then I'll be happy."
Namine whispered to Sora, "What's the matter?"
"She's still in love with him," he told Namine.
Completely caught off guard by this, Namine asked, "What?"
"He told me so," Sora explained.
"He's just jealous, Kairi loves you," Namine reassured him, "Besides, she liked him when she was in the fifth grade, she's sixteen now, and all yours."
Sora sighed, "If you say so."
By the time Namine looked back over, Kairi had coaxed Will out of his seat and needed a hand dragging him to the dance floor, in which Namine gladly lent her a hand. When they got to the floor, Namine saw four guys head banging in unison. Namine started to sway her head to the music as Tosh was doing air guitar.
"Rock on, Tosh!" Namine shouted to her, and she looked up and smiled.
Kairi was dancing with Will, holding his hands and moving them back and forth to the beat. Sora was looking defeated and John was . . . just standing there. Hey, at least he was on the dance floor. When the song ended, a lot of people's parents were there to pick them up and take them either home, or to another party. Namine hugged several people goodbye while Fergalicious was playing.
She turned to John, "What an awful song to play after Metallica."
He agreed. "Yeah."
"Do you like it any?" she asked.
"Not really," he replied, he stood with his shoulders slouched and his hands in his pockets. Namine could tell that he was shy.
"I mean, it's okay to dance to, but just to listen, it's no good," she stated, watching people taking their last pictures and saying their goodbyes.
"Yeah," he said again. When the awful song finally came to a close, the DJ played one last slow song.
Namine glanced over to John and asked him, "Would you like to dance with me?"
He smiled at her and responded with a quiet, "Yeah."
Namine stepped in front of him and placed her hands behind his neck as he gently held her waist. Namine stepped back and forth with the music, struggling to keep eye contact. With her friends, she was confident, but now, she felt nervous and embarrassed. If the lights were on, she could feel that her blush would be visible.
"You know what's weird," she admitted in a whisper, "I've never slow danced before."
His voice cracking a bit, he told her, "Me neither."
Back with a group of girls saying bye to Kairi, Olette saw them and pointed them out to everyone else. Of course, they all went "Awwww" and Dan went to take a picture.
"You got him to dance!" Kairi exclaimed.
"I win," Namine said in response. When Dan came within a few feet of them to take a picture, Namine said, "I should flip you off right about now."
"But you two are so cute!" Dan commented, taking another picture, making Namine sigh.
"Thanks for the dance," she murmured awkwardly as the song ended, returning her hands to her sides.
"Don't mention it; it was nice to meet you," he started, "my ride's here."
Namine hugged him, "I'll see you around."
Then, John left. Namine wondered for a moment if she would ever see him again and doubted it.
With that, she said her final farewells to her friends, but insisted that Kairi open her present before she left. In a huff, she rip open the black paper, but her face brightened when she saw what she got and almost tackled Namine when she hugged her. Glad that she had found her a gift she wanted Namine then was ready to depart. Checking her watch, it was ten after five. She grabbed her coat from the hanger and threw it on, grabbed her heels from the floor and left the restaurant back into the darkening bitterly cold evening.
And who knows what day will meet her next.
The End.
Written for Christa, whose birthday was on the 25th.