Again, sorry for the delay in updating, but I managed to update at around the same time I did last time so I hope to keep updating at this regular interval.
I managed to double the length of this chapter in comparison to the last one because I felt like I needed to end the first day or else the story won't progress to the good stuff.
Thank you for all the people who reviewed, followed and favourited my story!
Onward to chapter 5!
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters used in this story nor do I own the franchises Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy
Chapter 5: Paint Me Some Trouble
Near the last few minutes of Economics class, I had finished a sketch of Hope sleeping on his desk. I should probably wake him up. I give his shoulder a light shove and he turns his head so he's facing me.
"Class is almost over and you pretty much slept through it."
"Huh? Really now? Well that's a good use of 65 minutes," he jokes. I let out a small giggle and he smiles back.
"You shouldn't do that too often Hope. You don't want to get caught by Professor Eraqus. He may look old, but that doesn't mean his eyes don't work."
"That's true. But then again, today wasn't really a lesson so it doesn't count!" He notices the sketchbook that I have in my hands and looks at it hard. "You draw Naminé?"
I nod my head. "I draw pretty often. Whenever I'm bored or when I have the chance to I'll just draw. That's why it never leaves my side."
"Can I look at it?" I don't want to have him look through my stuff. We've only met each other for a little more than an hour and I'm sure if I can trust him completely. He looks at me with pleading eyes; the kind that just makes you want to give in.
"Please? I promise I won't say anything bad about your work." But that also means he can still think that my work is bad. I shake my head. I'm not ready to trust him for obvious reasons.
"Not today Hope. Not yet anyways." He dips his head in disappointment. I didn't want to do that, but I think he'll find my work a bit more interesting if he waits a bit.
Then something came to mind, "Plus, it's not like I heard you play your violin yet."
"That doesn't apply here. I don't even have my violin with me!"
"Okay, how about this? I'll show you my sketchbook after I hear you play your violin. Deal?" I smirk inwardly. This should be something that he can't back down from. He takes a minute or so to think about my proposal in silence.
"Fine. Deal. But you have to show it to me right after I finish playing, got it?" He sounds serious about it.
"Deal." And after our promise was sealed, the bell ringed signalling the end of third period and the start of fourth. Lunch. "Do you have lunch right now Hope?"
"Yeah. I have it with Sora? Why is that?"
"As a matter of fact, I have lunch right now too." After I said that, his face lit up.
"Really? Do you mind eating with us?" He asked happily. Looks like he enjoys my company.
"Sure. I don't mind at all." I turn around to walk over to Sora's desk.
I approach him, "Hey Sora! You have lunch right?"
"Yeah. I'm guessing you have lunch too?" I nod at this. He grabs my hand and starts to drag me out of the classroom.
"C'mon Kairi, let's go! I'm starving!" He exclaims
The four of us walk to the grand hall which essentially is the cafeteria. With several rows of tables, the high ceiling room quickly filled with students. If you imagine the great hall in Harry Potter; it's kind of like that. Just without the suits of armor, old paintings and statues. Now if there were such things in this room… Well let's just say they wouldn't last very long. I try to look for a table that's available, but apparently Sora already found one.
"We can sit right there!" And then he promptly drags the rest of us the conveniently "empty" table. The reason I say "empty" was because HE was sitting there. HIM and HIM alone. And THAT guy was Roxas. I felt my left eye twitch.
Sora had already plopped down beside Roxas and gestured everyone else to sit down. Everything was going well until I was the last one standing and Roxas noticed that I was there. How do I know? His eyes were practically jumping out of their sockets, that's how!
I glare at him. "Stop ogling me you pervert!" I hug my sketchbook close to my chest, feeling a bit insecure from all the looks that everyone at the table was giving me.
"I wasn't ogling at you! I'm just surprised that you have the audacity to sit here with us after what happened this morning!" He yelled back, but he was clearly embarrassed by my accusation. The red hue on his face gave it all away.
Sora patted Roxas' head like a child. "Calm down bro. Hope here invited her to sit with us." Then Hope slowly slinked lower into his seat, hiding himself from the irritated, spiky blonde.
"Hope…" Roxas growled, "Why did you invite this clumsy fool to eat with us."
I snort at his insult, "Says the equally three-legged moron." He snaps his head in my direction, giving me this glare. I just turn away, but just enough so that I could just see his eyes out the corner of my own. How beautiful his eyes were…
Hope popped his head up slightly from underneath the table. "Ummmm because I feel that she's a nice person to be around…" he said meekly. He swiftly ducked back into the safety of his bangs and sat silently.
"I should warn you Hope, this girl here isn't what she appears to be. I suggest that you should-"
Roxas was deftly cut off by Selphie who spontaneously appeared out of nowhere to cover his mouth.
"Hey! You don't get to talk about Naminé like that! Only I get to."
Kairi snickers at Selphie's bold statement. "That's true. Selphie is the only one that can talk trash to anyone and still be forgiven." Selphie nods her head and places her hands on her hips in approval.
"So you better back down blondie!" Walking behind her were two boys. One blonde and the other a brunet.
"Hey Selph! You didn't start a cat fight again did you?" the blonde said with a grin.
The brunet waved a finger at Selphie, "Ya, we wouldn't want to clean up after you again."
"For your information, I was stopping an argument, not starting one." She crossed her arms and held her chin up.
"What? That's not right. It's usually the other way around." The blonde scratched his head.
"Believe it or not Tidus, she did stop an argument for once." Kairi piped up.
"What happened anyways?" Then his eyes widened. Looks like he understood what happened. "Is this about what happened this morning?"
"Unfortunately it is," Roxas said through gritted teeth, "Which, by the way, was her fault completely."
I was starting to get tired of the topic of this discussion so I decided to butt in to put an end to it.
"Hey guys can we eat lunch? I'm kind of hungry." Then my stomach growled in agreement.
"Sounds like our stomachs think alike!" Sora said with a lopsided grin. Everyone got up to get food except Roxas.
"I'll just stay back to guard our table until you guys get back." Okay then. Whatever suits him. Sora and I go first in line. I scan the menu aimlessly, letting my mind wander when I feel him poking my shoulder.
"What's up?" What could Sora possibly have in mind besides food? He's practically inhaling the stuff.
"What happened this morning between you and Roxas," he scratches the back of his head. "I know that how he acted wasn't like him and I know that he's not usually like that." I have no idea where he's going with this.
He lets out a big breath. "What I'm trying to say is that I think you should give him another chance to make an impression. I assure you that he's a better person than what you think."
I can't judge his knowledge of his own brother. That be rude and I certainly don't want to come out as a jerk. I away from the menu to meet Sora's pleading gaze. God why do his eyes have to be so much like his brother's? I let out a sigh of exasperation. I give into his puppy dog look.
"Fine. I will reconsider his first impression. But if he screws up again, there won't be a next time."
He happily gives me a hug. "You won't regret it!" Why do I have a feeling that I will?
After everyone's back at the table with lunch in hand we start eating. About halfway through my own food, Kairi speaks.
"So Sora, where do you and your brother come from?"
He raises his head from his plate of pasta. A little sauce was on the corner of his mouth. He lets out a small sound of acknowledgement and then swallows the mouthful of food he had. At least he didn't talk with his mouth full.
"Me and Roxas come from Twilight Town." Kairi leans over with napkin in hand and wipes the sauce off Sora's mouth. "You had a little something there…" Then she turned away swiftly, her face red as a tomato.
"I heard that town has beautiful sunsets," Selphie said dreamily, "What I would do for someone to take me out on a date there."
We all give her a funny look and she finally notices that she was the subject our scrutinizing stares. A blush creeps up on her face and she shakes her head. "Sorry about that…" Typical Selphie.
"Yeah. The sunsets are great and not to mention the sea-salt ice cream!" Sora said with a goofy grin.
Roxas' head snapped up from his pizza. "Sea-salt ice cream?"
"Yeah. Sea-salt ice cream! Wait, were you even listening?" Sora said curiously.
"Of course I was!" Roxas replied a bit too quickly. Sure you were.
"Sea-salt ice cream?" Hope crinkled his nose at the sound of the odd combination. "Sounds kinda weird to me."
"I guarantee you that it's amazing! I hope you guys have it here." Sora said optimistically.
"Ya know we should throw you guys a party! Like a welcoming party. You can invite anyone you want!" Wakka said with a smile.
Selphie nodded her head at his idea. "We should totally do that at the play island!"
"Play island?" Roxas asked.
"It's a little island not too far from the mainland here. We often row our boats out there on the weekend to just hang out and have fun." Tidus said. "You know, I could teach you and Sora a thing or two about blitzball."
Roxas raised his one of his eyebrows in question. "Blitzball? Isn't that the sport you play underwater?"
"It sure is! What, are you afraid of playing?" Tidus answered teasingly.
"What? No! In fact, I'll beat you at it!" I don't know about Roxas, but he's going to get beaten so badly at the sport.
Thirty minutes passed by with us talking about ourselves and what our interests were. I found out that Roxas played guitar and Sora praised his brother for his skill at playing the instrument. He dismissed his positive remark saying that he wasn't actually that good and he was an amateur. Hope spoke up a little bit when Sora mentioned his parents occupation. Basically everything that he told me in Economics class. When he said that he played the violin, Selphie squealed like a fangirl. Apparently, she likes guys that play string instruments. According to her, it's "suave".
I absentmindedly looked at my watched. It read 1:10 P.M.
Damn, it's already fifth period. The last period of the day.
"Um guys? Guys…" I try to get everyone's attention, but they're all chattering, happily engaged in their own conversations. "GUYS!" I usually don't do that, but it was the only way.
Everyone stops talking and looks at me oddly.
"Nam, is there something wrong?" Kairi asked.
"Yes there's something wrong. It's already fifth period and we're all late for class if you haven't noticed."
Everyone glances at their watches and phones. That's when the panic started to settle in. I stood up in the midst of all the chaos and grabbed my bag to go to the arts wing. I turn around to wave everyone goodbye.
"Later guys!" Then I run off to arts wing. Hopefully I'm not too late for class.
I run out into the courtyard, into the arts wing and up the winding staircase. By the time I reach the classroom, I'm out of breath. Then I see him. Roxas. My eyes grow wide at the sight of him. Not because of his stunning blue eyes, but the fact the fact that he's in my class and he got here before me! Now that I look back, I don't remember him talking much or talking at all during the lunch period. Maybe he left all of us when we weren't looking.
The professor's voice pulls me out of my thoughts. The professor was a pink haired man. Ruffled pink hair that was shoulder length. Professor Marluxia. One of the most critical instructors of the entire school. He glances at me briefly and turns back to pacing the room. It seems that the students were setting up easels.
"Miss Farron, so nice of you to join us," he said clasping his hands together, "You will take you place beside Mister Hikaru right over there." He points in Roxas' direction. I mentally sigh. I was hoping something like that wouldn't happen.
"After you're seated please go to the back storage room and grab an easel. We're starting the introductory assignment soon." I drop my bag next to the stool beside Roxas without making eye contact. I walk out of the storage room with an easel in hand. Little did I know that there was box of paints in my path and I didn't notice it. Guess what happened next?
I tripped, but the unexpected happened. Someone caught me before I could humiliate myself. I look up to see the deep ocean blue eyes that belonged to a certain blonde.
"Watch your step." I blush at our close proximity. At least he had the decency to not call me clumsy.
"But then again, you're a clumsy fool. So I can't really blame you." And my blush was replaced with an irritated face.
"Thank you for your observations," I retorted. I take back what I thought earlier. I brush off our encounter and I deftly set up my easel.
"Today's introductory assignment will be a simple portrait," Announced the professor, "You may use whatever medium of expression and whatever style of expression. The subject that you will be focused on is the person sitting next to you." My face blanched at the last part of the instructions. "You may begin now."
I look around the room frantically, hoping to see someone looking for a partner. My eyes make no eye contact with anyone else's. Except the blonde beside me.
"Are we seriously stuck with each other?" I said with exasperation.
"I don't intend to paint you if that's what you're thinking," Roxas said firmly.
"Same here." For once I agree. I turn away so I don't have to face the rude blonde. That's when the pink haired professor noticed our unproductiveness and walked over to our area.
The professor raised an eyebrow in question, "What's going on here? You don't have all the time in the world you realize."
"I'd rather paint a live lion instead of this blonde here," I said bluntly.
"Well I rather paint a stampede of horses!"
Professor Marluxia just rubbed his temples. "I don't know the situation between you two, but you have to paint something so get working." He walked away muttering under his breath. Seems to me that we've already gotten on his bad side because of this blonde jerk.
"I'm only painting you because we have to," I muttered. I did a preliminary sketch on to my canvas and felt satisfied after 10 minutes. I painted some basic colours on to the figure that I drew and ducked underneath my easel to get some extra paint from my bottle. When I came back up I saw some random splotches of paint on my canvas. I also noticed the smirk on Roxas' face. He's going to pay for that.
I waited for an opening to strike back at him. When he ducked down to get paint, I flicked my paintbrush at his canvas effectively tainting his artwork with a spray of colour. As soon as he came back up, I saw his eyebrow twitch. I supressed a giggle.
"Did you do this?" He said through gritted teeth?
"What could you ever possibly be talking about?" I batted my eyelashes innocently at him.
"You witch!" That's when all hell broke loose.
He flicked his paint brush at me, letting brown paint speckle my shirt and arms.
"That was so uncalled for! I only did it to your canvas!" I flicked some paint back at him.
"Yeah? Well maybe you shouldn't have done it in the first place!" he flicked some more paint, but this time at my hair.
"You're the one that started it!" I got back at him by swabbing my paint brush on his nose.
After a few minutes of our little paint battle, we ended up in the headmaster's office with paint all over ourselves. The headmaster entered his office and sat down behind his hardwood desk with a plaque that read 'Headmaster Ansem'.
The blonde, red robed headmaster spoke. "Well, explain yourselves children."
He had a trimmed beard, long blonde hair and piercing amber eyes. Just by looking at him made me uncomfortable.
"You see sir; this girl here messed up my painting in the assignment that we were given by Professor Marluxia. But then she got aggressive and starting flicking and throwing paint at me and I had to do what I had to do to protect myself." Roxas said calmly.
"That's not right sir!" I was not about to let myself get thrown under the bus by that jerk. "He started the entire thing by flicking paint onto my canvas!" I defended.
"And so both of you retaliated to each other's actions by having a paint skirmish in the middle of class."
The two of us looked down in shame. I know I couldn't bear looking at the headmaster knowing that what I did was wrong.
"I will not make a fuss about the specifics of this… occurrence. Instead I will just give the two of you detention. Both of you will stay back and assist Professor Marluxia in cleaning up the classroom."
Roxas raised a finger and looked like he was going to say something, but Ansem cut him off.
"No if's, and's or but's. Do I make myself clear?" I look up to meet his powerful gaze.
"Yes sir," both me and Roxas said in unison.
"Good, the period is about to end so you may make you way back to class and start cleaning the classroom." Ansem instructed.
The two of us exit the office, feeling relieved of the tense atmosphere inside. Half way up the staircase Roxas muttered something.
"I still think it's all your fault," he said under his breath. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and took the stairs two at a time passing me. I say nothing in response. I know that it's not worth starting an argument. Nothing good would come of it; only more irritation.
We arrive at the classroom door and Professor Marluxia was holding a bunch of cleaning equipment. He was also wearing a very anguished face.
"Thanks to you to, my studio hall is a mess! Now both of you are going to spend the next hour cleaning the entire room." He shoves the equipment into our hands. "Before I leave, I will inform the custodian staff to check on you two in an hour. If they don't find the room up to their standards, you will continue to stay back until it has met them." The professor swiftly walked past us his trench coat billowing behind him.
Roxas moves past me and into the room with his share of the equipment in hand. "I don't know about you, but I want to get out of here and the only way that's going to happen is if we're going to start cleaning."
I walk over to the area where we were painting and I start scraping off the paint from the floor. After a few minutes of silence, Roxas walks over to my area and kneels down. He picks up a scraper and starts cleaning with me.
"Are you done over there already?" He couldn't have finished so fast. That's not human.
"It seems like the students were instructed to clean up their own workspaces so it's relatively clean everywhere else except here where we… painted."
We continue cleaning in silence for a bit. Then I hit a piece of what appear to be paint stuck to the floor. I put some more effort into leveraging the paint off the floor. Suddenly it comes loose and the paint and the scraper went flying. I look around the floor for my scraper and then I noticed that the paint landed on Roxas' nose. I giggle at his now red nose and soon it's full blown laughter.
"Hey! What's so funny?!" he crossed his arms trying to be serious.
I continue to laugh at his nose and eventually I stop laughing, but I still giggle a bit. "You have some paint on your nose right there," I lean over to wipe it off his nose, but he swabs some paint on mine.
"Now we're even," he smirked. Before he could react I swab some paint onto his cheek with the paintbrush that I used earlier. We continued to do this for about ten minutes. By then we're not even playing around with the paint anymore we're just laughing. Roxas sits up straight and looks into my eyes making me a bit uncomfortable. "You know, I thought you were just some stuck up snob. It turns out you know a thing or two about having fun."
"I do know how to have fun!" I puff up my cheeks to show that I'm irritated, not embarrassed from his gaze.
"Okay, okay. We still have to clean this up so we can go home." He stood up and went to the bucket across the room. I stayed where I was to continue cleaning the floor. He came back with a moist towel in hand. We finished cleaning up in a short fifteen minutes and at that point the custodian staff came into judge whether it met standards or not.
I walked over to one of them to ask them that. "Did we do okay sir?"
"Was it you two that made the mess?" I nodded at it and kept my head down. I really didn't want to get scolded again for our actions earlier.
The man let out a sigh. "It's okay. You did alright."
Roxas appeared beside me with all the equipment and handed them over to the custodian in front of us. "Really? It's actually up to standards?" He sounded genuinely surprised.
"I wouldn't worry too much about the 'standards'," he said with air quotes, "Marluxia just does that to scare his students so they wouldn't make a mess of his studio again." I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
"You guys can go now. If I find anything wrong here, I'll just fix it up." The custodian reassured us.
Roxas and I left the studio and walked out of the school. He stopped by the courtyard fountain for some reason. "Stay right here." He raised a hand, telling me to stay.
He came back a few seconds later with a moist cloth. "Huh? What's that for?" I questioned.
"It's just my bandana that I have on hand. I keep it on me in case something like this happens." He replied.
"Something like what?" He was still being ambiguous about what it was for.
"You have some paint on your face." He put a finger underneath my chin and tilted my head up. He gently wiped the paint off my paint and cheeks. I blushed profusely at the warmth of his touch. "There. All gone," he said with a warm smile.
"Thanks." I smiled back at him. We walked out of the school grounds and both of us were facing different directions. I started walking home when I hear his voice a minute later. I turn around to see him yelling down the street
"Well I'll see you again tomorrow right?! And I'm I really sorry about this morning!" Then he turned away and walked home. At least he said sorry.
I arrived at the door of my house and I was about to place my key into the lock when the door flew open and Kairi put me in a bone-crushing bear hug.
"Where were you Nam?! I tried calling you like a million times." My sister practically yelled into my ears.
"Yeah, she was rambling on and on about the things that could possible happen to you." I looked over Kairi's shoulder to see Lightning sitting on the couch with a book in hand.
"Sorry about that guys. I had to stay back because me and Roxas had to clean up after the mess we made in the art room." I blushed at the recent memory of us playing around with the paint.
"Why? What happened? Did he hurt you? And why are you covered in paint?" Kairi bombarded me with questions.
I saw Lightning walk over and separated the two of us. "Let the girl breathe Kai. And given that she said she and Roxas made a mess in the studio I wouldn't be too surprised by the messiness that we see here." Thank god for Lightning's level head. Sometimes I wonder what Kairi and I would be like without her. "Come sit down then we'll talk." She gestured to the couch she was sitting earlier.
"I'd rather not. I'm still covered in paint remember?" I made a show of my paint splattered dress.
"True. Go take a shower then we'll talk," she ordered. I walk up the stairs and towards my room. I could hear Kairi yell up the stairs.
"And I want to hear more about Roxas!" Of course she wants to hear about Roxas.
I take a quick shower and I walk back downstairs to find my mom already back home. I give her a hug before I sit down on the couch beside Lightning.
"Just to let you girls know, your dad isn't coming back home to eat dinner tonight. He said he has some business to finish up back at the gym." My mom places her bags down at the foot of the stairs before walking to the kitchen, looking into the fridge and consulting the dinner schedule.
"So how was your day?" April asked.
"We were getting to that mom." Lightning said.
"Well in that case I'm going to sit down and hear all about it." My mom sat down in the armchair at the end of the coffee table in front of the couch. Everyone was looking at me waiting for me to spill the details of my first day back.
"Everything was fine throughout the day except for the fact that some guy crashed into me and both of us fell into the courtyard fountain." I said plainly as if it was nothing.
April raised her eyebrows questioningly. "How did that even happen?"
"The guy, his name is Roxas, rode his skateboard in the courtyard and he couldn't stop himself from crashing into me."
"Well she shouldn't have done that in the first place. Anything else that's interesting?"
"We had art together at the end of the day and he messed up my painting by splattering some paint on my canvas so I retaliated by doing the same thing and we had paint battle of some sort. Then we got sent to the headmaster's office and both of us got detention for messing up the studio. We ended up cleaning up the room for detention." I saw Kairi and Lighting make an 'O' shape with their mouths in understanding.
"Well that certainly clears everything up." Kairi stood up and walked up to her room.
"Did you forgive this Roxas boy?" April asked. Then I saw Kairi pop her head down the staircase at the sound of this.
"Well, ummmmmm… after cleaning up the studio, I did because he did apologize for everything that happened today," I said quietly.
"Naminé, you're too nice for your own good," replied and stood up and walked into the kitchen.
"Well he is kind of cute…" I said sheepishly.
Lightning shook her head at this. "Wait did I hear correctly? Did you say he was 'kind of cute'?"
I nod and I tuck my chin into my neck. Then I felt Kairi give me a hug and let out a squeal.
"YES! I knew it! You like him!" She exclaimed.
"No I don't! Just because I forgive him doesn't mean I like him! Plus it's only the first day. It's going to take much more than that for me to like him!"
Kairi puts on a wicked grin. Oh no. She's going to start plotting. I walk up the stairs and into my room to avoid any more questioning and squeals.
What if Kai is right? Maybe I do like Roxas and I just don't know it. I shake my head to clear out those thoughts. Now's not the time to think about that. I flop on my bed and I decide to take a small nap before dinner time rolls around.
So what did you guys think? Sorry if there are any grammatical errors. I don't have anyone to edit my work and hopefully one of my friends (who also writes fan fictions: check out goldenVow. She's writing a League of Legends fan fiction for all you LOL players out there) will help me with editing.
Leave your thoughts in reviews and don't for get to favourite and follow!
Until next time~
-Icey
