Chapter ELEVEN

Before the meet today:

- pack extra hairbands cause you never know
- let Naminé know where I'm disappearing off to afterschool
- eat bananas like no tomorrow (but there is tomorrow)
- DON'T FORGET EARPHONES cause my 'get pumped' playlist is an essential pregame ritual

10 minutes. Just 10 more minutes.

"Till what?" Naminé asks from my side.

I blink, shifting my body to turn towards my seatmate. "Oh. Was I talking to myself again?"

Naminé grins. "Yeah. What's happening in 10 minutes? Won't the teacher still be lecturing?"

I grin, flashing her a pass in my hands. "Track meet today, so I get to leave 30 minutes early! Woohoo!"

"Aww, so you're leaving me to fend for myself?"

"Never fear, soldier, I shall come back for you!"

Naminé raises a brow at me.

"Uh," I quickly think about it, "like, tomorrow?"

Naminé grins and turns her attention back to the board. I blanch at the additional chunk of words scribbled on and take out my phone to snap a picture of the whole thing. No time to digest that information now.

The countdown has begun: T minus 5 minutes!

My feet eagerly tap on the floor, impatient to break out into a sprint. Strangely, I'm more excited and less nervous about this meet. I don't feel particularly well-prepared, but practices have been going well these days so I guess I'm a little confident? Hey, I'm not asking for much: just first 50? Would top 40 be pushing my luck?

At the full hour, I raise my hand and wave my pass somewhat ostentatiously. The teacher shoos me towards the door, so I grab my bag, say goodbye to Naminé, and go my merry way. A smirk rises to my face.

It feels kinda badass being out in the halls during school hours.

An image of Coach Tellah barking in my face for being late prompts me to pick up my pace.

I'm dead set on being first to the bus that I almost miss a familiar face dawdling by the school gate.

"...what are you doing, Sora?"

Sora whirls around, wearing an expression like he's just been caught red-handed.

"Oh, uh, hey Kairi." Disregarding his brisk greeting, he also proceeds to pull out his phone and stare at the screen.

"...shouldn't you be in class?" I hazard a question.

"Huh?" He turns back around and stares at me for a moment. "Well, what about you?"

"Hey, don't look at me like that! I'm a good student; I don't cut class!" I pull out the flimsy sheet of paper and shove it in his face. "I have a pass for cross-country!"

Belatedly, I wonder why I'm justifying myself to Sora, of all people.

"Oh, I see," he says distractedly, turning away and looking eagerly towards the other side of the school gates.

"So what about you? What're you doing here?" I ask again. Judging by his lack of response, I begin to draw my own conclusions. "You - you're skipping class, aren't you? But the guard won't let you off-campus?"

"Just go, Kairi," Sora says tiredly. Why does he sound tired - it's the middle of the day!

"Where are you gonna go, huh? A soccer game? The arcade?"

"No, Kairi, I need to go to the hospital!"

"The hos - what?" My blood goes cold in a split second - that's not what I was expecting. All that joking around on my part suddenly seems very inappropriate. "Are...are you okay?" I tentatively ask.

Finally, Sora looks at me. He pauses for a moment before drawing a deep breath and answering. "Not me...uh, it's my mom."

My eyes widen. "Mrs. Hikari? What happened?"

"I don't know, my dad called and he said she was admitted to the hospital, but he's on another business trip so I - I gotta go see her. But the dumb guard won't let me off-campus."

I inhale sharply. It's probably the first time I've seen Sora so worried. He's always smiling (like an idiot) with no worries in his world, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Plus, consoling people has never been one of my strengths.

"Oh, uh, shit." Yeah, Kairi, just cuss your way through this awkward conversation. My eyes dart around, seeking for a way out of this situation. I raise a hand to scratch my hair, inadvertently crinkling the piece of paper in my hands.

Oh wait, that's right!

"Hey, I can get you out," I tell Sora. He looks up from his phone and towards me curiously. With a flourish, I grab a pen from my bag and add Sora's name to my pass on the convenient extra space at the bottom. I show it to him proudly. "I'm a genius, eh?"

Sora blinks, like his brain is lagging or something. Severely. Finally, he smiles and looks at me.

"...thanks, Kairi."

"Plus, now I don't owe you."

"For what?"

He forgot? "That one time you wrote my name on your pass! Remember?"

"Oh, that's right. I didn't think you'd remember that," he admits.

I roll my eyes. "Whatever. All that matters is that we're even. Now, you need to get your ass to the hospital and I gotta go before Coach gets on my ass for being late."

Sora follows right behind me as we head towards the guardhouse by the gate. The nondescript man looks bored out of his mind, barely managing to stay awake.

"Pass?" he asks with an extended hand. I hand him the slip and he skims through it, eying both of us.

"You tried getting out earlier, didn't you?" he asks Sora with alarming perception.

Put on the spot, Sora begins sweating. "Um, err, yes...I mean - "

"He lost his pass!" Kairi to the rescue! "Or he thought he did. He forgot our coach wrote passes for two people cause he got lazy."

The guard squints at me suspiciously. Honestly, does he enjoy interrogating a bunch of high schoolers on a random Thursday afternoon? Shouldn't he have better things to do?

Finally, he accepts the pass and lets us out. I sigh in relief, heading towards the bus parked by the curb. Turning around, I check on where Sora's headed - predictably the parking lot - but instead he's dallying by the entrance.

"What are you doing?" I ask him again.

"Huh?"

"Shouldn't you be dashing towards the hospital now?"

"I - uh…" Sora looks exceedingly nervous, eyes darting around and hands anxiously fidgeting.

"What, did you lie to me about your mom being in the hospital so I would get you out?"

"No!" he barks loudly. "I wouldn't joke around with something like that!"

"Okay...what're you waiting for then? Go hop in your car and drive off!"

"...I didn't drive to school today."

Oh. Fuck. "Dude, how the hell are you gonna get to the hospital then?"

"...I'm waiting for my driver."

Forgot - Sora's spoiled enough to have a driver. "Oh, okay..."

"...Kairi."

"Huh?" I turn around again just as I'm walking off.

"Did you drive today?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Can I borrow your car?"

"Hell no! I'm supposed to just trust you with my baby?"

"Kairi, your car's like a decade old."

"So what, you're looking down on secondhand cars now? Don't you know antiques are worth more? And you can't place a value on sentimentality!" God, and how in the world are Sora and I close enough for me to just lend him my car?

"C'mon, Kairi, I've never crashed a car my entire life. You can trust me. My driver's gonna take almost an hour to get here cause he's at home on break today."

"B - but...I need my car so I can get home after the meet today!"

"..."

Sora's really good at this guilt-tripping thing, isn't he? He's usually never sad, and now he's - ooh, I have a baaaaad feeling - he's really good at puppy eyes, isn't he?

Ahh, shiiiiit.

I latch onto his sleeve and tug as we head towards the parking lot. "Let's go."

"Huh?"

"I'll drive."

"But don't you have - ?"

"Shut up, Sora."

Why am I such a nice person?

I spy the bus for our cross-country meet up ahead with Coach Tellah standing by the door. He glances up from his clipboard, raises a hand to wave, but I ignore him and walk right past.

"...KAIRI, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"Sorry Coach!" I exclaim. "Duty calls!"

"Your duty is to the team, not to your boyfriend!"

"...he's not - !" begins forming on my tongue, but Sora beats me to responding.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault! I'll take responsibility!"

"...why's this happening AGAIN?" Coach Tellah bewails.

We round the corner and enter the parking lot. "How're you gonna take responsibility?" I challenge him as I unlock my car and toss my bag in.

He shrugs, hopping into shotgun. "I'll figure it out. I guess I owe you this time, huh?"

"That's true. I didn't even think about that," I say as I turn on the engine. "Is it the hospital next to the mall downtown?"

"Yeah…" Sora sighs, looking out of the window. He seems very distracted - and I guess I understand. I don't know what I'd do if I suddenly found out my mom's at the hospital.

Thank god Mom doesn't get sick often.

Sora's the type that hates silences, so I'm a little alarmed when we run out of things to talk about on the drive. "Uh, whaddaya wanna listen to?" I ask, fiddling with the radio. He still doesn't say anything, so I try to force his hand. "If you don't choose, it's my country pop!"

Still no response? For my ego's sake, I play my CD, listening to familiar acoustic chords that don't seem to bother Sora one bit.

"Does your mom get sick often?" I decide to ask.

I think he isn't going to respond...but after a long pause, he mumbles, "...yeah."

Oh thank god he's talking! He's alive!

"She's...kinda...frail?" Sora continues. "I guess that's the word."

"Really? I never knew that." I picture Mrs. Hikari in my head: dressed immaculately, makeup more on point than I can ever hope, always smiling and cheerful. "Don't worry too much. I mean, it's Mrs. Hikari! She's gotta get back on her feet to host her next party!"

Sora snorts. "True - she was ranting to me last night about the caterer not returning her calls."

"What type of food's she gonna have this time?"

"Japanese."

"Oh my god, can I please drop by?"

"You know my mom. You're always welcome," he says easily. "Just bring your own Tupperware. I was wondering why we were running low, and then I realized…"

"Hey, hey! If you're gonna be generous, go all the way!"

"Generous? Kairi, you have at least $50 worth of Tupperware from us."

"Don't be so stingy, Sora."

"Well don't take advantage of other people's kindness!"

I grin, glad that we're at least speaking. Because even our default bickering is better than the deadly silence from earlier. Sora shouldn't be quiet - he needs to talk, to be heard. Otherwise, a quiet Sora makes me worry. And I don't like worrying about Sora.

Because that itself worries me.

Somehow, I manage to distract Sora with dumb things until we reach the hospital. "You can pull up there," he says, pointing at the curb.

"Excuse me, this isn't a cab service," I say with quite some resentment in my voice. Ignoring him, I head towards the hospital's parking lot instead.

"Why are you parking?" he asks.

"Why are you asking stupid questions? So we can go see your mom, duh. Now looking for a parking spot."

"I mean, you can just drop me off," Sora argues while his eyes roam our surroundings.

"Hey, I drove you all the way here! And I skipped my meet! Don't I get to at least - "

"Oh, there!"

"Nice," I mutter, quickly pulling into the empty spot as the previous car leaves. After parking successfully, I turn off the engine and turn towards Sora to finish my thoughts. "I should get to see your mom, shouldn't I?"

Sora shrugs. "Yeah, I guess? C'mon then." He gets out of the car before I've gathered my things, so it takes me a moment to follow him out.

"Oh, and Kairi."

"Huh?" I look over the car at him.

"Thanks. For everything."

Sentimental Sora is weird too.

"You owe me bigtime - no, you owe me three bigtimes."

Unfortunately, despite my enthusiasm to see Mrs. Hikari, I end up on the stiff chairs in the lobby, waiting for Sora and his mom to finish talking.

Okay, in hindsight, it wasn't completely appropriate for me to crash into Mrs. Hikari's room and bombard her with a bunch of questions. She's probably already very taken aback that she woke up in the hospital - she doesn't need her neighbor's neighbor's daughter bothering her as well. She was pretty surprised to see Sora too.

They had some things to talk about 'as a family,' which I immediately picked up on as my cue to exit stage right.

Well, at least she's okay. She looks a little pale, but that might just be cause she's not wearing makeup like she usually does. The nurse says it was just low blood sugar, so she just needs some bedrest.

So now, I'm stuck with a billion texts from Coach Tellah and a handful from Yuffie. Coach Tellah's texts had started out alright, with 'Where are you?' and 'Is everything okay?' But then, they slowly descend into his conspiracy theories, of which include:

'Did you get injured but you're too afraid to tell me? I won't hold it against you Kairi BUT TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND GET INJURED OFF-SEASON!"

'By duty, do you mean you enlisted in the army? Kairi that's not why we trained you!'

'You aren't eloping with your boyfriend are you? Relationships are okay but DON'T FORGET YOUR PARENTS ELOPING IS BAD!'

I skim through the series of texts, each as ridiculous as next, until I reach the bottom:

'Hi Kairi this is Anna. I've managed to calm my dad down, but I think he wants to talk to you tomorrow morning. Anyways, I hope everything's okay and take care!

PS don't listen to him he's so old-fashioned eloping isn't bad'

Oh dear god. Why does everyone think I'm eloping?

Yuffie's got some normal concerned-team-mom texts and I quickly compose an efficient reply. Just as I hit send, Sora comes out of Mrs. Hikari's room and I dash to his side.

"So - "

"AH!"

I actually startle him and he slams the door shut loudly. Hastily, he opens the door and whispers an apology, and then after quietly closing it, he turns around with a sharp glare.

"Why'd you scare me?"

"Why'd you get scared so easily?" I return. "So is your mom okay?"

Mentioning his mom is always a good way to shift the subject. "Yeah, she's okay. She's gonna stay in the hospital overnight so the doctors can observe her condition, but she's set to be discharged tomorrow."

"Great! Let's go, I'm starving." Sora doesn't argue as he head towards the parking lot and hop into my car. From there, it's easy to make small talk about dinner and whether bolognese trumps alfredo sauce.

(Like Tidus says, red sauce all the waaaaay)

I pull up to the curb outside Sora's house. "Thanks, again, for today," Sora says sincerely. The number of times he's thanked me is making things weird, so I shoo him towards his house. He grins, as if he gets what's irritating me, and is about to get out when he stops and turns around. "Actually, can you come in with me? My mom told me to give you something."

I stare at him, wondering what exactly this thing could be. Curiously, I park my car and unbuckle my seatbelt to step out of the car as well. I follow him through the front yard, up the patio, and into the house.

Without all the party stuff, the house looks much more homey, if that makes sense. The Hikaris renovated the house when they first moved in, so though we're in the same suburb, the layout of their house is completely different from ours. I hang out by the living room near the door, comfortably seated on the sofa while Sora heads towards the kitchen. Ooh, does that mean it's food? I never turn down food.

I hear footsteps coming down the stairs, so I hurriedly jump to my feet and try to look like a polite guest. Even before the person rounds the corner, words are falling out of my mouth.

"Hi, sorry to bother. I'm Kairi O'Hara, I'm Sora's - "

"...fucking O'Hara?"

I pause, for two reasons. One, this boy has a startling resemblance to Sora. It takes me a second to recognize him as Vanitas, Sora's older brother. I don't know much about him, except that he also went to Tremblay High and has a...bad reputation, if you will. Actually, I didn't know he still lives at home.

The second reason is the overwhelming amount of hostility in his voice. I mean, I'm pretty sure he doesn't know me, so why is he shooting daggers with his eyes and snarling in my direction? I don't think I did anything wrong. Again, he doesn't even know me, so why is he treating me like Public Enemy No. 1?

"...give you this, some leftovers from last night - Vanitas?" Sora exclaims as he stumbles upon us. I blink owlishly, a little afraid of his brother's unwavering stare. Slowly, I shift my gaze towards Sora, hoping he'll help me out of the situation here.

"...you're friends with that fucking bastard's sister?" Sora's brother growls, raising his voice and whirling his head in Sora's direction. Sora's eyes widen, out of fear or surprise, I'm not sure. Meanwhile, I'm here drawing my own conclusions. By 'fucking bastard,' is he referring to…?

"Vanitas, what are you doing?" Sora asks calmly, almost in a maternal way. I hesitantly take a step in his direction and away from his brother.

"I asked you a question!" he screams, and I freeze in my steps. I've only heard bad things about Vanitas, and I've never met him in person, but he's just confirming all those rumors now…

"Yes, I'm friends with Kairi," Sora responds almost reluctantly. "Kairi, if you need to go - "

I perk up at that statement. "Yeah, I probably should - "

"You two are fucking gross," Vanitas sneers, his eyes lazily trailing towards me. "And how's the bastard doing? Still fucking around with girls?"

"...what?" I exclaim. "Don't talk about my brother like that!"

Sora sighs. "Kairi, don't - "

"He and his girlfriend have been dating since high school!"

"He - " Vanitas chokes on his words and narrows his eyes on me. "They're still together? Wow, he's better at this player business than I thought! What a fucking bastard. Shit. She's such a bitch too."

"You don't know anything about them, so shut up!" I shriek. My brother and his girlfriend are great people, and I don't know why Sora's brother gets off on talking about them like that. He just needs to shut the fuck up and mind his own business!

"You shut up, you don't know anything! She's a tease still, isn't she? And he still acts like he's the only person that matters? Oh god, I can't even imagine what it's like now that they're actually together. Like, do they go around acting like king and queen of the world? Just do whatever they want and fuck people's lives and go home, and fuck each other, and then fuck other people, and fuck whatever they want, cause they're just fucking - "

"What the hell is your problem - "

"Kairi - Kairi, let's go," Sora says. In a few wide steps, he's by my side, ushering me out of the door. Vanitas rounds up on me with spite and rancor in every word he hurls my way, but I hold my ground pretty well against him. My nose twitches as a foul scent enters my nostrils - I don't have time to think about it before Sora pushes me out into the crisp evening air and shuts the door.

In the evening quiet, all I hear is the wind rustling leaves and my heavy breathing.

"...I'm sorry about that," Sora apologizes. "My brother, he - he's not okay."

"Yeah, no shit!" I shriek. Remembering we're already in the suburbs, I look around sheepishly. No mad neighbors yet. "What," I say at an appropriate volume, "the hell was that?"

"Just ignore what he said," Sora suggests. "Chances are, he's high."

"...like on drugs?" I ask tentatively. Actually that makes sense, and that explains the strange stench I smelled on him just now.

Sora shrugs. "Like I said, he isn't okay. Just - sorry you had to see that. I probably shouldn't have let you in - oh, here's what my mom wanted me to give you." He stuffs two Tupperwares in my hands and grins nervously. "They're leftovers from last night - it's Greek food."

"Oh my god! I love Greek food!" Food quickly distracts me, though the anger doesn't immediately dissipate. "Wait, so does your brother know my brother?"

Sora shrugs. "Maybe? He went to Tremblay too, right?"

"Yeah. He sounded like he knows my brother's girlfriend too...I mean, the two of them both went to Tremblay, so maybe they were all classmates?"

"Vanitas dropped out though," Sora says and then abruptly cuts himself off, as if he's spoken too much. He clears his throat. "Anyways, sorry you had to see that. And thanks, again, for today."

"Oh, don't worry, this more than makes up for it," I say, raising the Tupperware in my hands. "See you tomorrow, Sora."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

I leave Sora's house with more questions than answers. And though I'm tempted to just gorge on lamb gyro and hummus like there's no tomorrow...Vanitas' words still bother me.

How the hell does Vanitas know my brother?

A/N: oooooooooops. hi.

Hellohello, I understand from the drop in views and reviews (sniffsniff) that my inconsistent update schedule is very frustrating to you all. And I've learned to not make promises, but the one promise I will make is that I will never give up! My last story took 3 years to write, but I eventually came through! And even now, when I'm supposed to be studying for the MCATs, I've decided to take a breather (read: procrastinate even more) and write for you all! So, for new and old readers alike: be warned! I am known for my fickle updates! But I've never left a story hanging either.

As for this chapter... #subplot #subplot #subplot. Oh, and unedited. Oh, and excuse the crude language, I'm still not quite sure what I'm going with for Vanitas in here. Oh, and ohmigod, more characters, you say? Yes! Because I love all my characters, and there's nothing like a well-rounded cast to introduce you to Kairi's iridescent world! See what I did there?

Anywaaaays, Clogallie signing off with much love. And I promise, I will be back!