You Can't Run From The Zack

"Cloud!" a petite girl called, running up to meet the blonde. "Cloud wait up!"

Stopping and looking up from his book, he waited for Aerith to catch up to him. Her long brunette hair bouncing as she jogged to meet him. "So how was your weekend?"

The blonde shrugged. "Talkative as ever, I see. Well I had a lot of fun. Yuffie and I went out and saw a movie, and then we went to the mall and met up with Vincent and Reno." Cloud listened quietly as she continued on about her weekend.

Unlike most people, Aerith had been the one person to try and make friends with him. And unlike most people, she was one of the few the blonde teen could actually stand. She was one of the few girls that didn't have a high pitched voice, wasn't (usually) completely emotional, always saying "Oh my gawd~!" and "L.O.L.". Dear god those girls should be shot. For everybody's sake.

She suddenly cut herself off with, "Look! There's Yuffie and Vincent!" Running over to them, she proceeded to ask them how their weekends had been.

"My weekend was so cool!," Yuffie started. "I went to this mountain, and rolled down it! And then, I did it again, but it made me thirsty so I went inside to drink JUICE! It was so good! You know how good it was? Like that one time when we went to that one restaurant and I had this piece of cheese! I remember that cheese, it was so good! Then after I drank the juice, I went home and tried to go to sleep but I couldn't so I hid under a table and pretended I was hiding from the POLICE! And they were trying to get me cause I had stolen some candy bars from this convenience store down the street, and they barricaded my house and S.W.A.T. burst through the door and I had to give the candy back....but then I went to sleep so it was ok!" She proceeded in making insane hand motions to follow her story.

Cloud walked past them and into the school, stopping by his locker. He picked up a few notebooks and dropped off anything he didn't need. All around him he could hear talk of the new student that had supposedly arrived today. The girls talking about how they hoped he was cute, and the guys hoping he was ugly as sin so maybe they could get a girl for themselves. A decent girl. Not just creepy girls like Shalua who were obviously lesbians.

The blonde, on the other hand, couldn't care less. In fact, he was actually hoping the guy was as plain as white rice so everyone would shut up and move on. The chances of that probably weren't very good, but a guy could dream, couldn't he?

He was suddenly caught by surprised when he was shoved against his locker. It wasn't anything new, he just hadn't been expecting it. He winced as his face hit the cold metal, the lock biting into his nose, his ears filled with the sound of laughter. Closing his eyes he sighed, and when he turned around there was no one there. No sign of his attacker. Just the malicious laughter echoing in the halls. In his ears, and the hateful smiles of the witnesses.

Just another day in hell, he thought, pushing himself off the lockers and down the hall. He had long since given up the hope that things might get better.

But more important was trying to push through the crowd and getting to his classroom. At least there it was semi-safe.

"Zack!" Angeal called up the stairs. "Zack, wake up! You're going to be late!"

When he received no response, he walked up the stairs and opened the door to Zack's room only to find him face down in his pillow, fast asleep. Grabbing a glass of water sitting on the nightstand, he dumped its contents onto his unsuspecting victim, who immediately jumped out of bed and started swatting at the water.

"What was that for?!"

"You're going to be late."

"Shit! Really?"

"Yes."

"Damnit! Why didn't you get me up earlier?!" he yelled, grabbing his nearest pair of pants and throwing them on. It took him a minute to find a shirt seeing as all the boxes had yet to be unpacked, but he did eventually manage to dig one out along with a pair of socks. "Fuck! Where the hell is my backpack?!"

"Language!"

"Yes it is!" he snapped back, "English as a matter of fact!"

"You know what I mean."

"Where the hell is my backpack?!"

"The one you left in the car?"

Staring at him a moment, Zack suddenly grabbed his shoes and shot down the stairs. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

Rolling his eyes, Angeal followed him downstairs, lazily shoving his hands in his pockets. "Just get in the car."

With the way Angeal drove, it took them all of about fifteen minutes to get to the school. Just enough time to get to class before the bell rang.

"Are you gonna get detention."

"Nope."

"Cause its your ass if you do."

Zack just sent him his most innocent smile as he unfolded himself from the car, giving him a little wave as he drove off. He missed the somewhat suspicious look in the older man's eyes. But it was well deserved either way, because as he loped off to class - he was already late - he was thinking that no, he didn't have detention. Saturday school, however, was something else altogether.

By the time he actually made it into the classroom, the instructor had already started his lecture. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad considering it was his first day...

Sliding the door open, he walked inside only to have everyone stare at him. Why was it that the second someone entered the classroom everyone's eyes shot to them and stared, like a fat kid eying the last piece of something creamy and high in fat? Ok, that made this scenario kinda creepy...

"You must be Zack Fair."

"I certainly hope so. I've been living his life these past seventeen years. And wearing his underwear..." he replied. He could already hear the conversations starting. And he was the center of attention. Lovely.

Most of the "popular kids" had taken over the center desks, the front seats claimed by the kids that studied every waking moment, and to the side were the kids trying to turn invisible. It had yet to work. Damn, picking people out really wasn't all that difficult here. At least, not compared to his old school in Gongaga. Seriously, who the hell decided that Gongaga was a good name for anything, much less a town? Really. No one knew exactly, though Zack had money on the creepy smiley lady who spoke to her tiny, shivering dogs in a baby voice.

"Well, find an empty seat and sit down."

The girls were immediately trying to get his attention and pushing people aside. It was rather terrifying. Fortunately there were a bunch of empty seats in the back.

He noticed a desk with a backpack sitting next to a desk and a notebook on top of it. Well, at least he wouldn't be alone back there. Not that he would have been anyway. Not with all those people fighting for his attention. Taking his seat, he tried to fight off all the inquiries when someone else walked through the door. He had blonde, spiky hair that strangely enough reminded Zack of a chocobo, his bright blue eyes standing out against his pale skin and he was holding a tissue to his face.

"Feeling better?" Rufus asked.

Cloud nodded and headed to the back of the room to take his seat. The murmurs and laughter followed him down the row and he managed to ignore most of it. He was surprised to find the seat next to his was occupied. His onyx black hair somewhat long, blue eyes smiling at him along with the rest of his features. The blonde ignored him and sat down.

Just get through today, Cloud, he thought, opening his notebook, starting his notes. It was somewhat hard to breathe with his nose still bleeding, making it kind of hard to concentrate.

Toward the end of class he saw a small piece of paper land on the corner of his desk. He was tempted to let it just sit there and walk away without it at the end of class, but curiosity got the better of him. Unfolding the note, he found scrawled across the page:

Hey, name's Zack Fair, you are...

Great. The new kid was trying to make friends. Well, he could do whatever the hell he wanted, but Cloud was not about to play along. He knew that making friends was a bad idea ever since a group had done so only to humiliate him.

Writing a small note, he folded the paper back up and flicked it back to Zack who opened it up and found tired written in small handwriting just beneath his own. Chuckling to himself, he was about to write a response when he realized everyone was packing up. With the bell about to ring, Rufus called over the students.

"Cloud!" the blonde looked up. "Give Fair your notes so he can get caught up."

Nodding, he handed his notebook to the new student who smiled and said, "Cloud, huh? I think I like chocobo head better."

Without a word the blonde let go of the booklet and picked up his bag. As soon as the bell rang he all but dashed out the door. Zack could only stare after him. Smiling, he picked up his things and walked out the door when he was suddenly surrounded by a mob of girls. Again the questions started. Where are you from? What's you're blood type? Are you single?

All questions were halted when someone asked, "So, why are you hangin' out with the faggot?"

"Who?" Zack asked, confused.

"Strife." When the answer was only met with a tilt of the head and a questioning glance they replied, "Small, blonde, spiky hair, sits in the back of the class."

"Oh, you mean Cloud! What about him?"

"Why were you talking to him?"

"Ah," he replied, as his eyes widened with understanding, "isn't the real question why aren't you talking to him?"

They stared at him like he was brain damaged. "Because he's a stupid faggot."

"Stupid is as stupid does?"

"That's-"

"T-t-t-t that's all folks." And with a quick wave of his hand Zack was gone, leaving the group dumbfounded and several witnesses quite amused.

That went well, he thought to himself, wandering down some random hall. He had no idea where he was supposed to be going, but he'd figure it out eventually.

"Oh my god! Zack! It really is you!" he heard someone call from behind him. He turned around just in time to catch her as she lunged herself at him.

Momentarily confused, he smiled brightly and hugged his attacker. Then he laughed, "You were expecting someone else?"

"Well I wasn't expecting you. God, how long has it been?"

"Too long, that's for sure."

"So, where are you headed off to next?"

"Chemistry."

"With?"

"Hojo."

"Ew...he's creepy...and besides...have you ever seen him look at you?" Aerith didn't bother to suppress her shudder. "With his beady little eyes and his tiny little glasses-" Zack frowned, the image in his head reminding him surprisingly of a demented little teddy bear... "- just staring. As if he can already see your liver floating in a jar."

Zack paused for a moment, his expression thoughtful, before replying. When he did, it was with: "Well that's just wasteful. I have plenty other perfectly good organs to offer." He shook his head dramatically with a sigh of, "Just the liver....tsk, tsk..."

"Zack! This is serious, he's uber creepy."

"And if I'm going to be stuck in a classroom with him, I might as well make the best of it. And as long as he's not like Worzel Gummidge, I'm ok."

"Who?"

"Oh, Worzel Gummidge is a children's television scarecrow who comes to life. A deeply anarchic character who changes his head depending on his mood, and is much to scary to be on kid's television. He has mice living in his chest, he's obsessed with cake, and he's forever trying to seduce a shop mannequin called Aunt Sally, with whom he is in love. The whole show is macabre, unsettling and inappropriate."

"So he's an effed up scarecrow...what's so scary about that?"

"You've obviously never seen his vast amounts of facial warts. Oh, and the fact that he REMOVES HIS FREAKING HEAD."

"...Chicken."

"Fine then oh brave one. One day you shall come over and we shall sit in the dark and you shall watch it. And you shall be scared, oh yes you will. Because he is frightening. made all the creepier by the fact that I live by a cornfield."

"...No you don't. We live in the city."

"Which is really just the cornfield of suburbia."

"Even if that made sense, the vendor who sells vegetables hardly counts..."

"What about-"

"Neither does the supermarket."

"...You suck..."

"Maybe. But at least I don't swallow."

"Oh, come on, Aerith! That was not something I needed to know!"

"Ha ha ha, go get to class before you're yelled at."

Sticking his tongue out at her, he headed off in what he assumed was the general direction of his class. He'd find it eventually. Either on his own or with instructions. Hopefully he'd be able to do it on his own and not be late.

And after wandering the halls, he did manage to find it. And only a minute late. Again people stared. Why? Because it was a conspiracy against anyone that walked in the door after the bell rang. It was done for the sole purpose of embarrassing people. Well Zack was not about to give into it, no way in hell.

The instructor stared at him and motioned to a small group in the back. Surprise, surprise Cloud was a part of that group. The other two consisted of a redhead and kid with long black hair. The redhead was talking animatedly while the other two sat in silence.

"So, who wants to discuss the complex science involved in Quantum Physics?" Blank stare. "Or the complexities of the female bra." this immediately grabbed the redhead's attention, and the boy instantly started off on a long spiel about trying to unhook millions of pinky sized hooks in the dark, blind, and upside down. Cloud and the other kid didn't seem enthralled with the tale. Taking the safer route, Zack turned to the blonde. Hey, it was better than trying to figure out what the hell the redhead was talking about or when the hell he'd done a thing like that.

"So we meet again, chocobo head," Zack said, earning a questioning glance from the other two at the table.

"Reno!" he heard the instructor call from behind him. "Shut up and focus!"

"Only if you've got duct tape!"

Without saying a word, Vincent dug around in his backpack before holding up a large, silver, roll of duct tape. Sinking down into his chair a little bit, Reno was quiet the rest of the class.

Zack sat quietly through the rest of class as well. Pissing off this instructor didn't exactly seem like the best idea...

ok, I'm really sick at the moment guys, so this'll be quick, Redfaerie has major credit and the freaky ass scarecrow is from Russell Brand's book. I'm going to bed now