Chapter Three: Squaresoft Overture

A/N: See? All the characters in here belong to Squaresoft.  Yay Squaresoft!  ANYWAYS, right now I want to thank Kent Bogar and Ninja Girl Emi for not only giving me a nice laugh when I read your stories =) but for submitting them!  I wasn't able to get them all in this chapter but I'll try to find a way to get as many of them in as possible in upcoming chapters.  =)  The whole thing about the director hiring people to get people to leave and such (you'll see what I mean in a minute) was Kent Bogar's story, thanks much to him, now everyone read his stories! ;)  Any other people with stories, go ahead and submit them if you want to…like I said, I do credit you…and thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. =)  Also, Squaresoft is now Square Enix.  I know that.  But I'm almost certain they were still Squaresoft when they created the people I borrowed from them.  So I'm gonna refer to them as Squaresoft.  Also, our 'local' (well, thirty minutes away, but that's local considering I live in the middle of nowhere) mall also got a Dance Dance Revolution machine! *cheers*  I'm writing this chapter in honor of DDR, everybody go buy the game.  =)  Allrighty, that's all I have to say for now.  Thanks again!  ~Xifa~

                        ~//~

"Listen up!" Commander Leonhart's voice rang throughout the auditorium.

     The majority of the band looked up.  Not many people dared cross the commander's path, and those who did…well, they were just brave.  That or really stupid.

     However, as anyone in band would know, there's always a certain section that's always getting yelled at.  There's just that group of people, united by two common traits.  One, they all play the same instrument, and two; they refuse to listen to a word the director's saying.

     In this case, it was the trombones.  Personally, Sephiroth thought they shouldn't have even been allowed into band camp if they weren't going to listen to a word the director said.  But what could he have to complain about?  He was just thankful that the concert order that Commander Leonhart had placed them in didn't involve him sitting next to them.

"You four," the commander said in an exasperated voice, pointing to Sephiroth, Cloud, Yuffie, and Barret.  "Get up here."

     The four, naturally, obliged.  Even they didn't want to get on the director's bad side.

"Between you four and me, I have a job for you to do.  I want you to talk as many of those people as you can into going home.  I don't care what it takes, get them to leave."

"Alright," they nodded in unison, going back to their seats.

     Cloud watched as Commander Leonhart called one more person up there.  It was none other than Choco Billy himself, who lived on a Chocobo Ranch that Cloud had heard about a few times.  Commander Leonhart signaled something to Choco Billy, who held up what looked to Cloud like a chocobo whistle.  ((The Chocokid has one in FF8, if you don't know what I'm talking about)).  He played one loud, really high-pitched note, and sat down.

     Well, even if it was deafening, at least it got the trombones to shut up.

"Now that you lazy excuses for musicians are ready," Commander Leonhart frowned, "We can get to work.  Take out your first piece of music.  It should be titled the 'Squaresoft Overture'.  Now for some reason, the oboe part didn't come in for this so it'll just have to read the flute part.  Flutes, I gave you an extra copy of this song just in case, so—"

"—Um, actually, you didn't," interrupted a flutist.

     Aerith glanced to Vincent, who shrugged.

"I had it yesterday," she said quietly to him, not wanting to make the commander mad.

"As did I," Vincent nodded.

"Alright, I know I passed it out," Commander Leonhart frowned.  "And if I don't hear someone confess to taking it I'll—"

"—I found it!" Yuffie suddenly exclaimed, thrusting a stack of music at Commander Leonhart.

     Cloud turned around and looked at Cid, who was sitting at the drumset.

"Did she steal all those?" Cloud asked him.

     The ninja, who apparently heard, turned around and smiled, unable to hide her pride.

"YUFFIE!" the commander yelled, grabbing Yuffie and dragging her off.

                   ~//~

     They all sat around a table at dinner, unusually silent.

"You think she's still alive?" Tifa asked, finally breaking the silence.

     Judging by Tifa's attitude yesterday and a bit earlier, Cloud wouldn't have expected her to break the silence.  But apparently Tifa was getting over her initial nervousness and settling back into her normal personality.  He was glad.  Much as Tifa was his friend, her strange, jumpy attitude was rather strange, if not simply annoying.

"Who, Yuffie?" spoke up the quiet Vincent, whom Aerith had invited to sit with them.

"Mm-hmm," Tifa nodded.

"I don't think Commander Leonhart would actually kill her," Aerith said, but judging by her tone of voice, even Aerith had her doubts.

"She shouldn't have stolen all of the flutes' music," Barret shrugged, "She got herself into that one."

"True," Sephiroth agreed.

"Well, I'll see you all after dinner.  Let me know if you hear from Yuffie," Aerith stood up, preparing to leave.

"Hey, wait," Tifa called.  "What's our after-dinner activity tonight?"

"Tonight?" Aerith echoed.  "Um, there's a Triple Triad/Tetra Master tournament tonight, TBA for tomorrow, a Blitzball match after that, another TBA, and then the concert," Aerith rattled off.

"Okay," Tifa beamed.  "Thanks, Aerith."
"Anytime," Aerith smiled, walking off.

"I think I'll go too," Cloud stood up about a minute later.

     Sephiroth raised an eyebrow and gave Cloud a 'look'.

"I'm checking out the game room," Cloud scowled.

"Sure?" Sephiroth smiled evilly.

"Whatever," Cloud frowned.

"Well, in any case, I'll see you there after I finish my…" Sephiroth trailed off, looking down at the cafeteria food that they served the band camp students.

"Cheeseburger?" Tifa questioned, looking at it.

     Cloud rolled his eyes and walked to the game room.  To be located in a college student center, they'd worked on the decorations quite well.  The entire room was dark, save for the little glowing stars on the ceiling and of course the light from the videogames and the hallway outside.  Of course, there were your typical games located within; air hockey, racing, skee-ball, fighting, shooting, skating, crane…but in the middle, characterized by it's flashing lights, catchy music, and annoying announcer, was a Dance Dance Revolution Extreme game.

     A grin crossed Cloud's face as memories of himself and Sephiroth learning how to play DDR ran through his mind.  He wasn't exactly cocky about his skill, but was confident.

     Aerith stood on one side of the two-player game, feeding the machine her spare change.

"Mind if I join you?" Cloud asked.

     Aerith smiled.

"Go right ahead," she stepped aside and let him pay his part.  He noticed she had set her skill level on one level shy of expert.  The same level he and Sephiroth used to play on, but then again, when was the last time he and Sephiroth had played?  He set his skill level to match hers.

"You want to pick out the song?" she asked him.

"I don't care," he shrugged.  "You pick first."

     She scrolled through until she found the one that sounded the fastest, and hit it.  After making it through the song, he realized Aerith had obviously played before.  Two songs after that he deducted she could beat Sephiroth if she went against him.  One song left.

     Speaking of Sephiroth, he entered at that moment.

"Hmm…might I choose the song?" he questioned.

     Cloud glanced to Aerith, praying she'd say no.

"Sure," she answered.  Sephiroth scanned through the songs until he found the one he was looking for.

"Uh oh," Cloud thought to himself.

     With a semi-evil grin, Sephiroth selected a song called 'La Senorita Virtual', which is quite possibly the hardest freaking song on that entire game.  ((I can't pass it even on basic, even after a couple MONTHS of doing that song over and over again.  Set on basic and little, I can get a C.  Yay me.))  On basic it was next to impossible.  But Cloud and Aerith had set their skill level one under basic.

"Good luck," Sephiroth beamed, looking at them and taking a step back to watch.  "If you even make it through without failing…well, good luck."

     Cloud glanced over at Aerith.  She'd already slipped off the jacket she'd been wearing it and thrown it across the rail behind the game.

"Let's show him," she smiled at Cloud as the song began.

     To Sephiroth, the song ended too fast.  Watching Cloud hop around on a dance game trying to step on arrows as they flew across the screen had always been a sight worth seeing.  To Cloud and Aerith, who were forced to try and correctly dance the entire song, it didn't end fast enough.

     The scores popped up on the screen.  Aerith had the highest numerical score, and scored the same letter as Cloud.  C.

"That's a workout," Aerith smiled breathlessly, hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.

"You did good," Cloud nodded.

"You did too," Aerith replied.  "We passed!  I didn't know it was possible."

"Neither did I," Cloud muttered, glaring at Sephiroth.

"The card tournament's starting," Sephiroth interrupted, still smiling.  "We might want to leave."

"Let's mosey," Cloud shrugged.

                        ~//~

A/N: Wrote that chapter late and started hurrying through it.  You can probably tell where.  Sorry if it wasn't so great ^^  And seriously, who thinks they should make a Final Fantasy DDR?  I think it'd be great!  Knowing my luck some of you people prolly haven't played DDR and think I'm some sort of crazy psycho.  ^^;  Oh well.  Life shall go on, and I'll see what I can do about working everyone's ideas into a nice little section called 'Chapter Four'.  Thanks to my reviewers and those who submitted and everyone who's reading.  Until next time, ~Xifa~