*Chapter 2 – Strange Occurrences*
I bolted up into a sitting position, throwing my covers off of my body. I looked out my windows, then at my right hand.
"Key…blade?" I murmured, wondering how on earth I could have obtained something I did not know to have existed previously.
After getting dressed I ran to the alley, where I saw Roxas swinging a stick around.
"A Keyblade…what was that about?" He asked himself, throwing the stick over his shoulder. I winced, running over to him as the stick hit a person wearing a black cloak.
"Roxas." I murmured, stepping up beside him.
"Sorry…about that…" Roxas trailed off as the figure walked away, down the stairs towards the Sandlot.
"What was that all about?" I muttered, looking at Roxas in curiosity. Roxas shrugged.
When we walked in, Hayner handed us each a sea salt ice cream. I murmured a thank you and went to my usual seat, as Roxas sat down next to me.
"Do you guys think, we'll always be together like this? Pence asked randomly. I couldn't help but smile. The big goof was a really good friend after all.
"I sure hope so." Olette murmured her agreement, looking at all of us.
"Huh? Where did that come from?" Hayner asked, slightly incredulous.
"Oh, well, you know, just thinking out loud." Pence excuse rather poorly. I giggled a little, before returning to licking my ice cream.
"Well, I doubt we could be together forever. But isn't that what growing up's all about? What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other, right?" Hayner asked. Pence laughed.
"Get that off a fortune cookie?" Pence asked teasingly.
"That's it, no more ice cream for you!" Hayner retorted. "Man, today's turning out to be a drag." Hayner grumbled.
"Maybe because of yesterday's memory thief." Olette commented.
"Nuh-uh. You know what it is? We don't want summer vacation to be over. That's all!" Pence shrugged at Hayner's statement.
"So, how about this?" Hayner asked as he stood up. "We all go to the beach! And why do we go to the beach? Because, we haven't gone once this entire vacation! Blue seas! Blue skies! Let's just get on the train and go!" Hayner, during his speech, had walked towards the entrance, upon turning back to us, he saw our slightly put off expressions.
"No?" He asked incredulously. "Aw, c'mon!" He exclaimed, almost whining as we formed our usual group circle.
"Maybe you forgot, but we're broke." Roxas murmured, so as not to make Hayner blow his top.
"Maybe you forgot I'm smart!" Hayner claimed, pointing to himself, before running out of the Usual Spot, Olette and Pence right behind him, once again, Roxas and I left inside our Usual Spot.
We were about to leave when Pence ran back in to hurry us. I looked at Roxas a moment, before following Pence outside into the alley.
"We're going to Market Street!" Hayner ordered, before we all ran off in that direction. Roxas fell behind a little, but caught up to us at the annual Struggle poster pinned to one of the walls.
"Just two days to go. You and I have to make the finals! That way, no matter who wins, the five of us split the prize!" I smiled. I had decided to tell Hayner while we were waiting for Roxas that I would sit out of the Struggle tournament this year, because I didn't really feel up to fighting again after what happened yesterday.
"Okay, you're on!" Roxas agreed, accepting Hayner's challenge.
"You two are gonna clean up!" Pence agreed.
"Yeah." I added.
"Go get 'em!" Olette encouraged. Roxas and Hayner crossed forearms, our groups promise thingy.
"It's a promise!" Hayner claimed, as both boys nodded to each other.
"Now, let's get down to business." Hayner continued. "One ticket to the beach is 900 munny. How much for the five of us?" He asked, looking at all of us.
"4500 munny." I murmured, after doing the math (A.n. – Something I wish I could do so easily XP)
"And 300 each to spend there. What's that for all of us?" Hayner added.
"1500 munny. A total of 5000 munny." Olette chipped in.
"To spend on what?" Roxas asked curiously.
"Pretzels, of course!" Hayner exclaimed. "What else is there?"
"Well, there's always watermelon." Roxas murmured.
"Too pricey, they're like, 2000 munny apiece." Hayner shot down that idea quickly.
"Pretzels it is." I murmured in slight sarcasm.
"So, where were we?" Hayner asked, looking somewhere else a moment or two before turning back to us.
"We need 5000 munny altogether. But all we have is…" I trailed off, looking in my pockets.
"I've got 800." Pence said.
"…650." Olette added.
"50. Sorry." I murmured.
"100. Sorry again." Roxas added.
"That's 1600 munny! We need another 3400. Let's find ourselves some odd jobs and earn some dough! We have 'til the train leaves to earn 800 munny each!" Hayner exclaimed, running off.
"Meet at the station with cash in hand!" He called as he disappeared. I sighed, before going over to the job notice board to begin my manual labour duties. I delivered mail, got rid of rubbish and pushed carts of goods to the mechanic's garage for about two hours before I had 800 munny in my pockets. I sighed when I met up with Pence and Olette again, squatting and closing my eyes after handing Olette the munny I had earned.
"Manual labour…ugh!" I groaned. In response to this, Olette and Pence simply laughed.
After walking up to the Station Plaza and meeting up with Roxas and Hayner, we formed our usual circle.
"All present and accounted for." Hayner began.
"What've we got?" I asked, curiously.
"Let's see…" Roxas murmured. "Just this." He murmured, holding out 870 munny.
"Nice going Roxas!" Hayner exclaimed.
"I knew you could do it!" Olette cheered.
"What've you got, Xerena?" Hayner asked curiously.
"800 munny exactly." I stated proudly as the group cheered.
"Nice work everyone. Added to what we started with, we now have…tada! 6000 munny!" Olette exclaimed, holding up a handmade munny pouch. I grinned happily.
"Sweet!" Hayner exclaimed.
"Let's get tickets!" Olette cheered before she and Pence ran into the Station. I smiled, about to follow when Hayner spoke up.
"We can't be together forever so we'd better make the time we do have something to remember." I grinned as Roxas looked at Hayner as if he'd grown a second head.
"Huh?" He mumbled, as Hayner rubbed his nose, before punching Roxas' shoulder playfully.
"Gotcha!" He exclaimed, before running after Pence and Olette into the station. I smiled fondly.
"Friendship is something to cherish, Roxas. Always remember that." I murmured, before starting toward the others, Roxas beside me, until he suddenly tripped. I gasped, kneeling to help him up.
"You okay? I asked in a murmur as he nodded. Then I looked up in shock as a guy in a black cloak appeared out of nowhere and yanked Roxas and I to our feet. He said something to us, which we didn't quite catch.
"What?" Roxas half exclaimed, looking at the guy in bewilderment.
"Roxas! Xerena! Three minutes!" Hayner called. I looked over and nodded.
"Okay!" I called back as Roxas stared at the spot where the man in black had been standing, before we ran into the station. We ran in as Hayner bumped his fist against the counter.
"Five students." He said gruffly, holding up a hand and waggling his fingers to indicate the number five, a smirk on his face.
"Roxas! The money!" Pence called as we walked over. Roxas stopped, patting all his pockets.
"Wait – No!" Roxas exclaimed.
"Huh?" Hayner grunted.
"He took it." I murmured, looking at Roxas, who nodded, before running to the exit.
"Where are you going?" Olette called, as Roxas turned back to look at us.
"Remember when I fell? I had the money before that. I bet that guy took it!" Roxas explained, looking at each of us in turn.
"Guy?" Hayner mumbled sceptically.
He couldn't have gotten too, far…" Roxas trailed off at the looks the others were giving him.
"What are you talking about? There was no guy." Hayner said sceptically. I knew there was a guy there, we had been yanked up from the ground by him.
"You don't believe him?" I asked in a murmur. Hayner just looked at me sceptically as well.
"There wasn't anyone…there?" Roxas asked, saddened that his story wasn't believable enough for the other three. I sighed balefully as Hayner, Pence and Olette walked out of the station, as Roxas trudged to the station tower. I followed after Roxas and found him sitting in his usual spot on the edge of the station clock tower looking at his hands in thought. I placed a soothing hand on his shoulder.
"I know I saw that man you were talking about Roxas." I murmured consolingly. He nodded, sighed, and looked up at me.
"Why is everything that could possibly go wrong or be completely strange happening to us, Xerena?" He asked in a murmur. I sighed, shrugging, as I rested my head on his shoulder.
"I don't know Roxas, I don't know." I answered quietly. I looked up at the sound of footsteps to see Hayner, Pence and Olette had returned, Olette baring a sea salt ice cream for Roxas and I. I accepted mine with quiet thanks and licked it slowly, as Roxas just held onto his.
"It's melting." Olette pointed out after a drip of the ice cream fell toward the Station Plaza below.
"Sorry." Roxas murmured, looking at the rest of us. I smiled and nodded, continuing to eat my ice cream.
"Cheer up already!" Hayner called from the other end of our row of friends. I looked to him curiously.
"That was definitely weird though." Roxas commented, looking in Hayner's direction. I nodded my head in agreement.
"Strange." I murmured.
"You said it." Hayner agreed.
"Can you feel Sora and Reena?" Roxas murmured, more so to himself as I finally remembered what that man had said. I thought back to what had happened when the man had yanked us up from the ground.
"Can you feel Sora and Reena?" was the question he had asked us, but it was almost as if he were calling us Reena and Sora, the way he had asked the question made it sound like that at least. I sighed, I really had no idea what was happening to my life.
Restoration at twenty-eight percent.
"Naminé, hurry."
"Is it really that hard to make a beach?" The man in the black cloak questioned as he tossed a bag of munny up and down in his hand.
"We'd be giving the enemy another entry point." The man in red explained gruffly.
"And this?" The cloaked figure asked, holding out the pouch as the man turned slightly in his chair to see what the clocked figure was talking about.
"We can always buy some sea-salt ice cream." The man in red answered sarcastically, chuckling at his own joke. "Objects from that town must be kept out of the real world. You can delete that." The man in red growled gruffly.
Through the blackness a slightly static image appeared, before the dreams started again. Through the blackness I saw…me, standing in front of a man with long blue hair, who was eyeing me sceptically.
"Today your partner will be Zexion. Your mission is to perform some reconnaissance in a new world." I nodded slightly as a man with dark silver hair that fell over one of his eyes stepped up, a book in his hands.
"I'm Zexion." He muttered, his tone quiet.
"Xerena." I replied in the same tone, before a portal was opened and we stepped through, disappearing into blackness…
I blinked a few times from the brightness of things, before opening my eyes, shielding them with my hand slightly, to see a girl with shoulder length blonde hair, wearing white dress, facing to pods that could very well resemble white flowers. Then, the room disappeared to leave the girl standing there in blackness.
"Who are you?" I murmured. She turned, looked at me, and simply smiled, tilting her head to one side slightly…
