Jeez, that got way more attention than I expected! :D Much thanks to all who added ACC to their alerts, and reviews are, of course, greatly appreciated. Enjoy the next chapter!

xxXXxx

Friday and waaay too early to care. The sun hadn't even bothered to climb all the way over the horizon yet. Sora's arm snaked out from under his covers and fumbled with his alarm clock until it located the snooze button (for the third time,) after which the dark room fell comfortably silent. He rolled on to his back to stare at the glow-in-the-dark stars he had stuck up on it some long ago afternoon spent with Kairi. They weren't actually glowing, but he could make out their indistinct outlines through the darkness.

He yawned hugely. Alright, so despite Demyx's infuriating ways, the mullet-headed dope had actually managed to cheer him up pretty well. Demyx had a way of cheering everyone up just by being in their general vicinity. Sora did, too, but he had yet to realize it.

And there was the whole Riku encounter. Sora rolled his eyes. Okay, so he had always given the piano player more space than was strictly necessary, but Demyx had no right to surprise the poor guy like that. Sora pitied the unfortunate souls forced to face Demyx unprepared.

Sora had just drifted into a blissful doze when the silence was shattered by two loud clicks followed by the whine of someone sorely misusing a guitar.

Sora hated that radio. The only station it got clearly was country.

He rolled over to grope for the cord of his lamp and toppled neatly out of bed to faceplant in thick carpet when something barked from somewhere in the vicinity of his feet.

"Ow."

The brunette rolled over and grumbled indistinctly before a fluffy, wriggling something catapulted itself off the bed and on to his chest, after which it energetically attacked his face with a tiny wet tongue.

"Vivi," Sora moaned. "You dork."

The tiny dog took this as a cue to attack Sora's face with more enthusiasm. Sora gave him an obliging scritch behind his pointed little ears. Vivi was a poorly mismatched creature—the shelter had advertised him online as a Pomerpoo, but he looked more like a cross between a Chihuahua and an oversized dust bunny: dusty white with big tan spots, obscenely fluffy, but inexplicably cute. He made Sora proud.

The door creaked, and Roxas managed to say "Hey, So, time to—" before spotting the twisted mass of blankets on the floor that most likely contained his twin. Vivi's targeting system quickly 

reordered its priorities and led the dog bounding towards Roxas' ankles, which were subjected to a furious and thorough bathing. Roxas shook his head emphatically. He scooped up the yapping dog, grudgingly said, "Just get up," and set off to find something that might serve as breakfast.

"Nngh," protested Sora.

"Sheee's got my nose, got her momma's eyes," sang his radio consolingly. Sora buried his face in his bed sheets and growled. Well, at least it was finally Friday.

Fifteen minutes later, Sora tripped out of his front door with an armful of books and binders, a guitar case, and a Poptart between his teeth. He had yet to tie his left shoe, and his battered blue Converse sneaker reminded him of this neglect by slipping farther off his foot with each step he took. By the time he had safely deposited his books and guitar in the trunk, his shoe's insidious plan was complete. He climbed into the passenger seat with a shoe in one hand and a Poptart in the other.

"Glad you could make it," grunted Roxas. Sora crammed his Poptart back into his mouth and used his newly freed hand to ruffle Roxas' hair, earning himself an even more vigorous hair ruffle. The twins grinned at each other for a moment before Roxas pulled the car away from the curb.

"Freakin' zero period. Remind me why I get up this early," Sora mumbled around his Poptart as he pushed up the long sleeves of his black-and-blue striped shirt and yanked his left shoe on.

"Chicks," Roxas responded immediately. "They dig the whole sensitive, guitar-playing pansy thing."

Sora shoved his brother good-naturedly. "Dick."

"Fuckwit."

"Asshat."

Half of Sora's Poptart migrated with surprising speed from his mouth to his lap. He narrowed his eyes at it as he finished tying his shoe. "Nutbunnies," the brunette muttered, picking at crumbs on his lap. They drove in silence for a few minutes as Sora tried in vain to un-wreak the havoc his vengeful breakfast item had wreaked on his jeans.

"So," began Roxas. Sora deemed his jeans a hopeless case and looked up expectantly, but Roxas kept his eyes on the road. "Sounds like Seifer's coming back."

There was a moment of silence followed by the small, dry sound of Sora's breakfast falling on to his lap once more. His blonde twin glanced at him quickly, but Sora didn't meet his gaze—he was staring at the crumbled mess on his lap. His bright blue eyes were vacant, unfocused, and he didn't look up when he quietly asked, "What?"

"Seifer," repeated Roxas warily. "Next week he comes back from—"

"Why?" Sora demanded.

"He was just suspended, not expelled," Roxas said, changing lanes to speed past an unfortunately slow old lady. "I guess he wanted to graduate from Destiny High instead of wherever they sent him."

Sora's gaze inched up the side of the car door and out of the window. Fantastic. Not only did he have the rest of the school year to explain to everyone that no, he hadn't been accepted to U of HB, thanks, and no, he wasn't going to Pride Lands College, he also had the rest of the school year to deal with Seifer. "Aw, son of a biscuit," he said finally, and he felt that pretty much summed it up.

His mood hadn't improved by the time he set his guitar case down next to the school amp in the Band Room. He was in the process of flicking open the clasps on his guitar case as if each had wronged him personally when he noticed a shadow looming over him, blocking out the lights, drawing nearer—

"Y'know, Lux, you're not as scary as you think," Sora observed.

An arm came down to rest on his head. "Ah, no need to put on a brave face, Sora," said a familiar English voice. "I know you're secretly quaking in your boots, praying I'll spare you but fearing the worst anyway, dreading your imminent doom…."

"I'd be more worried about your imminent doom if you don't get your arm off my head," griped Sora. Luxord obligingly removed his arm. Sora rolled his eyes to the ceiling. Was it because of his size? Was that why all of his friends harassed him incessantly? He'd grown a lot in the past few years, but he felt like everyone's mental image of him had remained unchanged: he was and always would be short, scrawny Sora, a "little brother" kind of guy, still receiving noogies at the age of eighteen.

Of course, if he had ever taken a moment to be entirely honest with himself, he would have had to concede that he didn't dislike it as much as he said he did.

"Cheer up, Buttercup," suggested Luxord. Sora ignored him, pulling his dark blue Ibanez Artcore from its snug, velvety bed and seating himself on a stool before plugging it into the amp. Luxord could be a fantastic pain, but he was the only person left who had been in Jazz Band with Sora his freshman year, and that had to count for something. Sora pitied the band mates he'd be leaving behind when they graduated, because they'd be hard pressed to find a new guitarist and a new drummer (who didn't suck royally, anyway.)

Luxord patted Sora fondly on the shoulder and wandered off to twiddle his drumsticks or do whatever it was drummers did when they weren't making loud noises. Sora, after making sure that Luxord had truly walked away, looked up from fiddling with his guitar's tuning pegs just in time to meet the gaze of one silver-headed piano player. The tall boy smiled at him, and a somewhat surprised Sora grinned back nervously before his courage escaped him entirely and left him glancing quickly away to twist the peg of a string he'd already tuned. He didn't know why it was so difficult to meet Riku's gaze. It probably had something to do with the guy's messy ponytail or his fingerless gloves. Sora glanced at him again (he'd looked away already, thank God) to examine the kid's ears. He had enough piercings to rival Luxord's formidable collection. Sora had never noticed that before.

The second bell rang, and Sora resigned himself to what promised to be a long day.

oo000OOO000oo

By the end of fourth period, Sora was ready to gnaw off his own fingers as an excuse to go home.

"Shoot me," he mumbled into his hands. Kairi plopped down next to him on the brick planter and held out her bag of animal crackers toward him, but he waved the bag away.

"Be glad you didn't have to deal with Mr. Highwind today," she assured him. "He's like, the craziest substitute ever. He tried to confiscate my graphing calculator. In a math class. Seriously."

"That's because you spent half the period playing Block Dude," said Pence, plopping down on Sora's other side. Olette sat down next to him, carefully using a napkin to dab grease off of her pizza slice.

"Shush, you," Kairi said. "You're too young to understand."

"I'm only a junior," mumbled Pence, but Olette cut in before he could say anything else.

"So are you guys going to the bonfire?" she asked anxiously, crumpling up her napkin.

Sora pulled a hand a few inches from his eyes so he could see Olette. "What bonfire?" he questioned.

"The one tomorrow," she told him. "It sounds really fun," she added. When this failed to pique Sora's interest, she said, "C'mon, a lot of people will be there. Kairi and Pence will be there, right?" The two she had named exchanged an amused glance before shrugging and nodding. "Roxas already said he's coming, so I bet Hayner will, too."

Sora's face fell back into his palms. If Roxas planned on going, he'd probably need someone to drive him home afterwards…. "Sure. Alright."

"Where am I going?" asked a familiar voice. Sora dropped his hands and looked up at his twin.

"The bonfire," said Olette.

Kairi snorted. "Ha! That's right," she said half to herself. "Riku's going."

Sora said "Hm?" just as Olette blushed furiously and Roxas shoved his hands in his pockets and glared moodily at the ground.

"That's why Olette wants to go," announced Kairi smugly. "Am I wrong? Hmmm?"

Sora, tired and somewhat confused, rested his chin on his fist and offered, "I saw him at Smoothie Planet yesterday." He had a way of pulling out whatever facts he could when he didn't trust himself to actually add to a conversation.

Olette said nothing, but Roxas mumbled, "He's not that great."

With a decidedly self-satisfied expression, Kairi smirked at one of her animal crackers before crunching its head between her teeth.

The rest of the lunch period passed uneventfully (perhaps excepting the part where Hayner stormed up, cursed unintelligibly at no one in particular, sat down with his back against the planter and refused to talk to anyone for the next twenty some-odd minutes, but besides that, really, it passed uneventfully.) The bell signaling the end of their freedom rang and Sora set off towards AP Art History with Kairi in tow.

"So I was thinking," said Kairi, and Sora had to bite his lip to prevent himself from saying one of the dozen jokes he could respond to that phrase with, "that we should see a movie together tonight."

Sora frowned. "Sorry, I already promised Demyx I'd—wait, you haven't seen him since he got back, have you?" Kairi shook her head. "Great, then we should all go see something! I know he wants to see you."

Kairi looked momentarily taken aback, but then she straightened her skirt and pushed back her red-brown bangs and cleared her throat and said, "Yeah, okay, that would be cool."

Sora shifted his books from one hand to the other. Yeah, that would be cool. Maybe it would keep his mind off of college… and Seifer. Frackin' A, he thought. I'd forgotten about him. A small cloud condensed into existence above his head and threatened to rain on his parade, but he waved it away. Movie. Think about the movie.

Kairi trailed behind him, frowning at her shoes.

oo000OOO000oo

"Hey, hey, can I tell you a secret?"

Sora rolled his eyes at Demyx and whispered back, "What?"

"This movie sucks. Hard."

Sora giggled. He couldn't disagree. He leaned across Demyx to grab a handful of his popcorn, successfully giving his blonde friend a faceful of spiky hair. Sora leaned back in his seat and offered Kairi some of his stolen goods, but she shook her head.

"Marly would fuckin'… implode if he saw this shit. Even he couldn't stand something this cheeseball," Demyx whispered. He shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"Too bad he's not here," muttered Kairi.

Demyx gave her a strange look before devouring another fistful of popcorn. Without bothering to swallow first, he whispered, "God this sucks. The only thing this movie would be good for is a prolonged make-out sesh."

"Again, too bad he's not here."

Sora laughed, but Demyx stopped mid-chew and frowned at her. She stared steadfastly at the screen. Bewildered, Sora looked back and forth between the two of them. Neither of them said anything else, and after a minute, Demyx went back to scarfing popcorn and laughing at the horrible dialogue, but with considerably less enthusiasm than before.

Sora slumped down in his seat and perched his Converse on the seat in front of him. At least there was the bonfire to look forward to. How bad could that be, right?