A/N: Nothing but general idea belongs to me. I'll credit Squaresoft for most of everything, but anything else doesn't belong to me. So it's not mine! Yah!! So some of these people are going to be horribly out of character but y'know I can only do so much and some of these people I just wanted out of character just for the fun of it. (*grabs big squishy thingies that you use in tae kwon do class and holds it in front of her face, just in case*) Mkay so you all can diss this as much as you want and I'll just diss myself along with you and it'll all be cool.
Also, I no longer have Microsoft Word. I am under the cruel reign of WordPad. Please forgive misspelled words and worst of all, bad formatting. On top of everything else the future isn't looking too bright, but maybe this'll turn out okay. =D (The future of my stories, not my future. I'm not that pessimistic.)
Alrighty, let's get rockin' now..
Chapter One: Prelude
A warm, gentle summer's breeze blew through the International College Campus, blowing a few leaves on the ground around. The warm, golden sun beamed down on the campus, and the only clouds in the sky were the puffy white ones that little children try to pretend into shapes. It was a beautiful day, one perfect for taking long, peaceful walks in.
Yet the young ninja skipped across the campus quite anxiously, a travel bag thrown over her shoulder and a hard, black case clutched in her hands. She was about five feet tall in height, with black hair and brown eyes.
(-Everyone here looks so funny...-) she thought to herself, giving everyone who glanced in her general direction a suspicious glare.
(-But...at least I'm out of materia-less Wutai!...the only catch is I'm lost and check-in is in...three minutes?!-) With this thought the ninja started to run faster, until she ran smack into the person in front of her.
"Oh wow, I'm so sorry!" she yelped, jumping up only to have to look straight up to see the person's eyes.
"I would imagine you are," the person replied, and the ninja had trouble telling if he was serious or joking. He stared down at her from a height of about 6'1", green eyes gilttering omniously and white hair shining in the sun. In his hands were a travel bag similar to the ninja's....and a long black case.
"Band camp!" the ninja blurted out suddenly. "You're going to band camp!"
"Why else would I be carrying a huge musical instrument?" the man questioned.
"Oh yeah...duh..." the ninja smacked her forehead, feeling rather foolish. "Well, where are we supposed to be going, d'ya know?"
The white-haired man, about 18 in age to the ninja's guesses, pointed straight ahead, where a long, winding, snake-like line of people led back to where the two stood.
"Oh..." the ninja sighed. "Looks like we got a wait in store..."
Meanwhile, near the front of the line...
"Um, Cloud?" asked the fifteen year old, brown haired girl for the hundredth time.
And for the hundredth time, the spiky-blonde haired, blue eyed, sixteen year old boy looked up from the brocure on SOLDIER he was reading.
"What, Tifa?" he asked patiently, trying to predict her next pointless question.
"Um...are there a lot of clarinets at band camp?"
"Yeah," he replied simply, going back to his brochure. "Lots."
"Um, Cloud?"
He glanced up again, patience beginning to wear thin after an hour or two of this.
"Um, because it's my first year, will everyone hate me?" Tifa inquired, a worried, upset expression passing through her brown eyes.
"No," he responded, folding up his brochure. "But we're finally here."
Tifa beamed, but smile dissolved as a group of flutists cut in front of them.
"Here's to another hour," Cloud mumbled, going back to his brochure.
And in the middle of the ridicously long line...
The man dressed in black stared at the girl in front of him. He'd already guessed her age as a year younger than his age of eighteen. She was dressed in a red shirt and denim jeans, and was sitting on the ground, occasionally brushing a strand of brown hair out of her greenish-blue eyes. They'd been standing in line for about an hour or so, but he hadn't spoken to her. She now, however, had pulled out a notebook and was making beautiful oragami flowers with the greatest of ease. Enough people had asked her if they could have one that she was now selling them for a gil a piece. Of course, if the person couldn't afford to pay her the miniscule amount, she'd give them a flower anyway. One person had asked her quite rudely why she was charging, and she'd replied simply that it took money to survive.
He fished in his pocket and pulled out one gil, handing it to her.
She smiled and delicately folded up a fragile flower, gently placing it in his hands.
"Thank you," he said, staring at the detailed, intricite folds in the paper.
"No, thank you," she beamed. "I'm Aerith Gainsborough," the flower girl introduced herself as.
"I'm Vincent Valentine," he replied queitly.
"A pleasure," Aerith smiled, folding more flowers.
A few hours later...
"So...I'm Yuffie Kisaragi!"
The white haired man stared at her, but said nothing. The line was finally almost at its end.
"I'm Sephiroth," he said after a moment.
"Huh...first year here?" She questioned anxiously. He noticed she never seemed to stop moving, and her eyes were always staring for...what was it she was looking for? He had no idea but she looked around the area with interested eyes...almost too interested, as if there was something she wanted...
"...try 4th or 5th," he corrected her, gripping his travel bag tighter. "I never can remember."
"Wow, so you're like an old pro! You can help me out, introduce me to people, help me get materi--um...friends, help me not look stupid..."
"That's a little more than I alone can handle," Sephiroth said in reference to her last comment.
"HEY!!" the little ninja crossed her arms, fuming silently for a moment before her talkative side kicked in and she thought up another conversation starter. "So what instrument do you play?"
"Tenor saxaphone," Sephiroth replied, glancing from his case to the line, willing it to grow shorter.
"I play oboe," Yuffie grinned. "Hey look, the line's getting shorter!"
(-Probably a mirage. That's about my luck.-) Sephiroth thought to himself with a sigh.
At the front of the line...
"Finally, checked in!" Tifa smiled. "Um, Cloud? Where do I go now?"
"...they assigned you to a dorm. Go there and you'll get more information."
"B-but--"
"You won't get lost, Tifa. Just go."
And then there's Vincent and Aerith...
After the longest line ever, Vincent finally found himself at the check in desk.
"Name?" the lady asked boredly, holding an inkpen and one of those 'hello my name is ____' name tags.
"Vincent Valentine."
"Instrument?" She smelled strongly of something like fish...he tried to ignore it. Maybe he'd just been out in the sun too long.
"Flute."
"Hey I used to play flute too!" came Aerith's cheerful voice from behind him.
He tried not to glare at her as he waited for her to laugh.
"What?" she finally asked in an innocent, questioning voice.
"Go ahead and laugh. I'm used to it."
"Are you kidding?! The first-chair flutist at our school is a guy and he's really talented! I'm not going to laugh."
"Your name tag and keys, sir," the fish-lady frowned, tossing them at him.
He caught them easily, glancing at the name tag. Vynsint Valintin, flute 1.
"Um, ma'-am--"
"NEXT!!"
He walked ahead, deciding to ignore the spelling mistake. It wouldn't kill him, after all. After a few minutes, Aerith ran up behind him.
"Did they mess up your tag too?" she questioned with a small smile.
He glanced at her tag. Aaerithe Ganesburgh, alto flute.
"Yes," he answered."
"Wonder if it's just us or if it's everyone," she giggled.
"Oh it's everyone," came an irritble voice from behind them. "Yuffie Kisaragi. I mean, I spelled it for her! Not that hard!"
The ninja's tag read Yoofy Keesuhrahgi, oboe 2. Even Vincent had to admit he would have had a better guess than that.
"It's probably everyone's, in that case."
"Sephiroth!" Aerith exclaimed cheerfully. "Long time no see!"
"When'd I last see you...what was it, at Shinra?" Sephiroth--or Sefrof, as his tag read--questioned.
"Possibly. I can't remember. Well, let's go," Aerith smiled and walked up the stairs to the dorms.
A huge group of band-campers were crowded in the commons area of one of the dorms.
"Wonder who I'll be rooming with," Aerith said to herself as she glanced down at the sheet of paper that held all of her information on it. She took the key she'd been given and opened the dorm that would be hers while she was there. Inside was a brown-haired girl hanging up her clothes in her closet. She jumped at the sight of Aerith, though she seemed to be rather nervous to start with.
"Um, I'm sorry!"
"It's allright, whatever you did. I'm your roommate, Aerith Gainsborough."
"I'm Tifa Lockheart," Tifa pasued, then glanced at Aerith's nametag. "Did they spell your name right?"
"No," Aerith laughed, looking at hers. Teefuh Lokhart. She doubted that was correct either.
"Mine either," Tifa smiled nervously.
"First year?"
"Yeah," Tifa bit her lip.
"Dont' sweat it. I remember my first year. I ended up getting worried over nothign at all. I didn't know anyone. It was really easy, though, making new friends. And then people from my school started coming and believe me, these two weeks are some of the best of the year. You'll do fine."
"Thanks, Aerith," Tifa smiled.
"Anytime," Aerith beamed, quickly unpacking all her things and putting her alto flute together. "Hmm...wonder who'll be the director this year...the first year it was this nice girl named Yuna. We all liked her, she was really nice and pretty much let us get away with anything, heh...Last year it was this person named Jenova...but Yuna moved away and I heard Jenova's directing a different band camp..." She paused, considering this. "Well, our counselors are meeting with us outside in a fwe minutes before they show us the band room, so you might want to put your instrument together."
Tifa nodded as Aerith walked outside to greet some of her old friends. Where was the group of people she had spent the most time with last year?
"Cid and Barret!" She cried, running over to her friends Cid Highwind and Barret Wallace.
"Aerith," they both nodded, smiling.
"Haven't seen you since...hm...last year, maybe?" Cid winked at her.
"Sounds about right," Aerith laughed. Cid and Barret lived on a completely different continent as her. The only time Aerith ever saw them was at band camp. She looked around for more old friends and saw someone she recognized from her school. "And is that...Nanaki?!"
"Hello, Aerith," Nanaki smiled, walking over.
"Um, what instrument do you play?" Aerith asked politely, trying to figure out how Nanaki was able to hold an instrument.
"Attempting xylophone," Nanaki said cheerfully.
"That's neat," Aerith nodded eagerly, staring past him to someone leaning against the wall.
"Ooooh Aerith," came the voice of Aerith's other friend Shera. "Who are you looking at?"
"No one," Aerith quickly denied, averting her gaze from the spiky-haired boy to Shera.
"Oh -I- see who you're looking at! The electric guitarist over there, huh?"
"Shera, don't be so obvious, please!" Aerith whispered, blusing furiously.
"I'm not," Shera retorted, then smiled. "Hey I think he's looking at you!"
Aerith glanced up, her greenish-blue eyes locking into his blue ones.
"May I have everyone's attention, please!" A counselor called out, clapping his hands. "Hey, people!"
Yet the chaos continued as people ignored the counseler.
"QUIET!" yelled the other one, and everyone was silent.
The male counselor who couldn't get anyone's attention glanced to the other counselor, amused, before introducing himself.
"I'm Zidane Tribal," he said. "and this is Fujin." He glanced at Fujin, waiting for her to say something. When she didn't say anything, he continued, reading off a ridicuously long list of rules that ended with "And everyone who puts canned cheese in the air vent this year will be forever expelled from band camp."
Tifa looked to Cloud.
"...um, why'd he say that?" she asked curiously.
"...last year Reno and Rude brought some of that canned cheese and put it in Elena's vent so that when Elena turned the air conditioner on, cheese would go everywhere," Cloud explained tonelessly. He personally had found it rather immature and Jenova had gotten on everyone's case about it which made it worse, but Tifa giggled anwyay.
"Weren't those the days," Sephiroth said in a half-sarcastic, half-amused tone to Cloud.
"Living under Jenova's evil reign..." Cloud continued.
"I hope Director Yuna chose to return," Sephiroth said, voice tinged with hope.
"Heck, me too, but after Jenova I think we can handle any director," Cloud commented.
"Was Jenova that bad?" Tifa asked in a slightly scared voice.
"I think that would be an understatement," Sephiroth lifted an eyebrow. "Your opinion, Cloud?"
"I think you're right," Cloud grinned. "Oh, this is my friend Tifa Lockheart. Tifa, this is Sephiroth."
"Nice to meetcha," Tifa smiled.
"Allright! If I could have your attention," Zidane called out, "we'll now be heading to the band room where you'll get your music and meet this year's new director. Move out!"
"We follow him, right?" Tifa asked.
"Yep," Cloud confirmed.
"Aerith!" Sephiroth suddenly called out. Cloud looked around to see who he was calling. "Come here!"
The brown-haired girl he'd seen from earlier walked over.
"What is it, Sephiroth?" she smiled.
"Know who the director is this year?" he asked.
"Hmm..." Aerith bit her lip. "I've heard a lot of rumors, but I don't believe any of them. I've heard everything from the legendary Mario to Odin himself, so who really knows?" Aerith looked from Sephiroth to Cloud. "I'm forgetting my manners! I'm Aerith Gainsborough. A pleasure to meet you," she smiled shyly.
"Cloud Strife," he nodded.
Just then, the three people Aerith had been takling to previously ran over.
"Um, Aerith, we got an issue! My bass clarinet--"
"Let me see, Shera," Aerith said gently, taking it from Shera's hands. "Um, someone hold this, please?" Aerith held out her own instrument.
"Sure," Cloud reached out and took the clean, polished instrument, turning it over in his hands. "What kinda flute-thingy is this?"
"Alto flute," Aerith said distractedly, carefully popping a wire back into place on Shera's bass clarinet. "I think that should do it."
"Thank you!" Shera grinned. "It's always breaking."
"Because you're so clumsy," Cid muttered.
"Oh, Tifa! These are my friends! You probably already know this is Shera, and this is Barret Wallace, and this is Cid Highwind."
They walked in silence for awhile, enjoying the peaceful afternoon air and the scent of the freshly bloomed flower petals drifting lazily through the air and leaving a fresh, summer scent.
"Are we there yet?" Barret finally said, shattering the tranquility.
Sephiroth let out a sneeze that sounded somewhat like a masked laugh.
~//~
Everyone filed in the band room and took their seats. Aerith was inbetween Vincent and Yuffie, and a row in front of Tifa, which suited her just fine. Everyone was whispering anxiously amongst themselves as they awaited the director's arrival.
The trumpets sounded--literally. Aerith smiled to see that the trumpetists Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge had returned. They played a catchy little fanfare as the director walked in. He stood at the front of the band, analyzing every single one of them. Silence hung heavy in the air.
"So, who are you?"
Tifa turned around to see who'd broken the uneasy silence. A small, cat-like thing holding a trumpet and standing on a mog that was playing trombone was the culprit.
The conductor glanced at his seating chart.
"Ah, Cait Sith," he said. "I am your conductor. You will refer to me as Commander Leonhart, understood?" he frowned, as there was no response. "Am I understood?!"
"Sir, yes sir," Yuffie said in a meek, innocent vocie.
Cloud glanced over to Sephiroth and one thought ran through their minds.
-And we thought Jenova was bad-....
~//~
A/N: Okay I wrote that last night before I went to bed so have mercy on me! Also, *dodges a flurry of lionhearts* I like squall he just fit the role of the person i was looking for and I promise I'll write a fanfic where squall is like, the hero or something to make up for making him look stupid in this one! again, apologies for bad spelling and bad formatting! hopefully i'll get ahold of M-word sometime soon!
This is what I'm kind of hoping for. Maybe, if you all decide to review or whatever, you could post funny stories that have happened to you during band/bandcamp/sumemrcamp/any funny story that I could tie into this because some of these instances have actually happened to me and other people I know so I think it'd be cool if we had real life instances so yeah! It's like, late here so I'm signing off. Hope you liked! ~xifa
Also, I no longer have Microsoft Word. I am under the cruel reign of WordPad. Please forgive misspelled words and worst of all, bad formatting. On top of everything else the future isn't looking too bright, but maybe this'll turn out okay. =D (The future of my stories, not my future. I'm not that pessimistic.)
Alrighty, let's get rockin' now..
Chapter One: Prelude
A warm, gentle summer's breeze blew through the International College Campus, blowing a few leaves on the ground around. The warm, golden sun beamed down on the campus, and the only clouds in the sky were the puffy white ones that little children try to pretend into shapes. It was a beautiful day, one perfect for taking long, peaceful walks in.
Yet the young ninja skipped across the campus quite anxiously, a travel bag thrown over her shoulder and a hard, black case clutched in her hands. She was about five feet tall in height, with black hair and brown eyes.
(-Everyone here looks so funny...-) she thought to herself, giving everyone who glanced in her general direction a suspicious glare.
(-But...at least I'm out of materia-less Wutai!...the only catch is I'm lost and check-in is in...three minutes?!-) With this thought the ninja started to run faster, until she ran smack into the person in front of her.
"Oh wow, I'm so sorry!" she yelped, jumping up only to have to look straight up to see the person's eyes.
"I would imagine you are," the person replied, and the ninja had trouble telling if he was serious or joking. He stared down at her from a height of about 6'1", green eyes gilttering omniously and white hair shining in the sun. In his hands were a travel bag similar to the ninja's....and a long black case.
"Band camp!" the ninja blurted out suddenly. "You're going to band camp!"
"Why else would I be carrying a huge musical instrument?" the man questioned.
"Oh yeah...duh..." the ninja smacked her forehead, feeling rather foolish. "Well, where are we supposed to be going, d'ya know?"
The white-haired man, about 18 in age to the ninja's guesses, pointed straight ahead, where a long, winding, snake-like line of people led back to where the two stood.
"Oh..." the ninja sighed. "Looks like we got a wait in store..."
Meanwhile, near the front of the line...
"Um, Cloud?" asked the fifteen year old, brown haired girl for the hundredth time.
And for the hundredth time, the spiky-blonde haired, blue eyed, sixteen year old boy looked up from the brocure on SOLDIER he was reading.
"What, Tifa?" he asked patiently, trying to predict her next pointless question.
"Um...are there a lot of clarinets at band camp?"
"Yeah," he replied simply, going back to his brochure. "Lots."
"Um, Cloud?"
He glanced up again, patience beginning to wear thin after an hour or two of this.
"Um, because it's my first year, will everyone hate me?" Tifa inquired, a worried, upset expression passing through her brown eyes.
"No," he responded, folding up his brochure. "But we're finally here."
Tifa beamed, but smile dissolved as a group of flutists cut in front of them.
"Here's to another hour," Cloud mumbled, going back to his brochure.
And in the middle of the ridicously long line...
The man dressed in black stared at the girl in front of him. He'd already guessed her age as a year younger than his age of eighteen. She was dressed in a red shirt and denim jeans, and was sitting on the ground, occasionally brushing a strand of brown hair out of her greenish-blue eyes. They'd been standing in line for about an hour or so, but he hadn't spoken to her. She now, however, had pulled out a notebook and was making beautiful oragami flowers with the greatest of ease. Enough people had asked her if they could have one that she was now selling them for a gil a piece. Of course, if the person couldn't afford to pay her the miniscule amount, she'd give them a flower anyway. One person had asked her quite rudely why she was charging, and she'd replied simply that it took money to survive.
He fished in his pocket and pulled out one gil, handing it to her.
She smiled and delicately folded up a fragile flower, gently placing it in his hands.
"Thank you," he said, staring at the detailed, intricite folds in the paper.
"No, thank you," she beamed. "I'm Aerith Gainsborough," the flower girl introduced herself as.
"I'm Vincent Valentine," he replied queitly.
"A pleasure," Aerith smiled, folding more flowers.
A few hours later...
"So...I'm Yuffie Kisaragi!"
The white haired man stared at her, but said nothing. The line was finally almost at its end.
"I'm Sephiroth," he said after a moment.
"Huh...first year here?" She questioned anxiously. He noticed she never seemed to stop moving, and her eyes were always staring for...what was it she was looking for? He had no idea but she looked around the area with interested eyes...almost too interested, as if there was something she wanted...
"...try 4th or 5th," he corrected her, gripping his travel bag tighter. "I never can remember."
"Wow, so you're like an old pro! You can help me out, introduce me to people, help me get materi--um...friends, help me not look stupid..."
"That's a little more than I alone can handle," Sephiroth said in reference to her last comment.
"HEY!!" the little ninja crossed her arms, fuming silently for a moment before her talkative side kicked in and she thought up another conversation starter. "So what instrument do you play?"
"Tenor saxaphone," Sephiroth replied, glancing from his case to the line, willing it to grow shorter.
"I play oboe," Yuffie grinned. "Hey look, the line's getting shorter!"
(-Probably a mirage. That's about my luck.-) Sephiroth thought to himself with a sigh.
At the front of the line...
"Finally, checked in!" Tifa smiled. "Um, Cloud? Where do I go now?"
"...they assigned you to a dorm. Go there and you'll get more information."
"B-but--"
"You won't get lost, Tifa. Just go."
And then there's Vincent and Aerith...
After the longest line ever, Vincent finally found himself at the check in desk.
"Name?" the lady asked boredly, holding an inkpen and one of those 'hello my name is ____' name tags.
"Vincent Valentine."
"Instrument?" She smelled strongly of something like fish...he tried to ignore it. Maybe he'd just been out in the sun too long.
"Flute."
"Hey I used to play flute too!" came Aerith's cheerful voice from behind him.
He tried not to glare at her as he waited for her to laugh.
"What?" she finally asked in an innocent, questioning voice.
"Go ahead and laugh. I'm used to it."
"Are you kidding?! The first-chair flutist at our school is a guy and he's really talented! I'm not going to laugh."
"Your name tag and keys, sir," the fish-lady frowned, tossing them at him.
He caught them easily, glancing at the name tag. Vynsint Valintin, flute 1.
"Um, ma'-am--"
"NEXT!!"
He walked ahead, deciding to ignore the spelling mistake. It wouldn't kill him, after all. After a few minutes, Aerith ran up behind him.
"Did they mess up your tag too?" she questioned with a small smile.
He glanced at her tag. Aaerithe Ganesburgh, alto flute.
"Yes," he answered."
"Wonder if it's just us or if it's everyone," she giggled.
"Oh it's everyone," came an irritble voice from behind them. "Yuffie Kisaragi. I mean, I spelled it for her! Not that hard!"
The ninja's tag read Yoofy Keesuhrahgi, oboe 2. Even Vincent had to admit he would have had a better guess than that.
"It's probably everyone's, in that case."
"Sephiroth!" Aerith exclaimed cheerfully. "Long time no see!"
"When'd I last see you...what was it, at Shinra?" Sephiroth--or Sefrof, as his tag read--questioned.
"Possibly. I can't remember. Well, let's go," Aerith smiled and walked up the stairs to the dorms.
A huge group of band-campers were crowded in the commons area of one of the dorms.
"Wonder who I'll be rooming with," Aerith said to herself as she glanced down at the sheet of paper that held all of her information on it. She took the key she'd been given and opened the dorm that would be hers while she was there. Inside was a brown-haired girl hanging up her clothes in her closet. She jumped at the sight of Aerith, though she seemed to be rather nervous to start with.
"Um, I'm sorry!"
"It's allright, whatever you did. I'm your roommate, Aerith Gainsborough."
"I'm Tifa Lockheart," Tifa pasued, then glanced at Aerith's nametag. "Did they spell your name right?"
"No," Aerith laughed, looking at hers. Teefuh Lokhart. She doubted that was correct either.
"Mine either," Tifa smiled nervously.
"First year?"
"Yeah," Tifa bit her lip.
"Dont' sweat it. I remember my first year. I ended up getting worried over nothign at all. I didn't know anyone. It was really easy, though, making new friends. And then people from my school started coming and believe me, these two weeks are some of the best of the year. You'll do fine."
"Thanks, Aerith," Tifa smiled.
"Anytime," Aerith beamed, quickly unpacking all her things and putting her alto flute together. "Hmm...wonder who'll be the director this year...the first year it was this nice girl named Yuna. We all liked her, she was really nice and pretty much let us get away with anything, heh...Last year it was this person named Jenova...but Yuna moved away and I heard Jenova's directing a different band camp..." She paused, considering this. "Well, our counselors are meeting with us outside in a fwe minutes before they show us the band room, so you might want to put your instrument together."
Tifa nodded as Aerith walked outside to greet some of her old friends. Where was the group of people she had spent the most time with last year?
"Cid and Barret!" She cried, running over to her friends Cid Highwind and Barret Wallace.
"Aerith," they both nodded, smiling.
"Haven't seen you since...hm...last year, maybe?" Cid winked at her.
"Sounds about right," Aerith laughed. Cid and Barret lived on a completely different continent as her. The only time Aerith ever saw them was at band camp. She looked around for more old friends and saw someone she recognized from her school. "And is that...Nanaki?!"
"Hello, Aerith," Nanaki smiled, walking over.
"Um, what instrument do you play?" Aerith asked politely, trying to figure out how Nanaki was able to hold an instrument.
"Attempting xylophone," Nanaki said cheerfully.
"That's neat," Aerith nodded eagerly, staring past him to someone leaning against the wall.
"Ooooh Aerith," came the voice of Aerith's other friend Shera. "Who are you looking at?"
"No one," Aerith quickly denied, averting her gaze from the spiky-haired boy to Shera.
"Oh -I- see who you're looking at! The electric guitarist over there, huh?"
"Shera, don't be so obvious, please!" Aerith whispered, blusing furiously.
"I'm not," Shera retorted, then smiled. "Hey I think he's looking at you!"
Aerith glanced up, her greenish-blue eyes locking into his blue ones.
"May I have everyone's attention, please!" A counselor called out, clapping his hands. "Hey, people!"
Yet the chaos continued as people ignored the counseler.
"QUIET!" yelled the other one, and everyone was silent.
The male counselor who couldn't get anyone's attention glanced to the other counselor, amused, before introducing himself.
"I'm Zidane Tribal," he said. "and this is Fujin." He glanced at Fujin, waiting for her to say something. When she didn't say anything, he continued, reading off a ridicuously long list of rules that ended with "And everyone who puts canned cheese in the air vent this year will be forever expelled from band camp."
Tifa looked to Cloud.
"...um, why'd he say that?" she asked curiously.
"...last year Reno and Rude brought some of that canned cheese and put it in Elena's vent so that when Elena turned the air conditioner on, cheese would go everywhere," Cloud explained tonelessly. He personally had found it rather immature and Jenova had gotten on everyone's case about it which made it worse, but Tifa giggled anwyay.
"Weren't those the days," Sephiroth said in a half-sarcastic, half-amused tone to Cloud.
"Living under Jenova's evil reign..." Cloud continued.
"I hope Director Yuna chose to return," Sephiroth said, voice tinged with hope.
"Heck, me too, but after Jenova I think we can handle any director," Cloud commented.
"Was Jenova that bad?" Tifa asked in a slightly scared voice.
"I think that would be an understatement," Sephiroth lifted an eyebrow. "Your opinion, Cloud?"
"I think you're right," Cloud grinned. "Oh, this is my friend Tifa Lockheart. Tifa, this is Sephiroth."
"Nice to meetcha," Tifa smiled.
"Allright! If I could have your attention," Zidane called out, "we'll now be heading to the band room where you'll get your music and meet this year's new director. Move out!"
"We follow him, right?" Tifa asked.
"Yep," Cloud confirmed.
"Aerith!" Sephiroth suddenly called out. Cloud looked around to see who he was calling. "Come here!"
The brown-haired girl he'd seen from earlier walked over.
"What is it, Sephiroth?" she smiled.
"Know who the director is this year?" he asked.
"Hmm..." Aerith bit her lip. "I've heard a lot of rumors, but I don't believe any of them. I've heard everything from the legendary Mario to Odin himself, so who really knows?" Aerith looked from Sephiroth to Cloud. "I'm forgetting my manners! I'm Aerith Gainsborough. A pleasure to meet you," she smiled shyly.
"Cloud Strife," he nodded.
Just then, the three people Aerith had been takling to previously ran over.
"Um, Aerith, we got an issue! My bass clarinet--"
"Let me see, Shera," Aerith said gently, taking it from Shera's hands. "Um, someone hold this, please?" Aerith held out her own instrument.
"Sure," Cloud reached out and took the clean, polished instrument, turning it over in his hands. "What kinda flute-thingy is this?"
"Alto flute," Aerith said distractedly, carefully popping a wire back into place on Shera's bass clarinet. "I think that should do it."
"Thank you!" Shera grinned. "It's always breaking."
"Because you're so clumsy," Cid muttered.
"Oh, Tifa! These are my friends! You probably already know this is Shera, and this is Barret Wallace, and this is Cid Highwind."
They walked in silence for awhile, enjoying the peaceful afternoon air and the scent of the freshly bloomed flower petals drifting lazily through the air and leaving a fresh, summer scent.
"Are we there yet?" Barret finally said, shattering the tranquility.
Sephiroth let out a sneeze that sounded somewhat like a masked laugh.
~//~
Everyone filed in the band room and took their seats. Aerith was inbetween Vincent and Yuffie, and a row in front of Tifa, which suited her just fine. Everyone was whispering anxiously amongst themselves as they awaited the director's arrival.
The trumpets sounded--literally. Aerith smiled to see that the trumpetists Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge had returned. They played a catchy little fanfare as the director walked in. He stood at the front of the band, analyzing every single one of them. Silence hung heavy in the air.
"So, who are you?"
Tifa turned around to see who'd broken the uneasy silence. A small, cat-like thing holding a trumpet and standing on a mog that was playing trombone was the culprit.
The conductor glanced at his seating chart.
"Ah, Cait Sith," he said. "I am your conductor. You will refer to me as Commander Leonhart, understood?" he frowned, as there was no response. "Am I understood?!"
"Sir, yes sir," Yuffie said in a meek, innocent vocie.
Cloud glanced over to Sephiroth and one thought ran through their minds.
-And we thought Jenova was bad-....
~//~
A/N: Okay I wrote that last night before I went to bed so have mercy on me! Also, *dodges a flurry of lionhearts* I like squall he just fit the role of the person i was looking for and I promise I'll write a fanfic where squall is like, the hero or something to make up for making him look stupid in this one! again, apologies for bad spelling and bad formatting! hopefully i'll get ahold of M-word sometime soon!
This is what I'm kind of hoping for. Maybe, if you all decide to review or whatever, you could post funny stories that have happened to you during band/bandcamp/sumemrcamp/any funny story that I could tie into this because some of these instances have actually happened to me and other people I know so I think it'd be cool if we had real life instances so yeah! It's like, late here so I'm signing off. Hope you liked! ~xifa