Chapter 5: Revenge of the Backstabbers

Part III: No Such Thing as Loyalty

I bolted out of Intro to Public Speaking. I felt like crap. I hadn't even noticed Rikku walking beside me and she didn't seem to notice my foul mood.

"This school isn't a joke. They really work you to the bone," she stated. Yea. It also destroyed your soul too.

"Whatever," I muttered.

"Kairi? You okay?"

"Fine."

"Okay… So. Can you show me to my next class?"

"I gave you a tour this morning."

"It's a big school." I turned down the hallway and someone bumped into me so hard I dropped my books.

"Jackass!"

"Kairi! Let me help…" After we got my things picked up, we continued in the direction to my locker where Fujin and Olette were waiting. Selphie was there too.

"Uh… Hey guys… Hey Selphie." Selphie seemed a little embarrassed and said, "Hey."

"Guess what! You will not believe it!"

"We got a new language arts teacher." Fujin finished for Olette.

"Really? Who is it?" I inquired, fumbling with my lock.

"Mr. Xemnas. He's hot," Olette said.

"Is he young?" Rikku questioned.

"Yea why?"

"He was making oogly eyes at Kairi earlier."

"Shut-up Rikku!" I didn't feel like talking about "hot" guys. I didn't feel like being around my friends. I didn't feel like being at school and I didn't feel good at all… And just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse… it happened. It was almost simultaneous and surreal the way it happened too. When I finally got my locker opened, they fell. They just rained down. Pictures. The pictures. They'd been stuffed in my locker and others' lockers as well and now they came flooding out as people opened their lockers. Photos. Sometimes there was more than one copy of the same picture in a locker. The pictures… My mind tried to grasp the fact that it was the pictures and that they were out in the open. I saw Olette and Fujin look pissed and then they looked at me in confusion. I felt sweat trickle down my face. The whole student body was in an uproar. There was loud talking and gasps of surprise. I felt dizzy. When had Namine and her friends done it? I tried to escape, but the mass of students was too much and then I saw her. She stood a little ways away with Sora and Aerith as they just came from class. They looked at me and then looked at her. At that moment I didn't care that Sora decided to look at me then. I was entranced with her eyes. They held so much grief… so much pain. She was looking at me with those painful eyes and my heart clenched.

At seeing Yuffie, everyone started laughing. Tears streamed down her face and she ran away. I wanted to go after her. I wanted to comfort her. No one deserves her kind of torment. No one. The only thing that stopped me from telling her so was a hand on my shoulder. It was a strong, manly hand and it pulled me none too gently. I turned around and saw that the hand belonged to Mr. Cid.

"I want to see you in my office." My heart sank down deep into the bowels of my poor existence. I had to face my inevitable fate.

I didn't understand why I didn't see my sister or her friends there. After all, it wasn't me that put the pictures in the lockers. I didn't do anything really. My leg jumped uncontrollably under the table and I sat with my hands on my lap, palms sweating. Mr. Cid didn't seem to sense my anxiety, he just kept a nonchalant expression as he leaned on his desk with his chin resting thoughtfully on his hands.

"Kairi," he started, "I understand that you know something about these pictures." He held up a photo of Yuffie and Paine. I nodded my head slowly.

"Are they yours?"

"N…no…"

"Did you put them in the other kids' lockers?"

"No…"

"Okay. Empty your pockets." My heart pounded against my chest and I felt my under arms begin to perspire. I reached into my cargo pocket, almost automatically as I seemed to be drawn by the invisible force of Mr. Cid's icy blue eyes, and pulled out the copies I had. Mr. Cid looked at them, then at me, and then back at the pictures.

"You claim that these aren't yours, that you hadn't put them in the lockers, yet you have the copies of the pictures sitting in your pocket… Is there something you're not telling me Miss Trepe?"

"It's… I… It wasn't me! It was my sister!"

"Namine? But she came in and told me that it was you. She said you even had the pictures in your pockets. The original copies. And was she not right about that?" He waved the pictures in my face pointedly. I couldn't believe my ears. I was made to take the fall for their actions. Me! I was the scape goat, the fall guy! Namine, my own flesh and blood, framed me for a crime I didn't commit! I sat looking at the principal, feeling numb. I couldn't feel anything now. I was broken.

"Kairi?"

"…I didn't do it! I don't care who believes me or what they have against me, but I didn't do it. It was Namine, Larxene, and Tifa. They don't like Yuffie that's why…"

"But you don't like her either apparently. Did you not punch her in the face a couple of weeks ago?" Word got around too fast at this school. I didn't think any teachers were around to see that. Maybe Namine told him…

"Yea… but that was only once. I don't care about Yuffie. I was holding the pictures for Namine because she didn't want to loose the originals." Mr. Cid just sat looking at me for a moment before sighing and sitting back in his chair.

"Kairi. Do you know what kind of damage this will do to that poor girl? Imagine yourself on stage with everyone looking at you and suddenly you do something embarrassing. It's humiliating right?" I nodded, "Yea."

"So can you imagine what poor Yuffie will have to go through? Now I'll have to send her home. She'll miss out on education! Priceless education. These pictures were hidden for a reason. They weren't made to be seen. So, I'm going to have to punish someone for this. I'm not playing the he did or she did whatever game because it'll do none of us any good. So I caught you Kairi. You're going to be punished. And don't think of it as unfair because didn't you know about it before it happened?"

"…Y…yes but-''

"And you let it happen. That's almost as bad as doing it yourself. Bad triumphs when good people don't act Miss Trepe. Remember that." I sat with his hands brought together once more under his chin and he seemed to let it soak in for me.

"So, what's gonna happen to them then?" How are you gonna punish the real evil here?

"I'll deal with the rest of them Kairi. But you should be more concerned about yourself. I'm going to give you ISS and I'm calling your parents. We won't tolerate this kind of behavior Kairi. And I'm taking action to stop it."

I sat in the empty ISS room feeling suddenly claustrophobic. It was a small, white, box of a room. The teacher, Miss Xu, took up half the space with her giant desk. I laid my head on my little, wooden, square desk feeling like crap. I couldn't stop myself from thinking of how it was supposed to be Namine sitting where I was. Mr. Cid wouldn't even listen to my explanations. He automatically suspected I was the real offender probably because Namine acted like the perfect little angel around adults, and had good grades. He was angry and needed to blame someone. And that someone just had to be me? This world was such a crooked place. I mean, what if all he did to Namine and her friends was give them a lecture? And they were the ones that pulled the BS.

I needed something to cheer me up and distract me. I needed to unload myself of these burdens. Reaching into my backpack, I felt around for a writing utensil and a sheet of paper for the purpose of writing about my troubles. Instead of finding either of the material, I found the present that Demyx had given me earlier. I sorta stared at it in contemplation, not knowing what to do with it. The logical part of my brain told me to open it, while the other part tried to think of a reason not to. Like, accepting the gift was similar to accepting his feelings. I knew whatever it was would serve as a remedy to my anguish by making me happy so I opened it. Inside was a letter and underneath the letter was a necklace with a star on it. I looked at it and smiled then I read the letter.

This star is for you Kairi and all you represent. Like you, it's bright, shining in it's own light. Like you, it's bold, with its own unmatchable beauty. Like you, it stands out with its dazzling flare. And like it, you're destined to go far.

From your admirer,

Demyx

It was so corny and yet, so simply it told me everything Demyx saw in me or thought about me. And more importantly, it made me feel a helluva lot better. I pulled the necklace out and used my thumb to rub the star pendant thoughtfully. I smiled and decided to put it on. For the rest of ISS, I was content as thoughts of Demyx swirled through my mind.

When school was finally over, I moped all the way out to the parking lot, not daring to make any eye contact with anyone else. If I saw Namine, I was gonna kick her ass. Period. I made up my mind. I didn't feel sorry for her anymore. She knew what she was doing. She wasn't stupid. She was just a cold hearted… The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Everyone was going to think that I was the asshole and not Namine… I should never have kept her secret. Now I was suffering, entangled in her webs of deceptions which knew no loyalty to anyone. Not even her sister. I wish I was still invisible. I wish I was never apart of her bull crap. And I wouldn't be. Not anymore.

"Look. Yuffie. I'm sorry the pictures got out. But it was necessary if we wanted everyone to think you know… that… well… you know," I heard Larxene talking in her cell phone. When she said, "Yuffie", she had my undivided attention. How in the world did she find a need to converse with her arch nemesis? I hid a little behind someone's Nitro, which looked really nice and frickin' new. Turning my attention from the car, I listened.

"Yea. Uh huh. So anyway, now you have a reason to tell Sora about her and Riku… No. They aren't messing around anymore… but… No. Listen bitch! She told me that she loves him. The only reason their break-up is lasting as long as it is, is because they're staying away from each other. If we bring them together some kind of way…" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Did Larxene hate my sister that much to go behind her back and scheme to destroy her relationship with her boyfriend?

"…So you get it? Okay. Well think of something then. Yea. Make sure we get them caught without us actually doing anything. Yea… This is gonna be great! She totally deserves it, she's such an ass. Sora's way too good for her… what? Kairi and Demyx? Don't worry, we'll figure something out to do with those two…" I felt like slapping the silly smirk right off her ugly face. There was nothing going on between me and Demyx. It was a one sided attraction. She didn't need to include me in any of her scams. When I was about to tell her so, someone came up from behind me and asked quizzically, "Kairi?" I turned around and blushed when I saw that it was Demyx. He had his keys out like he was meaning to get into the car I was hiding behind. I straightened up, embarrassedly.

"Hey," he said easily. I nodded a little and said in a small voice, "Hi… I… It… It isn't what it looks like I just…"

"S'okay. I don't need an explanation." I looked at him, silently admiring his smirk and blue eyes. I looked back at where Larxene had been and saw that she had vanished. Damn!

"Well, I gotta go…," I started. I tried to walk around him but he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. His gaze was intense and he seemed to be studying me rather hard.

"Oh! That's what it is… You're wearing the necklace I got you! It looks good on you."

"Th…thanks… I mean, for giving it to me and telling me I looked nice too… I uh… it… made me feel a lot better. I mean, I was feeling really bad…"

"Oh yea, you got ISS right? For those pictures. Is that why you, Fujin, and Olette were asking about them? That was kinda mean. I never seen Yuffie cry that much." I looked at my feet as I felt shame fill me to the very edges of my soul.

"I would never hurt anyone like that… Not on purpose," I admitted, "I don't care what they do to me… I wishI had stopped it before it happened…"

"So you didn't do it? Then, who did? Why'd Cid punish you?"

"It was Namine, Larxene, and Tifa. They don't like Yuffie and decided to punish her for talking to Sora last week… I told Mr. Cid but he didn't seem to believe me and Namine told him that it was me and that I had the original copies to prove it. I was only holding them for her. I was… framed." Demyx seemed to let my words soak in. He had a thoughtful look on his face and leaned up against his car with a finger to his chin. I felt my restored soul shatter once again as I relay the details. I still couldn't believe Namine had done that. Not after all I'd done for her.

"Man… that sucks ass Kairi. Really, that's not fair at all. Namine's a bitch," Demyx finally said, breaking the silence. I sighed a little and nodded.

"Yea…" I agreed.

"Are you okay? Do you want to go somewhere? I know you're not ready to go home yet. Not with that backstabbing whore there." I looked at him, to see if he was pulling my leg. He'd really take me somewhere? He looked so serious that I knew he wasn't lying. My heart fluttered and I said softly, "Would you take me somewhere? Please?" Tears fell down my cheeks and Demyx pulled me into himself. I cried into his shoulder and squeezed the sleeve of his jacket.

"Come on Kairi. Get in," he ordered gently. He pushed me away and used his thumb to wipe the tears from my cheeks. I smiled.

"Thanks. Demyx…" He blushed and opened the passenger side door for me. I got in and laid my head against the window. I heard him get in on the other side. He put the key in the ignition and pulled out from the school's parking lot. I sighed as a wave of relief washed over me.

He\drove me all over the island and we didn't do anything but talk. He listened as I told him everything. I told him about Riku and Namine, my feelings for Sora, how Olette got rapped and I got the perpetrator expelled. I even told him about how I was scared to face my friends tomorrow. I mean, how would they feel after finding out that I had betrayed them? After talking to him about it, I felt a lot better and I was so thankful that he listened without judging me. He did give his own opinion about things though as he offered friendly advice. When the sun finally went down, I decided that it was time for me to face the music. Demyx drove me home and we were silent the whole way.

When we pulled up in front of my house, I was reluctant to go inside. I sighed gently and looked at Demyx, "Thanks a lot. For everything. You're a great guy…" Demyx nodded and unlocked my door, "You're welcome Kairi…" I gave him one last smile and as I attempted to leave, I felt his hand on my shoulder. I looked at him.

"Demyx?"

"Kairi… I…" I sat back down inside the car and cupped his cheek in my hand, beckoning his wondering eyes to focus on me. He stared at me and leaned closer a little bit.

"I know that you like Sora and everything but… I don't think he's any good for you. He hasn't done anything but hurt you and stayed with Namine's evil ass. So… I know you might say no, but I have to ask… Kairi, would you please just give me a chance? I know that you see me as a friend and that's okay but I… I care about you a lot and I promise not to hurt you. Not intentionally anyway. And maybe, if you're with me, you won't have to think about Sora so much. Maybe you'll be a little less stressed out. I'm not asking to replace him, I just want to give you something to fall back on…" He was so sincere, it was sweet and his words pulled at my weary heart so much that I found myself saying, "Okay…" Demyx's eyes lit up and a smile filled his face.

"Ruh- really?? Oh thanks Kairi!" I laughed a little and closed the space between us by gently kissing him. He moaned a little and pulled me closer. I felt awkward, but I was so thankful to him that I felt obligated to give him what he wanted. We broke away from one another and smiled shyly.

"So, does that mean you'll pick me up tomorrow?"

"Sure thing. Bye Kairi." I waved and exited the car. Solemnly, I walked to my front door and opened it. I stepped inside after taking a deep breath and I heard Demyx's car drive away down the street. I felt so alone. I hurried upstairs to my room in order to avoid Namine and anyone else. I didn't notice my parents' cars in the driveway…

I was welcomed with a surprise. My mom and dad sat on my bed. They'd been talking in low tones and when they finally saw me their voices ceased. Their expressions were a little concerned and I felt terrible.

"Mom… Dad…," I said slowly.

"Kairi, we need to talk," my father said authoritatively. I hadn't been expecting anything less. Taking a seat at my vanity, I waited nervously to hear what they had to say. My mother studied me, tears in her eyes. She was the first to speak.

"We heard about everything from your principal honey… We even heard Namine's side of the story. So we know what's happened…" I looked at my hands.

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have been apart of it… I knew better… but… I… I just…," I stuttered. There really was no logical explanation for taking part in Namine's dumb idea. I was just being foolish.

"Honey, we also know about the boy that beat you up. We aren't mad at you Kairi. We don't even care why you did that to that poor girl. We just want to know why you didn't tell us anything. I mean… I know we're not around that much, and maybe you feel like you're old enough to be in control of your own actions but… You're just sixteen Kairi. You're a minor. This doesn't make any sense what you've been going through! Even as adults we don't go through this much trouble!" My father said. He looked like he was mentally beating himself up. It was as though everything that had been happening to me lately, he'd taken upon himself like it was his fault. I cried a little. My parents didn't need to take the blame.

"Please… dad… you didn't do… anything…"

"Damn right I didn't do anything and I think that's the problem," he said lowly. He got up and pulled me into his arms. I hugged him back, desperate for some sort of comfort. My mother joined us and stroked my hair.

"Kairi, we're so sorry that we haven't been here for you to protect you… To help you… That's all gonna change now. You're father and I have changed our working schedules so that at least one of us is home with you. I'll be home in the morning and your father will be home in the evening. We'll both be here on the weekends. Oh Kairi… when had things gotten so bad? Now I kind of understand why your grades are so poor….," my mother explained. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I smiled.

"Thank you… for trying to understand…," I said. My father kissed my forehead and looked me in the eyes.

"Don't ever feel the need to take on the world by yourself Kairi. Not when you have people who love you and would help you with anything that may be hurting you. Tell us when something's bothering you okay?" I nodded. He rubbed my cheek lovingly and then he stood up and looked at the clock on my wall.

"Look at the time… Get some sleep Kairi. And don't worry, your mother has talked to the principal so you don't have ISS. Just go to class, and do your best so you can hurry up and be outta that hellhole…" I laughed and he ruffled my hair father-like before exiting the room with my mom close at his heels.

I changed into my pajamas and climbed into my bed. Sleep came quickly as I was too emotionally drained to stay awake any longer.