Chapter TEN
Here's What You Missed At Fall Formal - Or, What I Heard Through the Grapevine Cause I Talked Myself Out of Going
- Tidus met Selphie at the dance like the loser he is cause Selphie had to set up as Student Council representative
- Ven and Fuu danced one dance and spent the rest of the night with their respective friend groups
- One of the chaperones caught Axel trying to steal the extra bottles of soda
- He got kicked out but he apparently already nabbed five packs of chocolate chip cookies
- IRVINE GOT STOOD UP HAHAHA. Apparently the freshman girl's parents didn't want her going to the dance with 'an older boy.' Probably for the best. For everyone.
- And me? I finally caught up on Poker Face and also started Smash Doctors, cause medical dramas give me life (pun intended). Thanks for asking.
"Ready?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Okay. Let's go over the objectives one more time…"
"C'mon, Naminé, I don't wanna wait no more!" I complain. "Let's do this!"
"Okay, okay!" She shifts her thick-rimmed glasses up her nose for the umpteenth time in the last hour. "Where'd you get these anyways?" she asks, pointing at them.
"My brother bought them for a play or something once and never used them again. Man, I honestly can't recognize you." I take a look at Naminé once more. Instead of her usual soft pastel colors and feminine frills, she's dressed plainly in a graphic tee and shorts.
"You too. The cap covers your hair, which usually stands out."
"High-five for teamwork." Our palms meet briefly with pride. "Okay - wait, they're on the move!"
"Alright then. Let's move out!" Naminé exclaims.
We assume the roles of casual shoppers looking at the mall directory stand. We've picked the optimal location to collect information on our targets in question, who are currently chatting on the other side of this stand.
"...get something to eat, I'm starving."
"No."
"C'mon, Fuu! We just finished soccer practice, and Coach made us run suicides today…"
"...fine."
"Is this a date?" I ask tentatively. I'm a little worried how Naminé's taking this whole situation, since Ventus is a close friend of hers. But she proposed the, ahem, mission in the first place, so I assume she's just curious.
Me? I'm just doing it for the lolz.
"I have no idea...I asked Ven about it when I found out he asked Fuu to Fall Formal, and I asked him again after Fall Formal, but he said they're 'just friends'!"
"My ass," I snort. "They went to Fall Formal together!"
"As friends," Naminé points out, "which I would believe if they're not going on clandestine meetings like this now!"
"How'd you even find out about this 'date'?"
"I was gonna study for our history test with Roxas and Ven today, but Ven said he couldn't make it. Then later, Roxas told me it's cause he has a date!"
"Wait, you have a test tomorrow?"
"That's not important, Kairi! The important thing is, he lied to me! He said he's studying with some other friends, but that's obviously not the case!"
"Hmm...that is suspicious," I agree. "Oh, shit - this way, Naminé!"
We time our steps with Ventus and Fuu's, so we barely manage to dodge their line of sight using the directory stand as they walk past. Peering curiously, we glance at each other briefly and then commence our mission.
Operation: Are Ventus and Fuu Dating?
"Someone's calling me.." Naminé trails off, retrieving her phone out of her pocket. Her eyes brighten at caller ID. "I need to take this. Can you keep a lookout?"
"Yes ma'am!" I salute her and keep my eyes trained on our targets. They're not getting anywhere! From my expert opinion, they're standing closer than acquaintances do, but is it just me or are they sorta awkward with each other? I mean, that might just be because Fuu's an awkward person.
Just imho.
"Hey Kairi, you hungry?" Naminé asks as she types something into her phone. "We have reinforcements coming with the promise of snacks."
"Ooh!" My ears perk up at the mention of food. Reinforcements, huh? "Who else is coming? Do I know them?"
"Of course you do. So, food?"
My mind's easily distracted by that topic. "A pineapple banana smoothie would be great. Oh, and maybe a pack of sour gummy worms? Can you also get me some gum?"
"...okay, I feel a little bad making him buy everything…"
The identities of our mysterious backup intrigues me, but movement in the general direction of our targets quickly seizes my attention.
"They're on the move! I repeat, the targets are on the move!"
"I heard you the first time, Kairi; I'm right here."
"Then let's go!"
I drag Naminé along down the long corridor of the mall up till where Ventus and Fuu are dallying by the entrance of a small café. Ventus is pouting, but the guy wields his pouts like a weapon against anyone and everyone, so I don't particularly read into it.
"They're not being real subtle or anything...but it's not really date-ish. You know what I mean?" I observe.
"Yeah, that's true...then why'd he lie to me?"
"Well, that smells fishy to me…"
We casually stroll by the glass paneled wall of the café and lean our backs against it, occasionally garnering a quick glance inside. It's a little crowded, but I quickly pinpoint Fuu's distinct hair color. She looks like she doesn't want to be here...but she always has that look on her face, so I don't think she's particularly against this café.
Just imho.
"He bought her something!" I point out, as Ventus carries a tray of pastries and drinks to the table Fuu's seated at. "That means something, right?"
"Probably…" Naminé observes, mulling the thought over. "Ven's generous with stuff like that though, so I don't - oh. They're all for himself."
Oh dear - Naminé's right. He finishes half the muffin in one bite and spoons some of that pudding into his mouth. Damn, I'm really craving something sweet now…
"Our food is here!" Naminé reports gleefully, checking something on her phone. Yes, it's as if they're on cue! I turn towards Naminé anticipatorily and realize she's looking over my shoulder. Turning around, I look around for anyone I know when my eyes settle on someone.
Someone indeed very familiar, but...huh? Why's he here?
And...he's approaching. In our direction. Holy shit, no way -
"Sora!" Naminé greets happily, arms open as she approaches. Despite the fact that both his hands are occupied, he somehow manages to wrap his arms around her (probably cause Naminé's tiny). He then turns towards me, and that's when I decide to stop staring at them like I'm watching a TV show.
"Hey," he greets casually with an upward nod.
With narrowed eyes (so he knows I'm still very suspicious of the situation), I return the greetings.
There's an awkward silence, when I'm waiting for someone to explain the situation and Sora's pretending it's not awkward by smiling incessantly. Thankfully, Naminé intervenes.
"So, are those our snacks?" she asks, pointing at the bag in one hand.
"Oh, yeah!" he chirps, raising both hands. "A vanilla latte with soy milk, one pineapple smoothie, and - oh, the iced Americano is mine," he says, holding out the cup carrier to us. Naminé happily takes her cup, while I dally for a bit before doing the same thing. "And," Sora continues, "the bunch of miscellaneous snacks you texted me. Jeez, you guys skip lunch or something?" he jokes, holding the plastic bag out.
No one takes the bag, so both the awkward silence and Sora's smile stretch on.
Naminé saves us once more by juggling her things and taking the plastic bag. She laughs airily. "Thanks, Sora."
"No problem. So, you need help with something?"
"Naminé can I talk to you?" I blurt out in one breath. Naminé glances over, blinking at me so I blink back.
She opens her mouth to respond, but Sora beats her to it.
"Just say whatever you wanna say," he intones. "It's weird seeing you care about tact and all, Kairi. Actually, I'm surprised you haven't asked me why - "
"Why's he here?" I ask.
Sora scoffs. "There it is," he mumbles, loud enough for us to hear.
"Um...I asked him?" Naminé responds hesitantly.
"O - oh...I, uh, well...I didn't know you guys were friends."
"...yeah," Naminé chirps with a smile at Sora's direction. He smiles back. "We hung out a lot during Assassin since he basically followed me around everywhere - "
"Captain's orders!" Sora salutes me, bringing a grin to my face.
"And we worked on an English project together recently, so we got kinda close." Naminé shrugs.
I have more questions, but Naminé's next exclamation throw me off. "Oh my god, they're coming out!" she exclaims, pushing me and Sora away from the café entrance. I stumble a little since my brain's severely lagging, which causes me to rest my hands on Sora's back to steady myself.
We dash behind the corner, where Naminé peeps around to keep an eye out for us. That leaves me and Sora awkwardly coexisting in the same space. I'm not sure where to look: him, or not him.
"...you're taking this better than I thought," he finally speaks up.
That at least solves my dilemma of where to look: him, since he's talking. "What?" I ask.
"You used to throw a mini tantrum whenever we bumped into each other in public." He snickers. "Guess you've matured?"
"Hey, who are you calling childish?" I exclaim defensively. Sora laughs, apologizing for having misspoken. I then figure I can continue my line of questioning with him. "So, uh, you and Naminé are close?"
Sora makes a face. "Eh. Closer than before, to be specific. Why - does it bother you?"
"No! I'm just...surprised. I mean, you guys were basically strangers - maybe acquaintances, and suddenly we're all hanging out together? It's kinda a leap in my brain." I point to my head.
"...I think you're thinking too much. It's just friendship - it doesn't make too much sense if you think too hard."
"Hmm...I guess…" I trail off confusedly, unsure why this entire situation is still mentally tripping me up.
"Let's go!" Naminé beckons eagerly.
Well, that reminds me of the mission at hand. We dash out of our hiding spot, though now our party of three's a little more conspicuous so we fall back a little more. I turn towards Sora with a frown.
"You're not wearing a disguise!" I point out.
"Huh?"
"This is a reconnaissance mission! Look at me and Naminé - we came prepared! You look exactly like...you! And this!" I tug at a strand of his unruly brown hair. "Anyone from our school can recognize you from a mile off!"
"Well, excuse me for being preoccupied with buying your list of snacks. I didn't realize I needed a disguise, forgive me."
"You're forgiven," I snipe, trying to figure out what I can do with him. I can't do much about clothes, but I pass him my hat so he can at least try to cover up his most defining feature.
"This fits me?" he exclaims. "But you were just wearing it!"
"I adjusted it of course!" I insist.
"I was gonna say, you can't pull off snapbacks," he says with a smirk. I roll my eyes at his meaningless teasing and pick up the pace to catch up with Naminé.
We follow Ventus and Fuu in and out of a bunch of stores in the mall. It seems like they're just window-shopping or something, because they keep on coming out empty-handed. And all they're looking at are sports stores...
"If they are on a date, this has got to be the most boring date ever," I complain.
"I'll talk to Ven about proper date etiquette," Sora promises.
"This does seem very strange," Naminé concedes.
Ven's cell rings, and we scurry aside when he leans on the glass wall to take the call. While he's looking into the store, he very conveniently speaks loud enough for us to hear.
"...hey, what's up? Huh? Dude, I thought you're supposed to be studying with Naminé now."
I have a mini panic attack when Ventus mentions Naminé's name. Looking at her, she points at her phone and shows me a text she sent Roxas, asking him to call Ventus. Well, look at her hastening things along!
"No, why would I? What - a date? Dude, I'm trying to help Fuu buy a present for her dad cause it's his birthday soon and he's a soccer fan. It's not a date." Ventus snorts. "Just because we went to Fall Formal, it doesn't mean we're dating." He then clears his throat and speaks a little softer - we have to lean forward to hear what he's saying. "Fuu made me help her out in exchange for going to Fall Formal with her. Look, I didn't want to ask anyone, but Naminé was talking about Fall Formal dates, and I had a weird feeling she was gonna ask me or something, so I just said I was going with someone to prevent that from happening..."
"What?" Naminé exclaims. I have to latch onto her and pull her further away from the store so Ventus doesn't hear us.
"Okay, so it's not a date!" Sora concludes cheerfully, slipping the snapback off and placing it on my head. "Thanks, Kairi."
"No problem - you'd better have washed your hair yesterday."
"Of course - with shampoo and conditioner."
"Good." I adjust the cap so I have it on backwards - cause despite what Sora says, I can pull off a snapback. "What was I saying? Right - you were gonna ask Ventus?" I look at Naminé.
"No!" she squeaks. "I was just asking him about his plans, and - oh my god, did I give off that impression? He thought I was gonna ask him? Oh no, I was just being curious since he kept talking about this girl in his chem class..."
I chuckle. "So, to avoid that, he went through the trouble of actually asking someone."
"Typical Ven," Sora chimes in.
"He should've just talked to me," Naminé pouts, frustrated with the situation. "Then we could've avoided this whole thing..."
"That was fun though!" I chirp. "Operation: Are Ventus and Fuu Dating? Success! High-five, everyone!" Eagerly, I raise a palm towards both parties. Naminé mindlessly high-fives me before returning to her own frustrations. Sora pauses momentarily, which makes me look towards him. Why the hesitation?
He looks back, lagging again for awhile before deciding to smile. I'm confused, with questions on my mind, but he high-fives me and the entire thing seems over.
"Hey, Sora!" a voice calls out.
...oh, shit. I recognize that voice. Hesitantly, I turn around and meet Ventus' eye.
"Oh, and Kairi - hey. Didn't recognize you with the hat." He chuckles, and I laugh back, glad that my disguise worked. "What're you guys doing here?"
"I - " I cut myself off when I realize Naminé had somehow made herself scarce. Looking around, I find her dallying by a large plant, observing us cautiously. I widen my eyes at her, hoping to convey my confusion as to what to do now. She points at her phone, and I nod, making a note to check what she texts me.
"We're just hanging out," Sora says when I fail to follow up with my sentence.
"Oh. Oh!" Ventus chirps. I'm not sure what's going on in that brain of his, but I hope it isn't what it shouldn't be.
Sora comes to the rescue by instantly turning the tables on him. "What're you doing here?"
"Me?" Ventus squeaks, his voice going up a pitch. I almost want to laugh. He chuckles nervously, eyes darting around. "Funny story actually...so, I owe Fuu a favor, so she asked me to help buy her dad a birthday present, since he likes soccer and all...but she keeps shooting down all my ideas! They're either too cheap, too expensive, too sentimental - what the heck does 'too sentimental' of a gift mean?"
"Do you need help?" Sora asks.
"Huh? Oh man, would you? I'm going crazy trying to figure out what's a good gift...like, why can't she just get him food? Can't go wrong with chocolate."
"That's like the default backup gift," I point out.
"Oh, true...hey, if you both aren't doing anything, why don't you join us? Seriously, I think I'm gonna go crazy if I spend another minute with just her...she's pickier about these things than I thought."
Sora shrugs. "I'm down," he says, turning towards me. "What about you, Kairi?"
"Oh! Uh…" On cue, my phone rings, and I smile sheepishly as I check what Naminé texted me.
From: Naminé da BESTie
I think I'm gonna go study for my test (I need a B+ T.T), what're you gonna do?
"Who's that?" Ventus asks nosily, trying to lean over to read my phone.
"Hey! Some privacy please?" I exclaim, taking a step back and raising my hand defensively. I can't let him see Naminé's text to me!
Quickly, I compose a response to her so I can put my phone away.
To: Naminé da BESTie
ventus asked for help on gift-buying and sora already said yes. DX you can go first, gl on the test!
"Okay, let's go!" I announce.
"Have you thought about a jersey of his favorite player?" Sora suggests. "Or some sort of memorabilia for his favorite team?"
"I did, that was like the first thing I suggested! But she said she doesn't know that much about what her dad likes. What am I supposed to do?"
"Calm down, man."
"If I can't find the right gift for her, she's gonna - ahem - she's gonna tell everyone why I owe her a favor in the first place!"
"...okay, that sounds vaguely like blackmail. But anyways, let's just go get her...maybe she found something she likes in that store. Kairi, you coming?"
I nod, following right behind the two boys returning into the store. We approach Fuu, who's holding a mug with a printed picture in her hands. Looking up, she glances at us and barely makes any sign of acknowledgement. So Ventus does the introductions.
"Hey Fuu, you know Sora and Kairi, right? I just bumped into them outside and they're both into soccer, so they can help us find the perfect gift! Cause I know you don't like any of my ideas…" Ventus laughs, scratching the back of his head.
"Okay," Fuu says and then turns away to look at another shelf of items.
Ventus turns towards us with wide, pleading eyes. Sora shrugs, glancing at me.
"Guys," I announce, "let me handle this." Dusting my hands somewhat dramatically, I step towards Fuu and check out what she's looking at: a picture frame with various sports equipment accents. "Hey, that looks like a good gift! Especially if your dad's the nostalgic type."
Fuu turns towards me and stares for a good few seconds before speaking. "Too tacky," she concludes before continuing to the next row.
I pause, unsure what to say in response to that. What does that even mean? How's the picture frame tacky? I'd buy that for my dad!
Rudeeeee. Just imho.
It's Sora's turn now. He steps towards her, giving her some space as she hesitates between two sides of the row. "What about this?" Sora suggests, pointing at the action figures on a shelf. "These guys are all soccer legends, your dad knows them for sure!"
"Too cheap."
"Okay...these are a little nicer," he compromises, gesturing at the larger set collection of a local amateur soccer team. "They're pretty popular in the islands."
"Too big."
"Okay then. Something kinda nice but doesn't take up too much space...ooh, what about that over there?
Wow...Sora's really on another level. I don't think I could be so patient helping someone who doesn't even seem to appreciate it. I look towards Ventus. "Is he always like this?"
"Like what?"
I use my hand to gesture in his area vaguely. I don't even know what I'm trying to convey. Finally, I settle with, "So...kind?"
"Oh!" Recognition flashes through Ventus' eyes as he slowly nods. "Yeah. Ha, believe me, usually, he's worse."
Watching Sora persist with helping Fuu despite being shot down for the nth time makes me wonder: when was the last time he was so nice to me?
A/N: This summer heat's just making me lazy. I blame the new 3DS games I have at my disposal.
I [heart] all the reviewers out there who are kind enough to leave a message letting me know at least someone's enjoying this story so far. Reviewers, you guys rock.
And since I've learned my lesson by now, I make no promises for what's coming next.
07/14/2016: UPDATED with minor edits (because wtf I didn't realize I didn't wrap up at the end)