A/N: I'm so sorry! I haven't updated in forever…maple is so addicting…-sniff- Well. Anyway. 2-3 chaps (that's 2 to 3, not 23) before May, I promise, because May will be insane. I mean, hello! New clique book, fanime for 2 days, Masquerade practice…-yawn- I'm gonna be sleeping the other 5 percent of the time…

Kaede's eyes flashed turquoise in the darkness. She scanned the room in panic, eyes wide with fear.

"Hello?" she asked, trying to sound angry. Her attempts failed, as her voice sounded like a squeak more than the irritated demand she'd hoped for. "HULLO?" she shouted.

A flame lit in the corner, soaring to several feet high. A young blonde girl stepped forward. "Hey!"

Kaede stared not at her but the room. It was dark, but well furnished with wooden bunk beds that were covered in warm SmartMatter blankets, wooden nightstands, and shelves carved into the wall near each bed, one per person. Kaede noted her journal on one of the shelves and hoped nobody had read it.

Then the girl cleared her throat. And Kaede realized that her journal was probably the least of her worries.

The girl stepped closer. "Um…sorry, did I hurt you when you…um, fell?" She giggled shyly.

Kaede glanced away from the room to study the girl. She wore a pair of dark denim skinny jeans, a white minidress with some sort of small dotted pattern on it, and cute low pigtails tied loosely with white hair ties that had tiny polar bear charms (two per pigtail). It was a very kindergarten outfit, but it was still cute. She had big greenish blue eyes with pink eyeshadow dusted on top. She vaguely reminded Kaede of Ruri. Her eyes stayed fixed on Kaede.

Kaede shrugged. "I fell?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, you…fell…out a window. Your dorm window actually."

Kaede cringed. "So…where am I?"

"OH! I'm so sorry. I forgot. My name is Michiko!" She smiled. "Chiho gave me that name. My parents…well, mom was never much of a mom. Daddy…I dunno." She shrugged, then her glittery aura appeared again. "I don't care. I have a new friend!" She smiled expectantly at Kaede.

Kaede raised an eyebrow. One word had caught her notice: Chiho. "How do you know Chiho?"

"Oh, Chi-chan and you and me have been besties forever!" Michiko giggled.

Kaede scrunched up her nose. "Forever?"

"Yeah. Forever." Michiko nodded. "We lost contact like, two years ago. I made do with just Sora and Cloud and Ren and Roxas, but…" She shrugged. "I missed having non-guy friends."

Kaede laughed. "I don't know you," she said.

Michiko froze. "Um, what?"

"I don't know you! I don't recognize you or anything," Kaede insisted.

Michiko's smile froze, wavered, and finally became a sad pout. "Oh. I guess Chi-chan was right. I guess I'll go…get…Chi…" She ran off, the flame seeming to trail beside her.

Kaede stared after her in the darkness, wondering what she'd done.

000000

"How is she?" Cloud asked, his voice quiet.

"Sleepy," Michiko answered. "Must be. She doesn't remember me, or falling out the window last night."

"She fell out of a window?" Cloud whisper-shouted.

"More like got pushed," Chiho piped up, her teased pigtails bouncing as she shook with laughter.

Cloud was silent.

"Um, I missed that," Ren said after an awkward silence. "Can we see?"

"Ooooooh! Lemme do it," Chiho insisted.

Everyone in the room quickly fell to darkness, with the exhilaration of falling backwards into nothing. Then a scene played on their minds, lighting up the darkness.

A blurry image of six red human-shaped blobs moving around an otherwise dark room fills the screen. Small, all-caps black print says "INTERFACE: HEAT" across the top of the scene. A final orange-ish person is curled up into a small blob, and it is clearly sleeping and in a bed, covered by blankets.

The second-to-smallest standing blob comes forward and tries to tug the sleeping person off the bed.

"Guys," she says. "Help me out here!"

"Geez, Michi," the smallest blob says, coming forward. "Really. It helps if you untuck the blankets. That's like, half her weight right now."

There is silence as the other blobs come closer to the orange one and the two tiny ones.

"Oh. Thanks," the first small girl says. "Well, this should go smoother now…"

"Fine," one of the taller girls says. "Can we use NV now?"

"NV?" asks another tall girl.

"Night vision," the second-to-shortest girl says. The "NV" kicks in and you see the girl, Michiko, rolling her eyes.

The shortest girl, Chiho, is shown smirking. "Now, Michi, let's go!"

Michiko is tugging the sleeping form, Kaede, off the bed. She falls forward, nearly crushing Michiko and definitely knocking down Chiho and Michiko. The others, Yuki and Akako and Tally, come forward and pry Kaede off of the two girls.

"Wow," Tally hissed. "You can't even do that?"

"Just get her outside." Yuki shrugs.

" Shay's below, waiting. She's most likely gonna get bored and leave soon, so if you want someone to catch her-" Tally started.

"Alright, alright, we're moving," Michiko says, dragging Kaede over to the window. The others help push her onto the window seat and onto the windowsill, where her legs dangle over. There is a brief crash, and everyone shudders, and Michiko slaps her hands over her eyes before peeking again. But there is another crash, making them all grimace.

The scene darkens. There is the sensation of flight, and then they are all back in their bodies in the present again.

"Wow," Ren said. There was a brief silence as Michiko squirmed, trying to escape Cloud's glare.

"You dropped her?" Cloud hissed.

Michiko blushed, tugging on her blonde curly pigtails. "Maybe," she mumbled.

"It was Shay's fault for leaving," Chiho piped up. Cloud's glare turned on her, but she met it with an indignant stare. Her chin was tipped up and, though her eyes weren't as narrowed as his, they held just as much force.

"Fine," Cloud mumbled, sitting back. He glanced at the door across the narrow hall, the girls' room, where Kaede was.

"Besides," Shay piped up. "It's partly all of their fault, too, because they took so long! If they'd been quick, I wouldn't have gotten distracted. Diego still needs us, and you know it."

"Yeah, but that's what Fausto and the newbies are for," Tally snapped. "You had a job last night."

Shay rolled her eyes and flicked her hand back and forth, watching her nails extend and retract as she did so. Flick, extend. Flick, retract. Flick, extend…

Tally reached out and grabbed her friend's arm. "Stop it! That's so annoying!"

Shay grinned and flicked her other hand, laughing. Tally rolled her eyes. Ren layer one hand over the other and moved his thumbs around. Chiho, Michiko, and Ariana stared at him, confused.

"Awkward turtle," he whispered, making the, laugh.

He and Sora high-fived, and Roxas rolled his eyes, secretly looking at Akako. Ariana nudged Chiho, who giggled. Both girls glanced at each other before collapsing into giggles. Pretty soon, Michiko and Yuki had joined in and the whole group was cracking up, even Akako and Roxas, who had no idea what the others were laughing about.

The scene was almost normal. But nobody noticed Cloud slipping out of his chair and letting himself into Kaede's room across the hall.

A/N: Well? What ya think? I think I missed American Idol…-sniff- DAVID ARCHULETAAAAAAAAAAAA! –cries- So…cute…

Anyway. I put him on this CD I made, and the girls started screaming when he sang. TF, right? (TFtoo funny.)

XOXO!

The One And Only Ghettofabulous Noelle (whaaaaat? I had to.)