"Cloud! Cloud Strife! Wake up this instant or I'm going to send you to the Principal's office!"Cloud could hear a voice ringing around him like a distant foghorn sailing across the ocean; it was dull, and flat, and almost sleepy sounding. However, he assumed it could just as easily have been his brain that was making everything around him sound restless and tired, and he soon realized what an odd and somewhat embarrassing situation he had gotten himself stuck in; like a mouse in an avoidable mousetrap.

He lifted his head up and opened his aqua crystalline eyes, that were hazed over with the effects of sleep that lingered throughout his body like a long term disease. He looked up into the scornful and angry eyes of his Biology teacher, and he knew almost immidiately what had happened. Asleep in class, for probably the third time that current week; something he wasn't extraordinarily proud of.

Swallowing, Cloud glanced around the room a second, where several students were giving him looks. Flat, unamused ones for interuppting the class; Smiles and obnoxious grins that told him how amusing his situation was, and simple, bored expressions that told him his most recent lesson invasion had made absolutely no difference at all in their mood or the amount of material they were learning. Regardless, the majority of his Bio class had their eyes on their textbooks or papers, or were doodling on notebooks and reading...Not paying attention to him at all.

Yeah I'll tell you something,
I think you'll understand.
When I say that something,
I wanna hold your hand.

This came as a relief to him, for being as quiet and introverted as he was, Cloud strongly disliked drawing attention to himself the way cats disliked water, or the way children disliked falling off their little bikes and injuring themselves. It was something that was in the very least unappealing, and he kept his eyes lowered to the grubby surface of his highschool desk. He looked at it's dirty surface, with it's led pictures and phrases, small time graffiti done by the many other students that occupied his desk at different times during the school day. His teacher began to lecture him, and he did his best to continue examining his desk like a detective at an important crime scene, not especially wanting to hear what her blood thin and chilling voice had to say.

"Cloud, this is the third time this week!" She almost exclaimed, standing next to him and folding her arms into a tight and angry pretzel, all her weight supported on her right leg. "I can't have you continuing to fall asleep in class, it's rude, and you're not learning anything worth a damn by sleeping."

Cloud was starting to get angry about the fact that his teacher was putting him on display in front of the whole class like an object behind a glass case in a museum; lecturing him as if she was his mother. He felt his heart beginning to beat a little faster, and he somehow felt as it continued to gain severe speed, that it might pop through his ribcage, severing the bones and bringing him admission into a hospital, where he would be spared the humiliation he was feeling.

"Well, do you have anything to say?" She glanced at her watch, unfolding her arms and leaning on one of them, placed on his desk surface firmly. "I mean, you've already dreamed away half our class."

Cloud felt his anger increase, rising the way lava does in an active volcano. He opened his mouth and began to speak, somehow knowing what he was about to say would jepordize the rest of his day. However, it was something he needed to scrape off of his chest, like a confession to a close friend. "To be honest, I don't think I'm learning anything worth a damn, whether I'm sleeping or not. Sorry."

Giggles broke out in about two thirds of the classroom. Judging by how his teacher's face looked puckered and sour the way it should when one eats a lemon, Cloud decided what he had said was certainly a mistake, and he was going to learn to write "bad mouthing teachers," off his list of things that he should allow himself to do inside his school facility.

"Is that so?" She spat, grabbing onto his arm from where she stood and dragging him up out of his desk. Cloud was beginning to feel his mistake swelling and growing like a strange bacteria in his mind; he wanted to rewind time and watch his mouth.

He watched his teacher page into the office using the P.A system, and he wished he could dissolve into the wall, making his presence unknown. School had never been the right place for him, and as he was dismissed to the Principal's Office, being told rather scornfully to 'Sleep down there,' he felt that there was absoultely nothing about school that made him want to stick around.

Cloud made his way down the hallway, surrounded by blue and purple lockers that seemed to stare at him with their dull, expressionless faces. It was rather mediocre, even if he did see the scattered person walking in the same direction as himself, or the opposite.

I wanna hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand. He thought scarsely about school and what it meant to people. A lot of people, most, if not all had some reason to be in school, or something that constantly prodded the hard in the back to resume on. For some teenagers, it was the need for education. The knowledge and sometimes fear that they would not make it in the future without a good sense of education. For others, they simply liked learning and enjoyed school. It gave them an opportunity to learn, which was something that really interested them and brought on a glow of inspiration for what was ahead. Goals, and ambitions...For others, it might have been something remotely pointless like the love of popularity. Or perhaps something with a little more importance like socializing; the want to meet new people and become involved with the people in their lives, in every way.

However, Cloud was rather unsure of under which of these rather riddeling and tight fit catagories he would place himself. He wasn't too fretful of what kind of mishaps and decisions the future would bring tucked under it's unexpected arm. Nor did education and learning new things interest him, or popularity. He wasn't any kind of social butterfly and most of the time enjoyed keeping to himself, clutching his feelings close to him like he was a dragon guarding treasure.

So, in Cloud's mind, he had yet to find the mysterious 'X' that marked the spot. The reason and excuse he could give himself, so he wouldn't feel so relentlessly clueless about why he was still sticking around a place he disliked so strongly.

Finally, he reached the front door of the office. He opened the heavy grey door casually, wondering why so many students were fearful of being sent down here. It was the same as every other room in the gigantic brick monster named 'School'. Boring and bland with a few attractive paintings, chairs for you to sit, and walls that had some colorful posters incouraging the students to read, or follow their dreams, etc...

However, it looked exactly like every other room in the school, until he moved far enough inside to see...iher./i

He sat down on one of the waiting chairs that had soft and spongy orange material in the seats, and leaned back. The room had seemed so plain and repetitive; but suddenly it seemed like paint had been thrown all over the place, making it a decorative and creative palace. However, in this recent room overthrown with beauty and appeal, there was only one thing he found truly attractive.

She was turned around facing the student telephone, the cream colored reciever held to her ear. All her weight was shifted to one leg, and she looked rather impatient, standing there and trying to get into contact with whoever, Cloud didn't know. All he knew was that she was one of the most beautiful people had ever seen - She looked like one of the gorgeous princesses or stunning heroines out of a fairy tale...Picture perfect.

Oh please, say to me.
You'll let me be your man.
And please, say to me.
You'll let me hold your hand.

Slamming the phone down, this mystery girl that he had never let his eyes touch before reached one of her smooth looking hands up to the messy bun that held up her hair. Her long, flowing locks, the color of dark chocolate fell across her back like a magnificent waterfall. Pin straight and silkier than the material of a prom dress, Cloud tried not to let himself stare. Especially as she turned his way, her steel yet somehow soft brown eyes colliding and contrasting with his own cold, ocean blue ones. Her eyes reminded him of a soft bed; comforting and comfortable. Eyes often were, in most cases, the windows to the soul. Which is why in his own, most people could see frosty hostility, barren wilderness covered in fallen snow, showing self involvement and lonliness.

However, in hers...In hers, he saw things much different. He saw a brilliant sunrise, security and warmth; Kindness and untouchable gentleness. However, at the same time he saw the lion within the lamb; an intense fire that crackled and roared below the surface. This gave him the impression that she was firm handed and strong, a true fighter.

She blinked a second, before breaking the seemingly unending attraction and connection their eyes were experiencing, and turned her focuses back to the telephone.

Cloud assumed she could have been coming from gym class, for her hair was tied up, which could have been to avoid distraction of interupption in her physical activity. Not only that, but she also wore a thin white tanktop and jean shorts, clothing that looked efficiant for keeping cool while playing sports.

However, regardless of where she had come from, who she was or where she was headed - Cloud was somehow remotely positive, by some strange and quivering feeling in the centre of his heart, that he and she would have a deep connection, if words were ever shared. He felt already that they would get along well, and find deep meaning in eachother that could be found no-where else...And Cloud somehow wondered, what could someone who seemed so remarkable be searching for, that she could honestly find in someone like him?

Finally, she got through on the phone. She began talking to someone in a voice that sounded like a bright and dazzeling wind chime. Not listening to her conversation, but rather to her voice, Cloud ultimately decided she had stolen the voice of an angel at birth, something he didn't notice or believe about a lot of people.

Eventually, she hung up the telephone, and leaned her slender body a little over the counter, to speak to the secretary that sat at her computer.

"Um, excuse me." She said, her voice that was as solid as a brick wall but gentle like the touch of a child. "I'm going to sign out for the rest of the afternoon."

"Name, please." The relatively young secretary responded, getting ready to type a few things up across her keyboard.

"Tifa Lockhart, ma'am."

Now let me hold your hand.
I wanna hold your hand.
And when I touch you,
I feel happy inside.
It's such a feeling that my love,
I can't hide.
I can't hide.
I can't hide.Tifa. Cloud could not think of a name that suited her more than that one did. Her hair, her eyes, her body and her voice - It was Tifa, and nothing else.

"May I ask where you're going?" The secretary smiled a little in Tifa's direction, her fingers sliding across the keyboard easily, the clicking filling the room like a subtle storm.

"I have a dentist appointment." She replied, flicking some of her shiney brown hair over her shoulder with a feirce kind of grace. "My Papa's on his way to pick me up, now, actually."

"Alright. You are dismissed, Ms. Lockhart." Came the reply from behind the desk, the secretary's olive green eyes not leaving the screen for an instant. She continued to type, the clattering echoing in and out of Cloud's rather unattentive ears.

Tifa turned from the counter and walked to the door, turning the knob and pulling it open with obvious ease. Cloud somehow couldn't keep his eyes off of her, and once again he found they were tripping over hers as she returned the stare. Flashing him a tiny smile that could be considered barely more than a smirk, Tifa broke loose of the attractive grip and gleam in his eyes. A final swish of her hair, the unavoidable mild slam of the door, brief footsteps, and she was gone.

Cloud watched the door for several seconds, before letting them float and settle slowly to the tiled flooring, like a feather falling from the sky to settle in the hand of a mortal. A little awestruck and dumbfounded, he wondered ravenously why he had never noticed her around the school. He supposed it was because he was never the type to go girl seeking; he didn't walk around school, picking out the most attractive girls around him in the swarm of people like a colony of bees. He usually kept his eyes plastered to the floor, his heart pulled in to hide in seclusion rather than showing it off on his sleeve; his feelings undetectable, his pupils steadily watching his own shoes.

He didn't try to look for girls, he just somehow hoped that the girl he had been waiting for would walk through a particular door one day, and he would just...know her. Somehow, feel the aura of her presence and know her - Whether it be in a past life, or from when they were kids or middle school...He just wanted to know her.

And even if Tifa were none of these things, not from childhood, or a past life, or middle school, he still felt as if his heart knew her. The way the adrenaline in his blood seemed to rise and beat faster just upon the mere sight of her, it was all too unnerving. It was all too confusing, and spontanious, and...absolutely perfect.

And now, she had departed his location, but he found he could still recall her image exactly. Almost as if seeing her etched a permanent image of serene beauty and divine grace into his brain, something that couldn't be removed the way a tatoo could. She had walked out of the office, and back into his dreams.

Yeah, you.
You got that something.
I think you'll understand.
When I feel that something,
I wanna hold your hand.

"And I assume you're the boy who was just sent down here..." The secretary stood up, looking at him closely, her eyes squinted like that of a stealthy fox. "...Cloud Strife, is it?"

"Yeah.." Cloud replied, his own voice startling him in the still of the room, as he hadn't spoken since being rude to his Biology teacher, nearly a half an hour ago. "That's me."

"Alright. Well, the Principal will be with you in a moment, so you can let him know exactly what kind of trouble you were causing in your Biology class." She sat down once again, and the room was completely silent, being taken over by the disease that came upon people and places with a sneaky, subtle disposition.

And even when the Principal came out of his office inside the general office, and sat beside him, Cloud couldn't keep his focus on his current location or situation. His mind was blazing through the past, with his heart aboard the rocket - And he was spinning out of control.

The last half an hour had been one of the most amazing moments he had ever had in school. The sensation of knowing her, almost like love at first sight...It felt remarkable. He had never experienced that around other girls, and if he noticed a girl there was always something about her that seemed not right for him. She might have looked perfect and beautiful, but on the inside was ugly, mean and impure. Or she could have been average and still unkind, or sometimes maybe too kind. A pushover.

But whatever it was, Cloud found that nobody had caught his eye and hooked his heart the way Tifa had, and he had never seen her before or even met her.

The Principal rambled on about achievements and goals, good behavior in 'his' school, and things like what was expected while asking the scattered question. However, Cloud found that his mind still was not truly there. He would answer the questions but little and sometimes absolutely no thought was pumped into his answers; they had no bloodflow. All that filled his brain was Tifa; he didn't even care about being knee deep in trouble anymore.

Eventually, he was allowed to leave with only a warning to watch his mouth, and the lunch bell had just been ringing. People swarmed and moshed their way out of their respective classrooms, lockers squeaked open, the school doors were pushed out of the way to allow exit, and the usual mid day madness began again. Just like every day. Although to Cloud, it felt different.

On his way to his own locker, Cloud saw all the people he recognized and didn't. New faces and old, it didn't matter. They all had a perpose to be in school, like education, popularity, socializing or like of learning. And now Cloud knew, he could have a perpose too.

He knew he might not meet Tifa that day, or the next...Or in several weeks or months, or maybe even in that lifetime, but he had found her. And finding was the first step to fufilling, something he planned on doing by meeting the girl who had walked the lonely boulivards of his dreams for so long. He would meet her no matter how long it took, of this he was certain.

I wanna hold your hand.
I wanna hold your hand.
I wanna hold your hand. I Wanna Hold Your Hand // End.