8. And just like the movies…

Fortunately, Zack didn't tell Reeve or Aeris about what happened that night—or at least not to Cloud's knowledge. If Zack really did tell them, then his friends were being extremely considerate in not bringing it up. Anyway, Cloud tried not to think about it so much. He had most of his attention focused on school—not on his studies, though. Tryouts for next year's football teams would be in a few weeks, and Cloud was hoping to be bumped up—not to JV, but straight to Varsity. Though he wasn't that tall yet, he still worked at improving his game, running laps at the school on weekends, making a few pathetic efforts at weight lifting, and forcing Zack to help him practice his tackle. But this was only whenever the guy wasn't busy working out his plan to woo Aeris—with the crucial daisy and glass of course. Cloud was pissed off to hell when he found out that Zack didn't give the damned plant to Aeris right away.

Speaking of Aeris, Cloud and Reeve decided to ask her if she would come with them to the basketball playoff on Friday. They told her about it as they were leaving Algebra, and at first, she looked as if she were being asked to go watch paint dry. But after Reeve's assurance that there would be "really kick ass hot dogs" being sold, she consented.

"I really don't see the point of basketball, though," she told them. "It's almost as bad as football."

Cloud looked fairly mortified. How dare she say such blasphemous things, especially while they were walking through a crowded hallway at school. Feeling a sort of responsibility in his position as the only athlete of the three, he took it upon himself to rebut Aeris. But just as he was about to launch into a passionate tirade, Reeve decided to cut in.

"Well, if you don't like it, why are you coming?" He asked her.

She let out a giggle. "Mostly to watch you two make asses of yourselves, I think."

"What?"

"Oh, you know. You gorging on hot dogs and Cloud gawking at that chick Tifa like a fat kid at a vending machine."

At that comment…well, you can guess what happened. Reeve doubled over in hysterics like a jackass while Cloud glared at Aeris, bewildered and looking more livid than before.

"Who told you that!" Cloud demanded. He glared over at Reeve. "Did you tell her!"

"What? No!" Reeve said, though the laughing didn't really help his case.

"Oh, come on," said Aeris matter-of-factly, "it's so obvious. You're horrible at being discreet."

"Man, but I love the fat kid comment! It's so true!"

"Reeve!"

"Thanks! I was either going to use that or creepy stalker."

"I am not a fat kid or a creepy stalker!" Cloud insisted furiously. No, dude, I'm serious, she's dead-on!" Reeve said excitedly. "You do this thing sometimes where you're sitting in class and you look all dazed-"

"-Yeah! And his mouth hangs open and he starts salivating-"

"-And then he starts licking his lips and goes to himself, 'Dayum, look at that ass! Now I would like to get me some of that fine piece of-'"

Before he could finish, Reeve found himself immediately shoved into a giggling Aeris, after which Cloud stormed off to his locker. The two exchanged glances of congratulations as they continued snickering.

"I think you went a little overboard," said Aeris, "but I admit, that was extremely funny."

"Well, you set it all up very nicely, Aeris. Good teamwork there. You wanna be my partner in crime? Help me mock the hell outta Zack and Cloud everyday?"

Aeris giggled. "But Reeve, then who would be there to mock you?"

As he stormed off, Cloud found someone standing by his locker as he approached. It was Reno.

Cloud never did like seeing his older brother at school, and the last place he ever wanted to meet him was his locker, which was only five spots away from Tifa's. But given Reno's recent behavior along with what happened the other night, Cloud was more surprised than embarrassed to see him waiting there.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked. His brother was wearing the slightest of grins on his face.

"Waiting for you, punk." Reno slammed his fist on Cloud's locker, Fonzie style, and it popped open, ready for use. Cloud smirked.

"Back to thinking you're a cool guy again?"

"Well, I suppose I'm at least cool enough for you to not shun me away out of embarrassment. Here's your lock, by the way." He dropped a small bulk of metal and springs into Cloud's hand. Before Cloud could ask, Reno answered, "payback for swiping those waffles off of my plate this morning."

Cloud stared. "And, how old are you again?"

"Not old enough to care, I can tell you that."

Cloud shook his head, ducking into his locker to retrieve his books. "Er…were you going to ask me about something, then?"

A few books slipped out, and surprisingly, Reno bent down to pick them up for his brother. "Actually, I'm waiting for Pete and Biggs."

"Why don't you meet at Pete's locker then?" He knew that Biggs didn't have one, for some outrageous reason or another.

"Because Pete, being the idiot that he is, keeps his shit in there. If I stand around there too long, I'll smell like a damn drug addict."

"You don't seem to have a problem with helping out drug addicts," Cloud muttered scornfully, stuffing a pile of papers back into his locker.

Reno looked over at his brother strangely, but then suddenly grinned, looking horribly amused. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry," he said sarcastically, though he didn't look in the least bit angry. "Were you thanking me for saving you and your buddy's sorry asses the other night? No? Well gracious, I must need to get my ears checked…"

"Fuck you," Cloud muttered, shutting his locker and turning away from his brother.

"Well that definitely didn't sound like 'thank you.'"

"So now you're officially back, huh?" Cloud asked coldly. "You're back doing your old jackass crap and everything's back to normal, fine, and wonderful, right?"

"You could say that, I guess."

"But this new crap you're pulling now is ridiculous, Reno. You think that dealers don't get caught?" Reno chuckled in response, looking smug and unconcerned. "Geez, this time you have really crossed the line."

Reno rolled his eyes. "You know, for me the line seems to keep moving forward, so I don't think I can ever really quite cross it."

"Reno…"

"Cloud, do you have any idea what I'm really doing?" He asked with a smirk. "Hm? I am doing something worthwhile man, something meaningful."

Cloud stared incredulously. "…Do you honestly expect me to dignify that with a response?"

With a chuckle, Reno said, as cryptic as ever, "Someday you will. Believe me. In fact, I think eventually you're gonna realize that I'm not as crazy as everyone will tell-"

He stopped abruptly as a passing shoulder collided with his. Cloud, noticing the interruption, turned to see Elena walking by. Despite her apparently hurried pace, a quick glimpse of her was enough to indicate that she looked pretty damn pissed off, hurt flooding her azure eyes. And from the dazed way Reno was glancing after her, Cloud had an idea of whom she was mad at.

"Fucking shit," Reno muttered as he turned away from Elena, severe annoyance apparent in his eyes.

"What's with her?" Cloud asked him. "You guys get in a fight?"

Reno dropped his look of surprise and resumed his cool composure immediately, taking care to shrug lazily in reply. "Eh…Who knows what's up her ass. Probably that time of month." Though Reno was always so good at keeping a poker face, he had such an obvious tell at the moment. Plus, Cloud had previously noticed that out of all of Reno's friends, Elena was apparently the one his brother made the least contact with since the Battle of the Bands.

"I gotta be goin anyway," Reno suddenly said. "It's getting late."

"What? Cloud asked, a bit startled. Since when was Reno ever concerned about a tardy? "Hey wait, weren't you gonna wait for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?"

He shook his head impatiently. "I'm sick of waiting for those stupid fucks. Especially if they're going to go screw around before giving me a straight answer." He made a lot of emphasis on that sentence before turning around and setting off for class, throwing a hand up in the air above him in a sort of passive goodbye. "Tell em that if you see em, they'll get the point."

What the 'point' was, Cloud obviously didn't get. He figured it might have to do with why Elena was so pissed off with Reno. He confirmed it once he saw the black eye and nosebleed Biggs and Pete were each respectively sporting as they passed by the football field after school, disappointment having been punched into their faces. It was evident Reno had made sure they had gotten the point.

"…And Seph Hojo catches the rebound, drives down the court…passes to Mallick…over to Hewson—oh, Littlefield nearly succeeded in blocking that one…back to Sephiroth…he shoots…and nails it! Sector Six High is now back in the lead, 23-20!"

A fervent home crowd jumped to its feet in excitement, a mighty roar of cheers and applause resounding through the gym. Cloud stood on the home bleachers as well, proudly yelling "Go Chimeras!" along with the rest. Beside him were Aeris, who wasn't as enthusiastic but still appeared to be having a good time, and Reeve, who was busy scarfing down his concession stand feast.

"A chimera's a weird school mascot," Aeris commented, as Cloud sat back down.

"It's not," Cloud said insistently, "chimeras are strong and intimidating. Like our team. So it fits."

"Like Sephiroth, you mean," said Reeve, in between bites. "He pretty much is the team, he's been scoring like two-thirds of our points. Bet his old man over there's happy." Cloud looked behind him over to where Reeve was pointing. There was a thin, pale man standing on the top row of bleachers, alone and watching the game without the slightest indication of enthusiasm in his countenance. As he watched his son continuously round the court and shoot baskets, he looked very vigilant and calculating, as if scrutinizing the boy carefully. He had a very creepy, intimidating air about him, one that made Cloud a little uneasy while watching the man.

"Well, I still don't like it," said Aeris, who hadn't really cared enough to look. "It doesn't fit Sephiroth or anyone on the team. Chimeras are too bizarre and off-the-wall."

"You should see the mascot at Upper Sector Six High," said Reeve. "They're the chocobos! Man, is that awesome or what? Why can't we be the chocobos?"

"Because none of us want to do the damn chicken dance whenever we get a victory," said Cloud, irritated that a conversation on mascots was interrupting his watching of the game.

"That's a hell of a lot better than watching the cheerleaders," said Aeris. "Although I imagine that sentiment only applies to two of us here, Cloud?"

Cloud smirked. "Haha, funny. You two going to hassle me about Tifa now?"

"No," said Reeve quickly, before Aeris could answer, "because I wanna know why Aeris is implying that I don't like cheerleaders? Because I do, you know." Reeve looked slightly irate.

"I didn't mean that you don't like cheerleaders, Reeve," said Aeris, laughing. "I was just trying to single out Cloud for staring at Tifa all the time."

"I stare at the cheerleaders all the time!" Reeve proclaimed defensively. "You know, maybe even more so that Cloud, sometimes…You guys probably just don't really see how much I…"

Cloud decided to cut in. "Dude, no one thinks you're gay, alright?"

Cloud said this rather loudly, and a chest-painted sophomore standing in the row right below them suddenly turned to stare at the three upon hearing the word "gay." In an attempt to get the guy to turn around, Reeve grinned awkwardly at him. This was apparently wrong though, because it prompted the guy to quickly scoot down to the row below him. Aeris starting laughing, causing Reeve to go red.

"Uh, thanks for clarifying, Cloud," Reeve muttered to his friend.

"No problem," said Cloud, attempting to hide snickers. Eventually, he decided to go down for a soda. It was only going to be the end of the second quarter, and he figured that leaving Aeris to tease Reeve about his sexuality would do wonders in damaging Reeve's comedic superiority complex over everyone.

The line at the concession stand, as it turned out, extended all the way to the restrooms, and when Cloud got in, he happened to be standing right next to the women's room. Wonderful, he thought. Now I look like a perv or something.

And, unfortunately, Cloud ended up looking like a perv to the one and only Tifa, because she walked out of the restroom and bumped right into him seconds after he had stepped in line. Cloud's face instantly flushed a cherry red as he apologized profusely for getting in the way.

"Oh my god," he started anxiously, "Tifa, I am so so sorry…"

"No, it's alright," she answered, looking over at him. "Oh, hey Cloud!"

"Uh, hey," he replied uncomfortably, scratching his head.

Wow, what a conversationalist I am.

"Great game, huh?" She asked, stepping in line next to him.

"Er…stupendous," he blurted out.

…The fuck? Did I just use the word 'stupendous' to describe a high school basketball game?

Tifa chuckled. "Did you just say 'stupendous.?''

At least we think alike. Sort of.

"Yeah…"

I should probably cut it out with the one-word answers, though. At least I'm not blabbering…

"You dork!" she teased. "You trying to be all cool by showing off your vocabulary?"

"Of course not," he started. "I'm just…trying to expand my everyday language. I'm being innovative. I'm…exploring new words…"

'Exploring?' Cloud, what are you doing…?

But much to his dismay, he continued on. "…Er, I mean, I'm not trying to be like a nerd, though, or like how Mr. Liebowitz always throws in random big words into his lectures…"

Good lord, stop, now! Shut the hell up, you idiot! Oh god, oh god…Where's the emergency shut-off switch in this damn kid's brain!

"-Like a jackass or something," Cloud found himself saying, "I mean, he acts like a total know-it-all or a pompatus or something."

…Okay, what the hell is a 'pompatus?'

Tifa was staring at him now, with a strange smile that was half-courteous and half "what on earth are you going on about?" But, luckily for Cloud, she decided to disregard this strange dialogue and get on a new topic. She looked back towards the gym.

"Wow, nice shot," she said, watching as Sephiroth sank another one.

"Yeah," Cloud commented. "He's pretty damn good."

The announcer's voice came in over the loudspeaker again. "And Seph Hojo's made another one, widening the gap between the Sector Six Chimeras and the Sector Four Tigers to twelve points!"

"Cloud don't you play basketball?" Tifa inquired, as the team made another trip down the court.

"Uh, no, just football, actually…I do plan on joining next season, though."

"That's a good idea," she said encouragingly. "I hear the practices aren't so bad…and the basketball guys are really funny; you'll like them. And then you'll see me cheering at your games next year, huh?"

"I suppose so," Cloud answered, internally pleased at the thought. "Uh, speaking of cheering, don't you have to-"

"Go back out there? Oh no, Varsity is up right now. We don't come back on until after halftime."

"Ohh."

"It's really fun," she continued, "because then I'll usually meet up with friends and start chatting, you know? Like what I'm doing with you right now."

Cloud's eyes widened. He had to look the other way so that Tifa wouldn't notice. Did she just say that? She actually considers me a friend? His pathetic feelings of boyhood loser-ness from earlier were starting to subside into…pathetic feelings of puppy love elation. Eh, it was a decent change. He was obviously very pleased. They watched the game silently for a while, with only 8.6 seconds left in the second quarter.

The Tigers presently had a hold of the ball, and had been carrying it for the past few seconds. But this was quickly fixed in the Chimeras' favor. The cheering of the crowd crescendoed to a peak as the ball was passed to the ever-dependable Sephiroth. The seconds ticked by as he furiously drove down the court to his goal. At four seconds, he was stopped by a guard. From there, everything proceeded in slow motion…at three, he pivoted away to the left…at two, he made the jump, was about to shoot—

BANG BANG!

With that, shots of a different shot hit, resounding through the gym and instantly silencing the stunned crowd.

The slow motion seemed to continue on, but this time, the effect was more surreal. It was dreamlike. Two bullets had struck Sephiroth, one in the arm and one in the stomach. The young basketball star dropped to the gym floor, his ball bouncing away from his bleeding form. That was when the screaming ensued: cheers of "Chimeras!" had instantly amended into cries of frenzied panic, and both crowds dispersed in a flurry of chaos. School security guards had started whistling and shouting orders to the panicked fans, attempting to instill some kind of order.

Cloud watched the surreal scene with an enchanted numbness, staring in bewilderment at the movie-like scene: there was the pained Sephiroth panting and bleeding on the floor as several adults, including his suddenly animated father, came up and started trying to help him. Furious, Dr. Hojo cleared out most of the others, attempting to help out his son himself. But he was restrained, and the school nurse was allowed to work on Seph until the paramedics arrived.

Next to Cloud, Tifa was in shock, her mouth half open in distressed horror. "Oh my god…" she whispered. Cloud couldn't say anything to her, and continued to watch the scene with helpless dread. Soon they were encountered by the terrified crowd, and were caught in with the current of people making for the exits.

Outside a cacophony of screams and approaching sirens mixed into the soundtrack of almost riotous fans scrambling out of the gym. The crowd was packed so tightly that Cloud hadn't really moved far from Tifa, and he broke out of his trance long enough to start looking around to see if Reeve and Aeris had gotten out. But in his scan of the crowd, he caught a glimpse of someone looking very suspect: it appeared to be a lean masked man emerging from the back of the building—from an exit no one had used.

He wasn't quite sure what came over him. It was some kind of intuition that worked in his head, an instinctive action. Once he saw it, he suddenly found himself going after the figure, prying through the crowd in his pursuit. Tifa yelled at Cloud, but he couldn't hear; he was too engrossed in the chase. He felt fearfully curious about this man; an almost predictive feeling of dread drove him to pursue the stranger. Once he was off of the school grounds he broke into a run down the street, keeping his mark in sight as the man rounded a corner and entered an abandoned building.

Cloud ran in, entering just as the guy had scrambled up the staircase to the second floor. He followed him doggedly all the way up to the fourth floor, where he found a door leading to the roof. Panting and scared, Cloud opened it, walking out to find the man standing on the ledge. He had removed his ski mask. Cloud could see him more closely now, and his worst fears were confirmed.

"Reno!" he yelled at him, a wave of anxious fear passing over him. His brother turned around.

Clad in all black, and holding a gun in one hand, Reno stared back at his younger brother with seriousness in his eyes. There was a clear anxiety marked in Reno's face, a look of genuine fear for something he had done.

"Reno," Cloud said, his stomach twisting, "what…what did you…"

"I'm sorry, Cloud," said Reno simply, as he turned around to face the traffic below again. "I've made a horrible mistake."

"Reno, why? Why Sephiroth, why did you do it?"

"No!" he yelled. "You don't see, I mean…this wasn't the fucking way it was supposed to fucking be!" Reno reached into his jacket pocket, and, fingers trembling, he took out a cigarette, stuck it in his mouth, and lit it, puffing on it nervously. "I didn't mean to shoot him, goddamn it!"

"Reno…" Cloud started, growing more scared for his brother by the second. "Reno, what are you doing with yourself? First the drugs, now this? I don't-"

"-Jesus, Cloud!" Reno interrupted. "You still think that I'm a drug dealer? Holy shit…" He took a drag of his cigarette, and before Cloud could ask what he was talking about, he spoke again. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter now. I…I need to get going, Cloud."

"Reno, don't!" Cloud implored desperately, scared to approach him. "Don't jump! Get down, please, don't kill yourself!"

"Good god, that's not what I'm doing!" Reno yelled angrily, turning to face Cloud again. "Cloud, just…just trust me, I know what I'm doing, now I have to fucking go!"

"But what about Mom?" Cloud pleaded, coming closer to his brother. "What about me? Reno, you can't do this!"

Noticing Cloud's approach, Reno jumped back onto the roof and halted in front of him. "Stop," he ordered, holding his brother back by the shoulders.

"Reno, please…"

"You trust me, don't you?"

Distraught, Cloud didn't answer. "Please man, please, don't do this-"

Out of nowhere, Reno punched Cloud right in the jaw, knocking him down to the floor. Cloud stared back at his brother, dazed. "Answer me!" Reno yelled at him. "Do you trust me?"

"I…"

"Yes or no, Cloud?"

"Yes!" Cloud said finally. "I trust you, Reno!"

"Then let me do this!" Reno shouted, walking away and stepping back onto the ledge. "I've done something wrong, and now I have to fix it. You have to have some faith in me, Cloud, it's the truth."

He looked back over the edge, no longer watching the traffic below with uneasy fear. He had resolve written in his face; he was absolutely determined to carry out his next course of action. He turned to face his younger brother once again. "This is going to be good-bye, Cloud, at least for a while. I hope you and mom can get along without me. Watch over her, alright?" He paused, and then added, "And for god's sake, Cloud, make sure you grow a fucking backbone before the next time I see you, okay?" Reno made one last check of the street below, and looked over once again at his very confused brother. "See ya around, Cloud."

And with that, Reno's heels elevated off of the ledge, and he allowed himself to fall off, dropping out of sight.

"RENO!"

Cloud hurried to the ledge, looking over for any sight of his brother. And he found him. Reno had dove right into a dump truck, and had made a safe landing. He didn't dare look back up at Cloud. Cloud watched as the truck sped up the road, staring at Reno as he and the truck disappeared into the city.

He was gone.

Late updates again, what else is new? Anyway…yes. Very interesting turn of events, no? You'll see what's next… Oh, and title refers to the Alien Ant Farm song, "Movies."