note: This episode took forever to write, but here it is. Enjoy!

Episode 5: Frienemies


It's been a week since the spectacular extravaganza literally blew up in our faces. We were immediately suspended from school for three days while they got our paper work settled with the police. The art building was closed down for roof repairs for a couple of days after the incident, then it was reopened yesterday to allow classes to continue.

No one was more devastated by these events than our parents. Sora and Kairi's parents were devastated because they were model students who now had serious blemishes on their squeaky clean records. Since Selphie's parents are rich, her father just wrote a check (he didn't seem to care as much as a normal parent should as he just shoved the check in the principal's hands while he yelled at his headset about stocks) My parents were not too happy about posting my bail. I'm pretty sure I'm grounded until I turn twenty-one. Fran's parents didn't show up, but her older sister, Jote, came instead. She didn't look too excited as she glared at Fran. Selphie was completely devastated, but for all the wrong reasons as the show most likely repelled rather than attracted new members. She said she would rather be thrown in prison than be striped of her creative rights to bring in members. I just raised a skeptical brow when she shouted this as her father dragged her hysterical behind away. I don't know about her, but being grounded and enduring all the suspensions and detentions sure beats doing twenty-five to life for reckless endangerment in jail.

Today was our last day of detention and besides the fact that we weren't allowed to talk to each other or leave the room unless it was to go to the bathroom (and even then we're escorted since Selphie tried unsuccessfully to escape by getting stuck in the girls' bathroom window), it seemed that everyone had mastered a routine to keep their sanity in check. Sora and Kairi did their work, Fran either read a book or knit, and Selphie usually sat in her seat with a look of such strong determination that sometimes it scared me. It made me wonder how fast that little hamster wheel was turning. As for me, I liked to stare out the window and watch the girls track team practice. What can I say? I like girls with short shorts.

I peeled my eyes away from the girls on the field stretching to look at the clock which read a quarter to four. This was the exact time our teacher and warden Mr. Kinney would leave to go on a 'bathroom' break which was code for 'I'm going to visit that cute teacher that I like next door in the hopes of getting laid'. We usually get about ten minutes of talk time before he got shot down and came back. Poor guy didn't seem to learn.

Anyway, Selphie always took this chance to sneak out of the room only to come back three minutes later with a sour pout and the information that our mail box for requests was empty.

Like clockwork, Mr. Kinney stood up from his desk and left the classroom, leaving the door ajar in case he heard a commotion when he returned. Selphie waited about a minute after his departure before she stood up from her desk, slamming her hands onto its surface.

"Emergency club meeting!"

Everyone looked up from what they were doing. Sora stared dumbly at her while Kairi looked surprised at Selphie's sudden outburst. Fran just stopped her knitting while my heated glare tried to melt Selphie's face off.

When it was apparent that no one was going to make an effort to move, Selphie grit her teeth.

"Now!" she growled. Everyone except for me scrambled out of their chairs to go to Selphie. I walked over to glare at her with my arms crossed over my chest. Who did she think she was ordering everyone around like this?

"We have a crisis here," she began, looking at our club members. "We haven't had any requests since our spectacular show went down!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, you mean the one where we almost set the school on fire? How dare they forget," I drawled dryly.

My snark earned me a dirty look from Selphie, who chose not to retort. If I knew she wouldn't tackle me like a rapid chimp and rip my face off, I would've smile and pat myself on the back.

"Maybe the show was better off with a jazz theme? The circus outfits were a bit over the top and might have turned off potential members away," Sora said, trying to sound helpful.

So the fire crackers raining on the student body from the sky didn't scare them off?

I snorted down a chuckle, trying desperately not to laugh at my own awesome joke and failed when I let a giggle out. That earned me another fierce glare from Selphie, who looked just about to go ape shit on me. I cleared my throat and forced myself to look at the girls running outside. I was flirting with danger, I needed to stop.

Selphie placed her hands on her hips after turning her attention back to our group members.

"We need to change tactics again. Since our spectacular show ended in disaster, we need to do something that'll bring a positive light on the club."

"We're on probation Selphie," I finally spoke up. I didn't move my head to look at her, since I didn't need to see the annoyed look on her face. "Our club needs to lay low for a while."

"But how are we going to get our club moving if we don't at least try to get something to do. We can't just be here sitting idle," Selphie replied.

"Maybe we should try the bake sale idea," Kairi said, sensing the animosity in the air. Selphie surprisingly nodded, rubbing her chin as she considered the idea.

I saw Sora move away from the group from my peripheral vision. I turned my head from the window and caught a glimpse of the brunet sprint out of the classroom while the girls continued to discuss ideas. I was tempted to follow Sora out, curious as to what he was up too. But before I could take a step out of the classroom, the boy rushed in back into the classroom, holding our request box.

Everyone stopped their conversation as Sora placed the box on Selphie's desk. The brunet was a little out of breath as he panted. I frowned and decided right then and there that we were going to spar this weekend to get him back into shape.

Sora opened the box, where a single slip of paper lay. He pulled it out and began to read it to the group.

"The Student Council Committee needs help with their bake sale."

Everyone's eyes widen, even I looked surprised. Did the requester not see the fire crackers of death raining on them from the sky? How could they trust us with a bake sale after we were almost incarcerated?

Selphie was the first to react as she tackled Sora to the floor. The perky girl straddled him, sitting on his stomach as she took the slip from his hands and read the request with relish.

"YEEEEEESSSSSSS!" she practically screamed at the top of her lungs. Then she started to wiggle her hips and sing her version of the "Yes" song.

Sora looked like he was about to pass out from blood loss as Selphie didn't bother to move from her straddling position on top of him. Kairi was blushing fiercely, trying to look everywhere else but at the couple on the floor and Fran just blinked a lot. I didn't really have a reaction because I looked up in horror when the classroom door was violently pushed open. Suffice to say, we had a lot of explaining to do when Mr. Kinney walked in.

I didn't think he was going to go for it, but Mr. Kinney promised us not to tell anyone if we promised not to tell anyone about him putting the moves on the teacher next door. Now I understand what Selphie meant about black mail. Black mail was a beauty thing.

I made sure that Selphie and the girls were really far ahead of us when we were let out of detention. I grabbed Sora's wrist and pulled him aside. There was something about the request that irked me. After the whole extravaganza fiasco, would there really be someone insane enough to ask for our help?

"Sora," I stopped the brunet in his tracks. "About the request…"

"I did it," he replied without skipping a beat.

"What?"

He shrugged. "Well, they do need help."

I let go of the boy's wrist, freeing my hand to pinch the bridge of my nose in annoyance.

"Do they know that we're the ones helping?" I asked, trying to ignore the migraine forming within the walls of my skull.

"Nope," Sora chirped.

"You do know Maria and Selphie do not get along."

"I am aware," the brunet responded without a care in the world.

"Then why bring on the apocalypse?"

"This could be a chance for our club to redeem itself." Sora turned around to start walking and I followed. "Look, I realize that Maria and Selphie don't get along, but this is a chance for the girls to put away their differences and work together. Maybe at the end of this they'll be friends."

I gave him a skeptical look, raising an eyebrow while shaking my head.

"You're too optimistic for your own good," I said, snorting.

"And you're too pessimistic, Mr. tall, dark, and broody."

"No I'm not. I'm just realistic." I sighed. Because bringing these two girls together is the equivalent of bring the annihilation on the world, and by world, I mean me. "Sora, I understand that you want Selphie and Maria to put away their childish feud for the sake of this bake sale. But let's face it; putting these girls together in a room with confectionery treats just screams Armageddon."

Sora chuckled but I was serious.

"Nothing bad is going to happen," the brunet said with a click of his tongue and skip in his step. The boy was too happy for his own good.

"I thought you said nothing bad was going to happen!" I growled, scrubbing frosting off my neck. We immediately hit the showers since there was no salvaging our clothes. Sora laughed nervously as he shampooed his hair.

"Well, I didn't think it was going to be this bad?" he said, scrubbing his hair.

Let's back track here for a second here and let me explain why exactly we looked like walking pieces of Pillsbury dough boy.

It was Saturday after classes and the club was led to the home economics room where the student board of activities group was waiting for our help. Did I forget to mention that Sora completely forgot to inform the head, Maria that our club was going to help? Cue vicious cat fight between Selphie and Maria and Selphie's bat shit insane logic as to why she should rule the world with an iron fist.

We were all paired up with a person and assigned a specific treat to make. Sora and Kairi were paired up and they were in charge of chewy bars. I was paired up with Fran (more like, I snatched Fran away from some guy from the student board of activities as to avoid being partnered up with Selphie) and we were in charge of making lemon squares. Everyone else, sensing the murderous rage radiating from Maria and Selphie, tried their best to avoid the girls and partnered up with someone, leaving the two heads of the clubs with each other. Somehow I was starting to regret partnering up with Fran once I learned Selphie and Maria would be forced to work together. The girls were stationed behind Fran and I and I could hear them bickering on and on like an old married couple.

"That's too much salt!" I heard Selphie complain.

"What are you talking about? It says a teaspoon of salt!" Maria retorted.

I sighed and tried my best to concentrate on zesting the lemons while Fran measured the dry ingredients.

"Don't put that much flour! We're making cupcakes, not freaking bread!" Maria spat.

"We're making a lot of them, therefore, we need a lot of flour," Selphie replied through gritted teeth.

I turned around at this point, wanting to curb their quarreling.

"Can you guys stop arguing and do your work?" I asked, annoyed.

The pair glared at me, their lips formed into tight angry pouts. I sighed and turned around, hoping that they would work quietly. And for a moment, it seemed that way. The room was busy with animate chatter and giggles here and there. Everyone seemed to be doing what they were supposed to be doing and having a good time while doing it.

"You're mixing it too hard! You'll over mix it!" I heard Maria shrill.

"Get off me!" Selphie growled.

I stopped juicing the lemons, my jaw tensing in annoyance. I turned around to give the girls another good talking to when my face became assaulted by all the batter they were fighting over. I stood there and the thick batter traveled down my face and onto my uniform. Both girls halted their fighting to stare at me and by the heavy silence in the room; I immediately figured they weren't the only ones staring at me in complete disbelief.

I calmly wiped the batter out of my eyes to see that both girls were blushing, only Selphie looked like she was trying so hard not to laugh. I glared at her. I turned my head to see if Fran got any of the batter and was surprised to see that the bunny girl was clean. Fran, the obvious Mary sue, brought a hand up and with a finger, swiped some of the batter mixture off my cheek. She brought it up to her mouth and tasted it (thus proving my theory that she indeed wanted me and that I was God's gift to women over the entire globe).

"FOOD FIGHT!"

I barely had time to duck when that war cry was roared across the room. Everyone broke out into a frenzy of throwing batter, frosting, and anything else they could get their hands on. I managed to get on all fours to crawl my way away from my station. I looked up in time to see Sora get a glob of frosting to the face. I winced. I went back to focus on my escape, crawling through the room, trying my best to not slip on the ingredient slippery floor. I felt a grip on my collar and my eyes widened in shock. Please don't let it be Selphie, please don't let it be Selphie!

"Where are you going pretty boy?"

I looked up to see a very cake battered Maria. She hauled me behind a random station, where we ducked for cover from the onslaught of ingredients being thrown about.

Maria peeked above from the counter. "Ha! I got your lover boy hostage! Give it up Selphie!"

"Never!" I heard Selphie war cry from across the room. "And he's not my boyfriend! He's my slave!"

"Same difference!"

I took this chance to crawl away, but was stopped all of a sudden by a hand on my ankle.

"Where are you going?" Maria growled. I tried to kick her away.

"Away from you!"

"But you're my meat shield!" she whined.

"Get away from me!" I yelled back.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?"

Time seemed to stop at the sound of Mr. Hijikada's thunderous roar and I almost squeaked when the man looked down to me on the floor.

The room was dead silent as everyone looked at our Japanese history teacher in horror and awe.

"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?" he bellowed. I looked back to see everyone pointing a finger at Selphie and Selphie of course was pointing a finger at me.

"What?" I asked, indignant that Selphie would put the blame on me.

"Enough!" Mr. Hijikada roared.

I almost squeaked again. Well that shut me up.

"Everyone go get cleaned up!" Mr. Hijikada was turning red and I scrambled onto my feet to avoid his fear seeking gaze.

"You." He pointed to Selphie. "And you." He pointed to Maria. "Since you two are responsible for your groups you are going to cleaning everything up!"

Selphie and Maria groaned as the rest of the class filed up and left to get cleaned up.

After hitting the showers and getting dressed in our gym uniforms, I told Sora that he could go on ahead without me. I didn't know why I was doing this. Maybe I did feel a little sorry for Selphie for having to clean up the entire home economics room with her arch nemesis. Or maybe I just had a gut instinct that she would find me and force me to clean everything up anyway. Regardless of the twisted feeling at the pit of my stomach, I went and got a damp towel and made my way back to the home economics room.

I stopped short at the door when I heard the girls talking while they were cleaning up. I used my stealthy ninja skills to slide past the door and lean against the wall outside to hear their conversation while peeking inside.

"So…how's your boyfriend doing?" Selphie asked, starting conversation.

"He's fine," Maria replied, not making eye contact with the girl. "I broke up with him."

There was a shout silence as the girls continued to wipe the floor. Selphie threw her rag down on the floor and sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry for kissing him. He's not that bad of a guy since he resisted and all."

Maria shrugged. "He was a loser anyway and I'm totally over him."

Selphie nodded, picking up her rag and returning to her work.

"I've always wanted to ask you something," Maria said, breaking another short silence.

"Go ahead," Selphie said, not looking up from her work. "…Not like I can go anywhere."

"Why this club?"

Selphie paused before putting the rag in the bucket.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Why did you make a club all about you?"

"It's not all about me," Selphie said, shaking her head.

"Like hell it isn't it."

"It's not!" Selphie retorted, sounding defensive. She put the rag in the bucket and pulled it back out, wringing it until her knuckles turned white. I frowned as I saw the girl wiping the floor rigorously.

"I just want to feel needed," Selphie whispered and she stopped wiping to look at Maria. "Like I want people to look up to me, you know?"

She resumed her cleaning, trying her best to stop her voice from cracking. "Everyone I know is cool in that way. Wakka is the captain of the blitz ball team, so his team mates already look up to him. Tidus' little sister is crazy about him. Kairi is super smart and everyone goes to her when they're having trouble with class work. And everyone loves Sora, the boy can kick puppies all day and everyone is behind him one hundred percent. When I look at them, I think, where does that leave me?"

Maria looked down at her rag, picking at it as she tried to think of something to say. I looked at Selphie, saw her vibrant green eyes take on a dark vulnerable look. It was a horrible look on her. Someone with her sunshine personality should never look that sad. Her lips were supposed to be stretched out into a beautiful smile; they weren't supposed to be drawn down into a pout. Her eyes were supposed to glitter with her signature mischievousness; they weren't supposed to dim with sadness and disappointment.

"I'm not super smart and I'm not popular," Selphie dropped her rag. "So what do I have?" she asked, looking at Maria.

"Riku."

"W-what?" Selphie stuttered, turning a bright shade of pink.

A raised a curious eyebrow as I saw Maria laugh.

"What I meant to say was," Maria began as she touched Selphie's hand. "You have your friends. I said Riku because well." She thought for a bit, chewing on her bottom lip. "The two of you seem close. Riku has always been seen as the unapproachable type. Thanks to you forcing him out of his shell, the school can look at Riku and see a guy they may want to hang out with." Maria straightened up a bit. "What I'm saying is that, you're the glue that holds all your friends together. You're the person that they go to for comfort, help, and support."

I had to agree with Maria there. Selphie was the shoulder Kairi cried on when she experienced her memories of Sora flooding back. She was the one that kept a positive outlook when Tidus' sister went missing. She always cheered on Wakka's team through all their wins and losses. And she was the first one to greet Sora, Kairi, and I back after our journey.

"It seems like the other way around to me," the brunet girl replied.

"Well, you're there for them right? I'm assuming they're going to be there for you too."

Selphie nodded, agreeing with the raven haired girl.

"I'm sorry for being so mean to you," Selphie said, grinning.

"Don't sweat it," Maria said, winking. "It takes two to tango right? I'm sorry too."

The girls put their rags into the bucket and looked around the room.

"Well, seems like we're done here. Let's go get cleaned up," Maria suggested.

I pulled back from peeking once I saw the girls standing up to leave the room. Maria left the room first and once Selphie was out I grabbed her wrist. She turned around, a smirk on her lips as she was surprised to see me. Maria looked at us and grinned.

"I'll go on ahead," she said, then winked at Selphie and walked down the hall.

I looked at Selphie, who was covered from head to toe in raw ingredients. I swallowed thickly as I stared into her big green eyes. There was something about her at the moment that was making my heart beat like crazy and making my throat swell, making it hard to talk. I opened my mouth and closed it several times, and berated myself in my head for looking like a fish gulping for water. Before the girl could open her mouth to ask what was wrong, I shoved the damp towel on her face, muffling any questions. I could feel my cheeks burn like coals as my mind tried quickly to think of a reason for me shoving a damp towel on her face.

"Get clean?" I heard my voice ask, and I seriously wanted the darkness to engulf me right then and there.

But Selphie didn't seem to detect my awkward behavior and if she did, she chose to ignore it as she just laughed and took the offered towel.

"Hey, can you give me a ride on your new bike?" she asked, cleaning up what she could of her face.

"No." I dead panned, gaining my cool persona back as I walked down the hall.

"Why not?" she whined, following.

"Because that requires for me to wait for you to shower and I want to go home already."

She pouted. "Don't be such a meanie! If you don't I'll flash you right now!"

I stopped dead in my tracks, a fierce blush burning on the surface of my cheeks. "W-what?"

Selphie rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, like you've never seen boobs before," she said, beginning to undo the buttons on her blouse. I immediately reached forward to stop her hands from going any further. My hands were shaking. There was a dark twisted part of me that resided in the deepest, coldest corner of the abysmal caverns in my mind that wanted to take her up on her offer, but I squashed that sick feeling.

"O-okay, I'll wait!"

The girl smiled, knowing that she won this battle.

"Good boy!" she chirped and grabbed my by the neck of my shirt. I sighed as I was being dragged against my will.

Looks like I'm back to being her slave.

I looked up from being dragged to see a bright smile on Selphie's face.

Yet, all seemed right and normal in the world.

Despite the moment of truce between Maria and Selphie, the girls were back to their old bickering ways once the bake sale started the next day.

It was funny to see both girls trying to out sell the other in pastries as they harassed boys into buying cupcakes. One guy couldn't decide who to buy from and was stuck in the middle. Both girls threatened bodily harm (with Selphie threatening to rip off his manhood while Maria threatened to smash it off) if he chose the other girl. Suffice to say, the boy ran away screaming in horror. I bought a cupcake myself and shared it with Fran.

"What the hell is this?" Maria asked examining one of the napkins used to give to the customers.

"My commission for helping you bake the cupcakes!" Selphie beamed, proudly.

"I never agreed to advertise your club on the napkins!" Maria roared.

Selphie laughed. "Oh well! Too bad!"

I sighed, hearing them bicker again and gave my half of my cup cake to Fran, who didn't seem to mind.