Roxas sighed as his parents drove him to his new school. Truth to be told, he never really wanted to go there. The public school he had been previously wasn't bad at all, and the prospect of leaving all of his friends behind wasn't adding much to the attractiveness of it all.

He remembered when his parents encoraged him to try and enter the school through it's scholarship program. Usually, entering this school was something only the wealthy would achieve, however, once in a while, someone managed to get in through a scholarship. And this time, that someone seemed to be Roxas. In the end, his parents guilt tripped/forced him to go ahead and enroll the school.

Suddenly, he noticed that they had arrived. He sighed as saw the school getting closer and closer, untill they stopped at the school's parking lot. Roxas got out of the car, and as his father helped him take the luggage out of the car, he noticed someone from the school approaching. It was a tall young woman, seemingly in her twenties, with blonde hair tied in a bun and two long bangs, and blue eyes. She approached them, and looking at a list she had on her hand, she said:

"You must be... Roxas Croft, correct? Welcome to our school." She extended her hand for Roxas to shake. He shook, despite being more out of politeness than entusiasm. "Now, come with me, and I'll take you to your room." She smiled at him as she said this.

Roxas sighed and turned around to say goodbye to his parents.

"Are you sure it's too late to change my mind?" Roxas said, looking at his father.

"Yes. Now go there, and make us proud." His father said, ruffling his hair. Roxas sighed and hugged his mother. He then turned around and followed the woman, who introduced herself as Quistis Trepe. They walked through what appeared to be the male's dorm, climbing seemingly endless stairs. Finally, they arrived their destination.

"Ok, here is your room. Your room mate, Cloud Strife should be here soon. You can go and make yourself confortable." She said, as she started to walk away.

"Wait, room mate?" Roxas said, looking surprised. Nobody had said anything about a roomate.

Quists looked back to him. "Yeah... We usually don't do things like that, but this year we had more students than predicted, so we'll have to do things like this for a while. Now, I must go. If you have any problems, don't hesitate in talking to me. My office is on the third floor of the main building." With that, she winked at him and walked away.

Roxas sighed. He entered the room. He had to admit that it wasn' that bad. It was rather obvious that it hadn't been made with two people in mind tough. The room was average sized, with what seemed to be a small walk-in closet, a bathroom, two beds, and two desks. The floor was made of wood, and the walls were white and barren. Roxas put his bag on the nearest bed, and started to unpack, not really thinking wether his room mate would want that bed or not.

Cloud Strife really didn't want to come to this school either, but he couldn't refuse to go, not after Cid had forked out a vast amount of money just to get him in. The teenager was smart and the old pilot had seen potential in the boy. He could do alot better than a little grotty garage. Owning and running his own garage meant it took a while to save up but they seemed to have managed.

A loud revving sound and the sound of tyres screeching to a halt indicated Clouds arrival. This school was.. well, huge! A hell of a lot bigger than the previous high school he'd attended.

There were two figures sat on the motorbike (pride and joy of both the males as they'd both made the thing from scratch). The driver appeared to be a middle aged blonde haired man. The second, much smaller figure also had blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes.

"Fancy place, eh?" The old pilot spoke as he looked over his 'sons' new school and home.

"I guess." Cloud murmered in responce. This place was alot fancier than he was use to. Cid and Cloud lived in a small apartment above his garage. It was just the right size for two people, cozy and constantly a mess. But.. it was home. This place appeared to be the complete opposite.

"C'mon, cheer up, kid. You might actually make yerself some friends here." Cid replied, kicking down the stand and slipping from the seat. "An' there's no Seifer so you ain't gonna be in constant scraps.." The mechanic turned to face the blonde still sat on the seat. "An' Aerith comes 'ere too so your gonna 'ave someone to talk to."

Cloud slowly looked upto Cid and just nodded. That was true, atleast he'd have Aerith to talk to, though she was in a different year to him and had friends of her own. She wouldn't want to waste her time with him now. Great.

After a good ten minutes, Cid hauled both the suitcase and Cloud into the school and were greeted by a male teacher. Blonde with a British accent. "Ah, Cloud, how nice to see you." The male smiled. "Well now, say your goodbyes and I shall show you to your room."

The goodbye between the two blonde's lasted a few minutes. Cid trapped Cloud in a bear like hug and refused to let go for a moment. When he finally managed to pry himself away, the smaller male seemed close to gasping for air. "Now, be'ave yerself and I'll see you during the term." With that, Cid turned and headed out.

"Now then, shall we?" The British male had already started to lead the way, leaving Cloud to haul his suitcase along with him. This place was so big! How the hell was he supposed to find his way around this place.

"I'm sorry to have to inform you that you'll be sharing your room with another. Its uncommon but this year we appear to have more students than usual. Oh, and I'm Luxord. If you have any questions or queries, don't hesitate to come see me." They were soon walking through the boys dorms and seemed to be stood outside the blonde's new room in no time. "Ah, appears your room mates already here. I believe his names Roxas. I'll leave you to unpack now. You'll find a rule book and several leaflets in the top drawers of your desk. Those should answer any questions you have for the time being." And with that, Luxord turned and left.

((Sorry, had a hard time thinking of how to bring Cloud into it. Decided to have him as a new student too.))

((It's ok. :) I had to get out for a bit anyway.))

Roxas had just started to sort his clothes when he heard the door open.

"Guess my room mate's here." He thought, getting ready to greet him. When he saw the other boy's face, he had couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise. They looked similar enough that they could be at least cousins. Roxas shrugged it off though. Both of his parents were only children, so that was impossible.

"Hey, I'm Roxas." He said, extending his hand, and trying to at least look nice enough that he wouldn't look creepy, but that at the same time didn't look fake, despite the circumstances. There really wasn't any point in taking out his frustration on the other students.

Cloud stepped into the room, hauling the suitcase in with him. Just what the hell had Cid packed in this thing? An engine motor?! Thoughts of his suitcase were soon swapped in favour of glancing over his room mate. Hm. There were some slight resemblences, nothing too noticeable though. Well, thats what he thought anyway.

There was nothing but silence from the blonde and a glance to the hand. Though not really wanting to offend or upset the guy he was gonna be sharing a room with, he gave a slight dip of his head in greeting and spoke audibly his name; "Cloud."

"Ok then..." Roxas murmured, going back to his luggage. Then again, maybe he's room mate's unwillingness to socialise wouldn't be much of a problem. At long as he didn't bother him...

Roxas finished taking his clothes out of his suitcase and put them on a corner of thecloset. Truth to be told he hadn't brought much clothes, since they'd spend most of their time wearing an uniform, so it hardly took a quarter of the space the closet had. He then went back to his stuff and took out the laptop of it's bag. He went to the desk to plug it in, only to see that there was no plug on sight.

"Damn it." He said, as he started to look around the room for one.

Cloud wasn't much of a conversationist, Roxas would soon learn this. Unless there was anything he felt was needed to be said, then he wouldn't really say anything. But perhaps this would change over time. Who knew?

The suitcase was dumped down on the spare bed and immediatly Cloud started to unpack. Clothes, books, stationary and more books. Hm. So thats why the bag was so heavy. Looks like Cid had gone out and brought him all these books especially for this. His few sets of clothing were placed at the opposite end of the wardrobe, taking up about as much space as Roxas' had.

"Look behind the bed." He said after having watched Roxas try to plug his laptop in. Well there was a plug behind his own bed, so perhaps there was one behind the others?

Roxas took Cloud's sugestion and looked behind the bed. Sure enough, there was a plug in there. He plugged it in and then turned to Cloud. "Thanks" He said, before taking the books he had brought out of suitcase, along with a laptop mouse.

After he finished putting everything he brought in it's place, he put his suitcase under the bed, and prepared to go and check the schedules... Of course, that'd require him knowing where he was supposed to do that. Mentally smacking himself, he turned to Cloud.

"Do you know where we can see the class schedules?" He said, hoping the answer would be yes.

Cloud simply gave a nodd of his head and returned to unpacking his belongings. A laptop of his own was placed on the bedside table along with a digital alarm clock. Several pairs of sports clothing were folded and placed in a drawer.

Eventually he appeared to have finished unpacking and kicked the suitcase (still holding the books) under the bed and out of sight.

"Top drawer of your desk." Well, Luxord had said there was leaflets and whatnots in the top drawer, so perhaps there would be a schedule?

Roxas opened the drawer. Indeed, there were several things inside. A campus map, a list of clubs and other school sponsored extra-curricular activities, and a schedule. "Classes from 8 AM to 4.30 PM almost everyday... This place better be worth it." Roxas said, as he sat down and studied the clubs list, along with the schedule.

Classes from eight until half four? Ugh, great. He couldn't skip these lessons like he did in highschool either. Damn. Cloud opened his own drawer, pulling out the papers and leaflets inside. First he studied his schedule and sighed. So many lessons.. so much work. But he'd manage, he always did. "No lessons at the weekend." Next he looked over the list of clubs. Back in highschool he'd been a member of quite a few after school clubs. Perhaps he should join some here too.

"Thank God for small mercies." Roxas said, as he started to wonder just how hard would the tests be. If the ammount of classes was any indication, it sure looked like it would be no walk in the park.

He went back to the clubs list. Nothing too different from his old school, despite having more languages and sports available.

"Great, now I'll have to put with seven different kinds of jocs. This school better break stereotypes on them." He said, putting down the leaflet. He then started to study both the campus map and the schedule, trying to see where the classes were. "You've got to be kidding me. You have to go across the intire building to go from English to Biology? Oh man!" Roxas said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The cross country team looked promising. Or the Athletics team or even swimming. Hm. There was always basketball or football, but he wasn't really a fan of them.

Turning back to his lesson schedule, he glanced over each day. Double English on one of the days, double chemistry. But apart from that, the lessons didn't seem too bad. Getting from one to the other was going to be the hardest part. "Then back across to get to maths." Cloud added, laying himself back on his bed.

"Hm, I'm starting to tink that there's more to their healthy lifestyle campaign than just a balanced diet, no matter what the leaflet says." Roxas said, holding up a leaflet for the Cloud to see, as he kept checking the schedule. "Well one thing's for sure, it doesn't seems like I'll have trouble sleeping." He said as he too laid on his own bed, still lookind at the schedules and leaflets.

He looked at his wirst watch. It was still four minus ten, and he had virtually nothing to do. He groaned in boredom. "I wonder if we can apply for the clubs already..." He said, looking at the club list again. Some of the foreign languages clubs seemed interesting enough.

Cloud rolled his head to the side so he was able to catch a glance at the leaflet Roxas held up. "If you can find time to sleep, that is." The blonde added, placing the class schedule down on his stomach and started to flick through a 'rules and regulations' guide book.

Wondering the same thing about the clubs, Cloud lifted the club leaflet and glanced it over. Didn't look like there was a sign up date listed. "I don't know. Guess we could go find out."

Roxas didn't seem like a bad guy and so far he was easy to get along with.

"Sound like a plan to me." Roxas said, sitting up. He was glad to finally have something to do. If it turned out that he'd end up getting along with Cloud, even better. He grabbed the campus map, the clubs list, and headed for the door, opening it, and looking at the map again. "Odd... It's like most clubs are all in the same area... Oh, their building is across most of the campus, that's why. Just great." He said, putting the map in his pocket. "Guess we better get ready for a long walk."

Cloud too sat himself up. All the papers, minus the map, he'd been holding were shoved into his pocket as he stood up. Heading over to the door to follow Roxas out, he glanced over his map. "I don't mind the walk." No, Cloud liked a little exercise and wanted to have a look around this place too. "C'mon." Glancing down at his map once more, he started off down the hall to find a way out so they could start towards the club building.

Roxas got up and followed Cloud down the hall. Both of them walked down the stairs that'd taken them down to the hall. Roxas noticed something strange. "You know... You'd think there'd be more people around here..." He said, for they had only seen about five people at most, and no noise was heard in the rooms they passed by. "What, are we among the first ones to get here or something?"

They finally reached the exit of the dorm, and at last more people where seen.The campus courtyard was filled with people, some of them already wearing the school's uniform. Roxas took out the map again. "Ok, so... We're here." He pointed the exit of the dorms at the map. "So... The clubs are... That way." He said, pointing in the direction of a smaller two storey building.

"Hm." It did seem a little quiet around here but Cloud remembered being told that this place didn't have as many students as his previouis school. Maybe that would explain why? "Could be."

When out in the courtyard thankfully more people were seen, though some were in uniform. Already? Coming to stand beside Roxas, he looked down to the map and over to the building pointed out. "Okay, lets go." He said and started off in that general direction.

Roxas followed Cloud on the way to the building, looking around as if expecting to see anyone familiar. While he thought he recognised one particular boy, he shrugged it off. If he couldn't even be sure if that was even the same one, then the other probably wouldn't be much better.

They kept walking to the building untill they finally reached it. Roxas opened the door, and both of them entered. The door led to an empty hall, not that much different from the dorm building's hall, wooden floor, and white walls, with a few posters and leaflets hanging. On the further left wall, there was also a rather big trophy collection. Roxas headed towards it. he looked at it. "Wow... Been a while since they got any... The most recent one if from 7 years ago."

Cloud had yet to spot Aerith. Perhaps she wasn't here yet? Or perhaps she was still unpacking? Who knew. He'd catch up with her later. For now he'd just go check out the clubs with Roxas and see if there were any that really caught his attention.

Following the other male, they stepped into the building and he looked around. This place was alot quieter than the last place. "Hm. Seven years ago? Looks like we'd better try and win a couple this year then, huh?" Cloud asked as he walked over to the trophy cabinet and glanced over some of the larger trophies.

"Yeah, I suppose so. Ohh, soccer!" Roxas said, as he went over the leaflets on the wall, reading a particular one that caught his interest. Truth of the matter was, he wasn't interested in sports for the most part, however, he always seemed to have some sort of soft spot for soccer.

He looked up to the other leaflets. There were some for foreign languages (more than on the list in fact), a few for art, anime, music and other activities. "mmm... Maybe Portuguese..." he said, more to himself than anything.

((Sorry about taking so long to reply, I've been having a few family issues recently.))

Cloud went to take a look at the leaflets on show too. Very few of the indoor activities seemed to catch his attention. However he'd soon picked up a leaflet informing him about cross country and another on athletics.

Athletics and cross country would suit him just fine. He was on both of those teams back in his previous school and so he had some experience.

((It's ok. Hope things work out. :) ))

Roxas finally decided on the clubs. He'd join the soccer team and the Portguese club, even though the former had been founded only last year (and apparently had been humiliated on the championship), and the Portuguese one only seemed to have 5 other members. For good messure he also kept the swiming and French clubs in mind.

"So, shall we go?" Roxas said, as he started to walk towards the stairs.

((Heh, thanks. Me too.))

Those were his choices. Cross country and athletics. Clouds was more an outdoor person than an indoor one. He'd rather run laps than write lines. This was the way he'd been for a very long time.

"Hm? Yeah, sure." The blonde slipped his hands into his pockets and started off after Roxas.

Roxas and Cloud climbed the stairs to the second floor. When they reached the second the second floor they saw a hallway filled with doors, each of them with a sign indicating which club it was. Spotting the soccer team's room, Roxas headed that way. "See you later." He told Cloud.

As he entered the room, he thought for a momment that he had entered in some sort of support group for depressed people. Pretty much everyone was sitting with their heads lowered, and only a few seemed to be at least optimistic. One of them noticed him. He approached Roxas. "Hey. Interested in joining the team?"

Roxas looked at the boy. He was tall, muscular, and had grey hair... Rather odd. He shrugged it off. "Yeah... Is the team, always this cheerfull?" He said, raising an eyebrow at the other team members.

"Yeah... That's what loosing by 7-0 on the very first game of the championship does to you, I suppose. Anyway, I'm Riku." The boy said, extending his hand for Roxas to shake.

"I'm Roxas." Roxas replied, shaking Riku's hand. "So... Where do I sign up, how often is practice..."

"Oh, right. Huh..." Riku said, going through the papers on a nearby desk. "You sign up here, and practice is three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, for two hours and a half." Riku handed a paper to Roxas as he did that. "We'll decide on the positions on the first practice."

"Sounds good to me. What about uniforms?" Roxas asked as he filled the paper.

"Leave you measures on the school store, and it should be there by next week or so. And yes, you have to buy the uniform. Shouldn't cost more than fifty muny." Riku said as he accepted the paper from Roxas.

"Great... Anyway, anything else?"

"Nope. Most people are here only to mope without having people pestering them. You'd think they'd get over it by now, but apparently... Anyway, see you tomorrow." Riku said, waving at Roxas as he left the room, and went looking for the other club.