A Wishful Thought: Hmm, I don't have much to say this time around. XD But I'd like to thank all the people that reviewed:

KeybladeMaster97, CupcakeLerman, ryuHikari , shellbullet34, SiegLord, PoopsickleStick, and Redeeming Endeavor!

You guys are absolutely awesome. (:

Disclaimer: Nopeeeee. Don't own Kingdom Hearts.

N 0 N 3 X 1 $ + E N +: Emotions and New Kids

"It was an absolutely normal morning in the refugee destination turned city, Twilight Town. The sun was beginning to rise and the birds were chirping. The grass was still wet with the fresh dew of dawn, and the wild flowers native to this wondrous land were bl-bl. . . . ACHOO!"

I couldn't take it anymore, and turned my attention away from the front of the theatre towards the evil friend of mine that got me stuck here in the first place. "Hayner, please remind me why I'm here. This is absolutely ridiculous."

The blonde boy next to me whose eyes were formerly transfixed on the stage turned to me, "Cuz I needed to talk to you. . . privately."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, that's nice. But two things. One, why did you force me to get to school forty-five minutes early? Two, why is it that we've been sitting for twenty minutes in complete silence? And three, why did you have to drag me to auditions for the Winter Play to talk to me? !"

It was silent for a moment before Hayner responded. "Roxas, that was three things."

"I DON'T CARE! IT'S EARLY IN THE FREAKING MORNING, AND I'M GRUMPY. WHY THE FU—"

"Mister Hikari!"

I hadn't realized that I was now standing out of my chair and that all eyes in the theatre were currently on me. Then again, that wasn't much. Everyone in the school knows that the Winter Play is never good, only the Spring Play is. That was probably why the only people auditioning were Freshmen that hadn't gotten the memo. The drama instructor, this weird cat-like thing with a giant megaphone, was currently glaring at me from his position at the very front of the stage.

You might think that that's weird, but there's a whole world that's ruled by a freaking mouse. And that mouse is apparently their freaking king.

What has the world come to? Even I'm not sure.

"Sorry," I mumbled halfheartedly.

But since Hayner and I were sitting at the very back of the theatre, he (or perhaps, it) didn't seem to hear me. "What was that, Hikari! ?"

"I SAID SORRY!"

The drama instructor seemed to intensify its glare at me, before losing interest and yelling, "Next!"

I couldn't help but wonder: How did the drama teacher know my name again? I've never even taken drama. Ever. In my life. I swear, if it somehow knows my mother too. . .

I sat back down in my chair, my arms crossed, and my mood as worse as ever.

This was stupid.

It was around six-thirty on a Monday morning, and I wasn't happy to be here. At all. My arm was still extremely sore from the pancake incident that occurred not too long ago, my brother seemed to be in some dark, lonely world all on his own, my favorite teacher, Zack, who just so happens to be BFFs with my mom got into this huge fight with her about some "secret" that she was refusing to tell my brother and I, and I didn't get any sleep last night. At all.

But NOOOO. Hayner obsessively kept calling me at four in the morning until l finally got so annoyed that I picked it up.

And that was the mistake that got me stuck here.

"You have to meet me at the Winter Play auditions a quarter after six! I need to talk to you, it's important!"

Note to self: Hayner picks the worst places (and times) to talk.

I shifted my eyes towards my longtime friend, angrily mumbling, "Okay, so what do you need to talk about? Wanna audition for the play or something?"

His eyes widened at the notion, and he whispered back, "Hell no. C'mon, Roxas. I thought you knew me!"

I rolled my eyes. "Okay then, Hayner. Then what's the big dealio? Why, did you force me to come here?"

"You came here of your own free will, Roxas."

"I was barely functional, and you told me to get my ass over here. If it's not forcing, then it's you taking advantage of me."

"Whatever you say, dude."

"W-Wait a second. You're avoiding my question. Answer the damn question!"

"HIKARI!"

I cursed under my breath before yelling a practically incomprehensible, "Sorry!" and slouching more and more into my seat. Somehow, Cait Sith (that's the name of the drama instructor/cat. It just hit me now.) managed to understand me, and shot me another warning glare before turning his attention back to the stage.

I was beginning to seriously wonder why Hayner dragged me here instead of meeting me at Starbucks or something. Was Starbucks even open this early? Panera Bread opened pretty early on the first day of school, but I don't think they usually do that. Maybe it was a special onetime thing or they ju—

Oh. I'm getting off-track. Sorry.

I turned my glare towards Hayner once more, hoping that it was somehow convincing the brown-eyed boy to hurry up and get to his point. To my surprise, Hayner had averted his gaze and had commenced twiddling his thumbs nervously. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. What could he possibly have to tell me that was making him so nervous?

"I-It's about Olette."

I was Hayner. Of course his troubles were about Olette.

I gestured for him to continue, and he hesitated a moment before he did. "It's just. . . I know that we're not together or anything, but I mean. . . She always tells me everything, but ever since her Facebook status where she was desperately trying to talk to you. . . She's been acting all weird a-and distant and stuff." He looked away from his thumbs, and turned his brown eyes to me instead. It was like his eyes were sparkling with worry or something, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for him. "I-I know that you always say that you don't. . . believe in love and all, but I didn't know who else I could talk to about it. All the guys would probably tease me, it's awkward to ask any of the girls, and whenever I need advice I turn to Olette. . ." He trailed off, before adding on an afterthought, "And I'd ask Pence, but he gives terrible advice when it comes to situations like this. No offense to him or anything."

In a way, I was touched. I guess it made me feel important knowing that when Hayner wasn't able to ask Olette for advice, was too scared to ask any of the guys because he knew they'd tease him, didn't want to awkwardly ask the girls, and knew that Pence would give him horrible advice, he'd come to me.

So wait a second. . . Technically I was the only person who could talk to, and that didn't make me special?

Dammit.

Still, I had no idea what to say to the guy. Am I supposed to console him or something? Or do I just. . . Nod and pretend like I understand his dilemma?

He continued to talk as though to answer my inner thoughts, "I was just wondering if you could. . . Maybe find out what's bothering her, and help her out since. . . you know. . . I can't," Hayner spat out that last word as though it tasted sour, "Ever since that day when we all went to the mall, she's been acting funny. I just. . ." He trailed off again before shaking his head as though to rid him of the thought, "It seems like she only wants to talk to you about it anyway. So maybe. . ."

My longtime friend was obviously having some trouble here, so I halfheartedly nodded before patting his shoulder in what was supposed to be a reassuring way (I'm pretty sure it just came off as awkward though). "It's okay, Hayner. I think I get it. . . I'll do what I can."

He nodded curtly, before turning his attention to the stage. I desperately wanted to leave, but I felt that that would just be. . . I dunno, weird.

It was then that Hayner turned to me, the seriousness in his eyes gone, and a playful grin back on his face. "You know, the only reason I wanted to talk to you in the theatre was because I knew that none of our friends would even want to witness these auditions, and it would've be extremely awkward if we ran into them while I was telling you something that's top secret. Since I'm done telling you all that stuff, I say we hit up some place for breakfast. My treat for dragging you out here."

The words, "my treat," were like music to my ears, and I couldn't stop a large, Sora-like smile from appearing onto my face. "Let's get out of here."

When Hayner and I got back from the nearby Waffle House (it was a nice change to have waffles instead of pancakes), the whole school seemed to be in some kind of flurry. The noise from the mixture of students was louder than usual, and even our friends seemed to be excited about something. Well, most of them at least.

Kairi and Sora were awkwardly standing on opposite ends of the friend group, each of them deathly silent.

Xion, Riku, and Pence seemed to be talking about some test we had today. (I had completely forgotten about it, so I was partially hoping that Hope had studied and was willing to lend me a hand) Olette was standing by them too, and at first it looked like she was talking with them, but she seemed to be stoically silent.

Naminé and Hope didn't look too happy, but I couldn't hear what they were talking about. Hope had a grim expression on his face, and Naminé seemed to have a mildly shocked one. With a sharp pang I remembered that she had been avoiding me ever since the incident at the hospital, talking to me as little as possible, and spending practically all of her time with Hope. I frowned, and immediately averted my gaze from her.

Okay, so to be honest, the only two in our entire friend group that seemed excited about something were Tidus and Selphie. In fact, the two seemed to be gushing over something. Even to the point where Tidus started giggling.

I gave Hayner a side glance to see if he was thinking what I was thinking, but the boy seemed to staring at Olette. I rolled my eyes at him, before elbowing him sharply. He yelped in surprise before glaring at me, and practically stomping over towards the two giggling Seniors. "Alright, what's up with you two?"

Tidus' eyes widened, making it obvious that the poor kid probably didn't think that people were noticing him giggling like a crazed fangirl on crack. He cleared his throat awkwardly as though to cover it up. Selphie however was still giggling crazily, and I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow at her. "Were you smoking pot again?"

The fact that this only made Selphie laugh harder worried me. A lot. Especially since I was completely joking about the whole pot thing.

Finally done clearing his throat, Tidus took the liberty to puff his chest out (I'm not sure, but I think it was supposed to make him feel manlier) and answered Hayner's question from earlier. "You mean, you guys didn't see the new kids?"

Hayner rolled his eyes, "Uh, no. Roxas and I just got here."

"Oh."

Selphie decided to stop giggling long enough to throw in a squeal and a high-pitched remark, "Did you see that? Did you see that, Tidus! ? That new kid totally winked at me!"

It seemed like Tidus had completely forgotten all of his attempts at making us forget his girlish giggling, and ended up giggling again. "Definitely! And I'm positive that that new girl was checking me out."

Selphie nodded eagerly, and took the liberty to grab Tidus' hands and start jumping up and down eagerly with him, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Hayner and I rolled our eyes in what felt like unison. "You guys are blowing this out of proportion."

The two looked offended for a second, but before they could retort, the school bell rang, and we were swept up in the many mobs that were now entering the school building.

First period was just extremely awkward. For several reasons in fact.

One: It seems like the drama between Zack and my mom had caught on to everyone else in their friend group, because Cid kept giving Sora and I this look. I'm not even sure what the look said. But Cid already terrified me enough, so this whole look thing wasn't helping at all.

Two: Though I consider Hope and I pretty good friends now, I wasn't all too surprised when he kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye almost nervously, and spoke to me as little as possible during our lab.

Three: Nobody could stop talking about the new kids. At all. And it was beginning to annoy me to no end.

"Oh, if I only they came at the beginning of the year like the others! Then they would've been able to at least try to get into the upper-class. They were just forced into the middle-class without any say whatsoever!"

"Irvine would've definitely made it into the upper-class. I heard that he finished top of his year at his old school!" Selphie squealed.

"Did you see that new girl Yuna? Dude, she's definitely hot. So what if she has two different colored eyes! ? She totally rocks the look." Tidus gushed, making it obvious that he was already smitten with this new girl.

Kairi (who was Selphie's lab partner) and Sora (who was Tidus') both looked like they would've strangled them if they weren't so busy acting all depressed.

I couldn't help but look at Hope. Currently, he was the one that was prodding the space rock under our microscope. The extent of our conversation today was:

"So. . . Is it alright if I look into it first?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

And so I'm not sure what possessed me to say it, but I'll admit that I definitely regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth, "So do you know the new kids? Are they childhood friends of yours too? I mean, it seems like every new person we meet is." I even sounded bitterly sarcastic when I said that. Good golly, what was up with me?

Hope seemed kind of shocked at my claim, and looked at me awkwardly. "W-What? Well, I know Yuna, but I wouldn't say that we were childhood friends or anything. . . And you know, Rikku? The middle-class girl in your guitar class? Her and Yuna are cousins. Then there's—"

Wow. Seriously? Goodness.

I don't know what made me interrupt his explanation either with a question that I wasn't all too sure I knew the answer to, "Remind me where you're from again?"

Hope immediately went rigid, just as the bell rang.

Everyone pretty much darted out of the room, and I was right behind them. There was no way that I wanted to be alone in a room with Cid.

Guitar was just an awkward class. Ever since the whole fiasco at the hospital, Zack and Cloud stopped conjoining the piano and guitar classes.

And this was a huge bummer, especially since I desperately wanted to ask Zack what he had meant when it came to the secrets that my mom was apparently keeping from Sora and I. School was really the only place that I could ever get hold of him, but now he wasn't my teacher in any of my classes. My mother seemed to have broken off all ties with him, and even forced us to unfriend Zack on Facebook.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

All we were doing in guitar today was sifting through sheet music so that we could each select something to perform at the upcoming guitar concert. I half expected Cloud to obsessively give Sora and I the same look that Cid kept shooting us, but the blonde man seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

Sora and I were searching through the same pile silently. But not that awkward sort of silence. I was pretty much used to the fact that my brother didn't talk as much as he used to. Yes, it freaked me out, but I suppose you could say that I had come to terms with it.

So I wasn't really expecting it when the familiar tenor of his voice spoke up, "I heard what you said to Hope. . ."

I was in a bigger shock over the fact that Sora seemed to be willing to hold a conversation with me, than over his words. But you know. Then it hit me.

Immediately I felt my face turn a light shade of pink, "O-Oh. . . You heard that?"

Sora simply nodded. My brother's formerly bright eyes always seemed to be lifeless now whenever I looked into them. His complexion was beginning to pale, making the dark bags underneath his eyes extremely evident. But somewhere in there was the hyperactive twin brother that I grew up with. It wasn't long until a small smirk pasted itself onto his features.

The stupid Sora Smirk. If the circumstances were different, I'd be going ballistic. That smirk drives me crazy. But it was different this time, I suppose. I mean, it's so difficult to get him to display any emotion on his face, so I guess you could say I was happy to see the familiar smirk. True, the smirk didn't reach his eyes at all, usually there would be a mischievous twinkle to match, but it was something, and that's what counts.

However, my happiness about this little occurrence was almost immediately washed away.

"I expected you to be jealous, but I didn't expect you to be so mean."

If I had been drinking something, this is where I'd spit it all out onto Sora's face.

"W-W-Whaaaaat! ? I managed to sputter out.

Sora was still smirking at me, and I'm not sure whether or not I was imagining things, but I think that a little bit of the familiar twinkle was back in his eyes. I couldn't tell for sure though since he was bent over a different box, and his hair covered his eyes from view. "You heard me. You're jealous of Hope."

I felt my face heat up, and I quickly shook my head, "N-No way! I have no reason to be jealous of Hope!"

Sora rolled his eyes, "Don't lie to yourself, dude. It's pretty obvious to me." When he caught my blank stare he let out a short chuckle. Some part of me felt like rejoicing over this small occurrence, but the larger part was freaking out over what Sora meant. Me? Jealous? No way. "C'mon, Roxie. Be a little more mature at least. So what if you're jealous and lashed it all out on Hope? At least admit it."

I couldn't help from shaking my head quickly again. "Y-You're just blabbering now, Sora. I'm not jealous of anyone!"

My brother merely shrugged, "I'm somewhat shocked too. This is one of the first times if I remember properly," he paused for a moment, giving me what I think was supposed to be one of those looks that said "I'm older than you, so you have to trust me," which I of course found absolutely ridiculous. "Nevertheless, I can see the signs, brother dearest."

I rolled my eyes, regaining some of my composure. "Whatever, Sora. If you think I'm so jealous, then what reason do I have to be?"

I had pretty much seen the future in my head. Sora wasn't going to see that question coming, and he'd stop talking because he'd know that he didn't have a reason. This whole thing was probably just to freak me out. Now that I had regained my full state of mind, I was made very obvious of this fact.

So of course, I wasn't expecting him to answer me immediately, not even stopping to think about it. "Because you feel like Hope's hogging Naminé from you, just when you and her were starting to become close."

If I was Sora, I would've spazzed out at this claim. But since I'm not, I simply turned to him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. I had no idea how to respond to that.

I suppose I didn't have to either, since the bell rang. The smirk that had lingered on Sora's face was immediately wiped off, and after grabbing his things, he rushed out of the room without me.

French flew by quickly. It seemed like we were just relearning the language that we all knew pretty well. Calculus was just as boring too. But I guess you could say Calculus was awkward at the same time since I sat next to Hope. It was extremely out of the ordinary for me, but I couldn't stop replaying Sora's words in my head. I think that I might've actually been taking them into consideration!

I know, I know. Shocking, right?

So I was pretty happy when it was time for Lunch. I definitely needed a reprieve.

I'll admit, it's no longer my favorite time of day on school days. In fact, Lunch usually ends up being extremely awkward. Ever since Sora and Kairi's big fight, deciding the seating arrangement at our table became so technical.

Before, we'd just sit wherever we felt like sitting. There wasn't a set arrangement or anything; it all just depended on who we were talking with before we entered the cafeteria. But the first few days after their fight, we realized that that probably wasn't the best idea.

If Sora sat anywhere near me or Kairi, it would be nothing but an awkward, one-sided glare fest. And since Tidus and Riku were Sora's besties, they couldn't be anywhere near Selphie since she was Kairi's best friend, or else an argument would start. When Sora was still kind of angry at me, I couldn't be near him either. And since Hayner and Olette kind of felt bad for me (I'm starting to see that I'm the loser that doesn't have a "best" friend) they always kept me company since I couldn't exactly hang out with my brother as much anymore.

Dang. I'm closer to Sora than I previously thought.

Anyway, Hayner would often get into an argument or two with Tidus over the most ridiculous things, while Olette would be subject to Selphie's incessant ranting.

And I mean, it's not like we could separate Hope from Naminé at the time. We had just met the guy, so he was only really close to Naminé. And it felt wrong to separate the two, even though Tidus kept trying to persuade Hope to join Sora's "side" of the argument, and Selphie kept ranting to Naminé since she was Kairi's cousin and figured that she could.

And so, Olette, Xion, and Pence, decided to make a seating arrangement in an attempt to stop all the fighting.

As I mentioned before, we have picnic bench styled tables in our cafeteria. And since there were twelve of us, it meant that there would be six on each side. To my surprise, the three of them did a pretty good job arranging everything, and a majority of the fighting ceased.

On one row was (from left to right): Tidus, Pence, Hayner, me, Olette, and Xion.

The other row (from left to right) was: Sora, Riku, Hope, Naminé, Selphie, and Kairi.

We all had to admit (if not out loud, then to ourselves) that the best thing about the whole arrangement was that Kairi and Sora wouldn't have to look at each other. I know that that sounds terrible, but it's the truth.

So nowadays, our lunches aren't as amazing as they were back in our first three years of high school, but at least the fighting has stopped. Especially since the only two people fighting now are Sora and Kairi. I guess we're too lazy to rearrange the seating arrangements or whatever.

But when we got to lunch today, we were surprised to see that our beloved picnic bench styled table was gone, replaced by a strange, hexagon-shaped table that could only seat six.

Eyes wide, Tidus ran towards the location at which our table formerly resided. "Oh my God. . . Oh my God. . . WHERE IS IT! ?"

Selphie dashed towards him too, hyperventilating overdramatically. "B-But it was here on Friday!"

I found myself next to them, looking desperately for our familiar table.

But it was all in vain. For there was nothing but a large jumble of hexagons everywhere I looked.

An administrator that some part of me recognized as Miss Quistis Trepe was standing in the middle of the cafeteria, a microphone to her mouth. "I'm sorry for the confusion, students, but as you can see, we have gotten new tables for our cafeteria!"

Though some students erupted into cheers, our friend group remained eerily silent. I know, shocking. Miss Trepe continued to talk about how we got donations for the newer, nicer tables, but we all ignored her, and stared blankly at the hexagon-shaped table in front of us.

It only seated six.

It was silent for a moment before Selphie muttered, "Okay, I don't think this is working out."

Tidus nodded slowly, a frown on his face. "W-Well, whatever! Let's pull up some chairs."

We all gave him a look that told him that twelve people could not fit comfortably in a table designed for six, but he didn't seem to accept this fact. The determined guy had already begun dragging chairs from a nearby table over towards ours.

When he was finished, he shot us a wide grin, and plopped down into one of the seats. Warily, we all moved to do the same.

And you know what? It actually wasn't that big of a deal. Sure, it wasn't comfortable (especially since I ended up squished between Pence and Riku), and I could tell that Xion and Olette were a little annoyed with the fact that they're well-thought-out seating chart had been abandoned without much thought, but they didn't complain either.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long until Miss Quistis caught sight of us. To be honest, I think that we wouldn't have been noticed if someone hadn't complained to her about all of the chairs at her table missing. But that's just my opinion.

She wasn't necessarily angry when she strode towards us; she just seemed to be playing the part of the responsible adult. "You do know that these tables are only made to seat six, right?"

It was silent for a moment before Tidus shrugged carelessly. "Yeah, I think so."

Miss Quistis merely raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay. . . And you do know that there's twelve of you sitting here, correct?"

I counted each of the individuals in my head before speaking up, "Yeah. If I'm counting correctly."

Hayner smirked as he added on his own personal comment to my statement. "Then again, you can't really trust his math, Miss Quistis. He is Roxas, after all."

I rolled my eyes at him while some of the other members at the table erupted into small laughter. Miss Quistis on the other hand, did not look amused.

She had that same impassive expression on her face as she did when she came up to us earlier as she spoke, "Young man, Roxas is correct. I recommend that six of you move to another table, or I'll have to bring out the detention slips."

Don't get me wrong, it's not like we'd never gotten detentions before (Olette, Kairi, Naminé, Hope, and Pence being the only exceptions), but still. The threat of detention was hanging heavily over all of our heads. I mean no one likes detention. I'm pretty sure it's a proven fact.

The thing is, none of us wanted to move either. We all knew that six of us should, but all of us seemed to be hoping that they specifically wouldn't have to.

And so all of us sat still.

Miss Quistis had already opened her mouth (probably to berate us for not moving), but Tidus had beat her to it, jumping on top of his chair, and pointing an accusing finger at her.

"WE'RE STARTING A REBELLION! WE'RE NOT MOVING UNTIL YOU GIVE US BACK THE BIGGER LUNCH TABLES!"

We all stared at him quizzically, and there was an unspoken agreement between all of us that Tidus was being a little overdramatic with the whole lunch table thing.

Okay, apparently not all of us, because Selphie had jumped out of her seat too. "Yeah! We want our table back!"

Miss Quistis only looked annoyed, "All you're really doing is standing on top of your chairs. I could always just give you detentions now, you know."

To none of our surprised, Tidus was unabashed, "Well, it doesn't matter! Cuz we have the Right to Petition!"

Selphie fistpumped the air enthusiastically, "YEAH!"

"And who said that?"

This was what caught both Tidus and Selphie off-guard. The two stumbled around their words a bit, making absolutely no sense as they did so.

With a sigh, Olette slowly rose out of her seat. It was obvious that she didn't really want to get involved, but perhaps she felt a rising sense of duty of some sort to defend her friends. "But you know. . . There's no formal writing that says we don't have the Right to Petition. We're pretty much innocent of everything until you sue us in court and a jury finds us guilty. It's written in the law."

Tidus and Selphie grinned widely at Olette for helping them. "WHAT SHE SAID!"

"But this is a school cafeteria which I'm technically in charge of. I have no intentions of suing you, but I can still give you a referral for causing a disruptance."

Tidus and Selphie gave Olette an expectant look, but the green-eyed scholar merely shrugged. "She has a point."

While the two "rebels" had an expression on their face that combined terror, surprise, and sadness, Miss Quistis only smirked. "Exactly. So I suggest that six of you move now."

However, it seemed like Olette wasn't done talking, "But, as long as we petition peacefully without causing a disruptance, you can't really do anything, now, can you? Especially if we're no longer in the cafeteria." Miss Quistis blinked, obviously not expecting that. Olette gave a halfhearted shrug. "So you guys, I suggest that you grab as many people as you can, and follow me."

With that, Olette picked up her things, and casually brushed past Miss Quistis. Selphie and Tidus were enthusiastically following her as she neared the exit of the cafeteria, trying their best to bring as many random Seniors with them as they possibly could.

The nine of us that remained shared a quick glance at each other, immediately realizing that it would probably be best to follow our friends out. Whenever Miss Quistis awoke from her mild shock, none of us wanted to suffer her wrath.

With that, we all jumped out of our seats, and dashed towards the exit.

I was extremely surprised when I realized that some people had willingly followed us out of the cafeteria. Okay, so it was probably only a little less than a quarter of the entire Senior population, but it was definitely more than I had expected.

Olette had finally stopped in the school's courtyard/garden (people say that Principal Ansem actually helped grow a lot of the vegetation in said garden), and I began to look through the small crowd of people that had decided to follow us. And it was easy enough to pick out the familiar curly, red pig-tails.

"Hey, you guys! Long time no see!"

Oh, hey. Vanille's here. And she brought friends.

It didn't take long for all of us to find a seat on the ground to settle down at and to commence eating our lunch.

At first, it was awkwardly quiet. Though it seemed that some of Vanille's friends had come on their own accord, it also seemed that some of them weren't too happy to be eating lunch on the ground.

I munched on the simple sandwich that I had packed into my bag earlier, looking around at the others, and waiting for someone to talk. My eyes landed on Selphie and Tidus. The two were usually so talkative, so why were they not talking now?

Since they each seemed to be looking at the same thing, I followed their gazes.

Ah. So apparently the new students would be enjoying lunch with us today. Two of the new students (and remarkably, the two that Selphie and Tidus wouldn't shut up about) were walking with Hope, who seemed to have gotten up to go buy lunch with them.

I'm not entirely sure what was going through Tidus' mind (when am I ever?), but it seemed like Tidus didn't want the new kids to think we were quiet or something of the sort. He turned to Vanille and asked, "So what convinced you to join our rebellion?"

The curly-haired girl merely giggled, "Oh, so that's what this is? I thought they were kicking you out of the cafeteria, and as your Fan Club President, I figured that you guys would want some company."

It was as if everyone had been waiting for someone else to talk before they did, because as soon as Vanille responded, everyone else burst into conversation.

Rikku was sitting next to Tidus, laughter exploding from her mouth. I faintly remembered that she was somewhat of a troublemaker last year, and that she and Tidus often had detention together. I'm going to be honest here: Rikku's hair has always amazed me. There are so many braids in her up-do, that it doesn't seem real.

And luckily for Tidus, the new girl he obsessed over (I think Yuna's her name) really was related to Rikku (or they at least knew each other), because she sat on the other side of her cousin. So sure, it probably wasn't as close as Tidus had hoped for, but it was close enough for him. My longtime friend had an even bigger smile on his face, and red was already tinging his cheeks.

However, the new boy that Selphie's obsessing over (Irvine; She wouldn't stop talking about him the whole day) didn't have the freedom to pick where he wanted to sit. Selphie had jumped up and pulled him over to sit near her and Kairi before the poor kid had a chance.

Hope didn't really have one either. He was walking towards Naminé when Vanille casually locked her arm with his, and strode him towards where she had been sitting. Hope seemed alarmed, but I saw him shoot Naminé an apologetic smile.

Wait a second. . . Naminé.

I immediately turned my attention to the flaxen-haired girl. It wasn't like she was sitting far from everyone else or anything, but she didn't seem to be talking to anyone either. Before I knew it, I had already nudged Hayner and told him that I was going to go talk to her, and had already picked up my stuff and moved.

I wasn't entirely sure what to say when I got to my destination. Naminé seemed to be in her own little world, leaning against the trunk of a tree and eating her lunch. Not knowing what else to do, I awkwardly cleared my throat before asking, "Can I sit here?"

Naminé looked up, and I don't think she looked too glad to see me. But nevertheless, she nodded. I took my place next to her, leaning on the tree as well.

Okay, Roxas. You wanted to talk to her, didn't you? At least say something, genius.

I don't know why I do it. Honestly. But every time I end up trying to say something to Naminé when it's awkward like this, I end up just blurting out my mind. And usually, my mind is very abrupt and rude.

"Have you been ignoring me?"

I wasn't too happy with how that came out, but Naminé didn't seem to have a problem with it.

She sighed, turning her head towards me, "Oh, Roxas. I'm not ignoring you. . . Why would you think that?"

I frowned. She didn't sound very convincing. "I dunno. Ever since the whole fiasco at the hospital, it seems like you've been avoiding me." She didn't say anything, so I found myself continuing to blabber on, "A-And I was just curious, cuz you know. . . I didn't hear you well and stuff. . . But where did you say you were from again?"

Radiant Garden. She said she was from Radiant Garden.

I felt my frown deepen as I processed this. Radiant Garden. . . Where have I heard of that place before?

"R-Roxas. Don't ask me that again."

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. Naminé wasn't looking at me anymore; she was now staring at the hands that were neatly folded in her lap. "W-What?"

She sighed, still avoiding my gaze. Her voice seemed quieter than usual, smaller. "I-I asked you to not ask me about where I'm from again. . ."

I was mildly surprised to feel my heart sink. I wanted to say something like, "Naminé, don't shut me out! I thought we were friends, remember? I can help you!"

But the words didn't come. Slowly, she brought up her head to me once more. She carefully stuck out her pinky as she spoke, "Promise?"

Though I had millions of thoughts swimming around in my head, I found myself smiling at her childish gesture. I interlocked her pinky with my own, "I don't know if I can say that."

Somehow, I think that she took these words as a joke of some sort, because she giggled lightly and smiled at me, before managing to awkwardly hug me from her sitting position. I felt a blush take over my cheeks as I awkwardly hugged her back.

Why am I blushing? When Olette or Xion hug me, I never blush. . .

Naminé pulled away and readjusted herself so that she was now leaning against my chest instead of the tree.

I felt my face redden, but she didn't seem to notice. She was back to eating her sandwich, and I faintly heard her begin to talk about the test we had next period in our English class. I found myself giving the occasional nod and chuckle, though I wasn't entirely paying attention to her.

I felt my heart beating heavily as I tried to process through all of my thoughts. And I had easily thought through most of them. Except one.

". . .You feel like Hope's hogging Naminé from you, just when you and her were starting to become close."

I faintly recognized what Sora was trying to imply.

But it was that thought that I just couldn't get over.

A Wishful Thought: Hey everyone! :D I'm sorry if the ending seems a little rushed. ^^;; I wrote up to their lunch yesterday, and then my friend calls me this morning to tell me, "Surprise! As a late birthday gift, we're all taking you to the Midnight Premiere of Harry Potter!" XD

So I just wanted to get this in before then, since I don't think I'll be able to get on again until around Saturday or Sunday.

I'm super excited! :D

I have a good amount of things to say about this chapter, so if you have the time, please stop by my Wordpress! (the link is on my Profile) I also have a poll up on my profile, and it would be nice if you guys could take the time to vote. (:

I'm pretty sure that there are some mistakes I missed while I was reading through this, so let me know if you spot any!

Next Time: The First Round of Battle of the Bands (I think that I should let you guys know that the whole band thing is something that's more on the side. XD).

Please REVIEW! :D