Chapter IV: A Brutal Mistake

Kairi woke up on something rough. Not soft like sheets on a bed, but not cold like stone. She opened her eyes and began to focus on her surroundings.

"Ugh...too much pink." She muttered out loud. She sat up on the bright carpet and looked down at the crumpled paper. She had spent all night trying to get a stupid portal to work with no success. But the question still burned in her heart. Why was he helping her? Why did he give her this magic?

She got up on her feet and took a look in the mirror. Her hair was a mess and dark circles had framed her eyes. Maybe sleeping on the floor was bad for you...Was it too hard just to take a few steps to bed?

Though, things were pretty different for Riku. He had gotten a good night's sleep and was already in Yen Sid's office, waiting for further directions. When Kairi had run in, panting. Yen Sid had given her an odd look.

"I trust you had gotten a good night's sleep?" He asked, eyeing her carefully.

Kairi panted. "It's too pink in there. You should tone it down."

Riku suppressed a smirk. Though, his body jolted with hidden laughs. He didn't want to offend his friend. Not today, at least.

"I'll be sure to inform the three fairies. But for right now, you must focus on your training. Without one of the warriors of light, we will have to prepare ourselves even more against odd numbers. I'm going to take a guess that, even though the organization does not have Sora, they will find yet another darkness to fight with them. Thus, we will be forced into taking one of the princesses of heart. Kairi, your training will be harsh. Are you prepared to take on the responsibility of a Keyblade wielder?"

The girl stood quiet, thinking. But her mind was already made up. She would fight, for Sora, for Riku. For everyone. She looked up to meet Yen Sid's eyes. She then nodded. Kairi was ready.

"Hikaru, open your eyes." Said a familiar voice.

Hikaru began to open his eyes slowly, everything was bright, causing a headache to form.

"Oh...maybe he does have a concussion..." Came a girl's voice.

"Haha, we need to stop jinxing him." Said another boy's voice.

"Jinxing? What?" Asked the brunette as he began to squint. It was so bright.

"Perhaps I should call a doctor..." Said another girl. Except, it wasn't a girl. It was a woman.

"No, Mrs. H!" The other girl cut in. The loudness of her voice caused Hikaru's head to hurt even worse. He brought his hands to his head, trying to release some of the pressure that had been built up in his skull.

"Though...he is showing a lot of the symptoms."

"I'll close the curtain. Maybe his head ache will lighten up."

And within a few seconds, the room became a bit dimmer, allowing Hikaru to see. He was surrounded by Mrs. H, Hayner, Pence and Olette.

"What happened?" Asked Hikaru.

"What do you mean 'what happened'?" Hayner asked, seeming surprised that he couldn't remember.

"There's another symptom..." Said Pence, counting his fingers.

"Quiet, you!" Scolded Olette, hitting his hand down.

"Umm...well, my head hurts... Could we start with that?"

"We have no clue. Next." Hayner said shortly and to the point.

"Okay. What happened after we left?"

"You made it home. Then you passed out on the stairs. In fact, you almost puked. I then panicked and rushed you into the bathroom, not wanting to smell or see that crap."

Olette began to giggle. "You're such a girl."

"Look who's talking."

"Gee, thanks guys." Hikaru said with a laugh.

Mrs. H then stood up. "Sorry for my son's lack of experience with medical care. And yes, he is quite girly." She said with a wink.

"Mom!"

Everybody began to laugh at the look on Hayner's face. He was obviously embarrassed about being called a girl in front of his friends, when he was supposed to be the tough guy.

"Shut up! Shut up-shut up-shut up!" Hayner said, talking over the hysterical giggles.

"Aww, it's not so bad-I mean-being a girl and all." Olette teased.

"Ugh! You guys!" Hayner moaned. He then grabbed a comic book near him and held it up to hide his face from the others.

"Do comic books make you feel manly?" Asked Hikaru with a wink. He then examined the room. It was filled with them.

"It's his hobby. I wouldn't tease him too much about Superman." Pence said with stars in his eyes.

"Guys, perhaps we should settle this outside." Hayner said. If it was possible, you would probably be seeing a large vein throbbing on his head. But it was not necessary, seeing as his face was bright enough.

"No rough housing, kids. Or else you'll end up like little Hikaru here." Mrs. H chirped in.

The brunette laughed nervously and rubbed his head. He didn't recall how he had gotten the concussion but it could be the result of rough housing.

Everybody stood up. "To the usual place, gang!" Pence announced bravely.

"...Gang?" Hikaru asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Obviously, he is Superman...or Freddy. I can't tell." Said Olette, scratching the back of her head.

"Defiantly Freddy." Hayner said, standing up.

Pence began to giggle. "Correct, Shaggy!"

And with a couple of exchanged looks, they left to the ice cream shop.

The man standing there seemed to be in a cheerful mood. "Did you hear about the event last night?" He asked as he began counting who was there.

"What event?" Asked Hayner, waiting for the man to finish counting.

"Oh, the balloon contest!" He said brightly, his finger then pointed at Hikaru. "He should know!"

Hikaru's eyes widened. How could he have forgotten? He got 100 munny from it.

"What is he talking about?" Asked Pence.

"I entered a contest to hit the balloon the most amount of times. I then won and got 100 munny! Isn't it great?" Hikaru boasted with a grin.

"That's wonderful! But, is that how you got a concussion?" Asked Olette.

Hikaru stopped to think. No, he was fine. There was a crowd around him, he would have known. "Nah, not then."

"Hmm...it's still a mystery, then." Said Olette, bringing her hand to her chin.

They were then handed a bag of salty-sweet ice cream.

"Come again!" The shopkeeper grinned.

"Thanks." Said Hayner, taking the bag and turning around.

"Where should we go, now?" Asked Hikaru.

"We'll just go to the usual place until we find something to do." Said Hayner. He then began walking, the others followed.

When they got there, and they were all settled down, it was time to pass out the ice cream. Hayner opened the bag and began to pass the ice cream around. But he paused when he found something odd.

"Huh, there's an extra ice cream in here..." He said, pulling two more ice creams out of the bag. Olette was the first to react.

"I could have sworn he counted correctly..." She said.

"Well, I saw a boy walking passed when he was counting. Perhaps he accidentally counted him as well." Said Hikaru, thinking back to when he had explained the whole contest.

"What boy?" Asked Pence.

"There wasn't another boy." Olette said plainly.

"You sure he doesn't need a doctor?" Asked Hayner.

Hikaru looked befuddled. "What?" He asked, thinking back to the blonde who had smiled their way. How did they not see him? He was in plain sight. Maybe they were not paying attention. Maybe they were too drawn in to his story.

"We can't afford to-" Olette stopped herself and glanced nervously at Hikaru. Her thoughts then scrambled for an excuse. "-to, uhh, pay the medical bills! Yeah, they're far too expensive."

She was given award winning looks of confusion.

"Doesn't Hayner have medicare?" Asked Pence.

"No! Most certainly not!" Said the girl quickly.

Hayner was quite concerned for Olette's health. But after a while, he put two and two together. "Oh! Of course not. Mom didn't ever think we'd get into any trouble."

Pence opened his mouth but was then cut off by Hayner once more.

"We should go check out the ghost train today!" He said, jumping to his feet. "Everybody is coming along, whether they want to or not."

The group made it across town and to the hill within an hour. Which was pretty good time, seeing as one can easily get lost in town.

"So, why are we seeing the ghost train? Didn't we try to see it last year, but then it didn't come?" Asked Pence.

"Sure, we saw it last year. But it's always nice to see it twice. And remember, the train did come. It was purple and stuff." Said Hikaru, laying down on the ground.

Olette looked at Hayner. She clearly didn't remember this one bit. And she didn't know how to play along. Everybody decided to keep quiet and wait for the train. Which took a very long time. They had sat there for hours, talking about pointless stuff. Or what they would do at the beach.

Somewhere on another world, though. A girl had just made an awful mistake. She made a portal.

Author's note: I'm super sorry that this chapter is so short! School has been depriving me of my inspiration. ;-; I will be sure not to do this again. I'll try to make the next chapter longer, but for now, enjoy this one. ^^