He was nothing special

Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing….bastards


Tifa Lockhart…

Tifa Lockhart…

So her name is Tifa Lockhart…

"Cloud Strife!"

At the sound of his infuriated teacher's voice, Cloud immediately dropped his pencil and looked at her with fear in his eyes.

Please, please don't come over here.

The reason for the boy's fear was that while he was supposed to be paying attention to the lesson that was being taught, he was instead writing Tifa's name over and over again.

In block letters, bubble letters, straight lines, his whole paper was full of Tifa.

"Now, Mr. Strife, I hope you've been practicing your arithmetic on that piece of paper because I have a problem for you to do on the board."

Cloud visibly relaxed. Okay, just gotta do some math, nothing too bad. Better than what I was thinking was going to happen anyway.

Cloud got out of his chair and looked at his assigned problem. Dividing fractions? Pfft, why don't you ask me what 2+2 equals?

He went up to the board and quickly did the problem. He looked at the teacher for her assessment.

She nodded, "Good work, like always, Cloud. You can sit down now."

He went back to his seat and returned to his calligraphy.

Hmm, what should I write her name with now? Dotted lines? Nah. Cursive? No, the way I write cursive I might as well do it in Wutaiin. Oh wait, I'll do those cool 3-D letters!

Dedicating himself to his task, Cloud forgot all about class. At least until he noticed someone was screaming at him.

Irritated, he looked up to see who screamed, only to nearly scream himself when he saw his teacher.

Aww, not again!

"Cloud Strife! Since you think that piece of paper is more important than my lesson, I would like for you to share with the whole class what is on that paper."

Faced with such a difficult choice, Cloud took the only logical step he could think of.

He tore the paper out of the notebook, crumpled the sheet up into a ball, and threw it into his mouth.

The teacher nearly shrieked, "Cloud Locke Strife!! Who do you think you are!? A spy!?! That does it! I don't know what's gotten into you today, but I will not have these shenanigans in my classroom. You're going on the wall today, young man."

Cloud groaned.

The teacher turned to face him, "I'll hear no complaints from you Mr. Strife. Perhaps if you didn't act like you were one of the Turks, maybe this wouldn't have happened."

As she walked back to her desk, she muttered, "I didn't think he would go bad this fast."

Cloud heard it however. After he finished swallowing that foul-tasting paper he put his head down. He could hear the whole class murmuring, making fun of him like always. It was bad enough that none of the kids at school liked him, but to have his own teacher hate him?

Cloud fought the urge to cry, he knew that he would only be made fun of more if he started crying in class. He had to be strong; he had to look on the bright side of things. It was like his mother always told him:

Only after experiencing true darkness can we really appreciate the warmth and security of the light.

Besides, today isn't too bad, I met Tifa and I get to eat lunch with…

Aww dammit! I'm on the wall today! Great, I bet Tifa won't want to be my friend anymore since everybody's gonna tell her how much of a troublemaker I am.

The bell sounded. As the class started filing out, the teacher yelled loud enough so everybody could hear, "Remember Cloud, your on the wall today! I better see you there for the whole lunch! Got it?"

Cloud nodded glumly and went to his punishment. The wall was the punishment teachers used when students were being too rowdy or insolent. The student would have to sit on the wall while all the other children played. The wall had the best view of the playground, so the poor luckless student would be tortured by watching the other children while they was stuck on their butt on a very uncomfortable concrete wall. If the student was especially difficult, they would be assigned busy work. It consisted of writing a sentence like "I will not chew gum in class." or "I will not put super glue on the teacher's chair."

When Cloud got there, he found one such student already on the wall. He recognized him instantly. Johnny Alexander, the boy who tortured Cloud to no end in second grade.

What did I do to deserve this?

Johnny noticed Cloud coming up to the wall, and raised his head to look at him with a devious smirk on his face.

"How's it going Chocobo-head?"

Johnny sat behind Cloud and would always make remarks that he wanted to "join his kind" whenever he wore a shirt with a Chocobo on it or ask if he had to lay an egg every time he was absent.

Johnny looked down at Cloud's shirt and shook his head, "Aww did Cloud miss his mommy? Is that why she's on your shirt? Were the stables full today?"

I really need new clothes.

Cloud ignored him and sat down. He put his head into his hands.

Tifa probably hates me now. She's was probably at the corner waiting for me and now she thinks I'm a jerk for not meeting her. She's probably like, 'Stupid Cloud! I try to be friends with him and he doesn't even meet me for something he asked me to do!' Or maybe her friends are telling her about what happened in class, and now she's thinking 'I don't want to hang out with a guy who eats paper. Gross!' and even if I went there she would just make fun of me. She'd call me a termite. The Choco-termite. That's the perfect name for me.

How did today get so bad?

He looked to his left and saw Johnny copying down his sentence: I will not put paint in somebody else's hair.

Johnny felt Cloud's eyes on him as he turned his head to face him. "What do you want, Chicobo?"

I forgot about that name.

Cloud rolled his eyes and said, "You're doing it long way. How many times do you have to copy it?"

"100 times." Johnny replied, momentarily forgetting his hatred of Cloud. He would do anything to get off the wall, even listen to the short little Chocobo-head.

"Just copy I 100 times, then copy will, then not and you get the rest." Cloud said.

Johnny stared at him for a moment, said "That's a stupid idea.", and went back to his work.

Cloud sighed. It was worth a try.

He looked back at Johnny and saw that he was doing it his way.

I…

I…

I…

I…

Johnny looked up at Cloud, met his eyes and looked away. Cloud smiled.

A couple of minutes passed and soon Johnny was done. He got up and as he was about to leave he turned to face Cloud and said, "Thanks loser, have fun."

At least he didn't call me Chocobo-head.

Soon he saw something that made him forget about Johnny, the teacher, even being on the wall.

He saw Tifa walking towards him. And she didn't look angry at all. In fact she had a big beaming smile on her face.

Once again, Cloud forgot to take the possibility into consideration, so once again the boy was left speechless.

She stopped right in front of him. She shook her head and said, "Cloud, do you know how long I've been searching for you? I thought you might have left me alone."

Cloud cringed. This is not what he had hoped.

She continued, "But I overheard some of my friends talking about you being here today." She looked at him curiously, "Did you really eat paper?"

Cloud decided to change the subject. "Hey, is that your lunch?" He said, pointing at a brown bag.

Tifa nodded. "Well, since you can't leave, might as well have lunch here. This can be as fun as the corner, right Cloud?".

Cloud could only nod.

I guess today isn't so bad after all.



A/N:Okay, I have even more than I thought to write. I'm not giving a set number of chapters cause I have no idea how much more I'm going to write. Just stick with me people, I'll never lead you wrong…much. If you could leave me a review telling me how much I can decrease the suckitude of my story that would be great. And thanks to Phoenix Falls for the review!!