A/N: YAY for chapter 9! I think this chapter is quite funny, actually. Or maybe that's just me. XD

Oh yes, my new RoxasxNamine fic will be posted sometime this week. I have the prologue written, I just want to edit it a little bit more & then I'll post it... so watch for that, too. Also... House of Melodies Chapter 5 will also be coming this week. -end shameless plugs-

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 9: Final Decision

Two weeks later, Kairi was still contemplating the feeling that she felt when she walked into the orchestra room, day after day, for the art project.

Every day, she would turn away to avoid Sora's gaze, or Mr. Leonhart's slight glare at her. She didn't want them to think that she was desperate to come back- which she was not. At least, that's what she told herself. But sometimes a voice would tell her that she was lying to herself.

As the days crawled by and Kairi anxiously waited for eighth hour to come, she didn't realize what else was coming up- that being, the big decision that she had promised Mr. Leonhart.

She had thought about it for a little while, but then pushed it aside, avoiding it until the day was to come.

Meanwhile, Spanish class was making her more annoyed than ever before. The once seemingly nice teacher soon became a grouch because of the rudeness of the kids in their class. And the students seemed to enjoy pushing her over the limit- the limit being when she yelled at the whole class at the top of her lungs. Kairi had tried not to hold her ears.

Every day, Kairi would twitch out of anger. She signed up for the class so she could learn Spanish, and get out of being in orchestra. She didn't waste all of that time convincing Mr. Leonhart and the counselor for her to switch out for nothing!

She would feel her temper burning up in her veins, but contained it, remembering how Sora always lost his. She could also feel the temptation to slap the immature guys that acted about two years old, but continued to contain herself.

If this is what Namine has to deal with every day, then... wow, no wonder she's usually so upset! Kairi thought to herself. Although Roxas had been a little bit better to Namine for unknown reasons to Kairi, she could still remember the days where he refused to stop tormenting her poor friend.

The Spanish class itself was also becoming a pain in the behind for Kairi. She felt like she was constantly playing catch-up, especially since the teacher had an obsession with giving quizzes every Friday. And there was also the occasional big test that was given about every three weeks.

The words on the paper in front of her made her dizzy. All she could really make out were a bunch of accents and many, many, a's and o's. Today, her teacher had come up with genius of giving her kids a pop quiz, just to shut them up, of course.

Oh... when is this class going to be over? Kairi moaned under her breath as she stared at the clock. It read 1:30. Ten more minutes to go...

She worked her way through the accents, a's, and o's, and was pretty pleased with the results. It really wasn't so bad; she was just having a bit of an off day. She turned in her paper, and stretched a little bit.

A loud ring filled her ears. The class was finally over, and now she could go meet everybody before Science.

Namine was waiting right outside of the door. Kairi liked to take her time packing up her things, while Namine always rushed to get out. This was usually the reason that Namine was waiting around for her friends...

"Hey," Kairi greeted.

"Hi... how was class?" Namine asked.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Annoying, same stupid guys getting the teacher angry."

"Mhm."

They walked out quickly so they could meet with Yuffie and Selphie in the courtyard before walking towards the Math and Science building. Usually, Kairi and Namine made it there before Yuffie and Selphie, but today, the other two girls were standing around, waiting patiently. Well, Yuffie was waiting patiently, at least.

"Yuffie, when are they going to be here? It's been," Selphie paused to look down at her watch, "thirty seconds! They're usually here way before us!"

"Hey, Selphie." Kairi walked behind her friend and spoke into her ear.

"AH!" Selphie screamed and almost tripped. She turned around to look at Kairi. "HI! Guess what?"

Kairi wondered what Selphie could be so excited about, but then, the girl got excited about everything. "What?"

"Remember how we were all going to go to the Junior High concert together?"

Kairi groaned in her head. Did she really have to bring this up? "Did I ever agree to that?"

Selphie smiled. "YEAH! And you're still coming, even though you quit orchestra... it's tomorrow, remember?"

"Tomorrow?" Had a month really passed by so quickly? "I don't know if I'm free..."

"Oh, Kairi, you agreed, remember?" Now Yuffie was stepping in to defend Selphie. "Don't go back on your promises..." Was it just her, or was Yuffie grinning evilly?

"You know, Kairi, Sora's gonna be there, too..." Selphie gave her a mischievous wink.

"Selphie, I don't like the guy." Kairi crossed her arms to prove a point. "I really don't like the guy."

"Suuure you do..." Now Namine was against her, too? There was no way she could say no now...

"OKAY, OKAY! I'll come."

Selphie and Yuffie high-fived each other, whispering something about "Mr. Leonhart" and "how proud he would be" or something like that. Kairi looked at Namine. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

Namine shook her head, but there was a visible grin on the blonde girl's face. A very wide one, to say the least.

-

Art. Kairi's favorite class, as of now.

Maybe it was just the project their teacher assigned them to do.

But, every day, when she walked into the art room, no, it was the orchestra room to draw, she felt content. And happy. And all of those other joyful emotions that people liked to feel. Unless they were emo, of course.

Today was a bit different, though. When she and Namine had entered the room they usually did, Mr. Leonhart stopped her while Namine went to the table. Namine looked back at her, but assumed that she would be okay.

"Kairi. We need to talk."

What did she do wrong? She was more than a bit intimidated by his glare, so she meekly followed him into his office.

When he closed the door behind her, he asked. "Have you made your decision yet?"

She was confused. "What decision?"

"Don't you remember? About quitting orchestra?"

Suddenly, it all came back to her. It was time, time to make the decision that she had been putting off for a month. And if she was asked to give the decision a month ago, she would have had a solid answer. But now, she wasn't sure...

She sat there silently, twiddling her thumbs. What was she going to say?

"No answer, eh? Well... I'll give you until Friday. If I don't get an answer, I'll assume that you don't want to come back."

Right then, Kairi felt a huge urge to say what she'd been wanting to say. She wanted to come back... Spanish wasn't pleasant, and she missed practicing her cello more than anything in the world.

And, well, even though she could barely admit it, she missed Sora, too. She missed the way that she would get lost in his music.

But she was still thinking twice. She remembered the misery and embarrassment every time she did the slightest thing wrong, and the stress she felt before chair auditions. And, well, the obnoxious stand partners.

She stopped debating with herself when she noticed that Mr. Leonhart was no longer in his office, and music was flooding through the door. She needed to get back to her project.

-

The next day, Kairi was sitting around at home when the doorbell rang. Remembering her mother's paranoia, she took a peek through the peephole just to check who it always, although it was almost always Yuffie, Selphie, Namine, or a combination of the three. Today was special; all three of them were there.

Yes, it was the night that Selphie and Yuffie had been squealing over for months- the Junior High Concert. No, Kairi had not forgotten about it once again nor had she tried to get out of it, although she wished that she could.

Kairi pulled open the door, and dashed outside along with the rest of her friends. She was excited, even though she probably wouldn't admit to it. According to Yuffie and Selphie, Destiny Junior's orchestra this year was exceptional; although "not as good as they were."

They greeted each other, and the walked down the road to their own school, where the concerts of the Junior High were always held at.

"I can't wait to see the little eighth graders this year! I can still remember back when they were sevvies!"

Yuffie gave Selphie a playful punch. "I can remember when WE were sevvies. Oh, back in those days when we all sucked."

"HEY, I didn't suck in seventh grade!"

Namine chuckled, and said, "Okay, let's not fight before we get there. We have to show that we're a dignified audience." Even with the serious words, there were still audible giggles in Namine's voice.

Kairi was silent with a small smile on her face. Sure, she was as joyful and happy as the rest of her friends, but there was always the little tug in the back of her mind. She had to make her decision tomorrow.

Maybe it was obvious to everyone else what she was going to choose, but if the littlest thing went wrong tonight... then she just might stay in Spanish. After all, she didn't want to talk with the counselor again. She just wanted to let it go for tonight.

Except her conscience just wouldn't let her.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the doors of the auditorium of their school. Still dazed, she didn't walk in.

"Kairi! Are you going to come in, or not?" She heard Selphie's voice.

She snapped back into reality. "Coming!"

Once she was inside, she took a program, and joined her friends in the back of the auditorium. The concert had yet to start, but Selphie and Yuffie were obsessed with coming early to talk with Miss Heartilly. Someone else walked up to them.

"Sora! Riku!" Selphie squealed before she said anything of proper etiquette. At the sound of Riku's name, Namine turned a bit pink and hid her face.

"Hey," Sora greeted the rest of the group, pretending to ignore Selphie. He looked at Kairi. "Why are you here?" he teased.

"Because..."

"To see me?" There was a twinkle in his eye.

"...sure." Kairi answered just to humor him, and looked away. She would not fall for his charm.

"Aww..." he cooed, and patted her on the head the way he did back when he was teaching her.

Kairi ignored him. Maybe he'd go away if she did.

"Sora, where in the heck is Tidus? He said that he'd come! He said he would!" Selphie whined to the two guys.

"Like I said, I don't stalk him. And he didn't say that he'd come, he said he'd try. And try in Tidus's definition means no."

"Plus, Yuna's busy and can't come tonight. He wouldn't come without her." Yuffie chimed in.

Selphie pouted, but quickly got over her disappointment when she realized her real mission for tonight- to get Kairi back into orchestra and to possibly get her closer to Sora.

There were more people loading into the auditorium now, and if they- all six of them- still wanted to sit together, then they would have to find their seats first and talk later. Selphie noticed this first, and said, "Let's get our seats. I have a whole arrangement set out!"

Kairi rolled her eyes at Selphie's "accomplishment." That girl was obsessed with seating arrangements- she would even bother the teachers into letting her help them when the teachers complained about changing the seats. And, since Selphie's arrangements usually worked out pretty well, no one could exactly say no to her plan.

"So," she continued, glancing at a sheet of paper. "We're going to take a row on the left section, so we can see the cellos and basses clearly. And we'll be in the row right behind the ones that are reserved for the Junior High kids. Sora's on the far end, with Kairi next to him, then there's me, then Yuffie, then Namine, then Riku."

Kairi wanted to scream, What the heck were you on when you came up with this, Selphie? But, instead, she curiously asked why Selphie came up with that.

"Well, the boys will be on the ends, so if someone tries to kidnap us, they can fight them off." Selphie looked at her as if it was obvious, and seemed to care less if Sora or Riku were listening. Thankfully to Kairi and Namine, they weren't.

Yuffie rolled her eyes, but let Selphie continue. "And then you're next to Sora because you guys are together, and Namine is next to Riku because I have a feeling that something's going on, even though she looks soo much cuter with Roxas."

Namine's face went from pink to a deep shade of red. She was at a loss for words. "But... but..."

Kairi smiled at Namine. "She's kidding." Namine felt a sense of relief wash over her, her face was no longer so dark in color.

"So," Selphie announced, "Let's grab our seats!" She led the way, waving her arm at the row. There were exactly six seats.

The group sat down, and chatted for a while until the lights dimmed.

Kairi tried to ignore Sora the concert, but he kept on whispering to her. About Miss Heartily and how wonderful she was and other stuff that Kairi just didn't feel like contemplating. She had a huge urge to snap at him, to tell him he was being rude, but that would just cause a commotion- something that Kairi did not want.

The concert, to Kairi, was amazing. She was unaware that little just-past-elementary schoolers could play that well, although she could hear criticism from Selphie attempting to whisper to Yuffie.

They all stood up and clapped at the last song, and were relieved to finally be able to talk again, as much as they had enjoyed the music. Well, they had enjoyed it as much as any teenager can enjoy classical music, which is only to a certain point.

It was about eight at that time, and the group needed to start heading home.

-

Sora was trying to find a way to say what he wanted to say. According to Riku, he should practice in the mirror, so he could see himself. After an attempt at that, he laughed it off and assumed that he'd be able to pull it off later.

He wanted her back. Except he couldn't figure out a way to say it. He didn't want to embarrass himself the way he did at the music store a while ago... but there was no rehearsal involved unless he counted "practicing" in front of the mirror; how was he going to know how it would turn out?

Maybe he should just go right up to her and say it. Riku had no problem doing that- but then, Riku was the pretty much the sex symbol of the sophomores at Destiny High. He had confidence in himself for just about everything.

He had tried to talk to Kairi the whole night- but she continued to ignore him. He really couldn't blame her- with what had come out of his mouth a month ago, he wouldn't have wanted to start a conversation with him either.

The concert was over. It was either now... or never.

She had already waved goodbye to Riku, and was walking home with her friends.

What was he to do? His mind only told him one thing, just to go up to her and tell her. He soon seemed to lose control over his body; all he could focus on was the girl in front of him that was slowly disappearing into the distance. He flung himself at her, and held onto her.

She gave him a look of horror. What on earth was he doing?

"Sora?" her voice cut him out of his trance. "Why are you hugging me?"

"Um." He unwrapped his arms around her. "I..."

"What?" She was looking him in the eye.

"I..."

"Hurry up, Kairi! Or we'll ditch you and Sora will have to take you home!" Selphie screamed in the distance.

"I'm sorry, Kairi." What was he talking about? She gave him a slightly blank stare. "Look, Kairi, I don't know how else to say it..." He stopped to think. "But I miss you... in orchestra... I want you to come back." Did he sound desperate?

She didn't know how to answer him. It was an awkward situation; he seemed to be the one looking like a puppy dog, not her.

And then she thought for a while. They walked over to a bench, and sat down, with him staring at her. He was waiting for an answer. And at the moment, he seemed like he would wait forever.

For what seemed to last a lifetime for the both of them, she just sat there, debating with herself. Finally, she said, "I... I will, Sora."

His worried expression soon turned into a goofy grin. "That's awesome!"

Kairi looked around for her friends. "But... there's a problem."

His expression changed as quickly as it had before. "What?"

"Selphie, Yuffie, and Namine decided to go."

He laughed, and then they both got up from the bench. "Riku and I will take you home. Don't worry about that."

-

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