Roxas had only wanted things to change for the better--or heck, even change at all. His life hadn't really differed much besides the natural, normal changes: going into high school, puberty, what was going on in the news, and so on and so forth.

Then, Monday became Tuesday. It was a Tuesday morning that was, naturally, not going to be any different than Monday. Roxas woke up on his window seat, in the position he felt most comfortable sleeping in: curled into a ball like a cat towards the window. His dark brown hair was slung in his face, and he couldn't see past his bangs until he reached up and brushed them away.

"Rox? Yo, Roxas! You up? Your alarm's been going off for the past ten minutes!" his slightly older brother Sora yelled from behind his locked door. Roxas hadn't noticed the usually aggravating whine until his brother mentioned it. Maybe he was just so used to hearing it...

Roxas rocked onto his back and stretched his legs off of side of the seat. He rolled forward and shuffled over to his desk where he clicked the alarm off with his thumb. "Yeah, I'm up!" he called to the still locked door, not knowing, or even caring, if Sora was still standing there.

"Kay! Oh Roxas--" Sora jiggled the door handle. "Geez, why is your door locked? Uh, yeah...Mom wanted me to tell you that we'll have to ride the bus since she's gotta' give a co-worker a ride to work." Sora released the doorknob. "So, we'll have to catch it at where that dude who also lives in our building gets on." Roxas groaned. He hated the bus. It was loud and the high schoolers, like themselves, the intermediate school kids, and the primary schoolers all rode the same one. He had ridden it once with his best friend Hayner once when he was staying over at his house and another time with Hayner going to school.

Roxas opened his closet and let his head fall back. "Only jeans..." Where was his uniform? He flung a few pieces of dirty laundry from the floor and grabbed the black oxford shoes that were part of his school's uniform. His white shirt was spotted in the laundry pile under his pants. Reluctantly, he replaced the gray soccer shorts he slept in with the uniform's dark fitted blue jeans. He pushed his arms through the short sleeves button up shirt and buttoned it to the top. Now where was his tie? Roxas fell on his back on his bed and starred at the ceiling after pulling one of his shoes out from under him. His alarm clock had said it was seven-thirty, ten minutes before he even normally got up, despite the fact that his alarm clock did go off at seven-twenty. It was weird, and even slightly confused Roxas, but he didn't really care.

Sora was outside of Roxas' room when he finally went out. The layout of the apartment was very small and kind of cramped, so there were three bedrooms and a kitchen that was connected to the den. Roxas' brother jumped down from the barstool in front of the kitchen island. He threw Roxas his house keys, messenger bag, and limp tie before he picked up his own backpack and slipped his shoes on without untying them. "Mom made coffee," Sora said over his shoulder to his brother, "but it's probably cold now." Roxas immediately darted over to the coffee maker on the counter. Coffee! His favorite.

"Mom leave already?" he asked his brother. Sora gently shoved his brother to the side and grabbed the coffee pot and a dish rag that was on the counter top.

"What do ya' think?" he rather rudely asked with an attempt at a smile.

"Yes?"

"Yes. Now drink your coffee!"

The huge, ugly, yellow bus pulled up in front of Sora and Roxas' apartment complex fifteen minutes past seven. The blond high schooler that rode the same bus came out behind then, almost knocking over Roxas as he stood there, gawking. The bus was the same pukey orange as the rest of the city and barely blocked the sun at the angle Roxas was standing at.

"You coming?"

"Uh," Roxas stuttered. He remembered the horrible dream of riding Hayner's bus in the sixth grade. It was hot, loud, and just overall irritating. Just one more year and I'll be able to drive... Not that she'll let me... Naomi, Sora and Roxas' mom, had always been the type to practice tough love. She gave them a crazy curfew, they weren't allowed to have girls over (although Sora had broken that rule once with his ex-girlfriend Namine and twice with Kairi, his current "girlfriend" ), and they hadn't gone to any parties since their freshman year. It really kinda' sucked.

Roxas always hypothesized that after their father died, Naomi grew even more stiff. Ean, their dad, had always been more lenient about...well, everything.

"R-o-x-a-s?" Sora said, stretching out every letter of his name, "Earth to Roxas!" Sora was hanging out of the door by the handle and was starring at his brother.

"Oh, wha'?" he stuttered pathetically. Gotta' learn to stop phasing out like that. "Uh, I think I'm gonna' walk today."

"Why? Just ride the bus. Kairi and Namine are on; you'd have somebody to talk to."

"Uh, nah. I think I'll walk."

"Okay, whatever floats your boat."

Roxas attempted to tie his plaid tie as he walked but failed. Just can't multitask. After fumbling with the little tie that the school just couldn't make clip-ons out of, he finally sat on on the next apartment complex over's stoop and decided to actually tie it..

"Oh-O-okay Mom! God, bye Mom! Yeah I- Mom, I gotta' go! Bye!" Roxas heard someone screaming into the building behind him. It was another student, maybe a Senior or maybe Junior, whose head was poked into the building. He didn't notice Roxas as he jumped down the steps and flanked to the right, the direction of the school. Two steps later, he stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at Roxas. "Issues?" the older student asked him, nodding his head towards Roxas' clumsy hands. Roxas nodded, still a bit pissed off that he couldn't even tie a tie without getting Sora to do it for him. He'd been going to Ridgeview for how long ? The older student rolled his eyes and bent over Roxas and swiped his tie out of his hands and quickly tied it, even faster than Sora normally did. "You don't live with my cousin without knowing how to tie a tie faster than 007." Roxas looked down at the student and looked into his eyes, the first thing Roxas did when he met new people. You could find out so much about people judging by their eyes. What did this guy's eyes say about him? Roxas couldn't really tell. They were just sharp, green, and strangely alluring.