~~~Once again, I only can claim Lori, Karin, and Connie and the idea as my own, all else belongs to Squaresoft~~~

We exchanged glances, and Karin nodded "Alright, where does she wish to see us?"

"In Garden, follow me"

We followed him into the Garden, and as we walked to the elevator, I marveled at the beauty of the place. I hadn't realized how beautiful the inside was because of the fact that it looks different on the screen...distorted in fact. As I entered, I noticed that Squall was putting a code into the keypad. As we went up, I wondered what that bastard Seifer had to say about us. The doors opened, and he led us into Headmaster Cid's office, where Edea was waiting for us. I swear I could almost hear her theme in my head as I walked into the room.

"Please, sit down" she said, gesturing to some chairs

We sat down, and I glanced at my friends, noticing that they too seemed nervous. I looked at her, she was smiling, and she seemed much kinder than she had been portrayed in the game. However, she was a Sorceress so you could never be sure, so I mentally noted to watch what I did around her. Squall turned to leave, and she held one hand up to stop him.

"Squall would you stay please?"

He nodded and stood slightly behind her, facing us. I wondered why he was behind Edea instead of at the door; I mean, who in their right mind would fight a Sorceress? Someone who obviously doesn't know a thing about magic, definitely not me, although, I did manage to get Seifer mad. I had to fight the urge to laugh out loud at that.

"I understand that you know how to use magic. Can you tell me how you managed this?"

"We actually found out how to use magic totally by accident"

Edea looked at me questioningly " By accident?"

I looked at Connie and Karin, who nodded in agreement.

"She's telling the truth, it happened during one of our battles" Connie told her

Edea's eyes widened in surprise, and she turned to Squall.

"Well, they must learn how to control the use of the magic, and how to use Guardians"

My eyes widened as I realized that she was basically ordering Squall to let us in as Cadets. I knew that it would be hard, but that didn't worry me. What worried me was the fact that Seifer might take this as an opportunity to make my life a living hell. As Squall was about to answer, warning sirens went off

"Enemy soldiers approaching Garden, repeat, enemy soldiers approaching Garden" came an announcement over the intercom.

Karin ran over to the window, and looked out, then swore

"It's the United States, we forgot that they were here! They don't know they have peaceful intentions"

I jumped to my feet, and took the lift to the controls that made the Garden fly. I looked at them, and noticed an airplane-like control stick on it, I grabbed it, and pulled it towards me, it came forward smoothly, and I could feel the Garden lifting from the ground.

"Lori! What are you doing?!"

"Getting us out of here!" I yelled, wishing I could have remembered something as simple as that.

Squall suddenly pushed me out of the way, and steered us away from the soldiers. I reached out in an effort to maintain my balance and glared at him.

"What was that for?"

Of course, in typical Leonhart fashion, he seemed to completely ignore me. I muttered something about their family (yes I am sadistic at times) and stepped on the lift, deciding to go bug Connie and Karin. They both had grins on their faces, as I stepped off the platform.

"What?"

They just looked at each other, and I began to get really mad. I stormed out of the room and began wandering around the Garden just for the hell of it.

****Several Hours Later****

Well, it's lunchtime, and I'm trying to act like I'm happy about being here, but in reality I'm not. I'm really beginning to hate it. I guess I should explain it from the beginning. After I left the Headmaster's office, I ran into Rinoa.(Also known as the Ditz) She greeted me, and told me that she had to give me something. I told her alright, and we went to my dorm room. Once there, she handed me a package, and I looked questioningly at it.

"What is it?" I asked

"It's your cadet uniform, you have to report to Quistis Trepe's classroom in half an hour" she told me.

Oh great.....more boring lectures. She said goodbye rather cheerily, and left, leaving me scowling at the package. I opened it and groaned. I just knew that it was going to be one of those days of complete and utter hell. Once I actually dared myself to put the thing on, I sighed to myself

"Well Lori, may as well make the best of it"

I pulled out an elastic, and pulled my shoulder length brownish blonde hair out of my face. I wound the elastic around my hair, and pushed my glasses up furthur on my face. Well, here goes nothing.

I walk out of the room, and meet with Karin and Connie. They wave, and run over to me.

"Hey Lori! Who's your Instructor?"

"Quistis"

"Hey! We're in the same class as you, come on, let's go and get crazy!" Karin said

I smiled, and we walked to the elevator. As we went up, a thought occurred to me. Why Guardian Junctioning? What purpose could that hold for us?

"Lori, time to return to the real world"

I looked at Connie, and couldn't help but grin. I made a mock salute, and followed them out the elevator, and to the classroom. We walked in, and Quistis turned to us with a smile.

"Class, this is Karin, Connie, and Lori. They will be joining us"

She looked at her computer, and arranged for Karin and I to sit together, while Connie was behind us, beside another cadet.

"Now, in order to junction to a Guardian properly, you must....."

Hmmm... looks like you have to actually be in contact with the guardians, in order to junction them, interesting. I lean forward, relaxing, and listen to the droning voice of my Instructor. I had a pen and a piece of paper in my left hand, jotting down the most important information that I thought I might accidentally forget. I guess I got really into the lecture, because I totally lost track of time until the class was over.

"Remember your junctioning homework for tomorrow" she called after us

"I wouldn't worry about the homework, it doesn't seem that hard" Karin commented.

Connie turned to her "It might seem that way, but we don't know if it is or not"

"True"

I walked to my room, and looked over my notes. I began hunting through the drawers of the desk for more paper, as I needed to seriously fix my notes. They were a jumbled mass of sentences, with arrows pointing to various points of importance. As I began to re-write them, I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in"

"Hey Lori, we were going to get supper, wanna come?"

I looked at them, then my notes

"Ok, but I have to get that homework done"

"Don't worry, we never take very long"

I frowned as I remembered we had no money

"Hey guys, what about the fact that we have no money?"

"Commander Leonhart loaned us some for supper"

I shook my head, as I poked Karin. She punched my shoulder, and I started chasing her down the halls.

"STOP!" I heard a woman yell

My eyes widened, as I turned towards the voice. Fujin was standing there, along with Raijin and Seifer.

"No running in the halls, you are to report to Quistis' classroom for morning detention" Seifer told us

They then walked away, patrolling the halls. I fumed, what right did he have to do that? We weren't permanent cadets after all. As we entered, I noticed that Squall was being his usual self. Rinoa of course was trying to get him to talk, and I frowned. I wanted to tell her to leave him alone, but I knew it wasn't my place to say so, and I said nothing. We walked to an empty table and sat down. Connie pulled out her Junctioning notes and scattered them on the table.

"Did you understand what she was saying about the contact thing?"

"From what I understood, you have to be in physical contact with the Guardian in order to junction it"

"It's easier in the game" she grumbled

"That's because the concept is easy to learn, the details are much harder" Karin pointed out

"I guess"

As I ate my hotdog, I looked around the Cafeteria. It was brightly lit from the windows, and everyone seemed to be having polite conversation amongst themselves. The relaxed atmosphere suddenly changed to one of trepidation and worry, and I twisted in my seat. Headmaster Cid and Edea had walked into the room, worried looks on their faces.

"Attention everyone, we have learned that our world is becoming theirs. All SeeDs that were on missions around the world have reported that they too have appeared here. We must protect the people of Gaia, and show the people of Earth how to protect themselves against monster attacks" Cid told everyone. There was an immediate buzz from everyone discussing the information.

"Well, I have to get that junctioning homework done, so I'll see you guys later" I told Connie and Karin

"Ok, see you later"

"Later"

I walked out of the cafeteria, and headed to my dorm, where I kicked off my boots and sat on the bed, my notes scattered out in front of me.

~~~Hours Later~~~

Oh man, I could kill, I'm so tired. Who would have thought that Guardian Junctioning was so much of a pain? At least I got the homework done, now I can sleep. YAY! Oh damn, I forgot I have to 'report' to Quistis' class tomorrow morning with Karin and Connie because of that....thing called Seifer Almasy. I'll get him back, I swear to that.....