White Houses - Chapter 2

My heart squeezed as the door shut behind me. This was it. The last time I would ever see my house; maybe the last time I would ever see Radiant Garden again. All of my childhood memories, gone. Perhaps I would never see any of these people again.



But despite all of this, my heart sped with excitement as I slid into the car. I prayed that the sorrows would end, and I would step forward to realize my wish. And who knows: Starting a journey might not be so hard, or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, after all, and they share the same sky - one sky, one destiny.



Heh. That sounded poetic. Maybe I ought to write that down for future reference.



SrRsSrRs...



All I can say is that five hour car rides are possibly the worst things that a fourteen-year-old girl can experience. I now realize how lucky I am to be an only child; it's bad enough with parents that don't seem to have a shred of dignity ("I have to go pee! Let's stop at this gas station, do you need to pee, Kai-kai?''), but to have brothers and sisters along for the ride... I shudder at the thought.



Anyway, we arrived at our destination without too much of a hassle: 3890 Paopu Drive. I stepped out of the car, trying desparately to find a fault in the house we had.



I couldn't. The grass was beautifully displayed, probably sod, and was the ideal green people believe grass ought to be. There was a little flower patch, all the right flowers in all the right places. And the house was amazingly gorgeous. I did have a small problem with our house. In fact, it was the same for every house my eyes could see.



Every single house was a spotless white. It was as if someone went to every house in the neighborhood and bleached it. The glare of the sun reflected off of the white houses, giving them a holy look about them. I hated it immediately.



"Kairi, can you help unpack, sweetie?" Unpacking. I had nearly forgotten. Inwardly groaning, I made my way toward the moving truck. My hopes of less boxes than I originally thought were whisked in the winds when I saw box after box, stacked upon each other. Mom looked at me and laughed. "Don't worry; Daddy's gonna haul most of these in. You just get your things and set your room up, 'mkay? Oh, and I'll get the mattress for you, so don't worry about a thing. It'll be great, Kai-kai." I had the feeling that if she squealed any more, she'd be mistaken for some piglet.



Great. Sure. "Yeah. It will, huh?" I picked up my few boxes (thank God I didn't have too much stuff; just some clothes, books, and little doodads I picked up at Twilight occasionally) and pushed the slightly ajar door fully open with my hip. It was just as fairytale perfect inside as it was outside. I had an urge to make it unperfect, unique. The whole "Made in China" feel was starting to get on my nerves.



I walked upstairs. Daddy had been in this house before, and he had drawn us a whole diagram of the innards. Granted, it was more lines than pictures, but Mom and I had long since learned to decipher his pictures. Walking into the room that I supposed was my own, I dropped the boxes to my side. Here starts the hard labor.



I wiped the sweat from my brow. Everything was in its place, now, except for the gaping hole where I wanted my bed to be. Smiling, I looked around. After things were set, the room looked better. Less white. Less perfect.



Mom and Daddy had put most of the boxes in the rooms that the insides were to go, but they had yet to unpack most of them. Daddy spotted me on my way down. "How's my little angel? Got everything set up? Yeah? Great. We'll finish it up here; why don't you go outside, get yourself acquainted with the new area?" He nudged me, grinning insanely. Well. That was Daddy for you.



"All right, I guess. I'll be back in a few hours. Bye." Truth was, 'acquainting myself with the new area' was the last thing I really wanted, but hey, it was better than unloading packages all day.



Our house was sort of near the neighborhood exit, and I decided that they wouldn't mind too much, as long as I didn't go get myself killed/kidnapped/raped or anything else. The streets, unlike those of Radiant Garden, were practically empty. I wondered how many people there were in Destiny Islands as I walked down the sidewalk, determined to step on every crack I found.



After a little bit, a noise broke through my concentration, and I stepped on a crackless spot. Less worried about that, now, I ran over to where I had heard the noise, ready to investigate. Then I saw it.



The beach.



Amazing. We now lived a mere fifteen minutes from a public beach. Did Daddy know anything about this?



Either way, I made a mental note to go shopping for a bathing suit in the future.



I skipped over to the beach. I wasn't going to hop into the water, of course, but walking in the sand never did anyone harm. Well. Actually...



"I got it, I got it!"



"Sora, watch out for-"



Huh?



CRASH. The person (at least, I was assuming it was a person) and I tumbled through the sand. I'm not sure who landed on top, since we were so tangled up. I think my legs were under their waist, but my head was somewhere near their legs. I heard "-that girl..." in the background.



"Oh, I'm really sorry, really! I was trying to get - and I didn' t see you at all, and - are you hurt? Of course you're hurt, I just tackled you! Oh, I really am sorry. Can I help you at all?"



"I think she'd be better off if you got off of her." A chuckle. I couldn't twist my head to see the owner of the voice.



"Oh, yeah! Sorry, sorry, sorry. Here, let me help you up." With a grunt, the weight was lifted from my legs, and a tanned hand extended to my pale one. Taking it, I looked at him as he pulled me up.



Whenever I ask what people first saw in Sora, they'd always ramble on about his puffy, bright red jumper, or his big, clown-like, yellow shoes, or his spikey chocolate hair that defied gravity, all of which I'm sure only he could pull off. But the first thing I noticed was his eyes. They were a bright cerulean blue, and they were large, seeming to drag you into their depths. True, I had blue eyes too, but mine were more of an indigo color, nowhere near as beautiful as his.



...God, now I sound as romantic as Selphie.



"My name's Sora, by the way. You look new around here. I mean, not many people live around here, and I haven't ever seen you, and believe me, I know everyone. So, what's your name?"



Earth to Kairi, someone's asking you a question. "Ah, I'm, uh, Kairi! Uh, yeah, I just moved here, and um, yeah. Nice to meet you?"



That same chuckle behind me. "Looks like someone's a little tongue-tied. Then again, Sora did just barrel into you. Riku's the name. Pleasure to meet you, and all that." I turned to see another boy, who was smirking at something (probably my hair; I tried to shake all the sand out of it).



He was, to throw away all the dignity I have left, hot. He was slightly muscular - not an ugly body builder's type, but that sort of wiry frame with smaller, more natural (and hotter) muscles, unlike Sora, who was more of a skinny boy. His shoulder-length silver hair glinted in the sunlight, along with his greenish-blue eyes.



I'm so glad I didn't start drooling on the spot. "Uh. H-hi." I'm such a moron...



His smirk seemed to get larger, like that was the response he was expecting. "Hi." He looked around, acting like he was thinking about something, but something in his eyes told me he already had his mind made up. "Hey, Sora, Kairi's probably really lost here. Why don't we show her around?" He looked at me, and I swear he winked. "You don't mind, do you?"



"Uhh..." Duhrrr... Brain malfunction.



"Yeah! C'mon, we'll show you all around!" To emphasis his point, he spread his arms wide, as if trying to hug the entire air. "What d'ya say, Kairi?"



Enthusiastic, much? Lucky for me, I snapped out of it. "Um, sure." Not like I had anything else to do.



"Alright, great!" Then his stomach growled. Blushing, Sora scratched the back of his neck. "First, anyone wanna grab a bite to eat? I'm sorta starved."



Riku rolled his eyes and punched his arm playfully. "I swear, you've got a bottomless pit for a stomach. Fine, let's go." He looked over his shoulder. "You coming?"



"Oh. Yeah!" I ran up to them.