Sorry this chapter is so long and so late coming! Was very busy, and it's probably late because it was so long! I didn't want to split Sports Week into two parts. Enjoy!
Sports week had officially started, and now Wakka and Tidus were nowhere to be found when Kairi was walking to school- even though she was going early. They were probably practicing for the blitzball tournament as much as possible nowadays. Everyone was required to participate in sports week, whether in an actual sport or in the setup for everything. Kairi wasn't in any sports clubs, but everyone who absolutely didn't want to be a part of the events had signed up for a position running information booths, refreshment stands, or any other organizational position the teachers could come up with. So Kairi decided to sign up for rowing and a long distance running event. She figured she'd ran so many times to school with Wakka that she was pretty good at it by now. There was going to be teacher events too, for fun, and a teacher versus student section.
In school, the whole theme that week would be sports, nutrition, and over all bodily health. Science was going to concentrate on nutrition and the anatomy and biology of exercise, health would no doubt be a nutrition plan for the week that the kids had to at least try to participate in, other than that, during health, PE, and planning period, kids in events were allowed go and practice, while the kids not in events helped set up for the sports festival at the weekend. Special guests would be coming in to speak with the students, too. Everyone got really into sports week. It was a little crazy.
When Kairi got to school, kids were already running around the halls like mad people, pink cheeked and excited for the end of the week. There were streamers set up on the walls, and the Student Council was decorating the school with all its might. Kuroha and Elyon had been assigned one hallway, and Kairi helped them out as they talked about what events they would be in. Kuroha had signed up for long distance running, too, even though she said she wasn't very good at it. Elyon signed up for swimming. She said she was decent but wasn't expecting any medals out of it.
"What did you sign up for, Kairi?" Kuroha asked, concentrating on a poster she was putting up about the food pyramid. Kairi shrugged with a chuckle. "Oh, long distance and rowing. I don't really think I'll do that great though."
"That makes three of us," Elyon responded and Kuroha laughed. "I can't wait to see Tidus play blitzball!" Kuroha giggled with her hand over her mouth, making Elyon scowl. "Why are you so taken with that little kid? I thought you hated underclassmen."
"I do not!" Kuroha retorted, pouting. "This one is different."
"They're all different if they're good looking and taken with you," Elyon muttered. Kuroha laughed again and made kissing noises in Elyon's ear. Scowling, Elyon waved her away angrily, crossing her arms in front of her as Kuroha laughed again.
"Elyon, why don't you go on a date with Wakka? Kairi, why hasn't this been arranged yet?" Kuroha said suddenly, turning to Kairi for an answer. Kairi shrugged and Elyon scowled again, this time harder. "He doesn't like me!" she hissed dejectedly. "He likes Kairi."
"That never matters!" Kuroha scoffed. "You've got to make him like you more than Kairi," she said intensely, then added, "no offense, Kairi."
"None taken," Kairi responded with a smile. The two were a funny pair. Kairi still wondered about Elyon's sister though, it had been in her thoughts all weekend.
"No non sports related clubs all week, right?" Elyon asked, and Kuroha nodded. "It's all about sports this week," Kuroha said. "The sports clubs from the high school will be setting up stands!" Kuroha giggled. "I can't wait to see the high school boys!"
"Kuroha, you are insufferable," Elyon muttered, but Kuroha didn't hear her.
The first period bell rang, and everyone filed to their classrooms, the students just coming in the front double doors admiring the decorations the Student Council had set up. Kuroha, Elyon, and Kairi sat down in their seats just as the language teacher filed into the classroom with his briefcase and jacket in hand. Kairi rolled her eyes when she noticed that the jacket was brown tweed, indicating it to Elyon and Kuroha, who sniggered. "So bohemian," Kuroha said in a deep posh accent, raising her eyebrows. Elyon broke out laughing at this, and Kuroha smiled devilishly as the teacher looked right at them with narrowed eyes. He eyed Kairi in particular, and she sighed, turning back to Elyon and Kuroha in dejection. "Great, I'm in trouble again."
"I'm sorry!" Elyon said suddenly. "If I hadn't laughed so loud he wouldn't have looked over at us."
"It's okay," Kairi responded. "He probably thinks that I'm a bad influence on you two."
The teacher stood up then and walked over to Kairi's desk, putting his hand on it and looking at her seriously. "Kairi, if you continue to disrupt the class I'll have to separate you from your friends."
"Yes, sir," Kairi mumbled in return, and then noticed Kuroha making faces behind the teacher as he walked away with a nod. Kairi tried not to smile, but it was very hard, and she ended up putting her head down on her desk. The teacher probably thought that she was being dramatic, but she didn't care. Kairi suddenly thought of how Kuroha and Elyon were a little bit like Sora and Riku. They were just different people with similar dispositions. Elyon had Riku's sarcasm and deep thought, and she had Sora's kindness. Kuroha had Sora's sense of humor and penchant for mischief, mixed with a larger version of Riku's mean streak. Kairi suddenly felt a wave of relief run over her, and her mind was put to rest a little bit. Then she suddenly realized that she was scheduled for the psychiatrist again today, and she was not particularly looking forward to it, but she would try to get through it anyway. The woman kept pulling information out of Kairi and twisting it around without the girl knowing. It was frustrating, and Kairi realized she'd have to be more careful about what she said.
The principal suddenly came on the intercom telling everyone that there was going to be a meeting in the high school auditorium to begin sports week. Everyone filed out of their classrooms in excitement, trying to assemble themselves into organized lines but failing miserably.
There was a crunch of people trying to get in through the front of house of the auditorium building, and everyone finally squeezed through and seated themselves in front of the stage where the principals would be giving out information. Both the high school and the middle school principals were on stage discussing and laughing about insignificant topics, holding cups of coffee that had no doubt been given out backstage to the speakers.
"Save a seat for Tidus and Wakka!" Kuroha piped up, and maneuvered everyone so that there were two spaces in between herself and Elyon. Kairi suddenly felt a little bit left out, but she didn't say anything, because she knew how much Elyon liked Wakka. Tidus came in first, and Kuroha practically dragged him over to his seat, sitting him down beside her. He squirmed in the chair uncomfortably, coughing a little bit and checking his breath while Kuroha fixed her hair a little bit and checked her face in a little hand mirror she had brought along. Wakka was the next to come in, and scanned the crowd hopefully to see if Kairi had saved a seat for him. When he saw that the seat was instead beside Elyon, he shrugged and walked carefully down the aisle to sit beside her, smiling at her as he did. Elyon blushed madly, messing with her hair and her glasses and generally trying not to talk to Wakka. Kuroha indicated for Kairi to make Elyon talk, and Kairi tried to make Elyon feel a little bit more comfortable. Elyon and Wakka started to talk to each other, even laughing a little bit. Kairi looked ahead to see when the meeting would start.
"Hello, students," the high school principal finally said with a smile, adjusting her cat eyeglasses and looking down at her notes in front of her. Kairi suddenly had the thought that she had not been at the meeting in the beginning of the year that discussed Riku and Sora's disappearances. Of course, now there was only one recorded disappearance.
The woman smiled wider and spread out her hands as if engulfing the whole auditorium in one swift hug. "Welcome to sports week!"
There was a rousing cheer from the audience, and the principal clapped her hands in tune with the student body. Then, she quieted everyone down and continued speaking.
"Before we get to our presentation of Sports week past and present, I just want you all to know that we have the least number of students participating in events in 10 years," she chided as a number of snickers rose up through the aisles of seats. "I would have hoped that more people would be interested in perpetuating this beautiful examination of heritage and tradition, as I myself was part of the volleyball team the year we beat the high school team!"
Everyone groaned as quietly as they could as the principal went into a long monologue about how wonderful that sports week was and how glorious it was when they had won. Kairi was beginning to fall asleep when the principal finally got to the rules section of the presentation.
"No drugs whatsoever. I know it seems like a ridiculous thing to say at such a small level of competitive sport but it still happens. More often then you all would think."
Kairi noticed Kuroha whispering something in Tidus' ear. He laughed softly, and returned a whisper to her. She nodded and continued to whisper to him, trying not to get attention drawn to her. Wakka and Elyon sat silently, Wakka peering over at Kairi every once in a while to see what she was doing. At one point, they met eyes, and Kairi blushed a little bit in embarrassment. At this, Wakka grinned a little bit, and sat back in his chair, getting comfortable. Kairi wondered if he'd taken it the wrong way.
"In conclusion," the principal finished, setting the rule sheet aside, "as culture week is a reexamination of the soul, sports week is a reexamination of the body. This week we need to give special attention to our own physical needs, and the needs of others, whether that be food, exercise, or bodily relaxation," after saying the last 'physical need', the principal chuckled and said, "which I can be sure a few of the faculty would like, including myself." There was a tittering laughter that flowed through the faculty seated in the audience, as all the teachers nodded to each other. The principal seemed chuffed with her own joke.
"Now," she said, calling up two Student Council representatives. They wheeled up a small bell inlaid with little silver paopu fruits and a specially carved, white wooden gavel on a rolling table. The principals of the high school and junior high school both stepped up to the small table and took hold of the handle of the little gavel, and at the same time, rang the bell with it. Then, the gavel was returned to its special place beside the bell, and the same Student Council representatives wheeled the contraption off stage. The high school principal gave a short clap and a smile. "With the ringing of the Destiny Islands Bell, Sports Week has officially begun!"
There was a cheer from the audience, and everyone stood up to leave the auditorium and go back to class. They all chattered loudly on the way back to their schools, and Wakka walked close to Kairi on the way back. He coughed, and rubbed the back of his head a little self-consciously. "I saw you looking at me a little," he chuckled and Kairi shrugged. "Yeah, I was looking over at Kuroha."
"Oh," Wakka said with a smile, not entirely believing Kairi. "I thought you were looking at me."
"No," Kairi corrected politely, "I think it's just one of those things where two people just meet eyes at the same time, when they've stopped looking at something and are moving onto something else," then she finished, "there's no reason to it, it just happens."
Wakka's eyes got a little big at this, and he inched closer to Kairi in awe. "That was really smart," he said softly. "I feel the same way."
Kairi felt herself groaning internally and tried not to let it escape out of her throat as she peeled off towards the junior high. Unfortunately, Wakka was very good at keeping up with her, and he talked nearly nonstop until he was forced to go back to the high school and leave Kairi to go to the junior high school.
As Kairi neared the front doors, Kuroha jumped up beside her feverishly, looking back in the direction of Wakka. "What did Wakka say to you?"
"Nothing really," Kairi said lightly, noticing Elyon coming over out of the corner of her eye.
"He looked really into you," Kuroha said a little too loudly, and Elyon was smart enough to know what they were talking about. Kairi didn't know what to do in the situation; Elyon seemed really down in the dumps. "Uh, I don't think he was into me…" Kairi tried nervously, but Kuroha shot her down. "He was looking at you with those puppy eyes," Kuroha giggled. "What did he say?"
Kairi sighed, and replied in a short snap, "he was asking me about Elyon."
"Really?" Elyon and Kuroha responded brightly. Kairi nodded, sending Elyon into a fit of nervous giggles. Kuroha looked at Kairi suspiciously, and then shrugged, patting Elyon on the back. "Maybe it's because both of you are kind of quiet," Kuroha reasoned, "You should be more confident around him, say what you want to say."
"I will from now on, definitely," Elyon sighed, putting her hand over her heart. Kairi suddenly felt very bad. She'd have to make Wakka like Elyon, now. It couldn't be that hard. She'd just talk about Elyon a lot and be a little cold to Wakka. Then things would be fine again.
"You got yourself a high school boy, Elyon," Kuroha said with a giggle, hugging Elyon, "you're making me proud."
"That's not something to be proud of!" Elyon scowled, and Kuroha laughed, making Elyon grin a little bit even though she didn't want to.
They filed up to science class, because the expansive meeting for sports week had taken a whole class period. The language teacher was grumbling because it had been his class, and he shouted to students running down the hall that their homework was still due today and they would have a quiz next class. Kuroha groaned and set her head in her hands. "I'm so tired of school already and it's only second term…"
"What do you guys think high school will be like?" Kairi suddenly asked. Elyon shrugged. "Same as this except harder and more specialized," she replied. She was much brighter after the 'news' she had been given about Wakka. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to lie to a person for something like this. She seemed to be feeling a lot better. Kairi was pleased. If everyone around her were smiling, maybe it would make it easier for her to wait and not be sad.
Then, Kairi frowned. What was she waiting for? She knew it was something important. She scratched her head to try and remember, and finally she thought of Sora. "Of course!" she whispered to herself, a little upset at her feeble memory. But then, memories of Hollow Bastion and the day they'd been separated at Destiny Islands crashed back upon her like a ton of bricks. Pictures flew through her head and she was nearly swept off of her seat with it.
Elyon looked over just in time to see Kairi getting dizzy, and steadied her. "Are you alright?" she asked seriously, getting frightened, and Kairi nodded with an airy chuckle. "Yeah, I just all of a sudden got dizzy."
"Do you want to go to the nurse?" Elyon asked.
Kairi thought about the psychiatrist suddenly and swiftly shook her head. She did not want to give the woman reason to pry into her life any more. The less sessions she attended with the woman, the better. She felt like Ms. H was facilitating her forgetfulness when it came to Sora.
The science teacher came in and began talking about nutrition, trying to wheedle it into the curriculum she had made for the whole year. She didn't want to miss a single lesson due to sports week. "And there won't be any tests after all this week because they want people to concentrate on their sport events," she scowled, passing out packets to the class. "This is on nutrition. We'll discuss it tomorrow; have the whole thing done by then. Now, back to the human brain, shall we?" she said with a smile, inciting groans from a number of students.
Science passed by at a snails pace, then health and PE came along. Kairi was able to practice her long distance running and rowing. For the first class period, she ran with the students participating in the running events, and then when the second class period was set to start, all the runners and non runners who were participating in the rowing competition met on the beach. The PE teacher looked at everyone with a bright smile and pointed to the boats that had been set up.
"Luckily, the high school and a few fishermen donated a load of extra boats for us to use, if you have your own boat you can use that, but there is going to be a set style of boat used in the races," she explained. "You all have a whole class period to practice, and then we'll go back to the school so you can have at least twenty minutes for lunch. That should be enough, right?"
There were some groans, and the teacher put her hands on her hips indignantly. "What the heck do you all eat?" she snapped. "Is the lunch an 'all you can eat' buffet? You're all supposed to be watching your nutrition. Small portions eaten slowly take twenty minutes to eat at the most. Stop complaining."
Everyone trudged over to their boats and hopped into them, taking off onto the sea and mostly messing around. Kairi pushed on ahead of the rest of the group, the sweat dripping from her PE shirt and shorts in buckets as she looked up at the sky.
There was hardly a cloud to be seen and the sky seemed more intensely blue than usual. Kairi breathed in the salty sea air and let out a sigh of contentment as she continued to row. Then, she noticed the island looming in the distance, coming closer and closer. It encroached on her like a beast, the tall trees of its center bending down over her, watching her as she rowed.
Kairi peered around her to see if any of the students were watching. The teacher was sunbathing on the beach, and the kids were all circling the island. Kairi decided to go on it just for a moment.
She pulled her boat up along the shore and into the line of trees up past the sand, dashing through the wooded area of the island in excitement. Looking around her, the trees still seemed the same height as they were a year ago. She hadn't grown much taller. Apparently small monkeys lived in the canopies of the trees. They didn't bother anyone, but sometimes they caused mischief, letting paopus fall from above. Sometimes they'd hit people on the head. The villagers joked that the paopus only hit people who needed them.
Kairi stood stock still in the middle of the forest, taking in all the sounds that she had never paid attention to when she was younger. Her breathing became heavier, and she let herself collapse onto the ground, sitting cross-legged amongst fallen leaves from the trees. Everything around her betrayed hidden life. It was beyond Kairi's fingertips, it was right in front of her. She could feel the trees watching her.
A slight wind blew through the trees, shaking them, and the forest sounds became more intense, grating on Kairi's ears. She suddenly became a little bit emotional, and felt like she had to get out. She started to wander around, hearing the sound of a waterfall a little distance away. It was the Secret Place. She walked into it and was suddenly aware of the emptiness of the place. It was safe, the keyhole had been closed and things had gone back to normal.
Kairi suddenly became disgusted with herself. She had allowed herself to slip into normal life. It seemed like all she worried about now were boys. How had she become like that? She supposed it was Elyon and Kuroha's fault. They had childish moments, but they weren't childish. A part of both of their innocence had been taken from them. Kairi wondered how Sora had kept his, with his father disappearing, and having to deal with his mother.
Sora had told Kairi that she had been the reason he had been able to cope with things after his father disappeared. For some reason this made Kairi feel guilty. She shouldn't have felt guilty at all. Helping Sora cope was a good thing. Sora was off saving worlds and all Kairi was doing was waiting for him to come back, and she couldn't even do that properly.
…..
Sora and Kairi charged over to the Secret Place, giggling like mad. Riku was sick that day, and after going to see him they had gone off to the island again.
They pushed past flowers and bushes that covered the ground of the forest, stepping over mossy wood that had fallen from the canopies above, to reach their destination. When Kairi and Sora got to the waterfall, they charged past it as fast as they could to see which one got less wet. Then, they were in the cave, panting contentedly.
There was a small shaft of light that shone down near the middle of the cave where tree roots had crumbled the stone around them and made it fall through. Kairi let her hand fall into the light, and giggled at the change in temperature. "It's warm here, Sora," she said, but Sora didn't hear her. He was drawn to the back corner of the cave, where a door was.
Kairi suddenly got shivers, and stepped fully into the light without noticing herself doing it. "Sora, what are you doing?" she asked nervously. Sora reached his hand out to the knob on the door, and the whole environment was suddenly quiet. There was no wind or animal noise. It was like all sound had been sucked out of the cave. Kairi saw Sora shivering badly. "It's really cold at this corner," he whispered. Kairi felt an extreme temperature drop as she stepped out of the light, closer to Sora as he slowly turned the nob. "It's unlocked," he giggled nervously, breathing shallowly and preparing to open the door. Then he took a deep breath, and pulled the doorknob violently, but the only sound that came was the creak of the wood getting stuck. "Aw, crap!" Sora said in dejection. "What is it?" Kairi whispered, feeling as if her voice was magnified tenfold. "It's stuck," Sora replied.
Momentary silence filled the place as Sora thought deeply. Then, he knelt down on the ground to try and see why the door was stuck. Kairi suddenly felt intensely nervous. "There's X's across the bottom of the door," Sora breathed, tracing them with his fingers. Then, he stuck his finger under the door, and ran it under the bottom, trying to see what was making the door stuck.
As Sora did this, Kairi's heart began beating faster and faster, and she trembled. She slowly backed away from Sora until she was back in the light, which calmed her down, but there was still something making her nervous.
Suddenly, Sora yelped, and bounced away from the door, sucking on his forefinger with a scowl. Kairi's heartbeat slowed to its normal rate, and she charged over to Sora and knelt beside him. When he pulled his finger out of his mouth, there was a dark prick on the edge of his finger. "Something bit me!" he barked, examining the bite closer. "It looks infected," he added nervously, trying to squeeze it. Black blood came out.
"I'll suck out the poison!" Kairi volunteered, and grabbed Sora's forefinger. He protested a little, but stopped when Kairi sucked on the edge of his finger. She spit out the black stuff when she was finished and kissed Sora's finger, making him blush. "There! All better," she said loudly. Sora laughed, peering down closer at his thumb. "You did a really good job, Kairi. All the stuff is gone."
Kairi shrugged. She had tried not to swallow any of the stuff she'd sucked from Sora's finger, but she could still feel a little bit on her tongue. "Let's go to the waterfall," she said, and she and Sora ran out of the cave. Sora charged right into the waterfall, jumping into it with a holler, but Kairi cupped her hands and took out some water to swish in her mouth. She wanted to get all of the venom from whatever had bitten Sora out of her. She spit it out, returning to sit beside Sora, who was floating around the edges of the waterfall, completely content.
"What do you think bit you, Sora?" Kairi asked, making Sora shrug. "Probably some sort of spider. Thanks again, Kairi."
Kairi smiled. "Don't mention it." Then she began to think about the door more. "Maybe it's closed for a reason, Sora," Kairi whispered. "What if it didn't want to be opened? Or if someone made it so that it couldn't be opened."
"Yeah, like the guy who put the X's on the bottom of the door," Sora said brightly. Kairi looked at him in curiosity, so he continued with his theory.
"The X's were probably like a 'keep out' signal, right? Like the guy's signature!" Sora added with starry eyes. "He was probably a hero or something! We've got to put our signatures, Kairi!" he hollered with deep enthusiasm, jumping out of the waterfall onto the shore, shaking himself off like a dog. His hair quickly bounced back to its normal position and he looked at Kairi expectantly. "We already have our signatures, remember Sora?" Kairi said shyly. Sora looked at her in a puzzled way, but then he understood.
He smiled and took Kairi's hand. "Yeah, I remember now. Our pictures," he whispered. Kairi nodded. They were quiet again until Sora let go of Kairi's hand, charging ahead of her out to the beach. He beckoned for her to follow him before turning around and charging off once more. Kairi's eyes were drawn back to the cave, where the door and their signatures were. It was her safe place, but it held that door. It was good and bad. But she was glad it was she, Sora, and Riku's secret. And the mysterious man's. The one who closed the door.
"Thank you!" Kairi whispered, and ran after Sora onto the beach. A slight wind blew past the cave entrance, sending echoes through its walls.
…
Kairi touched the X's on the bottom of the door at the back of the cave again. She'd seen them awhile before and wondered where they came from, not remembering the time she'd first been introduced to them, with Sora. She wondered who had made the X's. Was he a hero? Was he a 'he', after all?
Was waiting for Sora working?
Kairi chuckled to herself, rubbing her temple with a sigh. These thoughts were giving her headaches. Sometimes she wished that Sora would let her mind have some peace. But she knew that that would be even worse. Not knowing him would just make her wonder about him even more. "I make no sense," Kairi whispered, sitting back against the wall of the cave. Her eyes were again drawn to the picture that she and Sora had drawn together, tying them together. It made her smile, and she crawled over to it to examine it closer, running her hands over the chalk carefully so she would not smear it.
Then, she leaned back against the wall again, blissfully reminiscing, until she remembered that she was supposed to be practicing rowing.
"Oh, crap!" she yelped, jumping up and charging out of the cave and past the waterfall as fast as she could. She grabbed up her boat from inside the line of trees and tugged it out after her onto the shore, trying to act inconspicuous. She wondered how long she'd been sitting there, and she remembered how much the language teacher disliked her. If word got around that she was skipping classes on sports week, she'd be in huge trouble.
"Crap, crap, crap," she growled, hopping into her boat and running off into the water with it so it could start off with good mileage. The little boat almost floated away from her before she could jump into it, but she pulled its tail back a little bit and hopped over the boat's side, landing in its center and grabbing her oars. Then, she was off towards the shore. She remembered the rowing races she had done with Sora and Riku and her heart began to beat faster with excitement. Kairi began to carefully pay attention to the way the water moved, pushing forward and backward with the tides. She'd passed out three boats of shocked rowers by the time she began to think she was going a little bit too fast.
When she reached the shore third she noticed the gym teacher was beaming at her. Kairi's legs felt like erasers, incapable of voluntary movement as she hopped out of the boat and peered back at the other people still coming in from the sea. She didn't notice the gym teacher coming closer to her until the woman patted her on the shoulder. "If you row like that this weekend, you could do really well!" she said brightly. Kairi's heart sank. She hadn't meant to make a scene. "I don't have much endurance," Kairi replied, but the woman shook her head as if to dismiss her. "Rowing the whole class period and then coming in with that speed is pretty good."
"Yeah, except for the fact that half the class period I was sitting in a cave," Kairi thought bitterly to herself. As she thought about it, she chuckled at the absurdity of the statement, careful not to laugh too loud in case the teacher heard her and grew suspicious.
Kairi walked back to the school ahead of the rest of the group, kicking her feet back and forth as she walked. Footsteps neared her once more, and she wondered if it was the teacher again. Soon enough, she found that it was.
"I think that you should join the rowing club, Kairi," the teacher said brightly. Kairi shrugged. "I don't know," she said unsurely, but the teacher shut her down again. "You are a natural. And I hear that you're falling behind in school," she added.
Kairi rolled her eyes without realizing it, hoping that the teacher hadn't seen her. The woman was still talking about rowing, mostly off in her own world. Her eyes shone as she discussed the great effect exercise had on overall mental and physical health. Fed up with hearing about all of the benefits of exercise, Kairi slowly blinked out, thinking of the shapes the clouds formed. She saw a pig, a deer, and a mangled tree before the gym teacher shook her out of her reverie with questions.
"Kairi, did you hear me?"
"What?" Kairi responded. The gym teacher snorted. "I thought as much. I'm signing you out. Delinquents like you need all the help you can get," she said half jokingly, winking at Kairi as they neared the entrance of the junior high. Kairi did not respond, feeling a little bit helpless at all the 'help' the teachers thought they were giving her. It was suffocating.
When they all got into the locker room Kairi had a quick shower, changed into her uniform, and went off to lunch, traveling to her regular field spot. She sat down and closed her eyes, wanting to be alone. She thought about what the science teacher had told her about the human brain. Then, she tried remembering as much as she could about Sora, running it over and over in her mind.
After lunch ended, Kairi went back to class to sit through social studies and planning period. When planning period came, she asked for a pass to the library, soon followed by Kuroha and Elyon.
"Why weren't you at lunch?" Kuroha asked suspiciously. "I was practicing rowing," Kairi said. "And then I ate by the field because I wanted some air."
"We usually eat on the roof!" Kuroha said, "There's lots of air up there!"
Kairi nodded in return, running her forefinger over the edge of the library table where someone had written their name.
"You could sit with us during lunch from now on, Kairi."
"Okay."
Elyon looked more closely at Kairi, with an expression of curiosity. "What's wrong, Kairi?" She asked, and Kairi shrugged. "It's nothing."
"No, tell us!" Kuroha replied in enthusiasm. Kairi sighed at their inquiries. "I've been recruited for the rowing team, now."
"Aw," Kuroha chuckled. "That's too bad."
"Are you good?" Elyon asked. Kairi shrugged. "I snuck onto the island and then realized that I was almost late back. I rowed really fast and the gym teacher saw me."
Kuroha broke out laughing at this, inciting a scowl from the librarian at the front desk.
"Sorry about that, Kairi, but I'm afraid that that was completely your own fault," she whispered, chuckling in between her words.
Kairi protested, leaning into Elyon and Kuroha as she spoke, "The language teacher has been spreading rumors that I'm a delinquent! Everyone's being hard on me now!"
"He has just got it out for you," Elyon chuckled, shaking her head. Kairi slumped her head onto her fists, frowning bitterly. "I know," she muttered with a sigh. "And I've got to turn in that stupid poem next Monday to be judged."
"I can help you with it if you want, Kairi," Elyon tried, but Kairi shook her head. "No, if it's got to be by me, it's going to be completely my own. Even if it's terrible."
Elyon smiled at this, perking up a little bit. "What are you thinking about?" Kairi asked. Elyon shrugged. "I'm just excited for the culture festival. I'm hoping to be a part of the opening show, myself."
"That's great!" Kuroha giggled, hugging her friend. Elyon smiled widely as she thought about it. "I've been practicing really hard," she murmured in reply. "I hope I get in."
"You will," Kuroha replied without hesitation. Elyon smiled again in return.
The bell finally rang for class to end, and Kairi suddenly felt her heart beating faster than usual. She would have to go back to the psychiatrist today. She had an appointment at five so that she could work on her poem. Kairi always found that she could not think straight after the meetings with Ms. H. They were supposed to be getting her to feel better, but it only gave her bad dreams and worry. She couldn't concentrate on her poem that way.
Kairi attempted to walk out of the school, but the gym teacher stopped her. "Aren't you coming to rowing practice?"
Kairi blushed, not wanting to tell the teacher about her situation. "I have to… um… go to a psychiatrist today," she whispered. The gym teacher looked at her unapologetically. "When is it?" she asked specifically. Kairi stood dumbstruck for a moment before responding, "what?"
"When is it?" the gym teacher repeated.
Kairi opened and closed her mouth like a fish momentarily, then tried to get a few words out so that the gym teacher would not find her suspicious of lying or anything of the sort.
"It's at 5."
"Well, then, that's great. You have an hour."
Kairi looked on helplessly as the gym teacher dragged her towards the gym locker room. She collected some exercise clothes and traipsed down to the beach with the rest of the rowers, pursing her lips sourly. So much for her poetry. Now the language teacher would be angry with her. "Ma'am, I really wanted to do my homework," Kairi pleaded, but the gym teacher would not have it. "You can do your homework after your meeting with the psychiatrist. When does it end?"
"It ends at 6."
"That leaves you an hour for dinner, and an two hours for homework. I don't know any student who goes to bed before nine."
Kairi was lost for words, and just went along with the gym teacher. She rowed for an hour, being egged on by the gym teacher to reach the speed she had taken during class. When fifty minutes had passed, Kairi was allowed to leave. She walked down the road with wobbling legs, and breathed heavy on the way to the psychiatrist.
Her mother was waiting at the door for her with a wide smile as Kairi trudged up the steps to the porch to wait with her.
"Didn't you miss me?" Kairi panted. Her mother shook her head and patted Kairi on the shoulder. "Your school contacted me and said you needed to practice for the sports festival. Are you in the rowing club now?"
Kairi nodded and her mother sighed as if she was worried. "Well, if you want to do a sport, I'd rather you do cross country. Those girls stay nice and slim. If you're rowing, go easy on the arms, alright?" Her mother added nervously. "I don't want you having man shoulders, it's very unsightly."
Kairi scowled at this, but turned away as she did so that her mother could not see her. Just as this happened, the latch on the door was removed and the door opened. Ms. H stood in front of them with a motherly smile, nodding affectionately at Kairi' mother before saying hello to Kairi.
"How was school today, Kairi?" Ms. H asked with a chuckle, then raised her hands up jokingly, as if in surrender. "Or perhaps we can save it for my room."
Kairi's mother let out a light tittering laugh at this, beaming down at Kairi like they were all fabulous friends. Discomfort was creeping through Kairi's mind; she remembered what Ms. H's objective was and the woman fished for it very well.
"Let's go in," Kairi murmured, forging in ahead of both her mother and her psychiatrist, who followed close behind her. The three women talked a little bit together about the week, and then each individually with Ms. H. Kairi's mother was first. Then, it was Kairi's least favorite part of the day.
She walked towards the door that led into Ms. H's office with a fast beating heart and clammy palms, suddenly noticing that the door in front of her was the same color and texture as the door at the back of Sora and Kairi's secret place. They must have been made of the same wood.
As Kairi opened the door, she imagined the darkness from the cave swallowing her and sending her to sleep in different worlds. Even though the door had been frightening, an amazing adventure had come out of it. Maybe this would be a new adventure? Kairi liked to hope that Ms. H would facilitate a transformation in Kairi that would make her better and more connected to herself and Sora. Even though the woman's objective constantly loomed in the back of Kairi's mind, telling her not to trust.
"So, what shall we talk about today, Kairi?" the woman asked brightly, entwining her fingers in front of her. Kairi squirmed a little bit, blowing out air.
"How's Sora doing?"
….
"Hey, Kairi!" Sora chirped, signaling for Kairi to come over. She did, and when she stopped in front of him, he took an apple from behind his back, showing it to her closely.
"You see this apple?" he said seriously. Kairi nodded.
Sora paused a moment as if in deep concentration before throwing his hands behind his back, and flinging them out either side of him again, no apple in hand. "Ta-da!" he said with glee. "Apple, gone!"
Suddenly, there was a little thud, and Kairi peeked behind Sora. The apple had fallen from the belt of his pants onto the ground.
"Aw!" Sora said in deep dejection, swiping the apple up angrily. "I'd been working on that so hard!"
"You'll get it some day, Sora," Kairi giggled.
Riku looked on the exchange lazily before finally stepping up and striding towards the two in curiosity. "What are you all doing?" he asked. Then he spied Sora's apple and laughed. "Are you trying to do that magic trick again, Sora?"
Sora nodded with a pout, making Riku laugh harder. "It just goes to show you, for all those illusionist's wild tricks, the apple's always somewhere."
"You don't believe in magic, Riku?" Kairi asked incredulously, and Riku shook his head.
"Magic is what you can hide," he murmured.
…
Ms. H reached over and plucked a cookie from its plate, held it up, and put it on her desk in front of Kairi. "You see this cookie now, don't you?" she asked. Kairi nodded. "Therefore your mind is registering it."
"Yes," Kairi said coolly.
"There is a link that binds this image in your mind to the real world. Do you know what that link is?" Ms. H prompted further, and Kairi shrugged. "It's molecules, Kairi. Matter. Everything in the real world is made of it. That's how we perceive our reality. See, the mind is very powerful. It is the origin of who we are and what we do."
Ms. H took the cookie back and set it amongst the rest of the cookies on the plate, wiping the crumbs left over from it off the table. "When our minds are not at their sharpest, we have to try to differentiate between the times that we are reacting to a sensation brought about by outside causes, or causes within ourselves. If there is no link connected our experiences to molecules in the outside world, then it's safe to say that the cause of the experience holds its origin in our mind. Do you follow me?"
Kairi sat still, staring coldly at Ms. H, who looked at her expectantly with a slight smile of apprehension. "I cannot make you believe that what you are seeing is part of the world within you. It is your job to discover that for yourself. So that you can let it go and heal. Because when we become too attached to the world created by our mind, we lose sight of the physical world around us."
Kairi looked down at her fingernails, not knowing how to respond. Ms. H was silent for a moment, but then she pulled out an apple from inside her lunchbox, setting it again in front of Kairi. Kairi stared at it blankly before looking up to Ms. H for reference.
"What do you see?" Ms. H asked. "An apple," Kairi responded. Ms. H nodded. "And that's completely believable. I'm going to make it disappear," she added with another smile.
Ms. H held the apple in her right hand, and slide her left hand over her right hand gracefully before opening her hands up to reveal that the apple was gone. Then, she stood up and did a full turn for Kairi, displaying that the apple was not on her. Finally, she slid her right hand over her left hand, and the apple appeared again. Kairi smiled without helping it. It reminded her of Sora.
"Do you want to know how I did it?" Ms. H asked. Kairi shook her head. Ms. H chuckled. "I played with the way the human eye works. You were concentrating on my right hand, so you didn't notice me converting the apple from my right hand to my left," she murmured, replicating the movements slowly so Kairi could see exactly what was going on. "The next part takes some practice, but I shot the apple into the crook of my elbow. As I turned around I moved my arm so that you couldn't see the apple." Ms. H replicated the movements again so that Kairi could see what she meant. "And the apple returns with a slight downward turn of the arms and the opposite motion of what I did at first," she murmured, finishing the visual display before setting the apple back on the table.
After setting the apple down, Ms. H searched around for a small knife and cut the fruit in half. The inside was a soft orange. Kairi stared at it for a moment, pursing her lips.
"I thought it was an apple, too, when I bought the box. You can imagine my surprise when I bit into one. It's a new type of peach. They're nice, though. Would you like some?" she held out a slice for Kairi, who took it tentatively, nibbling at it in silence.
"The mind governs the way we see things. When the mind sees an image, it concentrates on the most important part of the image. If the image seems familiar enough, the mind gives it a definition. Until you saw the inside of the peach, it was an apple, and then when it was proven a peach, it was a peach. Likewise with the magic trick. Until proven the apple was always there, there was no apple. It seemed like it disappeared but it didn't."
"Excuse me," Kairi responded finally, "but what is the point?"
There was silence as Ms. H chewed on her peach, staring at Kairi with an unreadable expression. "The mind creates and interprets the physical world. Therefore, magic is what you can hide. The apple is always somewhere," she added with a little smile. "The mind hides things, too. The job of the afflicted is to decipher what the mind is hiding and decide if it is real or not."
Kairi suddenly felt very tired, and sank a little lower in her seat.
"Remember these are just discussions, Kairi. You're smart so I know I can confer with you in a thoughtful, intelligent way. I don't want to treat you like a 'patient'," she added sympathetically. "I think you are bright enough to work through the troubles you've been through without the help of some kind of chemical."
"Are you threatening me?" Kairi blurted out. Ms. H seemed taken aback, but shook her head. "Of course not, Kairi. It was a complement. It means that I believe you are very strong."
This touched Kairi momentarily, but apprehension quickly crept into her mind.
"Would you like to stop?" the psychiatrist asked, a worried expression coloring her face, but Kairi shook her head defensively. "No, let's keep going," she said, trying to sit up tall. "I could sit here for hours."
Ms. H stared at Kairi observantly before sighing in what sounded like disappointment, scribbling something on her notepad. "Alright. I'll keep you for one more hour and then you can go home and have dinner. You must be hungry, would you like another cookie to tide you over?" she asked, and set the bowl in front of Kairi.
…..
The moment Kairi got home, she tore up to her bedroom and immediately began rummaging through all her things, trying desperately to find her creative journal. When she located it, she skimmed through it nervously, examining every page intensely.
"Dammit!" she scowled, throwing it away from her. She hadn't used Sora's name at all because she was afraid it would be blotted out. Kairi had written her poems, her dreams, and her memories all in the same book. She was having trouble deciphering which were which.
Kairi ruffled her hair, trying to remember to the best of her ability. She went to the secret place before they set off on their raft. Then, she felt her heart constricting. She could hear something pumping behind the door. She heard a boy's voice and called his name. When she turned around she was swallowed by darkness and she woke up in Hollow Bastion. There was a little heartless on the ground. It looked up at her and Kairi immediately knew whom it was…
"Who was it?" Kairi whispered pleadingly to herself, banging her head with her fist in the vain hope that it would help her remember. "Sora!" she cried, before repeating the memory over and over in her head like her science teacher had taught her.
Sora turned back to normal and he and Kairi went back to Hollow Bastion before Sora left to save Riku. Kairi was walking around Traverse Town, when suddenly she was going down a strange dirt road. The sky and landscape on either side of the road melted away until Kairi was surrounded by darkness and a mist that rose from the dirt road below her. Then, there was Sora. He told her something.
"I'm always with you, too. I'll come back to you," She whispered to herself, and then furrowed her eyebrows. It was like an absurd dream. She remembered the white haze that had surrounded their faces when they spoke to each other. Kairi found that she could hardly believe it herself.
….
When Friday morning rolled around, Kairi had to be woken up by her mother. She had had a particularly bad bout of insomnia the night before, and she was exhausted. Though somehow she was able to drag herself out of bed and get ready for school, noticing in dismay that her nightclothes were damp. She'd been sweating again. She wondered if her mother had heard her the night before; she'd tried to make sure that she didn't.
The shower warmed Kairi up and she even hummed a little bit as she washed herself. She quickly had to stop this though, because it was lulling her to sleep again. She ate a bit of breakfast and headed out the door. It was getting much colder outside. To her surprise, Dahlia was waiting outside for her.
"Happy first of November!" she said with a smile, nudging Kairi in the shoulder. Kairi smiled in return. "Hey, Dahlia, what brings you over here?"
"I went by the beach this morning. The water is getting colder, too. Everything is falling asleep for the winter," she said, sucking in a deep breath and nodding to herself. "You excited for the New Year? I hear the celebration this year is going to be fantastic!" Dahlia chirped in a sing song voice.
"How many more days left of school?" Kairi asked, making Dahlia snort. "I don't even want to know. Too many to count. I just can't wait for the snow. The winter really gets my creative juices flowing, you know?"
"I'm more of a summer girl," Kairi murmured, worrying. She hoped Riku would be back by New Years.
They came upon the school, then, and shuffled into their classrooms. Math went by in a breeze, they all did fun problems to do with exercise and the team who got the most points in the end won a prize. The science teacher tried to slip in some of the original lesson plan, but she gave up by the middle of the class period and taught about the chemistry of nutrition. During health and PE, Kairi was practicing for her events. For her first class, she was running. She and Kuroha ran together, but Kuroha quickly got tired and made Kairi sit out with her for a while.
"I'm not made for long distance running, anyway," Kuroha wheezed, wiping her forehead and kicking dust in front of her. "I was made to model. Your mom was talking to me about it again. She says I'm nice and skinny and don't need to do excessive exercise."
"A little bit of exercise is always good, just to stay trim," Kairi tried but Kuroha snorted. "It just makes the clothes look weird on you."
Kairi highly doubted that, but she kept it to herself, examining the ground in front of her closely, deep in thought.
"Is the teacher going to make you practice rowing during planning?" Kuroha asked and Kairi nodded. "She thinks I really have a chance at winning."
"That's cool," Kuroha mumbled. Suddenly, the gym teacher jogged towards them with an irritated expression. "What are my runners doing sitting down?"
"We were just taking a break because we were tired," Kuroha chirped in a charming voice. The teacher wouldn't have it. "Get up and go run with everyone else. Kairi I expected better," she added, and trudged off.
Kairi and Kuroha ran around the rest of the course and stopped at the beach for her next class. She rowed hard and tried not to think about anything the whole time except doing as well as she could. She knew that the PE teachers would have been talking about her. She didn't want to seem like a delinquent.
She had lunch with Kuroha and Elyon on the rooftop this time, and they all talked about the Sports Festival and the numerous events. Kuroha asked Kairi to get Tidus to watch her run, and Elyon snorted.
"I think you'd better not, Kuroha," Elyon sniggered. "He won't be very impressed with you after he sees you collapse on the field!"
"That's an excellent idea," Kuroha rebuffed. "He can resuscitate me! We can share a passionate kiss! Do you know if he's ever been kissed before, Kairi?" Kuroha asked suddenly. Kairi shrugged. "I don't really know. We used to do childish things. We never really talked about that sort of stuff."
"Oh come on," Kuroha pouted. "He never told you anything?"
"No," Kairi mumbled. Kuroha chuckled in return, eyeing Elyon with a meaningful glance. "Your friends probably all liked you. That was why they never told you anything. You played with all boys, didn't you?"
"It wasn't like that!" Kairi snapped suddenly. "It was just innocent. Not everything is sexual!"
There was silence for a moment. Then, Kuroha looked down at her hands, her hair falling over her face, shielding it from Kairi. "I'm going to go to the bathroom," she mumbled, and stalked off down the ladder on the side of the roof. Elyon stared after her as she left before giving Kairi an angry glance. "Why did you say that?"
"I'm just really tired," Kairi apologized, but Elyon shook her head and went off to see if Kuroha was okay. "I was just tired," Kairi repeated to herself, picking at her lunch morosely.
…
Friday night, there were stalls set up for the weekend, describing the different sports clubs and advertising them. Kairi was once again courted by the rowing team and the cross country team, and she politely declined, knowing that later on the teachers would probably force her into doing at least one. Her mother would probably make sure that that was running.
Saturday, Kairi woke up early after a surprisingly easy night bright eyed and ready for the day. She met Kuroha and Elyon as they were going towards the pier where the blitzball tournament was being hosted, and walked up to them tentatively.
"Hi guys," she said shyly. "Is it alright if I sit with you?"
Kuroha eyed Kairi for a moment, before smiling. "Of course it's okay!" she bubbled, and flung her arm around Kairi's shoulders. "We all say things we don't mean, sometimes."
Kairi breathed out a sigh of relief, and they all went as close to the water as possible so that they could see the game better. Stands had been erected along the pier, and old TV's had been hooked up to underwater cameras so that everyone could watch what was going on under the water. They even had news presenters from the sports show there to film the events.
Scanning the crowd, Kairi finally laid eyes on Tidus and the rest of the junior high team, standing nervously on one side of the pier. On the other side, the high school team assembled. Kairi gaped a little when she saw the team. All of the boys were huge. Wakka was among the shortest and the youngest, but he was gaining on the rest of the team in terms of height. He must have been growing taller. Kairi hadn't noticed.
Elyon stared over at Wakka dreamily, and Kuroha waved to Tidus, who seemed very nervous. "He doesn't see me!" she said with a pout, and stood up to get a better view. "Tidus!" she screamed, and Tidus snapped up to look at her with a sheepish smile. She blew a kiss at him and he went a little red, getting pats on the back from all of the players. "He'll never hear the end of this, now!" Kuroha giggled, satisfied with herself. Kairi watched the water.
"Would the two teams step forward?" The referee boomed, and the two teams stepped forward to face one another. Tidus eyed Wakka with an intense stare and Wakka just looked back with a lazy smile.
"Teams, in the water!" the referee roared, and the teams dove into the water, swimming out to the designated spot. Kairi could barely see the goal posts underneath the waves. It would be hard with the current that was coming in today.
"On my mark, the game begins," the referee explained, holding a hand up to count down the time. "Five, four, three, two, one- Blitz off!"
A huge horn sounded, and the game began. Kairi watched in amazement as the teams swam expertly with the tides, interacting underneath the water. Then, Tidus got the ball. Kuroha squealed in delight, cheering for him, but one of the high schoolers quickly stole the ball and made a goal. Some people in the stands cheered, including Elyon. Kuroha looked a little bit disappointed. "Is he good?" she asked nervously. Elyon laughed out loud. "He's in middle school, Kuroha."
The high school meanwhile made another goal, and was about to make another one, but was blocked by a female player who was quite good. Tidus was swimming and playing as hard as he could. Every two minutes or so, a few heads would bob out of the water for air. Kairi looked on in amazement when Wakka came up for a breath after a full six minutes, his chest expanding to an impossible size as he sucked in air and went under again.
The high school team was beating the middle schoolers quite soundly by the end of the first round. There was a bit of the intermission, and the middle school team came out of the water gasping and sputtering. The high schoolers were flushed but not too bothered. One of them went up to the girl on the junior high team and was speaking with her. Kairi wondered if they were attempting to recruit her for the high school team next year. She seemed pleased.
Tidus paced back and forth in dejection.
"He looks so sad," Kuroha said with a pout, crinkling her skirt nervously in her lap. "He needs my help!" she added. A few moments after she said this, she stood up and made her way out of the stands and towards the team.
"Oh my gosh, what is she doing?" Elyon cried as Kuroha took Tidus by the hand and led him underneath the stands. Elyon stood up abruptly and tried to get out of the stands, but Kairi stopped her. "It's fine, Elyon," she said. "Tidus is a nice kid."
Elyon looked at Kairi in disbelief. "After spending all this time with Kuroha, and you're still not afraid for Tidus?"
"Well," Kairi mumbled, knitting her eyebrows together and scratching her forehead as Elyon moved past her, trying to get down to Kuroha. She was too late though. A head full of black curls bobbed over towards them, and when the girl who owned them turned around, they both saw that it was Kuroha, flushed and grinning like mad. She charged over to them and sat silently. "Can I have some of your candy?" she asked Elyon, who nodded suspiciously.
"What did you do, Kuroha?" Elyon asked nervously, but Kuroha would not answer.
Kairi spied Tidus coming out from under the stands, walking as if he was in a dream. He smiled dreamily, and took a big sigh before he came back to where his team was. They hadn't noticed him leave.
The referee stepped back up to the edge of the pier and called the teams back together. "We are now entering the second half of the game. Teams, in the water!"
Both teams got in the water, Tidus cleanly diving in and bobbing out of the water spritely, still grinning.
"On my mark, part two begins," the referee announced, holding his hand up again to count down. "Five, four, three, two one…"
The horn sounded again, and the game resumed. Immediately, Tidus swiftly picked up the ball, maneuvering cleanly through the other team and making a goal. Kuroha and Kairi both cheered, especially Kuroha, who gave it everything she had.
Tidus continued to make a few goals, and the heightened moral of the team made them do much better than they had in the first half. When the game got down to the last few minutes, the score was 30 to 11, with Tidus and the rest of the junior high players swimming as hard as they could.
"If they get at least more then half I'll be happy," Kuroha muttered, ensuing another laugh from Elyon, who seemed to be relaxing.
The score was 30 to fifteen with four seconds to go, and Tidus swam straight for the goal. The rest of the high school team was concentrated on Tidus, so no one noticed the female player swimming near silently over to the goal, signaling for Tidus to bring it to her. Then, Tidus smashed the ball with all his might towards the girl, who caught it and went in for the goal.
The goalie hesitated for a moment, and the female junior high player was able to put the ball through the goal. Kuroha screamed in delight, jumping up and down as the last horn sounded, and Elyon and Kairi just smiled, looking out over the water as the players swam back in. Tidus seemed disappointed when he looked at the score, but the rest of the team was very happy with him. A high school player went over to talk to him, and he was beaming by the end of the conversation as he ran up to Kairi, Kuroha, and Elyon with glee.
"They said I played really well!" He announced. "They found out I was only in 8th grade and they were really impressed, they thought I was in 9th! They were going to ask me to come to tryouts!" He added proudly, puffing out his chest. Kuroha gave him a congratulatory kiss on the cheek, and he blushed deeply in return as Kairi spied Wakka coming towards them. He seemed amused.
"Hey, Kairi," Wakka said, and leaned in to talk to her closely. "Don't tell Tidus this, but our goalie was about to stop their last point. He decided to give it to them."
"Aw," Kairi chuckled. "That's not entirely fair."
"Ah, who cares," Wakka returned with a smile. "He seems happy enough."
Kairi laughed, suddenly remembering her promise to Elyon. "Do you two want to sit and talk while I get some ice cream?" she asked. Wakka was about to respond, but Kairi peeled off towards the ice cream stand before he could say anything contrary to her plans. Elyon sat near him shyly, sharing in his awkward silence while Tidus and Kuroha laughed and talked together. It was clear that Tidus had fallen sufficiently in love.
…..
All the aquatic sports and the team sports were being held on Saturday, and the track and field events and finals were being held tomorrow. So Kairi had her rowing event today.
She made her way over to the stall to get her number and time, finding that she was in the second heat. Kairi couldn't help but roll her eyes when she saw that there were a good dose of high school rowers in her heat. Was the teacher trying to humiliate her into rowing for the team?
Elyon came back with her swimming heat and time, showing Kairi her wrist. "What time are you?"
"I'm four o'clock," Kairi said, making Elyon nod. "I'm at two. I'll be able to catch you."
They all ate lunch together, Kairi situating Elyon and Wakka beside each other. Tidus and Kuroha were off somewhere, which worried Elyon. She bit her lip as she continued to look out for Kuroha, scanning the crowds that were sitting down to lunch every few minutes. The pair finally came back and sat down with Kairi and the rest of the gang, laughing and talking nonstop. Their heads bent close to one another and they shared private thoughts, their cheeks pink and their smiles big.
An announcement boomed throughout the school grounds to say that the swimming and dive events had begun. Elyon asked Wakka the time quietly. "It's 12:30," Wakka returned and Elyon stood up, brushing dirt off her backside. "Well, I'll see you guys. My event is at two if you want to come and see," she added shyly, eyeing Wakka in particular. The high schooler was not paying attention to her, instead off in thought. Kairi nudged him in the leg, snapping him to attention and subtly gesturing to Elyon. "What?" he asked politely. Perhaps it was Kairi's imagination, but it seemed like he was getting a little impatient with Elyon. It irritated her greatly.
"It's nothing," Elyon mumbled, but Kairi cut in for her. "Elyon wanted you to come to her event. Will you?"
"Will you be there?" Wakka said bluntly, and the whole group seemed to go dead quiet. Kairi held an iron grip on her sandwich, fighting for the right words to say. She watched in near helplessness, as Elyon seemed to shrink, bending her head down and letting her shoulders hunch.
"Of course I'll be there, Elyon is my friend," Kairi responded coolly.
"He doesn't have to come," Elyon returned sourly as she stood up to leave. Kairi felt like she couldn't win.
When two o'clock was near, they all got up and went to watch Elyon's event. Wakka walked very close to Kairi as they went over. "Hey, did I offend you?" he asked nonchalantly.
Kairi scowled heavily, "Of course you did. That was mean."
"I don't like her. I don't get the problem with that."
"Maybe if you got to know her you would like her," Kairi hissed in return. "She's really nice and she's very pretty. She's just shy!"
"She's not that pretty," Wakka snorted. Kairi's heart fell. "She's prettier than a lot of girls."
"I don't care about the 'lot of girls'," Wakka mumbled. Then, he eyed Kairi meaningfully. "All I care about is the prettiest one."
"That's shallow," Kairi retorted. "And besides, Kuroha has Tidus."
Wakka snorted, shaking his head. "I'm not talking about Kuroha." He looked at Kairi with a smile, and Kairi understood, taken aback.
"You… you think that I'm… pretty?" she said quietly. Wakka nodded.
Kairi felt her cheeks going red, and she held them with her hands instinctively. No one had called her pretty before. Not even Riku.
Something seemed to pierce through her heart as she said this, and she knew she'd gotten it wrong. It wasn't Riku. It was someone else she was thinking of. Then, it came into her mind. Sora. The imaginary boy.
Kairi stepped away from Wakka, using the excuse that she was going to the bathroom. She went into the empty room, breathing out a sigh of relief that she was alone. Then, she looked in the mirror and felt her face. She hated that Wakka liked her. But it was nice to be called pretty. It made her feel important. But what about Elyon? It wasn't about Kairi.
The bell sounded that signaled the beginning of the swimming event, and Kairi charged out of the bathroom, rushing towards the pool area. She got in just in time to see Elyon kick off and dive into the water. She was under the water for a few seconds before she surfaced, driving her hands into the water furiously as she did the freestyle stroke. Wakka snorted behind Kairi, smiling a little bit. Kairi had to admit; Elyon wasn't very good at swimming at all. She wondered if Kuroha and Elyon had been to the beach at all over the past few years. The race finally ended, and Elyon got 7th place out of 8 lanes. She didn't seem altogether disappointed, smiling even as she walked towards Kairi and the group.
"Well, I beat my last time!" she announced. "And I didn't completely lose!"
"You did well," Kairi tried, but Elyon snorted. "Please, Kairi, you don't need to lie for me."
Kairi sensed a deeper seriousness behind the joke, wondering if it was just her imagination or if Elyon was getting at something else. Sometimes Kairi wished that people would just say what they meant instead of simply insinuating.
"Well, we've got two hours till Kairi's rowing," Wakka tried, smiling at Elyon for Kairi. "What should we do?"
…..
Kairi's mother answered the door when she got home, giving Kairi an awkward smile. "Hey, Kairi, I still have friends over," she said in a fake bubbly voice. "I thought you were staying over at a friend's house."
"No," Kairi said simply, holding up a piece of paper that stated she'd made it to the final rounds for rowing. "It turns out I'm not half bad," she said as she displayed the paper to her mother, who looked worried. "I hope that you're not too good at rowing. Remember what I said about the arms. You can't afford to loose those."
"Why not?" Kairi retorted. Her mother was taken aback, but looked at her sweetly. "Honey, your arms are one of your best features."
"What about my face?" Kairi muttered, but her mother acted like she couldn't hear her, leading Kairi inside and introducing her to her friends. Kairi talked for a little while before heading up to her bedroom and plopping down over her bed sheets, huddling all of her pillows towards herself.
"One person thinks I'm pretty," she muttered to herself. Then, she decided to pull out her creative journal and continue looking through it.
"It's real, it's real, it's real," she muttered to herself, trying to figure out what parts were dreams and which were fake. As the days passed, the line separating past dreams and memories blurred more and more.
…..
Kairi unfortunately did not make it to the finals for running, but she didn't mind. Kuroha was one of the last girls to cross the finish line, mainly because she hardly broke a sweat during the whole run. All she talked about was how sweating made her break out in spots.
"I can't afford to lose my looks now that I've got a fella like Tidus running after me," she said dreamily after the race as Kairi waited to get her heat assignment for the rowing finals.
"When are you going?" Kuroha asked. Kairi shrugged, "in an hour, I think."
"I'll get everyone over to watch the big rower!" Kuroha replied, patting Kairi on the back and running off. Kairi got her assignment and waited for the finals to start, scanning the crowds. All her friends were sitting down cheering for her, but she couldn't see her mother or father in sight. He had done something to do with the opening of the sports weekend ceremony, but apparently today he was on 'important political business', so he couldn't come. Kairi couldn't see her mother anywhere. She was no doubt entertaining guests at the house.
"All rowers in heat one, board the boats!" the announcer said and Kairi maneuvered her way towards the small boat that held the number four on it, checking to see if she had gotten the number correct. Then, she boarded it and waited.
"Rowers, on your mark!" the announcer roared into a microphone, and Kairi got her oars ready. Her heart was beating steadily. "On your mark, get set-" the announcer sounded a bullhorn, and the boats shot away from the dock, going on the prescribed course around the main island. Kairi kept a steady pace as she rowed, pushing back and forth while paying attention to the tides that were coming in past her. She could see schools of fish swimming past the underside of the boat, even spying a little shark fin glide over the waves in the distance. The sun shone down on the water, making it near crystal clear. Kairi had to keep herself from taking in the environment too much; she wanted to get a decent grade on the event. Maybe it would impress her teachers and they would leave her alone. Kairi knew that was a false hope, though. It would probably make things worse.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kairi saw a black silhouette swimming towards the ship and her breath caught in her throat. It was a sleek, big black fish that shone beneath the waves, taking up little fish in its mouth as it went. Its eyes were a dull black, but as Kairi continued to stare at it, its eyes began to look slightly yellow.
Kairi felt her hands going clammy, and her breathing became harder. She thought that the fish was looking at her, and began to row back against the waves as fast as she could. She was jolted out of her brief episode of terror by a loud thud behind her, lurching her forward.
"What the hell are you doing?" a girl roared behind her and Kairi swerved around to apologize, but the girl was already rowing away when Kairi fully comprehended what was going on. As the girl went out of Kairi's view and other boats passed, Kairi took one last look at where the black fish had been. It was just a regular fish, some sort of flat-headed species. Kairi had no idea why she imagined its eyes to be yellow. They were hardly distinguishable from its skin. It slowly swam away as Kairi rowed past it and continued her course.
She came in the last in her heat, considerably slower than everyone else, except one girl who had been having trouble towards the end of the race. When everyone got out of their boats, the teacher charged over to her with an angry expression.
"What happened?" she howled at Kairi. Kairi pointed out to the sea, "I saw a big fish and I thought it was… I got scared," she finished simply, in a small mumble. The teacher shook her head in disbelief. "You've been playing in the water for fourteen years, you'd think that by now you'd be used to seeing a big fish in the water!"
Kairi kept her mouth shut during the ensuing verbal onslaught from the teacher, shifting her toes around in the shoes that were too small for her feet. Then, when it was finally finished, she was able to go back to her friends.
"What happened, Kairi?" Elyon asked. Kairi shrugged. "I just… there was a really weird looking fish in the water, I got scared."
"That's why you shouldn't swim!" Kuroha giggled, mussing up Tidus' hair. "This boy is very brave."
"They had a net guarding against fish," Tidus replied, making Kuroha laugh loudly and kiss his cheek again. "Kairi, do you want to sleep over at my house?" Kuroha asked. Kairi shrugged. "I'm sure that my mother wouldn't mind," she said as Kuroha turned to Tidus and Wakka. "Do you two want to come?"
"I think I'll pass," Wakka said flatly, but Tidus looked at him imploringly and he finally gave in and said he would. They all traveled over to Kuroha's house after Kairi told her mother where she was staying, keeping themselves up nearly the whole night with talking and laughing.