5. He Came To Fourth

"Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can warp judgment, its absence can diminish memory's truth." – Arthur Miller

Reno was in a sober, brooding mode for the rest of the week.

Before, Cloud could remember Reno acting this way only two previous times in his life. The first time was when he was 8 and Cloud was 5, and it was an incident involving Reno's pet ferret Bunker and the inattentive driver of a materia supply truck. Of course at the time, Cloud didn't feel at all sorry for his brother, partially because he hated him but mostly because he despised the ferret. He often found the wretched critter in his sheets at night scurrying all over his chest and legs apparently looking for the best place to rape him.

Anyway, little Reno had been sulking and pouting for a week, and the bitching finally ended when Reno saw the perpetrator's truck while shopping with his father in sector three. Cloud distinctly remembered his brother suddenly breaking away from his dad's grip and tearing through the street over to the truck, grabbing a rock from the ground and proceeding to break all the windows and mirrors. It was the first in Reno's many major acts of destruction.

Such fond memories, eh? Of course, the incident was a hell of a litigation headache for his parents, but they eventually settled out of court. And from then on was when Reno commenced his hobby of obliterating both physical objects and overbearing rules.

The second time Reno had allowed himself to succumb to real misery was when their father died. Cloud couldn't really recall his brother's demeanor at that time, since he himself was also mourning, but once he had overheard his mother talking to his aunt from Nibelheim about it. She said that Reno had run off for three days after his father died, finally turning up in the sector seven train station. He was standing in front of the fast-talking dick who ran the guessing card game, watching the man as his hands stealthily switch cards every which way. The con always asked him to pick a card, but Reno wouldn't answer. Finally, on the con's last shuffle, Reno picked a card.

The one hidden in the con's jacket pocket, which "coincidentally" turned out to be the right one.

The con told him to fuck off and to go home to mommy, and accordingly, Reno kicked the con's table right in his face. A cop eventually arrested the con, but not before Mrs. Strife had scrambled frantically into the train station, finding her poor boy wedged in a crowd of commuters, who were trying to restrain the con from getting at the 11 year-old.

That memory wasn't very fond for anyone.

But if Cloud had felt some unease for his brother on Friday night, any trace of that had dissipated in only a weekend. He was far from not being concerned about Reno's disposition, sure, but Cloud had early on developed that "urban desensitization," that certain rational way of thinking that most city dwellers adopted. When you lived in the slums, you were already screwed over; dwelling on insignificant things only gave Life license to give it to you in the ass.

At least the whole incident seemed insignificant, after a time. As far as Cloud could tell, nothing was seriously wrong with Reno. He still stayed out every night until o'dark thirty in the morning, but not with his friends. Apparently not with a "flicker-happy" lighter either, as evidenced by the lack of arson reports on the evening news. And sure, Reno was less talkative now, but it wasn't as if that wasn't welcome.

And then there was Tifa. Cloud hadn't seen her at all at the park on Friday. Maybe she was sick? No, she was perfectly fine during the day. She probably did go, but he just never bumped into her. …But it wasn't like it had been a huge concert. He should have seen her. Well, he was distracted with Reno and all…But that wasn't until the very end. And he remembered watching her favorite band play, Bumwipers or whatever they hell they called themselves. From his perch, she should have been able to see her in the mosh pit at that time. What if she had lied to him? …No, that's retarded; why would she lie about going to a concert? Maybe to her dad, but it wasn't as if he were her dad or anything…

Eventually, Cloud came to the realization that nothing had changed at all. It was just like before. When he wasn't wondering about Reno, he was thinking about Tifa. That's all he really ever did, sad as it was.

He supposed things would never change.

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While walking to the main building after third period on Monday, Cloud was unfortunate enough to become the victim in a round of "Battered Fish." It was a popular upperclassmen pastime Reno had started last year that involved a catapult, a batter-filled water balloon, and an unsuspecting Freshman. It was ten points for a hit, fifty if you hit the kid directly in the head, with an additional twenty if he was an uptight little shrimp. Our uptight shrimp ended up having to take a detour to the boys' room before fourth, the right side of his face half-smothered in tempura batter as he bitterly walked down the hall amidst the derisive chuckles and sneers of amused upperclassmen.

So Cloud ended up late to fourth period, muttering and cursing as he turned the corner and-

"Cloud!"

The voice came from right behind him. Tifa.

He stopped, but couldn't turn around. Out of embarrassment or fear or something, he just couldn't. But she came around to him instead, facing him. She was carrying her purse and a bathroom pass.

"Cloud, aren't you kind of late?" she asked. "The bell just rang."

"Er…yeah, I know," he stuttered, "I just, uh…"

Her eyes narrowed in a curious stare, and a sudden, irrational anxiety overcame Cloud. "What's that in your hair?"

Crap. His hand quickly shot out to his hair, but for some reason, he went for the left side of his head.

"No, it's on this side," Tifa told him, pulling off a stray piece of dried batter attached to one of his blonde spikes. "…Battered fish again?" Cloud couldn't really nod or respond, but she took the silence as a yes anyway. "You know, your brother can be such a jerk sometimes…"

"Oh no, that wasn't Reno," he said abruptly. "Uh…some juniors, I think."

She flicked the piece of batter away, nodding. "Don't you just hate freshmen hazing?"

Cloud smiled slightly. "Oh, yeah. Er…Can't wait till we're sophomores, eh?"

"Of course, next year'll be way funner! As long as we don't have to be dubbed 'fish' anymore." She glanced at her watch. "You know, I think you'd better get to class before-"

"-Wait!" He interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Uh…I didn't…I didn't see you at the Battle of the Bands on Friday."

Tifa smiled. "Oh, you went? Wasn't it great? I actually had to leave after an hour—I had my dad's PHS and he called to tell me to leave because my aunt was in the hospital. She had a bad case of pneumonia."

"Ohh." Cloud's earlier fears departed from his mind. "So…is she okay?"

"She's fine now. She's still in the hospital, but getting much better. Oh, but did you stay the entire time? I heard there was a big riot."

"Er, yeah…But we left before it got real bad."

"Wow, that's pretty lucky," she mused. "I heard someone died that night, but I'm not sure if it was part of the riot or not."

"I've really got to go," Cloud said hastily, before the image of the dead man could enter his head once again. "I'm late."

"Oh, sure Cloud, go ahead. See you later!"

He waved sort of fleetingly before hurrying off to class. As it turned out, he was ten minutes late, earning a stern glare and a tardy from Mrs. Brown. Everyone else was in pairs doing a worksheet on the play they had been reading, so Cloud took his seat in the back, taking out his book and starting on his work alone, as usual.

"Need a partner?" A feminine voice asked politely.

Even before looking up, Cloud guessed he knew who the speaker was: this nice chick that sat up in front, though as well liked as the girl was, Cloud couldn't quite place her name. He figured that she had probably seen him in the hall in all his fish battered glory, felt some pity, and decided to be nice to him for the moment. He really hated that. When people you barely even knew sympathized with you just because you were the poor quiet guy who sat in the back. They thought they knew you had problems at home, or you that you were shy and scared to talk or something. But hell, quiet was just the way he was in class.

Annoyed, he looked up, but instead he found someone else, someone he'd never seen before.

"Who're you?" Cloud asked sort of rudely.

"I believe I posed the first question," she answered with a grin. "Do you need a partner?"

"Uh…I work better alone, thanks."

"Well I don't," she said, taking a seat next to him. "So I guess you'll just have to take me as a partner then, right?"

Cloud couldn't believe what he was hearing. Mystified, he watched as the girl opened her book and peeked over at his answer sheet. "Well, I guess you haven't really had enough time to get started, huh?" She said, indicating his paper. "Well, I'll let you copy my answers for the first four."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Cloud said, staring at the girl with a confused look on his face. "Lemme rest first, alright? I just ran down here from the north hall, you know." He had actually been in the classroom for a good five minutes. And she probably didn't know, but still. Fortunately, the girl patiently conceded, turning to glance over her work. A bit disapproving, Cloud shook his head. "What the hell are you in a hurry for anyway?"

She shrugged. "Oh, no reason, really. It's my first day here, I guess I'm just sort of energized about it."

Energized. Cloud always identified that word as being synonymous with 'annoying.' He figured he knew what he was going to be in for this period. "Whatever. My name's Cloud, by the way."

"Aeris." Cloud snorted abruptly. It was barely audible, but she still noticed. "What's so funny?"

"What kind of a name is that?" He blurted out. But as soon as he said it, he regretted it. He didn't mean to be so bluntly rude. Really, Cloud was pulling a regular Reno right now. What the hell was going on with him?

He kicked himself, thinking that the girl would answer with something like 'that was my grandmother's name, ass! She died in a train wreck!' But instead she smiled shortly, leaned over to him, and said:

"It's the kind of name that anyone named 'Cloud' is in no position to question."

Cloud couldn't help but laugh at that. He laughed so loudly that he earned another glare from Mrs. Brown. Cloud accordingly stifled himself to a chuckle. But he found himself liking this girl—in a platonic way, of course. To Cloud, Tifa would always be much better looking. Though he had never really met any girls with a sense of humor like Aeris'.

"Touché, Aeris," Cloud said modestly. "That one was good."

"I thought so. But if necessary, there's more where that came from."

"Heh, I'll bet. So where'd you come from, then?"

Sensing that Mrs. Brown's glare was presently directed at her and Cloud, Aeris quickly looked back down at her work, as if in thought. Cloud instinctively followed suit. "I'm from sector five," she whispered. "I still live there actually, but this is the weird thing—they told me that I had to transfer over here because of overcrowding!"

Cloud gave her a look. "What the hell are they talking about? We're packed like sardines over here too."

"Yeah, that's exactly what my mom and I told them. But they still made me transfer, and in the middle of the semester, too. It's really strange, but they wouldn't give us a straight answer to any of our questions."

"That's messed up."

"I've just kind of accepted it, you know? After all, I get to meet new people. But my mom's actually still trying to fix it with the school district administrators—she doesn't like the idea of me walking through the streets more than I have to everyday. She's kind of over-protective sometimes."

Cloud let out a chuckle. "My mom's kind of like that. Except she's not that authoritative, because my brother pretty much does whatever he wants all the time." "Does your brother go here?"

"Yeah. His name's Reno, he's a senior. He's a big screw up, but he's pretty smart when he's not drunk or substance-high."

"So do you ever worry about him?"

This caught Cloud by surprise. He looked at Aeris curiously. "Uh…what?"

"You know, do you ever worry that he's being too self-destructive?" She posed the question carefully. "I don't mean to stereotype, I mean, I don't know your brother or anything, but a lot of druggies and drunks usually don't see much of a path before them. That's why they indulge so much."

The memory of Friday night passed through his mind briefly, but he answered with a short but blunt "I'm pretty certain he knows what he's doing." It came out sounding a bit rude, which told Aeris that she had crossed a line. She left it at that, and though he wanted to apologize, he didn't.

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"Why do you think that chick kicked me earlier?"

Reeve sighed with boredom as he rested his cheek on his fist. "Zack, you're getting way too hung up over this."

"But it doesn't make sense!"

"What's to make sense over? For the fiftieth time, Zack, you were an ass. You needed kicking."

"If I'm such an ass, why didn't you kick me?"

"Because I don't believe in getting physical. And when dealing with you, well, I've got verbal abuse for that."

Zack snorted. "Is that just a nice way of saying that you're too pussy to pick a fight with me?" He teased derisively.

A grin spread over Reeve's face. "No, it means that it's much easier to screw around with you when I make you use your brain to defend yourself."

Zack sat there, his mind mulling over the conflicting options of jumping the lunch table and strangling Reeve or just…coming up with a feeble comeback. Either way proved that Reeve was right. Frustrated with himself, Zack finally responded with an eye roll and a "fuck you," and then stormed off towards the snack bar.

"Hey Zack!" Reeve called back amusedly, "get me some chips, yeah?"

In reply, Zack flipped him the bird over his shoulder.

Reeve shrugged, turning away to find Cloud and Aeris walking towards his table (after fourth, Cloud invited her to lunch, despite their earlier awkward conversation).

"Hey, you seem to make friends with all the right people!" Reeve told Aeris as she approached.

"Or at least people I end up having to help out," she laughed, setting her lunch tray on the table.

"And I thought I was the new kid?" Reeve smirked. "Hey, I admit to being seriously horrible when it comes to Mrs. Alton's history class, but I am like, a genius at everything else."

"Like P.E.?" asked Cloud sardonically.

"…Shut up, I didn't mean that. Besides, you're not exactly Sephiroth Hojo either, so I wouldn't be talking."

Cloud flinched slightly at Sephiroth's name, as if bothered by the sound of it, but no one noticed. "Who's Sephiroth Hojo?" Aeris asked curiously.

"He's a junior, big man on campus," Reeve explained, stirring his goopy applesauce absentmindedly. "You're supposed to fall in love with him one of these days. Every other girl in this school has, and they swoon whenever Seph walks by."

"Wow. Tells you a lot about the girls here, huh? That's kind of sad. So then what happens if I don't fall for this guy?"

"You could always fall for Reeve!" Cloud said, laughing uncontrollably. Reeve didn't take much amusement in it, though. He was about to pull a Zack and give him the finger when Zack himself came back to the table with a plate of fries, looking bewildered.

"What…what's this?" He questioned.

Aeris looked up. "Oh, it's you again! Zack, right? I'm sorry about earlier."

Zack's face brightened. "Really?" he asked, his posture straightening.

"Yes. I admit that I overreacted, but you were being a real ass." Reeve flashed a grin at Zack, who made sure not to look back.

"Oh, well…I didn't mean it, of course." As he sat down across from her, Zack made sure to put on that charmer of a smile he was so fortunate to possess, and flaunted it unreservedly to Aeris. Reeve and Cloud exchanged looks. The boy was surely going into flirt mode, and with all possible speed. "I mean, how was I supposed to know that the new girl would be a rose such as yourself?" '

Good god,' Cloud thought, stifling a chuckle with all his energy. Reeve wasn't as strong: he had to 'accidentally' drop his fork and dive under the table in order to keep himself from howling at what a horndog Zack was being.

The worst part was that Aeris was actually falling for it. "Really?" she asked him, flattered. "You think that I'm a rose?"

"An absolute rose, babe," he told her, glancing at her hands. "A lone red beacon in an endless sea of green, standing tall in the wind with silky petals for hands and, and-"

"-Thorns to ward away losers like you?" she said abuptly.

"…What?" Aeris stood up, frowning disappointedly at Zack. "Let me guess, do you think it hurt when I fell from heaven? Or did you lose your number and now you want mine? Believe me, I've heard them all, Zack, and I used to be homeschooled! Get some new lines, and while you're at it, get a life!" She walked away still frowning with disgust, while Zack just sat there, once again bewildered.

Reeve was rolling around on the floor laughing to death, while Cloud patted Zack's back assuredly, though he himself was chuckling as well. "Er, heh heh…there there, Zack, it's alright, heh heh."

But Zack shook him away. "Fuck off," He muttered, and with fries in hand, he stomped off once again.

Something pulled at Cloud's pant cuff. He looked down to find Reeve, gasping for air.

"If I die right now," he told him, "make sure that Zack knows I've died happy."

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A/N:

1. Yes, I'm lazy. But I have writer's block too! …Hey, look on the bright side; it's summertime. I'll probably update sooner! YAY!

2. Aeris was homeschooled until the 8th grade, then her mom finally let her go to sector 5 high. Then of course, she was transferred to sector 6.

3. Hopefully, Zack-Reeve banter won't be restricted to "Zack attempts to tease Reeve, Reeve comes back with a witty comment, Zack gets served" in future chapters.

4. Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake)

5. I've re-uploaded the second chapter with a few edits and revisions, because honestly, the tone was kind of corny and lame. Now it's a little less corny, but not much has changed.

6. Aeris' witty little line is taken from the movie Igby Goes Down (Replace "Cloud" with "Sookie"). I might steal lines now and then, but most of the one-liners here I make up myself. Honestly!

7. "She Came From Five" - title of a La Femme Nikita episode. "He Came To Fourth" - variation on the title.

8. I don't want this to be the central element of the story, but yes, Cloud/Tifa, Zack/Aeris. But this is high school, mind you, and these kids aren't really experienced in dating yet. So what'll they do? They'll experiment… ; )

9. Okay, that's it. Review and tell me how I'm doing!

10. No, that's not it. This quick edit system sucks ass.