PG - 13
Summary: Squall deals with the challenge of finishing final projects, during final exam week.
Note this a slight AU, it takes place way before the SeeD exam. Think of Squall as a 2nd year college student at this time and the SeeD exam is a 4th year student obligation. The only difference between this time story and the game's timeline is that the whole orphanage gang were in the same Garden but Selphie and Irvine transfer about 6 months after this story to their perspective Gardens.
Squall sat slumped over his desk. His Japanese book lay open to the side, with a clean piece of paper. Two nicely sharpened pencils lay to the side. His hand was poised to write his essay for class. The only problem was he'd been like that for over an hour.
Stupid stupid Japanese class. Damn Garden and their language proficiency requirements. Never let it be said that SeeDs were just a bunch of soldiers no, we are soldiers who can speak at least four languages.His thoughts began to drift from languages to how the others were doing.
~*~
He runs into the battle with the rest of orphanage not far behind and then a T-Rexsaur appears. Quistis casts sleep on it, while he casts Haste on everyone. Zell starts drawing spells to keep from physically attacking the beast. Selphie takes a lead from him and casts Protect on the party as an extra precaution. Irvine is a safe distant away to deliver a deadly accurate shot to the middle of its head, in case the team is in need of a quick end.
Luck was not on their side because the monster woke up and they all began to fight harder. The Sleep spells were having little to know effect. He summons Shiva and the other cast Ice spells while Zell was hit with a wild swing of the monster's tail. The injury along with the desperation to end the fight caused him to be able to use his special Duel attack.
Squall immediatly gets an idea, he signals the other to let the beast hit them. The other two nod while bracing for impact. Irvine looks on in disbelief. He whispers the beginning of a life spell just in case.
~*~What the heck was that? I don't have time to daydream. I have to write this essay in Hiragana and record it at my terminal so she can see listen to my sentence structure and pronunciation. Glancing at his bed he notices that his laptop is on. I guess I can check my email before I start.
Two hours later, Squall finishes checking his email visiting some SeeD exam help websites and the latest online issue of Weapon's Monthly and Timber Maniacs. He looks back at the still unwritten Japanese and sluggishly drags himself to his desk to work.
Okay, I can do this, I just need to concentrate. I only need ten sentences, just ten little lines. A short letter to a new friend. That's not a lot. What should I write first?
Picking up his pencil he began to write.
Hajimemashite Squall desu. Doozo yoroshi ku.
After writing a simple introduction, he was once again stumped. He knew that wasn't a proper beginning to a letter but that's all he had. Leafing through his book he came to a page where they talked about friends. He decided to those three sentences.
Wait, who should I call my friend? Seifer's my rival but I guess we're friends so I'll just use him.
Watashi no toamadachi wa Seifer-san desu…Squall once again lost his trail of thought. Deciding his room was a horrible place to work, he went to a quiet corner of the Quad.
He spread everything out, and tried to work. He kept checking his watch every so often, time seemed to be crawling. He started looking around and taking note of the other students in the area. They were all diligently working and her he was with only two sentences out of eight.
Clutching his head in misery he decided to try harder. His tried to not let his concentration waiver, but he ended up giving himself a headache. The more he tried to do the work the worse it got. He was too stubborn to give up. Finally, five hours after starting he was finished, but his head was killing him. Dragging himself back to his room he laid down. The last thought on his mind was the feeling of forgetting something.
~~~*~~~Early the next morning. Squall awakens to the sun in his eyes and decides that a early morning training session would be great. Grabbing his gunblade he goes to the training center and runs into Seifer who is just leaving.
"Seifer"
"Puberty Boy"
"Why are you leaving so early"
"Unlike you, I plan on passing Guardian Force 210 so I'm going back early to finish my paper."
Squall eyes darken at the mention of another paper. "When is it due?"
"Come now Leonhart. Your hormones can't be that screwed up as to cause memory loss. Anyway, I'll humor you it due today by 5:00." With that he gave a curt nod and wave and left.
Squall's shoulders slumped as he realized that the horror wasn't over yet. He quickly sprinted back to room, thankful that the Garden staff didn't see him and started working on yet another paper.
At exactly 4:54pm Squall was finished with the horrible paper from the lowest recesses of Hell, even Hyne wouldn't want it. He wasn't proud of it but, he had to turn in something. He quickly wrote an email to the Professor with the paper as an attachment and was glad to be done with it. Before he could rejoice, he realized that he did the bibliography wrong. Slamming his fist on the table he looked at the document in disbelief. Frustrated beyond belief he stood up and went to train. He just didn't care anymore.
~*~In the training center, Squall was attacking everything with newfound rage. Every monster that crossed his path resembled a paper or presentation form this week. The discharge of the weapon into the 'papers' had a cleansing effect on Squall. When he was done, all that remained were some scattered pieces of his Japanese essay, Chinese presentation, GF report and sociology essay. For good measure, he leveled a Fire spell at the pile of 'papers' and left if all behind.
ENDAN: This is in dedication to all students who fill overwhelmed with papers and presentation. In fact I wrote this while I should be studying for final exams. - Paradox