Author's notes: -sigh and slams head on keyboard- Result:

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I seem to have been getting this question concerning the title a lot: "why is it called Size 12? I thought Roxas's size is 10."

Answer: Roxas's size is 10. I'm not an amateur writer who makes stupid mistakes. I love to write and I am very serious about it, so don't mess around with me.

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

Enjoy and review!

Chapter 3:

Friends Where You Need Them Most

"Ms. Gainsborough?" inquired a worried Roxas, "is it true?"

The dance teacher sighed and began to idly twirl a lock of hair with her finger. "Axel told me you wouldn't like it, but…" she trailed off and looked up at Roxas from her chair, biting her lip with hesitation.

"But…dance isn't my thing. Seriously, I don't like it and I think I'm just going to ruin it for the poor girl that has to dance with me."

"Roxas, don't say that," Ms. Gainsborough stood up from her seat behind her desk and placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder, "Namine is an excellent dancer. She will be most likely making you look better than worse. Also, I watch you and Axel practicing, you're quite good for a beginner." Female students began to enter the dance room, chatting away. The teacher looked up and smiled at Roxas as Axel entered too. "Why don't you go get dressed? Class is about to begin."

Roxas gave up and left for the dressing room with a frown on his face. "This woman has so much confidence in me," he thought, "there's no way I can talk her out of this…"

"Roxas, what the hell is up with you? Did that Seifer get to you? Or did you forget what I taught you yesterday?" Axel tapped his foot, annoyed with the blonde's lack of care for his turns.

"Sorry, I'm thinking."

"It had better be about dance," Axel snorted.

"Oh, don't worry," ",,,replied Roxas; his sudden enthusiastic words mocking Axel's taste for dance. "it is."

Indeed, Roxas was thinking about dance and not just smart mouthing with his student-teacher. He formulated within his mind how to avoid the predicament he had somehow placed himself in. Roxas had some appreciation for dance, but it depleted as he was forced to practice such maneuvers for the sake of a recital he wanted no part of. "Why can't Axel do this," he cursed to himself, "he's the better dancer. Plus, he loves it." Roxas's blue eyes focused on the red head who was currently talking to a blonde girl whom Roxas knew as Namine.

Her glittering periwinkle eyes widened with amazement as she watched Axel show off the durability of his joints much farther than the other girls could do. Although, the glint of lust in Namine's eyes showed she was more amazed with Axel's features, rather than his abilities.

"They should be dancing together…" Roxas saw to his right a girl with reddish hair had walked next to him, idly watching Axel. She looked over at Roxas and noticed her comment was not just an aside. "Oh!" she gasped, her blue eyes widened in shock, "No offense, or anything."

Roxas felt as though his burden of the recital just got heavier. "You know?"

"About the duet?"

"Yeah…"

"Yep," she nodded and continued to watch the red-haired teen. "Axel is…" she paused and watched him do an elaborate leap demonstration, "…a strong dancer."

Roxas turned his attention to Axel, who was now approaching him. His leaps had now caught the attention of the other girls who stopped what they were doing to watch him. He displayed a wide grin, "Enough pirouettes, Roxas, I feel a leap is in order."

"Come on man," groaned Hayner, attempting to make his best friend stop bashing his forehead into his ham sandwich. Hayner reached for the blonde's shoulders and pulled him into an upright position. Roxas held high for a few seconds before timbering onto his lunch again.

"Roxas, I don't think it could have been that bad," argued Olette, fawning over her completed psychology homework.

Pence pitched in, "Yeah! How bad could a couple of jumps have been?"

Roxas, who had been digging his face into his whole wheat, turned his face upward to Pence, his head still resting in the plastic protected food. "How bad? My friend, I don't think you understand…"

Hayner let out a chuckle, "You can't be serious. It's not like you turned gay or something," his eyes momentarily flashing over the 'freaks' table.

Roxas couldn't help but let out a quick snort before becoming serious again. "No Hayner, it was much worse…"

Hayner now took a serious attitude, treating this situation with more sensitivity. "Don't tell me…" Roxas looked up. He could hear the urgency in his friend's voice and knew they were on the same page. "You passed gas in front of all those ladies, didn't you?"

The other three's jaws dropped at their friend's dense personality.

"Damn Roxas, that's pretty bad…"

The infuriated blonde roughly grabbed Hayner's collar and pulled him close. "You dumbass," he hissed before throwing him back into his seat.

"Well…I don't get it," commented the usually intelligent girl, who was fast at catching the smallest details, "what did you do?"

Roxas calmed down and sat in his seat. He laid his head on his chest, allowing his blonde bangs hide his blue eyes. "I…" his voice got softer and the ruckus of the lunch room drowned him out.

"Répéte, s'il vous plaît?" asked Pence in French.

"I was…" again, his voice was lost to the roaring crowd.

"Dude, if you don't want to tell us, it's fine," Hayner looked away and pouted, upset that he knew less about his best friend than he wanted. He argued with Roxas some more, "I mean, next time, don't start to say something but leave me hangin'. Just don't tell me, jerk…"

Roxas jumped out of his chair and slammed his fists on the cafeteria table. "You dumbass, I was good, excellent, phenomenal!" His voice traveled a small radius around the table. The students sitting within that radius turned around and stopped to gander at the fuming Roxas. Hating to be the center of attention, he sat down, and his peers returned to their lunch activities.

"Well, that was embarrassing," commented Pence.

"What, the shouting or the leaps?" Hayner said, trying to hold back his laughter.

"Well, if it isn't everyone's favorite fairy boy?" Hayner stopped his stupid grinning and was now showing a face of disgust for the teen that walked over to their table, along with his followers.

"Seifer, just leave us alone!" pleaded Olette, remembering the day before.

Seifer threw himself down at the table menacingly, frightening Olette. "Why? Do I scare you?" He got back up, grabbing the homework laid in front of her.

The brunette let out a gasp and tried to take it back, "Seifer, give that back!" The bully pushed her away, and pocketed the homework, shoving it into his jacket. Hayner leaped out of his seat to give Seifer a piece of his mind. His friends had been tortured by him for the years they'd been at high school. Hayner was no longer going to stand for it.

He put out his fist, aiming for Seifer's jaw, sadly, the big guy, Rai, protected his boss and grabbed the fist. Hayner threw his other fist but only for it to be stopped as well. "You can't hurt Seifer, y'know?"

Hayner pulled away. He would have cursed and swore and thrown more fists if an unexpected person didn't show up.

"Leave 'em alone, got it memorized?" Roxas and his gang turned to that voice: Axel. He walked up the Seifer, dressed only in jeans and a tank. Roxas could tell he just got out of the dressing room, for he still had on his jazz shoes and beads of sweat were rushing down his forehead.

"What? You want a piece of me too, twinkle toes? Oh! That reminds me…" Seifer turned to face his gang and Roxas, "I have a joke for you guys: What do you get when you cross a ruler with a gay guy?" There was a moment of silence that screamed 'what?' "Fruit-by-the-foot!"

Rai was the only one laughing, since Fuu did not show emotion. Vivi, who tagged along, did not quite understand. Roxas saw Axel's hand ball up into a fist, but it merely patted Seifer's shoulder. He pretended to laugh, "Hah, how funny…" His hand slipped over Seifer's shoulder and around it instead. "Why don't we take a walk outside?" Axel directed the blonde cur to the nearest exit; Rai reached out to stop him but a tall man, about his size with fried hair that stood up, was in the way. Seifer tried to free himself from Axel's hold, but gave up as a teen with blue hair came around and assisted Axel.

Those three soon disappeared as the end-of-lunch wave of people passed through, heading for their classes. "Holy shit," swore Roxas, his jaw dropping at what just happened. "They're going to kill him."

"What?" Hayner was looking from where Seifer was last seen to Roxas and back. "Who cares? If they kill him…well, it's no skin off my back!" He got up from his seat and Pence followed, both of them happy with the thought that their demon would leave them alone. Olette, on the other hand, had tears welling at her eyes. Discretion

"Olette, what's wrong?"

She sobbed, "My homework, it's gone. I won't have anytime to do it again, it's due next class!"

Roxas frowned and sympathized with her, "Don't worry, I'm sure your teacher will let you turn it in late, right? Besides, Seifer's gone; he won't be bothering us anymore."

The girl began to regain hope again and nodded, "Yeah." She smiled at Roxas, "Thanks Roxas, you always make me feel better!" Roxas smiled back and opened his arms, asking for a hug. Olette happily gave it to him.

I kinda rushed with the ending…got a little lazy. Really tired too! It's six am! Whee! Another all-nighter accomplished!

I'm on my Christmas break now, (finally) so I should have more stuff updated! Be sure to look for this story because I'm just now getting more interested in writing it!

Also, I noticed this chapter ended the same way the last one did: at the end of lunch. I'll be sure next time it won't continue this little pattern.

And finally: a thanks to fullmetalguitar for editing this chapter for me! It's nice to give some people a break:D

Please review!

-Lady of the Cards-