A Wishful Thought: Ah, I'm so glad that I was able to get this in before my birthday. XP On July 6, I'll be a whole year older!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to review:
Zoe the Hunter, mybest321, Sato Tadashi, KeybladeMaster97, HeartlessRhapsody, Dreamer-Tsuki, CupcakeLerman, and Lorrey! You guys make me smile. (:
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! :D
And without further ado, here is the latest chapter of Nonexistent. :D
Disclaimer: No, I do not own any of the Kingdom Hearts characters. Nor do I own the songs that may or may not show up in this chapter. I really don't own anything at all.
N 0 N 3 X 1 $ + E N +: Flames and Band Talk
Roxas Hikari, Riku Takama, and 7 others are now friends with Lightning Farron.
Xion Soren, Hayner Arden and 10 others are now friends with Aqua Tarata.
Kairi Soto, Pence Taylor and 10 others are now friends with Terra Fonté.
Naminé Soto and Hope Estheim are now friends with Aerith Gainsborough.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Larxene Flash is deathly bored. Kairi Soto, Xion Soren, Olette Hart, Selphie Tilmitt, you guys up for some Band Talk?
Selphie Tilmitt: You betcha! Though I'm not entirely sure where we should start. . .
Hayner Arden: Whoa. Whoa. WHOA. Wait a second. Olette, you're in a BAND! ?
Olette Hart: Yes I am, Hayner. You act like it's such a shocker.
Hayner Arden: . . . Well, that's because it sorta is.
Roxas Hikari, Riku Takama, and 28 others like this.
Larxene Flash: Hayner? Off my status. NOW.
Tidus !#$: Aw, cmon Larxene. Facebook is public domain. You cant kick us off.
Larxene Flash: Oh yeah? WATCH ME.
Kairi Soto, Selphie Tilmitt and 33 others like this.
Xion Soren: I'm just going to trust that theyre gone now. But Tidus (surprisingly) has a point. ANYWHO, I think we should start talking about our image first. That's always important.
Selphie Tilmitt: I have to agree. That's something we should probably decide first.
Larxene Flash: I think I have a few ideas up my sleeve. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Naminé Soto to Roxas Hikari
Naminé Soto: Alright, I may just be wrong, but did Kairi and Sora seriously unfriend each other on Facebook?
Roxas Hikari: I just checked. And yeah, it seems like it. . . Dang. Now their fight is Facebook Official.
Naminé Soto: *sigh* They're seriously blowing this whole thing out of proportion. . .
Roxas Hikari: You've got that right.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Olette Hart needs to talk to Roxas Hikari ASAP. Like, seriously.
Hayner Arden: May I ask why?
Olette Hart: Huh? Oh, it's not a big deal. Don't worry, I've got it all sorted out.
Hayner Arden: . . . You sure? Your status makes you seem kinda desperate. . .
Olette Hart: Desperate? Me? Haha. . . RIIIIIIIGHT.
Roxas Hikari: I'm only slightly curious as to why you had to make this your status instead of just instant messaging me or texting me or calling me or something of the sort.
Olette Hart: Idiot. You're offline on not only Facebook Chat, but also on Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and MSN. And I've sent you like a million texts and left a billion voicemails, none of which you bothered to return. I even stopped by your house, but no one was home!
Roxas Hikari: Oh. That was you? Haha, WHOOPS.
Olette Hart: . . . You know what? Just forget it.
Roxas Hikari: Uh. . . I feel kinda bad now. I'll get my cell right now and call you, kay?
Olette Hart: No. Just. . . Forget I said anything.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Axel ohmygawdimonfire just saw Larxene Flash's Facebook status. And since I'm your band manager, Tidus !#$, Roxas Hikari, Hayner Arden, Hope Estheim, and Sora Hikari, I've decided that we have to have OUR OWN Band Talk. Right here, right now.
Tidus !#$: Wait a second, since when were you our band manager?
Hayner Arden: Tidus is right. I didn't even know we HAD a band manager.
Hope Estheim: AXEL is our band manager! ? Hell no.
Roxas Hikari and Hayner Arden like this.
Larxene Flash: Axel stop trying to copy me. You guys, Axel just feels left out since he can't participate in the festivities due to the fact that he's an Orgy Member.
Tidus !#$, Hayner Arden, and 117 others like this.
Roxas Hikari: Wow Axel. I knew that you were desperate, but. . . wow.
Larxene Flash, Hope Estheim, and 62 others like this.
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: Wait no! Larx just said Orgy because she was too lazy to type the whole thing. She meant ORGANIZATION, and that thing is FULL of GUYS. ONLY guys.
Demyx Nocturne likes this.
Zexion Scheme: Oh, dear Lord. Axel, you're just making this worse.
Luxord Gamblette, Marluxia Grace and 6 others like this.
Larxene Flash: HEEEEY, ZEXY.
Larxene Flash: And GREAT point, Axel. I completely forgot about that. Axel's in a GUY ONLY ORGY.
Hayner Arden, Hope Estheim and 297 others like this.
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: Dammit Larxene. I'M the one that's supposed to tease people about sexual occurrences!
Larxene Flash: Au contraire. Don't be stupid, dahling. Ya know its why you love me. ;)
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: . . . Right. Your place in a few?
Larxene Flash: I'm ready whenever you are, hun. ;)
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: This'll be fun. I'm leaving right now, babe. ;)
Larxene Flash: Oh, you know it. I'm bringing out the toys right now.
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: Ooooh. The new ones?
Larxene Flash: Of course. ;)
Roxas Hikari: OH GOD. STOP IT. JUST STOP. PLEASE.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Roxas Hikari You want band talk? Alright, I'll give you band talk. Hope Estheim, Hayner Arden, Tidus !#$, and (I can't believe I'm saying this right now) Axel ohmygawdimonfire. My house in twenty minutes.
Hope Estheim, Sora Hikari and 2 others like this.
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: DISLIKE. DISLIKEDISLIKEDISLIKE. GOD. I HATE YOU ROXAS.
Roxas Hikari: Oh, shut UP Axel. You don't have to come if you don't want to.
Tidus !#$: Yeah it just means that you wont be our manager anymore. ;)
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: GRRRRRRRRRRRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! FINE. I'LL BE THERE. And don't EVER use the winky face when you're talking to me again Tidus. EVER.
Tidus !#$: What winky face? You mean this one? ;)
Hope Estheim, Hayner Arden and 56 others like this.
Axel ohmygawdimonfire: I want to strangle you. Really badly.
I sighed as I logged off both my computer and Facebook. I still thought that the whole band thing was stupid, and Sora, who was the most enthusiastic about the concept at first, wasn't exactly as excited about it now. It was currently the beginning of October, and the first round was the day of Halloween. This extremely sucked, since it meant that we couldn't parade around town in our outrageous costumes demanding candy from little old ladies, but none of my friends could be persuaded to see it my way. Unfortunately, that meant that I was stuck with it, and I had to help our "band" have an awesome performance ready in three weeks.
Actually, no one seemed that enthusiastic about the whole thing anymore. All of them keep bringing it up like, "Yeah. We're in Battle of the Bands, and we're totally gonna kick your ass!" but we actually haven't done anything for the sake of the band. I didn't want to participate, but I'm easily peer-pressured, which explains how I ended up in this situation. And I mean, they were all talking about how awesome we were going to be, and I didn't want to be stuck with the people that just had big talk and no game.
And I'm pretty damn responsible. That too.
"Mom," I called through my bedroom door, hoping that she could hear me, "I'm having friends over in a bit, kay?"
I waited for a response, but heard none. I groaned and forced myself out of my swirly chair. It was ten in the morning on a Saturday. I'm surprised that I had managed to wake up so early. I'm not a morning person. At all. So when I wake up early and can't force myself to fall back asleep, I usually just log onto Facebook to entertain myself and skip breakfast until I'm actually hungry. My mom hates that though, and whenever she finds me out, she usually ends up having a hissy fit.
So you can't exactly be upset with me for just ignoring Olette. She showed up at my house at around eight in the morning. Even my mom was still asleep.
It's another reason that I hate school. You're forced to wake up so early to get ready to "learn," that you end up getting used to waking up at that time, and sometimes your body just does it automatically. It really sucks.
I shook my head as if to vanquish all my thoughts, and threw on an old hoodie, before stalking out of my room. Mom was most definitely awake. Sure, she may be a world famous doctor, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her weekends off. In fact, Sora and I weren't too surprised when we heard her talking to her employer a year or two back, saying something along the lines of:
"Okay, NO. I refuse to work for you if I don't get my weekends off! . . . Don't you use that tone with me! I have a life too, with my friends and with my family, and I'm not some sort of workaholic! . . . Did you just say that if I continue to refuse working on the weekends that you'll fire me? . . .Well, then. I think I might just quit. I'M WORLD-FAMOUS, DAMMIT. YOU SHOULD BE LUCKY THAT I ACCEPTED YOUR REQUEST TO WORK IN YOUR HOSPITAL.I COULD PROBABLY FIND BETTER WORK FOR MORE PAY AND I—What's that? Oh, I'm glad you see it my way. Thank you!"
We weren't too shocked to find out that she pretty much had any day she wanted off. Of course (though our mom can be extremely scary at times) she's still kindhearted, and works on all days except weekends, holidays, and well. . . The rare lazy day.
The one thing I hate about my mom (other than the fact that she can use the stupid Sora Smirk against me) is her nature to add my friends on Facebook. Sora's too. I mean, it's creepy since she's our MOM. But our friends don't think it's that weird. They accept her request like it's no big deal.
I personally think it's because the more friends they have, the bigger their ego gets.
Anyway, I stumbled upon her in the kitchen. Her back was turned to me, but as I advanced towards her, I couldn't stop myself from cringing at the fact that she was making pancakes. The instant kind.
I couldn't stop myself from looking around for Sora to shoot him a teasing look, but my brother hadn't seemed to leave his room yet.
However, I was forced to stop my halfhearted search when the distinct smell of burning food wafted into my nostrils. My eyes widened, "Mom!"
It seemed like my mom had been preoccupied with her thoughts because I had to call her several times and shake her before she snapped out of it. "W-What happe—Oh no! The pancakes!"
By now, the smoke from the burnt breakfast item had activated the fire alarm, and the siren began wailing. My mother blinked in shock, obviously surprised that she had remained so oblivious to the burning food in front of her. Sora dashed out of his room, and he looked scared senseless. He didn't even have the decency to throw on a shirt before he left his room.
Then again, if I thought that the house was on fire, I would've run out of my room naked if it meant saving my ass.
"Holy crap! What's on fire! ?"
Seeing as both my mother and twin brother seemed too out of it to do much of anything, I lightly shoved them both out of the way to turn off the stovetop. Well, I thought that I had turned off the stovetop. Apparently, I had turned the knob the wrong way, and when I thought I had turned it off, I actually just increased the heat.
This was made obvious when the former pancake actually caught on fire. And since I was wearing a baggie hoodie, and the sleeve was currently exposed to open flame. . .
"HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! MY ARM'S ON FIRE!"
I expected them to panic and try to help me, or something of the sort, but it turns out that I was completely and utterly wrong.
"Oh no, the food!"
"Dammit, I bet we still could've salvaged it or something!"
Of course, it was hard for me to keep my cool and tease them for caring more about the freaking food than my arm, because you know. My arm was on fire.
In a desperate attempt to rid my arm of the burning flames, I did what people told you never to do when you're on fire. I started flailing my arm around madly, and screamed my head off.
This of course, made my mom and Sora widen their eyes before timidly backing off, both of them scared that I would accidentally make them catch fire too. It took a few seconds, but eventually my mom went into full Mother Mode.
"OHMYGOD! MY BABY'S ON FIRE!"
Well, no duh, woman. I screamed that out a while ago.
My mother had become frantic, and was now darting around the kitchen desperately looking for something to stop my arm from burning off.
Sora blinked, and grabbed a dish towel from inside our pantry. He dashed to the sink and soaked it in cold water before throwing it in my general direction. I had thought that he was attempting to throw it onto my arm but just missed (you know, since I was flailing it around like a mad man), but it was made obvious to me that he had aimed for the pancake when it landed perfectly on top of it, somehow managing to douse the fire.
How nice of you, Sora. Now I know that if you had to pick between me and food, you'd probably choose the food.
My mother however had probably assumed that Sora would take care of putting the fire out on my arm, and had grabbed the house phone. I had assumed that she was dialing the Fire Rescue Team or something, but apparently not.
"H-Hey. . . Uh, hold on. I'm going to add another person to the call. . ."
You seriously have enough time to do that! ? Hello, I'm on FIRE!
"Y-Yeah. . . Can you guys hear each other? Zack? Cloud? Oh, okay. Uh, I'm sorry to be calling so early, and I know that I probably woke you guys up and stuff. . . Oh, I didn't? Oh okay, then Cl—Oh no! I'm so sorry, Zack. I didn't realize that you were asleep and I—Haha, thank you! . . . Huh? Oh, right, right. Well you see—" She managed to glance in my direction at that point, and she shrieked loudly. "R-ROXAS IS ON FIRE!"
I'm beginning to wonder how my arm hasn't crumbled into ash yet.
The fire had started out at just part of my forearm, but it ended up spreading towards my upper arm too. I'm lucky that the hoodie that I had thrown on was baggy, because I was able to manage to avoid the hottest parts of the fire. But just by barely.
I was starting to get my saneness back, and had begun hobbling towards the sink in an attempt to douse the flames myself, but all of a sudden, I felt a rush of cold water engulf me. Immediately, I felt the harsh heat on my right arm disappear, although my arm itself still stung. Badly.
My hoodies was soaked through, not that I minded too much, and whoever had thrown the water on me had managed to get my hair too. I found myself gasping for breath that I didn't even realize I needed. With a fresh gulp of air in my lungs, I halfheartedly turned to thank the person that had been levelheaded enough to douse the flames on my arm, but I wasn't expecting what I saw next. And based on my mom and Sora's expressions, they didn't either.
". . . He's not on fire anymore, but yeah. . . That would be great. . ." There was a sharp beep from my house phone signifying that my mother had hung up, and she slowly placed the device on our kitchen counter, before turning her gaze once more to the two people that stood in front of me.
With a bucket in his hands and his arms still outstretched stood Hope, and with a frightened expression, standing behind him, was Naminé.
The silence echoed throughout the room awkwardly, until she quietly asked, "Um. . . Are you okay?"
Pretty soon, Tidus, Hayner, and Axel arrived, followed by both Cloud and Zack.
After briefly examining the affected area, my mother lamented about not having the proper ointments, and admitted that it would probably be best to stop at the hospital. I immediately felt like freaking out, but she managed to catch my gaze and simply shot me a reassuring smile. "Oh, they're not that bad. They're probably only. . . Second-Degree burns or so. But I think that the ointment will help it heal quicker. . ."
I nodded slowly, my face still flushed. No, not from the fire, but from the fact that my mother insisted that I strip off my hoodie so that she could inspect the damage properly. If it was just the guys (Sora, Tidus, Hayner, Hope, Axel, Cloud, and Zack) and my mom, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal to me.
But Naminé was here.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not uncomfortable about my body. At all. In fact, I'm usually extremely confident about my body. I mean, I'm not ripped, but I still think I look pretty hot. Not to sound narcissistic or anything of course. In fact, I'm not entirely sure as to why I was so embarrassed.
She actually couldn't even see me right now. Everyone had circled me worriedly, but when my mom persisted over the fact that I needed to take off my hoodie, Axel couldn't stop himself from snickering and carting Naminé away, claiming, "Now, now, Naminé. You need to maintain some level of innocence, and that means not seeing Roxas half-naked."
Tidus had rolled his eyes saying, "Don't be so overdramatic, Axel. I'm sure she's gone swimming before with a guy. She's probably already seen someone half-naked."
But he stopped arguing when both Hope and Naminé glanced each other, both of them turning a shade of bright red, and followed Hayner, Hope and Axel to a further section of the room.
I would've been more curious about that if I wasn't distracted by the searing pain of my arm, but ah well.
"I'll go start up my car."
Mom smiled and nodded apologetically at Cloud. "Thanks. . ."
As Cloud left, Zack also got up. "Hey, Aerie. . . Mind if I help myself to the linen closet? It might help Roxas out if we soak the burn. . ."
She bit her lip before nodding slowly. Zack went off too, and it was just Sora, mom, and I.
Sora looked upset, but genuinely sorry. "I don't even know what I was thinking. . . I guess I wasn't fully awake yet. . . I should've tried to put out the fire on you instead of the stupid pancake. . ."
I wanted to yell, "Well, no DUH!" but I knew that that wouldn't make him feel any better, so I simply forced myself to smile at him.
My mother on the other hand did a better job at forcing a smile, because I wasn't even sure if she was forcing a smile or not. It looked completely natural. "Don't worry about it too much, Sora. . . I'm sure that if you didn't put out that pancake, something else would've caught on fire too. . ."
I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from lashing out on them.
It didn't take long for Zack to come back with a couple of towels soaked in cold water, and he carefully laid them onto my arm. I muttered my thanks before Cloud entered the house again. "You guys ready?"
My mother nodded, "Y-Yeah. . ."
Zack looked at her for a long time, and I found myself staring at her too. She sure was acting funny this morning. . .
Zack shifted his blue eyes from her though, and turned to look at my friends that had resumed teasing Hope and Naminé in a corner. "I'm guessing you guys wanna come too, huh?"
They looked confused before nodding eagerly, to which Zack only chuckled. "Alright, then. Cloud, you take Aerith and the kids and go on ahead. I'll bring this bunch to the hospital too."
My mother smiled weakly at him, "Thanks, Zack."
He simply shrugged as if to say, "No problem." But on the outside he turned to Naminé and said, "Maybe you should tag along with Sora and Roxas. My car can only hold five people max. . ."
She blinked, but then nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."
We all meandered outside, and I could hear the rest of the guys wolf whistle at Zack and Cloud's cars.
Cloud's car was one of those sleek, black Porsches that you saw in racing movies, while Zack had a shiny, black Convertible Porsche. Both were quite attractive.
My mother, who was holding the wet towel to my arm, gestured for Naminé to come over, "Honey, do you mind holding this to Roxas' arm?"
"Oh, not at all, Miss Hikari."
I could see the vein pop out on my mother's forehead.
Cloud seemed to see this too, because he immediately carted my mom off to the passenger side of our car saying, "Calm down, Aerith. Deep breathes now."
Naminé didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary though, and scooted into the car between Sora and I.
On the way to the hospital, Naminé simply explained that her and Hope had been volunteering at The Land of Departure Orphanage along with Lightning. When Hope had gotten the message that the rest of the band were to meet at our place in twenty minutes, he had insisted that she would be able to come too and invited her to come with him. Apparently, it's not that long of a walk from the Orphanage to our house, because they had gotten their pretty early. They had knocked at the door, but no one answered, and the fact that some sort of alarm was going off and high-pitched screaming was heard kind of made them suspicious. They remembered the time that Hayner had "accidentally broken a window" (actually, he broke into our house to kidnap me. But mom didn't need to know that) and had both squeezed through it since we hadn't gotten it fixed yet. Then they pretty much just found a bucket in our garage, filled it with water, and threw it over me.
By the end of her story, we had made it to the hospital where mom worked. Cloud parked the car in front of the Emergency building, and Zack was right behind him.
"Hey, Roxie. Need someone to carry you?" I shot Axel a glare, and let Naminé help me out of the car.
Mom was already inside talking animatedly to what looked like a head nurse. It only took her a few minutes before she gestured us over, and began leading us towards a room. It seemed like a standard check-up room, and waiting inside was a young woman (one who couldn't be any older than us) with bright red hair. She wasn't wearing the standard Nurse uniform, so it was kind of obvious that she was only a volunteer. She seemed to be playing with her cell phone, and didn't realize that anyone had entered the room until my mom cleared her throat.
Her wide, green eyes looked up at us, a startled expression on her face, "D-Doctor Gainsborough!"
My mother smiled at her, "Ah, Vanille. Volunteering again, I see?"
The girl—Vanille, I assumed—nodded, a small grin of her own spreading onto her features. Eventually, her eyes wandered our group . "Wait a second. Hope Estheim! ? Naminé Soto! ?"
Naminé simply smiled at her in recognition, while Hope stepped forward, a large grin on his face, "Vanille Dia Oerba! I-I haven't seen you since. . ."
Both of their smiles seemed to fade a little, but Vanille seemed to recover hers before Hope. "Yeah, I know what you mean! I've been staying with Fang. You remember her, don't you?"
Hope simply nodded, and was slowly beginning to recover his smile back. My mother looked between the two, before interrupting the long reunion that was bound to take place, "Listen, Vanille. . ." The younger woman's eyes immediately flickered towards my mom, "My son here, Roxas, got into a little. . . accident. . ." My mom let out an awkward cough before continuing, "Uh. . . I have to go and talk to Zack and Cloud, but do you mind applying the proper ointments for me?"
Vanille's smile only seemed to widen. "No problem, Doctor Gainsborough! Don't you worry, your son is in good hands!"
My mom looked a little skeptical at that, but it seemed like she desperately needed to talk to Zack and Cloud because she didn't change her mind. The two older men shared a curious look with each other, before trailing after my mom as she exited the room. Everyone that was left spread throughout the room, sitting on the few chairs, the single countertop, and even on the floor. I have to say, I was surprised that they were courteous enough to let me sit on the patient bed, but I didn't say anything.
Vanille was simply humming a tune while she searched the medicine cabinets for the ointment she was looking for. Hope was smiling at her, and Naminé was too, so I suppose that they recognized the song. I faintly heard Naminé mumble, "Memories of. . . Happier Days. . ." which I only assumed was the title of the song.
Since the only noise came from Vanille's merry humming, Axel couldn't stop himself from talking. "Alright! Band talk, here we go!"
Vanille turned enthusiastically at the word, 'band', "Are you guys joining that Battle of the Bands thing? My older sister, Fang, is totally against it, but I think it sounds like fun!"
Axel's expression seemed to fall, "F-Fang?"
Vanille had turned back to the cabinets to find the needed ointments, and didn't see Axel's expression. Hope on the other hand was smirking, "Yeah, Axel. Lightning's best friend."
Axel looked like he was about to die.
"So what should we decide first? I think our image is the way to go," Hayner noted.
Tidus nodded in agreement, before halfheartedly turning to Sora. "I think that's a good idea. . . What about you, Sora?"
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my brother. But ever since that whole, "I don't want to see Kairi unless I have to!" outburst, everyone's been kind of iffy about him. I wouldn't say that I am, because you know, I'm his twin brother, but I kind of wish he didn't have to be so moody. He's almost gotten as bad as Kairi when it comes to being all loner like.
"Yeah. . . That's a great idea."
Hope nodded too, and just like that, Hope, Hayner, Axel and Tidus started talking about different "images" they'd like to portray. I found myself not really paying attention though, since I was watching Vanille. I didn't really know this girl, and I was kind of nervous that she would accidentally screw up and give me the wrong ointment. Because that would suck.
It seemed like she had finally found it though, because she had already skipped over next to me, and gestured for me to give her my arm. Naminé delicately removed the moist towel from it, and walked over towards the sink to wring it out. Vanille frowned at the burns, "Geez, what did you do?"
I hesitated for a moment, but figured it wouldn't be that bad to tell her what had happened.
Since I didn't have time to retell the story of my burns, Hayner, Hope, Naminé, Tidus, and even Axel, stopped doing what they were doing so that they could listen. Sora was still sitting on the floor in a corner of the room staring out into space.
I expected at least a little bit of sympathy, but to my surprise (okay, not really. Part of me was totally expecting this.) all of my dear friends broke out into laughter.
"Oh man! What's up with your family and screwing up instant pancakes! ? They can't be that hard to make, right?"
I shot a halfhearted glare at Hayner, who only smirked in my direction.
"Dude, I totally know what we should name our band: ATTACK OF THE MONSTER PANCAKES!"
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Tidus, "Seriously? We're naming our band after pancakes? I was thinking of something a little more mysterious. . . Like—"
"Oblivion! You guys should totally name the band Oblivion!" Axel yelled, a merry grin on his face.
Hope frowned at him, "Oblivion? I don't really like it."
There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of us, and Axel gasped dramatically. "Fine then! I bet Xemnas would totally let me name something Oblivion!"
We decided to ignore him once more, but like I said before, Axel isn't one to keep quiet. "Okay, back to the image then! The whole contest is pretty much based on votes from the audience, so we need to get your fan-base started. That's important!"
The rest of us opened our mouths to respond, but Vanille seemed to beat us to it with a high-pitched squeal, "Oh, that sounds like so much fun! I'd totally want to start a fan club for you guys, it would be a blast! Wouldn't you like to help out, Nami?"
Naminé's cheeks had turned a bright shade of pink, "I. . . Uh. . .Well. . ."
For some reason, Vanille seemed to take this as her agreeing, because she squealed again, "Oh yeah! This'll be great! Don't worry, you guys, leave me in charge of it!"
Hayner, Tidus, and I couldn't help but give her somewhat skeptical looks. I mean, we just met her. But she seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, so none of us bothered to argue. Axel smiled at her, but it looked like a sort of nervous one. "A-Alright then. Vanille, you're in charge of that." She squealed once more, before turning her attention back to applying the needed ointment to my arm, the occasional giggle escaping her mouth. Axel then continued to speak, "As for image, I think you guys should basically focus on pop music. You know, the cheesy sort of pop ballad love song kind of thing."
The five of us (Sora included) stared at him blankly. The tall red-head only rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean. Boy Bands. Girls love that thing, don't they?" More blank stares. Axel sighed, "You guys really have no idea what I mean?"
Silence.
"Okay then, just trust me when it comes to picking your songs. Now for band names. . ."
I decided to speak up, "Like I said before, I think we should have something kind of mysterious as our band name."
Hayner turned his gaze to me, "Any ideas?"
I pondered this for a moment, but slowly shook my head, "Nope. Nothing. Give me some time here."
Tidus nodded, "I get what you mean though. I think something sort of contradicting would be cool."
Sora let out a chuckle from his corner of the room, "Tidus, I think that 'contradicting' is the biggest word I've ever heard you use."
Tidus turned to playfully kick Sora, "Hey, that's a total lie! I'm pretty sure I've used bigger words before!"
Hope let out a laugh, "Come on, Tidus. I may have not known you for long, but I'll have to agree with Sora."
Tidus guffawed at Hope before marching over to Naminé. "Whatever! Naminé's my favorite now. At least she doesn't constantly mock my intelligence!"
Naminé stifled a giggle, "Well, I wouldn't say that, Tidus."
Tidus blinked out of shock and stared at her for a minute. He backed away slowly from her, bumping into the wall before screaming, "NO, DAMMIT! I'M A FREAKING GENIUS!"
We all laughed lightly before Axel spoke up, "Spell 'genius' then, smart one."
Tidus stared at him blankly, before nervously staring down at his shoes. "Uh. . . J. . ."
We couldn't stop ourselves from roaring in laughter. At that one moment, my mother stepped into the room, looking kind of nervous. She looked at Sora, and then looked at me, before excusing herself from the room once more. I felt a little curious at that point, but decided not to say anything. She was probably just making sure that Vanille was applying the right ointment.
I would later find out that I was horribly wrong, but that doesn't come until later.
I snapped my fingers, breaking the laughter, "I've got it! The perfect contradiction! Nonexistent."
They all stared at me, letting the name soak in.
Hope was the first one to respond, "You know, I think I like it. It's simple, and it is a contradiction. You know, since we do exist."
Hayner nodded too, "Yeah. I think it has a nice ring to it."
Sora smiled at me, "I like it, too."
Tidus grinned before chuckling nervously, probably glad that we had moved on from the "genius" incident, "So it's settled! We have our band name!"
I smiled back at them, just as Vanille finished wrapping some Telfa around my burnt arm. She beamed at me before merrily pronouncing, "All done!"
After merrily thanking her, I led the rest of the group out of the room. I had expected Zack, Cloud, and my mom to be waiting outside in the hallway, but they weren't there. Noticing my confusion, Naminé lightly spoke up, "I think I saw them head to the hospital entrance through the glass in the door."
"Huh? Oh, thanks Naminé."
Hayner, Tidus, Hope, Sora, and Axel were animatedly conversing about something that had to do with the band, so I made some light small talk with Naminé. "So. . . How do you and Hope know Vanille?"
Naminé seemed kind of hesitant on giving me an answer, much to my confusion, but she eventually answered me, "She's just an old friend is all. She used to live in the same city as us. . ."
I looked at her curiously. Dang, they seemed to have a lot of childhood friends that just so happened to move to Twilight Town. "I never got to ask you. . . Where did you move from anyway?"
The blonde girl beside me immediately went rigid at my words. I blinked, not understanding why, but before I could ask again, we had arrived at the entrance/exit of the hospital. The doors opened automatically, and I wasn't exactly expecting the sight before me.
My mom and Zack stood on opposite sides of the outdoor entrance, glares etched on both of their faces. Cloud was frowning, and looking between the two, but he didn't seem to be arguing with them.
"They're my sons! Not yours! I can make whatever decisions I want with them!"
"Aerith, you're being ridiculous! You know that they'd want to know! Why are you keeping this a secret from them! ?"
Hold on a second. . . Secrets?
My mother opened her mouth to retort, but closed it almost instantly. Her lip seemed to quiver as she noticed the rest of us standing there, and she immediately averted her gaze, before breaking out into sobs and running off. Zack looked pained as though he felt bad and wanted to chase after her, and he almost did until Cloud shot him a look and chased after my mom instead.
Slowly, Zack turned his head to look at us, "Uh. . . Hey guys. . . How much of that did you hear?"
It was silent until Sora spoke up, a glare on his face, "We came in a few seconds before you made our mom cry."
Zack frowned at him, and it looked like he wanted to say something, but had decided to say nothing instead.
Naminé, Hope, Sora and I hopped into Zack's car anyway (it's not like we really had a choice), while Axel said that he could get Demyx to pick the rest of them up.
The ride was long and awkward, so I decided to just turn back to my thoughts.
Before we heard mom and Zack start yelling at each other. . . Did I really hear Naminé whisper, "Radiant Garden?"
A Wishful Thought: Gah! This is really rushed, but I wanted to get it in ASAP. I ended up dumping a lot of things that I meant to dump in later chapters, so I hope it didn't seem too weird. O_O Anywho, let me know if you see any mistakes and such. (:
Next chapter, will probably be a school chapter, but I'll probably end up skipping around the more "boring" periods, so don't worry too much.
I'm sorry that I haven't responded to any reviews, my life is just hectic right now. O_O
But please review! They make me happy. :D