Summary: How long can you deny that you're in love? Joy is going to find out at Twilight High Boarding School.

Genre: Romance/Humor/Drama

Pairings: RoxasOC RikuOC NamineOC SoraKairi HaynerOlette TidusSelphie MarluxiaOC AxelLarxene DemyxOC(Other pairings may be decided later)

WARNING: Characters may be a bit OOC rushing at the ending xP but you be the judge of that

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts II or any of its characters

Claimer: I own Joy, Amy, Cookie, Stacie, Kristina, Jun, Fernando, Cris, and Taffy.

Thank you for the reviews everyone! ;D

Chapter Eighteen
Eye-Opening Deception

"Yes, I do!"

The voice of Joy scarcely reached the ears of the teens in the nearby kitchen, making them turn their heads in alarm.

"Was that Joy?" Olette asked, a concerned look spreading over her face.

"That was definitely Joy," Hayner replied, taking a step toward the girls' hallway on instinct.

"Joy's yelling? Since when does Joy yell??" Pence asked in disbelief, not waiting for an answer from anyone. He had never the hyper girl yell unless it was to call out to someone. She was never heard raising her voice for any reason when arguing; she always kept the same volume level.

Hayner sighed in worry, "Apparently since Roxas went in there." He was right; Roxas didn't know what he was saying.

Pence turned to Hayner in question, "Roxas went in there?"

"Yeah, Roxas wanted to talk to--"

"SHH!" Olette exclaimed, shushing the boys; apparently, she was trying to hear what was going on between Roxas and Joy. They heard more yelling coming from the girls' hallway before another deep voice was heard, cursing words reaching their ears.

Roxas.

They knew Roxas was the only one out of the two to actually swear. Joy never swore in her life, except the exception of 'holy crap,' and she used that so rarely, she was considered too much of a goodie-two-shoes.

The three teenagers looked at each other in apprehension, before nodding to one another and tip-toeing to the girls' hall. The voices within Joy's room grew louder in volume and as Olette, Hayner, and Pence turned the corner, they had already found six people in front of Joy's door, their ears pressed against it. Zexion was leaning against the wall opposite from the door, his eyes closed as he could clearly hear the argument residing in the bedroom. Demyx and Axel waved to the approaching teens, motioning for them to come over and stay quiet. Larxene gave them an unreadable expression before turning back to the door. Amy and Riku, who seemed to be the first people to have heard the fight being right in front of the door, were crouched next to the door, ears pressed against the door.

"This has nothing to even do with Jun!" Roxas' raised voice reached the teens beyond the door.

The guys of the group knew that voice. Roxas only used that voice when he was really frustrated, and when he didn't know what he was doing. And on top of that, he cursed, loudly. Never before had he used that voice on any girl; none of them expecting Joy to be the first. The guys mentally slapped their foreheads at Roxas; what is going on in that head of his?

All teens present in the hall looked at each other anxiously, as they continued to eavesdrop on the argument.

"Okay, everyone's name is in the hats?" Kairi asked, standing up from Selphie's bed.

"Yup," Selphie answered, shaking each of the five black hats in front of her, mixing up the strips of paper within the caps, "all here and accounted for."

"So, everyone's going to have about--" Kairi started to say, but was interrupted by a loud voice heard from a room down the hall.

"Can you really blame me?! You were always with Jun every single second of the day!"

"What does that have to do with anything? You can still talk to me!"

Selphie turned to her red-headed friend with an incredulous look, "Was that Joy and Roxas?"

"Y-yeah…" Kairi replied, a bit uncertainly. She had never heard Joy yell before, knowing her to be a kind, quiet, hyper girl. "It seems like they're working it out…" Selphie gave her a skeptical look.

More yelling echoed through the hall.

The opening of the door and running footsteps was the only thing heard before Selphie's room was completely empty.

"No, no, no! Turn left! Left!" Stacie shouted at the television desperately, maneuvering herself to turn left or right when needed, as if hoping it would make some difference to the race-car game. "No, wait! Right, right!!

"Oh yeah! I'm going to win!!" Sora exclaimed, jumping up from his seat on the couch in the game room, vigorously pressing buttons on his controller.

"Not if I get there first!" Kristina said, to the boy, also robustly pushing down on the buttons on her controller to make her car accelerate even faster.

"This is so childish," Marluxia muttered from next to his girlfriend, his head resting on his propped hand. He seemed a bit out of place in the game room without his senior friends.

"Yeah, but it's funny," Fernando responded, urging whoever he wanted to win to win.

On the computer nearby was Fernando's blonde girlfriend and standing next to her was Jun. "See Jun? I told you Kelly Clarkson sang this song, not Celine Dion."

Jun flipped her hair in an uncaring matter, trying to hide the fact that she was embarrassed that she was wrong, "Oh well, like it matters."

A small melody was heard and Namine reacted by reaching into her pocket and pulling out her white cell phone; she had just received a text message. Flipping open her phone, she glanced at the screen when she heard Jun say, "I'm going to find Roxas. It's probably almost time for the Secret Santa thing, right--"

"No! No! No!TURN!!" Jun and Namine looked toward the commotion to find that Stacie was turning her body and twisting about with her controller, frantically driving her racecar past obstacles, but failing every now and then to miss the mountain.

After a few moments, another shout was heard. "Oh yeah! I won!" Sora exclaimed, jumping up and down doing a happy dance.

"You only won because I let you," Kristina condescendingly said to him, trying to stop the enthusiastic boy from doing his victory dance.

"Yeah right, Kristina," Fernando said to his friend, "You would've lost either way."

"Oh, shut up, Fernando, like you could do any better," Kristina retorted back to him.

A dangerous glint appeared in Fernando's eyes before he said, "Don't make me hurt you."

"I have Marluxia to protect me," Kristina countered, hugging her boyfriend tightly, no reaction from the boy whatsoever.

Seeing Marluxia's non-reaction, Stacie looked at her raven-haired friend and spoke in a sarcastic tone, "Yeah, Marluxia is totally going to protect you."

Suddenly stopping his winning dancing, Sora pointed at Jun ardently, "I challenge you, Jun Tsu, to a rematch!" Remembering his match earlier with the girl and losing terribly, his eyes flashed fire in a determining way. Jun was about to decline when Sora said, "Unless you're chicken?" Imitating a chicken, he mocked at Jun as everyone tried to coax the girl to stay and play the game with them.

"Since when did you ever back down from a challenge, Jun?" Namine asked the other girl innocently.

True.

Jun was never one to back down from a challenge, especially one that she would win hands-down. Her rosy lips twitched up into a smirk before taking a seat onto the couch, "Ready to lose again, Sora?"

"Not a chance!" Sora confidently said to her.

As Jun took the controller from Stacie, Namine let out an inaudible sigh and pocketed back her cell phone. If Namine wasn't listening to the others shout and cheer on the players or if the volume of the game that the others were playing was lowered, Namine would have heard a distant female voice ring around the cabin.

"--take the necklace, rip out the pictures and burn it for all I care!"

"So you did compare me to her."

"What happened?" Selphie whispered to the other eavesdroppers, not hearing any voices within the bedroom at the moment. It had suddenly gotten all quiet.

No one answered the brunette's question. They heard Joy's ragged breathing from yelling and shouting so much and that's when they heard it.

"Damn it, Joy! Why don't you understand?!"

"I don't understand?! It's you that doesn't understand! These past three months, I had always been there for you, always been with you, and yet those moments of our time together meant nothing to you?! Why can't you understand that I love you!?"

Amy and Olette gasped softly as everyone widened their eyes in utter shock. Joy had finally stopped lying to herself and confessed her feelings for the blonde boy. The teenagers awed in respect for the short girl as she finally gave in to her feelings and spoke the truth, or in this case,shouted. Everyone leaned in closer to the door, struggling to hear Roxas' response.

"…What did…you just say?" Was Roxas' very faint reply.

"Yes, please, repeat what you just said, Joy," Demyx cried out quietly, trying to hear the conversation. He had not clearly heard what Joy had said a second ago, but he could already guess.

"I'm not repeating it."

More talking, mainly Joy's voice, and everyone listened in, striving to hear with their opened ears as Joy's voice went softer and softer. She was no longer yelling, but telling in a sad tone. "I knew you only thought of us as friends, every guy does." Amy, feeling sympathy for her best friend, her expression dropped a bit from its scrunched up pose. Amy felt a hand on her shoulder and found that Riku was silently comforting her, his facial expression telling the girl to have faith in her best friend's words. Amy nodded at him before they both turned back to the door.

Suddenly, the eavesdroppers' ears were met with silence, again. First, Joy started talking, softer this time, then heard nothing. It was completely quiet as Amy and Riku strained their ears for any movement, sound or noise inside the bedroom.

Riku's eyes were furrowed together as he tried to predict what had happened inside. Joy had just been abruptly cut off after saying, "You don't love me back, right--" Putting two and two together - knowing Joy had just expressed her feelings and knowing Roxas shared the same feeling - he announced, "Roxas just kissed her."

"Really?" Kairi exclaimed, amazed. "How can you tell?"

Amy unconsciously smiled, knowing this was a very special kiss to Joy; her very first kiss.

Joy's first kiss.

It was just that: a kiss; a real and rough one. This kiss wasn't the kind that swept Joy off her feet that she had always expected the first kiss to feel, or the kind of kiss when shy lips brushed against one another to show affection. No, this was way past that. This kiss was a charged and rough one, almost as if he was desperate; and yet, even if this kiss was gentle, the kiss sent tingles down her spine and took her breath away all the same.

Roxas didn't know what had overcome him, but he wanted Joy to know that he did feel the same way, that he had the same feelings for the girl. No matter what anyone said, or what anyone did (-ahem- Jun), he shared these feelings and emotions with her. Roxas wanted to show Joy that she was wrong, that he did care and that all those moments of them being together did mean something to him. He poured everything in his being into that one - rough - kiss. He didn't mean for it to be so forceful, but he wanted to shut Joy up from finishing her sentence, because she didn't understand. He didn't understand at first either, but he wanted to let her know that she had always been in his heart.

The golden locket had fallen onto the floor, out of Roxas' grasp as he slid his hands up Joy's arms gently, sending shivers throughout her body as it relaxed to the kiss. The necklace fell to the floor, as well as their friendship, but what happens next?

The blonde boy slowly pulled away, opening his eyes just a crack to peek at the girl's expression. He chuckled inwardly at Joy's dazed expression, her lips parted from the kiss. She looked so small, fragile that it made him move his hands upward to the sides of her face, holding her, caressing her cheeks. Smiling, he reeled back in, tasting the girl's lips again in a softer, sweeter kiss.

Joy wasn't exactly sure if she was kissing back or not, but she absent-mindedly moved her hands to his chest, steadying herself from the sudden dizziness, making her feel a bit light. She felt as if she were on a white, puffy cloud. If the first kiss sent tingles down her spine, the second kiss led her into pure bliss as it became more passionate and loving; her face flushed even more than it already was as she felt Roxas lightly pressing his body against hers.

"I - have - always - loved - you," Roxas said to her mellifluously in between kisses, each one being better than the last. With one final kiss, he spoke in the same tone, moving a few strands of her sea foam hair behind her ear affectionately, "Why can't you understand that?" His ocean blue eyes gazed into her still dazed violet eyes, as if he was hypnotizing her. He felt his own cheeks turn red as the girl before him continued to stare at him through half-lidded eyes and quivering pink lips, practically begging for more.

Joy's knees turned into jello and could feel her face grow hot as he mocked her with her own words. Even though she's been waiting for three months from him to share these feelings with her, she's been waiting all her life to hear those three simple words. And she knew that if Roxas hadn't moved his arms to around her waist, she would've collapsed - possibly fainted.

A loud knock on the front cabin door echoed throughout the seemingly quiet cabin. "That must be Cris and Taffy," Olette whispered, letting out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. Straightening her composure, she quickly walked off to the front room before announcing loudly so the cabin would hear where she was, acting as if she was there the whole time, "I'll get it!"

Hastily getting up, Hayner, Kairi, and Selphie followed after the brunette as she opened the door to reveal the grinning faces of Taffy and Cris. "We're ready to help decorate!" Taffy exclaimed, stepping into the toasty warm cabin, Cris walking in as well.

Cris looked around the room and arched an eyebrow, "Where is everyone?"

"Doing random stuff around the cabin," Hayner exasperated while breathing a bit heavily, grinning at the Asian boy.

Olette closed the door once the two were inside and yelled out, almost urgently, "Time to decorate!"

Hearing the front door of the cabin open and close, Joy said to the boy still holding her, "Cris and Taffy are here…"

"Time to decorate!" Olette's voice rang around the cabin.

Chuckling a bit, Joy added, "And it's time to start decorating the house."

"Cabin," Roxas corrected while grinning at her, keeping his hold around the girl.

"Cabin, whatever," Joy replied back, sticking her tongue out at him; she still felt the blush on her cheeks, remembering the event that had just occurred only moments ago; she could still feel her heart beating against her chest rapidly. The feeling came back to her legs as she stood up straighter, not making any difference in her height compared to Roxas who was still three inches taller than her, and she started pushing lightly against his chest, "You can let go anytime now."

Roxas smirked at the girl in his arms, pulling her closer, "Now why would I do that?" Seeing the blush deepen on her face, Roxas chuckled at her.

Lightly slapping him on the face, she said, "Because if you don't, at some point, Amy's going to come in here and see us like this."

Roxas once again, smirked at the girl and leaned toward her ear, his hot breath tickling her neck, "Nice kiss; you sure you haven't kissed anyone before?" Roxas knew full well that he had claimed Joy's first kiss, and he imprinted that detail within his head.

"Come on, Joy and Roxas might come out any minute now," Demyx urged the others quietly as he and Zexion left the hall toward the front room.

"Nice kiss; you sure you haven't kissed anyone before?"

"O.M.G!" Amy exclaimed softly, pressing her ear forcefully into the door, hearing what Roxas had just said.

"What?" Larxene pushed Riku out of the way and tried to lean in more, trying to hear what Amy was becoming excited over.

Seeing her boyfriend get pushed away, Amy became angered and separated from the door, "Hey, don't just push him like that!"

"Shut up, shortie," Larxene retorted, getting next to the door.

"Wait! I wanna hear!" Axel complained, rushing to the door.

Ironically, Axel tripped onto the rug in front of the door and slammed right into the door.

Joy's heart quickened its pace as she watched Roxas lean in ever so close to her face yet again, merely inches away from her lips. The blush deepening, she leaned in as well, wanting to kiss the boy she loved once more.

SLAM !

"Ow!" A voice was heard and suddenly, the door knob was turned and burst open, shocking the two teens as they separated, watching a dog pile appear at the doorway. Amy's hand was the one that had turned the doorknob, Larxene was next to her leaning against the door, Riku behind them while Axel was on Amy's other side fallen face first.

"So, um…" Amy started to say, looking anywhere but at the couple in front of her, "What's up?"

"Are we interrupting something?" Riku slyly said, smirking at the blushing teens.

"No, not exactly," Joy replied awkwardly, looking up at the ceiling innocently. She quickly rushed off, grabbing both Amy's and Larxene's arms while saying, "Let's decorate!"

Axel got up once the girls left and leaned against the doorframe, "So… Roxas…"

Roxas glared at Axel, his blush still on his face, "What?" He seemed a bit bitter from being interrupted from his… 'alone' time with Joy.

"Well," Axel started, a smirk forming on his face, "I'm guessing the lip-lock was interesting, eh?" Roxas' face darkened in color as he quickly turned the other way, hearing the pyro laugh at him. "If you don't want to tell us, we still have a witness to what happened in this room."

Roxas looked taken aback and a bit afraid, looking back to his friend, "Who?"

Riku stepped into the room and pointed to something on the bed. Roxas turned his head toward Joy's bed and saw something sitting on it. Her tail up in the air happily, Cookie did what she does best: "Meow?"

"Okay, now that we're all here," Selphie declared, looking around the living room, "we're going to pull out the names for our Secret Santa extravaganza!" Grinning widely, Selphie pulled out five identical black hats and showed it to everyone, setting them down on the end-table.

"Wait, I thought we were going to be decorating?" Joy asked confusingly sitting on the floor in front of Roxas, leaning against his legs, much to the dislike of Jun who was fortunately (for Roxas and Joy) sitting on another couch.

"We are," Kairi told her with a mischievous glint in her eye, "but we always have a Secret Santa pulling before decorating."

"You never told us about that," Cris grumbled as he laid back in his seat on the couch.

"Well, now I am," Kairi finished.

"But where are we going to go? There's no stores nearby is there?" Stacie asked the red-headed girl.

Selphie was the one that answered this time, a grin on her face, "We'll explain all that jazz later." Leaving it at that, she pushed up her sleeves and started to explain the rules, "Okay, since we have a huge amount of people this year compared to last year, and it's will be kind of sad if we only got one present each, so Kairi and I have decided that each and everyone of us will give and receive five presents."

Half the people agreed to the idea while others protested saying, "Waste of money!"

Ignoring the protesters, Kairi continued on with the explanation, "In each of the hats has our names; just pick up five strips of paper - without looking," she added, turning an eye to Sora who turned the other way, whistling innocently, "and those are the people that you buy presents for."

"The minimum of the price of each gift is five dollars," Selphie finished, adding in, "And don't tell anyone who you got for the Secret Santa." Selphie looked around the room, "Get it? Got it? Good."

"Hey Kairi, where does Jolly ol' St. Nick go?" Joy asked her friend, pointing at the hollow Santa Claus next to her.

Kairi turned to her friend and contemplated about the matter for a moment before telling the girl, "It goes next to the tree, in front of the window."

"Got it!" Joy exclaimed, picking up the jolly man and setting him back down in front of the window, right next to the tall green Christmas tree. She stared at it with a grin before her face fell into a frown. She started to pout at it and crossed her arms at the non-moving object in front of her.

Roxas walking past her with a box of lights in his hands and saw her expression, "What's wrong, Joy?"

Joy pouted even more as she replied in a baby voice, "I feel so short."

Roxas looked from the hollow Santa to his friend and found that she indeed was right, "Yes you are."

Joy stuck her tongue at him, "You weren't suppose to agree…"

"Oh?" Roxas started, quirking his eyebrow, "Now what kind of guy would I be if I lied to you?"

Joy glared at him, seeing his point right away and started pointing in a random direction, "Go do your duties, mister, don't talk to me!" And with a grin plastered on her face, she walked off in the other direction.

Roxas smiled after as he did as he was commanded and walked off toward Hayner and Pence who were waiting for him. Hayner and Pence gave the blonde boy a knowing smirk which Roxas disregarded and dropped the box to the floor, leaving a THUD sound.

"Hey! Careful with those lights! We're not replacing those anytime soon!" Kairi hollered to the boy.

"We know, Kairi," Pence assured the red-head as he started taking out some lights from the cardboard box.

On the other side of the room, Joy was helping Olette, Taffy, and Amy decorate the naked Christmas tree as Selphie, Kairi, and Stacie were laying out the ornaments and such onto the end table. "So Selphie, has Tidus been calling you lately?" Joy teased the brunette sitting on the couch.

Selphie blushed at the name of the kendo boy before saying coyly, "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Olette exclaimed and scoffed at Selphie as she put up an angel on the tree, "At night, her cell phone won't stop ringing because the boy can't stop thinking about the girl."

"Ooo, Selphie, should I commence boyfriend operation: Tidus and Selphie??" Amy joked, prodding the cheeks of Selphie as she continued to blush.

"Who's Tidus?" Taffy asked the girls as she stood there next to the tree confused.

"Selphie's boyfriend," Olette replied simply.

"Oh," Taffy said, nodding in understanding.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Selphie protested, whining a bit from everyone's teasing.

Taffy put a comforting hand on Selphie's shoulder, totally misunderstanding the situation, "It's okay. We all get embarrassed by our boyfriends at times." Everyone laughed at Taffy's misinterpretation of what Selphie had just said.

Joy laughed along with the others, "Too bad Tidus and Wakka aren't here, with the foreign exchange program extended and all."

"Hey hey! What's that suppose to mean?" Stacie said.

Realizing what she said, Joy quickly turned to Stacie with an apologetic look, "Oh, you know what I mean Stacie."

"Uh-huh, sure!" Stacie replied sarcastically, returning to the box of ornaments, "Don't talk to me anymore, Joy."

"You know I love you, Stacie," the sea foam haired girl responded to her friend, returning back to the hanging of ornaments on the tree.

"You love memore," Joy felt hot breath tickle her ear and she quickly whipped her head to find that Roxas had just past her, a box in his hands.

She could feel her cheeks reddening at what he said and she exclaimed at the blonde boy, back turned toward her, "Sure I do, Roxas!"

"Yup." He replied coolly, barely turning around enough for her to see him smirking. Joy stuck out her tongue, as per usual, at him.

Joy started fuming to hide her embarrassment, Amy, Olette, and Selphie laughing quietly at their friend. As the blue-green haired girl turned back to the tree, slipping on candy canes onto the tree, she heard Stacie ask, "Hey Olette, where are we going to go buy our Secret Santa gifts?"

"Oh, we're going Christmas Gift shopping tomorrow at the tunnel shopping center."

"A tunnel shopping center?" Joy asked, never hearing of such a thing.

"A tunnel, on a mountain?" Amy inquired from next to Joy, looking up to Olette from her seat on the floor.

"Not on a mountain, in the mountain," Olette corrected her.

"Is that even possible?"

Before Olette could elaborate more of the wonders of a tunnel being inside the mountain, Joy heard the annoyingly female voice of Jun say, "Roxas! Can you help me with the doorway arch lights, please?"

"Do I have to?" Was Roxas' lazy reply.

Jun ignored his tone and pulled him to the doorway leading to the halls, being oblivious to Roxas' protests. Joy continued to face the tree, choosing to ignore the two teenagers heading toward the arch. She knew of Roxas' feelings toward her and trusted him completely. It hasn't even been a full day, so he wouldn't go lie about his words that fast.

Right?

Joy shook her head from her uneasiness and continued to decorate the tree which was nearly covered in ornaments and lights.

"Wait a minute…" Was the thought that ran through the majority of the kids' heads in the room.

Sora.

Kairi.

Namine.

Olette.

Hayner.

Pence.

Selphie.

Riku.

Axel.

Demyx.

Zexion.

Larxene.

Marluxia.

The aforementioned teenagers turned their heads to Jun and Roxas in alert. How could Roxas forget?!

"Roxas!" Olette cried out suddenly causing Joy to swiftly turn around to see why the brunette had suddenly called out the blonde's name. The sight that she met shocked her. It was like witnessing a death right before her eyes… but Joy thought it was worse. No one knew she had turned around and she turned back to the tree, water already forming in her glossy violet eyes.

"Don't forget the mistletoe goes in the doorway!"

DUN DUN DUN!!

Cliffie !! ;DD Hehe... oooo a mis-tle-toe!!! O.M.G. ! ;D Hope you liked this chapter!!! REVIEWS REVIEWS REVIEWS PLEASE!! Roxas is a nut-head huh ? Or should I say bonehead ? xP

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