A/N: Thanks: Kai Saitou and .SchizophrenicArtlessness.13, for beta reading this chapter.

~ She looked more thoroughly at Hailey again, now with a light frown on her face and her eyes slightly squinted. It gave Hailey a rather uneasy feeling. "Why do I feel like I've seen you somewhere before?" ~

It was a familiar-looking boy with messy dark blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a school uniform too, but it looked slightly different from hers. He had black pants and long sleeves, rolled up till his elbows.

It took a while for Hailey to recognize him, because she wasn't used to see him in a uniform, but when she did, she started to smile brightly. "Oh, hey, Tidus."

It was a good thing that she still remembered his rather unusual name, too.

"Hi. So uhm…"

Tidus stopped talking altogether, as if he was looking for what he should say next. Hailey looked at him with a questioning look and waited until he said something again. Why was he so shy all of a sudden? He hadn't been like this yesterday, when he had talked to her like she had been one of his best friends.

"Yes?" Hailey asked patiently, nodding encouragingly at him to continue.

"Wanna walk together?"

That had been all he wanted to ask? Boys were really strange sometimes...

"Sure," she smiled, nodding.

"Ah, nice!"

They continued walking next to each other, but in silence. Hailey looked at all the cute-looking houses they walked past. All of them were made in the same fashion, so there weren't big differences between them.

She really was glad that she had some company from someone she already knew...kind of. It made her way to school a little less awkward. She didn't know how she was going to break this rather uneasy silence, though.

"You know, you do look pretty...cute in these clothes," Tidus said all of a sudden. "Just saying."

She looked surprised up at him. She could see how he started to blush slightly.

Aaww, how sweet, she thought.

"Thank you," Hailey replied half-embarrasedly, already feeling how her cheeks were getting slightly warm, too.

Okay, who was she kidding? She was probably as red as a tomato by now. Thank heavens Tidus didn't say anything of it if that was the case. She hated it how that happened whenever she was in situations like this. Pretending to brush her bangs out of her face, she quickly felt her cheeks with the palm of her hands. They were warm indeed, but not too much. Hailey let out a relieved sigh at that.

The closer they got to her new school, the livelier the area was getting. It was almost as if the school contained the only source of life of the Islands, mostly showing teenagers. Some of them were of her age, some of them slightly younger or older. It was hard to see sometimes.

Tidus seemed to know everyone they saw, because as soon as they would pass someone, he would say things like, "Hey!" or "How's your sister doing now?"

Those people said "Hi" too and answered Tidus' question, but the annoying thing was that they all looked in a strange way at Hailey, probably wondering who she was since they had never seen her before.

Ugh, here we go again. How long do they have to look at me like that? I hope they won't do that at school, although it won't surprise me if they do. After all, I'm "the new one", she thought, getting quite nervous by that thought.

This made her wonder if they would prank new people, too. She really hoped they wouldn't because she hadn't brought any spare clothes with her. That, and she hated pranks...unless it happened to someone else. But wasn't everyone like that?

"I think that they think that you're my girlfriend, or something," Tidus noted, albeit happier than he should be.

Hailey didn't know if she should be happy with that bit of information or not, so she just said, "Oh..."

Then, they finally arrived at their destination. By now, the cute houses had made place for a huge, orange and blue-colored building to which lots of teens were heading to. Hailey's mouth dropped open by the sight of her new school. This was the last thing she had expected to see, and then the colors...

"Welcome to Destiny High, Hailey," Tidus said.

Hailey still said nothing. She was far too impressed by what she saw...

"Whoa," she whispered, speechless.

At this point, she was completely dazed. How was she supposed to find her way in here? By the looks of it, that was almost...impossible. The school really was huge. It had four floors and a bridge that connected two buildings together. She did hope there was an elevator. Preferably one that could be used by students too, because running up and down all those stairs wasn't going to make her any happier. But that was probably not the case; usually, the elevator was a luxury only meant for teachers.

How was she going to find the entrance back again? It felt much like walking right into a prison, knowing that you would never get back home again, because by the time you had found the entrance again, you were forty-something years old. Okay, maybe she was overreacting a little. Tidus looked at Hailey and saw that she was very impressed. He smiled, remembering very well how it had felt for him when he had stood here for the very first time.

"Hey, I know that it sounds quite unbelievable, but don't worry too much. You'll get used to it soon, really. Just like I did."

Oh, would she?

"Hmm... I really hope so."

She wasn't quite sure of that, but she didn't say it out loud. How stupid would that sound?

"Come on, let's go inside. It's even more impressive in there," he said.

He walked towards the doors with a confident stride (well, obviously he had nothing to worry about, because he seemed to be one of the more popular guys anyway). Hailey quickly followed him, since she didn't want to get lost on her first day here. He opened the doors for Hailey and motioned for her to go first.

"Thank you," Hailey said, smiling at him.

He sure was a gentleman.

"No problem, Hailey."

Tidus swiftly followed her as soon as she got inside.

She did hope that she would get a locker soon. She didn't want to walk with a heavy bag every day, since that wasn't good for her back at all. She remembered how her previous high school had forgotten all about her. As a result, she'd had to carry her books with her for a week. Thankfully, she had been allowed to put some of her books in a friend's locker (those Geography books could give people a hernia!).

Hailey looked around. The floor had a color between light brown and yellow, and the lockers had the same color as her tie had; dark blue. They sure had a thing for blue.

"Well, see you around, Hailey!" Tidus suddenly said and he started to run away from her.

Hailey arched a brow at that. She would have to take back her words of calling him a gentleman. He sure had a lot to learn.

Yeah, thanks a lot, Tidus. Leaving me here behind, without even telling me where I'm supposed to go, she thought, sarcastically.

The school was getting livelier with every second as more and more people entered the building. The students that Hailey saw, were all far too busy to pay any attention to her. Not that she was complaining. The most of them put the books they needed for the first classes in their bag, or they decorated their locker with new photos and other interesting stuff they got from their summer vacation, removing some older stuff that they didn't find that cool or entertaining anymore. Some of them had probably pictures of their new crushes, too.

Some of the students were talking about their summer vacation and what they had done. It seemed that the most of them just had gone to the beach with their friends.

"Oh, I don't want to go to school yet. It was so good to spend the whole summer vacation doing nothing but going to the beach and swimming, without any homework, or angry teachers, or stupid projects. Look, I even got a tan!" one girl with a rather high-pitched voice exclaimed.

Hailey turned her attention to that conversation. The girl had light brown hair, from which the ends of it curled upwards.

"I got burned, man. I didn't even know that was possible, since I have a darker skin. I never burn in the sun!" a boy with flaming orange-colored hair replied.

"Well you did now, and it's pretty much your own fault. If you hadn't fallen asleep on the beach, then nothing would've happened to you," the girl said again.

Hailey could now see that she had brilliant emerald green eyes.

"You could've woken me up, ya!"

"Nah...that would've cost me too much energy," she said, probably half-jokingly.

The boy huffed at that, making fists of his hands. The girl didn't seem to see that, as she was too busy with decorating her locker with some flower stickers.

Other people were searching their classroom. They slipped on the smooth and shining floor and one of them even fell over. Then he quickly got up and continued walking, hoping that nobody saw his first blooper of this year. But now he was walking more carefully than first.

As Hailey walked past all those students, only spotting unfamiliar faces everywhere she looked, she could hear clearly what they were talking about.

It looked like they were all talking about the same thing, because she kept hearing things like, "Oh, the new one, you mean? Yeah, I know. Everybody's talking about her, but I haven't even met her yet. Isn't that quite strange?"

"Nor did I. I wonder how she is like, though."

"Yeah, me too. I guess we'll find out soon enough. At least, if she shows up. It wouldn't surprise me if she was too late for her first class."

"Yeah. You must be right, dude."

"Duh, I'm always right."

Hailey rolled her eyes by that statement. Why, overconfident much?

She heard another exchanging of words, again about the same subject, "Oh, I guess something cool is going to happen these days. I wanna meet her. Maybe she's hot, you know."

"Maybe you'll have a class with her, Casanova."

"Hmm…if I'm that lucky. I mean, maybe she'll fall for Riku, like all girls seem to do lately. I just can't believe it. How can a guy show up again after three years and be so different?"

"Relax! She won't fall for him if she sees you first. Come on, you're charming too. The girls still all love you, you shouldn't forget that. Just because some new guy decides to show up, doesn't mean you become less popular than him."

"Hmm... I guess you're right...somewhere..."

Hailey chuckled at that. Some people were worried about the strangest things. Especially guys, it seemed. All worried about their image and whatnot. It seemed so trivial to her.

So were they talking about her? Probably, but nobody had noticed her yet. They were all too busy with their own business. So now she could give them all a good look without getting weird looks in return, which was honestly nice for a change.

She still had no idea where to go now, though. She probably had to ask for someone's help. Hailey looked around, searching for someone that wouldn't try to fool her. She spotted a group of students, not too far away from her. She couldn't hear what they were talking about. The group consisted of three girls and four boys. They all looked older than her, and they were taller than her, too. For the first time in her life, she wished she was a few inches taller. At least that would make her feel more confident.

Okay, don't panic. Everything's going to be okay. I'm just lost and that's very normal for a new girl. It's not my fault that this school building is so huge. Gosh, this is still so embarrassing, she thought, gulping.

She stepped towards them, and after gathering all her courage, she started to speak. Her voice always sounded slightly lighter when she was nervous.

"Um...excuse me," Hailey said, politely.

They all turned around immediately to look at her. Was it just her, or did they really look annoyed? Almost as if they wanted to start yelling at her for interrupting them. Hailey was about to continue, but someone out of that group beat her to the punch this time.

"What do you want?" a boy asked in a not so very nice way.

He was frowning too. Okay, it was clear.

Wow, excuse me! Someone's not a morning person.

At once, another boy from that same group glared at him for being so blunt, and said, "Hey! Don't act like you're better than her! Because you certainly aren't!"

The other people in the group snickered at that. Hailey looked thankfully up at him. He had the same color hair as the floor; brown. She could see that he wore a necklace with a crown pendant attached on it. Wait a second...

"Need some help?" he asked, turning his attention towards Hailey.

She smiled and immediately forgot about what she was thinking at first. Talk about manners. You didn't see that very often.

Hailey could tell from the way that his baby blue eyes were inspecting her that he was curious about her. But he looked okay enough, so she decided to trust him. He did remind her of someone she had met a year ago...

Roxas maybe? Yes, his eyes and his face were pretty much the same, but the hair was slightly different, yet still very spiky.

"Um...yes, I do. Do you know where I can find the information desk?"

"The information desk?" he repeated, scratching the back of his head. "Oh, you just go down the stairs overthere. Then you go left and turn to the right after the canteen and biology classrooms and then you've arrived. Got it?"

"Uhm…"

No, not really. How was she supposed to know where the biology classrooms were when the doors were still closed? Unless there were signs there that indicated which room was used for which subject...

The boy could tell from Hailey's face that she didn't quite get it, so he said with another warm smile of his, "Hey, how about you just follow me? I'll take you to the office. That's much easier for you. I mean, if you don't mind, that is..."

She wondered briefly why in the world she would mind that, before nodding.

"That would be great. Thank you very much!" Hailey said, more relieved than ever.

"You're very welcome. It's the least I can do. Well, let's go."

Hailey smiled at him. The boy smiled back, as they continued walking, Hailey following him close behind. The boy ignored all the staring he caused, or maybe he didn't really see it. Either way, Hailey was glad with the way he reacted on it; calmly.

See, not all teens are dangerous monsters, ready to bite one's head off. It was just a matter of staying polite.

There was something about the boy's rather goofy smile, though. It was almost as if it was contagious, but not particularly in a bad way. In fact, she kind of liked it.

The boy put his hands behind his head. "I hope Brandon didn't upset you. He's such a jerk sometimes. So I'm sorry for that," he said.

Hailey lifted a brow at that. What did he apologize for?

"What for? It's not your fault."

"I know, but he won't say sorry. So I'll do it for him," he smiled, his cerulean eyes shimmering brighter than ever.

Aw, how sweet was that? A little too sweet in her opinion, but still...

"Nah...there's no need to be sorry. He didn't hurt my feelings."

"Oh. Then it's okay." It stayed silent between them for a short while, until the boy asked again, "Hey, what's your name, by the way?"

"It's Hailey."

"I'm Sora." He gave her a sidelong glance. "But that means you're new around here, aren't you?"

Man, what kind of a question was that? If she wouldn't be new here, then she would surely know where the high school office would be, now wouldn't she? And this boy would've known her, too, that's for sure. They probably would've been friends too.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Wow. You know, we don't get a lot of new students. The last new one here was more than eleven years ago," he noticed, seeming to be impressed by this little fact.

"Oh."

She didn't really know what else to say.

She sensed that he looked a short moment at her, before he, almost carefully, continued with, "So I guess you'll be the talk of the day."

Now that was just great. There went her idea of not being noticed at all. That meant everyone already knew about her existence. How wonderful. Hailey decided to change the subject, before the boy would ask her more about her life and past and where she came from. That was one of the last things she wanted to discuss with a complete stranger. A nice stranger, she had to give him that, but who knew what kind of weirdo he was? She'd better be careful around people she didn't know.

That was when she heard someone else coming nearer and nearer.

"Sora! There you are," a girl with a high voice exclaimed.

Both Hailey and Sora turned towards the source of the sound. The girl that was approaching them had dark red hair and about the same shade of blue eyes as Sora had. Thanks to her rather unusual hair color it made her look very pretty. She was also wearing the same clothes as Hailey, so she was a student.

She ran from the other side of the hallway toward the boy. Her hair seemed to float directly behind her, causing a slowmotion effect on her. When she had reached them, she grabbed his hand automatically. All in all, Hailey had some trouble to hide the smile on her face.

Meet the girlfriend, she thought, thoroughly amused.

"I was so worried when I couldn't find you. What are you doing here?" she almost-whined, but it didn't look annoying on her.

"Well, what about you? What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in class?" he said jokingly, but Hailey knew that he was being serious, too.

It was pretty easy to see that these two liked each other very, very much. It was cute.

The beautiful girl smiled, showing perfectly straight and white teeth, but she didn't bother to answer his question. Then she finally spotted Hailey, who was still standing next to Sora, looking from him to the girl.

"And who is this if I may ask?" she wondered curiously.

Hailey smiled at her.

"Oh, this is Hailey. She's new here. I was just bringing Hailey to the office, because she couldn't find it, that's all. Why...is there something wrong?"

She looked more thoroughly at Hailey again, now with a light frown on her face and her eyes slightly squinted. It gave Hailey a rather uneasy feeling. "Why do I feel like I've seen you somewhere before?"

Haily shrugged. She was about to give some possible explanation when...

"Well, well. If that isn't the new girl Hailey."

Wow, people I don't know at all keep calling for me today. What is this?

Hailey turned around to see who it was. Her dark eyes widened and she nearly got a heart-attack when she saw him standing there, the worst part of her worst nightmare - no, memory! It seemed that some people never died, no matter how much they deserved to die.

"You!" she yelled shocked.

A/N: What'll happen next? You'll find out soon! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. ^-^