V:
Lightning rubbed her eye with her fist and yawned. "Farron" a deep voice called.
She sighed and reluctantly looked up.
"What?" she asked bluntly.
The young man smirked and pulled a chair towards him, sitting on it backwards. Tool, Lightning thought.
"Heard you're all alone now- probably lonely in that big empty house."
Lightning scowled and looked away.
"I have a sister. I'm not alone." She wasn't sure whether she actually agreed with those words, but if they made the idiot leave her alone, then it didn't matter.
"Oh, right, right. The little tyke. I'm sure she gets your hands full, doesn't she?"
Lightning glared at him. She didn't know his name, but she was regularly harassed by him. He was a senior, which meant he could get any junior or sophomore girl he wanted, apparently. But not Lightning. Not only did she hate the idiot, but she had no time for a boyfriend.
He leaned in closer to her, and whispered into her ear slowly, "I could help you. In more ways than one, Farron…"
That's it! Lightning stood so suddenly that the student was almost knocked out of his seat. She gathered her books, fighting the urge to punch him in the face. She left the library, with a few students eyeing her out the door.
As she was angrily walking through the courtyard, grumbling to herself in her head, she ran into someone, and was quick to apologize.
"Claire? What's wrong?"
Lightning spun around at the sound of her "old" name, only to see her "old" friend, concern written all over her. They hadn't spoken in a while, and that was fine with Lightning, but obviously it wasn't for the other girl.
"Uh… I'm fine. See you…" Lightning was already turning to bolt, but her friend put a swift hand on her shoulder. "Claire! Come on, you haven't spoken to me in weeks! Let's do something together, just like old times."
No distractions, no distractions, no distractions, Lightning kept telling herself.
She shrugged the hand off and glared at her friend.
"My name's not Claire… not anymore… And I have responsibilities. I don't know about you, but I barely have enough time to sleep, let alone prance around town." A bit harsh, isn't it? She brushed the thought out of her head.
"But… Claire…"
Lightning looked back over her shoulder. "Lightning" she corrected.
--
Serah smiled, looking down at her grade.
Obviously, she wasn't having the same problem Lightning was. This 'A' proved it.
Lightning… She wondered what her sister was doing at that very moment for a slight second, but was soon interrupted.
"Serah, what did you get?" her friend asked, her eyes gleaming through her glasses.
Serah grinned and showed her the piece of paper.
"Wow! Good job! You must've studied."
She shrugged. "Not really. I just read my sister's history worksheets once and somehow I remembered it all… I can't wait to show Lightning" she beamed, inspecting her answers.
"I didn't think your sister would be into that sort of stuff. She's so… not friendly" the boy on the other side of her pointed out. She looked at him and scowled. "You don't know my sister. She's really a great person!"
"The only thing great about her is that she's hot! She can't be that good if she kept you."
Serah slapped him.
Luckily, no one heard or saw, save for a few of Serah's friends who happily cheered her on.
"Never make fun of me or my sister again."
The boy was about to bark back, but instead he withdrew and continued to look at his grade.
Lightning had tried so hard to protect her; it was the least Serah could do.
"I can't believe you slapped that guy! Did you see his face? Oh man, I can't wait to see you in high school!" one of her friends laughed. "You'll never get a boyfriend if you keep that up!"
Serah frowned. "Will too! But he won't go around making fun of Lightning."
"I think your sister's pretty cool" another girl muttered.
Serah nodded in agreement.
There were five of them, all in 7th grade, sitting in a deformed circle in the middle of the quad. Serah sometimes wondered whether Lightning had this type of friends. It worried her.