I walked into the school as mad and annoyed as humanly possible. Most of the other instructors greeted me with big smiles on their faces, especially the male instructors. But it's a good thing that there are not a lot of those on the wing where I teach. Who in the hell does Cloud Strife think he is by saying something about the way I dress? The man is a freakin' lunatic, and I wish he was the punching bag that was hanging in the back of my classroom so I could just beat the shit out of him.

I walked into my classroom about twenty minutes before the bell rang, trying my hardest to get my lesson plans together. But that plan failed altogether because half of my class showed up early.

"Lookin' good, Ms. Lockheart." said a student by the name of Ramsey "Are we finally gonna learn how to use our weapons today?"

I turned around from the blackboard and shook my head. "No, not today. Some of ya'll haven't chosen a weapon, and until then how can I teach you the techniques for each type?"

"Hey Miss Tifa!" one of the girls practically squealed in my ear.

"Hello Raquel." I murmured.

Finally the tardy bell rang, and after not greeting my students in my usual manner, I'm pretty sure that they could tell that I was not in the mood to deal with their jokes and their talking like I'm usually so leanient with.

"Ya'll know the routine. Move the desks out the way, we're gonna pick up where we left off last week." I told the class.

The students looked around for a minute and finally began moving things out of the way.

"Um...Ms. Lockheart. There's a rumor going around that Cloud Strife is back in town. Is that true?" A girl asked.

I looked at her for a moment before replying, "Unfortunately, it is true, Mamie."

"Oh my God! He is so hot!" "What's he like, Tifa?" "Yeah, that guy is cool." "Where's he staying?" Were just A FEW of the questions and comments asked by my students. Let's not mention the hundreds of squeals and gasps that the girls emmitted.

"Calm down! Ya'll be quiet!" I yelled trying to calm them down. When I could actually manage to get a sentence out without yelling I said, "Cloud is of no importance to this class. Let's just get on with our sparring, ok? I think we left off at Ramsey against Jett. Shall we begin, gentlemen?" The words had just left my mouth for the fight to begin, when the squeals and gasps started up again.

"Ya'll! Be quiet! I have to help them out just like I helped most of you out last week," I turned around to see what all the commotion about, and there he was along with that damn smirk.

"Hey Tif. Nice class ya got goin' on."

"Oh hell no. Get out! You've INVADED my home but you're not gonna bust up into my CLASS!" she yelled.

I knew this was going to be fun. I've not figured out if I just am one big hateful person and love to piss her off for the heck of it, or if in some deep demented way, making this girl mad turns me on. "Now Tifa, you shouldn't use such language in front of these growing minds." I gestured to her class. Most of the girls were blushing or gasping and the guys were in awe.

"Uh...Um...er...Mr. Strife, it is such an... honor to meet you." A teenage girl with brown hair said as she approached me.

"Pleasure to be here..." I was not used to all of this attention.

"Mamie come back over here. Mr. Strife just wanted to drop in and say hello. This was just one big surprise! Now he has to go. Isn't that right, Cloud?" Tifa looked at me with hate in her eyes.

"Nope," catching her hint, "I was gonna see if your class would like to see how to really spar." Boy, that made them go wild.

"What are you talking about?" she snapped at me.

"You remember, like we had to do back during the Meteor Crisis. Sparring with everyone in the group just like old times."

"You can't be-"

"Of course I am, Tif. I need to see if you're still in shape. The last time you and I sparred...I believe I won." I added with a smile. This earned Tifa a lot of shocked looks and a bunch of "Oohh! Ooohhs!"

She quirked her eyebrows, turned to her students and said, "Hang on just a sec, kids," and sauntered over to where I was standing. Then, in a low voice said, "You're a real big dumbass if you want to fight with me now."

"In case you haven't noticed, I like to live on the edge, sweetheart."

"Don't call me-"

"I have a proposal."

"Go to hell."

"Been there, but that's not part of it. If I win, you show me BOTH of those tattoos of yours, and if you win I'll go stay with somebody else."

She didn't even have to think about it. "You're gonna get your ass whooped, Strife."

I turned back to her class and said, "Well kids, it looks like your in for a show."