3

The next morning, Naminé climbed out of bed and made sure that her door was unlocked before heading to the bathroom to get ready. She didn't need a repeat of yesterday morning. While she was drying her hair, there was a crash. She dashed into her room and found Cloud standing there, the door once again at his feet. Naminé sighed.

"Is this going to happen on a daily basis?"

Cloud smirked. "Maybe. Depends on my mood." He tossed the clothes on her bed. "You know the drill."

"Oh, don't worry, I'll walk to school today."

Cloud stopped and looked at her. "Are you sure?"

Naminé nodded.

"Positive?"

"Yes."

"…. One hundred percent sure?"

"Yes! I'll be fine!" Naminé smiled.

"All right," Cloud said. "Don't be late."

Fifteen minutes later, Naminé exited the house and walked down the steps. She turned and started walking towards the school.

"Hey Blondie! Lookin' hot!"

Naminé glanced over her shoulder and scowled. Her next door neighbor Seifer was standing in his front yard with his posse, Rai and Fuu. He winked at her and waved. What a creepy jerk. She thought.

"Wow, thanks Seifer, but I didn't know you were like that."

Naminé looked down the road to see Riku, Sora, and Roxas burst out laughing as Hayner stood there, smirking. Seifer growled and looked at the group. Rai stepped in front of Seifer and stretched out his arms. "Hey, that's not really cool, y'know? Seifer's not like that, y'know?"

"Hey Rai," Riku called out. He pointed at the stairs leading down to the park in the neighborhood. "I heard that if you count the steps going up and down, you won't get the same number."
"Seriously?" Rai took off for the steps waving at Fuu. "C'mon, Fuu! We gotta go count these steps, y'know?" Fuu smacked her forehead and followed the larger boy.

Naminé giggled and joined the four boys. "Do you mind if I walk with you guys?" A simultaneous shake of heads gave her the answer. They all set off for school.

"Hey," Sora pointed to a tree seventy yards down the road. "Last one to that tree buys ice cream for the winners. What do ya say?"

Riku nodded. "I'm up for it."

"Count me in!" Hayner shouted.

"I'll pass."

"Me too."

Naminé and Roxas smiled at each other.

"All right." Sora said grinning. "Ready? Set?" He started running. "Go!"

"Hey, no fair!" Hayner shouted, racing to catch up to the brunette.

"Hayner takes only two things in life seriously: challenges and ice cream." Roxas said to Naminé. She giggled.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, they both heard a faint yell in the distance.

"NO WAY! EVERY TIME I COUNT, IT'S DIFFERENT, Y'KNOW?"

The two teens looked at each other and started laughing.

"So, how do you like Twilight Town?" asked Roxas.

"It's nice," replied Naminé. "My parents were running low on finances, so I came here to live with my brother."

"Oh," Roxas said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Naminé smiled at him. "It's ok. I know it was for the best."

"So, what's your brother's name?" he asked.

"Cloud."

Something flashed through his mind. A face. Blond hair, spiky, carrying a huge sword. He grimaced.

Namine placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"

He nodded. "Yeah, don't worry about it." They continued walking. Roxas spoke up again. "So, what does your brother do?"

"He used to work for a private military contractor called SOLDIER. It was run by the Shinra Electric Power Company back in Radiant Garden. Have you heard of them?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah, they're huge."

Naminé continued. "He left though. He works as a deliveryman now. His best friend and former coworker Zack quit too." Another face, this time with black, slicked back spiky hair, another huge sword. The man shaking Roxas' head. A voice.

Hey, are you ok?

"He's teaching somewhere now, but I don't know where." She looked at Roxas, who was holding his head. "Are you sure you're ok?"

Again, he nodded. "I'm fine." They met up with the other three boys a few minutes later. Hayner grinned triumphantly. "Sora's buying. Again." He said to Roxas. Roxas smirked. "Well then I guess that means I'm buying then." At that moment, Sora looked up from where he was sitting under the tree. A light glinted in his eyes. "Hey Roxas, you don't happen to have ten munny that you aren't using, do you?" Everyone laughed.

-
The bell rang. Naminé rose from her seat and checked her schedule. History's next. She left the classroom and headed outside. She was walking toward the west building when she heard a commotion in the courtyard. She saw a crowd of people gathered around to figures. Both were blond. The one she could positively make out was Seifer. The other was-

Naminé gasped. Hayner?

She immediately dropped her bag and ran over to the shouting crowd. She pushed her way through the sea of people. Finally, she was able to see Hayner and Seifer squared off. Seifer sneered at the other blond boy.

"You're going to pay for that comment this morning, Blondie."

Hayner smirked. "Dude, you're blond too."

"SHUT UP!" Seifer shouted and swung a punch at Hayner's face. The boy dodged quickly to the right, then returned to his original position. Seifer swung again, and again, Hayner dodged. Seifer kicked at Hayner's midsection, but the boy jumped back and delivered a punch right into Seifer's face. Seifer jumped back stunned as some of the crowd cheered. He glared at them, and most of them shut up.

"I'll teach you for making me look like a loser!"

He went back at Hayner with a ferocity that made Naminé gasp. He swung and kicked with all he had, but somehow, Hayner managed to jump or duck under every onslaught. Finally, Seifer landed a kick in Hayner's stomach, sending the smaller boy flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him. Seifer stood over his victim, smirked in victory, and reared his fist.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around-

Right into Riku's oncoming fist. Seifer dropped to the ground, out cold. Most of the crowd burst into cheers, while others walked away scowling. Riku helped Hayner up.

"Thanks, man." The bruised blond said to him.

Riku grinned. "No problem. That moron had to learn his lesson sometime or another." He looked down at said moron and spit on the ground right next to his head.

There was a commotion in the crowd off to the right. Namine looked to see Rai pushing his way through the mass of kids, Fuu calmly walking behind him. Rai picked up the unconscious teen and slung him over his shoulder. He glared at the three of them.

"Seifer wasn't feeling so hot today, y'know?" he growled.

"Never again." Fuu muttered, leveling each of them with a cold stare before walking off with Rai.

Naminé sighed. "C'mon, let's go to class." The two boys nodded and followed her to the West building. While they were walking behind Naminé, Riku and Hayner exchanged a fist pound.

Naminé could hear the teacher inside the classroom from where she stood in the hall. She took a deep breath before knocking three times on the door and entered the classroom. The teacher stopped midsentence and looked at the newcomer. Naminé froze.

Black spiky hair. Bright blue eyes.

No way. Naminé smiled, and the teacher gave her a look telling her not to say anything. Namine immediately dropped the smile and hung her head a bit.

"Well, who do we have here?" He looked at his watch. "The bell rang three minutes ago." He pointed to a seat in the first row. "Late people get to sit in the front where I can spit on them." Naminé smiled as the rest of the class laughed. She quickly sat down in her assigned seat.

The man stood right in front of her desk, grinning. "So, you're just gonna sit there like a bump on a log and leave us hanging? What's your name kid?"

Funny how everybody likes calling me 'kid.' I don't look that young do I? Or do I act too immature? I've hardly done anything, so I don't know how-

The teacher waved his hand in front of her face. "Hello? Anyone home?" The class started laughing again, causing Naminé to snap out of her thoughts and start blushing. "M-my name is Naminé. I'm new here."

The teacher crossed his arms. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" He grinned. "I am Mr. Zachary Fair. If you call me that, I will kill you." More chuckles from the peanut gallery. "Mr. Fair or Mr. Zack is fine. Anyways, I'm the history teacher here and we were just talking about the first settlers of Twilight Town before you walked in, so if we could continue please."

Naminé smiled the entire hour at her "Uncle" Zack. She knew that if there was one class that she would like all year, it was this one.

Yeah, kinda short, been a while since I've updated. Again, reviews are nice, but not necessary. If you want, please let me know what I need to fix and what I can change.