A/N: I promised you you wouldn't have to wait too long, didn't I? Even though it is a bit short and kind of a real filler chapter, but next chapter will be something to look forward to.

Thanks to Dragonfly-Star, Nitrea and HellzLittleAngel for reviewing! I'm sorry if I didn't reply to everyone. FanFiction was acting a bit weird and didn't let me reply.

Warning: Latin words are used in this chapter. Don't worry if you don't know what ala or ara means, because it really isn't important. Especially don't worry if you don't know the difference between a gerundium and a gerundivum, because even thoug I study Latin, I don't get it either. I only know that it is some kind of grammatical construction.

Something else: I finally convinced my best friend to make a fanfiction account! Her stories are awesome, so go check it out: fanfiction .net/u/2565232/Mirit (For some reason, I can't find her if I type 'mirit' in the searching engine, so I put up a link. o.O)

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. The second song is Rikki, don't lose that number by Steely Dan. I have no idea who made the first song. I only know it's from the 16th century and based on a Latin manuscript from 1287. You can google it if you're really interested.

Chapter VII

Gaudamus Igitur
Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenes dum sumus.
Post jucundam juventutem
Post molestam senectutem
Nos habebit humus.

Vivat academia!
Vivant professores!
Vivat membrum quodlibet;
Vivant membra quaelibet;
Semper sint in flore.

To be honest, I didn't hate the exams. Saying that I loved them was going overboard, but I certainly lacked the aversion Hayner felt towards them.

I had to say, learning all day was boring, but the exams had their good sides too. Even I, who never got good grades during the year, was almost always ready by 5 o' clock. I had my own way of studying: usually, I didn't really do my best, but about two weeks before the start of the exams, I started cramming. Olette said my methods would lead to my 'doom', but that's probably only because she gave up on getting Hayner to study and she needed someone to grumble at.

Another great thing about the exams was that Saix never called. If he didn't call, I didn't have to do any odd jobs, which only resulted in me having even more free time. The reason he never called wasn't because I wasn't needed, but rather because he wanted to please my parents. After all, the exams were supposed to be 'a busy and stressful time'.

Regardless of how bad or how good the exams were, there was one thing that didn't fit into them: love. Luckily, Axel seemed to think so too, because he didn't bother me. I never went to the drawing academy during the exams so I had more time to study, and whenever he saw me in the hallways, he just waved.

Sophia thought I should use this opportunity to forget all about him. She supported my opinion that a relationship with Axel wouldn't last, rather than Sora's 'You'll see, it will all work out' attitude. She had to admit that I was different than his previous girlfriends, but she doubted he could last longer than a month in a relation.

It was the second day of exams and I was already bored out of my mind. That was the bad part about the exams. Maybe I should let Hayner convince me to call them evil after all.

I couldn't call Olette or Pence, because they were studying, and even though I could call Hayner, he had house arrest – the last resort his parents had to get him to study – so our conversation would always be something like:

"I'm so bored."

"Yeah, me too."

And that was it.

I had thought about having a movie marathon, but the vedeotheque was closed on Tuesdays (seriously, who wanted to see a movie on a Tuesday?) and even though I resorted to seeing movies every time I had exams, I didn't even have one movie at home. I would never learn.

So my life would be boring and uneventful for two weeks. The highlight of my days was waiting for Olette, Pence and Hayner to finish, because apparently, I worked really fast, and I was always the first one to finish my exams.

Oh, and frikandel(*). Never forget the important decision of whether or not I should buy a frikandel on my way home.

Life was really dull these days. I couldn't talk to my new friends out of school. I had banned Axel from my mind. I had too much free time. Things were back to how they were before Axel had forced his way into my life.

Back then, the silence in my room had always been comforting, a place where I didn't have to pretend. Now, it just felt… empty.

That wasn't how it was supposed to feel.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I noted that it wasn't supposed to feel like anything at all.

Sometimes I asked myself why the hell I ever choose to study Latin. Seriously, I couldn't see how knowing that ala meant wing and ara meant altar would ever benefit me. Or even better – worse? – how knowing the difference between a gerundium and a gerundivum would ever be able to save my life. I would probably never know, because I had absolutely no idea what the difference was. And that was exactly the problem.

Ugh. Latin exams were way too difficult.

I hadn't really had enough sleep, because I'd stayed up late to study. For once I had studied past five. Too bad I couldn't remember a thing.

Ah, Latin's finally done, I thought, and threw myself on me bed, successfully faceplanting in my physics books I had strategically placed on my pillow this morning.

I guess I'll sleep after learning for physics. After all, it was my last exam.

Physics was probably the most boring, but the easiest subject on earth. All you had to do was learn a few simple formulas by heart, a basic knowledge of maths and a calculator would do the rest. So after two hours of studying, I wasn't incredibly sleepy anymore. Just bored. I decided a few good movies would be the solution to all my problems.

Rikki, Don't Lose that Number
But if you have a change of heart
Rikki, don't lose that number
You don't wanna call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to yourself
Rikki, don't lose that number
It's the only one you own
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home
-Steely Dan

I'd never thought I would ever fall asleep at school. That was something only Hayner did, but I guess that's what happens when you have a movie marathon until 5 a. m.

Luckily, physics were still as easy as they were yesterday, and the exam was way too easy. I finished first again – lucky me – but that also meant I had to wait for the others.

Sitting on one of the picnic tables on my own proved to be incredibly boring, and it didn't take long before I was flying off to dreamland.

I was walking in a fair.

Everything looked big and extremely spectacular, but the fair still had an authentic feeling, almost as if everything had a sepia shine to it. Some children ran past me. They had balloons in their hands that were filled with water instead of helium, but somehow still managed to float in the air. There was a fish swimming in every balloon, and I absentmindedly thought I'd like a balloon like that too.

After a few minutes of walking, I spotted two familiar faces. Hayner and… Axel? They were facing each other and clearly arguing about something (I think it had to do something with the squirrel that was sitting in between them – it looked a bit like Pence and seemed ill at ease – but I'm not entirely sure).

"But he's mine," Axel whined.

"No, he's not," Hayner retorted

"Yes, he is."

"I don't see your name on him."

Axel didn't have anything to say about that. Instead he took a sharpie. I didn't quite see what he did after that, because a clown decided now was a good time to tie a balloon to my wrist – it was one with a dark red fish in it – and he consumed all my attention. I could hear Axel say something along the lines of "now you do" though.

"Oh, god, what did you do!" Olette shrieked, pulling me out of my dream world.

"What?" I asked, my voice still laced with sleep.

"Oh, hey Roxas, welcome back to the land of the living," a voice said – Axel? What was he doing here? Hadn't he decided to finally leave me alone?

Looking around, I saw that Hayner and Pence where sitting too, neither of them looking too happy, and I was beginning to wonder for how long I'd been asleep exactly, when Olette spoke again.

"Your hand." She looked quite troubled, a bit angry, even.

Still trying to get the sleep out of my eyes, I looked down at my hand.

Something was written on it in big, capital letters: AXEL'S POSSESION.

Slowly, the gears in my head started turning. The conversation in my dream hadn't been the result of my imagination at all. Pieces of a real conversation had slipped through my skull, but Hayner and Axel hadn't been arguing about a squirrel, no – it had been about me.

My eyes shot up to angrily meet Axel's – his were filled with sheer happiness, which just pissed me off more.

"I thought you had finally decided to leave me alone," I grumbled.

"Aww, but Roxas, leaving you alone really isn't so easy." His voice hadn't changed, but it looked like my tone had forced the happy glint to leave his eyes. Why was it so hard to push him away without feeling guilty?

"I just thought you'd like some rest so you could study for your exams, but then I remembered I wouldn't see you during the holidays either, and that thought was just unbearable, so I came to ask for your number."

Forget the guilt, he didn't look that hurt, his dramatic tone of voice and the hand movements proved that. They almost made me laugh, too, but I wasn't going to give in that easily. And giving him my phone number? Never.

"Come, Olette, Hayner, Pence, it's time to go home, before we all freeze to death." Ignoring Axel was probably the best option now, so I slung my backpack over my shoulder and turned to go before even waiting for an answer.

Axel, however, didn't seem to like that.

"Hey Roxas, wait!" Was he getting slightly panicked there? "Come on, Roxas, wait a minute." I could hear him searching for something. There was a muffled 'Damn it' and a few other sounds I didn't really recognize – I was probably too far away, before Axel was by my side again. He handed me a little note.

"Here. It's my number." I just ignored him.

"Come on Roxas," he pleaded. Guilt was taking over again, damn it. I took the note and his stupid face cheered up a bit.

"Please call me, all right?"

I just stuffed the note in one of my pockets.

When I got home, the first thing I did was throw the note in the garbage can. Two days later, it was collected with the other rubbish.

It was so easy to dispose it now that I didn't have to look at Axel's sad face. But the markings were an entirely different matter.

*Frikandel is a typical Belgian dish. It is often eaten with french fries or as a snack. (Go wikipedia it: en .wikipedia .org/ wiki/ Frikandel)

Now go click that big, yellow review button. You know you want to.

Random Fact of the Day:
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Diamonds - Julius Caesar