Disclaimer: All characters owned by Square Enix.
Not too sure of how much I like this chapter. The next chapter won't be a pt II to this, the 'Kids' chapters will be randomly placed. It just gives a bit of backstory I guess.
Enjoy!
Chapter 20 – Kids pt I
5th Grade.
"Good morning class," The teacher stood in front of her fifth grade class, smiling. "Today I have a surprise for you." She motioned over to the door. "Come here, don't be shy!"
The class peered their eyes over to the door, anxious to see who was there. The boy hesitatingly took another step inside the class room, and then stood beside the teacher. Sora looked up at the new student for a minute or so, and then he went back down to his coloring.
A pouty frown fell upon the new boys face, his blue eyes timid. "Introduce yourself kiddo." The teacher urged with a grin.
"I'm Roxas," The blonde revealed. "Roxas Strife!"
"Hello Roxas!" The class chimed, some more so than the others.
"He's weird." The blonde next to Sora whispered to him.
"Beat," Sora laughed. "You're weird too!"
The blonde crossed his arms and blushed, leaning on the back legs of his chair.
The teacher bent down to Roxas' height and pointed over to an empty seat. "You can sit next to Shiki!" She told him. The auburn girl waved to the blonde with a bright smile upon her face. Roxas went over to the chair sitting down, the girl trying to begin a conversation with him.
"Hi Roxas," She said. "Where did you move here from?"
Roxas let out a huff of air, looking over at her with a glare. "I don't want to be your friend. It's better if you leave me alone."
"Rude!" Shiki pursed her lips angrily.
"Yo, Sora," Beat began. "Should we be friends with him? Maybe you could fix his bad attitude!"
The brunette once again looked up from his drawing and over to the new student. He licked his lips. "He looks like the upper classman," Sora looked back at Beat. "Cloud, doesn't he?!"
Beat looked at the blonde intently, trying to take in all his features. He jumped when Roxas had noticed him staring, giving him a glare with his azure orbs. "Yeah, but he gives me the creeps though!"
Sora laughed, going back to his coloring.
For the rest of the school day, the class worked on multiplication and integers as well as reading skills and some history. At the end of the day, Sora put on his backpack and stood by the entrance of the school with Beat.
"I'll see you later, Sora!" Beat waved goodbye, heading down the sidewalk.
"Bye, Beat!" Sora waved back, smiling. He crossed the street, heading on his way home.
The brunettes walk home was always on his own, but this time he heard footsteps trailing behind his path. He turned around to see who it was. 'Roxas lives this way too?' He thought, looking at the blonde with his mouth partially agape.
Roxas stopped walking, staring back at the brunette boy who was looking at him.
'Should I say hi or should I…' Sora gasped, his eyes widening.
Roxas raised an eyebrow, his hands in his pockets. He saw a white flurry of hair walked past him. It belonged to a boy who was taller than he and Sora, with lighter skin and a lost feeling aura. The blonde noticed Sora's eyes following the other boy intently.
Sora looked at the boy's face carefully. Making sure it was who he thought it was. 'Riku…' He noticed he had a band aid placed on his lower lip and jaw.
"Sora!" A car pulled up next to the side walk. "Sora!" The woman in it caught the brunette's attention. It was his mother. "Come on! We have to visit your aunt."
Sora swallowed, looking back to Riku who was now a distance away and then back at his mother. He opened the back seat of the car, getting inside.
"Wrong!" Riku's father crumpled up the piece of math paper that lay on the desk.
"I'm sorry father," Riku sympathized. "I don't understand it still."
"No excuses!" Yaag hit his son across the cheek, the smack echoing through the room. Riku's frowned, his long white hair shading over his eyes.
"Father," Loz, Riku's oldest brother, stood at the doorway to Riku's room. "Dinner is ready."
Yaag pulled the neck of his tie and stood. "When we're done make sure to teach your brother." He walked out the door. Loz grinned.
"Come on, Riku," Riku got down from his chair, rubbing his eyes. Loz knelt down to Riku's level. "You can't let dad hurt you."
"But I don't understand it," Riku pouted. "I'm not as good as you, Kadaj, and Yazoo. And that makes him mad…"
The elder boy sighed. "How do you like your new school?" He put a hand through Riku's snowy hair.
"It's alright," Riku replied uncertainly. "But the kids there make me scared and there's this girl named Selphie who kept trying to talk to me but it's hard to talk since I feel very distant to everyone. When I was walking home, there were these two boys who were walking the same way. One of them looked really grumpy and the other was -"
"Loz, Riku," They heard Yazoo yell. "Come downstairs already!"
Loz stood to full height, towering over Riku. He was already their dad's height at only sixteen, with maybe even pecks and arms bigger than Yaag's.
They made their way down to the dinner table, which was already set with food on all six plates and drinks beside them. Their mother and father sat on the opposite short ends of the table, Kadaj and Yazoo sitting across from each other on the longer side of the table with an empty seat next to them. Riku sat next to Kadaj, Loz took the only other seat left available.
After everyone took a couple bites into the food, Riku noticed his mother put her fork down. "Yaag, can I talk to you in the living room for a second." She stood, and as if choosing the answer 'yes' for him, she walked over to the living room.
"You can't keep hitting him, Yaag!" The boys heard their mother whisper angrily. "He's a little boy!"
"How do you think he'll learn then?!"
"Definitely not through abuse," Yeul retorted. "He's been through enough already! He's lost his memory goddammit." Riku dropped his fork to the table and quickly ran upstairs as he began to feel uncomfortable. Yazoo tried to hold back a maniacal laugh. "He hasn't even adjusted to other people yet other than us, and I'm sure that your abuse is having an impact on him too! He may be ten, but to his memory he's only been here for four years."
"I'm not easing up on him," Yaag said frustratingly. "We're done here." He walked back to the table. "Where is Riku?!"
"He went back up to his room." Kadaj said, stabbing a fork into the meat on his plate.
Yeul came to the table. "Can one of you tell him he can't go to school tomorrow? His face is too bruised."
Loz pushed his seat back from the table, deciding for himself to be the one to talk to Riku. He went into his room. "Riku, are you in here?" Loz called out. He heard the closet door squeak and saw Riku hugging his knees inside of it. "Riku…" Loz shook his head, walking over to his little brother.
"I'm different," Riku said. "Aren't I?"
"Not different. Just young, innocent, and confused."
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