A/N: BOO!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
Chapter 13: Surprise
Kairi set down her backpack and opened it to do homework. She took out her planner, some blank notebook paper, and the worksheets that she needed. As she looked for the new worksheets among the old ones, she came across her music.
"Oh yeah, the concert's next week!" She slapped her forehead. "I've gotta practice..." she told herself, but then realized that she still didn't have a cello at home.
She didn't tell Mr. Leonhart that, though. He'd be completely disappointed that she wasn't practicing at home- although she used every moment of her free time at school to practice. She was doing a lot better in the rehearsals during class, and barely ever messed up.
She sighed. There was no way that she was going to get the gorgeous cello that she had found a few weeks ago on her and Sora's "date," as Selphie so called it. She had almost been sure that the girl had planned it and forced Sora to ask her to the movies or whatever. She agreed with Namine and Yuffie that the girl had just a teensy bit too much time on her hands, and too little brains to actually plot something properly.
When she looked at her homework, she groaned. There was just so much stuff to get done, and she was only in her freshman year!
And she was still stressing about cello. She might not have cared about it before, but she didn't want to be stuck as last chair forever. Sora had said that she'd have more than a chance, but she wasn't sure about anything that he said now.
Their relationship was just... different from before. Sure, they were closer, but it was so much more awkward to joke with him... and every time she was around him, she felt her heart racing- almost like she had just run a mile without stopping. So much that she felt like maybe it was time just to give in to Selphie and say that she liked him.
But she couldn't do that- she was his close friend now, and she didn't want to go any farther with him than maybe a little friendly hug here or there. Or did she? She didn't know- it was the time in their lives where almost no one could contemplate their own feelings, so she just let it go. Selphie was the hopeless romantic, not her.
She took another look at the pile of work on her desk, and it just urged her to procrastinate further. There was no way that she was going to get all of this done in one night, and there was no way that she was going to sit down at her desk long enough to finish a piece of it without twitching and thinking about Sora.
Her mother was at work again tonight. Ever since they had gotten divorced, money was a bigger problem than it already had been. Hence, why Kairi had to get her own job. Her mother trusted her to be alone, and not sneak off anywhere in the night while she was gone. But tonight, Kairi felt a little bit rebellious. Sighing to herself, she walked out of the house, making sure to lock the door. I'll just go out for a breath of air, she thought.
Now, which way to go? Who would she go to? She sighed as she turned around. This was totally pointless... maybe she should have just called someone and did homework with them. Plus, it wasn't good to be out alone around seven, when it was already dark...
However, she ignored her conscience, and continued to walk foreword, on the sidewalk. It felt calming... more calming than anything she felt before. As she walked around in a daze, she felt a bump into someone. He or she was taller than her, and the shadow resembled a man...
"AH! GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU PERVERT! I HAVE PEPPER SPRAY!" She pretended to be digging through her pockets when he came closer. "Don't you dare take another step." She raised her arms in a martial-arts type of stance. "I'm a black belt."
Was the man laughing? "Oh, Kairi." She looked at the shadow, and recognized the oh-so-familiar spikes on the head. "You're so funny."
As soon as she realized it was Sora, she blushed. Thank God he can't see me in the shadows... she thought. The familiar race of her heart began to speed up again, and she mentally groaned. Here we go again...
"So what are you doing out so late? A girl like you really shouldn't be out this late... and don't you have homework?" He wagged her finger at her.
"Since when did you become my mom?"
"Since I became worried about you." Did he really mean that, in the same way that she was thinking? "You're kind of far from home. What were you doing anyway?"
"I should be asking you the same thing, mister."
"Well, I just needed a breath of fresh air. And I'm actually somewhat near my house."
She looked at her surroundings. It DID look like Sora's neighborhood, at least from what she had remembered. How far did she wander, anyway?
Deep in her thought, she barely realized that Sora had turned her around, and had his arm around her, slightly pushing her to walk towards her house. When her senses did come back, she screamed, "Agh!" It was the only thing that she could do in a situation like that.
Sora felt his heart sink when she screamed. Did she really flail at his touch? He moved his arm, and muttered. "I'll walk you home. Come on."
"Oh. Okay." Kairi was glad to have someone walk with her, and smiled to herself.
It was silent as they walked through the night. Sora had taken Kairi's scream personally, and had avoided having any sort of physical contact with her. Meanwhile, Kairi was happily in a trance of calm and tranquility.
He decided to break the silence. "So... are you ready for the concert?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah... I guess so. I'm just kind of stressed that I'll be last chair for the rest of this year."
"Psh, Kairi..." He looked at her. "Honestly... I haven't seen anyone play with more passion than you. And, well... passion is everything. No lessons or length of practicing can get you the places that passion can."
She didn't expect something that deep from him. "You... you really think so?"
He winked. "I know so."
Her lips found a way into a smile. "Thanks, Sora." They were in front of her house now.
"Well, I better leave you to go do your homework..."
Kairi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. I'd rather have you stay here and talk to me."
Sora looked at his watch. It was only seven-thirty. "Well... I guess that could work."
"Okay." She pulled him down into the grass, and he landed firmly on his behind.
"Oww... Kairi..." he moaned.
"You whiner."
"So? It's not like you don't whine."
And with those sentences, they were led into an hour of endless talking. It was amazing how Kairi wanted to stay there, talking with Sora, having her heart beat a million miles per hour, forever.
And he wanted nothing more than to talk to her forever, look into her eyes, and continue to stare at her features as he spoke.
They probably spoke of almost every topic in the world, from the upcoming orchestra concert to school to Selphie's craziness. Their conversation was endless, with no awkward pauses.
When Sora had to leave that night, Kairi moped into the house, disappointed. Almost as if she had lost her best friend.
-
Concert night. A fairly nerve-wracking night for Kairi, Selphie, and Yuffie. They all met together, along with Namine, at Selphie's house to get ready. There wasn't much they could do; they were all required to wear the same blouses with the same skirts and the same gold sashes around their waists- resembling their school color. But what was troubling them was their makeup.
"That's it," Kairi said, after wiping off her mascara for about the tenth time. "I'm just not going to wear any." She had straightened her hair, not because it had been wavy before, just do it would look neater.
"But you're going to look like a ghost onstage," Namine said. She was the one who was best with makeup, considering that she always been helping out backstage at the school plays since sixth grade.
"Well, I've had it with this mascara! People won't even be looking at my face, so who cares?" She looked at her skirt that reached her feet. "I think I even got some of the black crap on my skirt."
Selphie giggled. "Silly Kairi, black doesn't show up on black."
"Girls? Are you done?" They heard Selphie's mom calling for them, before Kairi could argue back.
"One more minute!" Selphie called back. They were all relieved that one of their parents could drive them to the concert that night. If they had to walk, well, Selphie would probably bring two actual bottles of pepper spray and "accidentally" spray it on some innocent bystander.
Yuffie and Selphie had finished up their own makeup, and had let Kairi off with wearing none. They didn't have time to argue, anyway.
The four of them rushed downstairs and squeezed into Selphie's mother's car, along with Yuffie's viola and Selphie's violin. It was a tight fit, and all of them insisted that they were okay with squeezing in the back seat. It was only about a five minute car ride to Destiny High, anyway.
"So, Kairi..." Selphie said in a teasing voice. "How have you and Sora been getting along? Me and Yuf saw you guys at the mall together."
Kairi rolled her eyes and giggled. Typical Selphie, thinking she was so stealthy... when she wasn't. "We're... doing fine, I guess..."
"So has anything happened yet?" Namine nudged Kairi.
"Oh, be quiet. I should be asking the same for you and Roxas."
They had pulled up to their school's auditorium by then, and Selphie and Yuffie were half-tripping out of the car, holding onto their instruments. "Girls, time for you to go in and get warmed up. I'll be watching you tonight!" Selphie's mother interrupted Namine and Kairi's conversation.
"Okay!"
The girls crawled out of the once-tightly packed car, as people watched them come out, one by one. From a bystander's point of view, it seemed as if it was one of those clown cars, where about ten people are stuffed in a little car.
Namine took a deep breath. "I can breathe again!"
All four of them laughed together. It was the first concert where all four of them went together. Before, it was just Selphie and Yuffie, because they didn't want to rub in the fact that Kairi wasn't in orchestra in her face.
"Hey, Namine, we'll meet you after the concert, okay?" Yuffie said, as they came to the warm-up room.
"Sure. I'll be fine." She walked over to the auditorium, more confidently than ever before.
"You know, Yuffie, Roxas is doing her a lot of good." Selphie commented. "A lot more than what we would have ever thought."
"Yeah..." Yuffie's voice seemed to fade a little, but then brightened as they walked into the room.
-
Kairi nervously shook as she was onstage. There was no way to calm her down- it was her first concert, after all. She was afraid that the same thing would happen at the concert that it did at festival.
When she sat down, she could feel her pulse slightly slowing down. As she played, she remembered the words that Mr. Leonhart had told the orchestra, "If all else fails, just try to hang in there and follow your section."
As she concentrated harder on the music, she felt like she was getting swallowed up by the sound. It wasn't a bad thing; it was just something new, and it had felt a little bit more relaxing.
For the next thirty minutes, she let her music fly away. For some reason, she sounded a bit different from the rest of her section. She nervously checked to make sure she was at the right measure, and she was.
It was her tone... the voice in her music... it seemed to stand out from the rest of them, who were all mashed together.
She tried to join the "mash," but it didn't work. Her fingers, the music, and her cello, refused her to let go of the individuality that it had for those few minutes.
Words couldn't describe the music that flowed from her cello, and words couldn't describe the look on Mr. Leonhart's face when he heard her distinct notes. He was surprised, yes, but in a good way.
After their performance, they sat down and watched the other four groups of Destiny High play. Some of the girls had to dash into the changing rooms to change outfits for strolling, but Kairi just sat calmly in the audience as she watched everyone else.
When the concert was over and there was a huge flood of black, gold, and white back to the orchestra room, Sora found his way to Kairi. He signaled for her to come talk to him after she was packed up.
She quickly slipped her cello and bow into the case, and carried it carefully over to where Sora was talking with Riku. She always wondered why his best friend was a sophomore...
They stopped talking when Kairi came over. "Hey." Riku greeted.
"So what did you want to talk to me about, Sora?" Kairi asked.
Sora smiled. "You were amazing tonight, Kairi. We couldn't believe our ears... seriously."
Kairi was surprised. After she had gotten off stage, she was stressing about how she had sounded different from the rest of the cellos. "Really?"
Riku smiled, too. "Yeah, Kairi, we mean it."
Her smile grew wider. "Thanks, guys. You did great, too."
"You're welcome." He paused to look over his shoulder. "You better run to Selphie before she ditches you again," Sora reminded her.
"Okay. Bye, guys!" She waved, and then grabbed her cello to set on the rack.
When she walked over to Selphie, the brunette girl almost tackled her to the ground. "You were so awesome! We were just talking to Mr. Leonhart and he said that he usually heard that kind of music from people sitting in the front!"
Kairi continued to smile. "Thanks."
They walked over to the back of the auditorium where they met Namine. She hugged each of them, even a fairly resistant Yuffie, and said, "You guys were awesome. Even better than festival."
They all smiled like little angels, and said, "Thanks, Namine!"
When they squeezed into the car again, disappointment washed through the whole car because their concert was over. Although their next one was only in a mere three weeks, Kairi loved the music that they had played for this concert more than any other she had heard before- with the exception of Silent Night. Yuffie was also quieter than usual, and Selphie gazed out the window with a small frown on her face.
"Okay, Kairi... here's your house." They had reached her driveway.
"Thanks, Mrs. Tillmit! Bye, guys!" Kairi waved.
When she walked up to her doorstop with her keys, she noticed a big lump in the darkness. It looked like a package, but it was an extremely big one. She decided to take it inside before opening it.
She dragged it to the living room, and flicked on the light. Kairi couldn't believe her eyes- if her eyes weren't fooling her, someone had left a cello on her doorstep.
She opened the case. Inside, it was the same cello that she had her eye on at the store- the exact same color, with the same shiny-just-polished look, and there was the bow, too.
"Wow... who would get me this?" She wondered out loud. She noticed a tag hanging around the neck of the cello. There was a note.
The note read, "Kairi, please accept this cello so your passion can reach it's full extent. No need to thank me, Sora."
She pinched herself. Was this a dream? There was no way on earth that he would have gotten this for her...
As she felt the pain of her pinch, the cello was still there, shining at her. So it really wasn't a dream...
-
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