When I Grow Up
by Mariye

------
Disclaimer: Hi! I don't own these characters. If I did, I would be
very rich and happy and instead of writing this I'd be flying out
to Hawaii or something.
------

Quistis walked around her class. "Today we are all going to discuss
what we want to do when we leave Garden and go into society." A
murmur started through the class.

"Leave Garden?"

"Wha?!?!"

"Oh please, like that'll ever happen. It feels like I've been 17 for
3 years now."

"There's life outside Garden and killing monsters and gunning down
sorceresses?"

Quistis looked wide-eyed at her class. She shook her head. "Fine, I'll
start. I'm going to stay here as an instructor and work my way through
the ranks until I'm headmaster and in charge of everything." People
nodded and voiced their agreement. Quistis was a part of Garden and
would always fit there. "Mr. Kinneas? What do you want to do?"

"I wanna be a photographer for Playboy or Hustler." Irvine smiled
widely and his eyes brightened. Quistis glared at him.

"Seriously."

"Fine. I wanna be President. Then I wanna hire a LOT of hot interns!"
Irvine smiled and laughed at the thought. Quistis shook her head.
Already her idea for a fruitful, meaningful, getting-to-understand-
your-students discussion was going bad.

"Squall, what about you?"

Squall looked deep in thought. "Hmm... Irvine brought up a good
point about becoming President, buuuuuuuut, since I have a steady
girlfriend, I guess I want to stay here and be a permanent Commander
until I get old and gray and they just stick me in the library where
I'll hound students with stories about all the great stuff I did."
Again Quistis shook her head. And here she thought Squall might help
turn this downward spiraling coversation back to normal.

"Um... Fujin?"

"SPEECH THERAPIST." Everyone turned around and raised their eyebrow,
then looked forward again.

"Oooookay." Quistis looked around. "What about you Seifer?"

"Well, I've pretty much fufilled all my dreams. I've been a sorceress's
knight, I'm gonna be a SeeD, I led Galbadia for a while, been a
villian, ran a Disciplinary Committee, tormented Chicken-Wuss, gotten
lots of hot women... I've done it all. I'll probably retire early.
Do some fishin around Balamb and Obel Lake. Maybe write my memoirs..."
Seifer went on and on. Quistis just chose to ignore it and move on.

"Rinoa?"

"I'm gonna go build an orphanage near here and become the 'new and
improved Matron.'Ten times stronger and prettier. Course, I'll have
to find out where Edea shops..." Rinoa smiled and then pulled out a
stack of catalogs.

Quistis reached into her desk and pulled out a bottle of Asprin. She
gulped two down, then looked at Selphie. "What will you do?"

"I'm gonna be an intern in the White House during Irvine's
Presidency!" Selphie smiled and waved her arms.

"But only students are interns. You'll be out looking for a job
Selphie." Quistis wondered if they actually learned while she taught,
or if they were just empty shells.

"Oh, hey Irvine, are you gonna hit on your secretaries too?" Irvine
smiled and nodded at Selphie. "Okay! I'm gonna be a Presidential
Secretary! Woo Hoo!"

Quistis sighed and pulled a cigarette out of her desk drawer. She lit
it up, and looked around. She was running low on people she knew
had to have some kind of plan. "Raijin?"

"Well, ya know, I wanna do something where I can put my good gift of
public speaking and writing to good use ya know. Maybe I'll be Irvine's
speechwriter ya know, or I'll write speeches for Squall to use as
Commander. I could do either ya know. Be a press secretary." By now
Quistis was thinking things looked grim. She looked around for a
life preserver. Unfortunately, all she saw was Zell.

"Zell, please tell me you have a bright idea for your future."

"Oh yeah! I'm gonna buy me a Quickie Mart 7/11! That way I can get
all the hotdogs I want for free! And squishies too!"

"Hey Zell? Since we all know you, will we get free squishies and
hotdogs?" Rinoa looked at Zell hopefully.

"Oh yeah, course!"

"Woo Hoo! We love you Chicken-Wuss!" Everyone except Quistis said.

"You know what? I have a really bad migraine and I don't feel so good
now. Why don't all of you go early." Quistis sat at her desk and
flopped down on it.

"YAY! EARLY RELEASE!" Everyone stormed out and ran for freedom.

------

[the end]