A couple more days passed and the hype surrounding the events at the Vestige still had yet to die down. Lightning and Serah walked across the busy parking lot, early this morning from accepting another ride from Snow. Lightning gave the now customary head nods and salutatory hand gestures to most of the kids who were now calling out to her or trying to get her attention. Serah had to chuckle to herself at the serious and non-welcoming expression that was plastered across her sister's face the entire time.

"Yoo hoo! Lightning! Lightning Farron!" a high-pitched voice called from across the lot.

Without even looking in the direction of the voice, Lightning just raised her hand over her head and wiggled it in a nonchalant waving motion. She had only gone a few steps before her path was suddenly blocked by a skinny blonde girl. "Lightning Farron!" the girl exclaimed with a smile. Lightning looked at her as if she were an alien, irked that she had jumped in front of them like that. "I was calling you from over there, but I guess you didn't hear me."

Lightning just continued to eye the girl with an aggravated look on her face. "Oh, you must not remember me. I'm Alyssa. Alyssa Zaidelle, junior class president."

"We're neighbors," Lightning stated, her facial expression never changing.

"So you do remember!" Alyssa's face lit up with a smile. She grabbed Lightning's hands and bounced excitedly.

Lightning's eyes dropped down to their conjoined hands. She obviously wasn't pleased. "Yeah… We used to have dress-up parties together as kids." Alyssa nodded enthusiastically, seemingly enthralled by every word that left Lightning's mouth. Light's face now shifted to one of uncertainty as they silently stood there. She slowly pulled her hands up, freeing them from Alyssa's surprisingly tight grasp. "Did you, uh, need something?"

"Oh! Tee hee hee," Alyssa laughed, or more like squeaked in Lightning's opinion. "I just wanted to say that I felt so bad after hearing about what happened at the Vestige. I mean, what if something happened to you and you were seriously hurt or locked away forever?! Then I'd never get a chance to rekindle the great relationship I had with one of my best, childhood friends!"

Lightning raised an un-amused eyebrow. "Yeah. That would just be tragic. Augh…" She gasped and rubbed her side on feeling Serah's elbow roughly nudge her in the ribs.

Alyssa tried to think of something else to say. She was losing ground fast and she knew it. Her eyes flitted up to catch notice of the light pink hair shared between the two girls. "Wait a second," she said, raising a finger. "Didn't you try out for cheerleading?"

Lightning gave her a look that blatantly read, "That is the very last thing that I would ever do," but the younger sibling lightly cleared her throat. "No, that would be me. I tried out for cheerleading. I didn't make it though. They said they only add one freshman on per year, and I wasn't it…"

"Ohh, that's soooo sad. But you do know, a free spot did open up on the squad recently! One of my best friends, Stacy, is the captain. She said they're looking for new blood. If I put in a good word and you do well during try-outs, you're guaranteed to make the team!"

"Really?" Serah's eyes almost popped out of her head. "You would do that?"

"Wellllll," Alyssa moved her finger up to her chin, a doubtful look on her face, "She would do it for me if she knew I was doing it as a favor to a close friend, but she's never seen me hanging around either of you before."

"Sounds like it wasn't meant to be," Lightning said, making a move to start walking again.

"BUT!" Alyssa quickly continued before Lightning could take a full step, causing the pinkette to stop and let out an aggravated huff, "if me and Lightning were to spend more time together, like eating lunch, walking to class with each other, hanging out… I'm sure she'd be more than convinced. And that way, we could also rekindle our long, lost friendship! What do you think?"

Lightning was not moved at all. She had personally had her fill of Alyssa from this conversation alone, but she could feel Serah's eyes boring into her. Her mind screamed at her not to look, but she couldn't help it. It was like those steely blues were magnets to her own clear ones… and looking into them was indeed the worst thing she could've done. Lightning had never seen the girl's eyes so big with want.

Serah had been through a lot this week. She had to deal with all of the tension in the house because of the Vestige ordeal as well as all the attention at school. She had attended to Lightning's every need on that Sunday after the event just because she knew how bad Lightning had felt afterwards. Yeah, the worst thing Lightning could've done was look into those eyes. Those were the same eyes that had looked so sad and tired on Monday morning when she had woken up early to cook them breakfast… the eyes of a little sister who dealt with all this shit without a single complaint.

Lightning sighed and tried to force a friendly look on her face. "I think it sounds charming."

"Yayyy!" Alyssa squealed. Serah beamed and hugged Light's arm. The loud ringing of the first bell sounded across the lot. Lightning had never been so happy to hear it and immediately took this as her chance to stride past with her sister in tow. "See you at lunch, new bestie!" Alyssa called, a mischievous grin on her face.

Lightning slid into her usual desk during history and started pulling some supplies out of her bag. She had just placed her notebook on her desk when she heard the desk behind her creak from someone's added weight. She stiffened. Despite her newfound popularity, no one had sat at that desk since Fang had claimed it as her own. She didn't expect the girl to be gone forever, but she hadn't exactly figured out how she would feel on her return. Sympathetic? Angry? Nonchalant?

She let out a determined, albeit unsure, breath and turned around to face the girl that was responsible for everything that she had been put through. Problem was, the girl that was responsible for everything that she had been put through wasn't sitting at the desk. It was an overweight boy with huge, puffy lips who she had homeroom with.

"Hi, Lightning."

"Hey, Craig." She turned back around, letting her shoulders relax. Mr. Palmer started pacing the room as he usually did when he lectured, only stopping to scribble some things on the board.

She felt somewhat relieved. For some reason, with each passing day that Fang missed school, the more anxious Lightning got about seeing her again. She knew that she couldn't have been expelled. Although Serah said that Vanille had missed the past couple days as well, if the redhead had shown up on Monday, then that meant both of them were still enrolled. And she probably would've heard from Serah as well if Fang had been placed in a hospital for head trauma or something. Maybe she just decided that public school wasn't for her.

Lightning let her thoughts about Fang run their course before she tuned back in to Mr. Palmer's lecture and started taking notes. About halfway through, the door at the front of the room slowly opened. Mr. Palmer paused and a look of dismay washed over his face. Whispers erupted as a long leg crossed the threshold and Fang appeared at the front of the class. Lightning stiffened once again and felt her chest constrict, making it harder to breathe.

"Well, look who finally decided to return from vacation." Mr. Palmer's voice was cold. Lightning could only surmise that he was angry with Fang as well. She had made him look like a fool to his colleagues, the whole student body, the police force, and the Vestige staff.

Fang didn't respond, but just handed him a note. Mr. Palmer snatched it out of her hand and quickly scanned it. He grunted then nodded towards the back of the class. "Take a seat."

Fang gripped the lone strap of her book bag that was slung over her shoulder and started to make her way to an empty desk in the back corner of the room. As she walked past the middle row of desks, she turned her head to the center of the room to lock eyes with Lightning for a brief moment before passing her.

Lightning's face felt hot and her breaths had gotten quick and shallow. She was so stiff that she felt she would snap. Just when she had gotten cozy with the fact that the Pulsian wouldn't show up today, she waltzed right through the door. And she looked good. NO. Lightning quickly reprimanded herself. Those weren't the words that she wanted to use. She looked well. From what she could tell, there were no bumps, cuts, or bruises on her head or face. She was perfect. Wait…

Lightning was in the midst of cursing her subconscious over its choice of vocabulary when she felt something poke her shoulder. She slightly turned her head to see that Craig was tapping her with a folded piece of paper. She checked to see if Mr. Palmer was looking her way before reaching back and taking it from the boy.

She carefully unfolded the paper on her desk and skimmed over its scribbled message: Need to talk to you. Meet after school? -Fang

Lightning's face grew hotter and her brows creased. She looked over her shoulder to the corner of the room, where Fang was staring intently back at her. The Pulsian nodded her head downward. Are you gonna answer it?

Lightning gritted her teeth and whipped her head back to her desk to scribble her reply: NO.

She reached behind her to hand the paper back to Craig to pass back along to the back row. Lightning kept her head slightly turned so that she could see Fang opening the note in her peripheral vision. She turned her head a bit more when she knew that Fang had read her response and was greeted by a confused look from the other girl, who then ducked her head to write something else down on the paper.

When Fang had finished, she reached over to pass the note along again. Unfortunately she did not notice that Mr. Palmer slowly made his way to the back of the classroom while lecturing. He leaned in next to Fang's desk and quickly snatched the note between his own long fingers and crumpled it, never breaking from his lecture. He then confidently strode to the front of the room, still talking, and nonchalantly dropped the note into the trashcan, leaving a slightly ticked looking Fang slumped at her desk.

Finally, the bell rang. Lightning jumped out of her seat and nearly flew out of the classroom.

Lebreau and Lightning found a free table outside and placed their lunch trays down. "Oh please, Light. Look at the lunch lady! The only reason she doesn't let anyone have any extra desserts is because she's saving them for herself!"

Lightning gave Lebreau a comical look and slightly arched an eyebrow. "She said they don't do that because they're trying to fight adolescent obesity."

"And I'm sure she is fighting adolescent obesity," Lebreau huffed, breaking off a piece of bread and stuffing it into her mouth. "One brownie at a time."

On the other side of the yard, Fang leaned across a different table as she held a quiet and short-lived conversation with Snow. "FANG!" Gadot shouted as he marched to the table, effectively interrupting the other two teens. "Heard you served some time! Meet any new friends? Did some big chick named Bertha have you sitting between her legs while she braided more of your hair?" Gadot flicked the lone braid on the side of Fang's head with a smile once he had gotten close enough.

"Gadot. Now you know the only woman whose legs I like bein' between is yer mum's. And she likes my hair better when it's not braided." Fang made quick squeezing motions with her hands. "Better grip."

"C'mon, man! Can we have one conversation where you don't bring my mom into it?" Gadot complained, dropping himself on the opposite side of the table.

"What can I say?" Fang asked with a slight shrug. "Woman's got me smitten. But uh, Snow. You sure?"

Snow stopped chugging from his mini carton of milk and nodded. "Yep. Positive. Everything's been pretty normal around here. Well, except for the whole Lightning deal. I think everyone's mistaking the whole broody, not wanting to deal with people vibe as bad-assery. They just can't get enough of her."

"Hmm," Fang hummed in a low voice. She turned so that she was now staring at the pink-headed girl across the yard. "I can imagine."

Back on the other side of the yard, Lightning's head quickly shot up on hearing her name being called. "Lightning! Oh, Lightning! Lightning, I remember!"

Lebreau's head rose as well, looking towards the source of the voice. "Oh, no…" Lebreau groaned. An extremely peppy Alyssa Zaidelle was skipping across the yard toward them.

"Light, why is the spawn of Satan calling your name?" Lebreau asked right as Alyssa jumped to a spot in front of their table.

Alyssa tilted her head and gave Lebreau a thin-lipped smile. "Oh hey, Le-hoe. You're looking as… classy as ever."

"Bite me."

"Don't want to catch anything."

Lightning buried her head in her hands. "Breau, I kinda agreed to spend more time with Alyssa as a way to help get Serah on the cheerleading team."

Lebreau peered at Alyssa skeptically. "There's an open spot on the cheerleading team?"

"Don't get your hopes up, Breau-Breau." Alyssa crossed her arms. "As much as I know you love any activity that requires your legs flying open, I'm pretty sure that I can guarantee Serah the spot."

Lebreau ignored the comment and slit her eyes at Alyssa. "Who got kicked off?"

"Tamara had to leave for personal reasons."

"This have anything to do with the weekend at the movies rumor? Is it mono?"

"No, her mom's transferring her to boarding school."

"Bet'cha she wishes she just walked away with mono instead."

Alyssa gave Lebreau a disgusted look and quickly shifted her focus back to Lightning, whose face looked as pained as someone who was getting teeth pulled. "Anywho, I wanted to tell you that I remem—wait a second. Why is the Pulsian girl walking in this direction?"

Lebreau turned in her seat to look behind them. "Oooh. Fang's coming over."

Lightning turned her head to look as well. Alyssa became agitated by all the interruptions but still tried her best to regain Lightning's attention. "As I was saying, I was on my free period thinking about times past when I remem—"

"Hey." Fang had arrived at the table and inadvertently cut into Alyssa's story. Alyssa gave the newcomer a menacing look that Fang didn't seem to notice. She gave everyone at the table a little wave but only made eye contact with Lightning. "I've, uh, been tryna get a hold of you all day. There's something that I kinda need to talk to ya in private about. When you have free time, that is. It's pretty important."

Lightning's eyes were hard to read, but Fang could feel a coldness emanating from them. Alyssa's gaze flitted impatiently from Lightning to Fang. "Ugh," She had gotten tired of waiting. She had something to say and she wanted to say it now! "Claire!"

Lightning's head whipped back around to Alyssa, her eyes were wide and looked horror stricken. Alyssa smiled on getting such a strong reaction. "See? That's what I was trying to tell you! I remember now!" She pointed giddily at Lightning while bouncing on her toes. "You're Claire!"

Fang's face crinkled in slight confusion. "Nooo…" She said slowly, loosely pointing a finger at the pinkette as well. "She's Lightnight."

"LIGHT-NING!" The pink-haired girl exclaimed, forcefully enunciating each syllable.

Alyssa crossed her arms and looked at Fang as though studying her. "And you. You're Tooth, right?"

"Heh, close enough. I know you as well." She now pointed at Alyssa, who smiled back at her in a self-assured way. "Yer the one I didn't vote for."

"Haha! Yessss!" Lebreau sniggered, reaching a hand out behind her for Fang to playfully tap in a low five.

Alyssa's smile faltered for a brief moment before turning sweet again. She clasped her hands in front of her and tilted her head innocently. "Aww, that's so adorable. They let the Pulsian vote."

That wiped the smile clean off Fang's face. Her body tensed and a low growl rumbled in her throat. Alyssa coolly smiled back, a challenging look in her eye. Fang opened her mouth to speak and made a threatening move forward, but before she could finish either action, a hand had gripped her wrist and was dragging her across the yard. She spun around and dumbly followed the head of pink that led the way.

Alyssa lifted her finger to her chin as she curiously watched Lightning forcefully lead Fang across the yard. "Hmm… So she just so happens to be friends with Fang… I wonder what most of the school's stance is on the Pulsian integration," she thought aloud.

"Pssssttttt." Alyssa was jolted from her thoughts by Lebreau, who was now leaning across the table and giving her a scrutinizing look. "Why are you still here?"

"Ugh," Alyssa shook her head one final time in disgust and walked away.

Meanwhile, Lightning and Fang marched together until they rounded a corner into an empty area of the property between one of the school's outer walls and a gate. "I didn't know you were friends with Little Miss Bowl Cut," Fang said, looking back over her shoulder in the direction they had just left. Lightning stopped walking. She roughly threw Fang's wrist back and tightly folded her arms across her chest. Her eyebrows were raised yet still slanted downward in an upset and exasperated fashion.

Fang was caught a bit off guard by the hostility, but only took a second to regain her composure. "Well, uh, yeah. There's somethin' important I've been wantin' to talk to you about."

Lightning didn't respond nor did she show any emotional reception to the statement. Instead, her eyes curiously roamed over Fang's face. "That's why I asked if you had time after school," Fang continued slowly, watching the shorter girl with an unsure and somewhat confused expression on her face.

Lightning slightly shifted to her right to study one side of Fang's face before shifting to her left to quietly study the other side. Fang had never felt so self-conscious in her entire life and actually felt her cheeks warm up from all the attention.

Lightning's eyes stopped wandering around Fang's face. They rested for a quick moment on the girl's bandaged upper arm but then flew back up to meet Fang's emerald eyes. "Are you hurt?"

"What's that?" Fang was definitely not expecting the question. Lightning's eyes never wavered. They stayed locked on hers.

"Your head. Does it hurt?"

"Oh. No, actually, it's perfectly fi—"

SMACK!

It felt as if someone had lit the left side of her face on fire. Fang's head quickly flung to the side from the force of the slap. "Augh… Guess I deserved that." Fang slowly turned her head back to face Lightning when once again…

SMACK!

This one sent a much sharper pain up her cheek than the first one did before totally numbing it out. "Holllllyyyyyy behemoth tits, that one stung!" Fang jumped around in place with balled fists before settling down and letting out a few quick breaths.

"Do you know how much trouble I got in because of you? And then you have the nerve to ask if I want to talk to you after school? No! I can't stay after school because I'm punished for the crime I committed because of you!"

"In all fairness, any minute that ya have to spend on school property after the last bell rings should count as punishment anyway," Fang said, watching Lightning's right hand warily as she stretched her jaw.

Lightning shot Fang a sour look. "Do you even care? I stood up to my father for you. He pulled strings to have you guys released early and all you can do is make jokes?"

"Well excuse me if I don't start singin' praises to Colonel Farron and get on the floor to kiss his boots," Fang mumbled. It had been a low utterance but it was still loud enough for Lightning to hear and from the heated look that took over the girl's eyes, Fang immediately realized she had said the wrong thing.

"You'd still be in that prison if it weren't for him!"

"I'm a minor who was trespassing. I shouldn't have been in a PSICOM prison in the first place."

"No, you wouldn't have been there in the first place if you hadn't attacked a group of officers."

"Hey!" Fang's cool demeanor instantly shattered and she was now in Lightning's face. "I was defending myself." Lightning rolled her eyes but Fang quickly darted down to follow them, not wanting to lose direct eye contact. "How did you come to when you woke up in the Vestige, hmm? Pat on the back? Gentle shake? I woke up with a boot crushin' my windpipe. I woke up barely being able to breathe! But ya know what? Yeah. That's definitely how I would go about handling the oh so dangerous unconscious kid on the floor too! All I gave them was a couple love taps compared to what I got."

"Hmph. You keep playing the victim, but you don't look that scathed to me," Lightning grumbled.

"What?! You don't even—ahhhh!" Fang turned away from Lightning as one of her hands shot up to grab the bandaged part of her opposite arm. Out of the blue, her brand had started burning, almost as if it had been caught up in the heat of the argument as well. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down and hoping that the pain in her arm would subside too.

After a moment, she heard Lightning release a pent up breath from behind her as well. "You're right."

"Hm?" Fang slightly turned to look at Lightning again. The pink-haired girl's eyes were focused on the ground and her face was somewhat scrunched in deep thought.

Light's eyes slowly rose back up to meet Fang's. "You're right. It's not fair—not right how they treated you. You didn't deserve that." The right side of Fang's mouth rose into a barely-visible, appreciative semi-smile at the statement. It wasn't an apology for what had happened; Lightning had nothing to apologize for in that matter. It was more of an acknowledgement, or a bit of an apology on behalf of society. Fang could tell it took a lot for Lightning to say it. "But if you know the scale isn't tipped in your favor, it doesn't help that you provoke people the way you do."

"Heh, everybody says that," Fang laughed quietly. "But I am sorry too. I didn't mean for everything to pan out the way it did. And I am thankful for you helping to bail us out like that. I really am. But something else has kinda come up. Something big. So I just gotta ask… Have there been any, uh, I dunno. Weird-goings-ons with you?"

"Weird-goings-ons?" Lightning didn't comprehend. Her whole life had been a weird-goings-on since the Vestige mess.

"I mean, have strange things been happenin' that you just can't explain? That ya think you might'a caused? Like people getting sick or, or something?"

Lightning rubbed a tired hand over her face. "Fang, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Fang gritted her teeth and desperately looked around as if waiting for a better explanation to physically pop out of the bushes. Her thumb rubbed against the bandage on her arm that her other hand was still holding. Suddenly her face picked up in realization. "How 'bout this? Have you noticed any strange mar—"

"Lightning?" Alyssa's head appeared from around the corner of the wall. Fang muttered something under her breath and threw her hands in the air. "Oh, Lightning, there you are! I hate to interrupt what looks like such an important conversation, but lunch is almost over and it's important that Stacy see us sitting together as much as possible with one of the home basketball games approaching so soon. Don't you agree?"

Lightning sighed and looked over to Fang. She seemed drained from the conversation, but much less wound up and tense than she had before. Maybe those two slaps did help her feel better. "No, Fang," she finally said. "Besides the obvious, nothing weird has been going on."

Alyssa smiled at Fang then reached her hand out. Lightning reluctantly took it, not even trying to put on a happy face, and was swiftly pulled away by the student president.

When the two had disappeared, Fang let out a loud, exasperated breath and reached up to put her hands on her head, slowly pacing around the empty space. Her whole chest felt warm. She put her arms down and idly stroked the bandage again. It had grown abnormally warm as well. Fang let a shiver run through her body before straightening up and confidently striding back out onto the yard. In the heat of the argument, she could've sworn that she heard a faint roaring in her ears.