4 REVIEWS! Sweet…
Word 2007's default font is Calibri 11, but I always change it to Times New Roman 12 whenever I write. TNR was the default for Word 2003, which was the program I used up until several weeks ago.
Old habits die hard, I guess. Or in this case, defaults.
Xxx XXX xxX
Art was laughably easy. Ms. Gainsborough simply expected her students to do their best in art, come whatever may result of that best. She usually gave A's and rarely, if ever, graded on quality.
But may the gods help you if you screwed around in her class. Oh, you were so dead if that happened.
But Namine liked it, for the simple reason she could get a reprieve from Roxas.
Her fourth class was Shop. She had taken it in her freshman year, and she still knew how to work the tools and machine wood.
However, she was a bit nervous when she saw that she was apparently the only girl in her entire class.
Catcalls and whistles greeted her when she walked through the door.
"Hey, doll! Come sit here!" a wild-looking redhead called.
Namine shuddered. "No thanks!" she called back.
The boy groaned as his friends chuckled. "Oh, don't be like that!" he grinned. "You've met me before!"
Come to think of it, he did seem familiar. Namine's eyes widened in recognition as she realized who the redhead was. "You're the one who nearly squashed me on Monday!"
Axel placed a hand over his heart. "Guilty as charged. Now, could you come over here? I swear to God I have no ulterior motives," he said dryly.
She sighed and took a seat next to him, expecting him to lean in and screw with her in the way only a guy could.
He didn't. Instead, Axel clapped her back. "Guys, this is Namine—Xion's new roommate," he introduced.
She looked around at the other three people sitting around the table.
"I'm Demyx," a blond boy with a mullet grinned.
"Zexion," a morose boy with dark gray hair hanging over his left eye murmured.
"You can call me Larxene," a blond girl with two antennae-like locks of hair yawned.
"So I'm not the only girl in here," Namine smiled. "That's a relief."
Axel snickered. "Oh, I wouldn't call Larxene a girl…" he smirked.
The antennae-haired girl smacked him across the head. "Shut up!" she shouted.
Namine intervened before the situation could devolve further.
"So are you three parkourists, too?" she asked, gesturing towards Zexion, Demyx, and Larxene.
"Yeah, we are," Larxene confirmed, still glaring at Axel.
"Demyx is the newbie," Zexion added. "He joined over summer vacation."
"But what about Xion?"
"Her? She's been with us since her freshman year," Axel stated. "Just not as an official member."
"Wow," Namine murmured. "I thought she'd just joined…"
Before Axel could respond, a series of loud thuds heralded the coming of something truly titanic.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The artist's already pale face went ashen as a massive man strolled into the classroom.
"Roll call, maggots!" he bellowed. "On your feet!"
Namine and the others instantly did as they were told. Truth be told, the blonde artist was scared stiff by the giant teacher; her old Shop teacher was a mild-mannered, kindly man.
When he got to her name…
"MIYAMOTO!"
"H-h-h-h-h-h—" she stuttered.
He seemed to teleport over to her, he moved so fast. "Well?" he snarled. "Are you Namine Miyamoto?"
"Y-y-y-y-y-ye-ye-ye—"
"SPIT IT OUT!"
"YESSIR!" she yelped, jolted into response. "PRESENT!"
He snorted with disgust and checked off her name.
After that hellish roll call was over, the teacher walked to the front of the class (or side, depending on which angle you viewed it from) and began his speech.
"AS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT KNOW, MY NAME IS MR. WALLACE!" he thundered. "YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS SUCH OR AS SIR! YOU WILL ONLY SPEAK WHEN SPOKEN TO! IS THAT CLEAR?"
"YESSIR!" everyone shouted.
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU PUNY RUNTS! I SAID, IS THAT CLEAR!"
"SIR, YES SIR!" everyone shouted again, this time higher than at the top of their lungs.
"Acceptable," he grunted. "This is the Shop class. It is the meanest, deadliest, most unforgiving place on this entire campus. This is the class with the single most permanent injuries occurring. This is the class," he growled, "Where you will get FINGERS CUT OFF!"
Everyone but Namine shivered. She started whimpering; freshman Shop hadn't told her of this.
Mr. Wallace began walking among the work tables, occasionally glaring from his massive height at his cowering students.
"So," he hissed in a soft, yet dangerous voice. "You people are either the bravest or the dumbest people in the entire damn school to be here."
Namine didn't quite shut her lips fast enough. "Or you could've simply had the class before," she murmured.
For a second it looked like he hadn't heard. For a single, joyful second…
"Really, Miyamoto?" Mr. Wallace whispered, his eyes glittering like a cobra's. "Do you really think that?"
Amazingly, Namine somehow plucked up the courage to speak. "Yes, sir," she bravely replied.
He was in front of her faster than she could blink. "Look at this," he grunted, raising (or lowering) his bicep to her face. "Do you see that scar there?"
The petite girl couldn't help but notice that the vast muscle was approximately as large as her head. The gigantic scar (read: canyon) itself would've split said head in half.
"Yes sir," she confirmed. "I see it."
"I got this scar of mine working that table saw there," he growled, pointing at the offending machine. "So, Miyamoto, who was your first Shop teacher? I need to beat the crap outta him for not teaching you about this stuff."
"C-C-C-Cloud Strife, sir," she mumbled.
Mr. Wallace's beady eyes widened slightly with recognition. "Cloud Strife, huh?" he sneered. "Cloud "Buster Sword" Strife?"
Namine didn't recognize the nickname, but she said, "Yes," anyways.
A booming roar erupted from somewhere to Namine's front. It took her a second to realize it was being emitted from the titan standing before her. And that said roar of apparent rage was really a laugh.
"So, Captain Strife was your old Shop teacher, huh?" he chuckled.
"Captain?" Axel asked, surprised out of his fear.
"We were war buddies," Mr. Wallace explained. "We were assigned to the same squad, became sergeants at the same time, and I eventually became his first sergeant, and damn was he a good officer."
He chuckled again and patted Namine's head, nearly snapping her neck in the process.
"I'd expect he taught you well in the art of woodworking?" he inquired.
"Yes sir," she replied with some relief. She could sense the worst of it was over.
He graced her with a wide smile. "Good for you," he said, and then he stalked away.
After Mr. Wallace had left, Axel and Demyx leaned in, wide-eyed and obviously shocked.
"I'm impressed, girl," Axel muttered. "You survived the .50 Cal. And I thought you were a wuss…"
Namine would have been angered by the indirect insult, but she more curious about the obscure reference that was presumably Mr. Wallace's nickname among students.
"What's the .50 Cal?" she asked.
Larxene whistled. "You don't know? I'll give you a hint—Mr. Wallace's first name is Barrett."
"I still don't get it," Namine replied.
Zexion sneered at her. "The Barrett .50 Cal is an iconic sniper rifle," he said. "As a reference, one hit from one of its bullets will rip you in half."
"Oh." Namine's voice was small and fearful. "Oh my. No wonder Mr. Wallace is called that."
Xxx XXX xxX
Most of the reason Namine had been sent to Arthur Durand Boarding School had nothing to do with her intelligence.
In other words, she was done with her trigonometry homework before Xion could even comprehend the first problem.
"Namine, could you help me with this?" she finally asked, slapping her forehead in frustration.
"Sure." The blonde climbed up the ladder of the bunk bed and sat beside her roommate.
"So, I forget—what's the trig equation for sin(2x)?" Xion inquired.
The artist cupped her chin and searched through her memory for a moment.
"I think it's…2sinx times cosx," Namine answered slowly. "Lemme check…yeah, it's that."
"Okay. Thanks!" Xion said gratefully. "And how do you even remember all this stuff?"
Namine shrugged. "I don't know, really."
The brunette girl sighed. "Well, whatever it is, I sure wish I had it," she grumbled.
There was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," Xion said, before gracefully jumping off the bed and landing in a crouch.
Namine's view of whoever it had come was obscured by the door itself, so she climbed down to get a better angle.
It was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair dressed in a very revealing V-neck. "Hi girls!" she said brightly. "There's gonna be a party on the eighth floor—you wanna come?"
"Why not?" Xion replied. She grinned. "It sounds one heck of a lot more fun than trig homework."
The girl laughed. "No kidding. The party's at eight, so you should have…thirty minutes before then?"
"Eight o'clock it is, then," Xion confirmed.
"See you then!" The girl was off before Xion could return the goodbye.
"I'm not going," Namine said before her roommate could speak.
"Come on, Namine. It'll be fun!" Xion argued.
Frightening images of date rape and death by alcohol poisoning flashed before Namine's eyes.
"I'd rather not," she replied gravely. "I have no intention of being a victim."
Her brunette roommate groaned. "Namine, this is ADBS you're talking about. I've been here for at least two years now, and not once have I ever seen the stuff you're probably thinking about happening! Yuna and Selphie's parties are always safe!"
Namine's resistance was crumbling before her friend's onslaught of impassioned pleading.
"Fine…" she sighed. "I'll try it."
Xion grinned. "You won't regret it," the brunette promised.
Xxx XXX xxX
"I am not wearing this!"
"You have to! Don't you want to get hit on?"
"No! At least not yet…"
"Come on, you're a junior! You're supposed to be flirting!"
"I think you're confusing junior with senior."
"Goddammit, Namine, if you don't come out of there in ten seconds I'm dragging you out!"
There was no response besides a thump and a muffled curse, and then a sigh.
"Ten. Nine. Eight."
The bathroom door burst open. Namine stood there, dressed in leg-hugging jeans and a strapless, snow-white tube top hanging just below her shoulders. Detached sleeves hung on her forearms.
"You look amazing!" Xion declared, placing her hands on her hips. The brunette's outfit was a black miniskirt along with a long-sleeved T-shirt.
The blonde artist ran her hands up her sides. "I look like an absolute whore," she grumbled. "I mean, my chest looks like it's about to spill out of my shirt."
"You don't have much of a chest," Xion pointed out. "And that tube top is figure-hugging."
"Okay, good point."
The duo entered the elevator and ordered it to the eighth floor. It stopped at the seventh.
"Who—" Xion started, but was cut off as the door opened.
It was a diamond formation of four boys. Zexion and Demyx were flanking. Axel was behind and slightly to the left. And in front of them, squarely in Namine's line of sight, was…
"Roxas?" she squeaked. "Oh, no…"
Xxx XXX xxX
Recognize Namine's outfit? ;)
By the way, next chapter will have an FAQ! So fire away!
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KABLOOIE!