Your Magic Final Fantasy Adventure

Chapter 29- (Little) Secrets

As soon as you returned to school and got off the bus, there was a silver-haired boy standing at the entrance to the quad. By the looks of things, you all were what he was looking for.

"May I help you?" asked Brecken.

He turned to the smaller girl. "Yeah, you can," he said. "And, so can you," he added, pointing to Hope.

Many silent, awkward moments passed between the three, before the boy continued. "Since there doesn't seem to be much else to say, hi, I'm your cousin." He extended his hand. "Riku Crescent."

"Oh, Sora must have told you where to find us," Hope said in realization. When Riku nodded, Hope shook his hand. "Hope Estheim, by the way."

"So you must be Brecken." Riku turned, and shook the girl's hand. "I didn't know which was which. Your names are both gender-neutral." (Well, not so much Brecken, but Hope, definitely.) "Anyway, I'm sorry we had to meet this way. I never knew my dad, but knowing he's dead still hurts a little; I can imagine how you feel about your mom."

"Trust me, no, you can't," Brecken said with a small laugh. "It's nice to finally meet you, though. You definitely have the trademark pale hair and blue eyes of our family. Ha. We're not allowed to have boys in the dorms, so why don't you and Hope go to his place to talk? I can catch up with you two a little later."

"You can't have boys in your room?" asked Riku. "Like, ever? But we're cousins!"

Brecken shrugged. "That's the rule."

"With the esteem of our school comes many, extremely ridiculous rules," added Hope. "The boys' dorm is this way."

The two boys walked off. "Seems like everything is going fine so far," you whispered to Yuffie and Mishaela on your way to your dorms.

"Yeah. I wish I had a secret cousin I never knew about but, both my parents are only children." Mishaela pouted. "My family's boring."

~~~~~

"Finals, more like ew," Serah said as she opened her history book. It was Friday night, and many of the girls had come to you and Yuffie's room to study. Finals week would be the upcoming week, which was also the final week of classes for the seniors; their finals were the previous week.

"It's not so bad, Serah," Selphie tried to cheer her up. "Pass six of your eight classes, and you'll be a sophomore. You don't even have to pass all of them!"

"Unless it's a required class," you pointed out. "You certainly don't want to take those over."

"Not that you'll have to!" Yuffie cut in. "I've seen your algebra work. You've got that one in the bag!"

You read through the itinerary for the Home Ec final. This time around, you'd have to serve an entire meal including dessert, in a real restaurant. It was the most stressful final, that was for sure. "Mishaela, Selphie, Yuna, a bit of advice," you said. "Never take Home Ec."

"Wasn't planning on it," Mishaela replied.

"Do we have to come up with the recipes on our own or are they given to us like last time?" asked Rikku.

"Nope, they're all us," Yuffie replied. "Three different main courses, two drinks, and five desserts."

"Well, no offense to any of you other guys, but I'm super glad that Vanille and Serah are both on my team this time!" you said happily. "We'll be so awesome out there."

You didn't have a music final. Your history, combat, and magic finals were all written, so those were nothing special. For weaponry, you'd had to actually craft a weapon, and you'd be able to finish that in class. Likewise with your final painting for art.