Author's Note: Kairi may sound a little childish, but I couldn't help it. I've decided to make this chapter into the REAL first chapter. Thank you tothose who reviewed. Not bad for a prologue.

Disclaimer: Disney and Square-Enix aren't mine, and the teachers were teachers that I have met or have known. The plot is mine, however.

Reach for the Stars

Chapter 1:
I Became a Somebody

We're moving. Pack your things," Sora's mom said when she heard the door creaking slightly. The door hit the pale walls that his mom had just painted. "And don't try to mess up the walls."

Sora closed the door back and set his backpack down. He knew what was going to happen next. He heard his mother's feet shuffle a little, and then she walked up to him, having that garlic smell on her hands.

"Any quizzes or tests?" she asked. Sora passed his mom swiftly and started to walk up the creaky stairs.

"No," he answered. He did what he was told, and went to his door that labeled "Sora's room. Go in and die." Ignoring the label and tearing it off, he went inside and into the closet to find boxes.

Sora's room was probably the only room that was painted blue. His bed that he kept since he was five was by the window. On the sill were purple daisies that his mom put to make the house look better. Not Sora's bedroom. A wooden desk was right next to the bed, with little notes and doodles stuck all over the place. Pieces of paper were found all scattered around. Sora glared around the room for no apparent reason and started stuffing everything in the boxes.

The next morning, a moving truck came. Sora's mom and dad were surrounded by lots of people, and none of them had notice Sora doing labor work. He was dragging all the boxes into the moving truck, and no matter how heavy the boxes were, nobody noticed him at all. When he finished, his parents gave another good-bye to everyone and went into the front of the truck.

"No, no, no, no, no. There is no room for you," Sora's mom said to him as she got onto the seat with her husband. "You can go to the back of the truck and sit there. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself in there." Sora nodded dimly and jumped into the back.

He didn't know how long he was in the back, but he could hear laughs, giggles, and some kissing from his parents. Sora's stomach kept grumbling, but there wasn't any food. Then again, that happened to him so much that it was like going to school, only it was longer. He lost track of time, but the truck thrust forward and stopped just in time to wake Sora up for more labor work.

"Your dad and I are going to a restaurant. I expect you to finish moving in by the time we're back." She flattened her brunette hair and left. Sora took the black slope and started dragging the boxes.

What do they have in these anyway?

Sora of course still had bruises on his back and arms from the fight he got into yesterday with the bullies who chased him down to the paopu tree.

Sora couldn't bring himself to smile that he took a paopu fruit before he left. He reached in his jeans and took out the paopu fruit. It still had its ripe, yellow color, but it was still bitter. Sora's stomach grumbled again, but he resisted eating the only item that reminded him his favorite place.

For the rest of the day, no one took pity on him while he was moving in. Probably no one even noticed the house. Only the sounds of night owls and crickets were talking.

----

"Quiet down, I'm trying to take the damn roll check!" Dr. Stepper yelled to the noisy class. The noises slowly drowned, but whispers still zoomed around the room. "Thank you!" He grabbed the yellow pencil and began checking everyone off furiously to get it over with, not caring at all if the student was here or not.

"I assume everyone is here," he said in a gruff voice. "Now, to start our Greek studies…"

The door made a creaking noise, and everyone turned to see who came in. A spiky haired brunette was standing by the doorway looking at the class. He was wearing all black from his shoulders to his feet.

"Oh, you must be Sora Takahashi," Dr. Stepper said airily. He set the board down to his desk. "I heard we have a new student coming in, but I didn't know it would be today! Come in, we were just talking about Greece."

Sora looked nervously at Dr. Stepper. He sounded cheerful and not very boring as most History teachers he had gotten before. He had old, gray hair, and spectacles that covered his pair of brown eyes. They seemed to be staring straight at him. Sora found it a little strange but was too nervous to speak.

"Why don't you sit down over thereby Kairi? Kairi, raise your hand," Dr. Stepper said. Sora looked over to the left side of the room. More than twenty-five students were eying on him. An auburn haired girl raised her hand and waved it wildly in the air.

"And now you know Kairi Tanaka," the teacher said. Sora walked to the back of the room and sat down right next to Kairi.

"Dr. Stepper!" a different student yelled loudly. He was sitting right in front of Sora. He had blond hair and a blitzball under his desk. Sora looked at both him and Kairi.

How could those two look so happy?

"Don't shout in front of the class, Tidus!" Dr. Stepper said strictly. "Do you have something nice to say for once?"

"Yeah," the boy replied. "You know in these textbooks it says that Alexander the Great never lost a battle?"

"Yes," Dr. Stepper said slowly. "Continue on."

"But if he never lost a battle, that means he should still be alive. He would have won the battle against his virus that made him sick," said Tidus.

"Oh, how you entertain me. Maybe you should join me for lunch? I would love to hear more about it," said Dr. Stepper. The whole class sniggered.

"Oh! My dream was so awesome," Tidus said excitedly. "I was in your class, and you locked me into the back closet so I would stay there until I die to go to Hell to visit mighty Pluto. Of course, I took out my Brotherhood sword that my father gave to me on my sixth birthday, and then slashed him into pieces. Somehow I got teleported to Zanarkand to defeat Sin, but I got blown all the way to Besaid and –"

"That's a bright idea, Tidus," Dr. Stepper interrupted. He reached into his pockets to pull out a few keys and gave it to Tidus. "Have fun in Hell."

Tidus slowly took the keys. "Are you serious? I can go into the closet?" Dr. Stepper just stared at him. "Sweet!" He grabbed the keys and unlocked the closet door at the back of the room, then shut himself up. A bit of a ruffle was heard in the closet before it was dead silent.

"Now that he went away, we can continue our studies in Greece, and not about his dreams," Dr. Stepper said. He brought his glasses up to his nose and opened up his teacher textbook.

Sora looked at the picture that was in front of his eyes. "Hello," a voice chirped.

Did someone say "hello" to me?

Sora decided to ignore it and continue to stare at the picture of Athena and the Parthenon.

"My name's Kairi Tanaka," the girl continued. "And if my ears are working, you're Sora Takahashi, right?" Sora still didn't bother looking up, thinking that it was his own imagination.

A few seconds later, something was poking his shoulder. "Can you please stop?" Sora asked quietly.He looked up from his textbook. Kairi looked much brighter and more cheerful than Sora did. She was smiling from ear to ear, and her blue eyes were sparkling with interest.

"I see Kairi's all confident in Greek," Dr. Stepper said. "Tell me then, what were heavily armed foot soldiers called, and what was their formation?"

There were loud sounds of pounding in the back closet. "I know, I know!" Tidus yelled from within.

"You're not part of the conversation, now get back to Zanykind, or whatever that loony place is called," said Dr. Stepper.

"Well…" Kairi trailed off. "The soldiers were called… hoplites, and, well… their formation was… a phoenix? I think." Dr. Stepper moaned in displeasure.

"Did you take any notes from yesterday's video?" Dr. Stepper said. "What has this world come to…? Sora! Why don't you answer? Since you're a new student, I'd like to see your background knowledge."

"A phalanx," Sora muttered quietly. He was getting really uncomfortable of the people around him.

Couldn't they just ignore me, like everyone else I've met before had?

But the people here were different. Most noticed him, especially the girl. Kairi had said hello to him. No one else ever said a hello. Well, not a friendly hello.

"What?" Dr. Stepper asked. "Speak up! What is it? I thought I heard it," Dr. Stepper said eagerly.

"A phalanx," Sora mumbled a little louder, still staring at the text in his textbook.

"Thank you!" Dr. Stepper boomed happily, making everyone else shiver in fright. "Thank you, Sora! Someone here actually pays attention!"

A louder noise of clobbering was in the back closet. "But Dr. Stepper, I paid attention to the video too! It said –"

"What do you know? All you know is that you got a sixty-six percent on your last test, and that you were the only person that failed," Dr. Stepper said loudly to cut off Tidus's voice.

"Why don't you like talking?" Kairi asked Sora. "People who don't talk very much don't make much friends."

"Kairi, stop talking or I'll stitch Tidus's mouth and yours," Dr. Stepper threatened.

"Sorry," Kairi apologized. She stopped talking to Sora and gazed over at her own textbook. Dr. Stepper continued to teach his lesson on Greece, ignoring the sounds of the back closet.

"Kairi?" Sora decided to ask. Kairi turned her attention away from her book. "What are… friends?" He never had friends. He never even knew how to make one. Were friends people who talked to you? Or maybe just liked you as a person?

"Oh! There are all kinds of friends!" Kairi said. "There are best friends, true friends, regular friends, fair-weathered friends, and so on. To make one, they have to like you, and you have to like them. They have to think you're a good person, and you have to think like that back. Friendship usually develops through time period." She stopped for a while looking at Sora's depressed face. "I just thought you look like you needed someone to talk to."

Sora wished he never even asked the question. It didn't feel right that someone was talking to him. There were thirty-one people she could have talked with instead of him. He was always the one left out.

"Oh," was the only thing Sora uttered out.

"Why don't you meet some of my friends to see? Maybe they'll become your friends too!" Kairi suggested.

"Stop acting like you're in kindergarten, Mrs. Tanaka!" Dr. Stepper shook his head. "If I were in charge of the world, I would cancel silliness…"

"But Greek were the ones who invented comedy," Kairi

"Whatever! Just stop talking!" Dr. Stepper continued groaning. "And Tidus, you get out of that closet this instant." Tidus did, but nobody figured out why he looked so happy.

"Stop giving me that daydreaming look," Dr. Stepper snapped. But Sora thought the snap looked different. He didn't look mad at all. Sora had never seen that kind of snap. He heard his mom snapping about his grades and some snapping before a beating, but the snap that Dr. Stepper just showed wasn't like those kinds of snaps. He had a smirk plastered on his face, and everyone wasn't frightened by his actions either.

No, Sora figured that his History teacher was less than boring.

"You are to write an essay on a story that dealt with a god or goddess, and tell how it relates to the gods and goddesses in Greece," Dr. Stepper explained. "This will be one of those big grades, so don't go lacking off on this. Remember, determination –"

"Is the key to get an A unless you lack all the other letters in determination and end up getting a D. We know, we know," Tidus sighed.

"I'm surprised that you can remember all that," the teacher said. He looked at the clock hanging on the green wall behind Sora.

"Who would like to volunteer to be Sora's partner in this activity? He hasn't studied a lot about Greece," Dr. Stepper asked.

Kairi jumped up from her seat. "I would!"

"No, I'm –" Sora stopped.

"Kairi, is there by any chance that you're on sugar high?" said Dr. Stepper. "You're usually not this noisy." By the time he finished saying "noisy," the bell rung.

"No," Kairi said happily to Dr. Stepper before trying to catch up to Sora who seemed to be trying to get away from her. "Sora, wait!" She grabbed his arm.

Sora turned around. "What?" he stuttered. The two moved over to the edge where the lockers were so the mob of people going to their next class wouldn't stampede over them and turn them into pancakes.

"Can't you wait up?" Kairi gasped, trying to get her breath back. Sora didn't know what to say. He lacked speech.

"I'm… sorry," Sora said softly. "Is there something you wanted to tell me?"

Kairi grabbed his arm. "I told you that I wanted you to meet my friends!" she said.

Sora shook his head. "But I'll get rejected, just like what everyone else did to me."

Kairi pulled his arm a little. "Don't worry, my friends are nice. They won't reject you. If they do, I'll handle it." Sora hesitantly agreed, still a little stiff from the contact of someone else. Nobody had ever touched him, unless if he counted the bullies and his parents.

"Kairi, what's with you zooming off? I thought you were going to wait for us," a girl with brunette hair yelled behind them. She looked over to Sora and took both of her hands to shake it with him. "It's Sora! Hello Sora, how's your day?" the girl asked excitedly. She had cheerful green eyes and a grin on her mouth. Her brunette hair was like any other girl's hair, but it started curling up when it reached to her neck. She wore a yellow dress and a pair of brown sandals. In her hands were a yellow binder and a textbook with a yellow book covering.

Sora shifted his eyes around uneasily. Next to the hyper girl was the same blond boy who was locked in the closet in History. He had a mischievous look in his blue eyes. "I stole his whole bag of candy in the closet," Tidus said. "I didn't think he would fall for my fake dream. I'm so evil."

"No, you are so loud," another boy exclaimed. "Can't you do something else to distract a teacher if you wanted a bag of candy from the closet?" He had blue eyes like Kairi. His hair was blond like Tidus's, but it was lighter.

The girl beside him shook her head. She had blond hair as well, and she was carrying a sketchbook in her arms. "That wasn't very smart. Dr. Stepper will figure it out that you were the one who stole the candy, and he'll hunt you down until he kills you. You know he likes candy."

Kairi couldn't help but giggle a little. "Sora, this blond girl is Naminé, while the boy is Roxas. The hyper little girl is Selphie. And I think you may already know Tidus," Kairi emphasized the last word that came out of her mouth. "See? They aren't mean at all."

Tidus looked over to Sora, eating his rainbow lolipop. "I'm mean?"

Sora couldn't take all the attention given to him anymore. "I – I think I have to go," Sora said quietly before strolling quickly off to his next period, trying to lose them.

"Good job, Tidus!" Kairi snapped. "You scared him off! He doesn't look like he had so many friends, and you just go in and say that you're mean! He feels rejected because of your stupid mouth!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Tidus said quickly. "I'll try to make it up to him, I promise!"

----

Sora sat at the back of his Pre-calculus class, playing with his pencil, lost in his thoughts. He was so mindless that he hadn't notice Roxas sitting next to him and saying hello to him.

"Sora, Tidus wanted to say sorry. He was just joking and all that stuff," Roxas said, trying to convince Sora that Tidus wasn't mad at him.

"Huh, what?" Sora looked up. "Oh… hi Roxas." He didn't have anything to talk about, so he continued to look at his sheet of paper.

"What are you doing?" Roxas looked over to Sora's sheet of paper. Sora immediately covered it up.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sora said.

Just leave me alone to think.

Roxas felt bad for Sora. He looked so lonely… and he looked like he wasn't fed at all. He was pretty much skin and bones. Roxas tried to start another conversation.

"Sorry for noising in your business. I'm so rude," Roxas sighed.

Sora felt guilty at once. "No, don't apologize! I'm the one being rude. It's just that, I…"

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me," Roxas quickly said. He didn't want to go in depth and drive the conversation to somewhere private.

Sora turned back to his work. He was feeling really uncomfortable. Weren't people supposed to overlook him?

"Wait, Roxas, I want… to tell," Sora said. "I'm just not… used to people looking at me. Most people ignored me. I'm just an invisible person."

"No you aren't," Roxas said. "The people who did were just assholes. Don't bother about them. Kairi didn't ignore you, did she? And I'm talking to you. You don't seem invisible to me." Sora didn't talk. He was lost in thought. "Come on, don't think negative, go to the positive side."

Roxas tried to talk about something to Sora that could last for more than a minute, but no matter how much he said Sora would only answer short answers and end the discussion.

"Where'd you come from?"

"Destiny Islands."

"I know that place. I've been there before. It's a wonderful place!"

Unless if you were being ignored.

"I don't want to talk about it." He edged away and began packing all his stuff for Biology.

At Biology, Tidus came over to Sora, just like he feared would happen. Sora stayed silent the whole time while Tidus chit-chattered. When the bell rang, Sora ran away, leaving a confused Tidus.

During art, Kairi, Naminé, and Selphie spoke with him, but it didn't do Sora any good. Naminé and Selphie decided to leave from their table to finish their sketch at the back of the room.

"Today is a free draw today, since we have all worked hard on our last project," Mrs. Falls, the art teacher, said. She was an African-American, and she had glasses. Her hair was a mousy grayish color. She too was smiling. Sora didn't know why people smiled so much. Do people do it when they're happy? What's happy? Sora didn't even know what the emotion of happiness felt like.

"Kairi, may I ask another question?" Sora decided to ask after a lot of argument in his mind.

Kairi stopped moving her pencil. "Sure," she said.

"What does happy feel like?" Sora asked shyly.

Kairi didn't answer. A few tick tock sounds came from the grandfather clock that sat between the window and Sora.

"You don't know what happy is?" asked Kairi. "You might feel it when there's something exciting to you, or maybe you've accomplished something. Maybe you helped someone, and you're happy that you did."

"I don't think I ever felt it before," Sora said. He felt so stupid. Every person had probably felt happiness except for a puny guy who was nothing but air that passed through most peoples' eyes.

"You must have felt it sometime!" Kairi said.

Sora stopped drawing and looked at his picture of Destiny Islands. "Maybe," he said in a whisper, thinking that Kairi wasn't listening, "but I would have forgotten the feeling."

----

People were everywhere. They may have been in the lunchroom sitting at the neatly arranged navy blue tables. The black, white, and red tiles on the floor were neatly polished. Only people who didn't like the outside were sitting down on the tables. People like cool people.

Some were found outside eating at the old broken benches that were built below tall oak trees. There were also people sitting on the grass looking up at the sky, chewing their food. The ones who didn't have anyone to talk to were at the tire swings tied below the big trees. And maybe some were daring enough to climb up its branches to get a top view of the school.

Only one tree was left alone, the only sakura tree. It was shedding its colorful pedals for the following autumn that was to come. Sora decided that it was the only tree not occupied by people.

Why do people notice me now? Why not before? Is it because I'm new? I must be dreaming. I'm always lonely. No one ever talks to me. When I wake up from this dream, I'll find myself back on Destiny Islands, trying to close the alarm clock. Then I would go downstairs and –

"Sora!" the voice chimed through the breezy air. Sora flinched and stopped chewing so hard on his sandwich.

It was Kairi. "You look lonely," Kairi said. "Can I eat with you?" Sora nodded absentmindedly.

"Something's bothering you," Kairi said. "I can tell."

Sora shook his head. "Nobody has talked to me before." Kairi blinked. She blinked again.

"No one?"

"No one."

Kairi thought for a moment. "Is that why you don't like talking?"

"Yeah. I'm not used to talking." An awkward silence followed.

A few moments later, Kairi spoke up. "Sora, why don't you ever look happy? Maybe you'll feel happy if you look happy."

Why don't I ever look happy? I'm ignored, I do labor work for my parents, I have no friends… What's there happy to be about?

"There's nothing happy to be about," Sora replied dully.

"How can you say that?" Kairi asked. "Aren't you happy someone's talking to you? Isn't that enough to enlighten you up a little? Aren't you happy that Thanksgiving is coming up, and that after would be winter and there would be snow? Aren't you happy you'll be able to make igloos and snow forts and snowballs? Did you ever even try?"

Sora sat there speechless as ever. "Why don't you try?" Kairi asked. "There's always something to be happy about, so make a smile!"

"I can't," Sora said.

"What do mean? You can frown, but you can't smile?" Kairi asked. "Try. My grandmother said that anyone could smile if you try hard enough."

Sora tried smiling, but he only got rid of his frown. "Nice start for someone that hasn't smiled before," Kairi complemented.

"Hi Sora, hi Kairi!" the two heard someone greeting. They turned around and found Tidus and the others coming.

"Oh, it's you again, Tidus," Kairi said. "I should've known from that annoying voice from yours."

"Hey!" Tidus whined. Kairi and the rest laughed. He plopped down under the sakura tree, making the pink pedals fly everywhere. Sora sneezed when one landed on his nose.

"Damn these community services," Tidus sighed. "What's the point? They can't make us do community services! I'm going to protest."

"How many hours did you do?" Kairi asked. "I did forty-nine."

"Zero," Tidus complained.

Selphie giggled. "You should start or they won't let you into college."

Namine on the other hand was sitting there drawing as usual. "Selphie's got a point. We all did at least forty. You should be lucky you got held back in tenth grade or you'll have only junior and senior to do it."

"But I don't want to!" Tidus continued complaining.

"Did you purposely get held back just so you can be with Yuna?" Selphie teased.

"No!" Tidus blushed a little.

"Tidus, anyone can tell that you like Yuna," Roxas sighed. "I mean we saw you trying to impress Yuna with your swordsmanship. And Yuna only sings to you for practice 'cause she trusts you only. Plus you two always go out or dance together. You're just denying the fact that you like her, and she likes you. And you can't wait for tomorrow because Yuna will be back."

"Liar," Tidus said. Everyone laughed at him except Sora. He didn't know how to laugh.

How do I laugh if I can't even smile?

For the rest of the school time, Sora was starting to feel more welcomed at school, even if it was equal to how small a grain of sand was. He met another girl as well during Spanish class. Paine Ito was her name. She was wearing black clothes as well, and she had the look "I don't care if you die or not." She didn't like talking much either, but she was really friendly when she asked Kairi if Sora was her friend.

When the bell rang for the last time, Sora wasn't glad that school was over like most students. They were glad because it was Friday. They could go hang out, do backyard football that could last forever, or hold a sleepover party. Maybe they wanted to plan something for Saturday night or just go onto the Internet and chat.

Sora didn't have any of the things other people had. He started walking home alone again until he heard someone say his name.

"Sora! Are you always in a rush?" Kairi said as she tried to catch up to Sora. "Don't you walk with someone when you go home?"

"No." Sora looked down at the ground as if it was interesting.

"Didn't anyone ever walk with you?" Kairi asked. Sora shook his head and kicked a rock he passed by. It rolled down to the road and into the drain.

Kairi sighed. "So you're telling me that nobody has ever walked with you. Why are you such a solo person?"

"Because nobody cares about me," Sora answered quietly like he usually did.

"Doesn't your parents care?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh. Okay. I'm sor-"

"There's nothing to be sorry about."

Kairi suddenly had a bright idea developing in her mind. "Where do you live?"

"12319 Homestead Avenue," Sora uncertainly said. "Why?" They were nearing over to Sora's house. The sidewalk was starting to slope a little forward, and at the end of the road was Sora's house.

"Oh, no reason," Kairi said simply. "I was just interested." The area below them was like in a cereal bowl. Sora and Kairi were at the edge of the cereal cup. The house was at the bottom of the pit.

"I have to go! Expect me later!" Kairi said. She skipped away, leaving a lonely Sora to face his parents again.

----

"Mom?" Sora tried asking.

" – And you wouldn't believe what he said!" Sora's mom laughed to her husband. "He loved my idea of the wedding dress and said that I should get promoted!"

"That's wonderful, honey!" Sora's dad said. They hugged each other.

And I'm still being ignored.

Sora knew it was time to walk away again with his cookies. Only when he reached the door and opened it a little, he didn't believe what he saw.

Author's Endnote: Please review! Was it good? Okay? I'd like comments. No flames.