A/N: My bad it took forever. My bad.

Author of the chapter: Mamotte Ageru

Roxas' POV

Je n'ai pas peur de la route

Faudrait voir, faut qu'on y goûte

Des méandres au creux des reins

Et tout ira bien là

Le vent nous portera

It was already night. Yet I felt so alive. I had been in America for a few days now, long enough to get used to the time change. Last night I had gone to bed when Hayner, my foreign exchange brother, had gone to bed. And I actually fell asleep. But now I was wide awake and my heart was hammering in my chest. It was to be expected since tomorrow would be my first day of American school. I was so nervous! It was just like the night before I flew over here. My mom was frantic with worry and we were packing. I can hear it now, all her warnings.

"Now Roxas, remember not to sell your body. I hear that's what Americans do for fun."

Bah. She didn't know anything about America! Once she asked me why I was studying about Washington DC when I was obsessed with the U.S. She's my mother and I love her but sometimes...

Maybe I should introduce myself. That's what they told me to do at all those meetings I had to go to before I could finally be a foreign exchange student. So here I go.

My name is Roxas Nanette. I am fifteen years old and a foreign exchange student from France. I am very happy to be in the United State of America.

And that would be our cue to shake hands if we could. Since we can't we're not going to shake hands.

Yep. I'm a foreign exchange student. The funny part is that I like it. Yes, that was sarcastic. Of course I'm going to like it. No one signs up for these things just to go and hate the place they're going to. Duh. But I hadn't been ready for the plane ride. That was for sure.

It had been the first time I had been on a plane. Leaving Paris was alright, since the ride was over ground. I had gotten a window seat so I could peek out and watch my country fly by. As soon was we started flying over the English Channel I went crazy. I got so scared and...ugh! I can't believe I was scared about flying over water! I would have slapped myself if there hadn't been other people around. We had to land in England, though. Mostly because we had to board a larger plane, yet for some reason it took two hours for that to happen. Was stuck in England for two hours with those stupid Brits! I must have looked funny sitting in a chair at my terminal. People kept looking at me. Maybe I looked really angry or something. I really had tried to sit there for two hours but I just couldn't do it. So I went into the gift shop and bought a single rose. I had bought it specifically for my host mother. Just so you know, I'm a charmer. What can I say? I can get anyone to fawn over me, male or female, if I so wish them to do so. If I buy my host mom a rose, she will like me. She will then have a good first impression of me and anything I do wrong won't bother her at all. I'll be a perfect little angel in her eyes. Heh. I'm good.

Finally we were allowed to board the plane to America. I paused just outside of the plane, thinking to myself, "This is it. I'm going to America." People behind me were getting mad and telling me to move. But I ignored them. This was a momentous occasion for me! They should be pausing to take my moment in as well! I took a deep breath and stepped into the plane. I was going to America!

This time I didn't take a window seat and luckily I remained calm the whole way there. The rose sat on my lap, waiting to be given to the person who become our mother in a few short hours.

Sadly, I was asleep for the rest of the flight there. I'm such an idiot.

When we landed is pretty much a blur for me. Everything happened so fast. I got off the plane, found a family of three holding a sign with my name on it, got my luggage, and got into some kind of SUV car. I think that's what Americans call them, anyway. My rose went over well with the mother, whose name is Catalina. That name is very hard to say. Like Hayner, which was her son. The father's name was Tom. I can say that one with ease.

All the way home Hayner was asking me such weird questions.

"Have you ever eaten snail?"

"Er...yes..."

"Do women shave their armpits?"

"I am not a woman so I would not know."

"Are there any hot chicks there?"

"Why are you asking me about hot chickens?"

At this the whole family laughed and Catalina told Hayner to stop asking ridiculous questions. The rest of the family asked me questions as well but they were boring. Things like who my family was, their names, all that kind of stuff. Very very boring.

That night we had something called "Chicken fried steak with gravy." I was informed that there wasn't any chicken in it and that it was really beef. I still don't get it. And they call our French food weird. Escargot wasn't that bad. Americans just thought it was. They were the real loons. Naming dishes with beef in them chicken fried steak? It made no sense. But whatever! I'm over that now!

I had been here for about a week now and I was just about to start school. On a Friday. It felt very weird but that was alright, I suppose. I had to start sometime. It took a while for me to get used to the time change and Catalina wanted me to start when I was comfortable with everything. She really was a nice woman.

"Roxas? Buddy?" Hayner said next to me. We were sitting on the couch in the living, watching some music videos on a channel on MTV. But I couldn't concentrate on them! I was going to school tomorrow!

"Yes?" I asked, blinking out of my stupor and looking at him.

"Dude, you spaced out." Hayner grinned at me, slapping me on the back.

"Sorry. What did you say?" I asked, frowning. I didn't enjoy being hit on the back! Hayner sure was a ruffian.

"I said, 'Are you ready for school?'"

"Oh. Yes. I'm a little bit nervous."

Hayner slapped me on the back again. I scowled but he didn't seem to notice. "Don't worry, buddy! My gang and I will take care of you just fine! I'll show you around the school and everything! Lighten up!"

I smiled a bit at him. Even if he did seem a bit...odd he was still very good at cheering people up.

"I'll introduce you to all of my friends before school. You'll probably have at least one of them in each of your classes." He grinned at me.

"Boys, it's time to go to bed. You have school tomorrow!" Catalina peeped into the living room, smiling at us. Her hands were caked with flour and there was even a streak of flour on her tan cheek. I wasn't sure what she was doing, but she had said it was something special for our first day of school. It looked like it was turning out to be something fattening but tasty. Something very American.

"Got, it mom!" Hayner practically yelled before jumping off the couch and pulled me with him.

"A 'Good night my dearest mother!' would be nice!" Catalina called to her son

"Good night my dearest mother!" Hayner repeated cheekily, beginning to drag me up the stairs.

"Good night Roxas!" She yelled to me. I'm surprised we weren't waking Tom up yet. He was an easygoing man, I'm sure he was being patient with us.

"Bonne nuit!" I yelled back without really thinking about it. Catalina was out of my view, so I couldn't see her expression. She must have been confused. Unless she knew French. I has told her good night in my native tongue. I just couldn't help it.

Once up the stairs Hayner and I went to our separate rooms, him to his rather large room and me to my comfortable sized guest room. They told me to decorate it how I wanted to. I didn't bring much to decorate it with. Decorations weren't on my priority list to bring from France. I was just going to have to get some things in America. Hayner already promised me we'd go next weekend to pick up some stuff.

I slowly slid under the covers of my queen sized bed. It was a very nice bed. I liked it a lot. When I did sleep, I slept like a baby. I pulled my old, decrepit teddy bear to me. It smelled like my brother. He sprayed it with his cologne saying it was supposed to remind me of home when I started to get homesick.

I didn't think I was going to sleep much that night. I was almost right. Visions of cute American girls I had seen in magazines floated around in my mind and scenes played out how I might meet one of them at my school.

Right when I was in the middle of making a move on a cute, petite blond I fell asleep.

The next thing I knew was that there was an annoying buzzing sound off to my right. Off to my left, however, was very annoying singing. It sounded like Hayner, but I couldn't make out the words. Normal English was already hard to understand. Music was even worse. It was all jumbled and mixed and I couldn't make any sense out of it. Especially when Hayner of all people was singing. He didn't have a very good voice at all. You might be asking yourself, "Who is this French kid who thinks he can judge others by their singing?" My name is Roxas. You already know that. Not to brag or anything but...I sing pretty well myself.

Anyway.

I turned over and pushed the off button on my alarm. God that thing was going to get on my nerves. Maybe I would just ask Catalina to start waking me up every morning. Yeah, that'd be nice. I laid there for a few minutes before panic struck me. WHERE WAS MY TEDDY BEAR?!

I searched all through my covers, not finding a single sign of teddy bear life. I was near hysteria. Surely teddy bears just don't get up and walk off?! (I know French teddy bears don't. What if it got a hint of American Teddy Bear Fever?)

As if on cue I dipped my head down and staring up at me, with those beautiful black bead eyes, was my teddy bear from home. It was such a darling. I picked it up and snuggled close to it, taking a deep breath of its scented fur. Still smelled just like my brother. My panic instantly washed away.

Now that I knew my teddy bear was fine and well I was ready for my first day of American school. At that thought I felt my heat starting to beat faster. Okay, maybe I wasn't ready yet. I turned back to my teddy bear and sniffed him again. Once more I was filled with calm. Okay. I could do this. I was going to be fine.

I hesitantly stepped out of bed. I stood for a second, stretching. Yeah. I was going to fine.

It turns out that the surprise Catalina had been trying to make were crepes. She burnt them. Hayner didn't seem at all surprised by this. It must be a normal occurrence. So we had to leave the house early to go get breakfast at a McDonalds. I was glad, actually. I was too nervous to eat much. I downed half a McMuffin and a small portion of a small orange juice. Hayner got angry at me for wasting his money. (Catalina had actually given him the money for breakfast.)

As soon as we got to school I had to go to the office and get my schedule. Oh the joy we can get from a piece of paper. It was great. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) Hayner stayed with me the whole time I got my schedule, then led me to my locker. Guess what he did next. He abandoned me! He said something about finding a girl name Naminé in my first period class. Like I knew who that was. I didn't even know where the class was...

Ugh. Americans.

At least he was courteous enough to show me to my locker. I set my backpack down right in front of it and started digging all the supplied Catalina had bought me from it. She hadn't gotten me a lock so I didn't have to struggle with that. Which was fantastic. (No sarcasm there.) I started to unload binders into the metal rectangle when I felt a disturbance in the force.

"Hey baby."

Well, that was unusual. I turned to the source of the voice. It belonged to some redhead male. He looked a lot older than me, but whatever. He called me baby! Baby. I had watched MTV in America, I knew what that meant. This guy was hitting on me!

"What did you just call me?" I asked, skeptical. The first person I meet in my American school just had to be a weirdo, didn't it?

He didn't answer my question but moved along. "So where you headed?" He asked, moving his head in about eight centimeters from mine. Ugh. He had really, really green eyes.

Have I mentioned that I hate the color green?

"Class of art." I answered immediately, turning my head away. Damn! I meant art class. Stupid French getting mixed up with my English. Why did the English language have to be so difficult?

"Walk with me?" He posed another question on me.

I needed to know where I was going so I really couldn't refuse his offer. Stupid Hayner...

"Er...Only if you don't walk too close." I responded.

"Sounds fair." He shrugged and began walking off.

Ugh! He was supposed to wait for me! I shoved the rest of my binders into my locker and followed after him, almost sprinting to keep up.

"So what part of France are you from?" He was smiling at me in a weird way. It was kind of creepy.

"Paris.." I said in a whisper.

"The closest I've been to Paris is Ireland. Is it amazing like everyone says it is?"

And why wouldn't it be amazing?

"People who live there believe so." I hesitated for a moment, trying to think of something to tell him that would convince him. "Very pretty. The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is gorgeous. The Lourve is amazing. Mona Lisa does follow you with her eyes."

He laughed. What did I say that was so funny?

"So what kind of music do you like?" He asked.

"Uh...I don't know much American music..." I thought for a second. What had Hayner been singing this morning in the shower? "Not screaming."

He laughed again. I wasn't trying to be funny. Really. "Good. I hate that kind of music." He stopped walking and so did I. "Well, if you aren't doing anything tonight maybe you'd like to come check out my band at the Coffee Bean?" He smiled at me funny again. "And before you answer my name is Axel." He held out his hand.

I stared at the hand. Well, this American sure knew his manners. Maybe a little late in the conversation for an introduction but that was alright. I accept it. I shook his hand once before letting it go completely. It's how we do it in France. "I'm Roxas. I'll have to ask Hayner and Catalina first." Why didn't I say I had to ask Tom and Catalina? Geez my mind is leaving me.

"Sounds good. I really think you'll like it. So, what grade are you in?"

"Uh. Um." I had to think about it. What was it called? It went with the number ten, yet it wasn't ten. It was something weird...Shoot...I blushed slightly and held up ten fingers. "This one."

"Tenth grade huh? That's cool. I'm in twelfth grade." He looked like he was about to laugh at me. But I gave him my most dignified expression and held onto my pride.

"Two higher?" I asked.

"Umhumm." Okay, I didn't really understand what that meant. "In America you'd be a Sophomore and I'd be a Senior."

"Oh." I had to chew on that a minute. "Why do they call it that?"

He gave me another of his weird looks before answering. "I don't really know myself. Maybe it's just easier to say I'm a Senior than a twelfth grader." He glanced to something behind me. "We should probably go in. Class is gonna start soon."

I turned my head to look at the clock. He was right. "Yes." I muttered and walked in.

Several heads turned to look at me as I entered. That was okay. I was the weird French kid. I needed to get used to that. A girl over in the corner started to motion for me to come over. That must be Naminé. She was a real cutie.

I let myself smile. This semester of American school was going to be a good one. As long as there were more cute girls like Naminé.

A/N: 'D Yaaaaayyyyy.