"Hey little sister… wake up." Sei opened her eyes Monday morning to find Jake's face a few inches from hers.
"Get your face outta my face." She mumbled, closed her eyes and turned in her bed to face away from him. She felt the covers fly away suddenly and instinctively, her legs curled trying to replace the gone warmth. Since it didn't happen, she sat up half asleep, grabbed her covers, and pulled them over herself again.
"You're late," Jake said.
"Mhm," she mumbled.
"No, really; it's already 8:30. The guys are in school already."
It took a while for Sei to digest this piece of information; she opened her eyes and jumped out of bed. She almost killed herself when her leg got caught in the covers and tripped her.
"Why are you barely waking me up?" she demanded, swinging the closet door open and grabbing clothes, throwing them onto the bed in a furious attempt to dress herself decently for a tardy day.
"Hey, I've been trying to wake you up for at least half hour!"
"Damn!" she said. She walked into the restroom, changed, brushed her teeth, came out, brushed her hair and grabbed her back pack. "DAMN!" she repeated. The way things were going, she wasn't going to have time to eat breakfast. She took the lunch bag from her brother and ran out the front door. "Call them and let them know I'm on my way!" As she disappeared into the distance, Jake sighed.
Yazoo emerged from the hallway, rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand. "Is something wrong?" he asked. Jake smiled at him and shook his head. "No, everything's fine. But it's good you woke up; are you feeling well rested?" Yazoo nodded. "Good, you need to start getting ready for school."
The remnant nodded again and headed into the hallway again. Then he stopped and walked back. "Is Sei taking a shower? Or will she go in after we're done?
The half-grin on Jake's face was unreadable. "Don't worry about her." I wonder when she will realize I was just kidding, he thought.
Sei sat in her desk, adrenaline and fury pumping through her veins. She couldn't believe she had been tricked; of all the things Jake could've done to her, this prank… well it ranked somewhere in the middle. But still; she'd gotten to school in record time… only to realize she was early. She would've gone back to strangle her brother, but by the time she came back, the class would've already started.
She had her friends next to her, and was telling them on what had happened with Kadaj and their crazy Saturday; they knew a little about the remnants, that they were from out of the city, and such, but Jake had told her to tell everyone that those three were Jake's friends from another country, looking to settle in a nice city. Loz was the eldest of the brothers, and he was taking care of Yazoo and Kadaj, much like Jake was taking care of Sei. As bogus as the made-up story had sounded the first time Jake had mentioned it, it wasn't entirely a lie, not really.
She was barely getting into detail about when they came back home, when the teacher walked in announcing; "listen up class, we have two new transfer students."
Sei and the rest of the class hushed up. Two people walked into the classroom, while a third character stayed by the door. "You see the one with short hair?" whispered Sei to her two friends. They nodded. "That's Kadaj." The other two studied him.
"He's hot," said Anna.
"And the other one is Yazoo?" asked Mimi.
"Yeah."
"Introduce yourselves," voiced the teacher.
Kadaj and Yazoo said their names; Kadaj proceeded by describing himself as Hot, Sexy and Irresistible. Yazoo followed when he described himself as Insane, Non-sympathetic and Sadist. As the rest of the class watched them in shock, Anna sat back and grinned at them. "Least they're blunt," she said. "Looks like these boys ain't no easy boring trip." Sei slapped her forehead on her palm. She had a feeling today was going to be long.
"Mister, are you in this class too?" asked the teacher, referring to the character on the door.
"Oh, no, but I was wondering if I could stay?" Sei recognized Loz's voice. "You know, to watch over—"
"No, he came here to walk us and make sure we made it to the right class," Yazoo interrupted. The teacher blinked at him and then at Loz and smiled.
"Well, as you can see, they will be okay now, so you may leave."
"Sei! HEY SEI!" Voiced Kadaj. She looked up. He was waving madly at her with both his arms.
"LOOK! I'M IN YOUR CLASS!" He began jumping up and down. "AND I'M LIKE YOU! FROM NOW ON, I'LL BE DOING HOMEWORK TOO!" Someone come in and take him away! Thought Sei.
"Okay, looks like someone's exited to be here," said the teacher, closing the door when he finished dismissing Loz. "Now, where will I seat you two?" The teacher looked around. "Kadaj, how about you sit in front of Kurosawa? Kurosawa? Could you raise your hand, please?"
Sei saw Anna raise her hand lazily.
"Now, Yazoo…"
"This looks like a good spot." Yazoo was standing right upon the student seated in front of Sei with a threatening position.
"That seat is already taken." Said the teacher. "Unless he would like to move?"
"Surrender your position," hissed Yazoo placing his left hand on the desk, putting his right hand on his pocket and glaring at the student. Sei blushed in embarrassment. The student nodded jerkily and jumped up, taking all his stuff all the way to the other side of the room. Yazoo sat down with a satisfactory smile on his face as he looked at his back neighbor and then glanced at Kadaj who glanced back with the same grin.
"Yazoo, Kadaj; these are my friends, Anna Kurosawa and Mimi Teki." Sei introduced them. They said hello to each other.
"Okay; announcements," continued the teacher, "besides these new students, some people will come and see how this school works. Maybe they will come into this class, maybe they won't. Either way, be sure to give a good example and make me look as good as ever, understood?" The class laughed along with the instructor. Finally, the tardy bell rang, and the whole class started settling down. "Ready for the class to start?" Without waiting, the teacher walked up to the chalk board and began scribbling down the beginning of that day's notes.
The students took out their books a bit lazily. Then class started.
"You're home! Finally! I was starting to worry!" That was the greeting they received from Loz as soon as the three opened the door. It seemed he had been waiting by the door like a dog waiting for his master to come home. "I thought these two had after school detention."
Sei eyed Loz warily and laughing, she inquired, "Why?"
"Well, school ends at 3:45, and it's already 5:30! That's a long time to make me worry."
Sei shook her head; "I mean why you thought these two would give us any trouble?" Loz frowned at her questioningly, as if wondering if it wasn't obvious already.
"The reason why we took so long was 'cause her friends wouldn't let us go," said Kadaj tiredly slumping on a couch. "And then we still had to walk over here." A newspaper that had been covering Jake's form was now being folded and settled on the living room table.
"So, how was your first day of school?"
"Long," said Yazoo dropping his bag near his youngest brother.
"But fun; we have Sei for most of our classes," informed Kadaj.
"Really? Well, that sounds like fun."
"Sorta. I gotta hand it to you, Jake; you know what I noticed today? They're building an intergalactic nerd zoo in that place you'll like to call school." Said Kadaj, sighing.
"Why so?"
"We got some visitors. They were examining how we wrote, what we read, why we talked… and Yazoo's hair."
Yazoo stroked his silver strands of hair absent-mindedly as he himself recalled the happenings of the day. "It got tangled after so much touching…" the way he said it and his expression would've led anyone to believe it was a traumatizing experience for him.
Kadaj bursted out laughing; "yeah, he had to glare for them to leave him alone since you know… he couldn't kill or attack them."
Jake chuckled. "Well, sounds like you all had an overwhelming day at school today…" Jake looked at Sei carefully. She hadn't said a single word of contribution to their story; instead she was staring right down at him. "So… little sister… how was your day?"
"I don't know, waking up 'late' and getting there in record time and finding that I was early…"Jake could feel her evil aura rising around her as she added, "You know you're lucky I was too tired and lazy to come running all the way home again to hang you from one of the trees outside."
"SO! Who's hungry?" asked Jake, standing up and practically sprinting into the kitchen.
"I am!" said Kadaj. He looked at Sei. "You know, you're one good cook. What's your future career? You should work at a restaurant." He added. Sei raised an eyebrow at him.
"Excuse me?"
"Keep your rude comments to yourself; Sei is clearly not in the mood for your jokes, brother. Stop insinuating things." Yazoo was smiling at Kadaj strangely.
"Rude? Me? Seriously, I wasn't trying to imply anything; she's my friend; I respect her with all my being." He smiled sheepishly at them, leaned forward and demandingly tapping his hand on the table, he said "So, I would like some green tea and maybe a sandwich would be a very nice touch."
"Is that your way of showing respect?" yelled Sei. Kadaj looked at her surprised.
"No? Oh, excuse me, let me try again." He stood up and held a hand for Sei to take.
Sei's angry expression turned to a confused one. She didn't move her hand, but she still felt it being taken, and Yazoo's body was suddenly not near her anymore. Unexpectedly, she found herself being dragged out the front door and into the forest. "C'mon Sei, we're going out to eat," he was saying. "It's your treat!"
Yazoo and Loz stared at the open front door. "Where'd Sei and Kadaj go?" asked Jake, peeking into the living room.
"Kadaj… said he would take her out to eat." Said Yazoo.
Jake frowned. "Where did he get any money to buy anything?" he asked, already having a pretty good idea of the answer.
Yazoo shook his head. "He invited her," he said, "with her money."
"And you let him do that?" demanded Jake. "You know how crazy he is! She's not gonna be able to handle him on her own!"
They both looked at Loz who was seated silently on the couch and reading the newspaper Jake had been reading earlier. He looked up and shrugged. "Don't look at me like that. It's not my fault he has so much energy to waste."
"Uh… what are we doing at a soda shop?" asked Sei, when Kadaj offered her to sit down at a table.
"Quiet. I planned this to be fun," said Kadaj, coming back with two sodas and giving one to Sei.
She eyed her drink tentatively and fearing the answer, she asked, "And the fun starts where?"
Kadaj looked at Sei as he sipped from his soda. "I bought you a soda with a flexible straw."
Sei looked down at her own soda. She grabbed the straw, bent it in a lot of different directions and uttered, "Weee."
He laughed. He sipped more of his drink and then laughed again. "That's not funny," he said, trying to make a serious face.
"Then why are you laughing?"
"Cuz I don't know what else to do." Kadaj pushed his soda away. "This is getting us nowhere."
"I agree with that." Said Sei.
"I say we leave."
"I agree with that too."
Sei began to reach into her wallet for money, but Kadaj stopped her, saying he was just kidding earlier. When he pulled a couple of bills from his pocket, she asked him, "Where did you get money from?"
Kadaj looked at her and smiled. "Kurosawa likes to gamble," he said. Before she asked what he had bet in return, he said, "All or nothing." Laughing, she walked towards the entrance while Kadaj paid the drinks and then followed after her.
As they stepped out of the shop, they failed to see their surroundings and the people within the area. They paid no attention whatsoever, to the young woman at their left who saw how Kadaj acted seemingly possessive as he flung an arm around Sei's neck and led her to the forest. Alarmed, the woman flipped open her phone and dialed. The other line rang several times before it was picked up and a male voice said, "Hello?"
"Cloud, you're never gonna believe who I just saw," said Tifa.