Chapter 10: First Day of School
Tifa's POV: Seeing Squall and Ray's little scene almost brought tears to my eyes. They didn't have time to bond like brother and sister, but now, things are different, better and I'm glad that everything worked out. I quickly got ready and found Cloud making eggs.
"Wow, I never thought that you could cook!" I exclaimed.
"Well, my mom showed me how to make scrambled eggs when I was a kid. She had to work so I had to take care of myself, well, you know that already." He said.
"Ha, this is quite amusing." I chuckled.
"What is so wrong with me cooking?" He asked me.
"No, not that at all, it's just that you're so tough. It just doesn't fit you." I laughed.
"Hey, don't you know that Squall gardens?" He asked me.
"What! Squall gardens!" I gasped.
"Well, at least he used to. Sun always made him plant flowers. She never let Ray because she always gets dirty and she trusts Squall to get the job done." He chuckled.
"How come I didn't know that?" I asked him.
"That's because you were sick that day with the allergies. You can't stand the pollen." Cloud replied.
"Hmm, I see. That's not fair." I pouted.
"…Yeah." Cloud said silently. I looked at him curiously.
"Cloud, is something wrong?" I asked him.
"Hmm? Oh, no not really." He smiled, but I could tell that that was fake.
"Hey, if something bothers you, just tell me." I encouraged him.
"It's alright, it's nothing so don't worry about it." He replied. I hope it's nothing serious.
We arrived at the school and received our schedules.
"Why look at that, we have all of our core classes together." I smiled.
"Why did you make me sign up for art?" Ray scoffed.
"Oh come on Ray, you need something to soothe you after P.E." I explained. Ray grumbled and walked toward the first class, dodging students.
"We should get going too." Squall said.
"Hey, are they new? Those guys are kind of cute!" A girl squealed.
"Uh oh, you're going to have a fan club you two." I laughed.
"Careful Tifa, a lot of these guys have wandering eyes." Cloud warned me.
"Don't be so worried Cloud, I'll be fine." I sighed. We entered our class and endured the many stares and whispers. Cloud was right, a lot of these guys have wandering eyes.
"Welcome to Balamb High. Class, these people have transferred from SOLDIER so please be nice. Go on and choose a seat." The sensei told us. Squall and Cloud sat behind Ray and me.
"He's so hot!" A girl squealed.
"Is she talking about you or me?" Cloud mumbled.
"…You're closest so it's you." Squall mumbled back. This is going to be quite a day.
Ray's POV: After the first class, I took my books and followed Squall out.
"Ray, are you okay?" Squall asked me.
"…Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm okay." I lied.
"…" Squall kept silent. His silence made me feel nervous.
"Oof!" I yelped when a person violently shoved me into the ground.
"Hey, Ray!" Squall gasped. All my books were scattered and I looked up and my attacker.
"Grr, Michael, what do you want!" I hissed.
"Ooh, the little snake hissed! I want revenge you #$!" He barked. I expected Squall to come over, but he was being retrained by his thugs.
"Let me go you monkeys!" Squall shouted. Groups of people surrounded us.
"Now, I'll let you taste your own blood!" He hissed at me. Suddenly, someone went past the crowd and pushed Michael back, hard.
"Get back Michael, or else." Tifa breathed. He was hesitant at first, but somehow she made him retreat.
"Err, let's go you guys." He growled and his gang dispersed, releasing Squall. He ran to me.
"Ha, are you alright?" He asked me.
"…Mmm, yeah I'm alright." I sighed. He helped me up.
"No, does he have a girl already? She's not very pretty though!" Some girls protested rather loudly.
"Let's get going. Where's Cloud?" Squall asked.
"He's coming." Tifa smiled.
"Tifa, thanks for helping, even though we could have done it on our own." I thanked her.
"Don't mention it; I couldn't let you have all the fun." She smiled. I shook my head and scoffed.
"Hey, are we going or not?" Cloud asked, quite coldly. I wonder what is wrong with him lately. Ever since we came here, he began to act cold.
As we entered our next class, groups of girls began to swarm around Squall and Cloud.
"Hi my name is…"
"Hey, pay attention…" He's so hot!" The girls squealed. The place was congested and I was pushed and shoved all over the place.
"ERR, GET AWAY FROM ME!" I roared. The girls screamed and backed away. I hunched over, walking towards them with fury all over my face.
"You #$, you sluts, you are all going to pay!" I chuckled evilly. Squall restrained me from attacking them.
"Hey, they're not worth it Ray." He strained.
"Ha, let me go Squall, or else I'll really get violent." I growled.
"…Stop it Ray, the sensei is coming." Tifa warned me. I stopped panting and breathed normally.
"Ah, you must be the new students, welcome! Please make yourselves at home!" The sensei smiled. We sat in desks next to each other. I still felt a bit steamed and was ready to hit someone, but tried hard to mange it. (I broke four pencils already, damn!)
"Alright now, interview as many people as you can about what they like. We will analyze the data later." The sensei instructed. Oh no, I don't like this. People got up from their seats and began to do their assignment. The same girls flocked over to Cloud and Squall, bothering them.
"Not again." Cloud sighed scratching his head.
"Hey girl, what's your phone number?" A guy asked Tifa. She blinked a few times.
"Sorry, I don't think that's one of the questions. Ask something else." She grinned. I stared at Squall for a while and he stared a 'could-you-help-me' look. I shrugged and got up.
"It looks like you two need a hand!" I yelled over the squeals. Some girls went quiet with fear while others kept chatting away.
"You girls better back off, or something ugly will happen." I growled, getting in touch of my rage again. This time, my eyes glowed brighter than normal and freaked many girls into retreating.
"Thanks Ray, they might have ripped my shirt." Squall sighed at put his hand over his face.
We all took a seat and a girl in front of Cloud turned around and introduced herself.
"Hello, my name is Aeris Gainsborough. If you need any help, you can ask me!" She smiled brightly. She had long, brown, braided hair with a pink bow. She wore a light pink mid-sleeved shirt and a pink skirt. Many people say that this 'Aeris' is a very good student. Ha, she'll probably use that reputation to get at Cloud. Tifa looked bothered by that girl. She looked slightly sad, but continued to do her work.
"Ray Li, please get to work." The sensei ordered.
Squall's POV: I was getting really tired of the constant attention. I wished that this day would be over soon. As I look at the clock, it looked like the hands never moved. I sighed and found myself staring straight at a girl who was smiling at me.
"Hi, I'm Rinoa Heartily. Are you alright?" She asked me. She had long black hair with tones of brown and dark blue eyes. She wore a short-sleeved, V-neck, black shirt with a dark blue skirt.
"…No." I replied bluntly. She turned around and giggled. What is with these girls? I'm so tired of them that it seems like Ray and Tifa are guys now because they act so different. I feel so stressed out lately. Are things moving too fast that I can't catch up? Maybe I should just be an invalid in bed. After what seemed like an hour or more, the class finally ended and we all went out of the hall.
"Ugh!" Ray groaned when someone knocked her aside. All her books spilt on the ground.
"Err, you jerk." Ray growled.
"Heh, watch your back pretty girl, you're next." Michael smiled. I grabbed Michael by the collar and had a fierce expression on my face.
"Don't touch her you stalker." I snapped at him.
"Squall, let him go, he's not worth it." Ray sighed. I let him go and he shot off.
"You go on ahead, I'll catch up." Ray told me.
"Are you sure? Alright, I'll explain to the sensei about the situation. Let's hope that you won't get in trouble." I agreed.
Vincent's POV: I walked in the hall and saw a girl picking up books. Apparently she dropped them. I went over to her and picked up the rest of her books.
"Here you go." I gave it back to her.
"Huh? Oh, thank you." She thanked me and she was quite surprised.
"You might want to get to class." I told her. She looked at me in the eyes. Hmm, she looks familiar, wait, is she the girl from the fair? She has those red eyes and black, white hair.
"Uh, you're the one that helped me back at the fair." She exclaimed.
"Yes, we have met. I'm Vincent Valentine." I introduced myself to the young woman.
"I'm Ray Li." She replied.
"I hope you didn't need my help from those thugs?" He asked.
"Oh no, I'm fine. We took care of them." She smirked. What an interesting girl.
"Well, I suppose you need to get to class? Goodbye then." I smiled.
"Yes, well I'll see you later then." She bowed and ran. The fair…That event came back to me, hard. I saw my precious Lucrecia with me. We walked in the night together hand in hand.
"Vincent, do you think they got away alright? I'm kind of worried." Lucrecia asked me. I patted her soft hand.
"I'm sure they'll be okay, they said so too. You shouldn't concern yourself." I told her.
"But Vincent, how could you not worry? Well, let's forget it and go home." She smiled her brilliant smile. I leaned over to her and kissed her on the lips lightly.
"I hope you had fun." I smiled at her.
"Oh Vincent, how could I not have fun?" She giggled. I shook off the memory. I can't afford to remember Lucrecia, or it'll hurt. Why did she have to go? I held my head and became quite dizzy.
"No, I have to focus." I whispered to myself and headed to class.
Cloud's POV: After the classes, we headed out to lunch. When we all got our food, we went to find seats.
"Hey, over here Squall, sit with me!"
"Cloud, I saved a seat for you!"
"Yo, Tifa, here's a seat for you babe!" Our fans roared. Ray is lucky. After the temper problems she presented to the class, many people fear her.
"Why don't we sit over there?" Ray suggested. I looked where she was pointing to see an empty bench. Squall nodded. We went over there and a person with long black hair had already sat in a bench next to us.
"Oh, you're him!" Tifa exclaimed.
"Who?" Squall and I asked in unison.
"…Shut up Tifa." Ray mumbled. Tifa threw a fry at me.
"Ouch, why the hell did you do that?"She snapped at her. She cleared her throat. I didn't exactly understand what was going on.
"Thank you again for trying to help us back there." She bowed. I see, I guess this guy stood up for them.
"I want to thank you gir…" Ray stopped when she saw his grief-stricken face when she was about to mention 'girlfriend'.
"I meant thank you for that noble act." Ray quickly finished and sat down with sweat dripping down her face. We ate in silence until he spoke up.
"So, you're all new and yet you're already popular and the talk of the school?" He asked.
"Y-Yeah, unfortunately it's true. It's hard to even move from one class to another." Tifa sighed.
"I know how you feel. That happened to me too." He chuckled.
"So are you from around here?" He asked. From around here… I never wanted to call this place home again. I felt horrid and started to sweat.
"…Yeah, we live close here." Squall responded with a slight grave-expression.
Tifa's POV: We spoke with Vincent for a while. He surprises me. I found out how alike he is to us. He's quiet, cold, and lonely like Squall yet he's polite and kind. Even Ray, who practically hates everyone and calls them trash, took some interest to the black haired fellow. Cloud and Squall came back. Hmm, everything looks normal between them.
"…So, what were we talking about?" Ray asked getting back on the subject.
"…Oh, yeah, I live with my aunt." Vincent remembered.
"Ah, I see." Ray replied. "Do you live with your parents?" He asked me.
"…Well, uh, no…" I hesitated.
"We live together alone." Ray replied.
"Why did you tell him that?" I asked her rather harshly.
"What's so wrong?" Ray asked with the same harshness.
"Hey, that's enough. Well, now you know Vincent. We all live together. All of our parents are dead so we all live together." Squall explained. He didn't seem to care, but Cloud and I are a bit nervous revealing that information.
"…I see, so you're all orphans. Well, so am I. My parents died and I was left to my Aunt. However, I don't think she likes me very much." He smiled nervously. I was amazed at his response. I didn't think that anyone would be like us. I felt like we really found someone, a friend to talk to.
"Hmm…" I smiled brightly. Vincent looked at me with fondness and I found myself staring straight at him. In the corner of my eye, I saw Cloud getting upset for some reason. The bell rung and we all threw away our trash and walked towards the school. I hope Cloud isn't getting the wrong idea. Hmm, I kind of like how protective he is over me. I extended my hand towards Vincent.
"So, are we friends?" She asked him. He looked shocked at first but smiled and accepted her hand.
"Oh, alright then…friend." He smiled. "Heh, good luck, you'll need it if you're around us." Ray warned.
"Ha, she's right. It's not too late to take back what you said." Squall grinned unexpectedly.
"I'll take my chances." He replied.
Yes! I've been waiting for a while to stick Vincent in. Will their be some romantic struggles? How does Tifa really feel about him or Ray? Squall doesn't seem to care much, but Cloud seems to be getting a bit touchy now, will their friendship last? Next, Chapter 11: A New Friendship