A Strange Meeting

She walked down a long path filled with people lights and buildings. Well at least she thought they were people. The shapes of their bodies were humanlike but…they lacked eyes, they lacked noses and mouths. Nothing to see with, nothing to smell with, nothing to respond with. They lacked the basic features for a face. Nothing to respond to. Soon they begin to fill her with fear when she would see only their heads facing her.

She continued to walk down the street looking for anyone she knew. Soon she gazed onto a man …one she thought she knew. He looks way too familiar for her not to. He had chestnut brown hair and what looked like from a distance, a warm kind smile.

Wait, was he... smiling at her? She could barely see his eyes from she was standing, but looking at them gave her a feeling of comfort. He began to walk towards her. With every step he took toward her, his face became blurry. Was it her fault people lost their faces? Is that why they were staring at her when she walked down the street? Soon within about two feet of her, his face was gone. Her eyes widened in shock. She was hoping he might be able to help her.

"Hey, what's wrong?" The figure spoke to her. "You ok?"

She didn't answer him. How could she speak to a person without seeing their expression? What if he was laughing at her? He was the first to come to her after all this time, many people could've seen her wandering helplessly. Maybe he was just being nice.

"Rinoa? "

She turned around looking for whoever he was talking to. Maybe that person might help her more than this guy. She didn't want to offend him but she didn't know what was going on and she was scared. She heard him chuckle behind her. Well at least she could hear his reactions.

"Yes dummy I'm talking to you. Who else?"

She looked at him. Rinoa? Was that her name? She couldn't remember. She looked at the window in one of the stores...What she saw was a woman with the body figure of sixteen, with long ebony hair and ivory skin...but ...in the window she was like the rest of them, nothing to distinguish herself with. She, like them carried no face on her head. She gasped and took few steps back. Suddenly there was a long and loud buzzing noise in her ears. So loud, it made her fall to the ground. She heard the man call that name again in a worried tone. Her eyes shot open.

"Huh? " I rolled over when hearing the alarm clock falling off the bed to the floor with a loud thud. "Ow! What the crap? I know I didn't set it that loud!" I checked the clock and saw it was at the highest point of volume.

"Oh…" I said as I rubbed my back, feeling like an idiot. I sighed "Well no use just sitting here."

I quickly got up and fixed the bed, got out of my white silk nightgown and searched though the closet looking for the uniform. I sighed and kept looking. I always lose things but I didn't think it was possible to lose a uniform. I get up at the right time but it's not any good if I'm late because of my messy lifestyle. Maybe I was just having an off morning.

"Aha! " I grabbed the navy blue outfit with silver accents on the collar and along the sleeves. I liked it a lot. It was very good looking especially on the guys here. I felt my face redden at the thought.

Faces.

I was reminded of that dream. It was really odd. I couldn't tell whether it was me in it or if I was another person. When I looked into the window it sure looked like me. The body anyway. What an awful dream, enough that I would consider it a nightmare. Being in that sort of confusion, state of fear, and the feeling of being lost was so… scary. I wouldn't want that to really happen to me. I would put that thought aside for now, and talk to him about it later to see what he thinks. I opened the drawer on the bureau and took the cute long yellow ribbon from it. I wrapped it along my collar and tied it to look like a bow. I brushed my hair and put it up in a ponytail.

I walked out of my room and stretched my arms. Yawning I checked the time on my watch. "7:45 on the dot. It looks like it gonna be a good day!" I smiled being proud of myself for waking up at the right time today for the first time. Even while losing the uniform which was just at the bottom of my closet. How it ended up there I will never know.

"No oversleeping today? That's shocking. I usually have to go and you wake up" I heard a familiar voice say to me. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him. He smiled and gave a small chuckle. I would love it when he would smile or laugh because he rarely did it but mostly because it was so cute! I smiled back at him.

"Well I actually set the alarm today" I told him proudly. "And finally got up in time!" I grinned at him.

"That's good." he walked up to me and put his arms around my waist, giving me a morning hug. I felt his nose press against the top of head. I wrapped my arms around his neck and lay my head on his chest, taking in his scent. "Good morning Rinoa."

"Morning Squall" I replied, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "So, what are we doing today?" I was trying to hint at least a date. Which always he seemed too busy to go on. I understood why, he was busy with his work. His position as Commander of Balamb Garden always gave him too much to do. Though I understood it, but still made me feel a bit sad, lonely, and sometimes even a bit angry. I would never show this to him, I didn't want to cause him worry because of me. I've done so too many times in the past.

"Well today I'm going to do some classification rounds on paper, look at the new recruits to Garden, fix up the budget, and order in some new food..."

I knew it.

He stopped talking and looked at me with curious eyes. He began to stroke my face lightly and looked me straight in eyes.

"What's wrong?"

I shook my head as a response. But I knew if I said anything or did anything that gave him the idea I was going to say "nothing" he wouldn't believe me. He knew me too well. I figured that I might as well give him an honest answer.

"It's just that…" I sighed and looked down, not wanting him to see my face, which I'm sure looked pathetic. "…we don't get to spend much time together anymore. I have my classes and you have your work. I thought if I became a SeeD I would be able to be with you and everyone else more, who was always on missions…I wanted to be more useful."

He stared at me for a while and gave a small chuckle. He let go of my face and gave me a small kiss on the forehead. "All I needed was the beginning, but I'm glad that you told me everything. I know what you mean though, but that's how it is Rinoa. There's not much I can do about it. But tell you what? Next time I get a day off, we'll spend time together, ok?"

I sighed "ok, thanks." For trying anyways. I knew that the next day he had off was going to be a long time from now. I decided to suck it up. I didn't want to start the day being a nuisance and complaining.

…or being afraid.

That dream came back to me again. It was the strangest dream I've had in a long time. I guess it was the catch to being one of the strangest things on the planet. Being feared, and hated by people wasn't something I looked forward to when I was older. Nothing could be helped when it came to being a sorceress, but I would use my powers to help people.

Soon it was time for breakfast which for once I was also lucky to be able to get. I walked into the crowded cafeteria with Squall and looked around for Zell and Selphie, who were always there in the morning according to Quistis. It wasn't hard to spot them since Selphie's hair style was very different and Zell's tattoo stood out as well. I walked over to the table where they were sitting at.

"Hey guys, good morning" Selphie smiled at us cheerfully.

"Mornin' " I responded, smiling brightly back. "Mornin' Zell"

Zell looked up from his plate of food which was filled with golden eggs, a huge stack of pancakes, bacon, hashbrowns, and great looking toast. "Oh hey Rinoa!" he said with a mouthful of food. I laughed as Squall sat down making a sound of disgust.

"Ya know, if I knew that they had this for breakfast I would set the clock more often" I told them.

Selphie laughed "Well why do you think I keep telling you come here? It's not only I want to talk you know."

I found that hard to believe, Selphie always wants to talk. But I laughed with her. I looked at the line for breakfast. It was long. I promised myself that if I ever get down here again I would put my uniform in a place I could find it, that way I could get here quicker and get my hands on the amazing looking food.

Selphie smiled at me and started to laugh. I looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"Your stomach just growled Rinny!"

I felt my face redden. I hadn't even noticed my hunger this morning.

"Did you eat anything last night?" Squall asked me.

"No, I had a lot of studying to do so I had to stay up all night." I informed him

"All night? Rinoa that would've been a perfect time to oversleep. And you set the alarm clock while you were at it?"

"Yea I didn't want to go to class late…"

"Your instructor would've understood why. That wasn't very smart."

"Yea but I'm late most of the time so she could've thought it was just an excuse."

Zell nodded again with a mouth full of food "She makesh a goodsh pointsh."

I looked back that line and smiled. It was much shorter now. I decided to get up and finally get something to eat. Squall followed me and walked beside me. I smiled at him only to get a worried expression back.

"Do you think you should go to Dr. Kawasaki and ask to take a nap?" he asked me. I was about to answer when he continued. "I don't want you to pass out due to the lack of sleep Rin."

"I'm sure I'll be fine. But If I do start to feel sick or anything like that I promise I will go to her ok?"

He nodded and continued walking in the line. We chose our breakfasts. Me getting pancakes, sausages, eggs, apple juice and toast, Squall getting 2 chocolate chip muffins and a medium chocolate milk. We sat back down with Zell and Selphie and began to eat. A large chatter was behind us.

"What are people obsessing about now?" Squall asked in an annoyed tone, hearing the girls behind us squeal.

"Apparently there are new students here and many people are finding them very interesting." Zell responded. I felt excited when he said that. New people meant new friends. It also meant I wouldn't be alone as the new recruit here.

"What are they like?" I asked.

Zell shrugged "All I know is that they're all girls and don't seem to be from around here."

I understood why people found them interesting. I continued to eat my food. I would want to meet them soon. Then I heard someone yell out "YES! This IS my natural hair color now stop asking me that!"

Our whole table turned around to see where it came from. We saw a girl who looked about the age of 15 with raven colored hair sitting there and what looked like she was laughing. Beside her was a girl looking around the age of 17 with violet colored hair and emerald eyes with a very angry look on her face. People began to back away from their table. It wasn't hard to guess that she was the one yelling a few seconds ago. And next to her was very petite small girl with sepia colored hair and gentle big cerulean eyes trying to calm the violet one down. Raven haired bust into loud laughs and held her stomach making it look like laughing was hurting. The violet one glared at her. The small one stared at her too, but had a smile on her face as well. Maybe she was trying to hold her laughter in for the sake of the sanity of Miss Violet. She soon began to giggle.

"Ah! Not you too" Violet cried out.

Most of our table laughed a bit too except for Squall who had an assumed smile on his face. The bell to go to our first class rang and we got up to throw away our trays. Zell and Selphie said their goodbyes and walked away. Squall kissed me on the cheek and parted as well. I headed off to class.

I got inside my classroom where Instructor Cain began his class about elements. He stopped when there was a knock at the door. He walked outside the classroom. Students in my classroom began to whisper. I looked at the door, wondering what was keeping him. He walked back and smiled at the class.

"I have a wonderful surprise class; today we are receiving new students. Come on in" he looked at the door. The rest of the class looked up and stared at the door in wonder who was coming through the door. Soon came in the three girls from earlier this morning. Miss Violet, Raven-haired, and small one as I currently called them. Raven-haired had her eyes closed while flashing a goofy smile and said loudly "Good Morning everyone!"

Instructor Cain laughed and said "Why don't you three introduce yourselves?"

"Gladly!" said Raven-hair. She sure was happy to do this…"Hi everyone! I'm Minama Rina! Just call me Rina ok? It's very nice to meet you all" she said smiling brightly. She reminded me of Selphie.

Violet smiled as well but not as brightly as Rina. "I'm Miyazawa Rushi" she told us.

"Call her Rushi!" Rina told us.

They both looked at the small one and whispered in her ear. She looked up at the class and blushed a bit. "Say it" I heard Rina tell her a bit sternly.

"I'm Missino Anbaa…call me Anbaa." She told us in shy tone. Rina just smiled brightly once again at us. I didn't know where they were from, but I thought they seemed like nice girls, they were all very cheerful and adorable. I thought I could get to be their friend. Instructor Cain told them to sit, luckily, next to me. Rina was the first to come over and sit next to me. She smiled at me and for the first time since I saw her open her eyes. They were a light shade of blue. Very bright and pale, like a sky blue color. From her smile she told me "It's nice to meet you, I hope we can be friends."

I smiled back at her and said "Me too. I'm Rinoa Heartily it's a great pleasure to meet you" we shook hands and she giggled.

"That's such a pretty name! I wish I had it!" she exclaimed.

"Better watch out Rinoa, she might just take from you." I heard Rushi's voice behind me and Anbaa laugh. I looked over to Rina and she carried a strange grin on her face.

Oh my god I'm so sorry this happened! Now you can read the story in correct order.. thank god