A/N: Thank you to everyone who's reviewed and I hope you enjoy this
chapter!
'Come on Leona, this way!' Selphie called, a couple feet ahead of me. Damn, that girl had more energy than I did!
'Selphie! Slow down! I can only run so fast!' I called back, practically jumping over the stairs that came before me. I tucked and rolled on the hard ground, ignoring the pain and ran after Selphie. I finally found her standing in front of a pretty funky looking stage.
'Hehe, I saw your little wipe out,' Selphie giggled.
I glared at her and giggled.
'It wasn't a wipe out, I successfully tucked and rolled thank you very much,' I protested, sticking my tongue out. Selphie just waved it off and climbed up on the stage, picking up a guitar.
'Gardens going to be having a ball soon and my bands gonna be playing,' she explained playing a few notes. I climbed up on the stage as well and sat down, my feet dangling off the edge.
'When is the ball?' I asked.
Selphie shrugged and sat down beside me.
'As soon as squall allows it,' she said then tilted her head to the side, 'do you have balls and parties where you come from?'
I laughed and nodded my head.
'Yeah we do, but I don't go to them that often,' I said, swinging my legs back and forth.
'Why?' Selphie asked, a little confused. I turned toward her and sighed.
'I'm not much of a, uh, partier as other people have told me,' I explained, recalling my past experiences at parties.
'That's dumb, you seem like a pretty cool girl, I bet your loads of fun at a party!' Selphie beamed. I sighed again (I seemed to be doing that a lot lately) and stood up, walking over and playing with a drumstick.
'No, see where I come from Selphie, parties are just basically getting drunk or high,' I explained. I turned back towards her and swung my arms, 'it sucks because I don't believe a person needs to get stoned or drunk off they're ass to have a good time. And then when I'm offered a beer or drugs and I say no, I'm looked down on and ignored.'
'Ooh, that stinks,' Selphie said then stood up and took my hand, 'but don't worry about the parties here! We'll have the odd drink but no one really gets drunk and there sure as hell is no one here in Garden who does drugs, I can assure you. See, Cid has these psyche profiles on everyone here. Everything that's happened in they're past,' she explained. I nodded and let out a deep breath.
'I'm glad, I think a party a la Balamb Garden is really what I need,' I said and laughed. Selphie did too.
'And what are you two gorgeous girls laughing about?'
Selphie and I turned to see Irvine climbing up onto the stage. I giggled as he pulled Selphie and I towards him, our hips connected to his. My shoulders shook from my laughing and I looked up to see Zell and the others watching us. I coughed and pulled away from Irvine's hold and jumped off the stage. I lost my balance in my landing and awkwardly fell forward.
I looked up and smiled sheepishly.
'Whoops, guess I'm not that graceful,' I said. Zell walked over and helped me up.
'We'll help you with that,' he said chuckling.
'Right,' squall said, pulling a large cart in front of him, 'the weapons are in here. Now I want you to look over them, pick one you like and we'll try that one out first, ok?' he said. I nodded and walked towards him as he unlocked it and lifted the lid. Inside gunblades, normal swords, guns, nunchakkus, staffs, whips, any weapon you could think of were neatly placed in they're rightful slots. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.
'Well?' squall said, looking up at expectantly.
'Wow,' was all I said. Squall and the rest of the gang giggled.
'Well go on Leona, pick a weapon,' Quistis urged.
'Ok,' I said, my eyes scanning over each weapon. They landed on a pretty basic looking gunblade and I grabbed the handle and lifted it. Admittedly it was pretty heavy but I could handle it.
'Ah a gunblade is the aliens first choice,' Seifer teased, winking at me, 'that means she's mine first.'
I gulped.
'P-pardon?'
'Seifer and I are the resident gunblade specialists but today he will take the liberty of testing your skills,' squall explained then motioned for everyone to back away.
'Wait, squall,' I began but was cut off when I had to raise the blade to stop Seifers blade from cutting off my head. I let out a grunt and pushed causing him to fall back a little. I panted a bit and readjusted my hold on the gunblade.
'Not bad,' Seifer said, slowly walking a circle around me, 'she's got a quick reaction which is good, her strength isn't too bad but her attention,' Seifer charged at me suddenly, catching me off guard and knocked me onto the ground. My back hit it with a soft thud and the air was knocked out of me slightly, ' needs work,' he concluded.
'Alright, so a gunblade is a possibility,' squall said as Seifer walked back over to Quistis. The least he could of done was help me up but nooo, god forbid he do something nice, 'Leona, please choose another weapon,' squall said. I nodded and picked up a whip.
'My turn,' Quistis said and walked over to me, taking out God Save the Queen. I spread me feet out evenly and snapped the whip in her direction, getting a firm hold around Quistis' leg and pulled.
'Ah!' Quistis cried out involuntarily and wobbled a bit but regained her balance and smiled at me, 'hey, that was pretty good, just you should have pulled a little harder, use your shoulders more.' She said and held save the queen up and snapped it at me. Amazingly though, my internal instincts told me to move and I dived out of the way, cart wheeling to a stop in front of Irvine and Selphie. I took my fighting stance and grinned at a very pleasantly surprised looking Quistis.
'Excellent! That was excellent!' Quistis stressed walking over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder, 'that dodge was amazing. I don't know what seifers talking about when he says you need to work on your speed!'
I blushed slightly and put a hand to my forehead like I usually did when I became shy. Quistis beamed and turned to Squall.
'Maybe the whip isn't her weapon, nor the gunblade but I think,' she turned to Zell and grinned, 'some martial arts is a possibly?'
Zell totally beamed and punched the air.
'Booya! All right, lets see what she can do,' he said, practically bouncing over to me, 'one question, you have any experience with this? Its just I don't wanna hurt you.'
I nodded my head.
'Actually, I have a little experience, see I was in kickboxing for about a year,' I said smiling. Zell double taked and a large grin spread across his face.
'That's fantastic! At least you'll be able to block some of my hits,' he said and took his fighting stance. I nodded and took mine, evenly spreading out my feet. I waited for him to make the first move and when he did (a straight punch to the face) I spun out of the way and elbowed him in the ribs. Without hesitating I lifted my leg to kick him in the back but he spun around and grabbed it, flipping me over. I hot the ground with a hard thud and panted, Zell holding my hands by my head as he straddled my waist.
'Not too bad for an amateur but~' Zell was cut off when I pushed my arms above my head, throwing him off balance. I mustered all my strength and flipped him over onto his back, my knee pressed into his back.
'Am I an ~excellent~ amateur now?' I asked, my lips right by his ear. I heard him mutter something and I laughed and stood up, letting Zell free. He dusted himself off and grinned at me.
'That was excellent,' he said and then rubbed his ribs, 'although I was going easy on you,' he teased.
'Uh huh, I'm sure,' I teased back and punched his arm.
'Ow, come on kitten, I'm gonna need that arm for later,' Zell teased, calling me kitten instead of tiger. I laughed dryly at his little joke and looked over at squall and the others expectantly.
'Well? What's my weapon?' I asked, putting my dusty hands on my hips. Squall smiled and put the gunblade back in the box and then the whip.
'I think those fist of yours will do just fine,' squall said, locking up the cart. I held up a hand, a little worried.
'Wait, squall I know I could handle a human but I know what you fight here and I'm not sure if my own body will be a good enough weapon,' I said concerned.
Squall put a hand on my shoulder and smiled.
'Don't worry about that ok Leona? Not only is Zell over there gonna train you in the martial arts, we're all going to help you with your magic skills and any other skills you may need,' he explained.
'Oh,' I said, nodding my head slowly, 'well does that mean I'm going into magic training now?' I asked.
'No no, its Saturday so you got today and tomorrow off but on Monday you'll be attending classes like everyone else here. Of course, we'll be your instructors,' Quistis explained as we all headed back up the stairs of the quad. I stopped just as we were about to exit the quad and turned to the others.
'If I'm going to be put into these classes, wont the other students be ahead of me? I mean, I know here the beginners classes are all younger children,' I said.
Everyone shook they're head and Rinoa flashed me a smile.
'Don't worry about it Leona, we know your weapon now and now you'll just learn about magic, GF's and other things along with the students. We will be putting you in a class that will be slightly a head of you but that's ok, we'll all help you catch up,' she explained. I nodded and rubbed my arm lightly, looking over the edge of the railing and into the tiny pond below. Selphie snapped her fingers in front of me.
'Leona? You still there?' she asked.
'Wha? Oh yeah, sorry,' I apologized.
'Heh, so she's not an alien, just a space cadet,' Seifer teased. Quistis slapped him and I stuck out my tongue.
'Well I'm sorry I don't fit your expectations,' I said. Seifer shrugged and continued walking. Quistis rolled her eyes and waved good-bye to everyone running after Seifer. I sighed and sat down on one of the benches.
'Hey Leona? We're sorry but Rinoa and I have to head back up to the office, we'll see you later, ok?' squall said. I nodded and said goodbye to them and watched as they left the quad.
'Sooo,' Selphie began, trying to get rid of the odd silence that had fallen over us. Finally she became frustrated, 'oh come on guys, lets go do something!' she said then looked over at me.
'Why so glum?' she asked, kneeling in front of me. I sighed and pasted a smile to my lips.
'Its nothing, just thinking about home,' I said, and I really was. Although I was having a good time here I missed earth, I missed all my friends and family.
'Oh, bummer,' Selphie said and then smiled,' hey! Why don't we take her to Balamb?' she asked, turning to face Irvine and Zell.
'Sure, I'm sure Ma would love to meet her,' Zell said, crossing his arms and smiling at me, 'and if it'll get that sad frown off her face then I'm up for it.'
'Yeah, no offence darlin', but you look prettier when you smile,' Irvine said kindly. I let out a giggle and stood up and stretched, smiling at the three.
'That sounds great guys, but would you mind if I rested for a bit first?' I asked.
'Sure Leona, how 'bout you meet us at the information center in the main forum in an hour?' Zell offered. I smiled and nodded my head.
'That sounds great,' I said and headed out of the quad, waving at the three.
A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter and please, read and review because this story is also for the readers and knowing you guys are reading and enjoying it is what keeps me writing. So please, RXR! Thanks!
-Dinchtbaby
'Come on Leona, this way!' Selphie called, a couple feet ahead of me. Damn, that girl had more energy than I did!
'Selphie! Slow down! I can only run so fast!' I called back, practically jumping over the stairs that came before me. I tucked and rolled on the hard ground, ignoring the pain and ran after Selphie. I finally found her standing in front of a pretty funky looking stage.
'Hehe, I saw your little wipe out,' Selphie giggled.
I glared at her and giggled.
'It wasn't a wipe out, I successfully tucked and rolled thank you very much,' I protested, sticking my tongue out. Selphie just waved it off and climbed up on the stage, picking up a guitar.
'Gardens going to be having a ball soon and my bands gonna be playing,' she explained playing a few notes. I climbed up on the stage as well and sat down, my feet dangling off the edge.
'When is the ball?' I asked.
Selphie shrugged and sat down beside me.
'As soon as squall allows it,' she said then tilted her head to the side, 'do you have balls and parties where you come from?'
I laughed and nodded my head.
'Yeah we do, but I don't go to them that often,' I said, swinging my legs back and forth.
'Why?' Selphie asked, a little confused. I turned toward her and sighed.
'I'm not much of a, uh, partier as other people have told me,' I explained, recalling my past experiences at parties.
'That's dumb, you seem like a pretty cool girl, I bet your loads of fun at a party!' Selphie beamed. I sighed again (I seemed to be doing that a lot lately) and stood up, walking over and playing with a drumstick.
'No, see where I come from Selphie, parties are just basically getting drunk or high,' I explained. I turned back towards her and swung my arms, 'it sucks because I don't believe a person needs to get stoned or drunk off they're ass to have a good time. And then when I'm offered a beer or drugs and I say no, I'm looked down on and ignored.'
'Ooh, that stinks,' Selphie said then stood up and took my hand, 'but don't worry about the parties here! We'll have the odd drink but no one really gets drunk and there sure as hell is no one here in Garden who does drugs, I can assure you. See, Cid has these psyche profiles on everyone here. Everything that's happened in they're past,' she explained. I nodded and let out a deep breath.
'I'm glad, I think a party a la Balamb Garden is really what I need,' I said and laughed. Selphie did too.
'And what are you two gorgeous girls laughing about?'
Selphie and I turned to see Irvine climbing up onto the stage. I giggled as he pulled Selphie and I towards him, our hips connected to his. My shoulders shook from my laughing and I looked up to see Zell and the others watching us. I coughed and pulled away from Irvine's hold and jumped off the stage. I lost my balance in my landing and awkwardly fell forward.
I looked up and smiled sheepishly.
'Whoops, guess I'm not that graceful,' I said. Zell walked over and helped me up.
'We'll help you with that,' he said chuckling.
'Right,' squall said, pulling a large cart in front of him, 'the weapons are in here. Now I want you to look over them, pick one you like and we'll try that one out first, ok?' he said. I nodded and walked towards him as he unlocked it and lifted the lid. Inside gunblades, normal swords, guns, nunchakkus, staffs, whips, any weapon you could think of were neatly placed in they're rightful slots. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.
'Well?' squall said, looking up at expectantly.
'Wow,' was all I said. Squall and the rest of the gang giggled.
'Well go on Leona, pick a weapon,' Quistis urged.
'Ok,' I said, my eyes scanning over each weapon. They landed on a pretty basic looking gunblade and I grabbed the handle and lifted it. Admittedly it was pretty heavy but I could handle it.
'Ah a gunblade is the aliens first choice,' Seifer teased, winking at me, 'that means she's mine first.'
I gulped.
'P-pardon?'
'Seifer and I are the resident gunblade specialists but today he will take the liberty of testing your skills,' squall explained then motioned for everyone to back away.
'Wait, squall,' I began but was cut off when I had to raise the blade to stop Seifers blade from cutting off my head. I let out a grunt and pushed causing him to fall back a little. I panted a bit and readjusted my hold on the gunblade.
'Not bad,' Seifer said, slowly walking a circle around me, 'she's got a quick reaction which is good, her strength isn't too bad but her attention,' Seifer charged at me suddenly, catching me off guard and knocked me onto the ground. My back hit it with a soft thud and the air was knocked out of me slightly, ' needs work,' he concluded.
'Alright, so a gunblade is a possibility,' squall said as Seifer walked back over to Quistis. The least he could of done was help me up but nooo, god forbid he do something nice, 'Leona, please choose another weapon,' squall said. I nodded and picked up a whip.
'My turn,' Quistis said and walked over to me, taking out God Save the Queen. I spread me feet out evenly and snapped the whip in her direction, getting a firm hold around Quistis' leg and pulled.
'Ah!' Quistis cried out involuntarily and wobbled a bit but regained her balance and smiled at me, 'hey, that was pretty good, just you should have pulled a little harder, use your shoulders more.' She said and held save the queen up and snapped it at me. Amazingly though, my internal instincts told me to move and I dived out of the way, cart wheeling to a stop in front of Irvine and Selphie. I took my fighting stance and grinned at a very pleasantly surprised looking Quistis.
'Excellent! That was excellent!' Quistis stressed walking over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder, 'that dodge was amazing. I don't know what seifers talking about when he says you need to work on your speed!'
I blushed slightly and put a hand to my forehead like I usually did when I became shy. Quistis beamed and turned to Squall.
'Maybe the whip isn't her weapon, nor the gunblade but I think,' she turned to Zell and grinned, 'some martial arts is a possibly?'
Zell totally beamed and punched the air.
'Booya! All right, lets see what she can do,' he said, practically bouncing over to me, 'one question, you have any experience with this? Its just I don't wanna hurt you.'
I nodded my head.
'Actually, I have a little experience, see I was in kickboxing for about a year,' I said smiling. Zell double taked and a large grin spread across his face.
'That's fantastic! At least you'll be able to block some of my hits,' he said and took his fighting stance. I nodded and took mine, evenly spreading out my feet. I waited for him to make the first move and when he did (a straight punch to the face) I spun out of the way and elbowed him in the ribs. Without hesitating I lifted my leg to kick him in the back but he spun around and grabbed it, flipping me over. I hot the ground with a hard thud and panted, Zell holding my hands by my head as he straddled my waist.
'Not too bad for an amateur but~' Zell was cut off when I pushed my arms above my head, throwing him off balance. I mustered all my strength and flipped him over onto his back, my knee pressed into his back.
'Am I an ~excellent~ amateur now?' I asked, my lips right by his ear. I heard him mutter something and I laughed and stood up, letting Zell free. He dusted himself off and grinned at me.
'That was excellent,' he said and then rubbed his ribs, 'although I was going easy on you,' he teased.
'Uh huh, I'm sure,' I teased back and punched his arm.
'Ow, come on kitten, I'm gonna need that arm for later,' Zell teased, calling me kitten instead of tiger. I laughed dryly at his little joke and looked over at squall and the others expectantly.
'Well? What's my weapon?' I asked, putting my dusty hands on my hips. Squall smiled and put the gunblade back in the box and then the whip.
'I think those fist of yours will do just fine,' squall said, locking up the cart. I held up a hand, a little worried.
'Wait, squall I know I could handle a human but I know what you fight here and I'm not sure if my own body will be a good enough weapon,' I said concerned.
Squall put a hand on my shoulder and smiled.
'Don't worry about that ok Leona? Not only is Zell over there gonna train you in the martial arts, we're all going to help you with your magic skills and any other skills you may need,' he explained.
'Oh,' I said, nodding my head slowly, 'well does that mean I'm going into magic training now?' I asked.
'No no, its Saturday so you got today and tomorrow off but on Monday you'll be attending classes like everyone else here. Of course, we'll be your instructors,' Quistis explained as we all headed back up the stairs of the quad. I stopped just as we were about to exit the quad and turned to the others.
'If I'm going to be put into these classes, wont the other students be ahead of me? I mean, I know here the beginners classes are all younger children,' I said.
Everyone shook they're head and Rinoa flashed me a smile.
'Don't worry about it Leona, we know your weapon now and now you'll just learn about magic, GF's and other things along with the students. We will be putting you in a class that will be slightly a head of you but that's ok, we'll all help you catch up,' she explained. I nodded and rubbed my arm lightly, looking over the edge of the railing and into the tiny pond below. Selphie snapped her fingers in front of me.
'Leona? You still there?' she asked.
'Wha? Oh yeah, sorry,' I apologized.
'Heh, so she's not an alien, just a space cadet,' Seifer teased. Quistis slapped him and I stuck out my tongue.
'Well I'm sorry I don't fit your expectations,' I said. Seifer shrugged and continued walking. Quistis rolled her eyes and waved good-bye to everyone running after Seifer. I sighed and sat down on one of the benches.
'Hey Leona? We're sorry but Rinoa and I have to head back up to the office, we'll see you later, ok?' squall said. I nodded and said goodbye to them and watched as they left the quad.
'Sooo,' Selphie began, trying to get rid of the odd silence that had fallen over us. Finally she became frustrated, 'oh come on guys, lets go do something!' she said then looked over at me.
'Why so glum?' she asked, kneeling in front of me. I sighed and pasted a smile to my lips.
'Its nothing, just thinking about home,' I said, and I really was. Although I was having a good time here I missed earth, I missed all my friends and family.
'Oh, bummer,' Selphie said and then smiled,' hey! Why don't we take her to Balamb?' she asked, turning to face Irvine and Zell.
'Sure, I'm sure Ma would love to meet her,' Zell said, crossing his arms and smiling at me, 'and if it'll get that sad frown off her face then I'm up for it.'
'Yeah, no offence darlin', but you look prettier when you smile,' Irvine said kindly. I let out a giggle and stood up and stretched, smiling at the three.
'That sounds great guys, but would you mind if I rested for a bit first?' I asked.
'Sure Leona, how 'bout you meet us at the information center in the main forum in an hour?' Zell offered. I smiled and nodded my head.
'That sounds great,' I said and headed out of the quad, waving at the three.
A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter and please, read and review because this story is also for the readers and knowing you guys are reading and enjoying it is what keeps me writing. So please, RXR! Thanks!
-Dinchtbaby