Squall made it back to his room, looking forward to sleeping off the night's depression. He arrived to find Zell still up and packing his things into boxes. What the hell is he doing... it's almost midnight and he's packing?? Zell glanced up and saw him standing in the door, he nodded and smiled at Squall.

"Guess What!?" Zell said, in a cheery tone that hardly befitted the hour of the night.

"What" not caring a bit to here what Zell had to say.

"Since we're SeeDs now....we get our own rooms...." He said, with a lop-sided grin, "Everybody's moving out tomorrow.....I can't sleep so I'm getting my stuff ready now!"

"Hmmmm....Well enjoy yourself." Squall said, waiving as he headed into his room.

Sure enough, someone had left a flyer on his desk notifying him of the room change. They were also kind enough to leave the key to his new room. Squall stopped and scanned it quickly. He pursed his lips, at the moment he could care less about a new room, all he wanted was sweet, blessed sleep. About to collapse on his bed, Zell's voice beckoned him back to the living room. He turned around with a heavy sigh and staggered back in.

"mmffhpp, Thworry...." Zell said, with a mouthful of strapping tape. He'd been biting it off, instead of using a scissors like a normal person. Spitting out the tape he began anew, "Almost forgot to tell you, Professor Trepe wanted to see you."

"Reeeallly" Squall muttered, feeling a massive headache coming on, "What'd she want?"

"Dunno...she wants to meet you on the atrium's west balcony. That's all....hey....by the way, Saw you on the dance floor.....who knew you could dance like that! Who WAS that girl you were dancing with, God she was hot!"

"I don't know who she was...." Squall answered distractedly.

"Wow, a mystery girl...cool.... Dude, you are a serious chick magnet!" Zell exclaimed, pulling a face.

"Yah, Whatever...."

"Good luck... You gotta give me your secret sometime."

"No secret...it's my sparkling personality...Later."

"Thee Ouuooo..." he said, with another mouthful of strapping tape, stopping to waive briefly as Squall left the room.

God, he didn't want to go and meet with Quistis. The west balcony was well known as a make out spot by the entire student body. Hell, even Squall knew of its reputation and he had no experience with such things. The last thing he needed was another awkward pass at him from Quistis. She'd long had a crush on him and flirted with him shamelessly. It's not that he disliked her or anything....She was very beautiful... Hell, she had an entire fan club of young boys with crushes on her, called themselves the Trepies. It's just.....he wasn't interested....She was always trolling for compliments and pity...Squall didn't have the patience for it. She had no self-esteem, no confidence in her own abilities and frankly Squall didn't feel like playing therapist.  He was a doer...if you had something that needed to be done, he'd get it done...it was never that simple with her. Usually, he could control his emotions pretty well, but the whole dance thing had unnerved him.  A confrontation with Quistis seemed inevitable. He couldn't figure his own life out, why'd she expect him to figure out hers? Yee ha....I get all the fun!! Squall thought grimly.

Entering the west balcony, Squall picked his way through the groups of randy teens making out in practically every corner. Quistis had found a quiet spot near a large oak tree. She did look quite beautiful in the moon's pale light, beautiful and yet so sad. How could he tell her that he wasn't the one for her? He couldn't be what she wanted him to be.... rubbing his throbbing temples he walked over to her.

"Hey.." she said, her voice low and soft.

The corners of his lips twitched into something that could almost resemble a smile. He clasped his hands behind his back and said, "Professor, I was told you needed to speak with me."

"So formal..." with a tone of mournful sorrow, she replied faintly, "Yes, I wanted to tell you something."

Squall was irritated by the whole this whole deal. He didn't need this right now....he had his own problems at the moment and he didn't appreciate the extra baggage she was handing him. Ignoring the gales of pounding pain in his head, he could feel his patience running out.

"What can I help you with Professor?" he said tersely, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Quistis bowed her head, "First of all, you can stop calling me professor.... My review came.... As of today, I'm no longer an instructor at the Garden. I'm a regular SeeD, like you. They said that I was unfit to be a teacher...that I didn't enforce the necessary amount of discipline with my students. They felt that I was still young and needed additional experience before I became a professor full-time. So.... they demoted me."

"I'm very sorry to hear that...is there anything else?"

Her blue-green eyes narrowed.....what was his problem anyway?! Here she was...hurt and unhappy...looking for a shred of sympathy...maybe a little kindness from someone she considered a friend and he was acting like a total jackass.

Squall and Quistis went way back.... she was the first person he met when he came to the garden seven years ago. Quistis was an orphan, just like Squall, and she too had spent her formative years in an orphanage. However, being exceptionally gifted, Quistis had gone to study at the Garden immediately. She hadn't spent any time at all in the company of unloving foster parents or children's homes. All she knew about the world was what she learned at the Garden. When Squall came from the halfway house, she'd taken him under her wing. She was a year older, and he was so frightened and lonely. He didn't talk much and to this day she didn't know much about his past. She'd always wished he would talk to her more, but sometimes he did listen. Squall was her rock, but only when he felt like it. From day to day she never knew what kind of mood he'd be in, because he hid his emotions so well. So it was a constant guessing game to figure out how he was feeling before she pissed him off and he walked away. It was this mercurial side to him that had always bugged her. Sometimes she wondered if he considered her a friend at all, and even more unlikely, if he'd think of her as more than just that. She did nothing but give to him, and he gave her so little in return and even then, only if he was in the mood for giving.

What a frickin' ass!  She thought, her temper rising and boiling over she exploded, "GOD! You're so cold sometimes! I asked you here because I thought you were my friend! I should have known better than to ask you and maybe I was wrong but I needed to talk to someone"

That was the last straw.... It'd been a long, weird night for Squall. He was in enough emotional turmoil on his own and he didn't need to be taking shit from Quistis too. Unable to control himself, he lost his temper. "You thought wrong....Deal with it yourself, I'm tired of being your fucking emotional tampon...if you need to bitch about your problems that badly, then go talk to a wall because I sure as hell don't care."

A look of deep hurt mixed with deep sorrow overtook Quistis' face. He knew how to hurt her....he always had...he could always pick just the right words that would totally devastate her. She hated him sometimes..... Her lower lip trembled and after a time she spoke again.  "Squall..." she said, her voice shaking, on the verge of tears, "You will realize someday that you may actually need someone else.... You can sit here and pretend you don't until your face turns blue. The reality is, you DO need other people. I only hope you see that before you look around and find that you really are alone."

She paused, waiting for the inevitable rebuttal...the I DON'T NEED ANYBODY...ALL PEOPLE DO IS GET IN YOUR WAY.....typical Squall idiotic bullshit. He just heaved a sigh, looking at her with eyes as wounded as her own. No smart remarks.... no biting sarcasm...nothing. What the hell was going on? This was a vast change in demeanor.... Squall wasn't an easy guy to read and she could never tell what was going on in that head of his but he was giving off a definite vibe. Even if he didn't feel like arguing with her, at the very least he'd say whatever and be done with it...not this. She could see a great well of sadness in his eyes, the kind of heartbreak that only one who'd experienced it could see.

"Squall...are you okay?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, he looked away, realizing his internal pain had been broadcast.

"Please...what's wrong?" she pleaded, hating herself for letting him make her beg.

That girl...that girl he'd been dancing with. That had to be it! It hit her like lightening... he'd fallen for that girl... more than just a schoolboy crush...he was in love with some girl he just met!....son of a bitch...

"Dammit, was it that girl!?" she blurted out, angry and just a bit jealous, "Oh my god, It IS...isn't it?!! You dance with some girl you've just met like you've known her forever, but you can barely have a civil conversation with someone you've known for seven years! This is rich! So what now? Are you in love with her?"

He drew in a small gasp, his eyes widening. He answered sharply, "NO! It's N-N-N-NUH-None of y-y-y-yu-yuh-your b-business..."Squall stopped, clapping a hand over his traitor mouth.

Quistis stared at him in absolute disbelief. She remembered him telling her how bad his stutter had been as a kid. He used to get ranked out all the time, until one of his many foster parents had helped cure him of it. Occasionally, when he first came to Balamb he still stuttered, mostly when Seifer picked on him. Seifer had a way of finding your weakness and exploiting it.... But God, Squall hadn't stuttered like that in years..... Shaking he stormed out of the atrium, Quistis following close behind.

"Squall...wait...."

He stopped and with his back turned he whispered, "Please.... leave me alone.... I..."

"No...Don't...That was unfair. I'm sorry," she said, reaching out her hand and touching his shoulder, she could feel him shrink away from her contact, " I guess I'm still upset about my demotion...I've failed as an instructor and a friend." She couldn't help it, she began to cry.

His shoulders slumped and without turning he said, "No...no you haven't failed. Your teaching methods are unconventional but you are a good instructor.... Don't let it get to you. I gotta go."

She withdrew her hand and watched him leave, silently wiping away her tears. Funny, that a stranger could touch his heart and affect him so deeply...succeeding where she had failed so many times.

"Lucky girl..." she said in a choked whisper, filled with bitter regret.

Squall was still trembling when he got back to his room. He nervously ran his fingers through his hair, cursing himself silently. I fucking stuttered....I can't believe I stuttered.... What's happening to me...? He sat on his bed and closed his eyes tightly. One minute everything's okay, I had it all figured out and the next it's all screwed...at least Zell wasn't awake, that was good.... He sighed shakily, God I'm a mess...Stripping off the uniform jacket, Squall flopped down on the bed and stared at the flat nothingness of the ceiling. All the time his mind was working.... clicking off the details of the entire day over and over and over and over again...Finally too tired to continue he let sleep take him.

He was in the field of flowers again........ He wasn't alone, there was the girl...with angel wings?....she turned...Are you an angel?...and kicked up a flurry of feathers and petals...they danced gracefully around her, she shook her head as she smiled...The girl...Angel....floated towards him, her light blue dress billowing behind her in the breeze...her black hair...like midnight.... whipping around her face gently, like the fronds of an anemone........She mouthed his name...Squall....no sound came out but he could still hear her voice, it lingered in his mind......She turned again, slowly disappearing into a cloud of mist...I'm waiting....he noticed that she didn't have wings at all.......though he could have sworn...it was a pattern, white angel wings woven into the fabric of her dress.... I'll be with you ... Don't go... he shouted...dreamily her form vanished entirely, petals and feathers falling together in a bizarre torrent...please, don't leave me....

"WAIT!! PLEASE..DON'T....." Someone was shaking him violently, he suddenly felt very bad for that person....he might have to punch them if they didn't knock it off.

"SQUALL! WAKE UP!!  You're dreaming...."

It was Zell; he looked concerned, yet slightly bemused. Every bone creaked as he lifted himself off the bed and he was covered in sweat. He felt and probably looked like hell. Squall rubbed his eyes, staving off another monster headache, a leftover present from last night.

"What time is it?" Squall croaked hoarsely.

"Ten o' clock....."

"Damn.... is it really that late?"

" Yeah .....Dude, that must've been one helluva dream....you woke me up with all your screaming....man..." Zell said, changing the subject quickly, sticking his tongue between his teeth with a silly grin,  "Soooo what happened last night with Prof. Trepe?"

Squall winced, Quistis... "I'd rather not talk about it...."

"Ouch! That bad, huh?" Zell whistled, pausing a moment....his face changed, a look of solemn concern came over it,  "Can I ask you something, in all seriousness?"

"What?"

"Are you really okay? I mean, after the exam you kinda flaked or something. You were just actin' weird last night...I'm just worried, that's all"

Squall sighed, his voice trembling with repressed emotion, "I'm....okay....I guess....I don't know....I've been having trouble sleeping lately, that's all......it's nothing...."

"Hmmm...Maybe it's cause everything is changing so fast, you know...it's like...everything's ending.... you're not a kid anymore and you have all these new adult responsibilities on your shoulders..... You don't know what to do...I feel a little directionless too; I think all of us do.  Like, You've worked this far, now what? We expected all the answers would be handed to us once we graduated, but there are none....Now we all have to go out into the world and find the answers...and all you can think is, it's so big and I'm so small...Nothing stays the same and it's hard to deal with all the changes...just gotta stop stressing about it, that's all."

"You're probably right......." Squall said, honestly awed at that profundity of that nature would come out of someone like Zell.

"Heh! It'll all make more sense once we get assigned to squads and get our first real jobs as SeeDs...Need help moving out?"

"No...I don't have that much stuff...do you need help?"

"Pffffttt...YAH! I got TOO MUCH CRAP!"

"Alright then, after I'm finished I'll come help you.... got any boxes?"

"Yup.." Zell disappeared, coming back in a few minutes later with a small pile of boxes, "here you go..."

"Thanks...."

"No prob bob....." Zell said, pulling another one of his faces and taking off for his own room.

Squall sat there for a few minutes after Zell had left, thinking about what he'd said. There was a lot of truth there.... His entire life all he wanted to do was become a SeeD, his one and only goal. Now that he was a SeeD, he no longer had a definite goal to reach. It felt good, knowing that he wasn't crazy or messed up.... just directionless. Once he was assigned and had his first job everything would get better. In the back of his mind there was still a nagging voice that told him that it's not as simple as that...you can't just say poof and make all your worries disappear. There was still something he was missing...he pushed down his feelings of unease.  Squall changed quickly and started to pack up his stuff. He had precious little in the way of personal belongings. It went back to his years in foster homes, he moved so much that it was impossible to keep much stuff around. His time at Balamb had been the longest he'd spent in one place.

Funny, he felt fleeting feelings of sentimentality about leaving this dorm room.  It'd been his only permanent home for going on seven years. After deciding to go to the Garden, he'd left the halfway house almost immediately. Arriving in Balamb, Cid had personally shown him to his room.... Squall remembered being really happy at the prospect of having his own room for once. His bright mood had faded when he realized that he'd have to share it with another student.... he had been hoping to have one all to himself. Gradually he changed his mind a bit, he didn't mind his first roommate.... he had been much older than Squall, around fifteen or so. His name was Leon... Squall thought he was so cool...his hair was bleached blonde and ratted up into spikes. They had a lot in common; he was a loner like Squall and disliked most of the people he came into contact with. Young and impressionable, Squall looked up to Leon, kinda seeing him as an older brother figure. Leon had taught him a lot about fighting, showed him how to defend himself....even how to project an I don't care type attitude.  They'd practice together for hours in the training room, going over various moves and techniques. Leon had used a gunblade...It was a rarely used weapon, being very difficult to master without years of training.

The gunblade was a truly unique weapon, it looked much like a gun with a large sword blade attached. Unlike a traditional gun, it didn't use ammo, substituting projectile ammunition for energy based non-elemental magic. It took a tremendous amount of control and almost infinite patience to use the thing properly. To add to all that, gunblades were very heavy, users had to bulk up their arms before being able to even lift the weapon.  Leon had begun to teach him how to use it, helping Squall strengthen his arms so that he could lift it without help. He taught him several meditation techniques that worked to help improve his concentration and his ability to control the immense magical power of the weapon. Squall trained underneath Leon for three years, until he graduated and left the Garden, and owed all his expertise with the gunblade to him. Shortly thereafter, Zell had moved in.....

He shook his head, daydreaming again.... Squall looked over his small room. It was mostly devoid of decoration and one could barely tell that anyone occupied it at all.  He had little need of posters or wall decoration when all he did in it was sleep and read. However, the small bookcase near his bed was full of books, large and small, on a variety of subjects. He'd read all the books in his room more than once, and the local bookshops knew him by name. Squall had an eclectic taste when it came to the books he read.  His favorite type was poetry, but he was also dipped into an occasional work of fiction or philosophy.  He had collected several tomes that dealt with various subjects in the fields of science, nature, and history. One was a fascinating medical textbook, it had profiles of various case files that dealt with rarely seen diseases. At first glance it was pretty gross but the text itself was fascinating, describing the diagnosis and treatment plan the doctors had decided on. His favorite case study dealt with a young girl that had gone into an inexplicable and sudden coma. They ended up taking her up to a treatment facility established only recently in the new space station now orbiting the earth. In the anti-gravity atmosphere of space she recovered as suddenly as she had gone in to the coma in the first place. The reporting doctor wrote on how mystified he was by the rapid and unnatural rate of recovery in the girl. To this day, exactly why she fell and then woke from her coma is a mystery.... still creeped him out just thinking about it.
            Directly opposite his bed and bookcase was his neatly arranged desk. Like the rest of the room, there was precious little decoration on his desk. There was a cup with a few pens and pencils in it, a neatly stacked set of folders and notebooks, and a small model of the space ship Ragnarock. He'd picked up the model a few years ago at a local hobby shop in Balamb City. It had been fun putting it together, an exercise in patience and fine motor skills, appealing to his meticulous nature. On the windowsill, near his desk, were a pair of broad leaf potted plants, a detail which most would think out of character for someone as cold and indifferent as Squall. However, there was a certain amount of joyous harmony that was brought about when he cared for the plants. Watching them grow, spreading their leaves, flowering, there were hardly words to express how that made him feel. To put it simply, since he had cut off the normal ties of friendship that knit the web of humanity together, he substituted the care and time he would've spent on friends and instead doted on his plants.

Opening one of the boxes Zell had given him, Squall began to pack up his few belongings and move on to his new room and life as a SeeD. All in all, it took him less than two hours to box everything up and stack it outside his room, ready for moving into his new place. Zell, on the other hand, was still struggling with the very large job of packing up his room. Squall strolled into the chaos that Zell had once called home, wondering how one could stuff so much crap into one small room.

"What can I do..." Squall asked, stopping short as he looked around at the mess with cautious apprehension.

Zell looked up, pointed and said, "Get a box and start throwing shit in over there....I tried the careful approach but it took too much time....."

Squall went where Zell had pointed and began to throw anything within reach into the box. Zell stopped and looked around, making a goofy face.

"Something's wrong....it's too quiet....Mind if I put some music on?"

"Nope...." Squall replied, putting a weird mobile made of bottle caps and tufts of cafeteria napkins in the box....he paused and stared at it for a moment...What the HELL was it? God, Zell was a strange guy sometimes.  With Zell's music blaring loudly, he continued.... boxing up little action figures, photographs of Zell with friends and family, a sculpture of a man made out of lint, triple-triad cards, candles, and other assorted bits of flotsam and jetsam that littered the small room. How did he even sleep in here? In the end, it took four hours to completely pack up and empty Zell's room. By the time they'd finished, the moving crews had come and proceeded to load their boxes on individual skiffs bound for their new rooms.

"Hey...it'll be a few till they get all our stuff to the rooms....Wanna go with me and return our dorm keys?" Zell asked cheerfully.

"Sure..."

They walked down the lively corridors of Balamb Garden. Squall walking quietly, his hands in his pockets, with Zell bopping and strutting around like a doofus next to him. It must have been quite a sight to watch the two of them strolling down the halls together. A sullen loner with his bee-bopping punk side kick...The thought struck Squall as being so humorous that he had a hard time keeping a straight face. They made it to the registrars office just before they began to close up for the day. Stepping up to the counter, a young cadet hopped up to assist them quickly. She was kinda cute, for a girl with bright pink hair anyway...

"Can I help you two?" she asked, chipperly.

"Yup, we've come to drop off our old room keys.... we just graduated.." said Zell, trying way too hard to sound smooth. Then he grinned like a total jackass, which made the cadet titter behind her hand.

"Okay...well, you both have to fill out these forms...." she said, desperately trying to keep her composure, "Once you're done come back and give them to me and we can finish up..."

The clerk gave them some pens to write with and they started to fill out the forms.  She went into the back to wait for them both to finish.

"So...you think she likes me?"

Squall looked at him and scrunched his face up, "I don't know...I guess...."

"I've been working on her for awhile....I'm hoping she'll go with me to the Garden festival...You goin'"

"Ahhh......No"

"Dude.... You gotta come......at least show me some of those phat dance moves....."

"I don't know if you're ready for them yet..." Squall replied in total seriousness and then a small smile spread across his face,  "You might screw 'em all up and ruin my rep as the mac daddy of the school..." 

Zell looked at him for a moment, confusion melting into understanding, he began to laugh, "Just when I figure you out, you turn the tables.... let's hurry up and finish...I should get to my new room and at least try to unpack."

Squall finished up first and turned in his paperwork to the young lady at the window. He waited around and after a few minutes Zell finally wrapped it up, turning it in all the while flirting with the young clerk. Getting bored, Squall stomped over to Zell and tapped him on his arm.

"It's time to go Smoove-b....."

"Yeah...." Zell answered, handing the girl a small slip of paper before leaving, "Here's my cell number.... give me a call..."

They walked the empting halls together, both of them silent. In the now mostly quiet hall a sudden tumult came from one of the classrooms near the registrars office. A door opened and then slammed shut. They could see Seifer stalking down the hallway... His face was twelve shades of red, looking as if he might tear off the head of the next person he met. The door opened again and Xu burst out of it, looking just as angry as Seifer. She followed him as he thundered past Squall and Zell, who just looked on in amazement.

"Seifer.... If you value your career here at all you'll turn around right now and get yourself back in that room..." Xu shouted as she picked up speed to catch up.

He spun around, his nostrils flaring and bellowed back, "I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE AS LONG AS I'M HERE! YOU JUST WANT TO RAIL ROAD ME AND SHOVE YOUR BULL SHIT DOWN MY THROAT! FUCK THAT.....YOU CAN TAKE MY CAREER AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS!"

Xu stopped dead, a look of surprise and indignant anger flushed her fine features. "I WILL not be spoken to like that....I AM YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER! Show just a LITTLE respect.....Now if you wish to continue on here I suggest you put your ego in your pocket and try to salvage what you have....as it is I see very little in the way of a future here or anywhere else for you...."

"Well..... Maybe it's because I have such shitty teachers!"

"Don't try and shove the blame on your teachers.... You're a lousy student, if you applied yourself and followed orders you wouldn't be here now. The only person who you should be blaming is yourself!"

Seifer looked at Squall, his eyes glassed over with tears of rage, "We could've been heroes..." Squall said nothing back, merely staring with disbelief at the scene laid before him.  Seifer whipped his head back in Xu's direction and growled, "Screw this shit....I'm leaving"  With that he charged down the hallway, punching the wall with his fist and screaming.

"Damn it all to hell..." Xu hissed, and without a word to Zell or Squall she ran back to the room she'd come from.

A few minutes later she returned with a pair of security guards, they sprinted down the hall with her in the direction Seifer had gone. Squall and Zell stood there in stunned silence for a few minutes, not quite knowing what to do. They looked at each other and began to laugh hysterically.

Holding his stomach, Zell gasped between gales of laughter, "God...I almost shat myself.... the look on Seifer's face....did you see the big pulsing vein on his forehead? I was terrified it might blow at any moment....."

"KABOOM!" Squall said, raising his hand to his forehead and mimicking an explosion. This got them both laughing harder.

They staggered down the hall laughing like a pair of drunk idiots. Eventually they reined themselves in and the laughter subsided into chuckles. They had made it to the Cherry Blossom Pavilion, their new homes as SeeDs.

"So...where's your new digs?" Zell asked casually.

" 303-D....Why? Gonna miss me?"

"Yeah...I don't know....I guess it's your sparkling personality. Seriously.... It's been real.... I'm in 322-D, right in the same neighborhood, I know you're not all about hanging out 'n stuff...but let's hook up every now and then, N'kay....LaTAH!"

"Yeh...See you..." Squall said with a quiet smile and waived as Zell took off running for his new room.

He walked the silent hallways of the Pavilion, the sun setting over the horizon slowly. Squall watched as the sky turned from a bright blazing set of reds and oranges, to gentle shades of purple and pink. The incident with Seifer had put things in perspective. Tomorrow he'd get his first assignment as a SeeD....what would Seifer have to look forward to tomorrow? Squall was lucky...he had a future, at the very least direction of some kind. He didn't have a clear goal yet, but at least where he was going it would lead to something. Seifer had nothing.....no job....no goal....no achievements....no direction.... no future..... In a way, Squall almost pitied him; however, the grim reality was, Seifer had made bad choices and now he had to deal with them.....he could either learn from them or blame others. It was obvious to Squall how Seifer was going to react. He wouldn't learn, he wouldn't grow, he'd just push his mistakes on others, blaming them for his own poor judgment. Fool....

Squall mused again on the young lady he'd danced with.....It pained him a bit to remember it....He admitted in part that he wanted very much to see her again, not really knowing why. Useless...he thought.....I'll never see her again, so I just might as well forget her. It was then he started the tedious process of erasing her from his heart. It'd take time, but in the long run, it was the right thing to do.

Squall paused briefly and entered his new room. It was much larger than his old room with Zell. His few boxes where piled in the middle of the room. There was a large living area, already semi-decorated, with a big, over stuffed sofa against one wall and set into the other wall there were two sets of bookshelves. The floor of his living area covered in hardwood paneling, a large and ornate rug carpeting the majority of the room.  Near the back left of the living room was a dinky kitchenette, separated from the rest of the living space by a small wall. To the right was the entrance to the master bedroom, which was also quite large. There was a full sized bed on the left, and sitting next to the bed was a nightstand. On the right there was  a large wood desk, complete with a hulking grayish computer and a small, innocuous manila folder on it. Near his new desk, was the door that led to the bathroom. Squall strode into the room, looking about and taking in the features of his new home. He went immediately to the desk and grabbed the manila folder, ripping it open. It contained a packet of files and papers. Squall began to read the first of the memos, on the top of the packet.

Attention New SeeD member!

This memo is to inform you that you have been chosen to represent Squad A as captain. This position comes with much responsibility. We have assessed that you have what it takes to be a leader. With this in mind, we have provided you with detailed information on your mission and the two SeeDs we have chosen to serve under you. Hopefully, everything we've given you will help in your mission ahead. Good Luck!

He sat there stunned for a moment or two...Squall could hardly believe what he'd read. He never thought for a moment they'd pick him for a squad leader. How'd this happen? He thought....I'm no leader!!  A part of him was thrilled but the overwhelming feeling he had was fear. Being the captain meant taking on the responsibility of successfully completing the mission, as well as having the lives of two other SeeDs in his hands. He was afraid of failing...afraid that if he made the wrong choice he'd not only fuck up the mission but be responsible for SeeD members getting hurt or worse.

 He leafed through the rest of the papers, not paying particular attention to what was written on them. Apparently, they'd be going to Timber, to help some resistance group there. Timber was another town near the Galbadian border. Being quite a small town, without the money or manpower of a larger city, like Dollet. Timber quickly fell to the invading Galbadian armies. In response, most of the citizenry of Timber were hardly welcoming to the occupying troops. Many locals formed various resistance groups, dedicated to liberating their city from the hands of the Galbadians. One of the papers listed the names and ideologies of the various factions that were active. The Timber Wolves, The Shining Hand, The Forest Owls, Averlanche.....Averlanche? I guess spelling isn't a requirement for joining these groups. 'Boy, are we in for it,' Squall thought dryly.  

Stopping on the last few pages, the ones that dealt with his two team members. It lacked their names but listed their specialties, most likely chosen to aid in the completion of their mission. It gave general statistics, weight, eye color, etc.. Both were expert in hand-to-hand combat and used close range weapons. He wondered if his teammates had received a similar package. Probably did, the Headmaster was keen on "surprising" his students. Cid had always said that he thought it was more fun to add a little mystery to life. Squall disagreed, he thought it was childish and pointless and it was one of the only things he disliked about Cid. No use in going over it again and again...one of the postscripts on the memo noted that he should meet with all the other new SeeDs tomorrow at nine o'clock. There he'd get his rank and finally meet his mysterious team members.  He hardly liked the idea of being captain of his squad, but it was too late to do anything about it. Besides, it could be much worse....he could be Seifer. He set the packet back down on his desk and went into the living room to unpack.