"So what was this one like?"

"I dunno... okay, I guess."

"Just like the other three?"

"Kinda…she kept doing this really annoying thing with her hair," Hayner said softly as he stared out his window into the midnight sky, remembering his brief encounter with Olette, "but at the same time, not really…she was nice, polite, I guess…but… still…know what I mean, Rox?"

"No," Roxas answered bluntly. "But, I guess I'll just have to meet her. I won't get too attached, though," he said laughing.

"I wonder how long it takes before she can't tolerate me?" Hayner chuckled at the thought of Olette running away from him, screaming of course.

"Three weeks, tops," Roxas answered.

"Ha, yeah…alright, well, don't forget we're skatin' after school tomorrow,"

"Could I ever forget skateboarding lessons, Hayner? Could I?"

"Don't be a smartass, Roxas. See ya tomorrow," Hayner replied to his best friend before dropping the phone back in its cradle. He walked to his bed and climbed under the warm covers, anticipating his next skateboarding lesson from Roxas.

Hayner tossed and turned, wrapping the blankets around his body, attempting to fall asleep in that one perfect position. Sleep finally claimed him, and the last person that had entered his mind was…her, with her soft lips curving up and smiling gently at him just as when they had exchanged their goodbyes.

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Y'know, she really could be different than the rest…but… he wasn't gonna get his hopes up.

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Hayner barely stirred when his alarm began blaring that awful beeping noise into his ears. An arm emerged from underneath the giant mass of blankets and whipped itself onto the ever-handy snooze button. Ahhh…peace.

"Hayner!! I heard that! Get your butt out of bed, now!!! I cannot believe you!" Hayner rolled out of bed sleepily, barely conscious that he was dressing himself. He was definitely awake, but his mother kept on going. "You know how many times I have told you to just wake up when your alarm goes off instead of pre-"

"Fine!" Hayner bellowed out his door, attempting to cut off his mother's incessant screeches. "Goddamn," he muttered to himself, "Can't she calm down, maybe, once? Oh wait, of course not; that would be rational!" He hastily pulled on his shoes and leapt down the stairs, smoothing his hair back into his classic hairstyle all the while. He left without breakfast, or a goodbye, for that matter, and slammed the door behind him.

Honestly, he did not care a bit about not saying goodbye to his mom. She paid little attention to him anyway, except when he was doing something wrong. If he ever did something right, her back would be ignorantly turned the other way, like she wanted her only son to be a bother, a misfortune, an accident. And speaking of not paying attention, his father probably saw Hayner for maybe ten, fifteen minutes… in a three-day span. And these fifteen minutes rarely, rarely, encompassed anything along the lines of an actual conversation. Heaven forbid a father speak with his son. At least his mom noticed he existed, even if it was only when he faltered. If they didn't care, why the hell should he?

Hayner had arrived at Roxas' house and waited out on the front porch for his best friend to walk to school with him. Yeah, Hayner had to walk to school. Like his parents would ever trust him with a car. Roxas took the courtesy to say goodbye to his kind, loving, perfect parents as he walked out his front door.

"Aw, gonna miss your mommy when you're at school?" Hayner teased in a mock-baby voice.

"Oh, shove it. We need to hurry up or else we'll be late!" The two boys hustled to school where Hayner wasted another perfectly good day, sitting in classrooms, talking to people he didn't like, and learning about absolutely nothing. Oh wait, he wasn't really learning. Hayner pretty much spent class time sleeping, with the occasional hand-raise followed by a dumb question- just so his teachers thought he was paying attention. Oh, how they were wrong.

After many long, drawn-out hours of basically nothing, the school bell finally rang, dismissing the weary students. Hayner gathered his homework, or at least, what he was pretty sure was homework, and left to go find Roxas. He found him leaning against the brick exterior of their ever-so-cleverly named school, Twilight Academy. The education board could have thought of something a little more creative, but no, they called it Twilight Academy.

"Hey!" Hayner exclaimed to Roxas as he ran down the steps to greet him.

"Yo," Roxas replied smoothly, maintaining his rather well known reputation. Most of the student body was pretty intimidated by Roxas, surprisingly. He could be he best, most loyal friend that anyone ever had (that Hayner was fortunate enough to have), but the majority, no, scratch that, all of the school saw him as cold, cruel, blunt, un-talkative, unpleasant, heartless…get the point?

"Let's get going, mkay? I really think I can do the ramp today!"

"Yeah, whatever you say, Hayner," Roxas taunted.

"Hey! I can!" Hayner yelled confidently. Roxas laughed at the contorted expression present on Hayner's face as he screamed at him. "I cannot believe you would say that! You even said last time that I was getting better!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

"You better be! Let's get outta here!" Hayner slung his backpack over his shoulder and began the short walk to Roxas' house. Most people skateboarded at Twilight Town's local skate park, but Roxas made Hayner practice in his driveway. He wasn't going to let Hayner be thoroughly embarrassed in front of a huge crowd of people. Well, not yet anyway.

When the two arrived at his house, Roxas dug through the huge pile of sports equipment in his garage, retrieved a worn, old-looking skateboard, and handed it to a disgusted Hayner. "This is the board I used when I landed my first 360 off the hill in the market, don't worry, it's for good luck," Roxas assured.

"How do you remember that?" Hayner inquired, mystified at Roxas' excellent memory.

"Who knows," Roxas answered, a grin forming on his face. "Here, help me pull out the ramp." The two uncovered Roxas small, hand-made ramp through the junk heaped carelessly on top. Yes, hand-made. That's just how much he loved skateboarding. They pulled it to the middle of his cement driveway, and Roxas immediately jumped on his own skateboard and began performing a variety of tricks off the ramp.

Roxas plus a skateboard equaled amazing. Hayner always thought it was so bizarre that Roxas could glide through the air effortlessly. It was almost as if Roxas belonged in the air rather than his own two feet.

"Okay, show-off, time to teach," Hayner said with a smile.

"Alright, I guess," Roxas replied jokingly, "Let's see…where to start? Ah! The first thing you need to do is pick up enough speed to actually get in the air. When you get to the ramp, steady yourself and do not turn, no matter what you do. Right before you hit the top, shift your weight to your back leg, and let'er fly!"

"Um, okay," Hayner muttered hesitantly. God, this might be a bit harder than it looks.

"So, just try to get in the air for now."

Hayner walked to the end of the driveway and hopped onto the wobbly skateboard. He pushed himself to the ramp, picking up substantial speed…or so he thought. When he got near to top, Hayner slowed, stopped, and rolled backward, defeated.

"Try again, little bit faster," Roxas encouraged, ignoring the fact that Hayner was obviously not pleased with himself. Hayner did as he was told and tried again, this time succeeding in getting up in the air.

"Wow…" Hayner mouthed as he rolled toward the end of the driveway for another go. This was why Roxas loved it so much. The feeling of weightlessness, the sunshine smiling on him, his hair blowing gently in the wind. It was terrific. "I'm going again!" Hayner yelled to Roxas. He followed the same steps, picked up speed, steadied his body; but right before he reached the top, a back wheel on Roxas' trusty, without-fail, good-luck skateboard popped off the axle. Hayner was sent flying off the ramp and forward through the air. Thankfully, he caught himself by landing halfway on his right shoulder, halfway on his opposing hand. Hayner cringed as the rough concrete peeled away the flesh on his palm, leaving an unexposed, raw layer of skin.

"Hey, you okay?" Roxas yelled as he ran toward Hayner's writhing body.

"That…hurt," murmured Hayner, trying his hardest to retain whatever pride he had left. He sat up and looked at his throbbing hand. Droplets of blood were just beginning to form on the surface. Well, he wasn't going to try the ramp again for a while. "Thanks for the crappy skateboard, Rox"

"Hey, sorry bud…d'ya wanna go inside or something?" Roxas replied in an unnaturally gentle tone, hand extended

"Nah. I think… I'll just go home," Hayner grabbed Roxas' hand and allowed himself to be pulled up.

"Alright, well… see ya." Roxas gave Hayner a pat on the back and proceeded to push the ramp back toward the garage.

Hayner wiped the dirt off his pants with his clean hand and trudged on home, wishing that maybe this time his mom would give him a bit of sympathy. He wasn't expecting any genuine pity, but he could hope.

He opened the front door slowly and walked into his front hall. "Mom?" he called. The sound bounced across the tiled floors, seeking an answer. No answer. "Mom?" he repeated as he walked toward the kitchen. As he entered, she was sitting in the barstool by the counter.

No, not his mom.

Olette.

"Where have you been?" she asked, almost menacingly.

"Wha…where have I been?" he repeated with a bewildered look on his face.

"Yes."

"Wait, what are you doing in my house?" he interrogated Olette suspiciously.

"I was supposed to come over here. Your parents and I agreed upon the time yesterday, weren't you listening? Now, where were you? I've been waiting here for nearly forty-five minutes." Olette said sharply, nodding her head toward the clock on the wall. Sure enough, it was a little past four.

Hayner stood at the entrance to his kitchen, staring at his tutor, who was practically a stranger to him, who was sitting in his kitchen. Alone. "How the hell did you get in my house?" Hayner's patience was running slim. His shoulder was aching painfully and the strange, burning feeling in his hand was only getting worse.

Olette dug through her purse and retrieved a set of keys, complete with a keychain that looked like some sea-salt ice cream. She flipped through the collection as she walked toward him and grabbed a large, bronzed key, waving it in front of his stunned face. "House key?" she said with a roll of her eyes, as if it were completely obvious that it was okay for a total stranger to be in Hayner's house alone.

Hayner looked at her like she was utterly insane. "I cannot believe you broke into my house," he whispered confusedly.

"I had a key," defended Olette, moving closer to him.

"So? Nobody was home!" Hayner's voice was nearing angry-raging-shouting-match loud.

"Well, that wasn't my fault. I came to tutor you. I wasn't expecting an empty house!" Now Olette had definitely gone past angry-raging-shouting-match level. Right in his face.

Awkward.

The two remained inches away from each other for a few seconds, staring angrily into each other's eyes. Olette finally backed away and returned to her seat and asked with as much politeness that she could muster, "So, where were you?"

"Roxas'." Hayner retorted.

"Roxas? Roxas Cameron? As in the really mean and weird Roxas?" The words spilled out of her mouth.

"He's my friend. He's not mean. He's not weird," Hayner said through gritted teeth.

"Oh," she said quietly, "Sorry."

Hayner sighed loudly. "It's okay…" He clambered onto the stool next to her and slammed his backpack onto the counter. "Well, let's get started."

"Okay…well, um," Olette hesitated, unsure of how to start. She was top in the class, but she had never tutored anyone before. Her mom had recommended it to her for some extra munny, and Hayner was her first…pupil, she supposed. "Y-your mom told me you were really struggling with chemistry, so we could start with that. Then we can work on some literature and maybe gramm- Hayner!"

"W-what?" he asked tentatively.

Eyes widening, she said slowly, "Your shoulder, it's…all scraped up! What did you d- Oh God, your hand! It's bleeding! It's even worse!"

"Fell," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Fell! I should call your mom!" she exclaimed worriedly.

"No…it's okay, she wouldn't care…" Hayner whispered softly, pain evident in his hazel eyes.

Olette looked at him sympathetically and paused before saying gently, "It's going to get infected! Here, lemme go find something to wash it with." Before Hayner could respond, Olette had already leapt out of her seat and bounded toward the bathroom. Well, Hayner was sure of one thing:

She was definitely different.

Olette returned carrying a wet, soapy rag, gauze, and bandages. "Okay, I just need you to sit still for little bit; it might hurt a little…" she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling his bloody palm toward her. The instant the rag touched his wound, Hayner screamed and yanked his hand from her grasp.

"Hey!" Hayner yelled.

"Hayner, look at me!" she said motherly, tilting his head so his gaze was directed toward her. "It's going to hurt like hell, but it'll hurt so much worse if you don't let me clean it." Hayner was now sure of a second thing:

Her eyes were the prettiest color of green he had ever seen.

"Okay…" he said, almost childishly.

She grabbed his wrist more gently and cleaned his palm as best she could. Every once in a while, she could feel his body twitch from the pain, but he didn't say a thing. He was too lost in her shimmering emerald orbs.

She wrapped his hand in the soft gauze and bandages, taking care to not inflict pain if she didn't have to. "Okay," she said with a sigh, "Finished. Let's get back to work now. So, chemistry?" Hayner reached into his backpack and pulled out his chemistry book. "So, let's work on balancing equations, that's what your teacher said you were having trouble with…Hayner?" Hayner was sitting completely still, eyes fixed upon his closed textbook. "Hayner?"

"Thank you," he said almost inaudibly.

A blush crept across her cheeks, "Oh. No problem," she said, smiling. She reached behind her neck and flipped her hair over her shoulders, hoping to hide the redness of her face. "So…let's balance some equations."

Hayner looked over and grinned, "Sure."

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Well, he could get his hopes up a little…

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author's notes: To be continued! Ba-ba-bum! Just to let everyone know, I have never skateboarded in my life. So I kinda made up that part. Hope you all like this chappy, I tried to make it fairly long to make up for the last chapter. Well, reviews are GREATLY appreciated. Feel free to point out super obvious errors, that'd be nice.

disclaimer: KH does not belong to me!