A/N: One month till school is over! Yay! That means more updates!

-The Beginning Of The End-

Sora found himself staring at the ceiling. He had his arms behind his head and his back against the bed. A faint orange glow illuminated the windows indicating that dawn had already arrived.

His alarm clock showed that it was time to catch a few winks however his mind would not allow him to rest in peace. His mind was pulsing with thoughts and his heart was in pieces.

I… Couldn't find her.

The more he thought about it the more remorse he felt. He shouldn't have been depressed in the first place. If he didn't go bike riding in the rain for no particular reason at all then that 'little incident' might not have happened. Everything that he worked up to build their friendship before was shattered, everything in his life seemed to lose its meaning.

Remorse is a terrible drug. Once you get accustomed with it, the feeling would stick with you until death. The feeling of dread would spread through ones body afterwards, leading to extreme depression.

Sora waited for that feeling to come. He waited for the darkness that would swallow his heart. Instead being enveloped by darkness, the sunlight reflected through the windows and shown on his face. Blinding the brunette.

The boy had never been much of a morning person. Since he didn't have a wink of sleep last night, the Monday morning became more intolerable. Soon he heard the bright horn in the morning shortly followed by the sound of his alarm clock and the buzzing of his cell phone.

"Get up, get dressed and get your butt down." A familiar voice came from the speakers.

"Huh?"

"Three seconds."

Three seconds?

"One." Sora heard Roxas begging behind Riku's voice. The blonde wanted his cell phone to live longer.

Oh well…

The brunette jumped up from bed… And fell flat on his face.

"Two."

Roxas' voice was now shaking and weary. "Please Sora! I don't wanna get another phone… " The poor boy begged.

Sora pushed himself up the floor and ran towards the door.

He just barely made it in time. Or Roxas would have to go through the trouble of buying a new cell phone again.

The Mercedes zoomed through the parking lot and searched for a space. Arriving just minutes before the late bell rang doesn't give you a wide choice of spaces for parking.

Sora held onto his safety belt for dear life as the car took a left around a corner and bright lights immediately filled the Mercedes, blinding the brunette. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he managed to squint and just make out the 1 The sports car that faced them had a streamline aerodynamic shape. A red Ferrari458 Italia rolled to a stop in front of them. After another few seconds of close observation, Sora noticed that there were two people seated in the front seats. The driver and the girl both had surprisingly red hair.

Sora's head immediately went blank. In a situation like this, one should get out of the vehicle as fast as they can and make a break for it. However, Sora stayed put. Not because he was absolutely fearless of the outcome from this incident, but because he couldn't feel his legs. Move damn things!

The door clicked in front. Roxas got out to meet his pal. Riku stepped out to confront his other rival.

Hmm… A rival's rival… Does that make him my rival too? But it also means that he's a friend's friend… And this friend's friend has a certain red haired cousin that is staring straight into the back of my seat right now.

The brunette could feel her gaze. Sora gulped, squeezed his eyes shut and pretended not to notice, but in the end he gave into his curiosity. He lashes battered and he noticed that she didn't take her eyes off him. She gazed at him.

Sora looked up and they locked eyes. The boy immediately pulled away. What the hell?

Instead of being drove by anger and hate, her gaze was filled with bitterness. The kind that wrung Sora's heart dry from sourness.

Their moment was interrupted by the blonde teenager, who opened the side door for Sora when he wasn't looking.

"Come on. Don't give up. I'm sure we can sort things out mannerly." He encouraged.

Yeah, easy for you to say. Now that you and Naminè are finally going out, you can kick back and relax…

Out of the corner of his eye, the brunette caught a quick glimpse of Axel. He was standing on the shotgun side of the Ferrari opening Kairi's door.

For a moment, Sora actually thought that she would stay inside so everything would become less painful. The girl sat on the seat arms crossed without batting an eyelash. He felt relieved and pained at the same time. His beating heart stilled to a temperate pace but his brain raced though different thoughts.

It might just be a moment of relieve but she might actually never want to see you again…

Then why was she staring at you?

Well… Maybe she wants to see you a little bit?

A little bit? What are you thinking Sora? Get yourself together!

A sound of a car door slamming got his attention. Kairi stood beside the red sports car beside her cousin.

Riku who just couldn't stand their watching his friend's stupidity anymore forced Sora out of the car and pushed him to the front line.

Axel didn't seem to mind all that much, after all he was a carefree pyromaniac. The silver haired kid cared even less. He just waved it off and started in the direction of the academic buildings. The red haired teenager followed his hint and started after Riku.

Roxas didn't seem so happy. Normally he would've avoided these kinds of situations that really got uncomfortable, but he wasn't able to move. Literally. Sora planted the heel of his shoe on his toe to make sure that he didn't move an inch.

Come on buddy, stay with me here.

Roxas gave him a silent whimper but never did talk back.

And that left Kairi. At first, she tried to hide behind her cousin, but since now she didn't have any more stealth techniques; she just hurried after her cousin and pretended not to notice.

Sora didn't mind. He kept his eyes on the gravel the whole time until he heard Kairi walk away.

When he finally got back the courage to turn his head and look at Kairi, instead of staring at the back of her white shirt and plait skirt, he found a pair of amethyst looking back at his.

She just happened to look back too.

Time around Sora slowed until it halted to a stop. Everything around them faded. The tenth of a second seemed to last for ten minutes. When the brunette finally came back to his senses, he quickly turned back.

When he tried to sneak another quick glimpse, he found that she was already gone.

Sora sat there lifelessly on the Monday afternoon in English class. His pencil whirled around in crazy patterns as he mindlessly reflected upon the day. It was one of his habits. Since the brunette was never really good at paying attention to class, he figured that he could use the time for quizzical things like learning how to spin his pen. The blue pen flashed a 360-degree turn on his thumb, weaved through his index, middle, ring finger, pinkie and back between his third and fourth fingers. The ballpoint pen the flashed in figure eights while he milled around the ends of the pen. Finally reversed his string of fancy spins and reset the pen in position for another round of mad spinning. Considering how less attention he paid in school in the past 12 years, that was just an appetizer before the meal.

As the pen finished its circuit through the second round, the person whom the pen belonged to sighed. He shifted his weight and pressed against the desk with his head between his coiled arms. Things are just getting much too confusing for a 17 year old.

The windows on his left were filled with marvelous sunshine and greenery. On his right sat an old English textbook that Kairi had placed on the edge of her desk to separate her from Sora.

The brunette sighed again and scanned the room. However, a tight fitting black skirt blocked his vision. A figure towered over him casting a menacing shadow over his head.

Hey who blocked the sunlight?

"Sora."

Totally unexpected. Right now, all the boy could think of is Kairi. From the first day they've met till now… It had already been one week.

Five days of happiness and two of despair. He didn't know what to do. At this rate…

"Sora."

The current Sora couldn't even differ voice tones anymore. All the voices sounded monotonous. They mingled together in his mind until he couldn't even tell the gender from voices anymore.

"Kairi?" He asked.

That got a laugh out of the class. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Kairi was still sitting in her desk. Motionless.

Probably expressionless too.

"No, not K-a-i-r-i, but M-i-s-s T-i-f-a. Have you even been paying attention?"

"No ma'a-" Sora caught his tongue before he let it slip further. "I mean sorry ma'am."

"This will be the last time that you're off the hook." With that the English teacher turned around and walked back towards the front of the class.

Hmm… Normally she would've been a little bit more aggressive… What's with her these days?

"Now for this project…"After a few minutes, the spiky haired brunette figured that he was better off practicing pen-spinning skills instead of thinking about random stuff. And so he did for the rest of the class.

As soon as the bell rang, Kairi shoved his supplies into his bag and ran off. Sora noticed her new ways of ignoring him but pretended not to see.

Lying to his heart eased the pain.

He slung his bag over his right shoulder and found himself walking besides Pence. The guy didn't carry his usual easygoing aura around him. Instead he actually looked worried.

Sora knew that it really wasn't his business but curiosity got the better of him.

"What's wrong? I haven't seen you in this state before…"

"Haven't you been paying attention in… Oh right never mind. It's about our project."

"Project? As in this thing goes directly towards our report cards?"

Pence said nothing. He didn't need to. His expression told Sora all.

Then it hit Sora. He quickly looked around at the remaining students that were still in the class. They weren't really cheerful on a daily basis but today they were exceptionally quiet.

A bad feeling struck Sora.

It's gonna get worse…

A/N: It's just a follow up chapter that will directly get the plot going. From the review rate, I could tell I really needed to put more effort into my works.

I promise that this story will finish up somewhat before the new school year starts, however there might not be regular updates. More like a chapter this week, none over the next two months then five updates in a week or so. I apologize for the non-periodic updates, but I hope you guys can still support me.

Thank you for reading~ 8989™