"Claire!"
She was rudely awakened from her slumber by her younger sister coming down on her like a ton of bricks. She was never a morning person, but her sister on the other hand, was.
Her eyes flickered open to meet the identical pair that were staring down at her as her sister perched proudly on top of her.
She slammed the pillow back on her face, not yet.
"Come on, Claire. It's time you get up. You had your holiday!"
A muffled voice came from under the pillow, "What possesses you to be this happy at seven AM?"
Serah pulled the pillow off, pulling her sister up.
She resisted, not wanting the leave the sanctuary of her bed. It was the middle of winter and the wooden floors were sure to be freezing outside her carpeted bedroom.
Her sister was stronger than she had thought, and pulled her almost out of the bed. Claire rested her head in her hands, "Okay, okay! You win."
She stood in the shower, staring at the knob as if it were a competition.
Stay in, be late to school.
Turn it off, and have to face the cold winter air while wet.
"Come on, you know you can't stay in there all day!" She heard her sister calling from the other side of the shower door.
She sighed, turning the water off and stepping out of the shower into the bathroom that connected the sister's rooms. She walked out shutting the door and entering her closet.
Her eyes caught her winter uniform that hung in the back of the closet. She grabbed it, pulling on the white dress shirt and the long sleeve, black button up sweater on top of it. She retrieved the gray skirt with thin black plaid running over it, then the knee high black socks with a white ring around the top.
She reached high up on the shelf, causing a tsunami of balled up clothing to fall down on her. She stared at it, knowing her mother would kill her if she saw it, but she knew she didn't have time to clean it up.
She kicked it all into the corner, finding her tie on the top. She grabbed it, then hung a blanket to cover the mess. With her hair still damp, she walked into the bathroom, finding Serah in an identical outfit.
The smaller girl grabbed her tie which was essentially a square of gray cloth with a white stripe down one side and a black button to hold it in place.
The older sister leaned down, knowing that she never really understood how to tie her own tie, and Serah did it within a matter of seconds.
The tie fanned out at her neck, just reaching the long v-neck of her sweater with two buttons.
Claire grabbed the hair dryer, quickly drying it, and then pulled everything except her bangs into a pony tail.
Serah grabbed her arm, pointing at the clock. They had fifteen minutes to get to school.
They walked into the kitchen, and the woman smiled. She was just about forty but looked no older than thirty. Her identical pink hair hung around her face.
"Look at my girls, aren't you two adorable?"
Serah smiled and Claire scoffed, grabbing a piece of toast and slathering some butter on it hurriedly. Serah grabbed an apple, and both of the girls' lunches, knowing her sister would forget.
Meanwhile, the older sister was leaning against the wall, toast in her mouth, trying to pull her slip on shoes on.
Serah couldn't help but laugh.
"I still don't know how you can manage to leave your bicycle in the middle of the driveway. You know Dad is too obnoxious to look in his rearview mirror," Claire scolded as her younger sister hitched a ride on her handlebars.
She held on to their belongings as they sped down the street, "I don't know, I forgot."
The older girl scoffed, "Sure."
The older Farron stopped in front of the towering, four story, Bodhum High School. She began to lock her bike in place, and Serah handed her, her belongings.
The smaller girl gave her a peck on the cheek, and ran inside the school. The older girl strode in to her locker, and put in the three digit combination. She placed her lunch inside and pulled out her Math, Physics, and Literature book. Her first three classes.
She closed her locker just as the bell rang, she sighed, she was always late to class.
She made her way to the third floor, reserved for only the eleventh grade, and walking into Mr. Crawford's class. He had only been teaching since she had entered high school and never seemed to care about her tardy issues. He was young, about twenty six, and almost every girl in her grade was in love with him.
He laughed as he saw he walk in, which was odd, usually he would just give her an up nod.
"Well, well, well, look who we have here, Claire Farron. Looks like someone slept late."
He walked over, combing down her cowlick bang that Serah had obviously neglected to fix.
The older girl walked over, sitting down in her usual seat in the back.
Her very popular, very pretty and very blonde friend sat down next to her.
"Hey Claire!"
She gave her a weak smile, "Hey Mika."
"So, how was your weekend?"
She shrugged, "Guess it was okay."
She saw the girl narrow her eyes.
"What, Mika, spit it out!"
"...your sweater is on inside out."
All she could do was rest her head on the desk.
Friday. Her favorite day of all had finally come.
Usually she'd spend it sleeping and watching mind numbing TV, but Mika had somehow invited herself over. In fact, she was over so much, their mother thought of her as her adopted daughter.
They stood outside the school, waiting on Serah.
The pink haired girl glanced at her watch, "It's 3:45, and I don't think she's coming out any time soon, let's just meet her at home."
Mika nodded, mounting her glamorous, shiny, pink bike.
Claire sat on her bed, in her gray sweatpants and a black tank top, her favorite outfit. It was getting late and she heard the door close.
Both girls perked up when they heard Serah's footsteps coming up the stairs. The small girl came stumbling in, her eyes swollen and red from crying.
Mika looked at Claire, then to Serah, then back to Claire.
She knew something was wrong, because she was practically Serah's other sister, she walked over, putting her hand on Serah who was now sprawled face down over her sister's bed.
"Serah?"
They were only answered with more sobs.
Claire looked up at Mika with frightened eyes, "I, um, I think this time, she's serious."
It was true, Serah did cry a lot, but when she did, more times than not, it was over something stupid and would usually end in a few minutes. This was not one of those times.
"Yeah, I'll go."
She grabbed her things, tossing them over Claire's balcony and into the yard next door. She climbed over the fence into her yard and waved to Claire.
"Serah? Serah, what's wrong?"
Moonlight was flooding into the room, illuminating the sisters.
The girl looked up, "Derrek..."
"Derrek what?"
"He... He broke up with me."
"He did? Well he was a douche anyways. But where were you for so long?"
"We had a date today, and here, he sent me this text when I was on my way home."
Serah shoved the phone into the older girls hands. She went to the inbox and pulled up his message.
She cringed at the fact that he was in her phone as "Derrek-Boo 3"
Derrek-Boo 3
Sent: December 3rd, 6:53 PM
Received: December 3rd, 6:54 PM
Hey Serah. Look, I-uh, this is hard, but I think we should take a break. I told you about Mari, right? Yeah, my girlfriend before you. Um, I kinda still like her, and... well, I only dated you to make her jealous. She decided to give me another chance, and well, I can't turn that down, can I? So, yeah, it's over. But I do hope maybe we can be friends.
She nearly crushed the phone in her hands, but instead sat it on the table beside her bed.
"He didn't even have the decency to break up with you in person?"
She shook her head, the tears making a return.
The older girl shook her head, knowing that this was the first time her heart had ever been really broken. She knew that she had had boyfriends before, but she had ended every one of them.
The older girl leaned back, pulling her sister down onto the pillow beside her.
The smaller girl awoke suddenly, a nightmare had woken her. A dream that Pulse had attacked and her and her sister had been turned into Pulse l'Cie. She was comforted when she felt her sister's warmth behind her, protecting her, that was all she ever needed and quickly fell back into her slumber, hoping she'd chase all of her nightmares away.