Chapter 4

Ryo Strife fidgeted uncomfortably where he stood next to his older brother, Cloud. Their mother had called and told them that their other siblings would be coming to school with them, along with some friends of their brother Sora. Ryo hadn't even known they had other siblings up until then. His mother had warned him not to be shocked when he met Sora, which confused him. Why would he be shocked? He'd already had his surprise.

Ryo scowled at the long driveway in front of him. Their mother had said that Sora, Yuna, Riku, and Kaz (Ryo thought that was a really weird name- Kaz...) would come straight to the front steps of their school, Arkham Academy, 10 minutes ago. Ryo sighed and dropped down to sit on the steps behind him.

"They're late."

"Good," Cloud replied. "Let's hope they don't come at all."

Ryo smiled. He understood how Cloud felt. It was odd, meeting someone who should be so close to you for the first time. It would probably be very awkward when they got there. He remembered his mother's voice over the phone, breezy and quiet- "They're more perfect than I even remember... I suppose all mothers feel that way. I've always wanted to tell you about them. I wonder why he changed his mind about... Hm? I didn't tell you because... Well, I was lucky enough to be allowed to keep you and Cloud, I didn't want to push things. Oh, they've stayed with me for a week or so; it was wonderful being able to..."

Get to know them. Of course. But she wanted even more for Ryo and Cloud to get to know them, without interfering with their education. "And Yuna is so excited to find out she has more than one brother! Though I feel she wishes she had a sister, too... She says she hopes you'll both be 'more fun' than Sora... I'm trying to picture Cloud as fun. Can you see it?"

How there mother could make a joke as something as life-altering as this, Ryo didn't know.

Ryo closed his eyes and was surprised when he heard himself laugh; Cloud flopped unceremoniously down on the steps next to him, much different from his usual tense behaviour. He turned to face his older brother. Cloud was staring out at the drive before them, lost in one of his think moments, it seemed. Cloud did that sometimes- space out, not talk to anyone. He always seemed really far away at those times.

Ryo watched the gates of the school, hoping they would show up so it could all be done with. He hung his head and the air all around was silent.

But then there was a noise. Ryo's head snapped upwards and he watched, holding his breath as a sleek black car drew closer. It stopped in front of them and a young girl hopped out quickly. She bounced over to them and leanedin extremely close to Ryo's face.

"Wow," she breathed. "You do look alike."

"Um... Who?" Ryo asked.

"Well, you and Sora!" she laughed.

"Uh... Yeah," Ryo laughed nervously.

He stood up and shook hands with the girl.

"You're Yuna, huh?" Cloud asked, also standing up.

"Yep!" she shouted enthusiastically. "And you're Ryo-" She nodded to Ryo, then Cloud. "-And you're Cloud."

Ryo smiled just as a boy with silver- Ryo decided it was dyed- hair came over to them.

"And this is Riku..." Yuna said.

Ryo and Cloud introduced themselves to Riku, and Ryo began to feel his nervousness disappear. These were nice people. Nothing to worry about.

"Yeah, I'm soo sure your dad would appreciate that!" Ryo heard someone laughing.

He looked over at the car and saw a young blonde laughing as he took some luggage from the hands of another person. Ryo couldn't see the other person because first the luggage had been in their face and when they gave it to the blonde, they bent over to grab more stuff from the trunk. The blonde boy came over to them, leaving the other person at the car and introduced himself.

"I'm Kaz."

Ryo bit his lip, but could help saying, "That's a weird name..."

"Um... Yeah," Kaz laughed. "My parents are... uh... Different. Kinda weird themselves."

Ryo looked back over to the car and instantly his eyes widened. The person who had been getting the luggage, whom Ryo could easily pin as Sora, had straightened up and was closing the trunk. The really did look alike. Same height, same messy brown hair, same jaw line... The only thing Ryo couldn't tell was the eye colour. That was probably because of the sunglasses Sora was wearing, though. Sora breezily took his sunglasses off and smiled at the group.

Had it been within human limitations, Ryo's jaw would've hit the ground. They didn't just look alike. They looked exactly alike. Exactly.

It occurred to Ryo, however, that people don't just look alike. Not to this extent, at least. Not even if their brothers, unless...

"When Sora's birthday?" he asked.

"January 11th," all three of the people standing before him said at the same time.

Same as Ryo's. How coincidental, he thought. That certainly explained why his mother said not to be surprised- and why she'd casually forgotten to mention that Ryo had a twin.

Wonderful.

Sora walked up to the group, big smile plastered on his face and introductions went all around. The new arrivals picked up their luggage, and headed inside. Sora was obviously not a stupid person- Ryo could tell by the way he carried himself, the way he spoke, and laughed at intelligent jokes. So Ryo could easily tell that Sora knew they were not just brothers. However, Sora didn't seem to be affected by this at all. He laughed, talked, spoke, and Ryo began to feel very jealous of the obvious comfort which he did it with.

Cloud and Yuna split off from the rest of the group after awhile to go find Selphie. Yuna would be sharing a room with her. So, Ryo was left alone with Riku, Kaz, and of course, Sora. He was growing more uncomfortable by the second.

Eventually, they came to the dorm that Sora, Riku and Kaz would be sharing with a boy named Kerrak. Every room fit four people and because of the odd number of boys, Kerrak had ended up alone. Personally, Ryo thought it was better that way. Ryo'd liked Kerrak- once upon a time. The kid was funny and likable- when he was in a good mood. Which he was most often not. So it suited that his bad moods couldn't rub off on other people, since other people were never around him.

"Hey," he said before the three boys went into their room, "Sorry you had to end up with the Grump."

Then he flashed them a smile, turned and ran off down the hall. He yanked open the door to his dorm, rushed inside slamming it behind him and collapsed on his bed.

"I take it everything went well?" he heard someone laugh across the room.

"Shut up, Shuyin," Ryo grumbled at his best friend and roommate and rolled over.

"Well, Sora," Riku said as they entered their room, "You managed to get through that without freaking out, crying or any of the other stuff you usually do."

Sora glared at Riku and opened his mouth to spit out a comeback, but Kaz cut him off.

"Actually, he's right... You really seemed... Not... Nervous, I guess."

Sora sighed and fell onto the nearest chair.

"Wasn't though," he said. "Er... was. I wasn't... not nervous."

Riku laughed.

"We can tell."

Suddenly, a door opened on the other side of the room and a boy with bright green eyes and shaggy black hair walked out, glaring at them.

"He must be our new roommate," Kaz muttered.

Sora looked up.

"You mean the Gr-"

Riku stomped on Sora's foot before he could finish saying the word 'Grump' as Ryo had called this boy.

The boy walked over to them and looked at both Riku and Kaz angrily. He looked at Sora and glared.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

Sora didn't know what he meant.

"Um... Kerrak?" Kaz asked nervously.

"Yeah."

The reply came in little more than a grunt but they were able to comprehend it. Riku and Kaz, both looking at Kerrak were too afraid to say anything bold.

Kerrak was still glaring at Sora.

"What?" Sora asked.

Then he understood.

"Oh, I'm Sora. Ryo's brother. Not... Ryo."

He nodded a few times and Kerrak seemed to relax a tiny bit but he was still cross, and it was extremely obvious.

"Hmph. Fine. So. I'm supposed to give you these." He handed them each a slip of paper. "Choose your classes, and take them down to the office."

His words were cool and informative, and as Sora looked down at the list of choices, it wasn't just the prospect of having mandatory Math– Double periods each day, and Gym that was upsetting him.