Cloud's POV

Music had gone by rather uneventfully. Ms Heartilly had given us the standard lecture of the year, made sure that all the paperwork for borrowing instruments from the school had been completed accurately and just confirmed everything. Kinda standard for the first lesson of the year. Once the tedious administration, she began to distribute said instruments to the class.

Once everyone had an instrument (she'd have handed me mine though considering I doubt she'd be able to carry a piano, she settled on giving me a smile and gestured for me to go over to the piano instead) she asked us all to play a short piece of music for her to test whether we needed to revise anything. As expected, Lenne (who played the Violin) and Yuna (who played the Cello) were flawless still. I guess I was ok (Which Ms Heartilly said was me being modest) and almost everyone else was doing well also.

Like I said – nothing terribly exciting happened.

Class came to an end and I headed off to Science, pausing to kiss Lenne briefly before she and Yuna left for their Child Studies Class. Squall and Selphie were waiting outside of our science classroom and standing only a few meters away were the twins. Seifer looked rather put out and Quistis looked as if she was trying to console him. Judging by the vexed look on her face it wasn't going too well.

I waved cheerfully at them after greeting Squall and Selphie. Selphie definitely looked subdued in comparison to her usual nature and Squall seemed slightly annoyed. Ms Adel came striding towards the class then, smiling as she did. She unlocked the door to the lab and let us in.

Inside, we headed straight for the desk we used last year and sat down. Calling the class to attention, Ms Adel announced that we would be studying human anatomy this semester – hardly difficult but it meant that there'd be a fair bit of hands-on activities - dissections and such. Today however would mainly be theory centred and I was asked to sit with the twins to assist them. "Well hello again" I said to them, Quistis laughed and smile while Seifer only managed a grimace.

"What's up?" I asked him and only got a grunt as an answer. "You just had P.E. didn't you?" I asked and this time I got an answer. "Yeah I did, and for what it's worth, it sucked" he said in a rather carrying tone. I lowered my voice so as not to get scolded by the teacher and asked him what he meant by that. He recounted what had happened during P.E. and I understood. "Look, don't take offence to that. I know first impressions are stupid but people here are going to make them whether you like it or not. You're going to have to PROVE that you aren't like that" I said.

His face was almost glowing with anger so I elaborated. "If it means anything to you, I didn't think you'd be a total bastard. Looking at you that first time in English this morning, I thought you were far too humbled to be like that. Whatever happened to you previously has seriously cut you a lot deeper than most people will credit". As I finished speaking the look of anger on his face had been replaced by shock, his sisters face mirroring the exact same expression.

"How did you know that?" he asked quietly, the look of incredulity on his face still present. "I don't know. I just got the feeling that you'd been burned quite badly." I finished concisely. Glancing at each other briefly they looked back at me, Sapphire and Emerald eyes meeting my own. "Quit staring at me like I've just said that the sky is gonna fall!" I insisted. I felt my face burning from this attention – I can perform fine on stage, but I can't have two people giving me their undivided attention… how ironic.

"I…" he began but faltered. Knowing better than to press for information, I held my tongue. He seemed like he'd offer it of his own accord when he was ready and until then, I wasn't going to push. "Cloud, can you come here a sec?" I heard Selphie call out to me. Nodding, I excused myself and headed over to Selphie.

"What's up?" I asked her, the subdued look had not yet subsided. "I think we pissed him off in P.E." she said. "Who cares? 1) it's not like we're friends or anything and 2) if he's going to fly off the handle like that it's his own problem!" Squall interjected. WOAH! For Squall to say something like that, it's definite that he either hates this guy with a passion (which I doubted since he never even spoke this way about Wakka) or he likes this guy a hell of a lot more than he wants to believe.

For the time being I didn't wish to push the issue any further as Ms Adel had just strolled past our desks. "I suppose you're right" I answered vaguely not wishing to belie my real thoughts. Saying "see you later - don't forget you're both coming around tonight" to them, I headed back to the twins. "Hi" I said as I sat back down. Seifer looked a lot calmer.

"I wanted to thank you for what you said before, and for actually giving me a chance rather than base it off some stupid first impression" – yeah, way too humble for someone that everyone thought would be a prick – "You're welcome. Look, I think Squall is also sorry about riling you up before. It was unintentional." Seifer nodded looking slightly relieved. "I know he didn't mean it like that, it's just that I'm trying to leave that behind and people aren't helping"

What I did next would possibly make Squall seriously angry at me. I knew that He and Selphie were going to be coming around to my place tonight but I had to do this. "Say, are you guys free tonight?" I asked and again, Sapphire and Emerald gazes met mine. "Why?" he asked before his sister shot him a quick glare and elaborated. "What's up? Did you want to do something?" I nodded, "Yeah, I was wondering if you guys would like to swing past my place tonight"

"Won't your parents get annoyed?" Seifer asked "at the short notice I mean" he finished. "My parents are in Esthar, I live here by myself until I finish school, so I doubt they'd mind" I laughed. They looked at each other and then back at me. "Sure, that is, if you don't mind" he answered, looking a lot happier than he had all lesson.

"Awesome" I grinned at them before turning once more to my own thoughts. I really had to test this – Squalls reaction was too suspicious and if my suspicions were correct, I thought he would make a very good friend tonight.