~CHAPTER 6~

Whoever "Well Enough" Is, I'm Sure They Want to Be Left Alone.

Disclaimer: Seriously though, I don't own or claim to own by writing this any of the characters who do not belong to me. Tarquin, Guy, Nix, Mrs. Barker and a couple other people I can't remember at the moment are my only originals. Other than that, NOT MINE.

"Hey! Hey, Tarquin!"

A student with long, disheveled and slightly spiky dark hair looked up at me, an equally dark expression on his face. I had interrupted his studying.

"Somethin' up, Tarq?" I asked.

Tarquin ignored me, returning to his work. His friend, Guy, who was lounging in the chair next to him answered instead. "He's worried our little friend Hojo is going to show up at his Bi-Monthly Nerd Convention."

"Guy, if you don't mind it is a school-sanctioned Computer Club. And just because I'm president of it doesn't mean it's mine." Tarquin corrected snappishly. He didn't look up from what he was writing as he spoke.

"Whatever. He's miffed because Hojo could easily take his position as Head Geek."

Tarquin stopped this time and even put his pen down to look defiantly into his friend's mischievous eyes. "I am worried, in reality, that he will unveil some, uh… slightly unlawful activities which occur during our meetings." Tarquin and Guy were glaring at each other, not blinking. "However," His voice took on a mocking quality. "If it came down to a true test of who is as you say, 'Head Geek'… I would still win." Tarquin leaned back to show his cocky self-confidence for a moment, then went back to his work.

There was a tense silent moment. "I look forward to this 'epic battle'… When you say 'illegal' you mean …?"

Tarquin made an exaggerated eye-rolling head movement. "Did you have something to say, Nix?"

"Yeah, actually. I came in the name of Hermes. Vincent says 'Back off.'"

Tarquin cockled his head slightly to one side the better to look at me quizzically.

"Overstepping certain boundaries again?" Guy asked, coolly mocking.

I nodded resolutely. "Tarquin, you're a flirt."

"I am not a flirt." Tarquin said indignantly, tossing his shoulders back and swelling his chest proudly in a way that reminded me of an angered pigeon.

I caught Guy's eye and we agreed silently that Tarquin had very odd standards as to what constitutes flirting.

"…Anyhow, I brought the message. I've got to go. Be careful, Tarq." I gave a single wave and left Guy and Tarquin to their argument about flirting. It was probably the most interesting thing they had discussed since the time I had dragged their conversation into the realm of the scientifically quantifiable effect of owning a cat on the ability to get a date last year in my physics class.

The moment everyone who was expected to arrive had gotten into the classroom, Mrs. Barker began her lesson. "Right," She said, looking around at us unenthusiastically. "We're going to be reviewing the Scientific method, as it pertains to yesterday's lab." She sighed. "What was the purpose? Anyone remember?"

Ansel raised his hand and Mrs. Barker called on him.

"To boil pieces of cow liver?"

Mrs. Barker stared at him. She seemed to lose a great measure of her hope in our intelligence. "Anyone else?"

Lucrecia raised her hand hesitantly. "To… observe the effect of heat on the function of a catalyst." Each word in the phrase hit a consecutive step in the spectrum ascending from hesitant to bold.

"Yes," Mrs. Barker acknowledged. "Hypotheses. Anyone care to share?"

Yuffie raised her hand.

"Yuffie."

"I thought the one we didn't boil would fizz and the one we boiled wouldn't." She nodded, proud of herself.

"And why do you think that?"

Yuffie's pride faltered. "Uh… I guessed."

Mrs. Barker shrugged. "Did anyone think anything else?" Maverick raised his hand and Mrs. Barker called on him hesitantly.

"I thought it was going to explode," he said exuberantly.

She stared at him for a moment, then shrugged and muttered almost to herself. "Close enough…"

Ansel glared at Maverick, who responded by sticking his tongue out.

"Control variable?" Mrs. Barker asked before they had time to start a fight.

"Type of meat?"

"Yes… true."

"Temperature of the room?"

"Yes."

"Same lighting, same air content, same… number of people?"

"Uh… sure."

"Same phase of the moon!" I added enthusiastically.

Hojo glared across the room at me. "That is not controlled for."

"Yeah, actually, it is. We did the lab on the same day and ergo same lunar phase!" I said, indignantly.

Mrs. Barker looked like she wanted to say something.

"But it couldn't affect the experiment."

"Yes it could!"

"How?"

"The tides! Gravitational pull shifts with the moon!"

Most of the class looked like they were watching tennis.

"But—"

"What if we were doing an experiment on nocturnal flowers!? Huh? What then!? Owned!"

"It doesn't affect this experiment!"

"It could hypothetically!"

"STOP!" Mrs. Barker shouted. Once again, breaking up the fight before actual violence ensued. "Sure, it's not relevant," she said, looking at Hojo, "But it's still valid." She turned her gaze to me.

I hung my head. I was slightly abashed had having caused a major disturbance for the second day running.

"Nix, sit down."

I hadn't noticed I was standing. I sat down anyway, even more ashamedly now.

She was still watching me as she said, "And… sources of error?"

"Things blowing up!" Maverick blurted quickly.

Ansel chuckled and muttered something that sounded like "barrels!"

Mrs. Barker was looking at the two of them, eyebrows raised. "Okay… I'm not gonna ask."

"The cow that provided the liver could have had a genetic mutation affecting the production of proteins in its cells," Tarquin suggested lightly, "Incidentally, we don't even have evidence that it was in fact a cow—Or that it was even fauna native to Earth..."

"Yeah! Doubt reality!" I cheered, laughing.

"An alien conspiracy as a source of error?" Lucrecia asked incredulously of Tarquin across the room. He looked back at her with the expression he used to try to look innocent.

"Stranger things have happened." I reminded her.

She glared at me.

Mrs. Barker had a hand across her eyes. "Okay, relevant ideas, please. And sane ideas if you can possibly help it…"

There was a bit of a pause as people thought, trying to think of what could have—or had—gone wrong.

"Contamination due to improper handling of materials," Hojo suggested suddenly, glancing sidewise casually to accuse me.

I glared, shoulder blades tensing like a fight-ready dog. "And we mustn't forget that there's always experimenter incompetency!" I replied furiously, looking defiantly at Hojo.

He glared back at me, truly furious now.

"Nix!" Lucrecia hissed at me, grabbing my arm. She looked terrified.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Hojo was still looking daggers at me, but Lucrecia still had a hold on my arm, so I didn't provoke him.

Mrs. Barker gave up and instead assigned a worksheet of the same information.

Moments before the bell rang, Mrs. Barker spoke. "Nicole? Daryl? Could you stay after class? I would like to speak to you." She was still working on her computer as she said this, but I looked up, glaring at her indignantly.

Lucrecia looked at me warily. "…Nix?"

"What?"

"Don't do anything… rash?"

I looked sidewise at her. "I'll… try."

She rolled her eyes and picked up her backpack, looking over her shoulder at me concernedly as she left.

The rest of the class left. Hojo approached Mrs. Barker's desk, but I sat defiantly where I was.

"Nicole?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you please come up here so that I don't have to yell at you?"

I got up moodily and slunk to stand in front of her desk, glaring fiercely at Hojo all the while.

"Right," Mrs. Barker began, sounding as though this was a daily occurrence. "Before I talk your ears off, is there anything either of you would like to say?"

I glared for a moment, and then pointed childishly. "He started it in the first place!"

"I did not. You were the one wasting time—"

"I was not wasting time! You were being a lazy, stupid ass!"

"I was—"

"Shut up, both of you!"

We both fell silent, still glaring.

"Okay…" She shook her head. Letting me open my mouth had been a mistake. "Both of you need to chill. Seriously. I need to run this class and I need to do so with minimal chaos."

I giggled.

"You know what I mean." She snarled at me, then continued calmly. "If this kind of disruption continues," She glared at me. "I will have to remove one of you from this class… And possibly move you to the remedial course." The second part was directed at Hojo, and his look of badly disguised terror was priceless.

"You may go." She told Hojo, simultaneously chaining me to the floor with a look.

I glared as he left. The door clicked shut.

"Nix!"

I jumped. "Ah! What!?"

"What in Hell do you think you're doing?"

"With all due respect, what the Hell do you think you're doing? You know who they are, you said so yourself! So why can't I give him what he deserves!?" I asked angrily. "And no sympathy for poor Lucca," I accused, folding my arms.

"Because she isn't Lucrecia, and he isn't really Hojo."

"What!? You still think it's a hoax after all this? Darn muggle."

"I take offense at that," she informed me calmly.

"How can you—? Prove it! Go ahead, try and prove it's all an elaborate trick."

"They're out of character," She explained swiftly. "Only slightly, but noticeably."

I refolded my arms. "Example?" I demanded.

"Hojo is ignoring Lucrecia and vice versa. I would expect at least a bit of a reaction…"

I rolled my eyes. "Lucrecia has tried to not come to class twice. She's terrified. It's taking her entire teaspoonful of bravery and determination to not have a mental breakdown in class.

"And as for Hojo, he's scared too. After the first day Tarquin chased him down a dark alley, beat him up and took his lunch money."

Mrs. Barker raised an eyebrow.

"Uh… figuratively." I added quickly.

"Nix, I'm serious. You need to behave civilly."

I pouted. "I'll… I'll follow Lucrecia's advice okay?"

"And what's her advice?"

"Generally, 'don't hurt anyone and don't pitch a fuss.'"

Mrs. Barker finally let me leave.

"Nix!" Lucrecia was waving at me. She was sitting with Vincent, Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis. Although Genesis was sitting apart, reading Loveless again.

"Heya!" I sat down next to her.

"Are you alright?" She asked, as though I had just come back from a battle.

"No, Lucrecia, I died."

She rolled her eyes, but relaxed visibly. "Anyway, I was planning to call a meeting. I hoped you'd come, as you've done so much research." She was lightly teasing.

"Ready to come up with a plan, then?"

"Or make us come up with one for her…" Vincent said casually, looking at the sky.

Lucrecia looked at him, mildly disgruntled. "I was hoping we would be able to come to a reasonable agreement as a group."

Genesis gave a single laugh-like sound of disbelief. Lucrecia looked at him curiously.

"Aaaanyhow…" I interrupted. "I'll be there."

"Good," She said, then quickly sought out a new topic of conversation, unwilling to discuss plans for her little conference.

We had started having these official gatherings since the very end of the previous year. We used them to decide on anything deemed important, like when Yuffie had not been able to decide whether to go home or not and when there had been talk of leaving Randal Manor due to fear of its previous owner. Now it was what we should do about an unwelcome newcomer.

I was an expendable member of the group and Lucrecia's right-hand pawn. I was invited only when she thought I would support her or when she thought I would be necessary in order to make an informed decision.

"Why is she in charge?" Genesis asked Sephiroth scathingly. Sephiroth acted like he hadn't heard the question.

I rolled my eyes and answered for him. "We elected her at the end of last year. She's in charge 'till we pick someone else."

"The population has changed, you ought to re-vote."

I looked at him teasingly. "Why don't you propose it at the meeting?"

"Why don't you?"

I laughed coldly. "Hah! Political suicide, that. I'll second it. It's your idea, after all..."

"Hmph." He leaned back casually, opening Loveless.

Author Note: I apologize that my originals took so much spotlight in this chapter. Meh. I got kind of very carried away…