Chapter 1: Initial Hearts

He was the only one sleeping in a class of excited students.

"Sora Hikari?" a soft feminine voice asked.

The boy opened an eye only to be rewarded with a pair of gleaming sapphire jewels staring back.

"That's your name right?" The girl checked her clipboard and smiled expectantly.

His one eye was completely dazzled.

She was dressed in a standard school uniform that complemented her body perfectly. It was a simple outfit of white shirt, mini tie, and plaid skirt. Auburn hair stopped short of her shoulders and loose strands gently framed her face—and what a face it was, with mesmerizing features in her cute chin, dainty dimples, and lovely lips. Her eyes were most striking; a dark blue that held curiosity and strange density like heavy metal.

He was ogling.

Realizing what was happening, he decided to eek out some form of verbal acknowledgement to avoid being too obvious with his sudden (and unfairly stricken) state of smitten.

"Uh…" the boy started, a bit of a loss for words. The combination of waking up and the close proximity of her face formed a delirious cocktail that slurred his speech, slowed his thinking, and basically made him look like an idiot. "…that's me," he finished lamely. Mentally he groaned.

Her face brightened as she got an answer from the boy and extended her hand for a shake. "My name is Kairi Uchida. I'm the representative for this class," she informed.

"Oh…" he let out thoughtfully. Yet again, another brilliant response. He grabbed her hand and noted that it was a very firm handshake.

"I just wanted to introduce myself since I'm going to be responsible for everybody here," she chirped cheerily, "and part of that is making sure that students learn. I know it's the first day and all, but I'd really appreciate it if you don't sleep in class. Is that okay?"

Before he could reply, somebody else beat him to the punch.

"Leave the kid alone Kairi," a voice quipped from behind. The words came from a dashing young gentleman with silver hair and turquoise eyes. Even if Sora was blind, he would still peg the boy as the resident heartthrob of the class—if not, the entire school. The silver-haired Adonis made the drab uniform—white shirt, dark trousers, and black tie—appear quite fashionable; if only by association. "First day is a freebie, let the kid get his sleep."

Sora appreciated the sentiment, but he didn't need to be bailed out by this veritable male model.

The girl, irritated by the interruption, set her fists on her hips. "Riku, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop encouraging others to follow your example. Only a freak like you could sleep in class and still get A's."

The silver-haired student laughed. "What can I say? I'm brilliant."

She rolled her eyes and glanced back at Sora. "Well, it was nice to meet you Sora," and with that, she left to introduce herself to the other students.

Sora was relieved that the attention was taken off him. Before he could properly return to his nap, the resident heartthrob decided to become even more of a nuisance by trying to make small talk.

"So, what do you think?" he asked.

Having no context whatsoever, Sora was completely lost. The question came out of nowhere and he had no idea what the boy was referring to. "About?"

The silver student gestured towards the class representative. "Cute isn't she?"

Observing the girl candidly introduce herself to another student, Sora simply shrugged, not wanting to commit to an answer publicly even though his mind was in unequivocal agreement. Cuteness was only half of the equation.

"I'm Riku by the way, and I guess you're Sora."

The brunet nodded.

"Well, nice to meet you! I've known Kairi since middle school," he revealed. "Don't let her looks fool you; she can be quite the demon when she needs to be."

Sora didn't say anything in return, which unsettled the other boy.

"I can't count the number of times she made me clean the floor just because I was slacking off," he chuckled.

Again, Sora didn't make any move to acknowledge what was said.

Riku began to feel a bit uncomfortable with his classmate's lack of response. "Class is pretty boring huh?"

Sora simply nodded, not really feeling it, he just wanted to go back to sleep. When would this guy give up already?

"A man of few words huh?" Finally, he got it.

Riku decided that starting a conversation would be a futile enterprise and resigned himself to his seat. He didn't bother Sora for the rest of the day, something the spiky student was grateful for.

Today was the first official day of instruction at Destiny High Academy. Classes were significantly shorter because of the introduction ceremony that welcomed both new and returning students alike. The assembly was a school tradition and gave students a chance to get used to the idea that school was starting again. As per tradition, the class representatives from each grade made a speech before their peers about the upcoming school year.

One of the speakers was Kairi.

In addition to being representative of class 2-A, she was also representative for the entire freshmen class. After the ceremony ended, the students shuffled to their homerooms, giving her the opportunity to introduce herself to her fellow classmates, as if they didn't remember her at the podium giving an inspired speech about hard work and effort just moments before.

There was a general buzz of excitement in the classroom that she was helpless to contain. Thanks to the shortened class time, teachers came in only to drone on about customary introductory material. There was no real lesson plan beyond talk about syllabi, schedules, and future assignments. The students didn't bother to pay attention; they were too busy chatting with their former middle school buddies.

It was the first day of high school so Kairi couldn't fault them for being overexcited. She just had to make sure that as time went on, her authority would grow more established, and then she could start applying brakes on all the distractions in class. Today would be a grace period.

She scanned her surroundings and caught numerous instances of students not paying attention and mentally noted the ones who may become potential troublemakers. Even if it was a grace day, she wasn't going to diminish her watch any less. She was, if nothing else, meticulous and carefully organized. She needed a bead on everybody to make sure that everything was on the level. If the students she sighted continued to make problems, she would have to give them a stern talking to. It was best to nip problems in the bud before they could blossom into full-blown disruptions later in the year.

On the left side of the room, near the window, she noticed that Sora was sleeping again. She frowned. Contrary to the animated atmosphere of the room, the boy laid on his desk like a sack of bricks. When she introduced herself, she observed gaunt cheeks and dark circles under his eyes, which ran opposite to his well-rounded face. His hair was spectacularly messy, as if a wild animal got stuck and tried desperately to escape—maybe his hair was the wild animal. The one thing she couldn't forget were his half-lidded eyes, a hazy blue that had seen far too much in far too little time. But no matter how tired he looked, it was no excuse to sleep in class.

He was another one to watch out for. She'd have to make sure to remind him to sleep at home and not in class. She went back to her clipboard and scribbled notes next to each student's name. Her introductions weren't just a formality; they were also a way to gather intel. She hoped that this year would be a good one.

The last bell finally arrived, to the relief of many a student. The class reps, who would normally meet after school for student council, didn't have anything to discuss since it was the first day. Today would be the only day that Kairi would be free right after school.

Students ambled out to find familiar faces while others remained talking with old friends. The majority just tried to get out as fast as they could.

Kairi was busily packing her things when a high octave voice caught her attention.

"Kai Kai!"

The class representative smiled at the antics of her long time friend from middle school. "You're as enthusiastic as ever Selphie," she greeted.

Her friend was a brunette girl whose hair tapered off to the sides. She was a bubbly and bright young lady that oozed optimism and energy from every pore. Some of the male students stared, enraptured by her radiance; it was almost blinding for the poor fools. With a wide grin, she reflected beams of light to Kairi. Her emerald orbs focused on the class rep's purple arm band. "It looks good!" she complimented.

The arm band was a marker for Kairi's position as class representative. Although the class rep would never admit it, she adored the simple cloth because it signified her power. She liked being the class rep, especially the responsibility and control that came with it. "It's just an arm band," she downplayed.

"Yeah, but at least you have that!" her friend complained. The energetic girl looked down at her own uniform in distaste. "These uniforms are such a drag." The girl's uniform at Destiny High wasn't too stylish, but they were functional enough. "You introduced yourself to everybody in class right?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah," Kairi answered warily, fully expecting her good friend to turn the question into a launching pad for some crazy ramble about boys.

"So, any cute guys?"

She was not disappointed and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Just kidding just kidding!" Selphie placated with no real force. "I'm just glad Riku is still with us."

The redhead rolled her eyes. Her friend's never-ending obsession with Riku was something that she never understood. She could understand half of it since Riku certainly had the looks department in the bag, but his personality left a lot to be desired. It was one thing to be smart, but it was another to constantly remind everybody of it, something she didn't appreciate too much since she was not blessed with his natural intellect. Instead, the fates had decided to grace her with a hard work ethic, which wasn't as useful as genius. She wasn't jealous of him; it was just that he had all this intelligence and he completely wasted it by slacking off all the time.

One of the reasons she loved her position as class rep was the authority to levy punishment on troublesome cretins. She had free reign to punish Riku for his intellectual squandering. For all his smarts, he sure was lazy. Throughout middle school, he would always sleep in class. When he was awake, he would joke around the whole time and gloat about his superior brains, but he was never clever enough to avoid her discipline. She had a sneaking suspicion that he was secretly a masochist—he probably enjoyed cleaning rooms and dusting off chalkboards.

Selphie insisted that the silver boy had something of a thing for her but all Kairi could see was mutual enmity. He was smart and reveled in making her know it, and she reveled in making him suffer for it. Where "like" factored into the equation was beyond her.

"You recognize anybody from our middle school in your class?" Selphie asked.

"Besides Riku and the usual? Let me check." Kairi looked at the class roster on her clipboard. It included the student's names, her notes, ID numbers, and the middle school they came from. "Oh, here's one from our old school, Sora…Hikari."

"Who?" the brunette asked confused.

The redhead pointed to the sleeping boy.

Selphie scratched her head. "That's weird; I don't remember him at all."

"Me neither," Kairi echoed.

"You know…"

"What?"

"He's kinda cute!"

The class rep laughed. Selphie was just being Selphie. Still, she thought she had a peg on everybody from the old school. How this boy eluded her grasp was something of a mystery and begged for investigation. "Do you have the yearbook for last year?"

The cheery girl put a finger to her chin and brightened. "Yeah, I left it in my bag; you wanna see who's in my class?"

Kairi nodded and followed her friend out the door.

Despite the loud collective celebration of school's ending, Sora remained dormant in hibernation. He stirred as a hand roughly shook him into consciousness.

"Rise and shine sleepyhead, class is over, just wanted to let you know that before you decide to spend the night here," Riku joked.

The blue-eyed brunet yawned and stretched his arms out in a none-too-subtle display of shaking off the z's. "Thanks, I guess…"

"No sweat, see you tomorrow."

Sora's tired eyes followed Riku's escape through the exit. He looked around and saw that the room was empty. Staring out the window, he eyed the setting sun shooting beams of orange over campus.

The school was quite beautiful. Destiny High was built around an open air courtyard with a big water fountain in the center. The campus was composed of several longs halls conjoined at the ends. From above, the school would look like a giant geometrical "U." There were three levels to the building. All the freshman classes were stuck on the second story, seniors got to stay on the ground (for immediate escape), and the sophomores and juniors shared the top floor.

Class 2-A was in a perfect position to overlook the courtyard, which contained a well-tended garden with a variety of flowers and plants that added natural appeal to the campus. It complemented the modern, white, sleek, streamlined, but slightly sterile architecture of the school.

The soft orange hues that washed over the landscape let him know that it was getting late. He slung his bag over the shoulder and started for the door. Right when he was about to twist the knob, it opened.

"Oh!" Kairi cried out. "What are you still doing here?"

She had just returned from Selphie's homeroom, which took longer than expected since the bubbly girl decided to report her findings on all the "hottest, cutest, and sexiest guys" in her class. It had taken her awhile to finish when all Kairi wanted to do was look in the yearbook for info on Sora.

The boy backed up a few steps to let the class representative in. "Just woke up," he answered.

"Funny," she deadpanned. Her sense of humor was slightly warped by her position as class rep. Classroom shenanigans were never funny. She walked in to grab her bag, which was lying by her desk. "I was wondering…"

Sora gave her a questioning look.

"What school did you come from?" she pressed.

"DMS" he replied, which was short for Destiny Middle School. It was the same school she went to.

"That's strange…" she trailed.

He raised an eyebrow.

"It's just that I don't remember you, and I thought I knew everybody from DMS."

He wasn't surprised. He only tenuously attended, and in his last year, he hardly ever showed up for class. But thanks to the power of "No Child Left Behind," he was promoted to Destiny High regardless. He only shrugged to her dissatisfaction.

It didn't look like she was going to pry any answers from him about the topic, so she decided to move on to the next issue. It was time to nip the proverbial bud. "For future reference," she started, "don't sleep in class again. I'll only let it slide today."

The boy furrowed his brow. "Whatever makes you happy." Seeing that it was all she had to say, he promptly left the room.

She let out a sigh. "Don't tell me I've got another Riku on my hands," she muttered to herself.

When she had looked into Selphie's yearbook, the only thing she found of Sora was one picture with his name. That was it. He wasn't part of any club or any organization; he didn't have any scholarly distinctions, and not even a quote, it was like he never existed.

Sora Hikari.

"Who are you?"