"You have to be kidding." Orette said, surprised.
Zexion was nowhere in the castle. She couldn't believe them. Aerith had let Zexion go to spy on Rilenneku. Didn't that invade their privacy or something?
"She lets him spy on them!" Heine shouted. Kairi nodded, pulling out a book from one of the shelves.
"That is in Ansem's…weird, written and hidden rules." Namine replied as Kairi handed her the thin book. Sora let out a sigh.
"Don't you mean 'random'?" He asked. Roxas shrugged. How were they supposed to know? They didn't even know if Ansem was a teenager when he wrote those.
"Rule One: The sibling(s) of the dating male may spy on their brother and his date and not get in trouble for it unless they get caught by the couple or damage the castle itself." That blonde recited.
Most of them knew those rules by heart. The only people who didn't know about Rule One would be Riku and Lenne.
Heine's eyes began to look around for the certain silver-haired girl. "Where's Rika?"
No one really knew where she was in the huge castle. She could be anywhere. Who knew? Maybe, she had left to help her elder brother with the 'spying'.
"Why'd you want to know anyway?" Namine suddenly asked. Orette flashing a smile, giggling. Sora smirked as Kairi began to think. Roxas elbowed Heine. It was time to get him back for earlier.
"Oh. Rika, my dear, sweet Rika. Oh, where art thou?" He said in a sing-song, mocking voice which sounded like Heine's own. Sora snickered at the sound of that. Everyone began to laugh, including Namine, which was highly unusual.
Heine let out a sigh. Then, he glared at every single one of them with the 'no-I-don't' look. Something was clearly wrong with them or him.
'She's cute when she's giggling.' Roxas thought to himself. He found himself staring at Namine. He blushed, quickly looking away. Everyone saw this, except Namine and snickered.
Namine lifted her head, raising an eyebrow. They were keeping something from her. She knew it. They always did.
The dinner hall was unusually quiet. Riku and Lenne hadn't return yet.
The seating arrangements were the same. Roxas sat across from Namine. Namine sat in-between Heine and Orette. Orette sat across from Kairi, who was sitting next to Sora. Leon and Yuffie were sitting together. Aerith across from Leon. Rika was next to Roxas. Wakka in-between Selphie and Tidus, who was next to Aerith.
The girls silently sipped up their soup. The guys chewing on their steaks. Orette let out a sigh, disliking the silence. She placed her utensils off to the side of her plate, looking at Aerith.
"Rika and Heine made a bet today." She said.
"Again? Is it on them?" Leon looked up from his food, toward the two. He groaned, shaking his head. It was the typical beginning of a certain week. Oh how Leon disliked it.
Orette nodded. Everyone just stared. Rika gulped, hiding her face. Heine was grinning, thinking of what would happen next. It appeared that she'd get into trouble for once in their eyes.
The adults at the table turned to Aerith, who had her decision-making face on. She was thinking long and hard about it.
"Will Rika finally get into trouble? We'll find out next time on Days with the Crew." Sora said. Kairi looked at her side, toward him. That was completely random.
"Sora, are you okay?" Yuffie asked, hearing what he said. Roxas shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. Who really knew?
Riku lead Lenne to the other side of Rising Falls, away from the train station. It felt like Lenne had been there before. Then, it hit her. She had been there once before. Just once. It was with him.
Lenne shuddered in fear, recalling that moment. Riku felt it and turned to look at her.
She was looking away from him and the sunset. But why? He did not know.
"Lenne, what's wrong?" He asked gently.
At this, Lenne glanced at him. "This was the very place."
Place? Riku blinked. He had brought her to a location she did not want to be in. It couldn't be.
The other side of Rising Falls was where her ex-boyfriend just left her. Riku had heard the story before. It was Kairi who told them.
Before, Lenne was going out with Shuyin. There was one date she was ready for. Lenne went to the place where she was supposed to meet him. She waited for hours. However, Shuyin never came to see her. He had been out with someone else. Lenne had seen him and ran away, crying.
Riku pitied her, hoping the same thing won't happen to her once more.
Lenne was on the edge of weeping, reliving memories of that day. She believed she was alone again. Tears slowly falling from her eyes, she stepped back.
"I'm alone again," she whimpered.
Then, it happened so fast. He grabbed her hand, stopping her from leaving. He looked into her eyes. Lenne's brown orbs widened. She fell over.
Something was seriously wrong with everyone today. Orette sensed that right when she stepped through the castle gates. Heine was being affected as well.
She moaned, picking up her half-full soda can. She sipped some of it, closing her eyes.
Heine smirked, looking at the bottom of the can. He was looking for something. He faked coughed, watching Orette drink.
"Expiration date: July 26, 2005." He said aloud. The current date was January 4, 2006. The real expiration date was July 26, 2006.
Orette realized what he had said, her eyes on the can. She had half-swallowed the liquid that was presently in her mouth, forced to swallow it.
"HEINE!" She screamed, looking at the bottom of the can. He had lied, knowing it would scare her. The brunette stood there, backing up, away from that blonde, who's eyes widened.
Orette screamed as she bumped into someone and the can went flying. The soda inside poured out onto the person she bumped into, which was Roxas.
The blonde stopped her from falling by wrapping his arms around her.
"Oh my…." sobbed someone. The three turned and saw the pale blonde-haired Namine, who looked like she crying earlier. She took a step back and ran off in tears.
"Namine!" Roxas yelled, letting go of Orette. It looked like she didn't hear him.
"That's why they call it a 'secret base', Sora," said a voice from outside, "Its location is supposed to be secret."
Rika looked over her shoulder, looking at the door. They were so close at finding her and Zexion's secret base. If only Sora's chocobo stupidity kicked in, it would have taken them a little longer than that.
Turning back to the several computer screens, she began to type again. She scanned the screens after connecting it to Zexion's laptop, which lay close by and turned off. His laptop was where all the videos from the camera was imported and converted to a MPEG format.
She let out a sigh. It was about time she showed them the base and got them to play Hot Seat. Maybe, she'd do that the next day.
Suddenly, the trap door from the floor opened up and Zexion climbed up from the passage below.
"Welcome back, Bro. How was-?" Zexion wanted her to get straight to the point. "Did you make a bet with Heine earlier?"
Rika nodded, "Yes. So…who won?" She questioned, spinning in her computer chair to look at her brother eye-to-eye. Somehow, she knew she wasn't going to like the results.
"SAY WHAT?" Heine yelled, seeing Lenne and Riku stepped into the castle gates out of the corner of his eye. It was kind of hard for him since it was past sundown. He was standing at the balcony of Rika's room. Rika was leaning against the railing of the balcony, nodding.
Sora and Kairi were sitting on the floor, listening to her Ipod. Kairi was mouthing the words of My Hero is you by Hayden Panettiere. The song seemed to remind everyone of the couples in the castle.
Namine was sitting on the couch in the room, sketching as she always did. Roxas was close by, sitting, leaning against Rika's closet door. Orette had gone to bed early.
He had noticed that she wasn't talking to him, feeling a prick in his heart and looked down at his palm. She may have misinterpreted what happened earlier with him and Orette. Namine was the type of girl to think like that, he guessed. Roxas looked up, grinning again to hide what he was really feeling as he listened to Rika and Heine argue again.
"You have to be kidding! Zexion's on your side!" Heine yelled, "He's just lying. They did it!"
Rika furiously shook her head. "Big Brother isn't lying. I saw the video myself. You did too! They didn't!"
Heine threw his arms in the air, pointing at the VCR. He was determined to prove the youngest Kanemori wrong and to prove that he did not like her. "Then, what do you call Riku being on top of Lenne?"
Rika rolled her eyes, glancing at Roxas, who clearly was going through something. So she decided not to ask him for help. "Uhh…an awkward position! Explanation: Riku grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving. Lenne fell over. Since Riku was holding her hand, he was dragged along with her."
Heine and Rika stormed out of the balcony, racing for the remote control, which was placed in the middle of the room. No one could go grab it and toss it to help. It was the usual end to Heine and Rika's argument.
Since Heine had a more athletic build than Rika, he slid across the room, grabbing it in the process. Seeing that she lost that time, Rika stomped her foot in a childish way, crossed her arms and looked away. A childish habit she had she couldn't really get rid of.
Heine pressed a few buttons and got to the part where Riku was on top of Lenne. He pointed at the screen. Everyone looked up, shaking their head.
Namine tilted her head to the side, glancing at Heine, who seemed to be mental at the moment. "Face it, Heine. No one won the bet. They didn't kiss, make out or do it. You didn't get in trouble for anything."
While everyone was listening to Namine speak, Roxas went into stealth mode, quickly taking the remote from Heine and turning off the VCR and the television. At that, Yuffie tumbled into the room from the balcony.
"Squall says to-" She was interrupted.
"It's Leon." corrected a voice from outside, in the hallway. The Gunblade wielder opened the door and pointed at the watch on his wrist, "All of you were supposed to be in bed a while ago."
He jerked his thumb out the door and then, left. Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Namine and Heine followed, saying night to Rika, who magically got into her pajamas after they left.
Roxas, now in a regular, white tee-shirt and shorts, laid in bed, holding up the envelope. He was all alone in the dark. He had been wondering what was in inside. Now was the perfect time to finally open it.
Quietly, cutting the side of the envelope, Roxas noticed some pieces of paper fall out onto his bed. "The hell?"
It wasn't ordinary pieces of paper. They were tickets to one of Namine's favorite artists, who would be performing in Twilight Town that weekend. How Rika knew that exact date and time before Namine did, he'd never know.
The door slowly opened and Sora entered in silence, nodding at Roxas. He too was in his pajamas as well. They didn't have time to change since it was their night to create a stir the next morning.
The next morning, Heine stepped into the dining hall. Rika gave him a sharp look, which immediately melted as she fell out of her chair, laughing. Everyone else looked at her like she was crazy until they looked at the entering blonde. Instantly, the teenage males backed away from their seats.
'What the hell? Why are they?' were Heine thoughts until Riku came, raising an eyebrow. His hand stuck to his head or to be exact, his hair.
"Your shirt says 'Yeah, I'm gay. So what? I'm proud of it.'" He said, taking his seat. Riku's silver hair seemed wet and looked a bit sticky. Lenne raised an eyebrow, wondering what happened.
"Don't know how it got there but a bucket of caramel liquid fell on me. I think whoever set that out mixed the caramel with super glue." The silver-haired male answered before Lenne could ask.
Both Riku and Heine shot a glare at Rika, who finally stopped laughing and stood up. She had the 'I-did-not-do-that-this-time' look on. Out of the corner of her eye, the youngest Kanemori saw Sora and Roxas chuckle.
"I think I know who did it though." She muttered, sitting back down to eat breakfast. The chuckling ceased and the usual silent breakfast began.
"I'm done." Namine said, after wiping the side of her lips with her napkin. She got up and left, trying to avoid Roxas's gaze.
Rika looked down at her plate, elbowing Roxas and tilting her head in the direction the blonde girl left.
"Have you lost it, Rika? She's pissed at me." He hissed.
"She's not angry. She seems depressed. You like her so go and cheer her up. While doing that…." Rika looked to the side at everyone else. Together they said: "Ask her out!"
"Wait….they knew?" Roxas was completely clueless.
Wakka laughed. "Muhn, it was obvious you like Namine."
Selphie nodded at that. "Yep. Rika told us she first noticed that when Namine came to live with us. Because of that, we all put our munny to get your guys those tickets to that one concert in Twilight Town."
Roxas stood up, taking in a deep breath. "Wish me luck." he said, running past the doors.
When he was out of sight, Zexion let out a sigh. Another bet was going to be made and they all knew it. Heine stood up, opening his mouth to speak. However, Orette made him sit back down.
"No bets," Aerith said.
"Yes, Mother." The teenagers said in unison. Little did Mother know the previous night, Sora had planted a listening device on Roxas.
Zexion flipped open his cell and tossed it to Rika, who put it on speakerphone. "But you never said we couldn't listen to them, Mother." Riku added as a grin formed on their faces.
Zanisha lost as well. She bet on Heine's. ZidaneFC lost too. He was betting on the Roxas and Orette third bet. No one won sadly. Sorry guys.