Sephiroth had Chemistry with Mr. Mitol first period, along with Rufus. Most of the first month of school had been relearning the basics, most of which was reiteration for Sephiroth.. But today was exciting. Today...they were chosing lab partners.
Sephiroth didn't even get up. He simply sat in his chair, as everyone expected him to. No one wanted to get paired with the freak, or the rich boy, who also sat alone, so they all hurried to find friends or non-enemies to partner with.
So it was logical that Rufus and Sephiroth would get paired with each other.
They sat at their table uncomfortably, a table which was blessidly near the back. Mr. Mitol was going over some procedures when the door opened quietly. So quietly, in fact, that Mr. Mitol didn't notice the newest addition to his class for a full minute.
"Oh!" He exclaimed. "You must be one of our new foreign exchange students." The boy nodded sharply.
"Class, this is our new student, an exchange student from Japan." Mr. Mitol blinked absentmindedly, and then turned to him. "Tseng, right?"
"Yes, sir." The boy said, shyly.
"Wonderful...." Mr. Mitol said. He scanned the room. "Go sit over...there...with Sephiroth and...uh, Rufus." Sephiroth's head shot up. "He's the one with...um, the grey hair."
Sephiroth gritted his teeth. Not only was he getting ragged on by the teacher (rather absentmindedly, though...) but now he wasn't going to be able to talk to Rufus by himself.
Tseng walked towards the pair, gracefully, with the gait of someone who either danced or fought. He sat next to Sephiroth, and smiled shyly. "Hello."
Sephiroth was going to say something, but Rufus beat him to the punch. "Hey. What's up?"
Tseng let out a breath of air, and Sephiroth realized that he was very nervous. His entire attitude changed. "Hey." He nodded at him.
"You're...Sephiroth...right? And you're...Rufus?"
They nodded acceptance. "Unfortunatly." Sephiroth said, narrowing his eyes.
"What?" Tseng asked, confused.
"We aren't the most...uh, popular people at this school." Rufus said, by way of explanation.
Tseng smiled in releif. "Oh, good. I'll get along with you then. No one liked me at my old school, either."
"Why?" Sephiroth didn't understand kids sometimes. This guy was nice.
"Well, my mom and dad wouldn't let me cut my hair...."
"Really?" Sephiroth asked. "My mom won't let me cut mine, either. I think it reminds her of my dad...."
"My father says that the samurai doesn't cut his hair, that's something girls do."
"Samurai?" Rufus asked, attentive.
"My family stems from Samurai background." Tseng said, eyes shining with pride. "We're very good at it."
"That's cool!"

Shera smiled as she glided down the hall. Various people would say hello to her. She walked past them without a thought.
She headed towards the upstairs cafeteria....where Cid was.
And walked in just in time to see him kiss that stupid bitch Tasha.
Shera had no idea why Cid would be attracted to a slut like Tasha. It was a known fact that before high school she had done various drugs, slept around, and nearly dropped out of school. So what if she was clean now? The past can come back to haunt you.
Cid would probably catch an STD if he slept with Tasha. If. Shera refused to beleive that he had already. He had more sense than that!
She glided past the cafeteria, winking at Cid while Tasha's back was turned.
Her last vision of him before she exited was of him frowning at her, confused.

Vincent bit his lip. The hospital, where he'd sworn he would never go to again...
Only this time, it was Lucrecia who was sick, not him.
He'd called Joshua, who informed him in his stoic way that Lucrecia had collapsed in school this morning in her A1 class. She'd been rushed to the hospital, and she was now there, requesting his presence.
Vincent left school at nutrition.
The waiting room smelled strange. Kind of new and old at the same time. New plastic furniture, old diseases. It was unsettling. And it brought back bad memories.
He shook it off. It's for Lucrecia.
"Vincent Valentine?" A young nurse called out. Vincent stood up. She smiled at him.
"You can go see her now."

Everyone was being nice to her. Aeris was unused to being treated nice.
She didn't understand it. She was used to being treated like trash, and used to treating other people like trash. That was the way the world worked.
...Right?
Appearently not. Everyone smiled at her, included her in their conversations, and was in general very nice.
She felt very strange.
The new kid, the one with the strange accent....Uh...Tseng, yeah. He kept staring at a member of Tasha's group. Reeve Noyoko was handsome, but...Well, Aeris wasn't very good at gaydar anyways.
At Project C last year she'd ditched. But appearently everyone decided to be nice to gay people. Aeris was pretty sure that Tseng was gay. It just didn't seem normal.
She didn't much have a problem with gay people. They were just other, normal people. She had more important things to worry about.
But Reeve...
Poor Tseng.

Nanaki wandered. His United States parents were the naive sort. They'd given him money to spend on lunch, and didn't think that maybe Nanaki wouldn't feel like eating, or that he'd perhaps brought something of his own.
He was passing through an area near the bridge that crossed over the main quad area, a cafeteria of some sort, when he noticed a girl with long, braided brown hair glaring malevolently at a girl and her boyfriend. She got a sort of wry smile on her face and walked out of the room, winking at the boy before she left.
How intriquing....
Nanaki stealthily wove his way after the girl.

Tifa stormed up to the cafeteria. She'd finally gotten to school at lunch.
She had to talk to Rude.
"Where the fuck were you last night?" she demanded. He did an about face and looked down at her.
"..."
"Can it with the silent killer bullshit, Rude. Where the fuck did you go?"
"...."
"I'm serious, Rude! Someone took my clothes!"
Rude smiled, grimly. "No one asked you to take them off."
"Is that what this is all about?" Tifa asked, rolling her eyes. "You know how I act when I get drunk."
"Yes, I do." He said. "You need help, Tifa."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means it's over, Tifa." Rude turned from her. "Come back when you're sane."
Tifa stared at the back of his head, willing him to turn and take back everything he'd just said.
He didn't.
She turned and walked from the cafeteria in utter humiliation.
No one saw her tears.

Reno heard the idea for a party this weekend. It was like an instinct. He knew when there was a party.
He groaned. How was he going to stay clean if he wanted to go partying?
He slouched in his chair. Tasha came up to him.
"What's wrong?"
He smiled, wryly. "The party. I can't go."
"Why not?"
"BeCAUSE." He slouched even further. "I don't trust myself."
Tasha smiled. "I don't drink. I could be there for you."
Reno looked at her and smiled. "Really?"
"Of course. We may belong to different programs but it's the same twelve steps, right?"
Reno smiled. "Thanks."
"For what? The party?"
"No. For believing that I can do it."
"I know you can, Reno. After all, my dad did it, and he was doing it for thirty years. You're only sixteen."

Lucrecia picked at the lint on her blanket. How would she tell Vincent?
He would go to peices. He wouldn't know what to do. He'd freak out.
But he had every right to know.
"Hey, sweetheart!" Vincent said, planting a kiss on her cheek. She smiled at him.
"Did they find out what it is?"
He has every right to know...every right...
"I...Yeah, they did." I...I...I've..I'm...
"What's wrong?" Vincent asked, strained. He wanted more than anything for Lucrecia to say that it was an accident, that she had just forgotten to eat that morning. The worse thing that popped into his mind did so at that moment.
Shit...what if she's pregnant? Josh'll kill me...."
"They know what's wrong with me, Vincent." She turned to him. "I...."
"What's wrong, honey?"
"...I have cancer."