Mina walked through the halls of Twilight Town High School, completely lost in her own thoughts. She was so immersed in her own thoughts that she wasn't watching where she was going. So she walked right into a person and dropped her books. "Sorry!" she said as she tried to gather her fallen books. She reached for her black sketchbook but the person picked it up and started looking through it. "Hey!"

"Relax." Said a male voice. Mina looked up. A very good looking silver haired boy was looking through her sketchbook, his eyebrows raised. "These are really good. Did you draw them?" he asked. Mina finally found her voice and stammered, "Y-yeah." She got up from the floor and he looked at her closely. "Hey, I don't think I've seen you before. Are you new here?"

"Y-yeah. I'm actually s-staying with my cousin, Aerith."

"Oh, you're Aer's cousin!" he said, realization dawning upon him at last. "She told us a lot about you. Mina, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Riku. One of Aerith's friends."

"Well, lookie here, fellas. It seems little Riku is trying to one up us." Said a nasty male voice from behind Riku. Mina looked and saw a group of very unpleasant guys, who were leering at her and Riku. Riku glared at them. "Back off, Axel."

"Why?" he asked, looking at Mina in a way that she didn't like. "Is she taken or something? By you? Why would she want to hang out with a guy like you when she could have a guy like me?"

"Because you are a sick bastard."

"Riku?" asked Mina, quietly, "Can we leave please?"

"Sure." He said, taking her hand in his. He led her away from the leering stares of Axel and his cronies. They walked away fast, without even looking back. Once they were as far away from them as humanly possible, Riku let go of Mina's hand. "Thank you." She said softly.

"No problem. So, how long do you think you're gonna stay around here?"

"A while." She said, evading the subject. Riku noticed this, but didn't press the matter then they heard the bell ring, signaling them to go to lunch. They gladly headed down to the cafeteria where they saw Aerith waving them over. They walk over to where she was sitting and Mina sat down next to her. "Hey, Aer."

"Hiya, Mina. I see you've met Riku."

"Yeah, he helped me out of a tight spot with a bunch of guys who…let's just say, they weren't being that pleasant." She told Aerith, smiling at Riku. Riku grinned back at her and Mina felt butterflies go crazy inside her stomach. "What's happening to me? Do I like Riku? Maybe. But I can't think about that now. I have other things to deal with." Riku looked over at her dark expression. "She looks angry. I wonder why. Was it something I did? I hope not." He looked more closely at Mina and noticed the tearstains around her eyes, the mark of someone that had recently been crying a lot. "Why does she look like she's been crying a lot?" he wondered. But he was unable to ask her, because right then, the rest of their group came over and sat at their table. "Hi, Riku." said a spiky brown haired boy as he sat down next to him. "Hi, Sora." said Riku glumly. The brown haired boy, Sora, Riku called him, looked over at Mina in confusion. "And who is this lovely lady, Riku? I would have thought you would introduce me to a lady as fine as this." He said, flashing her one of the cheesiest grins she had ever seen and causing Mina to blush crimson.

"Oh, how completely idiotic of me! Guys, this is my cousin, Mina. Mina, these are my friends Sora, Kairi, Naminé, Roxas, Zexion, Yuffie, Wakka, Lulu, Selphie, and Tidus."

"Wow, that's a LOT of people." said Mina, slightly awestruck. She looked closely at Roxas and Naminé, wondering why they kept looking at each other like that. "Hey, are you two together?" she asked, pointing at them. They looked shocked and said, "NO WAY!" at the exact same time causing to cock her head to one side in confusion.

"Anyway, Riku, remember the tryouts today."

"Oh, crap, I completely forgot about those!"

"What tryouts?" asked Mina, who was kinda in the dark.

"Well, our band is holding tryouts for a new lead singer."

"Oh, you're in a band! What's your band called?" asked Mina, genuinely interested.

"'Dreamers'. Yeah I know, it's corny, but-"

"No, I like it!" she said, flashing a smile at him. Riku felt butterflies in his stomach, but ignored them.

"Hey Mina, you should try out for Riku's band!" said Yuffie hyperly.

"WHAT??"

"Yuffie has a point, Mina!" said Aerith, nodding, "You have an awesome voice!"

"Well…" mina looked down at her lap.

"I would love it if you could come." said Riku without thinking, leaning back in his seat.

"Well lookie her guys! It seems that Riku's got himself a little crush!" teased Tidus. Mina's head snapped up and Riku fell back off his chair. He got up, cursing, and glared at Tidus, but didn't say anything to the contrary. Mina noticed this and blushed. "Sure, I'll try." She said, causing Riku's spirits to rise.

((Later at the tryouts))

Riku groaned. It was almost the last tryout and every single one of them had been more painful to listen to then a sugar high Selphie. He thought to himself, "Oh please God, give me a good singer! Please!" just then, Mina came up on the stage. She cleared her throat nervously and said, "um, hi. I-I'm gonna sing Somebody to Love, so…yeah." She looked at Wakka, who nodded and started playing her CD. She started singing along with it, her angelic voice ringing through the auditorium.

"Can anybody

Find me-----e

Somebody to-o

Love?

Each morning I get up I die a little

Can barely stand on my feet

Take a look in the mirror and cry,

'lord, whatcha doing to me?'

I've spent all my years in believing you,

But I just can't get no relief

Lord, somebody

Somebody

Can anybody find me-e

Somebody to love"

Mina looked over at the guys, who were all staring at her with their jaws almost touching the floor. She giggled and started to sing with a little bit more heart and feeling in her voice.

"Got no feel, I go no rhythm

I just keep losing my beat

I'm okay, I'm alright

Ain't gonna face no defeat

I just gotta get out of this prison cell

One day I'm gonna be free

Lord, somebody

Somebody

Can anybody find me

Somebody to loo----oov-e

Every day

I try and I try and I try

But everybody wants to put me down

They say I'm going crazy

They say I got a lot of water in my brain

That I've no common sense

I got nobody left to believe

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Mina started to dance (very sexily, might I add) and if it was even possible, the boys' jaws dropped even lower than before. All except Riku. Riku was staring at her face, not her body, and noticed her very happy expression and smiled. "Finally." He thought. "I get to see her really smile. I guess this is something she really loves to do. And she looks totally hot doing it." Mina looked up and their eyes locked together. Mina felt herself falling into the aquamarine depths of Riku's eyes while Riku was entranced by her soft green ones. She only just manage to blurt out the last verse

"Somebody to---o lo-----ove"

Once she had finished the last note, the entire auditorium EXPLODED with cheering, whistling, catcalls, and applause. Riku turned to his friends, who were still staring, open mouthed, at Mina, who was blushing madly, and said, "I think we found our singer." They all nodded slowly and Riku turned back to Mina. "Welcome to the band."

Aerith squealed in delight and ran up to the stage and almost knocked Mina over with a hug. "I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!" she screeched.

"Aerith, let her go." Said Riku, coming up onto the stage. He pulled Mina to her feet and handed her a small packet. "These are the songs that we've composed. You're gonna need to learn them all by the time the Battle of the Bands competition comes around. And we're gonna have a practice after school at my house today. But if you don't want to come…"

"I'd love to come!" she said, making Riku's spirits soar. He turned to leave. "Um, Riku?"

"Yeah?" he said, turning around in time to have Mina grab him and hug him very tightly. "Thanks for letting me in." she said, planting a kiss on his cheek and running off, leaving Riku very confused but extremely happy.