I was about to answer when I heard another boy voice yelling, "Hey. What are you doing?"

I looked over my shoulder and found a brunette standing behind me, wearing a black and white shirt with the 'Half Oblivion' logo on its front pocket.

"Just get her remember not to mess around," Seifer said with a mocking smile on his face.

"Seifer's warn the newbie, y'know?"

I still stared at the spiky hair boy, motioning 'help' soundlessly with my mouth. He looked a bit confused. Looks like he didn't get what I meant. I repeated it a few times, but the 'what-do-you-mean' look still on his face. I guess I must try another way. I made a 'please-help-me' face. Whether he got it or not, he helped me anyway. Oh, thank god.

"Seifer, get away from her," he told Seifer.

"What are you gonna do? Run away?" Seifer laughed as he finished his sentence, followed by Rai's laugh and Fuu's, "Chicken."

"No," he said, pump his hand into a fist, "This is what I'm gonna do." He quickly ran to Seifer and punched him right on his stomach.

"Ouch!" Seifer groaned holding his stomach with both of his arms.

The three of his gang covered him up from the brown hair boy next attack. "Seifer's not in the right condition right now, y'know?" Seifer got up on his own. "I'm not done with you yet, lamers," he said and walked pass me and the boy.

After Seifer and his gang was out of sight, neither me nor the boy talked. There was a few moment of silence before the boy suddenly broke it.

"Aw, man! I'm so screwed," he yelled putting both of his hands on his head, "The old man gonna punish me for sure if he knew about this!" He ran around in circle, still yelling and panicking.

"Uumm.."

My voice seemed to bring him back to reality as he stopped running and turned his attention to me. "Ah. You okay?" he asked, looks much normal than before.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No big deal. I've always wanna do that," he grinned, "Oh. By the way, are you new?"

"Yes. I'm Arinaz," I answered.

"I'm Sora. Nice to meet you, Arin."

-------------------------------------

I ran towards Sora and swung my struggle bat, attacking him a few times, each from different direction, but he kept blocking it. I jumped backwards as he started to make a move. Now it's his turn to attack. He hit me, just like I did, only faster and stronger. I avoided it quite perfectly, instead of blocked it.

After a few times of attacking, his movement became a little bit slower. I dropped to the ground and thrust my bat to his stomach as fast as I could. He jumped over me, avoiding my attack successfully, and appeared behind my back. I quickly stood up and turned his way, trying to defend. But he got me.

He swung his bat to confront with mine. I wasn't quick and strong enough to block it. My bat was snatched from my hand and dropped to the ground. Sora, knowing I can't attack him, pointed his bat towards my neck before let it drop to the ground too.

"Good game, Arin. You're a fast learner," Sora smiled widely, panting, as he rested his hands on both of his knees.

I walked over to a palm tree and picked up two bottle of water. "That's no good. I still can't defeat you," I complained, throwing over one of the bottle to Sora, "How did you become so strong at this?"

He caught the bottle perfectly and opened it. "Natural skill, I guess," he said, chuckling, "And a few years of training. I've been fighting against Riku since we're little, remember?"

"Yeah. Right. A newbie like me can never defeat a natural fighter like you."

"I didn't say that," he snapped.

"Oh. You did."

"No, I didn't."

"You did.."

"..Not," he continued my sentence. "Stop it, Arin," he said, leaning his face so close to mine, even before I could say anything.

My heart pounded seeing his blue eyes staring so close at me. I felt my face stammered. He didn't realize it, thankfully. I pushed him away gently and as normal as I could.

"Okay, okay," I said throwing the bottle, which still half full, to the ground under a palm tree and then walked over to pick my struggle bat, "Then, let's continue our training, shall we? And maybe this time I can defeat you."

Sora did the same before posed his fighting stance. "You ask for it."

-------------------------------

"Can you teach me how to bake a cake, Lily?" I asked

Lily looked at me as she took a bite of her sandwich. "What?" she asked with her mouth full.

"Please teach me how to bake a cake," I repeated.

She swallowed her food first before then said, "W-Well. I could. But, why all of a sudden..?"

"I wanna give it to Sora," I answered simply before she can even finished her question.

"Sora?"

I nodded. She snickered but tried to hold it by covering her mouth. Her respond made me jump out of surprise and embarrassment. "W-What?" I cried.

She stopped her laugh after a while (At last) and rubbed the tears, which came because of too much laughing, on her eyes. "You like Sora, don't you?"

I blush deep red as she said that, but tried to cover it anyway. "What do you mean? Why did you say that?"

"I don't know. Just wild stabs in the dark," she said, shrugging her shoulder. Her voice was ensuring, though an impish grin across her face.

"I do NOT like him."

"Uh-huh," she said, provoking me.

"I say I don't."

"Really?"

"Cut it out, Lily."

"I will if you told me."

"But I do not."

"Arinaz," she paused her sentence and narrowed her eyes at me, dirty smile still on her face. "Admit it. And I will shut up."

I glared at her and sighed heavily. After thinking a while, I said it, almost like a mumble, "I-like-him."

The grin on her face grew wider. "I knew it."

I sighed again. "Lily, back to the topic.."

"Okay. I'll teach you."

"Great," I said, "Then, what do you think I should make, Lily?"

"Err.." She shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe you'd better ask Riku."

I nodded. "He's Sora's best friend after all."

---------------------------------

"That would be 30 munny," the cashier said when she typed something on the cashier machine in front of her. Riku and I left the supermarket, after paid for the groceries, of course, followed by the "Thank you. Please come again" from the cashier girl.

"Is that all?" I asked pointing at the grocery bag.

"Let's see.. Eggs, sugar, butter," Riku listed all the things we had bought, "And semisweet chocolate. Guess that's it."

"Okay, then. Let's go to my house so we can make the flourless chocolate cake," I said full of spirit, throwing my arm to the air.

He chuckled looking at me. "I've been wondering."

"Yes?"

"What do you like in Sora?"

"What!?"

"Don't deny it. I'm positive that you like him."

I rolled my eyes. "You sounded like Lily."

"Is that so?" He chuckle a bit more.

-----------------------------

"Make sure not to forget to give it to him," Lily pointed at a small box I've been holding.

"You've already said it for about 20 times, Lily."

"Just remind you," she said as we walking down the school hallway.

"I'm not that forgetful."

She smiled and stopped walking when the hallway separated to two directions. "Ah. Gotta go. I have math class this morning," she said turning to the left and waving at me.

"Bye."

"Tell me how it's going later, 'kay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I said rolling my eyes.

"Catch'cha later," was all I heard before I turned to the right.

I have music class this morning. On my way to the music class, I saw the spiky brown hair boy standing in front of his locker. Speaking of the devil.

I started to feel nervous again. I stood still for a while, thinking about should I give it to him or not. But I decided to give anyway, since I'm pretty sure Lily will scold me if I didn't do it.

So I walked over to him slowly and tried to act normally. "Hi, Sora." Well, at least my voice wasn't tremble.

However, he didn't answer. Not even turned his head. I called him once again, louder this time, "Sora, good morning."

Still no respond. "Hey, Sora!" I yelled.

I could see he was paused this time. Although he still didn't turn his head at me, he merely looked over his shoulder. But he didn't say anything so it's obvious there's something wrong. "What's wrong, Sora?" I asked.

"Nothing," was all the respond before he slammed his locker door and quickly walked away.

I grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. "There must be something wrong, with you being so gloomy and quite, Sora. Don't lie to me." He didn't reply. "You can tell me if you had any problem. We're friends, right? That's what friends for, Sora."

He seemed to flinch at my last sentence. And then he grabbed my hand. "Leave me alone, Arin," he said as he swayed my hands away. He then walked away.

"Sora, wait," I called him but he kept walking. I was leaving there, feeling both confused and worried.