Chapter Two: MONOCHROME DREAMING [DAY THREE]


"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

-Eleanor Roosevelt


Lucky wakes up the next morning to Demyx singing at some ungodly time in the morning. She'd been having the greatest dream ever. She had been accepted into Ultima as the gender she really was. People feared and respected her. For some reason her brother Fargo was there too, apparently he was a teacher. In real life she had recalled that he had enlisted in the Radiant Garden Guard. Nathan and Locke, her other two brothers, had been there as well to congratulate their sister on a job well done. But alas, it had been nothing more than a dream.

"Everything's in order in a black hole," Demyx sings, strumming down on his Nobody symbol guitar.

Lucky, still half asleep, groans and throws one of her pillows at him. She doesn't bother to look and see if it hits him, which it doesn't. She rolls over onto her side to face the wall and pulls her cover over her small body.

"Aww c'mon Lucky… Don't tell me you're still mad at me for yesterday!" Demyx whines.

In fact she was. The first full day they had been roommates Lucky had learned what exactly Demyx was good at- water manipulation. She'd been in the shower when the water formed into the few things she was afraid of, snakes. She screamed bloody murder and almost slipped in the shower trying to get away from it. She made sure to grab a towel on the way out. She came face to face with Demyx and a bunch of water clones who were sitting on the edge of his bed, giggling. Lucky was not to thrilled about that.

"It has nothing to do with that… It's too early to be singing like you're in the shower." She lies, flipping over onto her back to glare at him. His side of the room has been decorated with various band posters, like the Arctic Monkeys, Thrice, and Interpol. He has replaced the silver comforter that originally came on the beds with a black one that has white Nobody symbols printed all over it. Lucky has decided to keep her side as it came, believing that it will be too much of a hassle to change when the school year comes end. That is assuming she makes it to the end of the school year.

"Don't you have a class this morning?" Demyx smiles, holding up what appears to be her class schedule.

"O-Oh! Cosmos! Yes, I do!" She shrieks. She immediately scrambles out of bed, grabbing the uniform she'd worn the previous day during orientation and running into the bathroom. She wishes she was where she should be. She wouldn't need to worry about changing in front of a girl. Maybe she'd get to a point where she wouldn't have worry about changing in front of her roommate. Pffft! Yeah right! Maybe when Tonberries become less vicious.

When she's done getting dressed, she grabs her two texts books for the only classes she has today; A Study in Magic and Materia Fusion/Identifying Materia. She snatches her schedule away from Demyx who tells her not to get to lost and come back to the dorm at a decent time.

She runs down the hallway as fast as she can- past the main hall, infirmary, and dining area- then she makes a sharp right when suddenly she collides another student. She topples over the student's fallen body. Her books fly out of her hands landing somewhere on the other side of the hallway.

"Ah Cosmos!" Lucky cries, untangling herself from the other student, "I'm so sorry! Ah! I mean! Are you okay?"

"Shut up," The other student says, sitting up. The student is a male who has purple hair with tints of silver that covers one of his blue eyes. He looks rather gloomy and his face is kind of sunken. More importantly, he has a gold and white stripped tie. Ultima. "Loud first years always getting on my nerves." He hisses, getting to his feet. He takes one look at Lucky and his face scrunches up in disgust. "Oh, even better. Stupid Monochrome first years. You never take anything seriously and now because of you I'm going to be late." He begins to pick up his books.

"I'm…uhm… sorry," Lucky apologizes in a low voice as she looks at the ground. She grabs one his fallen books and holds it out to him. He snatches it from her hands. What a jerk… Demyx was right… They are power happy. Are most people of Ultima like this? I can't believe I'm saying this… but I'm actually glad I'm not in Ultima. I'm glad Demyx is my roommate. I don't think I'd be able to handle this guy if he were my roommate… Maybe he's only a jerk to people outside of Ultima… Somehow she doubts that.

"Whatever," He shrugs, leaving her alone as he takes off down the hallway.

Lucky picks up her fallen books and continues toward her first class, A Study in Magic. The bell rings just as she takes a seat at the bench in between an Ultima and Oblivion. She does a double when she realizes the two are twins. The Ultima one has spiky brown hair and blue eyes while the other has spiky black hair and yellow eyes. The Oblivion one looks like Chaos spawn or something. I might want to change my seat tomorrow.

The Ultima kid notices Lucky sit between him and his brother and immediately introduces himself. "Hi," He smiles holding his hand out to her, "I'm Sora Cassablancas, nice to meet you."

Lucky, a bit taken back by this stares at him for a seconds before taking a hold of his hand and shaking it. "Uhm… hello… I'm Lucky Smith…"

"Oh, I remember you," The Oblivion kid snickers as he leans on his arm, "You're the first year that started crying on stage."

Lucky smirks, folding her arms, "I didn't cry."

"Yeah, sure," He rolls his eyes, "How's Monochrome treating you? You become useless yet?"

Lucky glares at the Oblivion who just smiles back at her.

"Vanitas, stop," Sora says, reaching around her and tapping his twin on the shoulder, "Don't be rude. He's one of our peers whether or not you like it."

Lucky grits her teeth at this comment. I really need to get a girl's uniform and let my hair grow out. Maybe even put on some make up or something. This is getting ridiculous.

She decides to tune the twins out, who've started bickering even more, and look around the classroom at the other students. She immediately spots the Monochrome with green hair sitting up in the front center table, talking to a girl with a blue and white tie, Oathkeeper. Her short wavy hair is blue, but it almost looks silver. Her eyes are an azure blue color. The girl doesn't seem to want to talk to him, but he continues to chat away like there's no tomorrow. Sitting on the right side of the talkative boy is a another Oathkeeper girl with short black hair and radiant blue eyes. She listens intently to the kid talking, not at all bothered by his attempts to be friendly. At the table to the left of them sits an Ultima girl with long black hair and green eyes. She twiddles her thumbs. She doesn't seem to be comfortable around the Oblivion boys sitting on each side of her. One of the boys has long blue hair and yellow eyes. The other has spiky reddish brown hair and emerald green eyes. The one with blue hair says something to the red head and he grins. At the table to the right of the green haired Monochrome is another Oathkeeper girl with long blonde hair reaching just below her shoulders. She sits alone. Behind her sits the Monochrome with a weird tail and an Oathkeeper boy with messy brown hair and blue eyes. Both seems to be having a lot of fun in each other's company.

Their teacher turns out to be a creepy guy named Vexen Holmes that Lucky's brothers had warned her about on countless occasions. During her brother Fargo's last year in C.O.A. apparently he was a suspect in the disappearance of about ten students. But since they didn't have much to go on, that's all he was, a suspect. Lucky can't help but wonder why the school would let a suspect in a murder investigation come back to teach.

"I will be setting you up in groups of two. This person will be your partner for the remainder of the year. You will complete projects and quests with them no mater how much you may or may not like them," Vexen says, right eye twitching. A few students notice this, including Lucky and they all lean back in their chairs. Vanitas even makes a snide comment about it to Lucky but she ignores him. Vexen takes out a small pack of index cards where he has each student and their partner listed. "Please stand up when your name is called."

"Kuria Azel and Kite Highwind," He says for the first group. Almost immediately the green haired boy and the girl he was talking to stand up. The two look at each other for a brief moment before the girl sighs, cursing Cosmos or whoever it is that has destined them to be partners. Kite, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind this, in fact he smiles at her.

"Namine Hearthome and Sora Cassablancas." Beside Lucky, Sora stands up as does the girl who was drawing seconds before. She'd been hoping that Sora would be her partner. She watches, disappointed, as Sora goes to stand by his new partner.

"Isa Yorkes and Lea Knowles." The two Oblivion friends nod at each other as they stand up.

"Xion Grants and Exandra Wille…" The two girls with black hair stand up and give a quick glance at one another. The one with the shorter hair goes to stand by her partner. Neither seems to mind the other, at least as far as Lucky can tell.

That leaves four more students; Lucky, the kid with the tail, the kid who seems to have befriended the kid with the tail, and Vanitas. Lucky hopes with all her heart that she gets either the kid with the tail or his friend. Anyone but Vanitas. She doesn't even care if she has to partner up with the suspected killer. She doesn't want to have deal with Vanitas's attitude.

"Bartz Klauser and Zidane Brookfield." The two friends give each other a thumbs up as they stand up.

Lucky buries her face in her hands as she and Vanitas get to their feet. I think I may need to change my name to Unlucky.

"Lucky Smith and Vanitas Cassablancas."

"Well, this sucks… I get the cry baby as my partner," Vanitas smirks.

"Shut up…" Lucky sighs.

"Take a seat next to your partners. No more than one group at a table. The open your books to page six," Vexen says taking a seat at the desk in front of the classroom.

Vanitas and Lucky sit back down at the table they had been sitting in only moments before. Lucky flips open her book to the page and on it is the class overview.

"This class will coincide with all the other magic classes you will be taking at some point this year. If you fail this one, it is likely that you will fail the others. You will all be in the same magic classes and that is why it is important that you get to know your partner even if you may or may not like them," Vanitas coughs loudly at this and Lucky frown up. "Part of your grade is how well you and your partner work together. Can you complete a project, task, or quest you and your partner are given without much of a fuss? Does your partner trust you enough to protect them? Will they try to save you if you get hurt or injured? Would you? Stuff like that is just some of the many things you will be graded on your knowledge of magic. You will also be graded on your knowledge of magic. You will learn the different levels of Aero magic, even the first mage to cast Aero," Vexen tells us.

Class continues on for another hour and by the time it is over, Lucky has grown to dislike Vanitas even more. He doesn't seem to realize that Lucky is a girl and she would like to keep it that way because who knows what he would do if he knew. She'd rather take a punch to the shoulder, which he had inflicted on her while they were joking around- well as much as Vanitas can joke around without making snide comments about Monochrome and the supposed fact that Lucky had cried while being sorted- then a punch to her breast.

"See you around, Lucky," He pats her on the shoulder in which he had punched and she winces from the pain.

Lucky runs into Demyx on her to her next class. He's with another Monochrome. The kid has mess dirty blonde hair and faded green eyes. Lucky recalls seeing him with Zidane as she left for her first class. Judging by the way he's just standing off to the side, Lucky comes to the conclusion that he isn't a first year.

"Ah! Speak of the Chaos!" Demyx smiles as he notices his roommate walking towards him and his friend.

"By any chance do you know where room 212B is?" Lucky asks, looking down at her schedule.

"Of course we know where it is. We'll show you where it is," Demyx's friend winks, "Gotta help our own."

"Uhm… yeah…?" She scratches her head nervously.

"Oh, where my manners?" He says shoving his hand out to her for her to shake, "I'm Pengause Fienderson of Monochrome."

"That's a mouthful," Lucky laughs as she shakes his hand firmly, "Can I call you Penny?"

"No," Pengause replies immediately, grin disappearing.

Demyx holds his stomach as he laughs hysterically. He grips onto his friend's shoulder so he doesn't fall over. Pengause and Lucky just stare at him, clearly not amused.

"Well, anyway…" Lucky says, turning her attention back to the other Monochrome, "I'm Lucky."

Pengause studies her for a few seconds, "Hmm… Lucky? Oh! Oh yes! You're the Monochrome boy that started crying on stage," He nods his head. Demyx laughs even louder at this. He doesn't know which is funnier, her being called a boy or her being called a boy who cried on stage.

"I-I did not cry!" She hisses, crossing her arms and turning away from them.

"Y-Yeah… Yeah you did," Demyx snickers, then goes back to his laughing fit. "Penny! Oh Cosmos! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Shut up," Pengause snaps, wiggling free of Demyx's grip. "Call me Penny again and see what happens…"

"Penny~"

Lucky decides to leave the two to their bickering, not wanting to take the blame for his new nickname. She hopes that Vanitas won't be in her next class since she's not sure if she can take anymore of his malicious attitude. But knowing her luck, she probably won't get her wish.

Upon entry to room 212B, Lucky without delay notices the twins sitting in front corner of the room. She also notices Kuria sitting next Namine in the front center table, Kite sitting with an Ultima boy with silver hair and aquamarine eyes that wasn't in her previous class, Xion sitting next to an Oathkeeper girl who looks similar to Namine, but instead has reddish brown hair, and lastly Isa sits in the back right corner with Monochrome boy with red violet hair forming into an arch in the front. He has blonde highlighted tips.

Lucky tries her best not to be detected by Vanitas as she takes a seat in the back at a free table. However, the stool she sits on betrays her almost as soon as she sits down on it by making a loud screeching noise. Everyone turns to look at her and she puts her forehead on the table, cursing silently to herself.

"Lucky, the crybaby has decided to join us," Vanitas snickers.

"Shut up," She hisses, mentally punching herself in the face.

"C'mon, partner," Vanitas says getting up to go sit by her. Vanitas will not lie and say he does not enjoy picking on Lucky. In fact he's hoping the Monochrome will scream obscenities at him by the end of the period. "We've got to get along." He slides a stool next hers and she mentally curses everything.

"Go away Vanitas," Lucky groans, face still glued to the table. She reaches her hand out towards him and tries to shove him out of his stool.

"Oh, with that attitude we aren't going to get a decent grade," He laughs, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back.

"O-Owww!" She yells, voice high pitched.

Vanitas immediately releases her arm and stares at her wide eyed. "A crybaby who sounds like a girl," He says.

"Vanitas leave him alone," Sora says.

"Yeah, Vanitas," She mimics Sora, as she massages her arm, "Leave me alone."

"That's not the way you should talk to your partner," Vanitas grins as he shakes his disapprovingly.

"Why don't you go sit with your brother?" She groans, scooting her stool away from his.

"No way. This is our bonding time," He smiles, but it quickly disappears, "That sounded a lot better in my head."

Lucky flat out laughs at him. Vanitas doesn't seem to take this well. He glares at her and she glares right back, trying her best not to smile at his failure.

Much to Lucky's surprise, their teacher is Cid Highwind, the Monochrome house representative. He rolls in a cart filled with small orbs, each glowing radiantly. On the bottom part of the cart is a strange looking machine with a tube wide enough to fit one orb at a time. He begins handing each student two of the orbs each. Lucky receives a lime green orb and a clear orb. Beside her Vanitas receives a ruby orb and purple orb. Kuria receives an aquamarine and a grey orb. Namine receives a silver and yellow orb. Kite receives a lime green and pink orb, which he isn't too happy about and demands a different color. Beside him, the Ultima kid receives a silver and purple orb. Xion receives a yellow and ruby orb. The girl next to her receives an silver and clear orb. Isa receives a cobalt blue and lavender orb. The boy next to him receives an aquamarine and clear orb.

"For those of you who don't already know me, I'm Cid Highwind. I will be your teacher for Materia Fusion. Yeah, those little orbs you're holdin' are Materia. Materia is the source of magic and some physical attacks. Each time you use Materia against a monster or someone who is just tryin' ta kick yer ass, you receive experience points. The maximum level Materia can grow is three. When it is at level three, you no longer need to have the Materia on you ta cast the spell or attack. When it is at level two or higher you can use it for Materia Fusion ta make different magic spells and attacks. These are needed for your magic classes so don't lose them. By the end of next week I expect you have leveled up your Materia at least to level two. Don't go out challenging people from other houses because that will just get yer sorry ass in trouble. All right. Quiz time: How exactly do you use Materia?" Cid says scanning the room for a potential victim. He locks eyes with Vanitas, when Kite raises his hand. "And we have a contestant. Stand up and say yer name kid."

"But you know my name…" Kite frowns.

"Some of the other kids don't," Cid snaps, "Now stand up and say yer damn name."

"Fiesty, aren't you?" Kite sighs, standing up, "Hi, my name Kite Highwind and I'm addicted to Elixirs. Every night I drink my self into stupor. I've tried to stop, tried rehab, but nothing ever works."

"Hi Kite," Vanitas and Sora say in unison.

The entire class, even Cid, erupt into laughter.

"I'm not really addicted to Elixirs, just so you guys know…" Kite smiles, "Uhm… Anyway…" He scratches his head as the laughter dies down. He holds the lime green orb up. "To use Materia you just have to hold in your hand and say the name of the spell or whatever."

"Correct," Cid says and Kite sits back down. "After you get used to casting magic you won't need to say the attack, but since you are all beginners it's recommended you do. Who wants to give it a try?" Kite's hand immediately flies up, "Put your hand down. If you don't volunteer I'll just start picking." The girl that looks like Namine raises her hand. "You, the red head."

"I'm Kairi Hearthome," She says, getting to her feet. She clutches the clear orb. "Cure. I think?"

Suddenly holographic leaves appear over Sora's head they sprinkle down onto him then disappear.

"Great job, kid. In order ta choose who you're going to exactly use the magic spell on if they're in the area, which they almost always have ta be think their name or what they look like otherwise you might end up using the spell on the wrong person and that can mean the matter of life and death in the battle field," He explains to the students who all sit in silence, listening intently to what he is saying. Lucky is surprised that Vanitas has kept his mouth shut thus far.

"May I try mine?" The nameless Monochrome thus far asks, holding up his hand.

"Sure thing." Cid nods.

The Monochrome kid stands up and hold out his aquamarine Materia. "Hello, everyone. I'm Samuel," He bows.

"Get a load of this kid," Vanitas snickers, nudging Lucky in the side. Lucky just sighs and scoots her chair away from him even more.

"Water," A water orb appears over Vanitas's head and explodes causing water rains down on him.

Lucky starts laughing, while Vanitas isn't at all amuse.

"Hmmph!" Vanitas gets to his feet, holding his purple materia, "Gravity!" He yells. Strange purple orb appears over Samuel's head and he's forced to the ground when it touches him. The tiles begin to crack underneath the Monochrome while Vanitas stands over him grinning, "Name's Vanitas."

"Ill tempered, is what you are," Samuel says dusting off his uniform once the effects of Gravity disappear.

"Whatever," Vanitas rolls his eyes as he sits back in his seat.

By the time class is over Lucky learns that her two orbs are Aero and Cure. She's a little disappointed she didn't get Stop like Namine, Riku- the Ultima boy, and Kairi. Being able to stop an advancing opponent would be useful. She hopes that next time she can pick out her new Materia. She secures the two orbs in her pocket. Lucky looks down at her schedule- Lunch.

When she arrives, the dining area is packed. She heads straight for the Monochrome table where she spots Demyx, Kite, Pengause, Samuel, Tifa, Vaan, and Zidane all at one end of the table. She smiles until she is intercepted by a few Ultima and Oblivion kids. She immediately stops in her tracks, noticing the lunch room has become quiet. Her heart leaps, wondering if they've figured out she was a girl. Not that it should've been a big deal or anything.

"Huhh… So you're Fargo's brother?" The purple haired Ultima that she had crashed into earlier says.

Of course. Silly me. To think that anyone else aside from Demyx would figure out I'm a girl.

"Uh…yes?" She raises an eyebrow to him and the others.

"Your brother would be very disappointed to find out his own flesh and blood ended up in that trash house," He shakes his head disapprovingly at her. "Shame, really. I'm going to assume you aren't as strong and dedicated as your brothers."

Lucky's eyebrows furrow. She bites her lip to keep herself from saying anything back.

"To think he expected a lot out of you…" He continues. "Monochrome is a house of failure. They come in fourth place for house points every year. Almost all of them end up dying in the war because they're not experienced enough. Did you know-"

"Shut your damn mouth, you spineless coward!" Lucky yells, pointing her finger at him and the others crowded around him. She really hopes that her partner isn't amongst the group, otherwise it would probably make their relationship strained. "Who gives a damn what house I'm in? We're all human here aren't we? We're all going to fight the same war! And you know what, before coming here I might've said the same thing. But they way you people act towards us Monochrome makes me disgusted! And you know what? I'm going to make sure we stomp your house into the ground and secure the House Prize for ourselves!"

The Ultima's eyes narrow. "Just you try it. You don't even stand a chance."

"Bring it on, Gloomy," Lucky sneers, stepping around them. She heads straight for her table, a big grin on her face. She wasn't going to let Monochrome or Oathkeeper for that matter, lose to Ultima and Oblivion. She would make her brother's proud. She was going to proud of calling herself Monochrome. She would make the others too.

Clapping erupts all around the dining area.

"Dammmmn!" Demyx howls as Lucky sits down at the bench, "You just told off Zexion!"

"B-Be quiet," She stammers. Her face glowing red from the entire situation. She wasn't too good people watching her. Even now she was pretty sure that others were staring her down.

"Lucky, that was most admirable," Pengause pats her on the back.

"We're going to win that House Prize."


Aeroga: I'll be using all of the Original Characters submitted. I think I have a total of 13. I won't be accepting anymore. Any OC that didn't appear in this chapter will appear in the next. People that are the age of 17 and older will be second, third, or fourth years. Anyway, hope you've all enjoyed this chapter.