AN:/ Hey, so i know this is trash but fuck it, right? ive always wanted to write a high school au fic, mostly because, i like writing what i know.
ps, this is also a kingdom hearts crossover, but i dont want to put it in the crossover catagory
anyways, the title is from all that ive got by the used, because that song is fucking sick and im an emo piece of shit. this may be out of character but, hey i tried okay? - Rohanfxcker (tumblr)
/
"Beep beep beep!"
"Ugh, what are you doing?" Cloud peeked out of his warm cocoon-like duvet to look at the younger teen, who was currently beeping like he was an alarm clock.
"I was told to wake you up, we have to leave earlier for school, for administrative stuff apparently" Sora ran his fingers through his brown, spiky hair.
"I get that, but why're you beeping at me" Cloud climbed out of the bed, stretching his arms over his head and hearing the clicking and cracking of his bones.
"I thought it would be funny" he crossed his arms, leaned back against the doorframe.
Cloud rolled his eyes and stood up "Yeah? Well, its not. It's actually pretty dumb"
The brunette frowned "Jesus dude what's your damage?"
"Nothing, leave me alone to get dressed" Cloud looked over to his brother-well, half brother technically, and his "damage" was that today, he'd be starting his first day at a new school, in a completely unfamiliar location. The reasoning for this was at the beginning of summer, his mother died unexpectedly. Before he was given the opportunity to grieve, he was whisked off to live with his father, stepmother and twin half brothers. When Cloud was a baby, his father left and went to start a family with some other was, very obviously, upset with the whole situation, even though he wasn't close to his mother, they mostly just cohabitated, but her death left him full of regrets.
"Okay but I thought it was funny" Roxas peeked his head round the doorway.
Cloud scowled "Both of you. Out. Now"
"Okay okay we're going" both boys left the room quickly.
Cloud glanced at the clock on the bedside table.
"6:30, ewww" Cloud sighed.
He got dressed into his uniform, throwing his long jacket over his shoulders, not bothering to put it on correctly. Walking into the hallway and down the stairs to retrieve his shoes, he overheard a conversation going on the kitchen.
"All he does is mope about" the disdain in his stepmother's voice was obvious.
He could hear his father sigh "Starting school will be good for him; he'll make some friends and wont bother us"
Cloud sighed, he knew he was imposing, that his father didn't want him here, he'd made himself a perfect little life here with his wife and his kids- his brothers, he reminded himself. Cloud didn't belong here, this wasn't his home, he was an intruder in the life of a perfect family.
He didn't stay to listen to more of their conversation, grabbing his boots and tip toeing up the stairs again.
The ride to school was uneventful, except for Sora's friends showing up for a ride as well. He remembered seeing them throughout the summer, they seemed nice enough, but, like Sora himself, they were very loud. Cloud didn't like loud, he wasn't shy or anything, but he just prefered people who spoke in an inside voice. He looked over to Roxas, who was sitting quietly in the front seat of the car. You weren't supposed to pick favourites with siblings, but if he did, Roxas would win the "Everything Cloud Could Want In A Sibling" contest. Not to say Cloud didn't like Sora, mind you. I guess I'm kinda lucky when it comes to those two, coulda been worse.
The car pulled up outside the school and the six of them hopped out. Sora turned to Roxas and said "Hey, meet us at the lockers, we'll take Cloud to the pastoral leader's office, we need to talk to her about something anyway"
The girl, Kairi, smiled as she grabbed Roxas by the arm and pulled him off somewhere.
"C'mon, let's go!" Sora began walking, his other friend following. The corridors were empty, save for a few teachers and students wandering around. The place had a very eerie atmosphere this early in the morning; the sun had not fully risen and only a couple lights seemed to be turned on.
They eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, arrived at the office, a plaque on the door read "Lucrecia Crescent, Pastoral Leader". Riku, Sora's other friend, was the one who knocked, and quickly a woman opened the door and smiled.
"Oh, hello Riku, and Sora too! And who is this?" she looked over to Cloud, who was leaning against the wall behind them.
"This is Cloud Strife, Mrs Crescent he's-" Riku began.
"-My brother!" Sora ended, grabbing Cloud by the arm and dragging him over to stand next to the other boys.
"Ow, don't grip so hard" Cloud mumbled. He looked up at the woman, her eyes were very bright, the early onset of wrinkles donning her otherwise flawless face. Light brown hair framed her face, with some of it pulled up into a long high ponytail. If Cloud was to guess, she was in her early 40s, and by the lab coat she was wearing, she was also a science teacher of some kind. She moved back and gestured for the 3 boys to enter her office. It was very cramped, the desk taking up most of the room. Pictures lined the walls, either of students or teachers.
"Right right, so Riku and Sora, you are, I assume, here to speak about the changes in the timetables?"
"That's right! We were hoping you could-" Sora started.
"This can wait until later boys, I am very busy today, so can you both stop by again at lunch?"
Sora frowned "Uh, okay…" both boys stood up.
"This means we can go, yeah?" Riku asked.
"Yes, I have many things to go over with Mr. Strife here, I'll see you two later" She smiled as they left the office.
"Right let's get down to business, shall we? I am, as you probably know already, Ms Crescent. I am the pastoral leader for the upper year of the school, I also teach biology and physics" She stopped for a moment, reaching across the room to grab a stack of papers.
"Essentially" She continued. "Everything you need to know is in here, but I'll give you a run down of the basics. Behave appropriately, arrive to school and all your classes on time, if you fall ill and are unable to attend, a parent must call and inform of your absence, complete all your homework on time and keep your uniform in order. Any questions?" She exhaled.
Cloud shook his head. "No, not really…" Cloud mumbled, looking down at his feet.
"Good good, now wait here, I have arranged for 2 students to escort you around the grounds for the next couple of days- or, well as long as you feel you need them too. In fact-" She hurried to the door and swang it open, the two behind it jumped back.
"Cloud, this is Tifa and Aerith, they will be your guides, c'mon, introduce yourselves!" Ms Crescent waved her arms towards the girls.
"Ah, hello! I am Aerith, as you know" a short girl with long, curly brown hair announced excitedly. The other girl, Tifa he assumed, walked more into the office and held her hand out.
"Tifa, it's nice to meet you Cloud" Cloud grasped her hand carefully and shook it, as she pulled him out of his chair.
"We best head off to class, we are in most of your classes, and our first is, umm, History, right Tifa?" Aerith asked Tifa, as they exited the office.
"Yeah, we've got Mr Crescent this year I think" Tifa said, while in deep thought.
"Oh, Mr Crescent, great…" Aerith sighed.
"You don't like him?" Tifa asked her inquisitively.
Aerith looked down to her feet, fiddling with a loose strand of hair. "It's nothing, honestly…" she muttered.
Tifa shot her a skeptical look, but said nothing.
They approached their class, a few students lingered around outside the door, while some others had already entered the room and sat down. The desks had two seats at each, each with a wooden worktop and a hook on the side, probably for jackets or bags to hang from. Aerith went to her seat, which already had a student sitting at it, a scrawny ginger kid with some kind of anime mullet? Cloud wasn't sure what that was supposed to be, but he immediately started chatting to Aerith, who smiled and engaged in what seemed like a pretty shallow conversation.
Tifa gestured to an empty seat. "This is the only empty seat in this class, so it's pretty safe to say that this is where the teacher will seat you anyways".
"Oh, uh, thanks Tifa" Cloud walked over to the desk as Tifa sat in the seat behind him.
She leaned over him, tapping on his shoulder. "Psst, you don't talk much, do you".
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cloud asked bitterly.
"Just pointing out the fact…" She trailed off. "Say, why'd you come here anyway? I know you're the brother of those two young kids, so why weren't you here already if your family was here?"
Cloud stopped for a moment. He'd guessed that Ms Crescent had told both girls about his brothers, but he'd also assumed that along with that, she'd told them about his situation as well. I won't go into too much detail, just tell her enough to shut her up Cloud thought rudely.
"I, um, well, my Mom died at the beginning of summer, and I had to move in with my Dad and half brothers" He stated, matter of factly.
"That sounds awful" it wasn't Tifa who said this, no, a new voice made its way to Clouds ears from behind him. He jumped and turned around to see a genuinely sad looking face behind him. The one wearing this face was a very tall tan teenager, his long dark hair spiked slightly.
"Ah-sorry, I'm Zack, and that's my seat there" He pointed to the empty seat next to Cloud.
Cloud quickly moved to move his bag from the chair next to him and hang it on the hook. Zack sat down, taking out his pencil case and set there, bouncing his leg as he looked at his phone. He wasn't wearing the correct pants for school, swapping the dress pains for a pair of acid washed jeans. Cloud could see that Zack was well built through his clothes.
"You're new here, right?" Zack asked.
"Duh, of course he is, dumbass…" Tifa exclaimed.
"You don't need to be so rude, you know!" Zack raised his voice, but there was no malice, just what seemed like banter between two friends.
The bell rang, students lingering around their desks and outside the classroom hurried to sit down as the teacher entered the room. He was tall, young too, with long silver-grey hair swishing behind him as he walked over to his desk at the front of the room.
"Good morning class, as some of you know, I am Mr Crescent" He turned around to write his name and the date on the board. Cloud thought for a second, /Mr Crescent? Like Ms Crescent? Maybe they're related/ he looked over to Zack. /He'll probably know/
"Hey, Zack, right?" Cloud nudged his shoulder.
"Yeah what's up?" He smiled at Cloud, making Cloud blush for reasons he couldn't understand.
"Uh, what's the deal with Ms Crescent and Mr Crescent over there? Are they related or somethin'?" Cloud shifted in his seat, keeping his voice low as to not be heard.
"Actually, he's her son" Zack whispered back to him.
"Is that so…" Less interesting than Cloud had hoped, he'd assumed they were married or something along those lines.
"Yeah, his dad is also a Teacher here, teaches Science like Ms Crescent does, most kids in our grade just call him Hojo though" Zack slipped his jacket off his shoulders, his sleeves were rolled up, revealing muscular arms. He must work out, I'd love to watch -join him, Join Him, I really need to get fit Cloud blushed once again.
"Aerith, can you please hand out the textbooks" this wasn't a question, more a demand as he logged onto his computer.
"Yes sir" Aerith stood quickly, grabbing and handing out the books.
The class was loud and rowdy, the kid sitting next Aerith has turned around to talk to another student behind him, laughing and joking.
"Is it always like this" Cloud asked Zack, who was looking at pictures of "cute puppies" on his phone.
"Wha- Oh, you mean noisy?" Zack locked his phone and slipped it his pocket. "Mr Crescent has a firm attitude that if you're misbehaving, you obviously don't care and he won't waste time trying to teach you I guess. But to answer, no, not really actually, its just it's the first day back, so most kids are pretty rowdy".
Cloud looked towards the teacher, who was sipping his coffee in wait of Aerith to finish handing the books out.
Cloud could tell this was going to be a long year.