This story is dedicated to Raine Ishida! She will understand the messed-upness of it. (Yes, I made up a new word....)
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It was a beautiful sunny morning without a cloud in sight. A light, cool breeze blew from the shore towards Balamb Garden. Carried along with the breeze were a group of tiny, microscopic organisms. No, they weren't even organisms, they were viruses. The little segments of nucleic acid wrapped in protein coating followed the wind in it's decent to the unsuspecting military academy, looking for a new home.
Squall LeonHart was innocently sleeping in the SeeD dormitory, at that moment. His window was open a crack, as it always was in the hot summer months. His face scrunched up when a cool draft blew in and he rolled over, turning his back to the window.
Seventy-two minutes later, lively country music filled the room, loud enough to be heard down the dorm hall. The now awake seventeen year old reached over and punched his alarm clock off, forcefully. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stumbled into the small bathroom, where he stood before the mirror and looked into it. A pair of blue eyes stared back at him from behind wisps of messy brown hair. Squall briefly ran a comb through his hair, just enough to control the bedhead.
An itch rose in his nose, causing him to sneeze. He sneezed again, and then again. When he was sure that the series of sneezes were over, he opened the medicine cabinet and popped open a container of pills. He tossed a few in his mouth then washed them down with a glass of water. He didn't want get sick, because then everyone would give him too much attention and fuss over his health. Especially Rinoa. As much as he liked and cared about her, he didn't want her to act like she did when he caught the flu during the previous winter. She forced him to stay in bed for a whole week after dragging him down to Dr. Kadowaki's office.
After getting dressed, Squall left the dormitory and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. There he found Zell, disappointed yet again after learning that the popular hot-dogs were sold out. Zell sulked passed without even saying hello to his friend and exited the cafeteria.
Squall sat alone at a table in the corner and quickly ate his breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, accompanied with a tall glass of orange juice. After dumping his plastic dishes into the garbage can and placing his tray on top of the others, he left the cafeteria for the training centre.
After only a few minutes of battling a couple of grats, Squall grew bored and decided to look for something else to do. He wondered around Balamb Garden until he found himself on a bench, watching two men paint the Academy's entrance. He thought about how boring his bedroom looked with it's dull white walls. They certainly needed some colour. He made up his mind to find some 'pretty' paint to make his room more interesting.