Black Ice
Chapter One: Red Head Senior

He pumped his legs as fast as they would go trying to speed hp his bike. Roxas had just left the house. Thank god it was mostly downhill to school. His hands were freezing. In his rush to get out the door he had forgotten to grab gloves.

“Damn it I’m gonna be late again!” He peddled even harder until he reached the top of the tiny hill. As he glided over the summit his front wheel suddenly faced downwards. This was the best part about going to school, the steep speedy slope.

He noticed the road was a bit slick this morning. He worried a little seeing as at the bottom of the hill there was a sharp turn but his hands were too cold to unwrap from his sweater sleeves. He had gone down this hill with no brakes a million times. I’ve never done it when it was this slippery though. He shook his head. It was too late now he was already gaining an immense amount of speed. He prepared himself to swerve at the end.

He grinned and turned his handlebars and the bike turned sharply, and slipped out from under him. He skidded on the road for another five feet before stopping. Black ice, He groaned outwardly. He thanked his common sense for telling him to wear a helmet even if he did look like a fashion impaired looser. He stood the bike up and gasped in dismay.

The chain had completely fallen off and was tangled around the pedal and his front wheel was twisted sideways. His hands were numb from skidding along the ground. He picked up his bike and awkwardly made his way over to the sidewalk. He would walk his bike to school which would take him an hour or he could walk the bike back up the hill and walk to school unhindered. That would take him an hour and ten minutes. He looked at his mangled bike in frustration. His legs and knees hurt a lot.

Suddenly a car stopped beside him. A red pick up truck to be exact with one of those hatch cover things on the back. They’re brilliant for hiding extra friends.

A handsome face peered out. The first thing Roxas noticed was his brilliant green eyes. They were like emeralds sparkling with life and spunk. His face was pale and he had two weird upside down triangle tattoos below his eyes. He had a thin but masculine face. But what shocked Roxas the most was his hair, brilliant red spiked back into a long fiery mane. The older teen’s arm that stuck out the window was muscled but not overly so. He looked extraordinarily thin from what Roxas could see.

“Okay there blondie?” asked the teen. Roxas shook his head.

“I’m fine,” he said quickly. The older boy smirked.

“Yeah ‘cuz you’re really gonna be able to ride that mangled mess,” he laughed. “You go to Veiwmont right?” The boy was pointing at Roxas’ Veiwmont sweatshirt a friend of his older brother Sora had bought for him.

“Yeah,” he said looking down at the sweater.

“I just arrived here and that’s where I’m supposed to go, to tell you the truth I’m kinda lost. I’ll take you to school if you give me directions.” He smiled. “Hell I’ll give you a ride home too if you tell me where you live, you can’t get home on that mangled thing.

“Okay, thanks!” cried Roxas happily. The older boy stepped out of the car. He was even skinnier than Roxas had imagined.

“I’ll give you a hand with that,” he said. He picked up the bike with one arm and opened the back hatch and popped it in as if it weighed nothing. “I’m Axel by the way, got it memorized.”

Mesmerized was more like it. Roxas couldn’t do anything but stare at Axel. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Axel held the door open and allowed Roxas to crawl in.

The inside of his car had a strong musky scent like nice cologne. Axel hopped into the car after him, slamming the door behind him. “So what year are you?” He asked removing the brake and driving on.

“Left here,” said Roxas. “I’m a freshman, you?”

“Senior,” he said. “Hey can you look at my schedule I forget which class I have next?” he asked. I nodded and picked up the beige piece of paper. Someone, obviously not him, had carefully written all his classes in their individual blocks, the writing was cursive and girly so probably a loving mother or sister. He studied it carefully.

“We’re a bit late but you’re first class is math, room 205, hey wait a minute we both have the same homeroom!” Axel glanced over.

“Huh?”

“Yeah right here, homeroom, classroom 103, Mr. Zigbar. He’s actually the gym teacher so room 104 is just a fancy way of saying PE office. It’s a small class; my brother and his best friend are in it too.” Axel smiled at him.

“My sister Kairi was going all bubbly this morning ‘cuz we were in the same homeroom.”

They were quiet the rest of the way to school, Roxas occasionally pointing Axel in the right direction. Axel parked and Roxas promised to meet him by his car after school.

Roxas ran as fast as he could to Science class but the second he walked in the door a chalkboard eraser flew out of nowhere and hit him in the face.

“I TOLD YOU NEVER TO BE LATE COMING INTO MY CLASS SHORTIE!” yelled Mrs. Larxine. The aria around her seemed to crackle with her rage. Roxas cowered behind his science textbook.

“I’m very sorry Mrs. It’s just that-” he was cut off by the hard slapping sound of another chalkboard eraser hitting him. He scurried away to his seat. He was the only one who sat alone in this class. He was kind of a loner at school. His best friend was his older brother who was way too nice to him to be real, and his other friend was Riku, Sora’s best friend. They had known each other since grade school even though Riku was a year older. This would be Riku’s last year at high school. Both he and Sora would miss him dreadfully.

He dozed for the rest of the class.

When the bell rang he rushed to his homeroom. Axel was already there leaning back in a plastic chair. “Heyyy Roxas!” he called. Roxas waved at him, grinning widely.

They spent the next ten minutes of homeroom talking and then parted ways when the bell rang. Sora and Riku weren’t there today.   

When the time came he ran over to his honors English class where he promptly got kicked out for arguing with the teacher about the authors intentions in her short story.

Roxas pouted in the hall. It wasn’t fair; it was obvious the author was just a hack who wanted to make some money. Last class he had been kicked out for rather loudly expressing his not so nice opinion about authors like James Patterson, and how trashy ‘The DaVinci Code’ was. He stood up and got a drink from the water fountain. He was surprised when he turned around to see Axel leaning against the wall.

“Are you skipping class on your first day?” he asked him. He grinned at Roxas.

“I insulted Ms. Larxine’s hair and she chased me with a piece of broken beaker. It was only in an act of self preservation I ran away, really.” Roxas rolled his eyes.

“My tale isn’t nearly so exiting. I got into a rather heated debate with my English teacher and he kicked me out. He said something about not coming back to class for the next week or he’d fail me.” Axel burst out laughing.

Axel ruffled Roxas’ messy blonde hair. “You’re alright Roxy,” he said.

“Don’t call me that!” he protested. Axel grinned and called him ‘Roxy’ about twenty more times in a row in a singsong voice. “You are such a five year old!”
***

After another hour of classes Roxas headed over to the cafeteria. He spotted his overexcited brother and his cool silver haired friend right away. He waved to them and walked over.
“How’ve classes been shortie?” asked Riku. Riku was the only person who he allowed to call him shortie. It was something that went way back.

“I fell off my bike on the way to school and I think I busted it,” he said in his most miserable voice. “I hurt my knees real bad and…Wiku will you pwease fix it?” He did his biggest puppy dog eyes letting his light blue eyes do their work.

Riku laughed. He had quite a loud maniacal sounding laugh so lots of people turned to stare at them. Roxas blushed. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll fix your stupid bike,” groaned Riku. “You and your stupid brother with the puppy dog eyes.”

“Hello there mind if I join you,” said a tall figure. Roxas’ heart suddenly skipped a beat. It was Axel.