When was the last time she felt this nervous?

All the time. What are you thinking about? Naminé smacked herself mentally.

Her fingers shook and she could feel sweat dripping down her head despite already being in the well air-conditioned hallways. She felt like her books were already slipping out of her hand. Maybe if her books fell and grew legs and ran away, she would have a reason to turn back right now.

She mentally smacked herself again. What on Earth are you thinking about. She sighed as she stared at the sign that was hung in front of the door she was standing in front of right now.

"ART CLUB"

She gulped as she felt vibrations coming from her skirt pocket. Taking out her phone, she saw two notifications, both of them from Roxas.

Are you there yet?

You got this

She smiled a bit, then sighed.

How did I let him convince me? She thought to herself as she recalled their conversations few days ago.

"Art Club?" she wrote down as Roxas nodded cheerfully.

"Yeah! You should totally join them! You don't have an extracurricular club right?"

"Well no, I doubt anyone would want me to join their club" she replied.

"You don't know until you try," Roxas smiled

Naminé's fingers twitched as she stopped drawing the colored sun in her supposedly space-esque illustration. She was still in the middle of one of their art lessons when Roxas suddenly brought up the topic. The feathered blonde would not pick up the pencil until she enlightened him.

"What about you? Did you join a club?" she quickly scribbled down, trying her best to change the subject.

"Well, I already joined the Struggle Club with Axel, but hey! Don't change the subject!" he pointed his pencil at her. "But I'm serious you know, you should join the Art Club! I even have a close friend who's in the club, I can let her know,"

Naminé tightened her grip on her pencil. The thought of joinin extracurricular clubs never even crossed her mind. The idea was entertained when she was younger, the thought of joining a group of friends with common interests, having fun and enjoying their time doing what they loved most. But what was the point of joining one when no one in school would really accept her? Even if she did join, how would she able to to communicate with her colleague easily?

As if on cue, Roxas acted as if he read her mind. "I'm sure you all can make a Message Group chat or something so that'll be easier for you,"

Her eyebrow twitched. "Oh yeah? Wouldn't it be easier if we text instead of me writing down whatever I wrote here?" she turned the book around for Roxas to read her message.

Roxas gave a sly smile and wrote down his own message at his book. "It's more fun to do it this way," With a simple drawing of a clown emoji at the end of the line. "But all jokes aside, for now, you should really do it Naminé! You may not think you do, but you really have the talent for it! Even if you don't, which I assure you, you do, there's no harm in joining a club,"

Naminé looked away, the thought of even entering a room with everyone that she would possible be doing art with already made her nervous.

"But if you're really hesitating, think of it like this, you helped me with the lessons right? Well, I have to pay you back by helping you to be more open, and what better way to do it than to join a social club at school"

Naminé winced. Roxas 1, her Zero. But the blonde noticed the look on her face as she kept her eyes locked on her book, tyring to process his words.

"Look," he put a hand on her shoulder, "All I'm saying, why not try going to their room and give it a try? If you really think you don't want to or you can't bring yourself to, then you don't have be too hard on yourself,"

Naminé looked back at Roxas, her anxiety already settling down seeing his comforting smile on his face.

"But, just to let you know," he grinned, "It's only once we step out our comfort zones then we can grow,"

Naminé closed her eyes, her mind contemplating whether or not should she knock on the door. Despite Roxas' words repeating in her head, the social anxiety in her was still pushing against his advise. Her fingers trembled as she rasied her hand, curling them into a fist.

C'mon Naminé, you have to do this. Remember your deal with Roxas.

Taking a deep breath, and gathering all the willpower she has (or whatever that's left of it) to bring her hand forward. Just one or two motions of knocking the door is more than enough. Finally, just as she was about to do it, the door swung open and a red haired girl came into her view. And at that moment, both girl's eyes widened at the sight of each other.

"Oh! You must be, Naminé, right?" Kairi asked as Naminé frantically nodded and bowed slightly, her way of saying hello.

"Roxas told me about you, he said you may or may not come here, but he has faith in you," Kairi smiled as Naminé turned away, trying to hide her blushing face. Kairi giggled at the blonde.

"But anyway, Roxas keeps telling me that you're like, super duper mega talented at drawing, but whether or not if you're good, what you can do, who you are, everyone's welcome here at the Art Club," she expressed, and then proceeded to facepalm her forehead. "How could I forget, I never even properly introduced myself, my name's Kairi by the way,"

Before Naminé could react, she already felt herself being tugged into the room. "Come in!" she exclaimed.

As Naminé stumbled into the room, the first thing she took notice was the faint smell of acrylic paint. She took one look around and gasped as various art pieces that beautifully decorated the wall, done in various manners, sketch, art, crayons and more. There were a few tables, some single and some big ones where students could work together on projects and a few canvas stands set up at the back of the room where one could paint freely, just like the black haired girl who was painting.

Now that she took a closer look, she and Kairi weren't the only ones in the room, there were two others. The one painting at the back of the room with curly brown hair and one more girl with headphones who was immersed into her laptop. Naminé's eyes widened as she saw a graphic tablet with her. She took a step in the room, pretending to look around while her eyes were focused on the art that the girl was drawing and she gasped as eventhough from afar, she could tell a metropolitan esque city being drawn with a huge black tower.

"So…?" Kairi sneaked up on her. "What do you think?" she smiled.

Even to her surprise, Naminé couldn't help but smile, seeing what she loved most all around her. Kairi beamed as she saw the smile.

"I'll take that as a yes then," Kairi walked past her and spread her arms out. She was about to say something until she saw Naminé looking at the other member trapped in her headphones.

"Oh right, almost forgot," she said as she grabbed a crumpled piece of paper from the messy table. Without saying anything, she threw the piece of paper towards the girl's head. Naminé watched in shock, but not at the fact Kairi threw it at the unfocused girl, but at the fact that she managed to catch it without turning around.

With on swift motion, she dropped her graphics pen and grabbed the paper ball without turning around. She took of her headphones and waved her short hair around before turning around on her chair, looking at Kairi with an annoyed look.

"Really Kai? This again?" The look on her face switched from annoyance to surprised when she saw Naminé. "Oh…"

"Yuffie, this is Naminé, Naminé this is Yuffie, our resident ninja" Kairi introduced as Naminé smiled shyly and waved her hand.

"Hi! She a new member?" Yuffie asked as Kairi turned towards Naminé.

"Maybe…maybe not? But we'll see," she said as she guided Naminé into the room. "Don't feel pressure to join, it's completely up to you, think of today as some sort of taster session to see what we usually do around here,"

Naminé couldn't help but turn to the paintings that were hung up on the room, after all, it's probably her favorite art styles to do. All of them led to the only painter in the room who just stood up.

"And….done!" she announced as she walked away, revealing a painting of a large beach with white sand and a light blue colored sea with white showing the reflection in the waves. She turned around and saw Naminé.

"Oh! A new member?"

Kairi facepalmed. "One gets distracted by music and the other one gets distracted by her own head,"

"Hey! I always focus hard whenever I'm painting, but anyway, nice to meet you! I'm Selphie!"

Naminé quickly opened her sketchbook, showing the cover of her book, pointing a finger to her written name.

"Huh? What's wrong? Can't speak?" Selphie asked in a joking manner but Naminé merely nodded and turned away with an embarrassed look.

"Selphie!" Kairi scolded as the painter realized it.

"Oh! I'm so sorry about that!" she quickly bowed down as Naminé quickly waved her hands, trying to tell her that it was not needed. Kairi noticed that despite all this, Naminé's eyes were focused on the various paintings on the wall.

"Hey Naminé, why not you try to do something?"

Before she knew it, Naminé was quickly dragged by Kairi into sitting on a chair in front of an empty canvas. She quickly brought over a small wooden table with acrylic paint and a few paintbrushes.

"Let your imagination run wild!" she exclaimed, extending her arms out.

"Kairi, stop scaring the potentially new girl," Yuffie sighed as she turned to Naminé. "But what she said, feel free to paint whatever. It doesn't even have to be something, just paint anything you feel," she smiled.

"That's right, after all," Selphie winked. "That's the whole point of this club, if we can't express how we feel anywhere else, we can do it here, on our canvas, tablet or anything else!"

Naminé gulped as she turned towards the canvas. She was already here, so she might as well do something. But right now, the canvas was the only thing on her that was blank. What should she draw?

The question repeated itself over and over again in her head, trying her best to run her brain gears to think of something. The blank of the canvas was slowly drawing her in, her world was slowly changing, seeing nothing but white.

Kairi suddenly spoke up. "Hey, it's alright," she said calmly, putting her hands on her shoulder. "Relax, you can do this, no one here to bother you,"

"You know Naminé," Selphie spoke up. "One thing I like to do as a painter when I don't know what to paint, I always ask myself, Why am I here? It can be anything, what was the reason that brought here? And that reason, what was the first thing that came into my mind?"

Why am I here? She closed her eyes, asking herself that question. And when she did, the first thing that came into her head was Roxas. She was here because of the deal they made, and when did she first met the guy? It was at the park, surrounded by trees with a beautiful…..

She shot her eyes open, a smile making it's way onto her face. Selphie crossed her arms. "I know that look, looks like she knows what to paint,"

Kairi clasped her hands together. "Amazing!"

Picking the brush and one of the paint bottles up, Naminé quickly went to work.

Roxas grunted as he felt the force of Axel's strike through the practice Struggle Bat. He may have confidence in his speed but Axel's build clearly proved to be effective in his strength.

"What's wrong buddy?" the redhead taunted. "Too much for ya?"

Roxas grinned. "In your dreams," he quickly let go and jumped back all of sudden, causing Axel to almost topple over. He managed to quickly regain his balance but unfortunately was too late to avoid Roxas' incoming stab. The tip of his bat made contact with Axel's forehead.

"My win," he said as he stood back up.

"Damn it!" Axel slapped the floor in frustration. "Rematch!" he demanded. But Roxas was already walking away.

He waved his hand at him. "Later, I need a water break," he said as he walked over to the benches of the school's gym where most of the sports competition takes place. He grabbed a water bottle and a towel as he wiped his sweat away, taking a big chug of water whole throwing another towel towards Axel who also decided on a water break.

"It's definitely been awhile since I'm joined a Struggle Club," he stated as he watched the other students of the club having their own practice matches.

Axel took a sip of his water. "I told you, you're going to love this club, it's much more better plus it even has Struggle Bats that aren't too worn down and will snap after one small swing!"

Roxas laughed. "Well, that's definitely better than the club back at Twilight High," He took another swig of water.

"So how goes your art lessons with Naminé?" Axel asked, catching Roxas off guard. The latter was so surprised that he practically choked on his water, a bit of hit coming out from his nose as well. "Woah, calm down there buddy,"

"How…How did you know about that?" he spoke while he wiped his mouth.

"Roxas my man, we've been best friends for ages, you're an idiot if you think you can hide anything from me, got it memorized?" he said as he did his signature pose, tapping his index finger at his forehead. Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Well, that and, I may or may not have seen you guys at the park the other day, with Naminé trying to help you with colour shading,"

His face turned bright red. "Hold up you were there and you didn't say anything?"

Axel nodded. "It was fun seeing how frustrated Naminé can get, plus, where's the fun in third wheeling your date," he winked his eyebrows.

"It's not a date," Roxas said firmly, "We're just doing favors for each other," He smacked himself mentally, realizing what he just said.

"Ahh I see so you're friends with-"

"Do not. Even go there," Roxas narrowed his eyes as Axel laughed, raising his arms in defense. "All right all right I won't, but do enlighten me, why do you suddenly want to learn art from someone you barely know?"

His body stopped. He didn't even look at Axel in the eye as he processed his words. His lips trembled a bit, struggling to put out an answer, something which Axel definitely took note off. He squeezed his water bottle harder.

"Well, it's just…you know, she's such a great artist," he blurted. "I mean, who wouldn't want to learn from her?" He quickly stood up, grabbing his bat. "Well, breaks over, time for round 2!" he declared as he walked over to the mat. Axel narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, and then let out a big sigh, grabbing his bat, he stood up.

"Alright, but loser pays for the next time we get Sea Salt Ice Cream,"

Roxas aimed his bat him. "Bring it,"

Time passed by as Naminé continued her painting. A little yellow there, more red on the side, and little touches of orange. She liked this feeling. Nothing else in her head, just her, her mind, and all her focus on the canvas.

She darted her eyes all around the canvas, trying to see if there's anywhere else part of the canvas that needs some touching up to do. And most of the time, she wasn't even thinking much, she mostly went with the flow, seeing which color her hand touches, how thick or thin the stroke should be, it's how she paints.

After awhile, she stood up, taking a few steps back to have a better look at her own work. Tilting her head at different angles, trying to have different perspectives. Naminé knew that there was no such thing as a perfect artwork, but even the flaws of it can contribute to it's beauty. At least, that's how she would like to think it.

"Hey are you done?" she heard Kairi walking up to her. Panic suddenly filled Naminé as a million possibilities ran through her head.

What if they don't like it? Oh no I was right, this was such a bad idea. I'm a terrible artist, I need to cover up this fast-

"Woah," she heard Kairi gasped. She turned around and saw her mouth dropped, her fear coming to life. "Oh my god…"

This is the end. She could feel the tears slowly coming out. "This is so beautiful!" she exclaimed.

What.

"Guys! Guys!" she quickly called out. "You have to see this!" she called, beckoning Yuffie and Selphie to stop what they were doing.

"Oh is it done?" Yuffie quickly went over and gasped as well. "Woah…"

"Naminé this looks amazing!" Selphie praised.

All four girls were standing in front of Naminé's painting, a painting which depicted a golden, shining sun who's sphere was drawn around the top half of the page but it's rays shining, extending throughout the page.

They couldn't help but admire the amazing combination of colours that Naminé used, and how well she blended them in, whether if it was done using her brush or her fingers, but it was as if their eyes were super glued to the canvas, they couldn't take them off of it.

"Well," Kairi stated. "Roxas wasn't kidding when he said you're amazing at art. But I think amazing is just an understatement,"

Naminé kept fidgeting with her fingers, tucking her face away since it was so red from embarrassment. She quickly mouthed the words "Thank you" to them. She watched as they continued to examine the painting.

The more she heard from them, a feeling began to grow inside her. A good feeling. It was something like, she was definitely glad she did the painting, but hearing so many good comments about. It was adding to it, in terms she could not describe.

"Girl, now I really can say you have to join us," Selphie beamed as she grabbed her hands.

"I second that!" Yuffie chimed in. "You really have skill, we could really use someone like you,"

"So?" Kairi began, "What do you say Naminé? Wanna join us?"

Naminé's lips trembled, thinking about the open invitation. But deep inside, she already knew she didn't have to think much. The feeling of elation she felt when she could paint and work on her art in peace, with so much support from everyone else here.

It was something she never felt before.

That night, the door to Roxas' room opened and in came said boy as he continued drying his hair. Throwing the towel in a laundry basket, he sat on his chair and reclined a bit.

"Ahhh…." He let a calm breath as he rubbed his right shoulder. "Man, it really has been too long since I properly played Struggle," he looked up, letting his mind flow. And for some reason, Axel's words wandered back into his head.

"Why do I want to do it huh?"

He sat back up straight and looked at his desk. At the corner of it, stood a photo frame with a small photo in it. In the photo, was a small blonde boy who stared at the camera with a dazed expression, sitting in the lap of a beautiful blonde woman who was laughing, hugging the boy with so much love.

His eyes stayed on he woman for a few more moments before he heard his phone going off. He checked his Chats to see a message from Naminé.

I did it!

I joined the Art Club

They were very fun to be with

He smiled a bit as he began tapping away on his phone.

Hey that's amazing!

Now you can learn more from them and you can teach me

That way I can still stay in the Struggle Club without being in the Art Club

He ended his message with a sticker of a snickering emoji. Which was immediately replied with a sticker of a middle finger.

"Yikes," he said

I hear my mom calling me, I think it's time for dinner.

I'm going to head off first, we're still meeting at the park tomorrow for your lesson?

Definitely, see you tomorrow

Just as he send that message, another notification popped up from the top of his screen.

"Huh? From Kairi?"

He tapped the notification and saw that she sent a picture.

Newest member of the art club

She sent, accompanied with a emoji of a face winking. The picture was a selfie of all four of them, with Kairi holding the phone with a peace sign and Yuffie and Selphie hugging a surprised Naminé close together.

A smile grew on his face.