Ok, now that I'm in the story I have to say that this story is going to be from Marco's view. All of the story is going to be a flashback from the mental institution, but once in a while the present self of Marco, or the institutionalized one will break in with his own thoughts. They will be denoted by Bold Italic text such as this. If it's confusing you'll catch on when it happens the first time. Also, I still don't own Squaresoft, thus I don't own Final Fantasy VIII.

A Seed Is Planted

The car ride is bumpy. When Matron told me I had the skills of a Seed I was doubtful. What can a mere 13 year old offer to the Garden? Ever since everything was a dream. Packing what few items I had. Saying goodbye to my friends I so quickly made at the orphanage. Burying the crow I had shot. I'm happy I hit it though before it got the baby robins. I don't like it when babies suffer. I wonder if the mom died like my mom did?

I didn't realize it then, but shooting that fucking crow was the biggest fucking mistake of my life. I should have let the fucker kill the babies and I probably wouldn't be here right now.

The man who picked me up was nice though. He introduced himself as Zell Dincht. He had blond spiky hair with tattoos on his face. He corrected me when I called him Mr. Dincht though. I am only supposed to call him Zell. He seems nice though. When he picked me up though he spent a long time chatting with Matron, I heard him say something about a new girl. He hugged before he left. Strange.

It seems like forever when you travel you know? The stupid darn car keeps rocking on the stupid road and I keep hitting my head. I would swear, but that's wrong.

Funny. I wonder when the fuck I stopped believing that crock of shit.

Finally the car stopped. I was in the backseat and hadn't been paying attention, I might have dozed off but the jolt sure did get me up quick! I looked out my window. I was in a parking structure. I opened the door. "Welcome to Balamb Garden." Zell said, enthusiastically with a bright cheery smile on his face, "Grab your bags, I'll show you who your dorm partner is." I leapt out of the car and pulled my bag out of the trunk. I don't think Zell noticed I don't have much.

Zell quickly got ahead of me, but I was in such awe. This place is big! An enormous marble fountain was the first thing to greet me out of the structure. I peered at the engraving and did a double take. It must be some weird language they have here or I must have never seen. It read: "VIVIDARIUM ET INTERVIGILIUM ET VIATOR".

I later found out what the fuck that actually meant. It seems when the grand heroes went to the future to save the world, blah blah they fucking went through this huge bastard of an art gallery. It was actually one giant goddamn puzzle. Well when it was solved it said this, which means "In The Garden Sleeps A Messenger." Pretty damn tacky huh?

"Hey kid! C'mon!" Zell yelled at me, peering behind his shoulder. He was nice about it though, he obviously saw that this 13 year old kid had never seen anything like it before. "Sorry Zell." I said, sheepishly of course.

I eventually made my way to my dorm after seeing the huge lobby, a grand elevator and a very nice girl who Zell stopped. Her name was Scarlet. She had fire engine red hair with a colored complexion for a face. She wore the same uniform Zell and everybody else had on, but something was different. The untrained eye missed it, but I'm very observant. Her stitching in her uniform was also bright red, everyone else's was a dull yellow. Zell turned that color actually after she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Odd. The dorm itself was nothing grand. I was put in with another guy named Chad. Zell called him Thunder though. "How did you get that name?" I asked. "Simple enough, I hit so quick and fast that I make Thunder." He said as an everyday fact. I didn't like him.

I never liked that mother fucker either. He was cocky as hell, ran his mouth and acted like his shit didn't stink. You'll see later, I'm sorry I keep interrupting my own story though, I'm the most impolite asshole you'll ever meet.

"Well I've got to go, you two get along O.K.?" Zell asked, he didn't wait for an answer though, he ran out of the door. Weird. Thunder looked at the door, closed it and walked over to MY stuff, shoved it on the floor and looked at me. With Zell gone I got a good look at Thunder. His hair was cut a short length, and was jet black. He was very muscular and taller than me.

"O.K. you're new here so I'll give it to you quick. See this? MY dorm. I was just fine until your little ass came in MY space. So, put your stuff back in that room their and stay out of my way if you know what's good for you O.K.?" Thunder exclaimed, giving me a look demanding a challenge.

I don't understand. I haven't even been here 3 minutes and he is treating my like this. What an as---- err what a butthole. "Sure, fine I don't need that much space anyway." I said, picking my stuff up off the floor walking over to my room. Something happen though, I was taking a step forward, then the ground rushed to my face. He tripped me! "I don't like your tone. Don't talk to me and treat me with respect or else." Thunder said. I was mad now. I picked myself up off the floor and turned around. "Who do you think you are! I've been here 4 minutes and your tre-- oof!" I tried to explain myself and suddenly my stomach hurt. Before I could even double over my chest hurt and again I met the floor for the second time today.

I than felt his knee dig into my back. He grabbed the back of my head and pulled me to his mouth and whispered in my ear. "I don't leave marks and you will listen. Tell if you want but you're a fucking rookie got it? Now go put your shit in your room and don't even think about talking to me again." He shoved my head back down. I didn't understand what was going on.

I complied and placed my items in my room. It was O.K. though it was Sunday. Tomorrow classes start and I'm tired anyway. I took my pellet gun out. The only thing left from my dad. Dad. I felt something on my face, and wiped away a tear. I miss dad. I.. I.. I.. I.. should have listened. He.. He.. He.. told.. me.. told me not to touch anything while he was by the tractor. I.. didn't mean too.. too.. too.. Another tear dropped, I let this one go. I laid on my bed and looked at the ceiling thinking. Sleep soon engulfed me.

Funny how that works huh? Sleep is the silent killer among men. It creeps upon you engulfing you when you don't want it, yet the desperate man who needs it will never receive it. Outrageous!

I must have woken up a few hours later. I looked over at the red clock on the table. Weird I don't remember putting it up, maybe it came with the room. It read 18:23. I had never heard of an 18 O'clock, but I wasn't about to ask Thunder about it. What crawled up his butt and died? My stomach didn't growl, no it quacked demanding the intake of food. I wonder were the kitcen was around here?

I peered around the corner checking for Thunder. No sign. Not wanting to gamble I briskly walked out the door. I followed the way Zell had taken me earlier to the lobby. A bright lit directory laid in front of me. It had an arrow pointing to the left saying mess hall. Now I know I'm not the brightest 13 year old but I do know what a darn mess hall is.

One thing you can count on Garden for is instead of saying something real fucking simple like Kitchen or Food Hole they come up with Mess Hall. What the fuck is that! First of all it isn't a fucking messy place, its very clean. Second off whatever dumbass thinks it is a hall should be shot on sight. A hall is something between rooms. The kitchen is a fucking room. If they wanted they should have just called it a dining hall. Fuckers.

I entered and saw a counter with a woman behind it. It seemed like a simple set up. Grab a tray and go through the line, right? I did just that. She placed a heaping sum of potatoes on my plate, corn and two hot dogs. I left the line and joined the diminishing group of students left in the mess hall.

I sat down at a table, near the end were a group of kids who looked my age sat. I could hear snippets of their conversation while they ate. It wasn't long though before one came over to me. "Hi! I'm Bass, you must be new here." He said. Bass had bright yellow hair. He was very skinny and had a thin scar on the side of his neck. Friendly enough though. "Marco." I shot out in between bites of the hotdog. They were great. "Well just don't sit here, slide down and join in!" He exclaimed. I like him, better than that Thunder butthole.

I did just that too. "Ok Marco I'll quickly introduce you to the group. We saw you come in with Zell this afternoon." He pointed at a brunette girl with pigtails, "This is Janet," pointed at a somewhat chubby kid with dirty blonde hair, "Clutch," a muscular boy with a very short crew cut, "Bones and," he pointed at blonde girl with a red pony tail, "Willow." He finished smiling. "Hey all." I said again.

I swallowed my food and decided to introduce myself. "Marco Hades." "Hey Marco," Clutch said, grinning, "we aren't big into last names here." He looked at my plate then continued, "Also, most people like nicknames." I nodded. "You'll get one after we've been around you a bit and get to know you." Bones looked at me and spoke. "Did you get bunked with Thunder?" I flinched a bit at the name, I think he noticed. "Yes." I tried the corn, it was quite good. "Tough break." Bones said, then continued eating. "So, what happen with you?" Janet asked. I swallowed and then said, "What do you mean?" Janet looked at me, blinked then asked again, "What happen with you? Thunder has a mean streak a mile wide and hates everyone. So what did he do?"

That bitch gave the understatement of the fucking year. That fucking prick Thunder had a mean streak 100 miles wide and hated everyone including his dead mother. Satan is his fucking dad and I'll put $50 down that Ultmecia was his fucking mother. Asshole.

"Nothing." I muttered and continued eating. They seemed like a motley group, I had been here barely ten minutes and felt I had know them ten years. Funny huh? "So, you came in about two weeks into the 'start' of the year. We don't work on school years, just August is the unofficial start of the year." Bass said. "Yeah, Garden is an all year thing." Clutch added. "So what classes you got?" Bass asked. Funny, I didn't even think about asking for a schedule. "Err, I don't know I haven't been given a schedule yet." I said, then added a sheepish grin due to my forgetfulness. "Well what's your specialty than, we'll tell you who your head teacher will probably be." Willow said, adding input for the first time since arriving at the table. I looked up, she had a beautiful voice. I than noticed that her eyes were yellow, a bright goldenrod yellow. I blinked but said, "I was brought in for Sharpshooting."

Again, I shouldn't have shot that fucking crow. I have a better idea now in reflection, I should have fucking shot that bitch Thunder in between the fucking eyes at 150 yards out. See if that fucking impresses any of those assholes at Garden.

"Kinneas." Bones said. I finished the potatoes. "You should check your schedule out though, but how it works at Garden is you have a main course focused around your abilities. The main courses here are sharpshooting, long bladed weaponry, hand to hand combat, magic, and miscellaneous. How it works is that experts in these fields train you in their use. You're a sharpshooter so you'll probably get Kinneas or Lodban who is out on maternity. Bass here is a gunblade user so he has Almasy. Thunder whom you've met and Bones are hand to hand combatants taught by Dincht or Krager. Willow is a magic user so she has Leonhart and I use sais so I'm taught by Tilmitt, which may be strange seeing Tilmitt uses nunchuks." Janet explained. She took a breath and continued, "The last one group is engineers, like Clutch here who are taught by Nida and a few people from Fisherman's Horizon. He is only taught engineering and small arms just in case."

Wow, Garden organized their Seeds, lined them up in goddamn rows by type. We're not fucking people, were 'groups'. That should have had the goddamn bells and whistles go off in my head about warning, but I was some dumb son of a bitch kid who didn't know better. Instead I said this.

"Interesting." I muttered finishing my last hot dog. "I'm gonna go to the training center blow steam off." Bones said, walking away. "Bye." I took my tray and his and got up. "Where do I go to get my schedule?" I asked. "Go to the elevator, take it to the third floor. At the desk tell Xu, she'll get you what you need." Willow said, smiling at me. "Thank-you, pleasure to meet you all." I started to walk away and heard them in near unison tell me bye. I like them.

I put the trays above the trash can, where a bunch of other trays were. I walked back to the directory and climbed the stairs to the elevator. It was a glass elevator so you could see out of it when I stepped in. I pushed the third floor button and stared out the elevator as it climbed up the shaft. It stopped though at the third floor.

Time to meet my fucking destiny folks. I should have jumped out of the fucking elevator.

A tall man entered. He had long brown hair in a pony tail and wore a cowboy hat. He looked like a cowboy too. He had the boots, leather pants and a leather jacket that was tan. I blinked. "Going up?" He asked. "Yes." I replied. Interesting. He had a very deep yet sincere voice. "Well normally you can't get up unless you have the Headmaster's permission or you're Seed, but I think you already knew that." He added. He swiped a card through a reader and hit the button for the third floor. "Know I didn't, thank you." We got to the top and he left the elevator and walked to the desk next to two giant oak doors. They had an elegant carving of an oak seed on it. "Irvine here to see Squall." He tipped his hat a little and shot the woman a smile behind the desk. "Irvine you know it's Headmaster Leonhart, don't you?" The woman said. "Xu, if I know Squall and I think I do he won't want me calling him Headmaster Leonhart even while I'm on the job. I've got 5 gil on that fact." The woman shook her head and smiled. "You got yourself a bet." She pushed a button on the phone and said, "Irvine is here to see you, he said he's looking for a Squall?" Their was a pause on the other side. "Tell Mr. Kinneas that's Headmaster Leonhart and I'll see him now." The phone clicked off and I heard a chuckle. The cowboy gave the secretary her money. "Don't ever bet on Squall, damn so close too." The man added before walking through the giant oak doors.

All that time I could have taken the fucking letter opener and drove it through my neck. If I won't stop voluntarily I should have killed myself instead and saved myself the trouble.

"How may I help you?" The secretary said. I looked up and blinked. "Yes, I'm new here and I was told to ask for Xu to get me a schedule." I said. The woman nodded and started typing on her computer telling me, "Yes, I'm Xu, what's your name?" "Marco Hades." I said. The office was homely after staying in it for awhile. It had a certain touch I liked. "Ok, from now on you're a student number. It will be on this printout with your schedule. Your number is 41664. Your head teacher is also on here. If you need anything else talk to your head teacher before coming up here again. Anything else you need?" She talked very quickly. I looked at the printout. My head teacher was Irvine Kinneas. The cowboy.

Kinneas. My mentor. The Cowboy. He was one of the only people at the Garden who didn't have their head all the way up their ass. His was only half-way. That can be taken as a fucking compliment though.

"When will I get my uniform?" I asked, I didn't care but I felt out of place, myself and only a handful of people I have noticed weren't wearing a uniform. "Discuss that with Mr. Kinneas." Xu said. I guess she was sort of dismissing me with that. I went back into the elevator and enjoyed the ride back to the first floor. I looked at the giant golden clock in the middle of the lobby. I hadn't noticed it before but now it just appeared. It wasn't on that weird system like the one in my room. It said it was 10:34. I suddenly realized just how tired I was. I don't know how but it seemed I walked 10 miles just to get back to my room.

I opened the door and made another mistake. Thunder was butt naked in the middle of the room. He wasn't to happy to get startled either. "YOU LITTLE SHIT! CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR!" He yelled, desperately trying to cover himself from the invisible person in the hallway. I quickly closed the door, he found a towel in that split second. "YOU FUCKING MORON, YOU FUCKING KNOCK FROM NOW ON YOU FUCK OR ILL FUCKING KNOCK YOU INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE NEXT FUCKING WEEK YOU FUCKER!" I think he finished venting so not needing to learn a second time I just walked straight into my room, closing the door behind me. For the second time of the day I felt something slide down my cheek, but I just let it go this time. I took off my shirt and looked at the gun. I miss Dad. Sleep quickly engulfed me again.

The end of Marco's first day. I dropped a few familiar characters in, but more to come. Scarlet is the Library Girl if you couldn't tell. I'll have more Squall in later chapters, Rinoa will make an appearance as a teacher in the next chapter, as will Quistis and Zell. Seifer will become involved in a few later chapters. Selphie will appear in later chapters as well. Irvine will be a major character as well. I just felt I had to put this in case anyone who is reading this is looking for a particular character. My only question is should I keep this R or jack it up to NC-17 for steamy sex scenes later in the story? Input would be nice. Peace.