A/N: Finally, something else up. No idea where I'm going with this, or what the hell I'm thinking. Just… yeah. Playing around with different ways to write. Been far too long since I've read any KH fanfics. My grammar checker hates me. Bugger.
Disclaimer: I won nothing besides a pounding headache, a couple of burned cds, and a lazy narcissic muse. You are welcome to whatever you want of my meager possessions. Luffs to Ann and anyone from the Squiffie community. Though why you would be reading this yet, I have no idea, seeing as the actually Squiffie-ness is…. A long long time in the future. If it comes at all. That was a joke. Really.
A/N2:Ignore anything too illogical that appears in here, including but not limited to: mood swings, The Scarlet Letter, change of tense, Gippal being out of character, Seifer being a bastard, ect, ect.
000
Yuffie was rather inclined to admit that weapons class, while generally boring, had been at least somewhat amusing. Her 'mentor' was quite obviously about as nice as a rock, with a matching personality. She always did attract the good ones, didn't she? But class was over, and hanging off of her room mate's arm, skipping around and generally acting her shoe size opposed to her age, a six and a half if you wanted to know, she decides that all she really needs right now is… more food. She voices this thought to Aerith who giggles, and releases a perturbed Juri from her grip. "Alright, Yuffims," she smiles cheerily at the smaller girl, overly pleased with the nickname she had chosen. "But we really should grab out stuff for the academic classes first." The brunette tweaks the fuchsia bow in her hair and trots down several flights of stairs, stopping in front of their room. She presses her finger onto a tiny blue pad stuck on the door frame, and whispers her name. Something inside the door clicks, and she opens it smoothly, revealing their room all tidied up, clothing folded neatly over the back of a chair or stowed in a box.
Yuffie raises an eyebrow as the older girl pulls out a stack of folders and books, balancing them on her hip as she gestures for her charges to do the same thing. The small ninja gives her friend a wary look before tugging out a small notebook that had been shoved in her bag, almost as a last minute think.
"It that all you brought?" On anyone else, the words would have sounded scornful, barbed. But said by Aerith, glittering green eyes fastened onto her own, there was only concern and worry. "We can get you more supplies later." She turns on the heel of her brown work boot, and strides out into the corridor, Juri pausing to grab her ratty messenger bag before following the two out into the hall, door clicking shut behind the four.
Aerith doesn't seem to be following any set path, weaving around turns and down stair cases randomly until she happens upon a small bar type of deal. These sort of bars literally just popped up here and there, and they seemed to move on their own free will, but were always stocked with some sort of fruit or muffin of juice, exactly what a hungry scholar would need in order to make it until the next meal. The locking mechanism is nearly identical to the one on their door frame, the pad being a brilliant green instead of blue, and it's the same ordeal of pressing her finger to the pad and muttering her name before the small silvery door swings open. "Lets go, shall we?" She pulls a small plastic bottle of grapefruit juice out, and stands back, letting the younger girls have a shot at the goodies inside.
Yuffie looks around, enjoying the cool puffs of air against her sweaty face. Who knew that wandering around a castle the size of Lake Michigan could be so tiring? In the corner, all alone, is a very lonely looking cheese Danish. She could probably be a very good friend to that Danish, and she pulls it out, biting into the pastry with satisfaction. Yummy. She follows a retreating Aerith, Juri taking up the rear, a can of Coke fizzling at her nerves. Aerith proceeds to amuse Yuffie and annoy the bejeezus out of the techie girl but mumbling comments about how Coca-Cola was not supposed to be consumed at ten in the morning. Juri ignores her matter of factly. It's never too early for caffeine, and she is just not a tea type of person.
They round a corner sharply, and come face to face with a yellow… something. It is hard to tell exactly what, but there was a conical body, and a small black head, with two beady eyes glittering underneath some sort of hat, which, incidentally enough, was also a cone, albeit a cone with a swirly thing on the end. A flicker of electrical energy dances along the thing's body, as it hovers around, making a slight buzzing noise, unsure as to what the four girls were, and if it would be worth the chaos of zapping one or two of them.
Yuffie lets out a shriek, more of surprise than fear, though she was plenty afraid of whatever the hell it was. Chaos ensues without further ado. Aerith chokes on her dainty sip of juice, spraying it every which way, the plastic container dropping onto the floor with a thud, sending rivulets of pink liquid every which way, and stands there, paralyzed with worry. Her lips are moving, voice coming out in a wheezy whisper, but Yuffie's dancing around, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
A blond and blue streak comes tearing along, stopping quickly on the floor with a squeal of metal treads against linoleum. The hero, Cloud Strife, sticks himself in front of the pretty upper classman, seizing her shoulders and shaking her gently. "Aerith. Shh. It's alright, sweetie. They're not going to hurt you. Shh." He pulls her into a hug, and raises an eyebrow at the two girls, Yuffie flushed almost to the point of aneurysm, and the shorter girl staring over his shoulder, awestruck. "Show's over girls. You're classroom is the last room on this floor on the left. Can't miss it." He keeps an arm around the small woman, and guides her back down the corridor, leaving the two freshmen alone.
Yuffie stares at the back of the retreating boy, mouthing the word coward to herself. Sure it wasn't true at all, using oneself as a human shield obviously did not count as an act of cowardice. But it makes her feel better, so what the hell? "Um… can we get by, please?" The yellow orbs don't blink at her, and she swears that the buzzing suddenly sounds much, much more ominous.
Juri however, has a much different approach, being completely in love with the little bit of floating electricity. "It's cute!" She announces the first thing she's said since weapons started, and takes a step forward, and Yuffie squinches her eyes shut, prepared to stick her shurikens into the yellow blob until it resembles a pin cushion if her roommate becomes a Juri-kabob. There's no crackle of electricity, and she peers between her fingers as the tiny girl approaches the floating Heartless. "Aw, you're such a cute little monster thingy."
From somewhere inside the head, a buzzing voice, like the crackle of a toaster short circuiting replies, "Heartless." A period of buzzing, or radio static. "Yellow Nocturne." Buzz, buzz, buzz. "Not monster." But the Heartless' eyes turn up in smile at the compliment, and it bobs its head and darts off.
Juri flutters her fingers in farewell before starting down the hall, a meditative look in her normally blank eyes. Yuffie bebops along to absolutely nothing, until, after a very large amount of time, she reaches the door to their next class. She gives Juri a mock bow, "ladies first!" She tries to brush off the annoyed look, and follows her roomie in.
Unlike their first classroom, this one is disappointingly normal. About thirty very uncomfortable plastic desks, arranged in disgusting symmetrical rows, a sparkling clean chalk board, and a rudimentary teacher's desk, far too neat to have ever been used for anything other than a status symbol. Almost everything in the room was disgustingly normal, something out of a Disney Channel Original Movie, with the exception of a blond couple in the middle of the room, engaged in some sort of passionate activity.
At first glance, the two seem to be trying to choke suck the other's face off, but after a couple of minutes, the two would separate, and the shrieking would begin, and judging from the ragged quality to the voices, this sort of thing had been going on at least since the last class had ended.
The blond girl is bouncing around the taller man, quite literally hopping with rage. "Yeah? You think you're all that?" Her hands are bunched into petite fists, and she looks ready to commit murder.
"Well, babe, you gotta admit that I am." The blond man smiles lazily, reaching out and tugging her close, eye uncovered by a patch twinkling with mischief.
The girl pulls away, punching him on the arm. "Don't call me that, you bastard! I'm not your babe, I'm not your sweet, or hun, or any other fucking retarded name you come up with!" She hits him again, voice gravely from the strain.
"Course you're not, baby." He grins and pulls her in close, mouth working furiously against hers.
SMACK.
"Don't ever touch me again, you god damned man whore." The blond girl shakes her stinging hand out and stalks across the room, radiating a white hot fury.
The boy looks like he's about to follow her, but a crowd of kids enter as the first bell rings, arguing loudly, before taking their seats. Two short boys stop in front of the desk for a moment, and then continue on to their seats, grinning maliciously. Yuffie looks around and slides into one of the two remaining desks, making Juri sit directly in front of her, and incidentally across from the effeminate boy on the train. Damn it.
The door opens again as two breath takingly beautiful women enter, but, unlike the weapon's class the volume doesn't change, and the women move slowly to the front of the room, long gowns swaying slightly with their motion. As a single unit, the blond and brunette stop in front of the desk, look down, and let out an ear piercing scream.
That gets the class' attention. It also, however, draws the attention of a giant security guard patrolling the hall, and a blue furred head sticks inside the glass room, amber eyes staring coolly at the teach. "Is there a problem, Miss Bell, Miss Aurora?"
The two women place dainty hands on heaving chests, trying to calm down. "Just…the..Usual..Pranks...Mr. Ka-maree." The brunette replies, fussing with the butter colored skirts on her ball dress. "Sorry to disturb you."
The blue creature nods and shuts the door, leaving a very red faced class behind. The blonde in a pink dress steps forward, eyes snapping. "A can of worms on the attendance sheet?" She hisses, far more intimidating that the Yellow Nocturne. "I will not tolerate these asinine pranks in my... our class room. I want whoever did this pathetic act to confess. Now!" The entire class remains silent, and the woman lets out a sigh of defeat, stepping back to allow her counterpart to begin the class.
The brunette steps forward, flashing a pink lipped smile at the class. "Good morning, students!" She chirps more robin like than Aerith. "My name is Miss Belle, and welcome to English! Now why don't we begin with a little introduction? Please state your name, year, and favorite book. I'll go first." She smiles a saccharine smile again. "My name is Bella Etoile, this is my second year teaching English, and my favorite book is Pride and Prejudice. Aurora?"
The blonde crosses her arms across a rather ample chest. "Boys and girls, my name is Rose Aurora, this is my first year teaching English here at the Bastion College, and my favorite book is the Little Prince." She points a rather accusatory finger at one of the blond boys sitting in the back row.
"Uh… my name is Tidus Saca, I'm a first year, and my favorite book is the Karma Sutra." He rocks back in his chair, looking immensely pleased with himself.
Yuffie doesn't really listen to any more introductions, and watches her roommate boot up her laptop and begin playing solitaire. Kind of pathetic really, she had never thought that there would be a time when Solitaire would be preferable to whatever else was going on.
A single introduction does stick out in her mind, that of the gorgeous boy from the train. "My name is Squall Leonheart, I'm a second year. I don't have a favorite book, actually. Classics are alright." He folds his mouth shuts and rests his cheek in his gloved hand, staring blankly out into nothing, eyes veiled with steel irises.
Yuffie doesn't really remember what she babbles about. Hell, she didn't really like to read. Instead, she draws a stick figure mauling another one, a Yellow Nocturne giggling in the background. Immature, her? Never. She does look up briefly when Juri mentions the Divine Comedy as her favorite book, but only because it was supposed to be the center of some obscure cult. Whatever. She has to suppress a giggle when something flicking against Squall's nose startles him into consciousness and for a moment those infuriated eyes are pinning her in place, before they move on to glare at a boy with a tail a few rows over. Peculiar.
After what seems like a week, but is really only twenty minutes, Belle claps her hands, gold sateen gloves muffling any sort of noise she may have been trying to make. "Alright boys and girls! Now that we all know each other," she inserts a disarming smile here, "let's get cracking!"
Aurora tries not to roll her eyes at her comrade. Christ, it was supposed to be green teachers like herself that had that much nauseating enthusiasm. She picks up a stack of thick paperback books and starts passing them around. "The first book is Hawthorn's 'The Scarlet Letter'. You have the rest of the class period to read the prologue. If you don't finish it, make sure that you do before the next class. That is all." She throws the remaining books down and sits on the edge of her desk and begins filing her already perfect nails.
At long last the bell rings, and there's a stampede of everyone trying to be the first one out of the room. Yuffie looks down at her book, still opened to page one, as it had been for the past fifteen minutes. She had thought that perhaps reading along with Rikku and Kairi would make it more interesting, but the two had opened their books and begun talking non-stop. Not that she really thought that it was her place to be criticizing either of them, hell she could talk the ears off of a pot according to her father. She picks her very doodle filled notebook up, sticking it, and the gods forsaken piece of literature under her arm and pauses to look over Juri's hunched shoulders because she was nosy, and enjoyed being that way.
The other girl looks up, black eyes startles, and she scrambles to shove her long bangs out of her eyes. Abstractly Yuffie wonders why her bangs are so much longer than the rest of her close cropped dark hair. "Yeah?"
Yuffie smiles good naturedly. "Class is over! Let's goo before the satan spawns decide that we like them. She blinks as Juri quickly exits out of a web page. "The Inferno?" She tries not to put too much stress on the word, but fails.
The smaller girl sticks the computer into her bag and stands up. "Yes." She turns and walks out of the door, leaving Yuffie wondering how someone wearing beat up jeans, beat up sneakers, a beat up long sleeved shirt, and a beaten up Pi shirt could seem so swishy. She shakes her head and follows, too intent on trying to find someone familiar to follow around when she knocks into something hard.
She goes down with an appropriate sounding thud, well, two thuds. Could one body thud twice? Her nose hurt, and her eyes were all teary. Crivens. She looks up, and three very tall people loom over her, and one sits across from her, giving the small ninja a distinctly evil look. "Sorry?"
The person bounces back to his or her feet, shaking long ringlets of silvery and purple hair behind well toned shoulders and displaying a silver edged purple vest that reveals pectorals that just had to have been a result of careful magical enhancement or plastic surgery. "Watch where you're going, bitch."
Yuffie blinks in reply, not really in the mood to think of a comeback that could make this older boy's head spin. She chooses the only reasonable way out that she can, dignity be damned, and scrambles around, tugging her few papers up, though one, lodged under a heavy black boot, refuses to budge despite her persuasive tugs. She looks up, neck beginning to crick as she bends it farther back than even she had thought possible. And coming from a girl who could slide into a full split after being awake for about thirty seconds, that was saying quite a lot. "Uh… do you mind please?" She pokes the boot once or twice.
The man looks down at her, "not at all." He shoves a rather wiry lock of blond hair out of his eyes, revealing a mostly healed scar stretching from over his right eye to under his left one. Dangerous looking man.
Yuffie gives the man her most disdainful look, which is hard to do considering she doesn't even come up to his shoulder. "Well, bye then." She turns and almost collides with an even bigger brown man. "'Scuse me."
The man steps to the side politely, with a nod before the man with curly silver hair raps out, "hold her, Rajin." And a hand roughly the side and weight of a brick slams onto her shoulder, sending tingles down to her fingertips. Ow.
The blond man raises an eyebrow at the silvery haired one. "Watch it, Kuja." He snaps, but there's a glitter in his bright eyes, amusement stepping on the toes of anger and malice with all the care of a sergeant.
A girl steps out from behind the blond man, shooting an indiscriminate glare at all three males. "LATE. RAGE." As though agreeing with her, the bell signaling the start of the next set of classes rings, and she kicks the brown man in the shins and drags him via his ear into the English room.
The curly haired man, Kuja keeps his eyes on Yuffie's face for a moment longer than would be considered decent. "I'll remember you." He follows the duo into the classroom, leaving a rather cheesed off Yuffie and the blond man standing alone.
Yuffie places her hands on the hips of her khaki shorts. "Give me my notebook back, please."
The blond man smirks and picks it up, dusting the dusty brown boot marks off the dark green cover and begins handing it to her, whisking it out of sight as soon as her hand brushes the plastic cover and offers her a sardonic grin. "How about… not." He winks at her and saunters into his classroom leaving a rather fuming Yuffie behind.
000
Aerith smiles at the two younger girls sitting across from her in the chaotic cafeteria, sitting down with a tray in front of her. "I'm really, really sorry about this morning." She sprinkles some balsamic vinegar over her lettuce and almond salad. "So how was the class? Did you like the teachers?"
Juri spears a slice of pineapple and studies it critically before popping it into her mouth and chewing slowly, letting Yuffie take the brunt of the brunette's third degree questioning. "Eh." She pushes her nearly empty tray away and pulls her laptop out, and proceeds to ignore everyone else.
Yuffie rolls her eyes at such typical Juri behavior. She personally knew clams that were more relaxed than the computer oriented girl. "It wasn't that bad. Miss Belle's having us read the Scarlet Letter, so it could be better."
Aerith's sunny smile fades infinitesimally. "Oh, why do you say that, Yuffie? The Scarlet Letter is really an amazing book, once you get past the introduction." She takes a sip of water, trying to ignore the empty liter bottle of soda beside the typist. That much soft drink wasn't healthy. A bell rings out a perky melody, signaling the end of the lunch, and the trio takes their trays up to the metal counter, Aerith waving at a tanned blond boy. "Hello Tidus, detention already?"
The boy flushes under a hairnet, and he waggles a scrub brush at the pink clad girl. "You know me too well. I'll have to reform." He snorts and gives Yuffie and Juri a small wave, before turning his sink off and disappearing momentarily. He pops back into view behind a counter later, shaking bleached blond shaggy hair out of the hair net. "So, what've you got next, ladies?" He wraps an arm around Aerith's shoulder.
She grins in return and ducks out from under him. "Behave or I'll tell Cloud."
Tidus makes an ultra-feminine swishing gesture with his hand. "Heaven forbid I try and chat up my cousin's girlfriend. My morals must be slipping." He grins. "Well, I have to be going, my sweet. People do, things to see, a certain mage's cleavage to stare at…" He winks again, and turns to go.
Aerith raises an eyebrow at him. "Don't let Yuna catch you. And take Juri with you." She gives the mentally AWOL teenager towards him. "She has magic. Make sure she gets there, please." Somehow the statement should have not sounded quite so threatening from such a sweet girl.
"Yes ma'am!" Tidus snaps out a highly satirized salute, and seizes a rather perplexed Juri's arm and drags her off to parts unknown.
The two stop suddenly, Juri making a rather sudden contact with Tidus' broad back. She skids back, trying to protect her messenger bag containing her laptop from any imminent danger. She growls something that could have been either "fuck" of "eh".
Tidus whirls around, resting rather heavy hands on her arms. "The Magic classroom is the red door right across from you. There's something I have to take care of for a sec. G'bye." He sprints off, leaving Juri idly wondering what the hell was with the tour guides and their inability to complete an errand, especially one ordered by someone as emphatic as Aerith. She shrugs if off. Not really her problem. Especially if she was actually where she is supposed to be. She shrugs it off and walks to the door pointed out to her. She tries the doorknob, a rather glittery device that contrasts oddly with the red wood. It's locked. Damn. She slumps down, resting her back against the wood and waits. She'd have to hit something if this turns out to be some sort of elaborate prank. She wouldn't put anything past the people here. Some of them probably mugged little old ladies for the fun of it. Either that or they engaged in kinky animal sex during their times off. People are really freaking weird.
A child in a blue coat bumbles down the hallway, walking as though he was used to having feet stuck in front of him and being pushed down on a fairly regular basis. A pointy yellow hat perches on his head, shielding his face from Juri's view. He hums to himself off key, and fishes a key out of his pocket, fitting it into the door and jiggling it around until something clicks. He starts as Juri rolls to her feet, still clutching her messenger bag protectively. "Hi?" His voice is deeper than she had anticipated, the voice of a teenager, not the mousey squeaks of a child, even if he looks like he would be considered lucky to be able to top four feet as an adult, hat included.
She smiles nervously, trying to blow her bangs out of her eyes. Stupid hair, she really should invest in a hair tie or barettes. "Uh… is this Magic?"
The smaller person nods, rather the tip of his hat nods back and forth. "Yep, magic for those with no ability, no skill, or can not follow the rules for using it. Also known as Magic for Imbeciles." Wow. Bitter much?
"Which category do you belong in then, or do you teach the class?"
The boy shakes his head. "None. Magic is really all I can do. So I try to take as many classes as I can." He sighs. "You get tired of having your failures rubbed in your face day and night." A painfully sardonic laugh. "Oh, I'm Vivi." He pushes the door open and ushers her in gently.
Juri smiles sadly. Wow this kid really got shit on. "Juri." She crosses the room and selects a seat in the back of the two rows of desks. Apparently this room didn't see much use. Compared to the other places she had seen, this place was smaller than some of the broom closets. She watches the boy, who begins wandering around the room, and pulls out of laptop, clicking open her music program and pulling headphones over her ears, before pulling up a game of Freecell. This was nice and peaceful.
The peace doesn't last. Of course the peace doesn't last. She hasn't even been at this school for a full twenty-four hours and she could already tell that this place was bursting with future terrorists and mental patients. She supposes that she should be thankful that the disturbance is only a couple of boys slamming into her desk. Black eyes sparking, she looks up, clicking programs closed and shutting the computer down in case she has to bust out her can of Ass Whupping, as her brother had called it once.
Tidus looks up at the girl Aerith had entrusted him with from where he was sprawled on the floor along with his two other cronies in this class. "Glad to see that you made it without me." He drawls, flipping his body off the floor and into a standing position in one smooth motion. The blond man turns to glare rather vindictively at the tormenters of his friends, and himself. "What the fuck was that for, Seifer?"
The same blond man who had taken Yuffie's notebook smirks down at the shorter man, each blong flanked by his group of friends. "Felt like it, Barbie." He smirks as Tidus' fists curl. "The hairnet looked absolutely smashing, by the by. I'm sure Yuna would love to see you in an apron. She seems like she'd go for that sort of fetish wear." He flicks an imaginary piece of dust off his pristine white trench coat. "So does she?"
Tidus turns a very purple color, which clashes horribly with white blond hair, before a tall man built like a wall puts his hand on the blond's shoulder. "Let it go, ya? Not point lowering yourself to that ass' level just sothat he can beat you up with his experience."
A blond, probably only a little taller than Juri herself steps next to him, putting a hand on his fist. "Yeah man. Don't let the bastard get to you. He's just an asshole and all that."
Seifer grins. "Aw, look at all the male bondage. Say Tidus, are you and Chickenwuss always this touchy-feely, or is it just when your girlfriend's not around?"
Both Tidus and Zell stare at each other, before jumping back a foot, much to the amusement of everyone watching. "You are a sick bastard, Almasy." Tidus announces, before wandering off to write grafitti on any particular surface that catches his eye.
Seifer grins at the mens obvious discomfort and tugs a piece of notebook paper out of a green notebook; Juri raising an eyebrow at the name Yuffie Kisaragi doodled on the front. Somehow the blond man didn't look like the dark haired Yuffie to whom the notebook belonged. He tosses the notebook onto a desk and tapes the raggedy paper onto the blackboard, standing back with a satisfied air. A silver haired woman with an eye patch stands beside him, and raises an eyebrow. "BITTER."
A black man joins the two. "Say, that looks like Miss Quistis, ya know?"
The smaller woman kicks his shins ferociously. "RAGE."
The man jumps back, but can't completely avoid the blow, though it doesn't seem to faze him very much. "Aw Fuj, what was that for?"
"STUPID."
Juri wanders up, leaving her computer at her desk, hoping that the farther away from the loonies it was, the safer it would be. She raises an eyebrow at the crude pencil sketch of two women with comically large breasts making love on a desk with an apple on it. Pen had given one woman a black bun with several long braids, and a yellow colored pencil had made the other woman a blond. She shakes her head with disgust at the all American past time of watching girl on girl action.
Walking past, she snags Yuffie's notebook from the man's desk, sticking it into her bag. If the notebook was really the only sort of school supply that Yuffie had brought, she could give it back and tell herself that she had finished with her one good deed for the year thing.
The blond man had seen her though, and he looms over her, green eyes sparking. "What are you doing with my notebook, kid?"
Juri takes a deep breath. She hates confrontations. "I didn't realize your name was Yuffie Kisaragi." She retorts, much to the amusement of just about everyone in the room.
The blond man looks like he's about to say something nasty in return, when the big brown man cuts him off with a grin. "Hey, isn't that the chick that knocked Kuja over?" He laughs a rumbling sound, like a mountain being moved.
The silver haired woman nods. "FUNNY."
Seifer grins, "fucking slut got what he deserved."
Rajin grins and stage whispers to his silver haired friend, "he thinks Yuffie's cute, ya know?"
"RAJIN. BUSIBODY." Kick.
Seifer scowls at his friends, and feels a burning urge to hit something. Preferably something small, clumsy, and not evil. Only one person in the room that fitted that description. He stalks over to the tiny Vivi in a pointy hat who is looking on, amusement flickering in his eyes. "You think this is funny, short shit?"
Vivi looks up, wide yellow eyes going wider. It's not that he is scared of the taller and stronger man, well, he is, but that's really not the point. But really, when your enemy can smell a lie on you, how do your dig yourself out of your own grave? He shrinks away, trying to blend into a poster of all the different types of magic and their various uses. This fails, due to there being very little blue in the poster. Stupid coat. Well, he's in for a beating now.
Juri can see the punch let loose, but she's still halfway across the room, though practically folding time to get there, when a black blur scoots around her and aims a punch at the blur that was Seifer's fist. Holy mother on crackers. She didn't think anyone could move that fast without breaking the sound barrier.
The punch that Seifer had thrown veers slightly off course, clipping the brim of Vivi's hat instead of actually making contact with chibi black mage flesh. Bugger. He looks up, murder, or at the very least maiming and arson in his green eyes to meet disgustingly relaxed blue ones. "What the fuck are you doing, Prepubes?" He snarls, Fujin and Rajin materializing behind him to support their leader in the fight, should he need them.
Squall doesn't back down, only offers the smaller boy a hand up, and pushes him out of the line of fire. "Leave him alone."
"Or what?" The older, taller, and generally stronger man taunts, "you'll tell Ansem on me?" He turns to anyone watching the drama. "I'm absolutely terrified."
"So you should be." A voice like a block of liquid nitrogen in the middle of Midwinter cuts through the impending fight. Necks in the room instantly whip to the direction of that voice, and Juri gets the impression of black leather and black hair before crimson eyes pin everyone still. "Welcome to Magic, Basic. My name is Lulu. Now go to your seats." She points, and nametags seem to flutter down from the ceiling, landing neatly on desks.
Juri picks her bag up, and moves it several seats down to the middle of the back row, the redhead with hair resembling a cone of soft ice cream sitting down on her left, the Tidus setting his frame to her right. Lovely. She may as well be drowning in a sea of testosterone. Well, either that or steroids. Both men look like they could bench press a bus without breaking into a sweat. Most of the others, the 'trouble makers' sit in front, a back covered with a white coat almost entirely obliterating her view of the chalk board.
Lulu begins lecturing about magic, and she honestly does try to listen to the instructor, but ever so often Tidus flicks a staple off a rubber band, sending it whizzing into Seifer's ear. The first several times his aim is off, but the 'wasps' get closer and closer until one finally hits it's mark in the soft flesh of the man's ear.
The effect was immediate and deafening. Seifer, incidentally the man wearing the white trench coat, leaps to his feet with a roar that would send a bull running for it's life, scattering his chair and desk pell-mell. He whirls around in a froth of white canvas, hands reaching out and grabbing the two closest people to serve as his victims, one of which happen to be the innocent Juri, and the guilty Tidus, who still manages to look innocent, despite the truth being contrary.
"I am going to kill you two bastards right now." He smiles, and is about to knock the two of them together with the intent of causing a concussion if not outright brain damage, when he freezes. Literally. Frost gathers all over his clothes, and small drops of perspiration freeze into ice pebbles along his hairline. His lips blue, and suddenly he's the newest form of ice cube.
Of course, this does absolutely nothing for Juri, now held several inches off the ground by a chunk of ice, little splinters of frost trying to creep off the man and onto her clothes.
"That is a blizzard spell." Lulu informs the spectators, and strides over amid a series of clinks from her skirt of belts. With a sharp tug, Juri and Tidus are free from their captor, and scarlet eyes glare at the two of them. "I will not tolerate any sort of juvenile delinquency in my classroom." Her voice is honey laced with cyanide. "Magic is about knowing when to use power and when to refrain, and unless you learn this… you will have hell to pay in here." She smiles and twitches a finger at the frozen Seifer, ice melting immediately and soaking him through and through. "Sit down, Mr. Almasy and pay attention." She's about to resume her lesson when a big round jaguar head shoves the classroom door open, revealing a heavily tattooed feline quadruped, who stares around the room with annoyed eyes.
"Is there a problem, Miss Lulu?" The voice doesn't seem to come from the animal's mouth, but there's no doubt in anyone's mind that he spoke it.
Lulu smiles at the head of the college's security. "None what so ever, Nanaki."
If Nanaki had eyebrows, he would have raised one at the buxom professor. "But there was magic usage, Lulu."
Lulu does raise an eyebrow in response. "Disipline, Nanaki. Thank you for checking in." She watches the big cat walk out, his flame tipped tail shutting the door behind him with a click.
The class continues without any more incidents, but you could have ladled the tension in the air over potatoes and used it as gravy. Lulu ignores the pornographic drawing of herself, writing the homework assignment in elegant script over it, and tears it neatly off the chalkboard, dropping it unhurt onto Seifer's desk. "I hope you enjoy jerking off to that, Mr. Almasy, because it will be a cold day in hell before Quistis Trepe gives you the time of day, much less anything else."
Juri hurries out of the classroom in time to see Tidus fleeing for his life with his friends, and she attempts to follow him, but ends up slammed into a wall by the very last person she wanted to see after overhearing Lulu's comments.
Seifer Almasy's breath is warm and vaguely toxic against her cheek, and he's looking down at her, as though she was an ant, who he was about to urinate on and drown. "Think you're funny, bitch?" He asks softly, shielding her tiny frame from anyone who might be passing by, namely Squall.
Juri doesn't answer, trying her damnest to catch Squall's attention, but fails rather miserably. "No." She replies, meeting his eyes, her own black ones flinty. "I just think you're stupid." Way to go Juri, master of stating facts that will kill her.
Seifer smirks, and slams her against the wall again, her head knocking back slightly. "Now is that any way to treat a possible friend?" He asks good naturedly, hands keeping the front of her shirt in an iron grip. "I can be a good friend, you know."
Juri doesn't scowl, fingers fumbling around in her pocket for a switchblade. Wait. What the hell was she thinking? Apparently, nothing, as her fist sails out, blade snapping free and scoring across Seifer's hand with the effectiveness of a Bite Bug. Shit.
Seifer stares at her, with less pain or shock, and more amusement than she would have preferred. "So the bug bites, does it?" He asks, managing to pin her in place with one hand, while watching a dribble of blood escape from his hand and disappear into the sleeve of his coat. "Catch you later, ugly." He drops her and walks away, humming to himself.
A shadow falls over her, and she looks into the big blue face of the security guard from English this morning. "Come with Khimari." The blue man growls, not giving her a chance to run, tugging her to her feet and dragging her to a nice room several floors of stairs away.
Juri is pushed into a chair, and the Khimari stares across a desk at her, mammoth blue hands folded in front of him. "Khimari want know why there is blood on your knife."
Juri shrugs, tossing her knife onto the desk without being asked. "Was defending myself."
The big cat man blinks slowly, picking the stained weapon up and sniffing it gently, nose trembling as his large brain analyzes and sorts information away for further perusal. "Seifer Almasy?"
"Yeah."
"Khimari no surprised." The man shrugs, and tosses the knife into a corner. "No more fights, or Khimari tell Ansem." He nods at the door, and Juri leaves will all due haste.
She's in a foul mood, to say the least, when Aerith finds her later, generally kicking walls and swearing softly to herself inside their dorm, having been able to negotiate the lock herself. Yuffie was with Kairi and Rikku, the trio quickly becoming inseparable friends, all eating far too much, talking far too fast, and generally having a grand old time, regardless of Aerith's presence. She had been intending to go to her room to grab an extra book for her next class, and had found Juri in her current state of anger.
"Something wong?"
"No." Mutter curse kick.
"It's alright, Juri. You can tell me."
"People are bastards." Curse, curse, kick, more curses.
Aerith smiles sympathetically. "It's alright, sweetie. I'm sure the homesickness will go away."
A disbelieving look. "Whatever." More kicking, but the cursing is softer.
A girlish laugh. "Lets go get you something to sweeten that temper of yours."
"Patronizing bitch."
"Absolutely."
The two girls walk out of the room, one privately amused for all the wrong reasons, the other absolutely livid at a certain gunblade wielding brunet. Fucking bastard.
000
Shit that was long. Sorry if it was too long/fast/whatever. I swear that the outline was only two pages, and I couldn't really cut it off before this. I don't want to only write one class per chapter, if that was the case I'd never finish this thing. Thanks for your patience, and all my reviewers!