A/N: Hey! Okay so it has been a few months since I posted chapter one, but I got really busy. I have 3/4 chapters already written for this, and will be updating weekly. Hope you enjoy. ALSO Big thanks to jobelle516 for beta reading this and doing my corrections. I owe the quality of this to you 3.

Chapter 2.

I stared at the building with disdain coursing through my body. How I despised this time of the year. It may have been my senior year, but I was not happy with the fact that I had nine more months of attending this place that I liked to think of as hell. I closed my eyes and took my first unwilling steps toward the school building, sighing to myself. I thought of how each step toward the doors was like surrendering myself over to some inhuman torture that would somehow leave me scarred, this though caused a huge smile to cross my face and I couldn't help but to chuckle at my strong hate for this place. I grabbed the door handle just in time to avoid being toppled over by Rikku – Yuffie's cousin – who oddly acted just like her, though maybe that wasn't as odd as it seemed at first thought, more than likely they were raised together and the excitement can be quite contagious.

"SORA!" Rikku practically screamed into my ear, as she pulled me into a death lock hug. I glanced her over once she released me and the difference from her and the past few weeks was definitely there. Instead of the yellow bikini top and short skirt she donned for the summer time, she was wearing bright yellow skinny jeans with a white fade in the middle, that kind of made them look awesome, a pretty magenta tank top that read "OMG!" in white print, and of course her normal bright white hi-tops.

"Rikku," I said with the grin plastered across my face still, "you act like you haven't seen me in months." I said matter-of-factly and grinned even wider. "When in reality, we just saw each other yesterday.

She giggled a bit in her high pitched squeal and said "Your point being? You act like it's not okay for me to be excited to see one of my best friends." She put on her faux puppy dog look and blinked rapidly, I shook my head and continued into the school.

"Come on, I've got to get my locker assignment." I said, and she tilted her head, I answered her question before she could ask. "I skipped orientation to get some coffee last night." It never failed, her trademark laugh echoed through the hall at my blatant disregard for the school. As if coffee was more important than going to get my school schedule and locker assignment, but in my book, it honestly was.

My gaze directed toward the front office and mentally I cringed at the blankness of the walls. No decorations, just white paint that had begun to fade, due to the lack of maintenance. I closed my eyes for a second to picture something that was a lot more beautiful than faded white paint and hurried toward the door. The office was a bit more pleasant, probably because the secretaries refused to sit in a prison all day, it was painted a dull orange, one of the colors our school's mascot sported and was filled with flowers. The room smelled like nature, and I honestly wouldn't have minded spending my entire day there. I closed the door gently so that it didn't slam and made my way to the desk, as slowly as possible.

The secretary looked at me and brought a big fake smile across her plump face, that actually made me want to slap it off her. "Hi, my name is Sora Nomura, and I wasn't able to make it to orientation last night, I need my schedule and locker assignment." I said with a polite smile, and ruffled my brown spikes out of my face.

"Student I.D.?" She said in a loud nasally voice that I wouldn't want to attempt to hold a meaningful conversation with, because I would get really annoyed really fast. I nodded and dug into my front jeans pocket, snatching up my wallet and flashing my student I.D. She went to the "N" file and looked through the names until she came across mine, pulling out my folder and handing it to me. "Since you missed orientation last night, you need to have all that paperwork turned in by tomorrow. If you need anything else, you know where the office is, now get to class."

I nodded and turned quickly, hurrying out of the only bright place in the school and headed straight for the first class on my schedule. "Oh great," I scoffed to myself. "Chemistry with Professor Hojo, the nut job." I scrunched my nose unhappily and headed for the class, without a bit of excitement. This had been my third year in a row in one of his science classes, and I honestly had no hope for it this year, he made the curriculum almost impossible for the average high school student to pass. I would have much rather had Professor. Crescent, because her curriculum is just as informative covering all the same bases, but in a way that is much easier to understand.

I walked in slow, deliberate steps, on the way to his class, letting my imagination run wild as I painted pictures on the walls of my mind, of how I wanted this year to go. Senior year would hopefully be at least a decent year, minus Nut Job's class. I smirked to myself and walked through the door that led to his lab area, the smell of rotten eggs immediately invaded my senses, causing every picture I had envisioned to smear out and run down the drain in a rainbow swirl, my first reaction was to gag a bit and cover my nose and mouth, hurrying to my seat so that I could use both hands to do this. My eye twitched and I looked toward the lab area, Hojo was messing around with sulfur and its chemical reactions. "Oh great…" I thought, "First day and he's already doing borderline dangerous experiments, next thing you know, he'll be blowing up the lab." I glared in his general direction and waited for the smell to dissipate.

The rest of the class was him introducing himself, and the class staring at each other in uncertainty of how he runs things. I chuckled softly to myself, because I knew exactly how this year was going to be, with personal experience, and with some of the stories my cousin Cloud had told me about his experiences in the class. This year, this class was going to be a nightmare, and Ihoped, no prayed that the rest of my teachers would be at least somewhat saner.

The coolness of the door on my locker against the palm of my hand snapped me out of my thoughts, and I entered the combination quickly, shoving the book Hojo had assigned to me, slammed the door and walking toward room 405 for English 12. I looked around quickly to see if there was anyone I knew, I sighed when there was no one, of course there wasn't anyone here today, it was only the first day, most of the people that I considered close never came on the first day, the scatter in on the second or third day, and act like they didn't miss anything. Then again, if I didn't hate staying home, I would probably do the same. I hurried onto my next class, and grinned when the English 12 TBA turned out to be Ms. Farron. She was a great teacher, I had her my ninth grade year, and she was very helpful with the class, but was very stern and could be harsh when it came to punishing her students. We all learned quickly not to misjudge her kindness for weakness.

The rest of the day flowed quickly and luckily there wasn't any homework, not even from Hojo. I soon found myself at my front door wearing an exhausted look and a lot of sweat pouring down my face from the walk home. What had started out as a cool morning, had turned into a day that felt like Ifrit had decided to visit. I jammed the key into the keyhole and unlocked the door rapidly, practically sprinting into the cool air conditioned house, sighing in relief when the cool air hit my face. I pulled the key out and shut the door heading toward the living room to crash on the couch where I would lay until my parents got home from work. I pulled my knees into my chest, closing my eyes listening to nothing but the dull rumble of the air conditioner doing its work. The sound eventually lulled me into a deep, but at the same time restless sleep.

I was awoken by the front door slamming viciously, the sound of my own scream from the sudden noise caused the person responsible to break into a belly aching laughter. I scowled and in a sleepy stupor, I walked toward the front door and the source of the laughter, my older brother Squall. I glared at him and he smirked at me. Though, with how rare a laugh from this guy was, maybe glaring at him wasn't such a good idea. "Must be a special occasion, with you laughing and all." I quipped.

He stifled his laughter and nodded. "Yeah, hearing my younger brother scream like a little girl, that is a very special occasion." He said with his infamous smirk and patronizing glare, and then proceeded to ruffle my hair. I quickly ran my fingers through my hair fixing any damage to it he may have caused. "Where's mom and dad?" he questioned, I answered with a shrug and looked toward the clock. They were late, about an hour or so, which was unusual for them.

"Maybe they were asked to stay overtime or something." I said mostly to myself, and checked my cell phone to see if there were any messages or missed calls from them, there were none, so I shrugged it off and turned back to face Squall. "Looks like we're on our own tonight." I said with a grin plastered across my face. He opened the door again and we left, going to our favorite restaurant.

Ever since Squall had gotten a job and car, when mom and dad weren't around we would head out to Reno's Grille. Mom and Dad had taken us there on special nights for as long as we could remember. Reno was Dad's best friend, they had been friends since they were in diapers. I jumped into his car and buckled my seat belt, and then the in the next moment the car was roaring to life and I was watching the houses go by in a blur, I closed my eyes and rolled down the window, leaning my head against the frame of the door, letting the wind hit my face gently and I let my signature grin creep across my face. I always loved the feeling of the wind when I was in the car, it felt like someone running their fingers through my hair, and messing with it, the warmth of the sun on your cheeks, even when it's just about to set. I opened my eyes when the familiar smell of the Grille surrounded me, I knew we were close to it, only to be horrified by the scene in front of me.

There had been an accident that much I could tell, and the smell of the gasoline that leaked from the motor was an indicator of how bad it actually was. I looked over at Squall who had screeched to an immediate halt, his face was twisted in what seemed to be horror. My body lurched forward in time with the abrupt stop and then looked back over to the accident. The smell almost gagged me, but what really got to me was the blood leaking from the car that was overturned. It took me a few minutes to process the whole scene, and when I had the first thing that became prominent was that the overturned car looked almost familiar in some way. It hit me then, the car, was my parent's car. There was no time for warning, my stomach turned and I gagged, I turned out the window spilling the contents of my stomach. When there was nothing left to heave, I began to sob, because I knew, in that moment, by the wreckage that was in front of me, that there were no survivors.