Disclaimer: I don't own KH or any of its characters. "I'll stand and fight. I'm not afraid to die. Elochai, bury me tonight." is from Disturb's song "Pain Redefined", which I do not own.
Warnings: Slight language
Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to get it up. I've been extremely busy for the last few days so I couldn't write. Thanks for the reviews, everyone! They make me a happy author!
Pretending
Chapter 2: Fade to Gray
Summer is a wonderful time of year for students. It provides a wonderful contrast to the hectic school year, that, without a doubt, would be full of stress and homework. Unfortunately, students have to go to school for most of the year, although that makes summer vacation all the sweeter when it came. But, summer vacation was never long enough...
Summer, for Roxas, had passed quickly, too quickly for his liking. He had grown to like going to bed in the wee hours of the morning and waking up well past noon. Sea-salt ice cream quickly became the portion of his diet. The days withered away slowly as Roxas spent most of his time at his computer, writing stories, or in front of a video game console, playing various first person shooters.
The mouse cursor made its way over to the little save icon at the top of the screen, and after a soft click on the icon, made its way over to the large red X. The window disappeared quickly and without any sort of protest asking the user to save again, just in case something would happen. The clock, Roxas noted, said it was two in the afternoon. The computer screen went blank, and Roxas gently pushed himself away from the desk.
What could one do at two in the afternoon? It was already too late for lunch (although Roxas had already had the meal earlier). A snack would be appropriate if he was hungry, but it might ruin his appetite for dinner. His wrists were tired from the two hours' worth of typing he had done before turning the computer off, so he wasn't willing to playing video games or anything of the sort. His friends, Hayner, Pence and Olette were out of town, visiting relatives with their families.
As Roxas lifted himself from the chair and put his wallet and mp3 player in his pockets, Roxas got a brilliant idea. He could go to the mall! A trip to the mall was fun, but you tended to get lonely should you not have your friends by your side. Also, the mall was a great place to socialize when school was out for the summer, and Roxas was feeling lonely lately, due to his friends' absences. Perhaps a trip to the mall would do him some good. Even his mother, Kayla, was insisting that he get out of the house more often.
Roxas suddenly found himself by the front door of his house. His mother wasn't home at the moment, so he decided to leave a note that said he was going to the mall and would be back by dinner. It was a wonderful day outside. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, and clouds couldn't be seen for miles. Although it was warm outside, it wasn't humid enough to bother Roxas. Roxas turned on his mp3 player and hummed along with the songs as he made his way towards the mall.
----------
The mall seemed to be brand new, although it had already been there since Roxas' parents' childhoods. The janitors certainly were doing a good job in keeping the mall look its best. It was rare to even see a piece of trash on the white marble flooring. Every shop was open, and the mall, in general, was bustling with activity. Roxas occasionally wondered how much the janitors got paid to take care of the building.
Groups of families and friends walked leisurely around the mall, several bags filled with all sorts of items being carried in their hands. There were your average stereotypes, as well, Roxas noticed. The goths and emos hung out in Hot Topic; the preps hung out in pretty much every other place. Jocks were walking into the sporting goods stores, and nerds and geeks were walking into the book store. Roxas wondered where he would fit into all of this...what stereotype did others classify him as?
He got off the bench, throwing the
empty candy bar wrapper in the trash can. Cautiously, he walked into
Hot Topic, trying his best to ignore the stares that seemed to tell
him that his clothing style didn't fit in there. He was browsing
through the t-shirt section of the store, when a voice came from
behind him.
"Can I help you?" the slightly older
teenager asked, chuckling as Roxas jumped slightly.
"No,
thank you," Roxas replied, looking through the t-shirt rack.
"The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" the teenager said. Roxas turned around and got a good look at Axel.
Emerald
green eyes clashed with flamboyant crimson hair, and there were
strange triangle-shaped tattoos under his eyes. The teenager was
wearing eyeliner, and by the looks of his long, thick lashes, mascara
as well. He wore a tight fitting plain t-shirt and tight and faded
black jeans. His feet were covered by a pair of combat boots.
"So,
what's your name?" Axel asked.
"Roxas,"
Roxas replied, feeling uneasy.
"Hey...I know you!" Axel
shouted suddenly. There were no other employees in the store to look
at him strangely, and Roxas was the only potential customer in sight.
"You go to Kedal High! Saw you around at lunch, sitting there,
being quiet like the typical goody-two-shoes."
"I don't
think I've ever seen you before," Roxas replied.
"Nah,
you probably haven't. Me and my friends get in trouble a lot, so
we're hardly there. You get a free vacation if you piss off the
teachers," Axel chuckled.
"Yeah..." Roxas said
slowly, feeling slightly uneasy.
"Well, I better let you go,
Roxy. Boss is coming back soon and he don't like me chatting to the
customers. Says it makes me look unprofessional. Like I give a shit.
Here, take my number. I'll call you when I'm off work. You have a
cell?"
"Yeah," Roxas said, taking the piece of
paper that held Axel's number. Roxas quickly scribbled his cell phone
number on a piece of paper and handed it to the redhead.
"All
righty, then, Roxy," said Axel, "see you later."
"Bye,"
Roxas said, quickly getting out of the store. Axel chuckled.
----------
Roxas lay on his bed, eyes closed. He had finished eating dinner and had quickly retreated to his room to await the phone call from Axel. Axel...Roxas wondered why he found the other teen so fascinating. Was it the crimson hair, or the emerald green eyes? Maybe it was that almost bipolar personality. Was it because Axel knew Roxas, but Roxas didn't know Axel? Was it because they had went to the same school for years and Roxas had never noticed Axel sitting under the oak tree?
Axel didn't seem to be a bad person. Sure, he was a little bit on the loopy side, and maybe his appearance was unsettling, but he wasn't the kind of person that would blow up a few buildings here and there just because he was bored. But, as far as Roxas was concerned, Axel was just another human being. There was nothing wrong with the flamboyant teenager.
Roxas' cell phone, which was sitting on a computer desk, began to ring. Roxas pondered about the song's title for a few moments. He recognized the lyrics:
I'll
stand and fight.
I'm not afraid to die.
Elochai, bury me
tonight.
"Hello?"
Roxas answered, recognizing that the phone number belonged to Axel's
cell phone.
"Roxy? Hey, what's up?" came Axel's voice
from the speaker.
"Nothing," Roxas replied, sitting down
in his computer chair.
----------
Roxas' blue eyes slowly opened. He blinked them a few times to focus them as he sat up in his bed. He put his feet down on the soft carpet and yawned. After he glimpsed at his alarm clock, he saw that it was eleven in the morning. He vaguely recalled last night, before he fell asleep. He was talking to Axel for hours. In fact, they probably would've kept talking even longer if Roxas' cell phone battery didn't need to be charged up again.
Roxas headed downstairs, into the kitchen. He placed a bowl and spoon on the table before proceeding to fill the said bowl with some cereal. Before sitting down to eat, he poured some milk into the bowl as well. He noticed that his mother, father and brothers seemed to be absent from the house...until Cloud wandered into the kitchen and sat next to Roxas at the table. Roxas could never figure out why Cloud didn't like to put anything in his coffee.
"Hey, Cloud,
where's mom and dad? And Sora, for that matter," Roxas asked,
after swallowing a bite of cereal.
Cloud chuckled at Roxas'
comment about Sora. "Yeah, when I got up, I thought someone put
me in an entirely different house. Mom left a note on the table
earlier, saying that her and dad were going to visit her mother for
the day, and Sora went with them," Cloud said, giving Roxas the
note that Kayla left.
"'And we know how much you hate, as
Sora calls it, the 'old person smell', so we decided that you and
Cloud wouldn't be interested in going,'" Roxas read. He started
to laugh as he finished reading. Sora described things oddly
sometimes.
"Yeah, thought you might like that part,"
Cloud said, before finishing his coffee.
The two sat in silence for a while, before Cloud spoke again. "...You have school tomorrow, don't you?" Cloud asked.
"Hey, you do too!" Roxas said. "You're a senior this year. I'm just a sophomore."
"Yeah, you're right," Cloud said, drumming his fingers on the table in boredom.
"So, what classes are you taking?" Roxas asked curiously.
"Well..."
Cloud said, thinking, "Seniors aren't really required to take
anything their last year. I'm just taking things that'll help me when
I leave next June, stuff like cooking. I'm also taking some English
courses, and some drawing ones, too. I also have physical education
in there."
"I'm taking..." Roxas paused to think.
"Driver's education, physical education, biology, geometry,
English, Spanish, and history."
"Well, you're going to need some supplies, then," Cloud said, getting up. "Get ready; we're going to Walmart to get some supplies."
Roxas groaned.
----------
Roxas had always believed that Cloud would be a cautious driver. However, he couldn't have been further from the truth. Cloud drove wildly, speeding down the streets, with heavy metal blaring in the background. Roxas was surprised that they arrived at Walmart alive, and without being pulled over by the police. Roxas wondered where Cloud got that wild side from...surely, not from Kayla or Michael, because those two are the most cautious drivers on the planet.
"Alright,
so you're going to need..." Cloud began, thinking.
"6
notebooks...4 folders...5 binders...notebook paper...and pencils,"
Roxas said, determining what he would need. Whatever he didn't use
this year could be reused next year, anyway.
Roxas hated shopping for school supplies before summer vacation ended. You never knew exactly what you needed until the first day, especially during freshman year. Unfortunately, he had no leftovers from his freshman year. He would've had leftover folders, but his Spanish and physical education folders were constantly being destroyed due to being thrown hastily into his locker day in and day out. Roxas only had a three minute break to get to his next class, so he never had time to put his things away nicely, so they would be usable for the entire year.
Cloud placed the items that Roxas listed into the shopping cart. Roxas watched silently as Cloud placed more supplies into the shopping cart. Roxas knew that they both had enough supplies for the next year. Cloud wasn't the one to take chances, though. In their town, after summer vacation ended, school supplies were near impossible to get, especially mechanical pencils and the lead they needed. It was no surprise that Cloud continued to throw in several more things.
"So,
can we go now?" Roxas asked eagerly. Cloud chuckled.
"Not
just yet. Mom needed some things from the grocery store -"
Roxas groaned. He loved the grocery store, but when Cloud was
driving, Roxas began to pray.
----------
Roxas sighed, content with finally being home, surprisingly, in one piece. Cloud had actually driven under the speed limit, and to apologize for nearly giving Roxas multiple heart attack earlier, Cloud cooked a big dinner for Roxas. Roxas would have to ask Cloud to cook more often.
Roxas closed his eyes, exhausted. He barely remembered to turn on his alarm clock before drifting to sleep...
------------------------
Author's Note: And I'm exhausted too. Including this one, I have 7 fics to write. I'm working on this one, primarily. Then I have 3 I wrote earlier and they're not finished yet, but I never uploaded them anyway. And I have 2 I want to write, mostly Kingdom Hearts fics. The last one? I'm writing a LeonxYuffie. So I'm really busy. Hence the reason why this chapter is shorter than the other one.
Anyway, next chapter will be Roxas' first day as a sophomore. Will Axel cause chaos for Roxas and his friends? And will Roxas' parents ever find out the truth about Leon?
