A/N: Hello there and thank you for taking the time to read my fic. The idea kept eating away at my brain and I had to put it down on paper, thus leading to post my story online. I'm still working on the plot, trying to figure things around and see if it works. But for now please enjoy and leave words of encouragement!
Oh, I also changed the title from "Just Begun" I didn't really like the title to begin with. Also I added a couple of things is here, no major changes though, hope you guys don't mind.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, unfortunately. If I did I'd pay off my tuition in a heart beat.
Grading papers was never her favorite thing to do as an instructor. She could teach and lecture about how to junction magic where it would be most efficient but not over bearing on the caster. She could lecture about the theory behind the guardian forces about how junctioning them causes memory loss. Alas, what would teaching be without checking if her students comprehended the material she taught? All her time and effort would be put to waste if she didn't give out homework or exams.
Still, grading almost one hundred papers was still a pain in the ass.
A year since the defeat of Ultimecia, Quistis Trepe was given back her teaching license. She had been second in command when Squall split them up into groups or when Squall looked for guidance in what direction to take. He had always confided in Quistis when making strategic decision making. After all, she was his instructor before he became the fearless leader of the group. Squall and everyone else vouched for Quistis to get her teaching license back. Had she not taught herself to restrict her emotions, she would have cried tears of joy from the support that her friends were giving her.
Her friends gave her so much support, that she actually got to teach introduction to advance juntioning and offensive magic. The position was a bit of a shock due to the fact that Garden didn't have any courses concerning specific tools of combat. However, Headmaster Cid took it upon himself that she, and some new instructors, were to try out the new system. The system was to break down certain types of tools so that students can excel in one, rather than be average or less. This way, if there was an attack on Garden or if they were called to war, there would specific Seeds who can best handle the situation because of their specialties; such as spell users or blade wielders.
Quistis was more than happy to take on the position of teaching offensive magic since the course were meant for Seeds anyways. Why not? After all, that was her specialty, and no one could come close to her magic, well except Rinoa, but she's a sorceress that didn't count. Going through the exams for her intro do advanced junctioning, she came across a student whose test had an arrow on it pointing to the left of the paper.
"C'mon Trepe, do I really have to take all these bullshit tests? We both know I'm perfectly capable of relying on my own well rounded skills than magic anyways"
Quistis smiled at the comment. Seifer would never change. He had been admitted back to Garden after Matron was pardoned of all the events that took place a year ago. It would have been hypocritical of the Garden to accept Matron but not the ex-knight. Plus Cid wanted all his children living together again. At first Seifer didn't want to come back, knowing that he would not be accepted and looked down upon for the mistakes he had made. But Quistis, after 3 weeks of bickering and constant fighting, got him to at least agree to stay for a semester just to see what everyone would do or say. If the students didn't want him there, then he'd leave, but if they left him alone, then he would stay. After a semester had passed, many of the students believed that he was under the impression of Matron's spell which explained the betrayal of Garden, or were too scared to approach him. Although he in fact acted on his own will and was not under any sort of spell, that little bit of information could be left out. His choice of staying at Garden was rewarded by Cid and Matron by giving him the position of a middle class Seed. Since then Seifer and Quistis had developed an interesting relationship. There would be days when they would be at each others throat, or rather just Quistis after Seifers who seemed amused, about her teaching methods and theories on certain topics. The debates always lead to the class taking sides and counteracting others argument. This was a good way to get the class to participate despite the fact that it was first encouraged by a dispute between a teacher and her student. There were those days and then there were those when they would get along just fine. Days when Seifer would unexpectedly do random acts of kindness, buying her lunch accompanying her to the library (even though he claims that was route to patrol), leaving coffee for he morning class. Yes those random acts of kindness. Quistis believed that he was simply repaying for her "encouragement" and "determination" to bring him back. None the less they were sweet
She finished grading her students' exams and began to place them in her folders. Pleased with the fact that many of her students were not only paying attention to her lectures, but learning from them as well. This year would be very promising indeed. Last year, before her license was revoked, many of he students, particularly the Trepies wrote love poems or songs instead answering the questions. Perhaps they learned that she was more interested if they were learning in her class rather than just gazing at her when she lectured. She got up and left her desk wanting to reward herself with lunch for finishing up the last of the exams for her three classes.
She walked towards the food court, greeting many passing students. As she reached the cafeteria, she noticed that Seifer was sitting at a table along with Fujin and Rajin discussing something that apparently got Seifer to let out a hearty laugh and a disgust look from Fujin. Deciding not to bother Seifer today, Quistis went straight to the salad bar. She waited in line for a moment until someone had snatched her beloved hairclip from its sacred place, leaving her golden hair to flow freely .
"Thought you could sneak past me eh instructor? What's wrong? Afraid those Trepies will freak out when they see their beloved Goddess hanging around with Gardens biggest reject?" Seifer said as he smirked holding her clip in his hands prying open the mouth of her clip.
Afraid that he may break her favorite brown clip she quickly snatched it from his hands and placed it back in her honey blonde hair.
"Charming Seifer charming. And I wasn't avoiding you; I just wanted to get my food first. I haven't eaten anything today." She said as she took a tray and plastic plate and began to place salad over it.
"From the way you look, I wouldn't be surprised; you're as thin as my pinky. What's wrong? Your job not paying you good enough to feed yourself with some real food? You have to resort to this, Chocobo food your about to eat?" He took a tray as well and began to fill his plate with what he described as chocobo food.
"Then what are you doing eating the same thing?"
"I'm only getting it cause this happens to be the only line that's not that long. As you can see the one o'clock classes just ended. Or are they not paying you enough so that you can't get proper glasses to see out of?"
"I'm so happy that you're concerned about my financial business" She said as she rolling her eyes while grabbing some chicken.
"Just looking out for my favorite Instructor. And since I'm being so generous I'll even pay for your lunch so that you got some extra money for your poor self. Consider it charity towards getting better corrected lenses."
"Your such an ass you know that?"
"Heh, that's who I am. Glad to see that Quistis will be joining us for lunch and not Instructor Trepe."
That's as far as the random act of kindness goes for Seifer. He'll usually push Quistis to the point when she uses vulgar language towards him. That was his way of getting her out of teacher mode. After they finished paying, they sat at the table where Fujin and Rajin were located.
"Where did Rajin and Fujin go?"
Seifer took a bite of his salad before responding. "Class with the new instructors."
"Oh which ones?" She said after mixing her salad with the dressing.
"I don't know, Rajin's got class with that one chick that teaches about advance magic or some shit like that" he said as he fished around his salad for a winning piece a lettuce to munch on.
"Must be talking about Miss Gainsborough. And it's not advance magic but a different kind of magic called materia"
"Whatever. Fujin has class in the auditorium with those guys that came out of that elite military on the east side. Solider right?"
Quistis nodded as she took a bite from her salad." Instructor Fair and Instructor Strife, they teach how to sufficiently use different types of weapons. There Gardens biggest class on, over 600 students."
"Beats the hell out of me how that works. How the fuck do you grade all those papers?" He said as he stabbed a tomato before placing it in his mouth.
"It's called online assignments and teacher assistants."
"Whatever, I'm switching my intro to elementary statistics class over to that class. I'm sure Fujin won't mind the company" He took another bite of his salad before taking Quistis drink from her hand.
She watched as he downed half of her drink with her hand still out. "Please help yourself…"
He smirked as he finished drinking. "Heh, don't mind if I do instructor."
As much as she would have loved to strangle Seifer until he runs out of air, she had to return to her dorm room and prepare for the other instructors who were to arrive in Garden soon.
"As much as I enjoy your company, but I have to go" She stood up and headed for the trash can to discard the remains of her lunch.
Seifer ate the rest of his lunch and followed Quistis. "Well since you enjoy my company so much I'll escort you to where you're going. Wouldn't want you to miss me just yet"
She hated him sometimes, she really did. She hated it even more that she was actually starting to appreciate his company. Those times back when she was convincing him to come back to Balamb really did something to her. She was actually starting to think he was, dare say, attractive. His appearance changed since he was accepted back into Garden. Instead of his usual gray trench coat and blue shirt, he no longer wore his signature coat and only wore a dark gray short sleeved shirt with a white t-shirt inside along with loose navy blue jeans. She never noticed how muscular he was until now...
"It's fine Seifer, I'm just heading to my dorm to drop off a few things then I'll be heading over to see the headmaster".
"What do you need to see the headmaster for? Getting fired again? Seriously Trepe you need to stop fraternizing..."
She gave Seifer an angry glare. "It's to prep the new instructors. You already know about Gardens new program to help students develop their own unique skills. I'm just going over there to show them around Garden and get them familiar with the place"
"So you're playing tour guide? Wow, they needed to have you, Gardens prodigy child, one of the saviors of the world, play tour guide? That's fucking hilarious.
She wanted to say something, but it was true. They could have asked Selphie or some other student to show them around but no, they absolutely needed her to be there.
Why did she get the idea that Squall was the one that dumped it on her?
On the other hand, she was also the one who showed Instructors, Fair, Strife, and Gainsborough around the school. How she remembered seeing the two male instructors for the first time. She had to restrain herself from staring at the two handsome men throughout the tour.
She sighed "Well it's a little too late for me to say anything; I didn't really have a choice."
"Well who're the poor saps that are gonna be teaching here?"
"I'm not quite sure, all I know is that one of them is a martial artist and the other is a gun specialist. The other two I didn't have time to read over. It's interesting how most of the them come from all the same school, well except the two from Soldier. That and some of them are quite young."
"Well from the way that Rajin and everyone else talk about how great looks, I don't have any complaints."
"Heh what if they're like Instructors Fair and Strife?"
Seifer shrugged at the thought. "You mean two fags with fucked up, gravity defying hair, who think they can teach about how to use certain weapons, and that all the girls in Garden are drooling over? Forget it."
She laughed at Seifer as they neared her dormitory. "Didn't know you were so jealous over them. Anyway aren't you supposed to be in class?"
"Five or ten minutes late ain't gonna kill they guy, besides, its engineering and he's only temporarily until one of the new instructors show up...and who said I was jealous?"
Quistis took out her key card and swiped it before entering. "Thank you for accompanying me to my dorm but I think you should get to class before your instructor or whomever decides to report you."
The door was supposed to have closed, so that she would see the door, not a close up on Seifer's face. She didn't realize that he was blocking the door with his hand, preventing it from sliding shut. "What's wrong? Am I making you nervous?" He said with a smirk on his face. Any other girl would have been weak in the knees, grabbed his face and kiss him passionately if they were in Quistis's shoes. Fortunately for her, she wasn't just any girl, she was Quistis fucking Trepe.
With that said she leaned in a bit closer so that their noes were almost touching with a deadly smile on her face that would have melted the heart of any of the Trepies. "No, but if you ever come this close to me again and come into my room uninvited, I will break all of your bones and beat you until even the headmaster won't be able to recognize you" She leaned back and then kicked Seifer out of her room so that her door closed.
At the other side of the door, Seifer fell on the ground holding his stomach. He got up after a few seconds then straightened himself out and headed towards the exit. He rubbed ass, which he was sure there was a bruise now, and smirked. "Fucking bitch."
Inside her dorm, Quistis set her things aside. She smiled as she remembered the look on Seifers face as he was about to hit the ground. "Priceless" she thought. She then headed to her desk that had a manila folder on top of it. She opened it and skimmed through the each of the new instructor's profile.
"Lets see here...Instructor Tifa Lockheart is the martial artist, Instructor Vincent Valentine the gun specialist, Instructor Nanaki...hmm doesn't give a last name nor picture but teaches history how odd, and Instructor Cid Highwind the...engineer specialist".....
A/N: Well that's the end chapter one! Pleases R&R and tell me what you think and again please leave words of encouragement.