Sitting in a stuffy classroom on a hot day isn't very pleasant, Rhea Dawns thought herself as she wrote down the notes her teacher told the class to write. The hour of this class never seemed to end, especially with such a boring subject to learn about. She slumped down in her seat and put her head on her desk. If only I was in a better class to be in, she sighed before feeling a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Kadaj, Sephiroth's younger brother.

"What the hell do you want?" Rhea asked, displeased.

"I can't talk to a fellow classmate?" Kadaj asked in his michieveous tone.

"I know you're faking it. It's kind of obvious." Rhea responded, annoyed. She turned back around and did her work ignoring every single word Kadaj said to her. She heard certain word like "freak", "Weirdo", and "bitch". I so wish I could smack him right now, Rhea thought. Rhea had always disliked Kadaj and his crew of siblings, Sephiroth, Yazoo and Loz. They would always start trouble and they would always pick on Cloud, one of Rhea's close friends. Everyone thought they were so cool because they wore black, rode Fenrirs, had silver hair and green eyes.

So what if they ride Fenrirs? Cloud, Zack and a bunch of others ride Fenrirs, but why do they get treated so awful? she groaned before sitting up and finishing her work. When the bell for her class to be over rang, Rhea got up immediately got up but was pulled back down by a strong grip on her wrist. She turned over and saw Kadaj grabbing her wrist.

"What the hell? Let go!" she yelled. Kadaj smirked before pulling her back down to her seat.

"You're not going anywhere." Kadaj said. smirking before getting really close to Rhea.

"I have to meet up with my friends, you freak!" she yelled.

"You mean that emo blonde kid, the school's slut, the annyoing bratty spikey haired kid, the prick with green eyes and that freaky dude with long hair that you hang out with?" Kadaj insulted each of Rhea's friends.

"Y-You...!" Rhea yelled before smacking Kadaj across the face with her free hand which stunned him, causing him to let go of her wrist and she used it as a way to run for it. After running down two flights of stairs, she finally made it to the courtyard where Tifa, Cloud, Zack, Aerith and Vincent were there waiting for her.

" What took you long?" Zack asked.

"Silver haired, green eyed dude in my class. That's why." Rhea said, rubbing her wrist. Vincent was eying her wrist but didn't speak up. Rhea had admired that quiet, raven haired boy for quite sometime. She loved how his hair was so silky and would flow with the movement of the wind and his crimson eyes that looked so beautiful when the light hit it. Rhea never understood why everyone called Vincent a freak or a weirdo because in her eyes, he was far from any of those negative names. It was last year when Rhea had first met Vincent and it was due to her clumsyness.

Rhea was delievering some papers for a teacher from her classroom on the second floor to the main office which was on the first floor. When she was walking down the stairs and wasn't paying attention and accidental bumped into someone causing her papers to fall.

"I-I'm so sorry!" she quickly exclaimed before looking up and was greeted by a pair of crimson eyes. Her sapphire eyes were intertwined with the ruby eyes that caught her in a trance. She has never seen such beautiful eyes before. The color of crimson, a color that she had always thought was beautiful although she was more of a purple girl than a red girl. After looking into those charming red eyes, Rhea realized that she was staring. She blushed slightly before picking her papers, her hand stumbling.

"Here, let me help you." the boy spoke. Rhea could feel her heart pounding in her chest and it felt like it could pop its way out any moment. The crimson eyed man helped her pick up her papers. After the man picked up her papers and handed it to her, Rhea stood up and was about to walk away when she felt him grab her wrist.

"I-I have to go." Rhea stumbled at her words.

"But first, what is your name?" he asked. Rhea could her cheeks get warmer by moment.

"Rhea. My name is Rhea Dawns." Rhea spoke, softly.

"Rhea. Such a beautiful name." he repeated her name.

"W-Well what's your name?" Rhea asked back.

"Vincent Valentine. Vincent is fine." he spoke, his tone emotionless but there was a small bit of emtion in his voice.

"I-I shouldn't b-be holding you back from going to class!" Rhea stuttered before running down the rest of the stairs.

"Hey Rhea, why are you smiling like an idiot?" Zack asked.

"None of your damned business, Zack." Rhea responded.

"Jeez, don't have to be so harsh." Zack said as if what she said had stabbed him.

"Stop being so overly dramatic Zack." Cloud butted in.

"Are we gonna find a place to sit down and eat or not?" said a voice. Rhea looked over to see a certain pink haired girl running towards them dragging along a red head.

"Hey Anicula and Reno." Rhea spoke, quietly. Those two were always together, like in sepertable. Zack thinks that they both like each other but are too shy to admit it. The eight of them went over to their usual table and they sat in their normal spots. Anicula next to Reno, Tifa next to Cloud, Aerith next to Tifa so that left Rhea next to Vincent. Rhea was always so nervouse to sit next to Vincent because even if she is near him and can feel his prescense, she feels like she could faint any moments.

"Hey Rhea, you all right? You look red as a tomato!" Zack teased. Rhea crumpled up a napkin and threw it at Zack's forehead, really hard. He dodged it, like usual.

"Damn." she blurted out.

"Looks like someone needs better aim practice. Maybe Vincent should help you." Zack said. Rhea blushed again.

"Would...Would you just shut up already?!" she squeaked which made everyone laugh at her. She put her head down on the table from embarrassment until she felt a hand on her back and it made her jump only to see it was Vincent's hand.

"That's the second time that has happened to me today. You guys know that I get scared easily." Rhea whispered.

"Sorry about that." Vincent for the first time this entire lunch period spoke.

"Mr. Quiet finally spoke! This calls for a celebration!" Zack exclaimed which made Vincent facepalm. Just where does Zack get all that energy? Rhea thought and she yawned.

"Looks like someone didn't get enough sleep last night." Anicula spoke as she noticed how tired Rhea looked.

"Yeah, I haven't been able to sleep lately. I really don't know why." Rhea lied. The reason why she hasn't been able to sleep is she keeps having nightmares of either her getting kidnapped or killed or that her friends were killed before her eyes. Vincent's emtionless face suddenly showed concern when he heard that Rhea hasn't been able to sleep.

"Well if anything comes up, you have all of our numbers right?" Tifa asked. Rhea nodded. Their concerns and happiness was short lived because then a certain silver haired and green eyed person walked up behind Cloud poured his water on him.

"Agh! What the hell?!" Cloud yelled before turning around met eyes with Sephiroth.

"So Kadaj, these are the loser's friends? And which one was it that slapped you across the face?" Sephiroth asked. Kadaj pointed at Rhea and Sephiroth walked towards Rhea, who at the moment had no energy to defend herself. He walked closer and leaned down with a balled fist and swung it at her. Rhea closed her eye and flinched but she felt no pain. She opened her eyes and saw that Vincent was holding her tightly with one arm and the other holding back Sephiroth's fist.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on her, you got that?" Vincent threatened, still holding onto Rhea. Rhea was so scared but when she saw that Vincent was protecting her, she felt safe and comfort.

"Protecting that little bitch?" Sephiroth snorted. Vincent glared at the green eyed man standing before him.

"She is not a bitch. If you are going pick on someone, pick on someone your own size." Vincent spoke in a low voice.

"She slapped my younger broth-" Sephiroth began but was cut off

"I don't care if she slapped your brother or not. You should tell him that he should just forget it. A slap means nothing. She did it out of anger." Vincent spoke not letting Sephiroth speak. Sephiroth opened his mouth, about to say something hurtful to Vincent but closed it again and turned over to Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. The four silver haired boys walked off to where ever they hung out at. Vincent looked down at Rhea to see her clutching his shirt. Never had Vincent realized how small Rhea was. She was around Tifa's height and had a smaller breast and hip size in comparison to the other girl. Wait a minute, was he staring?! Vincent shook the thought from his head immediately.

"Thank you for defending me." Rhea spoke softly before she realized she was gripping onto his shirt and immediately let go. She blushed ever so faintly and looked over at the rest of the crew. Cloud's hair was not so spiky anymore and he kind of looked like a wet cat, Zack was laughing at how Cloud looked, Tifa was trying to comfort Cloud and looked worried at Rhea. Aerith was trying to get Zack to stop laughing and Anicula was feeding Reno. Wait, she's feeding Reno Sinclair?! What was seen could not be unseen.

After Zack stopped laughing at the very drenched Cloud Strife, he turned over to Rhea and smiled deviously. Rhea almost fell backwards if Vincent didn't catch her. She was scared to know what would come after that smile.

"I honestly think you two should hook up. I mean you two already act like a couple so why not make it official?" Zack teased while smirking.

"Zack, stop teasing them. You already tease Cloud and Tifa enough and they aren't even a couple." Aerith spoke, her voice soft. It was the voice that Zack had always love about the emerald eyed girl.

"You know I'm just doing it for fun, babe." Zack said as he leaned over and kissed Aerith on the nose which made her giggle. Zack and Aerith was the biggest deal in the whole school. Every guy was jealous of Zack because he got one of the cutest girls in the whole school and every girl was jealous of Aerith because she was dating Zack Fair, almost every girl's dream crush. Once some girl in Rhea's class asked if she was jealous that Aerith had Zack Fair and she responded by saying no and the girl was so shocked. Almost every girl likes Zack Fair but Rhea was just not one of them. The bell rang and it was time to go to their next class. Zack kissed Aerith, Tifa hugged poor like drenched cat Cloud, Anicula dragged Reno with her which left the awkward two alone.

"Um, er, I'm going to get going. Bye!" Rhea said so quick that she almost couldn't say it. Vincent nodded and Rhea ran for it. Vincent stood there for a moment before smiling slightly and headed to class.