In his room, Ven stood in front of his mirror, nervously unbuttoning and buttoning his black gakuran jacket, which he wore on top of his white collared shirt. "What if no one likes me, Mizz Piggy?" he asked.

The stuffed animal, which was sitting on his bed, slumped over.

"Yeah, at least I'll have Hayner, Pence and Omelet—Olette. I can't call her omelet. She'll be mad. Girls get angry about everything."

Mizz Piggy was silent.

"Well technically, you're not a girl, Mizz Piggy, because you're a doll, not a person." He buttoned up his school uniform jacket one last time. "I need to get going."

He ate a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, and, alongside Terra, made his way down the mountain for his first day of school. Aqua had picked out a shiny red backpack for him, and adorned it with a kingdom key charm.

It wasn't a long walk. Terra dropped him off by the gates of the school. "I'll pick you up when the day is over."

"Okay," Ven replied. His body was trembling with nerves. Terra petted his head and assured him, "Hey, it'll be fine."

"But what if it's not? What if today goes horribly wrong?"

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine, Ven."

The middle-schooler took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Okay. Thanks Terra." He waved goodbye and entered the school.

However, walking into class 8-K, Ven suddenly felt overwhelmed. There were about twenty or so students already there, chatting away about their summer exploits. Anxiously, Ven stood beside the door, as if ready to make a quick escape.

"Ven!" cried out Hayner as he grabbed Ven in a hug from behind. Following him were Pence and Olette.

"H-hi!" shouted Ven.

"You nervous?" Hayner teased, while wrapping an arm around Ven's shoulders. "Don't worry. I'll show you how school works."

Olette piped in, "You couldn't even finish your summer homework. I don't think you're the best role model."

Pence laughed. Hayner scratched his own chin, and said, "Well, you see, I'm the best at making excuses and getting deadlines extended, so it's not a problem for me."

Olette shook her head. "Don't listen to him Ven. Let's go sit down."

So they did. Hayner, Pence and Olette started talking about something else, but Ven noticed that the classroom buzz died down. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he felt that all eyes were on him. And he began to hear whispers. "He's sitting with them. He's sitting in that seat."

Ven tensed. He tried to make himself smaller.

"Right Ven?" asked Hayner.

He hadn't been paying attention. "Huh? What'd you say?"

Olette argued, "Don't make him pick sides!" and they continued to talk about whatever they were talking about. Soon, the homeroom teacher showed up. Everyone in the class had to stand up and introduce themselves. Then they started their lessons. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly.

Once it was over, the quartet of friends were preparing to leave. "How did you feel about your first day, Ven?" Pence asked.

"Okay," he responded. They walked out of the classroom and down the hall. "It doesn't seem too hard."

Hayner complained, "Wait until they start assigning math homework. Then you'll really hate school."

Ven was a little puzzled. "Why'd you tell me to come to school if school was bad?"

Olette explained, "It isn't that bad. Hayner just likes to complain."

Pence added, "Plus, we can hang out with you more often."

"That's true," Ven agreed. "Honestly, that was the main reason I decided to start school. I wanted to see you guys again."

"Awww!" Olette and Pence cooed, hugging Ven. Hayner, although very much flattered, tried to act cool. He said, "Looks like you made the right choice, kid. We're sticking with you forever." And the four of them laughed.

At this point, they were walking past the front gates of the school. From his peripheral vision, Ven noticed someone eying him. He stopped walking and returned the stare. The someone was a high school boy, dressed in a navy blue blazer and slacks. He carried his bag in one hand and leaned against the railing of the school gates with the other. Covering most of his blonde hair was a black beanie cap.

"He's staring at me," Ven said to his friends as he pointed to the older kid. Olette winced. "Not again," she mumbled.

Pence whispered, "Do you think he's going to do it this semester too?"

Hayner scowled, grabbed Ven's arm and pulled him along. "Ignore that guy. He's just a weirdo."

"Don't say that about Seifer," Olette pleaded. "He misses him more that we do."

Hayner tightened his grip on Ven's arm, "There's no reason to miss him. Vivi went on vacation. And one day he'll come back, right?" His forced a smile. "That's what we agreed to believe, right?"

A sense of dread overwhelmed Ven. "Wh-what's going on?"

But before anyone could answer his question, Seifer marched up to the four of them. "So," began the high-schooler, "you think you can replace Vivi with this kid?"

Hayner, Pence, and Olette froze. They were silent. Ven shook his head and asked, "What are you talking about?"

He didn't expect to be punched in the face. Ven landed on his butt on the ground. Seifer would have gone for another punch, but Hayner and Pence held him back. Olette helped Ven to stand up and blocked him with her body. She shouted, "No one is trying to replace him! We all miss him, so stop acting like this!"

"You guys can't do this!" shouted Seifer. He pointed at Ven. "You're not allowed to replace Vivi with some punk-ass brat! How do you think he'd feel if he knew that you forgot about him?"

Ven mumbled, "What's going on? I don't understand."

Olette shouted, "How could we forget about Vivi? He was our friend! And we miss him! But he wouldn't have wanted us to be sad forever! So you need to move on!"

"How can I?" shouted Seifer. "My little brother is dead! How can I move on?"

Hayner tightened his grip around Seifer. "Vivi isn't dead! He's just on vacation! He's just on vacation!"

Pence shouted, "No he's not! He's dead! He's dead, Hayner! Get it through your thick skull that he's never coming back! Stop saying he's on vacation! We went to his funeral!" Pence stomped his feet. "Just admit that he's dead!"

Ven stammered, "Wh-what's going on?"

Seifer broke free of Pence's and Hayner's grasp. He backed away and knelt down, bursting into tears. "I should have picked him up from school! I shouldn't have let him walk home by himself! B-b-but maybe, maybe if I wait here, then he'll come out of class. Right? It'll be the four of you, walking out, like old times. And I'll walk him home, like I was supposed to that day." The delusional look on Seifer's face was heart-wrenching. "So please! Don't replace him! Don't do that to him!"

Hayner, Pence and Olette were silent. Ven approached the older kid, and embraced him in a hug, saying, "It's okay to cry. It's okay to scream. It's okay to be mad or angry or furious. Just let it out."

"It's all my fault," Seifer sobbed.

"No it's not," Olette said as she joined in the hug. "You know how Vivi was. He wouldn't have blamed you. He would have told you to cheer up. He wouldn't want you to be so sad forever."

Pence added, "For Vivi's sake, please, Seifer, don't be sad forever…" He hugged Seifer too.

Hayner quietly joined in as well. And they sat there at the gate, allowing Seifer to cry for a few more minutes. When Seifer calmed down, he apologized to Ven, "Sorry for punching you, kid. I haven't been the same since my brother was murdered. I miss him so much and it hurts so bad."

Ven squeezed Seifer tighter. "I forgive you." Ven locked eyes with him and said, "Vivi was lucky to have such a loving big brother."

Seifer smiled. He stood up, dusted himself off, apologized to all of them again, and left. They waved goodbye to him. Ven lowered his waving hand and sighed.

"Sorry for dragging you into that," Pence said.

"What's going on?" Ven dared to ask once more.

Hayner said, "Vivi was our friend. We've all been friends since elementary school."

Olette continued, "Every day last semester, his brother would come pick him up and walk him home. But one day, Seifer was running late. So Vivi decided to go home by himself."

Pence concluded, "But he never arrived home. His seat has been empty since then."

"That's terrible…" Ven mumbled.

"It was really hard at first," Pence admitted. "And it still is. But I think Vivi would be happier to know that we won't be sad forever." Pence pulled out his cellphone and showed a picture to Ven. "This was him. We took this during the school cultural festival last semester. We were doing a haunted house."

The picture showed the four friends in costume. Hayner had painted his face grey and his clothes were ripped up like a zombie. Pence drew stitches all over his body and wore a headband that made it look like a bolt was passing through his head. Olette wore an orange-and-white cheerleading outfit and held a chainsaw. Vivi wore a yellow witch's hat that obscured most of his face and blonde hair, and a dark blue, ankle length robe. All of them wore bright-eyed smiles.

"Ven?" someone called out. He looked up to see Terra standing in front of him. "You ready to go home?

Ven nodded. He handed Pence's phone back to him and waved goodbye to his friends. "Bye guys."

"Bye Ven," they said.

While heading home, Ven quietly reflected on the day's events. Terra, a little concerned about Ven's silence, asked, "Did you have a good day?"

Ven nodded. "Yeah."

"Did you make friends?"

"Yeah. Really good ones."

Author's Note: I'm sorry for torturing the cinnamon rolls. It gets better after this, I promise.