A/N: I know what you're thinking but no, your eyes do not deceive you

~Somehow I got caught in between, between my pride and my promise. Between my lies and how the truth gets in the way~

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She scrunched the empty energy bar wrapper and tossed it into a nearby bin. Not checking to see if it landed in or not, she hurriedly kept her pace. She glanced at her watch before shaking her head and stuffing her hand back into her hoodie. Serah wouldn't be too happy with her now. It was now 16:00, Serah's ballet class ended half an hour ago. She had detention after school for being late this morning, which was technically due to Serah but she didn't dwell on that, no use trying to blame it on someone else.

Lightning waited impatiently at the traffic lights. Rush hour was about to begin and the number of cars started to increase rapidly. She hated not having a car of her own and was in the process of saving up for one. She tapped her foot impatiently, staring intensely at the light to turn green. Not being able to wait any longer, as soon as the cars began to stop she half-jogged across the road weaving through the pedestrians and ignoring the disapproving looks thrown at her. She was almost there. The dance studio was actually a part of the Palumpolum Community Centre which was a medium sized building used by people who had nothing better to do with their lives. It had a swimming pool (where they both learned to swim when they were younger), basketball court, a small gym, cafeteria, and table tennis, basically anything to keep a bored person entertained. A dance studio was recently a new addition, mostly to encourage more people to use the centre. As she turned the corner of the block, the building came into sight. Lightning quickened her pace towards the entrance where she pushed through the heavy glass doors. There were more people at that time in the afternoon. Mostly high school students hanging around with their friends. She hurried to her right through a narrow hallway towards the end where Dance Studio was printed across the glass doors. She held her breath and prayed Serah wouldn't get too mad and reluctantly pushed the door open.

She heard voices talking as she stepped in when they suddenly ceased. Two pairs of eyes landed on her. One pair looked extremely annoyed.

"You see? Your sister didn't forget about you." A soothing voice said. It was the ballet teacher, Yuna Braska. She was dressed in a black leotard with dark purple sweat pants and her short hair tied up in a bun. How she managed to do that was beyond Lightning.

"She might as well have forgotten, considering how late it is" grumbled a young voice.

"Sorry about that" panted Lightning. She didn't realise how out of breath she was. "I got caught up at school."

"Suure you did. Or you were running around with that gang of yours." Serah retorted.

Lightning sighed, she expected this would happen.

"It's alright Serah, she's here. That's all that matters now." Yuna said, trying to ease the tension in the room. "You and Mog can go home and watch your favourite TV show."

"We will miss it by the time we get home. Thanks to her." Serah hopped off the stool she was sitting on and grabbed her back pack before stomping her way towards Lightning who kept the glass door open to let her though. Before Lightning left she spared a glance at Yuna, who gave her a sympathetic smile, she nodded in thanks and quickly followed her sister.

For the first five minutes, Serah decided to give her the silent treatment. She just marched on ahead, feet thumping on the ground for added effect, just to let Lightning know that she was mad. The next ten minutes Serah would turn her head to her right and whisper something into the air before giggling and stealing glances at Lightning. "Yeah you're right. She does look like it!" Was a snippet of the conversation that floated towards her.

"Hmm, I know right? What kind of person does that? Especially towards their own family members."

If she was trying to make Lightning feel guilty then she was doing it right. No matter how it looked to outsiders, she knew everything was her fault. The way Serah was, the way she was now.

All her fault.

"Serah?" she asked tentatively. Serah just kept on walking. "You want some ice cream?" That seemed to get her attention as she halted. Lightning waited patiently for her answer as the younger sibling contemplated over the proposition.

That was one thing about kids. All things could be forgiven with the proposal of something sweet. At least she hoped it could.

"Can Mog and I have double scoops?"

Lightning felt a surge of relief, in a way, she had accepted her apology. "Of course."

"So there's a new girl in my class today," Serah said as she coloured in her latest drawing on Lightning's bedroom floor.

Lightning hummed in response as she tried to finish her maths homework. She chewed on the end of her pen which was a really bad habit she picked up when she struggled to work something out.

"She's weird."

Lightning took the pen out of her mouth and asked absentmindedly. "How so?"

"She's so quiet. Like seriously quiet. I didn't hear a word from her all day."

"Mmm maybe she's just shy or something. Being the new girl is hard."

"Nah, she's just weird. Right Mog?" There was a slight pause as Lightning assumed Mog was agreeing with her.

"Ugh!"

Lightning quickly swivelled around, startled by the sudden outburst. It happened so often though, she wondered why she would still get these frights. "What's wrong?"

"The pink went out the line! Now the picture's ruined!" shouted Serah. She held up the drawing to show Lightning.

"It's not that bad. You can hardly see it."

"Are you blind?" she asked incredulously. "I can't stick this up now!" She began crumpling the piece of paper and tossed it at the bin. When she missed she got even more frustrated, picked up her crayons and threw them as well before running out the room.

Lightning leaned her face into her hands for a few moments before running her fingers through her hair. She then got up and started picking up the discarded crayons, she knew Serah would want them later. She came across the crumpled paper and picked it up. Carefully she unfolded it, making sure not to tear the edges. She looked at the contents for a few seconds and sighed before curling it up into a ball and throwing into the bin.

Lightning made sure she arrived on time today. She didn't need a repeat of yesterday. In fact, she was ten minutes early which she hated because there was nothing to do than wait. She wasn't a morning person at all and had no desire to interact with her classmates. She plugged her earphones in and propped her hood up before leaning on the table. She turned up the volume on her phone to block out all the mindless chatter of the students. Since she normally didn't show up this early, Fang and Vanille probably wouldn't come look for her. She closed her eyes and let the music overwhelm her, for ten minutes she would be away from everything and everyone.

Unfortunately time does pass when you're having 'fun' and as soon as she drifted off the school bell cut through the song, indicating the start of another seven hours of prison.

She groaned and tucked her earphones and cellphone away. If Mr T (A.K.A Mr Wallace) caught any of them on their cellphones, it usually meant confiscation.

"Alright dimwits, settle down. I said SETTLE DOWN!" Immediate silence followed. It wasn't wise to disobey Mr T. Some say he wrestled a grizzly bear and won which wasn't really much of a surprise since he resembled one. In fact, the resemblance was almost uncanny. (It is also notable to mention that he had a prosthetic arm as well but that is another story)

Once he was happy that he had everyone's attention he spoke again. "So we have a new student joining us. Only Etro knows why he decided to enroll here which is beyond me. Nonetheless, I for once, would like someone who isn't as incompetent as you fools so you better not mess him up alright?"

No one said anything. It was nothing unusual to have him insult everyone. He complained about them a lot but deep down, even if he would never admit it in his entire life, he liked this class of fools.

"Alright, you can come in now."

All heads turned curiously towards the door as a figure glided in. The first thing she saw was black hair, spiked in disarray. Her immediate reaction was to roll her eyes. Someone obviously forgot to brush their hair this morning. She returned her gaze and observed. Clear, pale blue eyes. Thin lips. Perfect skin. The figure almost seemed unreal. The girls must have thought so too as they suddenly sat upright in their seats.

Well, that's one way to get their attention Lightning thought to herself, though she will admit that this newbie in front was easy on the eyes. She noticed how he seemed to stand tall yet it didn't make him seem overbearing. He had good posture.

"So you gonna introduce yourself?" Mr T asked.

The new kid just looked at him then at the class. Everyone was waiting for a response. The boys looked at him challengingly, smelling new meat while the girls were on the edge of their seats anticipating to hear him speak. He said nothing though.

"Well?" pressed Mr T impatiently. "You gonna give us your name or what kid?"

Pale fingers picked up a marker from the desk and silently, words were written neatly across the whiteboard.

"Noctis Lucis Caelum."

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~The things I want to say to you get lost before they're found. The only thing that's worse than one is none.~

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A/N: So first of all I am really sorry guys. I haven't been here for what seems like aaages and it seems even longer since I updated anything. Really sorry. I would give you all excuses but it would be too long and seems pretty irrevelant now. The important thing is I haven't forgotten about this fandom...yet.

Anyways I deleted A Walking Contradiction because I thought this idea was better. This story was inspired by "In Between" by Linkin Park. Sort of obsessed with them recently.

Whether I continue this or not completely depends on you. Would you rather me carry on with this or update 'A is for Awkward'?

(there's only a slight problem that the next chapter is stuck on my other laptop which is busted so I will have to rewrite it.)

So I wrote this thing like literally right now so it's pretty short (but when are my chapters long anyway -.-)

I read through it for mistakes but it's almost midnight here and my eyes are giving way so excuse the mistakes for now, I'll re-edit it later.

Cheers you guys!