Roxas didn't emerge later when Cloud called that dinner was ready. The older blond had poked his head in the door and found the small blond curled up in bed. He could see a damp patch next to him and could tell he had fallen asleep crying. Cloud just sighed and left him, poor kid.
When Roxas woke, he was utterly confused. He didn't have a clue where he was or what he was doing in this strange room. He briefly searched his mind, and, as realisation dawned on him, the blond felt his eyes well up with tears again. He pushed them back.
Cautiously getting off the rather lumpy bed, he scanned the room and found his bags on the floor, still fully packed. He studied the furniture: the small wardrobe, the single bed against the wall and the small bedside table which was sporting a lamp. It was simple, but he would live.
Roxas cracked the door open and saw Cloud pacing in the living room. He seemed to be talking to someone on his mobile.
"Look, Rufus, I'm sure you can find a substitute for a couple of days-" He paused; the person on the other line had obviously started speaking.
"Yeah, the kid's been through a lot... Monday... maybe... well, I want to give him time. Yeah, I know... I know... thanks for that, sir... bye." With that, Cloud hung up and sighed. He turned and saw Roxas peeking through the door.
"Oh, hey Rox, come on out, I need to talk." Cloud beckoned him over; Roxas nervously came out of his dimly lit room and wandered over to where Cloud was standing in the living room. The elder blond motioned for him to sit down and Roxas sat. Cloud settled next to him, trying his best to smile warmly as possible.
"Err, what time is it?" Roxas asked, refusing to look away from his hands.
"Around nine-ish, I think. You fell asleep. Now, about this whole situation, I'm sorry about the room being a little bleak. We can get that sorted later," Cloud started.
"It's okay," Roxas interrupted.
"Good. Well, I know that you don't really know me very well, but that's okay. We can work on that as well. For the record I am Cloud, which you already knew, and I work at the Twilight Academy as an IT teacher. I live here alone and I have a girlfriend called Aerith. Any questions?" When Roxas shook his head, Cloud continued. "Onto the subject of school. You shall be attending The Twilight Academy, where I teach. It's a good school and you'll fit in great I'm sure. I sent for a uniform for you and that should arrive in a couple of days. I expect you'll be taking the same courses that you did at your old school. What were they?" Roxas moved his eyes from the floor and glanced up to see Cloud with a warm but serious look on his face. He quickly glanced back down.
"Erm… IT, History and Product Design, oh, and Separate Sciences," The little blond tried not to mumble as he spoke, but his nerves, mixed with his fears, made that a difficult task.
"Brilliant, seeing as I teach IT you should be fine in that class." Roxas nodded. Suddenly, his stomach grumbled loudly. He blushed and folded his arms over his torso, as if by doing this he would be able to prevent it happening again. Cloud just chuckled. "You can get something to eat in a minute. I told the headmaster of the school, Mr Shinra, that you would be attending by next Monday, but you don't have to - if you don't want to, I know-"
"No, it's fine, Monday, sure." Roxas took a deep breath; this is going to be so hard.
"Oh, okay, food then?"
The rest of the week passed quickly for Roxas. He had gotten to know Cloud a lot better and had become more comfortable in his new home. Cloud seemed happy enough to have him around. He had shown Roxas around town and taken his little brother to all his favourite places and stores along the way, also buying him some new clothes as Twilight Town actually had seasons as opposed to the Islands that just had constant sun. All Roxas had was board shorts and oversized T-shirts.
Roxas met Aerith on Friday; she was nice and kind to him. Roxas was surprised to find out that Aerith taught languages in Twilight Academy, which was a shame because Roxas didn't take it. He had left the two love birds alone for the rest of the day and retreated to his room.
Saturday was spent buying Roxas' books and frantically trying on the new school uniform as soon as it arrived. Luckily, it fit perfectly; the uniform was simple but smart, consisting of a black blazer with a white shirt and red and blue striped tie. A black or grey vest was optional, but Roxas chose to wear it anyway. A pair of black trousers, socks and smart black shoes completed his schooling attire.
Cloud said something about neatening up the mess of spikes that was his hair before he left for school, but Roxas replied simply: "I will when you do," which made Cloud sigh and shake his head.
On Sunday night Roxas retreated to his room after dinner after telling Cloud he was crashing in early so he could wake for school on time. However, he just wanted to think things through. Only three weeks ago he lost his parents, and, although he acted like everything was alright inside, he ached. Yes, he had Cloud, but he was still an orphan. Moving to this strange place meant leaving his friends behind along with everyone else he cared about. It seemed like everyone that was there, right there, to help him with the loss had gone. Just disappeared and now he was stuck here with Cloud, sure he was a great but he hardly knew the guy.
Oh god, oh god. This just gets worse and worse. I cannot believe I'm stuck here. I miss Mum and Dad so, so, so much. I just wish they were here, but no. I'm starting a new school tomorrow and I'm scared to death about that. I just wish I could go to sleep and never wake up...
Normally on a school day Roxas' alarm would wake him up, but not today. Cloud flung the door open and proceeded to open the curtains nice and wide to let in all the wonderful morning light. Sadly, the light wasn't so pleasant when you just woke up.
Roxas groaned loudly ,threw the quilt over his face and cried out as Cloud quickly whipped it off him again, exposing him to the cold morning air.
"Come on, Roxy, time for work and school," Cloud grinned as the blond sat up and glared at him.
"You mean I have to go with you?"
"Yup, so get ready, we leave in…" He glanced at his watch. "twenty minutes." He then laughed when Roxas scrambled to grab his uniform and run to the bathroom.
"Why didn't you wake me earlier?" Roxas yelled from his shower.
"I don't know, I had things to do. Hurry up."
Roxas managed to get everything together in time for school. Cloud drove and Roxas sat nervously in the passenger seat trying not to hyperventilate. Once at the school, Cloud proceeded to lug Roxas around the school. He called it a tour, but Roxas called it torture as it was a big school and he was still half asleep.
Once the tour/torture was complete, Cloud took Roxas to get his time table after he met up with Aerith and left Roxas to fend for himself.
It was daunting to be left alone in such a big place. He had to admit it, he was petrified. Glancing at the time table, he saw he had form with a teacher called Miss Paine, charming, in class A1. Glancing at his, watch Roxas saw that it was only ten minutes until form so he might as well head there now to find where it was. He was sure that A1 was an art room, however he couldn't quite remember how to get there and the constant onslaught of students pushing past him deterred him from asking.
Finally he found A1. It was an art room on the second floor next to the science corridor. He was only a couple of minutes late and noticed that most of the other students were already lined up outside of the door. Some stood, some leaned against the walls with phones out, while others settled on the floor, seemingly content to look up at everyone. Roxas wearily joined the back of the line.
Stood in front of him was a tall silver haired boy and a short brunette boy. The brunette seemed to be explaining to the silver haired one something about pancakes but he didn't look to be paying attention.
"Yes, Sora, I get it, you only got three pancakes this morning, now please turn around."
"But Riku!" Sora whined. Riku had caught Roxas' eye. Roxas tried to look away, only to find Sora spinning round to see what Riku was staring at. His eyes immediately widened and grinned so widely that Roxas was surprised his face didn't split or something. "Oh my God, you're new, aren't you!"
Roxas nodded.
"Well, I'm Sora and this is Riku and we weren't told about getting a new student at all, were we, Riku?" Sora gushed all at once. Riku just smirked down at his little friend.
"Calm down, Brownie, let the kid breath." Riku ruffled Sora's mop of spikes, making the brunette giggle and push him away. Are those two... no, just really good friends, I think.
"Err, hi, I'm Roxas," Roxas introduced himself just as a young woman strutted down the corridor and shoved open the art room door. She had blond/brown hair, which was spiked and styled clearly how she liked it. She wore a paint splattered tight black top that hung low on her chest, not revealing anything, and paint splattered black pants. She wore black leather boots under all of this.
"Get it," she called. The class ushered in but Roxas stood nervously at the front as he handed the note he'd been given to her.
"Oh right, Roxas, sit over there, next to the short one that won't stop grinning," She gave him a quick smile as he scuttled off to take his place next to Sora.
At some point during form time, Miss Paine wandered over to where Roxas was sat. She sat on the side desk, casually swinging her legs.
"Sora, you and Roxas seem to be getting on well." Sora nodded furiously. "Can I have a quick look at both your timetables?" They handed them over and Miss Paine studied them for a second then threw them back. "Yup, that'll do, can you show Roxas around please? Your timetables are pretty similar." With that she wandered back around the class to yell at a couple of idiots flicking paint about.
"What do you have first, Roxas?" Sora asked enthusiastically as they exited form.
"Maths with Miss Lockhart," Roxas replied. Seeing Sora's eyes light up, he guessed that the boy had that too.
"Awesome! Come on, Riku!" Riku was trailing behind the two, shaking his head at Sora as he walked.
Maths was made into a bit of a show by the fact that Roxas was introduced to the class by Miss Lockhart. He took his seat next to Sora and Riku and let the lesson progress without any more issues. However, second lesson was a bit of a hassle as neither Sora nor Riku took product design, leaving Roxas to fend for himself once more. Sora told him to find them at break and skipped off with Riku at his side.
When he arrived at PD he was mildly shocked to find the classroom in complete and utter chaos. He guessed the teacher was the guy frantically trying to stop two boys fighting without much success. He noticed a group of girls sat at the back of the class, a group of nerds at the front, and everyone else was scattered. Roxas sat down at a workbench that didn't seem to have anyone's bags around it.
The table was occupied though by a tall boy with a dark blond mullet/mohawk and a grin to match Sora's. The other was an equally tall boy but this one had bright red spiky hair and the strangest tattoos under his eyes. His eyes were the most stunning green. He smirked when he saw Roxas gazing at him.
"Hey, kid, you do know that this is a year eleven class, right? Not for year nines that lose their way." The redhead spoke to him like he was an idiot and it pissed the blond off.
"I am a year eleven, thank you, I just happen to be new," Roxas half growled.
"Ooooo, a new student. Whoo! Haven't had one of them in ages - hi, I'm Demyx, nice to meet ya." The mulleted one held out his hand for Roxas, who took it, smiling. New friends were always welcome.
"Hey, I'm Roxas."
"Yeah, I'm Axel by the way. Sorry for the mistake, kid, you just look kinda young, ya know?" Axel ran a long fingered hand through his messy hair.
"It's okay, nice to meet you, Axel," Roxas sighed. The name felt almost pleasant on his tongue. He took a look around the class room to see that the chaos had yet to subside. "Is it normally like this?"
Axel answered him. "Yup, pretty much, I mean Tuesti is a great guy but he can't teach for shit." Axel chuckled when he saw Roxas' astounded face.
"But don't you ever learn? I mean, there has to be some order to things…" So innocent.
"Sometimes it's quiet, but it's more fun this way." He smirked.
"So, Roxy, where did you move here from?" Demyx asked, wanting to move the subject away from school.
"Destiny Islands," He replied.
"Wow, I heard it's, like, really pretty there with all the beaches and stuff..." Demyx continued to gargle on about all sorts of things and, before he knew it, the lesson was over and he knew that he would have to go find Riku and Sora.
"It was great meeting ya kid, see ya," Axel said, exiting the class room and heading down the corridor with Demyx racing after him.
Riku and Sora were located in the canteen, talking together about things. Roxas sighed as he walked to his next lesson alongside the over-excited brunette and quiet Riku. Things are going well. I guess these guys are almost my friends. I can just hope.
"So right, Riku, I swear it was huuuuuuuuuuge," Sora swung his arms open to emphasize his point, almost whacking Roxas in the face in the process as they walked out of the school gates. "And it was so scary coz Mum didn't want to go near it and Dad wasn't home."
"Shut up, Brownie, no one wants hear your little spider stories." Riku patted him on the head and Sora pouted, just for the moment though.
"Oh right, Roxas, me and Riku are having a movie night at mine on Saturday and we were wondering if you wanted to join us?" Roxas froze - a movie night with two people he barely knew? But, as much as he wanted to turn them down, he found himself agreeing.
"Brilliant, we'll see you tomorrow!" And with that, they were gone.
When Roxas got back to the apartment he was so tired he just collapsed on his bed and drifted off to sleep, only to be reawakened, of course, by Cloud ten minutes later to quiz him on school.