Yuffie jumped. She always jumped.
Then again, it was a Thursday night. That meant basketball.
Which meant she donned her short skirt and the rest of her cheerleading paraphernalia, and jumped. In front of a crowded group of CHS students who were cheering their team along.
She loved cheering. It wasn't the popularity, it wasn't how sexy she felt in that uniform.
No. It was that she was in front of that crowd, and they responded to her whole-heartedly.
What a rush, man!
She could see Tasha in the tiers. She was with Sean Linehan, Chris MacMahon, and Lisa Loe. The four of them had done a color guard for that game and the color guard gets in for free.
But what caught Yuffie's eye more was the splotch of red near Tasha.
Reno looked very inconspicuous, except for that hair.
How Yuffie loved his hair.
During the break, when the cheerleaders could go mingle, Yuffie set out for the ROTC's.
Reno turned and smiled at her when she arrived. "Hello."
She grinned. That evening on the rooftop at Tasha's house had been nice. They had talked all night and seen the sun come up. He hadn't even known she was a cheerleader until Tasha told him today.
She'd never liked a boy who hadn't been popular, who hadn't liked her because she was popular. It was a wonderful feeling.
It just seemed right to be with Reno.
Tasha had once used a word to describe the coupling of Zack and Aeris's not-so-inconspicuous love affair. Soul-mates. It pinged through Yuffie whenever she was around Reno.
Reno grinned at her, turning on his charm. She was perfect. Her name, her body, her attitude...he loved it.
He loved her.

Tasha grinned, sourly. Lisa and MacMahon had hooked up, and so were Yuffie and Reno. Linehan got a girlfriend. What the hell? Tasha breaks up and everyone else gets a boyfriend.
Today sucked.
Yesterday had been kinda cool, telling Shera off like that, but today felt like a hangover.
Sarcasm hangover. Ugh. The worst kind.
This had probably been the worst week she'd ever had in her life.
Cid was gone...
Lucrecia was dying....
Vincent was suicidal...
Aeris was doing drugs...
Tasha frowned. She'd walked in on Aeris smoking a joint in her bathroom. It had been the last straw.
"What the fuck are you doing?" She'd exclaimed. Aeris had simply looked back at her with bleary, reddened eyes.
"Do you know how much I'm going out on a line for you?" She said. "My parents are getting home in two days, and they might not be too happy to find out that I've taken someone in without their permission. The least you can do is be a legal someone!"
Aeris nodded, and dropped the joint down the sink. Tasha had a suspicion, however, that she was smoking outside of the house.
It was enough to make Tasha want to begin smoking again!
At least everyone else was happy. Reno and Yuffie were getting together. Linehan had his little girlfriend. Lisa and MacMahon seemed to be hanging on each other an awful lot. Aeris and Zack had a thing going.
Tasha sighed, and turned back towards the game.

Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"He's what?" He asked his mother, dangerously.
"Your father is coming into Carson tomorrow." She said, uninterested. "He's going to stop by around four. He'd like to see you."
Vincent sighed, and threw himself onto his bed. It was all going to hell.
His computer beeped from the corner of his room. An instant message.
It was Cid.
Most of his friends had usernames for AOL. Vincent was DontGiveAcrap. It was an impulse.
Cid was HighwindFlyBoy. His last name, and the fact that he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up.
Tasha was PUNKisNotDead. She was a big fan of punk rock music.
BellsNchimes was Lucrecia. She was in band.
Reeve had one, too. NinjaReeve202. He didn't use it often, though.
There were a few others, but these were the people he talked to most.

HighwindFlyBoy: Hey, what's up?
DontGiveAcrap: Ugh. Bad day. My dad's coming into town.
HighwindFlyBoy: Are you kidding me?
DontGiveAcrap: Nope.
HighwindFlyBoy: Want me to kick his ass?
DontGiveAcrap: *grins* Thanks, but Tasha already offered. She can do more damage.
HighwindFlyBoy: ...That she can.
DontGiveAcrap: Oops. Sorry.
HighwindFlyBoy: No problem. I just miss her, is all.
DontGiveAcrap: Did she tell you about Lucrecia?
HighwindFlyBoy: What about her?
DontGiveAcrap: She's sick. Really sick.
HighwindFlyBoy: How sick is really sick?
DontGiveAcrap: ....Terminal sick. She might die.
HighwindFlyBoy: Are you kidding me? Goddamnit, don't fucking lie.
DontGiveAcrap: No, I'm not. She has luekemia.
HighwindFlyBoy: Holy shit.
DontGiveAcrap: Yeah.
HighwindFlyBoy: Hey, I'm gonna come over, okay?
DontGiveAcrap: Be my guest. Everyone else is.
HighwindFlyBoy: I'll be over in a few.

Vincent sighed. He was taking it out on Cid, and that wasn't right.
But so much shit was going down.
What was he going to do?

Yuffie grinned. He was so cute. And so romantic!
He'd taken her for a car drive in the hills. He had a big old four-wheeler, and he'd taken them all the way up to the top of C hill. The moon was full, and Carson looked so small from up here....
She sighed, happily. He was so....so...
Soulmates....
She grinned.
"Yuffie, I have to tell you something." Reno began, shakily.
"What?" Yuffie didn't like the sound of that.
"I...I'm.." Reno turned away. "I have a problem. It's kind of serious. And I want you to know before I ask you out."
Yuffie nodded, slowly. "What's wrong, Reno?"
"...I have a disease. It's called Alcoholism." He said, shortly.
Yuffie frowned. "It's a disease?"
Reno nodded. "I'm trying to get sober again. Tasha helps me, a lot. And I go to meetings."
She smiled. "Then there shouldn't be much of a problem, right?"
He smiled. "I just want you to know, and I hope you don't think less of me because I can't control my drinking..."
She hugged him. "Of course not. Everyone has faults, Reno." She grinned. "And what was this about asking me out?"
Reno smiled.

Aeris frowned.
Tasha was being nice, and she understood that, but she really needed to get high.
Zack frowned, as well. "Aeris, you shouldn't do that stuff. The drinking is bad enough."
She shrugged.
Reno stared at her. "Pot? Aeris, do you know what that shit does to your brain cells?"
She shrugged again.
Reeve narrowed his eyes. "Aeris, that isn't good for you. We just care."
No, it wasn't an intervention. She had told Zack at lunch that Tasha had made her stop smoking weed.
And now everyone was on Tasha's side.
She sighed. "Whatever." Turning on her heel, she stalked off, to her old hang out.
Where no one was. Where she could be alone.
And where she could smoke her weed in peace.

Zack sighed. What was he going to do with her?
Nothing. That's what. He never asked her to do anything. He never would.
"What are you going to do, Zack?" Reno asked, hugging his new girlfriend to him. Yuffie nodded, as well, a concerned look in her eyes.
"I don't know." He lied. "I've known Aeris since we were little and I've never known about this."
"Really?" Yuffie asked. "It's kind of known around the school. I just thought she'd stopped by now."
"I don't know what's going on with her." Zack said. "She's been more moody than usual lately."
Reeve shrugged. "Just leave her alone for a while. It's what she wants."
Zack nodded, and let his mind wander.

The sun was bright, and really hot.
His mom smiled at him. "Zack! Happy birthday!" And with that, the group of kids started singing "happy birthday."
He smiled. He was going to get a whole bunch of presents!
There were two little girls standing to the side. He didn't know them.
His mom smiled. "Here, Zack! A present from Ifalna and her little girls!" The two little girls smiled, shyly.
Zack opened it up to reveal a neato Transformers set. He looooooved the Transformers!
The little girls were pretty. They probably didn't have cooties.
"Hi!" He said, brightly. The two girls, who looked exactly alike, smiled.
"Hi." They said, whispering.
"What're your names?" He asked, smiling. "I'm Zack." He stuck out his hand like he'd seen the adults do.
"I'm Aeris." The girl on the right said.
"I'm Aerith." The other girl frowned. "Did you like our present? Mommy said you like Transformers."
"Yeah, I love 'em!" Zack exclaimed, happily. Aeris smiled back, shyly. Aerith snorted, and walked off to play with some of the other little kids who were squealing around the playset.
"Wanna be friends?" Zack asked.
"Sure!" Aeris said, excitedly.
"How old are you?" Zack asked, again. No way could a girl be older than him...well, except for his mom.
"Six. But I'm turning seven in a month!"
"Hey, I'm older than you! By a month!" Zack said.
"Yep." Aeris replied.

It was in January.
Late January, the kind of dreary day where it's rainy and cloudy, and warm, but not warm enough to melt the snow all the way, just some.
Zack and Aeris were practicing the guitar. They were both twelve. Aeris wanted to start a punk band, Zack a heavy metal band.
Her father, Aerith, and her mother had gone to the store.
It was raining, slightly, more slush than rain, but not really sleet, either. Dangerous to drive in.
They interwove their melodies, the notes fitting together perfectly.
Just like them.
The phone rang some two hours later. Zack answered it. It was Aeris's cousin.
He was crying.
Jason Gainsborough never cried. He was pretty tough.
"I need to talk to Aeris." He stuttered out. Zack handed the phone to Aeris.
She went sheet white and crumbled to the floor, sobbing.
Zack picked up the phone and asked what had happend.
"Aerith, Ifalna, and John. They got into an accident on the way home..." Jason's voice was clouded. "She's gonna have to come live with my dad for a while."
"Why, until they get better?"
"No...They died, Zack. They're all dead."

Jason was seventeen when it happened.
Aeris was twelve.
She was formally adopted by Chase Gainsborough and his wife Elmyra when she was thirteen.
Elmyra died three months later. Zack had a sneaking suspicion that it had been Chase who killed the kind-hearted woman, but Aeris had never told him anything.
Jason moved out after that, and fast. His mom was gone, and he had nothing left there. He tried to take Aeris with him, but Chase wouldn't let him.
She stopped beleiving in herself after that. Zack was her only friend, and she was pushing him away from her.
Pretty soon, they rarely spoke. Whenever Zack would call her she would be distant and would cut the conversation off short, but once he heard Chase yelling at her, drunkenly, from the background to get the fuck off the phone and make him dinner.
He'd sworn to be there for her a long time ago. He wasn't going to stop....

"Hey, Zack, what's up?" A hand waving in front of his face brought him back to reality.
"Huh?"
cloud Strife stood in front of him, his spikes taking up a large portion of Zack's field of vision. "What, Cloud?"
"Come on! You're gonna be late to football class. The bell rang like an hour ago."
"Fine." Zack forgot about his daydreaming and tried to stay focused on the present.
Tried.