Chapter III
Axel had never liked P.E. and had certainly never looked forward to the class. Not in elementary, middle, or the first three years of high school. He hated P.E. with a passion on the verge of religion. It wasn't that he wasn't athletic; he was, in fact, quite fit and more capable than many of his classmates. He simply considered the class to be a waste of time.
P.E. was, in Axel's opinion, supposed to be the time when he could pull jokes on his classmates and goof off, but Coach Xaldin never let him get away with anything. Even the simplest prank earned him an extra mile-long run on the track. But now, for the first time in twelve years of school, he was looking forward to P.E. Not even the thought of Coach Xaldin's angry shouting and glares put him off.
Tapping his pencil on his desk, the red-haired senior glanced at the clock again, his chin propped in his hand. The minutes couldn't go by fast enough and he was convinced that time had slowed down just to spite him. How could one class feel like it lasted a life time?
"You're never going to get your work done, staring off like that," a quiet voice stated from his left. Axel rolled his eyes.
"I'm already finished." The only sounds in the room were the ticking of the clock, the tapping of his pencil and the click-clacking of keyboards.
The boy next to him turned and stared at him, one of his eyes hidden under bluish silver bangs. "You are not. You didn't even start yet."
"I'm magic," was all Axel said in reply, his tone sprinkled with sarcasm.
Raising his visible eyebrow, the blue-haired student crossed his arms. "What's your problem?"
Axel sighed. "Nothing, Zexion. I'm fine."
The other boy shrugged. "Whatever." He turned back to his laptop and continued working on the assignment Professor Xigbar had assigned them for the next day. A quiet jingling was added to the montage of clicking noises as Axel twitched his foot under the table, the buckles on his boots clinging together. He willed the hands on the clock to move faster. Why the hell was this taking so long?
"Okay, so if f of x equals x to the eighth times the sin of five x, then x equals…x equals…ummmm…" Frustrated, Roxas chewed the end of his pencil. The problem stared at him from the book, daring him to try to find the derivative. For the past forty-seven minutes he had sat almost motionless in his desk, plowing his way through his calculus homework, and his pencil was chewed nearly to pieces. He was over half way done with the assignment, but that didn't help him with the current problem, and he only had thirteen minutes of study hall left.
In the desk to his right sat Sora, who was doodling rather than working on his homework. He sat leaned back in his chair, feet pushed out in front of his desk, pencil idly sketching on a random page in his notebook. It was a picture of Miss Larxene, although he had drawn her with sharp teeth, flaming eyes, claws, devil horns and a tail. She had left a lasting impression on him after Algebra II that morning, and he still couldn't quite believe the way she had flipped out on the kid with his cell phone out during class. He would ever admit it, but it had scared him half to death the way she had marched to the boy's desk and snatched the phone right out of his hand. He had actually been surprised that her fingernails hadn't gouged his arm in the process. The kid's eyes had been as big as saucers as Miss Larxene turned and went back to the front of the room, and the class had gone deadly silent. No one was going to dare getting on that woman's bad side ever again.
Sora shuddered to think what she would do to anyone who pissed her off badly enough.
Just as he was adding flames as a background to his drawing, the bell sounded to signal the end of the period. Gathering his bag and shoving his notebook inside, he waited patiently for Roxas to pack away his calculus homework before the two headed down the hall together.
"That assignment is going to take me forever," Roxas groaned as they made their way to the south end of the school. "It's way more difficult than what we did at our old school."
"It is calculus, Rox. Did you expect it to be easy?"
"No, but if I can get into the class through placement exams then I should be able to pass it, too!" The blond boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Part of me wants to go ask Principal Xemnas if I can drop out of the upper classes and take the normal sophomore ones instead."
Feigning shock, Sora grabbed his twin's arm. "What? You, the over-achieving favorite son, want to drop out of your classes because they're too hard? What will Mom and Dad say? They'll be so disappointed!" His voice rose several octaves as he imitated their mother's tone. "What do you mean you dropped your courses? They can't be too hard for you, Roxy! I know you're a smart boy; you can do it!" Then he lowered it to attempt to imitate their father. "No son of mine is going to drop out just because the classes are a little harder than he thought they would be. You just don't want to put forth the effort to succeed, and you won't get A's with that sort of attitude, young man." Erupting into laughter, the brunette released Roxas' arm and refused to quiet down until they reached the boy's locker room, despite his twin's commands to shut up.
The P.E. instructor stood in the locker room, waiting for the students to file and find a place to stand or sit.
"My name is Coach Xaldin," he announced, his voice echoing slightly in the otherwise silent room. "I am in charge of the Physical Education and Health program here at Kingdom High Boarding School. You will address me as Coach, Coach Xaldin, or sir. Am I clear?"
There was a mumbled, "Yes, Coach Xaldin," before he went on.
"This P.E. class is required for sophomore and senior boys here at Kingdom High, and you will be sharing a locker room. No, there will not be any girls in this class." A collective groan of disappointment punctuated his statement, and he glared at the culprits until it was quiet again. "Although you all live here on the school grounds, school policy requires that you shower here after class, unless you have special permission to do otherwise."
Roxas muffled a groan so as not to receive a glare from Coach Xaldin. Showering in the locker room with the senior boys was the last thing he wanted to do.
"Now then, each of you pick out a locker, write its number and your name on this list, and then get changed. You should already have your uniforms, and if you don't, you lose today's participation points." He hung a clipboard with a sheet of paper and a pen on the wall. "You have five minutes." With that, he turned and left, and the room exploded with the voices of two-dozen adolescent males as they fought over the lockers and hurried to change.
In an attempt to avoid the commotion, Roxas and Sora chose two lockers in the far back corner away from where the other boys were and changed into their uniforms. They left their bags in their lockers, signed their names and numbers on the sheet and went out the same door that Coach Xaldin had used. They found themselves outside in a wide grassy area. Off to one side was a baseball diamond, a football field and track, along with a pole vault pit and sand pits.
Once the rest of the boys had changed and found their way outside, Coach Xaldin had them run three laps around the field as a warm-up then led them in stretches and agilities. He then announced that they were going to be playing soccer for the first two weeks of classes and that today they were going to learn how to kick and dribble the ball. Sora and Roxas glanced at each other uneasily; they had never played soccer before and knew they were most likely going to make fools of themselves.
"This is not gonna be pretty," Sora muttered, getting in line in front of Roxas to kick the ball. Sure enough, his kick sent the ball in completely the wrong direction and he cursed under his breath as he chased after it. Just as Roxas was stepping up for his turn, a voice sounded from right behind him, making him jump and whirl around.
"Mind if I cut in? I was late for class but I don't want Coach to notice and dock my points." It was one of the seniors, a tall boy with spiky red hair and green eyes. Unable to reply, Roxas only nodded and stepped out of the way so the other boy could go ahead of him. The senior winked. "Thanks." Then, in one fluid motion, he took a step back, stepped forward and kicked the ball, sending it straight to where Coach Xaldin was standing as their target. Roxas' jaw dropped as the red-haired senior ran after it, and he almost fell flat on his back when he tried to kick the next ball because he wasn't paying enough attention. His own kick was not nearly as impressive as the other boy's, and he scrambled after it, blushing in embarrassment.
Across the field, Axel stood watching him, smirking ever so slightly. The kid was clumsy, but he suspected that was mostly due to nerves. The first day was always the roughest, especially for new students. That being the case, he wondered if he should take it easy on him. He had been planning on approaching Roxas during class or in the locker room afterwards, but part of him wanted to play a little game first, and he certainly didn't want to scare the blond away, at least not yet.
"What are you staring at?" Zexion asked, walking up next to him, his soccer ball tucked under his arm. Following Axel's gaze, he spotted Roxas, who was attempting to dribble his own ball through some cones in a zigzag pattern while Sora shouted encouragement. "Axel," he sighed, exasperated, "not another one. I thought you said you were done with all this."
"I am," he replied absently, not taking his eyes off his target.
"Then why are you watching that kid like a cat watches a mouse?" the blue-haired senior asked impatiently. "Don't tell me you think he's cute."
"All right, I won't tell you."
Zexion put his hand over his eyes. "You really are a moron. You're going to get attached to a sophomore? He's fifteen, Axel. What exactly do you think you're going to do with him?"
"Whatever I want, Zexion," Axel snapped, finally looking at his friend. "I won't lie; the kid's cute, and you can't deny that he's smart, but I'm only in it for the fun of the chase. What would I want with a kid, really?" And with that he ran off towards the rest of the class and joined them in the cone-dribbling drill as Zexion looked on disapprovingly. He watched as his impulsive friend showed off for the blond boy, smiled and laughed and talked to him, showed him how to kick the ball and dribble. It wasn't long before the boy was laughing and having a good time as well.
Sighing, he shook his head and crossed his arms, letting his soccer ball fall to the grass. "He's going to put himself through hell all over again for you, kid." He sighed again. "I hope you're worth it, 'cause if you're not, I'll have no choice but to hate you."