Sorry for the late update! I hope you liked this chapter, please tell me what you think and leave a review! Thanks! btw, the people who have reviewed my story, thanks a million! Read the special thanks at the bottom too!

Reality Ain't Pretty, Sora!

Chapter 2

What do people do when they are helplessly locked out of their house?

The first idea that occurred to him, was to see if the garage was open. Pacing himself towards the garage door, he started to pull it up. He heaved and pulled, but it would not budge. Opening a window came about to him next, for he unenthusiastically began walking around his large house; trying to open every ground-level window he saw.

However, each window was covered in dust and appeared as if they hadn't been opened in centuries. They were also shut down tight, making it a hassle for Sora's arms to open them. That reminded Sora, cleaning the windows was one of first things on his To Do list, along with cutting the overgrown lawn, cleaning his cluttered room, polishing the dusty furniture, and vacuuming the soiled carpets in the house.

"Ugh, I will clean these later…much later. Who would want to clean this anyways?" Sora remarked, with a look of repugnance on his face as he removed the dust from his fingers.

With no luck, he was back to where he started; locked out of his house with his household tasks not done. Giving up on the idea of opening a window to get inside, he lied down helplessly in his mother's beautiful rose garden in the backyard. Red, white, and pink roses of all shapes and sizes surrounded him as he gazed at the clear sky; on the verge of murder.

"I'm so doomed…AH, I HATE THIS SO MUCH!" he yelled, banging his fist hard, destroying a few roses that were in his way.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind. He remembered that his bedroom window was left ajar, however, his room was on the second floor...Excitedly, he ran to where his bedroom was. All I need to do, is find a way to climb up here!, Sora thought while he looked high up at his bedroom window. I am going to use my mom's vines to help me do so since I don't have a ladder with me! His mother had grown beautiful Morning Glories around the house, unfortunately one was planted firmly just below Sora's window!

"Hmm, if I ruin this, I will just buy Mom some more…besides, I'm sure she won't even notice! She has so many of these stupid flowers everywhere!" he pondered, beginning to ascend the feeble plant. The fragile vines were not strong enough to hold Sora's weight, and as a result, he fell hard onto the ground.

Thud!

His head rested on the terrain, along with the rest of his body. "OK…wow, now what the hell was I thinking!?"

Why is this happening to me!, he thought gloomily, then closed his eyes in despair. I can't ask any of my neighbors to borrow their ladders because…they see me as a lying, cheater who manipulates people! Damn neighbors!

I know!! Maybe I can break the front window with a big rock! Then I can get through and not have to deal with my parents!

Apparently, his small mind could not think of any better solution to his pitiful dilemma. Searching the ground from where he lay, his flimsy hand started searching frantically for a good sized rock that would be able to break a window. Spotting one, he reached out and picked it up. Tossing it into his hands, he ran gaily to the front of his house. Targeting a window next to the entrance door, he gazed at the window that revealed his own reflection. Sounds of faint footsteps were heard nearby, distracting him. Ignoring it, he focused on aiming at his target, nevertheless the footsteps became louder with each fleeting moment. He hurled the heavy rock in his right hand, until a shrill voice stopped him.

"SORA!" cried a shrill voice behind him.

From the sudden outburst, he flinched a little bit, but quickly recovered from his shock. He stopped what he was doing, and through the window that he was looking at, he saw the reflection of one of his close friends, Tifa. Dropping the rock, he rushed towards the girl.

"What were you trying to do? Break into your own house?" Tifa questioned with great bewilderment. She placed her thin hands on her waist and stared at Sora with great misunderstanding with her dark brown eyes. A wide smile spread on his miserable face and flung his arms around her slim body.

"What brings you here? Anyways, I'm so glad you're here, now you can solve all my problems!" he exclaimed with joy, erupting with happiness.

"Well, I was walking in the neighborhood until I saw you trying to break into your own house! Ha, and I'm sure you have problems!", she exclaimed as she swayed her long black hair out of her face, "You look happy today…a little too happy, don't ya think?...I never saw you this happy since--"

Sora let go of her as he quickly interrupted her sentence, not wanting to hear what she was going to say. "Tifa, I need you to help me!" implored Sora with a touch of innocence.

Tifa looked skeptical. "Sure, but what would you like me to help you with?" After a few moments of thought, Sora spoke, placing his right hand under his chin. "My parents trust you right?"

She agreed, not liking where this was going. "Uh huh…" She crossed her arms, waiting for him to explain further. He began his story. "OK, well, I left my house key in my bathroom this morning before I left for school, so I'm locked out. I am supposed to clean my room and do some stupid chores here and there everyday before my parents come home--"

This time, Tifa cut him off. "So, you want me to lie to your parents, telling them something so that you can get off the hook, am I right? Then it would look like as if you were trying to do what they say…"

Sora snickered, "Yeah, you got it, but how did you know I was going to ask you to do that?" His companion chuckled, placing her hands on his spiky hair, "Sora, Sora, Sora… it's not that hard for me to figure you out!" Sora chuckled in agreement. Tifa and Sora had known each other since childhood, so it was easy for her to figure out how his mind works. They are practically like brother and sister and help each other from time to time.

"Give me a good reason as to why I should lie to your parents so that they could lose trust in me?" she argued, illusions of red and orange flames were seen in her angry eyes.

"Uh…C'mon!! You and I are tight like two pieces of paper glued together! I'm sure that you don't want anything bad to happen to me in these desperate times…right?"

"Why can't you just make something up that won't get either of us in trouble? I would've lied to them myself, but they wouldn't believe me, and I'm pretty sure that they'd believe you if you said something to them!" Sora rested his hands behind his gravity defying hair and smiled cleverly.

"As much as I would love to lie to them for you, I'm not going to!" she exclaimed as she continued to walk on the smooth sidewalk.

"What!" cried Sora with great perplexity. "Why not?!"

"Well, it's wrong, that's why! Besides, I don't think that it's worth losing your parents' trust. How about you just take responsibility for your own actions!" Tifa answered back and giving him a harsh look. Sora grasped her hand, preventing her from proceeding any further.

"Hold it…First off, you sound so cheesy! That's something my mother tells me all the time! Gosh…it's so irritating!"

Tifa let out a great sigh in annoyance. "You want me to help you?" Letting go of her petite hand and raising a fury eyebrow, he answered, "Yeah!"

"Alright, how about we wait for your parents to come home…" she recommended, pointing her index hand to the front porch steps. Comfortably sitting down, she began to get Sora to talk about his dilemma.

"I was just wondering…", she began, "if you did have the key with you right now, would you have really done what your mom has asked you to do?"

Sora glimpsed at Tifa's curious face for a split second before answering. "You're so funny, of course I wouldn't! I would've watched T.V. or something and then when they'd come home, I'd tell them some sort of excuse as to why I didn't do anything…"

When she heard his answer, she was shocked. Her face expression became gloomy and some what disappointed. This was obviously not the Sora she had known.

"You'd lie to them just because you're lazy!!" she exclaimed in disbelief, after a few moments of silence. "Listen, Sora, I think that you should stop lying like this because eventually…it will take you nowhere."

Sora grumbled, then mumbled under his breath, "Yeah right."

A pair of beaming head lights came into view, indicating that one of his parents were home. The dark blue sedan turned onto the driveway and the motor cut off. Whispering to Tifa, Sora asked, "My mom's here, what are you planning to do about my predicament?!"

In response to his inquiry, she murmured, "Just watch…"

Inside himself, Sora had a strong gut feeling that things wouldn't go the way he wanted it to. Sora waved to his mother, who was stepping out from her car and slammed the door shut. She was slightly shorter than him and had brunette colored hair just like his, but in a bun. Her blue eyes were anxious and her skin looked pale. Clearly, she was worried about something.

The tiresome mother approached the two, looking at her beloved son and Tifa. Smiling, she greeted, "Hello you two! How are things going?" She gave a warm welcome to Tifa and gave her son an affectionate hug.

"Sora told me that he had forgotten to take his key with him, and that's why he wasn't able to clean his room…but I'm sure that he is going to do so right now!" Tifa assured the weary mother and elbowed Sora vaguely.

"So I see…" his mother observed, giving her son a bothered look. "Well, thank you for trying to help out Sora here, it was worth a try. I know what he's up to." She forced a laugh and Tifa blushed in embarrassment.

"Alright…well I should be going now" saying that, Tifa waved good bye and was on her merry way. A look of satisfaction spread on her face. Silently, his mother fished around for her house key from her purse, then unlocked the door and stepped in. Sora followed carefully behind her with some distance.

Her hand searched for a switch on the creamy colored wall. Finding one, she flicked it, allowing light to illuminate the house. The house was well furnished and had great features, such as, multiple stairs, large rooms, an attractive kitchen, and a beautiful living room. Many pictures of Sora and family portraits hung firmly on the wall. Decoration pieces dangled everywhere as well. Her high heels made gruff sounds on the polished wood floor as she walked towards the kitchen. Believing that everything would be alright, Sora quietly began walking up the spiral stairs to get to his bedroom. "Not so fast, Sora! Come here, I want to talk to you", she cried from the kitchen.

Unwillingly, he began to drag himself down the stairs, through the warmly decorated foyer, and entered the tidy kitchen, where his mother was washing a couple of dirty dishes that lay helplessly in the sink. Her identical pair of blue eyes, met his fearful ones. "This isn't the first time you've done this…" she started.

Hastily, he took a seat at the spotless dinning table, not wanting to exist. Not hearing an answer to her statement, she continued. "You give me crazy excuses for not doing what you are asked to! I had enough of this same lame routine of yours! You have been doing this for the past eight months. It's the same thing over again…you tell me that you had to do something else, or that you forgot your key so then you weren't able to…"

The rest of her 'pleasant' speech was lost by Sora. He wasn't paying the least bit of attention. He was too busy day dreaming, which he does time to time whenever anything or anyone didn't interest him.

Ahhh…Tifa betrayed me, She called that help? That wasn't help at all. Now I have to get her back for that. What should I do? Should I replace her shampoo with food dye…nah, that wouldn't be 'rewarding' enough for her…what about sending another girl to catfight with her? No, that wouldn't work, Tifa is sure to beat the crap out of anyone who confronts her…

He chuckled to himself quietly at the thought, while his poor mother continued yapping and lecturing, trying to fix some of his bad habits.

I think I should break into her house and take some of her most expensive clothes and just rip them up, then lit them on fire right in front of her face…or maybe I can bring her pain by taking away her precious make up and crap. That would probably drive her up the wall…hehe. Besides, she uses gallons of mascara everyday and a whole lot of crap that-

His day dreaming was interrupted by his mother, who suddenly sat next to him at the

table. "I just don't know what to do with you anymore!" she sighed, placing a plate of food in front of Sora. "You're dad is coming home late, so I figured that you would be hungry by the time he comes."

Sora nodded his head and began to eat the mouth-watering spaghetti that lay before him. Changing the subject abruptly, she asked, "How was your test today?"

Hearing the word 'test' made him shiver involuntarily. "It was OK…"

"Really? That's great! Maybe, you can feel more comfortable in college.", she mused.

"Sure…" he replied, quickly finishing his food, and chugging down his glass of ice cold water. Finishing his dinner, he got up and wearily waddled to his room. "Good night,

Mom!" he cried, halfway up the stairs.

Entering his untidy room, he slammed the door. The clothes that hung on the hook behind the door, fell onto the messy wooded floor. Videogames were thrown casually around the room. His chaotic bed leaned against his blue painted wall. The window was open, allowing a cool breeze to pass through the humid room. His closet was unorganized and was filled with garbage along with dirty laundry. Trash was tossed about and useless papers cluttered around his computer that rested steadily on his rigidly desk. Trying to get to his bed, he accidentally stepped on his skateboard, then stumbled and fell flat onto his face hard onto the unpolished wood floor.

Ouch! What the hell?

Mumbling to himself, he got up, then threw the black skateboard aside. It crashed with a loud thump! The force left a decent sized dent in the wall. Walking slowly and groggily to his un-made bed, he crashed his whole tired body onto it, taking a deep breath and exhaling tensely. It was evident that he was exhausted from his disastrous day. The blue covers laid underneath him and his cream colored pillow sagged beneath him. His cell phone beeped, indicating a text message from one of his friends. Reaching into his pocket of his baggy pants, he flipped his silver cell phone.

"Hey, Sora! Meet me and Riku in the mall after work tomorrow -Kairi!"

After reading the message from Kairi, he tossed his phone on his desk and mused over the stressful day he had. Why didn't Mom yell at me tonight? Usually she explodes for everything little thing I do wrong, he thought with much curiosity, but…she did look really sad.

"I need something to take all this damn stress away", he chuckled to himself. He reached into one of his pockets of his pants, taking out a box of cigarettes. He looked at them, wondering if he should smoke or not. Opening the small tab, he gazed at how many he had left. "One...two…three…. I have five cigarettes left." he mused. "I should get some more tomorrow."

Changing his mind of smoking, he put the small box carefully back into his pocket; wanting to save the stash he had. Instead, he reached down under the bed, his hand touching every object until he felt a cold and dusty glass bottle of an alcoholic drink. Taking out a miniature bottle of Vodka from under his bed, he popped the cap open with his finger and gulped the contents within a few minutes. Drops of the dreadful drink slid down the sides his mouth and landed directly against his black shirt. He threw the vacant bottle back under his bed, where many more empty bottles lay.

"Note to self…throw away the evidence…" he laughed quietly to himself, partly drunk. Dizziness and numbness took over his body. After ten minutes, he wasn't able to think straight and a wave of depression fell on him; the effects from the alcohol.

"Stubid Kaiwi…she's so goddamn h-h-hard to impress. 'Sorwa, w-w-why don't you do this or that' B-BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! That gurl is getting on my f-f-freakin' nerves! She sucks h-h-hell." he said softly to himself, not realizing what he was saying or the pronunciation of his words. "Dumb test….why do she like guys who s-s-study anyways? That is so s-s-stupid. I hate that…"

Suddenly, his stomach began to hurt immensely, for he held his stomach and winced greatly. A weird feeling began to rise inside of him. Putting his other hand to his mouth, he quickly got up and rushed to the bathroom. Closing the door behind him, he lifted the toilet lid and threw up. Ugh, he thought, looking at the vomit that swam around in the toilet water. He flushed it quickly to get the unpleasant scene out of his sight.

Lying back in bed, he began breathing heavily, with great difficulty. Calming down, he began to feel drowsy. He began to think about his mother's reaction to his unreliability, which left him profoundly puzzled. Not able to find the answer to his question, he fell into a deep slumber. Sweet, dreamy images of Kairi came into his sleeping mind, causing him to wear a warm smile as he slept comfortably.

--xxx--

Ding dong!

The sound of the door bell made Sora's mother get up from the table to open it. When she opened the door, she was troubled: there stood her husband, drawn and tired. His brunette colored hair was rustled up, his green eyes looked angry, and he looked bothered. He looked agitated from the folded paper he held in his hands. She guessed this had something to do with Sora because he handed her the paper with great difficulty as he stepped inside the house. "Hi, Honey!" she greeted, giving him a light kiss on the cheek,

"What's this?"

"Hello Dear…" he responded. "I got it from my fax machine at work…Read it, it's about the teacher's phone call I received earlier today."

"Oh no…Sora…why?" she said quietly, as she closed the door shut. The couple sat down together in their living room to have a long discussion about their misguided son.

Hesitantly, she unfolded the paper that she gripped firmly. Scanning through the rush of the printed words, her worried expression became angry.

"Summer school?! He needs to go to summer school already! School just ended today!" she was astonished, "And all for failing the exam?"

Her husband nodded slowly and sighed greatly, "I talked to his teacher. He failed it because he didn't really…finish it, then trying to get more time…it ended up getting torn!"

"What?" she could not believe what she was hearing. "Why would she rip his test?"

"She didn't. She told me that Sora had! I don't know what to do. We have to talk with the

principal this Sunday to see what options we have", he stated, with a tone of anger and

frustration.

Covering her stressed face with her worn-out hands, she sighed greatly. Standing up, he shouted after ten minutes of no conversation, "I'm tired of our stupid son! Why can't he do anything right?"

A few tears trickled down her face, not liking to words her husband spoke. "Please…we can fix this…"

Not listening, he continued, "No! That's why you've been saying for the past for years! Nothing's changing! Do you remember what I told you a few months ago? That's exactly what I am going to do to him!"

Keeping her cool, she responded, "I…I guess you're right." She broke down into great sobs. "Do we really have to?"

Calming down somewhat, he sat down next to his wife. He replied, "I'm sorry for yelling. I just lost my patience! He's just not changing. It's probably because he doesn't know what can happen to him if he doesn't patch up now."

After a few moments of thought, he suggested, "How about this, we give him three more chances. If he screws up three times from now on within the next…year or so, we will do what I wanted to do to him!"

"Hmm, alright. But I think that what you are thinking to do is a bit harsh.", she remarked.

"No, no it's not. Trust me. I know that will fix him." he answered back with great confidence. "If it fixed me, it will surely do the same for him!"

-End Chapter-

Thank you for reading!! Sorry if there wasn't too much happening, but there will be a lot later on. LOL, o-m-g, Sora is on drugs and he's an alcohoic!! How dumb is Sora? What were his parents talking about when that they have a way of fixing their son? You will find out in the next chapters! Please review!

Special Thanks to: brenu, Lina-Baggins, Kita Ito, animeadmirer, b-nothing, Insomiak, oblivion's pen, SorasKey, Neptunes angel, Lady Keika, Kingdom Hearts Lover, goku33339, Ice Miko, soraloveskairi159, Rie Kuecotsu, BellaLicious814, aModestMouse, and Lokelani87 for their wonderful, spectacular reviews! I appreciate it very much! Please read their stories as well! XD