Academy of Lies and Love

Chapter Four

Nothing remarkable could be said about lunch. The dining hall was set up much the same as it had been the previous night. Instead of the meats and potatoes that had been so carefully arranged for dinner, the buffet was piled high with sandwiches, fruit salad, and bottles of water. Roxas grabbed a ham and swiss sandwich and a large scoop of the fruit salad before following Axel to a table in the same corner as the night before.

Inwardly, Roxas sighed with relief when Demyx and Zexion joined them. Their presence and Demyx's chatter filled the awkward silence that had been growing between Axel and Roxas since Axel's comment in the corridor. Axel's words echoed in Roxas' head. You're pretty cute. That had to have been a joke. Right? Why would anyone, particularly Axel, say anything like that to him? There was simply no way he was really getting hit on by a guy. A guy he had just met no less. And he, Roxas, certainly wasn't gay!

An image of his ex-girlfriend, standing in the rain watching silently as the taxi carried Roxas to a new life. As it carried Roxas into the dream world that had become his reality.

Roxas! He catching himself in the memory as he felt tears start welling up in his eyes. Get a grip! You are over thinking this! Maybe that's just how rich people act towards each other. Secretly he knew this wasn't true, but it helped calm his whirlpool of thoughts rushing around in his head.

"Yo, Roxas!" Axel's voice brought him back to the surface.

"Yeah?" he replied, lifting his eyes from his sandwich.

"You alive in there?" Axel asked, his gaze somewhere between concern and playful mocking. Roxas gave his typical shrug in response before returning to his lunch. "I suppose alive is a relative term in your case. You're practically a zombie!"

Demyx sniggered at the comment.

"He sort of is a zombie, isn't he?"

"Right?" Axel replied, obviously pleased with himself for coming up with the clever comparison to describe Roxas' perpetual state of indifference. Roxas rolled his eyes as Demyx and Axel began impersonating Roxas, or rather a zombie. Instead, he turned his thoughts away from Axel. Away from Olette. Away from the pain. He brought his thoughts back to Lea. He was itching to find out if Lea had responded to his message yet. Silently, he wondered why he was interested in the mysterious email. His wandering mind found him wondering if he'd already passed Lea in the stone corridors of the school. If they had already sat in the same room, listening to the same professor give the same lecture. If you have, a voice said in the back of his mind, why hasn't Lea said anything yet? He felt sudden doubt deep in his heart. What if all of this Lea stuff was a joke. And yet, he couldn't help but hope he had a friend in the mysterious Lea.

Lunch hour ended and the four of the rose from their table, heading in the direction of the science wing. As they walked, Zexion and Demyx argued enjoyable about a book they had read over the summer. Half listening to the conversation, Roxas focused most of his attention on ensuring that he stayed at least half a step behind Axel as he took huge strides towards the class room, the sound of his biker boots hitting the stone floor almost echoed, despite the crowd around them. Roxas wanted to avoid any more comments from Axel. He wanted to avoid the glances he knew he was getting, the attention, and the remarks.

Finally, the four of them took seats in the back of the class room. As was his habit, Roxas pulled out his notebook and placed it gently on his desk with a pen. He opened it to the first blank page and in neat handwriting wrote at the top Biology 300. He folded his hands together, rested them on top of his notebook, and turned his attention quietly to the front of the room.

As was his habit, Axel hooked his foot around the chair in front of him in order to pull it closer to himself. Once it was within the reach of his long legs, Axel propped his foot up on the chair, and leaned back in his own.

The professor entered the room so silently that Roxas didn't even notice he was there until he was clearing his throat at the front of the room. Something about this professor reminded Roxas of a ghost. Or a vampire. He was tall and slender, making Axel look like a body builder. Sheets of silver blonde hair hung around his shallow face. Cheek bones sharp enough to cut yourself jutted out. His thin lips were held in a slight frown are he surveyed his class. When he opened his mouth to speak, Roxas half expected to see fangs protruding from his gums. Instead he was only greeted with and icy voice that rose goose bumps on his arms.

The lesson was conducted in a similar fashion to all the other lessons Roxas had already attended that morning. Professor Vexen ran through the course syllabus quickly, explaining which topics they were going to cover during the semester and what kind of projects and exams to expect during the four months. Axel wasn't really paying attention, he was too busy doodling in his note book with his feet propped up on his chair to really care. He ripped a few pages out, the sound like a loud zipper filling the room and earning Axel a glare from Dr. Vexen. Roxas rolled his eyes. This slacker was never going to go anywhere in life. As the thought passed through his head, another thought rolled by: Axel wouldn't have to apply himself in school. His parents would probably take care of him for the rest of his life. Or at least his parent's money would. Clenching his jaw, Roxas turned his attention back to the lecture.

"Part of the course is conducting dissections and experiments during class time, to which you are required to write a report on, detailing what you did and what you learned," Dr. Vexen explained. That didn't sound so bad to Roxas. Biology had always been on of his stronger subjects, and he'd always been pretty good at writing reports. He felt as if this course was going to be an easy A until Professor Vexen cleared his throat and continued. "However, labs and lab reports will be done in pairs." Roxas felt his heart sink. In pairs? He didn't know anyone in this class, besides Axel, Zexion, and Demyx. If he had to chose one of them, he would have chosen Zexion, who as far as Roxas could tell, was the most astute of the three, but as he turned to catch Zexion's eye, he noticed that he was already nodding slightly to Demyx. Roxas turned back around and sunk into his chair, trying his best to avoid Axel's eye as Professor Vexen said: "Choose wisely, the partner you choose today will be your partner for the remainder of the semester. This is a team effort. If one fails, both fail."

He dismissed them to choose partners, and Roxas frantically looked around the room, hoping to find another odd man out so he wouldn't be stuck with Axel. Fuck. Roxas thought as he looked around. Everyone already seemed to be in groups. Except him and Axel. Slowly, he turned his gaze to Axel, who was still looking expectantly at him. He smiled awkwardly and him. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Axel grinned at Roxas, who in turn tried not to notice how Axel's face was even more attractive when he smiled. Feeling the heat rising under his collar, he turned his attention to his textbook which he had opened to a page on cell division. Pretending to be interested in Meiosis, he tried to force away the attraction that was creeping up on him. What the fuck, Roxas. He thought to himself. You literally just met the guy. And yet that didn't stop Axel from being attractive and Roxas from aching to try things that he never would have imagined doing with a guy.

Shaking himself, he tried to calm himself down. Taking deep breaths he focused on something else. Anything else. Finally the bell rang and he got up and left, Axel lingering behind to chat with Demyx and Zexion before they split up and headed to a different lesson.

Roxas was wandering down the corridor towards the exit in order to make his way to the rec center for his gym period. Silently berating himself for getting so flustered in Axel's presence, he tried to focus on where he was supposed to be going. He heard the slapping of heavy boots running towards him on the stone corridor.

"You're headed the wrong direction," Axel's voice said from beside him. Axel had leaned over and was talking quietly in his ear. Roxas blushed furiously at the sudden closeness of Axel's face to his own.

"Oh," he muttered, turning around to face Axel, who was just laughing. They started walking in the proper direction in silence.

"So you liking school so far?" Axel asked loftily, as if he were giving up on the flirting. Roxas only shrugged, which Axel refused to take as an answer and continued to watch him with level, expectant eyes. With a sigh, Roxas finally answered.

"It's different from my old school." There that wasn't too much information. No way Axel could gather anything from that.

"Different how? Where were you before here? I swear, if you say Destiny College, we can't be friends." With half a mind to answer yes, that was where he had gone before, Roxas felt the truth pass his lips before he had even decided to tell it.

"No, not Destiny College. Actually it wasn't even a boarding school."

"Really?" This had peaked Axel's interest. "So which stuck up academy of finer learning did you attend?" Again, Roxas hadn't even really deicded to tell the truth, but suddenly he found himself saying it, in a whisper so low, he was sure that there was no way that Axel had heard it. "Sorry? Didn't catch that." He cupped his ear in his hand and leaned towards Roxas. What was it about Axel that seemed to catch him so off guard. Why, when he had promised himself he was going to leave the past in the past and try to blend in among the rich and snobby students here, was he suddenly revealing the truth. He whispered the answer again, a little louder. "Sorry?"

"Twilight High," he said.

"Oh! I've never heard of that one before." He looked thoughtful as he pondered the unfamiliar name. No, you wouldn't have. Roxas thought as they crossed the threshold to the rec center.

Lexaeus, the professor that was going to teach them in the gym was exactly what you'd expect from a private school gym teacher. He towered over the students, even Axel. He was built like a gorilla with a thick neck and even thicker arms. He looked as if he could crush a man's skull with his fist. His mess of bright orange hair was escaping from the gel used to push it back and out of his broad face in little curls. Roxas and Axel took a seat on the highly polished wood floor of the gym as instructed. Roxas sat with his legs crossed and his chin resting in his palm as Axel stretched out the full length of his legs and leaned back on the heels of his palms.

A little before 1600, Lexaeus dismissed them and they made their way back to their dorms. Roxas could feel the exhaustion of the day catching up with him as the wandered down the path towards the towering building. He couldn't wait to lie down on his bed with his favourite book and just relax until dinner-time. Axel, who seemed to have forgotten their previous conversation, had moved on to quizzing Roxas about his favourite books and songs. Roxas continued to give one word answers until Axel asked him what his favourite band was.

"Uh… you've probably never heard of them," he answered truthfully.

"Try me. I'm something of a music connoisseur!" Axel answered, grinning at Roxas as if he should be impressed with Axel's knowledge. When Roxas told Axel the name of the band, he got nothing but the blank stare he had expected. "I guess you were right! Who are they?"

"A Japanese rock band," Roxas admitted with his cheek flushing pink, not wanting to build a reputation of being a weeboo or otaku.

"That's really cool! You'll have to show me some of their stuff sometime!" Roxas smiled unenthusiastically and nodded slightly. He highly doubted that Axel would actually enjoy the band. Few people did. "Alright then! What's your favourite movie?"

"The Matrix," he answered moving back to his one word answers. "I like movies that make me think. I'm also partial to Spirited Away" Where had that come from? The comment had just slipped out. Axel always got him talking more than he wanted.

"The Matrix! That's a good one! I haven't seen that one in years!" Axel replied, smiling, obviously please that Roxas appeared to opening up and playing along finally. They stepped out of the elevator on to their floor, and separated at Axel's door. "I'll see you at dinner, Roxy." With a wink, he closed his door behind him, leaving Roxas in the hall, completely dumbfounded.

As he closed his own door he tried not to think about how Axel always seemed to catch him so off guard and how he seemed to be able to get Roxas to say the things he never meant to say. With a sigh, he dumped the contents of his messenger bag on his bed. Out tumbled a notebook, his math and bio textbooks, his day planner, and a scrap of loose leaf paper. He stared at the paper on his bed curiously for a moment. What was that doing there? It was an ordinary piece of lined paper folded into a square, obviously torn from a notebook.

It was so unlike anything Roxas would ever do. He never ripped pages out of his note book, and he certainly never folded them up in that fashion. This page was clearly not one he had put there. He leaned forward and picked the page up off the bed and unfolded it slowly, not wanting to rip it in case it was some one's notes that had fallen in there on accident.

The hand writing written in black ink across the page was neither tidy nor messy, so it was hard to discern whether it belonged to a boy or a girl. Quickly he scanned the note on the page, then froze.

Roxas,

I told you we had some lessons together. You are even cuter in person than you are in your profile picture. Particularly when you do that thing with your nose when you are concentrating. I look forward to seeing you lots this semester. I really hope we can be friends.

XOXO

Lea

Roxas swallowed and reread the message again. Lea. He felt his face going red. He had crossed paths with Lea today and he had never even noticed. He hadn't even noticed someone get so close to him that they were able to slip the note into his bag. He racked his brain, trying to figure out who could possibly have slipped the note into his bag, and when. And who had been sitting near enough to him in more than one lesson and they were able to see the way he scrunched up his nose when he was concentrating.

The first person that came to mind was Axel, with his sly smile and his bright green eyes. He felt his heart start racing. His hands were shaking. Was this fury? Or was it something else?

He put the note down on his desk and threw himself on his bed, burying his face in his arms as he tried to convince himself there was no way it was Axel while somewhere deep down inside his chest he wished it truly was.