Alright, so this chapter may have came just a little bit later than desired, but I hope the readers like it! Also I have decided on whether Mia will end up with anyone or not. However, you must keep reading to find out! Oh, yeah, and I changed the summary, too, so don't worry about that!
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or such things.
Chapter 7 Encounters of the Strange Kind
It was obvious that I was just as anxious as my students for the bell to ring. I tapped my pencil, watching the minute hand make its slow journey to signal the end of school. The stupid thing wasn't going fast enough, and I wanted to get out of the schoolhouse as soon as possible, so I could go check out some apartment buildings.
"Can you let us out early?" an eighth grader complained.
"Hm…" I mumbled, purposefully inaudible.
"Come on! Please?" they asked again.
"Nm…"
Finally, the bell shrilly rang, marking the end of school and I gathered up my leftover work and stuffed it into my canvas bag. My students rushed out into the hall, not even caring to know whether I had let them out, or not. I never bothered to make them wait for my dismissal.
"Hey, Denzel!" I called, when I spotted a mess of brown hair in the crowd of tweens. Denzel slowed and waited for me to catch up with him.
"Tell Tifa that I'm not gonna be coming home with all of you, today." I said quickly, trying to keep up with the wayward boy who was still walking just slow enough for me to catch up.
"Why?" he asked, puzzled at my request.
"I'm gonna check out some apartments a few streets away; I can walk home, anyway." I said, despite the weather warnings.
Denzel just nodded his head and left me, and after watching him go a little ways, I went opposite of his direction, setting out on my way. I looked up at the sky, as I walked out of the front doors of the school house. It was a darker shade of blue, than usual, and more clouds were rolling in. I decided that if I didn't poke around, I'd be able to beat the rain before I got home. Besides, what's a little rain? With that, I left the school campus on foot.
My blazer collar tried to fly up with the breeze, and I flipped it back down. The sidewalk I was taking was slightly crowded, but straight forward and I didn't have any trouble switching from street to street. My canvas bag slapped against my leg from the weight of ungraded papers, so I pulled it to where the strap was over my shoulder, in a much more comfortable position. The sun was shaded by some clouds, and it looked a little more like rain. I walked on, anyway.
A few streets later, as I approached my destination, the crowds started to thin out and I was able to spot the light gray apartment complex that was my destination for today. I changed my plan to walk back home, after finishing, and maybe pick up some dinner since I might be a little late.
I entered the building, and took a good look around. It wasn't the best, but it was the best I could find so far, overall, though, it was satisfactory. After looking around, I asked the desk about rent and left. Everything seemed fine as far as fine goes in Edge, but the rent was pricey and would take a lot of time to save up a meager teacher's salary for. I sighed as I walked out, and decided to walk down to a coffee shop.
It had been a long time since I had a decent cup of coffee, seeming how I always sufficed with instant coffee back in college, and, even if Tifa was the best cook, her coffee's flavor was pretty weak, for my taste. The earthy scents of espresso smelled so good that I couldn't help but traipse on in. I shoved the glass door open, and resolved to only stop for coffee then go straight home… until I smelled their croissants. So I decided on only a croissant and coffee until I got a little hungry for dessert. Then, I fought and fought the urge to order a tasty looking piece of pie that I noticed one of the other customers had, but after reminding myself of the over-priced rent I needed to save up for, I paid the bill and tore myself away from the warm coffee shop.
I shivered, and wrapped my arms around myself. It had gotten colder as the afternoon got later, and clouds were forming a thicker shroud, overhead. I thought it'd be best to get home before it gets any later so I wouldn't get rained on. I set off home, with a quick pace.
After walking for a few minutes, I felt a raindrop hit my nose. I wiped the water off with my hand, but then another raindrop landed on the crown of my head and then on my shoulder. I groaned as rain began falling from the sky, and I hugged my canvas bag to myself, covering it with my blazer. Before I knew it, I was soaked and my hair hung down in wet ropes, darkened from dark brassy brownish blonde, to a dark coco brown. I quickly darted under a nearby awning as I waited for the rain to let up, but ended up bumping into a man holding a cup of soda, spilling it on my right sleeve.
"Watch it!" he said, before entering the revenue office, but not after giving me a disgusted look.
"I didn't mean to…" I said, as I quickly pushed up my sleeve and checked my bandages. They were soaked with the brown cola, and I unwrapped my arm, hastily. It had been at least a month since my visit to the hospital and the doctor said I could've taken the bandages off last week, but I had left them on, because the discoloration seemed to have stopped healing two weeks ago. Although the spots were off of my elbow, that's as healed as it was and I might as well take them off now if I didn't want it covered in soda. I unrolled my sleeve, covering up the stigma coloration, so as not to attract unwanted attention and watched the rain, hoping it would stop sometime soon.
With no luck, I was about to go into the revenue office and ask to use the phone, but tarried outside a little longer. Feeling pressured to get home, I stepped out into the rain, and ended up running home, pulling my blazer up over my head. Soon even my blazer was soaked through, so I stopped under another awning to a store and tried to wait out the rain a little more. I regretted neglecting to get a new cell phone, as I shivered under the awning.
That's when I noticed someone else also take shelter from the rain and they joined me under the awning. I smiled faintly at them, trying not to look too friendly or too intimidating. The man only stared at me, his face showing no emotion. His thin frame was soaked from the rain and his hair was also darkened from the downpour.
I felt extremely uncomfortable for the five or six minutes we were both under the awning. I was never fond of strangers, and this man with a graying five o' clock shadow looked no friendlier than any other person unfamiliar to me. I pulled my blazer tighter around me and shivered from something other than cold. His bleak eyes didn't leave me, so I decided to beat it.
Just as I was stepping out into the rain, he spoke to me.
"Leaving so soon?" he asked. His voice had no emotion either.
"Yeah, bye." I said, trying to get away.
"Where are you going, Mia?" he asked me. I stopped dead in my tracks. I was hardly known in this town, and hoped that he was just a father of one of my students.
"Home." I said, not bothering to ask him how he knew my name.
"Is that truly your home?" he asked me. This guy was really creeping me out.
"Yeah, as true as any other gets." I said, not even sure what my own come-back meant.
He chuckled coldly, if that was possible. It was like he was so familiar with me, but I didn't know him at all.
"Do you need anything from me?" I asked. I was tired of playing games.
"There's a lot we need from you." He said, but turned and walked away, leaving me a few feet from the shelter of the awning.
We? What does he mean we? I decided to head home, scared to stick around anywhere, any longer. I squeaked, though, when a flash of lightning was accompanied by a boom of thunder, and pressed myself against a building, just barely under the roof of it. Apparently, I wasn't just one for disliking strangers, but I didn't like storms either.
"I've gotta get home!" I said, shaking my head, searching for a place to step out under the sheets of rain.
As my feet were trying to make up their mind, my eyes noticed a jet black car, with black-tinted windows slowing considerably down on the street, compared to the rest of traffic. I watched it warily, hoping not to have any more strange encounters, and something inside me jumped when the car, no higher than my shoulder, pulled up to the curb. I held my breath as the window rolled down and I caught a flash of red.
Oh, no…
"Need a ride?" a familiar face called out to me. I felt my face heating up as I recalled many a childhood crush on the Turk talking to me from his car. I felt my toes curl in my soaked dress shoes as I tried to keep myself from leaping out of my skin.
None other than Reno smirked at me from the inside of a ShinRa car, complete with tattoos and all. This was one of many guys I had a major videogamer crush on. In all reality, though, I knew that it wasn't supposed to be good when a Turk invited you for a car-ride. I tried to recall any felony I may have unknowingly committed, somehow, but came up with completely nothing.
From what I've learned, Turks were bad news. Also, I could tell something was up since I ran into a creep who knew me when I had no clue who he was, and then the guy runs away a few minutes before a Turk shows up, offering a ride. I don't think that's necessarily a good thing.
On the other hand, Reno was one of the less suspicious Turks, if possible. I also had better chances if I was to go up against him, then, say, Tseng (oh, snap). Plus, if I didn't want to get further soaked by rain, or get trapped somewhere because of it, it would be a good idea to find someone willing to drive me home.
While I was trying to make up my mind, in the mean time probably looking like a scared, wet mouse, I could see Reno drumming his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel of his car.
"Just get in the car, it's not like it'll kill 'ya." He said, obviously getting tired of waiting. With that, I quickly walked to the passenger seat of the black car and slipped in, dripping water all over the leather seats.
Out of habit, I buckled my seatbelt and wished for the best. I checked my canvas bag, hastily, and knowing that it was wet on the outside I hoped that any papers wouldn't have been dissolved by the water by now. Luckily, the papers were only just damp, so I wouldn't have to make any of my students redo anything.
"Where to?" Reno asked, pulling off of the curb.
"The 7th Heaven…" I said, trying not to sound suspicious. I was looking out the window of the passenger door, even though it was covered by miniature rivers of rain.
"Really?" he asked me with a sly smile, but still turned the car onto a path that would take us there, "you don't look like that kind of girl."
"I'm not…" I said, getting his innuendo. I hadn't had a sip of alcohol in my life; it smelled too rancid for me. I'd always had a sensitive nose, unless it was allergy season.
"Then what would you want over there?" Reno asked, passing a car ahead. He was considerably over the speed limit, but it was Reno after all.
I bit my lip as I contemplated answering the question, and then I let it out. "I live there."
He only nodded. My stomach did a flip-flop as I suspected that something was truly wrong. In everything I remember, Reno was a lot cockier than this. I knew I would need to warn Tifa and Cloud once I was home.
"Roomies with Tifa and Cloud?" he asked me, casually.
"Yup…" I said, while thinking of opening the door and jumping. The car was going too fast, for any attempts at a spy getaway, though.
Reno turned a corner too fast and too sharply, and I was thrown against my door, hitting me right in the Geostigma. The thing hurt like a bruise would, but worse and I was clenching my fists to keep from crying out. Reno had made it perfectly fine and looked as natural as ever.
"Could you drive a little more carefully?" I said, almost shouting, and then clamped a hand over my mouth when I realized what I had just done. I could feel my face turning red and knew that my pallid skin was probably looking about the shade of a tomato.
"You'll get over it." Reno replied, with a more familiar sarcastic tone. He took a curve too fast, and I slid to my left but the seatbelt kept me from going out through the other window.
He finally hit a straight road, and I was able to recollect my sanity. My hair was a mess, but I didn't have time to fix it for trying to recollect scattered papers that had fallen out of my bag.
"What's with the streak?" Reno suddenly asked. I had no clue what he was talking about.
"Huh?" I said, sitting back up in my seat.
"Your hair. Is that just a fashion statement?" he asked, being too personal to my liking.
I ran a hand through my hair and buried among the mousy mess was a collection of long, silvery-white hair. Apparently I was aging faster than I realized, and not as gracefully as planned.
"I'm not entirely sure, myself." I replied.
Then an electronic melody interrupted our conversation and Reno pulled a flip-phone from his pocket, not bothering with me anymore. With a flick of his wrist, he answered the cell phone, ending the shrill tune.
"Yeah?" he said into it, while turning on the radio and winding up the volume. I could tell this was a conversation he didn't want me to listen in on, so I did the only respectable thing to do at the time. Listen in, of course!
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Got it… Uh-huh, well, can't say anything about that right now, Rude…No, not 'cause of that!...Yeah, I've got the person, don't know if I'm right or not, but I've got someone… Right, talk to you later." With the last phrase, he hung up the phone and turned up the radio even more. I wondered if this was a tactic to keep me from asking questions.
"Right here's good," I said quickly, while the car jerked to a stop. I didn't bother to say thank you as I stepped out of the car and hurried into 7th Heaven, only one block away from it.
I dodged customers as I made my way to the back of the place, looking for Tifa or Cloud. I was certain something was going on; it didn't take much to figure out Reno. I pushed the door to the kitchen at the back where I found Tifa quickly taking care of a few things, getting ready to go back out.
"Tifa!" I said, she couldn't hear me over the yammering outside of the kitchen. "Ti-fa!" I said a little louder, hoping she could hear my alarm.
"Yes, what is it?" she asked me, stopping at the door.
"Um, do you have a minute?" I asked, knowing today was one of her busier days.
"Well, yeah, I guess," she said, furrowing her eyebrows. I could tell she noticed I was looking a little uneven.
"Uh… well, you know how I was checking out those apartments, today?" I asked, not sure how to explain myself.
"Uh-huh," she said, before peering over shoulder through a window in the door.
"Well, I got caught in the rain, and some weird guy was talking to me like he knew me, and then he left, and then Reno, the Turk, gave me a ride home." I said. I was extremely jittery and I knew my words came out too quickly to comprehend.
Tifa looked over her shoulder one more time and said, "I'm sorry, Mia, but can you wait 'til closing time to tell me?"
"…Yeah…" I said, deciding that we both needed some time to get things together. I probably needed to calm down from my ordeal. Tifa smiled apologetically and backed out into the front. I was still wet all over, so I decided to get dried off somewhere. After cleaning up and getting into a warm change of clothes, I found myself curled up on the couch, still trying to calm my nerves, but too anxious to tell Tifa what was up.
I heard heavy footsteps as Cloud entered the living room and turned on the TV while settling into a recliner. I didn't think he noticed me, because it took a double-take for him to realize I was there.
"What's up with you?" he asked, noticing my obviously disturbed appearance. I just mumbled something inaudible, and he had to repeat his question to get an actual answer out of me.
"I really, really, really need to talk to Tifa because I met some weirdoes today and one of them was a Turk." I said, a little too fast and the only way I was certain Cloud comprehended my babble was by the irritated look on his face when I mentioned the Shinra's lackies.
"What?" he said. I could tell he hardly believed me.
"Okay," I said and took a few breaths to calm my nerves down. "I stuck around after school to go check out some apartment buildings and played around for too long. When it started raining I tried to wait it out under an awning of a store where this really weird guy was, too. Well, he started talking to me and he even knew my name, but I have no clue who he was and he walked away. After a little while, Reno- the Turk- pulled up in his car and offered me a ride, and since it was raining and I was too scared to say 'no', I got in the car and he dropped me off here."
"What would Shinra want?" Cloud asked, more to himself than to me and cast his eyes downward. I curled up a little tighter, and waited for Cloud to come out with some sort of answer.
"What do you think I should do?" I asked him.
"Let's wait, and we'll tell Tifa what's happened." Cloud said, "I suggest you stay indoors for awhile, and don't go anywhere alone."
I nodded my head, and after talking a little more about things, Cloud and I waited for closing time.
Gah, this is going so slow for me! So much has yet to happen, and my imagination is going crazy! Leave a review, please!
Ninja Cat of Light
