Hey, guys. Sorry that it's been nearly a month since I updated. School went nuts on me. I had too many projects and had to write a mystery story. Also, I've been sidetracked on deviantART so far. Hehehe.

Anyways, in my absence, I had formulated a good ol' evil plot (or just a weird twist in the story *gasp*) for this story. I hope you all like it.

Enough with that chitchat and on to the chapter. Enjoy.

Taking out a red folder from his bag, he opened it and was about to read the papers inside when a bunch of kids – probably around the ages of seven and eight – bumped into him, causing him to drop his backpack and the folder in the process. Grumbling as he bent over to pick his things up, he noticed that several other teenagers around him were staring at him as if he was some sort of weirdo. He merely told himself to ignore them as he gathered all the papers on the floor and neatly sorted them out. After placing them back in his folder, he stood up and glared at the youngsters who were gawking at him.

As much as he wanted to give the children a scolding about proper manners, he did not want to make a ruckus. He merely grinned at the half-hearted apologies from them and continued on walking aimlessly in the hallway. And as he walked, he noticed that there were signs that said "Room 101" or "Room 102" on top of the doors of each room. He then remembered that his room schedules were all in the folder he held in his hands.

It was almost eight o'clock and he still couldn't find his room. As he couldn't get risk getting scolded for being late on his first day of school either, he quickly opened the folder and scanned through the papers until he found his room schedule which was just after the stapled course outlines and list of books. His eyes hastily skimmed through the words printed on his room schedule until he found the Monday 8:00 schedule.

"Hmmm... Room 107. English with Ms. Aerith Gainsborough. This shouldn't be too bad, I guess." The blond smiled to himself. He knew that English was one of his favorite subjects that he would be taking this semester in school.

Mom taught me everything I knew in the English language. I'm pretty sure nothing could go wrong today especially when the day starts with my favorite subject.

With a huge grin etched on his face, he passed by several more rooms before finding his destination. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the classroom door open and reassured himself that today would be nothing to worry.

Just as he took his first step into the room, he failed to notice the slightly elevated tile on the doorway and stumbled forward, accidentally bumping into a black-haired girl who was supposed to go to one of the seats in front.

"Oh. Oops, sorry. It was an accident. I'm really sorry." Roxas apologized embarrassedly on his face as the girl looked at him sternly. "I don't know if anyone could show me-"

However, the girl rudely interrupted him. "Well, watch where you're going, shortie! I don't know who you think you are but you've got to learn your place."

Wow, so much for a warm welcome. I certainly hope today's not going to be this bad.

Roxas sighed as he looked around the almost-filled room for a vacant seat. The black-haired girl had already occupied the remaining empty seat in the front which meant he had to go find somewhere else to sit. There was an available seat at the back but as Roxas was about to put his things on the armchair a silver-haired teenager with a tanned skin pushed the blond aside and claimed the chair as his own.

"What are you looking at?" the silver-haired boy asked with a tone of disgust at Roxas.

Feigning a smile on his face, he answered politely, "Oh nothing. I'm sorry for the little misunderstanding. Of course, that is your seat."

"Of course this is my seat. Whoever told you otherwise?" The tanned boy arrogantly raised an eyebrow at the blond.

"Uhh, no one? Well, my name's Roxas and… I'm new here. Can you tell me where I could sit then?" The blond tried to maintain his cheerful demeanor. "Because… I don't really know where to sit… and class is about to start soon."

"You know something. If you're going to talk to me again, I'm going shove my foot right up your ass!" The silver-haired teenager glared at him, obviously irritated.

The nearby students giggled while he then turned his back on the boy and sighed in defeat. It seemed that no one was going to be nice and help him get through his first day of school at Duskvale Academy at all. There were only one other armchair in the room that was not occupied. It was the one in the middle of the front row.

Roxas sighed. "I guess I'll probably have to sit in front where everyone could see me, I guess."

It's only the first day and I may have made myself Public Enemy Number One. And not only that I have also humiliated myself thrice… while class hasn't even started yet! Tripping outside the school's entrance was one. Another one was a bunch of reckless midgets bumping into me and making me drop my things. The last was when I tripped getting into the room and hitting the dark-haired girl who was somewhere near my height.

Too preoccupied with his thoughts and looking at ground while walking, Roxas didn't see that the teacher was already coming in until he felt that something was blocking his way. But it was too late. Roxas had already felt himself hit somebody else… for the fourth time already.

"Great!" the blonde-haired man exclaimed sarcastically as his coffee spilled all over his dark blue sweater. Luckily, he immediately moved his other hand, which was holding his teaching materials, away the moment the coffee spilled. Although he had saved his lesson plans from getting wet by the brown liquid, his sweater was not so lucky as brown murky stains appeared on its fabric.

Upon seeing this mishap, the entire class let out a fit of giggles. Roxas quickly procured a handkerchief from his pocket and was about to try to wipe the stain off his teacher's shirt when the teacher merely shook his head and gave him the materials to put on the teacher's table.

Upon receiving the materials, Roxas was then surprised when his teacher started taking off his sweater and all. To add to the misfortune, a man with long silver hair stopped by the room and stared at the blonde man who looked like he was stripping off his shirt.

"Mr. Strife?" the long-haired man asked, startled by this obscene act in front of the students. "What are you doing?" A few of the students snickered at the man's reaction.

"Oh, I'm… my shirt's stuck to my sweater, isn't it?" Mr. Strife turned to Roxas who helped him put back his shirt on before the older blond finally took off his sweater. After that, he turned to face the other adult. "Yes, Mr. Sephiroth? What is it that you need?"

"Nothing really. Just checking who is going to handle sophomores since Ms. Aerith is running late because of something that involves a greenhouse accident," Mr. Sephiroth answered without any hint of emotion in his voice. "Oh well, carry on, Mr. Strife. This tardiness will come out of Ms. Gainsborough's paycheck," he added before leaving the room.

Roxas then took the only vacant left as his teacher took out a piece of chalk and started writing on the board. He looked at his left and saw a blonde female who stuck out her tongue at him. Ignoring her, he reached for his backpack and took out his notebook so that he could start copying notes.

Okay… seeing a guy strip in front of me is awkward. But having a teacher accidentally strip in front of me is kind of scary. It's only my first day and all this happens. I'm such a…

After writing a few words on the blackboard, he cleared his throat and spoke casually to the class, "Okay, everybody. Sorry for the… inconvenience. I am Cloud Strife. Because Ms. Aerith, your English teacher, is running late today, I will be taking over her place. However, instead of teaching you English which is not field of teaching, we'll be having Math first. Take out your textbooks and turn them to page 5. Functions. What are functions? Can anyone tell me what are functions?..."

Oh boy. This is going to be such long day. Well, at least I know a thing or two about Calculus. It's not my favorite subject but I can manage… I guess.

Okay, yeah I think I died for a while on FanfictionNet. I'm sorry. I had to write this pretty frickin' long mystery story for English and… it drained my fanfic writing skills. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't that great because I'm getting more and more finicky about how I write now. Especially with descriptions and dialogues with several persons and… and… and… creating a good mental image.

Anyways, please do review. It makes me wanna continue this. ;p