Rufus walked. Ugh. Walking. I could have had Jamison drive us to Sephiroth's house, but noooo. Sephiroth had to walk.
"Here we go." Sephiroth said, not all that brightly but not discouragingly, either. Rufus took it as an invitation and stepped inside.
"Wow...it's so...clean..." Rufus said, awestruck. "Do you have a maid?"
Sephiroth smiled, wryly. "Only my mom. She's a little...anal...about things being neat. She gets a hernia every time I set my backpack on the carpet...ooh, that reminds me, take off your shoes, or else Mom'll kill me."
Rufus complied, looking about him strangely.
Sephiroth walked out of the entrance hallway and into the dimly lit living room. The entire house seemed somewhat dreary.
"Mother! I'm home..." Sephiroth called out.
Jenova walked into the room. Rufus stared.
He couldn't help it. The woman was the kind of person you stared at.
She didn't really look strange. She was, perhaps, at one point, quite beautiful, but she had long since grown the lines of worry about the eyes, forehead, and mouth that made a person un-pretty. Her grayish hair was pulled up into an efficient bun, and no matter what expression she had on her face, be it smiling or frowning, she always looked sad.
That was part of what made people stare. She was so sad....
Another part was this aura of power. She seemed...magical.
Rufus shook his head. Strange.
"...Who's your friend, Sephiroth?" She asked, smiling...sadly, of course.
"Oh...um...This is my friend Rufus." Sephiroth said, quickly, and stressing the word friend.
"How nice." She said. "You can go play, but remember that at seven it's homework time." She waved them off.
"Yes, Mother."
"And don't make a mess."

His world had fallen into pieces.
And in less than an hour.
That had to be a record.
Vincent stood in the doorway to his bedroom, shaking his head. It all seemed so unreal...
"Honey! What's wrong?" His mother asked. Vincent smiled, wryly.
"Lucrecia." He said.
"Oh dear." Sasha Valentine sat down next to her son. "What happened? Did you two get into a fight?"
Vincent laughed, a hollow sound even to his own ears. "No. Nothing like that." His mom was just too nice, to naive...
"Oh. Well, I have some good news...." His mom trailed off. "Maybe."
Vincent shot a look at his mom at the "maybe." This could not be good.
"Your father called me today. He wants to come visit you."

Reno grimaced. He'd gone to Josh's house, hoping to talk to him about the police, and AA, but...
Josh had been out of it. Reno guessed ecstasy, but he wasn't sure.
Lauren was no better. Acid.
He sighed. No where to go.
What about the Club? A voice suggested in his head.
Yeah right. No one hangs out at the club...
Sure they don't. The voice sounded cynical. Just ask Tasha.
Hey...I could go hang out with Tasha.
What a genius.
With a sigh, Reno began walking in the general direction of the school.

Reeve typed at his computer. A laptop, of course.
He couldn't let his parents see stuff he downloaded. He had to have his own computer.
Laptops were so much more convenient.
Reeve's father was a fairly wealthy computer programmer, and his mother was the typical Japanese housewife. The family brilliance showed in Reeve, who was in all of the advanced placement classes the school had to offer. He'd taken Web Design and C++ Programming as a freshman, because he'd had three free classes. He'd taken extra high school classes in middle school.
He sighed. His group accepted him as he was. That was nice.
Of his friends, only Tasha and Cid knew about his slight attraction to other guys.
That was why he needed his own computer. Gay porn wouldn't be very well accepted in the Noyoko household.
He sighed again. His latest crush was also Japanese. He grinned. Tseng was beautiful. He looked feminine, but there was no doubt in Reeve's mind that Tseng could probably kick his ass. He'd been talking about his Samurai background and it made Reeve's family history of Ninja seem pale in comparison.
Then again, Reeve had never actually studied Ninja. He wasn't really physically inclined. His father was a master at it, and he knew one other Ninja at the school, a cheerleader. He rather thought that Ninja, while most popular, was still rather weak.
However, he wasn't going to tell his father that.
All of the sudden his phone rang. He frowned. These permutations could be tricky...and if he clicked on that link on the page he could get free porn.
He sighed and picked it up. "Hello?" He asked.
A small giggle came from the other end. "Hiya, Reevie-san!" Tasha said, and from the muffled way her voice came through, Reeve could tell she was on her speaker phone. "What's up?"
Reeve eyed the hang-up button on his phone jack. "Why?"
"Just cuuuz." He heard a giggle on the other side. It wasn't Tasha but it was rather female sounding. "Tseng is over and we wanted to know if you wanted to come hang out."
Reeve blushed at the reaction that information incited. "Uhhh...." His voice sounded choked. "Um, yeah, after I finish my homework."
"Great!" Tasha sounded bubbly. "I can invite some more people and we can call it a party."
"Great." He said.
"Hey, Tseng, will you go get me my address book from my room?" Tasha asked. Reeve heard Tseng's muffled reply, and then there was a clicking sound as Tasha picked up the receiver of the phone.
"Guess what?" She asked, whispering.
"What?"
"Tseng likes you." She giggled like a school girl and then hung up.
Reeve blushed and then went into his bathroom to get involved in the all-American favorite pastime.

Reno walked up to Tasha's house just as Vincent did, with Lucrecia. He was holding onto Lucrecia like he might lose her, and he wore a very angry look on his face.
"Hey, Lucrecia, Vincent....Vincent, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." He spat out, angrily.
"Yeah, that's gonna convince me." He said, narrowing his eyes.
Lucrecia sighed. "A lot of stuff has gone on today, Reno. Just...be patient."
Reno blinked. "Oh...okay." He looked around. "Why's everyone over here?"
Sephiroth and Rufus walked up. "Tasha called. Seems she's having a little get-together over here."
Reno looked at Rufus, strangely. Rufus attempted to ignore the look, but couldn't. He just ended up looking hurt.
Reno smiled, and clapped Rufus on the back. "Hey, man. How's it hangin'?"
Rufus grinned.

Reeve glanced across the crowded living room. Tseng was in the middle of a group of people who were all laughing.
He was so obviously gay. Now that Reeve had a chance to be around him, somewhat, he could tell.
Tseng had even borrowed a bit of Tasha's friend Beth's lip gloss, and tried it on.
He looked great in it.
Reeve sighed. This was getting no where. He stood up.
"Hey, Reevie-chan!" Tasha said, hugging him. Tseng smiled, delicately. Reeve ignored the "-chan" coming from Tasha, as they were rather close friends.
"Hello....Tasha, were you lying to me?" He asked, bluntly. She shook her head.
"No...go ahead and ask him." She gestured to Tseng, who widened his eyes and blushed.
"Tasha! You promised..."
Tasha smiled and left, gesturing to the others around her to leave the two alone.

Lucrecia smiled bravely.
Well, Vincent thought so, anyways. No one else knew about her cancer.
I'm going to lose her... He couldn't bear it. If she died...he'd die. He couldn't live without her.
And Stan wanted to come back into his life. Vincent curled his lips into a violent grin of distaste. Just let him come. He'd kick his ass.
His entire world had been turned upside down in one day, and everyone else was going on like it was just another day.
No. Today, Lucrecia got cancer. No. Today, Stan Valentine decided to attempt to be an actual father.
No. Today was not another day.

Aeris watched Vincent from the other side of the room. He kept making the most awful faces. She wondered, briefly, what was wrong with him.
Zack marched into the house with his tag-along Cloud, and all was forgotten...
For now.

Shera glared at the house.
Tasha's house, to be exact.
She'd been driving down the street, and had noticed Cid's beat-up old pickup truck heading in that direction.
And had followed him.
So Tasha was having a little get-together.
Shera narrowed her eyes. And she hadn't been invited...
Not that she wanted to be invited. But it still stung.
Footsteps..shit. Shera ducked behind some bushes that lined the front of the apartments. And heard voices.
"What's wrong, Vincent?" It was Tasha.
"Nothing." A masculine voice grumbled out.
"Come on, Vince. Something's wrong."
"It's...." And there was a cracking to the voice. "It's Lucrecia..."
Shera's eyes widened. Everyone knew of the infamous coupling of Lucrecia Samuelson and Vincent Valentine. It had shocked the entire school.
"She..." Vincent gulped. "She has leukemia."
"Oh my god..." Tasha said. Shera could see her now. "Oh my god..."
The stupid little slut couldn't even say anything other than that. At least she seemed genuinely upset. After all, Lucrecia and here were pretty close.
"And...my dad wants to come back..." Vincent turned his head, tears dripping off his eyelashes. "Today has been hell."
"Oh, no..." Tasha hugged Vincent to her, trying to comfort him as best as she could...it made Shera sick.
"Vincent, go back inside and sit with her." Tasha said, softly. "Just in case..."
"Yeah." Vincent choked out.
"And if Stan comes back, I'll kick his ass for you, okay?"
Vincent smiled, wiping his tears away. "Yeah...thanks, Tasha."
"No problem." Tasha said, smiling back.
Ugh. Shera felt like she was going to throw up.

Tasha stood there, stunned. Lucrecia...cancer? No...it couldn't be.
Then she saw a bit of movement in the shadows.
The turned and looked. Shera Niall was standing on her front walk.
Tasha smiled, wryly. That Shera hated her guts was no surprise to her. She'd had such a crush on Cid, and still did. And she'd been livid when he'd asked Tasha out.
Personally, Tasha rather thought that Cid and Shera would have made a funny-looking couple. Not that the two of them didn't, either, but Cid was so loving, funny, and pretty much a nice guy, where Shera was mean-spirited, boring, and analytical. She had few friends.
But Tasha shrugged it off. In fact, here was a chance to try and make friends.
"Hi!" She said, brightly. Shera looked at her, astonished.
"...Hello." she said, her voice so laced with menace that Tasha nearly lost her dinner.
"Wanna come in?" Tasha asked, gesturing to her house. Shera blinked, then smiled, maliciously.
"Of course." And as she walked past Tasha, Tasha got the feeling that she had just made a big mistake.