Blue and White

Chapter One

 Sephiroth irritably swung his arm out at his alarm clock, which, true to it's name, was blaring out like the house was on fire.
Ugh. I swear, that thing is evil.
Fully awake, he listened. His mother, Jenova, was rustling around downstairs. He really could never explain how she managed to get up so early. She was insane.
He got ready for school, dressing in his normal black attire. It looked good on him, and in the cold atmosphere of northern Nevada, it was practical.
"Sephiroth, your breakfast is ready." His mother said, smiling sadly. His mother always smiled sadly. He figured it had something to do with his father leaving. He hated to think it, but he kind of understood why his father had left. His mother was...very, very anal.
Just picky. He reminded himself. She made him study for at least two hours every night, and watched while he completed his homework.
It got annoying after a while.
It didn't help that he was a dork at school. No one wanted to hang out with a freak who had eyes that practically glowed green, and hair that was already gray at fifteen. If the school had an honor roll, he would be in it, which didn't help him much.
He wasn't an overachiever, his mother was.
He sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes. His mother refused to let him cut it. It reminded her of his father, he guessed.
There was a knock at the door, and Sephiroth picked up his jacket and bag, and ran to the door.
"It's probably just Aeris to pick me up, Mom. I'll get it."
His mother frowned slightly, and then the expression was gone as she leaned over to give him a small kiss on the cheek. "Have a good day at school, dear."
Right. You try that some day. "Will do."
And with that, he bolted.

Aeris sighed and knocked again. Sephiroth's mother never got the point.
Jenova and Aeris never had gotten along. Jenova seemed to think that Aeris was a "bad influence" on her precious Sephiroth.
Hey, lady, Seph wore black before I got to him. That's not my fault.
Sephiroth and Aeris were the outcasts of the school. Most people were decent enough, but none offered to be friends.
Hell, Sephiroth and Aeris weren't even friends. They were two people who hung out for lack of anyone else to hang out with.
There were a few people who hung out with them every now and then. Chris, who had a crush on Aeris (And boy, could she tell.), was the most frequent visitor to their secluded hideout. His friends, Tasha, Sean, and Angel were most often accompanying him.
Tasha was just Tasha. She was decent to pretty much everyone who didn't piss her off. She and Sean were in ROTC with that bitch Tifa.
Sean was called Linehan. That was his last name. It was an ROTC thing, Aeris guessed, but she didn't see Linehan calling Tasha, Gonzales.
Angel was just Angel. He had a thing for a cheerleader, so he was the least frequent one to their area. He was pretty funny, though.
Aeris was pretty sure that Tasha had a thing for Sephiroth, but Tasha was pretty good in hiding it. She was most often accompanied to the area with Cid, her boyfriend, also in ROTC. The kid swore a lot, and smoked to boot.
Aeris liked Cid. He was coooool.
Sephiroth opened the door, looking harried. "Ugh. Let's go." They lived close enough to the high school to walk. They often saw Tasha walking to school, too, because they lived in the same apartments. She was often accompanied by that stupid whore, Tifa Lockhart.
Tifa was a bitch. She was in ROTC, and she hated Aeris with a passion. The worst part was that even though she hated Aeris, she was sickeningly sweet to her whenever she was forced to be within the same breathing space as her. And she was always quick to make out with her boyfriend, Rude. Also in ROTC. With a shaved head to boot.
ROTC's stick together. How sickening.
Tasha met up with them about halfway there, behind Blockbusters. No Tifa.
"Where's Airbags?" Aeris asked, smiling mean-spirited. Tasha rolled her eyes. "Who cares?"
Sephiroth grinned. "Good point."
Sephiroth hadn't minded Tifa until she'd walked by one day that Tasha happened to be hanging out with Aeris and the bunch. "Ewwww! Tasha, what are you hanging out with a crackwhore and a gray-haired freak for?"
Aeris had never liked Tasha more than that particular moment. It was funny.
"Oh, I always like to hang out with freaks and whores. That would explain why I hang out with you...right?"
Tifa had stomped off, pissed. Her boyfriend had smiled, slightly, at Tasha, and then followed her.
Rude was the cool sort. Aeris had no idea why he put up with Tifa, except for maybe her amazing, gravity-defying knockers.
That's gotta be it.
Speaking of gravity defying...
As soon as the trio walked into the school, they were accosted by a ball of hyper energy known as Yuffie Kisaragi, a cheerleader. Aeris and Sephiroth could tolerate Yuffie, as she was the only cheerleader who wasn't a bitch. She was also pretty cool. She took martial arts lessons and was old enough to buy cigarettes for Aeris, and was willing to do so. They often had to deal with her, because Tasha and Yuffie were pretty good friends.
"Tasha Tasha Tasha!!!!" Yuffie exclaimed, chipperly. "Gueeess what!!!"
Tasha smiled, and nodded towards Aeris and Sephiroth. "I'll see you two later."

Rufus walked down the hall, alone. As always.
Well, they wouldn't let him bring Dark Nation, his dog, to school, and it was the only friend he had.
For all of the tutoring his father had gotten him, for all of the money they had invested in making sure Rufus understood how the business world worked...they hadn't made sure he was nice, that he knew how to be friends.
By the time he was old enough to go to school (a private one at first, then, at Rufus's insistence, a public one) he knew the innermost workings of the stock market, but he didn't know how to comfort a fallen comrade when the swing decided to fling them from it's perilous arms.
No one liked Rufus Shinra. They all thought he was stuck-up, snobbish.
He wasn't! He really wasn't! He just didn't know how...
He felt the beginnings of tears at the corners of his eyes, and ducked into a small alcove, where the wrestlers meet. He slumped against the wall and began sobbing.