It's been a little while since I updated. I'm usually faster. Sorry about that. My characters are mine, any characters from the game are not mine. I made up Nida's last name too (sorry)




Ainsley pushed her way through the large crowd that had gathered and walked happily away from the large computer screen to a waiting Xaria.

"Well?" Xaria asked, although she could already guess the outcome from the wide smile on Ainsley's face. "97 percent!" Ainsley said happily, and hugged Xaria. Xaria laughed.

 "That's great! I knew you'd be fine!"

"Hey Ains!" a voice cried out. Ainsley turned around to see Ryo running after her.

"Ryo!" she yelled and ran up to hug him. Ryo was surprised at the rare, genuine display of affection, but didn't complain about either.

"Hey," he said, momentarily burying his face in her hair. He then stepped back to look at her. "Well, I'm guessing you passed," he said, smiling. Ainsley nodded enthusiastically.

 "How did you do?" she asked. Ryo stared at the ground and shuffled his feet.

"Ummm." Ainsley was snapped out of her giddy excitement.

"You didn't pass!?" she exclaimed. Ryo looked up and then grinned at her.

"Gotcha!" Ainsley narrowed her eyes to glare at him. Ryo put his hands up sheepishly.

"I passed, barely. I got an 80 exactly." Ainsley shook her head and then walked up to punch him in the shoulder, slightly hard. "Ow!" he exclaimed, bringing up his other hand to rub his shoulder.

"Don't scare me like that!" said Ainsley, childishly.

"Gee," said Ryo, putting his arm around Ainsley, "I never knew you cared." Ainsley narrowed her eyes at him again. "What!?" he exclaimed, "You've been ignoring me for the past week or two." Ainsley opened her mouth to dispute this, but Xaria quickly spoke.

"Ains, didn't you promise to help me in Doctor Kimuri's office today?" Ainsley nodded her head, a relieved expression on her face,

"Yeah, Sari I think I did," Ainsley then turned to Ryo. "I'm sorry, I have to go help Sari out. I'll talk to you later." Ryo nodded, a slightly dark expression on his face. He then reached forward and hugged Ainsley before watching her walk away with Xaria towards the elevator. He watched as they turned before the stairs and took a left. He was finally pulled out of staring after Ainsley by a sudden tap on his left shoulder. Ryo turned to face a grinning Moss.

 "Did you pass?" asked Moss.

"Yeah," Ryo replied, somewhat dejected.

"I'm guessing Ms. Super-Student passed as well." Ryo looked at Moss.

"Her name is Ainsley," Ryo shot back, rather quickly. Moss nodded,

"I know," he told Ryo in a serious tone. "Did you pass?" Ryo asked, changing the subject. Moss nodded in reply.

"So we all passed," Ryo said. Moss shook his head.

 "No there were two people in our class that didn't pass. But we had a higher ratio than Barak's classes. Half of his kids failed."


Ainsley walked quickly towards the Infirmary with Xaria.

 "What's Doctor Kimuri going to say when you have an extra person?" she asked. Xaria frowned at this. Although Doctor Kimuri was a very nice person and attentive to all of her patients, she didn't like overcrowding in her office. Ainsley could understand her want of privacy, especially if a sick patient needed bed rest. Xaria shook her head,

"I don't know. Is there anyplace else you want to volunteer at?" At Balamb Garden it was encouraged to do volunteer tasks in the field that you wanted to go into when you became a SeeD. Of course it was impossible to volunteer for field missions, but other tasks such as Weapons Instructor, Instructor, Doctor, or Pilot allowed a cadet to get a feel for the job before petitioning to work in that position once they did become a SeeD. It was this last job in this list that Ainsley preferred over all of her other volunteer work.

"I'll go see if Nida wants my help. If he doesn't then I'll come back down here to see if you need my help," Ainsley told Xaria. Xaria nodded as Ainsley turned back to go to the elevator in the main hall. Ainsley quickly ran up the stairs and dashed into the elevator, diving into it right before the doors closed. Breathless, she leaned against the elevator wall as a SeeD looked at her in amusement. She smoothed her cadet uniform, giving him a look while pressing the button for the third floor.

 "Why are you running?" asked the SeeD in a low, drawling voice,

"In that much of a hurry?" Ainsley shook her head,

 "It's a long story," she said.

 "Oh, I see," said the SeeD, smirking, "You don't want to be seen by someone," Ainsley glared at the nosy SeeD.

"It's none of your business!" she said. He laughed as the elevator came to a stop at the second floor.

"Well, this is my floor," the SeeD said. "Have a good one," he waved cockily back at Ainsley and winked at her as the doors closed. Ainsley glared at him. She once again smoothed her jacket down as she walked out onto the third floor. The floor used to be restricted for cadets and SeeDs when the Garden hadn't been mobile. Now, cadets and SeeDs could walk freely around the third floor and onto the piloting deck with permission from the Garden pilot, Nida Hardaway. Ainsley was one of these people seeing as being a Garden pilot was what she wanted to do once she became a SeeD. She walked on to the elevator platform and slowly went up to the piloting deck. Nida smiled as he saw who was coming.

"Hey Ainsley," he said. "What can I do for you?" Ainsley shrugged. She was still in a rather bad mood after being teased by the SeeD in the elevator.

"Do you need any help?" she asked, "I need something to do." Nida shrugged.

"There's not much to do right now seeing as we aren't going anywhere for a little while. I could begin teaching you some of the controls if you want. But you can't touch anything." Ainsley nodded and turned to face the control panel.