Again, this is another story that grew out of a Twitter roleplay. The program referred in here as Shinra Chatter is based on Twitter - all of the names used are the Twitter accounts we use to portray the characters on there. Follow if you'd care to. :) As such, this is EXCEEDINGLY non-canon. I have no idea when this would supposedly take place in game world. As such, please take any inaccuracies in stride. We acknowledge that there are major flaws with the storyline - this is just for fun, and I write it as a story so that one of our players gets to see what's going on when it doesn't necessarily show up on Twitter. Therefore, you can guess that critique on this piece is essentially wasted typing time. *big smile* Thank you.

Every SOLDIER's aim, in the end, was to be 1st Class. The 1st Class SOLDIERs were the top of the top, the best of the best – at least, the best you could get without being a Turk, and most SOLDIERs had no real aspirations of being a Turk. The training was too difficult, the standards were too high, and the extra money in the paycheck just didn't quite make up for the things you'd be asked to do.

So a chance to do anything with the current 1st Class SOLDIERs – especially the three best – was reason for some excitement. And even though I desperately wanted to be a Turk some day, it was still really exciting for me.

"Did you hear what they're saying?" one of the 3rd Class boys – whose name was something stupid and common like John or James – hissed from the head of the barracks hallway as I walked out.

"Nothing that you're going to be in, kid," I heard from behind me. Charlotte, my team leader, best friend and roommate had stepped up behind me to join the conversation with a smirk. "Only the 2nd Classes get to run in the drills today. You really think that they'd let Thirds have anything to do with this?"

John-or-James didn't have a good response. While he sputtered, I looked over my shoulder at Charlotte. "Did we hear what we get to do yet?"

Char shook her head. "They haven't made the official announcement. I'm guessing Director Lazard will come in during breakfast or something and tell us. Think it'll be something dumb like last year, when all us Seconds and Thirds had to run our asses off and then whoever won got to miss training for a day?"

"That wasn't dumb!" John-or-James said from the end of the hallway. "Man, I wanted that so bad."

"Jim, any halfway intelligent SOLDER knows that you can't take a day off training, no matter how good you are," Charlotte shot back, throwing a pencil down the hall at him. Answered what his name was, though. "It's a stupid gift and Lazard knew it. It was a test. Shows how you're still a Third after all this time."

"I was sick on the day we went to the range," he whined. "It's not my fault I sneezed."

Another boy, a 2nd Class I was pretty sure was named Mirik, came up and clapped James on the back. "Yeah, and nearly shot Hewley's face off. He was gonna have you running wind sprints for a week." James paled and Mirik just shot a grin to Charlotte and me. "Morning, ladies."

"Morning, Mirik," I said with a small wave and smile.

"Quit being a schmooze, Mirik," Char responded, sticking her tongue out at him.

Unfazed, Mirik just winked back. "Some day you will regret not being madly in love with me, Charlotte. Come on, Jim. Let's leave the girls to their own devices and wait for them to come running after us."

I walked out of the room and turned around to face Char as Mirik and Jim walked away. "You really think it's going to be something like last year?"

"Don't know, Laney. Let's go find out."

It wasn't until the end of breakfast that the bombshell came. As soon as Director Lazard entered the room, the entire mess hall went silent. Even the 3rd Class SOLDIERs were waiting with baited breath.

"I understand that rumours travel fast in the Shinra building," the Director started, "and so I am sure that you all know that the 2nd Class SOLDIER drills today will not be ordinary drills. You will be broken up into ten groups for the drills, and will run in circuits that way. At the end, the top member of each group will be chosen to participate in the 1st Class ten-mile run challenge."

Immediately the room was full of chatter. The ten-mile challenge was famous for being the one piece of SOLDIER training that people had the hardest time with – and you always had to run it on your own, without any basis for how fast you were going. Being able to run it before your test with the 1st Class SOLDIERs was beyond anything anyone would have expected.

Charlotte looked at me with wide eyes. "Laney, we've got to win that. I cannot pass up the opportunity to run with the Firsts, holy shit."

"That would be brilliant." The Director was still talking, and I was still looking at him, but even if I'd been able to hear over the other SOLDIERs, I wouldn't have made sense of the words. A chance to run with the Firsts. I'd already passed the gun certification for 1st Class – a chance to see how I'd do on one of the hardest pieces of the 1st Class certification would certainly put me at an advantage. And if I won, and I did well at the run, and someone like Tseng from the Turks saw me...

Ooh, couldn't think about that. I'd be daydreaming about Tseng all day.

Char nudged me, and I snapped out of whatever reverie I'd sunk myself into to see that everyone was leaving. I grabbed my tray and we headed out. I'd recently gotten linked into this website that the company was using to keep all the employees in contact with each other and whatnot. It had turned into a big social clusterfuck (pardon my language) in the end, but it was fun enough to see what everyone put up there. I opened my phone's client and sent a blurb out into the void.

Headed in for drills in a bit. Anyone who does well gets to run with the 1st Classes later on. I'm so psyched - I have to do well!

"Are you on that Shinra Chatter thing again?" Charlotte said, peering over my shoulder. "God, that's such a waste of time."

"Well sure, but come on. General Sephiroth is on there, and it's hysterical," I said with a grin, waving my phone a bit. "Him and his crew – Generals Hewley and Rhapsodos – they're all on there, and a bunch of the Turks, and the Vice President..."

"Normal people just talk to others," Charlotte shot back, but she was smiling even through her mock irritation. "Anything of interest being said?"

I shrugged. "I'll check it later. Nothing recent. Just Tseng and the VP's secretary talking about Wutai, and the VP talking about how he gets to leave late for work." I stuck out my tongue.

"See, told you. Nothing but mindlessness." About halfway back to the barracks, my phone buzzed. I'd set up my phone so that if any of the 1st Class SOLDIERs, any of the Turks, or the Vice President sent a piece of Chatter, I'd get a text – and it already texted me if anyone chattered at me.

When I opened my phone, however, I saw something I wasn't expecting in the least.

LovelessfanGR: littleblondfire let's hope you do well.

That was General Rhapsodos. Genesis Rhapsodos, 1st Class SOLDIER, brilliant swordsman, and all around heartthrob of the entire company. I hadn't met a girl in SOLDIER that hadn't daydreamed at least once about him; even Charlotte had admitted that he was hot. And here I was, with one of my all time crushes chatting to me. Wishing me luck.

Hell, any 1st Class that wanted to wish me luck was more than welcome, but Genesis?

I quickly responded. LovelessfanGR eeeeee Thank you so much, sir! I'll be working my hardest :)

I couldn't keep the excitement from my voice, even in text. I'm sure he'd understand; after all, being allowed to compete for a spot in the run was exciting enough on its own.

"What's up?" Charlotte asked, having noted my wide-eyed staring at my phone.

I looked up. "General Rhapsodos just chattered at me."

"That is the dumbest turn of phrase I have ever heard."

"Well, call it something else then."

"I will. There's a chocobo on the icon, isn't there? I'm calling it 'warking'."

I blinked. "And that's better than chattering how?"

"Because it has to do with a chocobo. What did the General say?"

The smile crept onto my face before I could even speak a word. "He wished me luck in the trials today." My phone buzzed again and I glanced down. There was a new text message from Chatter: LovelessfanGR: littleblondfire if you do well enough maybe you can run by my side. I do like a good running partner.

My eyes must have gotten wide as saucers, because Charlotte just laughed at me. "What?"

"I thanked him, and he just sent me something back saying that if I do well, maybe during the run he'll let me run along with him." My mind flitted off into a brief fantasy, of me standing here in the barracks hallway for my class, reading texts as somewhere else in the building, Genesis sat with his phone, staring at the screen waiting for me to respond...

Charlotte pushing me brought me back again to the land of the currently truthful and I just grinned at her frustrated look. "Come on, Juliet – we've got to get changed and head down to the drills. We've still got to get warmed up."