Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

(A/N) An important note before you begin. I will not go to in depth into descriptions of how people are dressed and other things like that. I want to engage you, the reader, and let you imagine and decide how they look according to how you see fit. Have fun! D

Roxas' POV

Today looked like it was just going to be another normal day. I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, and waited for the bus as usual. When I hopped on, I saw that every single seat was taken except one in the far back corner of the bus. As I made my way back, I waved to Sora, Riku, and Axel, a few of my friends that rode the bus. Sora was my brother and he had this huge thing for this girl named Kairi. It was always, Kairi this or Kairi that! I swear he's got a disease or something. Riku was a silver-haired kid who was Sora's best friend, next to me of course. Axel was a junior but somehow we ended up being really great friends. Don't really know how that worked out…

As I took my seat, I noticed a girl sitting next to me that I had never seen before. I couldn't see her face because she was buried in whatever she was doing, looked like some sort of drawing. She was wearing a plain white dress and had blonde hair draped over her right shoulder. It didn't look like she noticed me. I looked over her shoulder down at her sketchbook.

"That's a nice drawing." I said. Startled, she brought her notebook to her chest to try and hide it. I gave her a quizzical look. The first thing I noticed were her deep, blue eyes. She was rather kind of cute. Hang on, have I seen this girl before? "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

She answered in a quiet voice, "No, its fine, it's just…I don't really like showing people my drawings."

"Why not? They're really pretty good."

She seemed surprised. "Oh, well…thanks."

"Have we met before?"

"No, I don't believe so."

"What's your name?"

"Naminé."

"Not ringing any bells. Well, nice to meet you, Naminé. I'm Roxas." I held out my hand which she seemed reluctant to take, but she shook it. "So, why is it that I've never seen you around school before?"

"I just moved here from Twilight Town because my mother got a new job."

The bus pulled into the school driveway and came to a halt.



"Hey, Naminé, we still have 30 minutes before school actually starts. Why don't you come with me and I'll introduce you to the gang."

"Ok."

I heard a girl's scream from down the hallway, "Naminé!", and in a blur of maroon and pink, I saw Kairi slam into Naminé with a hug. "I can't believe it's really you! It's been so long after all. Oh, hey Roxas! I see you've met my cousin." I nodded my head.

"Yeah, I was just heading over to the Usual Spot to introduce her to everyone."

"Well, come on then!" Kairi grabbed Naminé's hand and took off down the hallway. I ran after them in an effort to keep up.

The Usual Spot was an abandoned classroom that Sora had found in his search for the principal's office back in the beginning of the year. How he mistook it for the principal's office? No one really knows. But we were glad he found it. We would hang out in during lunch and before school hours. There were a few old chairs and two couches, accompanied by a table in the middle of the room. I guess you could call it our own personal sanctuary, our getaway from the drama of high school.

Inside already were Riku, Sora, and Hayner. Hayner was a blonde kid that participated in the local Struggle tournaments and was part of the Blitzball team along with Sora, pretty athletic if you ask me. He was our age as well.

Kairi was the first to speak up, "Hey guys! This is my cousin, Naminé."

Hayner stepped forth and grabbed Naminé's hand, bent over, and kissed it. "Name's Hayner, pleasure to meet you." Did I mention he was a lady's man? Or at least thought he was?

Naminé giggled and I felt a dull heat rise to my cheeks. Woah, hang on a second. Was I feeling jealous? Nah, couldn't be. I just met her after all.

Sora waved from his spot on the couch, "Hey Naminé, my name's Sora!" She nodded in his direction and turned towards Riku.

"Riku…" he muttered. Riku never was very great at meeting new people, but he did warm up to them after awhile. Maybe he was just having one of those days. Riku got up and walked out the door, not making eye contact with anyone on the way out.

"Nice to see he's in a good mood today."

"Aww, give him a break, Kairi. He's having a rough day since his girlfriend broke up with him last night." Sora said.

"Geez, he has so many new ones these days it's hard to keep track of them all!"

"Isn't that the truth." I said. We talked about other things such as how everyone's weekend was and how Sora's hair is capable of defying gravity until the first bell rang.

"Oh, Naminé, what class do you have first?" Kairi asked.

"Um…science in room 304."

"Looks like you've got Roxas and Sora with you. Well, see you guys back here for lunch." Kairi waved as she walked out the door to her class.

Sora grabbed Naminé by the hand. "C'mon! I'll show you were our next class is!" Sora dashed off down the hallway.

'I get the feeling I'm going to be doing a lot of running today', I thought. I let out a sigh and hurried after Sora to Mr. Ansem's class. Didn't want to be caught getting there late again. He would definitely give me detention this time.

I took my seat next to Sora right as the bell rang. Mr. Ansem walked through the door with that air of superiority that he always carries. "I see we have a new student today. Naminé, am I correct?" She nodded her head but kept her eyes downcast. "Well, Miss Naminé, why don't you take that empty spot next to Roxas over there?" Naminé took her spot next to me and the teacher continued. "Alright then class, today you will be getting back your tests."

The class groaned in despair. Mr. Ansem gave the hardest tests out of any teacher in the school. My brother was lucky, he was one of those I'm-so-smart-that-I-don't-have-to-work kind of guys. He always made A's in every class. Too bad he was about as dense as a giant rock. Me on the other hand, I had to work for my grades, and I still only made B's! Where's my reward?

Mr. Ansem laid down the paper on my desk and I flipped it over to see my grade. "Sweet, a 98! Finally, justice is served!" Sora laughed and showed me his grade, a 100. "Damn it!" I banged my head on the desk. Sora just laughed again. Naminé even let out a soft giggle. I liked her laugh. For one that didn't get used much, it had a light, whimsical feeling to add to the soft sound.

The rest of the day passed by as usual. Naminé met the rest of the gang during lunch which included Axel, Pence, and Olette. Pence was a stocky kid that loved to take photographs. He was a pretty good photographer because of it. Olette was a kind girl with a bubbly personality, and I could tell that she was totally into Hayner as well. We made a plan to hang out after school at my and Sora's house. It was a Friday after all. Now, you need to understand, our family was loaded. Our dad hit big in the oil company and well, the rest sort of unfolded from there. So, because our house is the biggest, it was always the usual weekend hangout. Well, it's going to be anyway. No one has ever been there before, but they have seen it walking around town. It's kind of hard to miss. Wait until they figure out who owns it!

We rode the bus to the closest stop by our house and walked the few blocks the rest of the way. As we reached the gate, my friends paused.

"Woah there, Roxas." Axel grabbed my shoulder. "There's no way we're going in there again. Don't you remember the story I told you?"

Flashback



"So, you guys did what again?" I asked.

"We jumped the fence into that crazy mansion off of Dawn Street. We wanted to check it out and see who lived there exactly. Well, Hayner here decided to bring some meat complaining about how he needed more protein to build muscles. Next thing we know, all of the guard dogs got wind of it and we end up sprinting across the front yard with about fifty giant, hulking dogs running after us and trying to get acquainted with our backsides. All because Dust-for-Brains over here wouldn't let go of the damn meat!"

"Oh, so I set dogs on us one time, and you just can't let it go, can you?!"

"Let me put it this way, next time it happens, your ass is gonna make a couple of new friends!"

End Flashback

"Heh, oh yeah." I shrugged. "Well, don't worry, I know the people here. I get special clearance." I winked at my brother who stifled a laugh.

Axel sighed. "I hope you're right. I like my face the way it is, thank you very much."

I led them up the long walkway to the front of the house and greeted the butler who opened the door. As we made our way into the kitchen, I saw just the person who wanted to see. My mother was baking a cake in the kitchen. She had blue eyes and dark brown hair, Sora looked just like her. They shared many personality traits as well. She looked up from her work, saw us, and smiled.

"Hello Roxas. Oh! Are these the friends that you have told me so much about?"

"Sure are, mom." I put as much emphasis as I could into the word "mom" and turned around to look at my friends. Several of them just stared, others had their mouths hanging open.

"Wait a minute," Kairi asked. "Do you live here, Roxas?"

I laughed. "Sure do!"

"OH MY GOD!! Why didn't you tell us?!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise!"

Kairi yelled, "Well then come on guys, let's go explore!" And with that, everyone minus Sora and I rushed off in different directions pointing at different things and gasping at those that were especially magnificent.

"I knew they'd like it." I said.

Sora laughed. "Got that right, bro."



I began to search for all of my friends, Sora took one half of the house and I took the other. 'This could take awhile' I thought. After wandering around for awhile, I went into the art studio and found Naminé admiring many of the paintings we had around the room. I snuck up behind her.

"Boo!!"

She screamed and jumped a foot in the air. I fell down on the ground laughing.

"Roxas! Don't scare me like that!"

I continued laughing for a bit before I got back on my feet. "Sorry Naminé, but you made it to easy." I grinned and she smiled back.

"Jerk." She poked me in the chest.

"Name calling, please!" She laughed and I smiled wider. "So, what brings you to the art studio?"

"You saw me drawing on the bus, Roxas. I figured maybe you'd notice that I like art."

"Oh, right. Duh."

"Whose paintings are these? Yours?"

I laughed. "No way! My drawing ability has its limit at a stick figure. These are my mom's. She has a passion for this kind of thing. My dad did too." The word "dad" tasted sour when I said it.

She looked confused for a minute. "Did?"

"Yeah, you know, the past tense of do?"

"Roxas…where is your dad?"

I froze up for a second. I hadn't really thought about my father in a long time. I didn't really want to. "Um…I don't really want to talk about it. Those are memories that I would rather not relive." I got up and begin to walk out of the room. "Come on, let's go find everyone else."