UGHGHGH WORKKK!
I REALLY hope I can get this chapter out there this week, but... It's already Sunday afternoon and... and... *facepalm* I hope I'll have enough time. Whatever, you don't care about my whining. x3
HERE WE APPROACH CHAPTER TEN!
Chapter ten already! I... I don't know what to say! *takes out microphone*
I suppose I'd like to thank all the little people out there who made this chapter possible...
Xion- You haven't even started the first sentence of it yet =.=;
Oh. Yes. Right. Thank you Xion. Well, let's begin the amazingness of the TENTH full chapter of this story. Perhaps something may happen, perhaps not...
The only way to find out is to read. :3
"XIONNN!" I heard Namine yell, making me let out an annoyed groan. My throat hurt. "Everyone's up! C'mon, hurry! Bus comes in twenty!"
"Five more minutes..." I moaned almost incomprehensibly. This, of course, translated to "let me sleep forever."
I was still at Namine's house, along with Olette and Kairi. We were the only people that were allowed to stay, of course, us being the only girls.
The party from yesterday seemed to end quickly after the 'dark room' fiasco, even though I was the only one who studied. Everyone else, after they got bored of playing Final Fantasy (Bored! I know! I was shocked too!) decided to go off and do their own things. I didn't really pay much attention to them. But, as the night went on, we banded back together and played more "truth or dare", Kairi dominating the questions, as usual.
I was forced to admit that I peed my pants in third grade.
...
Shut up! Roxas was making me laugh really hard and I couldn't sign out the bathroom pass in time! It was really embarrassing, and my teacher didn't help!
Suddenly, someone tossed something hard that hit my forehead. "HEY!" I barked, sitting up to see Namine and Olette snickering to each other. "NOT COOL!" What was that, a brick?
"Seriously, Xion, you have to get up," Kairi called from the hallway. "We're about to eat breakfast."
"Fine," I muttered, dragging myself out of my sleeping bag and to my feet. I looked at my wrist.
What was the TIME? Honestly, it felt something like 4am.
...Oh, right. No watch. Shoot. How many times have I done that?
Namine probably noticed my stupid move and glanced at her own bedroom clock. "It's 5:30. Bus comes at 5:45, so we have to hurry."
Me, Olette, and Namine were out of the room shortly, and I was toting some blue jeans and an olive green Zelda shirt to change into. I went into the upstairs bathroom and shut the door to do it.
"Get down here soon!" Olette called.
"Yeah, I will!" I yelled back as she and Nam went downstairs, probably into the kitchen to get themselves some food.
I started to unbutton my pajama shirt when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.
"Um, excuse me?"
I whipped around, red-faced, to see Riku standing there in his boxers with one eyebrow raised, toothbrush in hand. ((A/N Now that's what I call fanservice! *chuckles*))
"OMIGOD!" I gasped, falling back onto the bathroom door. "JEEZUS RIKU! I didn't even see you!"
"Uh, yeah," Riku blinked, rubbing his neck. "I didn't think you did. I'll just be leaving now." He breezed past me and closed the door behind him.
Well that sucked.
He seemed as embarrassed as I was, at least.
Why did it always seem like it was me to make mistakes like that? Whatever. I'm pretty sure everyone around me was numb to it anyway - I acted like an idiot so much. In fact, just last night I tried to give Namine a sneak-attack hug and I accidentally punched her in the face.
I mean, honestly.
How does someone even do that?
I slipped into my school clothes slowly, jumping around the room in order to fully pull the jeans on.
I headed downstairs to see Kairi pouring cereal, and Namine yelling at her half-brother.
"SERIOUSLY Riku!" Nam was scolding. "Put some clothes on! If mom weren't at work, she'd be super pissed at you!"
"I'm not dressing up just because your friends are here," Riku growled back, reaching into the fridge to grab some milk.
"I'm not ASKING you to dress up!" The blonde fumed, gesturing wildly with her hands. "Is it too much to ask to have a shirt on?"
I crossed my arms across the logo of Link on my chest. It was hard to admit, but Riku had some pretty adorable bedhead when he woke up in the morning. Nothing like mine, all... ratty... like some rabid bird's nest.
Ugh. Talk about unfair.
"Stop being so loud," Riku muttered back to Namine while putting some toast down into the toaster. "You'll wake up the neighbors."
Namine huffed her disapproval, but remained silent after that. When Kairi finished up with the cereal, I poured myself a bowl, followed by Olette.
Riku was the only one eating toast.
...Why'd I even say that? Does that detail even matter at all?
...
Anyway, before long we were all sitting at the table talking.
"So, Math and Science finals today," Olette said quietly, trying to spur conversation in the awkward silence.
"Yup!" Nam replied, and Kairi nodded.
"I've SO got this," She grinned. "Geometry is SO easy. It's all like, 'oohhh, how many sides does a square have?'"
"I think my class is a little harder," Olette said with a frown. Namine took another bite of her Captain Crunch.
"Yeah, Xion's been worrying about it all week. Right Xion?"
The table dropped into silence.
"Uhm... Xion?" Kairi echoed Namine, trying to hold back a witch's cackle of laughter.
"Huh? Wha?" I snapped out of the trance I had apparently been in. "What were we talking about? Sorry, I was..."
"...Fascinated with Riku abs!" Kairi finished my sentence, probably with the only thing I definitely wasn't going to say, before exploding into a fit of laughter.
Namine and Olette couldn't seem to stop from breaking down either.
Some friends they are.
Riku and I glanced at each other, our faces reddening quickly. "Hey! That's not what I was doing..." I trailed off.
"Give it a rest, Kairi!" Riku snapped, crushing his paper cup. "She was just staring off into space."
"Well maybe if you didn't apt to show off your body so much," The redhead teased wickedly. "She wouldn't be tempted to stare."
"I wasn't st-" I cut off again then, breaking into a fit of coughing.
"Look what you did now, Riku!" Kairi continued to joke, but Namine stopped laughing and looked at me with concern.
"You okay, Xion?" She questioned, sounding like a nurse.
"Y-yeah," I replied, sniffling. "I think it's just allergies."
I was probably one of the only people you'd ever meet that was GIFTED with allergies in both the summer and the winter. Go figure.
Allergies were by far the dumbest thing ever invented.
Riku stood up, pushing his chair back. "Well, I'm done," He said curtly. "Don't wanna get coughed on."
"That's not very nice," I muttered back to him, already feeling the effects of a stuffy nose coming on.
He just walked away. Also very nice.
"Time to get going," Kairi shrugged, looking at the kitchen clock. "Riku's right."
I quickly drank up the rest of my cereal and put the bowl in the sink before running upstairs to grab my backpack, then back downstairs.
I had to follow Nam, Kairi and Olette outside to the end of the driveway - which was apparently the bus stop - and we started to wait there. Riku hadn't come out yet... but that was probably because he didn't want to be seen with a bunch of his sister's friends in public. Well, I didn't blame him. Sora's friends weren't too tolerable either.
We were waiting for a few minutes... and the bust still hadn't come.
"Humhmhm..." I moaned, sniffling.
"I know!" Kairi gasped. "Let's play Ninja!"
"Omg good idea!" Nam gasped. She, Kairi and Olette lined up in a circle to play some sort of strange game, before I intervened.
"Whoa, what's Ninja?"
Namine grinned. "It's an awesome game. Here, get in the circle with us." I did. Namine continued to explain how to play. "Okay. You can only make one motion. The object is to hit the hand of the person next to you. They can make one motion as an attempt to, you know, dodge it... But you can only make one movement trying to hit them. Oh, right, and if your hand gets hit then you're out. Got it?"
"Uh... I think so," I nodded. Sniff. Sniff. Gross, it was already bad.
The game began.
Olette kicked it off with a swipe at Namine, who dodged, and retaliated with a swipe at Kairi. Kairi then went for me, and I jerked my hand away. The game basically went on like this until Kairi got hit by Namine, making her get out... and then Olette got hit by me, leaving HER out.
Soon it was a battle of speed between me and Nam.
"Don't lose focus!" Kairi called as we went back and forth trying to hit each others' hands. I wasn't exactly sure who she was directing this to, but a grin crossed my face nonetheless.
Suddenly I heard the screen door slam to Namine's house, and almost looked over in the direction of the sound... but Namine continued to play and didn't even bat an eyelash. Dang, she was determined.
"Go Xion!" Olette cheered.
"Traitor!" Nam muttered back while dodging my swipe. Olette shrugged.
"Gotta root for someone."
"Hey, Namine," A deeper voice said, making her guard divert for a second. "You left your-"
"HAH!" I yelled in triumph as I hit Namine's hand in her moment of weakness. "YES! YES YES YES! I-" But then, of course, my moment of happiness was cut off by yet another fit of coughing.
"No fair!" My blonde friend fumed. "NO FAIR! Riku helped you!"
Riku blinked. "I helped her do what?"
"Xion won the game of ninja we were playing," Olette explained, smirking. "Kairi, I believe you owe me a few dollars."
"WHA?" Kairi yelped, turning on the shorter brunette. "We never betted!"
"I know, I was just kidding," Olette huffed in reply, crossing her arms. Riku slung his bag over his shoulder.
"Aw, you guys played a game without me?" He complained, bringing on a glare from his sister. "How could you?"
"Just because you always win!" She snapped.
"Riku always wins?" I questioned, rubbing my eye. Well, he did seem like he would always win a game like that, didn't he?
That's when the bus rode up, making everyone divert their attention to boarding it. Namine was apparently one of the first stops, so it seemed mostly empty. Ugh, that just meant there'd be an extra long bus ride.
Riku's bag was partially open as he began to walk up the stairs in front of me, and something toppled out of his bag and onto the ground as he grabbed the bus railing. I blinked.
It looked like a small white pill container... the type of thing you'd see someone carrying Tylenol in when they had a massive headache.
As Riku just continued up onto the bus, I reached down and picked it up. Apparently he didn't notice he dropped anything.
"Hey, Riku," I said, holding out the bottle. "Uhm... I think you dropped this thing."
He looked back at me, shocked, only to snatch the object out of my hand and shove it back in his bag. "Thanks."
And then he was walking down the aisle and sitting in one of the seats closer to the back. I joined Namine in a middle seat.
Yeah, I know it's impolite, but his hurriedness to put it away had me wishing I'd read the label.
Did Riku have allergies too? Did he have permission to have those pills?
And what were they for?
x
(^_~)
x
I took a deep breath and put my pencil down.
Okay.
The math final was over.
It was, of course, the one I was worried most about...
...and I wasn't sure about a lot of my answers, either, but now that I was finished, the only thing I could do was look over the test.
I glanced around at everyone else in the room. Namine had finished a little while ago... Olette and Hayner were still working... and Pence had a blank piece of paper out that he was scribbling on.
Nam saw me - apparently I looked as worried as I felt - and shot me a thumbs up from her seat across from the sweaty room.
What if I failed? My parents would kill me if I got anything below a B. This test was such a big percentage of the grade, after all...
Scary.
With a sigh, I took one final look at the many answers on the final exam, pushed my chair back, and handed in the paper at Mr. McGregor's desk. No turning back now.
The tall, scary teacher didn't even look up at me from his computer.
I detoured to the side of the room to grab some tissues and blow my nose before sitting heavily back down in my chair. Jeez, these fast acting allergies will literally be the death of me.
It's worst right when I wake up, too. And I don't feel like getting out of bed because then I know I'll have to go all day while dealing with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Arg. Talk about no motivation.
Is there a medical condition that makes it hard for you to get out of bed in the morning, even if you aren't sick?
I think I have it.
Sigh.
For the rest of the period - which had only ten minutes or so left. Maybe more like six - I was prepared to stare blankly at the clock. They say a watched pot never boils, but the clock was truly the only thing to stare at.
After this period, there would be gym, the final one of the day.
Yeah, remember? During finals days there were messed up schedules. BUT, GLORY BE, TOMORROW WAS THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!
WHOOPEE! My first year of high school was coming to a close!
...But not yet. Tomorrow I'd have to take the Spanish and Gym finals, and then the day would be over and summer would finally be on.
...
But I wouldn't become a Sophomore if I failed the math final. No, not because I would be held back. Because my parents would kill me.
The worry of the test crashed back down onto my head despite the distraction of thinking about school being out.
And then, in the silence of the room, my phone vibrated.
Of COURSE it did. Not like I wasn't expecting that. Even though I wasn't.
Mr. McGregor, although usually very strict, seemed glued to his computer - it was the perfect time to sneak a peek at my cell. Maybe I was actually becoming numb to breaking the rules.
...Nah, that couldn't be.
I sneakily reached into my pocket and retrieved my phone, using my backpack to conceal it as I checked the text.
It was from Riku! Who else, really? Seeing the boy texting me seemed to slowly be losing its glamour – but not FULLY quite yet. I still felt the excitement I usually did at seeing his name in the "sender" section.
Yo, you done your math yet? :3
From: Riku
To: Me
I smirked, feeling my cheeks heat up as if Namine were looking over my shoulder and seeing the message herself. I wrote a text back.
Yes! But what if I hadn't been?
From: Me
To: Riku
I glanced at the clock to see that only a minute or so had passed. Ugh… again, Gym was next. I wasn't looking forward to it, even if the days of fitness testing had passed.
Honestly, why was that invented? To make kids feel like crap by telling them they aren't in shape? I don't need to be reminded that I can't touch my toes, thank you very much.
My cell vibrated once more, making me completely forget I was even mad.
You would have quickly finished so
you could text meee 3
From: Riku
To: Me
It took all my strength not to burst out laughing at this comment. Riku was hilarious, even over the phone through writing. That's pretty impressive.
You bet I would have, ROFL. Why can't we
talk like this in real life?
From: Me
To: Riku
I looked up at Mr. McGregor's desk to make sure he wasn't being any more attentive. Good. He wasn't.
A lot of people, including the other teachers, compare Mr. McGregor to a hermit. He comes in early, leaves late, spends all day on his computer correcting papers.
…Makes you wonder if he has a wife. And if so, how? Did he and his spouse raise math gremlin children? Do they live in a math house and eat math problems for breakfast?
It seemed like Riku's reply was taking a little longer than usual, and it came two minutes or so before the dismissal bell actually rang.
Sora's a bit of a handful. XD
From: Riku
To: Me
I didn't have time to reply, which I felt bad about – but that honestly made Riku sound like he was the mom and Sora was the newborn infant he had to take care of day and night.
But, still, I knew that wasn't the real reason.
Riku probably just texted me because he needed someone to talk to – not because he actually wanted to have the same sort of friendship in real life. I wasn't awkward through texting… and that probably made me tolerable enough to entertain him.
But it didn't matter. It's not like I wasn't fine with us "talking" sometimes through our phones.
The bell rang, then, making me stand up. Namine came over to me right away… and I slipped my cell phone into my backpack without much thought.
"How do you think you did?" She smiled, obviously confident in herself.
"Pretty good," I nodded, fists tight. "I hope I get a B."
"A B? C'mon, Xion, think higher than that!"
I frowned. "I don't wanna get my hopes up."
Hayner, Pence, and Olette walked over, all of them wearing the same expression as my blonde friend.
Aw, now this just made me feel obsolete.
"We all hope you do well, Xion!" Olette smiled, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "And good luck in gym, too."
"There's no watch left to protect your wrist from rogue basketballs." Hayner snickered, zipping up his backpack on the table.
"Sora told you about that?" I said, annoyed, as we started walking out the door. Our group paused a few feet out of the Math Building, because that's where we'd need to part ways. "It wasn't Roxas's fault."
"Actually, Roxas told us," Pence grinned, reaching into his bag to grab a protein bar. It was one of those ones that boasted being healthy – but it didn't look good for you at all. "I think he's kinda guilty he broke your oh-so-famous watch."
Namine sighed. "We'll have to tell him not to blame himself. He must feel terrible…"
I blinked. "We?"
"Yeah, I said we'll have to tell him that—"
"Well, I know, but… you're following me to gym?" I cut her off, confused. I tried to swallow a cough, while sniffling. Curse you, allergiessss! Cue the menacing fist shake.
"Yeah, we may run into Roxas on the way there," Namine said back to me, sounding completely hopeful and sincere. Looking at the gigantic crowd of people heading to their next classes, it didn't seem very likely. But I would have hated to burst her bubble.
"Okay, maybe. *SNIFF* See you later, guys," I waved once to Hayner, Pence, and Olette before heading down the hill to the Gym, Namine in tow.
It wasn't exactly that far away, so it wasn't long before we made it there. We hadn't run into Roxas.
"Well, guess you should go to your next—" I started, but was cut off by Nam. Really, I should have expected it.
"Can I come in with you? I mean, he could be in there already." Her hands were clasped together pleadingly. I stared blankly at her face.
"You aren't serious."
"Just let me come in with you, Xion! Pleasee!"
I couldn't seem to think of any reason why she'd want to find Roxas in the gymnasium so quickly – well, scratch that. I couldn't seem to think of any not perverted reason why Namine'd want to find Roxas in the gymnasium so quickly, but I had to deny her anyway.
"You're going to be late for your class, Nam," I said straightly, making my friend sigh.
"I guess. Well thanks anyway." She walked away, seeming very dejected.
…
It's not MY fault she'd be late! She's probably all the way across campus or something! This close to the end of the year, teachers have zero tolerance for kids being tardy. Nam would hate to ruin her perfect record.
I slipped into the building, going into the girls' locker room through the bathroom, opened my locker and grabbed my clothes to meet up with Kairi just as the bell rang.
"Jeez!" She said, slipping on her gym shirt as I arrived. "You were almost late! What held you up?"
"I was talking with a lot of friends," I replied before coughing a few times. Kairi's natural motherly instinct mode kicked in, and she pressed the back of her hand to my forehead.
"You don't look well," She pouted worriedly. "You think you're gonna be okay for the big trip on Saturday?"
I jerked back from her hand, shocked. "Big trip?" I echoed. "What big trip?"
"Oh, our big shopping trip for you is planned for Saturday!" She squealed. My blood ran cold.
"I never agreed to that!"
"Oh, but you did!" The redhead chuckled gleefully. "I've invited everyone to come… Axel even agreed!"
She clapped her hands. I grunted, pulling on a pair of sweatpants angrily.
Okay, so what if I had? I wasn't keen on Kairi inviting everyone to buy a new style for me. Sheesh. I had a style. It was called Xion.
After we were dressed, we headed into the gym and were told to do our laps.
Sora and Roxas ran over to jog next to us.
"Roxas!" I said immediately as he came up to me. "I wish you wouldn't be guilty about the watch! *SNIFF*"
"Well that was random," My cousin replied, nudging me. "Sorry. I mean... that watch was your thing! And now you don't have a thing!"
"I definitely hope she doesn't have a thing," Sora cut in, impishly covering his mouth with his fingertips.
Kairi gasped. "Sora!" She said, smacking him. "That wasn't nice to your sister!"
"You know you love me anyway, though," My annoying brother chuckled.
Ugh, that arrogant... little... UGH!
Our lap was finished quickly, and we started following the instructor to do our stretching.
"Sooo," Kairi giggled, leaning down to touch the floor. She was one of those wicked flexible girls that probably secretly had rubber superpowers like Mr. Incredible - but kept them undercover and just used them to show off in gym class, making everyone think they'd done gymnastics since they were born. "Of course there's Xion's big day on Saturday."
"Xion's birthday is in March," Roxas said, while Sora immediately followed Roxas's statement with, "XION'S GETTING MARRIED?"
"Shut up you guys," I said, sniffling some more.
"I'm talking about the shopping trip I have planned," Kairi huffed, annoyed by how dumb the boys were acting, probably.
"Oh," My cousin and brother muttered in unison. "Shopping."
"I know guys don't like shopping as much as I do," Kairi went on, smiling like she had everything planned out. "So it's going to become a party."
At that, the boys perked up.
A PARTY? What the heck?
Did this really need to become that big of a deal?
"Today is another free day!" The gym teacher announced, breaking off our conversation. "Since tomorrow is an early release, there will be no P.E. Be sure to bring your gym clothes home after class! And have a great summer everyone!"
Gym class began, and unfortunately for me, Kairi had both Sora and Roxas raving about the upcoming celebration in my honor.
Damn. This was going to end up embarrassing, wasn't it?
THERE! CHAPTER TEN IS DONE! YAYYY! YAAAAY! YAYYY!
It's not as long as chapter nine. Oh well. As you can see, it took me longer than a week to get this chapter out here.
The beginning of this chapter - the into, when I take out the microphone - was written last week, last Sunday, so you can safely assume that this un-impressively long chapter took me just about a week to write.
And for that, I am sorry.
It's just... last weekend was really stressful, and...
Ah, well that doesn't matter now. New standards have been set. I will, from now on, try to get each chapter in WITHIN TWO WEEKS OF THE LAST! Isn't that just perfectly reasonable?
.3.
I have no song to dedicate this chapter to, cuz it was very filler-like and... you know, unimpressive. Like I said. But... *sigh*
Thanks to everyone for supporting me this far! I can't wait for all of you to read on and find out what happens :3
As you can imagine, it's very difficult to write about blaring heat when winter is just around the corner (Oh, summer. Where have you gone?) but I've been through some horribly hot high school days myself... so I can just think back to it. If you're wondering why Xion is sick, why, that's simple! It's... It's because...
*SNIFF* *COFF HACK COFF*
...I am sick as well. And I have allergies in the summer and the winter. I'm sensing some uncanny similarities between me and my main character.
...
.
WILL Xion find out what's in Riku's mysterious pill bottle?
WILL our heroine's father be at the house when she returns?
WILL we find out why Namine needed to see Roxas so badly?
WILL the party turn out to be a disaster?
AND most of all, AXEL AXEL AXEL AXEL AXEL!
Thanks again for reading, and DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!
-Sono ^-^