I want to apologize to those of you who have waited five months for this chapter, thank you so much for your patience. I've finally got a bit more time on my hands now, enough that I think I should be able to somewhat regularly update again.

Chapter 2: The Park

Cloud reached over and hit his alarm clock, causing it to turn off and also crash to the floor as he yawned and blinked his eyes. After lying there for a few more minutes, he finally threw off the sheets and stumbled to his feet, still not entirely awake. The cold water from his shower finished waking him up, however, and he started to think about what he'd do on his first day off.

'I should definitely go train with Aerith, although calling her this early might seem a little too presumptuous. Maybe I'll try calling Vincent first and see what he's up to."

Having made up his mind, Cloud walked over to where he'd left his phone next to his bed and dialed Vincent's number. After a few rings, Cloud heard Vincent pick up on the other end.

"Hey Vincent, it's me, Cloud. I was just calling to see if you had any plans for today or anything?"

"Oh, hey Cloud. I'm actually pretty busy today, sorry. Gotta do a bunch of stuff with my family this morning, and then this afternoon I'm going to the park to do some training with Tifa. What about you and Aerith, shouldn't you guys be training as well?"

"Oh… uh, well yeah I suppose so…" Cloud responded awkwardly, still worried about calling up the girl in question. 'What if she just brushes me off to go training with Zack instead?'

"You almost sound as if you're afraid of Aerith!" Vincent replied, clearly amused. "Trust me Cloud, if you're going to be her partner this entire year, you need to get over that and just call her up. If you want to set it up so you're there this afternoon, the four of us can train together or something. Anyways, I've got to go, good luck!" With that, Cloud heard Vincent hang up and stared at the phone in surprise for a second.

'Well…. I suppose he does have a point, I guess I should give her a call,' Cloud thought as he brought up her number.

Aerith had been awake for a while, lying in bed and just staring at the ceiling, thinking. She knew she should have gotten up a while ago, but for some reason she just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened yesterday.

Zack had clearly been expressing interest in her lately, over summer break the two of them along with Tifa had spent a lot of time together, and she'd definitely started to return his feelings. But then suddenly, yesterday, with the appearance of this new kid, Cloud, someone she didn't even know, Aerith had felt something strange when she looked at him.

'Perhaps it's just because the two of them look so similar…'

The sound of her cell ringing startled her, and she reached over to her bedside table to grab the phone, glancing at the number to see who it was.

'Could it possibly be Cloud…?'

But it was just Tifa.

"Heya Aerith, Vince and I were planning on doing some training in the park this afternoon, I was wondering if you and the new kid had any plans yet or if you wanted to join us?" Tifa asked.

"Oh… well I haven't called him yet so…"

"What? Don't tell me you're being the shy one!" Tifa interrupted, giggling.

"Of… of course not!" Aerith exclaimed in embarrassment. "I just woke up a few minutes ago, that's all. I was about to call him when you called me," she lied.

"Well, in that case, I guess I'll see you this afternoon at the park and I'll get off the line now so you can call up your sweetheart," Tifa replied teasingly.

"Tif! He's not my sweetheart!" Aerith cried out, mortified, before she realized that her friend had already hung up.

'She's got a point though, Aerith thought reluctantly as she brought up Cloud's number. 'Nothing's going to happen if we don't get to know each other.'

Cloud was sitting on the end of his bed staring at his phone. He'd been sitting there for a couple of minutes, just staring at the number, trying to build up the nerve to hit the send button.

'Worst-case scenario she says no right? That's not so bad. I just end up training on my own and I'm sure we'll still do fine on the tests. She trains with Zack, I train on my own. That's okay…. right?' Deep down inside, however, Cloud knew he was lying, he wanted to be the one training with Aerith.

"Geeze, what's wrong with me!?" Cloud exclaimed out loud angrily, before making up his mind and pressing the call button.

Aerith stared down at the number on her phone, not exactly sure why she was hesitating.

'This is pathetic, get a hold of yourself and just call him!'

Closing her eyes, she pressed the call button and raised the phone to her ear, waiting for Cloud to pick up. To her surprise, however, the phone didn't ring, all she got was a busy signal.

'Whew,' she thought with relief, falling backwards to lie on her bed, 'he must be talking with Vincent or something, I'll try again later.'

'Whew,' Cloud thought as he heard the busy signal, 'she must be talking with Tifa, I guess I'll try again later.'

Cloud went downstairs to eat breakfast while passing the time, figuring that if it was indeed Tifa on the phone with her, Aerith would be occupied for at least an hour. Once he decided that he had given them enough time, he tried calling her back and was slightly surprised to hear the phone ring this time. Gulping nervously, he cleared his throat as he heard her pick up her phone.

"Heya Cloud, what's up?" Aerith asked, trying not to sound nervous as she answered her phone.

"Not much, I was uh… just wondering if you wanted to get together sometime today and do some training. Or something."

'Or something, very smooth idiot,' Cloud thought.

Aerith giggled softly, putting her hand over the phone so Cloud wouldn't hear. "Sure that sounds good," she replied "How about around one this afternoon after lunch, Tifa said she'd be there with Vincent as well."

"That sounds great, I'm looking forward to it."

"Oh, and Cloud? Sorry about what Zack said yesterday…"

"There's no need for you to apologize," Cloud replied. "What happened was Zack's fault, not yours. Never take the blame of others and make it your own."

Aerith blinked in surprise for a moment before responding. "You're right Cloud, thanks. I guess I'll see you in a bit then."

'Well that went better than I expected,' Cloud thought as he hung up and put his phone back in his pocket. Glancing at the time, he saw that he had an hour until he needed to be at the park. It was about a half hour drive away, and seeing as how he couldn't think of anything better to do, Cloud decided he might as well head over early.

To his surprise, when he arrived at the parking lot, he noticed Aerith's car and saw her sitting on a bench a few feet away. Seeing him as well, she stood up and waved as he walked over.

"Looks like we both showed up a bit early, want to start training before Tifa and Vincent show up or just wait?" Cloud asked.

"We might as well start, I'm sure you need practice with Materia and I know I need more practice at using my staff."

Together they headed to an isolated hill, where they could practice safely and not potentially hurt any children who might be running around.

"Should we start with Materia training?" Aerith asked. "It sounded like we won't get new Materia until we've managed to use the one we're currently working on. It would be a good idea to have as many as possible before the first test I'd imagine."

"Sounds good to me, I wasn't able to do much of anything with mine during class and you seemed really skilled at it."

She blushed softly at his complement as they sat down and pulled out a candle she had brought with her. "Just like in class, close your eyes and try to focus your thoughts through the Materia, into the candle's wick, and imagine a flame."

Cloud sat there for a while, becoming more and more frustrated as nothing happened. "It just doesn't work!" he exclaimed angrily, opening his eyes and glaring at the candle as if it was somehow its fault.

"You need to be calm and clear your mind of everything, try again and I'll see if I can help a bit more."

Cloud nodded once, before closing his eyes again.

"Now, empty your mind of everything," Aerith said softly, "Just imagine a field of black, and floating in the middle, the green sphere of the Materia."

Cloud did exactly as she said, actually managing to clear his head as the sounds of the park around them faded away, and he could only hear her voice. 'Strawberries… she smells like strawberries,' he thought faintly.

"Now, inside the green sphere, picture the candle except with its wick lit."

Again, Cloud did what she told him to, but he could tell from her lack of a response that the real candle was still unlit. Frustrated, he tried harder, making the flame in his mind larger. He nearly jumped in surprise when he felt her hands grab his and squeeze them gently. 'Her hands are so soft!"

At her gasp of surprise he opened his eyes and was shocked to see the candle was lit. "You did it!" she exclaimed happily, smiling at him.

"Only with your help though," Cloud replied, somewhat dejectedly.

"Oh? And is my help that unwelcome?"

"No, of course not!" he hurried to clarify. "Lets keep going until I can do it on my own."

They spent the next twenty minutes lighting and relighting the candle, until Cloud finally managed to do it once completely on his own. By that point, Cloud's head felt like it was going to split in half, so he suggested they move on to working with her staff.

"First lets see your stance, a good fighting stance can mean everything in a battle."

Nodding she slipped on some light gloves, picked up her staff and stood up, gripping the weapon tightly and entering the fighting stance Tifa had taught her. "How's this?"

Cloud walked around her, stopping behind her before replying. "Not too bad although you definitely have a few openings. Did Tifa teach you this?"

"How did you know?" she asked in surprise.

"It's a fist fighter's stance, not one that works very well with a staff," Cloud explained. "Thankfully the two forms are somewhat similar, so it should be pretty easy to teach you the changes you'll have to make. First we need to work on how you hold the staff though."

To her surprise, she felt him stand right behind her and wrap his arms around her to hold onto the staff as well. 'Omigosh, no he's not hugging me, he's helping with my stance. Not hugging me.'

'Wow… am I seriously hugging her!? No, wait, focus Cloud. She'd react if you were. Focus on the weapon.'

'It feels comfortable… and so natural…' "Um… Cloud? How exactly am I supposed to hold it?"

'Right.' "You just need to change your grip a bit, like this. And don't quite grip it so hard, it looks like you're trying to strangle your staff or something." He smiled when he heard her giggle at his comment. 'Good, it looks like she's not upset with me…'

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you bastard?" a voice called out from behind them.

They turned around together, Cloud stepping away quickly when he saw that it was Zack.

'Although he looks ready for murder…'

"I thought I fucking told you not to touch her!" Zack yelled at him, taking two steps forward.

"Zack, he was just…"

"I'm not talking to you Aerith, I'm talking to the new student who was taking advantage of you!"

Aerith stopped talking in shock and glared at Zack.

"Why are you being such a jerk to Aerith?" Cloud asked angrily. "She didn't do anything wrong, I was just showing her how to better hold her staff."

"Oh? And why would you need to do that?"

"So that she can fight better? We're training, like you should be with Tseng."

Zack dismissed Cloud's comment with a flick of his hand as Aerith addressed him again. "Why are you even here Zack? Cloud has a point, you should be with Tseng training."

Zack laughed. "We don't need to train, neither of us is worried about some silly test. Last year's were easy enough, and if we get to work together on these they're only going to be even easier. Anyways, Aerith doesn't need to be better with her staff, I'll protect her from anyone who would hurt her. Especially you."

"In case you forgot, I'm her partner, not you, so I'll be the one to protect her," Cloud shot back.

"I think I'm quite capable of protecting myself thank you!" Aerith retorted angrily, now holding a Materia in one hand, as the air surrounding the three of them suddenly got much colder. Having no desire to continue watching this… manly strutting, Aerith spun around and stalked off, upset at both Cloud and Zack. 'Boys are so stupid!'

"Listen Zack, I don't know what your problem with me is, but I don't have anything against you. Can't we just be friends? Or at least not enemies?" Cloud asked.

"I don't want to be your friend. You're stealing Aerith away from me, I can tell already. Why don't we just settle this with a duel instead?" Zack suggested, his hand reaching for his sword.

"A duel!? Aerith isn't an object for us to fight over and possess! I don't understand you, I just want to be her friend."

"Whose friend? What's going on here and where's Aerith?" Tifa demanded as she walked up with Vincent, immediately sensing that something was off.

Cloud gestured in the direction Aerith had left in and Tifa rushed off, shooting an angry look at him and Zack. 'Great, everyone seems pissed off at me and I haven't done anything.'

"Watch yourself Cloud, the other students may be impressed that you held Sephiroth off, but I'm not afraid of you," Zack said, before turning around and heading back to the parking lot.

Vincent looked at Cloud in amusement, but said nothing.

Cloud let out the breath he'd been holding ever since Zack had mentioned the duel before looking over at Vincent. "Come on, let's go find the girls. Hopefully we can just put this little fiasco behind us."

They found Tifa and Aerith sitting on a bench not far away. As they drew closer, Tifa stood up and walked toward them.

"Uh, Cloud… based off that look in her eyes you might want to…"

Whatever Vincent was about to say was cut short, as Tifa lunged forward and punched Cloud in the stomach. Hard.

Cloud dropped to one knee and struggled to draw a breath. 'Damn she hits hard… and she's good enough to hit and make it hurt, but not cause any real damage."

"I suppose I deserved that?" he wheezed.

"You're not to blame as much as Zack, but yes, it's still partially your fault. Besides, he isn't here for me to hit," Tifa replied, one side of her lips rising slightly.

Cloud laughed a bit, able to breathe normally again. "I guess I can accept that then. You alright Aerith?"

"I'm fine, I don't really feel like training any more today though. I'll see you guys at school tomorrow," she answered softly, before getting to her feet and heading to her car.

He could clearly tell she was upset, so he didn't follow her back to the lot right away. After a few minutes of watching Vincent and Tifa train, he said his farewells and went home, looking forward to tomorrow when he'd be able to see Aerith again. He just hoped she wouldn't still be upset with him.

End Note: I want to stress that I know Zack is being really damn annoying. I don't plan to continue this for much longer, he's going to come to a turning point eventually so please bear with me. Other than that, I hope you're enjoying the story, please leave a review to let me know what you think. I hope to have the next chapter out soon, although due to its nature and content it's probably going to be long and potentially difficult to write. I'll give you the title though, as a sneak peek into what it's going to be about.

Next Chapter: First Test