*Olette*

"Do you see that new girl over there?" Selphie asked, pointing across the cafeteria.

"Yes, Selphie, I do. Now stop pointing!" I replied, rolling my eyes.

"You two have the weirdest arguments, I swear," Xion said with a laugh. I was sitting with Selphie and Xion at lunch because honestly, I needed a break from Pence, Hayner, and Roxas, especially because there had been building tension between Hayner and Roxas recently.

I looked at the girl Selphie had pointed out – the new girl, as everyone simply called her. She was beautiful. She had long, blonde hair and bright, glowing blue eyes. She had pale skin and looked so dainty. I had already seen some guys staring at her with lust and girls staring at her out of envy.

She seemed quiet and very on-task. She had yet to look at any student, let alone talk to them. She had gone up to each teacher to make sure she got the correct needed papers and was now looking through them, sipping water from her water bottle.

"Why don't we go over and talk to her?" Xion suggested.

"Why?" Selphie asked, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Trust me. I know what it's like to be lonely. She'll enjoy having someone talk to her. Plus, she could be such an awesome person and we'll never know because we never talked to her," Xion said, staring straight at Selphie throughout her entire mini-speech. "Don't you agree, Olette?"

"Sure!" I said. "Let's go talk to her."

"Ugh, fine. I'm coming," Selphie said, picking up her backpack and slinging it over one shoulder.

We all sat down around the girl, and she lifted her head from her papers to stare at us for a second until going back to reading whatever was so interesting to her.

Selphie, Xion, and I looked to each for some sort of explanation as to what to do now. Finally, Xion broke the silence.

"Um, hi. My name's Xion. What's yours?" Xion asked slowly.

The girl looked up at us and I was surprised at how blank and haunting she kept her expression. "My name is Nami. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, almost carefully.

"These are my friends, Selphie and Olette," Xion said, pointing to us. "We came over here to talk to you because we thought you might like some friends."

"Thank you for thinking of me," Nami said, going back to her papers. She tucked her hair behind her ear. At least she's polite, as well as being gorgeous.

"Um, do you want us to go away? You seem pretty interested in that," Selphie asked, obviously annoyed. I pinched her leg. She shot me an angry look.

"No, it's not that," Nami said. "I just…I just have a lot to catch up on." Now she sounded worried.

"Like what?" I asked, eager to join in on this conversation.

Nami looked nervous now. "My-my old school wasn't exactly up to date with academics."

"What was your old school called?" Xion asked.

"Um, it was on a different world, so you probably haven't heard of it," Nami nervously said, still staring intently at her precious papers.

"Oh, okay," Xion replied.

I was curious now. Nami seemed intent on hiding her past and closing everyone out. Maybe Xion and I could change that? No offense to Selphie, but we all knew she was useless when she wasn't completely and absolutely dedicated to something.

"Can I see your schedule, please?" Xion asked Nami. "I want to see if you have classes with any of us."

"I have Advanced Chemistry with you, Xion," Nami said quietly before gathering her things and leaving us sitting there at that lunch table, dumbfounded.

"She's hiding something," Selphie said, voicing what I'm sure we were all thinking.

The day after the lunch incident, Xion finally confessed.

"Nami's staying with me and my roommate," Xion said.

"What? Really?" Selphie shrieked.

"Why didn't you tell us?" I asked, irritated.

"It didn't happen until recently! Nami needed a place to stay, and we had a spare room, so we gave it to her," Xion explained.

"Speaking of Nami, have you noticed that white-haired eleventh-grader keeps looking at her?" Selphie asked with a laugh.

"You mean Riku?" I asked.

"Yeah, he keeps staring at her, but looks away really fast, like he's not supposed to," Selphie said, picking at her lunch.

"Well, the Valentine's Day dance is this Friday, you know," Xion pointed out.

"I guess you're right, but it's still weird. I mean, Riku is all cool and never shows interest in really anything. So, this must be a first or something," Selphie said. Now she was just babbling, and I began to tune her out.

I stood up. "Let's go," I said.

"Where to?" Xion asked, also standing up.

"To Nami, of course. We're going to make sure she has friends," I said. That was my new mission: get Nami to open up and become comfortable here; or at least with us.

"Again? Geez, would you two just let it go? She obviously doesn't like us." Selphie whined.

"Oh, come on, Selphie! There's nothing wrong with helping her," I said. I was really getting ticked off at Selphie now.

Selphie gave in and walked over to Nami with us. We sat down around her again. This time, I sat next to Nami, while Xion and Selphie sat across from us. This time, Nami was writing in a spiral notebook.

Nami looked up at us. "You're back again?" she asked.

Xion smiled and nodded.

"Why? Why do you want to help me? You know nothing about me. You don't know if I'm a good or bad person. You have nothing making you help me, so why are you doing so?" Nami asked, emotion flooding her voice while her face stayed blank. She moved her hair, placing it neatly over her right shoulder.

"Riku doesn't seem to think you're such a bad person," Selphie giggled. "He hasn't stopped looking at you today!"

Nami blushed and bit her lip.

"So you like him, too? We should totally hook you two up!" Selphie whispered. But Selphie's version of whispering was talking at a normal level, so she wasn't actually that quiet.

"No, that's okay. I don't even like him, anyways," Nami said, looking away.

"Liar!" Selphie hissed.

"Oh, no. Selphie, leave the poor girl alone! What did she do to you?" Xion asked.

"Besides, you're not exactly Cupid, you know," I added.

"Come on, you guys! Can't you let me have a little fun?" Selphie pouted.

"No," Xion said flatly. Selphie's response was extremely childish. She folded her arms across her chest, looked away, and refused to talk to us.

"Um, actually…" Nami whispered, blushing.

"What?" I asked, silently willing her to continue.

"He already asked me to the dance this Friday," Nami admitted, her usually pale face now completely red.

"And what did you say?" Selphie asked, suddenly interested again now that romance was involved.

"I declined." Who says 'declined'?

"Why? He's so popular!" Selphie cried, shocked.

"Is that really what you guys care about: popularity? I'm not interested in dating or being popular. I'm here to get an education and continue with my life," Nami said, packing up her things.

"You and Xion could be best friends!" Selphie giggled.

"Selphie, shut. Up. No one wants to hear anymore of your crap. So just cut it out already!" a voice said angrily.

I turned around to see Hayner. We made eye contact just before he looked down, his eyes full of sorrow, and walked away quickly.

"I need to go," I said, getting up to follower Hayner. Something's wrong with him. Did I do something?

"Hayner!" I yelled, running after him in the hallway.

He stopped, but didn't say anything.

"What?" he whispered, his voice cracking. Is he going to cry?

"Hayner, are you okay? You looked really upset back in the cafeteria. I was worried," I said, catching up to him. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"I-it's nothing. Roxas just got me really mad again," Hayner laughed, but I could tell he was faking it.

"No, it's something. You're not mad, you're sad. There's a difference, Hayner. Come on, I'm your best friend; you can tell me," I said, silently pleading for him to be alright.

He lifted his brown eyes, which looked at my bright green ones. He stared at me with such intensity, I was surprised. There was something seriously bugging him.

"If Roxas asked you out, what would you say?" Hayner blurted.

"What?"

"You heard me." Now he was angry.

"I'd decline," I said, smiling, remembering Nami using that word.

"Are you sure?" He looked surprised.

"Yeah. Roxas is a jerk. He broke Xion and Kairi's hearts, and he really bothers you. I'm not risking good friendships just for maybe a month with Roxas. You know?"

"Oh. That's a good way to look at it, I guess. Yeah…it is." He seemed satisfied, but still sad.

"Hayner…" I didn't know what to say, so I stopped there.

"Olette, before it's too late, will you go to the Valentine's Day dance with me on Friday?" Hayner asked, his face going bright red.

I laughed and said, "I'd love to."

Wait, what? "Before it's too late"? What does that mean?

It was right then and then there that Pence's words came back to me: "I think Hayner might be thinking about suicide."

I froze in horror as I realized why Hayner was actually sad.