Tohrue's Note: Mm. I can't believe that my last update for this story was when school had just gotten out. And now, as I'm updating the next chapter for this, it's not only already the next year of school, but almost the end of Quarter I for me. .. And I'm positive I'm failing my science class. ):

Oh well. At least Halloween is almost here!

100 Days With Mister Arrogant
Written by Tohrue
Ready, Set, Dress

October 21st, 2006

"What?" Kairi blinked a couple of times.

"Yeah, you heard me."

".. Um."

"What?"

Setting what was left of crust for her sandwich down onto the plate, she felt her cheeks redden a bit. Embarrassed by her rather rude eating habits? Hardly. Just the fact of being in front of a lot of people and getting attention made her rather queasy with the stomach. It was one thing with this whole . . contest that she might get her picture taken while shopping or something, but another when she was to walk the red carpet and having blinding bulbs flash before her eyes. And presenting an award? Now that was just like asking a blind man if he could pick out the pink pair of sandals from a collection of shoes.

"I can't do it. There's no way."

She shook her head.

".. Well, I'm sorry to say that you really don't have a choice, cheeks."

A slight twitch came to her as the nickname 'cheeks' was addressed towards her, but it was the least of her problems. Being told her right of having to do or not do something was really what threatened the gas from being poured over the fire.

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"No. But your contract can. And ..," Sora paused as he stood up from the table. "I have to say that if you refuse, my lawyers probably won't hold back from suing. Not to mention any possible angry press and the head of the Cosmo's who would, by the way, have to rearrange everything seeing as your presentation skit has already been wrote."

"Wha--"

"But hey!" His voice became obviously fakingly sincere. "At least you get some pretty dresses and jewelry to keep, right? .. Which, speaking of that, I have Aerith taking you to Interlude Lane tomorrow to do your shopping for the show. I think Riku has you scheduled you to leave around 8 AM so I'm guessing you'll want to get up around six."

"Ah -- ugh -- well, no, you see --"

"Let the cat keep your tongue. Need to save your voice for the big night in a couple days."

Grinning a satisfied smile at Kairi, the tall brunette soon disappeared behind the swinging kitchen doors. Obviously it seemed he had better things to do then argue with pretty local Island girls. With this, the thin bodied girl sunk down in her chair, folded her arms across her chest, and leaned back her head to exfoliate a long and stressed seeming sigh.


DAY TWO

For the rest of that first day, everything had been miserable. Turned out the sandwich wasn't a great sandwich as she soon found herself sharing it with the toilet bowl after 2 hours of a twisting pain in her stomach. Yuffie and Selphie went to the carnival for the evening which had just left Kairi with no one to bash on. So, thankfully to Gepetto's generous offer and suggestion to Sora, she had been able to get out of the house and leave for the spa for the rest of the night. By the time she had gotten 'home,' she had immediately fallen asleep within seconds of hitting her bed's pillows.

The next morning, Kairi had been awaken early to get ready for early bird shopping on Interlude Lane. Interlude Lane was basically the equivalent of where Kings and Queens may have shopped during the period of time of their ruling. Those who came their to spend money were serious shoppers. A three hundred dollar wallet would be considered 'cheap' and obviously 'poorly manufactured' as opposed to a seven hundred dollar wallet where it would be considered 'much better' despite the quality and design.

Upon getting in the limousine, Kairi quickly came to learn that Aerith was seriously and heavily involved in her work as an personal assistant. Before their butts had hit the leather interior of the car, Aerith was already explaining what they needed to get. She went over the rules for each dress -- for example, her red carpet dress had to be long and eloquent as opposed to her presenting dress which would be shorter and a bit more revealing. Then their was how her hair would be worn for each changing, as well as jewelry and makeup. However, within just a small fraction of time of explaining, Aerith was on the phone.

"Yes, sir. I have her going to Recherché's. Guston said tha -- oh, no sir. .. Oh. I see, sir. I promise. .. Yes. I'll have those on your desk when I get back. ... .. Okay. Sounds good. .. .. .. Alrigh -- oh, no. I had her dress casual, sir. She'll be wearing a hat, so there's no need to fret. She won't be recognized. Even so, not everyone has seen her picture in the media yet. It is after the Cosmo's where things will get quite ancy -- .. Oh, I'm sorry sir. I didn't mean to be rud -- .. Alright, sir. Goodbye."

Removing the attached phone from her ear, it seemed for a moment that the older woman was going to let herself fall into a frown. Thankfully though, she caught herself, and a smile came on.

"You shouldn't let him treat you like that, dear." Gepetto added after a moment from the driver's seat.

"Oh, well, .. you know Riku. He's just concerned about Sora's career. You know him; wants everything to fall perfectly into place."

"Yes, but --"

"No, Gepetto, it's fine."

Closing the conversation with a tight seal of a smile, awkward silence soon followed thereafter. Kairi uncomfortably stared out the darkly tinted windows while Gepetto hummed a quiet tune and Aerith fidgeted with some papers she had brought along. Finally after a turn upon a cobblestone road, they were there. Gepetto pulled off to the side but keep the engine still in a run.

"Ah -- we're here? .. We are! Right!" Aerith turned to Kairi as she clasped her hands together and held them out in front her and a bit below her chin. The woman's slightly high pitched yet calming voice immediately started to give directions.

"Now Kairi. I need to head back to the house and then downtown to Sora's publicist's office for a bit to help out with some work .. But, I promise I'll try to be back to help you out with the costs of everything, alright? Now, what I need you to do is walk a bit up this street until you come up to Recherché. Walk inside and tell a man by the name of Guston who you are. He may be a little .." Aerith paused. "Insensitive, but once he knows who you are, you will be treated like royalty. He's the one who has designed all of your dresses specifically for you. Before the contest, he had told Sora he had a feeling his lucky lady would be a size two, and to everyone's amazement, that's what you are .. So, I will let you get out of the car and get on your way."

"Ah .. al-alright."

"Have fun -- wait, what time does that say, Gepetto? .. .. 8:20? Ah! You know who is going to have my heart in a box for this. We have to get going, pronto!"

A bit confused, she slowly pulled the handle on the door. Hesitantly, she got out of the black vehicle, hoping that either one of the two would tell her to get back inside and she wouldn't have to do this. Ever. But the second Kairi turned around and slowly shut the door, Gepetto hit the pedal. The screeching of tires loudly screamed and Kairi jumped back in surprise. On goers looked in the direction and immediately, she felt embarrassed. Pulling down the hat over her eyes, she quickly hurried for the sidewalk to get away.

"COME OUT!" "It's .. a little .. tight!"

"I 'ZED TO COME OUT!"

"Please .. can I try a different one?"

"NO. YOU DIDS NOT LIKE 'ZA OTHER DRESSES FOR YOUR CARPET WALK. YET, YOU LIKES 'ZIS ONE UNTIL YOU TRIES IT ON! YOU WILL WEARS THIS. REGARDLESS OF HOW TIGHT YOU 'ZINK IT MAY BE, YOU CAN LOSE 'ZE WEIGHT IF YOU 'ZINK YOU LOOK FAT. NOW COME OUT BEFORE I TAKE ALL DRESSES BACK AND 'ZOO HAVE NONE FOR AWARD SHOW!"

Kairi examined herself in the mirror and whined. Why was their society so obsessed with exposure of the body? Couldn't anything be left to the imagination to these days? Honestly. If it wasn't for that, maybe this dress wouldn't have been the way it was. And the way that it was .. Well .. Let's just say that she thought it showed off more than her swimming suit did in the swimming pool for gym.

"'VUN. TWO --"

"Alright!"

Stepping out from the laced curtain, she came to find the tall and sickly thin man standing several feet away. His face was cross and harsh but once he set aside a moment to examine the result of the dress on her body, it was all wiped away with joyful relief. Walking over to her, he clapped.

"Magnifique! Lovely! Stunning! Beautiful! Breath taking!"

Standing behind her, he grabbed her by the waist with clean intentions and turned her towards another mirror that held a wide and intimidating size. If not for the fact that Guston's boyfriend had stopped by earlier to drop off lunch, Kairi would have been very uncomfortable with the fact that a strange man was grabbing at her body. However, she obviously had nothing to worry about as she was sure a gay man wouldn't want to get touchy feely with a woman. Or a teenaged girl for that matter.

"And 'zis 'too tight' stuff ... it tis' bullshit! Your body iz' perfectly fit for 'zis dress."

The more Kairi examined herself in the mirror, she came to find it wasn't as bad as it may have seemed minutes before. A lovely color of glittery pearl white with swarvoski crystals, that alone was elegant enough for a royal ball. It kept together the dress with a halter neck as it fittingly went down her body to the floor. The end of the dress came to a stop with about six inches that were meant to drag across the floor. The top of her dress had a rather threatening cleavage exposure 'v' cut that would have reached her belly button if not extending for another three inches. Thankfully though her chest wasn't that big and she didn't have to worry about "popping out." Funny enough though, the most skin exposure part of her body in this dress was her back. Hardly anything was covered except for her butt and everything below that.

"And your three o'clock interview?"

"Don't worry! I know exactly what to say if they ask."

"Good. -- Oh. Guston. .. Uh."

Looking behind herself in the mirror, Kairi found Sora and Riku, his agent, standing in the entrance of the back room. Caught off guard, Kairi immediately tried to move away from Guston's hold and upon doing so, tripped on the draping of the dress. Stumbling a couple of feet to the side, she somehow managed to catch herself. As soon as she did though, she composed herself and stood straight up as the triplet pairs of eyes watched her.

"I .. I'm fine."

However, Riku and Sora said nothing. The only things about them that had any sort of saying at this point were their intense eyes studying her. Out of her natural self, she crossed her arms high across her chest and went red wine colored.

"Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! 'Zon't you 'zink? Marvelous! Perfect fit! -- You must 'zay somethings, though!"

".. I have to hand it to you, Guston. She does look great!" Riku who had seemed to snap back into it, pulled his eyes away and grinned to Guston. Walking over to him, he patted him on the back. Sora, however, hadn't said anything. He was still focused on Kairi.

Guston and Riku soon started to exchange words in a conversation, which probably had something to do with the total prices for the dresses and everything else. Kairi, on the other hand, pretended not to notice Sora's lock of the gaze, but soon found it not working. Annoyed, she finally had to say something.

"What? Why are you still looking at me?"

"It's nothing."

"Nothing? You've been looking at me for a straight five minutes! You could at least say what's wrong!"

"You want to know what's wrong?"

"Yes, I do! Tell me!"

"Sora, Kairi, Gepetto is waiting. We need to leave. --- Guston, thank you for everything. We'll see you in the seating row in a couple of nights at the show."

Riku disappeared behind the same way him and Sora had entered. Sora glanced at him and watched him leave before looking back at Kairi. Picking up his own foot, he got ready to turn and follow after. However, before he did, he answered her question.

"Your shoulder blades are funny looking."

Sitting on the patio in the back, Kairi held the coffee mug close to her lips as she managed to sip her Chai tea every few minutes or so. With her gray sweats and blue hooded sweatshirt, it was obviously 'leave me alone and let me relax' time. The ocean's waves which were below the cliff in which the home's foundation fell on, crashed violently against the shore to make a rather oddly pretty sound. No clouds in sight which was like every other night, you could have counted the stars if you had truly wanted. The sliding doors which lead to the outside of the marble patio made their typical noise as they were pushed open. Kairi didn't bother looking back though to see who it was as she was too occupied with staring at the dark horizon. The doors closed and soon seconds later, footsteps were coming up from behind. Even then though, she didn't panic or glance out of curiosity.

"Figured you were cold .. or something .. I don't know."

Standing above her in her chair, Sora literally dropped a blanket on her. She closed her eyes and wrinkled her nose as the heavy material fell on top of her head and a bit off of her body. Kairi pulled it off though and soon began to wrap it around her.

"Usually the person places the blanket around someone."

"I was too lazy."

"Well, that makes you a lazy bum, then."

"I'm not a lazy bum."

".. Please."

Sitting down a chair a couple feet away from Kairi's, it was positioned to look directly at the view. So when Kairi found herself being greeted with the back of Sora's head, she had to say that she was bit annoyed and aggravated.

"I'm not lazy so don't call me lazy. I worked to get to where I am. Do you really think lazy people get this kind of life just handed to them? Because they don't."

"Chill out, your highness. I was just messing around."

"Yeah, .. well, .."

A silence then fell before them.

"I'm going to bed."

"Wow, is my presence really that bad?"

As Sora turned back in his chair to look at her, his visage was quickly cut off. Kairi, who was ahead of her game, had stood up a minute or two before. Dropping the blanket upon his head, it quickly covered up all of his face and upper body. Not bothering to see how he'd react, Kairi turned around the moment after and began to head inside.

"Oh, I see how it is! Flirting with me now!" He shouted teasingly upon pulling off the blanket.

Kairi stopped to glance behind her shoulder and cast aside a response.

"Why in the world would I --"

But Sora interrupted her.

"Chill out, your highness. I was just messing around."

Obviously mocking her, Kairi tried not to roll her eyes. Continuing on her way to the door, she slid it open and stepped inside. Sora watched in silence and it was obvious that Kairi quickly seemed to catch on. Upon inside, she turned around.

"You know, I'm not blind to the fact that you were staring at not just my face earlier today when I was in that dress. And I'm going to have to say that I don't want to know what you were just staring at when I was walking towards the door."

With that, Kairi slid the door shut.

Tohrue's Note:


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Tohrue