Fun fact about this chapter - and the story in general - is that when I say I've been writing this with my friends, I really mean that. For example, the description of the breakfast (complete with Ventus forgetting the jelly on his toast) is totally taken from a morning at a hotel before a convention.
I was Ventus.
Terra filled his tray to the brim.
The coffee was awful.
Chapter 2
Storm Clouds
«No! Nooo, nooooooo!»
Recognizing Shiro's voice, Ventus made haste towards the toddler's room.
As it was to be expected, Aqua was there, visibly ready and without a single hair out of place, and that was definitely normal.
Shiro's situation was much less plausible: she was hiding under her bedside table, barefoot and wearing nothing else but her diaper, refusing to come out and shouting her denial with that single syllable.
«You don't like your new dress, do you, bub?» Ventus stopped in the doorway just to chuckle at Shiro and her childish battle.
«And she won't come out.» Aqua sighed resignedly, then she looked at Ventus. «Well, look here who's talking.» She commented. «I don't see either your new shirt nor the bow tie or the vest. Why did you put on your usual clothes, Ven?»
«Weeell…» Ventus folded his arms behind his head. «You may be going through the exam, but I'll still be in the room. What if you start a fire? What if Terra breaks a window again? At least I won't get my new duds ruined. I'll get changed when you two do it to celebrate.»
«Is Terra still showering?» Aqua asked him in a calmer tone.
«Yeah, and he's a bundle of nerves. And he didn't even finish his cheese and his frittata at the breakfast table, you saw him…»
«Well, you forgot the jelly and you only noticed after a mouthful of toast and peanut butter, didn't you, Ven?»
Shiro used Aqua's distraction as the chance to slip away from the bedside table, toddle across the room and get into the hallway.
«You little rascal…» Ventus commented, then he sprinted out and ran after her.
It only took him a few steps to reach and catch the little girl, but he almost bumped into someone.
The man in front of him was definitely not a stranger: the dark coat, the stooped gait, the weathered face, sullen eyes, goatee and bald head… Ventus had not seen the man in four years, but the newcomer couldn't be anyone but Master Xehanort, the Keyblade wielder who had taken him there and left him.
«Well, look at that…» The elderly master inspected the teenager and the toddler with his yellow, piercing gaze. «Ventus. It's been so long…»
«Good morning to you, Master.» Ventus hinted at a bow the best way he could while carrying the diapered infant in his arms. «Shiro, do you remember what Pawpaw said about meeting people? You gotta say hello…»
Shiro's only answer was to hide her face against Ventus's chest.
«Come on, bub, manners. Do it for your unky.»
Shiro turned slightly her head to take a peek.
«Come on, say hello…» Ventus cued her again.
«Hello… baldy!»
If Ventus could have sunk in the floor, he could have done it. If he hadn't been in front of a Keyblade Master, the childish insult would have made him roar with laughter. The only thing he could do was to bite his lip and hope for someone to rescue him… he didn't like the disapproving look the old man was giving him. Assuming Xehanort had been Ventus's mentor before leaving him to Castle Departure, the boy was more than happy to have nothing to do with him anymore.
He sprinted away, got back into Shiro's room, and closed the door after himself.
«What's wrong, Ven? You look like you've seen a ghost.» Aqua asked him as soon as Ventus dropped Shiro in her crib.
«Master Xehanort's out there.» Ventus answered in a whisper. «And Shiro made fun of Master Xehanort.»
Some minutes later, the three youths were in the salon, all of them in their everyday garments, and Aqua had put on Shiro a kitten onesie that was one of the toddler's favorite outfits.
Terra was still pale and nervous as he stood at attention in front of the two masters, Aqua standing next to him.
Ventus was on their left, with his back against the wall, the only real audience of the test, while the two examining Masters occupied two of the three seats on the dais of the salon. The third, central throne was taken by a booster seat and Shiro, who was there because Master Eraqus had decided she would have done best away from the candidates for safety reasons.
The little one, who had been giggling and blabbering in her father's arms until a few moments before, was the only one unaware of the solemnity of the moment, and was happily playing with a small toy Keyblade with her named carved on the hilt, trying to recite with her one-year-old speaking skills the nursery rhyme of the ninety-nine monkeys jumping on the bed.
Every now and then, Master Xehanort threw her an annoyed look, and he seemed almost disgusted by the situation. Shiro eventually noticed.
«Baldy old monkey!» she squeaked, pointing her toy blade at him.
Ventus had to bite his lip again not to burst into laughter, and he could have sworn he heard Terra coughing.
Master Eraqus instead didn't bat an eye and looked at Terra and Aqua.
«Today you will be examined for the Mark of Mastery. Not one, but two of the Keyblade's chosen stand here as candidates, but this is neither a competition nor a battle for supremacy. Not a test of wills, but a test of heart. Both of you may prevail, or neither.»
The speech was interrupted by the unmistakable thud of wood on stone when Shiro dropped her toy. Ventus was tempted to cross the room and fetch it back for her, but stood still at his place.
« But I am sure our guest, Master Xehanort, did not travel all this way to see our youngest prospects in years fall short of the Mark.» Master Eraqus continued his speech. «I trust you are ready.»
«Yes!» Terra and Aqua exclaimed in unison.
The Master summoned his own Keyblade and raised his guard up.
«Then let the examination begin!»
«Let the match begin!»
The speaker on top of the baseball pitch at Radiant Junior High bellowed in the very moment in which Zack and his friends found themselves some seats.
Isa was still mumbling with himself with his eyed rolled up, while Aerith, who was wearing a hooded jacket with her school colors over her dress, was staring at the kids of the home team, looking for a familiar face.
«Come on Isa, here we go again. If we really want to talk about lateness, we should really mention that you kept us all waiting so you could take all the time in the world to walk Bolt?» Lea that morning was definitely in a bad mood, and people could see it from a mile.
«He had to go number two!» Isa immediately replied. «You kept all of us just outside the gate so you could get your sister a balloon!»
Lea's sister, a quiet four-year-old with slightly darker and much tidier red hair, a white sleeveless shirt and a purple skirt, and a red balloon tied to her wrist, looked at Isa and stuck out her tongue at him.
«Thanks a lot, Kairi.» Lea plopped on a seat and sighed.
«So, which one's the classmate of yours you told me about?» Zack asked Aerith as he sat next to her.
«He should be on the diamond any moment.» Aerith kept watching the team. «He's got spiky blond hair, very spiky, and his jersey is number seven.»
«Is that a girl?» Lea interrupted them, pointing at the player who was currently in the batter's box, who had long black hair under their helmet and a hint of breasts under the team jersey.
«Yeah, that's Tifa. And you really shouldn't doubt her batting skills if you care about your teeth.» Aerith pointed out.
Near them, Lea had let Kairi sit on his lap and had started explaining to her the rules of the game. Only an hour before, as they had left their home, he had shown annoyance when his grandmother had entrusted him with his little sister for the day, but judging by his behavior, Lea looked really fond of Kairi.
It was a side of the boy that Zack, only having known him at school, had never known or imagined. The same was for Isa – he had never guessed the blue-haired boy to be a dog person, and yet when he was in sight of Bolt, his White Shepherd, the teen was unrecognizable. Zack had never seen him laughing that much.
Zack had started hanging out with Lea and Isa since the day Angeal had "summoned" Lea to the castle to question him. After Lea had sworn up and down that no shop he had ever been to sold alcohol to kids, Angeal had communicated to Zack he would have left at the start of the summer vacation to be trained properly as a guard, and Zack had found himself with a promise made to Aerith he didn't know if he would have been able to keep.
Then Lea had offered his help with that, and in the following days they had seen each other in the few spare moments Zack could use for them.
They had never managed, though, to catch Cloud, the lonely eighth-grader Aerith had mentioned, an introvert youth who seemed to live alone with his widowed mother and helped her at home whenever he wasn't studying or playing baseball, so they had decided to wait for the final game of the school year so they could catch him when the match was over.
After Tifa, more kids succeeded her in the batter's box. Zack heard Aerith saying their names, one after another.
Cecil. Claire. Bart. Wedge.
Then finally.
«There he is, that's Cloud!»
A tiny player with messy blond hair was running away from the bench, constricting his yellow spikes under the helmet. He had an ugly greenish hue, and if Aerith hadn't immediately pointed him out as her classmate, Zack would have thought him to be a sixth-grader instead.
«I'm not surprised the guards have kicked him out immediately.» Zack whispered to Aerith. «I would have never said he's your age.»
Cloud was shaking a little when he positioned himself in the batter's box.
The opponent pitcher threw the ball, strike one. Cloud raised the bat again and waited for the second pitch, strike two.
At his third attempt, the boy managed to run three bases, but immediately after the umpire declared him safe, Cloud bent over on shaky legs, fell on his hands, and threw up on the base.
«Here he goes again with his nerves…» Aerith rolled her eyes. «He's got a bad case of performance anxiety.»
«I really don't envy the runners…» Lea commented.
Almost to confirm what Lea had just said, the umpire ordered a time out and ordered the staff to get there and clean up the vomit, then he put an arm around Cloud's shoulders and took him out of the diamond.
«He's not too bad as a batter, though.» Isa commented pointing at the score board, where two points had just been added for the Radiant Junior High team for the hits Cloud had earned them.
«Yeah, that was a good shot. He was shaking, got it? Hadn't he been that nervous, maybe he could have scored a home run.» Lea added.
Zack noticed that many of the players of the visiting team, the Western Woods, were laughing as they left the pitch, and asked himself whether they would have laughed that much if Cloud had barfed on the home base, right on their catcher, instead of on the third one.
«They're cleaning up.» Aerith pointed out. «I think it's our chance. We should go to him.»
She stood up and led them down the bleachers, until the fenced borders of the pitch. Cloud was sitting on the bench and staring at his shoes, with a paper bag laid on the bench near him. The girl who had batted first, Tifa, was not too far away, looking at him without getting too close.
Aerith tried to approach the players and catch the boy's attention, but Kairi was faster. She approached Cloud, untied the balloon from her wrist, and handed it out.
«Are you sad?» she asked him.
Cloud ignored her for a moment. Zack tried to intervene, but Lea stopped him.
«My big brother says that that was a good shot.» Kairi continued, offering Cloud the balloon one more time. «He's the big boy over there, the one with the bandana who looks like a dork.»
Cloud looked up.
«Thank… you… very much…» he answered in a rather scratchy voice.
«Yeah, thank you very much.» Lea sighed loudly, making Aerith giggle.
Zack decided it was time, and stepped forward, walking until he was right in front of the spiky-haired batter.
«Can I see that again?» he asked him.
«What?» Cloud stared at him, puzzled. He didn't seem to have realized who he was talking to, but then again Zack was in his civvies.
«I want to see that shot. Where no one else is watching.» Zack smirked. «Just me, you, Aerith, Kairi, and Chalk and Cheese here.»
«The name is Lea, you blockhead!»
Cloud looked in Zack's eyes for a moment, without a doubt asking himself where was the catch. Zack held out a hand and stayed still, without telling him anything.
A moment later, Cloud gave back Kairi her balloon, flattened his spiky hair under his helmet, picked up his bat, mitten and ball, stood up, and said: «Okay.»
«Whoa! Come on, Cloud, join the big boys now!» Lea patted his back.
Zack sprinted immediately between him and Cloud, ready to shelter the younger boy from his feisty classmate, and led to group to the main square, to finally stop in the smaller area surrounded by four flowerbeds.
He made Cloud stand in one of the corners of the area and took the ball from his hands, then he walked backwards towards the center.
«Lea and Isa will play defense, I'm the pitcher, and if the ball gets past the pines in the flowerbeds behind me, it's a home run. Ready?» Zack pulled out from one of his pockets his old mitten, and Lea and Isa put on theirs.
Cloud seemed way too focused on the ball in Zack's hands to understand it had all been planned for days.
«Okay, then hit it!» Zack threw the ball at him.
Far away from the gazes of dozen of strangers, in the deserted square, Cloud looked much more able to keep his eyes on the ball and his mind on playing.
Zack heard almost immediately the thud of the bat, and the ball shot up high, over the pine trees.
«Run, Cloud, run!» Aerith immediately shouted, and the kid, after a brief moment of confusion, threw his bat on the ground and ran counterclockwise to all the four corners of the inner square, raising a fist with a joyful cry once he was done.
Isa and Lea had left the center of the square, probably looking for the ball, but if it had been a real game, Cloud would have scored.
«Great job, spiky!» Zack ran to Cloud, removed his helmet and gave him a one-armed hug.
«Oh, yeah, great job indeed.»
One of the castle guards – Lord Ansem's personal guards – had entered the square delimited by the greenery, pushing Lea and Isa in front of himself.
Under Zack's arm, Cloud almost seemed to go limp when he saw him. He had his eyes wide open and his head down low, almost to guard himself.
«What's the matter, Braig? No law forbids playing in the square!» Zack held up Cloud with a hand, gesturing him to stand up straight, and glared at the guard.
Only then he noticed that a lump was swelling on the royal marksman's forehead. Cloud had scored a hit on his head.
«No, I'm only saying it would be a real shame,» Braig held up Cloud's ball and smirked. «If Captain Sephiroth came to know one of his men hit a royal guard with a nanshiki ball!»
Cloud broke free from Zack's grip and stepped forward.
«It wasn't him, it was me!» he almost cried out.
Braig approached him and gave him a scowl.
«Oh, so the brat came back.» He pressed a hand on Cloud's hand. «Haven't you learned your lesson, nappy boy?»
«Give that ball back. It's mine!» Cloud hissed again. «There's my name on it!»
Even Isa, who normally never lost his cool, looked rather surprised in front of the younger kid's sudden courage.
«As if! I think I'm going to keep this.» Braig stuffed the ball into his pocket. «There's a champion's signature on it. Ciao, kiddos!»
He left so quickly that he seemed to have magically disappeared.
«Cloud, I'm so sorry for your baseball.» Zack immediately said, promising himself he would have found and given him his old junior high nanshiki ball before leaving.
«He can keep that.» Cloud snorted. He looked a totally different person from the child who had thrown up on the third base.
«It was him, wasn't he?» Aerith reached them, holding Kairi's hand. «The castle guard who insulted you when you tried to talk to the city guards?»
«The idiot himself.» Now Cloud was smirking. «I made him see stars and he freaking knows it was me!»
He picked up the bat and the helmet, and there was a new light in his eyes.
«Oh, anyway…» Zack raised his shoulders and gave him a smile. «You did talk to a city guard eventually, spiky. I… didn't introduce myself. I'm Zack, guard in training!»
Terra sat on the lowest step of the courtyard stairs and stared outside.
He had woken up nervous that morning, his heart invaded by the fear of failure, but he had never really believed failure to be a possibility, not until the Master, the man who he had always considered as his own father, the man who had raised him ever since he had had all baby teeth, had looked in his eyes and told him that no, he had not passed the Mark of Mastery.
"But there's always next time," he had said. But Terra did not feel like trying again.
He felt just like someone had punched and kicked away all the enthusiasm and motivation out of him.
«Dada!»
He looked back, hearing Shiro's voice. His baby was sitting on the highest step, and giving him a mischievous, triumphal look.
The toddler stood up, then she sat on the step where she had laid her feet before, and stuck out her short legs on the lower step. She stood up again. She sat down, stuck out her feet… and then she decided it would have been faster to drag her backside from a step to another.
«What are you up to, sunshine?» Terra walked up to her. «Do you want to learn to walk down the stairs?»
Shiro nodded and mumbled a «Uhm!» that Terra was not sure whether to translate as a yes or a no.
«Do you want me to teach you?» He took her hands.
As her only answer, Shiro tried to grab his arms and made several gestures to ask for a hug.
«What's the matter?» The young man picked up the girl and held her in his arms.
Shiro looked in his eyes.
«Dada boo?»
Terra shook his head. «No, sunshine… I didn't get hurt. Dada is just a little sad, that's it.»
«Dada no sad. Dada stwong. Dada…» The toddler's face was contorted in a grimace, as if she wanted to remember a word. «Dada hewo.»
She seemed rather satisfied with what she had managed to say, but Terra was rather convinced that the new word had been taught to her on purpose. He only had to find out who did – he was rather inclined to believe it had been Ventus.
«The darkness is nothing to fear.»
Master Xehanort's voice emerged from the castle doorway, immediately followed by its owner.
The elderly Keyblade Master proceeded slowly, with his back slightly hunched and a gaze that seemed to pierce one's soul, and while he approached them, Terra noticed that Shiro was hiding her own face.
«And yet, how frustrating that Eraqus refutes its power. Why, you could train with him forever, and still you'd never be a Master in his eyes.» Xehanort continued.
Terra tried to soothe Shiro making her bounce in his arms, but he stayed serious.
«I don't understand, Master. What is it that I have failed to learn?»
«You are fine as you are,» Xehanort concluded, walking away. «Darkness cannot be destroyed, it can only be channeled.»
Terra started thinking of a possible answer, probably something to thank the master, but a noise came from behind him – the castle bells had just started ringing.
He did not know what it could mean, not that time, but he had been taught it was for important news, if not even emergencies, and he did the most reasonable thing that came to his mind.
He spun on his heels, still holding his daughter, and ran back inside.
Ventus ran to his room and threw himself on the bed, without even minding to take off his shoes.
He had imagined a million times that day, but he had never expected things to go like that.
Without even standing up, he picked up the wooden Keybade from the spot he kept it, on the chair next to the bed, and started swinging it back and forth.
It wouldn't have been too bad to have more of those corrupted light spheres that had started attacking him too in that moment, at least he would have had something to lash out against. Years before, that "toy" had been so heavy that even swinging it for a few minutes would have sent twinges of pain up his arms…
Before leaving his room that morning, he had drawn a line on the growth chart near the door that Aqua had started when he had arrived there.
The wall was immaculate until 4 feet and 1 inch, where the first line had been traced in black marker along with the words "AGE TWELVE".
«How old can he be? Nine?» Terra asked in a tone that almost bordered on whispering.
«Xehanort could not tell me the date of his birth,» Master Eraqus said, in a normal tone. «There's no need for whispering, Terra, Ventus can hear you. And I think he will also be able to tell us his age without too many problems.»
«Huh?» Ventus let slip. He didn't know the answer to that question – he had no memory of that.
The Master approached him and helped him stand up.
«Now, Ventus, be a good boy and say AAAAAAAH.»
Ventus followed the orders. The Master kept his mouth open with one of his fingers and bowed slightly his head to look inside. He hinted at a grin.
«I can see premolars. And he has already had a voice break. You know, kids, I think he must be twelve.»
Over the first marks there were more, other moments of his life. When he had summoned Wayward Wind to his hand, when he had started casting magic, the day Terra had taught him to do a headstand and the day he had been given his friend's old toy Keyblade, the four recurrences of the date Aqua had decided to celebrate his birthday, the night he had woken up after strange dreams and he had remembered he had had a cat during his childhood.
That morning he had written "Terra and Aqua's exam" on the highest mark, but now the words had been erased by a huge black scribble.
He asked himself when would Aqua be coming to knock on the door and tell him to get changed.
He asked himself what he could have answered to her, because he did not feel like changing. It just wasn't fair.
He didn't think there was anything to celebrate, not when Terra had failed his exam and had left the hall to sit in the gardens.
He stayed on his bed, staring at the ceiling, for a little more, until the castle bells made him jump to his feet. He doubted Aqua or any other occupant of the castle would have given him the motivation to move, but if the bells were ringing, something important had to have happened – maybe even an emergency – and whoever heard the ring was summoned to the hall.
Ventus had never heard a true alert, only a few drills, and he highly doubted that this was another.
He was almost in the hallways when he heard a voice behind him.
«Better hurry, Ventus, or you'll never see Terra again.»
Ventus spun on the spot. There was someone leaning against his desk. A human figure, entirely covered by strange garments, probably black leather, clinging to their body like a second skin. Their face – no, his face, he sounded and looked masculine – was hidden by a black mask and not a single inch of his skin was visible.
«What? Get real, I can see Terra anytime I want!» Ventus immediately replied, approaching the stranger. He couldn't be an adult – he was about as tall as he was, and he was short for his age.
Did he have something to do with the alert? He had never seen the guy before.
«Like right now? He's leaving you behind.» The shady guy replied. Even his voice was the immature one of a growing youth. «And by the time you catch up, he'll be a different person.»
Even without him speaking, the mere presence of the boy in black made Ventus uncomfortable. But his words were even worse. Ventus felt an icy fist hitting his abdomen and freezing over his intestines for every sentence that the intruder spoke.
«Look, whoever you are, you don't know the first thing about Terra!» Ventus tried to put together his best menacing tone and reply. «Me and him will always be a team… are you trying to pick up a fight or what?»
He raised his guard, heedless that what he was holding was a mere toy. Maybe that intruder boy didn't even know it was.
Then again, that toy was heavy. Maybe not enough to seriously wound someone – and that was the reason it had been built – but if he had struck some critical spots, he would have at least left some lumps or bruises.
«Oh, grow up.» The intruder walked away from his desk and strolled through the room. «Is that what you call friendship?» He turned to Ventus again, staring at him with his creepy eyeless gaze. «You'll never know the truth unless you go out and look for it yourself. Come on, what could you possibly know when you're stuck here, looking at nothing but what's in your tiny world?»
A shadow rose on the wall in front of the intruder, and the boy walked right through it… and vanished inside it.
Just where had he gone?
#Terra's Notes – December 1 – Five days since Ventus#
#Before leaving him here, Master Xehanort told us nothing about him. We don't even know how old he is, or at least we didn't until Master Eraqus measured his stature and examined his voice and his teeth, before finally stating he has to be about twelve years old.#
#He doesn't look like he's twelve, not at all. I mean, I may be sixteen and tall for my age, but I was thinking he was nine… even less for how he acts. He looks like a blank slate. He already is a perfect stranger right now, and it's even harder to get to know him considering he isn't talking to us.#
#Master Eraqus suggested me to take notes of all I see Ventus doing, and to try to understand the person he is by mere observation.#
#It's not easy. Not with a child who keeps staring at the wall, hardly speaks, and flinches if he gets touched.#
#Day Six.#
#Ventus doesn't have spare clothes, so I left him an old PJs I've outgrown. The top reaches his knees and I had to roll him up the trousers, but he ALMOST started laughing when he saw the dinosaur and the sentence printed on the front.#
#I can't even imagine what caused the scar he has just on the left of his sternum, but it had to really hurt, even if it doesn't look very deep. It's not his only scar, though. I've spotted claw marks, old grazes on elbows and knees that makes me think he fell down a lot of times. I'm really wondering what has happened for him to end up like that.#
#Yesterday night we were woken up by his night terrors.#
#Week Two#
#He's afraid of scissors. Seriously?#
#We have to do something for his hair, they're getting messy, especially on the front, and if he doesn't let me trim them, they'll cover his eyes eventually. Aqua tried to cut his hair.#
#Ventus hid under the bed.#
#Day Fifteen.#
\Seriously, Terra?
Waste less time trying to take notes and let's try to help Ven. THANKS.
Aqua\
#Ventus has started blowing his hair away from his face. I excused myself, went to the bathroom, came back to the hall with my hands covered in hair gel and ran both hands through his hair.#
#Little guy complained, but at least now he can see… and he let me touch him, as soon as he realized I was helping him.#
#Day Twenty.#
#Aqua started calling him Ven. VEN LIKES IT.#
#A Month.#
#We have celebrated the new year with a playful tournament on the summit. Wooden weapons, obviously.#
#Ventus tried his best, but… well, he's a kid and he moves like a kid.#
#He needs to build up some strength in his arms. I left him my old training sword. He can hardly lift it up… but he needs it more than I do.#
#I don't know if I really did the right thing.#
\You DID.\
#A month and a half.#
#Just how much peanut butter does Ventus eat? I think he could LIVE off toast with peanut butter and jelly.#
#If you're reading this, Aqua, stop indulging his whims, the Master could blame us both!#
\Oh LOOK WHO'S WRITING.\
\A month and a half.\
\Who would have guessed Ven would be so chatty?\
\I can't stay in the same room with him without him deciding to talk about something.\
\It's a huge improvement compared to even two weeks ago.\
\He has started asking me for advice about magic. He had already tried it with Terra, but I don't think it ended well, considering the way Ven clung to my arm after I showed him Fire.\
#Excuse me. Are you two teaming up against me?
Terra#
#Three months#
#Just WHO told Ven it is socially acceptable to tackle people without any kind of warning?#
\You when you LAUGHED at him.
Aqua\
\Three months and a half\
\Ven still has night terrors. Sometimes he wakes us up. Last night I crossed the hallway to ask him if he needed something, and Terra had the same idea.\
#And we all ended up sleeping in the same bed.#
#OUCH, my back.
Terra#
*One year and five months*
*(Ha, busted!)*
*There's something wrong with those two. Terra's pale like a coward in a crypt, and this morning he lost his grip on his glass and made a glass and juice mess on the floor. As for Aqua… where do I start? I've lost the count of the mornings I see her running to the bathroom after breakfast.*
*There's something they're not telling me. Something they WON'T tell me.*
*Guys, if there's something wrong… last minute news. I'm fourteen (thirteen and a half, but still…) and I'm your best friend. Will you please TALK TO ME?*
*- Ven*