Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom Hearts. Never did, never will. Yeah, it's a tragedy.

Tohrue's Note: I hope everyone's fourth of July was totally as awesome as mine. It was funny. I went to this huge fireworks show and waited for two hours for the display and although they were awesome in the end, they only lasted 2o minutes. I probably spent more time in traffic with my friend than I did watching them.

Well, I'm going to be with Blowing Kisses/Lvkishugs for the next week and a half, so I won't really have time to update. However, I'm going to be checking and replying to reviews. But by the time Amanda leaves, I should have Take Some of My Love and A Sorta Fairytale, update. Awesome, no? Ha ha.

The Dumbing Down of Love
Upside Down Margaritas and Turns
July Eleventh, Two Thousand and Six

"You'rejoking."

"No, I swear!"

Kairi's lips pursued open a bit as she looked at the brunette in a taken back state. Somehow she had a hard time believing this tidbit of information, despite the fact that her head found it sensible. Riku -- the little boy she'd grown up with, the one who was ignoring her --, was claiming that they were going out? Out of nowhere, a nauseous like feeling began to swell inside of her. Not even being able to explain that, she decided another piece of shocking information would make her faint. The girl not wanting to take a risk, shook her head slightly before taking a step to the side.

"I -- uhm .. I'm gonna go home, I think. I'm not feeling too well .."

"Oh, alright. Do you want me to go with you? I could probably call my driver and have him pick us up to bring you home. Really, it's no big dea --"

She laughed at the thought of being picked up in some fancy limo and taken home. What an absurd thought. And to think of all the gossip that would circulate if just one person spotted them getting in a car together; especially his. She'd only been attending for less than a week now, but she knew the school's social system well enough to know that everyone loved getting drunk on gossip. "No, really, it's okay. I'll just walk home. I need the exercise, anyway."

"Okay .. Well, if anything happens .."

Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out a frayed and wrinkled piece of paper. Motioning his hands towards her, he indicated for her to take it. Kairi's ocean colored hues studied his half folded hand for a minute before she finally reached for it. Hesitantly, she grabbed for it as their hands momentarily locked together. Almost instantaneously, her cheeks grew red in embarrassment. He mumbled something beneath his breath and she laughed nervously as she quickly pulled away with the 'treasure' in her grasp.

"It has my number on it. I still don't have it memorized since I just switched companies for my cell phone, so I was keeping it there incase I forgot it .."

"Oh, ha ha, .."

Their exchanging of words stopped and they both looked in directions opposite of one another. Finally though, Kairi decided that she needed to get home before that pit of uncomfortable feeling grew even worse.

"Well, see you later Sora."

"Yup. Be safe on your way home."

Her chapped lips made a brief smile before she excused herself away. The charcoal boots picked up and soon, she was walking away from him. It seemed their converse of words hadn't fully closed as when she was only about ten feet away, he called her name. Turning around, she paused in her path to see what had been the problem.

"Uh .. d-do you mind if I call you sometime .. Maybe tonight or something .. ?"

His hand rested nervously on back nape of his neck as he looked in her direction, but not right at her. Obviously, it had taken him quite the courage to finally spit out the words. A bit amused .. and yet, unusually flattered, she nodded her head.

"Yeah! Just look up my number in the phone book. Or ask Selphie. I think she has it."

"Alright .. Well, uh, .. talk to you later then!"

"Will do." With a final smile, she turned back around and continued on her way. With that agonizing nervously sick feeling already in her throat, the butterflies that had suddenly shaken up in her stomach were not helping.

After going to the nurse, claiming that she was having some of those female problems, she was almost immediately excused to go home for the rest of the day. With a visit to her locker to get her bag, it hadn't taken too long until she had left the school building and began to walk down the pavement sidewalk that aligned around the fence of the place. Thankfully she had been wise enough that morning to bring a jacket and gloves as it was surely in the 20's and snowflakes were gently beginning to fall down.

Unfortunately, she couldn't exactly say the walk home would be a stroll. Her home was almost half way across the town, which, made everything ten times worse. It was only ten minutes into her walk that she was already regretting turning down Sora's offer for a ride home. By this rate, she would be home when everyone was already eating dinner. She adjusted the strap on her shoulder as she expressed a deep sigh and a quick roll of the eyes. Stupid decisions were something that she was really grand at.

Thankfully her walk hadn't been as long as she had dramatized it. By the time she had turned onto her street, it was close to 1:30; her walk only have been about an hour and a half long. The whole time of being on her feet and undisturbed by any other being, it was easy to think without being interrupted. Her thoughts of the walk ranged from what would be for dinner, if the clothes were on sale at her favorite department store, to certain boys. To be more specific to a point, Sora. Here she had heard all this terrible stuff about him and yet he seemed to be as sweet as possible. Surely though, it was all a facade. He probably was this self absorbed rich snot, who only acted like a total doll to the girls. Disgusting. And yet, she couldn't help but to be secretly overwhelmed that he had asked if he could call her. She didn't know how to feel; foolish or honored.

Coming upon the stoop of steps, she opened her door with a quick twist. Stepping inside, her boots were automatically kicked off as she closed the door behind her.

"Who is there?"

"It's just me, mom. I came home early since I wasn't feeling well."

No response came right away. The clicking sound of high heels made their way across the living area's wooded floor before her mother's slim figure appeared in the entrance way. A cooking apron around her, she rubbed her hands against it as they appeared to be caked in white; possibly from some sort of dough or baking powder. As Kairi overlooked her mother, one of her eyebrows raised in amusement.

"You're cooking? In high heels, a designer summer dress, and an apron?"

"Of course! According to In Style, a woman must always look absolutely adorable while cooking a home made meal for her husband and family."

".. Mom, you know you can't cook. You hate cooking."

"Oh, I know dear, but I can pretend, can I not?"

".. You sure can, mom."

Without a great deal of concern, Kairi let her bag fall from her shoulder and off onto the ground. Once it hit the floor with a soft thud, she placed her foot by it and nudged it off to the side by the wall. She then worked on picking off her gloves and removing her jacket from her upper torso. The beige cargo jacket was soon hung upon a hook and the leather gloves tossed into the nearby bin of mittens and such. Obviously she wasn't expressing too much care about the state of being of her belongings.

"I think I'm going to go up to bed .. I need some sleep."

Kairi rose a hand to the back of her cranium as she began to slowly massage it with her fragile little digits. As she did this, she slowly began to make her way for the stairs. The young girl noted how damp her socks were from the snow that had made a visit into her boots, thanks to the leather that protected against everything but snow and water. As she moved across the wooden floor, she could feel and hear the trail of snow that was now water, leaving a trace behind with every step she took.

"Do you need anything, love? Some milk, a scone, one of my famous upside down margaritas?"

Mounting up the first stair, she tried to contain a smile that surely would have led to bursting out in laughter. Dear? Upside down margaritas? Honestly, the woman had been watching too many of her French soap operas. Or perhaps too, it had been In Style that it was cool to serve your daughter alcohol because it made you more of a 'cool' mom. What a joke. And wasn't this the same matriarch that had been lecturing her four weeks ago at a sit down dinner, that she better never go to a party and drink alcohol and come home drunk, otherwise she'd be under house arrest? Though she loved her mother, she had to admit she was the biggest hypocrite there ever was to walk this town.

"Thanks, but I'm fine. Can you wake me up before seven though?"

"I can do that."

Kairi continued her journey up the carpeted stairs before she finally reached the top. Pulling off a hair binder from her wrist, she soon brought it towards the back. Gathering her cardinal colored locks together, she tied them in place together to secure a low ponytail. She'd known that she had faked being ill earlier, but now she truly wasn't feeling well.

Standing there at the top of the staircase, she absent mindly looked around the upstairs hall; almost searching for something. Because of the clouded atmosphere outside, the light that had fallen through the hallway windows was very little, which, caused everything to be darker than usual. Even the fluorescently white colored candles that her mother kept in the center of the hall, were looking a bit duly colored grey. Finally getting a hold of herself though, she began to head down the tiny upstairs corridor to her room. Half way there, her mother called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Olive juice!"

Or, in other terms, 'I love you!'

BRRRRING ..

BRRRRING ..

Immediately, Kairi shot up from the covers as if it had been timed. Hardly awake, her eyes dove across the dark room to find the green glowing digits reading '8:42.' Lovely. Her mother had forgotten to wake her up. With a slight twitch of annoyance, the girl pushed the covers off of her as she quickly rolled out of bed and across the room. She didn't get it. The phone always had to ring while she was sleeping. Did it ever occur to anyone that she LIKED sleeping? Honestly, an email or a text message never killed anyone. Grabbing the receiver of the phone, she tapped a button and held it up to her ear. With a feeling that she was trying to shake off, she was half hoping it might have been Sora who was waiting on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Heya .."

"Oh. Hey."

Her steps brought her across her room to the white glazed desk. Reaching across, her fingers fiddled with the top of the lamp until finally, the bulb awoke and a light immediately came on. Upon doing this, she moved over to her bed and placed her physique at the end on the corner.

"Listen. I'm really sorry about today and yesterday .. And stuff. I was being a jerk. I realized I .. sorta overreacted.. So, I'm apologizing. Are we still friends?"

The perimeter of her room immediately grew silent, as well as Riku's side of the line. For a minute, she could hear the boy's dog barking which meant he was outside. Last year while him and his family were on vacation, they came back to find the dog had turned their once lovesome living room into a polluted mess of ripped up furniture, gnawed and clawed up walls, and torn up carpet. Hence, it led to the dog's new life in the backyard. So when she could hear the dog's bark in the backroom, it had to mean the boy was outside. Sure enough, when she pulled herself off the bed and over to one of her three windows, she came to find the view of Riku's backyard and Riku sitting on the steps, looking around.

".. Yeah, we're still friends." Despite the fact she was still a tad mad, her voice softened and became elated.

".. Great."

She watched the boy grin.

"But wait, I want to know something. .. I was talking to Sora this afternoon before lunch .."

Immediately, the canvas on his face became deranged -- or, in teenage lingo, a bit pissed off looking. Picking up a rock that lain nearby, he tossed it across the yard. It was a bit too apparent that the boy hadn't really wished to hear anything about the other boy.

"Yeah, you were talking to Sora?"

"Y-yeah .. But .. He told me that you were telling people that we were going out! Like, boyfriend girlfriend going out!" The once relaxed accent of her voice had now became frustrated and unfriendly. "What's that about Riku? Never once we're we close to going out! Don't be spreading lies about us!"

"Well, you see, uh .." She could tell he was having a hard time finding the right words to say. And if he dared to let a lie go past those set of lips, she would know. ".. Just some of the guys were talking to me .. And they were talking about how they've gotten at least 5 new people this past week .. And .. Erm, well, they brought up you. I guess you could say a couple of those guys seemed to be interested in you because they started talking like it .. And since I didn't want them to try anything funny with you or anything .. I just said we were going out so they might leave you alone and stuff .."

At this excuse, Kairi find a new set of emotions. A part of her was thinking how sweet it had been that he had wanted to 'protect' her like that. Another part was raving mad, upset at the thought that he was being jealous his best friend was being "fancied" by other guys and the fact that he had to go and lie to "protect" her. However, she couldn't find herself to set a grudge upon him as she was sure she would have done the exact same thing.

".. Okay. Thanks for telling me the truth. But listen -- Riku, tomorrow you have to tell them the truth! I don't want people going around the school, saying we're going out. If people don't know that we were friends before this, they're going to think we hooked up within the first five minutes of each other and then we're going to have sleazy reputations. I mean, I don't care much about what people think, but I want a good reputation, you know what I mean?"

"Ha ha, yeah .." He sighed. "Alright, alright! Tomorrow I'll set the record straight, okay? But I still get to tell people that we're best friends!"

"Okay," she laughed whole heartedly. Despite the fact that the boy got on her nerves 65 of the time that they were together, she could never stay mad at him. She knew that most of his actions regarding her, were out of their sibling-esque sort of love. But he was a good guy and would have never doing anything to intentionally harm her; emotionally, mentally, or physically.

THUMP.

"Listen though. I have to go. I think someone's at the door downstairs. So I'll call you later, alright?"

"Okay. Sounds good."

"Alrighty. Bye!"

"Ciao."

Hanging up after that, she headed towards the door of her room. Opening it, she stepped out. Heading towards the stairs, she quickened her pace a bit. Another tap had emitted from the entrance of the door, stating that nobody had yet came to see who it was. Mother .. She had probably gone out with one of her male friends-with-benefits, at the last minute; something she was now infamous for doing around their house hold. Sometimes she would leave at six or seven in the evening and come home around one or two in the morning, absolutely intoxicated out of her mind. She'd grown used to it, though. Once highly famous in the fashion Industry, it was hard to kick those old habits that she had gained when she was in her own teen years.

Now in the front entrance, she rushed to the door. Without pausing to think if she should check with who it was, she immediately grabbed the handle and pulled back to open the door. As she did, she came to find who it was.

"Kairi!"

"Uh .. Selphie!"

The bouncy and enlivened brunette immediately invited herself in. Pushing Kairi back a bit, the moment she stepped into the home, she began pulling off her shoes and placing her jacket and scarf on the hook. An enlightened smile sat upon her frivolous lips as they always had since the moment she met her. A bit taken back, Kairi watched in confusion at the amusing yet semi rude entrance.

"Sorry! I was in the neighborhood and then I suddenly remembered .. Hey! Doesn't Kairi live on this street? I remember her telling me about the funny street name and the brightly colored mailbox! .. So, I stopped by! I hope you don't mind!"

"No, not at all!" Still a little shocked, she watched her with a baffled face. "Uh .. D-do you want something to eat or something?"

"Yes! I'm starving!"

Without waiting for Kairi to guide her, Selphie took off into the dining room. Well, if she certainly was making herself at home. Following after her, she was a bit amused to find that Selphie had snooped out the kitchen right away. Settling herself at the breakfast bar, it appeared as if she was waiting for Kairi to serve her. So, of course, the red head headed for the fridge and began to pull out some scones her mother had saved from the bakery the previous morning before, as well as some milk.

"You know, I live about two streets behind you! Gee, and to think I'd never seen you since a few days ago! That's amazing! I mean, you THINK I would have seen you at the neighborhood block parties or at the park or something, but never! And I've lived in my house my whole life! Just wow! How funny!"

Resting a hand underneath her chin, Selphie continued to blabber on about how 'funny' and 'strange' it was. She nodded in her head as the girl babbled on with high-speed conversation. A couple of glasses that she had pulled out from the cabinets, she was now using to pour the milk into. From her point of view though, she had to say that she wasn't surprised. While the 5 mile area of houses were -- not to brag,-- rather expensive and large, it appeared where Selphie lived, was where the parents of families made real money. And while her mother had certainly had a multimillionaire dollar career and could have lived over there, (1) She'd admitted that she'd never felt comfortable in big houses and (2); All the furniture, trips they'd taken, wall décor, cars, and belongings they had, had used most of that well earned money her mother had made in 'her' days.

"Here's your scone."

"Thank you!"

"Yup."

Pulling up a chair, Kairi placed herself opposite of Selphie at the breakfast bar. Ripping off a piece of the bakery good, she dunked it into the glass of milk.

"Hm, you know what was funny?"

"What?"

".. Sora asked me for your number today before ninth period."

An eyebrow rose in a bit of shock as she looked up from her glass over to Selphie. That once bubbly and enthusiastic look had turned a bit dark and suspicious. For some reason or another, she couldn't help but to suddenly feel guilty. A bit .. Well, ashamed, she looked back to her glass.

"Any idea why? I mean, I apologize to you for this, but I did give it him even after pestering WHY I wanted to know. He said 'none of your business' so rudely that I was surprised I even let him have it! I mean, gosh, why would he want to call you? Don't get me wrong Kairi; you're as pretty as bloody hell itself, but if he wanted a girl's number, I was expecting he would have asked for someone else's number. I mean, just considering I always see him and his group of friends hanging out at the café with all those upperclassmen who are already doing runway shows for Chanel and Dior or are upcoming in some movie."

"Oh, ha ha .."

"So. Do you know why?"

".. Well, uh." Even though she knew that Selphie strangely enough hated the guy more than anything else, she knew she had to tell her. "You see, .. Uh. We're kind of becoming friends. I mean, I don't know .. He's really nice once you get to know him!"

"Uh huh. I see."

Obviously Selphie wasn't flattered.

"Well, I have to go." Without any sign of warning, Selphie sat up from her chair. Kairi immediately went to rise as well, but Selphie stopped her.

"No, it's fine. I know my way back to your front door. I'll just see you tomorrow, okay? Okay, bye."

"Ah .. Okay? Bye .."

"Yeah."

Kairi sat back down and watched confused and slightly surprised as the girl left the kitchen. She quietly listened as she heard Selphie gather back her stuff in the front entrance. A few seconds later, the front door opened and then closed. Right after that, Kairi expressed a loud and dramatic sigh before resting her head on the surface of the counter.

But before she had any time to contemplate what had just exactly happened, the phone rang: again. Realizing that she had brought it with her all the way from the upstairs to the kitchen, all she had to do was reach off to the side for it where she had set it. Without even raising her head, she clicked the 'on' button and then held it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"H-HI LOOOOOVE! HA HA HA, I CALLED TO SORRY FOR LEAVING HOME EARLY NO WARNING -- WHOAAA, CAREFUL BUDDY, I'M ONLY 36. THIR-TEE-SUH-IX! KAI KAI, MAKE SURE YOU WATER PLANTS IN DINNER .. DINER ROOM! MMMMMK, MY LOVELY DAUGHTER?"

"Mom, don't get impregnated at the bar."

With that, she clicked the off button and tossed the phone across the counter. Drunk dialing. She could never express how embarrassing it was to have a mother was basically border line official alcoholic partier. Sure, it was 'cool' having a mom who had once dominated the fashion scene and had friends who were among the rich and famous. Designers to musicians to artists to movie stars; you name it. But hardly ever did she act as her mother.

BRRRRRRRING.

"Ah, shut up!"

Picking up her head from the counter, she soon slid off the chair and began to mope out of the kitchen. The phone continued to ring in its obnoxious pitch but still, she ignored it.

"I'm going back to bed."

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