(I DO NOT own Final Fantasy VIII, I give full credit to Square and respective owners)

Brand New - written by bloodcrie.

The morning began like that of any other. Sunshine. Through the window. The window of the perfect house (mansion rather) into the perfect room. Shining onto the perfect face of none other than Rinoa Caraway Heartilly. She opened her eyes to a brand new day. She got up and dressed into her brand new school uniform. And in exactly thirty minutes time, she would begin the brand new school year.

"Morning precious" General Caraway, aka. her dad said looking up from the newspaper at his daughter with pride.

Rinoa smiled, "morning daddy" she cooed before ducking quickly into the bathroom. The girl closed her eyes for a brief moment, her nerves slightly taking the better of her. She took the hair brush and began combing it through her long, raven hair. She gazed into the mirror, not really knowing what more to do with herself. A little make-up perhaps? she pondered for a moment. But...School rules...she decided not to. 'I'm a senior now' she pondered aloud, 'no one will push me around ever again.'

"Honey, aren't you going to grab some breakfast? if you don't leave soon you're going to be late" her father called.

Rinoa sighed, she pulled her grey, knitted school vest over the long sleeve white shirt. Then fixed up the red tie. The rest of the uniform consisted of a tartan skirt, white knee high socks, and black leather shoes. Rinoa decided to leave her hair down as she left the bathroom. Pacing back into the kitchen, she grabbed her school bag and kissed her father on the cheek. New school. No one knows you here. No one can say anything about you anymore...this is your chance...to fit in.

"See yah dad" she smiled, heading quickly for the door.

"What about breakfast?" he called after her.

"I'm not hungry...I'll grab something big for lunch, I promise" she said. Rolling her eyes.

"Have a good day sweetie."

Yeah right. She thought as she shut the door behind her and headed off for school.

-

Squall Leonhart rolled out of bed. Hitting the floor with a thud, followed by a long groan.

He looked up at his bedstand, in fifteen minutes, the new school year began, and Squall was still in his skull covered boxer shorts, complete with a crazy mop of messy hair on his head. He gathered up his school uniform from off the floor. It had been there since last year. Still un-washed. He scrambled into it quickly. White Long sleeve shirt, grey, knitted, V-neck vest, red tie, dark grey pants and a pair of converse lace up's. He snickered, as he slipped on his ring and put his Lionheart chain around his neck. He grabbed his bag and ran downstairs.

No breakfast, No 'Goodmorning sis'

He slammed the front door and ran out to his car. His silent pride and joy, a black ford mustang. He jumped in the car and sped off towards school. His heavy metal music blasting out the open windows. He ran his hands through his long mattered brunette hair in attempt to flatten it. But is was in a mess of impossible crazy layers. He sighed in defeat and starting wondering about a year he was already not looking forward to.

Putting it frankly, Squall was over school. He was over the sluts and absolute morons that he had to put up with around him. Last year, he had gone looking for trouble. Picking fights whenever possible, pissing of teachers, and just pulling stupid, stupid pranks. Still, he hadn't recieved the response he was craving. Expulsion.

He pulled up in the school parking lot with a screech, jumped out of his most prized possession and locked it.

The jocks and cheerleaders were already gathering around the car park, in their little superficial groups. Squall frowned and leaned against his car, waiting for his friends, though he doubted they'd even show up for first day. The sun beamed down on him, and he started to regret even showing up. I could always just go and hang out at the park...he began to think. A car pulled up beside his. And as Squall watched one of his most hated teachers get out of it. He couldn't help but smirk. He knelt down and picked up the biggest near by rock he could grab. And without thinking twice, Squall hurled it at Mr. Fawcetts expensive looking car. Needless to say, the window was broken.

"SQUALL! LEONHART! HEAD OFFICE! NOWWWW!" Mr. Fawcett roared. His face exploding into an un-natural shade of red.

Squall chuckled quietly as the angry man grabbed the back of Squall's shirt and 'escorted' him to the front office.

Putting it frankly, Squall was over school. This year would surely be the year he would recieve what he was craving.

Expulsion.

Rinoa walked into the head office.

The receptionist lady greeted her with a...well not-so-friendly smile. "New student I take it?" the lady sighed looking at Rinoa from her laptop.

"Ah...yeah...Rinoa Caraway Heartilly" Rinoa replied as pleasantly as possible. Just then, an angry looking man, literally dragging a male student came barging into the office. 'This is bullshit, it was an accident, I swear' she heard the student growling. They went past very quickly and disappeared behind a door that was quickly slammed shut after them. Rinoa noticed the boy had that...well defiant look about him.

"Rinoa Heartilly, here's your class schedule for this semester" the receptionist said, handing her the yellow sheet of paper.

Rinoa left quickly, and found her allocated locker, where she put her bag and gathered up what books she needed for her first 2 periods. Which was literature. Her favorite. She still had five minutes to go before home room started. She watched the other groups of people going by her down the hall. Friends. She felt the nervousness come over her again, she looked at her timetable, and headed for her first class in room LV1. And much to her relief it was easy enough to find. She walked into the room with lowered eyes, only two other students, both girls and the teacher were in the class room. This too was a relief.

"Hi, I'm Rinoa...um...new student" Rinoa said forcing a smile at the teacher.

He gave her a nod. "Welcome to Balamb Highschool"

"This desk here is free!" said one of the girls, waving her hand. Rinoa looked over, she was a really pretty girl, long blonde hair covered her beautiful face in long strands around her blue eyes. She wore thick eyeliner and matching dark red lipstick to suit the look. Rinoa smiled and sat down on the desk beside her. The blonde gave a slight smile.

"Hey I'm Quistis" she said.

"Hey! Hey! Heeeey!" the other girl chirped, she was sitting on the other side of the blonde. "I'm Selphie."

This girl had shoulder-length brunette hair that curled and flicked out at the ends. Her eyes were shimmering emerald in colour, she too wore eye-liner, alot less dramatic though. And pinkish lip gloss. Her uniform didn't even look like school uniform. She wasn't wearing the knitted vest, instead her shirt was un-buttoned and revealing a black shirt that she wore underneath. Her skirt seemed shorter than any of the other girls, and she wore high lace up sneakers instead of school shoes. As well as loads of various jewelery.

Rinoa felt immediately out of place. "Hey...I'm Rinoa, nice to meet you both" she smiled frantically.

Just then three guys ran into the classroom. Rinoa recognized one of them to be the same boy she saw in the office earlier. The handsome rebel guy. He was with two others, One with long redish-brown hair that was tied up loosely. Messy bangs of hair fell around his face making his green eyes twice as striking. The other, had short and spikey blonde hair, he wasn't even wearing a uniform, instead a black shirt and dark denim jeans. The three boys took their seats. And Rinoa tried hard to keep her eyes from the brunette. He was gorgeous.

The teacher gave a small laugh. "Glad you three decided to join us."

"Well, were all here" the teacher added, sitting down on a desk in the front of the room.

"You're shitting me right? there's only like...2 of us here!" the spikey haired blonde exclaimed.

"Six of us, Seifer" Quistis corrected him. He turned around and shot her a look.

"Literature isn't very popular among the study body" the teacher sighed.

"Fuck them" the brunette guy spoke. Rinoa could feel herself melting...his voice was...so...

"Squall! mind your language! remember what we spoke about last year..." the teacher said whilst rolling his eyes.

Squall. His name is Squall. He is so damn cute. "We have a new student" Selphie announced, everyone turned and looked her Rinoa. She sank down into her seat a little. Feeling as though their eyes were burning holes through her. Especially his. Those eyes...were...so piercing. Cold, blue, steely eyes.

"Hi..." Rinoa squeaked.

Squall turned back to the teacher.

His gaze averting from hers and back to his desk. Another little princess preppy he thought. Well honestly, that was the exact impression she gave. Her hair...it was so silky and long...and perfect. It hung straight down her back, and around her shoulders, a small fringe hovering above her soft brown eyes. And her peachy clean skin. Squall didn't even give it a second thought. He knew she'd be another 'miss cheerleader', hanging out with the jocks. His only thoughts were what the hell is she doing in my literature class...? preps don't do literature...

He grabbed a pen out and started scribbling on the desk.

The teacher began writing some notes on the blackboard. He was a pretty cool guy. In fact, he was the only teacher Squall and his friends didn't give any trouble to. Everyone in this room, were people Squall considered as friends. Well...with the exception of princess of course. But everyone in this room, were the people the rest of the school considered to be misfits.

Irvine leaned over to Squall and gave him a nudge. "She's pretty cute aye...the new girl" he whispered.

Squall pushed Irvine off, everyone knew he was the school biggest womanizer. Well except for Selphie of course. (his girlfriend) they'd been dating for nearly a year now. Breaking up occassionally. Over the oddest things. But they were really happy together. And Squall considered them to be two of his greatest friends. And that's exactly what they were. Quistis and Seifer were the same. Except they weren't together or anything like that. But Squall thought that they might as well have been. They argued like an old married couple. But once again...everyone in this room were Squall's greatest friends. Again except her. And minus Zell, who was in gym class right now. Probably picking a fight with some random jock.

Squall silently laughed at the thought. He finished his drawing of a lion on his desk. The same lion he wore on the chain around his neck and on his ring.

Squall took out a notepad and began copying down the notes from the board. It was just a briefing on this year's topics.

He could hear the girls chattering in the back row. He could even hear her...answering Selphie's and Quistis's never ending questions. He frowned silently, knowing that after she would start hanging around with the prissy people, she would look upon everyone in this room as dirt. Squall shook the thought from his mind and leaned over to Seifer. "Whats the plans for after school?" he asked, Seifer shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

"I dunno...The girls don't wanna cause any trouble on the first day so...might as well just have a few drinks at the park" Seifer replied casually.

Squall gave a small nod.

"Is it just me or does the new chick look like a good candidate for another cheerleader?" Seifer smiled.

Squall chuckled. "Haha...yeah she'll make a great one."

The bell rang and Rinoa literally ran to the girls bathroom.

She shut the door to one of the cubicles behind her, and leaned against the wall. Her heart pounded. How dare he...? that...that fucking asshole... She'd overheard Squall and Seifers conversation in the middle of class. And it had ruined an otherwise perfect start to her school year. Cheerleader? she wanted to scream out in rage. A few stray tears rolled down her cheeks. It doesn't matter where I go...I don't fit in.

She wiped her face. And decided to try not to think. Quistis and Selphie had been really nice...

But now she just wanted to stay away from the whole group.

Rinoa got out of the toilet and walked by the mirror. A group of girls stood fixing their already perfect hair. "Who are you?" one of them asked, "I've never seen you around before...you're pretty" a blonde girl said in a barbie doll voice. "Rinoa..I'm new here."

"Oooh, come sit with us at the lunch table" another of the girls said, wrapping her arm around Rinoa's.

They began walking until they reached the caferteria. Rinoa felt clueless.

"So, like, tomorrow is auditions for cheerleading, you should totally try-out" the blonde exclaimed. The group sat down at one of the tables.

"I'm Gwen by the way, you should hang out with us, your pretty" she went on.

The other girls all nodded. And said in union: "totally."

Okay...this is so weird. Rinoa thought. Hyne save me. Rinoa watched helplessly as Squall and his gang walked by, Quistis and Selphie eyed her with disgust. And Rinoa was positive that it had given Squall great satisfaction that he was right about her.