Oh my gosh I totally forgot about this story! I am SOOO sorry! This chapter has been sitting here collecting dust so here it is!

I introduced some "new elements" shall we say in this chapter. Hope you all enjoy :)


"So, just how 'thrilled' are you for school to start up?"

Sora looked at Riku with an are you serious? type of look before turning back to their game. Ever since Sora came home two hours ago he started playing some of the games he had. He already had plans to try his hand at playing Slender later on tonight (the "newest grand horror game" his friends told him). Part of the reason he wanted to play it later on, during the night time, was mainly because he wanted to beat his sister's time on the game. She plays it three times then finally collected all the notes without dying on the third try.

And how did he fare at the game? He's already played it ten times and only gotten six notes so far. His pride as a gamer has gone down because of it.

However when he got home he just started to play some The Darkness II. While he was Riku showed up to hang out. And that lead to the present, just the two friends taking turns playing as Jackie Estacado.

"Yes and no. I mean, you saw my schedule right? Mr. Even? Seriously? Guys a creeper."

Riku nodded just as he performed the wishbone technique on one of the enemies in the game.

"I hear that. Your lucky though, I have him for science and study block. Damn that's going to suck."

"Yeah but I have Mr. Braig for study block. Personally I think he's just as freaky as Even."

"Oh I agree with you on that as well my friend."

Sora flinched as Riku performed the wishbone on an enemy within the game. Riku smirked at his friend's reaction and progressed in the game.

"So you got your school uniform right?" Riku asked.

"Yup, you?"

"Got mine earlier this morning. Only had to pay 500 munny since I traded in my uniform from last year. How much did you have to pay?"

"Same price for the same reason. Same thing with Xion too."

"How are things with your dad?"

Sora shrugged.

"He says he's been busy with work right now. Even so he says once he gets some time off he's gonna try and come and visit. And if he can't then he's going to try and make up for it somehow he says."

"I feel ya man," Riku said as he handed the controller to Sora since it was his turn. "My parents have been seriously busy with work too."

"Yeah," Sora sighed. "But I guess that it helps to know that the only reason they work so hard is to provide for us you know?"

"That's true. Sometimes that's what makes it worse too."

Sora snorted. Way to think of the negative side of things. Same old Riku.

"Anyway, just how is your parent's business going? Must be hard to own a huge medical corporation right?"

"Yeah," Sora chuckled. "Darn right about that. What about your family's electronic company been doing?"

"Fine as far as I know. No problems from what I've been told."

"That's good."

"Oh yeah," Riku said grabbing another glass bottle of Coca Cola off the table. "So how's the medical girl of the house?"

"She took her medicine earlier. Right now she's taking her daily nap up in her room."

"Does she need to take her medicine anytime soon?"

"Nope," Sora said temporarily pausing the game to check for the alarm on his phone. One of the daily alarms he kept on it was to remind him to double check that his sister got her medicine. From what his phone was telling him she still had three more hours before she had to take her medicine again. "Got three hours until she has to take her next dosage."

"You got dinner planned out? I know you're not exactly a handyman when it comes to cooking," Riku teased with a smirk. Sora ignored that last part of his comment but managed to grumble, "Got lasagna in the oven. Still got twenty minutes left."

"No need to be all tense, lighten up man," Riku said finishing off his bottle of soda. "After all, that's what you usually tell me."

Sora snorted then went back to playing some Darkness II.


Grab the key let's go out and have some fun

Have you ever seen such a perfect day?

What's in your mind? Let's do it one by one

Have you ever thought such a day would come?

Time's up! Forget the theory

Start up the brand new story

Straight up and put it shortly

This is the way my life goes

Someone said I am such a foolish girl

Who cares? It's better than without a light

Sometimes I need someone to hold me tight

Explain to me what is justice what is right?

Kairi continued to sing the song by reading the lyrics that appeared on the karaoke screen. Naminé was busy looking through all the songs to choose from to see which one she wanted to try and sing. For the past hour the two cousins and Serah had been singing some karaoke in order to amuse themselves. So far though Kairi had been singing the most since most of the song selections are songs she not only knew but quite enjoyed.

"Wait a minute, it's all been done before"

How long it takes to do it all over again

What's in your hand? Now drop them one by one

Have you ever thought such a day would come?

Shut up! You're such a wordy

Forget about those worries

"Show me your smile, how charming"

Go home and kiss your mommy

Somehow I hate to see you lie and lie

I know how dumb I am but so are you

Sometimes I want to laugh and cry at once

Explain to me what is justice what is right?

Shut up! You're such a wordy

Forget about those worries

"Show me your smile, how charming"

Go home and kiss your mommy

Someone said I am such a foolish girl

Who cares? It's better than without a light

Sometimes I need someone to hold me tight

Explain to me what is justice what is right?

Somehow I hate see you lie and lie

I know how dumb I am but so are you

Sometimes I want to laugh and cry at once

Explain to me what is justice what is right?

Kairi took a deep breath once the song ended. Her throat was sore right now from all the singing she had been doing. But even so she was having such a blast singing. Kairi blushed a bit from Serah and Naminé clapping and complimenting her singing.

"So who's going next?"

Serah checked her watch.

"Well if we're still planning on visiting the music store like we agreed on doing then we only got time for one more song. Naminé? You going to go up?"

"Sure, why not?"

Kairi handed Naminé the microphone. The flaxen haired girl stood up as her selected song showed up on the screen. She cleared her throat then waited.

Yume mo mita, Kowai yume wo

Toozakaru senaka ni kogoeta

(I had a dream, a frightening dream,

Where I became frozen solid behind your distancing back)

Aru hazu no sono ondo wo

Mou ichido tte sagashiteta

(I was searching, once again,

For your temperature that should have been with me)

Muki dashi no hitori no yoru

Nigeru basho mo nanimo nakute

(When I was stark naked and all alone at night,

There was no place for me to escape to)

Aa, itsuka tomadoi nagara

Jibun wo semeteta

(Ah, before I knew it,

I was blaming myself while wandering on)

Dakara soba ni ite

Zutto da to itte

Akuma no koe wo kakikesu made

Ushinawanu you ni,

Sotto tashikameru

(So please stay by my side,

And tell me you will never leave,

Until I can silence the devil's voice,

I softly reaffirm your presence

as though I wouldn't want to lose you)

Tasisetsu na kioku wa

Ayamachi ni natte mo

Nee, nazeka utsukushii dake

(Even if my precious memories

were to become mistakes,

say, I think they'd still be beautiful)

Aoi chou

Okiniiri no kamidome wo,

Unaji ni karate

(I put on my favorite

blue butterfly hair clip

and danced in the wind)

Kaze ni mau kimi wa sore wo

"Hyouhon mitai" tte waratta

(When you saw that, you smiled,

saying it looked like a real specimen)

Nomareteku hikaru no uzu

Dakedo Totemo yasashisugite

(I am being swallowed by a swirl of light,

But it is a light almost too gentle)

Hikigane wo hikeru junbi wo

Watashi wa shiteita…

(I was getting myself ready

to pull the trigger…)

Dakara soba ni ite

Chanto fureteite

Watashi ga yubi ni toke dasu hodo

Iki no ne wo tomeru,

Sonna kairaku de

(So that's why we stayed together,

And made bodily contact.

As if I'm about to melt into your fingers,

I try to suppress the sound of my breathing

in that ecstasy)

Kawaita yakusoku wa

Keroido wo neophyte

Konna ni mo itooshii dake

(Our parched promised

left behind a permanent scar,

which actually looks quite lovely)

Dakara soba ni ite

Zutto da to itte

Akuma no koe wo kakikesu made

Ushinawanu you ni,

Sotto tashikameru

(So please stay by my side,

And tell me you will never leave,

Until I can silence the devil's voice,

I softly reaffirm your presence

as though I wouldn't want to lose you)

Itsuka sono subete ga

Ayamachi ni natte mo katakana

Ai ni okashite…

(I wouldn't care if one day

everything becomes a mistake.

I venture in love…)

Naminé smiled after she finished singing. Serah and Kairi stood up and applauded causing the blonde to blush even worse that Kairi did.

"Way to go Naminé," Serah complimented. "I didn't know you could sing so well!"

"Yeah well we have a karaoke machine at home so I sometimes get bored and just sing a little," Naminé said. "I'm not that good."

"Oh stop being so modest Naminé seriously," Kairi mumbled as she turned off the karaoke machine. "Come on let's get going to the music store."


About half an hour later the trio of girls had arrived at the large music store. Naminé and Kairi both couldn't tear their attention away from all the wonderful looking violins (even if neither of them knew how to play). Serah looked at all the different guitars they had on display as well as some music sheets to some of her favorite songs.

"Hey they got the music sheet for 'Real Emotion' for the guitar!" Kairi smiled when she came over and looked at some of the music sheets as well. "Yuna loves singing this song. Think we should get it for her?"

Naminé shrugged as she looked through some old classic records in the next aisle.

"Hey I found a record for 'Lullaby for you' over here!" Naminé smiled presenting the record.

Serah nodded. "Yeah, this place makes records of recent songs too. You can even request a record to be made if you have the munny. Course you obviously need a record player to listen to them."

"Aren't they selling some over with all the stereos on the second floor?" Kairi inquired pointing to the second floor. Serah nodded.

"Yeah, though most of them can get expensive. Only because of how detailed they are or stuff like that."

The three girls went back to browsing through various things when the song that the store was playing stopped, causing all attention to shift when an employee's voice spoke instead.

"Attention all shoppers, just a reminder that the registration for the 'Sing Your Heart Out' completion will be over by the end of the day. So anyone left who is interested in registering, please visit customer service located in the middle of the store. Thank you."

"Super Bass" by the Downtown Fiction started to play again as most of the customers within the store went back to their shopping.

"'Sing Your Heart Out'? What is that?" Kairi frowned.

"Oh, it's this annual competition they hold every year," Serah smiled.

"A singing competition?"

"Yeah. Winner gets a large sum of munny and a huge trophy. Sometimes though, talent scouts come to the competition so some of the contestants get a record deal. That's the main reason people enter these days. You know how people are in trying to get all famous."

"Kairi you should totally enter!" Naminé suggested with a grin. "You may win! It might be a lot of fun. Plus, you said you might even pursue a music career while at Matalino so why not?"

Kairi frowned as she pondered this. A singing competition? Sure, it did sound like fun but she had to be honest and say that she wasn't fully sure if she was quite ready to partake in a singing competition. It's not that she had stage fright or anything like that. Kairi just never been in a singing competition. She was more used to taking part in sports competitions. She had to admit that deep down she felt a bit intimidated at the thought of performing onstage.

"Well…I guess I can give it a shot," Kairi decided.

"So then let's go get you registered then!" Naminé said, grabbing Kairi's arm then dragging her off towards the customer service. The employee there was looking through a magazine when they got there.

"Excuse me," Kairi said. "I'd like to register for the Sing Your Heart Out contest."

The girl looked up from her magazine. She didn't say anything at first but instead reached under the counter then presented an application to Kairi.

"Just fill this out and return it before registration ends. All the rules and regulations are in here."

The girl handed Kairi a small group of papers stapled together. The girl then told Kairi if she had any questions she just needed to ask as she walked away to fill out the application.


"Okay, I think I got it all filled out," Kairi said overlooking her application.

"Really?" Serah asked. "Then let's go turn it in."

Kairi nodded then gave the application back to the girl at customer service. The girl smiled as she took it and wished Kairi luck when the competition came around. The girl told her the first round would be next week.

"The theme for the first round is in your little pamphlet there in case you haven't already read that part," the girl explained. "Did you read the rules though?"

Kairi nodded. "The rules state that the contestant has to chose a song to sing for each round that relates to the theme for that set round. The contestant is then judged on the song they chose, their singing skills, and how well they sing the song they had chosen right?"

The girl nodded. "That's right. Looks like you understand the rules already. So now you have until the first round to choose a song to sing then start practicing."

Kairi nodded in understanding. "Okay, thank you!"

The girl waved as Kairi ran back to Serah and Naminé then returned to her magazine.


"So what's the theme?" Naminé asked as she played a few keys on one of the pianos the store had on display. This piano was one that customers could practice on (as long as they were careful and didn't break it).

"The theme is 'introduction.'"

"So what song are you going to pick Kairi?" Serah asked.

"I—have absolute no idea," Kairi sighed as she played a few keys on the piano as well. "And I have until next week to come up with an idea and I got nothing."

"Ah you'll figure it out," Serah encouraged. "You got us to help you after all."

"Not just that but everyone else gets here tomorrow so they can help too," Naminé added. "Well, maybe Rikku, Yuna, and Selphie. Paine would probably care less, knowing her. Oh and I bet Olette would help too."

"For now though I think we should go get something to eat since it's already close to six, then we should probably head back to the dorms," Serah suggested. The two cousins nodded in agreement.


Kairi sat in her dorm room alone looking at her computer. Ever since she had gotten back from eating dinner with Serah and Naminé back at six forty and had spent a whole two hours looking up songs on her computer—trying to figure out which song she would sing for the first round of the competition. So far she hadn't come up with even a single idea of what song she would choose.

Also, while she was searching, she managed to come across something on the school's website called Onli. She saw that it was this online thing that someone who graduated from Matalino Academy. From the looks of it most of the people who either went to Matalino, or still are, all have an account for it. Not just that but from the looks of it even all the teachers and faculty staff at the academy have an account for it—making it easier to talk to them if needed.

Kairi figured, why not? It may prove to help her while attending the academy. Okay, so for a username what should she choose? Well, might as well use the same one she mostly uses. So after Kairi typed in "heartprincess7" Kairi filled out the other requirements. She made a password, answered some questions, and then Kairi started to work on building her avatar.

"Oh man, there are so many options," Kairi murmured, browsing through all the available choices. After pondering about her choices and making her decisions Kairi ended up creating a cat avatar that was dressed in a black and white striped shirt, pink poodle skirt, blue bandana tied around it's neck, and small dove wings coming out from it's back. Once Kairi was done customizing her avatar, she was fully registered.

"Hey, there's someone in one of the chat rooms," Kairi noticed after she decided she would work on her profile page later. Kairi glanced at the clock to see it was only eight ten. Seeing as how she had some time she figured maybe it wouldn't hurt to chat. Entering the chat room Kairi saw that the person in the chat room had a username of "Song_filled_sky." The chat room was pretty interesting too. The chat room was simply Kairi and Song_filled_sky's avatars were standing in a field. Kairi saw that Song_filled_sky's avatar was a lion cub dressed in jeans and a black vest. A speech bubble appeared next to the lion avatar.

Song_filled_sky: Oh ho, a new user I presume?

heartprincess7: So what if I am?

heartprincess7: There something wrong with that? :P

Song_filled_sky: Nothing nothing. Don't get all worked up I'm just playing

Song_filled_sky: So, I'm guessing you're attending Matalino Academy am I correct?

heartprincess7: Yup. Though I'm not sure what I want to pursue while attending

Song_filled_sky: Ah, I hear you. I haven't decided either. I play on the school's soccer team but I'm not planning on going professional

Song_filled_sky: So enjoying being on Tadhana Island?

heartprincess7: Yeah! It's great! :D :)

Song_filled_sky: That's great to hear :D

Song_filled_sky: I've lived here my whole life and I can't imagine living anywhere else

heartprincess7: That's cool

heartprincess7: I'm still getting used to being here

heartprincess7: I've grown up on an island but it still seems like I got a lot of getting used to while being here :P

Song_filled_sky: Oh? Island girl are you? That's pretty cool. I've been to other places before but I still prefer living on an island

heartprincess7: I hear you

Song_filled_sky: Well then miss "princess" I've got to go to bed now. Got some stuff I need to do tomorrow so I need my sleep. Shall we chat again sometime?

Kairi chuckled at the tone she figured Song_filled_sky was using. Trying to sound like someone proper and crap. Oh please.

heartprincess7: We shall see my friend

Song_filled_sky: Until next time then!

The lion avatar then walked off the screen. A small window that said "Song_filled_sky has left" then popped up a second later. Kairi then closed out of the chat window. After that she turned off the computer then got ready for bed herself.


And there you have the seventh chapter everyone! So, anyone want to try guessing the name of the songs used? Or where they came from? ;D Anyway, writing out the songs made this chapter seriously long XD 12 whole pages :P Boy howdy a new record for me! And I'm already guessing that people can figure out who Song_filled_sky is ;D XD

Story info:

Sing Your Heart Out—A competition that is held every year. The competition spans over most of the school year with two month intermissions after each round. The way the competition works is that each round has a select theme. Contestants must choose a song to sing relating to the theme of the round and then are judged by their individual skills, their song choice, and how well they sing their song of choice. After each round judges eliminate contestants they feel aren't up to par. The number of contestants eliminated each round varies. The grand winner gets a great sum of munny and a trophy. However, due to talent scouts sometimes keeping an eye on the competition some of the contestants may get a record deal.

Onli—Onli is an online system that was created by a graduate of Matalino Academy. Onli is mostly strictly used for people who are, or have, attended Matalino Academy. The basis of Onli is that users make an avatar to represent them within Onli (one that is customizable to an extent). Features in Onli include chat rooms, mini games, and other things.

Small trivia/little facts:

-The idea for the competition came into mind somehow after I was contemplating how much I SUCKED at singing (I can't sing high notes to save my life)

-The idea for Onli came from watching Summer Wars so much. I thought the idea of OZ was cool and figured out that having something like that in the story could help it progress