A/N: Mwahahahahaha…
I need to think of something more creative to write in my beginning notes. XD
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or White Christmas.
Chapter 15: Early Christmas
The powdery white puff on Kairi's lawn on was crushed one morning, when Selphie ran up to Kairi's doorstep, rather than waiting for her on the sidewalk the way she usually did.
"KAIRI! KAIRI! KAIRI!" She banged on the door after she rang the door bell multiple times. She heard a soft moan, and then heard a yell, "Coming..." The door then opened to reveal a very nicely dressed Kairi. "Hey, Selphie... I'll be out in a minute." She walked over to her closet to find her big winter coat to fit over her school uniform, and walked out to greet Yuffie and Selphie.
"It's freezing out here... Yuffie, how are you not shaking?"
"Eh... I'm used to the cold. Sort of." As soon as she spoke, her own legs started to shake under her skirt.
"I can't believe our school actually makes us wear skirts in the winter..." Kairi moaned. "
I'm gonna get sick! Sicker than sick!"
"Oh, don't be so pessimistic, Kairi!" Selphie bounced up to her. "At least we're actually going to have a White Christmas onstage." It was the tradition that Destiny High did every year- for ALL of the orchestra students to play White Christmas together, all either onstage or in the audience as strollers.
"The only snow that I'm favoring right now is the kind that's going to be on the stage tonight- the kind that's not COLD!" Kairi screamed the word as she ran up to Namine. "Let's hurry to school..."
"I'll race you," Yuffie said.
"But you know I'll lose!"
"Yeah, well... last one to school is a rotten egg!" Yuffie ran off, with Kairi trailing many strides behind her.
"Ah... wait for us!" Namine and Selphie screamed. They started to run, but then stopped a couple of paces later. "We'll let them have their competition." She turned to look at Namine. "Haven't you noticed that Kairi's been a little bit different lately?"
"Yeah. She's actually getting up with at least a little bit of time to get dressed." Namine giggled. "But we both know why..."
"Sora!" The two off them held onto each other to keep on falling onto the cold ground and giggled together.
The brunette himself came up behind the two girls. "What were you talking about me for? And where's Kairi? Isn't she usually with you two?"
"Nothing. And she ran off with Yuffie because of the cold."
"Oh, okay." He ran off in the same direction that the other two girls did.
"He's got it, too." Selphie giggled to Namine.
-
When Yuffie and Kairi had finally made it to school, they ran past their usual hangout, the courtyard, into the orchestra room, where it would be warm. "Finally!" Kairi breathed, as she opened the door into the orchestra room.
She panted as she walked, and sat in a random chair. Yuffie sat next to her, breathing normally- no short of breath at all. "So, Kairi, how does it feel now that you've dashed only about four hundred meters?"
Kairi smiled. "Oh, be quiet, Mrs. I'm-such-a-great-cross-country-runner."
"I see how that is. Say, why don't we practice? Shuriken and I are getting a little bit lazy."
"Who's Shuriken?" Kairi asked, confused.
"Him." Yuffie pointed to her viola.
"Your viola?" Kairi raised an eyebrow. "You named your viola?"
"I name my cello, too." A voice whispered in her ear.
"AHH! Sora, stop scaring me like that!" She fell out of the chair she was sitting in. "Help me up." She demanded, and then raised her hand up for either Yuffie or Sora to grab it.
When Sora did so, she felt her stomach tingle inside. She loved that feeling of being around him, or just simply looking at him. "So what's your cello's name?" she giggled.
"Goofy. And my bow's name is Donald."
Yuffie and Kairi both burst out laughing. "How original..."
"Hey, at least it's better than calling it 'cello,' KAIRI." He pretended to glare at her.
She pretended to glare back, but was only lost in his blue eyes. They were like sapphires, always sparkling... and when he played the cello was when they seemed to sparkle the most.
She wished that she could watch him play from the front instead of from the back more often, just to see those sparkles in his eyes.
Yuffie watched as the two of them looked at each other. "How weird..." she mumbled to herself."It's like they speak to each other without words..."
"Sora..." she whispered. She felt a little bit bolder than usual today, and touched his hand. "Play Goofy for me." She let out a small giggle.
Sora wasn't sure how to answer to that. It wasn't a fan girl request, but it was also fairly demanding- but just not the same tone of voice that his mother used when she asked him to play for whatever guests were over for the night. But, he also wanted to hear her play with her passion, also. "How about you play with me?"
She agreed, and they both unpacked their cellos and got out their music.
Once they started, it seemed to be time seemed to be endless- and the way Kairi wanted it to be. She never thought that the tone of her cello- she decided to name it Oathkeeper- would ever be able to match Sora's in perfect harmony.
When they stopped, Sora spoke. "It's too bad that we didn't have chair auditions this time... You play so beautifully now, Kairi..."
She stared at him in disbelief. A few months ago, she thought that it would be impossible for Sora to give out a compliment like that to her. Even now, the words felt a bit surreal.
"Thanks, Sora..."
The bell rang, and the two had to part from each other. It was almost of like a tragic ending, although they would be seeing each other just a mere five hours away.
-
Fifth hour came a bit too slowly. Kairi had always found herself daydreaming in class, especially Math. Proofs were just too complicated for her mind at the moment. And, well, the only number that she could count up to at the moment was 4, the number of beats in common time. And they weren't even dealing with numbers- they were doing Geometry!
"Kairi, what's the answer to number two on the homework assignment?"
"Eh?" She looked up at the teacher.
"You obviously don't know the answer to that, so, Selphie, do you have the answer?"
Selphie answered correctly, for once in her lifetime, and Kairi quickly floated back to her daydream.
-
"Kairi, I'm telling you, you've gotta wear at least some form of makeup this time!" Namine pleaded. "I'll do it for you, as long as you can keep your eyes open without blinking!" They were all gathered at Kairi's house this time, since her mother suddenly became very obsessive about her attendance at the concert.
"Okay, okay..." Kairi surrendered. Her lid muscles tried her keep her eyes pried open long enough for Namine to swipe a bit of mascara on them, but as soon as the brush touched her lashes, the lid was defenseless and it flew down.
A second or so later, her eye reopened, and Namine dabbed a little bit of water on her bottom lid, where the mascara had stained it. She continued to do this until she was satisfied with the way Kairi's eyelashes looked.
She brushed a little bit of eye shadow on her eye lids and a bit of blush on her cheeks. When she was happy with the powders, she took out a tube of lip gloss and was about to swipe it on her lips, but then handed the wand to Kairi to put it on herself.
Selphie and Yuffie were out in the other room, waiting for Kairi to be finished. The Christmas concert was always Selphie's favorite of the year- she was bouncing up and down and the concert had yet to start for at least another hour.
"Oh, Yuffie, I can't wait! I can't wait for the snow to fall onstage! I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!"
"Selphie, calm down. Namine's just said that she was done with Kairi's makeup, let's go look!" They didn't need to take one step further, because Kairi walked down the stairs in her concert uniform as if she were modeling for a beauty pageant.
"OH MY GOD NAMINE YOU ARE WONDERFUL! She looks so awesome!" Yuffie, for once, was squealing over something as girly as makeup.
"Sora's not gonna be able to tear his eyes away from you tonight!" Selphie grinned.
"Thanks, you guys... but I don't really feel too confident about tonight. I mean, we only had that music for three weeks..." Kairi's mouth twitched in agitation.
"Think of it this way. There's no way that we can do worse than we did at Festival," Yuffie reassured, and then the three of them let out a small laugh.
Although it had now turned into a joke amongst the orchestra students, the thought of the festival at the beginning of the year was enough to make Kairi gag. It wasn't because of the way they played, it was because of the jerk that Sora had been then, and was now a little bit more intimidated by his demeanor by the sudden memory. Was the way that he had been acting for the past month or so... for real? Or was it all an act?
"Kairi, you okay? You look kind of worried." She looked to see all of her best friends looking at her, no longer grinning the way they had been just a few minutes ago.
"I was just thinking... I'm okay now though." She put a smile on her face, because she really was happy. She didn't want them to think any other way.
"C'mon, Kairi... let's get into the car, your mom's calling for us."
This time around, Kairi's mother insisted that Kairi sit in the front seat next to her, so the instruments wouldn't get squished. She wanted to protest, but her mother was in such a good mood that she hadn't seen her in since taxes were paid, so she didn't want to ruin it.
"Buckle up, everyone." Kairi's mother said while she was backing out of the driveway.
When they reached school a few minutes later, her mother dropped them off in front of the auditorium. There were many people pouring in there- so much more than their last concert three weeks ago.
"Wow, be glad that we got you here early, Namine... if we came any later you might have had to fight for a seat in our tiny auditorium!" Yuffie said.
"Don't diss our auditorium!" Selphie argued, the way that she always did with Yuffie.
"Well, it is small... it doesn't mean that I don't like it!" Yuffie raised her hands in defense.
"Yeah, whatever Yuffie!"
"Hey, I'll see you guys later, okay?" Namine gave a wave to Kairi, and the arguing duo.
"Sure, see ya then. Hope you like the concert." Kairi spoke for the three of them, since Yuffie and Selphie were still arguing like a married couple.
They walked down to the orchestra room, to get unpacked and warmed up. By then, Selphie and Yuffie had come to the compromise that yes, our auditorium did not fit as many people as Paopu High's did, but our seats were more comfortable and the room itself was more snug. How they ever resolved that was beyond the knowledge of anyone else.
Selphie pushed open the door. "HI, EVERYONE!" Tonight, the usual hyper girl was even more hyper than usual.
"Oh no, everyone clear out a pathway so Selphie doesn't fall on anything." Yuna teased. The two were friends now, although Selphie had kept first chair and Yuna had kept Tidus. (Guess you can't have everything in life!) They were still in their own cliques with their own friends at school, but at least in the orchestra room, they could keep the first violins together.
Selphie quickly unpacked, and tuned herself with Kairi's help. Even though Kairi was the newest member of the orchestra, her ears were a bit sharper than Selphie's, and Selphie didn't want to play even a slightly a flat or sharp A in front of the crowd.
"Okay, you're good." Kairi smiled at the hyper girl- she was wearing a thick yellow ribbon in her hair that night, and it flopped with her in whichever way the girl decided to run, skip, or jump.
"Freshman Orchestra... you're up." The while everyone else was hastily warming up, Mr.
Leonhart had taken the chance to lead them into the audience. Only the freshmen group was left.
"It is REALLY packed out there tonight, guys... so no pressure. None at all."
The basses went out first, and then the cellos followed. After, the violins and violas walked on stage in an orderly fashion, smiling as bright as they could until their cheeks hurt.
Their portion of the concert, at least in Kairi's option, was too short. She lost herself in her music, at least until Mr. Leonhart had cut them off, and led them into the spot where the concert orchestra was originally sitting. It was the most orderly fashion that Mr. Leonhart could come up with- for the freshmen to sit where the Concert once sat, for the Concert to sit where the Chamber was originally sitting, and for the Chamber to sit where the Symphony was. Although they would be a few chairs off, it worked fine, at least for the years that Destiny High had been open.
The freshman orchestra had sat patiently in the audience until the second to last song Symphony was about to play. They all filed out, and the cellos and basses were ordered to wait backstage, after coming on through the back door.
Kairi had heard the beautiful notes of Silent Night- the song that had influenced and pushed her into playing the cello. They were from the first chair, first violinist, who played them as a solo. After Mr. Leonhart signaled that the song was over, it was time to move. All of the cellos and basses from the orchestras of Destiny High gathered a little closer to the stage, and were to wait until all of the violins and violas had filed out into the audience- with the members of Strolling Strings coming out first. It seemed like a strolling performance, except for the fact that every single member of the Destiny High orchestra joined in the middle of the song- either in the aisle or onstage.
Together, all two hundred of the orchestra members played White Christmas as fake powdery snow fell upon them and the audience. Riku got a huge chunk of it that obviously wasn't mashed like the rest of it was in his hair, and he shook his head to get the powder out.
Needless to say, all of the cellists and bassists who had noticed this were trying to keep themselves from laughing.
Fortunately, though, most of them were keeping their minds on their music, especially Kairi.
She felt a bit lost when she heard the stifled giggle of her stand partner, and was hardly aware that the snow was falling- although she was aware that it was supposed to. She was completely drowned into her music.
When the concert was over, Kairi felt a piece of her heart gone. It was the night of her life, even though she wasn't first chair, she wasn't in Symphony, and didn't even see much of Sora. All she wanted was to stay on the stage and share her music for the world to hear.
After she walked back to the orchestra room with the other two hundred performers, she packed up Oathkeeper, and put him on the rack to go talk to Sora at least a little bit before the night was over. He was talking to Riku, as usual.
"I can't believe that huge glob of snow fell on my head! I swear, that's the most embarrassing thing that could have happened this concert!" Riku shook his head to get more of the snowflakes out of his silver hair. "Look at how many are still in there!"
Kairi was confused. "Wait, what?" Sora hadn't noticed that she was there listening until she spoke.
"A huge glob of snow fell on Riku's head. Man, it was hilarious." Sora started laughing.
So that's what her stand partner had been giggling about, Kairi concluded.
"So, Kairi, where were you during the concert? It was like you were physically here but mentally not... where's your mind today?" Sora asked.
"The same place where it was this morning." Kairi smirked.
"Nice, Kairi." Sora looked to see that there were only a few people left. "Well, I've gotta
go now, Kairi, nice job." He patted her shoulder in a lovingly way.
"Thanks, you did well, too." She loved every word of his compliments.
"Kairi! Come here!" Selphie screamed for her to come over.
"Yeah, Selphie?"
"Guess what I found out tonight? Well, technically, Namine found out, but I've got to tell you!"
"What?"
"You know that girl who's first chair in Symphony? The one with the Silent Night solo?"
"Yeah..." What was so significant about her?
"She's Roxas's sister! Who knew that musical blood actually flowed through his family?"
"Um, Selphie," Namine entered their conversation. "His whole family is musical."
It was a total no-duh moment for Selphie. She smacked herself on the forehead. "Come on, let's go now. What time is it, anyway?"
Namine, the only one of them wearing a watch, looked at it. She said, "9:15."
"Okay... I've gotta hunt for my mom first." Kairi said as she disappeared through the crowd. A few minutes later, she and her mom came back to meet Selphie, Yuffie, and Namine.
They piled into the car, all tired. Kairi's mother could not stop saying how proud she was of them, and how beautiful White Christmas was. After she dropped off her friends, Kairi's mother headed straight home, and they both went to bed content, yet tired- mentally and physically.
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