It was a relief to go to work Saturday morning, a relief to be back in territory that Kairi knew. Alluring Darkness Mall was in the next town over but drew high-school kids from all the surrounding worlds. Most of them cruised the stores and hung around the food court. A Little Bit of Light, where Kairi worked for the last year and a half, was directly across from the food court. The shop was owned by two best friends, whose selection of costumes, decorations, paperware, knickknacks and potions and elixers was as eccentric as their style of business. Cloud and Zack rarely returned merchandise, and it was as if all the seasons and holidays had run into one another in one small corner of this world. Vampire costumes from Halloween Town hung with princess gowns from Beast's Castle; Easter chickens roosted next to miniature plastic menorahs, pine-cone turkeys, and lion costumes from the last Pride Rock costume party.
Just before one o' clock on Saturday, while waiting for Selphie and Olette to arrive, Kairi was glancing at the day's special orders. As always, they were scrawled on Post-it notes and stuck on the wall. Kairi read one of the tags twice, then pulled it off. Couldn't be, she thought, couldn't be. Maybe there were two of them. Two guys named Roxas? "Cloud, what does this mean? 'For pick-up: Bl Blup Wh and 25 pnc.'?" Cloud squinted at the paper. "Well, twenty-five plates, napkins, and cups, you know that. Ah yes, for Roxas-an order for the swim team party. Blue blow-up whale. I've got it ready. He called up to check on the order this morning."
"Roxy-Roxas called?" Cloud looked hard at Kairi. "Roxas? He didn't call you Kairi," he said. "Why would he call me anything?" Kairi wondered aloud. "I mean, why did my name come up?" "He asked what hours you were working. I told him you take lunch between one and one forty-five, but otherwise you'd be here till six." He smiled at Kairi. "And I put in a few good words for you, dear." "A few good words?" "I told him what a lovely girl you are, and what a shame it is that someone like you couldn't find a deserving man." Kairi winced, but Cloud looked at her sternly again. "He came into the shop last week to place the order," Cloud continued. "He's quite a chunk." "Hunk, Cloud." "Excuse me?" "Roxas is quite a hunk."
"Well, she's finally admitting it!" said Selphie, striding into the store. Olette came in behind her. "Good work, Cloud!" The warrior winked with a grin, and Kairi stuck the Post-it back on the wall. She began to dig in her pockets for some Munny. "Don't expect to eat," Selphie warned her. "This is an interrogation." Twenty minutes later, Olette was just about finished with her burrito. Selphie had made inroads on her teriyaki chicken. Kairi's pizza remained untouched. "How should I know?" she was saying, waving her arms with frustration. "I didn't get into his medicine cupboard!" They had hashed and rehashed and interpreted and reinterpreted every detail that Kairi had observed about Riku's room.
"Well, I guess you've only been there one night," Selphie said. "But tonight, maybe. You must find out where he's going tonight. Does he have a curfew? Does he-" Kairi picked up an egg rool and stuffed it in Selphie's mouth. "It's Olette's turn to talk," she said. "Oh, that's alright," Olette said. "This is interesting." Kairi opened Olette's folder. "Why don't you read one of your new stories," she said, "before Selphie makes me totally crazy. Olette glanced at Selphie, then cheerfully pulled out a sheaf of papers. "I'm going to use this new one for drama club on Monday. I've been experimenting with in media res. That means starting right in the middle of the action." Kairi nodded to her encouragingly and took the first bite out of her pizza.
" 'He clutched the gun to his chest,' " Olette said. " 'Hard and blue, cold and unyielding. Photo's of her. Frail and faded photos of her-of her with him-torn-up, tear soaked, salt-crusted photos lay scattered by his chair. He'd wash them away with his own blood-' "Olette, Olette," Selphie cut in. "This is lunch. Something a pound lighter?" Olette agreeably shuffled through the papers and began again. " 'She clutched his hand to her breast. Warm and damp, soft and supple-' "His hand or her breast?" Selphie interuppted. "Quiet," said Kairi. " '-a hand that could hold her very soul, a hand that could lift'-a whale, a blue, plastic whale, I think. What else could that be?" Kairi turned around quickly and looked across the mall to the shop. Zack was holding up a big piece of blue plastic and chatting away to Roxas.
Cloud was standing behind Roxas at the shop entrance, beckoning furiously to her. Kairi glanced at her watch. It was 1:25, half way through her lunch break. "He wants you," said Olette. Kairi shook her head at Cloud, but Cloud kept waving at her. "Go get'im, girl." "No." "Oh, come on Kairi." "You don't understand. He knows I'm on lunch break. He's avoiding me." "Maybe," said Selphie, "but I'd never let a thing like that stop me." Now Roxas had turned around and, noticing Cloud's imitation of a highway flagman, surveyed the crowd in the food court until his eyes came to rest on Kairi. Meanwhile, Zack had managed to hook the inflatable whale up to the store's helium canister.
"Yo!" exclaimed Olette as the whale took on a life of its own, growing like a blue thunder cloud behind Roxas and Cloud. Zack disappeared on the other side of it. He must have cut it loose suddenly, for it rose to the ceiling. Roxas had to jump to nab it. Olette and Selphie started laughing. Cloud shook his finger at Kairi, then turned to talk to Roxas. "I wonder what he's saying to him," Olette said. "A few good words," mumbled Kairi. Minutes later, Roxas emerged from the shop clutching the bag of party stuff, which had been tied up by Cloud and Zack with a fancy blue bow. The whale trailed above and behind him. He kept his eyes straight ahead and marched toward the mall exit.
Selphie called out to him. Bellowed, actually. He couldn't pretend not to hear her. He looked in their direction and then, with a rather grim expression on his face, made his way toward them. Several small children followed him as if he were the Pied Piper. "Hi," he said stiffly. "Selphie. Olette. Kairi. Nice to see you." "Nice to see you," Selphie said, then eyed the whale. "Who's this? He's kind of cute. Newest member of the swim team?" Kairi noticed that Roxas's knuckles were white on the hand that held the whale's string. Muscles all the way up his arm were tense and bulging. Behind him, the kids were jumping up and down, punching the whale.
"Actually, the newest member of my act," he said, turning to Kairi. "You've seen part of it-the carrot and shrimp-tail routine I do? I don't know what it is. Eight-year-olds find me irresistable." He glanced back at the kids. "Sorry, got to go now." "Noooo!" the kids cried. He let them take a few more bats at the whale, then left, weaving his way quickly through the Saturday shoppers. "Well!" huffed Selphie. "Well!" She poked Kairi with her chopstick. "You really could have said something! Really, girl, I don't know what is wrong with you." "What did you want me to say?" "Anything! Something! It doesn't matter-just let him know it's alright to talk to you."
Kairi swallowed hard. She couldn't understand why Roxas did some of the things he did. He made her so self-concious. "You always feel self-concious at first," Olette said, as if reading Kairi's thoughts. "But sooner or later you'll figure out how to act around each other." Selphie leaned forward. "Your problem is that you take it all too seriously, Kairi. Romance is a game, just a game." Kairi sighed and glanced at her watch. "I've got ten more minutes on break. Olette, how about finishing your love story?" Selphie tapped Kairi's arm. "You've got two more months of school," she said. "How about starting yours?"