Kingdom High Boarding School

Chapter I

Two boys walked hand-in-hand down an empty hall, consulting the laminated map they had been given at the office. Their shoulders brushed as they moved closer together for a moment then pulled away to split, one turning left down another hall and the other continuing in a straight line. It was an almost painful separation, but to their dismay, they were not in the same class.

The boy who had turned glanced at each door he passed, searching for Room 304. His step slowed when he found it; he swallowed nervously and knocked.

"Come in," a voice said, but it was more like an order. The boy opened the door and stuck his head in the room.

"Is this chemistry?" he asked shyly.

The teacher, a tall, older gentleman with blonde hair and a chilly disposition looked at him down his nose then looked at an attendance sheet.

"…Roxas Strife, I presume."

The boy, Roxas, nodded and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. "Yes, sir." He could feel the eyes of the entire class on him and forced himself not to glance at them all.

"The bell rang over seven minutes ago, mister Strife," the teacher said, glancing at his watch. "You will receive a tardy. Do not let it happen again. Now, take your seat so we may begin class."

"Yes, sir," Roxas mumbled, making his way to the back of the room, where he sat alone at a lab table. The seniors turned back to the front as the teacher rapped his ruler on his desk.

"First," the teacher started, turning his back to the room and starting to write on the chalkboard in clear, plain print, "we will discuss the rules of my classroom…"

Roxas sat with his elbow on the table and his chin propped in his hand, staring straight forward but not really listening. He didn't want to be in this class, not with the seniors, not without Sora. He was only a sophomore, after all, and they intimidated him more than a little. Stupid placement exams. If it weren't for them he would be in physical science with Sora instead of chemistry. He sighed, hating how alone he felt without the brunette boy by his side. His only comfort was that he and Sora had almost all of their classes together.

Science was not one of them.

Pulling his class schedule out of his pocket, Roxas looked the list over, noticing again that P.E. was a sophomore/senior class at the end of the day. He was glad he and Sora could go home to shower instead of using the locker room.

Roxas had absolutely no interest in showering with a bunch of other guys, especially not the seniors. He glanced around the room, taking in the tall profiles of the older students. They were all eighteen or nineteen, and he was only fifteen, even younger than the other sophomores because he and Sora had started school a year early. Even Sora was a few minutes older than him.

He sighed, resigned to his fate of being the baby of the class.

Something fluttered at the edge of his vision, drawing his attention; he turned his head slightly to look without it looking like he was looking. A small, folded square of notebook paper lay on his desk. He glanced around the room to see who the note was from but no one was looking his way.

Apprehensive, sure it was some sort of cruel joke or prank, he picked up the note and opened it quietly, trying to avoid catching the teacher's attention. When the words scribbled on the page were revealed, Roxas only stared in surprise.

"Hey, Baby Blues," the note began, and Roxas knew the writer meant his eyes. For some reason the nickname brought a slight blush to his cheeks. "What's a cute kid like you doing in Professor Vexen's chemistry class?"

Cute? Roxas read the note again. Someone thought he was cute? His eyes scanned the room again, looking for a girl who might be watching. But there were none. Every single student in the room sat looking up at Professor Vexen, who was busy filling the chalkboard with a list of things he would not tolerate in his class.

With a shrug, Roxas picked up his pencil and started his reply in a messy scrawl.

Two tables to the left and one back, a boy, a young man, really, sat with his booted feet propped up on the table as he leaned back on his stool. Emerald green eyes watched the younger blonde boy the way a cat watches its prey. The man watched him scribbling a reply and grinned to himself as he ran a hand through his mass of spiky red hair. It was always fun when new students came to Kingdom High, and the redheaded senior particularly liked the blonde boy. With his spiky blonde hair, deep blue eyes and slight pink blush, he was adorable. A fact that was enforced as the boy—Roxas, Professor Vexen had called him—nibbled thoughtfully on his bottom lip as he contemplated what he had written. The older boy watched as the blonde's lip turned a delicate shade of pink, and he wondered what it would be like to nibble that soft lip, what the younger boy would taste like.

His mouth watered just thinking about it. A smirk curved his lips as he watched the blonde boy refold the note carefully before looking around, obviously wondering how he was supposed to return the note. Right on time, the student to Roxas' left coughed lightly to catch his attention; he held his hand out into the aisle, still looking at the professor.

The senior watched as sudden understanding lit up the new boy's blue eyes and he passed the note. Within moments it was back on his own desk, his classmates having skillfully passed it amongst themselves without the teacher noticing.

Taking his time, he unfolded the paper and read the reply.

"Placement exams. Principal Xemnas didn't give me a choice. I'm Roxas, by the way."

Then he had skipped a line.

"Is Professor Vexen ever going to stop talking?"

The last line made the redhead chuckle. Cute and a bit of attitude. He was really starting to like this kid. His reply was one word.

"No."

He sent the note on another trip and waited patiently for it to reach its destination. The blonde gave a barely audible groan when he read the reply. Immediately, the older teen's thoughts jumped to groans of a different kind, groans caused by something else.

Shaking his head, he tried to focus on Vexen. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things. He just…couldn't help it. The boy kept popping back into his thoughts every time he tried to focus. And all he did was sit there, back curved slightly, feet propped on the bars that connected the stool's legs, deep blue eyes gone dull with boredom.

It had to be his eyes, the senior decided. He'd never seen eyes quite like them, quite so, well, blue. The name had popped into his mind the moment the blonde's head had peered into the classroom: Baby Blues. He wondered if the blonde liked the name. He hoped so.

Finally, he managed to pay genuine attention to Vexen's lecture on classroom behavior, shoving his thoughts of Roxas to the back of his mind. He was only a boy, after all, and the senior considered himself above targeting kids who looked like they couldn't even drive a car, which Roxas didn't look old enough to do. So then why did his gaze keep sliding over to him every few minutes?

The senior sighed and put his hands in his pockets, waiting for the bell to ring. Vexen's voice droned on as the class almost dozed.

It was not a promising start to the new year at Kingdom High Boarding School.

"Roxas! Hey, Roxas!" a high, cheerful voice called. Roxas turned and saw a mass of spiky brown hair hurtling towards him down the hall, dodging students and bags.

Roxas tensed, bracing himself for impact; the body belonging to the hair slammed into him, making him stumble back a few feet.

"Sora," the blonde gasped, "I can't breathe!"

The other boy hugged him tighter for a moment before letting him go and slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Hey, bro," he greeted, and nuzzled Roxas' neck affectionately. "How's it with the seniors?"

Roxas smiled and wrapped his arm around the other boy's waist, glad just to be near him again. "Tall," he replied. "They're all very tall. I felt like a little kid, sitting in there. And Professor Vexen isn't what I would call the cheerful type." He decided not to tell Sora about the note, at least not yet.

"Great," the brunette groaned as they moved off down the hall. "I have him next."

"Calculus for me," Roxas sighed, not looking forward to it at all.

"You'll have Miss Larxene. I had her last hour in algebra II, and boy is she mean. She started yelling at this other kid cause he had his phone out." Sora shuddered at the memory. "It was terrible, Roxas. Her voice is all high-pitched and screechy; I thought my ears were gonna bleed."

Chuckling, Roxas patted his twin's head in a soothing way. "Professor Vexen talks a lot but he doesn't seem mean."

"Yeah, well, doesn't mean I'll like him," Sora grumbled, and they parted ways again with regretful good-byes.

Bored out of his mind, the red-haired teen sat in his usual place at the back of the room. He didn't like Miss Larxene, his teacher this hour, or the class or even school for that matter. School held no interest for him, no use. Not any more.

When Miss Larxene walked into the room, her blouse barely containing her chest and her skirt riding so high most of her thighs were visible, the redhead looked down at his desk, trying to avoid catching her attention.

"Axel," Larxene purred as she strode towards him and perched on the edge of his desk, her skirt hiked up so high he could practically see her panties. "I'm so glad you decided to take my class." The look she gave him made his skin crawl.

Axel chose not to reply, knowing that if he spoke he would then he would say something disrespectful and end up in detention. Which Miss Larxene would supervise, and Axel could think of nothing worse than that. He would rather have his nails ripped off with pliers then stick his hands in a bucket of salt. It took all he had to not move away when she began playing with one of his spikes.

"What's the matter, Axel? Don't you like me any more?" Larxene pouted, crossing her arms; her blouse looked ready to burst.

'No!' Axel wanted to yell, wanted to shove her away. 'I hate you, you slut! You whore!' but he sat, unmoving, silent. Larxene put one slim, feminine hand on his cheek and turned his face towards her and leaned in as if to kiss him. His emerald eyes burned with a poisonous anger as she got closer; he pressed his lips closed. Just before their lips met the bell rang, disappointing the teacher and sending a wave of relief through her student.

She moved away and went to her own desk as other students walked into the room, chatting amongst themselves as they took their seats. Axel sat slumped in his chair, looking anywhere but at Miss Larxene, who was smiling at him. He could still feel her touch on his cheek, and it made him want to tear the skin off.

He was staring moodily out the window when he saw a familiar-looking blonde out of the corner of his eye. Immediately, he whipped his head around to look, and there he was, taking an empty desk near the wall.

Roxas.

Without realizing it, Axel straightened in his seat, grinning slightly. He could put up with Larxene for the next forty-five minutes. Suddenly, math class didn't seem so bad.

At the front of the room, the teacher's eyes narrowed at her red-haired student. What was he looking at? She followed his gaze to land on a young blonde student who didn't look old enough to be in her calculus class. She knew it must be the kid who took the placement exams. Jealousy burned. What did that-that boy have that she didn't? Why would Axel ignore her and instead smile at a kid?

She would not have it. Oh, no, that would not be tolerated. Axel thought it was his decision to end her fun? Well, she would see about that, and get rid of the kid, too.

"Class," she began once they were all seated; her tone was sugar-coated. "We have a new student with us this year." She gestured at the blonde boy to stand and smiled when he did. "Would you please introduce yourself to the class and tell a little bit about yourself?"

The boy blushed at the attention. "Um, I'm Roxas," he mumbled, "and, well, I'm a sophomore."

"Roxas took the placement exams," Larxene explained to the class, "so I want you all to make him feel welcome." Silence greeted her words; she nodded at Roxas to sit then turned to the chalkboard. "Now, open your books to chapter one." As she wrote out an equation on the board, Larxene's knuckles turned white from gripping the chalk so tightly. She had seen the way Axel looked at the blond boy and she didn't like it. Whether he knew it or not, Roxas-the-sophomore had gotten himself on her bad side.