Disclaimer: I dont own any of the mention canons in this story, nor the songs that Sarah is occasionally going to be singing when the mood strikes her though I will be listing them at the beginning of the chapter for those of you who happen to be curious I do, however, own Sarah herself. If youre wondering why this disclaimer wasnt in the first chapter, its because its more fun this way. ;)

Sarah/Soras song this chapter: Billy Joels "Say Goodbye to Hollywood."

KH

The next morning Sarah yawned and stretched, bending her spine and curling her toes as she waited for her iPod alarm to go off. When no music was forthcoming, Sarah turned over onto her other side and relaxed. It seemed like itd be awhile before she had to get up for school, either that or it was a weekend.

Either way, the end result was more sleepy timer for her, so she wasnt going to complain. Weekends were pretty much made for sleeping till noon, after all. And she had a timer on for KRDK, just in case it was a Saturday, so there were no worries about that.

Pulling the covers up over her head, she shifted them until she an opening wide enough to accommodate her face, and then settled back down to have a bit more sleep.

The next thing she felt was the sensation of someones hands pressed up against her right flank, shaking her like there was no tomorrow. Grumbling and only half-awake, Sarah moved away from the shaking hands and burrowed deeper under the covers. Unfortunately, that didnt deter the mystery shaker; if anything it made them more annoyingly persistent. Grumbling semi-coherently, Sarah grabbed the nearest corner of her pillow and walloped the little bastard about where she figured his head would be.

Unfortunately, even that didnt make said little bastard go away for very long. Still, she did manage to find out at least one thing: he was male; and pretty young if she was hearing right. None of that really mattered, beyond being vaguely interesting, and Sarah swiftly put it out of her mind as she settled back down.

The kid was talking at her again, but Sarah was opting to ignore him until he actually managed to pronounce her name right. She would have done the same for anyone else; she certainly wasnt going to make any exceptions for some kid that she didnt even know. Although that did kind of beg the question of just how this kid had ended up in her house at all.

It was possible that shed fallen asleep at a friends house for some reason, which would explain the lack of an iPod alarm, but not the lack of other things; things that included people who knew just how much she hated being shaken awake.

Not to mention people who actually pronounce her name right. Curling back up in the bed she couldnt be sure that it was actually her bed anymore, but she knew what it was in a more general sense Sarah ground her teeth as she felt the kid put his hands back on her flank. Before he could start shaking her again, she pushed the blankets down off of her head.

Opening her eyes just long enough to get a bead on her surroundings, Shara grabbed a fistful of her tormentors hair and yanked it hard enough to make him pay attention to what she was about to say.

"Look, bright eyes, its a weekend, and I fully intend to sleep until at least noon," she paused for breath, vaguely aware that there was probably something that she should be remembering at this point, but not particularly caring what it was. "Go the hell away."

Burying herself under the covers again, she decided to be charitable and give the little brat a few final words of warning: "You start shaking me again and Ill clock you, bright eyes."

That said though something about this whole thing was still kind of bugging her she settled back into the bed and tried to relax again.

"Sora, youre going to be late for breakfast if you keep this up," the annoying kid said, sounding like he was struggling not to laugh.

"Would it be too much to ask that you, just once, get my name right?" she groused, yawning as she sat up and let the covers spill off her back. "Youre still a syllable off."

Climbing out of the bed, she yawned again and scratched her head a bit. Opening her eyes partway, she got her first look though not really a good one at the brat whod been harassing her.

"Nice hair," she chuckled. "You have a thing for Kadaj, or what? "

"What?"

"Nevermind," she said, with a short, sharp shake of her head. "Just tell me where the bathroom is. I need my morning shower."

"Sora, youve never taken a shower in the morning."

"Youre claiming to know me pretty well for a guy who cant pronounce my name right," she said, beginning to become annoyed again. "Just tell me where the bathroom is, Kadaj-lite, and spare me the commentary."

"Its down the hall on the left, just on the other side of the linen closet," he said. "Im going to want an explanation for this, Sora."

"Just as soon as you start pronouncing my name right, Kadaj-lite."

Leaving the room, and the slightly-annoying-but-fun-to-mess-with boy behind, Sarah made her way down the hall. The first door on the left was too narrow to lead to anything but the linen closet that Kadaj-lite had mentioned, so she passed it right on by. Opening the second door on the left, she found a small but well-appointed bathroom.

Yawning and arching her back as she stretched, she tossed off her underwear after shed closed the door behind her, then climbed into the shower and turned the hot water up to full. Letting the cold water blast her awake, she climbed back out of the shower.

"Ah, thats better," she said, sitting down on the toilet while she waited for the water to heat up. "The hell is wrong with my voice?" she wondered aloud, reaching up to rub at her throat.

Her fingers found nothing out of the ordinary, but before she could make a more thorough examination, she noticed the clouds of steam wafting invitingly out of the shower.

Other considerations could wait for later; now was her time.

Climbing into the shower, Sarah sat down next to the hot spray for a few moments, leaning back periodically to let it soak into her hair, before standing so that she could start washing up. She was starting to miss her room, with its special acoustics and purpose-built sound system, since just listening to the splatter of the water could get kinda boring after awhile. Hell, she was starting to miss her personal bathroom; theyd renovated the fuck out of that old house.

It was one of the few times shed actually cackled while wielding a power tool of course, that had been a chainsaw, and you were pretty much constitutionally obligated to go just a bit batshit when you handled a chainsaw Right, right; washing up, she mused, opening her eyes just long enough to grab a bar of soap before closing them again.

She knew her own body well enough that she could do this kind of thing blindfolded; that, and she really didnt feel like risking soap in her eyes.

"Bobbys driving through the city tonight, through the lights, in a hot new rental car" she began, lathering up her hands before she started to wash her arms.