D/N: Umm.. . . Sorry I didn't have an Author's note last chapter; I forgot. Yeah, this is my first fanfic on fanfiction, so wish me luck! I'm going to have a hell of a lot of mistakes on here, even with spell-check… .. Yeah, so. . . :B

Disclaimer: Do you think I own kingdom hearts? Very funny, human.

Yvonne was now a small stretch of land that kids visited whenever they could, where they could think and play. Half-finished tree houses nestled in the top boughs of the tall palm trees near the beach, belonging to the younger children, who didn't know what the ocean winds could do to the wood, while the taller trees at the edge of the forest always went to the elders, marked by coconut shells with marks engraved in them, marks unique to each person. Sixteen already, I had only two years of this island to enjoy, and didn't know how I would spend it. My own tree-house had long been finished, I had nothing productive to do but lie in the sand and contemplate the sky.

Even now, I lay on the soft sand, staring up at the clear blue sky blankly, the bright sun beating down on me, warming my deeply tanned skin. The roar and crash of the cool ocean waters soothed my mind, which had suffered under the cruel grip of my many teachers all day. It seemed, as the years passed, my teachers added more and more work to the load so that our minds stayed mush. Finals were fast approaching, of course, so I'd have all summer to look forward to on Yvonne.

A shadow fell upon me, and I pulled myself out of my trance to look at the person responsible for blocking my sun; my 'friend' Esmerelda. Upon normal circumstances, I would try and stay far away from her. Yvonne, unfortunately, was too small for such a thing, and she, thinking that I was a friend of hers, seemed to always follow me around. I couldn't scream at her and swear; Elders had the duty of, unfortunately, setting an example for the next line of elders. If they saw one of the old elders shouting at another person on Yvonne, then they thought that it must be okay to yell and order around the other, younger, children. I resigned myself to talking to her, noticing, almost shocked, that there was black nail polish on her nails.

She smiled, almost mockingly, and asked in an extremely high and sugar sweet voice, "Want to play with me? All of my friends have to finish their homework, and until then, I'm on my own over here, and it's ever so lonely when I'm by myself." Her bright blue eyes showed pleading, almost swimming in tears, while the sun hitting her platinum blond hair almost blinded me. I raised an eyebrow; her hair was never that shade of blond.

I glared up at her, and closed my eyes once more, so that I wouldn't be blinded, "Buzz off. Just because this is a free place doesn't mean that I have to be nice to you."

She sniffed, "But. . But, you. . I thought you would. .."

Sighing, I sat up; my peaceful afternoon ruined, and looked at her. She was wearing a silly pink dress loaded with lace and frills, along with high and expensive looking boots. Those were no clothes to be running around in, playing war and the other stuff that I normally played with the other kids. I crossed my arms over my knees, and rested my hands on the shape formed there, frowning, "How old are you, anyway?" To my own judgment, she looked to be about twelve, yet spoke in a cultured way.

She looked at me, and answered, as bright as the sunlight that fell upon her blond head, "Sixteen on the twentieth!"

I stared at her. She must have been lying. "You're sixteen? An elder? That isn't possible; I'm already sixteen!"

Now it was her turn to stare at me, "You look like you're twenty!" She pointed a small and elegant finger at me, as though she were accusing me of some heinous crime, though her eyes were twinkling mischievously. Now she was thinking that I was old? I stood, and walked away, not paying the least attention to her, as she apologized over and over again for a stupid mistake, my anger bubbling right below the surface. Did she even know the age limit on when we could visit?

A grove of trees lay to our right, so I made a beeline toward it, ones that no one had tried to make into tree-houses just yet. The trees here were all palm trees, easy enough to climb if you knew how, that was. Esmerelda looked like she had never even tried to climb a ladder, let alone a tree. In those clothes, I don't think she could even climb the ladder. One of the trees had several marked coconut shells at the trunk, a clear sign to anyone else that it was my perch, and people would do well to steer clear. That was one of the perks of being older; all of the younger kids left you alone.

I sat at the top, my fingers intertwined under my chin, and I critically watched the kids by the shore, who were trying to make a raft so that they could explore the ocean, too. One was vainly trying to tie together the logs, so that they would form a platform, but large gaps lay in between the large logs, a sure disaster if they tried to float on it. I sighed; they'd drown if they tried to get off the island on something like that. I'd stop them once they tried to leave, and destroy their raft in the night, saying that a storm did it, or a wild animal. I was quite good at covering my tracks with animal paw prints, after years of practice of making sure that they didn't hurt their selves.

Esmerelda's voice came floating up from the bottom of the tree, "Can I come up too?"

I looked down at her, slightly amused, "If you can make it both down and up without any help, then sure."

She cheered, and I turned my attention away from her, to the kids once more, climbing up in the tree to get a better view, so that I was sitting on the juncture of the fronds, a favorite place for me to hang out. Another kid was jumping up and down angrily, his red head bouncing up and down with his movements, looking, amusingly, like a bouncy ball. I laughed at him, and sat back, enjoying the show as they tried to move the raft a bit so that the tide wouldn't wash it out, and managed to pull it apart.

A blond head peeked over the edge at the kids, "Ooh, they look so funny down there! Is there any room for me up here?"

I moved to the side, surprised, "You made it up here in those boots and dress?"

"Nope! I had pants and a shirt underneath. I took off my boots."

I looked at her. She looked like a normal sixteen year old girl now, wearing spandex pants that went to her knee, and an over-large black tank top. Her hair was tied back into a sloppy horse tail held by a red ribbon, while her feet were bare and dirty. Her voice was deeper, too, and hoarse, "You don't seem the type to wear that." I told her, surprised.

"I'm the type, don't worry. Sorry about tricking you before; it was so funny to watch you get frustrated with me."

I blinked, "Wait, you're saying that you did that to trick me?" I glared at her.

"I'm an actress! I had a play before coming here, so had no time to take off any of my costume or get changed. Was my hair dyed right? It used to be black, but, after that last time I got it died, it's been turning steadily whiter."

I reached out, so that I could see the roots of her hair, and then nodded, "Pretty excellent. Even your eyebrows are done."

She laughed, "If I didn't have my eyebrows done, then people would look at me funny. Ooh, look! He got brained!" Her laughter turned into an evil giggle, as she watched the boys quarrel near the raft. It was caused by one boy who was precariously holding a long stick, who had, by accident, hit his friend over the head with it.

I joined in with her laughter, then sighed, "Well, I'm going to have to get down there before fighting breaks out; we can't have the boys going home, covered in bruises."

Someone hailed me from the tree trunk, "Raine! Do you want to go swimming with me?"

I peered down through the fronds of the palm tree, instantly recognizing that voice, "What, again? I don't have my swimsuit with me, Tori-kun!"

Hatori wrinkled his nose in mock disgust, "Ugh, don't use that nickname! It sounds like a girl's. And it doesn't matter if you have a swimsuit or not; we can go skinny-dipping!"

I threw a conveniently placed coconut at him, "Go to hell, pervert." Without seeing if I hit him or not, I sat back on the top of the palm tree again, next to Esmerelda. "Watch out of him; he's a major pervert."

She giggled, "Oh that I don't mind; He's good looking enough that I can forgive him."

I laughed so hard at that, that I almost fell out of the tree in my amusement. Esmerelda caught my arm, and hauled me back up straight, "Oh, thanks Esmerelda!"

Her face twisted as though that word was a bad taste in her mouth, "Just Em will do. Esmerelda is more of a show name than anything of matter. I don't really use it as my own name any longer."

I looked at her, "Okay, then. Well, I'm going to head down. From the look of things, a full out brawl is going to break out down there if I don't do something."

I climbed down the tree, monkey-like, showing that I had probably more skills than her acting had provided her with, and landed in the soft sand, kicking off my own shoes so that I could run around barefoot. Em followed me down by my side, and picked up my shoes from the sand, "I know a place where these will be safe from both prying eyes and hands, and from the storms. That's where I spend my times on the beach, out of the rain. Want to see?"

I was torn between wanting to see Em's secret area, and going down to the beach and stopping a potential disaster. I sighed, "Could I see it later, after I break them up? I don't want them coming home with too many bruises, and drawing suspicion to our paradise." With that, I ran off to stop the boys, Em heading off in a different direction.

D/N: Okay! throws arms into the air along with confetti BONZAI! I finished my first chapter! It's much longer than my Prologue, but bear with me. I'm still trying to break up one who story into smaller pieces, so that it's easier on the eyes. Uhhh. . . I think that's all. . . Um. .. eats pixie stix yeah, Read and Comment, and give me as many helpful bits of criticism as you possibly can! Okay! Thank you! Hahaha. . .

Wait, no, not yet. I might use references to some Japanese terms in here, because I'm weird like that. The name Hatori was lifted from Fruit's Basket and –kun is a term for a friend. thinks I know –chan is too personal… uh.. . . GAH! hits head against wall