I'm sorry this chapter took so long; College is taking up a vast amount of my time right now. The good news is that Fall Break is right around the corner, so I'm hoping to not only get the next chapter out somewhat soon, but it should also be pretty long. As always, a huge thanks to the readers who take the time to leave a review, I really appreciate it.

Many thanks to the -wonderful- Ancielle for helping to beta this chapter.

Chapter 6: The Beach

After a short, but boring ride from the port, Cloud and his classmates finally arrived at the mini beach resort they'd be staying at for the coming week. Earlier that morning, they had all arrived bright and early at the school, and piled into one of the school's buses. From there, they had traveled west to Midgar's harbor, where they boarded a ferry and sailed to the other continent where Costa del Sol was located. Cloud was actually surprised with how fast the trip had been. Since they'd left so early in the morning, they had managed to arrive shortly after noon, meaning that it looked like they would get a chance to visit the beach on their first day. To the student's dismay, however, Cid stopped them as soon as they were off the bus.

"I know you're all excited to get down to the beach, but before that we need to show you guys where you're staying and list a few of the rules," he explained, indicating for them to follow him. "You'll be staying here in these condos, one for the boys, and one for the girls," he told them, pointing at the buildings they were walking towards. "Curfew is at midnight, if you're found outside your room after that point the punishment will be severe. You'll also be cooking your own dinners as well, tonight the girls will cook and then you'll rotate each night after that. There's a communal hall between the two condos, where you can eat your meals and hang out. That should be all for now, go have some fun and enjoy the beach!"

At that, all the students broke off and rushed to their respective dorms, excited to change into their swimsuits and get to the beach. As Cloud ran through the halls, looking for an empty room, he noticed that the place was incredibly nice. Once he found a room that none of the other guys had claimed, he quickly changed into his swimsuit, which was black with a howling silver wolf on each leg.

When he was finished changing, he joined Vincent, Rufus, and the male Turks in the common room to wait for the girls. Noticing a person missing, he couldn't help but ask: "Where's Sephiroth?"

"I saw him go into his room and heard him lock the door, guess he isn't interested in the beach," Rufus replied.

A few minutes later, the girls entered the room, each carrying a towel and wearing a bikini: Aerith in pink, Tifa in black, Yuffie in yellow, and Elena in red.

"Towels?" Reno asked. "You don't need towels, the sun will dry you off!"

"They're for sunbathing, you idiot," Elena replied, rolling her eyes.

"What?" Reno exclaimed in shock. "We're not going to the beach to do boring stuff like sunbathe, we have to play in the water and make sand castles and stuff!"

The girls just laughed at that before walking out the door followed shortly after by the guys. True to their word, once they reached the beach, the girls laid out their towels next to each other and began sunbathing, ignoring the guys' pleas.

"Well if they want to be boring sticks in the mud like that, then there's nothing we can do," commented Zack. "Let's just have fun without them. Who's up for some body surfing?"

For the next half hour, the guys messed around in the water, seeing who could body surf the largest wave and the like. Everyone was clearly disappointed, though, by the fact that the girls weren't participating as well. No one made a comment when Reno suddenly ran back to the condos, but when they saw him running back carrying several buckets they all got out of the water and gathered around him.

"I've been thinking about it long and hard since we got down here, and it's just not fair that the girls are doing this, right?" Reno whispered.

"I don't necessarily agree," Rufus said cautiously, "but what exactly are you planning to do about it?"

Reno snuck a furtive glance towards the girls before responding. "Well, we've left them alone for a good forty minutes now, I'm sure they're really warm and comfortable by this point. I went and grabbed all these buckets so, well, I'm sure you can figure out the rest," he finished, grinning wickedly.

"No," Zack stated firmly, shaking his head in horror. "No way in hell. Do you know what they'd do to us! We'd be lucky if we got off with only a few missing appendages."

"Oh, come on, it's only a little fun and games," Cloud replied, laughing. "I like the plan, it sounds awesome. Who else is in?"

After a bit of persuading Cloud and Reno finally managed to get everyone to agree to participate, and each of them grabbed a bucket. Once they had filled them full of cold seawater, they stealthily crept up to where the girls were laying down, and strategically positioned themselves.

"One. Two. Th…" Cloud began counting down.

"Why are you counting?" Aerith asked in confusion, blinking sleepily as she started to sit up.

"NOW!" screamed Reno.

Together all the boys threw their water across the girls. The reaction was instantaneous. The girls were on their feet shrieking before the boys could even take a single step. Realizing that their plan was about to backfire, the boys scattered and ran away as fast as they possibly could.

"I am going to kill you, Rufus," Tifa screamed as she chased after him.

Elena targeted Tseng and began running after him, Yuffie decided to go after Reno, and Aerith glanced between Zack and Cloud before deciding to chase the latter of the two.

"You are so going to pay for that, mister!" she yelled as she ran after him.

"Wait! We can talk this over!" Cloud called back desperately.

Unfortunately, turning his head to yell back resulted in him stumbling on the sand allowing Aerith to get close enough to tackle him. They tumbled to the ground together and Aerith began punching him all over.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" Cloud laughed, quickly realizing from the lack of force in any of the blows that Aerith wasn't really that angry with him.

"Don't think you've gotten off easy," Aerith told him as they got up. "I promise you we'll get revenge."

In the end, everyone ended up playing together in the water for another hour until they decided they were hungry and started to head back.

"See, in the end wasn't it a good thing we attacked you?" Reno asked. "That was so much fun once you guys stopped being so lazy."

"We're here for a week!" Tifa exclaimed. "It's not like we were going to sunbathe everyday!"

"Or ever again after that," muttered Elena.

"So what's for dinner?" Rufus asked, deciding it was best to change the subject.

"Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten we had to cook tonight," Aerith replied. "I guess we'll figure it out after we've changed; it'll be a secret that way."

After the guys changed, they gathered together in the communal hall between the dorms and chatted while watching television as they waited for the girls to finish cooking.

"You know… in retrospect, with them cooking dinner tonight, that attack was a really bad idea," Rude commented.

"You don't think they'd mess with the food do you?" Reno asked in horror.

"I told you we'd regret it," Zack said, shaking his head.

"What's with Sephiroth?" Cloud asked. "Is he still in his room?"

"Who cares?" Vincent replied. "The less we see of him this trip, the better."

"Dinner's ready!" Yuffie called out, interrupting their conversation.

"Please let the food be safe, please the food be safe," Reno prayed under his breath as they walked to the kitchen.

Once they arrived they found the rest of the girls sitting at the table waiting for them. Two large bowls were placed at the ends of the table and a single bowl in the middle contained salad.

"Oh wow! It's chili!" Reno cried in excitement as he sat down.

"Why are there two serving bowls?" Cloud asked in suspicion.

"Because it's easier that way, silly" Aerith replied. "These are already heavy enough, passing one bowl back and forth would be a nightmare."

After each side served themselves from their respective bowl the girls began eating, but all the boys were still looking at their chili suspiciously.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked Vincent who was sitting across from her.

"Uh nothing," he replied, taking a large spoonful of chili and eating it.

Collectively, the rest of the boys drew a deep breath as they watched Vincent chew.

"Wow, this is really good!" he exclaimed, before eagerly taking another spoonful and devouring it.

Upon hearing that, the rest of the boys decided it was safe and dug in. Just as he put the chili in his mouth, however, Cloud noticed the girls giving each other looks of surprise. He immediately realized why.

"You call this good?" Zack exclaimed, tears running down his face.

"I've never eaten anything this hot in my life!" cried Reno, grabbing his glass of water and chugging it down.

"Really?" asked Vincent. "It tastes just fine to me, it's the perfect degree of spiciness in my mind."

"Well, other than the heat, you do have to admit that it is really good chili," Cloud pointed out.

"Any chance we could try some of yours?" Rufus asked pleadingly.

"No way," Tifa replied, smirking. "This is your payback for earlier, eat it or starve," she finished evilly as she gave Aerith a high five.

The rest of the meal finished in relative silence as the girls enjoyed their chili, and the guys, except Vincent, suffered through theirs. Once they were finished, everyone decided to watch a movie before going to bed.

"I'm sorry we had to do that to you guys," Aerith whispered to Cloud as she curled up against him on the sofa. "We couldn't just let you get away with what you did, though."

"It's alright," Cloud assured her. "I meant what I said, other than the heat that really was amazing chili."

After a few minutes Aerith pulled away from him. "It's a little chilly, I'm going to run to my room and grab a sweatshirt fast," she said.

"Want me to go grab mine for you instead?" Cloud asked.

"No thanks," she replied, smiling as she stood up.

"Do you want some company?" Tifa asked.

"Heh, it's not far at all, I'll be fine Tifa," she laughed.

After several minutes had passed, however, Aerith hadn't returned, Tifa got up without saying anything and headed for the girls rooms. She returned only a minute later, bursting through the door and breathing hard.

"Aerith is gone!"

I know it's an incredibly short chapter, especially for how much time has passed since the last update, but I wanted to end on a cliffhanger. Hopefully this chapter isn't too disappointing. I can, on the other hand, promise you that the next chapter is going to be much longer. It should be posted in around two weeks, and a lot of really important stuff is going to be happening.

Next Chapter: Upside Down