I apologize yet again to all my reviewers for not finishing all my old stories. This one has been stuck in my head for like a month now, and I really need to get it out. I promise I'll continue my old ones soon. I'm just having a bout of writer's block.
Disclaimer: I own nothing from Final Fantasy VIII. Square owns it all. I can just pretend for a while, though…right?
AN: Sorry guys! I promise Seifer will be in the next chappie! I'm just trying to get my character oriented with Balamb Garden right now and introduce her as one of the main characters, but I promise the hot rebel will be in the next chapter for real. That's when the fun starts. You see him in this chapter, but you don't really get to see the main character talk to him. Just keep reading! I wuv you guys! Now, on with the happy goodness.
Chapter Uno: "Gunblader #3?"
Six months after the end of Final Fantasy VIII
Balamb Garden was enormous. That's all Julie Adams had to say about that. She tossed her light brown hair out of her eyes, dark blue eyes scanning the hallways. She needed to get to the headmaster's office, but she didn't know where it was.
Sighing, she started toward a small group of three girls who appeared to be nice enough. She smiled politely and asked, "Excuse me. Can you tell me how to get to the headmaster's office? I just transferred here, and I'm a bit lost."
One of the girls, with black hair and brown eyes, nodded. "Sure. Come on, guys. We can show her where it is."
They led her through the brightly lit hallway, past the map of Garden, up a flight of stairs, and to an elevator. "Okay." The dark-headed girl said. "Go into the elevator and go up to the 3rd floor. That's the headmaster's office."
"Thank you. Maybe I'll see you all later?" She asked.
The three girls all nodded. "Sure." One of them, a blonde, pointed to something she was carrying. "What's in there?"
It was a long, thin, silver case. Inside, was "My gunblade."
"Gunblade!" They all exclaimed.
"There's only two gunbladers here in Balamb Garden!" The dark-headed one said.
"What's your name?" They asked.
"Julie. Julie Adams."
The dark-headed girl nodded. "I'm Kaitlynn. The blond is Kristy, and the red-head is Alicia."
"It's nice to meet all of you." Julie nodded to each of them. "But I guess I should go see the headmaster about getting started at this school. I'll see you later." She bade them farewell and stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for floor 3 and waited patiently as it churned upwards, leaving her feeling a bit queasy when she stepped off seconds later.
A girl sitting behind a wooden desk to her left caught her attention. "Oh, hello there. My name is Xu." The girl supplied. "Headmaster Cid is waiting for you right through that door."
Julie nodded silently and walked through the double doors and into the headmaster's office.
A wide wall made of nothing but windows created a welcoming atmosphere that Julie admired. The room had the air of a professional while being laid back and comfortable all at the same time. She could see greenery outside the window, adding to the comfortable feeling in the room. And sitting before her was Headmaster Cid himself, in all his old-aged glory.
He glanced up at her with a crinkled smile on his face. "And you must be…" He paused to glance down at the folder on his desk. "Julie Adams. I'm very pleased to meet you. I'm Cid Kramer, Headmaster of Balamb Garden."
She smiled. "The pleasure is mine, Headmaster."
"Now, I hear that you are a gunblader, no?" He asked, eyeing the silver case in her hand. "May I see it?"
She nodded and drew out her beloved blade. The blade itself was black with a silver sketch of a rose on the blade two inches away from the revolver. She'd taught herself how to use it, how to shoot it, how to hold it. No one had told her she had to do it all a certain way. She decided everything for herself. That was one reason she adored it so much. It was a symbol of her independence: a symbol that she didn't need anyone.
"Now," the headmaster said, "I assume that you'll want someone to train with who has the same abilities as you, am I right?"
She shrugged. She didn't care one way or another. She could train herself, or she could train with someone. It didn't make any difference to her. "I really don't care, sir." She voiced aloud.
He nodded, observing another sheet of paper on his desk. "Well, seeing as how Squall—my commander—has enough on his hands without training a new student as well, the only other gunblader here besides him is…Seifer." He seemed reluctant, though Julie didn't know why.
"Um, is there something wrong with this Seifer?"
Cid shook himself out of his reverie. "No, no. He's a fine pupil, if not somewhat rebellious. It's just that…oh never mind. I won't bother you with it. He is excellent on the gunblade, one of the best. He's only been here about three weeks longer than you, in fact. Maybe you could help each other out. I'll speak with him about you later and see if he has any problems with this arrangement."
Cid stood, offering her a folder. "Inside this folder is a list of your classes, your dorm number and the key to get in, a map of the school, and a calendar that displays all of the extracurricular activities, such as dances and festivals and whatnot. Selphie Tilmitt—one of my SeeD's here—made the calendar herself for all the new students, hoping they go to a few of the activities in hopes that they'll make new friends. She's quite a smart girl."
Julie opened the folder and glanced over it. She had homeroom with someone named Quistis Trepe, whoever that was.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to ramble. I must send you on your way, Miss Adams. I have many things to do today." He paused, as if wondering what he might be forgetting, and then exclaimed, "Oh! You don't have a roommate, because all the students got here sooner and were placed with other students, so you have a room all to yourself. I hope you don't mind."
Quite the contrary, she was ecstatic. She had been a little worried what her roommate would be like and if they would get along, but now it seemed that it was futile concern. A room to myself, she pondered. How nice.
Bidding the headmaster farewell, she traced her footsteps back to the elevator and took it to the floor she'd first begun on. From there, she took a peek at the map that had been given to her and started in the direction of the dormitory.
That was her dorm number. It was intriguing for her to find that the ground floor just made one enormous circle. She thought it was a very bright idea. It made it much easier to find your way around—no pun intended.
After a bit of snooping, she finally found her room. Sliding the keycard into the slot—and after watching in fascination as the door swished open when she pushed a button on the handle—she stepped inside her new home.
It was quite plain. A plastic plant sat in the corner on the right next to her bedroom door. In the middle of the little sitting room were a table and a couch, and on the far wall was another door, which led into the bathroom. All the walls were white, and the floor was white carpet. No grape juice for me unless I want to dye the color of the floor, she mused cynically. She'd definitely have a hard time keeping the floor as spotless as it was now.
She dropped her suitcase in the floor where she stood, her backpack soon following, and gently placed the metal case on the table in the middle of the room. It was the one thing she cared about that she was carrying.
She'd just flopped down on the couch…when the phone rang on the wall by the door she'd come in at. With a groan, she hopped back onto her feet and answered it.
"Hey, this is Julie," she announced, trying to sound friendly. After all, she had no idea who could be on the other end.
"Hey, Julie! It's Alicia. You know, the redheaded girl from earlier. Anyway, we wanted you to come to the cafeteria to eat lunch with us. You up for it, or are you too tired?"
Julie sighed inaudibly. But with a deep breath, she grimaced and said cheerily, "Sure! I'll be right over."
"Cool! We'll see you there." Click.
Julie kicked the wall, blue eyes flashing in mild irritation at herself. She wanted friends, of course, but she was tired from all the traveling she'd been doing. She wanted to rest for a while, not chat it up with a bunch of hyper teenage girls. Yes, Julie knew she was only seventeen and was the same age as they were, but she never really thought of herself as one of them. She'd always felt different from the other girls…more mature somehow.
With a sigh, she grabbed her keycard, stuck it in her back pocket, and strode out the door.
The cafeteria was buzzing with activity, it being only about 12:30 in the afternoon. Not feeling very hungry, Julie just sought out the trio and sat down at the round table with them.
"Hey!" They greeted enthusiastically. "You not hungry?"
Julie shook her head. "Not really. I'll probably eat something later."
Kaitlynn, the dark-haired one, nodded. "I understand. So, what classes do you have?"
Julie shrugged. "I've got homeroom with Quistis Trepe. That was all I looked at."
They all shook their heads. "We don't have her for homeroom. Guess you're on your own in that one. Anything else?"
Julie shrugged again. "I didn't look very closely at it."
"What about training? Do you have that with anyone?"
"Yeah." Julie nodded, trying to remember his name. "It's someone named…what was it? Seifer, that was it."
She received horrified stares for that one. "Seifer? As in Seifer Almasy?"
That name rung a bell inside Julie's head, though for the life of her she couldn't place it. "Is there something wrong with him? The headmaster didn't really seem very thrilled that I was training with him, either."
"Do you remember the Sorceress six months ago?"
Suddenly everything inside Julie's mind clicked. Seifer Almasy. She remembered. She remembered what he'd done to people, how he'd led to the humiliation of the entire Galbadian army—her home's army. Oh, she remembered.
"Hyne." She muttered.
"Speak of the devil." Kristy's blonde head turned to the entrance to the cafeteria.
All eyes followed hers—and not just on their table. It seemed Seifer Almasy was quite an unpopular fellow at this school.
Julie's eyes were glued to him. She'd never seen him before, and he was nothing like she'd imagined him.
He had golden blonde hair, a few bangs feeling rebellious and falling into his blue-green eyes. A long white coat hid most of his body from view, but it didn't matter. He had the lean, muscular body of a fighter. Gloves donned his hands, and the lack of visible skin gave him an aura that was unapproachable. His cheekbones were high: a sculptor's dream. Flawless, pale complexion; full, pink lips. His eyes were cold, even though he'd long since been relieved of his duty as the Sorceress' lapdog. Julie could determine why his eyes were so cold. They'd been hardened to respond to the kind of treatment he'd been reduced to.
Julie tore her eyes away from the beauty in the doorway to see everyone else's reaction. The entire room had become slightly more hushed than before. All through the cafeteria, she saw sneers and obscene gestures flying in his direction. The air was so thick with tension it could've been cut with her gunblade, had she had it with her.
Her eyes returning to Seifer, she—no one but she—saw the annoyance cross his features. Without a sound, he spun on his heel and left the room.
"Why is he here?" Julie asked when the room had returned to normal now that Seifer had left.
Kaitlynn shrugged. "Cid thought Seifer wasn't in control of his actions when the Sorceress was ruling, so he let him back in. He isn't a SeeD yet, but he's training to be. See, he was here training—and failing—to be a SeeD. So, he picked up where he left off. He's only been here a few weeks. I think he spent some time down in…where was it Alicia?"
"Fisherman's Horizon." Alicia replied automatically, taking a delicate bite of a fry.
"Yeah, that was it. They said the fishing was good therapy, or something like that." She shrugged. "I still don't trust him, and neither does anyone else. You'd be better off asking him if you can switch training partners. Seifer will probably eat you alive."
Julie snorted. "I think I can hold my own, thanks."
"I hope so, Julie. I sure do hope so."
Julie, feeling a bit ruffled by what had just taken place, stood to leave. "I'm kind of tired. I'm going to go back to my room for a while and unpack. Then, maybe I can take a much-needed nap or something like that. I'll see you guys later."
They waved and wished Julie a very nice nap, and Julie walked out of the cafeteria, an unconscious and unnoticed scowl shading her ocean-blue eyes from view.
She thought her brain was going to explode when she saw Seifer standing in the hallway. She didn't mean to stare, but she just couldn't help it. What surprised her even more, however, was how he casually stared back. His eyes flashed shamelessly down her form, and Julie felt heat rise in her cheeks. He nodded ever so slightly to her, and she almost missed the movement entirely. Without meaning to do so, she smiled at him. She wasn't sure why she did it, but for some reason she was happy that he'd acknowledged her without having to do so later when they met up to train. At least he'd noticed her outside of work.
When he saw her smile, a smirk turned up one corner of that sensuous mouth of his. And for some reason, Julie knew he wouldn't give her any problems. Tomorrow, her first day of school, would be very interesting indeed.
Yesssss! I'm finished with Chapter One! Does funky fresh dance moves Woo-hoo! PAAH-TAY! As Selphie would say, anyway. Yay! I should probably thank my stupid boyfriend for not coming to see me march in the marching band (yes I'm a band geek. Laugh all you want. I do, too.) And instead he went to go watch our rivals march, which is where he's from. So this is my Ben & Jerry's, so to speak, since I can't drown my sorrows in a pint of that. I finish a chapter instead! And I can't eat ice cream…because I'm lactose intolerant. Yes, you heard me. Anyway, I really hope I get reviews for this, because this has been beating against the walls of my brain for quite some time now. So…don't forget to review my lovelies! It doesn't take that long…unless your computer is as crappy as mine, in which case I GUESS I understand why you don't review my stories. I'm going to get started on the 2nd chapter right now, so I'll babble more later, maybe.