Disclaimer: Figured I would have to do this eventually...no, I don't own Kingdom Hearts or its characters...
A/N: Oh...wow, I thought I would never get people to actually read my story. (laughs)
Thank you all for taking your time of reading this...
A little difficulty I'm having while writing this story is the fact that...I'm not in high school yet! (gasps)
So, if you have any suggestions on how your or a friend's high school system works, please contact me...I am begging you!
Okay...enjoy the second chapter already!
High School Misfits
Chapter 2
Sora faces the Popular Corp
After lunch period was over (and after Selphie rushed out of the cafeteria, leaving the boys behind), the newcomer pulled out his schedule once again and looked over to see his next class.
"Hey, how come there's one more class coming up?" Sora questioned his fellow peers. "At my old school, we took four classes each day, one labeled A day and one labeled B day…"
Wakka shrugged, unsure how to answer. "I dunno, you can tell by now this school is messed up, ya?" he started to say. "This school does stuff where other schools do another way."
"In short saying, we have six classes to take every day for some odd reason," Tidus summarized. "Four classes before lunch and two after lunch."
Sora suddenly started to happily prance down the hall, surprising Wakka and Tidus, since his next class of the day was…
"Gym!" Sora declared merrily, after having read his schedule. "A class where I can finally slack off…uh, I mean study!"
Tidus and Wakka exchanged looks. "Um, Sora," Tidus started to say, "You're never going to be able to study in gym class…ever."
"What makes you say that?" Sora asked, clueless. The teen opened the gym doors and revealed shouting and yelping students everywhere as if they were wild animals. "Aww, man," Sora complained when this was revealed to him. "I'll never be able to slee-study in this class!"
Wakka sighed. "Hate to break it to ya, but your plan to be popular really isn't going quite so well," he told Sora, completely stating his own opinion about Sora's situation.
"I know, but I have to-"
Conk!
The spiky haired teenager collapsed on to the ground all of a sudden, crying out an, "Ouch!" in the air. Beside Sora was a head-sized red and rubber dodge ball. Sora sat up and massaged the back of his head. "Ugh…my head," Sora griped.
"Hey, newbie," a haughty voice called out to Sora. "You got to catch the incoming ball before you get hit." The voice revealed to be an older teenage boy, estimating around the age of seventeen. Two other figures were standing behind him, apparently his followers. The leader chuckled for a short moment. "Of course, you won't be able to ever catch one when I throw it," he stated smugly.
Sora narrowed his eyes at the older teen. "Who the fudge made this kid an arrogant snob?" Sora thought to himself. The newcomer jumped up to his two feet and faced the boy who struck him with the dodge ball.
"For some reason," the stuck-up teen started, smoothing out the side of his short blond hair. "You have the kind of look that pisses me off…"
"Leave the new guy alone, Seifer!" a new voice rang out in the air. "You're already picking on someone you just met!"
The teen called Seifer jerked his head to where the sound came from. Three more teenagers, this time around Sora's age, came onto the scene. The voice who called out to Seifer was the evident leader of the trio, having an aggravated look on his face.
"Whoa ho, the little squirts have come to the rescue," Seifer chuckled. "Spare us, if you please!"
"There's gonna be no one messing with Seifer, ya know?" one of Seifer's crew members spoke out, laughing.
The two groups glared at each other from across the gym. Sora, right in between the corps, hastily backed out of the way and over to where Tidus and Wakka were standing.
"Who're they?" Sora asked, pointing at the two corps still having their intense yet silent staring contest.
"That's Seifer, the one who threw the dodge ball at ya, and his buddies, Rai and Fuu," Wakka whispered to Sora. "They nearly pick on anyone that looks weak to them."
Tidus made Sora turn his head to the other group. "Yeah, they're not important…the other three are Hayner, Pence, and Olette," Tidus told him, pointing at them. "These two groups are known for their rivalry because they absolutely loathe each other…"
For a moment, it looked as if Hayner's and Seifer's gang were about to fight right there, but then a piercing whistle rang throughout the gymnasium. A chubby man holding the whistle had entered into the gym, having an aggravated look on his face.
"Hustle up, you fat kiddos!" the coach yelled out. "You need to get fit!"
"Says the guy who eats two packages of donuts every morning," Tidus muttered. "I bet if we three put our weights together, he'd still be fatter and heavier than us!"
The tallest of the three, Wakka, whacked Tidus on the head. " 'ey, don't be talking like that about your elders," he scolded to the naïve blond. "Even if he truthfully is a fat ass…"
"I said HUSTLE!" the coach shouted out.
"Yes, coach…"
The students quickly set off to the gym lockers to change out. As the three boys headed towards the locker room, Sora asked, "Why doesn't anyone refer to the teachers to names?"
Tidus and Wakka thought for a moment. "Maybe it's because they never even tell us their names," Tidus finally stated. "It's like…they're all part of a secret society to where if they give information about themselves, they'll all be punished a cruel and untimely death!"
"You now see why students here ignore him?" Wakka murmured to Sora.
~ * ~ * ~
After all the students had changed out of their regular attire to their sweaty and dirty gym clothes, the coach blew his whistle once more. "I want this room to be split into two teams!" the coach yelled. "I don't care who's on what side, just switch now!"
Immediately, students wandered all over the gym, deciding and debating on what side to play on. After a few short minutes, the whole gym was divided evenly and ready for the coach to say what to do next.
Flying out of the air were several red rubber dodge balls, some of them hitting students and injuring them a bit.
"Argh, why is it dodge ball?" Sora groaned. "After my wallop from one of these things, I don't want to play today…" He then turned to the coach and raised his hand, waving it around to catch attention. "Coach, can I sit out on this game? I need to, uh, study for this biology quiz coming up…eventually," Sora lied, trying to make an excuse.
"NERD!" a person shouted from the crowd.
However, the instructor blew another piercing whistle right next to Sora, making the poor boy flinch. "Everyone participates in today's game unless you are severely injured!" the coach yelled into Sora's ear. "Other than that, too bad!"
Sora groaned and went back onto the side where he was playing. "Okay, let's get this over with," he muttered to himself. Sora positioned himself on the playing court, ready for any oncoming red rubber objects.
After the coach had blown his whistle as a signal to start, the opposing team from Sora's were already throwing and hitting dodge balls at the students. Girls screamed and ran as far as possible from the flinging objects, but in the process, bumped into each other and fell on the ground, making them more vulnerable to be hit.
"Geez, our team sucks!" Tidus groaned, dodging every incoming ball that was thrown at him. The blond grabbed one of the dodge balls and hurled it at one of opposing teammates (to be specific, Seifer).
Gladly, the rubber ball had knocked down the arrogant Seifer when it was hurled into his gut. However, one of Seifer's cohorts, Rai, had surprisingly come into the view and flung a ball towards Tidus.
"Watch out, man!" Wakka shouted, shielding the latter by flying himself in front of Tidus, getting hit by the rubber object. The red-haired boy collapsed to the ground.
Tidus rushed and kneeled to where his wiser friend laid. "Oh no!" the blond exclaimed. "Wakka, you sacrificed your life for me! You were my best friend and you protected me…and now, you've gone to a better place…"
"Tidus, it's just a dodge ball…" Wakka muttered, rubbing his forehead.
Meanwhile, Sora saw that his teammates were getting smacked by dodge balls every other second. The spiky haired teen turned his attention to where several of the opposing students were about to hurl the rubber balls at a girl who stood in the open. Without thinking, Sora dashed in front of the girl and proceeded to do the same thing Wakka had done to protect Tidus, except now he was getting hit by several dodge balls. One happened to smack right on his face that made Sora collapse and skid on the floor, almost nearly hitting a nearby wall.
"Hey, the guy who wanted to study got knocked out!" was the last line Sora had heard before he laid unconscious from getting hit by nearly eight dodge balls at the same time.
~ * ~ * ~
"Oh my God, are you okay?" a voice called out to Sora anxiously.
The knocked down teen slowly opened his eyes to focus on the person who was calling out to him. "Uhh…" Sora managed to groan out. After his vision started to clear, the teen saw a girl with a worried look in her shining blue eyes. "Am I in paradise?" Sora muttered to himself.
The voice started to laugh in a slight worried way. "No silly, you're in the gym," the voice told Sora. "The complete opposite of paradise…"
Sora fully opened his eyes and saw, unbelievably, the popular girl named Kairi, smiling at him.
"Gah!" Sora exclaimed, freaking out. He suddenly jerked away from Kairi, causing himself to crash contact with the wall.
Kairi raised her eyebrows at the boy's abrupt move. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you," she told him, treating Sora as if he were a scared little puppy. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Sora widened his eyes in amazement. The most popular girl at school was worried about him? "T-thanks," he managed to stammer out, a bit flustered.
"What's your name?" Kairi asked. "I'm sure you don't wanna be called the new kid."
The brown spiky-haired boy nodded a yes. "I'm Sora," he introduced to her.
"Kairi," she responded back, giving her hand out for him to shake. Sora slowly took her hand and shook it.
"Oi, Kairi!" the silver-haired junior, Riku, called out to her from afar. "Wanna see a new killer football throw I made up just now!?"
"Coming, Riku!" Kairi yelled back at the quarterback. She turned back to Sora. "I'll be seeing you, Sora," she said. With that, the dark red-haired girl turned to meet up with Riku.
Sora stood up and, even though Kairi was already out of earshot, called out, "Bye…Kairi."
Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed onto Sora's shoulders, shaking the boy in the process. "Whoa, whoa!" the voice of Tidus had yelled out. "Kairi just talked to you, man! She must be coming on to you…"
Sora nearly choked at this. "W-what the heck is that supposed to mean?" he asked, innocently.
Wakka came onto the scene. "Tidus, don't…"
"She likes you man!" Tidus declared cheerfully before Wakka could continue. "Kairi's never talked to some random stranger out of the blue before."
The spiky haired teen's face turned into a slight shade of red. "Like she could ever like me," Sora said, disheartened. "I'm just a…"
Sora's sentence was interrupted by the school bell's shrill sound to indicate to go to the next class of the day. The boy sighed and took out his schedule, one last time (knowing by now he could have looked over all of the classes the first time), and checked that his last class of the day was…
"Study hall?" Sora asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "There's a study hall at this school?"
Tidus blew a raspberry. "More like, free time," the blond stated. "No one ever actually studies unless you have this huge test coming up."
"Wait a second," Wakka interrupted, breaking the two's conversation. "Sora, you're in study hall with Roxas, Riku, and Kairi."
The newcomer widened his eyes, really shocked. "EH?!" Sora exclaimed. "I'm with the popular kids when it's the class where they have to study?!"
"He just said that."
"This is great!" Sora cheerfully said. "Now all I'll have to do is sum up a conversation by asking if I could help them study, maybe have a few laughs here and there while we're studying, and eventually, I could be in their group!"
"Don't you need to know what they're studying first?" Wakka inquired, frowning.
"I was just getting to that…" Sora groaned, palming his face with one hand.
Tidus thumped Sora's back. "Well, we would like to see what the outcome of your plan is, but I have Al Bhed foreign language class and Wakka has World History next…" the confident blond told Sora. "So good luck!"
The two friends then walked away from Sora, leaving him all alone to walk into the room where his next class was. However, while walking into the room, Sora had accidentally bumped into another student.
"Argh, sorry," Sora hastily apologized, turning his head to look at the person he bumped into. However, the teen quickly regretted turning his head when he saw a pair of menacing aqua green-looking eyes glaring at him.
"Sorry?" the student mimicked Sora with a squeaky voice. "That's all you're gonna say, boy?" Suddenly, the student had grabbed Sora's neck and pushed him up against the wall in a fairly painful way. Sora noticed, while being choked, that the person was a female with a sadistic look on her face, her teeth clenched into an evil-looking smile. "I'll let you know, if you don't apologize to me properly as you should, things here will get a little messy…" the girl threatened Sora, still clinging tightly on his neck.
"That's enough, Larxene!" a voice called out. Turning his head, Sora saw Roxas hurrying his way to where he was. "Quit being short-tempered and be a good girl in this class for once!"
The girl named Larxene let go of her grip on Sora's neck and turned to Roxas, glaring at him. "Well, if it isn't Roxas," she spat out, looking disgusted at the sight of him. "Why am I not surprised you'd be the one attempting to stop me?"
"You already stopped," Roxas pointed out truthfully. "You were always so easy when it comes to trying to stop you from beating up anyone."
Larxene, looking enraged by what Roxas had declared, swiftly walked right in front of the spiky blond and glowered down at him. "I'll have you know, dear Roxas, that I wasn't the one who ran away from my problems instead of facing them!" she quarreled back. This line made Roxas clench his fists and shut his eyes tightly as if ready to give her a good punch.
"Whatever," the blond finally casually said. "Just carry on with your business with the other members of your corp."
The sadistic student let out a "Hmph" and walked to where a few other students who dressed like her were sitting at. Before getting there, Larxene saw Sora still standing where he was, looking terrified to even move. "I'll remember you, and you better watch out the next time I see you," she warned, and with that, walked away.
Sora merely just gawked after what had happened right in front of him. "What the heck did I do to deserve this?" he muttered to himself, now needing to worry about the fact Larxene was after him just for bumping into her.
His thoughts were interrupted when Roxas surprisingly started to walk over to him. "Heh, sorry you had to see that," he sheepishly apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. Roxas glanced at Sora and immediately recognized him. "Hey, you're the new kid in my Geometry class!" Roxas remembered, surprised. "Uh…Sora right?"
The newcomer nodded, glad to know Roxas remembered his actual name. "Yeah, that's me," Sora stated. "I'm here to, umm, finish all my homework I got from today's classes."
Roxas raised his eyebrows. "Seriously?" he asked, a bit amazed. "No one here does any of their work unless it's really necessary…"
"That's what I heard," Sora stretched out his arms in a relaxed manner. "But I'm here to help anyone with their homework if needed…uh, except Geometry that is…" Sora added, remembering that he didn't know how to do today's math work.
The spiky blond had an impressed look on his face. "Well, if you want, you could help me and my friends out on our homework too," Roxas suggested. "We're terrible when it comes to doing our work…" he added, chuckling.
Sora nodded frantically in excitement. "Yeah!" the brunette cheerfully said. "Heh, my plan actually worked!" Sora added, snickering to himself.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing!" Sora told Roxas in an innocent tone. "So, where's your group sitting at?" he asked, trying to change the subject.
The casual boy pointed a thumb at a table in the corner. "Over there," Roxas stated, turning around and walking towards the place.
Sora followed with the excitement building up in his chest. Here he was about to sit with the popular kids of the school and it was only his first day! "This is going to be sweet!" Sora murmured with exhilaration.
Finally, Roxas took his seat at the table and greeted the other two admired teens. "Hey, guys, just got back from telling Larxene to cool off," Roxas acknowledged with a proud smirk on his face.
The silver-haired student named Riku chuckled. "As usual," Riku included. "When will she ever stop?" he added, wondering.
Roxas shrugged and shook his head. "Who knows?" Roxas saw Sora hovering next to him, wondering if he should sit or not. "C'mon, Sora…take a seat next to Kairi over there," the blond motioned a hand towards the empty seat between him and Kairi.
"Sora?" Kairi inquired, looking towards the newcomer. Sora awkwardly grinned at her and seized and sat the seat next to her.
"Hey, Kairi," Sora addressed to her.
Silence came upon the table as Roxas and Riku darted their eyes from Kairi to Sora. "Um, you two have already been aquatinted, I see," Roxas finally stated, surprise coming onto his face. "Anyway, that's Riku over there," The spiky blond motioned a hand towards the quarterback who lazily waved at Sora. "Anyway, enough with the introductions, Sora's here to help get our lazy butts off and do our homework!"
The teen named Riku raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really now?" he questioned aloud, facing Sora. "What makes you say that, Roxas?"
"He told me he wanted to do something no one ever has done in here…do their work!" Roxas clarified to Riku. After getting weird looks from the quarterback, the spiky blond boy shrugged. "I dunno, it's about time we did something different in here."
Riku heaved out a long sigh, not at all up to the plan to work on his homework. Kairi, however, became interested in the new change of their last class's plans.
"Sure, I'm game," Kairi confidently declared. She elbowed Riku who looked like he wasn't all for this change. "Aren't you too, Riku?" she asked him, and to Sora, Kairi looked as if she were glaring at the silver-teen as she talked.
The quarterback groaned and raised his hands in the air, giving up. "All right, all right," he sighed with an irritated tone. Riku turned his head to Sora. "Okay, proceed with the lesson…"
Sora took a deep breath, hoping his plan will go along as he intended it to be. The newcomer grabbed one of his worksheets and took a glance at what it was.
"World History?!" Sora thought in his mind, baffled by the subject that had appeared in the paper. He glimpsed at the questions that were scribbled on the piece of sheet. The first question read: What did the colors of the Combatant Clerics symbolize? As if Sora actually even knew what the colors were in the first place. Sora heard a cough, not knowing he was taking up a lot of time glancing at the one question.
"Uh…" Sora started out, not knowing what to say. "Let's…get rid of that paper for now!" As he said that, the spiky brunet teen threw the homework aside and grabbed another sheet. "Oh keys of hearts, the paper's Biology," the newcomer muttered under his breath.
"Huh?"
Sora grabbed his head and pulled out tufts of his hair. "Ah…umm…I don't feel so good!" the new kid exclaimed suddenly. He abruptly stood up from his seat, leaving blank stares from the three other teens, and proceeded to run out of the classroom door, the teacher in charge of the classroom not even bothering to chase after him.
When he finally reached a random corner of the school, Sora stopped to catch his breath. "I just made a fool out of myself," he muttered angrily to himself. "Should have listened to Tidus and the others and…grah!" Sora then advanced to repeatedly bang his head against the wall, getting harder every time his head hit against it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
All of a sudden, Sora heard footsteps walking towards to where he was standing. He recognized the figure had red-colored long hair with a pair of the same irresistible azure eyes.
"K-Kairi?" Sora asked in amazement. "What're you doing here?"
"I came to get you," Kairi responded, "and to keep you from doing stupid stuff like banging your head against the wall…"
The spiky newcomer laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, got a little carried away there," Sora admitted to her.
Kairi giggled. "Yeah, there's a big mark across your forehead," she chuckled, pointing at Sora's forehead. She quieted down her laughter and asked in a bit more serious tone, "Why'd you run away from the classroom, anyway?"
Sora shook his head. "My…head just doesn't feel well today," he lied. "I can't think straight right now, but hopefully I'll get better tomorrow."
The teen girl before him smiled kindly at him. "Well, let's hope it gets better soon, then?" Kairi suggested. "Just so we don't have to worry it'll start smoke coming out of your ears or something like that."
Sora laughed and he quickly realized after that he had not conjured up a laugh yet all that day. The newcomer came up with a smile on his face that showed off a set of flashing teeth. "Thank you, Kairi," he said, showing much appreciation in his tone.
The school bell had rung and students from various classrooms exited like a wild rush of animals. "Let's get out of here, girls!" one of the cheerleaders of the corp. cried out. "If we don't hurry, we won't be able to see and talk to the jocks before drill sessions!"
Kairi, not really wanting to be trampled over by the students, quickly waved Sora a farewell. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she called out, and with that, Kairi had vanished along with the sea of swarming students in the hallway.
~ * ~ * ~
"So, how was your first day of school?" Sora's mom asked as her son came stumbling through the front door.
"Uh…pretty interesting?" Sora answered truthfully. "The school here is a lot weirder from my old one…"
"Make any new friends?"
"Yeah…one guy named Wakka let me borrow his sweatpants because I forgot to put on my pants this morning…" Sora said, remembering what took place while waking up and getting ready.
His mother chuckled. "So I noticed when I found the pair of jeans lying on your floor," she stated. "Any girl caught your eye?"
"Mom…" Sora groaned, getting a bit embarrassed to have this conversation with his mother. "It's the first day here…"
Without another word, Sora quickly left the scene, rushed to his room, and crashed down onto his bed. "Interesting day this has been…" Sora muttered. "Showing up in boxers, getting hit by dodge balls, needing to watch my back from a sadistic member of the Klepto Club…" Sora listed off the memories that had happened that day. "Yeah, the only time that I had smiled was when…Kairi came and talked to me."
"Kairi…" Sora repeated her name, slower. "Why in the world would she talk to a guy like me?"
