Chapter 1: First day in Balamb Garden.
Knock knock. The worst noise in the morning. Knock knock. There it is again. Knock knock. When will it stop?
"Charlotte? Come on and get up already!" A familiar voice came from the other side of the door. Charlotte, head under pillow, raises her head slightly.
"In a minute!" She says, dropping her head back onto her bed.
"You said that half an hour ago, our first ever lesson is going to start soon and you'd have missed out on breakfast!" Charlotte throws herself out of bed and lands face first onto the floor. She gets out of her sleepwear and dons her standard Balamb student uniform, she adjusts the tie quickly then opens the door, where Sam waits outside.
"I'm here!" She says, standing upright. Sam looks at her for a few seconds, before he starts to laugh. "Why are you laughing!?" She says, placing her hands on her hips.
"You can't be serious? You're going to go to class with your hair like that?" Charlotte drops her arms and flings them onto her face, she quickly dashes back into her room and grabs a hairbrush before coming back outside.
"Now I'm ready!" She starts brushing her hair, Sam sighs and follows her down the hall. "What lessons do we have today?" She says, tugging at her hair with every pull of her brush.
"We start off with basic weapon training, before we move onto the study of drawing. We then have 2 hours lunch before we do our lesson on GF's. After that we have to come back here and meet our tutor for the year!" He says, proud of being able to remember the sequence.
"Ugh, basic weapon training? We are more than capable of using weapons, especially our personal ones!" She glances at her hairbrush, holding it as if it was a dagger.
"Sometimes we'll be unable to use our personal weapons, so it's best that we know how to use basic ones, like swords!"
"Whatever!" Charlotte says, throwing her hands up in the air before holding them together behind her back. "So… Did you sleep okay?" She looks at Sam, who keeps his eyes ahead of them.
"Aside from spending my morning trying to wake you up, I guess I did." He says, Charlotte blushes in embarrassment and turns away from him. "We're here."
"But what about breakfast!?" She says, placing her hands on her hips again and looking at Sam sternly.
"Because of your desire to sleep, we've missed our chance." Charlotte looks down, feeling as if she is going to die if she doesn't eat something. Sam opens his bag and brings out a sandwich, giving it to Charlotte. Stars form in her eyes as she grabs hold of the sandwich Sam had made her. His food expertise was a good enough reason to live. She devours the sandwich quickly, not caring for the stares she was getting. Sam smiles and leans against the wall, waiting for Charlotte to finish. The door opens and students start walking into the classroom. Charlotte finishes her sandwich and makes her way inside, Sam following closely behind. They sit on a big bench next to each other, waiting for their instructor to stand up. Three minutes pass and their instructor was still sitting at his desk, some of the other students start whispering to each other. Charlotte tilts her head while Sam lays back, one of the students stand up.
"Uh, sir?" The instructor jumps, falling off his chair onto the floor. Some students start laughing, while the rest struggle to keep a straight face.
"Hey hey HEY!" The instructor says, trying to get onto his feet. He stands up and points at the student who spoke to him "How dare you disturb me from my slumber!"
"Sir, the lesson started a few minutes ago…"
"Oh… so it did!" The instructor moves to the middle of the classroom and stands upright. "Welcome to basic weapons training!" He raises his left hand and gives everyone a thumb up. "I'm Zell Dincht! And I'm your weapons teacher!"
"I get it! You all have your 'personal weapons!'" Zell holds a basic sword in his right hand, while he uses his left hand to make gestures towards his students. "But sometimes you will be unable to use them! So, you need to know how to use other weapons! Personally, I'd use my fists, but you aren't all like that!" Charlotte starts to doze, slowly leaning her head onto Sam's. Upon impact, Sam shook slightly, he looks to his right to see a sleeping Charlotte on his shoulder. "Now what do we have here?" Zell calls out, pointing towards the two, Charlotte opens her eyes.
"Huh…" She murmurs, she looks left to see Sam's face up close. She quickly throws her head away. "Oh my god I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine." Sam says, he looks towards Zell, who is watching the two. "She struggles to sleep sometimes, she's probably still tired." Zell brings his hand to his chin, then clicks his fingers together.
"Samuel Kain, right? Come up here, and show me your personal weapon!" Sam stood up and faced Zell, a flash of light appeared in his right hand and a navy-blue lance appeared. Sam holds it upward, allowing Zell to observe it. "Good good, now show me that you can use it. Attack me with your weapon!" He leans closer to Sam. "Gotta show off to your girl, right?"
"Excuse me?" Sam says, questioning his teacher. Zell places the sword down and kicks it across the room, raising his fists. He swings at Sam, who bounces backwards to avoid the hit.
"Nice dodge, now do it again!" He swings again, Sam jumps back again. Zell repeatedly swings his fists, only for Sam to dodge them repeatedly. Zell lowers his fists. "Well done!" He quickly performs an uppercut, landing a hit on Sam and throwing him onto the floor. Some students start laughing at Sam. The laughter poured into Sam's head, and his vision fades to black. An ominous, black, shadowy figure begins to form before him.
"You are a fool, Samuel." The shadow unsheathes a sword and points it at Sam. "You think you can protect people, but all you do is hurt them…"
"No… Shut up!" Sam gets up and readies his lance.
"Yes, that's right! Show me your anger!" Sam swings his lance, but the shadow jumps back, he swings again and misses. The shadow starts to wave its sword at Sam, who avoids all three strikes. "Show me your true strength!" Sam crouches down, feeling the air around him grow lighter. He extends his legs, flinging himself upwards, before crashing downwards, pinning the shadow to the ground. Sam aims his lance at the shadow's neck. "Good, good! Finish me!" Sam readies his lance, preparing for the finishing blow.
"Sam, stop!" He hears Charlotte's voice faintly, he starts trembling.
"What are you doing? Finish me!"
"Sam, this isn't you! Stop it!" Sam closes his eyes, he breathes in and tries to calm his mind. He opens them to see his lance aimed at an unconscious Zell. He raises his head and looks towards the other students, who are watching him in horror. Charlotte stands near him. "Are you okay Sam?"
"I… I'm fine…" Sam says, lowering his lance. He throws it aside, and it disappears in a flash of light. The door to the classroom opens. Both Sam and Charlotte look towards it to see a casually dressed man leaning in the doorway.
"You, the one who had the lance. Come to my office!"
"You know what you did, correct?" The headmaster stands behind his desk, staring out of the window, Sam sat on a chair opposite, looking down towards his hands.
"Attacked the teacher." Sam muttered. "It wasn't me though!" He raises his head towards the headmaster of Balamb Garden, he had heard rumours about him from people, saying that the headmaster looked very intimidating. But this wasn't what Sam expected at all; he just had a leather jacket with white trim, how could he be intimidating?
"Is that so?" The headmaster turns around to face Sam, his hair moving to show both of his wide hazel green eyes, which were looking directly at him, and Sam realised why he was so intimidating. "Then who did I see pointing a lance at Zell?" Sam tries to respond, but is unable to. He didn't want his secret to be discovered by anyone, the only person who knows about it is Charlotte, who he trusts with his life. "What I thought. Your first day and you attempt to kill one of my instructors. I can already tell you're going to be a handful." A series of playful knocks echo from the door, the headmaster raises his head in response and presses a red button on his desk. "Who is it?"
"Oh Squally-poo!" A playful, feminine voice is heard from a speaker on the desk. Squall sighs and places his free hand on his head.
"I'm busy right now Rinoa, can you come back later?"
"But it's urgent!" Squall sighs again, he looked briefly towards Sam and rolls his eyes, before pressing another button to unlock the door. The doors swing open to reveal Rinoa. Sam sits in the chair, refusing to turn around. She walks up to the side of Squall's desk and leans over it, gazing lovingly into his eyes.
"You forgot this folder!" She drops the black folder directly onto the desk. It appears as if she doesn't even realise Sam is there. "Honestly, where would you be without me!"
"Somewhere peaceful." Squall looks at Sam again.
Sam could tell that Squall was embarrassed, even if he was trying to keep up his intimidating act.
"That's no way to speak to your gir…" Rinoa looks to her left, seeing the student sitting on the chair. "Aren't you that kid who gave Zell a run for his money?" Sam nods, which leads to Rinoa grasping her hands together in excitement. "I spoke to Zell before coming here, he was ecstatic! Says he's glad that he gets to teach someone who isn't a pushover or a show off!" She turns to Squall again. "Why is he in here? Shouldn't he be with his girlfriend?" Sam starts to blush, he now understands how Squall is feeling.
"Whether Zell enjoyed his beating or not, I can't let it slide." Squall lifts his head and looks at Rinoa, who drops her hands and holds them behind her back. "Now can you please leave, I need to continue working." Rinoa nods and walks towards the door, she performs a playful bow before leaving. Both Sam and Squall remain silent for a solid minute, not moving from their positions.
"Uhm…" Sam murmurs, trying to break the silence in the room. Squall glares at him, before lowering his head and taking a seat, trying to regain his composure.
"Go to your girlfriend, we're done here." Sam stands up and makes his way to the door. "Samuel?" He says, gaining Sam's attention. "Tell anybody what happened here and you'll be taking Zell's place in the next demonstration." Sam nods and leaves the office.
