Armed with his brand new (Terra's old) cellphone, Ven sat on his bed, Mizz Piggy in his lap, and debated whether or not to text Hayner, Pence and Olette. He had already saved their numbers into the phone. Since it had been two weeks since he'd met them, Ven felt awkward about texting out of the blue. "What should I do, Mizz Piggy?" asked Ven, his eyes closed, his eyebrows creased. "What do I even say?"

Of course, Mizz Piggy couldn't give him an answer.

Ven sighed. He fell backwards onto his bed, arms outstretched, facing the ceiling. "Hi, it's me, Ven, from the arcade that time," he mumbled. Holding the phone above his head, he typed in that message. He hesitated on hitting send. "That sounds dumb…" he told himself. "I can't send—"

The phone slipped out of his hand and landed on his face. His nose tapped the send button. Thus, he sent the message to all three of them in a group text. Prying the phone off of his face, Ven rubbed his nose and frowned. "Fuck!" he exclaimed, having picked up the habit of swearing from Terra and Aqua. "I didn't mean to do that!"

But that fuck was premature, because almost immediately, Hayner texted back, Finally!

Olette texted, Hi Ven! This is Olette.

Pence texted, Pence here! How have you been?

Their friendliness nearly brought tears to his eyes. I'm happy I got a cellphone!

Download the Lime app Ven, Hayner demanded via text. That's what we use to text each other.

Ven downloaded it and spent the rest of the day texting his friends. By dinner time, he was an expert at emojis and short-hand text lingo. And he was semi-addicted to his phone. Ven barely touched his food because he was too busy texting.

"Ven, put your phone away," Master Eraqus told him.

"Shut up Old Man," said Ven.

Eraqus rubbed his temples and shook his head. "I'm at my wits end with this boy."

Terra voiced his opinion, "It's because you don't discipline him enough. I'd never talk back to my father because I knew I'd get hit across the face."

"Don't you dare hit Ven outside of training," Aqua demanded.

Terra rolled his eyes. "Whatever." To Ven he ordered, "Eat your food before it gets cold."

"Fine, fine," Ven acquiesced. He finally put down his phone.

Late at night, however, he was still texting his friends. Hayner sent the message, Guys! Tomorrow is the last day to do our summer homework! Come over to my house and we'll work on it.

Olette texted, I'm almost done with mine.

Pence said, I finished mine last week.

Hayner replied, I haven't even started! Please let me copy!

Ven asked, What's summer homework?

It's a bunch of worksheets and assignments that teachers want you to complete before the next semester starts, Olette explained. But you don't go to school, right?

Hayner texted, You should come to our school Ven! It'll be fun!

I'll think about it, he replied. Eventually, Ven fell asleep. The next morning, the group chat was quiet. "They're probably doing their homework," he mumbled to himself.

During training, Master was explaining the importance of using different types of combos to unlock command styles. "Aqua, Terra, you've been working on your own command styles, so perhaps you should demonstrate for Ven," Eraqus told his older students. "Ven, is there a style you'd like to see first?"

Ven was looking at his phone.

"Ven, pay attention," Master Eraqus demanded.

"Leave me alone, Old Man," the kid replied as he put away his cell phone.

"What did I do to deserve this disrespect?" Eraqus, forlorn, asked no one in particular.

Terra fussed at the kid, "Stop being disrespectful."

Aqua jumped to Ven's defense, "Stop yelling at him." She approached Ven, stooped down to his level to meet his eyes, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ven turned away from her and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You're so nosy Aqua." Yet he admitted, "I'm wondering what it's like to go to school."

"School?" Master repeated. "Ah, that's right, a child Ven's age should be in school, or at least home-schooled."

"School sucks," Aqua stated definitively. She stood up, shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "You need to keep up a façade of perfection so that your classmates will call you the Queen Bee of the school. There's so much pressure to make good grades and look pretty and be the best at sports and be the student body president, while at the same time excelling at ballet and going to all of your mom's community service events and parties. You'll be so busy that you'll only have time to practice your keyblade skills late at night, but you still have to look well-rested, so you can only practice a little at a time."

Terra raised an eyebrow. "That sounds really specific, Aqua."

She blushed. "Anyway, school is basically prison and it's a waste of time. That's why I dropped out."

"You dropped out?" Master Eraqus exclaimed.

"Yup!" she said proudly. Yet, with a look of disdain, she added, "But recently, my brother coerced me to do online school to get my high school diploma. It takes up so much time."

Terra asked, "Is that why you're always doing something on your laptop?"

She nodded.

"Well that's good," Terra told her. "Finishing high school is important, Aqua."

"You sound like my brother."

Terra chuckled. "Great minds think alike. And I think Ven should go to school." He ruffled Ven's hair. "It's not that bad, Ven. You'll make friends your own age and have tons of fun. Plus, you'll learn interesting things, and you'll have responsibilities, like homework and studying." Terra smiled softly as he reminisced about his high school days. "I loved school, but I graduated early, because I knew that I wanted to study to be a keyblade master. My best memories are of the calm fall afternoons spent playing football with my buddies on the team. I also liked my tenth grade homeroom teacher. She was hot."

"Who set her on fire?" Ven asked.

"No, she was attractive," Terra corrected him. "Why do you immediately think of violence?"

Master Eraqus spoke up, "Well, it's settled then. Ven will go to school. When does school start?"

Ven told him, "Tomorrow."

Looking to Aqua and Terra, Master Eraqus said, "See to it that he is registered and has all the supplies he needs."

Aqua and Terra gave their master the evil eye. The lazy old man snapped his fingers, "Hurry. Time is more precious than gold."

The rest of the day was spent getting Ven registered and prepared for school. Once they filled out the paperwork at the local middle school, Terra took Ven shopping for a school uniform while Aqua purchased school supplies. By that evening, Ven was prepared to be a school boy.

So he texted his friends, I guess I'm going to your school after all.

Olette sent a cute image of a happy cat throwing balloons.

Hayner said, Alright! What homeroom?

Class 8-K, answered Ven.

Hayner said, That's ours!

Olette added, Can't wait to see you in class Ven!

Pence said, It'll be nice to have a new student. I can't stand looking at that empty seat anymore.

Shut up. Hayner texted.

The conversation went silent.

Ven didn't know what else to say. So he plugged is phone in to charge for the night, and went to sleep.