Chapter Seven. Cutting School.
The past was shredding my mind into pieces…until I felt her arms around me. What is it about her that drove the shadows from my mind? She made me feel safe, even though my world felt like it was imploding.
Oh god, what will Sora do if he finds out? He might…fuck; he would try and destroy her. He would try and destroy us…what am I going to do?
- Excerpt from Riku's Diary
Sora sat uncharacteristically quietly at the front of class with Jase and Leo, completely ignoring the teacher. Even the announcement of the approaching 'End of Term' didn't catch his attention. He only roused himself from his reverie when the door creaked open to allow two people in late to class. Riku and Kairi.
Smiling a little Sora gestured to his best friend to come and join him, but a frown crossed his face as Riku hesitated, glancing towards Kairi before heading towards the brown haired boy at the front of the room. A thought crossed Sora's mind briefly before he dismissed it with a violent shake of his head. There was no way that there was anything going on between Riku and the crazy Goth Kairi.
'So Riku,' he grinned. 'You've done your disappearing act once again. I'm getting a bit sick of only seeing you at school in good old English class. When can we get together and party like we used to in the good old days of like, a week ago?'
Riku offered a strained smile. 'Tell me where and when and I'll party with you. I'm still the same old Riku…ha ha just harder to catch.' He winced a little and fell silent, hoping that Sora hadn't noticed the momentary catch in his voice as memories of last night assailed him. A punishing flashback seared through his mind and he found words suddenly running through his head. Pulling out a pen and muttering vaguely about starting the poetry assignment, Riku turned away from Sora and began to write.
Flashbacks and wrists slashed
And screams after midnight.
Switchblades and bruises
And absence of all light.
Tears and my innocence tied up with string.
These are few of my favourite things.
Loss of my trust
And the total betrayal.
Pleading and begging
A victim's portrayal.
Rape and the aftermath keep repeating.
These are a few of my favourite things.
When your cock's hard.
When the urge hits.
When you want a fuck.
Just look for the little boy within your reach
And then you will be
In
Luck.
Bloodstains and old scars
And vacant blank hurt eyes.
Gagging with pain
As the dawn paints the blue skies.
Stuck in that night and forever hurting.
These are a few of my favourite things.
Violence and raping
And harsh penetration.
Bringing down someone
With cold degradation.
Always your slave now forever whoring.
These are a few of my favourite things.
When your mind's sick.
When you get off,
On a forced hard fuck.
Look for the helpless boy within your reach
And then you will be…
In
Luck.
Blinking back tears, Riku looked down at his work. It was like nothing he had ever written before. He hadn't noticed the passing of time as the class worked on their individual projects; he hadn't noticed anything except the words spilling from his mind onto the page. Riku smiled wryly as he slowly became aware of the parody that his poem took the form of. For the whole time he was at Uncle Conner's, he watched The Sound Of Music during the day to keep himself occupied.
As Sora attempted to look over his shoulder Riku suddenly jerked and swept his paper into his bag. He grinned sickly and pretended to make a joke of the secrecy, but he knew that he would never let Sora find out about his long forgotten past. It was too personal, too private to ever let someone like Sora know about.
88888
The total silence of the class slightly disturbed Miss Emeraudé and she decided to shake up the relaxed, lazy atmosphere. 'Alright everyone,' She proclaimed. 'It's time for a spot check on the progress of that nasty little poetry assignment.' She said the last bit with a slight wink at the groaning class. 'First up, are there any volunteers?'
The moans of 'Unfair' quickly died and the class did a very good impression of a group of statues, scared to move, to even breathe in case they were the one called upon to be first. The teacher's eye roamed around the room before settling on Sora. With a smile on her face Miss Emeraudé beckoned Sora to the front of the class, ignoring his groans and dragging feet. 'Ok Sora,' she grinned. 'Show us the budding poet that's living inside of you, bursting to get out.'
The whole class chuckled at Sora as he grinned along with Miss Emeraudé's ribbing. Taking the joke further to make it his own, Sora struck an expansive pose and whipped out a page from his folder. Miss Emeraudé narrowed her eyes at his attitude toward the essentially serious project she had set for the class.
Riku also narrowed his eyes at Sora; sure that the boy's joking was aimed directly at him and his secret poem. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment then looked over a Kairi; she returned his look with a steadying gaze and then indicated that he pay attention to the cinnamon haired boy who stood at the head of the classroom. Sora flashed him a particularly roguish grin and began his poem.
There was a young boy from Traverse
Whose tastes were extremely perverse.
The boys he would chase
Just to kiss on the face
For his sexual sense was reverse.
On the other hand girls he would scorn
Indeed he wished none would be born.
He would play with the boys
Both with hands and with toys
In an orgy from dusk through till dawn.
Sora sauntered back to his seat in a total uproar of noise. He tipped back his seat and rested his feet on the table enjoying in full the chaos he created with his shocking doggerel verse. Riku was staring at him with an open mouth, utterly struck dumb, while most people babbled to each other, loudly speculating about the meaning behind the short poem.
88888
As the bell went to end English, Sora leapt up and pranced over to Riku. He flamboyantly wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder before the boy could start making his way surreptitiously over to Kairi. 'Riku,' he proclaimed loudly. 'You are coming to my party tomorrow night and I'm not taking no for an answer.' Putting on a bereaved tone he continued, 'I feel like I'm growing apart from you, my best friend in the whole world.'
Hearing Sora hamming it up for the class, Kairi didn't even try and repress a snort of derision. At the sound, Sora glanced quizzically in her direction, but she was already shoving books viciously in her bag. Before the rest of the class was even out of their seats Kairi slammed out of the door and down the hall.
Maths began as usual with a flurry of body slamming and a rush to occupy the seats right at the back of the room. Sora shoved Kairi out of the way and dragged Riku to a seat right in the back corner of the room, as far away from the only seat Kairi could get, at the front.
Kairi scowled at the world in general and slumped in her rickety seat. She glanced over and glared at Sora before turning blank eyes to the whiteboard at the front of the room. Slamming her books on the desk, Kairi slid on the vacant mask she cultivated especially for Maths class.
In front of the class, the teacher Mr Tanaka eased his fat body around his desk knocking off a small avalanche of pencils. Sora snickered with laughter and sparked off giggles all around the room. Riku furrowed his eyebrows as Mr Tanaka's face went bright red and the embarrassed teacher scrabbled round on the floor trying to clear up the mess.
Once the pencils were back in their place and the students had quietened down Mr Tanaka coughed a little and said 'Alright class, today I think we are ready to take the next step and move on to calculus. It may be a little harder, but I think…'
He was unable to finish his sentence as a huge chorus of groans filled the room. In a stronger voice Mr Tanaka continued, 'Class I want you to all open your books to page 116, Chapter 9. We will start with Differentiation and the Product Rule which I will write on the board. You will copy it down and then we will go through some examples.'
Most of the class immediately bent their heads to task but a few exceptions remained motionless. Sora was incessantly whispering to Riku, while Kairi had already completed the formula and was starting to slip into a drawing trance. Her hand moved smoothly across the page in spirals and gothic designs until she could hardly hear the teacher in her dream state.
'Ok class, the formula is (f g)' f 'g + f g' . So if f(x) x2 find the derivative…'
Sora nudged Riku and flicked a spit-ball at Kairi, hitting her on the shoulder. Seeing Sora giggling and looking at him, Riku forced a smile and a feeble laugh. Kairi scowled at them both and cursed under her breath.
Hearing the slight commotion in the corner Mr Tanaka turned around and focused his gaze on Kairi who was still swearing quietly. 'Miss Kairi,' said Mr Tanaka loudly. 'Did I hear you volunteer to give us the answer?'
Kairi's head jerked up and she looked wildly at the board. The numbers blurred before her eyes and she reverted to a talent she hadn't used in half her life. 'Mr Tanaka, the answer is f'(x) 2x sin(x) + x2cos(x).
The rest of the class fell silent as Mr Tanaka gaped at his student. Kairi stared impassively back and then bent her head over her notebook. She hardly ever exposed her talent for mathematics; for it usually brought her more trouble then it was worth. Blushing, Kairi busied herself writing out the workings for the problem she had solved. She didn't need any additional questions on about how she worked it out in her head.
As Mr Tanaka stuttered in amazement and the rest of the class gaped at her, Kairi calmly raised her hand. 'Can I please be excused to use the bathroom Mr Tanaka?' She slipped out of her seat grabbing something from her bag as she left.
Riku glanced in her direction as she got up, and blinked as he noticed something glinting in her fist. For a second or two he couldn't figure out what it could be, but then the possible implications hit him and his eyes widened in fright. Shooting his arm upward he called, 'Mr Tanaka, I also need to use the bathroom.' Without waiting for a reply he leapt to his feet and hurried to the door as casually as he could before bolting down the hall after Kairi.
Kairi strode down the hall towards the girls bathroom and banged through the door. She almost fell through a cubicle door and slumped on the toilet seat, hanging her head limply. Her consciousness narrowed as she pulled out her knife and placed it on her wrist. She didn't hear the door open as Riku entered a few minutes later, all her mind was focused on was the blood now dripping through her fingers.
Standing indecisively in the dingy bathroom Riku dithered hopelessly. He didn't know whether to knock on each of the cubicle doors or to whisper Kairi's name hoping she would hear. Suddenly he heard a faint patter of liquid and saw a thin trickle of blood coming from under the end cubicle door.
Swearing loudly, Riku stumbled to the end door and pushed on it calling Kairi's name. The door didn't budge an inch and Riku's eyes widened as he realized that the door was locked from the inside. He called Kairi's name louder and cursed again as she didn't reply.
Shaking his head in helpless panic Riku lashed out and slammed his fist into the wall hard enough to break a tile in two. He stood there hesitantly for a second and then squared up his shoulder and smashed his body against the door. For a second the hinges held and then gave in to Riku's strength.
Lifting her blurry eyes Kairi saw Riku bending over her and grabbing her by the shoulders. The last thing she was aware of as her eyes slid closed was Riku enfolding her in his arms and lifting her as easily as he would lift a feather. Riku squeezed his eyes shut tight for a minute and then carried Kairi out of the bathroom and through the empty halls of the school.
88888
When Kairi came to, she had no idea where she was. She tried to raise her head, but she couldn't summon the strength. All the exhausted girl could do was stare at the leaves on the tree waving over her head. Wait, leaves? How had she gotten outside?
As sensation slowly returned to Kairi's body she noticed that she was lying on her back under a tree with her head and shoulders cradled in someone's lap. Using all her strength Kairi tilted her head back so she could see the face of the person who had taken her from the dirty bathroom.
Riku glanced down at that second and saw Kairi's eyes on his face. He went to say something, but his throat seemed to have closed up. He did eventually manage to stutter 'Are, are you ok Kairi? I mean, fuck, are you ok?'
Closing her eyes, Kairi let out a sigh. 'Why did you have to come in and find me? It was…It could have been over once and for all.' She turned her face away from Riku, trying to hide the tears that threatened to overwhelm her composure. For a few seconds she succeeded, but the shaking of her shoulders and her barely muffled sobs gave it away.
'Kairi, I couldn't let you do this to yourself…because…well because I think I love you. You were bleeding to death when I found you…I had to wrap up your wrists with bits of my shirt. I don't know why you keep doing this but…please, I wish you wouldn't do it again.
Kairi stared at Riku speechlessly. She couldn't stop gazing at his silvery hair contrasting with the intensely green leaves. She flinched slightly as Riku reached toward her face, but then relaxed when he gently brushed away a tear. She placed her hand on his and closed her eyes again sighing softly.
The pair were so wrapped up in their own world that neither of them noticed the small pale face staring down at them from the second floor window. Sora stood in the shadow of a pillar, his face contorted with jealousy and the beginnings of hate.
88888