Faded: look! it's alive! i didn't forget about it!

Riane: be still my beating heart.

Faded: what heart?

Riane: shut up.

Faded: anyways...after a long long loooong hiatus, i have revived HISBS. for a little while, at least.

Riane: huzzah. /sarcasm

Faded: anyways...my lovely muse, if you would.

Riane: yea, yea. i don't get paid enough for this...ahem, The Faded Guardian does not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates. she only owns her OC, Riena. all other OCs belong to friends.

Faded: enjoy!

Axel's POV

Well, as all good things must, winter break had come to an end. Classes had started back up again. The bad thing about that was, I put off the paper I was supposed to write for English. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "God Axel, you're such a procrastinator." While, yes, you would be right, we got an extra week to do the paper; probably because Ms. Lockheart knew at least half of us would have put it off. And it was during this time that I threw together another half-assed paper. Damn, I don't know what I'd do without Riena and her awesome laptop. So now here I am, falling asleep in English waiting for my crappy paper to get an F. Again. Instead of paying attention like I should have been, I rested my head on the desk and sent a text to Roxas.

Yo! 'sup homie?

Dude, don't *ever* say that again

heh…sorry…

aren't you in eng.?

yea…so?

you should pay attn before you fail

stfu. too late for that anyway

lol. yea. ditching ya now. Ansem decided to give out a pop quiz :P

k. bai.

I lifted my head up from the desk and the first thing I saw when I looked up scared the living hell out of me.

"OH MY GOD! THERE'S A FLOATING HAND CORRECTING MY FUCKIN' PAPER!"

The entire class fell silent, all their eyes on me. "Hehe…sorry." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment, looking at the suddenly immensely interesting desk in front of me.

"Axel!" Ms. Lockheart yelled. "Detention. After school."

I looked up at my teacher; Ms. Tifa Lockheart, known for being a hard-ass on all the guy students she had. "But Ms. Tifa!" I cried, "There seriously was some random floating hand writing on my paper!"

"Axel, another outburst like that and I'll have you suspended."

This shut me up immediately. I could handle detentions, but a single suspension and my ass gets shipped back to, ahem, Hollow Bastion Academy for Misunderstood Youths. Ain't that a mouthful? Anyway, class ended and when we got our papers back the next week, I expected to see the usual F. but instead, staring back at me from my paper was a D. I couldn't believe it! I even thought I had someone else's paper. Like Marluxia, or someone who wasn't me. "Guess that floating hand of yours really did help, eh Axel?" Ms. Lockheart commented, as she passed my desk to hand a paper to someone behind me. "Good job, Cascylla. An A, as always," I heard Ms. Lockheart say to the person behind me.

'Who the hell…?' I turned around in my seat and saw a girl with blonde hair, who looked about sophomore age. 'Wait…if she's a sophomore, then why is she in my English 5-6 class?' My eyes traveled down to her desk and immediately spotted the one thing that I never wanted to see again. "YOU!" I yelled, as the bell rang for my study hall period.

"Yes?" she asked, a look of genuine confusion on her face.

"You're coming with me," I told her, grabbing her hand and dragging her out the door.

"But this is my only free period!" she cried. "I have a paper to finish!"

"As sorry as I am about that, I still need you to come with me," I said, racing down the halls to get to study hall.

Riena's POV

Ah, study hall…have I mentioned that it's my favorite period? I leaned back in my chair and opened up my copy of House of Leaves, trying not to disturb the placement of the sticky notes sticking out of the pages. Half way down the page I started on, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up from the book and saw Roxas taking a seat beside me. "Hey Roxas," I greeted, leaning over and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

He blushed, still not used to that kind of thing. "Hey Ri. Where's Axel?"

I shrugged. "No clue. Hey, is he still on about that stupid floating hand or whatever?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes. He won't friggin' shut up about it!" He was about to say something else when I was hug-attacked from behind by Arisa and Naomi.

"Hi Riena!" they said in unison.

"Hey guys. Either of you seen Axel?" I asked.

The two of them shook their heads. "Nope. Hey! Maybe he got jumped!" Naomi suggested hopefully.

"How the hell would someone jump him in the halls?" Arisa asked. "More importantly, why would they want to"

"I can probably think of one out of thousands, of millions, of billions, of trillions, of infinity people who would want to jump out little Axie-chan," Naomi replied, grinning.

"Wow Naomi…I think you've taken confusion to a whole new level," Axel commented, suddenly appearing behind her, holding onto the wrist of some girl who looked like she really needed to be somewhere else. She lifted her head and looked at all of us, and when her eyes finally landed on Naomi, the two of them gasped in shock.

"Cascylla!" "Naomi!" they said together.

"I haven't seen you since we were at Radiant Garden Prep last year!" Cascylla said happily.

"I know! Oh, it's been far too long, daaaahling." Naomi told her, taking on a British accent.

"Oh yes, far, far, too long," Cascylla agreed, also taking on a British accent.

They looked at each other for a silent ten seconds before breaking out into laughter.

"Do you two know each other, or something?" Demyx asked, completely oblivious to the situation.

I rolled my eyes. "Demyx, I really don't think that two complete strangers would know each others' old school and then joke in British accents!" I told him, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

"Everyone, this is my bestest, almost-sister-friend I've ever had, Cascylla," Naomi introduced. "Cascylla, this if my friend and roommate Riena, firehead Axel, lovesick Roxas, baka Demyx, weird Arisa, my boyfriend Zexion, and everyone else who isn't as cool as us."

"Hi! …Hey! Who's that? Her hair is so pretty!" Cascylla commented.

"Umm…first of all, that's a guy," Naomi told her. "And second, that's Marluxia. He's a fag-bucket."

"No he's not!" I said, not knowing why I was even defending him in the first place.

"Oh yeah, and Riena used to date him."

"Um, hello? Can I get back to why I dragged, uh…Cascylla here?" Axel asked, cutting into the conversation. I quirked an eyebrow, but nodded letting him continue. "Okay, so you remember about that random floating hand that I told you guys about?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Dammit, Axel! Not this again!" he said, sounding exasperated.

"Hey, shut up, Rox. I swear I saw it! And I have proof! Wanna know how?" he asked. Before any of us could answer, he waved Cascylla's hand in the air. "It's right here! She was the one correcting my paper! And she's the reason that I got a D! So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the floating hand that you all gave me crap about." He smiled triumphantly at us.

"Uh, that hand is attached to a person, who has a name, who happens to also be one of my best friends, you asswipe," Naomi snapped.

He only rolled his eyes and turned to Cascylla. "Anyways," he said to her. "Since your corrections got my a D, I was wondering…could you tutor me in English?"

I couldn't help it; I started cracking up like no tomorrow. "Oh my god, it seriously sounded like you were going to ask her out or something, Axel!"

Cascylla turned several shades of red when I said this. Axel only tossed a playful smirk my way and said, "Ah, be quiet you."

I grinned and gave him a wink. "Love ya too." He chuckled and ruffled my hair affectionately. Roxas sat there glowering at him, looking read to punch poor Axel. Or me. "Aw…Rox-as…you know that Axel and I are still kinda friends with benefits."

"Yeah, well you don't have to go and be all flirty with him right in front of me," he grumbled.

"I'm sorry…" I gave him an apologetic kiss, effectively turning him red and speechless.

"So can ya tutor me for English or what?" Axel asked Cascylla again.

She shrugged, seeming to know that there was no saying no to the red-head in front of her. "Sure. Why not."

Faded: sorry for the fail short chapter :/

Riane: next chapter will be longer, don't worry.

Faded: yup. and that's also when the drama will rear it's head again, so stay tuned! hopefully i'll update before another year is over.

Riane: don't forget to review. it motivates her to update faster...usually

Faded: reviewers get free cookies! until next time, my dears!