Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts (II), Roxas, Kairi, Aerith, etc.

Author's Note: Yay!! This is a new story I came up with a while ago and have decided to start writing because of pure enjoyment of life. (A.k.a., pure enjoyment of the end of exams and the fast approaching summer vacation, along with Victoria's Day, Father's Day, my class trip to Montreal, my family trip to Greece, my friend and I going to Debate Camp in Upper Canada, possible tennis camp, and etc.) So...decided I'd test it out on you guys.

Warning: A incredibly kind, strict teacher ahead. (I don't get it myself, personally...)

Quick Author Babble: SuMmEr VaCaTiOn!! WhOo!!

Born To Be Wild

Chapter 1: The List of Dares

The six-year-old boy was shoved by his mother into Paopu Elementary School. He was unhappy. He'd been perfectly fine in kindergarten with his friends, and then he had to move up a grade and leave them to their own schools. He missed them already. He imagined them playing tag without him and felt sickeningly jealous.

"Why here?" he whined to his mother, clinging onto her shorts.

He despised how short he was. If he'd had a choice about his height, he would've grown to be twelve-feet-tall and threatened to stomp on her if she didn't send him to the schools his friends were all going to instead of sending him to a school no one was going to. But he was only at the height to cling onto her shorts and whine.

"Because it's a good school, Roxas," his mother replied very slowly, as if he wouldn't understand if she went any faster. "And you are a smart boy."

"Other schools are good too," Roxas pouted.

He was lying because he didn't understand the whole concept of "good and bad schools", but who cared? Maybe if he pretended well enough, his mother would agree and send him back to his friends.

"Not as good as this one." His mother didn't fall for it.

Roxas hated when his mother saw through his lies...which was pretty much always. One day he was going to lie his head off and she wouldn't even be able to tell it was totally false. That was the power Roxas secretly wished for.

Roxas was led to a classroom by his mother. The door was open. Roxas hated open doors. They gave away everything.

A tall, slender woman with long, light brown hair tied in a braid that ran steadily down her back and bright green eyes that looked sweet and understanding got up from her desk and walked over to them. She wore a comforting shade of pink on her dress and had a kind face and a gentle smile. She was almost too good to be true.

This made Roxas not trust her even more. He half-hid himself behind his mother. He felt her hand on his head.

"I'm Wilhelmina Hernandez and this is my son, Roxas," Roxas's mother introduced, holding her hand.

The woman smiled even brighter and shook her hand, then turned to Roxas.

"Hello there, Roxas," she said, speaking much faster than his mother, but much softer. "I'm Miss Gainsborough. Welcome to first grade."

Roxas felt himself being comforted by her. He didn't want to be comforted. He wanted to hate Miss Gainsborough. He wanted to hate everyone who ever existed in this school.

He told himself that she was a teacher—a very deceiving teacher. Just because she smiled and looked pretty and talked to him like he was a grown-up did not make her nice or anything. No teacher was nice.

"I don't want to be here," he snapped at her to clarify. "I don't care who you are. I want to be with my friends."

He turned to his mother.

"Take me home," he whined.

"Roxas!" cried his mother, looking more stricken than angry. She looked back up at Miss Gainsborough. "I am so sorry. I've never heard him talk this way."

"No, it's all right," Miss Gainsborough replied cheerfully. "He's not the first one."

She knelt back down and looked at Roxas.

"You may feel that way now, Roxas, but I'm sure after you get to know everybody you will make new friends. Good friends. Best friends. You'll have fun here. I promise. Cross my heart."

She actually did the action to "crossing her heart." Roxas felt confused—torn, almost. He tried to look at it fairly. She had promised.

He released his mother's shorts, only to find Miss Gainsborough taking his hand, ready to lead him into the classroom.

"Bye, sweetie," she said, kissing him on the cheek, deciding all was forgiven for his little fit. "Love you."

And she was gone.

Roxas found himself squeezing Miss Gainsborough's hand. It felt like he was in kindergarten again. How embarrassing.

He was led into the classroom only to find thirty pairs of eyes staring at him. He felt decidedly uncomfortable. It was complete silence in there. Everyone was looking up to see the new arrival.

"Class, this is Roxas Hernandez," Miss Gainsborough introduced.

The classroom echoed with "Hi, Roxas." Roxas kept a steady gaze on the ground.

"Hi," he managed to croak.

"Roxas, you can take the seat beside Kairi there," Miss Gainsborough explained, and she pointed.

Roxas followed her finger to an empty desk beside a red-haired girl he assumed was Kairi. She was looking at him as if he was something peculiar, like a multi-coloured apple. Roxas felt insulted. Back in his old school, he would've never sat beside a girl, and his teacher would've never ordered him to.

"Not a girl!" he cried. "Girls are stupid!"

Girls stuck their tongues out at him as boys burst into fits of laughter. Kairi looked at him, hurt in her violet eyes.

"Now, Roxas..." Miss Gainsborough didn't sound particularly mad or stern, but a little bit desperate. "Don't say such things. How would you feel if I called you stupid? Now Kairi's a very nice girl. I'm sure you two will get along wonderfully."

Roxas nodded finally, but only for Miss Gainsborough's sake. He couldn't care less if Kairi died right there.

He collapsed into the chair in front of the small, brown desk that was now his, determined to not look at Kairi. He imagined her turning red in the face, ready to strangle him, or worse, bursting into tears. Roxas wasn't very good with crying people.

Miss Gainsborough started off with creative writing. She instructed everyone to ask her if they needed help with spelling or grammar and write about their summer vacation, and sat back down on her desk.

Roxas assumed it was a time to talk, because an eruption of chatter filled the room. He trying to blank them out because he had no one he particularly wanted to talk to.

My summer was fun becus...becase..bekuse...

"How do you spell 'because'?" he muttered angrily to himself.

"B-E-C-A-U-S-E," said a voice behind him.

He turned to face the red-haired girl who had look at him sadly when he'd stated very loudly that girls were stupid. He scrunched up his face, irritated.

"I didn't ask for help," he snapped.

"Yes, you did," Kairi stated matter-of-factly. "You said, 'How do you spell because?' and I answered you."

"Well, I didn't ask you for help," Roxas retorted.

"Then who were you asking?"

"Myself."

"You're weird."

Roxas felt his face heat up.

"At least I'm not stupid!" he yelled.

"Why are you so mean?!" Kairi screeched back.

"What's happening over here?"

Miss Gainsborough's voice broke up the yelling competition. They looked up at her. This time, she did look mad.

"I can't tolerate such rudeness in my classroom." Her voice was both quiet and scary.

The whole room was immediately silenced.

"He started it!" Kairi cried, pointing an accusing finger at Roxas.

"I did not!" Roxas snapped. "You called me weird!"

"You called me stupid!"

"Well, you..."

"Enough. I'm sorry, you two, but you're going to have to stay in for recess until you can talk to each other in a calm manner. Now please get back to work. No more talking."

Roxas and Kairi gave each other a final glare before turning back to their pieces of paper. Grudgingly, Roxas wrote "because" Kairi's way on his paper.

xXx

The bell rang. Barely heard over the bell was Miss Gainsborough, calling up over the roar of happiness from the kids.

"Recess! Everyone get your sweaters on and let's head outside!"

A wave of kids raced to the back where they grabbed their sweaters on hooks and raced to the door in a single file line.

"You can head outside without me," Miss Gainsborough instructed the children. "Selphie, you lead."

A chestnut-haired girl with bright, lime green eyes at the front of the line cheered happily and marched through the hall with a sense of pride. As soon as the line had completely disappeared, Miss Gainsborough looked at Roxas and Kairi, who were still sitting obediently at their desks.

"Now, I'm going to go outside to leave you two to talk it out," Miss Gainsborough explained. "If I come back and you two are still yelling at each other, I will tell your parents when they come to pick you up. Understand?"

Roxas gave a stiff nod. From the corner of his eye he could tell Kairi was doing the same.

"Good. I'll be back in an hour."

And with that, she promptly left the room. After a few seconds of silence, Kairi turned to Roxas.

"Great job, you dummy!" she snapped. "Thanks to you, I'm in trouble! I can't believe I'm missing recess!"

"Hey, it's not like you're guilt-free or anything," Roxas retorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kairi looked at him, red glinting in her eyes.

"It means you had to scream so loudly that Miss Gainsborough could hear. If you hadn't, we wouldn't be here."

"It's not like you were any quiet angel either!"

"That doesn't mean you have to make it so loud my ears nearly explode!"

"Oh, boo hoo, poor Roxas," Kairi said mockingly, sticking out her lip and rubbing her eyes as if she was crying. "Guess what? Nobody cares!"

Roxas was frustrated with this girl. Why couldn't he have sat beside a boy, for Pete's sake? Why couldn't Miss Gainsborough just listen to him?

With a swift move of his arm, he slapped her arm as hard as he could.

"Ow!" Kairi wailed, covering the red spot on her arm with her hand.

She seemed to look at the table for a long time before glaring at him. Tears were rapidly filling her eyes.

"You hit me!" she cried.

Roxas fell silent as Kairi leaned her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands, shaking slightly.

"I..." he paused, feeling guilty yet also defiant. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have done it!"

Kairi stopped shaking and didn't speak for a long time.

"Jerk."

She didn't sound mad, just playful. She looked up again and Roxas was relieved that the tears had gone and been replaced with a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, just to get the point through that he really was sorry.

"It's okay."

xXx

"Hey, Kairi!"

Roxas raced up to the sixteen-year-old, red-haired girl sitting on the bench in the park, reading some book that was bright pink with sparkles - an obvious girl book. She didn't even respond.

"Hey! Kairi! Kairi Thomas!"

Finally the girl looked up and gave a dazzling smile.

"Hi, Roxas."

He sat down and compared their heights. He was taller than her. Not an extreme amount taller, but taller nonetheless.

Roxas focused on the book Kairi once again relaxed her gaze on and made a face.

"A girl book," he said, the words slipping off his tongue in a skeptical way.

"A good girl book," Kairi corrected, her face still half-hidden by the pages.

"No, a stupid girl book," Roxas remarked, and with that he grabbed the book from her hands and dropped it on the grass.

"Roxas!" Kairi snapped, slapping him on the wrist. "Books aren't free, you know!"

"It's not damaged. You just weren't paying attention to me."

A pause.

"And it's also too stupid to be in my sight."

Another slap across the wrist. Roxas laughed. He didn't care. It was worth it. He got so many slaps from Kairi that half his wrist was turning red.

"So, what is it that's so important that you beat up my book?" Kairi asked.

Roxas looked around and gestured for Kairi to lean in close. He leaned in close to her ear. He enjoyed doing this because Kairi always shivered and he enjoyed tormenting her to no extent.

"I'm going to do everything I possibly can this year," he whispered.

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

A mischievous smile crept onto his face.

"Like, dare everything," he explained.

"Dare everything?"

A look of worry came over Kairi's face and she immediately backed away.

"No, Roxas."

"What? Why not?"

"I know you too well. It'll get out of hand. You know it will."

Roxas pinched Kairi's cheek teasingly and pulled it like his great Aunt Clara.

"Aww...how adorable! Little Kairi's worried!" he cooed.

He dropped his hand. Kairi glared at him.

"I'm serious, Roxas! I know you and your antics! I just don't want you to get hurt..."

Her voice faded, as did her gaze. Roxas watched as Kairi's line of sight wandered downwards to her clasped together hands.

"Listen, Kairi," Roxas said firmly. "Are we friends or not?"

"Yeah..." Kairi mumbled, her eyes still on her nail-polished fingers.

"You know that's not the right answer," Roxas sighed, poking her.

"There's a right answer?" Kairi replied snidely.

Roxas kept incessantly poking her—in the stomach, the shoulder, the neck. Kairi kept cringing. He got up and started jabbing the back of her head.

"I'm going to keep being annoying if you don't answer me..." he said in a sing-song voice. "Are we friends or not?"

Roxas jabbed Kairi in the neck once more. Finally she let out a defeated sigh.

"Best friends," she remarked.

"Exactly," Roxas stated triumphantly, leaping back onto the bench beside Kairi. "And for you to not trust me after a decade of friendship...Shame, Kairi!"

He threw her the wide-eyed, puppy dog look. She quickly looked away, but Roxas could tell she was smiling. He pulled her mouth with her fingers to make a gargantuan smile.

"Better."

"Roxas!"

Kairi pulled away, giggling. Roxas tickled her neck to make her fall off the bench laughing.

"Ow," she whined after she got back up, still laughing.

And suddenly, a hiccup escaped her lips. Then another. And another. Roxas grabbed the bench to stay balanced while laughing.

"Hic...jerk," Kairi said, but she was laughing too hard to mean it.

"I love you too," he stated, flicking at her arm, then added mockingly, "hic."

Whenever they said the word "love" to each other it never meant anything. Not anything that it was supposed to mean. They did love each other, in a way. But nothing serious. Nothing like boyfriend-girlfriend love. So of course, all it did was install another round of laughs between the two.

"So, promise you'll stick by me on this?" Roxas said, rubbing his eyes.

Kairi seemed to consider.

"Fine, but only if you promise me to not go too far," she stated.

"Cross my heart," he swore, literally doing the action to his words.

Why did doing that feel so familiar? Kairi didn't notice a thing, however, and just smiled agreeably at him.

"Okay, I promise."

As they looked at each other, Roxas could feel the excitement of starting something new swelling in his chest. This was going to be an exciting school year.

Review if you like this story. Review if you hate this story. Review if your life depended on it. Review if your life has nothing to do with reviewing. Just review, review, review!!

(cough) You know, if you want to... (cough)

Read and review.

Goodbye!