Rick was right… this place sucks… I thought as I sat in homeroom. It was the second day at my new school, and I was bored out of my mind.
"God, just kill me." I whispered. Then I had an idea…
"Um, Mr. Brown?" I asked "the husk" as Rick had called him.
"Yes, Aldrich?" He responded.
"May I go to the infirmary? I feel terrible." I asked politely.
"Are you sure? I thought you would particularly like this lesson." We were learning the story of the battle of Puebla, and how Mexican villagers defeated the French military(the world's best armed at that time) by using less technology, but better tactics and demoralizing the enemy.
No offense, but that wasn't exactly at the top of my list of priorities. Napping was.
"I feel like crap. My head hurts and I want to throw up…" I insisted, clutching my gut for emphasis. A little "over the top", but perfect.
"Of course. Let me write you a note so you won't get in trouble."
Wow, I thought. That was easy… I thought as I ran to freedom.
When I got there, I looked around. No one, except…
"Hey Ald." Syowa greeted me.
"Hey. What are you doing here?" I inquired.
"Head ache. You?"
"Excessive boredom."
"Hmmm…. I had that once." Syowa joked.
"How did you get rid of it?" I wondered, predicting the answer.
"Who says I did?" She responded
"Nice." I stated as I took a nap…
"Huh, what?!" I asked as I awoke with a start. Nothing over here… I told myself as my head hit the stained glass pillow.
STAINED GLASS PILLOW??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?
"WHAT THE-?" I yelled. I jumped up. Around me there was… nothing. I was surrounded by dark clouds and….
Stained glass skyscrapers.
Hmmm… I should go easy on the Hot Pockets… I thought. Then, three weapons appeared before me. A sword. A shield. And a wand. Whoa! Going Kingdom Hearts on me, huh? I walked over to each one. The had a weird blue rust on them. "Yeah, I've played this one, God. How about some Halo?" I called.
Apparently, God hadn't picked up, 'cause…
Nothing happened.
"What the…" Behind me something else happened. A weird shape floated in midair. A blue ghostly hand.
My Hand.
I leaned in and pressed my palm against its palm. Suddenly, my hand absorbed the ghost hand.
And a Heartless, Nobody, and strange light thing materialized behind me.
"Ok, ok… Uh… Restart? Reload?"
They pounced.
"OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I ran over to the sword. Oh yeah… you can't pick again…
Then I grabbed the sword, and struck the Heartless. I guess I can break the rules! I thought/cheered as I picked up the shield.
I slashed it again. Then, a white blur flashed by and head-butted my shield. "Blur, huh?" I told it as I brought down the sword. Hard. The Nobody was last. And hardest. It was almost like cloth. It was way out of reach. When I tried to run for it, it dodged. I wish I could reach it! I extended my arm, and the ghost thing extended to catch it. "NICE!!!" I yelled in triumph as I throttled it. As I did a victory dance, a path made of –you guessed it– stained glass appeared. I walked up it. Then I realized something. I WAS FREAKING HIGH UP!!! If I had fallen, well, I won't go into that. Strangely enough, I had a weird calming sensation. I was no longer scared…
Another platform. This one was different. In the center, was an altar. Up here I noticed a weird draft…
Then I heard it.
"I've been expecting you, keyblade master…" A strange disembodied voice spoke.
"What? Who are you?" I yelled into the empty winds.
"I am your guide. But, you can't have a master without his key…" As he spoke, a keyblade appeared in mid air. It was unlike any other blade before it. Its blade was like the one in KH, but it had no crown on it. The shaft was thinner, and longer. The handle was like a half-rectangle, making it easier to hold. I grabbed.
"Forward unto Dawn? Unless…" A strange, crystal thing appeared in front of me. It reminded me of a seashell I had seen in a museum once. A nautilus. "Oh! I'm sorry. You're not"- He broke of, trying to think of something- "Aaron Beowulf?" He inquired, sounding surprised.
"No, I'm Aldrich Cordello." I corrected him.
"Oh. Then prepare for Paradise." He said as he disappeared.
Apparently, preparing for Paradise involved an earthquake.
And a massive marionette.
Before me stood at least 60 feet of solid darkness. Hands, feet and a head materialized. In the center, an "X" made of black wood locked as the lumbering giant began walking. Roll right! Something told me. But I can't roll!!! But by then, its hand had come down… where I was standing seconds before. I started hacking at the pale wire connecting the armored (think "medieval" armor) hand to the center. Jump! I jumped, avoiding the hand that tried to trip me. I turned and slashed once, killing the hand. The huge puppet wouldn't have that. He took his other hand, and tossed me into midair. This is it. I thought. No! Use your hand! My voice told me. I remembered my hand. I grabbed the key in it and flung it, boomerang style. As it flew at the puppet's head, the ghostly hand flowed with it. I hung, like a doll, in air. I saw its hand go up and protect its X. Not that that helped. A massive explosion followed. I landed (perfectly) and grabbed the key. Puppet had reattached his hand and was steering clear of me. The X was cracked. I laughed and pointed Forward unto Dawn (Keyblade for those who weren't paying attention), gun style. Like something out of Star Wars, it fired lasers.
"WHOA!!!" I yelled as I dealt major damage. The X shattered. The creature screamed.
"CLOUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It screamed. The X wasn't the only thing that shattered. The skyscraper turned upside down and fell. I-(Yeah, I'm not afraid to admit it!)- Screamed as I fell. As I tumbled, I finally saw on the design on the floor.
It was a vaguely familiar girl in a Hollister hooded sweat shirt…
"AH!!!!" I woke up. I was back in the infirmary.
"What?!" Syowa asked, also awakened by my scream.
"Huh?"- I said. I thought clearly about my dream. "Uhhh… Nightmare?" I tried.
"Oh. Ok. And, by the way, its lunch time." She seemed unfazed by my startled awakening.
"Great! Wanna go down there and…"-
"Eat?" She asked. "Yeah. That'd be great…" She said as she signed out of the infirmary.
"Alright!" I cheered. Then I remembered. I didn't sign out of the infirmary. "You go ahead. I gotta sign out."
"Okay." She called as she rounded the corner. "See you there!"
I couldn't help but notice her Hollister hoodie…
"So…" My good friend, Mark said. "You skipped the first half of the day and went to the nurse's office, where you dreamt you were in Kingdom Hearts?"
"And that Syowa is a Princess of the Heart?" My other good friend, Kiyoye, asked.
"Yep. And please say infirmary. It sounds cooler." I responded.
There were nine "good" friends sitting around our table in, of all places, the library. There was:
Mark, whose "physically challenged".
Marisol, Mark's twin, who loves to draw (seriously, she scares me)
Kikyoye, Kiyoko's twin, middle eastern
Kiyoko, Kikyoye's twin, also middle eastern
Sharon, your typical, do the right thing, no such thing as, A++ student
Ernie, Who you just can't describe.
Carlos, who had a really bad haircut. And ugly jeans. And ugly sweater.
Lily, Short
James, who just arrived with Brian
Brain, who just arrived with James.
Wait, that's ten!
"Wait, what? What happened?" James asked as still another person, Ferdinand, arrived.
"Something dumb. Aldrich's always having dumb dreams. No offense" Ferdinand explained without emotion.
"No, Ald was explaining his Kingdom Hearts-themed dream." Mark responded.
"I was right." Ferdinand persisted
"Wait Kingdom Hearts? Number one game in Japan Kingdom Hearts? My cousin has that" Brian said "Cool game."
"Yes, and wee all know that almost everyone owns a copy of Kingdom Hearts IV, or at least the movie." Ernie commented
"I've seen the movie." James continued. "I didn't get it."
"It's like, Disney combined with Final Fantasy and some other stuff." Marisol informed him.
"Disney?! It is weird!" Carlos exclaimed.
"NO ITS NOT!!!" Ernie, Marisol, Mark, and Brain Exclaimed.
"YES IT IS!!!" Lily, Carlos, Kiyoye and Ferdinand yelled back.
"NO!!!" They retaliated.
"YES!!!" They fought back.
"NO!!!"
"YES!!!"
"NO!!!"
"YES!!!"
"GUYS!!! SHUT UP!!!" I ended the discussion.
"I guess its ok. The story line is deep and gameplay is easy. The crossover is pretty lame, but is pulled off effortlessly" Kiyoko suggested.
…
….
…..
"I agree." James agreed.
We looked at them in confusion. Neither had ever showed much interest for video games.
"WHAT?!?!? We had to review things we never tried for English last week. You are all into that, so we picked that!" Kiyoko told us.
"Oh..." Marisol sighed
"Now it makes sense." Sharon exclaimed
"Big time" Mark finished.
"We never turned it, huh, Kiyoko? I mean, schools don't burn down anymore! Come on, who do they think we are?" James called out as he, Ferdinand, and Brian walked away.
"He is right…" Mark wondered
"What do you mean?" Sharon asked.
"I mean, the school didn't burn down. Why would they tell us that we got that day off? And remember those weird guys the day before? They had those contamination suits. And they looked like they were setting something up…" Mark explained.
"I suppose…"
"GUYS!!! I'm trying to do my homework!!!!!" I yelled out at them.
Mark looked at me through his glasses. "That's due next period. You can't finish.
"Yuh-huh! In fact…" I paused as I scribbled in the last sentence. "I just did!"
"Congrats. You know, you really should consider doing your homework- oh I don't know- at home!!!" Kiyoye chided me.
"See, I got this theory. If I do-say- spelling homework- before a big test, the information will be fresh in my mind. That way, whatever I don't do, I make up for on the test!" I explained.
"Sure that's not an excuse to be lazy?" She asked.
"Yeah," I said as the bell to get to class rang.
"Oh look, a bunch of losers, lost on their way to class…" A strange voice said.
The only way I could describe the voice is angelic. It rolled up and down with each syllable. It was beautiful. The voice came with a body. It had celestial blue (I could say sky blue, but celestial sounds cooler) hair, and was skinny. Real skinny. He had eyes to match, and was wearing a black school blazer, with a hood made of a shiny black cloth. He pulled of the look flawlessly.
Did I care? Not really.
"The only loser I see here is you." I responded flawlessly.
He chuckled. "Nice. Good to see not everyone here is a retard." He looked at Mark. "Or a cripple."
"Jerkass! I'll-" I started to yell as another voice pierced the hallway.
"Hahaha… That's sad." The girl appeared around the corner. She was about five foot two, shorter than the rest of us. Her hair was rusty-brown and reached to her waist. She was wearing a knee-length blue dress, and brown tights. This one I knew.
"Hello, Reiko…" Kiyoko addressed her. Reiko's father was the sole owner of the YANA industries tower in downtown Toride. And he named it YANA?!?!?!!?!?!?!
"What a dork." Sharon whispered.
"So are you" She casually said.
"Yeah, I'd love to stay and kill neurons…" I said, regaining my senses after Mr. Blue Hair's cripple crack, "But we've got better things to do than sit around poking fun at others-" At shot a glance at his blazer, "misfortune, but we gotta go wear real clothes with our real friends." I said, as we begun walking away.
"Yeah, and your jackets ugly!" Carlos screamed, ruining the "3rd degree burn" moment.
Reiko screeched with delight. "Don't listen to those jerks," I consoled Mark. "Hopefully, they'll be dead soon." Mark laughed along with everyone else. Simple, but effective
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So…" I told Rick as we reclined on couches and munched on cereal. "How's the wife and kids?"
We were at the weirdest hang-out ever--a cereal bar. According to the poster behind me, this company had started in some town named "Whittier" in California. Being close to a high school, it made millions and spread like wildfire. We were in the one closest to our old school, and most of our homes.
"One: Me and Camilla are only boyfriend and girlfriend." Rick said.
"Yes, but you said you l-"
"Quiet, Ald." He retorted as he chugged (and choked on) his cereal.
We left shortly after that. "So, you're going home?" He asked.
"Yeah, no one there but my mom and my brother." I told him.
"Oh, cause-" He was cut off by a noise at the end of the alleyway we were standing by.
"It's the husk…"
Yes, it was our teacher, Mr. Brown. He was arguing with what looked like…
A government official.
"They arrive at 12:05 tomorrow! Do you know what would happen if they arrive before? Or after? All that work? And the Russians? When they don't arrive… We have enough problems trying to ride out the first wave. It hasn't even come! Now, remember what The King said? And- and that "Riku guy? What-" Mr. Brown stammered.
"Enough! Listen to yourself! They both said if we could ride out the first wave, we would be fine when they got here." The agent said. "We have to believe. Then the world can."
"Turned into a little poster boy, huh?" He looked up. "Whatever. The Heartless will get you. I'm going to Hikowa's. He'll know. YANA is worthless." Brown responded.
"Shit." Rick whispered. He had scared a rat, who screeched and gave away our position.
Didn't matter. By the time they turned around, we were half way home.
"Hey, Ald!" My brother, Ed greeted me.
"Ald! You're home!" My mom said. "Are you ok? Do you want something to eat?"
"Uh… no thanks." I said.
"Awww, come on! She made meatloaf!" Ed said.
"No…" I responded as I entered my room.
What was going on? I had that weird dream. Now this… I thought as I got in bed. Whatever. I'll know at twelve 'o five tomorrow…