Me: Hi, welcome to my second ever fan fic… I hope you all like it. I tried my best.

Riku: Yes, she worked very hard.

Me: See?

Riku: Can I go now? I said what you told me to…

Me: … --

Riku: Look, just give me my twenty bucks and I'll leave… Uh, hello?

Me: Grrr….

Riku: What the heck?

Me: You gave it away…

Riku: Wha? Oh! Oops… Well sorry about that… My bad, he he. So can I still have my twenty bucks?

Me: No.

Riku: (runs off crying)

Namine: (looks at me) I told you not to pay Riku to say that you'd worked hard.

Me: Bleah…

Disclaimer: I own nothing (no duh!). It's call fanfiction for a reason. Note the "fan"

"What did you say?"

Five pairs of eyes turned to stare at the silver haired boy. Riku's green eyes blinked back at theirs through the tears that were welling up in them; no matter how hard he tried to subdue them.

"I'm… I'm moving…"

Riku lowered his head and allowed the stream of tears to pour out of his emerald eyes. The five sets of eyes that had been transfixed on him too began to well up with the salty water.

"Can't… Can't you ask your parents to change their minds?" Sora squeaked out; he usually didn't act like this in front of his friend.

"No… I already tried but… They said we're going to move anyway…" Riku choked out through his unremitting onslaught of sobs.

"Oh, Riku," whispered Kairi with that the group of six friends pulled together in a tight and fierce group hug; none of them caring that their clothing was getting stained by the tears of their fellows.

After several hours of hugging and crying Riku's parents came and dragged him into the car. Riku sat in the back seat with his older brother, Otaku, looking lost and unsure of what was going on.

Before the car pulled away Sora pushed his head through the half-opened window and said, "Bye, Riku."

Riku nodded and Sora gave him a watery smile before he pulled his chestnut haired head out the window. The car pulled away; taking the Ishida family with it.

The group of, now, five stood there as if at a lost for what to do.

Back in the car Riku was looking out the window, watching the city he'd grown up in flash before his eyes. His eyelids closed for a moment as he thought back on Sora's last words.

Riku opened his eyes again and said, "Bye."

"Hm? What?" Otaku turned to face his younger brother.

"Oh, nothing," said Riku looking down at his seat.

"Hey," said Otaku putting a comforting hand on Riku's small shoulder, "it'll be okay. Don't worry about it, man, you'll see. Moving's not that bad."

Riku looked up at his brother for a moment before responding.

"Yeah…"

It was lunch time at Odaiba School and Kairi, Selphie, Wakka, Sora and Tidus were eating lunch with their two friends Roxas and Namine.

Back in Elementary School the first five of the group had been what you'd call popular. Back then popularity was based only on your personality and few were judged based on their looks. But once the gang had entered junior high all that changed. The group had gone from being popular to "social-misfits" so fast you could have gone that long without blinking.

Then one day Namine and Roxas had a fight with their friends the "cool kids" in the middle of lunch. They were kicked out of that cliché needless to say. For a while the two blondes stood in the middle of the lunch room in a daze. Now that none of the other lesser people had to pretend to like them anymore and the likeable people were acquit of them, where would they sit?

Sora was the one with that answer. With his usual friendly smile he'd brought them over to his friends' table and soon the five became a seven. The "Lucky Seven", as they liked to call it.

Today the group was sitting at their table talking about the Winter Dance which would be coming up soon. Sora was nervous, back in elementary school he'd been tall for his age (back then no one had enough muscle to notice) but shortly after the beginning of junior high he'd just stopped growing. And pretty soon most of the girls in the grade had even passed him up. It didn't help, that in seventh grade Sora discovered he needed heavy prescription glasses. Now the thick rimmed devices perched on his nose magnified his eyes greatly so that he looked like his face had two large blue light bulbs on it.

Among the rest of the group Tidus had gotten braces and Wakka… Well most of the girls just thought Wakka was too weird. Kairi and Selphie were what you'd call average but considering who they hung out with it would be impossible for her to get a date. And after the incident in the lunch room Roxas and Namine would have no luck either.

"Well," said Wakka, "Sora, you and Kairi could go together."

Sora and Kairi's faces reddened and they both started stuttering.

"Oh come on," said Selphie, "you guys would be so cute together!"

Namine and Tidus nodded their heads fervently in the background making them all both resemble a duo of bobble heads.

Sora fell silent; obviously lost in his own brain. Then quite suddenly he banged his fists on the table and shouted:

"Oh My God! Now I remember!" The entire cafeteria turned to stare at Sora; whose face reddened slightly as he slowly sat back down. Once the lunch rooms attention was turned away six sets of eyes rounded on Sora.

"Dude, what the frick is wrong with you?" muttered Tidus.

"I just remembered something really important that my mom told me this morning…"

"Alright, which is?" Kairi prompted impatiently.

"Ummm… I don't remember," admitted Sora and several hands flew to their owners' foreheads in exasperation.

"Alright," said Roxas breathing heavily, "let's all just give Sora a moment to think and maybe… just maybe it'll come back to him."

Everybody nodded and the table fell silent. Sora's face remained blank for a moment, and then he looked pained, and then his face contorted and scrunched up in concentration until finally realization dawned on him and his eyes grew wide with excitement.

"What?" asked Wakka.

"Well," said Sora savoring his moment of triumph, "my mom just told me this morning…"

"And?"

"C'mon, before you forget again."

"While we're young please."

Sora took a deep breath and said, "Riku's coming back!"

Everyone at the table fell silent once again.

"Who's Riku?" asked Namine at once.

"Oh," said Kairi, "that's right you guys never met him. Well Riku's our old friend from childhood. We've known him since forever. But then one day his family moved."

"Riku?" asked Roxas, "What was his last name?"

"Ishida," said Selphie.

Roxas's eyes widened, "You mean the little kid that used to always get picked on? The one with the weird grey hair? Oh my God. I totally forgot about that little runt."

"Yup that's about right," said Wakka nodding, "he was such a dork. Huge glasses, braces, cowlicks, short, scrawny… He was a walking bully magnet. We used to have to stick up for him a lot."

"He moved in fifth grade," said Tidus sadly.

"But now he's coming home," announced Sora and everyone's faces brightened.

"When?" asked Namine; she was looking forward to meeting him.

"Um, tomorrow…"

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah… his mom only called my mom just last night," said Sora grinning sheepishly.

"I wonder what he'll be like now…" said Tidus voicing everyone's thoughts aloud.

"I bet he's gay," said Wakka grinning evilly.

"I bet you're right," said Tidus.

"Wonder if he's gotten rid of those God-awful braces yet…" muttered Kairi, "Or if he finally got fed up and dyed his hair a normal colour (ah ha British spelling)."

"You're all probably right," said Sora, "but I guess we won't know until tomorrow!"

The next day the group of seven met out side the library. It was a Saturday; a "perfect day for a welcome back party" as Kairi put it. Sora had gotten Riku's new address from his mother and together the group set out in search of Riku's new home.

It took them several hours (due to an "incident" Sora had with a very aggravated squirrel) but eventually they found the house. It was a two story house with stone covering the bottom five feet of the outer walls. On the wooden porch there was a swinging bench that swayed merrily in the wind.

A moving truck was parked outside and men in uniforms were hastily unpacking boxes. Four of the movers were struggling to carry a piano in.

"Piano?" questioned Roxas eyeing the heavy instrument.

"Yup," said Sora, "Riku was always a great piano player."

"Huh…"

When they reached the doorway they saw a very frantic looking Mrs. Ishida standing in the center of all the chaos.

"Oh Sora, Kairi!" she cried upon spotting the group, "Wakka, Tidus, Selphie!" though she was not a very large woman she somehow managed to get her arms around all seven teens squeezing them so hard they felt their ribs would crack. After being introduced to Namine and Roxas she nodded and said:

"Riku's currently testing out the shower… or at least that's how he put it… but you can go wait in his room. Second floor on your right."

The group headed upstairs and yes when they passed the bathroom they could hear running water inside.

When Sora stepped into Riku's room he was sure it was the wrong one.

The walls were navy blue and slanted so that the room's ceiling formed a triangle like shelter.

In one of the opened boxes they could see posters of various rock groups and movies.

"Um, is this the right room?" asked Wakka holding up one of the posters and staring at the picture on it with distaste.

"No it's not."

Everyone turned to look at Kairi who was stooped over one of the suit cases. Her back was turned to them.

"Why? What's in the suit case?" asked Tidus curiously. Everyone walked over to look.

"These can't be Riku's," said Wakka eyeing the clothing. All of it was black and the tee shirts were all sporting catchy disses, pictures or bands and movies. There were also many belts and many gloves.

"Take a look at this," said Selphie from across the room; she was inspecting the three pairs of shoes resting by the door, "they're huge."

"No way this is Riku's room," said Tidus staring at the walls, "I mean look at these pants," He unfolded a pair to show the others how long they were.

"They're bigger than mine," said Wakka in awe.

"Um, guys?" Tidus was looking at Riku's bookshelf which contained the complete series of Make out Paradise (Go Kakashi!)

"Well," said Selphie, "at least he's been keeping up with his reading…"

"They can't be Riku's, there's no way he grew that much. Or that he'd like any of this stuff," added Sora huffily.

"Yeah," said Kairi, "Mrs. Ishida must have shown us the wrong room. This has to be Otaku's."

"Actually," came a very masculine sounding voice from the doorway, "Otaku is at college. This is my room."