Chapter One

Deal or No Deal?

Friday. October 16. First Semester. Freshman Year.

The boy with the blonde hair stared at the raven-haired goddess that stood at the other end of the quad in awe. Her hair kissed the gentle breeze as the autumn wind began to kick in. A smile slowly crept onto his face as her hazel eyes met with his blue ones. Jonathan Roxas Way sighed as he imagined himself beside the girl, holding her hand and whispering sweet-nothings to her just for the hell of it.

"I suggest you just ask her to Homecoming," Olette chimed happily as she and Pence took their seats at the lunch table. "I'm also certain that Adeline would just love to go with you, Roxas."

Snapping back to reality, Roxas turned over to his friends. "What?" he asked, still slightly dazed. "Ask who to where? What are we talking about, Olette?"

The brunette rolled her eyes as Pence carefully peered into the brown paper bag Olette had filled for him only hours earlier. "Roxas, you and I may have just met two years ago," Olette said, crossing her arms over her chest, "but you're practically like a brother to me – we're so much alike, we're practically twins from separate kins! When I see you staring off into space with a goofy grin, A) you and Hayner are usually up to something or B) you're thinking about her-."

Pence nodded, looking between the blonde and the brunette. Pulling out a water bottle from the side of his backpack, he added, "Yeah, that's the same stupid face Olette gets on her face when she's thinking about Hayner."

A surprised – and slightly embarrassed – noise escaped Olette's lips. She kicked the raven-haired boy beneath the table before trying to defend herself frantically.

"That is not true! I would never! Why on earth – Nobuyuki Pence Akimoto, how dare you!"

"Wow," a voice drawled from behind Olette, "you're in for a real treat if she's using your full name like that, Pence."

Hayner approached his friends with one of the school lunch trays in his hands. He took his seat beside Olette, plopping his lunch on the table unceremoniously.

Pence chuckled in response to Hayner as Olette turned away from her boyfriend embarrassed. After another sip of water, the raven-haired boy looked at his friends and said, "Olette and I were just trying to convince Roxas to ask Adeline to Homecoming-."

Hayner carefully eyed the blue-eyed boy in front of him before turning his attention to the popular girl across the quad. "Adeline Asanokami?" hissed Hayner, turning to face his friends once again.

Roxas looked at Hayner, noting the disappointment and disapproval in his face. Then, he turned his attention to the boy beside him and the girl who sat diagonally from him; both of them looked overjoyed. "You guys, look… I don't even know if I'm going to the dance," he whined, burying his head into his hands. "Why should I even bother asking Adeline if that's the case?"

Olette stared at Roxas in confusion. "You have to go to the dance," she reminded him, her smile faltering. "You and I are Freshman Class Officers; it's mandatory that we be there."

Pence hastily opened the carton of chocolate milk that sat in front of Roxas as Hayner stood up to go to the vending machines across the quad. "Dude," Pence said after chugging the carton of chocolate milk, "you have got to stop lying to yourself! You know you want to ask Adeline to the dance; we all know you do. You know you do, too!"

"No… no, I don't!" Roxas urged, lifting his head from his hands.

Hayner arrived just in time to hear Roxas. Handing Olette the bottle of iced tea, he took his seat across from Roxas once more. "You don't want what?" Hayner wondered. "Are you still trying to convince us that you don't want to go to the dance with Asanokami?"

Shaking his head, Roxas said with a huge sigh, "I shouldn't even be trying to convince you guys; you should just already believe me!"

"You want us to believe something that's not true, silly?" Olette teased as Roxas buried his head back into his hands. "Hayner practically lives with you on the weekends. Pence has known you for more than half his life now. And, as we've already established, we're practically twins! I think, by now, the three of us know when you're lying, Jonathan Roxas Way."

"There she goes with the full names again," muttered Hayner, causing Roxas to lift his head up once again. "Obviously, we all know what you want to do, but you're so set on telling us otherwise, Roxas. Why is that?"

Pence watched as his childhood best friend fidgeted with his barely-eaten food. The raven-haired boy stared as Roxas apathetically stared at Hayner and Olette from across the table. "You really don't want to ask her to the dance, do you?" Pence asked, causing Roxas to turn to face him.

Nodding, Roxas sadly pushed his tray of food toward the couple. He let them have all the food on his tray, briefly explaining how he didn't have the appetite to eat anymore. While Hayner and Olette took the food with hesitation, the boy with the windswept hair continued to stare blankly at his friends in silence.

Hayner stared curiously as Roxas slouched and went on to bury his head beneath his arms again. "Dude, what's wrong? Why don't you want to ask her to the dance? You've been crushing on her since we met in the seventh grade-."

"Second grade, Hayner," Olette corrected. "Roxas has been infatuated with Adeline since even before we met him."

Roxas looked up from his arms moodily. "Okay, fine! I do want to ask her!"

"Then… there's obviously a reason why you don't want to ask her, right?" Pence asked, watching as Hayner began to pick the olives out from the pasta he and Olette were now sharing.

"Those are good for you!" she whined, placing the olives back with her fork.

Roxas smiled slightly as Olette and Hayner began bickering about the benefits of olives. He then turned to Pence, mumbling words incomprehensible to his friends.

"What?" Hayner asked, still ignoring his girlfriend's comments. "I don't think any of us understood a word of that."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Roxas looked at his friends with pleading eyes. He repeated himself quietly, "I can't dance…"

Reaching across the lunch table, Olette offered Roxas a sympathetic smile; she pat gently his hand as if assuring him that everything would all right. She, of all people, know what it was like to be in a world where only one thing seemed to matter, such as dancing, and to not have the ability to do that said thing. "It's okay, Rox," she said. "I can't-."

"WHAT?" Hayner and Pence laughed in unison, causing a group of giggling band kids to stop and stare at the quartet of misfits.

Pence continued to laugh as Hayner stared embarrassed at his blonde friend. "What do you mean you can't dance?" Hayner whispered to Roxas with a condescending smirk. "Isn't your older cousin the captain of the school's dance team? And you're telling us that you can't dance?"

Olette brought her fingers to Hayner's upper arm, pinching it tightly. She glared at Pence and Hayner upon noticing the dejected look in Roxas's eyes.

"Wasn't your older sister lieutenant, co-captain, and then captain of our school's dance team?" Olette hissed at her boyfriend. "You can't dance, Christian Hayner; what's wrong with that picture?"

Pence snorted in laughter at Olette's remark. "Why didn't you just tell us this before, Roxas?"

Roxas, having turned to stare at Adeline once more, raised an eyebrow before directing his attention toward his best friends. "Exhibit A," he droned, gesturing towards Hayner, "with Sora as the reigning captain of the dance team, everyone suddenly assumes that I know how to dance – like it's in our genes or something! It's not!"

Olette nodded, persistently assuring Roxas that his friends understood and that they were just giving him a hard time.

Hayner had continued picking the olives out of his pasta, scratching the back of his head. He looked at Roxas, offering him a half smile. "Okay, I get what you mean… I guess," Hayner sighed. "Aelita's the all-star child; I've always just come in second to her."

There was a silence among the friends at Hayner's comment. Moments had passed awkwardly before Roxas finally spoke up – a new confidence instilled in him.

"Olette," he said, his blue eyes never leaving hers, "I'm asking Adeline to the dance."

Smiling, the brunette clapped her hands in excitement. "This is wonderful, Roxas! We could double date and it would be so much fun! Why the sudden change of mind?"

Roxas smirked, leaning forward. "Because… you're gonna teach me how to dance…"

-author's note-

[written]: February 3, 2011
[published]: February 3, 2011
[last updated]: September 19, 2017
[word count]: 1,473 words without a/n

[MV COMMENT]: i think it's safe to say that - after six years - i have decided to go back and revamp a lot of my stories. for those of you who care to know, this story will be under further updating until i get to the end (and for this particular story, i don't think it should take me that long). also, for anyone that follow this story from the beginning all those years ago, you may notice that there has been a slight change in things. i'll address that further at another date, but for now, please enjoy this update on this old story. - xoxo, mav.