Remember those warm summers
The annual Struggle Tournament was the most anticipated event of the summer. Every year numbers upon numbers of people would sign up to try their luck against some of the best Strugglers in town. Sometimes, people from other worlds would come to see the long-awaited event. This summer, the summer between the quartet's freshman and sophomore year, was one of those years where people from all worlds came to Twilight Town to watch the Struggle battles.
"You and Roxas are signing up this year, right?" Olette asked as she and Hayner stood in front of the flyer announcing the event.
"Wouldn't be a usual summer if we didn't, now would it?" Hayner wondered with a teasing smile.
Olette smiled in return as Roxas and Pence stopped in front of the flyer.
"It's that time of the year again?" Roxas wondered. "We're signing up, right? Man, I cannot remember a summer when you and I haven't signed up for this thing!"
Hayner laughed, putting his arms around Roxas and Pence. "Neither can I, but this year's gonna be different."
"Because this year," Pence interjected, "one of you is going to win!"
"And when one of us does," Roxas said, beginning to remember a time from last month, "we'll spilt the prize!"
Pence burst into laughter as he and Roxas pushed away from Hayner; the two of them recalled the same memory. "You mean like the time the four of us signed up for the cakewalk last month at the church festival?"
"We so would have won that, too!" Olette remarked, glancing at Hayner. "Ya'know, if someone hadn't given away that we all knew each other!"
Hayner quickly looked away from the gang,whistling an innocent tune. "I wonder who on earth that could be?" the spiky-haired boy asked his friends with an innocent smile. When his friends shot him a look of mock anger, he quickly stated, "Olette and I go to that church all the time and Roxas's grandparents sing for the choir there… someone was bound to know that we knew each other."
"And that matters because…?" Roxas asked. "Pence won."
"Well…? I dunno." Hayner groaned.
"What part of 'act like we've never met' did you not seem to understand?" Olette wondered.
Shrugging, Hayner murmured a simple reply. "The acting part…"
"Well, obviously!" the other three guffawed at their leader.
Where we were all together
"If you can't take the heat," Olette said to her whining friends, "then let's go to the kitchen."
Olette kitchen was always a fun place to be when there was really nothing else to do. When the group was hungry enough, Olette and Roxas would turn up the heat and gather ingredients, boil water and experimenting with the food. During times like this, Hayner would prop open his laptop, looking up simple recipes that were easy enough for the group to complete together while Pence would rummage through the Andersons' food cabinet to see what flare he could add to spice of the dish.
"What are you guys craving?" Hayner asked, plugging his laptop charger into the outlet beside the phone. "I kinda want some of the Oreos that we made for the ASB function I crashed – ya'know, the ones we always make."
"Yeah, but we always make those," Pence grumbled. "I really want to try the sea-salt ice cream that Olette and Roxas made for their English project last year."
"Dude," Roxas said, eying Pence curiously, "you're lactose intolerant."
"What's your point?" Pence argued. "That never stops me."
"Yeah, but consider the fact that Roxas and I always tend to screw up more than we should," Olette pointed out. "Besides, the ones that Aelita brings from the Java Juice are the best."
"So… deep-fried Oreos it is?" Hayner asked excitedly as he shut his laptop.
"You've got some Nutella in the cabinet," Pence said to Olette. "It expires in like two days and there's still like more than half in here."
"Deep-fried Oreos with a Nutella twist?" Roxas wondered. "That sounds pretty bomb to me."
Too lazy to walk around the kitchen counter to get to his friends, Hayner crawled over the top. Sitting at the edge of the island, Hayner looked at Roxas who was fishing through the refrigerator for ingredients.
"Hayner!" Olette shouted at her best friend. "We prepare our food on that; I use it as a table sometimes!"
Pence laughed, "Yeah, Hayner! Countertops are for glasses, not asses."
Roxas, having missed the entire exchange between his friends, closed the refrigerator door. He held three raw eggs in his left hand as he made his way to the gang.
"What did you do this time?" Roxas asked, gesturing his hands while he spoke.
Not having the best grip of the eggs, Roxas accidentally let them go; all three breaking on Hayner's face.
"ROXAS!" Hayner shouted, jumping off the counter and chasing Roxas around the room.
No cares in the world
The summer between their freshman and sophomore year was the first year the quartet was assigned work over the summer. Roxas and Hayner had the same amount of work from their regular classes. Pence's workload was double that amount, considering the fact that Pence signed up for only one AP class. Being her predictable self, Olette signed up for the two AP classes Twilight Town High had to offer sophomores. The only class the four friends anticipated on having together was English 2 Honors.
"Boys," Olette breathed as she struggled to drag her book bag into the Usual Spot, "could I get a little help here?"
Pence, Hayner and Roxas sat around the center of the Usual Spot, playing a game of Clue. At the sound of their best girl friend's pleas, they immediately looked up from the game board and raced to her side. Pence took Olette's heavy book bag and carried it over to the lumpy, yet comfortable, couch. Hayner gabbed the books Olette was carrying and tossed them carelessly on the floor beside the couch. As Olette slowly stretched out herself, Roxas jumped on her back with a playful grin.
"Go forth, my trusty steed!" Roxas remarked. "Away to my fair maiden-!"
"Get off me!" Olette demanded as she nudged her elbow back, knocking Roxas to the floor. "It's been a long last day of school and we still have a summer project to complete."
As Roxas got to his feet, the trio of boys groaned at Olette's comment.
"We have three months to finish those assignments," Hayner reminded Olette as he, Roxas and Pence continued with their game. "It's not even the first day of the summer break and you want to start homework now? C'mon, Olette! Geez!"
Marching over to Hayner, Olette yelled, "Excuse me? Are you suggesting that we hold off our work until the very last minute? Hayner, the last time you did that, I have to save your butt!"
"No," Hayner replied, moving his game piece, "I'm just suggesting that we do it later. Summer vacation just started three hours ago and you already want to start doing work! Are you insane?"
Pence laughed. "Well, when have you ever known Olette to hold off on assignments?"
Shrugging, Roxas replied, "Well, when have you ever known Hayner to want to do them?"
Just us four in the warm weather
Sometimes the Twilight Town summer heat was much too unbearable for any place to shield. The Usual Spot was an oven while Pence's room could only mask the heat temporarily before the heat began to get to them. The heat from Olette's kitchen would eventually get to them as well. However, when all else failed, the pool in Olette's backyard was always nice.
"Cannonball!" Roxas shouted as he and Hayner jumped into the deep end of the pool. "Woo!"
"Olette, why didn't you ever tell us that you had a pool in your backyard?" Pence asked as he and Olette sat together at the edge of the shallow end.
"You never asked…?" Olette laughed as Hayner and Roxas swam towards her and Pence.
"Well, you never mentioned it!" Roxas remarked. "How were we supposed to know? And we've only been in some parts of your house. You can't expect us to know everything about it."
Hayner pushed himself out of the pool and slowly sat down in the connected hot tub. He motioned for his friends to follow. As they sat down around him, the blond-haired boy smiled. "Isn't this nice?" he said.
"What?" Pence wondered.
"Just being here," he replied, "together."
Author's Note: This chapter of the story was rewritten on October 8, 2013 and republished on October 15, 2013.
Again, I would very much like to apologize to anyone who tracks my other stories. My hiatus was seemingly endless – until now. However, as I said before, I am working on finish the other stories as well we reediting the ones that are complete. After completing the editing of this story, my priority will lie with whichever story you guys demand I complete; I'll let you guys decide on that one. Just leave a review in the story that you think needs the most of my attention. Thanks again for reading!
- May