Chapter 1

"This is gonna be great, I can feel it!" I cheer, looking at my best friend with clear excitement. I can't deny that I'm smiling wide, leaning over my desk to reach his.

Sora, my best friend since we were five years old, is looking at me with a bored expression on his face. He's tapping his foot impatiently. "I can't believe you make me sign up for this class!" he whines.

I roll my eyes at him, sighing and slinking back into my chair. "What other elective would you have taken? Cooking?"

"I'd get free cookies," he mutters.

I lean over once more and ruffle Sora's spiky brown hair. "Aw, it's not so bad! You and I can work together!"

Before he can come up with a witty retort, the late bell rings, and I plop back down in my seat immediately. Next to me, I hear Sora mumble, "The teacher's late..."

Where the hell is the teacher, anyway...?

WHAM!

Everyone turns to the door, silence immediately falling on the class as though a wave of shock passed through.

There, standing in the doorway, is a tall man with wild red hair that he had tied back into a ponytail with a black hair tie. His emerald eyes are a sharp contrast to his bright hair, and they scan the class carefully. I watch him curiously as he strides across the bright classroom to his desk, a giant grin having already formed on his face. Without saying a word, he picks up a piece of chalk, and in big letters, he scribbles across the board:

A - X - E - L

There's a small clack as he drops the chalk onto the ledge; he turns to the class and crosses his arms, as if he's proud of what he's written. The silence hasn't gone away; nobody makes a sound. He waits, watches the class with that same creepy grin, and I wonder if he's been a pedophile in a past life.

"A-are you the teacher?" somebody in the back asks him in a quiet voice.

His eyes light up, as if that was what he had been waiting for this entire time. "Why, yes, I am."

"A-and your name... it's... Mr. Axel?"

The strange man who's apparently our teacher now blows a raspberry and rolls his eyes. "No. Axel's my first name. It's also what you guys will call me."

I feel myself blink a few times. First name basis with a teacher? Who is this dude?

"Now that that's settled, welcome to film class!" he exclaims, pushing himself off the board and hopping onto his desk to sit down. He stares us all down as he continues to speak. "So, as this is an elective, I can't wait to hear why you all joined the class." He focuses in on Sora. "You, kid with the hair that can poke an eye out. Why'd you join this class?"

Sora looks up at Axel like he doesn't know what to say. I gotta say, I feel kinda bad. That is, until he points at me and says, "She made me sign up."

Axel looks at me this time, forgetting about Sora right away. "Okay, 'she', why'd you join this class and bring a human weapon with you?"

I sit up in my seat, adjusting my posture so he knows I'm ready to get started and work hard. "Uh, well, you see, er, Axel, is it? Yeah, I love to film and make movies and music videos and anything that involves a camera. So, I thought I could join this class so everyone could share with me with what I love to do!"

The redhead is nodding slowly, squinting as he looks me over. Yep, definitely a pedophile in a past life. I'm starting to get uncomfortable, when suddenly he slams his hand down onto the desk (causing several people, including Sora, to jump) and announces in a rather loud voice, "Well, people! Let's get this first project started! You all have cameras, right?"

Everyone nods shyly, still not knowing what to make of this man. Some have their cameras out on their desks already. Sora's trying to fall asleep. What an idiot.

"Alright, good. So, the first project; you're all going to make a short video about who you are. Show me you. I want the camera to capture who you are. I wanna... I wanna be able to hug the screen, cry with the screen, yell at the screen, lick the screen...-"

Lick the screen?

"Show me all that you got!"

So many things are flooding into my head. What should I put into this video? What little things about my life will I be throwing into the mix? My every thought becomes an idea, a possibility. I'm so getting an A.

A knock on the door interrupts my idea-flow. Axel sprints to the door to let the late-comer in. My eyes make way to the doorway, and leaning in the door frame is a boy with spiky blonde hair, almost like Sora's, and bright blue eyes. His hands are jammed into his pockets and he looks like he just rolled out of bed; I have a strong feeling that that's where he'd much rather be.

"Annnd who may you be?" Axel asks, stepping aside to let him into the classroom, where he shuffles to an empty seat just on the other side of mine. I watch him curiously, looking for an emotion other than the dull expression he has on his face as he stares at the name written on the board.

"Roxas," he says in a monotone voice, resting his head on his chin.

"Okay. Roxas. Project. About you. Got it?" Axel says to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Mhm. Whatever."

"Ooh, an optimist. I like you already."

I look down at my desk, tracing out nothing and yet everything in little patterns along the wood. This first project is going to be great, I just know it.

xXxXxXxXx

This past week has been driving me up a wall. I handed in my film project, confident about my grade and knowing that it was bound to be something good, but Axel hasn't given them back yet. When will I be able to see my grade, what he thinks?

"Kairi! Kairi, are you listening?" Sora's voice worms its way into my head.

"Oh... yeah, I'm listening."

"Mhm. So then, you can tell me what the theme of The Crucible is, right?"

I look down at the English assignment Sora and I are working on at the moment. "Er..."

My best friend rolls his eyes, letting out a deep sigh and dropping his pen to his desk. "Kairi, how are we supposed to get any work done if all you think about is Mr. Axel's project?"

"It's Axel," I correct, wanting to be accurate. "And I can't help it! I want to know! No, I need to know! I worked hard on that project, Sora!"

The bell rings, and I've collected my things in a heartbeat. I'm almost halfway out the door when I realize that I forgot Sora. He catches up to me, slightly irked. I grab onto his wrist and pull him in a hurry down the hallway to our film class.

Axel isn't in the room yet, and I'm bouncing in my seat with anticipation, wondering if he'll be late yet again. Sora puts his head down on the desk, trying as he always does to get some sleep in. I've probably been keeping him up all night, discussing my expectations for the project.

The late bell rings. My eyes are locked on the door. As if it was on cue, Axel walks in, a box of CDs in hand.

Our projects.

There's no grin on his face this time. He takes out a handful of CDs and begins to hand them back out, not bothering to look at the label on each, like he's got them memorized. "Crap, crap, crap..." he says of each one as he gives them back. I watch him excitedly as he slams my CD down onto my desk. "Crap."

Crap? No way! There must be a mistake!

He faces the board for a minute, sighing and shaking his head slowly. I'm still staring at my CD, which has a red X marked on it. I worked so hard! This can't possibly be true!

"I don't understand," Axel says to the class, still facing the board. "I just don't understand how all of you could manage to-"

He stops at the familiar sound of Roxas walking into the classroom late, yet again. Roxas takes his seat next to me and glances at my disc. I guess he put two and two together, because he looks down at his desk, expecting his project to have been handed back to him.

Axel turns back to the class slowly, but he doesn't look at any of us. "You. Blonde-haired-kid. Your project." He reaches into the box to get the remaining project.

"Roxas," the boy defends as he catches the project in his hands. "My name is Roxas."

"ROXAS!" Axel yells, throwing his hands up into the air and waking Sora from the mere two minutes of sleep he got. "Roxas was the only one to have passed this project!"

Dumbfounded, I glance at his CD. The label is marked with a big green A. I definitely didn't expect that from the quiet kid who just wants to sleep. I bet he didn't even work very hard on it!

"May I?" Axel asks, holding his hand out, and Roxas drops the the CD onto it. Our eccentric teacher puts it into the DVD player, looking up at the screen like it's the biggest miracle he's ever seen. Roxas' short film begins to play.

There's no music. There's just a canvas. And the name "Roxas" is written on it. A paintbrush shows up and paints backwards until the word is gone and the canvas is empty. After a few seconds, it fades out. The DVD stops.

That passed!?

My hand shoots up like a rocket. Axel must have seen it coming.

"Because of all that is said in those few seconds!" Axel explains, practically reading my mind for the question I was going to ask.

"All he did was reverse a clip of him painting his name!" I defend, feeling myself get angry.

Axel shakes his head and leans on the DVD player, looking at me as though he's lost all faith in humanity by my disagreeing with the grade. "He doesn't know who he is. Everything he's been raised to be, it's not him. He's working backwards because he feels like what we see at the end- a blank canvas."

I can feel my mouth hang open and several eyes on me as they wonder why I'm protesting against my grade. Nobody seems to want to go against Axel-The-Insane.

"B-but...!"

"Think outside the box, kid. Standing in front of a camera and holding up colorful signs of what you like and don't like is so far into the box, bread crumbs are reaching it."

I slide down my seat, feeling my face get red, but I'm not sure if it's from embarrassment or anger. I can't believe this...

"So, this brings me to project two. I want everyone to create a short video of a simple dialogue," Axel says, sitting on his desk again. "In this dialogue, you must portray a certain emotion in more than just words. And nobody ask me how to do it, you're supposed to figure it out by yourselves. Now, I'm going to assign you all partners. Hopefully you'll put your heads together and not come up with the crap you all dished out last week."

I glance at Sora and nudge him awake, ready to tell Axel that him and are, basically, meant to be partners.

I'll show him. I'll show Axel that I can be much better than he thinks I can be. He'll love me. I'll be the star student.

"Kairi," Axel announces, "You'll be working with Roxas."

I hate film class.

Chapter 1 is finally up! I've been trying out ideas for this for a few days now. Seems I get my most inspiration in Chemistry class... which explains why that class is such a blur 8D

This is dedicated to my lovely Lucy ;D I loves you! ;D

Anyway, I hope you're all ready to read more, because I have more planned that I can NOT wait to write n.n My birthday is Saturday, and I'm getting a new laptop, so I'll try to set up my writing there and maybe have another chapter... Monday? Or maybe even this week, if I get the chance.

Read, review & no flames, please! 8D