Author's Note: Blech, sorry for the huge delay. Been caught up in things lately, but I'm back to writing this fanfiction again. And guess what? I started another fanfiction. Guess what genre it's in. LOL.

With a muffin and a carton of milk nestled comfortably in her pockets, Lasoria set off for the Training Center, a bit relieved that she had easily escaped her roommate. She only hoped that it would always be that easy to run away each time things became awkward. After turning a few familiar corners, she found herself in the fairly grassy entrance area with two secure sliding doors on the other side. This place was all too familiar to her. She had spent many hours of her life in this wing, picking on Grats and Granaldos and running from T-Rexaurs.

She sat down in a corner and pulled out her small and somewhat unhealthy breakfast from her pockets. Lasoria had never honestly been sure if food was allowed in the Training Center, but neither the instructors nor the disciplinary committee had busted her for it. So she unwrapped the muffin with her left hand and teeth, her right hand opening the milk carton. No one was in the entrance area, but that suited Lasoria just fine. She was never a very outgoing person, anyway. Taking a chunk out of her muffin and a long swig of milk, she watched as a student with an annoyingly furry collar stalked in, his gunblade gleaming as it sat comfortably against his shoulder. She merely watched him, taking another bite as he stormed across the entrance area and shoved the right door open with his free hand.

'What's up with him?' she thought, downing her bite with another long drink.

After a few more minutes of chewing and chugging, she smashed her carton with her boot, tossed her trash in a bin, and set off through the left door, pulling at her gloves to make sure they were secured around her wrists. Between the leaves she could see the student she had seen just minutes before taking out his temper on a pair of Grats, their long whips slapping wildly at him as he slashed and shot at them with his gunblade. It was brilliant to her, how he handled the weapon, but she couldn't watch for long since a particularly stubborn Grat decided to grace her with its ugly presence.

"You know, I'm really sick of looking at you guys," she said, kicking it in its would-be face, causing it to stagger backwards. It bounded back, attacking Lasoria with its long whips.

"Hey, dammit! Watch where you're hitting!" She kicked it again, and as it fell over, she stomped on it. It laid there, twitching and rolling, whips flailing about and stinging her bare arms.

"I don't think stomping on it will really do much."

Lasoria turned around, finding herself face-to-face with her best friend, Alia. Alia was shorter than Lasoria, like most were, with long brown hair that was always tucked into some fashion against her head. Lasoria grinned, her expression cut short as the Grat hit her in the back of the head.

"Hold up," Alia said, and she unsheathed her double revolvers from their holsters, loading them with fire ammo before she shot at the Grat. It died quickly, falling over as sleeping powder oozed out of its mouth.

Lasoria was amazed. "Where did you get the fire ammo? That stuff is like, really expensive."

"The price was cut by half last week. Haven't you been reading Weapons Monthly?"

"Not the January issue," she said, scooping up sleeping powder into her satchel. "He had a lot in him."

"Excuse me, but I think at least half of white stuff is mine," she said, helping Lasoria scoop up the substance. Lasoria grinned. "White stuff" was an inside joke they had formed months ago since the sleeping powder looked exactly like a drug.

"So anyway, where have you been?" Alia asked, standing up. Lasoria stood, too, closing the satchel before tucking it away in her pocket.

"My roommate came in today, and I went to get breakfast with her." She shrugged. "No biggie. I told her I was headin' off for here... She's way too idiotic for me to hang out with."

"Oh, tough luck. I hope my roommate isn't like that."

"Keep dreaming," she said, and they both laughed.

The last few days of winter vacation went by rather uneventfully. Lasoria had spent most of her time with Alia, of course, and Chasen seemed to be fitting in nicely with a group of girls just annoying as herself. But when it came time for classes to start, the laid-back attitude of Garden fell dormant, being replaced by a more serious aura. Students were rushing around, walking between their classrooms as they followed their schedules, getting a feel of the walk they would be taking each day. More and more were adorning their uniforms, weapons were seen more often, and the Disciplinary Committee was getting as uptight as ever.

It wasn't until the night before classes started that both Lasoria and Chasen were given their schedules. It turned out that both Chasen and Lasoria had the same homeroom with Instructor Trepe. Chasen was ecstatic, of course, but Lasoria dreaded the morning that would follow.

"Lasoria, wake up! You slept through your alarm!"

Lasoria rolled over, her face being met by her alarm clock that read 7:42.

"Oh, shit. We have to be in class at 7:55... Why didn't you wake me up earlier, Chasen?" Lasoria jumped out of her bed and plucked one of her clean uniforms down from the wall.

"W-what? 7:55? I thought class didn't start until 8:55!" Chasen said as Lasoria pulled off her gray pajama pants and slipped on her skirt.

"Must have read it wrong, because my schedule says 7:55 just like everyone else's. It even says so in the pamphlet thing I have," she said, zipping up the skirt before pulling her tank top over her head. "Be in the classroom five minutes before class starts. Class starts at 8."

"I was wondering why it said homeroom was at 8:55 and class was at 8..."

Lasoria sighed, rather annoyed, as she slipped on the plain white shirt that went on underneath her blue jacket-like overshirt. "No, no, homeroom starts at 8 and is dismissed whenever the instructor is finished talking or whatever... You have to be in the homeroom classroom at 7:55, homeroom starts at 8, is dismissed a little later, and then you check your schedule to see what time your first class starts."

"Oh," Chasen said, watching Lasoria pull up her stockings. "Well, that makes sense."

"No duh."

Alrighty, I hope that was okay. Sorry for the huge delay... I had some temporary writer's block mixed in with all the stuff I had been doing lately, but whatever. Reviews are appreciated.