Disclaimer: Characters used throughout this story belong only to Square-Enix and Disney. MEANING, we don't own them, they are not ours. The end.

Chapter One; Back Again.

PROLOGUE;

It was the first day of school, summer had finally ended and the giant silver halls of Oblivion High were packed with the hustle and bustle of old friends catching up on their two months of freedom.

I stood staring at the entry doors of the school with dread; last thing I wanted to do was have my first day of sophomore year. With my luck, everything that could go wrong, would go wrong. None the less, I pulled the door open and walked inside. No more than two steps in Yuffie Kisaragi, Oblivion High gossip queen and my best friend, lunged at me screeching, stopping only inches in front, "Roxy! Oh my god, sophomore year! Aren't you excited?" The fifteen year old squealed.

In my opinion, she was too hyper in the morning. And I was certainly not excited to be at the dreadful place, if it weren't for the gossip and drama, she probably wouldn't have been either.

I shook my head. No, see, with school I was always compared to my "older, smarter, straight" brother. Nothing I did was ever good enough. In that aspect, school became my least favorite.

The dark haired girl understood, and didn't dwell on the subject. It was times like these that I was glad she knew me so well. "Hey, did you hear about Zex?" She paused for an answer and with a simple blank stare from me, informing her I didn't know, didn't care, she continued. "He tried to off himself this summa'. The way I hear it, it's all because his dad dumped him off with his uncle and Saix. How much more emo can you get? I mean, it couldn't be that bad to live with your uncle and cousin. I mean, dang at times I would love that!"

Usually, I zoned out most of her drama rampages, but considering the day, perhaps a little bit of drama could lighten the mood. "Hold on a sec, what does 'off' mean? 'Cause if its something that has to do with sex, I'm not sure I want to know, and it doesn't seem well placed. Also, who is 'Zex' and lastly, why do I care?" I finished in a dull manner. Just because I might want to hear her gossip today didn't mean she needed to know that. If she found out, she'd assume it'd be a daily thing; it definitely wasn't.

"God Rox, get your mind out of the gutter!" She nearly yelled as I held my hands up in defense.

Normally, I'd use the defense that I was a guy. But the girl before me knew me too well. For a guy, I normally didn't think like one; probably the reason why everyone jokes about me being a girl.

Without anymore delay, Yuffie began to inform me on just what I was missing. "He tried to kill himself," She began in a hushed tone, "and you should know how he is. Considering whom you're dating, you should probably know his friends by now."

Slowly I began to push her down the halls; the least we could do was find our lockers and classrooms as she talked. Or well, so that she wouldn't rage at me in the entry way for what I was about to inform her. "About that… it's kinda… not happening anymore."

She stopped dead in her tracks giving me one of her most serious faces. "What happened?"

I tried to pull her arm, get her to move, but I was had no luck. The girl could be pretty stubborn when she wanted to be. "Nothing. We just… called it all off."

"You're lying."

I let out a sigh, damming her for knowing me well. "Okay fine, he kind of… dumped me over summer for some guy named Demyx. Or well, I dumped him… its complicated."

"WHAT? And you didn't tell me?" Yuffie screeched overdramatically. And that was the reason why I moved us from the entry way. But, at least the girl didn't have a one track mind. "Wait, Dem broke up with XemXem? Wow, I missed so much! Damn Japan! I tell you, that is the last time I go to visit my relatives. Fur sure!"

"Don't tell a soul." I nearly growled using the one face I knew Yuffie feared. I already dreaded school, and I didn't need everyone in the school knowing all about my personal life, for example such things as breaking up with my boyfriend because he cheated on me. Yeah, not on everyone's 'need to know' list.

"Oh Roxy, you know I wouldn't dare. We are BFF's for a reason." She said sweetly, throwing out her arms to the sides and bringing to move once again.

"You told everyone I got Mono last summer."

"I didn't think it was that big a deal."

"No one would come near me for a month, AND they kept asking if I had gotten 'healed'. Healed!" The worst part of it was that I wasn't exaggerating much. People, mainly my friends, refused to come within five feet of me until I was 'healed', as they so wonderfully put it. Perhaps it was a good thing I ended that relationship, it was bad for my health.

"That's not true Roxy, I was there." I turned to look at Yuffie who had on her biggest smile.

"Oh goodie, my consolation prize." I said with a dry laugh.

Yuffie pouted, disliking the term I'd used to describe our friendship, but she knew it was a joke. "So… how was your summer then?" asked the youngest of the Kisaragi family, trying to get onto a more positive topic. I was of course, no longer going to touch on one aspect of summer.

"I think something's up with Sora. He spent nearly every day with Riku. Every day! Leaving me to hang with Sora's pissed off girlfriend. You know how much that sucks? I swear she was PMSing the whole summer!"

The next thing I knew, Kairi was standing right between Yuffie and I, just in time to hear the insult I had directed at her. If looks could kill, the one the red head was throwing at me would have me dead ten times over. "Hey Roxas!" The girl announced in a cross tone.

Before I was able to even think, the bell rang blessing me with the perfect outing from the depths of hell known only as Kairi Yemen.

"Hehheh, well… see ya' Kairi. Class, don't want to be late of the first day." I quickly grabbed Yuffie's arm before she could start up some from of conversation with the other girl, and dragged her down the hall… My only hopes being to get away from the red haired evil incarnate as fast as I possibly could.

CHAPTER ONE;

Two weeks since school started and yes, it was going to be another crappy year. Yuffie was still hooked up on sugar pills and Riku continued being an ass for jacking my brother and leaving me with the spawn of Satan herself. Sora just had to keep going with him too. I hated all three of them… mostly however, the red haired demon. You try playing the Bratz game for three hours while watching some stupid chick flick. I mean, I would never go back with a girl after she cheated on me with my best friend's brother. Not that I would go with a girl in the first place, but that's so beside the point. Where did they come up with those story lines anyways? I mean really! His best friend's brother?

I did end up beating the game though. Take that Miss Kairi! Yes, you heard me; the spawn of Satan was none other than Kairi herself, my brother's stupid girlfriend. I didn't even understand why he dated her. Just being around her was as bad as… as having someone take your last Sea-Salt Ice Cream and skateboarding to the store, only to be hit by a car, then having be sent away from heaven. Yea, she was that bad!

And poor Yuffie got to listen to me complaining all about it as I sat on her pink bed while she got ready for school. Pink, pink, pink. It nearly seemed everything of Yuffie's was pink; her bed, her car, her walls. I was quite surprised the first time I entered her room and her floor wasn't pink as well, probably due to the fact it was wood flooring. But I quickly dropped the thought as I continued to stare at my best friend as she stared at herself in the mirror. Being Yuffie, it took her 30 minutes to put on her make-up, just so we could leave. Girls were simply ridiculous!

However, no matter how much I ranted, it never seemed to faze the girl. She was always off in her own world of gossip and other peoples exciting lives, "Oh my god, Hayner and Seifer are soo cute together, don't cha think?" She announced with that special fan girl smile of hers. Too bad it would be completely crushed by what I knew about the couple.

Truly I was surprised that she brought the two up, considering they were no longer together, which I felt obliged to inform her. "Yuffie, they broke up."

"WHAT?!" Yuffie squealed, successfully smearing her eyeliner and quickly grabbing tissues to try and fix it. I tried my best not to laugh as I darted my eyes away from her. It was easier not to laugh… if you didn't look at the subject in question.

Being friends with Hayner since 3rd grade, I found out about the break up the moment the incident happened. Still, to know something before Yuffie was amazing! "Yeah, Hayner dumped him for Olette. He seems to really like her from what I hear."

"That WHORE."

I gawked. Yuffie NEVER used that kind of language, but she really did like seeing Hayner and Seifer together. Apparently however, Hayner had liked Olettet for quite some time. Guess Yuffie will just have to get over it, not her choice in the end. And truthfully, I liked to see my friend with a person that didn't try to physically, mentally, or emotionally inflict harm upon me every time I saw them. No, apart from Yuffie's ideas, Olette was a much better candidate.

Before I could comment on my ideas or even her strong profanity use, she sprung up from her mirror. "Ready-Freddy!" When she had the time to fix the horrible mess of eyeliner, I had no idea. None the less, I rolled my eyes and pushed myself off her queen size bed and out the door.

It only took us about seven minutes to get to school. When Yuffie finally found her 'perfect' parking spot and stopped her car was when I lunged from the pink bug. I love Yuff and all… but I didn't really want to be seen in that awful pink… cramped… metal torture chamber. The only thing was, when I lunged out I fell face first into a back of red spikes. There was only one family I knew with that color and intensity of hair, and I it wasn't Kairi who was in front of me.

I internally cursed as I quickly apologized and prayed that I could go unnoticed.

My prayers weren't answered. "Roxas?"

Shit, not good. I shifted where I stood and did my best to avoid eye contact. I couldn't have imaged anything more awkward than running into him, unless the day I broke up with him counted… Even around school I rarely had to see him.

"Oh hey, Axel!" Yuffie cheered, but she must have seen the look in my eyes because she actually said a quick goodbye without a conversation, which was very unlike her. "It was nice seeing you; we'll have to catch up sometime. But you see, me and Roxy here, we have to get going. Call me sometime though and we can chat it up, kay?"

As so as we were out of hearing distance, I nearly jumped my best friend. Mentally anyway. "Oh thank god Yuff, I love you!"

She shot me a huge grin, "No problem Rox… Wait, what did I do?"

Damn her A.D.D. had kicked in. It always seemed to do that at the worst times. Or, well, the best times?

"Um, never mind. Let's just get to class." I said as I began to walk towards our first period. But my walking was stopped abruptly as Yuffie began to squeal. She could fangirl over anything, I swear. Once, for Christmas, my mom got me a limited edition copy of that movie Thumbelina, the one about the fairy? Yeah, it had a lot of special features and everything… When Yuffie saw it she insisted we watch it… five times. Then after we finished she wanted to watch dozens of other cartoon movies. I would blame my mother for her random gift giving but I knew the only one to blame was Yuffie and her fan-girling… talents. I'm not sure if it's a talent though.

Surprisingly, Yuffie's squeal was not a fangirl squeal this time. "But we'll be ten minutes early! Only nerds and geeks are in class ten minutes early! Do you want us to be seen as geeks for the rest of our sophomore year?!"

"S-sorry, I didn't know." If it wasn't for her and her social standards, I could have gotten out of so many problems and uncomfortable situations. Or, at least the ones that involved people, trends, or gossip. The worst situations with Yuffie were when all three were combined. And that was pretty common in high school. An example; A girl was caught wearing a yellow shirt and a red skirt. Ugly outfit, sure, that's a trend and has to do with a person. So, then gossip starts to fly around about the girl and how she's so poor she can't afford matching clothes. From there stems the pity and the sad looks… Poor Namine never even had a chance once the gossip reached Yuffie.

Once again however, the dark haired girl was quickly distracted like a fish when it sees food. "Hey look, it's Zex." She said while pointing across the crowed hall like I was supposed to pinpoint the exact person she mentioned by some telepathic ability she thought we shared. I'm sorry, like I said, I love her, but if I had the same mind as Yuffie I might as well jump off a building. I couldn't live with thoughts that scattered.

"Who?"

"You remember, I told you. Zex is the kid who tried to kill himself. And you say I have a memory problem." Yuffie continued to point across the hall to a blue-gray haired boy who was actually almost shorter than myself, a miracle for someone as short as I. He had violet eyes, well I was guessing they were both the same color since only one was visible, and he wore black all the way down to his shoes, where he had one item, or two if you want to get technical, that weren't black. His shoelaces! They were white! It was such a surprise! I almost laughed at him, almost… But I bit the inner flesh of my cheek and glance at the overly excited Yuffie, who was nudging me in the ribs and whispering things about how I should know him.

And he didn't familiar in the least.

Before I could stop her, Yuffie called the little emo over. "Zex! How you been, buddie?" This 'Zex' boy looked un-amused and gave a careless shrug, though Yuffie simply disregarded it and kept talking as she made her way towards him. What else was new? So as not to be left wandering in the halls, I quickly trailed behind her like a lost kitten. I was often referred to as that when people commented on me and her friendship. I didn't appreciate it, no, but I could see why they would think that. Yuffie was just my best friend for some inexplicable reason. And despite her… downsides… there was no one else I really cared to hang out at school with as much as I did. So, I followed, and let myself be introduced to the boy with the hair covering half of his pale face. "Oh! Zex, this is Roxas!"

Now the boy looked slightly amused. "Oh, so you're the kid who Axel dumped for Demyx."

My only thoughts? What. A. Jerk!

I was stuck in a state of complete and utter awe with my mouth practically hanging open to the floor when Yuffie decided to come to my rescue, "Zex! That was kinda mean! How did you even know anyways?"

The girl really needed to touch up her rescuing skills. Last time I checked, asking how they knew didn't help my half of the situation. It actually kind of made it worse… But I suppose it was an A for effort type of thing.

However, the boy paid no heed, "Yuffie, you for one should know how fast news travels around here. Now if you will, I have somewhere I have to be." 'Zex' said before he walked off without even a wave. From then on, I decided I hated that asshole.

"What his name anyways?" Not that I really cared. No, by the time he was lost in the crowds and out of site I was fuming. I could even feel my face get hot with anger, which many would probably confuse with embarrassment. But no, I was ready to kill the kid. Not for just what he said, but for the way he acted. Like… like he was better than everyone.

"Zexion." She said simply.

Good, now I had a name for my new enemy.

Seriously though, even Axel wasn't that much of an ass!

The first part of the day went by alright. That is, until second period science. I was fully prepared to start a lab with my friend Olette when the teacher announced he would be assigning lab partners. I always had hated that man! But what could you do? Just because I worked with the brunette for nearly every lab since middle school didn't mean it would matter to this teacher guy.

That's when I studied the students in class for possibly the first time. What? I didn't pay attention to the other students. If I had, maybe I would have some kind of an idea who all the people Yuffie talked about were. But I didn't, and really, I didn't care to know.

I mean… that Marluxia guy she talked about today sounded pretty creepy though, luckily he was a junior and I didn't have to see him much. But most of the other people she talked about didn't sound much better.

I looked around again. Uhm damn. I didn't know who anyone in that class except Olette, Pence, who was still awkward around me ever since I told him I was gay, and… Zexion? Well damn again. I had never noticed that ass before.

I liked doing labs with Olette, though! I didn't want a new partner. She knew what she was doing. Errr, she worked and I slept. That's how it had been since middle school. I didn't want it to change now! It was a really well fulfilled process, and at the end, I'd read over her notes. Another reason in which she was better than Seifer in dating Hayner, she would actually get somewhere in her life.

But no! Now she was gone, all because Mr. Science Guy! Ha ha, Bill Nye the Science Guy, 'cept not really. But anyways, he just had to go and pick partners. And I get to sit and listen to find out who I'd be with.

The whole class was silent as the teacher stood at the front table and read off the names of partners. If luck was on my side I'd get Olette. Lady Luck hated me, however, and she got paired with some other kid. But I was up for seconds; I wouldn't have minded getting Pence. Perhaps we could have finally worked out that awkward-ness. I mean, just a little time together and BAM, it would be perfect. Until, like Olette, he got partnered with some kid I didn't know and left me without my window of hope.

But then again, how bad could getting partnered with some kid be? As long as it wasn't Zexion it'd be great. Perhaps I could even make a new friend, or learn a new name on Yuffie's list. Or even…

"Roxas will be with… ah, Zexion."

Fuck, why? Does god hate me? We'll maybe I could light Zexion on fire or something… I would have totally gone for the idea if there were matches involved in the experiment and my morals stopped strongly disagreeing with my ideas and informing me of how wrong it was to light a person on fire no matter how much they deserve it.

After I got situated at my new seat, and complained to Olette about the whole ordeal because she got someone who she had been friends with, Zexion sat down next to me, smug look still plastered on his face, and we learned that our lab had nothing to do with fire. Guess that option is out of the question now, if I could have ever even pulled it off. Damn morals.

And to no ones surprise Zexion still acted like a shit head. "What the hell do you think you are doing?! You're going to mess the whole thing up and we'll fail for sure! Is that what you want?" Surprisingly enough, his voice didn't actually rise at all. So what, he was a condescending jerk with voice control? Or was he always this unemotional when angry about something I didn't even really do.

So I touched our experiment. What was his problem? Well if that's the way he wanted things I would let him have what he wanted. I pushed myself back against my chair and crossed my arms. "God, if I'm doing that much wrong, why don't you just do the whole damn thing by yourself?!"

"Maybe I should!" He shot back, unfazed.

And then he did. The whole entire experiment. By himself. Not caring that I wasn't doing anything… or even acknowledging my presence for that matter.

The guy was an utter ass.

The rest of the day had gone by rather quickly, nothing really eventful or new. I didn't really listen to anything Yuffie said, she just continued with her usual gossip. Boring, boring, boring.

But to say the truth, I was quite pleased just to get home. As the saying goes, 'home, sweet home.'

"Thanks Yuff, see you tomorrow, kay?" We waved goodbye to each other and she drove off in the ugly pink bug she loved so much. I went inside to scavenge the fridge for something to eat, pass out on the couch, and wake up some hours later for dinner.

And so ends another wonderful day of school in the life of the great Roxas Leonhart.

I need a more exciting life!

Kitii; Revisited, refurbished, re-uploaded, the new first chapter of Rip Van Winkle. Note, there is a seaway mention to a story called Reverse. It's under akuroku, really good story. You should go read it sometime. At the moment I don't remember who it's by. But they are amazing with words. GO READ IT!

Kuri; Yeah, we hope if you choose to reread it you had a more enjoyable time than before, because we realized how amateurish at writing we were when we started this. So we'll be doing this for every chapter. Nothing is going to change to affect the plot… just the content and details that help you picture the story better. I'd said read and review, but you guys who read this originally have already done the later, and… now the former, so, thank you!