The next two months passed by too slowly for comfort. Yuffie and Reno fought almost endlessly. They seemed almost like siblings when they did this. Reno would want to do something on his time off and Yuffie usually fought him on it. I would have to say though that I agreed with Yuffie. Reno didn't need to bring his girlfriend over. Claire had to be enrolled in a different school. That took time, money, and energy that I didn't have.

What had happened was a boy in the grade above her kissed her on the cheek one afternoon riding the bus home. The driver told the boy's parents that Claire had made him do it, though he had not actually witnessed her doing such. They had insisted that she be removed from the school. I now have her set up in a private school. It was the only one in Edge that believed that she wasn't on her way down a bad path. Apparently the boy had been kicked out of this school six months before.

~~~~~

I was just getting in from a late night of battles when Yuffie was getting Claire ready to leave for school. She turned towards me and said, "Claire has picture day today. She needs 30 Gil." With that she held out her hand.

I just stared. "What do you mean? I thought that picture day was at the beginning of the year."

"It was." Yuffie stated calmly. That made me wonder what was going on. "But, they are saying that because she wasn't there at the beginning that she needs to get them now."

As calmly and dangerously, as I could be around these two girls, I walked forward towards Yuffie. "Really. I thought I gave her picture money last week. What is really going on." I said the last as a statement to show her that I would stand for no excuses.

Yuffie reacted the way that she always did when I acted this way. She folded. "Alright. Two kids that are three grades older are picking on her. They get away with it. There's a no fighting rule in the school so if Claire does anything she's gonna get kicked out. Then she'll have to go to that 'troubled kids' school they started in Nibelheim. I'm only looking out for her!"

I told Yuffie I would drive Claire to school and talk to the Headmaster. Taking my ward out the door we headed off. As I started the car I thought, 'What am I getting myself into?'