FF Goes to School

Chapter 3 - In the bad class

Aeris sat on the floor, not knowing what to say. She guessed that she would just have to tell him the truth.

"Um… well, you see, I was kinda late this morning, so I uh… borrowed your chocobo…"

"What in the world are you guys doing with that big chicken over there?" Quistis, a student leader on gate duty demanded.

"Hey! That's not a big chicken, it's a chocobo!" protested Cloud in defence of his beloved Pokey.

"Yeah, I rode it to school alright, that's why I'm not late," Aeris added.

"I don't care how you came to school, no pets allowed within school premises, that's a rule that everyone's expected to know, and especially not huge pets like this. Now, I'll let you off this time, no second chances alright? The flag raising ceremony's about to begin so if you don't want to be late, you better hurry."

Cloud tied the reigns of the chocobo to the gate, nodded and both of them ran in.

Sighing, Quistis sat on a small step by the gate. Why is it that we student leaders have to do such pointless duties and uphold some stupid image? Well, that's some nice chocobo he has, she thought to herself. Getting up, she stroked its soft golden feathers.

"Wark!"

"Hehe, you're cute," she laughed softly to herself, when she spotted a car pull up by the road and a young student rushing out of it. Another late comer, she thought.

"Hey, you! You're late!" she called out, "Over here! Sorry but it's the standard procedure. So, what's your name and class and level?"

"… Rinoa Heartilly, 35/'02, JC"

"Alright, report to the general office"

Muttering something under her breath, Rinoa headed in the direction of the GO (general office).

Five minutes later, the awaited announcement was heard, "All students please proceed back to your classes, announcements will be read later." It was time for Quistis to get back too.

******

In the most notorious class of the whole school, Sec 4/8, the students were happily throwing their bags down and chattering with one another.

"Hey! Look at what I stole from the shop yesterday!" Yuffie held out a rare, glowing green materia.

"Whoa! Cool!"

"Let me see it!"

"It's Ultima!"

"How did you manage to steal it huh?"

Grinning in pleasure at the attention she was receiving, she stuffed the materia into her bag and said, "Tell you guys more the next time."

"Oh please, tell us now!"

"Yeah!"

As the excited students chattered, their volume got louder and louder till the whole corridor was able to hear them.

"4/8! That's enough! You are making too much noise. My class next door can't hear the announcements!" A loud voice boomed, drowning the voices of the students.

Instantly, they all scrambled back to their seats and shut their mouths, looking down at their desks as if they were reading the book in front of them.

"It's your reading period now and you should be reading your book and listening to the announcements!" The school's youngest and most gorgeous relief teacher, Miss Lockheart, was giving them some lecture which no one bothers to listen to, "I do not want to hear anymore noise coming from this class. Is that understood?"

Silence.

"Is that understood?"

"Yes," came a very soft, unwilling mutter from the students. With that, Tifa returned to her class.

A few minutes later, their form teacher walked in.

"Alright, I believe you guys have heard the announcements. There will be a spot check on every student's attire. As students of XYZ School, you all have an image to uphold. You are a very privileged bunch to be in here. You should see how many students are queuing up to enter, so please do your best to give the school a good reputation."

So this fat old lady walked down the rows, taking down names of students who have long nails, untidy hair, hair that is too long, untidy uniform, not wearing school socks, etc.

Halfway through, she turned to look at Garnet, who simple gave her a blank stare.

"Now Garnet, I know you are some girl from the royal family but that doesn't give you a right to be special and dress your hair up so fancifully with all that clips and accessories."

"I'm glad you know I'm a princess! So, I do what I want! This stupid school has already forced me to wear this dumb sack, and now they're restricting me from wearing these? No way I tell you, NO WAY!" she screamed at the helpless teacher.

Shaking her head, she made a mental note to remember that girl and continued to check on others. Finally she stopped again at her last student, frowning.

"Reno! How many times do I need to repeat the school rules to you?"

"As many times as you wish," he shrugged.

"Fine! I shall say this one last time. You attire is way too messy! Doesn't your mother even teach you how to button your shirt up properly? And just look at that nest on your head! Our school doesn't even allow our boys to keep their hair long in the first place! And just look at that colour…"

"The colour," replied Reno, finally looking up at the teacher, "is natural. And you don't expect me to dye it to that hideous purple colour that you have. The hair and the uniform are mine, I do what I want with it. So shut up, old hag!"

"Now, it's time you be serious about school! We have been giving you a lot of chances already, by allowing you to retain for 4 years! And mind you, 4 years is a lot, but it doesn't seem like you've learnt anything. Now that's enough, Garnet and Reno, I need to see you two after school."

******

Rinoa dragged her feet into the GO, already expecting what is to come. The discipline mistress glaring down at her as if Rinoa was some slave of hers who did something very wrong.

"Rinoa Heartilly, right? You've been late for 3 days in a row for this month and the school will not tolerate such nonsense anymore. You will have to attend detention classes and will be receiving 2 demerit points for that. Is that understood? Why is it that you have to be late all the time? If you tell me that it's some traffic jam, then couldn't you wake up earlier! Are your lessons that unimportant to you? Ok, then why don't we all move the time for school to start forward by half and hour and cut off some of our lessons? So, after today, I don't want to see you doing the same thing again. Is that understood?"

Rinoa just nodded her head slightly.

Author's note: Oh well, seems like I've been covering a lot on behaviour and appearance huh? Maybe it's time for the real killers called tests and exams. Oh well, I know some terms like "sec" and "JC" might be confusing to most of you out there, but it's just the system over here. Basically, "Secondary" is what most people would call "high school" and "Junior College" is what most would call "senior high" (if I'm not wrong)

And well, actually, 4/8 in my school's supposed to be the best class. In fact, it's 2/8 (last year's) that was the worst class but I couldn't find anyone within the 14 year old age in FF so I change it to 4/8. Yet, the worst class isn't that bad, we don't argue with teachers. =P And yet the school's been saying how bad we were huh? That's unfair. And yes, I was recently scolded by the discipline mistress for taking my time to walk back to class after the recess bell rang. ( And just look at how particular they are about our attire *sighs* Well, anyway, thanks guys, for all those reviews, wasn't expecting any (