Disclaimer: I do not own Sora, Kairi, or any other Kingdom Hearts characters involved in this story. Other persons/places mentioned in this story are fictional and are not intended to name any realistic person/place.

Warning: This chapter and/or future chapters may include: Suicide, Self-Inflicted Harm, Alcohol Abuse, Child Abuse, and Minor use of Profanity

Chapter 10: Popularity Contest

"Ah, Sora...", he says to the blonde haired girl.

"You must be new, I've never seen you before. Did you just move here over vacation?", she asks.

"Yeah actually. I moved in next door to Kairi Tesloh, do you know her?"

Namines eyes widen. "Oh my God, that's why you sat next to here this morning..."

"Yeah, so."

"Well I didn't want to be the one to tell you this, but you shouldn't hang out with her. She has a bad rep."

"And, why is that?", Sora questions, still not trusting her.

"Well, two years ago... she went crazy or something. She killed her mom. Kairi pushed her off a bridge by their house. Then, you know what she had the nerve to do? She sat there and stared at her mom's dead body float in the water, not regreting a thing. Riku saw the whole thing. Right, Riku?", the girl asks as she elbows her boyfriend who was too pre-occupied talking to other girls near by.

"Ah, yeah.", says Riku just to satisfy Namine.

"You ass, I was talking to you.", she says as she glares at him. "Didn't you see Kairi kill her mom?"

"Oh, yeah, I saw the whole thing dude. It's true.", Riku says to Sora.

Although Riku felt bad for what he had done, he wasn't about to tell everyone he was a lier either. So what, he thought, someone was going to tell that kid anyway. Might as well be him. He wasn't going to risk screwing his life up for something that was already done.

"Ok class. No more chit-chat. Now we're going to go over the class procedures, expectations, and ...", the teacher began.

4th period has just ended and school is at its end. The last bell has rung and students are at their lockers gathering their belongings to take home, along with some school books for upcoming exams and so on. Sora meets up with Kairi in the commens as planned.

"Hey, how was your first day of school here?", Kairi asks in an almost nervous tone.

"Eh, alright I suppose. Too bad I didn't have any classes with you, though.", he says disappointed.

"Oh.", Kairi says as she looks down and blushes.

"Yeah, kids here don't seem that nice. They talk about a lot of lies and rumors. I guess they don't have a life of their own, they have to make up something."

"You heard, huh?"

"Yeah, some Namine girl and her boyfriend told me. I don't trust them though, they seem fake."

"What I don't understand is, why do you believe me? Everyone else turned their back on me. You know, people are going to start talking about you too if keep hanging out with me, maybe you shouldn't. I don't want them to do as they did to me...", she begins in a low hushed voice.

He touches her chin with his hand gently and looks into her eyes. "Kairi, I don't want friends like that. If that's how they all are, then screw them. I'm not gonna let them get to me. Your the best thing I have right now, I'm not going to throw that away for some popularity contest."

A small tear appears and runs down as it touches her lips.

She is smiling.

Sora looks out through the glass doors. His mother is parking in front of the school, it is time to go. They pick up their bags and head out the building. They walk side by side, as their hands touch. Sora feels the soft touch of her hand. He craves to reach out and hold it, but is afraid they may be moving too fast. The craving gets to him. "Whatever.", he thinks to himself as his hand grabs hold of hers.

And so it was, they walked out of the building holding hands. People stared as the new kid walked with Kairi Tesloh.

He didn't care.