AN: Here's chapter three, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Chapter 4

Starting

About an hour drive later, Yuffie and Keiji arrived at Midgar High. They recieved a brief direction pointers after meeting with the principle teacher for their timetable and arrangements. They were then guided to their first class by a secretary.

"Keeeeeeeeeiji..." Yuffie whispered.

"What?" Keiji glanced briefly at her but continued to survey the interior of the buiding and memorize corridors and rooms.

Before she could say anything, the secretary had knock on a door which had a plate that says 'F2 - 7' and motioned them to go in. As they entered she gave them a reassuring smile and closed the door behind them. All heads snapped up from their work and stared curiously in their direction and soon the silence broke in to furious hushed chatters. Yuffie shifted back nervously and bumped onto Keiji who nudged her forward. The teacher was Wutaian, he had onyx eyes and long black hair which was combed back, and wore a navy blue suit. He beckoned them closer but not before raising an eyebrow at Yuffie's short hair and choice of clothing who in turn, grinned a little, slightly less nervous.

"Hello, I'm Tseng, here you will address me as either Mr Tseng or sir." Yuffie and Keiji nodded. "It's an honour to meet you, your highness." he added in a very hushed whisper as he bowed his head barely noticeable, Yuffie gave a small smile. He turned his attention back to his class and raised his hand, sliencing the chatters.

"This year, we have have two new transferred students, they are Yuffie-" he gestured to towards her, "and Keiji Hayashi." then to Keiji. They both bowed in unison.

"They've just moved here from Wutai, so if they have any problems, do help them. Any questions for our new students?"

A few hands shot up into the air.

"Elena." he nodded to the blonde hair girl at the middle of the room. She blushed slightly at the prospect of her crush picking her first.

"Are you sure you two are brothers? You look nothing alike, especially the height difference." she frowned at them, Yuffie just barely came up to the tip of Keiji chin.

"Yuffie's-" just as Kei began to condradict her assumption on their relation and Yuffie's gender, Yuffie cut in-

"Twins don't always look the same. I'm short, so what?" she ignored Keiji questioning look and shrugged at Tseng's raised eyebrow. "Next question?" she called out cheerfully.

"Are you single?" a short haired brunette giggled and quite a few other girls leaned forward. Keiji snorted, snickering inwardly as he could feel the heiress's unease beside him.

'What the-! Oh shit, shit, shit!'

"W-well, emmm." Yuffie stuttered for a reply.

'Levianthan help!'

"Awwww you stuttered! How cute!" another girl giggled.

'Wait a minute, shouldn't they be saying this kind of stuff to Keiji instead of me!'

"That's enough questions, turn to page 49 of your text book." relieved, Yuffie turned to her saviour and smiled in gratitude at him. He in return nodded and handed her and Keiji a text book each.

"There's an empty seat beside Cloud and another beside Tifa." he indicated to a spiky blonde hair guy and a long black haired girl.

Yuffie glared at Keiji as he smirked at her and made his way towards 'Spikes' as Yuffie dubbed him at first glance. Meanwhile, she slowly went to the brunette called Tifa. As she passed the girl who questioned her marital status, the girl sighed dreamily at her. Yuffie cringed on the inside, and crossed her fingers and prayed to Levianthan that her desk buddy won't act like that too.

Her prayer was answered as Tifa smiled warmly- not dreamily- at her.

'Thank you Levianthan!'

"My name is Tifa Lockheart, please to meet you." Tifa greeted as Yuffie sat down next to her.

"Ditto, Miss Lockheart." Tifa blinked.

"You can just call me Tifa." Yuffie smiled at her, feeling much more comfortable around her.

"Okay."

During the next half an hour, Tifa and Yuffie chatted happily, with Tifa filling her in about what they have been learning in this class to gossiping about each student in the class. Occasionally, Yuffie checked on how Kei was faring. He too, seemed to be gathering infromation from Spikes. The bell rang, the class ended too soon for Yuffie who had enjoyed her conversation with Tifa. It was refreshing to have someone new to talk to. Gosssiping was funner than she had expected.

'It is quite interesting, and it could be very useful too.' Yuffie grinned.

As both of them left the classroom, they found Kei and Spikes waiting just outside.

"Hey Yufs!" meanwhile, Tifa and Spikes gave short greetings to each other.

"Hey yourself! Anyway, Kei, this is Tifa Lockheart. Tifa, this is Kei." Yuffie introduced.

"Hi. Please to meet you." Tifa greeted.

"Likewise!" he gave her a lopsided smile.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to introduce me to your new friend?" Yuffie questioned.

"Right, this Cloud Strife, and Cloud, this Yuffie which you already know from earlier." Cloud nodded to Yuffie who smiled at him.

"Anyway, let's go. Or else we'll be late for class." Tifa advised.

"I've got maths, so it'll be down the stairs." Keiji looked at his timetable.

"Whaa? But I got Biology. I thought we had the same timetable!" Yuffie frowned as snatched his timetable and compared it with hers.

"I'm in that maths class too." Tifa easily looked over Yuffie's shoulder as she was a good two inch taller than the petite Wutaian. "Apart from Wutaian Literature, I only have Physcial Education with you, Yuffie."

"That's it!" Yuffie slumped her shoulders in disappointment. "And Kei? We only have a three classes together." at this Keiji's brow knitted together in confusion.

'That can't be right. We specifically requested to have all our classes together.'

"I'll check about that later."

"We really should get going." Tifa checked her watch.

"But I don't know where my class is!" Yuffie panicked.

"Do you have Biology with Professor Hojo?" Cloud asked.

"Em...wait. Yeh, why?"

"That's great!" Tifa beamed. "Cloud have him next too!" at this, Yuffie's face lit up.

"Really!" she sighed in relief.

"Everything sorted, let's get to class now." Keiji urged, with that the four split into twos, heading opposite directions.

"You shouldn't be so eager about the next class, Yuffie." Cloud warned as they went up the stairs quickly.

"Why not? You'll be there Spikes, it wouldn't be so bad!" she grinned at him.

"Spikes?" he was surprised how fast Yuffie got acquainted with him.

"Er...well your hair is all spiky and stuff, so that was the first word came to mind when I first saw you." Yuffie glanced quickly at him, "You don't mind right?"

"It's fine."

They rushed into the classroom just as the bell rang. In classroom, Yuffie's gaze immediately settled on the teacher who was sitting at his own desk, typing busily into the computer. Cloud gave Yuffie a reassuring and sympathetic pat on the shoulder before leaving her at the front of the class and went to his usual seat. Yuffie fidgeted the hem of her shirt as she waited for Professor Hojo's attention.

"Yes? What is it boy?" Yuffie shuddered at the sound of his voice. It made her skin crawl and the immediate distaste she felt did not help either. Disgust soon turned to annoyance at the tone he spoke with.

'He sounds so pa-patroning? No, pa-patronizing? Yeh, that's the word! Patorinizing!' Yuffie fumed.

"I just transfered today."

Hojo turned away from the screen and looked at her.

"Ah yes, the principle did vaguely blab something about new students." he stood up from his seat and walked over to her, examining her. "What's your name boy?"

"Yuffie," she answered. Goosebumps spread throughout her body as he continued to scrutinize her like some lab rat.

"Now, now, Hojo. You're scaring the poor child." A man in his forties entered snapping Hojo out of his thoughts.

"Get to an empty seat, boy!" Hojo barked. Yuffie jumped and quickly got to an empty seat furtherest away from the front.

'Bloody freaky scientist.'

"What is it Gast?" Hojo scowled at the man at the door.

"Nothing much." Gast shrugged nochalantly. "Just thought you might want the result of your latest experiment as soon as possible." he handed him a folder.

"Hm." Hojo opened the folder. A victorious smile spread across his face and started murmuring to himself as he scanned through it. Meanwhile, the rest of the class shivered at the sight of him.

'Scratch that, more like bloody freaky insane scientist!'

"Read it at break or lunch. You have a class right now, so better start teaching." Gast broke Hojo's train of thought and left.

"Page 108 in your text book! Read and answer the questions at the end of the chapter!" Hojo sat back onto his seat and concentrated on the given folder with a mad glint in his eyes.

At her seat, Yuffie frowned. He didn't give her a text book or anything. As she raised her hand and was about to call out, a hand seized her's hastily back down. Yuffie turned to give the owner of the hand an annoyed 'what?' look. Her desk buddy, shaked his head.

"I won't do that if I were you. Interrupting Professor Hojo from his experiment is something you wouldn't want to do." the boy with brushed back spiky black haired whispered.

'Hedgehog. He reminds me of a hedgehog.'

"Then how the hell am I suppose to get a text book and paper?" she hissed at him.

"Here, have some paper, and take my text book." he ripped some paper from his notepad and handed it to her. "Though I'll need to share your text book this lesson." Yuffie blinked at the sudden change of the possessive pronoun.

"But what about you?" she inquired as he positioned the book between them.

"I'll ask Professor Gast for another one." he waved his hand in a dismissing manner and smiled charmingly at her.

"Uh thanks."

"No problem...er I didn't catch your name earlier. I'm Zack by the way."

"My name's Yuffie!" she beamed at him.

"You know, you're kinda short for a guy...and for a girl too." he patted her head to emphasize his point.

'How dare he! I'm not that short...for a girl at least.' she huffed.

"So?" she challenged him.

"Hey, no need to get defensive! It's suits you, kinda cute." Zack grinned as she blushed.

'Cute huh? Think that's going to make it all better hedgehog? Think again, one dish of sweet revenge coming right up!'

"So, you're gay?" she smiled angelically at him and held up her hand in front of him which was still being held by his as he choked in his own saliva.

"Wha- NO!" he quickly let go as if it seared his hand and shot up from his chair. Zack immediately flushed as realization of the whole class had snapped their attention to him hit.

"Is there a problem?" Hojo asked irritably.

"Uh, no sir."

"Then get back to work!" he snapped. Zack slumped back onto his chair, his cheeks calming to a pale pink. He glanced warily at his seatmate who smirked smugly at him.

"That'll teach you not to call me short!"

Yuffie scanned the classroom, her classmates were all focusing back onto their work. As she caught Cloud's questioning gaze, she scribbled something onto a piece of paper and scrunched up and threw it to him with perfect aim. Cloud caught it and opened it.

He smirked and gave her thumbs up which was responded with a grin and a victory sign from Yuffie and a glare from Zack.

'No one messes with the Great Ninja Yuffie! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!'

Yufvin-valentine

AN: It's really hard to make sure the characters are not OOC! Rufus would definitely make his appearance next chapter! I have a vague idea on how to introduce him but it might not work...