Chapter 10: The promise of Old Rusty

xXx-xXx-xXx

Sora was awoken by Roxas for the second time this week. This time he gave no complaints as to waking up early to watch his brother and Namine on their daily ritual. Today he was more excited, as he would get to see Kairi.

Roxas was happy with brother's quick awakening. He cared not the reasons for the early arise, but knew them nonetheless. He wondered what Namine was doing at that moment.

XxX-Meanwhile-XxX

Namine was on the street jogging up to Kairi's door. She knocked and was greeted by Kairi's mom.

"Hello, Namine," Mrs. Elsmere said, "Go wake Kairi if you'd like to. Upstairs last room on the right"

"Thanks!" Namine said running up the stairs up the stairs. When she got to Kairi's room she snuck in, and when she got to the edge of Kairi's bed, she jumped on it, scaring Kairi half to death. "Wake up, Kairi!"

"Ugh," Kairi moaned, "I was planning too."

"You think Ziggy will be back today?" Namine asked

Kairi rubbed her eyes and looked at her phone, "I doubt it," She said, "he would've called me by now."

"Oh"

Kairi got ready, and the two of them left for school. They walked on the street in silence but heard something in a tree. They looked up and saw nothing. They continued to walk and a tennis ball came flying over their heads. The two turned around to see Riku.

"Hey, ladies" He said smiling

"Hi, Riku" Kairi and Namine both replied

"Headed to school this early?" He asked

"Yeah, aren't you?" Kairi asked

"Well yeah." He said, "trust me, if I wasn't, I wouldn't be awake."

"He has a point." Namine stated, and Kairi nodded.

When they got to school talking started between the group. Usual conversation was all that sprouted. Nothing exciting had happened, that is until a jockey student ran up to them shouting 'He's gonna do it! He's gonna break down old rusty!' Sora, Roxas, and Riku all looked at each other.

"No way!" Sora blurted out

"That's incredible!" Roxas said

"Let's go see!" Riku shouted standing up and running towards the gym. The other guys followed. Namine pulled the confused Kairi to her feet and the two chased after the guys.

"What's old rusty?" Kairi asked

"an old punching bag," Namine explained, "It's over sixty years old. It has always been the gym teacher's goal to knock it down but he never could. He offered fifty bucks and a spot on morning announcements to anyone who could pull it off. It got it's name for two reasons, one was that the Gym teacher, who put it up, is named Rusty Atkinson, the other is that the rust on the chain holding it up is so deep that people think that it would fall down easy, but it never did."

Now Kairi was interested too, when they reached the gym they gazed at the guy who was doing the work. He wore a black t-shirt that said 'Wish you were here' On the back, and blue jeans. He had longish black hair that was straight. No one recognized him. He continually punched and kicked the bag and with a loud yell threw one heavy punch breaking the chain, he kicked the bag one last time knocking it to the ground. He lowered his head and did an arm pump, before turning around. He lifted his head and wiped sweat off of his forehead. When he looked up he saw Kairi, Sora, Roxas, Riku, and Namine all looking at him. He gained a twinkle in his glassy blue eyes, flipped back his hair, gave a 'thumbs up' to Kairi and grinned. It was the first time Kairi had seen her best friend without his hair spiked. He approached his friends calmly.

"Sup!" he said cheerfully

"You just knocked down 'Old Rusty'" Sora said

"That I did!"

"Were you mad" Riku asked

Ziggy looked puzzled and shook his head, "I just heard it couldn't be done, so I had to prove them wrong."

"I didn't think it was possible!" Roxas said

"Me neither!" Namine agreed

"Nobody goes at it the right way." Ziggy stated, "You have to hit it hard, real hard, but you can't let up. You have to hit at all the right times so that you can weaken the chain. When I noticed the chain give way I moved to the other side of the bag and repeated the process. After that it was just constant pressure and I knew that it would break." Ziggy said proudly

"Wow!" Sora said, "I didn't follow a word of that!" Ziggy just had to laugh. As promised, Ziggy received 50 dollars and his name was mentioned on morning announcements. He even earned the nickname of 'Old Rusty' for his accomplishment. Namine noticed something about Ziggy and Kairi that day. There was tension between the two. Namine confronted Kairi about it.

"Why are you mad at Ziggy?" Namine asked

"I'm not." Kairi replied quietly

"Then why is there tension between the two of you?"

"It's just," Kairi started, "He's always been like this. When something bad happens, he refuses to let anyone into his world, but he always bounces back the next day acting like nothing happened. I just wish he didn't hold in all of his emotions one day it's gonna explode, and he won't be able to control himself."

"That won't happen" Ziggy said approaching them. He pulled Kairi into a hug and whispered "I promise."

xXx-xXx-xXx

Hope you liked it. R&R