It's Like You Know

That's Just The Way It Is

By NikeGrrrrl


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Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters, Squaresoft does. I hope we all know that by now! Please don't use my ideas or my story without my permission :-) That's not too much to ask of ya, right? I would never ask too much of ya great guys! You're my readers! You rule!

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Authors Note: Well, I put a lot of time into this story, so it means a lot to me that you guys take a minute out of your day to write a nice little review in the box. If you hate this story tell me so! But try to tell what I did wrong so I can get better, ok?

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One last thing before I go: Thanks to DH and Chris who sometimes are my pre-readers on this series! Thank for all the help guys! :-)

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"My lord, that party last night was just about exhausting!" Quistis remarked to herself in a gravely tone of voice as she pulled her stiff body up into a sitting position on the satin sheeted bed. She tried to run her long fingers through her golden hair, but quickly found out that would be next to impossible, because what she used to call her hair was now a mass of tangles.


She let out a low groan because her head throbbed from a pounding headache. Her right hand caressed her left temple where it ached the worst as she started to get undressed to take her daily ritual of a morning shower. The blonde pulled herself out her soft bed and started to walk unsteadily toward the miniature closet, that all the unlucky SeeDs had gotten instead of the bigger ones that were in some of the other SeeDs dorm rooms.

Suddenly, out of no where, a loud rapping at her thin wooded door made her jump. The startled girl let out a rugged sigh as yanked down a nearby white velvety robe off a hanger in her closet. She tied the robe up around her skinny waist and started to make her way to the nearby door. The brownish colored, thick, itchy carpet felt rather warm to her cold feet. One problem that she had brought with her from childhood was her very cold feet.

"One moment," The groggy girl said to whoever had just knocked on her door. She walked slowly to her bathroom and grabbed a slick, pink and purple hairbrush and started to untangle clumps of hair one at a time. IT was a grueling process, that of untangling her baby soft hair, but one that was necessary for the striking girl to look acceptable.

"Quistis, how much sleep do you need! It's two o'clock in the afternoon, sleepy head!" Selphie yelled from the other side of the dark brown wooden door. The hyperactive young girl had already been standing in the musty smelling hallway for what had seemed to her like an hour. She stopped her hopping and fidgeting, patience was not a gift the good lord had bestowed onto her, and banged on the wooden door with both of her small hands as hard as her small muscles would allow.

Quistis hurried and tried to finish the brushing job on her, now much less, tangled hair. The blonde brushed through her hair one last time; looked in the mirror at her fuzzy reflection(She had lost her glasses last night), and then tossed her, now full of her precious hair, hairbrush into a nicely woven basket full of other hair accessories.

Selphie quit pounding on the flimsy door; she was sure it was going to crack in half at any moment, and getting into trouble was not exactly her idea of fun. The, now very impatient young SeeD, wrinkled her freckled nose; why did she have to go and get everyone out of their beds?

Quistis flipped through her closet looking for her outfit that she would wear, which was rather difficult because her clothes were so tightly packed in, and she decided that today would be her casual day. A light purple tank top caught her eye, so she pulled it out of the dark closet in a hurry. Remembering that her room was still dark, the girl scrambled over to her light switch and flicked it on.

She untied her robe and let it fall to the floor. Then, quickly pulled on a pair of dark denim jeans, that she had got out of her top drawer the night before, and then pulled her shirt over her throbbing head. The, now very late SeeD, ran over to her light brown dresser and yanked open the top drawer and frantically searched through it for her white crew socks. When she found a pair, she sat down on the soft carpeted floor and hurriedly put them on her cold feet.

Right as she was about to scream her leather lungs out and break her friend's door down, her newly found best friend opened her door and stepped out of the dorm room to the blue and white colored hallway with a tired grin on her face. Selphie sighed in relief, Quistis took too long to get ready in the morning! Selphie barely took any time at all to get herself ready; she'd never fully understand the complicated mind of Quistis Trepe.

"Finally! I thought you were never, ever, ever, ever, gonna come out of that dorm room!" Selphie said after Quistis had shut her dorm room door with a slam. Quistis merely rolled her eyes, and shook her head, she was finally getting used to Selphie's attitude, which was very out of place at a military academy, happy and go-lucky…

"My dear, dear, friend, I had to untangle my unruly, crazy, tangled, awful looking, messy, knotted, jumbled, matted hair! You should have seen it! Not to mention getting dressed. Did you want me to come out here stark naked?" The ex-instructor asked the energetic teenage, that just happened to be her best friend, in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Heeey! Irvine might have liked it, but I don't fly that way girlfriend!" Selphie said hitting Quistis playfully in her left arm. Selphie was trying to get used to how flirtatious Irvine was, but why should she care anyway? It wasn't like they were going together or anything…

"Yeah, yeah, cut the play. Why did you wake me up so early in the morning? I was trying to get some shut eye!" Quistis said with a look that Selphie knew meant she was trying to get serious, which sometime with Selphie was a very hard thing for the ex-instructor to do.

"Early!? Ok, ok, never mind. The headmaster wants a word with ya chica! Uh, and he wants a few more words cause I gotta get Zell and Irvine up, too! Ugh! What a major pain the butt!" Selphie almost yelled and stomped her foot.

"Shhh! Quiet down I have a headache. Why didn't he tell us over the loud speaker?" Quistis asked rubbing her temples again and grimacing from the pain. Her first stop before talking with the headmaster would be the infirmary for some aspirin, because this headache was beginning to hurt even worse.

"Tee-Hee! Somebody got a little too excited last night and broke it! So, of course, Selphie the messenger has to come and get everyone up," She said with a hint of resentment in the tone of her high-pitched voice. The poor girl couldn't understand why she always had to be the messenger.

"Ok, I'll be up there in just a little bit." Quistis answered; turning on her heel and walking in the direction of the infirmary. She couldn't go without food much longer or she would feel even worse and sick to her stomach. Not to mention she desperately needed some aspirin.

"We don't have a little bit! It's really important!" Selphie just couldn't understand Quistis, couldn't she see that it was important!? The confused SeeD sighed and run after Quistis to try to get her to reconsider, Selphie didn't want to get in trouble.

Quistis stopped all of the sudden and Selphie dashed right into her back, knocking both girls to the hard floor. They both were on their backs, they both laid on the cold floor for a few moments before Selphie let out a groan.

"Oops! Well, You need to hurry up to the third floor, or I'll be in for it!" Selphie said to Quistis as she jumped up to her feet and wiped off imaginary dust particles off her short yellow dress. She reached out a hand to help Quistis off the floor.

"Ok, ok. I promise to hurry, but next time maybe you can not knock me to the floor?" Quistis asked while rubbing her head all the while. Selphie was not helping this headache of hers, and now she had a bruised back to worry about. This wasn't exactly her picture of the greatest way to start off a work day.

"Don't get all mad! It's not my fault! Just hurry up! I gotta go get Zell…..you know how hard it is to get him up!" Selphie hated this job, why was she always the messenger? They could have sent Irvine instead. Now her best friend was mad at her, she let out a rugged sigh and shrugged her slim shoulders; then ran down to the corner towards Zell's dorm room.

"Selphie?" Quistis asked to empty air, no answer. Selphie was already out of hearing range. Quistis was beginning to hate this SeeD job, now she didn't even have enough time to get a good breakfast. The hungry girl merely sighed and headed off in the direction of the infirmary.

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Selphie walked down to Zell's dorm room with a heavy heart, she hated being such a klutz. Hopefully, Quistis would get over it soon, or Selphie might go crazy. Now nearing her next stop, Zell's dorm room, she prepared herself, this one might take awhile.

She let out a hopeful sigh and straightened herself, then knocked on the door nice and hard, not to hard though, these doors were awful flimsy. She knew that Zell was not going to get up without a fight, and Selphie Tilmitt was definitely not in the mood to deal with someone getting in the way of her mission right now. After all, she was already going to be in trouble for being late.

"Zell! GET UP! ALREADY!" She yelled as she now beat on the door. This was just not working for her, and she couldn't think of any other way to get Zell up. The frustrated girl moaned and backed away from the door. She was going to have to go in.

She backed away to the far wall, and then ran and kicked the door open. The small girl went flying in from the impact, right into Zell who had just stood up. For the second time that day, Selphie Tilmitt knocked someone else to the floor.

"Ugh! I have bad Karma!" She shrieked as she brought herself up into a sitting position. The now very frustrated girl rubbed her head, she had banged it up against the foot of Zell's bed when she came flying in through his door.

"What the…? What are you doin' in my room?!" Zell asked furrowing his eyebrows together. What a way to start off the day, getting knocked to the floor by a crazy ninety pound girl. His stomach growled, he needed some breakfast. The spiky haired boy turned his head to his clock that sat on his nightstand beside his bed, two thirty! How long had he slept?

"I HAD TO GET YOUR LAZY SELF UP! You know it is not easy to get you up! And then! You get up and don't say anything, so I kicked the door open, and then I hit my head, and knock you over, which is the second time today I knocked someone over, and my luck just is awful today, and your not even dressed, so I'll be here forever-" Selphie said in a fast voice while motioning with her hands wildly.

Zell grabbed her hands to cut her off, she must have been going crazier by each second that went by. He shut his eyes and groaned, now he had a pounding headache. This day was not looking to good for either of them so far, and Selphie wasn't making things any better for them by going on a rampage.

"Hey! Man, calm down, you're goin' postal on me here," Zell said to the now red in the face teenager. She stomped her small foot, and pulled her arms away from him. The blonde boy didn't understand how much trouble she was going to be in when she went back up stairs.

"I HAVE TO GOOOOO!" Selphie screeched on the top of her little leather lungs. She didn't want to get herself into anymore trouble, and reasoning with Mr. Zell Dincht wasn't getting her anywhere anyway. With one last heavy sigh she stomped her way to the door and shut it with a slam leaving a very confused Zell standing in the same place staring at the door.

He shook his head to wake himself up a little more. "O.K. I guess I get no breakfast, big time bummer! I hope Cid makes this quick!" Zell said to himself as he went and walked over to his dresser to put some decent clothes on. He flipped through every drawer in the dresser. Zell wrinkled his nose and slammed the door shut, he had no clean clothes. What was he gonna do about that? He had no time to go wash his piles of dirty clothes that were all over his dorm room.

The discouraged martial arts expert staggered to the other side of his room, stepping over the piles of his dirty clothes, over to his closet. He didn't care anymore, just as long as the clothes were clean and not dirty. The only clothes that were in the empty, under-used closet were clothes that his mom had bought him. Great now he would have to look like a total geek.

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"What is taking them so long! I thought I told Selphie to hurry!" Squall said in an irritated voice as he paced around the bridge of Balamb Garden. He stopped pacing for a moment and took time to look at the scenery. The view was just dazzling from the bridge. Green-blue wave less ocean as far as you could see on three sides, a blue cloudless sky with a bright yellow blinding sun that was just beginning to make its way down from the top of the endless sky, and then a rocky coastland and upcoming mountains barely in view with cloud covered tops. Exactly what Squall could call a perfect day…

"Yoo-hoo! Squall! Earth to Squall! Are you spacin' out on me again!?" Rinoa raised her voice and said to Squall. She had been trying to talk to him, when he started frowning and looking out over the ocean. The general's daughter hated when he would act like this. She twirled a piece of her mid-length black and highlighted hair with her index finger on her right hand while she tapped her foot and waited for her boyfriend to remember that she was also in the room.

"Uh, yeah…sorry…" Squall answered as he pulled his gaze away from the beautiful scenery. The Gunblade specialist knew it irritated his impatient girlfriend when he took time out of the day to think, something that she should try a little more often. It wasn't a totally bad thing that he thought a lot, well, not totally, but maybe he should cut down a little bit…

"Back to Selphie being late?" Rinoa asked as she let her fall back down to her shoulder. Maybe she shouldn't have brought that back up, but she had to start a conversation or her boyfriend might space out on her again. It was a tiring job talking all the time to keep him in focus, and it made her seem like some never ending jukebox that just kept playing songs, over and over and over…

"Yeah, like I was saying, she needs to hurry up! I don't know what Headmaster Cid wants to tell us but I know that it is important! She is slowing us down!" Squall said in a loud voice as he started pacing again. He couldn't help but get irritated, he could have had the job done himself a long time ago. That's why he preferred just doing things himself and not leaving his fate in anyone else's hands.

Rinoa let out an amused laugh. Squall gave her a look, and she covered her mouth with her left hand to muffle the sound. "Squall! Stop pacing silly! Everything-will-be-o-k. al-right?" Rinoa said to him in a slow, but playful voice after she had collected herself. He was quite the sight to see, pacing around the bridge and getting all irritated. Rinoa knew everything would be alright, but she wondered about Squall sometimes…

"Squall never really ever could take high-stress situations." A medium-high voice said from the floor below them. Rinoa gave a big smile and ran to lift just in time to see Quistis and Irvine coming up. The brunette let out a happy laugh and hugged Quistis when she was still standing on the lift.

Irvine opened his mouth in a hurt manner. "Hey, where's my hug?" Irvine asked as they both stepped off the creaky lift onto the solid hard white tile floor of the bridge. He opened his arms and closed his brown eyes and waited for Rinoa to give him a hug like she had just gave Quistis.

Rinoa pulled away from Quistis and laughed joyfully. The young sorceress went over to Irvine and looked at him. "Irvine, you might as well open your eyes and move along! You aren't getting a hug!" Rinoa answered to his happy face. She rolled her big round brown eyes and turned on her heel and went toward where Squall was standing.

Quistis laughed and hit Irvine in the stomach; then turned and followed Rinoa. The cowboy looking boy held his stomach and pretended that Quistis had hurt him severely. He gave her a hurt look and over-reacted as much as he could. When no one bought his story he magically recovered and followed the girls.

"Finally! Gosh, Quistis. It took you long enough to get up here! Now where are Selphie and Zell!?" Squall asked in an infuriated voice. Those two teenagers better hurry up because he was losing his patience, and it wasn't like he had much of that to start with.

"Sorry, but it takes me a little time to get ready in the morning! Selphie went to wake Zell up, so it might be awhile," Quistis answered to her impatient commander. The blonde girl wondered what the problem was, why would the Headmaster call them up here in such a hurry?

They all sighed and decided that they would have to wait this one out. Squall began pacing again, Quistis sat down and leaned against the right wall, Irvine turned his hat down and leaned against the right wall, and Rinoa sat Rinoa style with her arms wrapped around her legs in the middle of the floor.

Garden was on autopilot back to its Balamb resting place by the sea. The Garden made a slow right turn and the sun came flooding in. The bright clear rays lit up the floor and you could see all of the gray dust that was on the white tile floor. It looked like it hadn't been swept in at least a week; after all the happened recently it was no wonder, the whole Garden had practically fallen apart during the whole sorceress ordeal.

It had been about ten minutes and still no sign of Selphie or Zell. Squall was beginning to pace faster and wore his thinking frown, while everyone else busied them selves with minor tasks such as twirling their hair(Rinoa) or taking a minor nap(Irvine).

Quistis sighed and looked out the big window out to the sea. No land could be seen now and they finally on a straight course to Balamb. No birds could be seen this far out over the blue-green endless seeming ocean. The blonde girl sighed and switched her gaze to the floor.

Suddenly, voices could be heard from the lower level, arguing voices. A girl was yelling at someone… a guy. Everyone suddenly became alert. Quistis and Rinoa scrambled to their feet to go and see what the trouble was. Squall stopped pacing and walked over to see who it was also. Irvine was, of course, still fast asleep.

"I don't understand you! What is your problem! When I tell everyone, you are so gonna get it! You're gonna be so sorry!" A high pitched voice screamed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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