Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
Chapter 8: Art
It was an odd, odd feeling... to be without orchestra.
Not that Kairi didn't like it; it felt completely relaxing.
That weekend, just as she had planned, she returned her cello. It was, most definately, not an easy thing to do. Not as easy as she had hoped.
It wasn't exactly easy to face Sora, ESPECIALLY since that he was the last person she wanted to see or run into. But knowing her luck, and knowing that Sora practically lived at that music store, she ran into him.
Actually, she tried hiding first. She casually walked in, with her hood over her head, and over to the counter, hoping that it wasn't the lady that had rented the cello out to her.
And guess what?
It was. And she recognized Kairi.
"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you around in forever! Sora, your girlfriend's here!" She screamed like a hyperactive mother yearning to match up her son together with someone, ANYONE.
Damn, Kairi thought, she totally blew my cover! She refrained from blushing when Sora walked over, and gave both of them a cold glance.
She tried to be friendly. Really, she did. So she gave him the best smile that she could form with her mouth. And, since there was no use of her wearing the hood on her head any longer, she took it off.
"So, what's up, Kairi? You need new strings? Or maybe a rehair? Or are you upgrading to get a new cello?" The hyperactive "mother" continued to ramble on.
"No," Kairi bluntly cut her off. "I'm returning it. I've decided to quit orchestra."
"Oh, Kairi... let me have a talk with you." The woman signaled for Sora to leave, and he did, gladly. She bent down, and whispered in Kairi's ear. "Is it because you and Sora broke up?"
Now, Kairi was sure that she was blushing. Who would want to have any sort of romantic relationship with the person who had denied you the right to do what you had wanted to do your whole life? She wanted to slap the woman away, or at least scream "no" as loudly as her lungs would allow her to.
Okay, so that was a bit dramatic, and not completely the truth- Sora didn't deny her the right to be in orchestra, but he seemed to want her out. No, he almost forced her out with the way that he spoke to her at festival.
She didn't want to deal with the immature store worker any longer, so she firmly said, "Could I please just return the cello and be done with it?"
The lady sighed, and held her forhead in her hands. "I was a huge fan of you guys as a couple, but okay."
What a crazy woman, Kairi thought. But she let her comment go, and casually walked out the door as soon as the woman took up the cello that was once Kairi's.
Once the door swung shut behind her, she heard it creak open again. She assumed that it was someone else just coming out of the shop, so she continued on walking.
"Kairi!" She almost turned around when she heard the male's voice, but didn't.
She heard the footsteps of someone running close behind her, but continued to look foreward and walk. A few seconds later, the person put a hand on her shoulder.
"Kairi, stop. Can't we talk about this calmly?"
"What's there to talk about? I quit, end of the story. It's not like you didn't get a previous warning. And you're really one to be speaking calmly."
He sighed. "Look, Kairi..."
He couldn't bring himself to say it. Maybe it was below his dignity, maybe he just didn't feel strongly enough to bring her back.
"Bye, Sora." She walked at a faster pace to get away from him.
This time, he didn't chase after her, or call to her. His throat felt dry, and his legs felt stiff and unbendable. After taking a few silent gulps, he turned around, and started to walk back into the store.
-
That was on Saturday. And now it was Monday. She had a nice, relaxing weekend- despite the troubles she faced to return her cello, and despite the fact that her co-workers looked at her funny when she was bouncing around at work.
She got up early, with more energy than ever before. She was ready about ten minutes before she usually was, and, amazingly, was on time in meeting Yuffie and Selphie at their usual corner.
There was no awkwardness, and no other uncomforable feelings around the group, but it felt... a bit too much like last year.
Too much like last year, Kairi realized, when Yuffie and Selphie were happily talking about orchestra, Namine was finishing the last touches on all of her sketches, and Kairi was just... there.
Nothing more.
Maybe it was exclusion?
No, Namine talked to her. Selphie and Yuffie occasionally asked for her opinion as a tiebreaker on whatever they were arguing about...
But there was something missing.
"Kairi, I want you to see this." Namine flipped her sketchbook to a page near the middle. Kairi looked over her shoulder, shugging off the feeling that was flooding through her body.
It was a sketch, but it looked like a photo. There was the frame, and inside the frame was a picture that was taken at the outing that they had gone to as eighth graders. They were sitting in front of a campfire, with their arms around each other. Selphie had a huge grin on, Namine was smiling sweetly, Kairi wasn't even looking into the camera, and Yuffie was trying to look tough.
"Wow, is that what you did for that one project for Art? "
"Yup," Namine smiled proudly.
"That was a really good idea. I just took a picture out of a magazine and copied it."
"Hey, don't tell Selphie about this..." Namine said, "because this is going to be her Christmas present. I'm going to paint it on a canvas and give it to her."
Kairi teased, "Working on Christmas presents so early?"
"Well, it's going to take me a while... don't make fun of me!"
Namine really WAS growing a litte bit out of her shell- she was so much more confident around her friends... but was still, even after so long, an easy target for Roxas. He never teased anyone else- so why Namine?
-
The day crept by slowly, didn't all Mondays have that effect on people?
During lunch, the same feeling that Kairi felt that morning was coming back. The feeling that she couldn't describe. And when she walked with Namine towards her Spanish classroom, she felt empty. Like something had gone wrong.
"Anything wrong?"
Kairi snapped out of the trance that she had put herself in.
"You just seemed kind of distant there..."
She sighed. "I just feel... so empty. Like something's missing."
Namine smiled. "You'll be fine, Kairi. And you'll find that missing something soon, so don't worry."
"I guess..." Kairi slipped into the Spanish room.
-
Sora realized what was missing from the cello section today.
It was her tone. The tone of the cello. Not just the quality of the instrument, but the way she played it.
Kairi was obsessed with vibrato... he rested his arm on the body of his cello as he was comprehending what was going on.
Back in middle school, so was Miss Heartilly. She would always tell them that they weren't using enough, but this year, Mr. Leonhart couldn't care as much. He cared for balance, level, and quality- NOT quanitity- of technique.
No, he was not missing her.
Because if he really was, he'd have begged her to come back on Saturday.
He stared at how stiff Tidus looked. How did the guy get second chair? He only used vibrato on whole notes, never cued, or moved with the rest of the orchestra.
Yes, he was feeling quite grouchy and critical today.
He listened to the other cellists. They had no emotion, either. Where was the life in the cello section?
Mr. Leonhart had stopped conducting. "Cellos. We're not getting the musical quality that it needs. And Sora, stop daydreaming."
He realized that he had not be playing for the past, oh, let's say, twenty or so measures. He shamefully looked down as Tidus had snickered. Maybe he should have watched who he was criticising.
-
Art. The most relaxing class of the day. At least to Kairi and Namine it was.
The teacher had made it clear at the beginning of the year that the grades were based purely on behavior and how hard they tried in her class. Meaning that they couldn't just splatter paint on canvas and say the project was done.
But today...
Today just seemed like torture. Their new assignment was purely... unexpected.
"For your next project, I want you to all go into some sort of elective classroom, and draw a scene of the class in action. I have contacted all of the teachers about this, and they have said that it was fine, as long as there is absolutely NO talking or distracting your friends in the class. If you get caught... you'll come back here, and you'll have a pile of essays to be writing for me."
Chatter flew through the class. Everyone was talking about where they were going, who they were going with, and what they were going to draw. Kairi, herself, just wanted to stay away from the orchestra room.
"Hey, Kairi. Let's go watch strolling strings!" Namine smiled.
"Um, Namine... I don't really want to go there..." And face Sora, she thought.
"Oh, Kairi. You're going to be around it for the next four years even after you quit because of Yuffie and Selphie... so why not go now?"
Maybe the change for Namine wasn't that great. She was now slightly more demanding, and from observing people for so long, she pretty good at convincing.
"Why not go to drama?" Kairi smiled, knowing that Namine still wasn't exactly brave enough to go to a class alone, with none of her friends with her.
"Nah, I think I'll stick with the strolling strings."
Kairi realized that when she went there, she would be with Yuffie and Selphie. Silly me... she thought to herself. And well, she didn't exactly want to wander into the drama room herself, not knowing a single person.
"Okay, okay... I'll go with you... don't be too upset if I'm grouchy, though."
Namine grinned, knowing she had won. She proceeded to drag Kairi out to the music hallway. She knocked on the door, and when Mr. Leonhart nodded to them, the two of them slipped in with their sketchbooks.
"Hello, girls." Mr. Leonhart greeted them. "What are you here for?"
"Art." Kairi spoke for them.
"Oh, yes. I got an e-mail from your teacher. You can sit over there." He beckoned to the single desk in the corner with two chairs under it.
Kairi felt Sora's eyes on her while she walked over to the desk. She tried her hardest to ignore them... but after she did, she couldn't help but look up and see those blue eyes staring through her. She could tell because there was no music in front of him.
And then she thought, did he miss her? Why else would he chase after her the way he did that day...
No, he was the one who kicked her out.
He was the one who totally dissed her cello playing.
So, she decided to take the chance to ignore him.
She ignored him for the whole class period, as she sketched away.
They were in their formation for their upcoming street performance, where the violins and violas would stroll around. Hence the name, strolling strings. The cellos stayed onstage, and the basses behind them.
First, she sketched their formation, with the people as stick figures and their instruments as an iregualar shape. She would add the detail later.
She could hear their joyous music ringing in her ears. Funny how strolling strings always played the happiest music. And because of that, Kairi felt the teeniest bit cheerier.
She looked around the whole orchestra, and could not only see, but feel the happiness that everyone was giving out the way that people on parade floats would throw out candy to the little children.
She carefully picked out which stick figure would end up being Yuffie, and which one Selphie. And, in her mind, although she wouldn't admit it, she picked out the one that would be Sora, too. She worked on those first.
Was this what she was missing? The cheerful music of an orchestra? Or was it the joy of sketching that she usually avoided in art?
She was curious to see what Namine was drawing. She took a little peak over her friend's shoulder. She could see that Namine chose to concentrate her artwork onto one person, and she saw the face of that person in the orchestra, sitting on a bass stool playing the double bass.
Wasn't that Riku, the sophmore bassist? Why had Namine chosen him, out of every other member of the strolling strings?
Kairi shrugged off the idea that Namine might have had a crush on the bassist. She went back to her own drawing, to perfect Yuffie and Selphie's faces. The rest would just be random people- it didn't really matter who, the important ones were her friends.
While she was sketching, she reminiced back to when she was in orchestra. They would always be yapping, and always teasing Mr. Leonhart, despite his grunts and muttering about their behavior. And Mr. Leonhart would always pick on someone for the day to tease. She had always wondered how he was able to keep a straight face teasing them, while the rest of the orchestra would almost fall out of their chairs, laughing.
Was it a mistake?
No, she just wasn't used to the fact she wasn't in orchestra anymore- it had only been a week, after all.
When it was time to leave to go back to art and put away everything, Kairi looked back into the orchestra room...
...and felt like she had lost what she had wanted, once again.
-
"Hey, look, it's the diabetic girl!" A familiar voice rang through Namine's ears. She wanted to cover her ears, and tell herself that he wasn't there, behind her, but by now she had realized it was childist to do so.
She was walking out from French, the only class that she had alone. Alone meaning without her friends, without the little group that she was always with. Well, there was usually Kairi, who had Spanish in the same hall, but she wasn't here today. Just her luck.
Namine, you can do this, it's okay... she told herself, you wanted to be able to stand up for yourself now, didn't you? She took a deep breath that was probably visable to him.
Him, Roxas. The boy that had been teasing her since the first day of high school.
Why couldn't he just go away? Namine moaned as she felt pixi stick powder get into her white-blonde hair. She shook her head to get the sticky powder out of her hair, but it didn't work. The little crystals had hung onto her hair like lice.
Roxas was eating a Snickers bar. He hend another out to Namine, and asked, "Hey, you want it?" He seemed to gasp. "Oh, whoops... I forgot that you were diabetic."
Yeah, right. As she walked off as fast as her legs would take her, she felt sprayed by more pixi stick powder. What did Selphie like so much about that stuff, anyway?
He was catching up to her. She could hear his breathing as she tried to walk just a little bit faster, and wondered if she should take a detour to the orchestra room to be with Yuffie and Selphie.
She heard his footsteps stop, and another voice. Namine prayed that it was their French teacher, who Roxas was NOT on good terms with. Her teacher would have him wash her hair until all of the sugary substance was out. AND she would make him sweep up the mess, every speck of it. She favored Namine, anyway.
But it wasn't. It was someone else, her second choice. But she never would have guessed that her second choice, Riku, would have been the one.
Really. He didn't know of her existance. The only reason she knew of his was because she went to the strolling strings room for art. And he had been her eye candy from the beginning.
He had picked Roxas up by the shirt, and said, "Don't bully that girl anymore. I'll report you to the principal for harassment."
Roxas raised an eyebrow, and tried to be smart. "Oh? What's he going to do about it?"
"Do you really want to see for yourself?" Riku had an evil glint in his eye now.
Suddenly, it seemed as if Roxas became a totally different person. He was shaking under Riku's grasp, and Riku set him down. "Take that as a warning."
Namine shyly observed her savior as he walked up to her. "You okay?" He comfortingly put his hand on her shoulder.
She blushed, and gave a small nod. "Th-thanks."
"No problem. Hopefully he won't have the nerve to bother you again. But you know what I think?" Was he teasing her?
"Wh-wh-what?"
"I think he likes you." Riku then waved to her as he walked off.
No, that couldn't be it. Riku... that guy was wong. There was no way that Roxas could have liked her, and there was no way that she could ever like Roxas. And if that day came, the universe would end.
