Chapter II

Finally, they had a class together. It may not have been their favorite subject, but Sora and Roxas couldn't have cared less. They found seats near the back and moved their desks together so that their elbows touched when they sat. Hardly a moment went by where they weren't touching in some way. They had missed each other during the first two class periods of the day and the idea of being apart when they didn't have to be was inconceivable.

The teacher strode into the room, his goateed face the picture of perfect boredom. He'd obviously been teaching the same classes for too long. For a few moments, he stood at the front of the room and waited as the students settled and then went to the board and picked up a piece of chalk.

"History," he began, speaking in an accent, "is written by those who win." He turned around after he finished writing the sentence out on the board. "In my classroom, I hold the power. I will always win and I write the history. There will be no back talk, no arguing, whining or other such behaviors." The teacher's tone brooked no nonsense, and the students made no reply. He smirked ever so slightly. "Good."

Roxas and Sora glanced at each other. This was going to be interesting.

Introducing himself as Professor Luxord, the teacher distributed heavy textbooks among the students and warned them at if a book was damaged or lost, then the student responsible would have to pay for a new book for the school. No one spoke except for Luxord.

"Read chapter one for tomorrow," he instructed, standing at the front of the room again. "We will discuss it in class. Test at the end of the week. You will be graded on participation." The teacher stayed where he was until the students had opened their book and began reading then sat at his desk.

Sora nudged Roxas and rolled his eyes at the blond boy. "Just like middle school," he mouthed, and his brother grinned back.

Neither brother considered for even a moment just how different their lives were going to be.

The lunchroom was already crowded when the two brothers arrived after their fourth hour classes. They were more or less silent as they went through the line, as their attention was focused on the growling in their stomachs. Not until they found an empty table and sat did Sora launch into his usual chatter.

"So my computers teacher, he's got this huge scar right here," the brunette described, showing Roxas by tracing a finger across his left cheek. "His right eye is gone, too; he has an eye patch! And he talks funny." He stopped to take a bite of his pizza, the melted cheese stretching from the food to his mouth.

Roxas laughed as his twin tried to break the strand and only succeeded in stretching it longer. The blond boy took a bite of his own pizza and chewed thoughtfully. He was thinking about a cute blond girl in his last class. She had been very nice, although quiet, and Roxas couldn't stop thinking about her.

"So, what's on your mind, brother of mine?" Sora asked, nudging the other boy and eyeing him curiously.

Roxas started, blushing slightly. "Nothing," he mumbled.

"You can't lie to me, Rox," Sora laughed. He rested his chin in his hand and took another bite of his pizza. "Now, let's see…it's only the first day and you're such a teacher's pet there's no way you can be in trouble yet." Roxas stuck his tongue out at him. Sora ignored his blond twin and sat pondering what Roxas could possibly be trying to hide from him.

"Ohhh, I see," he murmured to himself.

"See what?" Roxas asked, playing the innocent card.

Sora just grinned and continued with his lunch.

"Sora," Roxas whined, grabbing his brother's hand in both of his own and staring at him with pleading eyes.

Rolling his eyes, Sora gave the other boy a look that would have been stern if it weren't for the fact that he was smiling. "You met a girl," he said smugly, watching as Roxas' face turned bright red. "So what's her name? Is she cute?"

"She's-"

"Hi," a quiet, pleasant voice interrupted. Sora and Roxas turned together to look at the pretty girl standing before them.

"Namine!" Roxas greeted, smiling. Sora looked between the two and grinned.

"Hi, Namine. I'm Sora, Roxas' brother." The brunette boy offered his hand for her to shake.

"Um, can I sit with you?" she asked shyly.

"Of course!" Sora agreed enthusiastically—he winked at Roxas as he jumped to his feet and offered Namine his chair. She sat and he pushed it in for her then moved his tray over so that she sat between the twins. "So, how did you two meet?" he asked, resuming his own seat and picking up his pizza.

"We have Home Ec. Together," Roxas said before the white-blond girl could answer. "Namine and I are partnered together."

"Lucky for me," she interjected quietly, smiling at the blond boy and making him blush. "He's the only boy in the class," she said louder to Sora in explanation. "All the other girls wanted to be his partner."

"You lucky dog!" Sora teased his brother, whose blush darkened. "Maybe I should have taken Home Ec., too!"

Namine laughed. "They would have fought over you, too."

Sora gave a pleased blush and busied himself with his lunch to disguise it.

"Namine! There you are!" a voice called over the noise of the cafeteria. The three sophomores turned to see a girl with bright reddish pink hair walking towards them. She stood by Namine's chair with her hands on her hips. "I've been looking everywhere for you! Oh, who are your friends?"

"Sora, Roxas, this is my cousin, Kairi. She's a sophomore, too. Kairi, this is Sora and this is Roxas," the blond girl introduced them, gesturing at them in turn. "Roxas and I are in Home Ec. together."

Kairi smiled in a slightly flirtatious way. "Hi. So, are you done eating? I want you to meet a few people." She looked over at a table of some older teenagers and waved to show that she would be back in a moment. "I mean, you don't have to meet them right now if you're still eating or whatever, but they're really cool."

"Oh, well," Namine hesitated, glancing at Sora and Roxas. "I'm going to stay with these guys for now, Kai. But you go back and talk to your friends." She smiled.

"All right, see you later!" Kairi waved and made her way back to her own table. "Oh, it was nice meeting you!" she called back over her shoulder.

Sora picked up his pizza and took a bite then chewed thoughtfully. "She seemed nice," he said once he had swallowed. "And she makes friends fast."

"Yeah," Namine sighed, looking down at her tray. "Kairi's always been really popular. I'm too shy for that."

"Naw," Sora assured her. "Being popular is great and all,"

"But it's the seemingly quiet ones that are the most fun," Roxas finished his brother's sentence, grinning at Namine. She blushed prettily.

"Thanks."

At the end of the lunch period, Namine said good-bye and left for her art class, promising to see them later. Sora and Roxas walked to their English class together, hoping to get there early and get good seats.

Once again they sat near the back in order to remain unobtrusive and waited for the rest of the class to arrive. The bell rang and everyone took their seats as the teacher strode in. Roxas leaned back in his chair and glanced nervously at Sora, who also looked a bit taken aback. The man was much too intimidating to be a teacher. He was huge; easily over six and a half feet tall and extremely broad-shouldered. His jaw was square and set and his short brown hair was spiked slightly.

"He looks like a professional brawler," Sora whispered.

"Yeah," Roxas breathed back, "or like a super soldier or something."

"This guy teaches English?"

The man cleared his throat and stared at them; Sora and Roxas sat up straight in their chairs and clamped their mouths shut. He turned and addressed the class.

"Welcome to English II. I am your teacher, Professor Lexeaus. Now, I trust that you all remember what you learned last year in middle school, however, school curriculum requirements say that I must first review this information before teaching you anything new. Therefore, today you will receive a study guide and a text book. The test is on Friday. We will review in class. Any questions?"

The room was silent.

"Good." He grinned and looked at a boy in the front row. "Please pass out the study guides." The boy jumped to obey, almost knocking his chair over. Lexeaus indicated the girl to the left of the now-empty desk. "The text books, please." Meek, she stood and did as he said. "Have these study guides filled out to the best of your ability by class time on Thursday. If you come across any problems, simply leave the question blank and bring it up for discussion during class. You may begin."

There was a flurry of movement as the students rushed to begin. Sora absently flipped through the pages of the book as Roxas began to fill out his study guide.

"Aren't you going to start?" he asked once he noticed that Sora hadn't written down a single thing.

"Naw." The brunette yawned and stretched in his chair. "English is easy. Besides, anything difficult will be discussed on Thursday in class."

Professor Lexeaus seemed to overhear him. "Study guides will be turned in for a grade, so make sure they are completed by the end of class on Thursday," he called.

Sora groaned and put his head down on his desk. "I hate homework," he grumbled.

"Aw, come on, Sora," Roxas chided. "You know you'll copy most of my answers anyway. Besides, what's so bad about a silly study guide?"

For a moment he paused, thinking. "Good point. Well, better get started before he makes it due Wednesday." Still unhappy with his situation, Sora took a pencil from his bag and flipped his book to the beginning to search for the answer to the first question on the study guide.

Sitting at his desk, Professor Lexeaus glanced over the top of the book he was reading and smirked to himself. He loved creating a reputation for himself among the sophomores.

The cold snap of Larxene's heels echoed throughout the empty hallways. She walked as if she owned the place and everything, and everyone,in it. It probably wasn't wise to leave her physics class unattended, but she doubted the little idiots would do anything. They weren't intelligent to cause any real trouble. Besides, she had something more important to attend to at the moment.

I'll get that little brat, she vowed silently as she walked, narrowing her eyes. She had hoped to have a reason to give him a detention, but the kid didn't do a thing wrong! He just sat there, silent as a mouse unless she called on him. His answers weren't always correct, but she couldn't give him a detention for being wrong. She would get him, though. He had to slip up at some point, and she refused to miss that chance.

Turning a corner, Miss Larxene gave a faint smile and a small nod to the man passing the other way.

"Miss Larxene," he greeted.

"Mister Marluxia," she replied then continued on her way down the hall. By the time she went around the next corner, she had forgotten about the other teacher. She was still focused on the blond freshman. What did Axel even see in him? She was a woman—beautiful and much more experienced in intimate matters than that kid. He probably still slept with a teddy bear! She had never known Axel liked boys. She was going to have to do a little digging.

Several turns and long halls and a few stair cases later, Larxene stood outside an unlabeled locked door. She knew the room beyond held the files on each and every student in the school. Everything she needed was in there. However, she did not have a key. Only Principal Xemnas and Vice-Principal Saix had keys for that door, but she already had a plan to get one. She just needed to find out where Saix spent his free time.

Mister Marluxia walked into the art room and surveyed his class hard at work. He had assigned a project in which each student was to display his or her talent with a medium of his or her own choice, and he was rather looking forward to seeing what was created.

As he settled in at his desk at the front of the room, he looked up in time to see a female student quickly look away. She was blushing behind her white-blond hair. Marluxia smirked to himself. The girl had chosen to work with charcoal and oil pastels, and so far seemed to be doing a fairly nice job. She was working diligently, in any case, and had color and grays smeared over her hands and forearms.

Curious, the teacher checked the roster and seating arrangement. The girl's name was Namine. He decided to keep an eye on her to see if she had promising talent. Glancing up at her, he caught her looking at him through her bangs before she went back to her project. Chuckling, he shook his head and pulled out his schedule so he could prepare for the next class.

"Sophomores," he said quietly to himself. "There always is one."