X-O-X-O

Life is like a roller coaster, it takes longer to reach the top than it does to fall to the bottom.

X-O-X-O

After my talk with my grandpa—oh, wait I keep forgetting he's not my real grandpa, because I'm actually adopted! Anyways we went back into the dining room and finished dinner. Then Ansem thanked Aerith for the meal, and then went home, without really saying goodbye to the rest of us. However I didn't really care, I went into the kitchen and began to clear off some of the food scraps off my plate, and into the trash. My mom walked into the kitchen, and as I handed her my plate she asked.

"Roxas, is there anything you want to ask us?"

I didn't even look at her "No." I answered flatly.

She nodded and then she turned on the water faucet. I walked into the living room where I saw Cloud; he was sitting in an arm chair reading a novel. Or so I thought until I looked closely, and saw title of the book. It said Good Ways to Reach out to Your Adopted Child, and in disgust I narrowed my eyes. When my dad saw me standing in front of him, he snapped the book closed and set it under the coffee table.

"Hey sport, is there anything you want to talk about?" He asked leaning forward in his chair.

I shook my head, coughing in my sleeve; I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, so I walked upstairs to my room. I flicked up the light, and then sat down at my desk where my backpack was lying—almost forgetting I still had homework to finish. Pulling the black knap sack towards me, I unzipped it and dumped all the contents out of it. Meaning—two books that I've been reading for English, my psychology text book, and a couple of candy wrappers.

I mentally groaned as I flipped open my social studies book, my teacher had assigned for us to do all the key terms on chapter 17 on gender roles, which would probably take an eternity to finish. Since every chapter usually had like thirty or more terms to write long definitions for, I can truly say that it is time consuming and a pain.

As I began to search through the chapter for the first word, I stopped when I heard a light knock at my bedroom door. I spun left on my star-shaped swivel chair to see who it was, since I had left my door open. Standing in the doorway was Namine; she was hugging a book to her chest, waiting to be let in. I turned back to my work, and began to scribble down the definition, trying to look busy as I asked.

"What'd you want?"

I heard her shift the book in her hands as she replied "C-Can you help me with my geometry?"

"That depends, what are you working on?" I coughed as I tried to write. Why was she asking me anyway? Even though geometry was one of my prime subjects, she knew darn well that I'm not a very good teacher. Especially for her, because she's really slow when it comes to math, and I was a very impatient person.

"Proofs." Namine replied holding up her book "Can you help me or not?"

I sighed running my fingers through my hair "No."

"What if I said please?"

I glared at her "Then my answer would still be a no, go ask dad."

Namine pouted "I already tried and he told me to just figure it out."

"What about mom?"

Namine shrugged "I asked her too, but she just ignored me."

"She probably just didn't hear you." I said skeptically "I mean she was doing the dishes."

"But I asked her when she was finished." Namine said frowning I looked up at her from my work with a confused look on my face. I could understand my dad's answer, but my mom completely ignoring her own daughter? No, that could not be right; I narrowed my eyes at Namine, whom was still standing at my doorway. My mom or dad always helped me whenever I was having a hard time with my homework, and I'm the adopted child. So it didn't make sense to me that they would ignore Namine, their own flesh and blood. Soon I began to think about what Ansem had to me before he had left.

"After all Roxas you are the favorite."

What the heck did he mean by that? Favorite what? I shook my head, as a headache began to brew in my head. My eyes were still on Namine, whose eyes shifted almost nervously to the floor. I was pretty sure now that she was lying She was probably lying, because Aerith wasn't type of mom to just blow off her kid when she needed help. However being courteous, I decided to help Namine with her homework anyway.

I held out a hand "Give me your stupid geometry book."

Namine beamed cheerfully as she obliged to my command, and handed me her text book "Thanks Roxas you're the best."

I rolled my eyes "Yeah, yeah….what page are you on?"

"350."

For a little while I helped Namine with her proofs, thankfully I still remembered how to do them. It was frustrating at first, because she didn't understand what I was explaining at first, until I wrote it down. I swear, every time I try to explain something to her I have to spell it out in bold lettering. And let me tell you it wasn't fun, especially since my voice was scratchy like a record. Anyways once she got the hang of it, I kicked her out of my room and finished my own homework up.

Once I was finished I shuffled over to my bed, and practically collapsed with exhaustion. My head was aching terribly; I rubbed my temples, and closed my eyes as I slowly fell asleep. I was so tired, that I didn't even care that my lights were still on in my room.

I slept for a little while, until I started to cough again. It was disgusting I kept on coughing up flem; I was sitting up on my bed pulling tissues out of my Easter Island tissue case. That I bought a while back; the tissues came out of its nose, I looked at it oddly not remembering the reason why I purchased it in the first place. Shrugging off the thought, I threw away the used tissues into the waist basket, and looked out the window.

It was dark outside, and the only lights that were on were street lights, and occasional cars passing by. Speaking of dark, I noticed that my lights in my room were off now. I figured it must have been my mom who turned them off, since my mom was the kind of mom that would check on us before we went to bed. I yawned tiredly, ready to just fall back asleep again, when I noticed a big sleek black truck pulling over by my house.

I squinted at the vehicle; it was hard to see, but I my eyes caught the site of a man with bright, thorny red hair stepping out of the vehicle. He was wearing a long black trench coat beckoning a man that had a blonde mullet to come out of the truck. The blonde was carrying a duffle bag, and he was wearing a black trench coat just like the redhead.

I watched quietly as the two men walked across the street to a giant house; that had been abandoned for years. Since rumors had it that a long time ago a blind girl had been murdered in that house by her parents. Of course it was only a rumor, but still no one dared to live there; much less go inside of it.

I was once dared to go inside of it, when I was a kid, but I chickened out, because I thought I saw a figure by the window. Anywho it was really weird, because usually we're notified if we get new neighbors, but this time we weren't. This made me really curious, I had a weird urge to tell my parents but I didn't. Instead I went back to bed, because I was too tired to care about those guys anymore.

X-O-X-O

The next day I had a fever of 102, and my mom made me stay home, so I was sitting on the couch all day watching Disney movies. I was in the mood to watch horror movies, but my mom wouldn't let me. As I leaned back into the cushions of the sofa, ready to watch Atlantis the Lost Empire again, I kept thinking about how weird it was that I still referred to my adoptive parents as mom and dad still. I mean I really had no reason to anymore, since I'm really wasn't there kid. I was guessing it was because it would be weird to call them Cloud and Aerith, when I've always thought of them as my real parents. I sighed as I watched Milo Thatch put on his grandfather's hat, but it was too big for him so it slid over his eyes. Well I guess life could be worse I thought resting my elbow on the sofa's armrest I could have no parents at all.

It was about 3:20 when the movie was over; and not too soon after the movie ended Namine came home. She walked into the living room and plopped onto the sofa next to me. I tried to ignore her as I watched the credits of the movie but I couldn't, because she began to wave a yellow folder in front of my face.

"You who, Roxas your homework…?" She chanted annoyingly.

"Knock it off!" I snapped snatching the envelope out of her hands.

Namine raised an eyebrow at me as she relaxed into the couch "Jeesh, someone's in a bad mood."

"Well if someone was waving a paper in your face while you're trying to watch a movie you'd get irritated too." I stated as a matter of fact, as I began to finger through my assignments.

"Yeah, maybe if it wasn't the credits." Namine teased pointing at the television "I mean honestly who likes to watch the credits?"

I couldn't have agreed with her more there, but I was certainly not going to tell her that "I do."

"Well that's because you're weird." Namine stated as she started to dig into her backpack that was lying on the floor all day "So all you did was sit, and watch Disney films all day?"

"Yeah, and I was enjoying myself, until you showed up." I informed her, as I reached for the remote.

Namine looked up and frowned at me, that sad, pouty frown she always gives me when I've offended her. I rolled my eyes at her as I turned my attention back at the television, and pressed the stop button. Only, because I was getting tired of listening to that sappy song that the credits were playing.

"Oh, and I have some news." Namine began as she brought her backpack into her lap.

"Uh huh…and?" I asked uninterestedly, as I pressed the rewind button on the remote.

"And I think it's important for me to tell you." Namine went on causing me to become agitated.

"Just tell me." I snapped getting tired of her stupid games.

Namine held her hands up in defense as she replied squeakily "I just wanted to tell you we have some new neighbors….Jeesh."

I stared at her "…..New neighbors?"

She nodded "Yep, they're the sons of two of dad's friends."

While, I was leaning my chin into my palm, waiting for the damn movie to totally rewind, I was trying not to look too interested. However I was really wondering if the 'new neighbors' were the same guys I saw creeping around last night. When the movie was fully rewound I looked over at Namine.

"What house by us are they living in?" I asked her as I began to cough again—damn cold.

"Ya 'know that creepy looking house right across from us?"

I nodded stiffly.

"That's where they're living."

X-O-X-O

After a few days of rest, I was feeling much better, my sinuses had cleared up, and my voice wasn't raspy anymore. So now I was off to school again I was mentally thankful that Namine brought home my homework. Since I really didn't want to fall behind, but I'd never admit that. I yawned tiredly, trying to get used to getting up early again.

It was an early crisp spring morning in good old Twilight Town. I could hear kids riding their bikes to school, and some kids walking in groups, laughing together. This made me wish that I had called up Hayner and the crew, so that I could have walked to school with them. However alas I hadn't, because I just had to have that five extra minutes of sleep—I sighed.

Anyways I continued walking on the sidewalk, until I noticed two familiar figures walk past me. The reason I found them familiar was, because I thought I saw a man with thorny, red hair. I looked over my shoulder, and sure enough I saw the two guys I had saw that late night. The two guys were arguing over something, I stopped in my tracks to listen out of curiosity.

"Look Axel like I told you we can't confront the kid yet." The guy with the blonde mullet said in a hoarse, stage whisper.

The redhead glared at the mullet man "You think I don't know that? Jeesh, I just wanted to see if it was actually him."

"Well it was." The blonde snapped "Now let's get outta here."

The redhead grunted, and the two marched off down the sidewalk again. At first I kind of wondered who they were talking about. However the more I thought about it as I walked to school, the more I just didn't want to know. I mean what if they are molesters that are planning on targeting some kid in the neighborhood? Or what if the two guys were a part of a gang, and were plotting an ambush on some poor kid?

I shivered at the thought.

"Roxas!" I heard someone call; I looked over my shoulder knowing exactly whose voice that belonged to. Sora my cherry cousin, he had wild brown hair and bright blue eyes like Namine. He was kind of idiot at times, but he was still my cousin, and I still liked him.

He ran over to me, panting heavily when he reached me, I cocked an eyebrow at him, because he usually doesn't run at me like a lunatic this early. When he finally caught his breath, he straightened himself up, smiling sheepishly.

"So how have you been?" He asked me, as he ruffled the back of his unruly hair. That I must admit was even messier than mine, I shrugged at him, telling him that I've been good, and that I'm happy that I don't have a cold anymore. He nodded in agreement, as we both began to walk over to my locker.

"So I'm guessing you know about the whole adoption thing now?" Sora asked a little bluntly.

"Yeah…." I answered slowly, ignoring the urge to rant.

"It's pretty crazy, huh?" He laughed lightly as we reached my locker.

"Mmhm." I hummed as I turned the combination on my locker.

"Are you mad?" He asked looking at the floor.

"Damn it….." I growled kicking my locker, because I messed up my combination. I l looked over at Sora, whom looked startled, I looked away from him, and began to twist my combination back up to start over.

"Err; I'm sorry you probably don't want to talk about it." Sora said backing away slightly.

"No…it's just—" I rested my forehead against my locker "It's just it's a lot to talk in ya 'know?"

Sora nodded understandingly "Don't worry Roxas; I'll stop talking about it."

I was going to argue with him, because I felt like he was he was pitying me, but then his girlfriend Kairi walked by, and Sora just sort of floated off to lovey-dovey land. Once I opened my locker, the bell began to ring, and everyone—including myself grabbed our needed books and scrambled off to class.

X-O-X-O

After school and soccer practice, I was in a good mood, because I didn't have any homework, and my first day as captain of the soccer team was a complete success! And to celebrate that success my friends and I went out for sea salt ice cream. Most people I know hate the stuff, but I found three people in my life time that happened to love it as much as me. We were sitting on the ledge of a clock tower; that we always sat here when the weather was warm. It was mainly because of the great view, and because it was a tradition of ours.

"I can't believe summer is almost here!" Hayner exclaimed excitedly, almost dropping his treat.

Olette nodded with a grin "Me either, so guys what do you guys want to do when summer gets here?"

"Eat sea salt ice cream of course." Pence chuckled heartily, sucking the remains of his ice cream from the Popsicle stick.

Hayner rolled his eyes at his chubby friend "Pence, no offence, but EATING is all you want to do."

Pence smiled sheepishly "I can't help it food is good."

We all laughed that time, I was glad that I had good friends like these that could keep my mind off the whole adoption thing. Not to mention the weirdo neighbors that moved into that old house. I bit down on my ice cream treat, cursing myself for thinking about that stuff again.

"By the way Roxas did you get your guitar back from Mr. Hikari yet?"

I blinked out of my thoughts "Crap!"

"Geez, I can't believe you forgot." Hayner scoffed "You were complaining about it like crazy last week."

I smiled weakly "Give me a break, I was sick."

"Right, right." Olette laughed "Well you better get it now before he closes his shop."

I nodded to her, getting up from my spot, and waving my friends goodbye before I ran off to the shop. Well that's what I called it, but it is formally named Musical Destiny.

Anyways that place was like my second home, when I wasn't at school or playing soccer with my friends. I was there being taught how to play the guitar by the guitar master, also known as the owner of Musical Destiny. He taught me everything I know about music; and how to play songs like Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple and Paralyzed by Finger Eleven. I've always looked up to him, and hoped that I'd become a great musician like him someday.

I ran down the sidewalk, until I got to familiar shop that had a huge sign that spelt out MUSICAL DESTINY in large lettering. I grinned as I entered the shop, and saw the man at work. He had spiky dark blonde hair and dark blue eyes; he was tuning up an old Gibson guitar. He held it with steady hands, looking very focused, that I wasn't sure if he realized I had came in.

"You're late." He said adjusted the cream colored knobs slightly.

"Sorry Mr. H." I apologized "I was sick."

He chortled as he set down the guitar "Kid, how many times do I have to tell you? Call me Ven."

"I don't know how many times have I called you Mr. H?" I asked sarcastically.

"A lot you brat." Ven laughed, standing up "Now move it, I have a customer."

I grinned at him as I moved out of the way, to look at the cool electric guitars that my mom would never let me get. When the bell from the door dinged, Ven gave his usual greeting to the customer saying "hello how can I help you?" The man answered saying something about a sitar, and I was kind of surprised because I recognized the voice. I turned around slowly, and of course my thoughts were correct it was that mullet guy again.

"Oh, yeah I think it's in the back." Ven indicated "Wait one moment please."

The mullet guy nodded waiting patiently by the counter. I bit my lip, trying my best to look like a normal customer when his gaze traveled over to my direction. I looked around at the other instruments, like pianos, violins, anything to not look suspicious. However I accidently slipped up when I accidently looked over to his direction, and our gazes locked. This is where my plan went down the drain.

"Say aren't you one of my new neighbors?" He asked suddenly causing me to jump.

'Um, yeah…" I trailed looking past the counter, hoping that Ven would hurry up and give this guy his instrument, before he tries to abduct me.

"Cool, so that means you're Roxas…..uh….Coal-men right?"

I nodded chuckling at the way he pronounced my last name "That's right, but it's Coleman."

The mullet guy's face flushed as a grin spread on his face "Oops…."

"So who are you?" I asked figuring it would be polite to ask for his name.

"Oh, um my name's Demyx Moore." He replied grinningly.

"Nice to meet you." I said as Ven walked back into the room carrying a dark blue sitar case in his hand.

Ven raised an eyebrow at me and asked jokingly "Roxas are you harassing customers again?"

Demyx and I laughed and I shook my head 'Of course not sir."

He smirked at me in reply to my snarky reply, and lifted the sitar case, and handed it over to Demyx who took the sitar case graciously "That'll be 18 munny please." Demyx dug into his pocket of his denim coat, and handed the munny over to Ventus, who took it and put it into the cash register.

"Thank you and have a good day." Ven said with his usual wave.

Demyx waved back "Thanks you too." And then he turned his attention over to me "See ya around Roxas." I bided him a goodbye and then he left, and then Ven gave me that questioning look again. That's only because I usually didn't socialize with the customers when they came into the shop.

"Well aren't you a social butterfly today." He commented, and I rolled my eyes at him.

"He was the one who started the conversation." I responded leaning over the counter "So can I get my guitar now?"

Ven nodded laughing "Sure, come on in the back."

I beamed as I hopped over the counter, and followed Ven into his work station, also known as the shop. He had many guitars, pianos, trombones and other instruments lying around in the back. Most of them were fixed though and placed neatly into their cases. However there were still some that were lying around that still needed to be fixed.

At a small table at the end of the shop was where my guitar laid in perfect condition, in fact better than when I brought it in. I smiled as I excitedly hurried over to Ven to take a gander upon its beauty. Ven chuckled and picked it up, and handed it over to me. I took it into my steady, but callused hands, grinning like a complete idiot.

"So how'd you like it?"

"It's better than when I first left it here." I breathed, putting on my old shoulder strap.

Ven laughed "Try her out."

I strummed the strings, and started to play a tune from one of my favorite songs. It sounded great, it was tuned and I couldn't wait to go home, and play some songs on it.

"Thanks Ven." I said gratefully "How much do I owe you?"

"Eh, it's on the house kid." Ven said dismissingly.

I was almost paralyzed with shock, Ven Hikari never, and I mean never just let me have a free be when he worked on my guitar. Even though I was one of his student, and probably his most loyal customer, he never let me off. I think it was because he wanted to treat every customer fairly; and also because he wasn't the richest guy on the planet. So it was kind of a surprise that he'd actually let me bring home my guitar—this nice, without paying a single cent.

I knew for sure that my mom wasn't going to let me get away with this if she ever found out. I grimaced at the thought of my mom preaching to me, about how I should be paying my way. So I figured I should make it easier on myself, than to end up marching back over here, with a formal letter explaining why I was thankful with a check.

"Nah, I can't." I said starting to rummage into my pants pocket "My mom would have a cow if she ever found out."

Before I started counting up the rest of my allowance Ven spoke up "Kid, kid just save your money, its fine, and if your mom says anything, just tell her that you paid me."

I stopped counting up my change, and looked up at him "You want me to lie?"

"That would be correct." Ven nodded.

"Weren't you the one that taught me that lying gets you nowhere?" I asked quirking a brow.

"In circumstances like these, lying would be nice." Ven replied smoothly.

I smirked, knowing him all too well "You just don't want to get hounded by my mom."

Ven smiled "Is just once quiet day too much to ask for?"

"That's for her to decide, if she ever finds out that is." I chuckled and he laughed as well.

"Well I'm going to be closing up so…..not to be rude but…." Ven smiled "Get out of my store."

"Fine, later Ven, and thanks for fixing my guitar." I said waving as I left the shop, and he waved back saying bye as well. After that I went home with my guitar on my back. The streets were quiet, as they usually were, with most cars parked in their driveways, which included my family's vehicle as well.

As I walked onto my driveway I noticed Namine walking down the sidewalk, with that idiot Seifer by her side. His cronies were with them as well, I narrowed my eyes at the sight of that sleazebag's arm draped around Namine's shoulders. It was such a disgusting sight that it made me want to heave.

He walked solo with her up to the doorstep, pretending to be a gentleman by bidding her a goodnight. She smiled at him, and just when I thought thing couldn't have gotten anymore sickening, she kissed him on the cheek! The cheek for crying out loud! That was like centimeters away from the lips! I scowled when I heard his friends cheer in the background after Namine closed the door.

At that moment, I was walking to the door, which was a total mistake, because I crossed paths with the sleazebag himself. He was wearing his usual navy blue stocking cap on his head, with his uniform a disaster. His steely green eyes eyed me, and I returned his gaze with a vicious glare, and then he smirked at me.

"Did you know that your sister has very soft lips?" He mocked darkly walking past me.

I spun around to face his back and snarled "Don't talk about my sister that way you sick bastard…"

"Whatever El Kabong!" He laughed as he walked back to his group of friends, and as they walked away all three of them flicked me off. I glared at them all clenching my hands into fists as I stormed to the stoop of my house. As I reached for the knob of the door, muttering curses under my breath. I looked up at the sky, and then looked over my shoulder at the darkening giant house across from me.

There was a small light casting from the windows, which surprised me somewhat, because I had never seen that place lit up in any form or way before. While I gaping at that stream of light, I saw a dark silhouette standing close by that window staring back at me.

Nervously, I turned away slowly, trying escaping from its watchful gaze. Afraid that if I stared at him for too long, that something bad might happen. So I stood there for several minutes contemplating if I should see if the figure was there. And after much arguing with myself, I finally gathered enough courage to see if the silhouette was still there. I must have waited for far too long though, because when I looked back the light was gone, and so was the mysterious figure.

X-O-X-O

(End of Chapter)

Ta, da, well there you guys are the second chapter! I hoped you all enjoyed reading it, because for me it was pretty fun to type up. Oh and thanks for the reviews guys I'm glad you guys like it so far.

Anyways I hope your guy's winter breaks are going good, and that you all have a Happy New Year!

And thanks for reading!