Disclaimer: I do not own KH or any of its characters.

Warnings: None

Author's Note: When I started writing this chapter, I had absolutely no idea as to where to begin. There's a little time skip between this chapter and the last one. It's a little bit later in the school year, and despite Axel's distractions, Roxas is doing very well.

Pretending

Chapter 4: Choices

Many students all over the world consider school to be a form of torture. Some people even consider the education systems near useless, due to the fact that you will never use everything you learn, and thus, you are wasting your time by learning things that will never be used. Roxas is no different than your average student, save for the fact that his grades are much higher than average.

Many teachers consider Roxas to be a star pupil. He always arrives to class on time. He sits at his desk after greeting the teacher of the class. He places his supplies for the class on the desk - notebooks, folders, binders, textbooks, pencils and erasers. He always seems to have a spare pen or pencil, and he always seems glad to lend it to a fellow student for a class period. He seems to be almost happy-go-lucky.

During class, he takes detailed notes in a well-developed shorthand. One look at his shorthand would tell a person that it took many years to develop into the sophisticated style that it is in today. It requires almost no writing at all, yet it is easily readable by both Roxas and his peers. He asks questions the second he finds himself confused, politely raising his hand and waiting instead of blurting out the question.

He is a quiet student, but he looks annoyed at Axel's antics. Axel is a distraction to Roxas and the rest of the class, yet Roxas appears to ignore him and continue on with his school work. He is a hard worker, and his grades are proof. He has near one hundred percent in every class. Though he studies hard, he always finds time to spend with his friends, Hayner, Olette and Pence.

Roxas found himself at lunch. He had come from physical education, where there had been a heated game of dodgeball going on. He sat under an old tree, leaning against its tattered bark. His heavy backpack sat next to him. Roxas sighed, closing his eyes. It was late October, and the weather was quickly becoming somewhat chilly. Roxas had been sweating in the school, but now he sat under the tree, shivering slightly.

"Hey, Roxas!" Roxas heard a voice shout. It sounded familiar, yet he couldn't place his finger on who it could possibly belong to.
"Roxas?" the voice asked again. Roxas felt its owner poking his forehead. "You remember me, right?"

Roxas cracked an eye open and looked at the strange figure. He had an odd mix of a mullet and a mohawk. He was wearing a tight sleeveless ebony shirt and baggy black cargo pants that were held up by a studded belt. His wristband seemed to becoming worn out, but the upside down cross on the thick chain around his neck seemed to be relatively new. Wait a second...

"Yeah, I think so. You're...Demyx, right?" Roxas asked, closing his eye lazily.

"Alright! So you do remember! I was worried you wouldn't remember me -"
"- Quit poking me! -"
"- Because you haven't talked to me, like, at all!" Demyx finished.

"Demyx, I wouldn't be surprised if you gave him brain damage from poking him," a strange voice said. Roxas frowned. He didn't recognize the voice. It certainly didn't belong to Axel. Axel's voice was constantly fluctuating in tone and pitch, whereas this voice seemed to be flat and dull.

Roxas opened both eyes and stared at the strange person. He hadn't noticed him when he was trying to figure out who Demyx was. The person had short silver hair with long bangs flowing over one of his eyes, the classic emo hair. He was wearing a simple leather trenchcoat with boots. Roxas' eyebrow raised when he saw the odd book that the person was carrying.

"I...don't think we've met before," Roxas said, getting up.

"What? Me?" Demyx asked. "We met on the first day of school -"
"Not you," Roxas sighed. "The other person."
"Oh!" Demyx realized that Roxas was talking about...

"I'm Zexion," the silver haired teenager said, holding out a hand. Roxas shook hands with the teenager. "I'm a...friend...of Axel."
"I see," Roxas said, looking the teenager in the eye. He seemed completely sane compared to the flamboyant redhead.

"I'll be heading to the library. Come along if you please, Roxas," Zexion said, turning around to head inside. Roxas followed him.
"Hey, what about me?" Demyx cried.

"...Do I even have to answer that?" Roxas asked. He sighed when he saw Demyx pout.

----------

As soon as Roxas walked in the cafeteria, he found himself on the floor. When Roxas looked up, he noticed Zexion was absent, but in his place was -
"Hayner? Sorry about walking into you," Roxas said nervously. "Hayner?"

Hayner glared at the dirty blond on the floor.

"What are you doing with them?" he asked. The pure anger in his voice made Roxas shiver.
"It's alright, Hayner. Really. They're my friends," Roxas said, trying to comfort Hayner.

"Oh, so that's how it is," Hayner growled, crossing his arms. "You're abandoning us, who've been your friends for years, for some emo kids you met a few months ago."
"That's not how it is, Hayner!" Roxas shouted, getting off the floor.

"Bullshit!" Hayner shouted in response. Roxas anger dissolved as he saw Hayner stomping away.
"Hayner! Wait!" Roxas started to run after him, only to be held back. As he turned around, blue eyes met with green.

"You alright?" Axel asked, frowning.
"Yeah..." Roxas sighed, beginning to walk away.

"Hey, wait!" Axel shouted, walking to catch up with Roxas. "Is...there anything I can do to help?"
"Help with what? Ruining my friendships?" Roxas asked. The anger had returned.

"Geez...it's not my fault he got angry, but I'm sorry anyway."

Roxas looked into Axel's eyes. He shook his head when he began to lose himself in their depths.

"No, it's alright..." Roxas sighed. His fight with Hayner had left him with random moodswings.

"He'll cool down soon..." Roxas said."That's the spirit!" Axel cheered. "See you later, Roxy!"

Axel left.

"...Well, at least I hope he cools down," Roxas said quietly.

----------

Life always deals the harshest blows. Roxas had been severely effected by the loss of his friendship with Hayner. Even Olette and Pence refused to smile and wave to Roxas, even when Hayner wasn't with them. Over the next few weeks, he fell further into depression.

Axel had tried to cheer up Roxas with words of encouragement, but the words seemed to fall upon deaf ears. Roxas knew that his friendship with Hayner was over, no matter what he did. Demyx had also tried to cheer Roxas up, but instead of offering words, he acted goofier than normal around Roxas to make him laugh. Although Roxas had stopped laughing after his fight with Hayner, Roxas still smiled at Demyx's antics. Demyx noticed that Roxas' smile had become even smaller as the weeks went by.

Roxas found himself spending every free moment he had in the library. His free time was increasing rapidly as the weeks went by. He and Zexion had soon forged a bond of friendship. Zexion offered no words of encouragement and had never tried to cheer Roxas up. Roxas had discovered that Zexion was a wonderful listener, and would only offer his advice if Roxas asked for it.

Kayla and Michael, Roxas' parents, began to grow concerned. Although Roxas hardly acted different at home, Kayla noticed that her son was sighing more often. Michael frowned as he saw Roxas' grades slip. He knew something was wrong when Roxas began failing every class, even the ones that he was good at.

Roxas' teachers had also noticed a behavioral difference. Roxas no longer took notes and studied and asked questions. The teachers soon saw Roxas joining in Axel's and Demyx's antics. The principal realized that something had to be wrong with Roxas when Roxas was in his office at a weekly basis.

Roxas, meanwhile, was struggling. He tried to study, but he could never find the energy to do so. He found himself slacking off at all opportunities. He eventually didn't care about his weekly visits to the principal's office or his failing grades. He was still struggling to overcame the grief that came with the loss of three of his friends.

----------

The world was silent. Though the night was calm, it was chilly, and both the human and animal inhabitants of the city were within some sort of shelter, be it a small tunnel or perhaps a house. There was an absence of clouds in the sky. The full moon gave its pale moonlight to the earth below. The moon was so bright and radiant that the stars around it could not be seen.

As the minutes passed, light gray clouds began to block the view of the sky. Little snowflakes fell from the heavens to earth and covered the world in a lithe blanket of white. Roxas sat on his bed, looking out the window to see the snow falling. By his side was heavy backpack and a warm blanket.

----------

He had jumped down from his window, landing in the bushes below. He sprinted down the sidewalk, leaving footprints in the snow. As he ran, he could see his breath in the air before him. It had begun snowing harder, a rarity for his town in November. He gasped for breath has he slowed down to a run, out of energy from his sprint.

In the recent weeks, Roxas had begun to cave into the pressures from his teachers and family. He had tried, truly tried, to raise his grades. But, in class, he found himself confused, and no matter how many times the teacher would explain the concept to him, he was still confused. His class rank had fallen just like he had fallen into depression.

He had become lazy in school, and he couldn't break the habit. Though it was still relatively early in the school year, laziness had already become an unbreakable habit.

Roxas felt like he had failed. Though Demyx and Axel had tried their very best to cheer him up, their efforts were futile in the end. Roxas remembered the day he and Axel had kissed. Neither one had mentioned it in conversation, though Roxas was sure that Axel felt embarrassed. Axel had avoided Roxas for a short bit of time after the kiss, but now he was constantly by his side, just like before.

Roxas frowned as he panted for breath. He had stopped at an old bridge. It looked as though it was about to collapse at any moment. Over the many years of its life, rust had accumulated all over its surface. It was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, in Roxas' opinion. In this clean town, the dirty bridge stuck out like a sore thumb.

Roxas jumped in fear as he heard someone say his name behind him. He had been found out, but he couldn't find it in himself to run.

He found himself in a bear hug. When Roxas had finally been released, he turned around, expecting to see Axel or Demyx. Instead, he saw Hayner.

"Come on," Hayner said, leading Roxas to the patch of grass under the bridge. Roxas thought that Hayner just wanted out of the snow.

Many minutes of silence passed. The two teenagers sat on the grass. Roxas played with a blade of grass, noticing how there was no snow around them. They were under a bridge, after all.

"So, what were you doing?" Hayner asked, looking at Roxas expectantly.
"...I don't know..." Roxas sighed.

"You don't know? You have a full backpack and a blanket and you don't know what you were doing by the bridge?" Hayner asked, clearly not believing Roxas' response. "It looks like you were running away."

"Yeah, so?" Roxas replied. "What's it to you? We're not friends anymore, remember?"

Roxas was surprised to hear Hayner sigh. "Listen, Roxas...I'm sorry for how I acted that one day."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"...Apology accepted."

Hayner smiled at Roxas. Roxas frowned when he saw Hayner's smile disappear suddenly.

"I guess I was jealous. I didn't like the idea of you hanging out with other people, especially people like them. They don't look trustworthy enough. You don't seem to fit in with them."

"Well, appearances are decieving," Roxas said, laying down on the grass. "You can never tell."

"So, are you still going to hang out with them?" Hayner asked.

Roxas nodded. "But there's no reason why you, me, Pence and Olette can't get together for a weekend."

Minutes of silence passed.

"So, we're friends again?" Roxas asked, standing up.

"Friends," Hayner confirmed. The two did their secret handshake (though they did it so often, it was hardly secret anymore).

"Be careful out there. The roads are dangerous and you know how people like to speed at night," Hayner said, walking away.

Roxas nodded. "You too, Hayner."

------------------------

Author's Note: This chapter was fun to write. I was experimenting with spacing the dialogue, and I think I found something I like. For now on, I'll most likely be updating every Wednesday. Usually a chapter takes me 2-3 days to write, but I finished this one in one day.