Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

A/N: Wow it took a while for me to update. Sorry about that! I hope you guys like this so far! I just wrote this while I was supposed to be working on a paper for English, and now I'm stuck at home, the rough draft is due tomorrow, and I really don't wanna do it =( I hate papers. It's a stupid research paper that I've already done a million times before, figuratively speaking. The only thing she's grading us on is how well we can cite sources and junk. I don't wanna write the paper!!! =C Sigh, well, I'd better get started. Oh! And good news for those of you who love/d my story The Iris and The Lily: I'm continuing it! I'm beginning another Avatar craze, so I have the inspiration to go further! I still have a long way to go, so hurrah! Thanks to deviantart, for all the Zuko pictures that make me love him, and to ba77ousai, for writing The Girl of Ba Sing Se, my forever inspiration for anything Avatar that I write. Now, to write that paper... =(

Chapter Two

Five

Things had changed so much since Avery arrived. I had disappeared from my parents' eyes. Everything was Avery. Avery was crying? Time to ignore Lea. Avery needed to be changed? Time to ignore Lea. Avery was sleeping? Hey, let's go watch him and ignore Lea. Good plan, guys. Real good.

I'd thrived on attention. Still do, in a way. And since I had become invisible, I tried everything I could think of to get it back, short of hurting Avery. I hated him, hated him for taking my parents away from me. But I couldn't hurt him. It felt wrong. So I just had to divert mom and dad's attention back to me.

Naturally, I got in a lot of trouble.

See, when kids want attention – when kids want anything, really – they go about getting it using the most extreme ways possible. Water balloons. Paint balloons – oh yeah, I got it big time for that one. Never looked at green paint the same way again. Pots and pans all over the floor, the carpet, the garage. Opening the paper shredder and "decorating" the living room. And those are just the ones I remember. Trust me, there were plenty others.

I sure got their attention, but not the attention I wanted. They yelled at me, punished me, scolded me. I guess that was better than being ignored. But then, when I was sitting in a corner, contemplating my actions – or pretending to – they would walk away, climb back up the stairs, and out of my sight. I could hear giggles and coos through the ceiling. Back with Avery, ignoring their obviously troubled son.

Things just got worse from there.

Since I couldn't get love from my parents, I was forced to use other sources. Classmates. Teachers. Animals. Anything that would look at me, talk to me, wouldn't run off to my stupid baby brother. Once, in kindergarten, I drew a picture of an orange dinosaur. The teacher, a middle-aged blonde woman, complimented it and said I had real talent. I realized that art could be my golden ticket, could make me shine brighter than Avery's blue eyes. I started drawing all the time, getting better and better, until the teacher started putting my drawings up on her wall. She even told me she'd called my parents to set up a meeting about my ability, that they should look into it. They didn't show up. Avery got sick.

I started not to mind, though. With everyone else's eyes on me, I didn't need theirs. I'm not sure if I ever believed it though. But that's not the point.

The point is a girl. She was four and a half at the time. That's what she told everyone when she met them. That's what she told me, when she bounced over to the table just after recess, eyes glowing, and stuck her hand out to me. "Hi!" she said loudly. "I'm Marley, and I'm four and a half!"

I was a little taken aback by her energy, so used to silence in my home. But I quickly got over it. I welcomed her smile, her life. It let me know that there was still life around me, that things weren't bad everywhere, just at home. I shook her hand, mine a little bigger than hers. "My name's Lea."

"I like your picture." She scrambled up into the seat next to me, pointing at my drawing of a jet flying through clouds. She pronounced it "pik-shur."

"Thanks." Somehow, when she said she liked it, it meant more to me than the teacher complimenting me. Back then, I didn't know what I felt for her. I was afraid, and confused. After that first meeting of ours, we talked more and more, even hanging out on the swings and going down the slide after each other, sometimes for the whole recess time.

I liked being around her, but on the other hand, she had cooties. I couldn't get cooties! I had to stop hanging out with her. Immediately. But how to make her go away?

One day, completely on impulse, I unexpectedly found the perfect way to make her and her cooties stay away from me for good.

I stuck gum in her hair.

I didn't feel bad at all. It was hilarious! I was used to the sound of crying by that time, so when she burst out in tears, it didn't halt my laughter in the slightest. I felt a slight pang somewhere in my chest, but I figured it was just from laughing so hard. The teacher came over and pulled her away, yelling at me while trying to comfort her. It was a huge scene, and one the teacher didn't forget. She never complimented me on my artwork again.

I regretted doing that to Marley. I'd lost my only sources of attention. My art was nothing now, no one paid any mind to it. No one paid any mind to me.

Back to square one. And even though paint balloons were a big no, there was plenty else I could still do. So I kept planning, kept misbehaving, kept getting in trouble. And it lasted for the rest of my life.