CHAPTER EIGHT: MILES AWAY
"I didn't ever want to come down
From the West Coast rush and summer high
Now I'm alone when I'm back home
It's cold and old
But in my mind
I am miles and miles away."
"Miles Away" - The Maine
Udon noodle soup wasn't exactly rocket science to make. Just the same, Riku had always held a mild concern for the enduring health of his digestive system whenever his mother was in charge of preparing dinner, no matter how simple. Tonight was no different.
His dad had arrived home about an hour ago, but he'd made a direct beeline to the spare room arranged as an office between the two upstairs bedrooms as soon as he'd crossed the entry foyer. Riku hadn't seen him since, which he took in stride. His father's perpetuation of the standard Kimura family routine back in San Francisco just made this new living situation feel a little more like home, ironically enough.
His mom's cooking, on the other hand…
As Riku rummaged through the refrigerator for the requisite ingredients, he stole a glance over at his mother who was standing at the edge of the room's built-in desk, iPad tablet in hand as she pulled up an online recipe, and couldn't help but feel that he'd entered an entirely different world. Yet again.
Back home, neither parent cooked; they either brought food home or called for take-out from their respective offices, with Riku usually following suit to procure meals on his own. There were also more new food delivery apps created by the influx of Silicon Valley's ever-present startup culture than Riku could realistically keep straight, which made his eating options nearly limitless, whether he was home, at a friend's house, or virtually anywhere in the city proper. It'd always been as simple using his parents' credit card information, ordering what he wanted, and indicating a drop-off address.
As an experiment, Riku had pulled out his phone and tried each of his go-to food delivery apps on his first day home alone. None of them offered service this far out, if they even boasted a presence in the state at all. Unsurprising, yeah. Disappointing, most definitely, particularly when he lacked the means to travel around the area without a parent willing to act as his own personal chauffeur.
Arms loaded full of fresh-bought ingredients, Riku straightened, nudging the refrigerator door shut with an elbow, then turned to his mother. "Where'd you manage to find pre-packaged udon?"
And medium-firm tofu, come to think.
His mom looked up, eyes on her son as he deposited the vac-sealed noodle package, a block of wrapped tofu, and various vegetables onto the kitchen counter. "There's a small market near the hospital," she said. "It's run by a Vietnamese couple."
Riku nodded but didn't respond as he tried to imagine another Asian family living within a fifty mile radius of this town. He was aware that the Gulf Coast once boasted a thriving Vietnamese fishing community. With the dual calamities of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, so many members of that ethnic group had given up the industry that had brought them to Louisiana and surrounding states in the first place. Years later, those who'd remained still struggled to make ends meet, which was where his father and the legal justice center he was working with came in, to an extent. It was also why the Kimura family had temporarily relocated so far from the West Coast to begin with.
He and his mother could have stayed in California while his dad fulfilled the requirements of his one-year legal fellowship. Instead, his mother had taken a temporary leave of absence from the surgical center in San Francisco to work as a visiting orthopedic specialist in a more rural environment. Regions like these offered ample opportunities to hone her own skills, she had explained to Riku when his parents had sat him down to tell him the news about their impending relocation. It also meant serving as a mentor, of taking medical residents under her wing and demonstrating her surgical methods, all things Riku knew his mother lived for as a healthcare professional.
Riku didn't know much about orthopedic surgery beyond the most superficial of information, just basic facts he'd been quizzed on since early adolescence; he did know his mother's skills had been lauded so highly after her own residency that she'd essentially had her pick of fellowship positions after passing the boards with flying colors. This was the path he too would be expected to take, after the successful completion of undergrad studies and acceptance into a high-ranking med school. If his mother was feeling particularly generous when she discussed her son's career trajectory, she'd make sure to inform him that she wasn't entirely invested in him studying orthopedics, if he happened to find a specialization that resonated more deeply with his evolving interests.
What benevolence.
Ingredients arranged and cutting board out, Riku looked at his mother and noticed that she'd swapped over to work emails and was currently scrolling down one that looked like a veritable novel.
"Did you find a good recipe?" His voice was quiet, respectful. This recent attempt at meaningful family togetherness, however tenuous, felt nothing short of foreign. It wasn't that he didn't know how to address adults in formal venues; over the years, he'd had plenty of practice. It was, quite simply, that he didn't know exactly how to act around his own parents, because sometimes they felt tantamount to strangers. Navigating parental conversations might not have been as strange as acclimating to Radiant Hollow and its quirky cadre of Southern stereotype residents, but it definitely gave second place a close run for its money.
"Oh." His mother looked away from the tablet, eyes traveling over the neatly arranged vegetables, before she looked down again and pulled up the browser tab where she'd saved the recipe. Eyes still down and focused on the glossy screen in front of her, she made her way over to Riku and set the tablet down on the counter between them. "This one seemed promising."
Without a word, Riku scanned the recipe. It seemed simple enough, although he wasn't any more of a self-professed cook than either of his parents. With a small nod, he looked at his mom. "If you can wash the vegetables and pass them to me, I'll cut them. We should also probably put some water on to boil."
Seeming amenable to that, his mom moved into place by the sink. For the next few minutes, mother and son worked cooperatively but in relative silence, and Riku's thoughts drifted back to Friday's party and the people who'd been present, to a sober but sardonic Roxas, to Kairi, then Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie all teetering between tipsy and drunk, and high-as-kites Hayner and Pence who'd also had more than their fair share of drinks.
Mostly, Riku thought about Sora.
The gathering had been more entertaining than he'd anticipated, and Riku was willing to acknowledge that Sora had been a large reason for it, Kairi as well, albeit to a lesser extent. Unlike Sora's easygoing, open-book personality, Kairi seemed more reserved, also more willing to call him out in a way he found cringeworthy, if he was being one hundred percent honest with himself.
Sora, on the other hand, couched every comment in a measure of positivity. Even while pointing out the social mistakes Riku was making left and right, Sora had yet to make him feel as if he was being judged for his ignorance about everything from local football teams to well-known Southern colloquialisms. Sora was friendly, smart, and articulate, with a quick wit and the requisite ability to turn Riku's insecurities on their face, or at least soften the emotional blow of embarrassment that social ignorance often brought along with it.
It also didn't hurt that he'd looked cute practically swimming in a particular West Coast prep school senior's over-sized sweatshirt.
Riku wasn't sure yet if acknowledging this final thought was good, bad, or just a mere irony of his current reality, although he had a hunch it fell somewhere closer to the latter. Something told him people in the South didn't take kindly to the type of crush he was fast developing, however benign and most likely unrequited it happened to be.
Especially people like Seifer Almasy.
It'd been little things, insignificant observations. The timbre of Sora's voice, not deep but still pleasingly resonate. The way his entire face lit up when he smiled. Eyes that seemed to communicate warmth and mutual understanding without him saying a single thing.
These were all personal qualities people noticed about others, particularly when getting to know someone. They were normal. And expected. The way Riku kept returning to them, the way he kept zoning out on a weekend spent almost exclusively home alone under the daydream influence of brown hair and blue eyes was, however, probably neither in the eyes of others in this town.
There'd been texting too, intermittent, throughout the weekend. Sora's first post-party message had arrived no more than five minutes after Riku had been dropped off, before he'd even made it through the rental's front door, still lingering outside and enjoying the cool night air. Now two days later, Riku had it next to memorized.
"I forgot to give you back your hoodie. Oh gosh, you've befriended a sweater klepto! (Kidding. I'm just an innocent dork. Kairi can vouch.) Want me to have Roxas turn around? He won't be happy, but that's a risk I'm willing to take to reunite you with your clothing."
He'd declined the offer, telling Sora he could return it at school on Monday. It was just fortuitous that no one had been downstairs when he'd finally abandoned the cool night breeze on the front porch in favor of the air conditioned entry foyer; Riku wasn't sure either parent would have recognized their son while he'd been sporting such a stupid-wide grin.
It was also in that split-instant moment that Riku got the first real inkling of just how utterly screwed he was going to be if these passing thoughts didn't dissipate, posthaste.
The only concern that lingered, that'd kept him wondering for the better part of the weekend, was Sora's physical health. It was increasingly becoming an issue that Riku returned to in an attempt to fixate on something other than his latent, budding attraction. It crept its way into every one of his weekend musings, however unrelated. While images of a Cal hoodie-sporting Sora singing and bouncing around with Kairi and Wakka and Selphie did occasionally surface in his mental wanderings, the logical side of Riku's thoughts kept retracing a path right back to Sora's much slower gait on the return journey to the parking area, to the way Roxas had needed to help him up, both arms straining, into the truck's passenger side seat when neither brother had thought anyone else was looking.
And blue eyes. Those eyes felt like they were engulfing him, inexplicably but in undeniable, steady progression.
Finished chopping the vegetables, Riku turned to his mother and spoke before he could reason his way out of asking a question that had been on his mind almost constantly since the party. "Can I ask you a medical question?"
His mom had already dried her hands on a kitchen towel and returned to scrolling through the unopened mail in her email's inbox, this time on her phone, by the time he posed his question. She paused, then looked up, brows raised, expression a silent grant of permission to continue.
It was at that precise moment when Riku realized he didn't actually know how to phrase his question. Raising his index finger to indicate that he would speak in a moment, he retrieved the packaged udon and moved past his mother to the pot of boiling water at the stove. Slicing open the stiff plastic packaging with a steak knife, Riku tilted it and let the thick noodles slide out of the new opening, into the pot in front of him, then returned his attention to his mother.
"What would you think if someone came to you about a problem with the coloring of their eyes?"
His mother's gaze returned to her phone. As her expression turned thoughtful, Riku noted the creaking sound of his father's weight on the stairs as he made his way down to the rental's main level.
"I would think they should set up an appointment with an ophthalmologist."
As his father appeared, he greeted his son and wife with an inclination of his head, and Riku took a moment to wonder if his mother had just tried to make a medical joke. He didn't know enough about her personal brand of humor to hazard a genuine guess in that regard but felt the inclination to roll his eyes anyway. Her response hadn't even come close to answering his question.
He watched as she waved off his father's offer to help prep dinner with a flutter of manicured fingers, before turning to retrieve a pan and coat it with a thin layer of olive oil himself. Placing it on one of the open burners, Riku twisted the gas knob to spark a small flame, then considered how to continue down the path of questioning he'd just started.
"What about the whites of someone's eyes? What if they were tinted a different color?"
This time his mom looked up, eyes fixing on the visible side of her son's face. She watched him lift the pan and angle it to better spread the oil across its Teflon-coated surface.
"The proper term is sclera, and it depends on the color," she said. "You should already know what yellow is most often indicative of…" His mother trailed off, voice expectant, eyes still aimed at her son.
"A liver condition," Riku intoned, the response automatic. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his dad had taken a seat at the kitchen table. Much like his mother, he had started scrolling through what looked like work emails on the over-sized screen of his smartphone-tablet hybrid.
"What would it mean if the whites, the sclera," he was quick to amend, "what if they were blue?"
"That's not unusual to see in infants." His mother took a breath in. From the look on her face, Riku knew she was gearing up for a longer explanation. She had always been in her element when given the opportunity to share her vast breadth of medical knowledge. Usually, Riku found it tiresome to listen to her unasked for physician expositions. For once, his mother's eagerness to ply him with information most people didn't have the quote-unquote pleasure of trying to commit to memory until their first year of med school might actually be of use to him.
"The sclera can be thin after a child is born. It just means the darker underlying tissues in the eye are more easily visible and is something that usually disappears after a few months as the eye continues to develop."
"And if it presents in someone older," Riku prompted, "like a teenager — what does that mean?" His voice was quiet, breath stagnant in his lungs as he waited for his mom's response.
"Nothing good, generally." His mother was watching him closely now. "Why?"
Feeling suddenly put on the spot, Riku turned back to the counter. He reached for the cutting board where he'd left the chopped vegetables, then tilted the board over the pan. The legumes hissed as they made contact with hot oil, which sputtered in a way that was reminiscent of Friday night's fire after the addition of dry kindling.
"I was just curious," he said, glancing back over her. With one eyebrow raised, he knew she wasn't buying the 'knowledge for the sake of knowledge' explanation he was in the active process of trying to sell her.
Moving the pot of boiling water to a cold burner, Riku stifled a sigh as he began to stir the vegetables around the pan to ensure they cooked evenly. "I think I noticed it with someone at school," he finally offered.
"And is this someone confined to a wheelchair?" Although he couldn't see her from his current vantage point, her tone implied impending medical assessment for this mystery classmate in absentia.
He shook his head.
"They seem to walk around fine most of the time," he said, careful to keep his voice just as neutral as the pronouns he was using to describe Sora, "but I have seen them use crutches before."
From the kitchen table, his father set down his phone. "Is this any of your business to be asking about?"
Probably not, Riku thought. If it'd been anyone but Sora, he doubted he'd even have bothered to consider investigating it; he would have just been content to accept the realization as-is and focus on his own continued social issues, if he'd even noticed anything amiss at all.
"There's nothing wrong with curiosity," his mother countered. "He'll need it in spades during his formal medical education, so it's good that he's developing an inquisitive nature early on." At the table, his dad shrugged, uninterested in debating the matter further, then returned to scrolling on his phone.
Although Riku didn't speak, his shoulders tensed and an ache that reminded him of Thursday's gym class returned to his neck. He didn't have any evidence to support it, but he had a hunch he might end up being just as out of place in med school as he felt now as a transfer student at RHSHS. Except, unlike his five month stint in Radiant Hollow, med school was going to end up being a discomfort that promised to endure for years.
"Blue sclera are indicative of several disorders associated with joint elasticity and bone density," his mother offered. "Most have a genetic component and symptoms vary based on the specific condition."
Riku nodded but still didn't say anything as he drained water from the pot and transferred the noodles to a bowl. He considered what he knew about Sora and how this additional information might fit, thought back to Friday and Sora's physical agility, first in getting to the clearing where the party was held, then dancing with his friends later that evening.
Maybe he had this all wrong. It was possible he was reading too much into something that was completely minor. Or non-existent.
Maybe if he hadn't seen Sora with Kairi on Thursday after school, his mind would be content to abandon this entire set of questions and focus on something - literally anything - more productive.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
His mother joined him at the counter, eyes returning to the recipe still displayed on the tablet screen. "Did that answer your question?"
"Yes, thank you." Riku's voice remained quiet, murmured, his thoughts elsewhere. He figured he'd received enough information to be able to do more of his own research online later if he was still fixating on it. He also couldn't help but feel somewhat conflicted about having asked his mother in the first place, the worry still lingering that he was giving her tangible evidence of what was actually a complete lack of interest in the medical profession.
Seemingly satisfied, his mother moved to complete the final recipe instructions, and promptly changed the subject.
"Your father and I are going car shopping sometime this week, next weekend at the latest. The justice center approved a long-term rental for your father while he works closer to their offices, so you'll be able to use the second car until you head back home for the summer." She looked at him and offered a smile. "With luck, there'll only be a few more days of you having to adhere to my work schedule."
Translation: Only a few more days of commute-imposed conversation to and from school with his mother. Only a few more days until Riku was back to being self-sufficient, or what amounted to it in this type of rural setting where there was nothing beyond school to actually want to drive to anyway.
Riku moved to retrieve a trio of bowls and soup spoons from a nearby cabinet. "Did you want me to check with the school administration sometime this week about needing a parking permit?" As he posed the question, he set the bowls in a neat row on the counter close to the stove. He watched while his mother poured a serving of vegetables and noodles into each one before reaching for the broth she'd just prepared.
"Would you? You can just bring anything home that needs a signature or some form of payment and I'll handle it."
Grabbing two of the bowls, she made her way to the kitchen table and set one in front of his father. Following with his own bowl a few steps behind, Riku steeled himself for his first Kimura family sit-down meal in recent memory, thoughts already drifting back to Sora, to graham cracker dinners, terrible country music, and loaned out Cal sweatshirts — and most of all to wondering just how far gone he had to be with his current classmate-based fascination to find himself actually looking forward to returning to school the next morning.
o - o
Any underlying enthusiasm for the start of the school week was ultimately short-lived. Sora's desk was conspicuously empty throughout second period, and there was no sign of Roxas during the first half of the day. By the time Riku got to his locker to transfer the textbooks from his morning classes with those in his post-lunch periods, an uneasy feeling, the sense that something wasn't quite right, had already begun taking up residence in the pit of his stomach.
He'd sent out a text after second period, in what he hoped was interpreted as a teasing tone. Something about having too much fun at Friday's party, overdosing on graham crackers, and skipping out on school like the rebel everyone knew Sora secretly was.
By mid-day, he had yet to receive a response.
There were plenty of valid reasons why someone wouldn't be at school on a given day. Riku knew this. Most of them involved the standard illness fare, possibly a family emergency of some sort. The logical part of his thought process told him there was a good chance Sora had just gotten sick and was resting rather than keeping track of his incoming text messages. It was perfectly normal for something like this to happen once in awhile.
If Roxas had been present and accounted for, his concerns probably would've been allayed entirely from the outset. At the very least he could have found time to approach his fellow classmate and ask about Sora, however awkward that exchange might have ended up being given Roxas' penchant for unpredictable behavior and melodramatic theatrics.
But Roxas was nowhere to be found and Riku didn't have another class with Kairi after first period English until study hall at the end of the day. He'd even considered approaching Xion to ask about Roxas; he'd come up with that idea too late, however, and she'd already disappeared out of the final class the two of them shared before he had thought to ask, her presence non-existent by the time Riku himself had packed up and made his way out into the hallway. Short of inundating Sora with texts and risking coming off as freakishly clingy, Riku figured he was stuck just trying to get through the day, ignoring the remnants of muttered insults he occasionally still heard in between classes, and just generally trying to keep his head down until he could see if Kairi knew what was up with the Strife brothers' matching absences a few hours from now.
Textbook swap-out complete, Riku clicked the locker's paint-chipped metal door shut and turned — almost straight into a student who'd been standing only a few inches behind him. Suppressing a look of surprise, Riku stared at the girl. She was someone who seemed vaguely familiar, although he couldn't immediately place where he'd last seen her any more than he knew why she was currently standing in front of him.
She took a step back out of his personal space, but didn't retreat completely. Yeah, definitely here for him then, he surmised. For some unknown reason.
"Hi, Riku?" Her voice was tentative, his name pronounced with overt care. "That's your name, right?"
Wordlessly, he nodded as he took in medium-length brown hair, green eyes, a tasteful sleeveless shirt, and khaki colored capris, all matching, all fitting in a way that complimented her slender figure without coming off as cheap or overly revealing.
So, basically the opposite of what Kairi generally traipsed around campus wearing, Riku couldn't help but note.
"I'm Olette. It's nice to meet you." She offered a smile that seemed a little hesitant but otherwise genuine.
The name didn't ring a bell but Riku echoed the welcoming sentiment out of an ingrained sense of politeness anyway. He looked at her, waiting for her to continue, but she seemed just as much at a loss for words as Riku himself felt bewildered by having been approached in the first place.
"I was wondering—" Again, hesitation as she finally spoke up, only to stumble over the words she'd chosen to start with. A more determined expression crossed her features as she tried again. "You know Hayner, right? He was your new student guide last week, I think I remember hearing."
Riku nodded, his mind slowly working its way toward an answer as to the girl's identity.
Hayner. The campfire. Friday's gathering. Right. She'd been there...
...with Seifer.
Unable to help himself, Riku stole a quick glance around his surroundings to see if he could spot another member of Seifer's usual group nearby. Was this meant to be some sort of joke? Was that why she'd approached him, in an attempt to somehow embarrass him at Seifer's encouragement?
It'd been Hayner she'd referenced though, Riku reminded himself. Hayner who she seemed interested in talking about.
"He was, yeah," Riku said, taking care to keep his voice neutral. "He isn't anymore."
"Oh." Olette nodded, her lips curving down slightly at his answer, eyes moving away from Riku's face. "I'd just... I was hoping you could give him something for me." She slipped a hand into her purse, emerging with a folded piece of lined paper. "I know he has lunch next period, but I don't, so…"
When Riku didn't make a move to so much as nod in confirmation, let alone speak up in response to the implication left hanging by her incomplete sentence, Olette forged on, stumbling a little over the last few words in her haste to get what she wanted to say out in the open.
"…it would just be really helpful if you could make sure he got this."
For a moment, Riku simply looked at her, unsure what to say. None of this was making sense to him. From his perspective, Olette seemed to be both uncomfortable and skirting around something she didn't want to explain outright. If she really needed to make sure Hayner received something, he thought, why not ask one of his actual friends? Even if Roxas wasn't around, Riku knew he'd seen Pence in an earlier class. Wouldn't he have been a better choice than someone who hardly knew the guy she was apparently dead set on passing clandestine notes to?
She was looking at him so earnestly though, with so much hope, and Riku wasn't exactly in a position to burn his social bridges, even among people he hardly knew. It felt like he was going into this blind, no more knowing the reason why this girl would want to get in touch with Hayner via letter than he understood the magnitude of her social clout and how much she might be able to make his life even more uncomfortable if he ultimately refused to help.
Realizing there was the possibility of ending up regretting his choice no matter how he responded, Riku quickly made up his mind. "I think I can manage that. Yeah."
Her relief was palpable, Olette's shoulders relaxing and an over-bright smile filtering across her features almost immediately in the aftermath of his acquiescence. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate it." She passed him the square of paper, which Riku took and slipped into the front pocket of his jeans without a word. "You don't have to tell him it's from me or anything," she continued, the comment almost an afterthought. "I signed it, so he'll know."
She turned, fingers ghosting over the strap of a purse that was void of unsightly fringes or other features that screamed thrift store-tacky that Riku had become somewhat accustomed to in the week since he'd begun interacting with Kairi.
"Actually, hey. Question for you." Waving a hand to catch her attention, Riku took a step toward her. In front of him, Olette paused, then looked back, expression expectant.
"Do you happen to know where Sora and Roxas are?" It was worth a try, at least, and who better to ask than someone he'd just agreed to do a favor for, he figured. "I haven't seen them in any of my classes today."
Her expression turned apologetic. "I don't, sorry. I've been a little out of the loop with everyone for the past few weeks." She offered him a small smile, then shrugged as if accepting whatever personal realization she'd just come to. "Anyway, see you around. And thanks again."
She was gone before Riku could think of any sort of realistic follow-up question.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Riku tilted his head in an attempt to stretch some of the soreness out of his neck as he tried to make sense of what had just taken place. An extra few seconds of reflection didn't get him any closer to a plausible explanation for how he had suddenly become a go-to messenger boy for two students he barely knew, hardly a week into his tenure as a new student at this school.
With a sigh, he slid a thumb under the strap of his messenger bag, adjusting it for comfort as he began to make his way to the lunch room. Although he passed a few familiar faces from his classes, no one greeted him; by the time he was halfway to his destination, Riku was no longer bothering to keep his hair tucked neatly behind his ears, content to let it act as a silvery screen between himself and the rest of the student body.
He entered the cafeteria, then stepped into place at the back of the food line. A few minutes later, he was handing over money in exchange for a bottle of filtered water, plus a piece of fruit to serve as a side for the lunch he'd been packing and bringing along with him since his second day at school.
Food acquired, Riku slid his free hand into the pocket containing Olette's note just to assure himself he still had it and glanced toward the table where Hayner and his friends usually ate at.
There was still no sign of Roxas. Same for Hayner. The only student currently seated who he recognized was Pence.
Beyond a few simple interactions, generally punctuated by Hayner's dour expressions, Riku didn't know much about Pence. From his classmate's less than athletic girth, it was probably safe to assume Pence wasn't on any of the school's sports teams, but that didn't exactly tell him anything useful as a starting point for a conversation. From their minimal interactions on Friday evening, Pence had come off as easygoing, less prone to taking offense than Hayner, and certainly not as sarcastic as Roxas, although he'd definitely been quick to laugh at Riku's minor freak-out associated with the legality of Roxas' pickup truck driving qualifications.
So, that meant he had a decent sense of humor. Maybe.
Considering his options, Riku finally decided to head over to the table Pence was currently sitting alone eating lunch at.
A few yards out, Pence caught sight of him, and Riku raised a hand in a quick wave, hoping it didn't come off as weird when they hadn't technically spoken one-on-one yet. Pence didn't return the gesture, but he did nod before taking another stab at a slice of what looked like some sort of over-processed meat product.
"Hey, do you mind if I sit for a second?" Riku inclined his chin toward the free space at the cafeteria table bench directly adjacent to Pence.
"Go for it." Bringing the fork up to his mouth, Pence took a bite of what Riku had narrowed down as being either impressively compressed meat loaf or some sort of textured liver in the last few seconds of silent observation. Neither seemed particularly appetizing, although he kept the thought to himself in the interest of avoiding another social misstep brought on by actually voicing his impressions about the school's choice of food courses.
Glancing around the cafeteria while Pence chewed his food, Riku ultimately turned back to his classmate in an attempt to get this errand over and done with. "Is Hayner coming to lunch today?"
Pence shrugged. "He had to take a phone call or something. He'll be here in a few, probably." He spoke between bites, then looked up at Riku. "Why? You looking for him?"
Riku nodded. "Kind of. This girl gave me a note she wanted me to pass along."
Quirking an eyebrow, Pence's jaw slowed in its chewing motion. "Would that've been Olette, by any chance?"
"Yeah, actually." This time Riku didn't nod, but he did return a hand to his pocket and pulled out the note. Securing it in two fingers, he held the folded notepaper out between the two of them.
In one quick movement that caught Riku completely off-guard, Pence reached out and snatched the note from of his hand. "Right. I'll deal with this."
Rendered momentarily mute by the unexpectedness of the action, Riku found himself staring at Pence, unsure of how to react. This entire note-passing affair seemed rather elementary school juvenile from where he was standing.
Or sitting now, technically. Whatever.
"Okay." His tone conveyed uncertainty. "She seemed pretty clear about wanting me to give it to him directly."
Pence shrugged again, apparently unconcerned. "Trust me on this one. The moment he finds out it's from her, he's liable to pitch another fit and you're not gonna want to be around when that goes down." He reached for a can of soda near his food tray and took long, appreciative sip.
When Riku didn't immediately respond, Pence just grinned. "Unless you're cool with pissing him off two times in under a week. That'd probably be a record."
Well, Riku thought. He might not have any idea why a note from a seemingly friendly girl would put Hayner in a sour mood, but when Pence framed it like that…
"Alright, fine." Riku stood, cafeteria purchases in hand, and reminded himself that this wasn't any of his business anyway. He watched as Pence pocketed the note, then returned his attention back to his meal. "Thanks, I guess."
With a half-salute and a mouth full of as yet unidentifiable lunch meat, Pence offered Riku another grin. "No prob, man. Happy to be of service or whatever."
Nodding distractedly, only half listening, Riku let his eyes scan the quickly filling cafeteria for a place he might be able to sit that'd offer up a modicum of privacy so he could get back to overthinking classmate absences and pondering totally unwarranted conspiracy theories while he was at it.
"You don't have to leave, y'know." Pence's voice rang out, pulling Riku away from his thoughts. Not fully turning, Riku's gaze moved back toward the table where he'd just been sitting. "Like, you could sit here if you don't mind Hayner still being a little cantankerous." Another sip of his soda, and Pence's expression turned thoughtful. "Maybe for him it'd be like just trying to get used to a flavor he doesn't like. I used to think beer tasted like piss but now I'm cool with it. You just stick with it and eventually you stop noticing how shitty it is. You acclimate or something. Yeah. Maybe it'd be like that with you two."
Unsure what he thought about being compared to pee-flavored beer, Riku bit the inside of his cheek but acknowledged the offer. "I'll keep that in mind. Maybe some other time though." He already had enough on his mind without needing to add wondering what it'd take to get Hayner to warm up to him to his steadily growing mental list.
With a light shrug, Pence turned back to his meal, and Riku angled himself away from the table, still hopeful he might be able to find a relatively empty area to sit out the remainder of the lunch hour. It was unlikely, he conceded, given the increasingly crowded room full of students who seemed just about as interested in accommodating him as he was in preparing for his afternoon classes. But that was about knowing Sora wasn't going to be there when he ultimately made it to his final period of the day in just a few hours more than anything else. In the end, that was all it really took to ensure any last vestige of enthusiasm he'd had going into this day ended up dissolving completely.
o - o
Except it wasn't, because he'd completely forgotten about sixth period gym. And Seifer.
By the time Riku had managed a hurried escape out of the locker room and was well on his way toward the school library for study hall, he was beginning to truly believe that interacting in any way with Olette had been far from a fantastic idea on his part.
Gym itself actually hadn't been that bad, but it had been baffling in a number of ways. While his basketball team seemed to have warmed considerably to him, even going so far as casually chatting during gameplay, a question about his presence on Facebook posed by Selphie had left Riku wondering about the meaning behind a smile she kept trying to suppress without much success. Fortunately, the teacher had called an end to their group games before he'd had to come up with an answer one way or another. After Olette's veiled half-explanations, he'd been pretty much tapped out in terms of his desire to handle anything else that seemed to come attached with a perplexing double meaning.
Then there'd been Roxas. Much to Riku's surprise, he was already seated up in the gymnasium bleachers when the class started, as if he hadn't been missing for more than half of the school day at that point. He'd chosen to sit on the highest row of bleacher benches, shoulders hunched, chin resting in the palms of both hands without so much as indicating the pretense of pulling out a school textbook to look like he was studying.
Try as he might, Riku had been unable to catch his classmate's attention. Most of the times that Riku had been able to steal glances in Roxas' direction, his eyes had been half-lidded or closed entirely. The rest of his fleeting observations revealed a boy who looked wearier than usual, his face slack and unexpressive, blue eyes unfocused and staring off toward the gymnasium's far wall. Short of walking himself over to the bleachers, calling out to Roxas directly, and risking getting them both in trouble with the gym teacher, Riku didn't have many other options available to him beyond focusing on his teammates and trying not to completely tank every single hoop attempt he distractedly made.
Where was Seifer and his assault-by-basketball antics when you needed them, Riku'd even found himself thinking at one point during the hour. At least that would've given him an excuse to be near Roxas and the bleachers.
In retrospect, it probably hadn't been the most prudent thing to wish for Seifer's involvement, no matter what the circumstances. As if reading his mind, Seifer had tried to approach him in the locker room after class.
"Hey, Hollywood. Rai here told me he saw you with Olette this morning. Got a minute to discuss that?"
Just three simple sentences and Riku was on edge again. Already back in his street clothes, he'd acted as if he hadn't heard anything and gotten the hell out of there as quickly as possible. It hadn't been a proud moment, he was willing to acknowledge now that he'd put a few high school hallways between himself and Seifer, and in virtually any other scenario, he'd have been more willing to stand his ground, even if it meant a physical confrontation. At the very least, he probably should've set the record straight before Seifer got it in his head that he was attempting to steal his girlfriend, or whatever it was he wanted to talk to him about.
Discuss. Right.
With Seifer's posse no more than a few feet away at any given moment, Riku was outnumbered and he was well aware of it. He also didn't want to suffer the embarrassment of getting detention or even suspended from a podunk school like Radiant High. Not only would his parents be furious, he'd probably never end up living it down if Kadaj got wind of it back home. That rang true especially if it'd been a fight he ultimately ended up losing, however unequally the numbers involved worked out to.
The potential embarrassment of looking cowardly just wasn't worth the inevitable administrative and parental punishments. None of these students were worth the effort it took to care enough to want to get into a skirmish in the first place, he thought as he rounded the final corner that would lead him toward Radiant High's library. No one was worth the effort for anything, as far as he was concerned.
Except for Sora, possibly.
He wasn't surprised to see Kairi studying by herself at the usual table, although he did recognize the feeling of disappointment at Sora's continued absence that had been gradually building as the day wore on. This time it was tempered by a buoyant, hopeful feeling that he might finally be able to get some answers about Sora's current whereabouts.
Earbuds in again, Kairi didn't verbally greet him as Riku took a seat and began pulling out study materials, but she did look up from her textbook, if only for a moment in silent acknowledgement of his presence. Upper body gently swaying in time with music only she could hear, Riku noted that her nail polish color had changed since he'd last seen her, from neon yellow to a black and white design that looked like a not wholly successful attempt at zebra stripes.
Glancing away from her hands, Riku looked at her expectantly. Kairi, in turn, wrapped her animal print polished fingers around one of her headphone cords and pulled out an earbud, although she didn't stop bobbing her head in time to what Riku could now discern as being some country sounding song out of the one earbud that'd been placed on the table in front of her.
"Is Sora not coming?" As he spoke, voice low to avoid the attention of the librarian only a few book stacks over from them, Riku flipped open to his math assignment and made a genuine effort to ensure the inquiry seemed like nothing more than casual smalltalk.
It seemed to have worked. Kairi shook her head in response, eyes lowering back to her schoolbook. "Out sick. Allergies are killer this time of year."
Allergies.
He had been freaking out, worrying that something was seriously wrong, and Sora had what amounted to a sniffly nose, possibly a head cold?
Smooth. It was official. This had to be a new overthinking low for him.
He had the good sense to feel equal amounts embarrassed for his undue worrying and relieved that he hadn't voiced his actual concerns to anyone — until he remembered what had set him off on the worrying spree in the first place.
"What about Roxas then?"
Kairi's swaying slowed. Although her expression didn't change, Riku thought he noticed a tension-based rise in her shoulders as she looked over at him.
"What about 'im?"
"I…" Riku wasn't initially sure how to pose his question without coming off sounding conspiracy theorist weird in the process. "It's just, he wasn't in school this morning either, so I was wondering if he was out sick too."
That wouldn't explain his sudden presence in gym, but Riku figured tackling one mystery at a time might be the most sensible way to approach this until he had a better idea of just what he was dealing with.
Kairi scrunched up her nose, shooting him a perturbed look.
"How should I know? We're not BFFs or even close to it."
She was watching Riku carefully now, in what seemed like a scrutinizing manner, as if assessing something. It was a gaze that made him feel exposed, and Riku found himself looking away, pretending to study the first problem in his math textbook as his shoulders rose into the intimation of a shrug in response to what was probably a rhetorical question on her part.
For a few moments, he could still feel her eyes on him, although Riku kept his gaze down, even going through the motions to reach for a pencil and start working out the simple formula involved to solve the first Calc problem in his assigned homework.
Eventually, he sensed her attention dissipate. By the time Riku stole a quick glance back to his left, Kairi had returned the second earbud to its place in her right ear and was back to leaning over the table reading what looked like a chapter out of her US History book.
They remained seated together and studying in silence until the end of the period. Without Sora's animated presence, Riku was finding it difficult to conceive of anything to say to the girl next to him, and Kairi seemed to share the sentiment. At one point, she reached for her phone and shot off a few text messages, and Riku couldn't help but wonder if they were for Sora although he forced himself to refrain from asking. Mostly though, she kept her eyes on her book. Unlike Roxas during gym class last week, Kairi actually seemed to be doing the assigned readings, her eyes moving from line to line across the page, stopping only to turn and scribble the occasional note on a pad of lined paper beside her.
By the time study hall came to an end, Riku had managed to get himself two full days ahead in the readings and homework assigned for his classes, and was trying his best not to check his phone every fifteen seconds like an obsessive maniac. He hadn't gotten so much as a push notification in the past two hours but he still couldn't curb the urge to continue checking for texts anyway, so much so that he was starting to wonder if the generally accepted definition of insanity was wholly and exclusively applicable to him with respect to this current chain of non-events.
It was only when Kairi slid off her chair and began gathering her textbooks that Riku looked up. Snapping his own book shut and storing it in his bag, he studied her, noting that her hybrid purse-bag was also filled to the brim and looked pretty heavy. She was soon struggling between balancing the thing on one shoulder while holding no fewer than four textbooks and two note pads in both arms. In a matter of seconds, the bag had slipped down her arm and dropped back to the floor with a heavy thud.
"Here, let me help." Swinging his messenger bag over his head and standing, Riku scooped the textbooks out of Kairi's arms and into his own.
For a moment, she simply watched as Riku shifted the newly acquired weight to one arm. Leaning down, she reached for her own bag. It took two straining arms and a slight grimace to get the thing balanced over her shoulder and hip in a way that would ensure it remained in place when she started moving.
If Riku expected a thank you, he was well off the mark. Kairi merely eyed him a beat longer, expression amused as she moved to his side. "Nice gun show you've got goin' on there. For once, Selphie wasn't over-embellishing, which, come to think, is just about as impressive."
Riku blinked, then looked down at what was visible of his biceps from beneath the sleeve of his t-shirt, and found himself increasingly flustered as a subtly smiling Kairi passed him by on her way toward the library's exit. It took him another few seconds to realize that Kairi was going to quickly outpace him before he moved to follow a light purple tube skirt and fringy knock-off purse out into the school's hallway.
They walked in silence for a minute or two before Riku ultimately cleared his throat and made another attempt at conversation before Kairi could offer up additional awkward commentary about his physical makeup.
"How many classes are you taking to need this many books anyway?"
Kairi merely rolled her eyes. "They're not all mine. I told Sora I'd bring his school stuff home so he wouldn't miss anything." Reflexively, Riku perked up at the mention of Sora's name. By his side, even Kairi's expression softened as she continued speaking about him. "Boy doesn't like getting behind, even if he's lightyears ahead of everyone else at this school on an objective level."
That made sense, Riku reasoned.
"Do you know how long he'll be out?"
Kairi shook her head. "Couple days. A week, maybe. No clue. The only thing I know is he'll wanna come back as soon as possible."
"Because he really likes school," Riku finished for her.
To his surprise, Kairi actually laughed, then glanced at him with that same knowing, but otherwise completely uninterpretable expression that seemed a hallmark of hers. "That's one reason, yeah."
Still walking, Riku eyed her, taking in the impish grin with more than a little bewilderment, waiting for her to elaborate on the ambiguous statement.
She didn't.
Despite the flamboyant clothing choices and perpetuation of every southern stereotype that generally equated to intellectual handicap in most non-southerner minds, Kairi sure seemed to be astutely observant, Riku had noticed. Most of her comments were worded in deliberate ways, infused with veiled meaning he couldn't even begin to guess at. While he'd already seen how easily Sora seemed to pick up on any underlying implications, Riku himself was still at a loss most times, not yet familiar enough with his skirt-sporting classmate to be able to interpret the nuances of her word choices.
Before Riku could think of an effective way to ask for clarification, they arrived at the front doors that led out to the student pick-up area. Pressing his shoulder against the closest door, he let Kairi slip through the opening in front of him. With surprising nimbleness given the load she was carrying, she made her way out to the idling pickup a few cars down the line, and Riku found himself increasing the length of his strides in an attempt to keep pace.
Wrenching open the pickup's rusted passenger side door, Kairi shrugged underneath the strap of her purse, and slid it into the area that encompassed the middle seat. Without a word, she turned to Riku who'd come to a stop behind her, arms outstretched to allow him to transfer the books he'd been carrying over to her.
Once in her possession, she dumped them onto the passenger side floor area with about as much ceremony as someone taking out a bag of garbage. As she leaned forward to organize the books just enough to allow space for her legs, Riku got his first opportunity to see the driver full-on. With a feeling of jarring surprise, he saw that malachite eyes were already settled on him, scrutinizing with silent acuity.
Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, somewhat unnerved by the appearance of someone who looked more suited to be hanging out on a street corner back home in the Mission district than driving a rusted out pickup in Radiant Hollow, Louisiana, Riku's default parent-imposed manners overrode his preferred state of reflective silence.
"You're Axel, right?"
The man nodded at the same moment that Kairi straightened, eyes traveling between the pair of them as though calculating something. The expression dropped a moment later in favor of equitable indifference as her cousin spoke up.
"And you're Riku. The new kid."
Surprised, Riku's polite expression faltered. "I — yeah. I got here last week."
With a sly half-smile that looked remarkably similar to some of Kairi's own expressions, Axel moved his arm from its place on the open driver side window ledge, the spidery long fingers of one hand wrapping around the steering wheel and sliding slowly upward until they settled around the eleven o'clock position. Despite his best efforts, Riku couldn't help but stare, to take in the blocky geometry on both heavily inked arms that somehow made the subtle marks beneath his eyes stand out even more starkly.
And here he'd thought this guy's hair was his most indelible feature.
"Best of luck." Axel let out a quiet sound that toed the line between scoff and laugh. As Kairi hopped up and scooted into the passenger seat, the sloped side of Axel's lips rose to a level almost perpendicular with his chin. "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, pal. Words to live by in a place like this." His words were fluid, accented with Southern inflection, but in some subtle way different than how others in this town spoke.
In the handful of seconds it took Riku to identify the language spoken as Latin and the handful more required to realize he had no idea what it translated to in English, Kairi had hauled off and smacked her cousin on the shoulder, which only served as an impetus for the smug look on his face to expand further. She turned back to Riku a moment later, expression exasperated as she reached for the door handle in tandem.
"See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, see you…" The ringing sound of her door slamming shut drowned out most of his words, and Riku listened to the truck's engine sputtering as Axel switched gears, rolled forward, and pulled away from the curb without another look back in his direction.
Still a little distracted by the string of foreign words lingering in his thoughts, Riku looked down the line of cars and spotted a silver Mercedes sedan among the sea of American model SUVs and pickup trucks. He made his way toward it, waving to catch his mother's attention the moment she looked up from what he assumed was the phone most likely resting on her lap. The realization had him reaching for his own phone within his front jeans pocket. He pulled it out, then opened the car door, slipping into the seat and dropping his messenger bag on the floor between his feet.
His mother glanced over her shoulder, making sure the left lane was clear before angling the car out of the parking queue. "How was school?"
Eyes scanning the sidewalk in front of Radiant High, Riku caught sight of Pence exiting, with Hayner and Roxas following closely behind. While Pence and Hayner were speaking with animated gestures, Roxas appeared silent, shoulders subtly rounded and eyes down, trailing a few steps behind his friends. Trying not to overthink things to the nth degree yet again, Riku settled into his seat and forced himself to look over at his mother. "It was fine."
"Was that girl you were carrying books for one of the new friends you were talking about this weekend?"
Eyeing the school parking lot, then the main connecting road as it came into view through the Mercedes' front windshield, Riku inclined his head, then tucked his hair behind both ears with his free hand. "Yeah. One of our classmates is out sick so I was helping her with his books so she can take them to him."
As he spoke, Riku clicked the power button on his iPhone, then paused, eyes seeing what it took his mind a few nanoseconds longer to process.
"That was nice of you," his mother said, her voice murmured as she returned to her usual routine of glancing at the digital clock console every thirty consecutive seconds.
Riku hardly heard her as he lifted the phone and clicked through the lock screen, then scanned the first text Sora had sent him all day with unconcealed eagerness. A moment later, his expression fell a little, brows furrowing as he actually reviewed what the message said.
"Haha yeah, too many graham crackers. My poor stomach. Lesson learned and never again."
Perplexed, he read it over once, then looked at it again, but no amount of staring changed the fact that Sora's explanation didn't line up even remotely with what Kairi had told him in study hall no more than an hour earlier.