Chapter 2 – Who are you?
It was warm, whatever I was laying on. Not hot, but warm. And soft. I could hear waves. Was I near the sea? It was peaceful. Soothing. I didn't want to wake up…
There were voices. I couldn't make them out, but I could hear that they were there. Three of them; a girl and two boys. That was as much as I could make out. I tried to ignore them.
Something pushed my shoulder, hard, a few times. "Hey, wake up." One of the boys said. He sounded young; probably only a year or two younger than me.
"Who is she?" The girl asked.
"Dunno." The other boy said. They all seemed to be about the same age. "Never seen her before."
"Hey, come on, wake up." The first boy spoke again. "We won't bite…Well, maybe Riku…" The other boy growled lowly while the first boy and girl laughed. "Seriously, wake up." He struggled to speak without laughing. It was cute.
I forced my eyes open slightly, letting out a breathy moan when the sunlight stung my eyes. I felt my face cool as shade covered my face. "Better?" The first boy asked.
I moaned again and opened my eyes some, vision blurred, forcing my hands under me and pushing myself up. I could feel the shade attempt to follow my movements. I forced my eyes to open all the way, and had to resist closing my eyes again as blinding sun stared at me. I blinked rapidly, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the sunlight. The shade left after a minute.
"Are you okay?" The girl asked. I nodded, blinking a few more time to get rid of the rest of the blur, and looked at them. Closest to me on the right, resting on one knee, was one of the boys. He had brown, out-of-control spikey hair with solid, rich blue eyes. To his right was the girl, hands on her knees, with shoulder-length red hair and similar blue eyes. Directly in front of me was the other boy. He had short silver hair and teal-like color eyes, watching me carefully. He stood up straight, arms crossed, shoulders squared. He was a picture of imposing figures. Interesting.
"Who are you?" The burnet asked.
I licked my dry lips, unsure of how to respond. "You first." I say simply. He and the girl smile. The other boy smirks a little.
"Name's Sora." The brunet said, pointing at himself with a large smile.
"Hi," the girl said. "I'm Kairi."
"Riku." The other boy said. "Your turn."
I licked my lips again. Why was I so nervous? "Kathleen." I say, timidly meeting their gazes. I kicked myself mentally. How can I be this nervous? I don't get it.
"You aren't from the Destiny Islands, are you?" Sora asked, shifting into a more relaxed, sitting position. I shook my head.
"Don't talk much either, huh?" Riku asked. Something about his tone made me tense a little.
I shrugged. "Got nothing to say."
"Got something to say about how you got here, then?" He all but sneered, eyes narrowing menacingly. I catch Sora and Kairi shooting him glares.
"I don't know." I say, meeting his glare with my own.
"What do you mean, you don't know? How can you not know?" His voice raises in volume, frame stiffening. He was getting ready for a fight. Cute.
"I don't know 'cause I didn't get a say in it." I tell him, getting onto my feet in the process. I saw the muscles in his arms flex. "Need me to spell it out for you?"
His arms fell down stiffly to his side, hands clenched in fists tight enough to draw blood from his palms. He was barely able to hold back. "Don't get snippy with me." He scowled lowly. Ten bucks says if I push a little more I could get him to take a swing at me.
I place my hands on my hips, smirking ever so slightly. "Don't get bossy with me." I say.
Sora got up quickly, grabbing one of Riku's arms and leaned in close to talk to him. I shouldn't have heard what he said, but I'm me, so what can I say? And I'm pretty sure that Sora said something along the lines of "Just let it go."
Riku relaxed mostly and turned away from me, his arms crossing over his chest again, shacking Sora off of him in the process. I could tell Kairi was glaring alternatively between me and Riku.
And…there's the guilt. Guhh, I hate guilt. "Sorry about that." I said, crossing my arms loosely over my chest. "Just wanted to try something. Won't happen again; I promise." And I don't take promises lightly, I almost added.
Sora looked at me and smiled. "That's cool." Does he ever not smile? Kairi's features softened, and a smile played along her lips. Riku hardly glanced my way, but I thought I saw amusement in his eyes rather than anger. It was nice to know he didn't hate me.
My gaze shifted natural as my brain ached for more knowledge. It slipped comfortably to the right, lading on a strange shadow. My brain instantly focused on the out-of-place object, trying to deduce what it was.
For one, it was too dark for a natural shadow at this time of day, even in this late afternoon with harsh sun. For another thing, it was extremely erratic; nothing naturally could move at that speed from the sun.
And, what was probably the most important, was the fact that it wasn't connected to anything.
"Uhh, does that," I pointed to the strange shadow, "happen often?" The shadow sprung up like a pop-up story book. Um, what?
"Heartless!" Sora yelled.
