Hey, readers!
First, I'd like to thank everyone who has favorited/subscribed/reviewed this story. You people make me so happy! ^-^
I apologize for any errors, but I really wanted to get this chapter up as soon as I possibly could.
Anyway, on with the show!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot of this story.
I was sitting in third period the next day, thinking of how I was going to go about getting the note from Riku's locker without looking suspicious. I'd given it some thought last night after finishing up my sketch of Riku and I was still having the same argument with myself. I had worked out in my head that I was going to bust into his locker during lunch (I wanted as much time to talk to him as I could get (even if getting the note only took a few minutes)) and I had already worked out the details, but I didn't know if I should wait until everyone cleared the hall for lunch or if I should go while the hall was still full. None of my peers would see me acting suspicious if I waited until they were gone, but the security cameras in the halls would catch me. Now, which was worse? The student body thinking I was weird or the administration telling Demyx of my strange behavior?
Now, I was always a goody-two-shoes; I never partied, drank, did drugs, had sex, or got into any kind of trouble, and I highly doubted Demyx would think I was causing trouble after this one occurrence. But I had a feeling getting involved with helping Riku track down his murderer would lead to me doing more suspicious things, and as my suspicious activities would begin to pile up, he might begin to become wary of me.
After a few more moments of thought I decided I'd make my move while everyone was still in the hallway. Most teenagers, me included, didn't tend to notice anything or anyone that didn't have something to do with them or their lives. They also shared lockers with their friends, and their materials for different subjects were spread throughout the school in various lockers (Olette had told me all about it yesterday), so it wouldn't be weird to see someone opening up a locker that wasn't theirs. But if someone did think I was up to something, being at the bottom of the high school social hierarchy wasn't anything new for me, anyway. I figured the worst they would think was that I was getting drugs out of the locker from an anonymous supplier or something like that. But I preferred retaining my image with Demyx over whatever they thought of me, no matter what their thoughts were.
When the bell rang, Hayner and I made our way to the stairwell. He split off from me when I reached my locker (his next class was on the third floor). Once he was a good distance away, I thought, Time to put this plan into action.
I put my textbooks in my locker and shut it, leaving my lunch inside. I planned to use forgetting my lunch as an excuse to go back upstairs without Olette questioning it. I made my way down to the home ec. room and found Olette already seated at our table. "Hey," I greeted as I sat down.
With a wave, she said, "Hey." After a beat, she asked, "Where's your lunch?"
I blinked in fake-confusion and looked at my things beside my seat on the floor. "Oops," I said, trying to look slightly embarrassed. "Guess I forgot it in my locker. I'll just go grab it after class."
"Sounds like a plan."
You don't know the half of it.
Class went by and soon the lunch bell rang. After telling Olette I'd see her in a bit, I headed upstairs to the top floor. The fourth floor hallway was crowded with various cliques of the teenage variety—preps, jocks, nerds, emo kids—and noisy with chatter and lockers being slammed shut. Typical high school corridor.
I made my way to locker 927, trying to act as if this was what I did on a normal basis. Upon reaching it, I pulled out the crumpled up note, read over the combination, and spun it in to the lock. Opening it, I saw the backpack sitting at the bottom of the locker. I pulled it out and checked the first side pocket.
Nothing.
Checking the other side pocket, I found a folded up piece of paper. I pulled it out and stared at it. It looked like just a plain piece of paper. It was hard to believe that something that seemed so insignificant had played a part in someone's murder.
Then, something occurred to me. Since his backpack was still inside his locker, that meant that no one had searched it for evidence. Why hadn't the police checked it for anything that could help in their case? Unless they had immediately ruled out murder, thinking that no one could possibly have murdered such an upstanding student.
Obviously, they didn't know teenagers.
My newest revelation still bothering me, I shoved the backpack back in the locker and shut it. Looking at the note again, I considered opening it, but I decided against it. I already generally knew what it said, and even though Riku had asked me to get it for him and had never specifically told me not to, it didn't feel right opening without his permission first.
"Naminé?"
At the sound of my own name I jumped. I spun around to see Zexion standing there. His face was neutral as ever, his eyes not betraying his expression. I tried not to gulp out of nervousness. Why, of all people, did he have to be the one to notice me?
"Z-zexion, h-hey," I stuttered out, shoving the papers into my bags, and if that didn't seem suspicious I don't know what did. "W-what are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," he replied evenly, taking a quick glance at my bag before looking back at me.
"I-I was just getting something out of this locker," I answered, pointing to Riku's locker. Technically, it wasn't a lie, but wasn't the whole truth either. I just plastered on a smile and silently prayed that he didn't question it.
After a beat, he said, "If you say so."
Disaster avoided.
"What about you?" I asked.
"My fourth period is up here," he replied, and then he grabbed my wrist and began pulling me down the hallway. "Now come on. Let's get to lunch."
"O-okay," I said absentmindedly, staring at his hand enclosed around my wrist. His grip wasn't too tight or too loose. My wrist just kind of seemed to fit in his hand perfectly, and I felt myself blush a little.
"Naminé," Zexion said, getting my attention.
"Huh?"
"I asked if we needed to stop at your locker for anything," he said. We had just reached the third floor.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I just need to grab my lunch," I said, unwillingly pulling my wrist out of Zexion's hand. I headed down the hall to my locker, Zexion following behind me. Once I pulled my lunch out of my locker we headed down to the cafeteria, his hand encircling my wrist again.
When we walked into the cafeteria, it was as noisy as ever. I saw a few people look our way in the middle of their conversations and then whisper to their friends, who then turned to look at us as well. Avoiding meeting their stares, I looked at the back of Zexion's head. If he noticed, he wasn't giving any indication of it.
I looked over at our lunch table and saw the rest of the gang up to their usual activities—Olette and Pence: looking over drill sheets (such dedication!), Roxas and Hayner: going over plays, and Sora and Kairi: kissing and cuddling. Kairi, who was snuggled against Sora's side, spotted us and waved. Olette looked over her shoulder, spotted us too, and shot me a grin, causing me to blush some more.
Once we sat down, he let go of my wrist and started eating his lunch. I was about to start eating mine too when I felt my phone vibrate inside my bag. I pulled out my phone and saw that Olette had sent me a text message. Quirking an eyebrow, I opened the text, which read:
Olette: Awww~! U guys r so cute 2gether!
My cheeks heated up, and Olette nudged me with her elbow. I sent her a glare and sent her back a text.
WE R NOT 2GETHER!
When she got my text, she typed out another text, and then my phone vibrated. I checked the message.
Olette: Doesn't mean u guys don't look cute 2gether though ;)
"Are you guys texting while you're sitting right next to each other?" Roxas asked from across the table, causing me to look up at him from my phone.
Olette and I turned to look at each other and we busted out laughing for no particular reason. Once we got our breathing under control, we looked back at each other…and we busted out laughing again. I was laughing so hard my eyes were pinched shut and I ended up leaning on whoever was next to me for support. I cracked one eye open to see Roxas shaking his head.
"My friends are strange," he said.
Olette, now only giggling, said, "But that's why you love us."
Roxas just shook his head again, a small smile on his face.
After a few more seconds, I managed to get my laughter under control. I looked up at whoever I was leaning on and saw it was Zexion. "S-sorry," I said and pulled away from him. He just shrugged.
Olette had her hand over her mouth, muffling a laugh, and her shoulders were shaking. I elbowed her in the side, and she kept grinning.
It was all so normal, and I found it kind of funny because as of a few days ago my life had become anything but normal. But considering I didn't know how many more of these kinds of moments I would have, I'd take whatever normalcy I could get.
~o~
Ring!
"Alright, class," Luxord said, "splendid job today. I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Well, that was fun!" Kairi chirped as we gathered up our things. She was talking about the improv exercise just made us perform. Or maybe it was because she got to spend a little time with Sora during class.
Backtracking a little bit, Luxord had put Zexion, Kairi, and I together in a group for the improv exercises, making us the only three-person group while all the other students had been split into groups of four. Just as our trio had been about to take to the stage, Sora had walked in with a note for Luxord from whoever he had for a teacher that period and had asked what we were doing. Luxord had told him we were in the middle of running improv exercises, and Sora had insisted on joining in on the fun. Luxord had said no, but Sora had been persistent, saying that as a veteran of Luxord's drama class that he could show us how to improvise properly. Luxord had relented eventually, assigning Sora to our trio to make it a quartet.
Sora, Kairi, Zexion, and I had each been given our roles—a knight, a princess, a warlock, and a witch, respectively—and then we had begun. It had gone a little something like this:
The princess had been in love with the knight, the kingdom's best warrior, and they were to be married. However, the knight had not truly loved the princess back.
Then, one day the witch and her companion, the warlock, had been out practicing spells in the woods. The warlock had gone away, but the witch had stayed behind to practice a little more. As she had been practicing a love spell, the knight had ridden up, and the witch had accidentally cast the spell upon the knight. The witch had temporarily cast a stop spell and had fled before the knight had had the chance to pursue her, leaving the knight to wonder where the object of his sudden affection had gone.
The knight had returned to the princess and had tried to break off his engagement with her. Heartbroken, the princess had asked who had stolen her beloved's heart, and the knight had told her that he had fallen in love with the White Witch of the Forest, the witch's proper title. The princess had pleaded with the knight not to leave her, but he had refused to listen. The princess had then killed the knight, claiming that she had saved him from making a dreadful mistake.
Moved by vengeance, the princess had plotted to take the witch's life, acquiring the court mage's amulet, which gave her power equal to witch's and protected her from any attacks, and had ventured out in to the woods. The princess had killed the witch and had gone home a heroine to her kingdom for killing a witch.
Meanwhile, the warlock, who had discovered his dead friend, had been left to wallow in misery for the rest of his life.
So, long story short: The knight and witch were both dead, the princess continued living a wonderful life, and the warlock lived out the rest of his life in misery.
The whole thing sounded more morbid than fun, if you ask me.
After we had finished, Luxord had sent Sora back to class. Kairi had pouted over it but let it go after she and Sora had shared a quick kiss.
"If you say so," Zexion said as we headed out of the auditorium. His face was in a neutral expression now, but while we had been up on stage he had been so expressive. And he had such a nice smile.
Naminé, I thought, mentally trying to smack some sense into myself, stop thinking about him like that. It's not going to happen. You'll only get your hopes up. Besides, it's just a silly crush. It'll pass eventually.
I waved bye once we got to the hallway, my thoughts changing from a boy with blue eyes to a boy with aqua green ones. I had managed to keep my excitement under control for the past few hours. I'd just have to contain it a little bit more until the band room cleared out. Most of the band was already on their way outside by the time I got there. Demyx, as he was the last out the door, waved at me before going outside, too.
I walked into the band room and all was quiet. Glancing out the window, I saw that it was nice and sunny out. A beautiful day for marching, as Demyx would say. In other words, my meeting with Riku wouldn't be cut short this time.
Suddenly feeling a coldness on my shoulder, I turned to see Riku with his hand on my shoulder. He was sit-floating there, looking at me with hopeful eyes. "So," he asked, "did you get it?"
"Yep," I said. I pulled the note out of my backpack for him to see.
"Awesome," Riku said. He stood and went toward the piano. "Now we just need to get in contact with a psychic medium."
"Do you know of any in town?" I asked him.
"There is one person in town who claims to be one. Her name's Larxene Regnard."
"Great! I'll look her up online tonight and see if I can schedule an appointment."
"Thanks," he said with a smile.
"Oh, don't thank me," I replied. "I'm more than happy to help. Besides, I feel like I kind of owe you for freaking out the first time I saw you. Sorry about that, by the way."
Riku shrugged. "It's not like you're the first."
"Really?" I asked, curious. "Who else has seen you?"
"Just the former band director," Riku admitted. "He walked in on me playing one day a few weeks back. The second he saw me, he took off like a bat out of hell. I must've really scared the poor guy because, a couple of days later, I was wandering around the school and overheard a few of the teachers talking about his resignation and how my dad, the principal, was going crazy trying to find someone to fill his position on such short notice."
I blinked. So, what he was basically saying was he had indirectly gotten my brother a job. He hadn't said it like that, but still he had. He probably wasn't even aware of the fact.
"Huh."
Riku gave me a questioning look, so I explained the situation Demyx and I had been in back at Destiny Island and how we moved here because they had hired him so quickly.
"Geez," he said, "talk about a crazy set of circumstances."
I nodded. It was pretty crazy that something he had done a few weeks ago had affected my life. In a way, I wanted to be angry with him; he had brought about the reason we had left home, after all. But I just couldn't bring myself to be. It wasn't like he had planned it or anything. That, and life here wasn't too bad so far, even if I was living with my prick of a great-uncle. Demyx had a job and that was the important thing. I felt indebted to the guy now.
You are doing what you can to help him until you find someone who could be of better use to him in solving this case, I thought. It's the best you can do.
"So," Riku said, pulling me out of my thoughts, "tell me about yourself."
"A-about myself?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "I mean, I would like to know a little bit about the person who is helping me solve the mystery of my murder."
"W-well, w-what would you like to know?" I hated being put on the spot like this. I could never think of what to say. My mind always blanked in these types of situations.
"Like…what do you plan on majoring in when you graduate from high school?"
"The fine arts…I'm mostly going to focus on sketching, though."
"Thought so."
"And what about you?" I asked. I threw a quick glance at the piano. "You were going to major in music, right?"
Riku nodded. "I'm guessing you were asking around about who I was?"
"You kind of came up in a conversation, actually," I replied.
"With who?"
"Axel."
"Burnstine?"
"Yeah, he's a friend of the family."
"Well, that's cool," Riku said, very interested. "How'd you meet him?"
I explained to Riku how Axel and Demyx had been best friends in high school and all that jazz. I left out the part about him being there for Demyx and I after our parents died, though; I didn't feel comfortable telling him about all of that. It was too personal.
"So, how are you adjusting to things here, being new and all?" he asked.
"It's okay so far," I replied. "Nothing to complain about, really. My teachers all seem pretty okay so far, and I've made a few friends."
"Like who?"
"Zexion Ignatz, Olette Stevenson, Hayner Davis, Pence Trombini, Sora and Roxas Skylark, and Kairi Vollmond."
Riku's expression changed, a frown forming on his face.
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned with his sudden change in mood.
"Nothing. It's just…that was basically my whole crew, and Sora and Kairi had been my best friends before I died."
"I-I'm so sorry. I—"
"What are you apologizing for?" he asked.
I remained quiet. I wasn't really sure why I was saying sorry, either. Maybe it was just because the mention of them had made him so sad.
"How are they doing?" he asked.
"Well, they seem happy. And they're dating."
"Really?" When I gave him a nod, he chuckled. "Well, that's good."
"You miss them, huh?"
"Yeah. But as long as they are doing okay, I'm okay."
I nodded. That was sweet.
"I don't know who Zexion is, though," he said. "I mean, I've heard the name, but I've never actually met the guy."
I started to describe Zexion to him. And it took an awful lot of willpower to stay neutral while describing him.
"Him?" Riku asked, knowing who I was talking about. "Olette always said that guy was a loner."
"That's what she told me, too. But apparently he starting to branch out a little bit."
"Good for him."
I nodded, and then a thought occurred to me. "Hey, I got a question."
"Yeah?"
"What did you do all summer?" I asked. What had he done all summer? With being dead and the band room being the only room in the school with enough energy for him to do anything, there didn't seem to be much he could do.
"You remember that song I was playing when we met?" he asked.
I nodded. I really couldn't forget it when it was constantly playing on a loop as background music in my head. I had become so used to it within the past few days that it didn't even faze me anymore.
"I composed it over the summer."
Wow. That was just…wow. I couldn't play an instrument if my life depended on it so, of course, I thought it was, well…wow, for lack of a better word.
"That's awesome!"
"Well, that one and a few other songs too."
"Oh, wow."
"Well, three months with nothing to do, absolutely no need for eating or sleeping, the building being deserted most of the time, and all the time in the world a ghost can get a lot done."
Okay, so ghosts didn't need sleep. That answered that question.
"Can't do that now, though," Riku continued. "Not with everyone around at least."
"Then why did you play when I was around?" I asked. "Why did you show yourself to me?"
A thoughtful look came upon his face and he was silent for a moment. Finally he said, "I'm not sure, honestly. I just got this feeling that I should show myself to you, try to get your attention."
So he did it on a whim to get my attention….Well, it had worked.
"What surprised me, though, was that you didn't run as soon as you saw me," Riku said.
That would explain why he had looked so surprised when our eyes met. I had been way too preoccupied with the music to notice that he was see-through at the time.
"I was too wrapped up in the music, I guess," I said, looking down at the floor. "Would you, um…"
"Hm?"
"W-would you mind playing that song again?" I asked. Even though I was always hearing it in my head, nothing would compare to hearing it with my own ears, and I wanted to hear it again.
"Yeah, sure," Riku said.
Riku sat down at the piano bench, relaxing himself. He poised his long, slender fingers over the keys.
And he began to play.
His fingers ghosted over the keys gracefully as he played, their movement looking so natural. The notes and chords flowed and blended together beautifully, hauntingly. Once again the song was reaching into my heart and pulling at its strings.
I allowed my eyes to shut as I listened, tears pricking behind my eyelids. The song painted sorrow in such a beautiful way. I wondered about what had caused him to compose this song. Was there a deeper meaning behind its melancholy melody? Or had he just composed it as he went?
Suddenly, the music stopped. Confused, I opened my eyes.
Riku was gone.
Not even a second later, Demyx walked in. He had a look of bewilderment on his face. He looked at me, glanced around the rest of the room in search of something. His eyes then finally came to rest on me again. "Nami," he asked, "was that you?"
Nice call, Riku, I thought.
"What was me?" I asked Demyx as innocently as possible.
"That music," he answered. "Was that you playing the piano?"
"Well," I replied, "there's no one else here, is there?"
Demyx's whole face lit up at the lie. I tried not to visibly cringe. He had always wanted me to learn to play an instrument. I felt so horrible lying to him, but I knew he'd never believe the truth.
"I knew you had the music in you!" Demyx cheered. "Play it again."
"No, Demyx, not now," I said and glanced around at all of the band kids who had walked in as we were talking. Not only did I not want to play because I couldn't but also because I was clamming up with all of these people around. I'd had my share of public performing for the day in drama class, thank you.
Demyx patted my head and went to his office to gather his things, leaving my in the middle of the band room.
I stared at the piano for a moment. Then I looked down at my hands. I thought, these hands may be able to create realistic and detailed drawings…
I looked back at the piano.
But they'd never be able to make anything as beautiful as that.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Note: Zexion won't be joining the investigation for a bit. I have a lot of other things to add in before he gets involved.
Leave a review to let me know what you think so far. Also, feel free to leave a review on your suspicions for who the murderer is. I would really like to see how predictable I'm being with this story.
Until next time! -Muffcakeloverxiii
