o.2

-- x --

Aeris' mood had lightened during the end of the day. To know that she was going home and to be welcomed by the sweet scent of newly blossomed flowers had cheered her up.

She had planted new flowers yesterday.

Lilies. Pure, white lilies.

She immediately cheered up while walking towards her last period, general maths. She met up with Yuffie half way when Yuffie checked Aeris' mood before walking towards her.

"Cheered up?"

Aeris nodded with a gentle smile before opening the room of maths. A dark haired man stood in front of the board with no expression found on his face.

"Take out your text books, turn to page 215 and start on question one until you finish the whole chapter" He said and went to his desk to mark work.

The whole class groaned out loud then shutting up when Mr Valentine shot them all a cold stare.

A very cold stare. Aeris swore the temperature dropped 10 degrees as icicles started to collect on the window sill.

…

Maybe that was an exaggeration, but that was seriously how frightening that stare was.

A rustle of pages was heard as everyone slowly worked out each question.

Silence is golden.

'brrrrring!'

The bell rang loudly and abruptly as everyone went running out. Aeris and Yuffie were among them, running away from the prison. Where she would have her detention from Mr Strife tomorrow afternoon.

Aeris waved goodbye to Yuffie before making her way home. She walked through the car park where she saw Tifa and Mr Strife laughing while walking towards a motorcycle. Aeris' pace went quicker not wanting to be noticed by the blond jerk. What Tifa saw in him made Aeris wonder.

Let's list the great things about the almighty Cloud Strife.

…

At least he's decent looking…

How about the negative things??

Stupid

Idiotic

Mean

Egotistical

Stupid

Jerkface

See how many bad things outnumber the good things?

It just proved that this teacher was not worthy of being any teacher at all.

After a ten minute walk she had finally reached her house. Flowers were fully blossoming as a few bees went here and there, collecting nectar. A cool breeze flew by and the scent of the flowers

She entered the house as her footsteps echoed against the wooden floor. A family portrait was facing down on the surface, as if a secret was held. Aeris drew open some curtains as light poured through the window yet it did not lighten the gloomy atmosphere itself.

Aeris glanced at the family portrait sadly before walking out of the room to the bright backyard.

A motorcycle drove past the same house that Aeris entered a few moments before. It slowed down a bit as someone pointed towards it.

"Oh wow. Whose house is that?" Asked Cloud as he pointed to a house with a front yard full of luscious flowers to Tifa.

"That's Aeris' house. Pretty isn't it? Her parents used to plant them… and yeah…" Tifa ended it there, not wanting to say anymore.

"So she cares for them herself?"

"…mm"

"Does she live by her self?"

"…… yeh.."

Tifa looked down sadly. She had offered for Aeris to come and stay with her family but Aeris turned it down, telling her how her flowers would be sad and needed to be cared for.

Cloud sped up and thought for a while.

"Everybody get out your textbooks and exercise books." Said Mr Strife, while picking up a stick of chalk and writing on it.

'SLAM'

Mr Strife turned around to see, oh.

Miss Attitude herself.

"Sorry sir." She apologised not very apologetically and also giving him a killer stare.

"Well, if you other students are not on PMS then I suggest we all open our exercise books and write what's on the board"

Mr Strife gave a triumphant smirk, watching Aeris' jaw drop.

"Y-y-you!!" She stuttered, thinking for a while before shutting up and turning away.

It was silent for a few moments before the teacher spoke again.

"What a lovely class I've got. No unruly and mean PMSing students here. I know you all love me" He remarked, faking a sigh.

Giggles and chuckles erupted from the room with slight rushed whispers.

'SNAP'

Mr Strife turned around to see two halves of a broken pencil that belonged to a girl with a pink ribbon in her hair.

'Oops. Must've strucked a nerve'

"May I be excused for a moment, sir?" Asked Aeris, through gritted teeth.

Mr strife nodded and Aeris immediately rushed outside, slamming the door behind her.

--x--

Mr Strife was sitting on his desk peacefully, marking work and often glancing at his students. His eye always scanned at the door, waiting for a someone to come through. He knew she would come.

…

Well duh, she left her bag.

The door opened and Miss Attitude silently walked towards the desk, sitting down.

'brinnnngggg'

Students immediately shut their books, shoved everything in their pencil cases before stuffing them in their bags and rushing out to the sweet scent of freedom. Only Aeris remained, slowly packing everything up, still in a bad mood.

Mr Strife walked up to her and bending down so he was eye level with her. She glanced at him once and then looked down again.

"Miss Gainsborough." He started, picking up the book that Aeris was about to put in her bag.

"I really think you should consider reading this. Its literature at its finest and you should remember, it's just a story."

Aeris continued to look down as Mr Strife sighed and put down the book.

Aeris put the book in her book and walked to the door.

"One page. I'm going to read one page and see if its good or not."

And with that comment, she left the classroom.

Mr Strife smiled a ghost of a smile and returned to his desk.

--x--

Aeris opened the book and started on the first page.

After a few minutes the page was turned as eyes scanned the page.

And if you looked through the window, outside the Gainsborough house, you should see a girl reading Romeo and Juliet, completely stuck onto the story.

Thank you for reading!!

Reviews are appreciated but you dont need to if you don't want to :

disclaimer: i don't own any final fantasy characters.

i'm so lazy. i wrote such a short chapter in such a long time x sorry!