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Sonic Dawn

Strange

Friday, March 13th, was definitely a day that lived up to it's billing as a day of unusual events. I always felt like Friday the 13th was actually lucky for me. Despite 13 usually being an unlucky number, it usually seemed to be MY number. I even wore number 13 when on teams. This day, I felt as if I was certainly unlucky. Even though it felt like I was always due for a weird day at least every once in a while, today was an especially weird and eye-opening date. The next day, it was Naminé's birthday.

I woke that morning at my usual time and went through the usual process of getting ready for school. I just sat up, strummed on the guitar real quick showered, and picked out clothes. To go with my usual mockery of superstitions, I decided today I'd wear this black baseball jersey I got had that had 13 in roman numerals on the front (small and over the heart) and back (large and obvious). Baseball wasn't my favorite sport, but it was the one that I was best at so I played with local leagues form time to time, mostly with Sora. This one in particular was from playing with The Incompletes. I went downstairs and the first weird thing happened.

"Hey mom, did you make anything for breakfast?" I asked as I wandered into the kitchen. There was no response, but I knew my mom was at least on the first floor. "Mom?" I called out.

"Roxas. Sorry. I'm over here," my mom said as she made her way out of the dining room. "Just looking through some mail." The only time my mom seemed that intent on reading mail was when it was an important bill. I knew money was getting pretty tight, but it was the middle of the month so it was really likely it was something else entirely.

"Anything interesting or for me?" I asked casually, peeking in the fridge while hoping my mom would answer both parts of the question.

"No," she stated simply. My plan didn't work, but I could still find out if she was doing okay. I poured myself orange juice, got some fruit and sat down at our kitchen table, which my mom was also sitting at now. She was just kind of staring, obviously thinking.

"So… how's work?" I asked. My tone was a little flat and probably came off as uninterested, but I just wanted her to talk a bit.

She shrugged a bit and seemed to loosen up at the question as she said, "Just the usual. What about school for you?"

"The usual too I guess," I responded, also shrugging. "So…" We continued to talk without actually saying much literally, but my mom's body language kept giving me a vibe like she was preoccupied, but she never seemed to be completely overwhelmed, which I was glad about.

"You're going to wear that today?" my mom asked smiling, finally noticing my jersey.

"Yeah, 13 is my lucky number!" I said excitedly as I realized again that I was wearing it with a hooded fleece over it.

My mom just shook her head with a smile and then asked, "Is Axel picking you up again?"

"He should be here soon actually," I said as she had diverted my attention away. I got up to look out the window and saw his car turn onto the street. "He's here now actually," I said, grabbing my stuff.

"Have fun at school. I love you son," my mom called out.

"I'll try. Love you too mom," I said walking out the door. My mom didn't usually say I love you without some kind of buildup ahead of time. It was nice, but a little weird.

***

"Everyone get into teams of four!" Mr. Martin yelled. After some shuffling around, Sora, Hayner, and myself were all standing together but Riku was absent from our group even though we just saw him.

"Hey, where's Riku?" asked Hayner, looking around. Sora and I shrugged as we looked as well.

"There he is," Sora pointed out, nodding in the direction Riku was walking. Riku was actually walking towards Seifer, someone whom Hayner and I had always been at odds with.

"What the hell?" I said in total shock. Riku seemed to say a few things to Seifer who shrugged with a 'Why not?' look on his face. Wanting to immediately forget what I just saw, I continued, "Let's just get someone else really quick."

The three of us looked around a bit before picking up this guy nicknamed beef, who was pretty athletic but a bit antisocial. He would do for whatever we were playing.

"Alright, we're playing four on four basketball with some a ladder system," Mr. Martin announced. He randomly picked out courts for teams to play on and we unsurprisingly were set up to play against Seifer, Riku, and Seifer's two friends.

"Well, if it isn't 'Rockin' Roxas'," Seifer said, with not even an ounce of amusement in his voice. I chuckled sarcastically.

"Let's just play," I said as Hayner ran over with a ball to play with. I looked over at Sora who seemed excited and was glad to see that. I then looked over at Riku in confusion and was surprised to see he seemed excited too. I was still completely confused as to why he wanted to play with Seifer.

*

After playing about four games, with half of them being against Seifer's team, class was over. I exited the locker room to wait in the athletic hall. We had to wait until the passing period bell rang before we could actually get moving. As I entered the hall though, I saw Sora and Riku talking about 20 feet away. I couldn't hear what they were saying. Sora seemed to be mostly listening with a pleading look on his face while Riku looked like he was venting something.

I started walking over their way when the bell rang and the hall full of teenagers started emptying out into the main hallways. Riku immediately began walking away while Sora seemed to look after him with a dejected look on his face. I tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around quickly with a deep thought look but then smiled.

"Hey Roxas," Sora said with a smile.

"Hey Sora. Hey, what was up with Riku?" I asked with a serious look on my face.

"Riku? He's just got something on his mind I guess…" Sora said, looking back in Riku's direction but then quickly looking back at me. I just kind of blinked and looked after Riku as well. "Let's go," Sora said as we started walking. "Practice this Sunday right?" he asked trying to divert our attention. I nodded. This was the second out of place thing about today.

***

I was now in Twilight community mall with Axel and Kairi and expecting Sora to make an appearance later too. We were supposed to be looking for gifts for Naminé but Kairi and I already picked up stuff to get her. It was mostly for Axel and to have a fun Friday.

"Do you think she'd like this?" Axel asked as he held up a purse made of recycled goods.

"I don't think she'd mind it, but it's something she'd probably want to get herself," Kairi said with a supportive smile. I chuckled to myself before looking around again. We were in a 'Chester's Gifts' which was pretty much a stoner's gift store. Some of the stuff was genuinely interesting or funny, but there was a lot of crap too. "What time is Sora coming again?" She had already asked twice by then.

"He should be here any minute now" I answered, taking out my phone to check the time. "Excited to see him?" I asked playfully looking towards her. She just kind of shrugged a bit with a smile.

Pretty much on cue, I got a text from Sora. "I'm here. Where's Chester's?" Sora didn't know this mall as well; we usually went to Twilight Town's mall instead but made an exception to look for gifts.

"Meet me in the food court." I responded. I figured I'd just kind of pick him up. "I'll be right back," I quickly called to Axel and Kairi. They nodded slightly curiously as I left the store.

I started walking quickly towards the food court, which required me to go from the first floor to the second floor. I got on the escalator and did a double take as I saw Xion in the mall's bookstore, which was just 20 feet from the escalator. A smile crossed my face as I decided I'd see her.

I walked in after getting off the escalator and walked up to her as she was looking at the classic's section. "Hey Xion," I called happily.

She looked up and a smile immediately plastered across her face. "Hey Roxas! What are you doing here?"

"I'm meeting up with Sora," I said in a matter of fact tone. "I was actually hanging out with your sister and Axel too."

"Oh yeah, they said they'd be shopping for Naminé… I guess they came here then," Xion said with a tone of revelation.

"Yeah, Axel keeps picking up the most random stuff," I said making an annoyed face. Xion laughed at my expression. "I think they both said you'd be busy with school or something though, that's why I didn't call or text you.

"Oh yeah…" Xion said with her smile fading and quickly looking around. "I finished early and said I'd meet someone here in the mall. Sorry, I think I've gotta go. I'll talk to you later." She immediately scurried off after just a quick wave.

"See ya…" I said watching her walk away. That was the third weird thing. Before I could put any real thought into it, I remembered I was going to meet Sora and went on my way.

So all three strange events were hints to future chapters. Obviously it's also important that this chapter takes place the day before Naminé's birthday. Although nothing immediately plot changing took place, I still think this was a good chapter. All reviews are welcome and thanks for reading!