Locked Inside

Summary – (AU) Squall has been waiting for the long weekend to arrive, but after something goes awry after his last period history test, will he and another unfortunate student be able to even get out of the locked-up Balamb High?

A/N – This is my first fic, so reviews and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Please note that the first chapter will be somewhat long in order to establish things.

Disclaimer – I do not own anything from Final Fantasy 8, this disclaimer will apply to any future chapters as well.

Well, I hope that you'll enjoy this, just remember to review afterwards!

P.S – Sorry if this starts off a little slow at first and if the characters are OOC.

Edit (07/05/06) – Just fixed some spelling and formatting errors.

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Chapter I – Long Weekend Anticipation

'BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP-'

Squall Leonhart awoke with a jolt at the sound of his alarm clock. It was like this every morning, he didn't particularly like that buzzer very much, but it got the job done by waking him up fairly quickly.

'Well, at least I won't need to hear it for next… what …three mornings.' He thought in realization that today was the Friday before the long weekend.

Lately, Squall had been finding himself looking forward to the long weekend just like the majority of the other students at Balamb high school. Not for the parties and the alcohol, mind you, but for the chance to catch up on the things his that his hectic schedule didn't allow him to do lately, namely to catch up on his reading, gunblade practice and maybe to get some more sleep if that was even possible.

Squall wasn't like many other students in this way, he did not care for partying and drinking like most 17-year olds did, instead, he preferred to do the aforementioned things he hadn't had the time to do, which was obviously reading and to practice gunblading. In general, he wasn't considered very social at all, in fact, if many people had to describe him, the main descriptions would end up being along the lines of smart, anti-social, reserved and possibly cold-hearted.

After coming out of his small reverie, he slowly got out of bed, walked to the bathroom adjacent to his room and peered briefly at his own reflection after subconsciously brushing his teeth. The reflection showed a 5'8" seventeen-year old boy with messy, chocolate-brown hair, stormy-blue eyes and a somewhat muscular medium-size build. Not to mention he was currently wearing navy-blue pajama bottoms. In assessment of his current untidy appearance, Squall decided to take a quick shower.

12 minutes later, after showering, he got dressed in a white, long sleeve shirt with a single dark-blue stripe down each separate sleeve, along with his favorite pair of non-descript black leather pants and adorned his neck with his signature Griever necklace. Afterwards, he then proceeded to head downstairs towards the kitchen.

As he was slowly descending the stairs, a bright orange note on the fridge caught his eye. His pace doubled in curiosity, and before he knew it, Squall found himself plucking it off the fridge and reading it.

Squall, I have to leave for the long weekend for that meeting in Esthar, I got a call this morning from Kiros, and he told me that the meeting was bumped up to tomorrow. I won't be back until Monday night.

Love, Dad

P.S – I took the car so I could make it time to catch the next train, so you'll have to take the bus. Sorry!

"Hmph, maybe this weekend will even better than I thought." Squall murmured to himself sarcastically while opening the fridge door to retrieve an apple to eat. He had no time for a proper breakfast since the bus came a lot earlier than the time he usually left in the morning.

It wasn't that he didn't like his father Laguna, but there were some times when his cheerful and clumsy demeanor could just drive him insane, especially if he had to prepare for a meeting for anything the day before.

For example, the last meeting he had to prepare for, Laguna had asked Squall if he knew where his cue-cards were at least a half-dozen times. On top of that, he couldn't sleep much after the racket his father made whilst searching for them. The sad part was that they were actually in his back pocket all along. But for the most part, except when he's preparing for important meetings, Laguna was an all-round good parent (Squall's mother had died a long time ago). Plus, his clumsiness did provide for some extra entertainment from time-to-time.

After eating his apple and hastily putting the remainder of the things he needed for school in his backpack (Food, finished homework, etc.), Squall headed out the door and locked it promptly. However, something seemed to be picking at him in his thoughts.

'Wait a minute… I know I'm forgetting something important, but what? Ugh, I have no time for these stupid mind games..' He then paused between mid-thought and then came to a conclusion, 'Oh Hyne, now I know, it's my gunblade! I left it inside!'

Squall quickly unlocked the door and dashed inside his home and went upstairs to grab his Revolver case, which obviously contained his Revolver, from under his bed. After quickly exiting his house yet once more, he mentally punished himself for forgetting such an important thing for school today.

Normally, Balamb High wouldn't allow such weapons to be brought at school, yet today was an exception just for a few people. There were new self-defense/weaponry lessons (classes that taught students how to defend themselves with weapons) available to anyone who had a spare at first in their schedule.

Squall had signed up for this since he indeed had a spare to spare during that time slot, but he didn't sign up for the self-defense part of the lesson at all. He knew all of the defensive techniques already; it just enabled him to get some more practice time in. But, the downside to these 'classes' was that the lessons were only held every second Friday, and because Seifer Almasy also attended the class.

For as long as Squall knew him, even possibly as far back as kindergarten, Seifer was always trying to pick on him or trying to tick him off by doing something, whether it was name calling, inflicting physical pain on him, provoking him, among other things, you name it, he did it. If there was one person he hated in the world, it was definitely Seifer.

Pushing these thoughts aside, Squall just made it in time to catch the bus he usually never took, looking for an empty seat. He managed to find one near the back of the bus, trying to ignore the stares of people that probably wondered why he was even on the bus. He didn't bother to respond to the stares, he just kept a stoic, icy look on his face, nor did he even try to find a seat next to a friend like most people did; he didn't have any friends.

Sure, there were people that he sometimes talked to, but they weren't his friends. Squall knew that they just talked to him in order to attempt to figure him out like so many others wanted to do. But it wasn't that he didn't want friends, he just preferred his solitude. Solitude, in Squall's opinion, had always been in one way or another, his best friend.

"Lets just hope that the rest of the day will go by faster…" He mouthed, barely audible under his breath as he stared solemnly through the bus windowpane. Little did he know, someone had heard this remark and slightly pitied him.

Following a long, boring, 30-minute bus ride, he finally made it to school. Squall exited the stuffy bus with new energy, as he took in some fresh air for the first time in half-an-hour. This always managed to perk him up in the morning. The presence of small building (It was an exclusive school), which students and staff members alike knew as Balamb high school, stood right in front of Squall.

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Walking through the main hallway, the brown-haired teenager managed to make a beeline to his locker with dignity and grace through the same thicket of senior football players that usually hung around near the vicinity of his locker every morning, without being pummeled for once.

For Squall, this deemed as a major achievement since Seifer just so-happened to be the captain of the swarm of a team that naturally gave him a hard time. Or maybe they just happened to do that because a certain 6'1", blonde-haired, green-eyed, pain-in-the-arse captain wanted to make sure he saw Squall suffer at least a bit every day. Since physical pain was a way to suffer and he had connections with the team by being their captain, put two-and-two together and talk about evil. It was hell for Squall; maybe today would be better in terms of luck. Or not.

'Maybe Seifer's going soft? ' He thought in consideration from today's events, 'Nevermind, there's no chance of that happening in the near future. Better not chance this good luck; I've got to get away from here…fast.'

After opening his locker, Squall carried out his plan. Within a period of 18 seconds, he put away his backpack, grabbed his gym bag and the Revolver case again, and then quickly proceeded to close the locker. As he headed towards the gym for the self-defense class, his pace augmented to that of a semi-dash, ignoring all of stares he was currently receiving due to this burst of speed; he did not want to push his luck today by sticking around the swarm.

He reached the gym by following the usual route to the end the main corridor, followed by a left turn and opening the second last door to the right. Inside, he spotted the usual crowd of classmates, minus Seifer, he was always late on purpose, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas, Quistis Trepe, a girl with dark hair, whose name escaped him at the moment, and a dozen other lesser-known students. But today, there was an additional student not yet seen before in the crowd. One short, brown-haired, green-eyed girl with nunchakus in hand, grinning ear-to-ear as soon as she saw Squall. It was Selphie Tilmitt who had just peeled herself away from the crowd and was coming towards him.

'Hmm.. Selphie decided to take the class.' He thought briefly before the interruption of speech.

"Hi Squall!" Selphie chirped happily, "I decided to take this class after all, like you suggested! I'll bet it'll be loads of fun!"

Selphie was one of Squall's 'pseudo-friends' to which he spoke a word or two to on occasion if she was the one who started the mini conversation that they sometimes had in the hallways, but he never really considered her as a friend. The funny part was that he had only briefly mentioned that he had this newly-available class, not that she should take it, so in conclusion, Squall thought people could be plain odd sometimes.

"Whatever."

After blowing off Selphie, he then disappeared into the guys changing room. Walking into the room, there were several people from the football team currently changing into their gym clothes for a weight-training class, located upstairs via a stairwell near the gym itself. Squall knew this because the last time he had a S.D class he had the pleasure of getting punched by several football players when they recognized him after he simply asked why they were there. Never did he ask anyone that question again. Period.

Squall took off his necklace and placed it neatly inside his bag, and then he took off his long-sleeve shirt and swiftly put on his Balamb High gym shirt, his bare stomach left uncovered for only a few mere seconds. The gym shirt was just a simple white T-shirt with a small version of the school's logo on the right side of the chest. Then he did the same for his leather pants by switching them for plain black shorts. The truly weird thing was that the football players did nothing to provoke him before, during, or after he changed.

'Maybe they're nothing without their leader.'

He put away the clothes in his bag, put that same bag in a locker, picked up the Revolver case yet once more and quickly reappeared in the gym. The morning bell had just ringed as he had just done so.

The morning announcements started blaring about useless upcoming school events and other things that did not concern Squall. So he simply tuned out the noise in his mind, unsheathed his Revolver and started practicing basic techniques until the speaker's sound had stopped and the teacher's sound had replaced it. He was taking attendance.

"Seifer Almasy." Mr. Janis, an average-sized man with short black hair, stated with no emotion what so ever.

Only silence was heard. There was no 'Here!' or 'Here.' to be heard.

"Nevermind, I'll just mark him late, Hyne knows he'll pop in here any minute now…" He quipped before continuing.

"Zell Dincht."

"Here!" Zell said loudly while jumping into the air with his hand extended at the same time as if he wanted some kind of attention, or that it had something to do with not forgiving the teacher for that one time when marked him absent even though the short blond was there. Attendance proceeded this way until the instructor mechanically recited the last name on the list.

"…And finally, Selphie Tilmitt."

"I'm here!"

"Okay, today's schedule will be a bit different than normal, since there is another student who has joined our numbers, I will have to take the time to make sure that she catches up." He continued on, "So, the rest of you will be left to your own devices until Miss Tilmitt over here, has caught up completely. But-"

"We can't leave the gym. Unless if class is finished. Or else we will be sent to the office if caught doing so." Seifer interrupted in a droning, mock-authorative voice after entering the gym late (as usual) upon hearing the first bit. "Am I right instructor? Or what?"

Seifer always had a knack for getting under the teachers' skin by any means possible. With Mr. Janis, the best tactics of annoying him was either – A) Chewing gum loudly in his presence, or B) Beating him at finishing his own sentences – especially ones about school rules, which incidentally, Seifer never followed. That drove him nuts, and today was no exception. Squall just hoped that he didn't have gum.

"Seifer, get dressed now, and if you're not quick about it I'll have you do 20-"

"Laps, instructor? Gee, how did I know you were going to say that? No wait, maybe you'll have me do 20 women! Yeah, that'd be nice." The tall blonde finished the sentence with such a level of sarcasm that even Squall couldn't even manage to beat.

Seifer turned around momentarily to smirk at the black-haired instructor just before retreating into the boys' locker room, knowing that he achieved thoroughly to piss the instructor off completely, especially when he heard students laughing hard at the teacher's crimson face of embarrassment.

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In a nutshell, today's self-defense class was so far, in Squall's opinion, relatively boring. Up until now, Mr. Janis had been juggling most of his time trying to get Selphie caught up and trying to control Seifer for once. He failed at completing either task. So in turn, Squall also had a very good inkling that the rest of the class would end up being left to their own 'devices' all period, and there was just so many times one can practice slashing air without falling sleep with complete boredom.

'Why can't the school just expel Seifer? It'd make everyone else a lot happier. Well, maybe not the football team… or the cheerleaders if football got canceled because- Nevermind!' Squall had been contemplating this for quite some time, as he was taking a break from practicing base-level techniques, which by now, were so permanently engraved in his head that he could possibly do them flawlessly in his sleep.

A bit later, while Squall was on the verge of falling asleep after repeating simple defensive techniques after what felt like the thousandth time, when Selphie accidentally whacked herself hard on the forehead with the other end of her nunchaku, rendering herself unconscious. Since the instructor had to bring Selphie to the nurse, the rest of the class was dismissed.

Instead of changing into his regular clothes and leaving class like all of the other students seemed to be doing, Squall continued practicing more intensely, hoping to get the most out of the remaining 10 minutes of class by practicing more advanced techniques since no one was there to gawk at him. The last thing he needed was a fan club, a fan club that would most likely end up with Selphie Tilmitt as president.

Squall thoughts darted towards assessing his new freedom, 'Now this is much better, no more pretending that you only know simple base-level stuff without getting in trouble. If only I could get something other than air to practice with though…'

He worked himself in a heavy sweat until two minutes before the bell. That's when Seifer strode up to him with the usual smirk on his cocky, arrogant face. Apparently, Squall wasn't the only one left after all.

"Hey Puberty Boy, didn't you hear? Class was dismissed, or are you just looking for some real practice?" He jeered, slashing the air downward with his Hyperion, then bringing it back up for a moment to poke Squall's throat like some kind of threat.

'Seifer probably knew about that if he stuck around and saw me practice those advanced techniques so hard earlier. Damn him! He's making this too hard to pass up!'

None the less, Squall had been itching to duel someone to test his skills but he wasn't sure that someone should be Seifer. If he lost to him, Squall knew that he'd lose a lot more than just the duel; his dignity would surely be at the top of the list. When he started to take time to consider the offer a bit more, this achieved to make Seifer impatient, he wanted a quick direct response, not an hour of meditating over a simple question.

"Will you give me an answer already Leonhart! I don't have all day, you know." Seifer said in annoyance, his impatient and fiery nature was surely getting the best of him.

Squall had made a final verdict in his head, 'Might as well, being that he's the only other person with some amount of skill with a gunblade, it should prove interesting regardless. Maybe if I beat him that'll get him off my case for a while.'

Originating from a somewhat loose, natural stance, he started to slowly take several steps backwards, still facing Seifer with an eerie stare, blue-gray eyes always focused on the tall blonde's greens, creating an adequate space between him and his adversary. Then he stopped with his Revolver still loosely at his side, gripping the hilt tighter than usual.

"Fine." Squall said in a low tone barely louder than a whisper, head nodding up derogatively during mid-completion of the one-word response; he did not feel like losing to Seifer.

'Do your worse Seifer, I dare you to.' He voiced inside his head, keeping the somewhat malicious glare directed at his opponent.

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The bell had actually rung not too long after Squall had distanced himself from Seifer, but neither really cared about it though; the anticipation of battle was too tempting to pass up.

Squall started the match on the offensive, attempting to strike at the blonde's upper body to release the rage that was causing a lack of internal focus. The pair of blades eventually clashed, emanating tiny sparks through force, slowly edging closer to his rival's face until Seifer put more effort into his counter.

Hoping that his weight would throw him off, Squall quickly sidestepped to halt the counter against Seifer's blade. As previously predicted, he stumbled a bit, and enabled Squall to loop around him to get at his backside, but Seifer was one step ahead; he swiftly turned, blocking the attack at an upward angle, causing Squall to break off his attack.

In desperation not to give Seifer the upper hand, he stepped back and quickly charged forwards on the offensive yet again. This time, Squall had his blade more horizontal than before, it seemed to prove useful since Seifer was trying even more to keep even more sparks at bay, away from his face. However this advantage did not last long when the lack of traction from the gym's floor was starting to make them slide. Not wanting to lose ground, the pair of combatants both edged away from each other, some how managing to switch sides as both tried to catch the other off-guard by identical high attacks- turned slide movements by implied effort among both parties.

The force of the movement almost made both Squall and Seifer to slide nearly to the opposing sides of the gym, but Squall remedied this lack of friction with a quick turn of a heel, meanwhile Seifer had achieved the same result by lowering himself a bit and using his free hand to stop the sliding motion.

After all movement stopped, the two teenagers quickly eliminated the large gap between them by dashing towards each other, upon confrontation, Squall attacked Seifer by an underhanded blade movement, thus used for countering his rival's over-head swooping attack, countless swerving techniques and sidestepping in circular, dance-like fashion followed shortly thereafter in attempt to gain supremacy.

When Seifer decided to swiftly escape the repetitive tight confinement of side-steps and swerve-like motions, he spun backwards to create room to get out, Squall seized this chance to deliver a strong downward sideways swiping motion to move the Hyperion blade out of the way, causing Seifer to look down in distraction for a second. Then, Squall acted on impulse to take advantage of the situation and dashed towards him, slashing forward. Unfortunately for Squall, he did not connect, as Seifer ran behind him to avoid the blade, this caused Squall to lose a split-second as he stumbled forward since he slashed hard with far too much power through the much-lighter gym air and not his desired opponent. As a smart precaution, Squall turned around quickly to make sure that the blonde did not gain any more leverage by means of a sneak attack.

Oddly enough, Squall only ended up seeing Seifer taunting him in a pose, with Hyperion slung over his right shoulder, free hand extended, moving his middle and index fingers back-and-forth in unison with a smirk, as if he was beckoning Squall to come over to his side of the gym to come at him to fight some more, instead of being face-to-face in a situation of close-range attack.

A small thought surfaced for a split-second, taking Squall's mind of the match for a moment, 'Seifer, your arrogance is going to cost you your life someday, or better yet, the match. Stupid idiot…'

The pair advanced into a series of attacks, moving back and forth between hits. This time, Squall was on the defensive, blocking, while Seifer was delivering strikes in a fencer-like stance, height playing a key factor. After the third connection between blades, Squall regained some leverage as he swung his Revolver to the side, making his opponent's gunblade recoil backwards, slightly hitting that same opponent in the chest with the broad side of his own blade. Complete leverage favored Squall as he perpendicularly slashed towards his opponent's head, leaving the blonde very vulnerable when his own blade was inching near his forehead from vain defense. Seifer had been forced to lower himself in an awkward position in order to escape bathing in blood from his own blade. Defeat seemed inevitable for Seifer. Or so Squall thought.

Seifer smartly sprung upwards, using the force in his long legs to act like a spring, which was quite an impressive feat in itself, then he quickly backed off and went straight back into battle with two strong swipes, catching Squall slightly off-balance. But Squall came right back when Seifer overdid it on the third swipe, staggering just like Squall had done earlier by not connecting with anything when he had intelligently ducked. Not knowing what to expect, Seifer just carelessly lashed his blade back out from previous recoil to keep his opponent away as he regained posture. This caused Squall to jump backwards to avoid the assault.

'Hmm, Seifer's tougher than I thought, maybe I should fight harder, give him a challenge.' Squall thought as he and Seifer took a moment to catch their breath at opposite sides of the gym.

As both parties stopped their momentary rest, Squall gave his hardest effort and went all-out against Seifer; he swiped the air hard in fury, and then connected with his Hyperion on his second slash by lashing back his Revolver from the recoil caused from the first. Then a blitz of slashes to his blocking adversary's blade went unleashed by the blue-eyed demon soon followed thereafter, leaving a wide-eyed Seifer nearly defenseless in shock; he hadn't anticipated this kind of fighting from Squall, not now, not ever.

Seifer however, did manage to cut the flurry of attacks after hooking Squall's blade out of the way when the brown-haired teenager tried to deliver a strong hack, then Seifer proceeded to drive Squall away from him by swiping Hyperion in his general direction, causing Squall to jump sideways and away from the green-eyed blonde.

The match started to approach its end when Squall twirled his Revolver once to gain momentum, and then started to run yet again at Seifer preparing for the final stretch of the match. Seifer also started to run towards Squall, but at a much slower pace. Something odd was going on, and Squall knew it.

'Seifer must have something up his sleeve…'

The blonde did have something up his sleeve. Instead of clashing blades with Squall as he approached him, he unleashed a surprise Fire attack, making Squall clatter to the floor along with his Revolver, even though the gunblade did help block most of the illegal spell (There was no magic allowed on school grounds). Squall found it especially hard to get up quickly, due to the pain the magic caused, but before he managed to fully get up, he noticed that Seifer had his gunblade propped upward, ready to strike and Seifer himself had an never-before seen maniacal glint in his usually-smug eyes. Squall's internal thoughts buzzed at this glint,

'What the hell are you doing…'

Squall's eyes widened in shock and his body moved slightly as the blade went slicing diagonally near his right eye just across the other side of the bridge of his nose, a line of his blood splattered onto the gym floor as the bloodied gunblade left his face. Rage instantly filled Squall as the blood was dripping off his face, staining his shirt and the floor.

Squall's newly acquired fury and anger erupted inside of him, 'How dare you do this to me, I'll make you pay dearly for what you did if it's the last thing I do!'

On his knees, he slowly turned his head to stare at the psycho who gashed his face for a split-second, got up on his feet by sliding sideways, gained power by dragging the Revolver on the gym floor causing massive sparks and then, full of anger, hate, and fury, he mercilessly slashed Seifer's bewildered face, giving him an identical gash across his nose. Squall's vow of revenge was satisfied as he saw his rival's blood spill onto the floor mixing with his own. Breathing heavily after using the last of his energy, Squall collapsed; an unconscious Seifer on the blood-bathed ground was the last thing he saw.

The battle-worn Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy had both passed out, the pair both lying unconscious on their battle-forged pool of blood with identical gashes across their faces, everything almost tinged in crimson red.

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Several hours later, Squall had awoken in a completely different setting, obviously very different from gym floor. He was still in his bloodstained gym clothes, yet he felt no dried-up blood caked on his face, although it was very sensitive to the touch.

'White walls, white curtains, white beds, passed out Seifer in a white bed, where am I?'

'-Wait. I must be in the infirmary, but why does my head hurt so much?'

After that final thought, the resident doctor, Dr. Kadowaki, walked to the foot of his bed and picked up one of those built-in clipboards, which Squall assumed noted his current status.

"So you've finally woke up Mr. Leonhart, how are you feeling?" She asked in a friendly tone, still holding the aforementioned clipboard.

Trying to be as brief as possible, Squall replied, "…I'm okay, but my head hurts."

"Looks like your eyes are focusing. You should be fine. The pain you're experiencing is from that wound to your forehead. I'll give you some pills to dull the pain, but next time, take it easy in training. Next time you might not be so lucky."

"Tell that to Seifer."

"That Seifer…" She paused to glance at him from across the room, "…Won't listen to anyone. Why don't you ignore him?"

"I can't just run away."

"You wanna be cool, huh? Well, don't get hurt in the process." Dr. Kadowaki quickly went to retrieve the medicine and gave it to Squall. She continued, "If you're feeling better, I can write you a late pass for your last period, which is…"

"-Grade 12 History." he added.

"Right. Okay…" She then paused to finish the note, "…There we are, your clothes and gunblade case are on that table right beside you, and I'll send you with some energy bars just in case if you're feeling faint later on. Any questions?"

Squall did have one or two questions on his mind, but was slightly hesitant on asking the doctor. A pause then followed, but a moment later, he decided to take the plunge and filled the void.

"Who exactly found me and Seifer?"

"That happened to be Miss Heartilly." Dr. Kadowaki quickly recalled. The name suddenly sparked a revelation in Squall's head.

'That's who that was in the crowd; the black-haired girl's name was Rinoa Heartilly, now I remember. But why did she come back to the gym? If memory serves, she has Art with Selphie at second, and that's at the other side of the school. Odd…'

Squall took the plunge yet again with his second question, "There's one more thing…"

He hesitated again.

"Yes?"

"Will this wound affect anything at all?" To Squall, the question seemed even dumber outside his head.

"No, your injury's not serious. It'll probably leave a scar though." And with that response, she closed his divider curtains and left him to give him some privacy to change into his regular clothes.

Soon after that, he finished changing and headed out of the infirmary to his locker to get his things for history class.

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As he walked down the hallways to get to his locker, he received a record number of stares, or to be more precise, a record number of people gaping at his new scar. Some of them started whispering among themselves, but Squall didn't care, he just gave the onlookers the usual icy glare.

"Can this day get any better…?" He muttered to himself sarcastically instead of internally voicing his misery. Today, his usual silent nature seemed to be taking a long vacation to the Closest Island to Hell.

After somehow managing to make it to the second floor, Squall got to his history class 7 minutes late, so then he simply handed the teacher, Mrs. Kramer (which they all referred to as Mrs. Edea), the note from Dr. Kadowaki. After reading it, she nodded in acknowledgment, and Squall took his usual seat, the first desk in the third row. Mrs. Edea now handed out the big history quiz scheduled for today.

Many students sighed and groaned, but Squall just thankful that nobody except for Mrs. Edea and Rinoa (She was in this class too) knew about the scar across his face, that is, until later, when the others caught a glimpse during test time. Squall was very thankful for the test; it forced people to keep quiet.

Squall finished his test in 25 minutes-flat after receiving it, since he had always happened to be very good in history for no apparent reason. Then he promptly gave in his test, picked up his things, and went to through the door to the room across, following Mrs. Edea's rules subconsciously.

One thing about any class with Mrs. Edea was that, if a student ever finished a test before the period itself was over, they went to this smaller room adjacent from the classroom. It was a very odd rule, but it was actually advantageous the students; it enabled them to talk and do other things without getting in trouble. Plus, it also helped the slower students to finish the test without distraction or noise from students who were already finished.

However, Squall was usually the only one that finished the test before class ended around 98 percent of the time, so he just read in solitude, and during the times when someone else was also present, he still read. At the moment, the room itself was very untidy, books stacked unevenly on crooked tables instead of being in the dusty chipped wooden shelves on the walls where they should have been. Old, unused desks and chairs were scattered everywhere, and to top it off, the room itself was very warm today.

In regards to the current state of things, Squall took a mental note, 'Hmph, looks like as if tornado swept past here… Oh well… Actually, now that I think about it, it's kind of hot in here…'

He pulled himself a chair and a desk and dragged it to the far, right-hand corner. Squall found himself an old issue of Weapons Monthly magazine from the stack of random books to read, then sat down and propped up his feet comfortably on the desk itself. 15 minutes later, when Squall heard someone else enter the room, he didn't bother looking up from his magazine, and so, he didn't know who it was. As long as who ever it was didn't gawk at his scar, he didn't particularly care who or what it was.

As the heat radiated throughout the room furthermore, it seemed to intensify during the next few minutes and Squall found it harder and harder to concentrate on his reading, as he continuously went in-and-out of a light stupor.

After coming out yet again from his daze, Squall started to contemplate these sleepy spells that he seemed to be experiencing at the moment, 'Maybe this is happening to me because of my scar, maybe I should go see Dr. Kadowaki.'

Then he paused in an after-thought, 'Nevermind, there's only 10 minutes left before school's done and I would of have had these sleepy spells earlier if that was the case. It's probably just this stupid heat…'

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"Squall, please wake up!" A voice said urgently, shaking his left arm.

'What? …I'm awake…' He pondered groggily, not realizing that he wasn't saying anything out loud.

"Oh please wake up Squall!" The female voice called out loudly.

'Huh… where am I?' His eyes started fluttering open at the thought as he realized that he was somewhere unfamiliar to him in complete darkness.

"Squall, thank goodness you're awake!" The same female said in a mildly joyful tone before continuing, "Something bad has happened!"

Squall rubbed his eyes and then opened them; his eyes were trying to focus properly from the current lack of lighting, trying to figure out where he was and who was talking to him. He peered down and saw that same issue of Weapons Monthly that he was reading earlier in the other room in history class.

He took a second look in horror.

'Don't tell me-'

"-I'm stuck in school for the long weekend!" He finished his thought aloud in shock, which happened to be something very uncharacteristic for him. He then looked up and saw the unfortunate student stuck with him-

……It was Rinoa Heartilly.

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End of Chapter Comments - Sorry for such a long (and possibly boring) first chapter, but I really wanted to get started on the actual plot by chapter 2, so that things could get interesting faster. I personally prefer longer chapters to shorter ones, but when a chapter is too long, I sometimes tend to lose some interest, so I'll understand if you guys review saying that you found this chapter downright boring.

If you have any suggestions, constructive criticism, or ideas for the plot, please review or send me a PM. Thanks!