"You know, life probably won't turn out the way you planned it to, but, my sweet child, it all works out in the end. For me, I have you and Daddy. What could be better!"

An angelic smile.

A pool of blood.

"No!" Kairi shot up from her bed and gasped for air in the middle of the darkness. Her eyes immediately darted towards her clock: 5:37 a.m. From the windows, the sun had barely peaked above the horizon.

Once she held a firm grasp to reality, Kairi calmed her breathings and patted her chest. The nightmares recently had been getting a bit too vivid for her liking. She wondered how long she can sleep through such nights.

Seeing no use going back to sleep in her current state, Kairi decided to start another dreadful day early. Back then, it was easy for her to just get up from bed and start the day, but now, it just got harder.

She just felt so dead.

Kairi simply moved like a robot and got things ready.

After she brushed her teeth and washed up, she opened her closet and surveyed its contents. Kairi would've liked to say that her closet had a variety of things, but then she would be lying. Long-sleeves and turtlenecks and scarfs and long pants overloaded her closet, not letting any room for clothes like T-shirts and shorts to breathe. The only thing she could brag about her wardrobe was the different colored sweaters she had—they all did come in an array of shapes and patterns. To take it even further, she could even probably proclaim herself to be the only Destiny Islander to own so many sweaters and long pants.

"Very glad it's winter…" Kairi said to herself before she decided on some navy-blue sweater and black sweatpants. Quickly tying her hair up in a ponytail and grabbing her backpack near her desk, she went down the stairs quietly. As she did so, she had her fingers crossed behind her back—it was her own little spell in hopes that the day would go by as smoothly as possible for her.

"Kairi! Good morning!" At the sound of her father's voice, Kairi winced instinctively out of fear before she emerged from the wall and entered the kitchen. There her father sat, newspaper in hands and a warm cup of coffee just steaming on the table in front of him. A smile graced his features. Under normal circumstances, she would've returned it.

However, these weren't normal circumstances.

"Good morning, Dad."

"Heading to school?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to grab any breakfast on the way there or anything? It's a mighty cold day today—you might want to pack in some extra calories today for all the shivering you'll be going through." Kairi forced her lips to tilt up slightly.

"I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay then. Have a good day at school!" At his goodbye, Kairi literally ran out of the door to escape her home, feet only half-way in her shoes. It was when she was at the end of the block that she finally stopped to put her shoes on and tie them. The warm sun kissed her skin, as if congratulating her for getting through that part of the morning. In response, she smiled to herself.

She was very glad that it was one of those mornings—a morning where she could just step out of her house with no trouble. However, it was a bit too early to celebrate. Time to head to school.

Since it way too early to begin the school day, Kairi sat at a dry bench and got herself comfortable there. The view of the nearly-empty school grounds always gave her peace. The emptiness of it all gave her the ability to walk through the grounds like a normal person would—it allowed her to feel a bit, what it would be like if she could attend school normally.

"Friends, huh?" She watched as her warm breath mingled with the cold air before she shuffled through her backpack for her knitting kit. One of her hobbies was to make things, whether it be a scarf or a stuffed animal. It just let the time pass quicker for her.

Before she could get started, however, a piece of paper fell out during the process. Curiously, she picked it up and unfolded it, only to remember what it was.

I think a smile fits your image a little bit more. Smile more, since your life is still beautiful :)

When Kairi first saw it after her little nap, she honestly thought it was a bad joke played by someone. No one was ever nice to a "freak" like her. However, when she rethought about it, she doubted anyone would take the time to actually do this type of thing to her, even as a joke. At the end, all she could do was wonder—she'll probably never find out the truth behind this note anyway.

"My life is still beautiful?" Kairi would've laughed if she felt more alive. As if to test it out, she forced her lips to form a smile, only to feel very unnatural. Dropping the smile immediately, she looked at the piece of paper in her hand and tapped it with a finger amusingly. "If only you knew." She didn't care if it could've been a mean joke—at least it was a nice-sounding joke. Deciding that such a thing didn't deserve to be in the trash, Kairi took out her binder and placed it within the folds, safely hidden and tucked in.

I wonder who wrote this.

The bell for passing period rang soon after, snapping Kairi out of her knitting mode. She mentally cursed at herself for forgetting the time. Part of her routine was to come to school early to avoid the morning rush, but now the morning rush was inevitable. Quickly stuffing everything back in her backpack, Kairi hurried to class.

Before she entered the door to the hallways, Kairi took a deep breath, hugged her books tighter to her chest—it made her feel as if she could shrink herself—and braced herself. With a push against the double doors with her side, she began the journey through the packed hallways.

One thing she was thankful for about her reputation was that it, again, made people steer clear away from her. The first few days she first entered high school were rough, but after a few screams and shrieks here and there, it didn't take long for news to spread about her. So, the moment she took a step into the hallway, people repulsed away from her like oil to water.

"Make way, make way, the repelling magnet is here," she heard some guy joke as he made sure a good distance was between him and her. "She might blast you away with her screams." When she first heard comments like this, it took a heavy toll on her, but now, she was just immune. Hearing things were better than touching things.

When she arrived at her locker, she sighed at the sight. She wasn't surprised to see a bunch of yellow sticky-notes with mean comments scribbled on it plastered on her locker door. With a quick glance, she could see some of the messages.

"You make the halls feel suffocating, your shrieks are so loud, I wish you were mute whenever you're near me, your expression is depressing," Kairi read some of the messages to herself before she heaved another heavy sigh. "Isn't the first time this happened to me…"

The thing about high school was that people were less obnoxious and rude and mean than in middle school. Kairi shuddered—she didn't even want to think back to middle school, where the real intense and immature bullying was. Here, people had self-restraints. And some, dare she say it, at least had the capability to have a heart. Little mean comments and gossip-worthy chitter chatter were prevalent, but it was definitely better than middle school.

However, that didn't justify it, by any means.

But then again, my condition itself isn't justified. Is it?

Opening her locker—Kairi decided to just leave the dumb notes there because if she took them off, more would just come to replace them—she swapped one of the textbooks in her hands for the textbook she needed for her algebra class before she shut the door close and walked back to her class in fear.

Another day, another nightmare.

Right when Kairi turned the corner, Sora emerged from another with his best friend, Riku.

"Dude, are you just excited as me for the new upcoming game?" Riku asked. "Don't tell me you aren't."

"Pfft, I've been waiting six years for this game, of course I'm excited! I feel sad for other fans though. Waiting fourteen years is, ugh, too much." As the two of them continued to converse while heading towards class, Sora suddenly paused in his walking. Noticing that Sora had fallen behind, Riku turned around and gave him the raised eyebrow.

"What's up?" Sora shook his head and shooed Riku away with a hand.

"You head off to class first. I forgot my textbook in my locker." Riku frowned at the textbook that was in Sora's hand. Noticing where his line of sight was, Sora swiftly hid it behind his back and smiled his usual smile. Inside his head, however, he wished he had come up with a better excuse that was less lame. "Go." Knowing better than to deal with Sora's funkiness, Riku rolled his eyes and excused himself.

"Alrighty then. See you later." Sora kept his smile up until Riku turned the corner to leave. When he was out of sight, Sora dropped the smile and turned around to face the locker that was sadly ambushed by yellow sticky notes. Wondering what was the deal, he didn't have to ponder too long to know whose locker it belonged to when he read some of the comments.

"People sure are mean," he said to himself as he gently touched all the sticky notes. When the bell rang to signal the beginning of class, he muttered a "darn it" before swinging his backpack over to his front and opening the smaller zip.

~.~.~

"Kairi, how have you been doing?" Kairi uncomfortably stood in front of her psychology teacher, Ms. Gainsborough. In her head, Kairi kind of regretted taking psychology. There, she would be scrutinized under the eyes of an adult who was more aware than others.

"I'm good," Kairi answered, not meeting her eyes. Ms. Gainsborough sighed. By now, Kairi highly doubted that the school staff didn't know about her. She was grateful that none of them really approached her, but she couldn't say the same for Ms. Gainsborough.

All Kairi had done was wait for everyone to turn in their paper before she turned hers in to avoid the crowd, but half of her wished she didn't—Ms. Gainsborough took the chance to strike a conversation. Letting out a breath of relief, however, Kairi immediately relaxed when Ms. Gainsborough dropped it.

"Alright. Stay warm out there." At her dismissal, Kairi quickly exited the classroom, not at all looking back. With that encounter, Kairi made sure to never to be with Ms. Gainsborough alone.

The immediate vacancy of the school signaled the end of the day and the start of Kairi's day. Walking back towards her locker to put her textbooks back in, Kairi felt the familiar dread that always crept inside her afterschool. Wondering what faced her at home today, Kairi squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before opening back up to walk to her locker.

At first, she opened the locker without sparing a second glance at the notes—looking at them would just make her feel worse—but when she noticed something slightly different about them, she didn't hesitate to see what it was.

You don't make the halls feel suffocating.

You're much quieter than the seagulls squawking their heads off with their poop brigade :(

I wouldn't want you to go mute. I think your voice could be very lovely.

I think you're beautiful! :)

Kairi stared flabbergasted at the little messages that replaced the hateful ones from earlier this morning. Instead of messy scribbles, each letter was written carefully and neatly. Next to them were silly faces that actually made Kairi almost laugh. Amazed, she leafed through each one of them hanging on her locker with her fingers before she gently peeled them off. When she gave them a closer inspection, she realized something and quickly took her binder out of her backpack. Taking out the piece of paper from the other day, she put it next to the sticky notes and widened her eyes.

They all had the same handwriting.

Suddenly, there was only one blaring thought blasting through her mind.

Who is this?

An emotion—a feeling she hadn't felt a for a long time—suddenly invaded, and she clasped the little notes to her chest closely. A small hiccup was all it took for her to let the tears run down her cheeks.

I'm alive.

I said that I wasn't going to update this until I finished my other story, but sometimes, things happen.

Writer's block :((((( I've been really focused trying to finish my other fanfic that my brain is literally fried. So, as a little breather, here's another small chapter! Tell me how it's going so far :) Reviews make me happy and makes me believe that my storywriting isn't too bad XD

This chapter was written a lot smoother, since it's a different story with different themes. Hopefully it'll flesh out to be a story I'll be proud of LOL