Disclaimer: My boyfriend told me he's glad I don't own Kingdom Hearts, because the story would be crap. I might take offence to that if I didn't think Ven was Sora's father. True story.

Warnings: None for this chapter. SoraXRiku is insinuated, though.

Authors Notes:Thank you everyone for reading, especially if you reviewed (hands out cookies to reviewers). I'd also like to thank the people who add this to their favorites/alerts, if you only favorited this fic you might want to alert as well though... since otherwise you wont know when I update. Speaking of updates, I'm going to aim to update every Friday. This may be subject to change, but in general I'll post once a week. This chapter were entering Sora's POV for the first time, which will be pretty different from Roxas'. I hope you enjoy it all the same, and don't worry, Roxas returns next Friday. Thanks so much for giving my story a chance.

Text Books, Test Tubes, Basketballs and Paper Hearts

or

The High School That Never Was

Chapter 2:Paopu's Promise

Sora

"Wow!" I said, sucking in a breath at the sight of my new school. The campus is huge! Much bigger than the dinky little school back on the islands. I know, I should have expected as much from the big city, but it's my first time ever off the islands. Everything feels so big and flashy. I wonder if Riku felt this way too...

Riku and I have been friends since we were babies. There weren't many kids on Destiny Islands, so other than the girl that stayed there for a year when I was seven, Riku's the only friend I've ever had. We did everything together: toy sword fighting on the beach, swimming in the ocean, basketball on the main land and racing from dock to dock. I was the only one who could make him laugh and he was always nice to me, even if he did like to tease me a lot... especially about Kairi.

When Kairi left, I cried for almost an entire day. Riku found me hiding in her and my secret spot, a cave tucked away into the small space next to the waterfall, sobbing my eyes out. I thought he was gonna tease me, or call me a crybaby, but he just held his hand out to me. "Let's go," he said.

I nodded, wiping my nose on my wrist, making sad little sobbing noises, and grabbed his hand. I hadn't known where we were going, but it didn't matter so long as Riku was holding my hand. His palm was sweaty and sandy, creating a wet scratchy sensation against my own. He led me out of the cave, toward the Seaside Shack. It was already twilight and the oranges and purples of the sunset shone off the water. On the second floor of the shack, there was a door out onto the bridge; we'd crossed it silently, Riku leading me a step or two behind him. We stood on the smaller island that broke away from the shore of my home island. Riku lived on the mainland like most of the locals.

"I've been coming here a lot lately," Riku said, shuffling from foot to foot. "While you and Kairi were playing. Know why?"

I shook my head. I hadn't even thought about what Riku was doing when Kairi and I were alone. I suddenly felt like a very bad friend. What had Riku been doing? Had he been lonely?

"I was trying to get...this!" Riku removed a yellow, star-shaped fruit from his pocket with a flourish. "It's a Paopu fruit!"

"Ohhh..." I said, surprised. "You mean like the one in the story?"

"Duh," Riku said, smiling. "What other kind is there?" He grinned at me and ruffled my hair. "They grow on that tree over there," he explained, gesturing to the very bent tree that looked sort of like a palm. "I got this one yesterday, right after Kairi left. I thought you might be sad, so here," Riku held the Paopu out to me, "let's share it!"

"Huh?" I didn't understand. Wouldn't Riku rather share it with a girl? In the story, the girl married the boy who shared a Paopu with her. "Riku... You want to marry me?" I asked, eyes wide and mingled with shock and confusion.

Riku laughed and grabbed my hand again. "I don't want to marry you, dummy. Think about the legend, not the story," he said, bringing our clasped hands up between us, fingers intertwined. "I want to stay with you... always."

"Ah!" I felt my face grow hot. "Riku..." I said lamely, lost for words.

"Let's always be friends, Sora."

"Yeah," I said with a smile, eyes closed against the glare of the sun. "Always."

We shared the Paopu fruit by the light of the setting sun, fingers still interlaced. It's our most important promise, even years later when all Riku could talk about was getting off the islands. He wanted to apply to some fancy boarding school in the city. Before he left, he made me promise I'd get in the next year, so we could be together again. Riku's a lot smarter than me, so it wasn't easy getting into the same school, but every time I thought about giving up I remembered our promise of everlasting friendship and got my butt back in gear. Now here I am, feeling way out of place, inside the gates of Oblivion Academy.

One of the weird things about City Nevers is that it's always raining here. I heard from the train conductor that a sunny day here is a rare sight, so I might not see the Sun for weeks! It must be some strange weather fluke, like the rain clouds were following someone in town around, because there's plenty of sunshine in the next town over: Twilight Town. I didn't see much rain back home, save the occasional tropical storm, and there's something sort of dreary about the rain that makes me extremely home sick. I want to find Riku. Then he can tell me about all the times he's gotten caught in the rain and danced to class. Then again, Riku's probably to cool to dance in the rain now. I have a vague memory of Riku and I soaked to the bone, dancing and singing to the sky. Was Kairi there too?

My daydreams are cut short by the loud squelch my sneaker makes as I step in a rather muddy looking puddle. Oh great, not only are my feet all muddy now, but I'm hopelessly lost. I guess thinking about Riku and looking at your feet will do that to you. There's a helpful looking sign up ahead, but I can't make it out in the cloud-induced darkness. I run forward to get a better look and, of course, I slip on the stupid puddle and fall flat on my face. My bag bursts open in protest to the many, many books shoved into it, all of which are now sitting in one of the many mud-puddles.

"Having trouble, klutz?" Someone asks from above me, in a bored and slightly mocking voice that makes me think, for a split second, of Riku and- "Need a hand?" Oh! The someone is talking to me!

I look up at my would-be savior. His hair is blond and spiked up in a gravity defying manner I'm no stranger to. His eyes are the same shade of blue as mine. In fact, with his height, eyes, and body type, we could be twins! I stumble to my feet, grabbing my now damp books and shoving them back into my bag. "Yeah, thanks! Could you tell me where the dorms are?" I say all in a rush.

"Straight up ahead," he gestures over his shoulder. "The buildings all have name plates, so just look for yours..." He trails off, eyeing me up and down uneasily.

"Thank you so much!" I say, extending my free hand to him and offering my best smile. "I'm Sora. Are you a freshman too? What's your name?"

He doesn't take my hand, but instead,looks at it with slight disdain; It must be the mud. I used that hand to break my fall, after all. "Roxas," he answers, looking at me like I might be dangerous in the crazy sort of way. He walks around me, keeping a girth of five feet or so.

"See you around, Roxas!" I call after him. He was nice; I hope we can be friends. After all, the more friends I make here the better. I'm sure Riku's already made tons of friends.

Following Roxas' directions, I find a large circle of buildings, none of which have any visible name plates. Not that much is visible in this semi darkness. I scan the buildings, scouring them for some sort of identification. "Trinity House... Trinity House... Trinity House..." I say happily to no one in particular, meandering from building to building.

"You're not lost, are you?" a girl behind me asks, giggling.

"Wah? N-no, not really, I just- KAIRI!" I stumble backward and land on my butt in another large mud-puddle.

"Sora?" Her pretty blue eyes swell in surprise.

"Kairi! It's been so long, what are you doing here?!" I can't get the words out fast enough. My stomach has jumped into my throat all of a sudden. "Wait, that's not... How are you?!" I stand back up shakily.

She laughs at me, tossing a clump of reddish-brownish hair over her shoulder. It is so long now! It used to be so short, Riku would say she looked like a boy. "I just started school here, what about you, Sora? I never thought I'd see you again, especially in a place like this," she pauses to giggle again. "Wouldn't you rather be slacking off?"

"Th-that's not fair," I stammer, my face growing hot. "I don't slack off'!"

"Oh really," she leans closer and I can smell her shampoo, like strawberries, same as when we were little. "Then I look forward to getting to know the new, non-slacker, Sora! Let's go inside. Trinity House, right? I'm staying there too," she holds out her hand to me and I suddenly remember Riku.

I wipe the mud off on the side of my pants and grab her hand, shaking the feeling off. It isn't everyday You're reunited with your childhood friend like this. Riku can wait.