Kairi groaned, the thick piece of paper feeling heavy in her hand. "Drama class? I thought this school was strictly academic!" Her heart sunk in her chest, her blue eyes narrowed in disappointment as she glared at her schedule.

Namine laughed, but there was a hint of sympathy in it. "Consider yourself lucky. I have dance class."

The two girls strolled through the campus, which was vibrant and alive compared to when Kairi first arrived; students filled the cobblestone pathways and benches, all dressed in their uniforms. A warm, tropical breeze washed over the place, rustling the leaves of the beautiful trees; birds sung from high above, tinkling over the sounds of hundreds of individual conversation from the students.

"Is there any way I can opt out?" Kairi asked, her stomach clenching. There was no way she was attending drama class without a fight—she'd never been much of an actress. She was a terrible liar. "You know, switch classes or something?"

Namine snorted at the idea. "Sure—you can place a report for altering your schedule," Her tone was sly, "And the board of directors looks at it. You'd have to go to the school's court, plead your case, file papers, convince the board with a legitimate reason to switch classes…"

"Sounds like it's hard to do."

"It is," Namine said, taking a sip from the coffee she'd bought earlier that morning, from the campus café. "No one has actually managed to switch a class in the history of this place." With a sigh, she added, "Just another way for the Dean to gain control."

Kairi wrapped her fingers around her coffee a bit more tightly. Despite the warm breeze, the morning was still a bit chilly; the air was crisp on the mountain, colder than it would be in her little house on the beach, with her dad. "What's the deal with her?" Kairi asked. "The Dean?"

They strolled through the campus, their gait slow. As they made their way, several people called out greetings to Namine; she waved in response, grinning. Safe to say, Namine was a pretty popular student.

She shrugged. "She just has a lady-boner for control," Her voice was tinged with sarcasm as she spoke. "I like to think she had a rough childhood, and that's why she'd such a cold-hearted bitch. Or that she hasn't gotten laid in a decade."

Kairi smirked; they pulled off of the pathway, walking across the dewy grass towards a pond. Students were scattered across the grass, sitting on blankets, chatting, drinking and eating; the two girls pulled up to a blanket, where a boy with blonde hair lay, eyes closed.

Namine poked him with her foot. "Wake up, sleepy."

The boy's nose crinkled and he groaned; he blinked a couple times before his eyes peered up at the blonde. When he spoke, his voice was deep. "You know, Namine, it's rude to wake a person."

She let out a sigh, then plopped down beside him on the blanket; he scooted over, pulling himself to a sitting position. "How many times do I have to tell you? I'm naturally rude. You should have accepted it by now." She let out a breath of laughter. "Besides, you need to meet Kairi. She's my new roomie."

The boy's pale eyes flickered up to Kairi, looking at her with interest; he seemed to deliberate internally for a moment, deciding whether or not he approved of her. Then, his lips broke out into a bright smile, and he nodded at her. "I'm Roxas."

Kairi's lips morphed into a smile in response, glad to be accepted by the boy. "Kairi."

"So," He smiled, slumping back on his back and tossing his arms behind his head, leaning on them. "What's your schedule? Maybe we have classes together."

"Advanced chemistry, Latin, advanced English, and drama."

Roxas grimaced. "Ooh. Drama—that's rough. But, hey, we have chemistry together."

Kairi let out a sigh of relief; she'd been kind of scared about going to her first class completely alone—but now she didn't have to. "What times does class even start?"

"In about half an hour," Namine said, peering at her watch. "Ten o'clock. The nice thing about this place is that they start classes pretty late—gives you enough time to get ready."

"Yeah," Roxas laughed. "But not everyone takes an hour and a half to do their hair, Namine."

She hit his shoulder playfully. "Quit exaggerating—I only take an hour."

Roxas grinned at her. "That's not true—what about at the Spring Formal? I had to sit in the livingroom for two and a half hours, waiting. Thank god Olette was there to keep me company, or I would have died of boredom."

"That's different—it was a formal. You have to look perfect."

He rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath quiet enough that Namine didn't hear. "You always look perfect, you dingbat."

Namine took the last sip of her coffee, staring glumly at her empty cup and sighing heavily. "I think I'm in love with coffee."

Kairi snorted, sitting on the blanket across from the two blondes.

"Yeah? Then why don't you marry it?" Roxas spat sarcastically.

Namine narrowed her eyes. "What, are you a kindergartener?"

"Excuse me, but who is the one taking university level calculus?" He retorted with a smile. "Oh, right. Me."

"Ugh," The blonde grimaced back, "Don't remind me. I'm so ashamed."

Kairi laughed. "So, are grades super important around here?"

Roxas nodded. "Pretty much. If you get below an 85% in a class, you get kicked out."

"So I've heard," Kairi murmured, remembering when the Dean had informed her of that rule.

"Not to mention, intelligence is sort of like popularity around here," Namine added, her blue eyes big and honest. "The higher your grades, the better off you are. Like those kids, over there." She said, nodding towards a large group of students sitting below a big tree, "Those are the B's."

A frown flickered onto Kairi's pale face. "The B's?"

"Yeah. They were the ones that were smart enough to get in, but just linger on the 85% line. Not low enough to get kicked out, but not particularly great, especially in the standards that the Academy has."

Her eyebrows lifted, surprised; she found it odd that grades were the basis of cliques. Back home, it was appearance that had raised or lowered a kid a level or two. "Oh."

"See that girl, sitting on that bench?" Roxas spoke gently, eyes flickering towards said person. He continued once Kairi glanced over at the girl, who had her nose stuffed into the thickest book she'd ever seen. "She's an above."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Do I even need to ask?"

Namine laughed her tinkly, bell-like giggle. "Aboves are the geniuses. Above the standard," She took a moment to glance at the girl. "The highest you can get—everyone wants to know them, be seen with them."

"But," Roxas piped in, finishing Namine's point. "Since they have to study so hard to get the grades they do, they hardly have time to socialize." He sighed. "It's a perpetual struggle. Us, over here—and them, over there."

"Why does everyone want to be friends with the aboves?"

"Because, Kairi!" Namine cried dramatically, garnering a few stares from passersby. "Only aboves are seen with aboves. If we were friends with her, that'd boost our social cred and probably boost our marks, considering how much they study."

Kairi smirked, amused by Namine's theatrics. "Why don't you just go talk to her then?"

Namine stared at her, blue eyes wide and shocked; her jaw fell open, slack. She stared for a moment, then turned to Roxas. "She's hopeless."

Roxas laughed. "A lost cause," He nodded, agreeing.

"Kairi, you can't just talk to an above—not when you're a lower class. Pull your head outta your ass."

Kairi shook her head, laughing. "You're kidding me, right?" She blinked, staring at the two. "This is for real? You're not just pulling my leg?"

"Would I kid you about this?"

She shook her head, astounded. "I feel like I'm in a bad made-for-tv movie."

Namine pounded her hand into the blanket, beginning to grin at her own overly dramatic approach to things. "Welcome to the real world, Kairi!"

"Okay, okay," Kairi snorted, amused by the way things worked around here. If she told her friends back home, they'd never believe her. "So, if those are the B's—and those are the aboves…what are you?"

Namine sighed heavily. "We, my dear friend, are the lowly A's."

"Hey—don't sell yourself short. At least your not a B," Kairi joked, tone lighthearted and teasing.

Namine stuck to the dramatic side of things. "True. Alas, the struggle is still real."

Roxas rolled his eyes, ignoring the blonde; he glanced at Kairi. "Keep in mind, you're an A now, too. You should feel just as torn up inside as Namine."

Namine gave an emotional, shaky sigh, almost to acknowledge the truth behind Roxas' words.

"Oh, believe me, I am," Kairi nodded, playing along. "My poor, achey-breaky heart. How will I survive, only being a lowly A?"

Namine rested her hand on Kairi's shoulder, her expression twisted up into one of mock sadness. "The only way there is to survive, my dear: by eating lots and lots of chocolate."

Roxas sighed, glancing down at his watch. "Class starts in fifteen minutes," His voice sounded dreary and tired all of a sudden. "C'mon, Kairi—I'll introduce you to a few people while we're there."

"Sure," She nodded, pulling herself up from the ground.

Roxas leaned over, pressing his lips to Namine's cheek, then pulled himself to standing position. "Seeya, Nami."

Namine's cheeks flushed a little. "Have fun, you two. Meet me at the quad for lunch!"

Before class, Roxas graciously introduced Kairi to a couple of his friends—Selphie, Hayner, Pence and Yuffie—dubbing her 'the cool new one that he likes very, very much', much to Kairi's pleasure.

The class itself was a lot different than what she'd expected. Taught more like a university course than a highschool one, the teacher lectured in the big hall for the entire class, and the students took notes; Roxas explained to Kairi that they usually took notes for a couple weeks, then had a big test on them. In between these lectures, they would have labs, where they would conduct experiments. He warned her to study the notes a lot, pay attention in class and re-read lap preparations the night before. She nodded, thanking the heavens that she'd met him, glad to have someone to help her prepare.

After class, Roxas lead her to her next block, Latin. He was rushed—he didn't want to be late for his next block; he said something about punishments being particularly rough for that—but promised to come and pick her up after class, and bring her to the quad to have lunch with the gang. She thanked him, again feeling oddly blessed that he was a new friend of hers.

Latin class was a bit different from chemistry. Rather than lecturing, it was a lot smaller in scale; there were only about thirty kids in the class. The teacher informed Kairi of the single rule in the class: you could say whatever you wanted, as long as it was in Latin. The class was spent with the teacher explaining and repeating Latin words, using them in sentences; she handed out Latin dictionaries, asking kids to look up words so that they could converse with her. The boy behind Kairi—she wasn't sure who it was, she hadn't looked—spent the rest of the class looking up dirty phrases and swear words, spitting them out in Latin, sounding like he'd never had more fun.

Once the bell—which was literally a bell; the bell tower clanged loudly to signify the block was over—rang, Kairi gathered her things and slipped out of the room. Being true to his word, Roxas awaited outside the classroom, leaning against the wall.

"Hey!" He grinned. "How was Latin?"

Kairi offered him a sly smile. "Longinquus."

"Ah," He chuckled. "You're funny. Latin. I get it."

She hugged her binder to her chest. "I know. So, where to?"

"The quad," He explained, leading Kairi through a maze of corridors and corners, thoroughly confusing her sense of direction. "The gang will be there—but you've already met them. The girls."

"Oh," Kairi nodded. "Yeah."

Within a minute or so, they'd broken free of the constraints of the tall, stone building; now, they were walking across the big, green lawns, towards a large courtyard that lay beyond the doors of a different castle-like building. Sitting at one of the large tables was the entire group—Namine, Olette, Xion, Aqua, Selphie, Hayner, Pence, everyone. Kairi and Roxas sat down, joining them.

"Here," Xion spoke softly, handing over a small dish of fruit to Kairi. "For lunch. I packed some for you."

"Oh," Kairi said, meeting Xion's gaze. She could see how shy the black-haired girl was, and for some reason, this action seemed to mean quite a lot. "Thanks a lot, Xion."

Everyone ate, chatting and sharing stories as they did so; the entire lunch reminded her of her lunches back home, sitting with her friends in their school cafeteria, eating the disgusting food that the cafeteria lady boiled up each day. Kairi began to feel a bit homesick, but it didn't last for long—her thoughts were interrupted and wiped out when she saw a boy stride past the courtyard, lead and followed by security guards.

She frowned, watching him go past. "Whose that?" She murmured, watching the boy carefully. He had spiky brown hair and a long, lean body; he seemed to be chatting with the guards, an outgoing grin plastered across his face. His expression was happy, joyful; she didn't think she'd ever seen someone so outwardly happy. The sight of his smile made the corners of her lips turn up, made her stomach feel warm and nice. The guards, on the other hand, also seemed to be having a hard time not grinning at whatever it was he was saying.

Roxas' eyes flickered to the spiky haired boy, as he slipped from view. "Sora," He said, mouth full of whatever it was he was eating. "He's in my dorm."

Kairi lips turned up at the corners, intrigued. Sora. What a nice name. "What was with the security guards?"

A frown flickered across Namine's face, and she searched Kairi's expression for a long moment. "Trust me—you do not want to get near that kid."

"Why? Is he a B?" Kairi joked, teasing.

The entire table seemed to snort at that, but not for the reason she'd intended; Namine shook her head. "He's worse than a B."

Kairi's eyebrows tugged down. "Lower than a B? Shouldn't he be kicked out, then?"

"Yeah," Aqua spoke up from the opposite side of the table. "He should. That's the mysterious part. He fails almost every course, skips nearly every class, but he's still here. No one knows why or how."

"Have you ever asked him?" Kairi said blankly, forgetting that the entire subject of interacting with different grades of social classes wasn't the norm.

Selphie's eyes grew wide. "Ask him? I wouldn't even speak to him."

"Just because he's not an A?" Kairi fought, a little bit stung by the close-mindedness of her new friends.

"No, no," Namine shook her head. "It's not that he's not an A. He's just…trouble. He's attending the best school in the universe, and he doesn't care about his grades? That's a bit weird, don't you think?"

"Add the fact that no one knows absolutely anything about him, and it's a very blurry picture," Olette nodded. "He's just sort of this big…mystery, you know? Why is he still here? Why did he come here in the first place?"

"Wait a second," Kairi said, frowning; she was aware of the cold chill that had wrapped itself around the table. "Why don't you guys like him?"

Namine's light voice answered for all of them. "He's a big mystery. Mysteries are distractions. In a place like this, you can't afford to have even the slightest slip up. He's just bad news."

Selphie's innocent voice was bright. "I heard he slept with the Dean," She nodded matter-of-factly, "And that's why he's still in here. She's wrapped around his little finger."

"I heard he killed the last Dean, and he threatened to kill the current one, so she can't kick him out," Aqua retaliated.

Roxas rolled his eyes. "You guys are terrible gossips. Don't listen to 'em, Kairi."

"Alright then, smarty pants," Namine turned to the blonde boy. "If you live with him, tell us the truth. What's his deal?"

Roxas scoffed. "Hell if I know," He muttered. "But he's never been a problem. He keeps to himself. I like that."

"Have you ever talked to him?" Selphie asked.

"Yeah, a couple times," He shrugged nonchalantly. "He seems fine to me. Not a bad guy. If you got caught up with him, sure, he's probably trouble—but from a distance, not bothersome."

Namine narrowed her eyes, turning back to her food. "I think he's bad. Anyone who has guards escorting him places isn't anyone I'd ever like to meet."

Kairi stabbed a piece of fruit with her fork, staring at it for a long moment before chewing it slowly. She couldn't quite comprehend how that boy—Sora—could be seen as someone bad. She'd seen him smile at the guards; he'd looked friendly, happy, alive. How could someone like that be bad?

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for the rest of lunch, no longer aware of the conversation that took place before her. Her mind felt blurry, soft and mushy, her thoughts swirling about a single thing.

Sora.