The New Me

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the characters. Nor do I make any money off of them. The characters are property of their respective creators/companies.
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Chapter 8

He knew it was a dumb thing to do. He knew that anyone with half a brain would have told him he was asking for trouble. But the idea popped in his head as he watched Sora sail over the steps and beat him by a good two seconds. Hell must have frozen over just then, he swore he heard the devil screaming about a thermostat as his brain declared: ‘Sora is worth having.’

He knew it was a bold move even as he walked up the steps, but he figured she do like any other girl. Stare at him confused. Maybe blush a little, or even run without saying anything. But really! Punching him in the face, and doing so hard enough to knock him back on his ass, that was just uncalled for!

He looked up from his place on the floor to see Sora fuming. ‘She’ was pissed, quite pissed. “WHAT THE HELL!” Riku shook his head and reached up to his jaw. It really hurt. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“What do I think I’m doing? What about you! You punched me!!”

“You kissed me! You self-appointed charmer. YOU KISSED ME! I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU!” Sora stomped his feet and began to walk off the porch. Riku wouldn’t have it though. He stood up and grabbed Sora by the arm.

“Hold on, you can’t just hit people and walk away.” Sora turned with the intent to smack him, but Riku caught his hand.

“I’ll hit you all I like, bastard! You can’t go around kissing people!” Sora went to kick him this time, but Riku circled around, moving Sora with him. The other boy fell off balance and toppled down the steppes. Riku not wanting to let go, went with him. They landed with a thud and Sora instantly began kicking again, this time Riku received a few blows.

“ARG!” He let go. “Knock it off! Why can’t you just talk to me!”

“I don’t talk to perverts!” He kicked him one last time as he stood up and began to walk away. Riku watched from his place on the ground; finally as Sora entered his yard, he jumped up and ran over to the fence. He climbed it and ran to cut the other off. Sora watched him and clenched his fist. “Want me to hit you again!”

Riku shook his head, he walked up to Sora, whom he could see was just as angry as he was. He stopped less than a foot away from Sora, he reached out, grabbed the boys arms, and leaned in close.

Sora was ready to kick, he was ready to scream, he was ready to show Riku he wasn’t going to take this, but he wasn’t ready for Riku to say ‘I’m sorry.’

“You’re…what?”

“Sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know anything about you. And you don’t know me. I didn’t mean to cause you such anger.” He let go. Sora glanced around confused, where was the boastful, cocky kid he just punched two seconds ago. He watched Riku run his hand through his hair, almost in the same fashion as Leon, before nodding and walking away.

‘Well damn…and here I thought… I had you right where I wanted you.’ He turned and watched Riku enter his house and disappear. ‘I guess it will take more than a few words and punches to get me home.’


Sora sat in his room with his hand resting on a plastic bag of ice. His mother’s temper had flared up again when he walked in the house. He was still wearing jeans, but they had been girl’s jeans none the less. So he ate up in his room, and began writing his first letter home. However, he was writing with his left hand, since Riku’s jaw had left his right feeling a little lifeless.

‘I hope I didn’t break it,’ he thought as he wrote down today’s events in the letter. He had already written about his mom’s theatrics, and meeting Riku, and was now up to the point were he received that awkward kiss.

‘When Leon reads this he’ll flip out,’ Sora paused to laugh for a moment imagining the older teen going crazy with jealousy and threatening to kill a boy he’d never meet. Of course, Sora was sure to leave out the few details of his own childish behavior. ‘But I will tell him I’ve been wearing my other clothes. It’s like making a new life. Instead of only dressing like a girl occasionally, I do it more often. And I’m taking new, different, approaches to making friends. So I’m not completely lying…’

Sora finished writing and set his pen down. He looked it over and decided he’d rewrite what he had once his hand was feeling better. He set the letter a side and picked up his plate, ‘Riku will have school tomorrow. I wonder if I’ll ever even talk to him again. I probably will since he apologized already.’

He walked down the stairs and past his mother without a word. Once in the kitchen he placed his dish in the dishwasher. He then looked out the side window of his kitchen, form here he could see Riku’s house and a window, but the blinds were closed.

‘You don’t really seem to mind me being a jerk. So I guess the next best solution is to crush your crush. I might have to be haggled for a while, but it’s worth it.’

He walked out the kitchen and turned out the light.

‘We’ll see how much you like me when you find out I’m a boy.’


The gang was more silent than ever as they went through the streets. Only two more days of school left, and no one was talking about what to do for summer vacation, mostly because everyone was doing their best not to over turn the tension between Kairi and Riku.

At first she had been worried about the bruise on his face, but once she heard the story behind it, it seemed as if she wanted to add one of her own. Riku on the other hand brushed her off. He wasn’t too concerned about Kairi being angry with him. She had made it a point to get this way every time he showed an interest in any girl since Riku was thirteen.

“Alison Danson.” He said suddenly, and everyone turned to face him. “Alison, that was her name, my first girlfriend. I was thirteen, she was thirteen, and all you did was talk about how thirteen year olds didn’t need girlfriends.” He turned to Kairi who snorted and began to petal on her bike faster.

“Then there was Jessica, and Frankie, and lets not forget Vivian…”

“Shut up!” Kairi stopped her bike along side Riku’s. “All you’re doing is proving to everyone just how insensitive you are. You have a new girlfriend at the drop of a hat. It’s terrible. I can’t believe you’d do this to me.”

“Do what to you?” he seemed a little confused.

“This! All these girls, and then you have the nerve to tell me every time I disagree that I’m not your best friend, or I don’t support your dreams. HA! You are so self centered I can’t understand why we’re friends half the time.”

Riku narrowed his eyes, “So then let’s stop being friends!”

“Fine! Come one Selphie!!”

Selphie looked around as if to find another girl with the same name before giving in and following after Kairi. Tidus and Wakka shook there heads.

“You’re just striking out with all the ladies this week.” Wakka said jokingly.

“Nah, Kairi and Riku will make up by the time we’re let out today. No worries. Right?” Tidus nodded at Riku.

“Yea, no worries. I’ll make up with Kairi at lunch, and Selphie will come back with her. Then I’ll make up with Sora later today. And the first day of summer vacation, the group will have a new member.”

“You really think that’s a good plan, ya? You think Kairi will accept the new girl?” Wakka asked seemingly unconvinced.

“Yea, she will. Kairi’s kind of like a dog. She just a little hostile cuz’ she feels her turf has been invaded. As soon as they get to know each other she’ll love Sora to death.”

Tidus shook his head and laughed, “Well if you plan to make up with Kairi, you’d better not let that dog analogy get back to her.”

“Hey, it’s like you said! No worries.”


Chapter 9

Sora had decided to go out for a walk again, this time he took a different path. He walked around out of the residential area and onto a commercial street. There were lots of little shops set up. Some selling clothes, some little novelty shops, and a few specialty stores and some tourist shops. It was a quaint little district. There were some palm trees planted, the sidewalk was made out of red bricks, there were lots of people out walking about since it was lunch time, they were all lined up looking into the little restaurants here and there. There were also a few teenagers about; they were obviously tourist, since Sora knew the kids of the island were still in school.

The few groups teenagers Sora pasted proved to be as easy to fool as Riku. He walked past a few groups of guys, who showed their approval of his outfit with a few obscene cat calls, to which he shook his head.

‘Man, no matter where you go, men are pigs….but I guess I really can’t talk.’

He walked down the street, today wearing a red sleeveless shirt, a short sleeve white hooded jacket trimmed in blue, but it had a black back to it; it came down to his waist. He also wore a black skirt, with three sliver buttons on the side and the image of a three pronged crown embroidered on the bottom of the skirt over his left leg. He wore black boots that came stopped just above his ankles, and once again they matched his gloves, and now the hat he wore on his head, that sported a pin of the same crown on the skirt.

The crown on the skirt and hat were actually a reoccurring image on Sora’s clothes. Aerith made it a point to add the crown to all of Sora’s clothes since he took to wearing the symbol on around his neck. He usually wore the charm on a chain, but today, and as he did everyday he wore his ‘outfits’ he wore it on a black choker.

It was kind of hot today, so he was regretting the jacket, he walked around with it unzipped, in an attempt to cool off. He walked around the shops until he found the street that led down to the docks. The docks were relatively empty, except for a few people waiting for the ferry to go to the largest of the five islands, which was also the most popular tourist spot. There were also some workers here and there, and a couple of shops set up to catch your eye getting on and off the island, but what caught Sora’s attention was a lone little pier off on its own at the bottom of a hill.

He walked out on it to find a few little row boats tied up along side it, some were decorated a little. One had flowers on it, another had a flaming blitz ball on it, and the other decorated one was painted all black. There were two other boats, but they weren’t done up. Sora walked all the way down to the end of the pier, for there he could see a small island, it was about a forth of a mile from the island he was on. From here he could see it was covered in lush green trees, and one that stood towering over all the others like a guardian.

‘That place looks amazing…but by the looks of those tree’s it doesn’t look like there’s anyone over there.’ He looked around the pier and eyed the boats. ‘I can’t steal them…but maybe I can find another one.’ He left the little pier and walked up and down the docks, eventually he found a man tending his boat that had a little raft up on dry land. Something in his mind told him to keep walking, but he finally chose to walk up to him.

“Um, excuse me, sir?” The man turned around, “Um, I wanted to know, if that’s your little raft over there.”

The man nodded, “Yea, what of it.”

“Well, do you think I could borrow it?”

They man walked forward and got close enough for Sora to realize he smelled like bait. “Why should I lend it to you? You up to no good?”

“Err…no. I just want to go to that little island over there.” And he pointed to the one he was looking at earlier. The man looked over and smiled.

“Ah, you want to go explore Destiny Island, well why didn’t you say so young lady. Of course you can take it. Heh, I remember when I was a boy I used to go out there myself, has some of the best make-out spots among the islands.”

Sora blinked a little confused at how suddenly, this man started reminiscing about his childhood, he wanted to just get on the raft and take of, but he wouldn’t have it. Sora ended up listening to the man talk about the island for another twenty minutes. Finally, the man let Sora go.

Sora got on the little raft and paddled out to the island. ‘Destiny Island, what a strange name…but I’m all for a place that’s lacking in people.’

Selphie normally enjoyed lunch; it was her favorite time of day. And today’s lunch should have been wonderful. She brought her favorite lunch box with her, the one with the three trains going around it, and had packed delicious meal of three chocolate-chip coolies, six lollypops, fruit punch, a chocolate bar, ten kisses – two of five different flavors, and had gotten a slice of cake, and ice cream bar, and one apple from the cafeteria. And yet here she sat, slowly chewing her food watching Kairi grind her teeth in anger over Riku’s latest obsession.

The very noticeable mark on his face had caused the story to spread like wildfire, even if there was only today and tomorrow left for school, suddenly every boy wanted to get a look at the girl that decked the schools most infamous charmer. And every girl wanted to find her and congratulate her on teaching him a lesson.

“I can’t understand why you’re so angry about it,” Selphie said causing Kairi to cease in the destruction of her teeth. “You know Riku. He never stays interested in a girl for more than two weeks. Its liked he’s cursed or something…”

Kairi nodded, “I know! And he knows he’s just gonna lose heart after a week or so, that’s why I’m so angry! I mean, I have only been trying all year to get him to eat a paopu fruit with me, you’d think he’d get it by now.”

“Maybe…he hasn’t noticed that you’re the only girl he’s kept around for years at a time…Excluding me of course.”

“Yea, but you don’t really count. It used to be just me and Riku, and even that was longer than any of his relationships.”

Both the girls sighed.

“I just can’t understand why he does this. Anyone with less than half a brain could tell him that I’m clearly the girl he’s been looking for.”

“Oh naturally. I mean, every one of his girlfriends has had some trait of yours.” Kairi nodded in agreement. “So, you going to make up with him?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

Selphie shrugged, “Well you’d better think fast, because here he comes.” Kairi turned around to see Riku walking across the courtyard toward their table. She openly made a face of disgust in his direction to which Selphie laughed, causing her to nearly choke on her cookie.

“Don’t die,” Riku said jokingly as he sat down in a free chair. “So, Kairi, still angry I see.”

“Well, as you know Riku, we dogs remember the people we hate.” She took a sip of her drink. Selphie laughed again, this time dribbling punch out of her mouth.

“Man! Who told you that?”

“It doesn’t matter. What do you want?”

“I want to calm you down,” Riku slid over a little closer to Kairi, “I know you’re angry. And I can understand why. I’m a louse sometimes. It sucks having me for a best friend, but really Kairi, if I didn’t have you, life would suck.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really. Everyone needs that certain someone who will deal with all of their bullshit…its just unfortunate that I come with more bull than others.”

Kairi turned to face him, “How long do you think this will last? You and that girl. Another couple of days? A week? Two weeks?”

“I don’t know.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Look I can’t explain why I dump so many girls in such a short amount of time. I just do. They start to bore me…I mean. I know that sounds rude, but it just seems like, what ever spark it was that made me fall for them dies out really quickly.” Riku rest his head on Kairi’s shoulder. “I really wish I could keep a girlfriend…but I can’t bring my self to stay with someone my heart doesn’t care for.”

“You stay with me.”

“That’s different. You’re my friend. I’ll never get tired of you.”

“I love how you talk like were toys!” She pushed him off her.

“Look! I don’t know how to explain it any other way! It’s just a feeling I get ok. It’s a feeling like being around those girls isn’t right. But I’m sure about this one. I really do want to have something with Sora. She’s…she’s…different, for the others. It’s a feeling I’ve got.”

“But I guess I’m not different enough…” Kairi muttered and began picking bits off her sandwich and casting them aside. Riku sat and watched her in silence, and Selphie watched the both of them. She did her best not to fidget, but silence made her do that.

“Ok,” Riku broke the silence, “How’s this. I’ll get Sora, have her hang out with us for a few days. You can evaluate her. If you two get along, I’ll ask her out. If you two hate each other, I’ll let this drop.”

Kairi looked up enthusiastically, “Really!”

“Yea, really. But you’d better not strive to hate her, give her a chance, she’s really cool.”

“Anyone who punches you, Casanova, can’t be all bad.” Riku smiled and got up, he pat Kairi on the head and took off to find the guys.

Selphie looked a little confused. “You’re really gonna give her a chance?”

“HELL NO!”

Selphie laughed so hard she nearly fell of her chair, “You’re horrible! Poor Riku…”

“Poor Sora is more I like it. No one punches my Riku and gets away with it! Are you with me!”

“Booyaka! I can’t wait!” The girls through their hands into the air in a great rallying motion before laughing even more at the thought of hanging out with Sora.


Chapter 10

To Sora’s amazement, Destiny Island was covered in little structures here and there. The old man had told him that there was a group of kids that still used the island as their little get away, but he wasn’t expecting anything like the massive tree house that lopped around the three largest tree’s of the island, the little pier, the house with the stair well in it to reach the higher ground on the island, the bridges, the look out tower, and the pulley rope you could use to slide down off of it. Mind you the brigade on the opposite end of the island had fallen apart, but even that had been solved by a ladder and set of stairs.

‘These guys put a lot of work into this place. The gang would love them!’

By far, what caught Sora’s eye the most about this place was its unusual beauty. There were places in Traverse Town that he used to think were some of the most beautiful on the planet, but this place topped it. It was breath taking.

‘I can see why the old man said it was a good make out spot.’ Sora thought as he stopped next to the rock face that ran along next to the broken bridge. It was here that he found the island had a supply of fresh water that poured out a spring; however, it mixed with sea water as soon as it came out. The water fall on the other side of the island also offered fresh water, and it emptied out into a little pool.

He put his hands under the spouting water and took a drink. ‘Its getting late...I should start to head home. My gets off at five, if I go now I should just beat her.’ Sora shook his hands to get off the excess water and headed back to his raft on the other side of the island. To his surprise, as he exited the little tunnel-slash-doorway he head someone squeal.

He stopped, crouched down, and looked out from the tunnel toward the source of the scream, and a wave of excitement, maybe a little fear crept over him. There standing on the pier and next to his raft was that same group of kids he had seen hanging around and with them of course, was their leader, Riku.

“Eiiiii!!” Selphie jumped out of her little boat without even tying it up. She ran up the shore and stood on the source of her excitement. “A RAFT! How cool is this! I call dibs.”

“Dibs my ass!” Riku tied up his boat and walked down the pier, if anyone should get it, it’s me! I’m the one always saying we need to build a raft.”

Kairi nodded in agreement. “He’s right, I think Riku should get it.”

“Yea, and then we can all fix it up together and-”

“Not this again!” Selphie rolled her eyes, she reached down and picked up one of the ores on the raft. “Riku if you start talking about leaving the islands again!!”

“Hey wait a minute,” Wakka pointed to Selphie, “Where did you get those.”

Selphie held up the ore, “What this it. Was on the raft.”

“But if there were ores with the raft…” Riku looked around, “That means someone rode it here. It didn’t wash up…”

“OH GOD! THERE’S SOMEONE LOOSE ON THE ISLAND!” Tidus ducked behind Wakka. “Let’s leave and get help…”

“Cry baby, we are not getting help!” Riku took the ores from Selphie. “At least only three people could fit on this thing! We’ve got who ever it is out numbered! Let’s split up and search for them.

‘Shit!’ Sora turned around in the little doorway and ran to the other side of the island.

“Hey now, Riku, we know your always looking for adventure, but this is a bit dangerous, ya?” Wakka said now slowly backing up towards his boat, Tidus slinking along with him.

“Fine! If you two are going to be cry baby’s about it. You stay here and guard the boats. Kairi, Selphie, you two search this side of the island, I’ll go check the opposite end.”

The kids all nodded and set off, except Tidus and Wakka who began thinking up a hasty escape, just incase the owners of the raft were fierce pirates, or escaped prisoners, or worse…


Sora ran through the water falling out of the spring and up the stair well. From here he could see the palm tress and the little bluff that signaled the end of the island.

‘Damn…I can’t swim back in boots. And even if I could, they’d still see me even if I set now.’ He ran up the little bluff and began inspecting the rock face. ‘I can’t believe the kids that old man was talking about were Riku and his friends.’ He used a small ledge to guide himself along to a place were the rock face formed a kind of shelf just above the palm trees.

‘I have to hide somewhere…’ He ran his hands along the wall and looked up to see several tree branches sticking out over the rock. ‘It doesn’t look like they go up there.’ He took hold of the uneven surface, “Ok! Time to see if hanging out with Yuffie gave me any ninja skill.” And with that, Sora very carefully pulled himself up into the towering trees. And he did so just in time, as he pulled his leg into the branches he caught site of Riku coming through the door holding what looked like a wooden sword.

‘Hm…I think I can make it to the top of the big tree from here,’ and he began carefully weaving his way through the islands unexplored canopy.

Riku had chosen to bring his little wooden sword along, he knew it wouldn’t be but help if the intruder or intruders had a gun. ‘I hope luck is on my side,’ he thought as he looked out over the broken bridge. ‘I’d better not jump down, best not to make noise.’

So he took the ladder down and carefully wade through the spring water as it churned with the ocean. Once past the bridge, he stayed close to the ground. ‘They might be hiding among the palms, if I stay low to the ground here, they won’t notice I’m above them…’ Riku slowly made his way past the look out tower, and over to the little ledge, he couldn’t see anyone hiding along the trees, but he still inched closer still.

He had been very cautious not to make a sound, only listening to his own breathing, the sounds of the ocean, and some birds in the background. As he slowly began to look directly over the edge, he felt his heart stop as someone cried his name as loud as possible. Riku jumped up and went running for the source over by the door.

To his surprise, he found Kairi standing on the bridge looking over at him.

“What! What is it? Is someone hurt!?”

“No,” she shook her head, “I just came to tell you we didn’t find anything.” Riku rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Well thanks Kairi, but now if there was anyone here, you’ve definitely alerted them to us looking for them!”

“Oh knock it off, Riku what exactly are you hoping we find! Drug smugglers! There is no adventure here, just a washed up raft.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well, did you find anything?” Riku shuffled his feet and muttered a ‘No’. “See, now come on, lets go look and see what e can do with that raft, ok?”

“Fine.” Riku gave in half heartedly. He was hoping to find someone.

Sora had managed to hide himself in the tree tops over the waterfall. From here he watched the girls search the tree houses, the beach, the little circular island, and what seemed to be the entrance to a cave that he had missed earlier.

‘I’m never going to beat my mother home now…’ He thought as he watched Kairi return with Riku. From the tree he observed the kids goof off and joke around. Selphie voiced quite loudly that she was relieved to not be studying today.

“It’s great that they leave the test for elective classes until the last day! I mean, a test in art! Piece of cake.”

“Yea, it is.” Kairi had sat down to begin making a sand castle. Selphie skipped along with her jump rope. Tidus and Wakka had started a game of two player blitz ball and Riku sat by himself on the little circular island.

‘He’s the leader, but kind of a loner,’ Sora thought, ‘Kind of like Leon.’ Sora sighed, a little happy at the thought of his crush, but a little saddened by it too. ‘I hope he doesn’t get mad I’m going to have to cheat on him…but it’s only a bit.’ He began swinging his legs in the trees. ‘But once I’m sure Riku likes me, I’ll ‘accidentally’ reveal I’m a boy. He’ll get pissed. Harass me. Mom will get upset, and Aerith will suggest to take me back to Traverse Town.’

Sora stopped swing his feet and pondered his situation. ‘I wonder if it’s really cheating if we never were really going out?’ He started back to swinging watching the kids hang out, when suddenly he heard a noise. He ceased moving at once and looked around. He was hopping to spot a bird or a squirrel, but to his misfortune, all he saw was that the branch he was sitting on was starting to crack.

“Shit!” he whispered, and started to reach out for another branch. The one he was sitting on started to give away more and more the more he moved around to grab another. Finally, his hands took hold of a branch diagonally above him; he started to pull himself up, using the breaking branch to push on with his feet. All the extra activity caused the already unstable branch to snap and fall into the pool at the base of the waterfall.

The branch hit with a loud splash, everyone on the island came to look at the branch. Riku was the last to arrive. They all gathered around the base of the pool and looked at the branch.

“What do you think cause that?” Wakka said to Riku pointing at the branch.

“Termites?” Selphie said optimistically. Riku shook his head.

“More like our intruder!” And Riku jumped into the little pool; the others just watched.

Sora was kicking his feet like mad, after the branch had fallen, his feet were left dangling in the air. He was trying his best to pull his feet up onto the branch he desperately clung to. But the more he struggled, the more he lost his grip. Finally, after a good twenty seconds, Sora’s hands gave up, and he let go.