"Yo, Sora," called Riku from his mother's kitchen. Sora was in the apartment living room cutting up pictures of blitzball heroes. Keepa, Larbeight, Linna, Nimrook, Vuroja, Ropp, Irga, and Kulukan were spread in a crescent on the white carpet around his knees. Right now he was working to keep from cutting away the finer points of Isken's hair. All of the glossy men and woman had been collected from magazines Riku's mother was throwing out. Riku couldn't give a shit about blitzball and neither could his family, so whenever they were having a "cleanup house" Sora would sneak over and cut through the paperwork. He always found flat little treasures amongst their sticky pages. On multiple occasions he snagged perfume sample papers for his mother. Many a time they had provided a perfect last minute birthday or anniversary present. Oh, look, he found another. Stuck right between Nedus and Wedge's blitzballs.

"Sora, you're going to get glue on my mom's carpet!" bellowed Riku, and Sora yelped and tipped the rubber cement to the side. Within an instant Riku was skidding across the carpet and mushing up all of Sora's paper blitzball team, making the boy wail. When Riku hoisted himself up, he was holding the rubber glue at arm's length and screwing on the cap. His teeth were gritted.

"I can't leave you with anything!" he growled. Then he slipped into his mother's office. He wasn't usually allowed in there. Sora was never allowed in there. But he watched from the hallway as Riku rummaged around the darkness within and reappeared on solid wood floor. Without the cement glue.

"Aw, Riku, you ruin everything," Sora scowled. Riku slapped him on the back of the head as he walked by. When he got to the kitchen counter, he swept a letter into his hands and held it up for Sora to see.

"Check it," he said.

Sora tried to see it from a far but could not. So he stood and trudged to Riku's side. When he tried picking the letter from Riku's hands, the boy swept it high in the air so that Sora had to stand on his tippy toes to get it. It made the boy livid. In anger Sora stormed for the kitchen table and sat down with his face on his fists. Riku stood leaned against the counter.

"Sora, it's a summer camp for heroes."

"That's ridiculous," snapped Sora. "You can't decide who a hero is. They just are."

"Well this place gives you fighting training and lets you see other worlds," returned Riku. As he said it, Sora jumped from the kitchen table and stared at him. In a single pounce he snagged the poster from Riku's arms and scurried with it back to the white carpet.

"Welcome to Olympus Coliseum Summer Program for Heroes! Achilles, Lightning, Actaeon, Cecil, Aeneas, Sephiroth, Bellerophin, Caius, Jason, Bartz, Meleager- you name it, we've trained it! Eighty places, eighty plus worlds, book your ticket today! Hosted annually by the partnership between Shinra Electric Power Company and The Land of Departure Keyblade Academy. Ticket Rates include price of: Lessons, Field Trips, Lodging, Transportation, Continental Breakfast, and Coupons for local diners."

"This sounds awesome, Riku!" beamed Sora. Before he could take a breath the paper was snatched from his arms again. When Riku plopped onto his mother's plastic covered couch with it, Sora leaned over his shoulder to look at the rates.

"How much does it cost?" he asked.

"Five rates," responded Riku. "Pirate, Pauper, Peasant, Plebian, and Princess. Pirate isn't open to children under eighteen. Pauper isn't open to children under fifteen."

"Well it's a good thing I'm one year away!" Sora piped up with a wink.

"I'm gonna pretend I'm eighteen," responded Riku. Sora nearly spit up his saliva.

"Riku, you can't do that!" he gasped. "You might be sleeping in a jail cell! The Princess Rate is only, like, fifty bucks!"

"What the hell, Sora, the rate is in drachmas not dollars!"

"How much is a drachma worth?" asked Sora. "Is it like a pound?"

"One drachma is eighty dollars!"

"WHAT?" Sora grabbed for the paper again, but was thwarted. Instead he slid over the couch cushions and onto the white carpet face first. As his torso slopped onto the faux wool behind him, he calculated on his fingers. Then he raised his head. "What's eighty times fifty?"

"Four thousand," responded Riku. Sora choked.

"FOUR THOUSAND," he screeched. Riku called for him to shush. But it was of little use. Sora gasped and sputtered like a fish out of water.

"How would I even get that money?" Sora wailed. Riku told him to calm down.

"Sora, relax, the Peasant Rate is only twenty three."

"How much is that?"

"Uh, about two thousand," Riku responded. Sora threw himself to the ground again.

"TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!"

Riku was getting fed up curbing Sora's enthusiasm. He leaned against the back of the couch with his head in his palms. Sora grew reasonable enough to ask what the Pauper rate was.

"Thirteen," responded Riku. "And don't even ask about the Pirate because you'd never pass off for eighteen. You barely pass off for your own age."

"I am so mature for fourteen!" Sora gasped. Riku only had to look down at the cherry red pumpkin shorted romper to prove differently. Sora fiddled with the zipper that extended from his neck to his belly button, rearranged his bright blue belt, and fixed the sweater jacket that fit him best when he was ten with dignity. The swivel of his clown shoed feet as he stood threatened to head for the door.

"Sora," groaned Riku. "You're being an idiot. You know you'd never pass for eighteen."

"Neither would you," Sora responded. "Nobody else I know wears their sister's belt bracelets around their ankles!"

"Their pant leg cuff clips for my chaps, Sora!" Riku snapped.

"Who wears chaps?" responded Sora. Riku was at a loss of words. In anger he threw the poster to the ground and left for the kitchen.

"Look, insult my style all you want, Sora, but you know as well as I do that it's true," he muttered. While he hunted around the freezer Sora gathered his blitzball cutouts and searched beneath the coffee table for his scrapbook.

"Where's my Elmer's, Riku?" he asked. Riku said he didn't know what he was talking about. He was too busy slipping out some freezer bagged red-sauced chicken wings and setting the oven. Made Sora's stomach grumble. With a scowl, he corrected that he wanted his cement glue, and that his mother had bought it for him for his last year of middle school. Along with the scrapbook.

"I hid it, Sora," Riku called. "I don't want you using it in my house."

"My mom gave that to me, Riku!" Sora barked.

"I'll return it when you leave," responded Riku. "I'm not letting you use it in here."

"I won't!" snapped Sora in reply. Riku ignored him. After setting the oven, he sat at the kitchen counter and stared at Sora with cool, distant eyes.

"How about we do this, Sora?" he whispered. Sora looked at him with raised eyebrows. Riku held up the poster.

"I don't even know how this damn paper made its way to Destiny Islands. Tidus showed it to me, and he got it from some friend who stayed at their house for the Jecht Memorial Cup last week. Nothing ever comes here."

"So?" asked Sora. Riku leaned towards him with glimmering eyes.

"So," he whispered, "This is our chance to finally get out of here! To go on an adventure!"

"How do we get the money for the ship?" croaked Sora through coming tears. It was easy for Riku to make him emotional. It was the way he said things. Like the choices he made were ultimatums.

"We do odd jobs after school to save up," whispered Riku in return. "We go to the docks, we ask Kairi if we can work for her dad, I don't know. If that doesn't work, we build a raft and follow the ship."

"Shit," whispered Sora in wonder. "That sounds fantastic."

"But we cannot tell Kairi," Riku added. Sora cocked his head to the side and asked why not. Riku rolled his eyes.

"Because obviously, she'll want to come."

"Why can't she come?" asked Sora. Riku looked at him with a flat expression. "You want to have to look after her the whole time?"

"No."

"Exactly. You'll be enough of a responsibility. I don't want to add another." With that, Riku winked and patted Sora on the shoulder. Behind the boys, the chicken wings beeped. As Sora got out plates Riku slipped the wings from the oven. Then, once everything was on the table and the oven turned off, they sat down and dug in. After taking a bite of one well-sauced chicken wing and chewing, Sora drummed the bitten end against his chin.

"Say, Riku," he mumbled. "This is a little scary, isn't it?"

"It isn't scary at all," responded Riku. "Tidus's dad did it. My sister did it. And like she says, she didn't have a choice. The chance called and she took it."

"How do you know she said that?" asked Sora. Riku shrugged and said that she sent letters. When Sora demanded to see physical proof, Riku washed his hands and signaled for Sora to follow him. Both moved from the kitchen tile into the wooden floor hallway. Riku's mother's office was on the end of the hall. There were two doors on each side. On the left, his mother's and his sister's. On the right, his, and the bathroom. Riku headed into his own and switched on his light. Then he reached underneath his bed, brought out a tin cookie can, and popped it open. It was full of knick-knacks, like letters and souvenirs. Riku rummaged around until he found a sky blue envelope with a gold sticker sealing its front. Sora stared at the paper in awe. He wanted to touch it. But when he reached out Riku slapped his hand and opened it himself. Then he took out the letter. It was written in a bad scrawl. Someone hadn't done well in handwriting. Sora gave a silent fist pump in the air. When Riku caught him he asked what Sora was doing.

"Nothing," Sora mumbled in return. He leaned closer to Riku's shoulder and bit his lip as his friend began reading the letter.

"Dear Riku," Riku began. "I apologize for leaving so suddenly. This was something that I needed to do. I am okay. I am even having fun. I am working hard. I am happy. Has mom gotten her letter? I sent both at the same time. I did not mean to leave you behind. The chance came and I took it. I don't know when I would have gotten another chance. But I will come home as soon as I can to see how you are doing. Behave for me, and keep practicing your sword fighting! Don't forget what I taught you. See ya. Sice."

Riku dropped the letter into Sora's lap with satisfaction. When Sora reached to pick it up, Riku snapped for him to be gentle with it. Sora read through the whole letter with his breath held. Then he blew it back to Riku, who folded it back up and returned it to the cookie tin with care.

"Told ya," he muttered. As he shoved the cookie tin back beneath the bed, Sora sighed in wonderment. "It's just great, isn't it?" he sighed. "Great that moments like this come."

"Yeah, Sora, but we're not kids anymore," muttered Riku. "To take the moment we've got to catch it first. Start deciding what you want to bring. And start figuring out how we're going to get that money."

With starry eyes Sora responded that he would dedicate his life to preparing. He sat in silence for a long while thinking about it. About what they would do once they got to "Olympus Coliseum"- wherever that was. He would have to practice his sword fighting.

"And remember, this is between us," Riku muttered. Sora nodded. But he was too busy imagining shooting a blitzball with Linna and Nimrook. There was a crackling sound beside him. When he turned to the side, he noticed Riku slipping a big bag of chips from beneath his sheets.

"My mom doesn't know about these," he muttered. He dug in and pulled out the smallest crisp he could find. Ate it in one bite. Then he gave the bag to Sora and demanded that he eat with it under his chin. He didn't want the crumbs getting on the floor. When Sora pulled out the biggest chip he could find, Riku slapped his hand and made him get a smaller one so he could eat in one bite.

"I'b ekfided," mushed Sora. Riku nodded and closed his eyes. Pretty soon Sora found himself doing the same.