Editing Note: I apologize for the previously inadequate quality this chapter possessed. It has been review and mended. Thank you for your patience.
A/N: So this is the first story I've ever written that actually has an outline to it. I've never done this for anything outside of school, so I'm kind of testing it out. It should probably eliminate plot holes. I'm also trying to keep up with the style used in the prologue. It feels like I always write this as a result of insomnia and urge to cosplay XD
Some of the characters may seem OOC at first. Don't worry, anytime this is done it's done so they will develop as the story goes on. They'll change from this weird personality to the one you're used to. I don't like writing OOC things. It makes it less realistic, I think. So just bear with me, ok? Thanks. Oh, and I don't have anything against emos, I just don't think Zexion is quite there yet.
Disclaimer: Do not, did not, will not own Kingdom Hearts. Ever. Same as for Final Fantasy. All belongs to Squeenix. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. Minor reference, but still there.
This border of mine was supposed to look like Roxas's checker board sleeves. I know it doesn't. Don't rub it in.
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Selphie and Kairi babbled away about their summer vacation as their fellow students mingled in the front courtyard of the public high school. Riku and Sora stood beside the chattering girls, half listening to the tales as they looked for their own companions. The sea of blue plaid uniforms did little to aide them. Something about consistent conformity made it a bit difficult to pinpoint the location of specific people, after all. This was one of the multitude of reasons that the adolescent residents of Destiny Islands strived to maintain unique hair styles, some taking this theme farther than others. The two friends didn't notice the seconds slipping by as they dutifully searched for their companions.
Riku sighed when the first bell of the school year pulled him away from his search, as well as his two best friends, and launched him head first instead into the brand new school year, as though his education was a far more pressing matter. After conferring with his schedule, who proclaimed that he did indeed have science first and he should stop checking if he wanted to make it to class before the lunch bell, he carried himself to his first classroom.
Riku entered this new science class nonchalantly and glanced lazily at the whiteboard to his left for a seating chart of some kind. His sea-green eyes were met with simplistic instructions instead, posted in the form of a numerical list, as though this experiment was intended for sixth graders.
"This is Advanced Chemistry, not Potions," Riku muttered in a tone that suggested his cold character was directed at the end of vacation rather than the assignment. Nonetheless a handsome glare rested on his face as he read through the procedure. He was ahead of himself in most classes, and as such was far more accustomed to receiving vague, self interpretation formatted handouts designed to develop his so-called problem solving skills or some other educational term used to sugar coat teachers' laziness. A straight forward assignment was virtually unheard of at this point. Riku sighed for the umpteenth time, sincerely hoping the school year would hold some for of entertainment, and looked around the room. Every three person lab table held within the dull white room was completely occupied, accepting one.
"It seems you will be working at station eleven, sir," the teacher informed him unhelpfully from where he stood at his desk, organizing papers. His blonde hair was held back in a ponytail for the most part, however his bangs slid across the desk before he straitened up, fixing his green eyes on the silver haired teen. Riku, detecting a hint of insanity glinting in those eyes, nodded at the obvious statement and slowly walked over to the pair of odd looking boys at the remaining station. One was much taller than Riku, while the other was a few inches shorter. The taller boy had pink hair while the shorter male's hair was a blue-ish slate color.
"It would seem we've created the most colorful station here," the shorter boy said, glancing at Riku's silver hair. As Riku pondered the possibly sarcastic tone he may or may not have picked up in the boy's sentence, the late bell saved him from thinking up a response.
Sora hurried to his class, not wanting to be late on the first day. He managed to trip only twice and take a wrong turn four times, a personal best for a new school, before scampering in just as the bell rang. The elegant brunette took a few seconds to handsomely pant in the doorway before bouncing over to the only open seat in a dignified manner, ignoring his third trip of the day as the class snickered. The teacher at the front of the room yawned in a bored manner as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt.
"Good evening class. My name is-yes?"
"It's morning, sir," a girl seated near the windows corrected gently.
"Ah yes, so it is. Very well," the teacher waved her off. "Good evening class. My name is of no importance. If you need it, it's on your schedule. Probably. Today-"
"What if we have a question in class?" the same girl blurted out in confusion. Sora head some upperclassmen snicker and whisper to one another "Freshy!"
"Then you will raise your hand, miss, or I'll ignore you," the teacher said simply, acting as though the laughing students' loud whispers didn't exist.
"But you didn't ignore her just then," a boy from across the room countered.
"Everyone gets one. You've just used yours. Anyone else?" the teacher demanded dully. No one said anything. Several students whispered, having caught on to the poor hearing of the lazy educator.
"Very well. Who can tell me the name of this class? You sir?" the teacher continued, his lecture gaining ludicrousness with every passing second.
"Guidance study," a boy somewhere to Sora's left read off of the schedule in an uncertain tone.
"Correct. What does that mean?" The teacher drawled. He pointed at a girl directly behind Sora.
"Study Hall?"
"No. An easy A. Sit there and try not to be too rowdy. I'm going to sleep over here," the ridiculous man concluded bluntly, walking to his desk.
"You're not going to do your job?" the girl asked incredulously.
"I have tenure," the teacher answered with a shrug, thoroughly motivating the class to dedicate themselves to the road of hard work and perseverance.
"Not even role call?" another student asked, almost begging the man to do something responsible. The teacher just tossed a clipboard to the floor, not even bothering to look at his students.
"Knock yourself out."
The class erupted in chatter of the teacher's behavior. Sora took this sudden free time as a chance to get a look at who he'd been seated with. To his right was a tall boy with a friendly face and bright green eyes, though they weren't quite the same as Riku's, Sora noted. This boy also had blonde hair cut in a mullet style, and then pulled up into a mini Mohawk of some kind. After regarding the boy curiously, Sora turned to see who was on his left.
"Hayner!" Sora greeted his friend.
"I was wondering when you'd notice me," Hayner said in mock hurt. Sora laughed out an apology, innocently rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Speaking of noticing, who are you?" Hayner asked the blonde student. "I've never seen you on the island before."
"Oh, I'm Demyx!" the mulleted boy responded loudly, holding out his hands for each friend to shake and grinning cheerfully. Sora returned the grin almost identically and shook the hand offered to him enthusiastically, while Hayner did so much more calmly.
"Where are you from?" Hayner asked in a half interested manner.
"Oh, there was this big exchange program between your school and Hallow Bastion High. People signed up for it last year, so I guess you wouldn't know about it, huh? Anyway, we're going to be here all school year. I know like everyone who came over. We all had this huge camping trip thing over summer break so we'd like know each other and stuff. You know, incase you guys were really weird and we needed to talk to people who were used to the stuff we were used to. Can you imagine if poor Zexion was weirded out? Who could he turn to? Oh, you don't know him, so I guess you can't imagine," Demyx laughed, finally slowing down his conversational speed.
"You and Sora are going to get along great," Hayner laughed. "You both talk a mile a minute." Sora and Demyx grinned again in acknowledgement.
"So anyway, there are one, four, six, seven of us here," Demyx continued, counting on his fingers. "There's Larxene, Marluxia, and Zexion in eleventh grade, me and Axel in tenth, and then Namine and Roxas are ninth graders, but they got in because they have older siblings in high school who could get them the registration forms."
"And you all became friends in just one camp out?" Hayner asked skeptically.
"Well it was like two weeks long," Demyx defended with a shrug. "Plus, I already knew Axel, Roxas already knew Namine, who already knew Larxene since they're sisters. Larxene knew Marluxia already, too. So pretty much only Zexion was alone." Sora's head was spinning as he tried to keep track of all of the names, but he was enjoying the conversation nonetheless.
"Kid needs to get out more," Hayner put in as he recognized Zexion's name from Demyx's rushed paragraph a few seconds prior. Demyx simply laughed musically before grinning mischievously.
"Don't say that to his face or you'll be pulling paper out of your nose for a week."
"What?" Hayner asked in confusion.
"Oh, Zexion's a big bookworm. He's prone to shoving people's faces into his precious tomes when they piss him off," Demyx snickered, most likely remembering a time this had transpired before him.
"Sounds like you got to know him pretty well," Sora pointed out.
"Well we had to share a tent." Demyx explained.
"Oh, me and Riku did that once. Our parents took us on this big trip when we were little on one of the other islands. We ended up getting no sleep because we were joking around all night," Sora laughed, feeling nostalgic all of a sudden.
"You're such a girl," Hayner teased, playfully punching his friend.
"Am not!" Sora shouted indignantly.
"Man, I hope I get a class with Pence," Hayner sighed, holding his head at the headache Sora and Demyx were starting to give him. These two were far too energetic for his tastes.
"What, we're not good enough?" Sora teased in retribution.
"No, you talk to fast and for someone who's always late, you are way too much of a morning person."
"So you tell me," Sora shrugged, putting his hands behind his head like he'd seen Riku do loads of times. Sora hoped it made himself look a little cooler. Not that he would ever say that aloud, of course, but still. It's the thought that counts, right?
Where is the teacher?
"Shouldn't she be here?"
"Should we go get someone?"
"Why? Free day for us!"
Kairi sighed. Nearly the entire first half of her English class had passed, and the class still sat in confusion. Students had moved around to sit on one another's desks and speculate what had happened to their teacher. Even Kairi couldn't help but wonder.
"U-um, excuse me," a petite blonde girl spoke to her softly. Kairi blinked and looked at her.
"Yes?" she asked the girl politely, smiling in a friendly manner.
"W-well, I'm new here and I was wondering if you could maybe tell me about this place, a little, if you're not busy,'
"Sure. Sit here, I'll tell you anything you want to know about the island, and I'll tell you anything I know about the school," Kairi answered happily, gesturing to the open seat beside her. The girl sat down delicately and turned her full attention to the teen.
"What's your name?" Kairi started.
"I'm Namine," the blonde answered softly.
"Namine? That's a pretty name. My name's Kairi," the redhead said, smiling, and held out her hand. Namine shook it with a small smile of her own.
"Hello Namine. Doing alright?" a male redhead appeared to their right. Kairi looked up at the tall boy. He had an interesting build. He looked like he had some muscles on his chest, but he had an almost feminine waist and thinner arms than Kairi expected. He's probably a really good runner, she mused absent mindedly.
"I'm ok. I just met a nice girl," Namine answered him in her soft voice. The male turned his attention to Kairi now, who noticed purple tattoos just under his bright green eyes. His eyes seemed like the kind that were always full of emotion, and his hair was a crazy mess of spikes. If Kairi wasn't best friends with Sora, she wouldn't be able to believe such wild spikes could be as natural and gel free as these looked.
"Kairi," she greeted, holding her hand out for him. Axel grinned and held out his hand, lifting the other one to his temple with an overdramatic flourish as he spoke.
"I'm Axel. Got it memorized?" he said cockily. Kairi chuckled and rolled her eyes at his theatrics.
"So where are you two from?" she wondered aloud.
"Hallow Bastion. There was an exchange program," Namine answered softly.
"Oh. Was it just you two, or were there others?" Kairi asked, curious as to just how many new friends she could make this year.
"Seven of us total," Axel answered her, pulling up a seat and sitting in it backwards.
"Speaking of the others, I hope Roxas is ok," Namine said in her soft tone. "He wasn't feeling well this morning,"
"Yeah. Hope he doesn't throw up on his first day," Axel put in, a look of concern clouding his eyes.
"I'm gonna throw up," Roxas muttered, laying his head down pitifully on the desk as the late bell rang at the beginning of class. Larxene rubbed his back gently, resting her chin in her other hand out of boredom as she watched him motherly.
"Welcome to Advanced Algebra 2. And a big welcome to our two exchange students from Hallow Bastion," the teacher welcomed. Roxas sucked in a deep breath and slowly sat up, wishing his stomach would stop convulsing. A brunette girl slowly raised her hand somewhere in the corner of his sapphire eyes.
"S-sir, would it be ok if I gave them a tour?" she asked softly.
"You read my mind, miss…" the teacher trailed off, slowly searching his seating chart.
"Olette," the girl answered softly.
"Miss Olette. Would you please show these two around?" The brunette nodded and stood up, quietly leading them out of the class.
"Wait, aren't you a freshmen?" Larxene asked quizzically.
"H-he looked a little green," Olette confessed, a fait blush rising on her cheeks.
"Oh, I get it. Thanks. Yeah, he's not feeling to good, huh Rox?" the blonde said, turning back to the younger boy. Roxas put on a brave face and tried to stand up straight without swaying.
"I'll be fine," he said through gritted teeth. "Just nauseous from the trip."
"Roxas, we flew here," Larxene said in a monotone.
"So?" Roxas grumbled, not meeting the elder's eyes.
"You want to be a pilot. You've flown loads of times with your older brother. Don't be stupid." Larxene was torn between laughing and smacking him.
"You don't have to play mom just because you're the oldest girl of us," Roxas muttered under his breath. The blonde girl heard him anyway.
"No, but I'm the only one who's ever babysat out of the seven of us, so I'm the only one even the least bit qualified to take care of us all," she stated matter-of-fact-ly.
"We're not eight year olds," Roxas muttered some more before deciding it would be best if he stopped talking.
"Should we go to the nurse?" Olette put in worriedly. Roxas shook his head slowly, attempting to keep himself from collapsing.
"Fine, but if you barf on my shoes, you'll buy me new ones," Larxene threatened halfheartedly. "You must be pretty smart," she added to Olette, turning her attention to the girl.
"Hm? Why's that?" the brunette jumped.
"Well, aside from Amelia Earhart here," Larxene explained, gesturing to Roxas, "you're the only ninth grader I know in Advanced Algebra 2. Sophomores, sure, but not usually freshies."
"Oh, well I guess you're right on that," Olette said softly, scratching the back of her head. "So are you the only eleventh grader in your exchange group?"
"No, there's also Zexion and Marluxia…I think they're in Chemistry right now…" Larxene said darkly.
"Is that bad?" Olette asked in confusion upon seeing the worry that clouded Larxene's eyes.
"Well, those two are probably a bit untrustworthy near chemicals. Zexion has that air of a delinquent about him what with those dark clothes and all, and assuming he ever put forth enough effort to cause anything, he's smart enough to make a good dent in the school. Marluxia tends to make things blow up, and personally I blame Vexen for that. It's nothing too bad most of the time, but I hope they don't burn themselves…"
"Hallow Bastion, huh? What's it like?" Riku asked as the three boys moved their chemical mix onto the Bunsen Burner.
"It's difficult to describe, as we've lived their our whole lives. It would be similar to asking you to attempt to describe Destiny Islands," Zexion said in a monotone. Riku was beginning to think this boy was emotionless.
"Yeah," he said as he thought about it. "Alright, so is your hair naturally pink?" he added to the other boy, raising an eyebrow. Marluxia rolled his eyes.
"Is your hair naturally Silver?" the boy snapped. "Of course it is," he continued, not letting Riku answer. "What man do you know who dyes his hair pink?"
"Well why not dye it a different color?" Riku returned, not bothering to point out that he could probably at least on guy who would for fifty bucks.
"Because it's easier to lower people's defenses this way. They think I'm less of a threat and drop their guard," Marluxia smirked arrogantly.
"…right, and that's good?" Riku raised an eyebrow.
"Have you ever tried manipulating someone who didn't trust you? It's much easier when they think you're a joke," Marluxia said in a conspiratorial tone, smirk even more.
"I'll be sure to keep mine up, then," Riku chuckled.
"So, you're the transfers?" a redhead appeared beside them. His lab goggles were on his forehead and his spiky hair hade been shoved hurriedly into a long messy ponytail, though the shorter spikes stuck out in every direction. "Why's your hair pink?"
"Why are your eyes green? I was born that way, genius," Marluxia answered, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.
"Ok, ok, don't need to get your panties in a bunch," the boy said, holding his hands up defensively, though grinning. "How about you-oh shit!" he jumped back as he knocked over the chemicals in his attempt to gesture to Zexion. The boys all jumped back in the small space, but a small drop landed on Marluxia's shirt.
"Shit, shit, here," the boy said hurriedly, grabbing a vial and splashing it on the shirt, which Marluxia was trying to hold away from his body. The acid quickly stopped eating through the cloth when the vial's contents combined with it. The redhead dumped the rest of the chemicals on the acid on the floor, settling it as well.
"Haha, sorry about that," he said, rubbing the back of his head embarrassedly.
"It's fine," Riku sighed, knowing there wasn't anything they could do about it anyway.
"Here, I'll explain to the teacher and give you half of my group's stuff. It's only fair. I'm Reno, by the way," he added of his shoulder as he walked across the room.
"He seems…friendly," Zexion mused with an amused smile barely showing on his lips.
"I'm amazed you understand the concept, emo boy," Marluxia teased.
"I am not emo!" Zexion snarled, rounding on the pinket.
"Here ya go," Reno returned, carefully pouring the chemicals into one of their beakers. "Have fun," he said, walking to the teacher's desk.
"His friends look pissed," Riku chuckled, gesturing discreetly to table where two blonds glared daggers at the redhead, who seemed all too aware of the impending doom.
"They have a right, don't they," Marluxia chuckled.
"Here's hoping he doesn't make this a habit," Zexion said as they began to move on to the next step of their experiment.
"Yeah, we'll have one hell of a year dodging those guys if he keeps it up," Riku laughed.