Midgar High School

It was odd to see Elena's car that early. It was odd that she and Shera were there to witness Sephiroth pulling into school with Reno in the passenger seat of his black convertible. He'd shut the engine off and rushed back to where practice was getting ready to start without so much as a nod to either girl, though he'd told Reno "see ya later."

It earned confused stares that Sephiroth didn't bother confronting. He'd spent all morning building up this steam, and he wasn't going to let it go now.

Most of the team was out and milling about before practice. They halted, the noise drifted down to nothing and Palmer's face began turning a shade of red unlike anything but Reno's hair. They all stared at him as though they were afraid he'd summon a meteor down from the heavens or something. He waited at the doorway for a full three minutes before Palmer spoke.

"WHAT the hell were you doing Friday?" Palmer asked, running his hands over the bald spots on his head. He looked like he was going to stalk forward and strangle Sephiroth on the spot, but then he started repeating "paycheck, paycheck."

After about ten rounds, his mantra calmed him.

"I'm quitting." Seph said flatly, ignoring the murmurs.

"WHAT?!" Palmer gaped at him.

"Make Strife QB, he can handle it." Seph then strode to the locker room.

Palmer yelled some shrieked combination of Sephiroth's name and a curse. "You can't just QUIT. Wait till your father-"

"He disowned me." Seph smirked. "So tell him I said hi."

A stammering sound followed by the word "paycheck" left Coach Palmer's mouth again. "You cannot just abandon this team. They follow you as a leader, you cannot just QUIT."

"Sure I can." Seph pointed a thumb against his chest. "This is me." Then he started into the locker room. "This is me getting my shit and leaving."

Seph slammed the door and started to his locker. The silence seemed stronger in the locker room today; aside from the one shower… then he heard Biggs' voice. Biggs was a worse bully than Seph, big and rather quick to get angry. He always let Johnny and Wedge egg him on too.

They'd only be beating up one person, and they'd be pissed about the game. He owed Reno. With a sigh Seph turned and made his way into the showers.

As expected, Tseng was getting drowned in the shower, Biggs holding one arm, Wedge at the other. Before Johnny could really lay into him, Sephiroth yanked him off his feet, spinning the smaller boy around. Leaning into Johnny's face, Seph snarled. "Lay. Off." He then glared over Johnny's head. "DROP him."

Biggs and Wedge shared a look before they let go of Tseng and stood stock still, in shock.

Tseng fell back against the wall, awaiting this to become one big joke, or perhaps for Seph to start laughing and kill him while the others laughed. But it didn't happen. Instead, Wedge and Biggs moved and stood at either side of Johnny. "Who the hell do you think you are? You THREW that football game! We all played like shit."

"I can't wipe your ass forever, Johnny. No reason to take it out on someone who isn’t involved." Sephiroth didn't pay attention to Tseng now; he had three angry football players on his hands that were no longer in awe of him.

"It's him or you, asshole." Johnny snapped.

Sephiroth shook his head and shoved past Johnny to Tseng. He extended his hand to the other boy. "Ya alright?"

Tseng had a bewildered look on his face, but instead of taking the offered hand, he scooted to the side, like he was looking for an exit.

Seph felt Bigg's hand on his shoulder before he could make any attempt to tell Tseng that he wasn't going to kill him. Quick reflexes allowed Sephiroth to duck, Bigg's yelped when his hand smashed into the tile of the shower-wall.

Tseng found his legs at the same moment Johnny's fist found Sephiroth's jaw.

Seph had been in fights before. Numerous ones, as a matter of fact, he'd been hit harder than that. As long as he stayed on his feet- but there wasn't any time to think about that. Johnny fell backwards with a broken nose, but the victory was short lived when Biggs flew into Seph from the side.

The bench splintered and he could hear his ribs crack under the large boy's weight. It was blind kicking and punching now, Sephiroth couldn't tell if the cracks were from his body or from one of his three assailants. He yanked an arm over and heard a crack and then Wedge cursed.

Biggs got him again, from behind. Now those ribs were definitely cracked. Seph lost his footing again, but before he could really get anymore good hits in, he was flung backwards.

His left eye was refusing to open, but his right was working perfectly fine. Wedge was nursing a broken arm and Johnny was covered in blood while Biggs snarled up at Mr. Wallace. A large hand presented itself to Sephiroth. Mr. Rude was also there, the two largest people in the building.

Taking his feet was harder than Seph had expected it to be, his ribs shot pain through his chest and around his spine. His head swam and his knees felt a bit weak. "What the fuck is goin' on here?" Barret snapped, the gun arm clicked into place.

"EE Stardded et." Johnny worked out through a broken nose.

"I don't give four shits WHO started it." Barret snapped. "All of you go to the goddamn nurse, NOW. "

Rude shook his head.

"WE will fucking walk you children to the nurse so you won't try to kill each other…fucking kicking your own asses."

Sephiroth gripped his ribs and limped after Mr. Rude. His gym bag was almost too much to lift, but he made himself. Wedge and Johnny were helping each other walk out. If Sephiroth looked like he couldn't handle himself then missing Chem and Sex Ed would really be the least of his worries…