Disclaimer: I don't own the Kingdom Hearts franchise or any of it's characters and encourage support of the official release.
Sonic Dawn
Voices
It was the nineteenth of January, 9:40 A.M., and I was sitting in my psychology class with my head resting on my palm, listening to the teacher's lecture. Mr. Taylor wasn't a boring guy or anything, he just seemed to talk a lot more than other teachers and interject personal stuff. He was the only teacher whose divorces I could say I was informed on. Still, he was nice and his class was much freer than my other classes.
The room was rectangular and he would lecture in front of his desk using the whiteboard on the west side of the room when he wasn't in the middle talking. We all sat in one of three sections that were situated on the North, South, and East sides of the room, with the North and South being slightly angled facing West for Mr. Taylor's lectures. I sat in the North section with Riku, while Naminé and Xion sat in the South section (giving us all an easy view of each other I might add).
"…so never self-diagnose yourself. People will commonly think they have the worst with few symptoms," Mr. Taylor said as he finished his lecture on mental diseases. He then looked at the clock and saw that we had ten minutes of class left. "Go ahead and get with your partners and talk about your presentations." He was speaking of these presentations we were supposed to give on various mental diseases. Riku and I were partners as were Naminé and Xion. We got panic disorder while they got schizophrenia. They had a lot more material to work with than we did; a bad fact considering Riku and I knew we wouldn't use our time as wisely. We decided to talk instead of doing our work of course.
"So Roxas," Riku started as he turned his desk to face mine and take out notes for a decent cover, "have you been doing anymore songwriting?"
"A bit, yeah. No lyrics though," I thoughtlessly responded. I wanted to change the subject despite Riku liking to be active in with the band. Music was therapy but you also had to think about what you were writing about a lot, whether you wanted to or not. "You know what I've been thinking about now that we're in psych class?"
"What's that?"
"In movies and stuff, when a character acts like they have schizophrenia or are hallucinating or any of that, the other characters always guess it right, right away."
Riku chuckled a bit then asked, "Can you elaborate?" while still wearing a smile.
"If the character actually has a problem, the other characters always immediately act as if they should take him really seriously. But honestly, if Joe or some random kid in class started acting like he had schizo, what would you think?"
"That he was either begging for attention or was incredibly stoned."
"Exactly!" I said, leaning back with my hands behind my head in satisfaction. Riku laughed and looked down thinking about what I said.
"Maybe we should ask the experts," he said, jerking his head in the direction of Xion and Naminé. I looked over and sure enough, they were flipping through papers obviously doing their work like we should've. I wanted to immediately tear them away from their work, especially Naminé, but I knew we shouldn't.
"They're busy…"
"Hey, Xion, Naminé." Riku called. They both immediately looked towards us and put smiles on.
"What's up?" asked Xion, surprisingly eagerly.
"Roxas here has been hearing voices in his head, what do you think about that?"
"No he has not," Naminé said, shaking her head with a smile. I laughed as she had just proved my point. People in television and movies always responded a little too seriously when people easily could've been messing around with them.
"You're right, but there was a voice in my head that said to talk to you guys," Riku said casually.
"Oh really now?" asked Xion with eyebrows up in mock surprise. "What else did it say?" Riku flirtatiously responded, making up some stuff about eating this weekend despite it being Monday. I listened with amusement for a while but then looked at Naminé who seemed to have been doing the same thing. Just as I started to feel my heart beat itself, she looked at me with a smile. I smiled and shrugged. She laughed and shrugged too. I loved this class.
***
It was now just after 7:00 P.M. that same day, and I had just finished my homework. It was perfect timing too because my mom had finished dinner. She made spaghetti, one of my favorite meals. I jogged downstairs and into the kitchen and saw my mom leaning on the counter, staring into seemingly nothing.
"Hey mom," I called. I realized she probably hadn't heard me come down the stairs; I seemed to have startled her a bit.
"Hey there Roxas," she said, quickly composing herself. "Ready to eat?"
"Of course!" I happily responded. I got myself a plate, a drink, and sat down at the kitchen table with her. I immediately started chowing down and quickly too. It just tasted too good to leave any time between having some in my mouth.
"I'm glad you like it," my mom said, giggling the slightest bit.
"It's delicious!" I mumbled, though I doubted she could actually hear what I had said. I finished a second plate quickly while my mom very casually still ate her first plate.
"So how was school?"
"Same old," I said shrugging. "I'm just glad Monday is over."
"Of course," she said with a soft smile.
"How was work?"
"Same old." I laughed, but I couldn't imagine the same old in an office job being that entertaining unless it had Steve Carell as a boss. She was working late pretty often too, which neither of us liked.
After a few more minutes of conversation, I headed upstairs to practice music and play some video games, and maybe read a bit too. I ended up playing a lot, but with not much fire. The book I was reading got kind of boring too, but I knew I liked it. I just felt a bit lacking I guess. Things brightened when I got a text.
From Axel: Roxas, lets get some food after school tomorrow, the lunch at school has tasted too much like cardboard lately.
I liked the idea, but was feeling lazy. Still, I knew I would anyway. I responded and told him that I would go. I watched some T.V. in my room afterwards when I got another text.
From Riku: Hey Roxas, lets work on that presentation for real. It's due a week from Friday.
This was an idea that I agreed with, but felt even lazier about. My fingers dragged as I responded with details on what days would work for me. I got ready for bed and was a bit annoyed that I got a third text. Tonight I was the guy apparently. I brightened when I saw whom it was from.
From Naminé: Olette's birthday is coming up. Wanna shop for gifts with Kairi and Sora and I this weekend?
I had a feeling that Hayner would completely outshine us despite them not being together. They may as well have been though. I agreed to the shopping trip and suddenly about half my week was booked and I was feeling pretty good.
After about an hour, I had the urge to go to the bathroom so I went in the hall and did my business when I heard noise from my mom's room. I was surprised since she had told me good night not long after the texts. I stopped in the dark hallway to listen and I heard her voice. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but it sounded kind of solemn. I figured she must've have just been on the phone with one of her friends.
Half the length of the previous chapter, but ultra quick and good character development too if I do say so myself.
