You Belong With Me
Chapter 1


Summer was about over, and Namine was still hopeless. She spent the final two weeks of vacation shut up into her room, the T.V. off, iPod constantly blasting sappy love songs, and covering her plain white walls in green post-it notes coming up with the plan. Backing away from the wall, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the what could be one thousand useless plans and sighed hopelessly.

If the twins (Xion and Xala) had been in town, they would have camped out in her backyard, then climbed in through her window every morning just to help their buddy out. But, they were in Atlantica, visiting their cousin Flounder until- Namine suddenly looked at her calender, and, as expected, July 30th was circled in green- July 30th, which was today. She was a bit taken back, because she half-expected Xion, Xala, and occasionally their little siblings Xe Xe and Zexion to be crawling into her window in crisis mode.

“Maybe I could trip Kairi and break her leg,” Namine looked at plan number seventeen, which sounded needlessly harmful two weeks ago. And it sounded perfect at the moment. She paced on the fluffy carpet, glancing at various ideas:

Push Kairi down steps. Save her. Roxas likes bravery!
Confess.
Read sappy romantic novels. Use them as leverge
Have Xion and/or Xala w/ the help of Xe Xe shove Roxas in a closet with pics of me. Let him out after two months

And they just got worse from there. She ripped one off the wall that was actually her school supply list, crumpled it, and tossed it in the wire basket next to her white desk, and fell back onto her bed, which seemed really soft to her. Sleep deprivation does that to a person. Her eyes were starting to close...Maybe a little break would clear her head...

BAM!

Her door swung- no, slammed- open, hitting the wall and causing loose bits of ceiling to fall. Cursing her dad for buying a crappy home in the fifth district (not a good one), she stood up and looked at the door. Xion and Xala stood in the threshold, holding various kinds of sugary snacks cradled in the toothpick-sized arms.


Xala looked ridiculous. Her hair, which was black, like her dad's, was pulled back from her face- her hair was longer than ever- , her  bangs were grazing the top of her sunglasses. She put and had on her hip, and a giant loaf of bread tumbled to the floor, then rolled to Namine's house-slippered feat. Xala jerked her sunglasses off her head and looked around the room. “We are never leaving you alone again.”

“Um, good to see you too?” Namine placed the bread on her desk.

Xion pulled a post-it from the wall and looked at it questioningly, “'Toss Roxas down three flights of stairs. Tie Kairi up, makes sure she doesn't visit. Never leave hospital.'”

“Wow,” Xala blinked twice under sunglasses. Looking around the room, she noticed most of the post-its were covered in stupid plans. Except one, which said, “Milk, eggs, candy.” She plucked it off the wall.

Namine snatched the post it then tossed it into the trash, “Shopping list.” She shrugged. The iHome started playing "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift, then Namine turned it off out of annoyance.

“Here's what we have to do- eh, I got nothing,” Xala sat down on Namine's mushroom chair. She crossed her legs and gave a look to her sister who just shrugged.

“School's gunna suck!” Namine sighed, falling back onto her bed. Her duvet fluffed up around her.

POP!

Namine looked up in shock at Xion, who never yells, let alone smacks. “Be happy! At least he doesn't know yet!”

The Next Day, At School

“I remember when the twins were sixth graders,” Namine informed Xala and Xion as they led the twin- who were now proud Freshmen- Xe Xe and Zexion, down the street. Over the summer, Xe Xe had gotten into a fight with Zexion, leaving them very bruised: Zexion was limping rather horrid, and Xe Xe had her jaw wired shut. But, Xala was quick to note that Xe Xe had won, and the house fight record was:

Xe Xe: 8-3
Zexion: 3-8

Xe Xe- and only because she couldn't talk- carried a white board and a purple marker with her, just so she could “talk” by writing whatever she wanted to say down. Xion had told Namine that Xe Xe used to just kick Zexion in his bad leg, which furthered the limp.

“When both were shorter than gnomes?” Xala snickered. She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked at Xe Xe's board, which read: “Not funny.” Xala just shrugged and turned her attention back to Xion and Namine.

They reached the school, which seemed bigger than last year. A few students crowded the walk area, chit chatting just to catch up after a summer away. There was no sign of  Roxas and Kairi, who, as Xala had put it, were probably fighting, which would end the relationship. Namine then rolled her eyes and smacked her friend in the back of the head.

“First period?” Xala asked when they arrived at her lockers. “I'm stuck with Vexen.” She opened her locker.

Mr. Even Vexen was the chemistry teacher at the school. He was very tall, with suken eyes and very long hair. His voice was like nails on a chalk board, and every day in class he would rag about how Saix was with principal Xemnas. None of the one thousand students in the school could stand the man, because of his horrid disposition.

“Us too,” Xion and Namine shared a monotonic sigh before staring at the chemistry door. If asked about it, they would have claimed to see a flash of lightening and heard a very bad chord on the organ ringing from the music room.

“Did you bring garlic like I asked?” Xion poked Xala. Xala nodded and fished a few cloves from the pockter of her bag and gave them to her sister. Xion took one clove, then pulled out a string, turning it into a necklace. She did that to the other two. “To ward off  Dr. I'm-in-love-with-the-principal!” She laughed.

They each high-fived before Xala gasped. “LOOK!” She smacked Namine's arm, then grabbed Xe Xe as she trudged by. “At Xe Xe's beautiful eye color!” Xe Xe gave her sister a confused looked.

“Ehmagosh, Namine!” Kairi waved to her friend. Namine weakly waved back. “Summer? Good? Great! My was fabu, thanks for asking! Buh-bye!'” She skipped off, jerking Roxas with her.

The twins, plus Namine and Xe Xe shared a round of confused looks before Xala pushed Xe Xe down the hall. As if someone was giving them cue cards, they looked at the wall-clock, which told them to go to Dr. Vexen's lab.

The lab was in the deepest darkest parts of the entire school: the basement. Pipes leaked. The floors creaked. And when Vexen spoke, children could almost hear the sound of a poor kitten dying out in the hall.Our trio of heroines stood right in front of the door, watching the green smoke leak from the bottom.

“What about health code?” Namine looked at her friends, her hand frozen on the doorknob.

“Screw health code! We're gonna be late!” Xala opened the door.

Rumor was that Vexen always tied his late victims to the leaky pipes by the toes and watched them suffer. But, that was just a rumor. Started by Axel. Which truly meant one thing: unbelieveable!

They walked into the room just as the bell chimed. “Glad you could make it, one second early. Take a seat.” He gestured to the two lab tables in back. A boy was sitting at one. The boy had spikey brown hair, and the same blue eyes as Roxas.

Namine took a seat by the boy, letting the twins be together. “I'm Namine, nice to meet you,” She told him, pulling out her binder.

“Sora.” Sora replied, never looking away from the board, where Mr. Vexen wrote his notes on learning.

The bell rang about one hour later, letting the students leave from the lab. Sora was gone in a matter of seconds, Namine, Xe Xe, and Xala not far behind him. They reached the main level, and they all (Sora included) fell to their knees and kissed the floor. Everyone but the Freshmen understood why they were kissing the hallway.

“So, where'd you move from?” Namine asked as they walked towards English with Madame Larxene.

“Atlantica.” He replied.

The twins snapped, “We didn't see you there this summer-”

“Because I had already moved here,” Sora informed them. He slammed his locker and all four of them made their way to Larxene's classroom, which held a note saying go to the roof.

“Is it just me, or are all the teachers crazy in this school?”

“The only normal one is Xaldin, but he's just an over-grown monkey!” Xala said.

“You're school is...interesting,” Sora observed. “Who's that?”

“Kairi. But she's too busy sucking face with Roxas.”

“Then why did she smack him, Namine?”