**Seifer was sleeping when he had been awakened by the sound of a knock on his door. Surprisingly, the blaring sound of his whiny alarm clock hadn't woken him up. Ever since the first night he had slept in the D-District Prison, he had made it a habit of being a very deep sleeper. Hardly anything woke him up, with the exception of people being at the door and very loud explosions, two things Seifer found to be very uncommon.
Seifer moaned and looked at his clock. It was 7:30. Once again, he overslept on a weekend, but then again, he had only crashed face-first into his pillow about two hours ago. "Come in."
The door opened to reveal a young man, around the age of 18. His cheery disposition made him a good friend to anybody, especially to the usually depressed Seifer. He always figured out a way to cheer up Seifer for several minutes or so until the class was over. Though not considered a full part to Seifer's posse, he still felt important knowing the other side of Seifer. After all, everybody knew that being on Seifer's other (good) side was rare.
"Seifer, you wanna come down to get some breakfast?" He asked.
"Lemme get dressed and showered, Marcos. Meet me outside in…10 minutes, okay?" He started to get up.
"Sure! See you then!" Marcos ran off towards the main hall. Seifer got into his bathroom and into the shower. The oddest thing at that time happened when he went to turn the shower of and his hand went through the handle.
"Strange…I should watch this." He got out, got dressed and met up with Marcos.
The breakfast line was usually short at 7:30 A.M., but this morning was a total exception. The rumor was that SeeD Trainees were going to be shipped out to a dispute in Mordia. Seifer found a free table and Marcos sat down. Fujin and Raijin found them and sat down.
"Hello, Marcos." Fujin said.
"Hey, Fujin. Goods morning, Raijin." He said as they sat down. "I'll go get breakfast. You all want some eggs?"
"Yes. Make Raijin's with bacon, mine with cheese, and Seifer's with…" Fujin looked at him.
"Coffee beans." His head hit the table. Marcos looked at him.
"Alright then. See you in…ten." He said, inspecting the length of the line. He walked into the line when a girl who was obviously from Galbadia Garden (the cowboy getup was a dead giveaway) cut in front of him. She started to look at Seifer and back at the line. Her hat made it hard to tell what she looked like, but he knew that her hair looked red. She noticed that Marcos was staring and looked at him.
"Is that Seifer?" Yes, her Galbadian accent (the equivalent to a south Balamb accent in a sense) secured his belief that she was from Galbadia Garden.
"Yeah, why?"
She sighed, as if a great burden had been lifted.
"That's wonderful. I'm glad he's out of prison. He should've never been sent there."
"Well, the rest of the world didn't think so. Galbadia isn't always right, ya know."
"Well, a young man who made a little mistake doesn't deserve a few years in the slammer."
"Well, people like him aren't given second chances like this."
"Who says he should've lost his first chance?" She sounded pissed and she turned around. He waited several moments, and then tapped her on the shoulder.
"You care to insult my people again?"
"No…I was wondering…do you happen to like Seifer?"
"Oh my stars, yes. He's very smart, and very charismatic. I'd like to know him better. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I happen to be one of his friends. I could hook you two up."
"Well, I'm taken, so I can't be with him." She turned around. Rinoa stomped in and shoved Marcos down. She sat herself down in Marcos's seat.
"Can I speak with Seifer…alone?" She asked Raijin and Fujin. They found another table to sit at while they stared at Rinoa.
"Ya know, she never talks to him, and then she expects us to drop things as soon as she needs him. She's so…" Raijin hit a dead spot in his thoughts.
"Rude?" Fujin tried finishing.
"Yeah! Ya know
what? She's gotten rude ever since she married Squall. I wonder if Seifer knew
they got hitched."
"Well, when he sees that rock
on her finger, he'll know."
"Ya know…I wish that girl was here for him."
"You mean that girl that was working for Edea?" Fujin looked at him, shocked.
"Yeah. Ya know, before it went down, she always caught his attention. She's all he ever thinks about too."
"You're right. Even when he was being controlled, he was always Seifer around her. I miss her. Didn't she-"
"Ya know, I don't wanna talk about it around him. He's got a good set of ears and I don't wanna be on the brunt end of anything he might throw today. He looks very irritable."
"Yeah, you're right."
Rinoa sat down across from the still-half asleep Seifer.
"What did I do wrong, Mrs. Leonhart?" He said coldly. Rinoa gasped.
"Wha?"
"Don't act like I'm dumb. I know you two got hitched. I heard."
(Another part of my life lost. It just seems to get better everyday…whatever.)
"Listen, I don't want that to change anything."
"It doesn't. We went out. Big deal. You protected me from Squall a few times. Big deal. It's all over between us. I know. Now what is it? What did I destroy now?"
"Nothing, it's more like what didn't I do that I'm being blamed for that involves you."
Seifer looked up.
"Uh…what?"
"Squall thinks I helped you cheat on your test. I guess you got some questions right that you shouldn't have been able to."
"I probably guessed right on them. How badly did I do, by the way?"
"I can't tell you that, Seifer. You know that."
"Then you shouldn't have said anything." He put his head back down.
Rinoa sighed angrily, but then calmed herself back down and recomposed herself. "Seifer, you got a perfect score."
"Seifer looked up, a look of utter shock and a wave of paleness washed over his face.
"What?"
"Yes…Squall's infuriated at me…says you can't possibly have gotten every single question right."
Seifer sighed.
Seifer…
He looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.
Follow me…
He looked around. He went to push himself back, but his hand went through the table. He looked down and saw that his whole body was now the same as his hand; semi-transparent, like he was a ghost. Rinoa also seemed to be in the same state.
"Seifer? What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with you?" He mirrored back.
"Oh my…it's happening to me too!"
"Wait a second…are we the only ones here who are experiencing this?" He looked around. Nobody else seemed to be affected, except for a girl in the lunch line. She stared at Seifer, then ran. Seifer got up.
"Wait!" He ran after her. He ran out of the cafeteria and saw Selphie standing near some shrubbery. He ran over to her. She also seemed to be affected.
"Hey Seifer!" She said happily. "Oh, you too?"
"Yeah…" Then, she started to come back into view. Seifer did as well.
"That was weird."
"Tell me about it." Seifer looked down, trying to think why he was even talking to her. "OH! Did you see a girl run past here? She looks like a female Irvine in her cowboy getup."
Selphie stared at the wall, seemed to ponder, and then look back at him.
"YEAH! She ran up the stairway!" She smiled as he ran. A rustle occurred behind the bushes and the Galbadian girl appeared.
"Thank you Selphie. That was close." She brushed herself off.
"Man, you really do look like Irvine."
"Well, I kinda stole some of his clothes. I think he was staring at me when I was naked."
Selphie gave her a dirty look.
"Uh…why?"
"Because I have to get rid of everything I wear. I'll just give him back everything but the boxers and the hat."
"I wouldn't even be wearing the boxers. Ugh, whatever. I'm gonna hit him for staring at you."
"Well, I'd be curious if a naked guy waltzed into my bedroom and tried getting some of my clothes on."
"Well, whatever. I hope he doesn't come back."
"Don't worry, I'll be gone by then. Don't let him know I was here. And, I'm keeping this hat. It's very comfy. I'm just gonna redesign it."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna go hide from my sister again. Why do you think I lured Seifer out? She's looking for one clean shot at him."
"Well, why did we go all fuzzy TV reception?"
"I don't know…maybe it has something to do with what happened five years ago."
"Okay. Once you figure it out, tell me."
"Okay. Bye Selphie. Thank you again." She opened a portal and walked through it.
"Bye…" Selphie walked off. Today was going to be a long day, she thought.