Disclaimer: While the story is mine, the characters are not.

This story may contain minor spoilers!

"Hope!" Nora called as she stormed into her son's room. She tripped over something or other and landed on her son's feet, who woke with a start.

"What the? Mom!" Hope yelled as he rolled over and put his head underneath his pillow. Nora stood and picked up the closet thing in reach, a sock, and started hitting Hope with it.

"Get up! You're going to be late."

"Five more minutes."

"No! The bus will be here any minute and you won't be late for your first day of high school!" She grabbed her son's legs and pulled him out of bed. His face landed on the carpet and he struggled to get up. "I made you breakfast and packed your lunch. Come on."

Hope gave a huge yawn as his reply. His mother rolled his eyes and left the room. He stumbled to the closet and got dressed before going downstairs. The smell of bacon hit him before he even had a chance to enter the kitchen. "There's eggs, bacon, and toast." she said happily. Hope grabbed a piece of toast and stuck it in his mouth before grabbing his book bag. "Oh come on, you need to eat more."

Right at that moment the bus pulled up. "Got to go!" Hope said as he ran out the door.

"Have fun!" his mother called after him.

Hope boarded the bus and saw that it was already full. He sighed and walked down the aisle trying to find a place to sit. Everyone stared at him. Being the new kid was the worst. Being a new kid and a freshman was even worse. He spotted a seat toward the back with only one person in it. She was older, a senior most likely, and sat with her legs and arms crossed staring at the ground. She had a scowl on her face. Hope wasn't surprised no one was sitting with her. He really didn't want to either, but he didn't have much of a choice. He went up to her and asked if he could sit with her. She looked up, her bangs covered one of her eyes. Her long light pink hair completely contradicted her athletic appearance. The senior stared at him for a moment then without a word moved over, making room for him. Hope smiled shyly, maybe she wasn't that bad after all. As he sat down he could feel the eyes of the other students watching him. He looked up at the girl; she was right back to her former position.

"Um…thanks." Hope said.

"Don't mention it." she answered flatly.

"Uh…I'm Hope by the way. Hope Estheim" he said nervously. He continued to look at her, waiting for a reply.

"Claire Farron," she finally said after several seconds of silence. "but most people call me Lightning."

Lightning? Hope thought. Why would anyone want a name that has to with sky? That's so cliché. Well, I guess its better than Cloud… He didn't dare say any of this out loud, though. He wasn't about to chase away someone he might be able to become friends with, or at least bus buddies. Ah, hell! She probably doesn't want to share her seat with me everyday…

The bus pulled up to the school and he stared at it out the window. He felt a light push on his arm and realized Claire, or Lightning, whatever, wanted to get out. He apologized and jumped up. He hopped off the bus and continued to stare at the huge building. It was so much bigger than his old school. He was going to get lost.

He was pushed into the building by the crowd and struggled to take out his schedule. It was mailed to him a couple of weeks ago along with a map of the school. His first class was in Room 101. British Literature. "Uh…"he tried to find the room on the map, but people kept knocking into him. He managed to fight his way over to the side of the hall with less people. He found the room on the map and traced the path with his finger. "Ok, so I go up here, right down there, up those steps, then a left, and wait what?"

"Do you need help?" someone said behind him. He turned and blushed.

"Uh…" he didn't want to seem to helpless. "No. I know where to go."

"No you don't." Lightning said and took his arm. He had a hard time keeping up with her fast pace. She lead him up a flight of stairs. There were much less people up there, giving Hope room to breathe. Lightning lead him down a few more hallways before stopping in front of a door. "Room 101 right?" she asked him.

"Uh…yeah." Hope answered after double checking his schedule. "Thanks."

Lightning rolled her eyes and opened the door. An ancient old man was sitting behind the desk up front. The room was extremely bland. No colorful posters with cheesy sayings or anything. Hope shuddered as he entered. The old crusty teacher watched him sit down at a desk and turned his attention back to Lightning. "Helping the helpless freshmen, Farron? How nice of you." She didn't answer. "Do you need a pass?"

Lightning shook her head. "I doubt Mr. Raines will care." she said before leaving. Hope wished she stayed. His teacher scared him. He felt a small poke in the back and turned around. The girl sitting behind him had the same light pink hair as Lightning. She was also wearing the same arm band on her right arm.

"Hi." She said happily. "I'm Serah, Claire's sister."

"Oh! Uhh…" Hope didn't know what to say.

"I don't think I've seen you before. Are you new?" she asked and Hope nodded. "What's your name?" He answered and she smiled. "If my sister's helping you out then you must be something!"

"What?" Hope didn't know what to say.

"How do I put this?" Serah started. "Claire's kind of a…"

"A bitch?" the girl sitting next to her finished for her.

"Vanille! Don't say that. She's not a bitch! She's…well ok yeah, she's a bitch."

"A crazy one, actually." the other girl laughed.

"She's nice to me…" Hope put in.

Serah looked back at him. "Well that's good! Oh, and by the way, this is my friend, Vanille." she motioned to the girl sitting next to her.

"Hi there! Nice to meet you." Her voice is very perky. To perky…Hope thought.

The bell rang to begin class. The teacher stood up and started speaking. "If you don't already know, I'm Mr. Dsyley. Take out a pencil for your test." The entire class groaned. "Shut up. You had plenty of time to complete your summer reading. Hope's heart skipped a beat. Summer reading? What summer reading?