~CHAPTER 2~
Evil Happens. That's Why We Call It Life.
Disclaimer: I don't own Square Enix, Sephiroth does. …Wait… I think I'm confused …
I found Lucrecia and Vincent together in the hallway outside the classroom. She was crying with her face buried in the front of the jacket he was wearing. Vincent looked helpless and completely confused, his back pinned against a locker.
"Did you see…?" I mouthed.
He shook his head and shrugged slightly. "I have no idea," he mouthed back.
I grimaced, and mouthed, "Hojo."
Vincent stared, and his livid expression caused me to assume that he'd understood.
I nodded.
"Is she scared?"
"Well obviously!" I made an extravagant hand motion in her direction to accompany the statement.
Vincent bent his head down, whispered comfortingly to her and stroked the back of her hair in the fashion that one would use to try to soothe a frightened cat.
"Lucrecia?" I asked, "You okay?"
She looked up at me angrily, "Do I look okay?"
"No."
She returned to her sobbing.
Vincent shrugged at me.
I tried again, knowing that my natural tactlessness with Lucrecia would eventually win out, and that when she had yelled at me she would feel better. "Is he really that bad?"
The glare this time was so reminiscent of Sephiroth that I took a half-step backwards and even Vincent looked at her warily. "You tell me, Nix." She said, "You know the story well enough—as you can't seem to help but constantly remind me. You tell me."
The degree of venom in the voice of normally so sweet Lucrecia was the most poignant answer to my question she could have given. There was a resolute, protective look in Vincent's eye as he looked at Lucrecia. She was not crying now, watching coldly for my response.
I was spared answering and giving my friend a valid reason to sentence me to death by two people walking through the doors to the hallway.
"Damn it… I told you we should have gone up that flight of stairs…" said one of them. His hair was brown and almost shoulder-length and he was wearing a long red leather jacket and gloves.
"No, we're right here…" the other student said, pointing to a place on the map in the first's hand.
"But the girl we asked said it was on the second floor."
"She must have lied."
"We need to ask them where we are."
"No, I know where we are."
By this time Vincent, Lucrecia and I were all staring at them.
"Are you looking for Barker, science?" I guessed.
Genesis nodded.
I pointed over my shoulder to the door of the room.
"Ha," Angeal said, having won the argument.
They walked into the classroom.
"Who are they?" Lucrecia asked, momentarily forgetting both her terror and her fury with me.
"A couple of First Class SOLDIERs…" I responded. "This is certainly gonna be interesting…" I paused, pondering for a moment, then looked back at Lucrecia, "So... were you going to yell at me?"
Evidently not. Her rage had dissipated and her emotionally driven thought patterns seemed to have been accordingly kicked out of their gear. She had relinquished the front of Vincent's jacket and was leaning into him sidewise instead, facing me.
"No," she said, then shook her head. "I don't know... I have no idea..."
She sounded like she was slipping back into hysteria land, so before Vincent had to submit to becoming a human tissue again, I checked the time on my phone.
"Seriously, Lucrecia. Class is gonna start soon, come on."
"We'll say we were lost," she said, "It's the first day..."
"Nu-uh. My bag is in there, so I have no excuse. And I'm not leaving you out here like this!"
She looked actually fearful now, and looked up at Vincent for support.
"Come on Lucrecia." He picked up both their bags and put them over one shoulder. "You'll be okay. I promise."
"What's the worst that could happen? Seriously?"
Both of them glared at me, so I shut up.
A few last students were trickling in and any of them who tried to invade Sephiroth's corner received a glare so vicious that the corner retained a stable population of three—himself, Genesis and Angeal.
I looked around and noted that Hojo had evidently been glared into the exact opposite corner of the room, nearest the teacher's desk.
Sephiroth gave a subtle nod that seemed to imply that we would be allowed into his precious corner with impunity.
"Y'okay?" Sephiroth asked Lucrecia, carefully trying to look as though he didn't care.
Instead of answering, Lucrecia snatched her bag from Vincent and began looking through it feverishly as though there was homework due.
It was growing increasingly difficult to stay shutted-up in the midst of the awkward silence, so, to avoid saying something stupid that would cause a confrontation, I walked over to another good friend of mine, Tarquin Igneous. I'd known him for a few years and had rarely ever seen him so troubled. He was staring at Hojo.
"What's the problem, Tarq?"
"Him…" He breathed.
"Hojo," I informed him quietly. "What've you got against him?"
The one teal eye I could see from my angle flicked to where Lucrecia was sitting, or, more accurately, cowering.
"You hate him because he made a girl you don't even know cry?! Tarquin, you chivalrous jackass…"
"Then am I wrong to have developed such a hatred for him?" Tarquin turned his head to look at me, giving me the creepy feeling that I was being analyzed on a molecular level.
"No… I support you fully in hating him… But, leave it to me and Vincent for now."
"I have met Vincent," Tarquin said, seeming satisfied with that and settling back into the attitude of a hunting cat, still staring at Hojo.
I rolled my eyes and left to comfort Lucrecia. She was refusing to look at the far half of the classroom.
"Lucrecia, you know how I've got a mortal, irrational fear of Jack Skellington, right? Well, I had to watch Nightmare Before Christmas a while back and—"
"Tell me this is going somewhere, Nix."
"It is! I promise! But anyhow, I was all worked up about how creepy Jack was, but when I actually watched the movie it wasn't so bad, 'cause most of why I was scared was because of how scared I was of being scared... Savvy?"
She looked a bit confused, but nodded anyway.
The bell signaling that anyone who walked into class now was officially late rang.
"Alright, is everyone finally here?" The teacher asked. "'Cause if you're not, I don't care." This silenced the class effectively.
She started calling role, balking on only a few names.
"Sephiroth... Crescent?"
She gave our corner a very strange look, then glanced at Hojo.
"That's... uh... me." Sephiroth said awkwardly, trying and failing to look inconspicuous.
As soon as role had been completely taken I raised my hand.
"Yes..." She looked at her role sheet to try to find my name.
"I'm Nicole Brent." I told her. "But, um, I just wanted to warn you… Some of us in this class are the remnants of the class that played the leading role in ridding the school system of a legendarily evil English teacher."
The blonde teacher looked at me shrewdly. "Did this teacher happen to be Randal?"
I nodded.
She looked thrilled. "You're the ones who scared off Randal?"
"Actually, we kinda got her arrested."
"I know… I heard the story... I had her as a teacher once. I hated her… Extra credit points to everyone from that class. Who's here?"
I pointed to Sephiroth in the corner, Vincent and Lucrecia at the table next to me, Aerith a few tables away from us and Yuffie next to her.
"Only six of you?"
"Uh…Yeah. The rest of us... moved."
"Umm…Where, exactly?"
"…To Japan." I nodded.
"Really."
"Yep."
She looked at me in disbelief, but my never-fail cheesy Barbie smile held out. Several people laughed mockingly at me.
"Right. Okay..." She sighed and shook her head, looking around at the extremely quirky segment of the student body who happened to be present. I think it may have been that moment when she realized what she was in for, or it might have been a similar moment few days later. "As you may or may not know, I am Mrs. Barker and this is a biology class. Ergo the decoration." She made a sweeping motion towards the many posters of microorganisms, cellular life functions and genetics adorning the walls. "So, I'm going to attempt to teach you science. If you really wanna ditch this class, go ahead. My only rule is once you're here, you stay. I won't have you leaving to flit all over the school."
She went on to say that whether or not we wanted to, we still had to follow the school rules and her rules, no matter how arbitrary they may or may not be. She had a syllabus page that she wanted handed out, and was about to have Hojo hand it out as he was closest when Tarquin volunteered elegantly. I could feel the environment of our half of the room relax.
I poked Lucrecia in the shoulder and she started violently.
"What, Nix?" She snapped.
"Uh… I was trying to distract you."
She glared slightly sidewise at me.
"You're freaking out."
"I'm not freaking out."
"You're a bad liar."
Tarquin approached us with a dignified air that made even his current menial task seem like a respectable, honorable and even desirable vocation for a well-bred gentleman of intelligence. He gave Vincent a respectful nod in greeting, then looked at Lucrecia concernedly.
"Are you alright?"
She brushed her hair out of her face and shook her head. "I-I'm fine."
Tarquin and I exchanged a look that said plainly that we were both in agreement about her severe lack of skill in lying.
Tarquin returned his gaze to Lucrecia. "Dear, if there is anything I can do—"
"I will be fine," she insisted.
Tarquin glanced at Vincent, who was watching him warily, and left quietly with another bow-like nod and a gentile rustle of papers.
Mrs. Barker cleared her throat to silence the smattering of chatter that had begun to surface during her speech's momentary pause.
"I want you to read those, sign them and bring them back." She looked around and noticed that the chatter had not really died off. She rolled her eyes and raised her voice. "Since I'm not about to assign real homework on the first day and I can't teach you anything in fifteen minutes... feel free to screw off for the rest of class."
Almost as soon as she had finished saying this Yuffie was sitting on my desk, feet swinging, chatting away about the jerks she had met thus far today who were from the other junior high school.
I looked at Lucrecia, who looked like the ceiling had done her some personal injustice.
"You sure you're gonna be okay?" I asked.
Yuffie looked at her curiously. "What's up? Is something wrong?"
Lucrecia glared at Yuffie then put her face in her hands. Vincent put an arm around her, and looked at Yuffie meaningfully, using his other hand to make a slashing motion across his neck.
I rolled my eyes and turned around to speak to Genesis and Angeal rather than watch Yuffie be gored.
"Heya."
Genesis, seeming bored with the conversations around him, had pulled out a small book bound in leather. The word "LOVELESS" was branded into the front in stunning calligraphy gilt in casually faded gold. Based on the movement of his eyes, he was reading it.
"Loveless?" I asked, interested to strike up conversation with someone new.
He glared up at me like I had disturbed the peace of his little internal library, then returned resolutely to his reading.
"What!? Are you mad at me or something?! What did I do?"
He was still silent, making a show of pretending not to have heard me.
"Fiiine," I said, "I'll talk to Angeal, 'cause he's way cooler than you." True to this, I turned to Angeal. "Hi."
"Hello..." Angeal said awkwardly.
"Uh... I'm Nix, if nobody told you."
"I was warned about you, actually."
"'Warned,' you say? Who was talking about me behind my back?"
"Sephiroth."
"Oh. Well, he's an ass anyway, so I'll forgive him." Angeal seemed confused, and Genesis was looking at me over the top of LOVELESS, obviously trying to look disinterested.
"So, what'd he say about me?"
"He said that I should avoid you at all costs, if I wanted to keep my sanity…"
"Good advice," I said with an approving nod. "Genesis seems to have taken it to heart."
Genesis's eyes flicked back down to the text of LOVELESS.
Angeal looked behind me, over my shoulder. "Hello, Zack."
"Heya."
I looked around to see that Zack was approaching the table. "Hey, Zack!" I said.
He stood at the table next to where I was and asked Angeal, "How'd you get here?"
Angeal shrugged. "I don't know. I'm assuming you don't either."
Zack shook his head.
"I know."
We all turned to stare at Genesis.
Genesis snapped LOVELESS shut and looked meaningfully off into the distance. "There is always a reason behind things, and this is no exception. The others—call them 'first wave', shall we?—were all bound by a common thread: Sephiroth. Sephiroth was the one who originally manipulated the Lifestream and everyone's connections to him brought them along as well."
My head was reeling with not only the information, but with the realization of its source. Genesis knew things about the other's arrival that I had never heard.
"To find out who caused this 'second wave', let's say, we need to find the common thread among us."
"You're well informed."
He smiled faintly. "I try."
"Sephiroth told you all this?"
"I asked Aerith for her opinion as well and from that synthesized my conclusions."
I looked around. Sephiroth, Aerith and Vincent were talking. Yuffie had vanished. Vincent still had an arm across Lucrecia's shoulders. I was almost angry with Aerith for not keeping me informed, but I wasn't going to severely begrudge the Ancient who could kill me with a 4 foot stick of wood.
Genesis went back to reading and I settled comfortably into a discussion with Zack about something that I seem to remember was vaguely school related and distinctly dangerous.
I felt like we were being watched and when I looked up I noticed that the teacher was, as a matter of fact, observing us carefully.
I looked down at the desk. "Are we really that strange? Seriously?"
Zack looked at her too and seemed disconcerted by her stare.
"She's been watching Sephiroth the whole class." Genesis said, turning a page casually and not looking up.
How Genesis knew that without having looked up I had no idea, but he was right. Mrs. Barker's eyes only strayed from Sephiroth to look at the rest of the class occasionally, and only after we noticed she was staring.
I quickly opened my new spiral and tore a corner off a page. I scribbled "You're being watched." on it and tossed it at Sephiroth.
Sephiroth pulled the paper scrap out of his hair and read it. He looked around the room and finally saw Mrs. Barker, who had turned to work on her computer.
"What, the teacher?"
"Yeah, she's been watching you all class."
"Creep."
"No kidding."
There was no more space on the scrap of paper, but Sephiroth was more wary of his back for the rest of class.
Author Note: Now let's watch and see if all the Howard Johnson advertisements come back!
