There was once a little girl named Anne. She lived in the city of Midgar with her mother, her father and her older sister Tifa. On the first day of school, Anne felt herself isolated from the other girls and boys. She didn't enjoy playing with Barbie dolls, she enjoyed playing with her teddy bear, Alice. The other girls had lots and lots of dolls and toys. Anne only had Alice. She did enjoy playing with the cars and trains. But the boys didn't want her to play because she was a girl. Girls weren't allowed to play with boys. Anne loved reading books though. But the girls said that was weird. Girls don't read. But Anne still read. She always read further along after her mother helped her to learn how to read. She soon asked for more books to read. She had a growing bookshelf in her room. Not enjoying her first day at school at all, Anne didn't want to come back here ever again. Until she found friends.
"Why are you crying?"
Anne sniffed and looked up, her blood red eyes brimming with tears. An older boy looked down at her, tilting his head to the side curiously. He had silver hair that went past his shoulders and bright green eyes. Anne bowed her head and brought her knees to her chest.
"I don't have lots of toys, I can't play with boys and I can't read books," Anne murmured.
"Well, you don't need a lot of toys," the boy said.
Anne paused and hunched her shoulders.
"All the other girls have lots of toys," she said.
"Why would it matter? The less toys you have, the less toys you're going to have to throw away when you're older."
Anne thought for a moment then nodded.
"And it doesn't matter if you can't read, you'll learn."
"No, no I can read," Anne looked up at the boy who pulled a confused face "But the girls say that girls don't read. Not even The Murder of Peter Fish."
"Wow!"
Anne jumped as the boy's eyes sparkled.
"You can read such a hard book at four years old?!"
He smiled and bent down to her.
"I'm still reading it," he said "I've reached Chapter Six."
"I've reached Chapter Seven," Anne puffed her chest out proudly.
The boy smiled widely and Anne felt herself smile as well.
"And you can play with us," the boy spoke after a while "We have one rule. Our group must be no bigger than seven people. You'll be our seventh."
"Really?"
Anne felt special and she wiped away her tears. The boy gave her a tissue and helped her up.
"My name is Sephiroth," he said.
"Sefrirof?"
Sephiroth chuckled as Anne tried to say his name.
"No, Sephiroth."
"Sefirof!"
"Sephiroth."
"Sefirof!"
"Seph-i-roth."
"Seph-i-roth."
Sephiroth laughed again as Anne mimicked his tone. Anne frowned but shrugged.
"My name is Anne!" she said and stuck her hand out for a handshake.
"Come on, Anne."
Sephiroth took her hand and led her to a group of boys on the other side of the playground.
"I found the seventh friend," he announced and Anne clutched onto him as the five boys stood around her, looking down at her curiously.
"A girl, really?" a boy with auburn hair looked at Sephiroth.
"Be nice," a boy with long black hair scolded him.
"Well it would have been nice to have an all boy group," the boy with auburn hair huffed.
The boy with long black hair shook his head and bent down and ruffled Anne's hair.
"My name is Angeal," he said.
"Angeal," Anne said carefully but accidentally stretched the 'geal' part a bit.
"That's cute," a boy with spiky black hair grinned "My name is Zack."
"Zack," Anne said easily because it was nice and short.
"My name is Cloud," a boy with spiky blonde hair said and crouched down to Anne.
"Cloud," Anne giggled "That's a funny name."
Cloud frowned as the boys laughed at Anne's reaction. A boy with black hair and red eyes like Anne tapped her shoulder.
"Vincent," he said carefully.
"Vinsssent," Anne still had trouble with his name.
Vincent huffed but seemed to accept her attempt at pronouncing his name. Anne turned back to the boy with auburn hair. He sighed and folded his arms, looking down at her and giving her a look which meant trouble if she got his name wrong.
"Genesis."
Anne whined and quivered at the dangerous tone in his voice. It sounded like a hard name. Sephiroth carefully placed a hand on her shoulder and she blurted out.
"Gen-wuss-sis!"
"What did you just call me?!" Genesis snapped and Anne darted behind Sephiroth as Zack roared with laughter.
"Ha-ha! She called you a wuss, Gen!" he howled and pointed to Genesis whose face was turning a rather deep shade of red.
"Shut up!" Genesis snapped.
Anne didn't like the loud shouting so she burst into tears. The shouting faded away quickly and Sephiroth got down on one knee and wiped her tears away.
"Don't cry," he soothed as the others gathered around them "You're still growing up. One day you'll manage to say Genesis's name properly."
"It better be soon," Genesis muttered.
"Genesis," Angeal grunted and shoved Genesis lightly.
Anne sniffed her tears up and Sephiroth hugged her. The boys then decided to take turns to hug their seventh friend of the group. Anne was reluctant to hug Genesis but he just snatched her and hugged her.
"Look, I forgive you for saying my name wrong," he said as he saw the tears that brimmed in little Anne's eyes "And I'm sorry for being nasty to you. But we can be friends, even if you are a girl."
"R-Really?" Anne stuttered as she rubbed her eyes.
"Yeah, well, who cares anyway?" Genesis shrugged "As long as we don't do any of that yucky stuff like kissing."
"Ew! Why would I want to kiss you?" Anne pulled a face and pushed Genesis away.
Genesis smiled and the boys shared a laugh as Anne finally giggled and smiled again.
What went wrong? Anne's tear-stained eyes glared at her reflection as she rested her forehead against the cold mirror.
"You don't deserve friends," she uttered, her breath steaming the mirror "Who wants to be your friend anyway? You're a wimp, a coward, a fool."
Her arms were covered in self-inflicted cuts.
"You're an eyesore," she continued uttering "They don't want to have to deal with you anymore. They're grown up."
Fresh tears trailed down her cheeks to mingle with the old that were on her vanity.
"You'll never grow up. You're pathetic. Why do you still think about them when they clearly don't want to have anything to do with you?"
She held a razor steady in her right hand and brought it up to her neck. The clock struck midnight, signalling the New Year and the start of her fourteenth. Her whole body shook and she suddenly cast the razor aside to the other side of the room.
"Damn it!" she cried "You said you'd end it on your thirteenth birthday!"
She sobbed, covered her eyes and sank into a crouching position, curling her knees into her chest. She stared ahead, sobbing pathetically and crying harder when she saw the towel that Angeal gave to her for her twelfth birthday. Even after what had been said to her, she still couldn't find the heart to throw away anything that they had given her. Anne hugged herself and rocked herself gently. If she dared to look around, she would see the other gifts she had gotten from birthdays and Christmases. The poetry book from Genesis, the action figurine from Vincent, the snow globe from Cloud, the teddy bear from Zack and the beautiful necklace Sephiroth gave her one Christmas. Anne felt her neck. It felt weird at first to not wear the necklace but after three weeks, she got used to it.
"Sephiroth," she whispered then clenched her fist "No, I have to forget you. You're out of my league. We would never go together. If I even walk past you, she'll…"
She held back a sob and covered her face, crying again.
"I'm so weak to let her do that," she whispered "I'm sorry, Sephiroth but I can't see you or any of the group anymore. I'm nothing but an eyesore."
She sighed heavily and sniffed again. Outside her window, the night sky lit up with fireworks to celebrate the New Year.
Sephiroth shook his head as he lowered his phone. The five other boys around him sighed in frustration and Genesis lounged across the park bench.
"Maybe she's on her period?" he suggested with a shrug "It can be rough for a girl on her birthday."
"It would explain that uncalled outburst at school," Vincent nodded.
"That was three weeks ago though, it must be over by then," Zack frowned.
"Maybe she's under stress from exams?" Angeal suggested.
"She doesn't take any exams this year though," Cloud argued "Nothing important anyway."
They cast a look at Sephiroth who seemed the most distant. He stared at Anne's number on his phone and hunched his shoulders. He didn't want to speak. If he spoke about her, then they would be exposed to his pain. Why did he hurt like this when he was being ignored by her? Was this how losing a friend felt like? Sephiroth shook those thoughts away. They haven't lost her, they weren't losing her, there has to be a reason to her sudden change in behaviour.
"Should we go over?" Zack suggested.
"She might have just fallen asleep?" Cloud shrugged.
"Why?"
Everyone cast another look to Sephiroth as he narrowed his eyes.
"Why would she fall asleep and just simply forget her birthday?" he asked "How could she suddenly just forget all the traditions we had? It doesn't make sense."
"Girls don't normally make sense," Genesis shrugged.
"Yeah, Aerith sometimes gets real angry at random times and I don't even know what I did to upset her," Zack shrugged.
"Anne made sense!" Sephiroth snapped and turned to them "She is one of us! She's part of the group!"
"Sephiroth, we just formed the group when we were six," Angeal shrugged "It wasn't going to last forever."
"Yeah, and we worked our butts off just to all get into the same school as Tifa because we knew wherever Tifa would go, Anne would have to go!" Zack said "Do you know how close I was to a migraine with all the studying? I mean, is keeping a friendship like this really worth it?"
"However…"
Everyone's sights turned to Vincent who seemed distant too.
"She is our friend. She has been acting strangely. We should help her. She always bugged us when any of us had a problem and she would try to make us feel better. We should do the same."
"I agree," Cloud nodded "We should try."
Sephiroth jumped to his feet and briskly walked off to Anne's house.
"Hey wait, it's the middle of the night!" Angeal called as the others chased after him.
"So?"
Sephiroth turned to them.
"Three weeks with her ignoring my calls and texts, three weeks and she ignored our Christmas tradition and her birthday tradition, three weeks with me losing sleep and worrying about what could have made her like this, I want to settle this now!"
The five teenagers stiffened and looked at one another. Zack then nodded.
"I'm up for a midnight visit!" he said "Let's go!"
Cloud rolled his eyes.
"Alright but I can foresee a stressed Tifa for me," he muttered.
Vincent seemed to smile.
"She would do the same with us," he said.
Angeal frowned but sighed.
"I don't suppose I'll be able to change your minds," he grumbled.
Everyone turned to Genesis who flicked his hair.
"She called me a wuss," he pouted.
"Genesis!"
"Alright, alright, let's go!" Genesis threw his hands up in defeat.
There was a collective nod and the boys began running through the park under the night sky that lit up with fireworks to celebrate the New Year.