I don't own Final Fantasy or American Mcgee's Alice

It's been more than two weeks and Cloud was still surprised at how nice and supportive his new classmates were, even Snow. He liked them so much that the thought of going back to B was abhorrent, even if Claire and Squall were there. When the spiky haired boy told Claire about his decision to stay she yelled at him, called him a traitor and pretended he was invisible. At first Cloud was hurt, but he realized that she was angry and scared that she was going to lose him. To show her that he will always be by her side, he talked to her every break, even if he did all the talking.

'She still refuses to talk to me,' Cloud thought bitterly. The golden haired teen had enough of being ignored and he began to feel abandoned and angry. 'Seriously, she is overreacting, it's like I've told the entire school of her stupid crush. She doesn't have the right to influence my decisions and how couldn't she see the big picture? Graduating high school from an advanced class could do wonders to a résumé for college. How can she be so selfish, that she would ask me to give up this opportunity so that I can hold her hand as she finally tells him that she has a crush on him?! I should tell her this so that she may know what I think and feel…Yeah, I will tell her, immediately after this period is finished.'

As soon as the bell rang, Cloud exited the class before most of the people could stand up from their seats and found the pink haired girl near the chemistry lab talking to Fang.

He approached her and tapped her shoulder. "We need to talk," he said seriously

"Ahem, excuse me, but we were having a conversation," Fang said annoyed, her hands resting on her hips, to emphasize that fact.

"And I just ended," replied the blue eyed teen hotly, subtly daring the bronze skin teenager to argue and without warning he grabbed his friend's arm and dragged her away.

"I'll be right back," Claire told Fang in order to reassure her friend that there won't be necessary to kill Cloud in order to get her back. Once they put distance between them and Fang, Claire yanked her hand free. "What the hell?!"

"Look, I understand that you were upset and thought that I abandoned you, but this is too much. I've come every break and talked to you, I've send you countless messages to show you that I'm still your friend and that being in a different class won't change that and all I've got in return was the silent treatment. You know, it's not alright to influence people choices and I know you haven't figure out what are you going to do after high school, but I have and me being in that class will help me get into the university I want. I can't be friends with someone who will do anything in their power to get in my way. So you either accept the fact that I'm part of 10A now or we're no longer friends!" he said breathlessly after he finished his little speech waiting for an answer from a jaw-dropped Claire. "Well?"

Claire dropped her head in shame and said nothing. Thinking that she won't say anything to him, the golden haired teen was about to leave when he was pulled into a hug by the aqua eyed girl. "You're right," she mumbled into his shirt, but Cloud heard it. "You have the right to choose and I got in the way of your choice and tried to persuade you otherwise. I'm a horrible person, you don't deserve me," she said and the boy whose hair defies gravity knew she was about to cry.

"You're not a terrible person, I just overreacted. You're one of the nicest persons I've ever met," Cloud could feel how her hold on him tightened after he spoke the last sentence. "When you stopped talking to me I felt miserable and my little rant earlier was just something that came out at anger."

"How can you say that I'm a good person after what I've put you through?"

"People make mistakes, and I can forgive. Don't worry about," Cloud told her smiling.

His smiling was contagious and Claire found herself smiling as she looked at him. "Has anyone ever told you how a great person you are?"

He shrugged. "Julie told me a few times."

"Well, let me say it too. Cloud, you're the greatest person I ever met and I'm the luckiest person alive to have you as a friend and I'm unworthy of your friendship."

At the mention of the word friend, Claire wanted nothing more than to disappear and it took all her of her will not to break down right there and then.

"Stop it!" Cloud said, seeing how miserable she was. "I forgive you."

The aqua eyed teen pulled her friend into a hug, not caring if the whole school was watching if he was watching. At that moment it was just the two of them the rest of the world seemed frozen in time for them.

"Better now?" the sky blue boy asked

"Yeah."

"Good. Now go to class. I'll see you later."

Claire was copying what the French teacher wrote on the table. As she was writing her thoughts were on a certain spiky haired teenager. The sixteen year old girl felt terrible for almost ruining their friendship over something this stupid. How could she be so selfish? She tried to convince him to pass down a chance that could have a positive effect on his CV and then she acted as the victim. True she didn't realize it, but that was no excuse. And in the end, instead of ditching her, he came and after he spoke his mind he tried to mend their friendship. And that's the thing that hurt the most. 'If only you would know what I did to you Cloud I doubt you're going to still by my side…'

A student came in and informed the teacher some parent wanted to talk to her. Once the teacher left the class, the students started to talk amongst themselves.

"Hey Claire," a girl named Florence called

"Yes," the said person replied coolly. She didn't have the disposition to deal with the girl's crap.

"What's going on between you and Strife?" she asked and Claire notice how the class got quiet.

Claire could feel her cheeks heating up as she answered. "Nothing. We're just friends," she said simply

The girl smirked. "Then what was that hug in the halls?"

"Nothing more than a friendly hug."

"Whatever," Florence said, trying to sound bored but her smirk betrayed her.

"What's your problem with him?" asked a now annoyed Claire, surprising the entire class. "I know you have something against him, otherwise you wouldn't laugh whenever Cloud passes by."

"He's such a loser!" was the immediate reply. "You should have seen him last year. He usually stayed alone, staring out the window. It took him almost a week until he finally talked to someone and when he did, he was so direct, as if he wanted the conversation fast. Honestly, I don't know what you see in him."

"Okay, so he was a bit cold at the beginning of the freshman year, so what? If someone is a little shy, is that person a loser?" she replied, trying to keep her cool.

"That's not the real reason she calls Cloud a loser," chirped in Zidane. "Admit it, Florence. You make fun of him because he stood up to you when you tried to take his seat."

"Mind your own business, midget!" hissed the brown haired girl then she turned towards the pink haired teen with a smile. "Listen to me, sweetheart. When Strife takes an interest in a girl it means that he has a crush on her, ask Tifa. I'm really surprised that he actually likes girls, I thought he was gay."

Claire frowned, her self- control long forgotten. "First off, I don't think Cloud's sexual orientation should matter that much, secondly a girl and a boy can be friends without dating and finally, how can you say that Cloud would only get close to someone if he had an ulterior motive? You don't know him as I do!" she said hotly.

Florence's smile reached her ears and Claire realized something bad was coming. "I've never seen anyone who would defend Strife so strongly. Why would anyone stood up for the weird lonely kid? Just admit it, Claire: You have a crush on Strife!"

"Knock it off, Florence," said Iris, earning a grateful smile from Claire. "Cloud is a nice person. Last year, he stayed after school one day and helped search the trash can for my essay."

"Which is one of the reasons why Claire here likes the blond," said in a sing-song voice the gossip girl

"How many times do I have to say it?!" asked an exasperated Claire. "I don't like Cloud that way! He's only a good friend!"

"Can you prove it?"

"I don't have to prove you anything!"

"You're right. You don't have to prove us anything," Florence said, making the teen uneasy

"Hey, Cloud!" called Alice

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where the Central Library is?"

"Of course!"

"Can you take me there today? I need to grab some books for a project I'm working about and while we're there can you also show me where exactly the Junon Mall is?"

Cloud hesitated to answer. Where Alice wanted to go was far away and getting there on foot would take them fifteen minutes. Of course there is the bus, but Cloud didn't have any money on him, and he beat the black haired girl couldn't afford to pay for both of them. Plus tomorrow they have a quiz at Chemistry and even though he was a prodigy at it, he still needs to study. "If we go, we have to walk there because I don't have any money on me and it will take us at least fifteen minutes to get there, not to mention we have a quiz tomorrow. We can go another time," he said, trying to discourage her to go

"That's okay, I can walk and I'm not worried about that. Really, a low mark at Chemistry is nothing compared to the Literature teacher's wrath," she said with an amused smile

"You'd know best," muttered the boy loud enough for her to hear

"So, after school is alright?"

"Let me think about."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said sincerely. "I haven't taken into account that you might have other plans. Please forgive me, I'll find someone else."

Cloud thought about what she said. It's true that he had other plans: go home with Claire, study and play WOW 'til bedtime. Being late means that he'll have less time for WOW and he didn't like that, but he couldn't just leave Alice to her problems, can he? Julie taught him to be nice with people, that not everyone is mean and trying to use him. With a sign he offered her the only alternative he could give: "I can get you there, but I can't stay with you."

"Really? Thank you so much!" she said happily

"No problem."

"Hey, Pinky!" called the blond

Claire turned to him with a smile. "What's up, Spike?"

"I can't go home with you today."

"Oh, don't worry. I actually forgot to tell you that today I'm going to the hospital for a checkup."

"Why? What happened?" he asked concerned

"Nothing serious. It's just something my family does every year," she told him with a wave of her hand. "What about you? Where are going? You usually go straight home after school."

"I'm showing Alice where Junon Mall and the Central Library are."

"How come?"

"It's a long story. The short version is that she helped me once and I'm repaying the favor."

"Alright then, see you later. Oh, and before I forget Serah's coming next week."

"Really?" the blond boy asked feeling ecstatic. "We'll talk about it later."

"Thank you so much for this!"

"Would you, please, stop thanking me?" the boy asked half annoyed, half amused

"I'm sorry, it's just that this is very important to me and nobody would help me."

"Nobody?" Cloud asked surprised "Not even Iris?"

The green eyed shook her head sadly. "No, she is angry at me."

"Why?"

"It's something that happened in America, with the rooms."

"Ah, I remember."

"You were pretty upset about it too."

"Can you blame me?" he asked, fully annoyed and glaring at her. "We were forced to sleep two in the same bed, because you couldn't stomach each other. Did you know how uncomfortable and awkward we've felt? And you had a room to yourself!"

Alice let out a sign. "I'm terribly sorry about that. I was just feeling a little down," she said and the painful images replayed before her eyes.

Cloud's gaze on her softens. "It's in the past, so no use thinking about it now. Sorry for throwing it in your face."

"I deserved it. Now how about we change the topic?"

"Good idea. Why do you need to go to the Central Library exactly?"

"For some essays. I'm going to the Literature Olympiad this year."

"Good luck then."

"Thank you."

The two walked in silence for several minutes until they reached Junon Mall.

"So, this is it. The Central Library is just across this street. You can't miss it! It has a large panel with its name on it."

"Thank you, Cloud. This means a lot to me!" she said giving him a peck on the cheek and then she left weaving him goodbye.

The sky- blue-eyed teen stood there, weaving at his colleague, not at all bother by her gesture before heading home.

Hello everyone! I know it took me a long to update this fic(or any other for that matter) and I can't promise I'll update regularly, but I'll try to update once in a while. Also I've rewritten the last chapter, it's longer this time. Leave a review in the box below or PM me if you have a suggestion