Sorry for the long delay, but here's the next chapter! I hope you're enjoying reading this. Remember, as I've said this before, this fic will be going at slow pace, because I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible. Each chapter will vary in length. Since each chapter or every two chapters happen within their own day, there's obviously going to be a day where nothing much happens, which will result in a very short chapter. Likewise, there will be a day where literally everything happens, and thus it'll be extremely long. So I've warned you. Don't get mad at me if there's a chapter that's 500 words long, or if there's a chapter that's 8,000 words long. Haha XD Anyway, let's get into this chapter!

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Four

Radiant High School. I can go on and on about why I hate this school so much. The walls and doors definitely needed new paint jobs. You didn't even need to look that hard to see the paint slowly but surely chipping away out of existence. Some of the teachers really should not have been hired. Being a teacher does not mean passing out a packet every day and yelling at your students because your love life is a train wreck. Yes, I'm talking about you, Mr. Evans. The water fountains were downright disgusting, and I'm pretty sure nobody has ever taken a sip from one in the entire time that I've been here. Before every major football game day they'd have a mandatory pep rally in the auditorium, where I'd be forced to be around hundreds of screaming teens while having to watch the cheer leaders shake their asses and pompoms on stage as well as having the beat of the drums annihilate my ears.

And all that is just barely scratching he surface of why I hate this school so much.

The main school building itself held the main office, the guidance councilor's office, the nurse's office, and the cafeteria. Going upstairs would lead you to the hallways and the classrooms as well as the computer labs and the library. To the left of the school was the gym and to the right the auditorium. By the side of the auditorium were a few portable classrooms. In the front of the school was the parking lot. In the back was the quad, which held the Snack Shack where you can buy bags of chips or small little candies for a dollar and a bottle of water or Gatorade for a dollar-seventy-five. Also in the quad was the gazebo. Farther in the back behind the quad was the band hall which held the band room (of course) and the choir room. Behind the band hall was yet another parking lot, mainly for students to use.

This year is my fourth and final year of high school. They say these are the best years of your life. I beg to differ. My grades are average. I haven't been involved in any clubs. I've only really had three or four friends to hang out with and I've only dated one guy. And yet, despite not being involved in anything, the last three years of my life somehow sped by in a blur. It doesn't even feel like I'm a senior.

I sat down on the bench in front of the band hall building, the back of my head against the wall and my eyes closed. It was already lunch. My first four periods somehow went by extremely fast. The bell to dismiss us had only rang out two minutes ago, and I managed to slip out of class and out of the building faster than most students. I had always sat in the same spot every single day of every year, and I wasn't going to slow down and allow some random take my spot.

I opened my eyes. People were still exiting the building. The students were each branching off into their own areas. Some came to the band hall. Some to the gazebo. Some to the benches right next to the building. Some got in line in the cafeteria. The food today was Salisbury steak or spicy chicken patty on a bun, with mashed potatoes or some fruit as a side.

The student body swarming the campus was definitely colorful. One thing I didn't really like all that much about attending Radiant High was the color-coded dress code. Freshmen wore yellow shirts, Sophomores wore red, Juniors wore green, and Seniors wore blue. So if you happened to be in a certain grade that is forced to wear a color that you absolutely hate, then you're stuck with it all year. I looked down and tugged at my blue shirt.

I felt somebody sit next to me. I turned to my side and saw Naminé, one of my closest friends. Now, if you knew Naminé, you'd be confused as to why me and her were friends. I was the person who hardly spoke to anybody and who was rarely spoken to. She was the girl who had tons of friends and was pretty confident around others. I remember when we had first met in seventh grade. She was the new girl, who was so shy and had no friends, just like me. That was back when I thought I was straight. She was my first crush.

She looked to me and smiled, but didn't say anything. Instead she just sighed and looked ahead at the cafeteria, looking as if she was contemplating whether or not she should go and get something to eat. She bit her lip, something she always did when she was deep in thought. The blue shirt she wore seemed to make her blue eyes sparkle beautifully. There were a few moments of silence. Finally, she said, "So how was your day?"

"Like any other day," I replied, which pretty much killed the conversation. We both sat in silence for a few minutes. Even though she was my official best friend, it was still sometimes difficult to hold a conversation with her. I could talk to her on the phone or video chat with her for hours on end, and we could go to each other's houses and spend all day with each other, but during school, I always felt the need to stay silent. "Marluxia messaged me yesterday."

"Whoa, really?" That got her attention. She looked at me with wide eyes and a smirk. "What did you two talk about? You're not thinking about going out with him again, are you?"

"No, I'm not." A few seconds of silence went by. "He just told me to help his friend who was really struggling, that's all. Which I did. Kinda helped him." Naminé nodded.

"Hey, guys," a voice said to my left. Ienzo hovered over me, wearing his pale yellow shirt. I waved at him, and he took that as an invitation to sit down on the other side of me. He was a lot taller than me, despite being a fourteen-year-old freshman. His height was all he really had going for him. His voice was still really high pitched. He was autistic but was one of the smartest kids in school. I never really asked him to be my friend or to hang out with me and Naminé, but we're two of the only kids in school who can really tolerate him. He put his feet up on the bench and hugged his knees. "Last hour wore me out. I'm tired."

"Get some more sleep then," Naminé replied.

"I sleep from eight at night until four in the morning," Ienzo said. "Then I sleep on the way here. I think I get enough sleep. But I'm still tired." He closed his eyes and I'm pretty sure he fell asleep in just a few seconds. I tapped him on the shoulder but he didn't respond.

"Well then," Naminé chuckled.

I looked towards the right side of the quad, where a few students were running around like idiots and tossing a football between them. How they could stand running around and playing sports in this smothering heat is beyond me. I would have completely zoned out if not for a single face that stood out among the seven or eight kids out there. Lea stood on one side of the grassy field with his arms stretched before him. Then he took off running backwards, and the football landed in his hands. He smiled and screamed in victory.

I have to admit, it felt nice seeing him happy and having fun. He glanced in my direction. I immediately froze. So much for trying to look away to avoid being spotted staring. He glanced away just as fast, throwing the football in the direction it had come from. The person he had thrown it to caught it with his fingertips but then immediately dropped it. Three of the guys scrambled to catch the ball bouncing away from them. Lea dove towards the bal and his face planted into the ground. A smile was brought to my lips.

"I didn't expect you to go for the football playing type," Naminé said close to my ear.

I jumped, twisting my head in her direction so fast I thought my neck was going to snap. "Excuse me?"

"You're staring at one of the cute boys playing football over there," Naminé replied with a cheeky grin. "I was just saying those generally aren't the ones you go for."

"I was just looking in that direction."

"You mispronounced staring."

"Grrr, you're annoying, you know that," I snapped at her, which caused Naminé to stick her tongue out at me.

"That's my job." Naminé stood up, grabbing her schoolbag from the side of her. "I'm going to try to get one of the last plates of lunch. If there are any left. Come with me."

"No, I'm good. I hate lunch lines, you know that."

"Fine," Naminé scowled at me. She grabbed Ienzo by the wrist and pulled him off of the bench. He snapped awake and started freaking out before realizing Naminé was the one who had woken him up. "Good, you're awake. Come with me to lunch." She locked arms with Ienzo and practically dragged him in the direction of the cafeteria. I chuckled in amusement. That girl is crazy. Naminé's sure come a long way.

I looked back in the direction of the group of guys throwing the football around, which seemed to have a few extra people since the last time I was looking at them. With so many people close together it would have been hard to try and point out any regular person, but Lea's hair stood out like blazing flames in the middle of a grassy field.

I questioned why I was even looking at him to begin with. My first guess was that I was still a little worried about him so I wanted to keep a close eye on him. But at this moment I was practically obsessed with watching his every move on that field, so much so that I began freaking myself out. Why did I care so much?

Suddenly, red flames fell to the ground. I stood up suddenly, a gasp escaping my lips before my mind had even registered what had just happened. I dashed forward to the end of the cement to get a better look. Lea was sprawled out on the ground, his arms and legs stretched as far as they could go. I could see his chest moving up and down rapidly, a sign that he was breathing erratically. From the way things looked, one of the kids had gotten a little carried away and tackled Lea to the ground in an attempt to grab the football from him.

The boy that I assumed had been the one to knock Lea over reached a hand out for the redhead to grab. Lea opened his eyes and grabbed the hand eagerly, springing up and onto his feet, brushing dirt off of his clothes like nothing had even happened. He bent over and rubbed his ankle. He must have sprained it or something. I was amazed. Lea seemed alright despite what had just happened. Although he did finish playing football for the day. He picked the ball up in a gym bag that he slung on his shoulder along with his schoolbag. So it was his football that they played with every day.

I sighed, walking back to my spot on the bench and sitting down. I was confused. Why had I gotten so worried over that boy? I had never even really noticed him before today. And now suddenly we were on speaking terms and I was watching him from a distance and I got really worried when it looked like he'd gotten hurt. I didn't understand. I guess I care more about Lea Kasai than I had originally thought.

Great. Maybe what Naminé had said about me liking a football player wasn't too far from the truth.

No! I didn't like Lea like that. I was only concerned about his mental state, that's it. He isn't even my type. Actually, come to think of it, what was my type? The overly feminine type isn't my type, hence the reason why me and Marluxia didn't work out. And I've already established the football-playing jock isn't my type either.

Midway through lunch Naminé and Ienzo returned, each taking a seat beside me like before. Ienzo dug his nose in a huge paperback book and Naminé held a plate of food in her hands.

I looked back towards the field to see if I could spot Lea, but he was nowhere in sight. He and his football friends went to their own respective hangout spots. I looked all over, but I couldn't see where Lea was hanging out at. I sighed, looking at my feet.

"Someone's in love," Naminé giggled, knocking my shoulder with hers.

"Someone needs to mind their own business," I replied. I reached my hand over and grabbed a hold of her spicy chicken patty, ripping a piece off for myself and stuffing it in my mouth.

…

After the thirty-minute lunch period was over, fifth hour went by in a flash. It was one of those days the teacher decided to let those who haven't finished the test from yesterday complete it, and since I was able to complete my test on time yesterday, I was able to doze off and take a little nap the entire class period. I'm pretty sure I was out like a light ten minutes into the class period. I had woken up as soon as the bell sounded for sixth.

I walked through the hallway on the way to my sixth period classroom. The halls were always crowded as hell. I wished the halls were a little wider. A few times I was accidentally pushed into a wall. People coming from the opposite direction don't know how to stay on their side of the hall, and they'd stand in front of me until I moved out of their way. To escape the hallway I practically threw myself into my classroom.

It was the same as all the others. Rows of desks facing a dry-erase board with some objective written in big bold letters to tell us what to do as soon as we came in. Not many people were in class yet. There was maybe four or five people besides myself. I looked to the clock on the wall and saw that there was only around forty seconds left until the tardy bell rang. I took my seat. I sat on the first row, sixth desk, so I was the second to last desk all the way near the wall opposite the door.

As I got my binder and folder and notebooks out for the class, the rest of my classmates entered, and as soon as the last person came in, the bell rang. I don't see why people always take all the time in the world to get to class. If you're late the teacher sends you to the office. I looked up from my desk and glanced around the room.

Sitting on the second to last row on the desk closest to the other wall was Lea. His face was dripping with sweat and there were noticeable stains on his shirt around his neck and armpits. His green shirt definitely contrasted with the spikey flames he calls hair. I didn't realize I was staring at him until he darted his eyes towards me and then waved. I waved slowly back to him.

…

I sat with Lea on the bus ride home. He had insisted I go and sit in his seat with him. I wasn't used to sitting that far back in the bus. It was closer to the noisy kids. And the seats got worse and more uncomfortable the farther back they went. Yet here I was, sitting with a guy I never talked to before yesterday, completely out of my comfort zone. He could have easily came sit in my seat like this morning.

We didn't talk all that much on the way home. We engaged in idle chitchat for a few minutes at a time, but after one of us would run out of something to say we would just stay silent for several minutes, not doing anything but looking out the window or looking at the back of the seat in front of us. The heat was sweltering inside of the bus. My body had become uncomfortably itchy. I kept looking to Lea on the side of me by the window, who was already starting to drip with sweat. That's one thing about him I didn't understand. When I got hot, all I did was itch and feel a tiny bit of sweat on my head. Lea, on the other hand, was already sweating rivers.

"You gonna be alright today?" I asked, deciding to break the silence.

Lea took a few seconds to answer. I saw he was biting his lip before he spoke. "I think so. I'll just keep to myself. I don't have anyone to hang out with over there who doesn't drive me insane." I looked out the window, and somehow we were already down our street. The bus was two houses down from Lea's trailer. I really had not been paying attention.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I told him.

"Aight," he replied quickly. I was going to get out of the seat to allow him to get out easily, but he instead stood up and lifted his leg up and over my legs so he could cross over me instead of making me get out of the seat. He almost tripped over my feet trying to get out, nearly stumbling into the seat across the aisle. He chuckled after he caught himself, then made his way down the aisle and out the door as soon as it opened.

I had once thought it'd be bad if I ever became friends with Lea Kasai. But to be honest, I sort of enjoyed his company. Even if we didn't speak once, just sitting next to him was enough. It made me less lonely, if that makes sense. Even though I do prefer to be alone most of the time. Especially on the bus. As my house was coming up I stood up and stepped out of my seat, walking to the door just as the bus stopped by my house. I stepped off of the bus.

Today at my house was going to be really boring. Like every day. Maybe I should try texting people to keep me occupied, like Naminé or Ienzo or Marluxia...or even Lea.

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Did you enjoy this chapter? It took me a long time to write this because I was having trouble trying to word everything and I rewrote it a few times. The next chapter will be out whenever. I'm not going to make promises of having it up before a week from now, so expect it anywhere from tomorrow to even two weeks from now. I try to stay consistent but then I end up not going through with what I've said. ANyways, I'll see you in the next chapter!