Seifer sat on the floor of the small room, tapping his foot impatiently.

He was in the disciplinary room- the room he most singularly hated in all of Balamb Garden. It was almost as though Garden's builders had known exactly what would be the worst punishment for Seifer and had designed the disciplinary room to particularly drive him crazy. Hyne, this room was torture. It wasn't the size that was the worst part, though the room was barely large enough for Seifer to take four steps across. It wasn't even the plain white walls- so seamless he couldn't even tell where the door was -that were the worst. No, the worst part of all was the fact that there was absolutely nothing else in the room besides him. He was alone, and nobody cared. No one to harass, nothing to destroy, it was as if every form of entertainment had been completely eliminated. If he had to spend one more minute in this hateful room, he was going to go over to one of those impossibly colorless walls, find a nice looking spot and smash his head against it until his agony was over.

"Hey, maybe the blood would give you a little color!" He shouted bitterly to the walls.

The walls didn't reply.

"Or hey, maybe I'll get a nice two-step running start and crash into you, over and over again! How would you like that!? Ha, you're no match for me, you know, I'm sure if I kept it up, eventually something would happen." The door slid open then, revealing an annoyed Quistis.

"This room isn't soundproof, you know."

"What do I care?"

"You're not the slightest bit embarrassed that I heard your entire conversation? Your entire conversation with the walls?"

"Ah, then you know how terrified the walls must be right now." Seifer smirked arrogantly.

"I also know that you're bordering dangerously close to being able to be declared insane."

"What?" Seifer raised an eyebrow. Inwardly, he smiled. He'd wanted attention and he'd gotten it.

"Garden Handbook, Section 5, Paragraph 3: 'Balamb Garden reserves the right to use numerous criteria to adjudge a cadet insane, including Garden's own clinical definitions of insanity: 1) repeating the same behavior, but expecting a different result to occur. . .'"

"So what? Maybe I am crazy. Big deal."

"Garden Regulation number 137- 'A cadet may be disqualified from consideration for SeeD if a certified faculty member deems them insane by Balamb Garden standard.'"

"What, did you memorize the whole damn book?" Seifer's eyes gleamed with spitefulness. Hands on her hips, Quistis tilted her head and sighed.

"Xu was right, Seifer. You'll never be a SeeD."

"SeeD. Ha. What does it matter? Our new resident SeeDs are probably just sitting around right now, same thing I'm doing. The only difference is that they have medals saying they can sit around and still act high and mighty." Quistis looked about ready to turn around and slam the door behind her, but instead she crossed her arms and delivered a scathing reply.

"Actually, three of the four newest SeeDs are already stationed in Timber indefinitely, not that it's any of your business. They're out in the world; they finally got somewhere. And where are you, Seifer? You're nowhere. "

"Timber? The Forest Owls finally got their backup? How many!? Thirty, forty?"

"It's an extremely low budget agreement. Normally, Garden wouldn't even bother with a contract like that. But instead of completely disregarding the request, three SeeD were sent: Leonhart, Dincht, and Tilmitt."

"What!? They might end up fightin' the whole Galbadian force!" Seifer stood up abruptly. Quistis backed out of the doorway, pulling out a handheld communication device.

"Reporting on disciplinary room, status of Cadet Almasy. He appears to be extremely agitated. SeeD Trepe recommending increased observation. Over." She clipped the transmitter back on her belt.

"And all they dispatch are 3 rookie SeeD members!? Dammit! I'm going to Timber!"

"Don't make your situation worse than it already is, Seifer," Quistis advised, then slammed the door in his face.