Author's notes: No more death! Yay! I had a terrible nightmare about 'aiding my dog in her death' the other night. Jeez…

My dance recital is in about a week. So not looking forward to it…especially when the girl who's only in dance because she wants to do hip hop is too stubborn to throw her head down because she didn't want to mess up her straightened hair… -kills-

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters.

Enjoy and review!

Chapter 2:

The Freaks

"No," she bluntly said, straightening the papers on her desk, not looking at the red-haired youth.

"Why? I'm a fucking senior! I should be able to! And why should he get it?!"

"Language," she reminded. "I'm sorry, Axel, but you cannot participate in the recital this year…or…in fact, any or the other years. Your grades are just pitiful. Roxas is just…great! You know what I'm talking about, you've seen his grades." The brunette stapled the papers together and set them down in a black paper basket.

"Is that what's holding me back?" Axel's eyes lightened up with hope. "I can get my-"

"Axel, stop. We've been through this before. You say the same thing but nothing ever gets accomplished! Now, unless if you want to talk to me about any good dance routine ideas, I believe we're done here." She stood up from her chair and walked out of her office, closing the door behind her, leaving Axel in to ponder his thoughts. "Hello girls…and Roxas!" She gave a friendly wink to the blonde boy sitting in his sweats, a distance behind the girls. He shrugged it off and adverted his gaze elsewhere.

"Today, we will be picking out music for the recital. Discuss among yourselves what you like and write it on a piece of paper. Then, give it to me. Any questions?"

"What style?" a girl with auburn hair asked.

"That's a good question." A silence filled the air for a few moments. "I'm not sure yet but pick a variety." The girls got up and went back into their packs, leaving Roxas alone, once again.

"What should I do?"

"Oh, Axel will be with you in a second. Lemme' go get him." Ms. Gainsborough smiled as she stuck her head back into her office. "Axel, Roxas is waiting for you." Axel walked out of the office and dragged his feet over to blonde boy.

"Come on, let's get this over with," he droned, walking to 'their' corner. Roxas followed and began to stretch like his teacher was.

"Are we going to stretch the whole time?" he inquired.

"No," Axel replied harshly, "we're going to be practicing some positions."

"What?!" Roxas gasped out loud as his head jerked up from the floor.

The teen doing his splits cocked an eyebrow at him. "Ballet and jazz positions." Roxas shaped his lips into an 'O' and nodded, going back to his stretching, ignoring the feminine giggles behind him.

"Okay. One, two, three, four, five. Got it memorized?" Axel placed his feet in specific areas as he spoke the numbers. "You try." Roxas mimicked him with great precision. "Now the arms. Go, into first." The mentor got behind him and positioned the blonde's arms as he changed his feet positions. "You're good." After demonstrating where his arms and feet should be, Axel tested him. "Show me fourth, second, fifth- good, Roxas! Good!" He smiled at the newbie, congratulating him, "you're actually pretty good. But of course, this was the easy stuff. Now, let's try a pirouette."

The two went through class, practicing all the basic terms, getting Roxas as close to beyond amateur as possible.

"Good job, Roxas. I thought you'd actually complain and whine but you actually listened to me. I'm surprised." The red-haired teen walked next to the significantly shorter one, escorting him to lunch.

"Well…I just thought I should try." His eyes darted to the left and went back, signifying he had lied. Luckily, Axel not knowing him well did not know this. "I actually hated it all, sorry Axel," Roxas thought to himself, watching his feet, "I wish I was crippled so I wouldn't have to degrade myself with such maneuvers. I never had to do anything so…gay, why start now?" He looked up at his teacher and sighed, "I'm sorry, Axel. Sorry I'm not as passionate about dance like you are."

"So, I talked to Ms. Gainsborough before class. It really pisses me off that I can't participate in the recital. Four years, sucking up to her preppy ass, and she won't even let one failing grade slip under her nose." Axel pouted and clenched his fists, displaying his hate.

"Personally, I think you're the lucky one." Roxas bit his tongue after he spoke. "Shit! Did I say that out loud?!" The blonde boy stopped when he noticed his companion wasn't walking with him.

A shocked expression engulfed Axel's face. "What do you mean? Roxas, how I envy you for your grades." He took a step forward and grabbed Roxas's cranium, mesmerized by it. "What I would give to have your brain." The shorter boy jumped back, surprised by the zombified Axel, but Axel shook it off signifying it as a joke.

"I shouldn't have said that, but I'm sure it's obvious. I hate that class, I hate dancing. I only put up with it for the credit."

"Damn…" Axel circled his toe on the floor, thinking. "Then you're really not going to like this," his eyes met Roxas's, locking each other in the conversation, "Ms. Gainsborough is planning on having you in a solo with one of the girls. If I hated dance, I'd do the 'me' thing and start failing one of your classes."

The blonde boy dropped his bag which slipped off his shoulder, shocked by what he just said. "What? Me? Solo? No way!"

"It's been a long time since a guy, that's passing, has been in dance. Well, actually, you're the only guy." Axel leaned over and picked up Roxas's bag, handing it to him.

Roxas slung his bag over his shoulder, his face drained of color at the thought of performing. "I'm so going to get made fun of. Man in tights? As sex addicted society is today, I don't think I want to show off my package." The blonde boy walked into the cafeteria with Axel, who was making excuses as to why dancing wasn't so bad. "Easy for him to say, he's used to it."

"Hey, gotta go, enjoy your lunch," Axel parted to sit with a table of a handful of other teens who shared artistic similarities. The teen turned around and gave an apologetic smile, "oh! And sorry I had to break the news to you." Axel switched back around and picked a spot at the table. Roxas noticed the others who sat there were just as…different. One with a mullet sitting next to a guitar case, one with multiple piercings along his ears fumbling with cards in his hands, another with an off-shade of pink hair with a sketch book clutched to his chest, an emo looking one with his nose in a book, and finally one with bright blue hair, whom Axel sat next to.

"So, you gonna stare at the freaks all day or are you going to eat lunch?" Roxas whipped his head around to see his best friend grinning at him: Hayner.

"Sorry, I must be out of it today."

"Like always, 'ya blonde!" Hayner gave a friendly ruffle to Roxas's hair before trotting off to their normal sitting spot.

The blonde took his seat next to his best friend and across from his other two best friends: Olette and Pence. "So, Roxas, how's dance?" the brunette girl joked.

"Ugh, I think I might have a duet…" Roxas pulled out his flattened sandwich and stared at it.

"Eww…Roxas on stage in tights?" Hayner groaned, throwing down his own sandwich.

"Exactly," thought Roxas distastefully. He lifted is food and stared at it for a moment, thinking of a plan to escape this catastrophe.

"You know, that blue haired guy scares me," Pence started, "he's in my communications class and he just did a speech over dancing and flexibility." The blonde's attention was changed from his food to the conversation. "For his physical representation, he did the splits!" Pence winced as a chill went up his spine. "Seriously, it was wrong. Guys just look so weird doing that stuff."

Roxas frowned, "thanks, Pence, I was practicing those today along with-" he stopped talking, not wanting to explain the feminine pirouettes.

Unfortunately, Olette's curiosity wasn't going to let his unfinished sentence slide so easily. "With what?" She took a bite out of her carrot stick, the vegetable making a loud crunch as her teeth grinded it to mush.

"N-nothing." With his lunch unfinished, Roxas got up and threw it away. His blue eyes scanned the lunch area and caught a glimpse of the 'freak' table. The 'freaks' were all looking at him while Axel was pointing. Roxas quickly adverted his gaze and sat back down at the table. He tried the shrug off the feeling of being watched, observed by the unknown, but he could feel their eyes stabbing into their back.

"Hmmm…" Olette pondered, "I really do wonder what you did because that table keeps on looking at you."

"'Ya got a point there, Olette. I think Roxas might be becoming a freak," Hayner leaned in closer to Roxas, "what exactly were you doing in dance?"

"A pirouette! A damn pirouette!" The tables within hearing distance turned to look at Roxas, who had just humiliated himself.

"What's this?" A teen walked up to the table with his three 'lackeys' walking behind him. "Roxas doing a pirouette? Aren't those a bit girly?"

"Damn, Seifer," hissed Hayner.

The blonde bully looked over at the table who was still watching Roxas, "looks like you caught the attention of the freaks." He smirked at Roxas, "you gonna hump 'em, fairy boy?"

Hayner jumped up from his seat, "shut up, Seifer! Who are you to call gay? You're the one with the damn mid-drift!"

Seifer laughed and so did his followers. "Hey, who exactly get more 'action' around here anyway? You?" He and his gang laughed even harder and Hayner took his seat in defeat.

"Don't let him get to you, he's an ass," Olette insisted to Hayner, knowing his game too well.

Seifer noticed, "what was that, loser? You want some of this?" The bully lifted his shirt, exposing his well-built body. "'Cause I wouldn't mind, except you'd have to charge double the price for your 'services.'" The girl gasped and hung her head in shame. For once, as much as she tried to block it out, Seifer's words have hit her hard.

Roxas took a stand, preparing himself for whatever blow this guy could give him. "Leave them alone!"

"What that's it? No comebacks? Not even you tubby?" Pence, who didn't even do anything frowned and hid his face from the curs. Roxas had nothing left to say. What could he say after his friends had their confidence stripped from them? "That's what I thought." Seifer and his gang turned around, cackling as they walked around the cafeteria, ruining any other's day that got in the way.

"Sorry you guys."

Olette looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes, "its ok, Roxas. Don't feel bad. Jerks like that get nowhere."

Her words meant nothing to him if she wasn't smiling. Roxas attempted to smile but it came up weak. He looked over at the 'freak' table: Axel and the blue-haired-guy were absent. Roxas shrugged his shoulders and forgot about it.

"I'm going to kill that guy," cursed Hayner, biting his thumb, formulating evil thoughts of revenge. "Such an ass…"

Ding…dong…

The bell rang, signifying lunch was over. Roxas was the last to get up, thinking about how he and his friends were just pushed down. "I need to get out of dance…" was the only thing he could think of, wanting to keep his reputation clean.

As Roxas picked up his things, he felt a hand on his shoulder along with hot air against his ear, "don't worry, we'll take care of him." Roxas whipped around, a light blush on his face from the tickle of a breath. No one he recognized could be seen with the flowing crowd of people. It could have been anyone.

Ok, my dance recital wasn't so bad. My teacher has ruined dance for me though. I found out she's been lying to my class and making fun of my class behind our backs. Also, she has also said some weight things about everyone in general. Like she's one to talk, Mrs. Drumstick thighs. Bitch.

But other than that, that's mainly why it took me so long to update. Dace was not particularly one of my favorite things at the moment.

Please review!

-Lady of the Cards-