Whoo hoo! I finally got this chapter up. I think it's a bit shorter then the others, but I wanted to get this out so that you will have something to last you until I can update again. Which might not be for another week because I have to study for my Math A Regents because I really want to pass it. I also have that evil science midterm I have to study for this Thursday, but after that is the Regents and then I'm free! Yay!

Disclaimer: There once was a boy named Riku. He did not belong to AXENATOR. Nor did Sora, or the other characters in this story except for the two original characters that you only see once and then they disappear.Everyone else belongs to Square and Disney.

Thank you to my reviewers! You make my fanfiction world go 'round! Now let's get on with it!

Okay, I was going to need to find someway to get out of going to my house.

"Hey uh, can I come over your house?" Riku turned his head slightly on his motorcycle as we got to a red light.

"Sorry, but my dad needs to talk to a new company about a game they are going to release and my mom has her friends over. I don't think you want to meet her friends." He chuckled and gassed the bike as we flew off. He's not very safe. I mean I could fall off this thing that has no seatbelts. I can picture Kairi in the school paper now: "Evil new student kills innocent little Sora." I really don't want a headline like that...

"I'm sure I would like her friends." I tried to reassure him.

"I don't think so. Last time someone came over when they were there, things weren't pretty. Literally." Then he explained to me the last person he brought over was attacked by them who all wanted his friend to wear every single piece of clothing they had designed. He told me that he lost his friend after that.

"Well, you wouldn't lose me because of that." I laughed.

"Why don't you want me to go to your house anyway?" Riku stopped the bike on the side of the road and turned to look at me.

"Uh... because there are crazy people there?" I smiled nervously. There really are some crazy people there. Not certified crazy but I bet they would be if they ever took the test.

"They can't be as crazy as my mother and father." I thought about it. Yes, I suppose none of them ever named their cakes or had giggle fits like Nina did. I furiously tried to think of an excuse of not going to my house but to no avail, I couldn't.

"So are you going to tell me the directions now?" Riku asked.

"Okay fine, keep going straight..."

"This is it?" Riku took off his helmet as I jumped off the bike. He stared blankly at the three story wooden house I was currently walking towards. Oh yes, I can see this is going to go very well.

"Yeah..." I turned around and saw him look at me. " Wanna come in?" He hesitantly nodded his head and got off the bike. He turned it off before walking next to me as I stood on the porch. I took out my keys and turned them in the lock. Damn it, not today. I pushed the door and turned the keys again but it still wouldn't open.

"Open you stupid piece of wood!" I kicked it with my foot but only succeeded in stubbing my toes. "Ow..." I hopped on my foot and then banged on the door. I could hear giggles from the other side and looked into the window on the side to see three little troublemakers laughing at me.

"Open the damn door or I'm going to tell Delilah!" I stomped my foot and I heard Riku quietly chuckle. I tried to glare at him but it didn't work as he just grinned back at me. I looked back at the window to see Delilah laughing at me! Hah! So she was in on this too the ugly old hag! I went to kick at the door again but it opened and I fell inside. I heard everyone inside laughing at me along with Riku. Oh so now he's with them too?

"Sorry, Sora, but that was funny." Delilah told me as she waddled away into the kitchen to make God knows what. I glared at the younger kids laughing at me but they just giggled and ran behind the person who opened the door for me. Leon.

"Thanks Leon," I said but he just looked at me with his normal Mr. Sunshine look of death and stalked away. I turned around to see Riku looking quite surprised as Cloud ran by chasing three little kids with a big stick.

"You go putting that crap in my hair again and I'll pound you!" I saw that his hair was full of some sort of green substance and the kids just skipped away from him as if nothing was happening. Riku looked like he was about to ask what the hell was going on so I decided to tell him before he had to waste his lovely breath. Wait, I want to hear his voice first!

"What... uh..." Oh he's so articulate.

"Cloud and Leon work here part time." I answered and grabbed a handball that was being thrown at my head and stuck it in my little carrying bag that was so conveniently part of my outfit. Oh yes, I will have to thank Nina when I see her again. Now I have somewhere to put all those toys and laugh at the other kids when they lose them. That'll teach them to throw things at me. I would cackle right now if Riku didn't already have this weird look on his face because I was grinning insanely.

"So where is here?" He cautiously asked.

"The orphanage." I answered and he looked quite surprised and confused. I so hope he doesn't ask why I was there. Please don't ask.

"Why," No! Look a bird outside! "do," no look! It's your father riding a pink tricycle! "you live here?" Grrreat... I can tell this is going to be a great evening.

I sat on the bed of the room I shared with three of the other kids who I had gotten to go away by telling them that Delilah had baked cookies. Suckers. So now that Riku knows I live in a run down place like this, I'm sure he'll really still want to be my friend after I tell him why I'm here. I mean rich kids don't talk to losers like me do they?

"So uh..." I sat cross-legged on the bed as Riku seemed to be having a lot of fun staring at the pet snake that was in the room.

"Don't worry, he can't get out." I lied knowing full well that at least four times a week the snake is found in one of the cupboards or in the shower. He nodded his head hesitantly as if he knew that was a lie. He turned to me with a look like he was going to ask the question again but I stopped him this time.

"It was when I was six, my parents didn't get along that well." Oh my God, what am I going to do? Tell him my whole life story? "One day it got out of hand and my dad got a gun in his hand and aimed it at my mom. I thought I could get it away from him but my mom got shot anyway. Then my dad ran out of the house." Riku gave me a look I couldn't quite get. Oh no Sora, don't start sobbing now.

"It was my fault..." I felt the tears start to form in my eyes. No don't cry in front of Riku! He'll really not want to be your friend then! Rich kids and stupid kids like me don't mix! "When my father was interrogated he said he never was going to shoot her and that I made him pull the trigger. The safety lock was on and when I tried to push the gun out of his hand I turned it off!" I felt my face get hot and the tears started to pour down my face. "I killed my mom Riku!" I turned my head sharply and yelled at him. "My dad killed himself in jail because they said that it wasn't my fault, but they never meant it! I was just one of those kids that they wanted to get rid of so they told me that it wasn't my fault but they never meant it!" I kept screaming and Riku just kept staring at me with a blank look. Damn it! "It was my fault..." I burst out into a full sob and I thought that Riku must think I'm a weirdo with mental instabilities or something.

"It wasn't your fault." I turned my head as soon I heard the words come from his mouth. I sniffled and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "It wasn't your fault, Sora." I don't know what made me do it but I flung my arms around Riku's neck and hugged him tightly and kept crying. I felt him wrap his arm around my waist and he stroked my hair with the other hand. When I started to quite down, I looked up at him with my now red eyes.

"You don't think I'm a weirdo?" I sniffed. He shook his head and smiled the most beautiful smile I had ever seen.

"You'll still be my friend? Even though I'm poor and, and-"

"I'd still be your friend no matter what, Sora." He cut me off and kissed me lightly on my forehead. I felt my face get hot again but I just went back to leaning my face on his chest.

"Sowa has a boyfriend! Sowa has a boyfriend!" I turned my head sharply to see some of the younger girls giggling in the doorway.

"Hey!" I jumped off the bed and threw a pillow at them. But they ran away and kept giggling. Oh I can see what kind of girls they'll turn into. Those type of girls who sit at home and giggle over yaoi. I can see it now, them sitting there reading something like Gravitation and giggling insanely. I sighed and turned to Riku.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" I asked, seeing that it was now around six o'clock.

"I'd love to. Let me just call my parents and tell them where I am." He smiled and I grinned back and ran off to see how dinner was coming along.

"Leon it's your turn to say grace." Delilah said and received a glare from the brunette as the twenty some odd kids and Cloud grinned at him.

"Leon?" He sighed and looked at the kids who eagerly awaited him. He ran a gloved hand through his hair and sighed again.

"Fine. Over the lips and through the gums, look out stomach, here it comes." He said in the most disgruntled way possible and all the kids cheered and then started to scoff down their food. A horrible habit I think they gained from Cloud, who was already halfway through his meal and eyeing Leon's food. Riku raised an eyebrow at how similar the kids and Cloud ate and then slowly decided to eat the substance that Delilah made. No one knows what the heck she puts in it. But everyday it's a different color but has the same texture. It was smooth and clumpy and was served in a bowl. You could eat it with a fork, a knife, spoon, even your hands. All I know was that it tasted good. But you only got one serving which always caused Cloud to steal from Leon who just normally stared at his food like he would eventually make it explode with heat vision or something.

Riku seemed to be enjoying it even though he certainly did not like that it was unidentifiable.

"Leon, are you done?" Cloud looked at the brunette's bowl of food eagerly.

"No." Leon took a bite out of it and set his spoon down.

"Now?" Leon just sat in his chair watching the kids eat their food, making Cloud very annoyed. Everyone sat quietly eating until Cloud decided to try to spoon out some of Leon's food. Leon stabbed Cloud's arm with his own spoon, making the kids laugh and Cloud sent Leon a pouting glare. This happened frequently during dinner until Leon's eye suddenly twitched and the bowl of 'it' flew towards Cloud's face. Cloud ducked in time but it smacked Delilah right in the face. She glared at him and grabbed her bowl and forked some of the strange food at Leon who leaned back in his chair so it would miss. Of course, then this started a food fight. The casualties: Riku's hair was now full of the sticky substance, four kids also had it in their hair, the rest of them had stained clothes and Delilah had hidden behind a cooking pan that was now very dirty. I myself was so used to this by now that I had hid under the table and Leon had managed to make it out with nothing but a little of it on his nose. Cloud was covered head to toe in it because the kids always gang up on Cloud because they find his threats funny.

Everyone was laughing and Cloud got up from his spot on the floor where he had pretended to have died and walked over to Leon. "You have some on your nose, Squall." He leaned forward and licked it off of the tip of Leon's nose, causing the brunette's eyes to go wide in shock. The room went silent as all the kids looked eagerly to see what would happen to Cloud. Delilah raised an eyebrow at the two before clapping her hands together.

"Well, it seems like Transformers is on!" All the kids immediately started to scream and race into the small living room where they would all gather to worship transformers. I would have gone too, I mean who doesn't want to worship that show, except for the interesting event that was unfolding in front of me. Leon had stepped closer to Cloud, so close their faces were almost touching.

"Well, you have some on your mouth." Leon smirked and pressed his lips against Cloud's. Cloud seemed just as surprised as I was for he just stood their like he was shocked into... standing there. Leon withdrew from Cloud who was still standing there with a confused look on his face as Leon smirked at him and walked off. Cloud turned and looked at me like he thought I knew what just happened. I shrugged and Cloud touched his lips with his fingers, and then hurried off to go find where Leon had went to.

"Well, that was quite unexpected." Riku said and I nodded in agreement. That was strange...

After Riku left, Delilah told me that I had a message on the answering machine. After practically trying to beat the thing into working for me, the tape started to play.

"Hey Sora! It's your turn this year!" My turn...what? "Well, I decided that I wanted to go tomorrow so I'll meet you at the mall at eight o'clock sharp. Don't be late! Okay bye, bye!" And then the phone clicked. And then the answering machine burst into flames. How lovely. I knew that thing was going to go any day now anyways. As I walked into the kitchen to find the fire extinguisher it finally hit me.

Selphie had called for a reason. I looked at the calendar and stared at it in horror. This week, along with Valentine's Day, was Tidus's birthday. His birthday plus Valentine's Day meant that every year Selphie went shopping for him. And every year someone else had to go with her so that the others could recover from their horrifying experience they had last time.

And this year...I had to go with her.

"Sora! The answering machine is on fire, boy!"I heard Delilah scream from the other room, followed by multiple other shrieks and yells and screams. Oh yeah, the fire extinguisher.

Oops.

Phew, I hope that was okay. See the scene with Riku and Sora I had the perfect scenarioand the perfect reason as to why Sora lived there and everything was great... until I sat down to write it and my mind went blank. It was horrible, I couldn't remember it at all. So I hope that this horrible excuse of an attempt is suitable since my 'perfect' scene in my head went out the window.

So thanks to my 'beta,' I believe that's what she could be considered, for finally deciding to read the chapter and let me finally post it. I also reread it to make sure she didn't make any changes to something important, so I did some work too! Okay, enough of this crap, go review!