Author's note:I had a mini-writer's block on my other fics so, in turn, I updated this one. They are gone now, but I wanted to get this chapter out since it was nearly finished, enjoy!

PS: Now edited, just a bit though. Damned sleep and its spelling impairments...

Normalcy? Extremely Overrated

Part 1: A Very Unusual School

Chapter Three

My New Roommates!

Let's get one thing clear here, I wasn't THAT surprised someone pulled a thirteen twelve, a part of me was completely out of its mind when I saw just who had done it. The other was basically doing the equivalent of, "I told you so" to it. Why? Because that was the part that actually believed that he girl I saw had flown. That's right… the person who had broken the record by less than half the time was…

"Terra Branford!" The man announced, pointing at the wait…was she angry? How the hell was she angry? Nope, doesn't right a bell. Still, what annoyed me the most were the murmurs of how "fake it must have been" and how she probably "Cheated or paid upfront", heh, sore losers.

"This is embarrassing… The top three were girls…" A blonde person lamented from behind me. "And I was so close to beating that record too…"

"You were?" That had picked my attention. The sandy blonde teen nodded. He was about my height and age, the only difference being the hair color, the fact that his hair wasn't a mess and that he had gray eyes.

"Yeah, two minutes away actually… Bartz just screwed me over big time with Boko… But I guess since I'm a native I knew the roads better." He told me.

"You're from Ivalice? What's your name?" Shin asked with a curious expression.

"Vaan! Vaan… look, promise not to laugh… okay?" We nodded, but if he had asked that…it only meant it was going to be one hell of a laugh!

"Vaan Skywalker…"Sorry, I don't always break promises, but that was just too much. We must've seemed like idiots when we almost fell laughing in the middle of the crowd, all of us of course.

"The Force is strong in your name, young Skywalker!" Okay, Roxas couldn't come up with best jokes, but I think you don't need us to lampshade the name by now.

"Okay, okay! I get it! Geez, you know, my dad had that name BEFORE Star Wars…" Just as anyone with Potter in his name was marked, so was that poor guy. We are sorry.

"Vaan, don't you remember me? I lived in Rabanastre for a couple of years!" So that's how he knew Ivalice like that.

"Shin? DUDE! How long has it been?" He asked, giving him a playful strike on his right shoulder.

"Five years." He replied back.

"That long? I'm getting old! So how's-" He began, but soon we all heard the coughing of the old man behind us. THEN we remembered that we WERE in the middle of a speech.

"May I?" The man asked sarcastically, I didn't even know his name, but hell, I had to bow down my head and suck it up.

"Of course director Eraqus!" Vaan replied a bit too cheerfully, but he was in a good mood apparently as he just shrugged it off.

"Okay, now that we're truly down, I have to establish the ground rules. As you know, this school offers dorms, meals and exclusive access to any store inside the school for a very reduced price. Of course you can't expect us to have EVERYTHING, but you are free to leave the school at any time. Depending on your performance as a student you will also be granted bonuses, in the city and on the inside. The dorms are composed by groups of eight high-schoolers and two college attendees or just ten college attendees. The reason why we do this is to ensure our most recent members have a guide throughout their experience, also, it inspires companionship between the two different buildings and sets up the basis for friendships in case you chose to remain here for college. The specifics will be covered by said seniors when we determine your dorms, now, any questions?" He asked the crowd, which remained silent. Considering how he had only explained the most basic of the basic, of course we couldn't ask anything. "Good, good. Now, this year we're doing the selection a bit differently. The rest of the years we chose dorms based purely on luck, this year, we devised a system that may actually increase your overall performance and companionship during the year." He gestured to a camera and a hologram appeared above him. "Some dorms would be unfair in every way by either having too many good people or having too many slightly below average people. This also greatly impacted the inter-dorm contests we usually do. Because of that, we decided to do decide the dorms based on your performance during this test…" Okay, that was either a good or a bad thing. He said he didn't want the sucky people together, maybe he was going to separate me and Roxas which WERE the bottom of the list as far as I could tell. That or what Eraqus said happened.

"Sir, just how are you going to pair us? What are the criteria?" Roxas asked before I could, shooting me a worried look. No use in worrying now, but I guess I was curious and Eraqus should be explaining that regardless of the question.

"I was just getting to it. We believe that all dorms should be equal and as such, we split them all equally. This is how we're going to do it, let's use the first dorm as an example. Number one, two and three step forward. Terra Branford, Kairi and Naminé Strife. Nevermind you're already here." He let out a hearty laugh. "Well then, let's take two from the middle of the qualification. Number fifty and fifty o...what's this, there are two number fifties? Okay then, Riku and Xion, step forward." He asked, Riku smirking at the attention he was getting. So he liked attention huh? He's less of a saint every time I take another look at him. That aside, if this worked out as expected… we might be in the clear.

"And, according to Tron's photofinish… the last three we are going to call are… number one-hundred and one, Shinryu Verus, number one hundred Sora Leonhart and finally, number ninety nine… Roxas Leonhart." I never was so freaking excited for placing lower than usual! It was easy to see the pattern. Three at the top, two from the middle, one moving upwards and one moving downwards and three at the bottom. Rinse and repeat. Eraqus explained it as we made our way into the stage where he was. Next they would call 4, 5 and 6, 49 and 51 and then 98, 97 and 96.

"Well, I guess I was just too good for your group!" Tidus told me, stopping just before we climbed up on stage.

"Keep dreaming." I replied with a goofy grin.

"Well, now that we have all of them here, I can begin explaining just why I chose this order. With this, not only will the dorms be more or less balanced in terms of the ones that occupy them, but also there will always be middle ground to where the "worst" can aspire, while the ones in the mid can both learn and teach and the ones at the top should be able to concentrate on getting better as well as help the others. This system also prevents that there will be a dorm with everyone at the exact same level, this means that there will always be people helping each other and really, that's the most important lesson you will have to master in this school. Cooperation. We might all be here with different objectives, but you must understand, any objective is easier when you have a shoulder where to rest…" And Eraqus kept going and going, about five more minutes of this. I turned to Roxas to comment on that but, as I did…

"This guy really has a fetish for friendship and trust, doesn't he?" I asked my brother, but I realized his palms were sweating, his eyes were glassed and he struggled to maintain fluid speech.

"Y-ye-yeah… he s-shou-should just…" I signaled him to just shut up. That was a sad sight to see. I had my suspicions as to why that was happening, and they proved to be right, I mean, he was standing right next to that blonde girl… what was it? Naminé. The fact that she was quite the looker combined with Roxas unhealthy obsession with blondes and the fact that right by her side was ANOTHER ONE made it easy to pinpoint the reason for his sudden speech impairment. He could be a pussy near girls, and I'm being nice here.

"Dude, you're not being exactly smooth." I told him now in a whispering tone. "She's even nervous because of your nervousness…" I was saying that knowing full well that if the red haired one talked to me I'd be worse off than Johnny Bravo would be. God was I wrong…

Suddenly, just at the middle point of the speech, the ponytailed girl moved to Eraqus' side and whispered something that I barely managed to make out, and that's only because I was right by her side.

"Stop purposely making this longer than it has to be, I'm still mad at you…" She whispered. Well, they seemed to be acquaintances, otherwise that was hardly the way to address her director.

"H-hum… Well… I'll leave Tron to announce the rest of the teams, you eight, follow me." That was… weird. Eraqus didn't seem the kind of person to have a nervous breakdown likes that, what did the girl have over him? A lot as we learned when we crossed the backdoor to the outside.

"Don't worry your little head, I won't reveal your time he says. It's only a formality he says." Well, the girl was dripping with sarcasm right there. Weird, she seemed to be the calm, shy type when I met her, maybe these two know each other that well? "Thank you… DAD!" Oh… that explains it.

"Look Tina… I don't see what's the problem with revealing your time to the public." He called her Tina? Why would he do that? Was it her middle name or anything like that?

"The problem dad is…" She seemed to have calmed down a bit, thank god, I thought we were going to get caught in a storm. "The whole purpose of me not being homeschooled this year like I was for eleven years was you wanting me to have a "normal" school year as a "normal" girl." She turned to us and asked solemnly: "Do you think I'm normal? Answer with the truth please." She was almost… charming if she wasn't angry, I can tell you that because Roxas was already stuttering and trying to keep the slobber from leaving his mouth, it didn't work out that well.

"Well, you aren't, that's for sure. Your problem is…?" Shin asked, much to my surprise. He was threading into dangerous turf there. "I severely doubt Kairi there is "normal" or heck, anyone in this school to be normal. Remember how hard it's to get an invitation? Much less PASS the test. Being abnormal here is kinda like being normal." That made so little sense it actually made all the sense in the world… somehow.

"I couldn't put it any better." Riku nodded. "My sis is everything BUT normal, and I still love her… when she isn't killing me slowly and painfully." Riku added, seems like someone has a bossier sibling than me… that's surreal.

Kairi was… gritting her teeth still, she seemed to be VERY annoyed for some reason, Naminé just nodded. The raven haired one just said that she didn't mind at all. I… well I may be doing all this thinking and analyzing, but remember, this is retrospective, I'm not usually like this… It all came to me to say something and I just shrugged and said.

"Yeah, whatever. Normalcy IS extremely overrated anyways!" You see what I mean?

"I… Well… I don't know what to say…" She answered, clearly dumbfounded by how crazy we must've been sounding at the moment. I was in that island for less than a day and I was already going coo coo...

"If every dorm is like you, this year could be the best batch yet… but that aside, see Tina? You fit right in!" He reassured and we, not wanting to scare her more, just smiled and nodded. "Now… we just need to get your…"

"SIIIIIIIS!" A man's voice interrupted from out of nowhere and we could see Xion tremble.

"Oh god… Za-"Tackled. Very hard. Both she and the man who did rolled a good five meters on the ground. Great, a hyperactive one, now we have two bozos that can't control themselves in public, me included of course. What? I can acknowledge my flaws… pity I only notice when I'm being too much of a bozo to correct it. "For god's sake brother! Can't you be a little less, I don't know, spastic?" The man had hair that even managed to compete with mine! Okay, I'm over-exaggerating, but he still had a very spiky black hair with two bangs one on each side of his face that made gravity look like a myth. What was he wearing you ask? Remember the SOLDIER 2nd class Uniform? This was the guy that will tell us what it was, including why he had a claymore sheathed on his back. His eyes were blue, but I mean BLUE, was it even possible to have that kind of blue in there? Speaking of blue…

Yeah… I already covered her.

You did?

Aye, now get on with the plot.

Okay then, where were we? Oh yes, a blue flash went by us faster you can say Sonic the Hedgehog and pulled the siblings up. She was not amused.

"Great first impression we made Zack! You're just what Angeal calls you! A restless puppy!" She told him sternly, eyeing him dangerously as she wiped Xion's clothing.

"But I'm YOUR restless puppy!" He replied with a smile that was just like mine.

"Don't test your luck!" Aqua hissed, to which Zack retreated behind Eraqus for cover.

"These are…" Eraqus began, but being interrupted the same man he was "protecting".

"We're the seniors in charge of you!" The slightly older man told us excitedly.

"In charge of us? You?" Riku began. "No offense, but…"He was cut off when the blue haired woman pushed Zack away.

"By WE, he means I. He can't even take care of himself, much less you all." She confessed, taking one hand to her forehead in distress. "Anyway. I knew you would pass." She added with a smile. And this was one of the rare times I actually saw Kairi smile. And GOD did it hurt my eyes. It was SO GODDAMN BEAUTIFUL! Damnit Sora, concentrate, she's a demon-spawn! D-done, memory repressed. "Oh… what am I doing? I didn't introduce myself! My name is Aqua Strife, that idiot of a boyfriend of mine is called Zack Fair, don't mind him, he's just "special"."

"I think he's cool!" I said. What? I do, and I didn't even know the half of it by then.

"The way you move, your tone, your eyes… oh god… another puppy." She had seen through me in a couple of seconds… were all people here geniuses or just really, really weird?

"Now, I think I deprived my students enough of my presence, Aqua, get them to the three fairies then you can show them the dorms." He asked, to which the woman nodded and told us to follow her.

Fairies? Yes, Fairies. I didn't believe it either, but we soon found ourselves in one of the most… interesting buildings in the compound.

"How does this even STAND?" I exclaimed, seeing as the tower in front of us was not standing straight, instead it was in a completely impossible position, curved, twisted and it remembered you of a drawing a six year old would do. It was big though, the biggest building in the compound.

"Merlin designed it. So, in the true sense of the expression "A wizard did it"." Zack explained, to which Riku gasped, Shinryu cringed and Xion cried excitedly.

"MERLIN? MERLIN MAGUS?" Riku shouted out of nowhere. "THE Merlin Magus? The one that first invented the possibility for humans to use magic? THE mage by definition?" Okay, I never knew that Riku had this side of his personality. I wasn't very into what happened outside our world, but if Merlin was someone that devised a way for people to actually use magic… then I was couldn't wait to meet him! Imagine, Sora the magician!

"You won't be meeting him now though, he's out getting materials for when classes begin tomorrow." Aqua pointed oubt.

"My dreams! MY DREAMS!" I yelled, again, sorry, I can't control myself in public, it's a lot easier to laugh at my younger self in retrospective, but I'm STILL a bit like this now… so yeah.

"Don't worry, Merlin covers every single new student, you'll get your lesson." Aqua comforted, but then the devil began to show her fangs.

"So what? He placed last Aqua, I doubt he can even survive a wolf considering what he had to do to get in." She spat for some reason, I had no idea what had pissed her off so much.

"What's your problem?" Okay, bad move Shinryu, bad move. He tried to stand right in front of her, but the almost twenty centimeters shorter girl seemingly disappeared before our eyes and grabbed Shin's right arm, twisting it into an arm lock.

"My problem… is that the three of you, who couldn't even reach the finish line in time, are in my dorm and I'm going to be TESTED for it. You'll drag me down with you." Any infatuation I had with her just went down the drain when I heard that condescending tone, she looked at us like… crap to be politically correct.

"Didn't you listen to what Eraqus told us? We're a team! We work to improve ourselves, if you don't want to be "slowed down" why you don't teach us?" I shouted, trying to get Shinryu out of the arm lock, but Kairi simply picked him up and threw him against me, sending us both to the ground.

"Because I have to be the best! I can't waste time teaching babies how to walk!" And she stormed into the tower…

"God… what a BITCH!" I exclaimed as I slowly got up, Aqua checked Shin's wrist and said it wasn't broken, but god, what was her problem?

"Look… Kairi has been through a lot. I don't think I can tell you this without hurting her even more, but please, try to forgive her. The fact that she got destroyed by Terra in the test didn't help either… not to say it's your fault! It's just that Kairi takes defeat really badly… especially when she was THIS close to humiliate Sephiroth." Okay, that picked my curiosity just a bit, Sephiroth… that name was familiar somehow…

"Still, she didn't have to go all haywire about it." Riku pointed out.

"I know… I'm sorry for her…" Naminé apologized. "She isn't always like this… when we were at home she was so cheerful and kind.

"Why do I doubt that?" I spat as I entered the tower to follow Zack.

We followed our senior to a room where Kairi stood, complete with an alluring new outfit. If you put ANYONE else on that body, I'd be crawling on her feet, but true beauty passes the skin, something that seemed to lack in her. ANYWAY, I suppose I'll have to describe the outfit. She was wearing pink strapless mini-dress with three zippers, but considering where two of the led, I doubt they were there for practical use, covering her chest area was white halter top and a black hood hanged behind her back. With three bracers on her left wrist, a black belt with two straps and a pink ribbon decorated pouch and violet sneakers, she was going to break the hearts of a LOT of people.

"Oh, you already changed. Well, all the better. You guys, these are the three fairies that will create your uniform here in SOLDIER. "Flora!" She pointed at the elder woman in red. "Fauna!" Now to the skinnier woman in green. "And Merryweather!" She finished, pointing at the woman in light blue.

"Hello youngsters! So you're the first batch are you? And oh, aren't you the talented ones!" Merryweather complimented as she walked around the seven newcomers, accessing their capabilities with only her intuition and eyes.

"I see what you mean Merryweather! I can see the potential gleaming in each one and oh… are you… HOHOHO! Merlin will be happy to see you! Wait a minute. Those eyes… you're Raine's children, aren't you?" She was first talking to Shinryu but then she decided to look into my eyes and gasp at how they resembled my mother's. I was surprised they even knew her, but they didn't even let me talk.

"And look at this one! His eyes are just like that obnoxious brat!" Flora exclaimed as she examined Riku.

"I guess you can call my sister that…" He shrugged.

"Hey, don't say that, Serah is a very good girl!" Fauna reprimanded Flora.

"Lightning." Riku said it and Fauna shivered.

"Nevermind…" She replied, shaking off the memories.

"Your sister got in? Congratulations Zackie!" Merryweather congratulated, patting Xion and Zack on the back.

"Can we just get this over with? I want to get to my dorm!" Ever the ray of sunshine, Kairi groaned.

"Girl, you are every bit as impatient as your father." Flora told her and DAMN I thought I had seen the devil for a second there, the expression on her face could only mean "I hunger for blood"! Good thing Aqua stepped in, grabbing her right hand.

"Control yourself for a second and think on the people around you." She said sternly. And thank god she did, because I was more scared of her than I was of that Hydra…

"Don't ever compare me to that piece of shit…" She hissed, storming out of the room.

"Okay… what was that all about?" I asked, but Aqua didn't even answer and told us to give her some space.

"Well, now that the rude one is out... Who wants to change first?" Merryweather asked excitedly. I didn't quite understand and I wasn't given the time to.

"Spiky chocolate first!" Flora exclaimed, hitting me with a concentrated ray of magic. I was confused at first but then decided to look down as I felt different.

"What the…" They had turned my plain clothing into… AN AWESOME ONE. I mean, god damnit I looked a beast in these. I was wearing a black suit composed by a black overjacket with a dark blue shirt, black baggy pants with matching shoes with a yellow tint at the ankle section, my outfit was filled with leggings and zippers and had two red pouches, which actually looked cool form some reason and a crown-like silver necklace now hanged on my neck. Now do you understand why I didn't want to describe my old ones?

"Now for the blondie!" Fauna sang, shooting Naminé with her wand lazahs. What covered Naminé was… strange. A simple, knee length pristine white dress with matching sandals. Yes, that's it, didn't stop Roxas there from staring at her now exposed legs of course.

"What are they doing?" Lazered. Shinryu got an outfit similar to mine, but less baggy in every piece. He was wearing a black overjacket with an unclosed zipper, revealing an equally black shirt bellow. The jacket had dragon-like patterns inscribed in gold trim and had a golden dragon's wing on the back. The pants and the shoes we're pretty conventional compared to the jacket. The pants seemed to follow the form of the jacket and had a golden line trim stamped on the sides. Was digging them dragon symbol personally. Riku didn't even try to respond as he got a blue beam into his clothes, now supporting a black zip-up tank-top and a white and yellow vest over it, worth a pair of blue trousers, black belt and some sneakers that weren't worth mentioning. Roxas dodged the beam however.

"I don't want to destroy Hayner's jacket!" He exclaimed, to which the fairies just giggled.

"Alright my boy, let's make you a matching outfit!" She exclaimed, blasting him with magic again, and what do you know, she was right. ´Bellow Hayner's jacket was a black vest which had a silver star for zipper, followed by perfectly matching pants, beginning as beige colored but then suddenly changing to pure white hue and ending in gray sneakers. He also had two checkered rings on his fingers, for no reason at all it seemed.

"Now me! Make it pretty!" Xion demanded, crossing her arms and waiting for it. Speaking of checkered rings, imagine a whole dress based around that. Yes, Xion was now wearing a sleeveless checkered dress that stretched just below her waist, two black waists holding it up while a black stripe covered the bottom. She then wore simple black trousers and white sneakers.* "Amazing!" She cheered, hugging Flora.

"We know." They all replied jokingly.

"So, now that that's done… can you tell me just are these for?" Roxas asked, curious, and well, now that he mentioned it… so was I.

"It's your uniforms silly! You're obligated to use them while attending class." Fauna explained. "Now before you say they are not practical, your uniforms reflect who you are and they are magical. You must all find just what their power is, it might just save your life!"

"Magic clothes? Too cool to be true!" I exclaimed, wondering just what mine did.

"Well, now that that's done… we should get something to eat, it's Three P.M. already, don't you feel hungry after that test? Even if you actually didn't move while in it." Aqua pointed out and, just as we realized it, every single one of our stomachs grumbled. Aqua giggled and added: "Just as I thought… let's go boys and girls!"

"Just a question... how is this a uniform if all of them are different?" Riku was right there...

"Don't question our authority!" The fairies replied, poiting her wands at the man. "Or do you want a pink version of your outfit?" Our lips are sealed.

Well everyone, we have a new narrator here, say hello to Kairi!

I'm just here because I didn't check my contract. But well, it might be fun anyway!

That's the spirit!

Well then, let's say I was a nearby ice-cream parlor, sitting at a table on the outside while I slowly ate away at my strawberry ice-cream. It tasted like crap. It wasn't the ice-cream, I was just mad at myself. Sora called me a bitch and well, I had been one. It was just… I had to have won that exam. What good was breaking Sephiroth's record if someone decimated mine before it even was written? I sighed yet again before seeing a dove fly by, it had a weird ribbon on it, so it immediately caught my attention.

"Come here you slacker! I need you for my magic show!" An upbeat girl about my age exclaimed as she ran after it. Without a second thought, I ate the last spoonful of ice cream and jumped for it, grabbing the dove and landing right in front of the dumbfounded girl. She was wearing some crazy clothes mind you. I mean, a light blue magician's hat, a red scarf, a blue cape with card symbols on the end of it and a buttoned black dress with white boots. "Whoa… Thank you!" She thanked, grabbing the dove. "Don't do that again, we need you for our magic!" She told the dove, petting it.

"Just don't let her go if it's not trained." I told her softly, petting the dove in the process.

"Don't worry, I won't!" She reassured me, extending her hand to me. "Trucy Wright. You?"

"Kairi Strife." I replied, shaking her hand and smiling. Why do I have to be so bipolar?

"You're… regretting something." She suddenly told me, taking me aback with the way she guessed it.

"How… how can you…" I began but she explained.

"I can read any subtle gesture from your body, If I wanted I could be a world poker champion." She said casually, like it was nothing. "It's really nothing." She had read me again. "Oh… it's already Three O'clock? My dad must be worried sick! See you at class Kairi!"

"See me at class? What did she mean?" I didn't know she WAS one of the students, but I still had suspicions about her name. "Trucy… Wright… nah, it can't be…" Then, I heard… it.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A poor failure, all alone. Has your own dormitory deserted you on the account of your uselessness?" In my mind, I was already seeing the man smiling at me like I was a washed up dog on the side of the pavement and, even when I turned around and kicked him while he was at the middle of his sentence, he finished it in the same, smug tone without interruptions while holding my right foot.

"Sephiroth…." I hissed as I took a look at the disgusting man in front of me. He wore a very long black coat with coat tails topped with two skulled silver pauldrons, along with matching black clothes underneath the coat down to his boots. The only pieces besides the pauldrons that weren't black were his silver, bead decorated belt with a strange symbol, a matching bracelet and two white and lavender sashes, one on each side of his coat. To make it worse he did have his supremely long katana hanging on his hip for some reason. But I couldn't care less about his clothes, or his long-flowing silver hair and snake-like emerald eyes, I wanted to beat him up so bad I could barely SEE straight.

"Such misdirected hate… even after all these years of me telling you who you really are, you still clang to that hope? Kairi, it came with your birth, you are a failure." I tried to use the fact that he was holding my right foot to spin around and catch him with my left but he dodged it easily by moving his head backwards, he didn't expect though, that the moment my left foot landed on the ground I made a full reversal, hitting him on the cheek. He didn't even flinch. "Is that all?" He asked before throwing me away. "You're all alone out here, I saw Zell leave the parlor and he was the only one nearby due to this being the day before school starts. You can come at me with all you want and no one will interfere… but you are already doing that, aren't you?"

"You bastard!" I yelled, lunging at the cocky albino man but he simply stepped away and I felt his arms surround my neck.

"Watch that tongue of yours…" He whispered me as he slowly chocked me. "Is this the best you can do? How many years have you worked for this so-called skill? You can't even make me flinch. People like you should know their place in the shadows."

"SHUT UP!" I shouted, grabbing his head and pulling him down to the ground with me. The impact of his chin against my head hurt us both but for me that was a victory in itself.

"That was… better than I thought… Impressive." Sephiroth congratulated me with one of those damned fake smiles. Everything about the man was so fake, his vision of the world as so twisted it still makes me sick to this day… "But can you truly keep up with me?" He asked. Before I could even process the question I felt my body go stiff as my gut got pushed all the way against my spine, some blood reaching the corners of my mouth. "Apparently not…"Just apparently, unfortunately for him. Before he could react, he felt his right cheek suddenly being sliced, even if it was just a little as lighting coursed through my hand. At the time, I didn't know what I had just done, but whatever I did made his world go red with rage. "You little bitch!" He yelled, losing control for just a second, jumping back and reaching for his sword. All I could think at that time was:

"He's going to kill me. He's really going to do it! My… My own…" I muttered to myself before seeing the flash that was his sword ending a few centimeters away from my hair.

"Get your disgusting presence away from my sister!" A young man with unruly blonde spiky hair ordered, pushing his sword back.

"C-cloud…" I muttered before falling unconscious from the pain in my torso.

Now, this is something Kairi herself didn't hear.

"Cloud Strife. You and that Fair… you two have that supremely annoying ability to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." Sephiroth growled darkly.

"Sephiroth, walk away and I'll keep this in the dark. You were going to kill a weaponless little girl who had just entered, all this out of pure rage. How would that fall into your pristine reputation?" He asked, his blue eyes hiding an unspeakable fury.

"Very well… I'll leave." The silver haired man groaned, turning away from Cloud and starting to walk away, to which Cloud asked:

"Just what were you trying to accomplish anyway?" He asked as he was about to leave his view.

"An owner must show his dog who the master is." It took all of Cloud's being to force himself to stay put and grab Kairi at that point. But he took a deep breath and started walking with her on her arms.

"Cloud? Oh my goodness! We have to get her to the infirmary!" A chocolate haired girl with it tied in a ponytail by a pink ribbon urged, Cloud nodding.

Back to Kairi we go.

"Where… where am I?" I asked as I managed to open my eyes and be blinded by the strong white light. "Am I on a bed?" I asked rhetorically, feeling the sheets and the pillow. It then hit me that Cloud had probably picked me up and carried me here. I sat up from the bed and heard Aqua's voice.

"Is she going to be alright?" She asked filled with worry. The gruff voice replied:

"She got punched on the stomach, she didn't get hit by a missile. The fact that she is here is already a danger to her health, don't blame us if some of the damage is permanent. I warned all of you about her body, she wouldn't listen. I think she's old enough to make decisions. If she dies, well, I'll just write on her grave 'I told you so.'" Why did my body always get brought up like that? It wasn't that bad…

"House!" An assistance shouted, knowing he had probably gone too far.

"Okay, maybe not that afar, but she is watching us, I just wanted some shock value, you know?" He replied, I understood he was on to me.

"Kairi! You're awake!" She exclaimed as she pulled me into a tight hug. I felt so bad at that moment, first I acted like a jerk and then I got into a situation I wouldn't be able to get out off if it weren't for Cloud…

"You owe me fifty munny Thirteen, she woke up in exactly four hours." The doctor said with a cocky smile as Aqua excused me and herself from the room.

"How did you find me?" I asked before opening the door.

"We were about to get lunch when a two men asked for a girl named Trucy, they said they had lost her, one of them was her father! We agreed to help them look for her but after two or three minutes she found us instead us finding her and mentioned you. We asked her to show us where you were and well… we saw Cloud carrying you and brought you here." She finished, Kairi smiling at the name of Trucy. "Still, to think you managed to befriend the daughter of one of the world's most controversially renowned attorney…"

"Wait, wait, wait… she's really THAT Wright?" I asked, to which she only opened the door.

Sora, you're up!

Never in my mind did I believe Riku could go fanboy over something, was I ever so wrong…

"I can't believe I'm talking to THE Phoenix Wright! I watched all of your cases! I read every piece of news about you! When you retook your Bar exam after having washed your name it was like a dream come true! Can you sign me an autograph? I want to be an attorney just like you!" He was more like a ten year old girl who had just met her idol… he was completely entranced by meeting the man with the black back spikes and the suit.

"I... guess?" The man replied, he was completely out of his element.

"Hey! I was the one that got him off the hook!" The brown haired younger man protested.

"Nobody cares Apollo!" The entire room shouted at him, making him hide his head on shame.

Then, in the middle of all the laughter that ensued, I saw from the corner of my eye the she-devil and she was… laughing. I felt a mix of relief and annoyance because we had to wait for so long for something superficial, but the fact that she laughed planted some doubts on my whole "heartless-bitch" theory. Not many of course.

"You're alright Kairi! I'm so glad! I even named my dove after you!"

"What's this? She has a FRIEND? What matter of sorcery is this? Phoenix, she just brainwashed your daughter!" Of course I didn't yell that, but I had to keep it in.

"Well Nick, looks like she's fine. Let's get some hamburgers!" A woman exclaimed, appearing right out of nowhere and grabbing the lawyer by his arm.

"Wait. Wait a second Maya! I'm broke! APOLLO, PLEASE STOP HER!" He yelled at his student, who tried to save his mentor.

"I'll try teach…"

"I'll be going now! See you at class!" Trucy told Kairi as she ran to follow her… I don't know, "family"? For the longest times we could hear the futile "HOLD IT!" and "OBJECTION!" echoing down the hallway.

"We should be going too! Why don't we stop by at Cid's, eat something for dinner and call it a day on our dorm? Class start tomorrow so yeah…" Zack suggested, the concept of eating pleasing me greatly. We didn't eat due to Kairi's… accident. Whatever that was, that spiky haired guy never told us.

"Sound about right. I'll call him to book a table for ten." Aqua agreed, pulling out a matching blue phone. What is it with that woman and blue?

Cid's Seventh Heaven… what it seemed to be a small bar on the outside was quite the big establishment on the inside. Aqua insisted that the slightly sloppy presentation inside was requested by the co-owners, the Cids. Yes, that's right. There were more than five Cids managing this restaurant, the one that was working today just happened to be the Ace Pilot Cid Highwind as Aqua called him.

"Well, the whippersnappers got themselves whippersnappers of their own! I'm getting to old fer this!" The pick chewing messy blonde man in his forties commented as he saw the legion that followed Aqua and Zack.

"Don't be like that Cid! As long as you can pilot you'll be Cid Freaking Highwind!" Zack replied, patting him in the back.

"Damn straight kid!" He exclaimed, patting him in the back so hard he fell face first into the ground. "Now, order up! We don't actually have a lot of customers today since people normally eat at their dorm but you had some problems if what that those hamburger devouring guys over there are insinuating." It's a small world I know. We sat down and ordered. Me and Roxas just asked for a steak of his choosing, Shin asked for lasagna, Riku following suit. We all ended up changing when Zack suggested one Pizza for ten. God that thing was huge! It was then that Aqua spoke up, when you know, we were eating slices as big as our heads. Awesome timing.

"Why don't we share a little about ourselves? We're going to spend the year sleeping on the same house, so we might aswell… I'm Aqua Strife, college student at medicine, I'm trying to be a neurosurgeon just because there aren't a lot of people that qualify as such, it's just my tidbits to help society! My hobbies are swimming, reading books and I don't say no to some video games… but that's Zack's doing mostly. SOLDIER Institute has unprecedented reputation in installations, so that's why I'm here. And a little curiosity about myself, yes, the hair is NATURAL! " Well, we had to do it sooner or later, but I was in a battle to the death with a pretty big slice of pizza, so Zack went next.

"Well, you know my name. I'm a college student at military, yes there's a military college course here. I'm here to become SOLDIER 1st Class, the elite of the elite and fight honor, justice and… all that good stuff! I'm gonna be a hero!" He even stood up from his seat and put his hands on his hips in a comical way. "My hobbies are as follows, video games, training, more video games, more training while fitting in every moment I can to flirt with Aqua. Before it was just flirting, but if I do that now she'll kill me… The reason I'm here is kinda obvious, hello, SOLDIER Institute!" Well, I can't say this wasn't smelling fishy, and I heard of SOLDIER, I only hopped the program for SOLDIER candidates differed from non-SOLDIER candidates… that would suck for the story, wouldn't it?

"I'll go next, he's my brother, isn't he? I'm Xion Fair, I was actually born in Traverse Town… I think I'm one of the only survivors to the disasters." We all looked at her completely dumbfounded, "There were SURVIVORS?" Was all we thought. "The Fairs then adopted me. The reason I took so long to register was because the registration fee is just TOO steep. We got Zack in and had to work hard to get me in… I really hope to be a psychologist someday, that or a cop. Yup, completely different stuff, but that's what I am! I like surfing, I'm better at Video games than my brother, don't let him trick you and finally I used to play basketball competitively. You probably call me a tomboy, but I already accepted that long ago! As for why I am here, Zack told me it was AWESOME, and it sure likes it!" She sure had energy, I'd give her that. But what made me think was the "registration fee"… was there one? Then I realized… Donald and Goofy must have paid it without us knowing… magnificent bastards.

"Okay, my turn. Riku Farron here. Born in Cocoon, have two sisters, the two of them are college students here. I myself am an aspiring lawyer, as you might have realized. What do I like to do? Well, I'm one hell of a track and field runner and I played fighting games on a competitive scene. Even went to EVO world tournament last year. We're all here because we lost our parents to a car accident when we were young, Lightning worked to sustain us and eventually got a scholarship here, Serah got in with our little fund of money we kept since they died. I went around to tournaments and won enough money to get in." Are we all orphans here? I mean, geez…

"Well, I'm Shinryu Verus. I was born in Minegarde, but moved around quite a lot due to my mother's work. My dad stayed on Minegarde, they aren't divorced, he's just very busy like my mother. I want to be a biologist. Hobbies? Gaming, water-related sports and playing with animals. Why am I here? My mother made me get in, not kidding… Also, Riku, come at me bro!" He challenged, Riku getting what he wanted and nodding for a possible blazing combat in a console.

"My name is… Terra Branford. I was born here in Radiant Garden, I'm the adoptive daughter of this school's director, Eraqus Neix. My parents were killed when I was young… I've accepted it don't worry, I just don't want to remember how it happened. I've spent most of my life being homeschooled for being… different. I can use magic easily and naturally, even fly, that and I had to go to a psychiatrist for years to be able to get out of my depression. This is my first year outside of a "controlled" environment. I think I'm going to try and specialize in pediatrics! I love children! I love to read books, playing with moogles, and since my brother was such a fan of them, I also play videogames." Our dorm will be a complete party when we get a game console in there I can see. Wait a second, was she on the fourth slice?

"Hum… it's you Kairi…" Naminé pointed out to the girl who was trying to avoid everyone's gazes. She regained her completely shut composure soon.

"Kairi Strife. Not sure what I wanna be. Any game is good for me, I also like to play football and track and field. I'm here because it's the best school around." And not a thing about her past, if she was embarrassed or sorry, she had a hell of a strange way to show it.

"Hum… I'm Naminé Strife, her sister. I'm sorry about her behavior, she's being mean I know. I…want to be an artist! The thing I enjoy most is painting and drawing, but Kairi got me into casual games. We lived without two parents, and two siblings, Aqua and Cloud. Aqua got a scholarship, Cloud got the first invitation and we got in just now due to money concerns." She wasn't very good at lying, but only Riku and Shinryu seemed to notice her lies. Me? I'm Sora, do you really think I'm that sharp? Finally it got to me and Roxas. Well, you know us, so let's just skip that. When we finished we were already leaving. The school covers our expenses before the start of classes! That would be awesome if they didn't start tomorrow. After five minutes of walking and friendly banter between men! Which mostly included how much we would kick each other's ass when we got to the PS3, we arrived at the mansion, I mean, dorm. Yes, it was huge, it was a house just for us. Did I mention how massive the island was? I'll have to ask someone just how big this piece of land is…

"Well, let's get in." She touched a panel near the gate.

"Good evening, how may I help you?" The voice came from the screen, analyzing the woman. "Miss… Aqua."

"Guys, meet our new "butler" J.A.R.V.I.S!" Aqua said excitedly as the machine scanned everyone.

"Welcome to your dormitory, team number one. My name is as Miss Aqua said, I'll attend your every need." Okay, this guy was WAY awesomer than Tron, if that word even exists. It unlocked the door and we entered out awesome dorm. Right off the bat, just after the entrance was a giant living room with everything you could need, consoles, a giant plasma TV, couches, tables, you name it. The kitchen we saw was huge and you could see it was made to give you liberty on the dishes. The basement was gigantic and on the top were the two rooms for us to sleep and the FOUR rooms for us to fill with what we wanted. We also saw a pretty big terrain with a garden behind the dormitory. The rooms were huge also, considering they had to hold five people. They also possessed smaller plasma TVs and consoles. However designed these rooms must have been a tech aficionado. "I hope the dorm is all you expected and more. We at Stark Industries live by our tech." Jarvis said, well, he WAS right about the more than we expected. "Oh, and Eraqus also sent me a message right now. I have to inform all students that since it is already Eleven P.M. you should begin preparations for the first day of school. It can be… difficult for newcomers." I tried my best to shake that off.

"Okay then… let's do it like this. There's two bathrooms with showers here. Why don't we take turns at the showers while those guys go at…" She was only beginning to explain when the T.V. magically turned on.

"Doctor Doom! Morrigan! Wesker!" The announcer for Ultimate Marvel Versus Capcom cried when Riku picked his team.

"X-23! Dante! Strider Hiryu!" The announcer told Shinryu's.

"Rushdown team?" Riku questioned.

"At least it's not a Wesker team!" He spat back.

"Oh, you did not just diss Wesker!"

"What if I just did?"

"Bro... come at me!"

Flashback is over. Aqua and Zack just finished their bath and we've been playing in turns. I just got owned by Riku, no regrets there, but Aqua had just appeared with only a bathrobe with Zack beneath her arm, probably dead or something and she just threw him on a bed. She left quickly to avoid our stares but did say:

"Let's get to sleep, it's already past midnight. You'll like your first day here, I promise!" She seemed so sure, I was worried if that wasn't just pure sadism. "Zack, get dressed and meet me downstairs, we have to discuss something important." By her tone you could tell that they were going to comment on us, but oh well, my younger self was way too naïve to get that and just snickered like a little kid. It didn't take long for us to go to sleep, the possibilities of what was going to happen tomorrow never leaving our minds.

Now I'll just narrate this bit.

Sephiroth walked into his dorm with his face twisted into a snarl as dark as the night he was covered in, only to be greeted by the people he "trusted", if he ever could.

"Sephiroth… you're wounded?" The tall, muscled black haired man asked, surprised.

"Tell us all about it my "hero"." The man in red asked, closing his copy of Loveless.

"Out of my way." He snarled, vanishing into his room, to the surprise of his roommates. What could have shaken him so much?

Meanwhile, at another dorm:

"I wonder where Sora ended up staying…" Leon wondered in the middle of the confusion that was the room he was sleeping in.

"Hey Leon!" He heard, but he tried to ignore it…

"Leon!" Another voice called.

"LEON, LIGHTNING WANTS TO KILL ME!" Vaan cried as he ran away from a pink haired woman.

"I'll tear your intestines out!" She hollered as she swung a mechanical blade at him..

"Leon! Who do you think is hotter, Ashe or Leena?" Bartz was… annoying like that.

"Leon! Do you play blitzball?" Tidus asked him, it appeared that ignoring them was just not enough…

"LEON!"

"LEON!"

"LEON!

"LEON!"

"LEON"

"LEON!"

"SHUT UUUUUUUUUP!" And not even that saved Leon from his torture.

Aqua, let's see how you narrate this, shall we?

"So, Aqua, what did you want to talk about? The team? Well, you first, what do you think?" Zack asked me. I had seen everyone but, while I admit they were good at hiding their flaws… they were not good enough.

"This team has everything to go horribly wrong…" I answered, but I knew my boyfriend's answer already.

"Or marvelously right!" he said, right like I expected him to.

"Optimism has limits. Zack, did you see any flaws on them?" I asked, and I was about to be surprised.

"Sora can't control himself, Roxas has a self-confidence issue, Kairi is obsessed with Sephiroth, among other things, and is too embarrassed of it to try and connect with people, she also can't seem to trust strangers, Naminé is shy as all hell can be and maybe a little too fragile in her mind, Riku is just too perfect, he has to have a flaw, Xion well… she can sometime get depressed really easily, but she's the safest on the group. Shinryu doesn't WANT to be here and Terra has that "condition" we can't tell them about. Is that enough?" By god it was…

"How did you?" I asked, only to get his arm wrapped around my neck.

"Maybe I've been spending way too much time with you." He was trying to flirt again. Who am I kidding? I like this… I laid down my head on his shoulder and we fell asleep on the couch, fully knowing how we would never hear the end of it in the morning.

Next Chapter:

"Well, this seems normal…"

"Well, well, well, the small fry got in here, let's remember him what the disciplinary committee is all about!"

"Pick on someone your own size!"

"That's an improvement…."

Next time on Normalcy? Extremely Overrated: The First Day Part 1: So Far So Good…

Post-Chapter Note:Well, we did have cameos here and we got a deeper look at what is exactly going on with Kairi and why she's being like this, while I highly doubt you can actually grasp the magnitude of it by now. And yes, this is the "main group" for the rest of the fic and is by no means the "perfect group", Riku for example, remember he is LIGHTING'S brother. Also, did I just use Zaqua? Yes, yes I did. Next chapter will be the more "normal" part of the school, but don't think normal is OUR definition of normal. Chapter five? It'll be special, I can tell you that right of the bat. Anywoo, you know how it works, opinions, suggestions for the story or even characters, constructive criticism, being nice, all qualify for reviews, I'll P.M. you answers back as fast as I can. So, why the hell not?

*Yes, Xion's clothes were drawn by Kyarah on Deviantart. A friend just showed them to me and I was all like… these are perfect! And I put them in. So here's the reference to the original material.

Question of the chapter: Cameos, good or bad?