Better Life
By: Lilly Blitz
Chapter 2: First Day of School
Lloyd was staring up at the ceiling of the office. He was waiting for his timetable, than he would be going to his first class. He wasn't sure whether he should be happy or not.
The weekend had come and gone by too fast. Lloyd's mood had gradually gotten better. Now he wasn't too upset about moving anymore, but he still wished he was back home in the woods. He had spent the two days helping to move the furniture and visiting his dad's workplace. Lloyd was Dirk's apprentice and he would be helping during the weekend. He enjoyed crafting as much as his dad, and while he wasn't as good, he was getting better.
"Irving, Lloyd!"
Lloyd jerked out of his stupor and walked to the desk. The secretary looked at him coldly before thrusting his timetable at him. Lloyd resisted the urge to roll his eyes and walked out of the office.
Once outside, he wandered around aimlessly, looking at the timetable, he scanned this term's classes. He had World History, followed by Calculus. Lloyd liked history, but he despised Calculus. Still looking and getting bumped by people, he saw that after lunch, he had English, than ended it off with Chemistry. For Lloyd, English was a breeze, but Chemistry... He wasn't good at it, but Dirk insisted he take it.
Lloyd was concentrating so hard that he didn't notice a person right in front of him. Him and the other person collided, causing both of them to fall to the floor.
"Owww!" the other person whined. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Lloyd resisted the urge to snap back at him. For all he knew, it could be some big 200 pound football player. Looking, he saw that it wasn't a 200 pound player. The person barely looked like they were 100 pounds.
The person was a smaller boy who had been carrying a ton of books. His hair was long, a snowy white colour. His eyes were a pale blue colour, looking almost like a pair of robin's eggs. He was wearing all blue: a blue T-shirt and blue shorts. He was currently scowling at Lloyd.
Clobbering someone smaller than himself wasn't something that Lloyd did. He grinned sheepishly. "Heh. Sorry about that. I was busy looking at my timetable."
The boy's scowl reduced to a frown. "Well, I guess it's okay than. But you really should watch where you're going. Next time, it could be one of those big apes."
Lloyd chuckled as he got off the ground. "I'm Lloyd Irving, junior." He stretched out his hand.
The boy looked at Lloyd's hand, grinned and took it. "Genis Sage, freshmen."
Lloyd looked at his timetable quickly. His first class was in room 214, but he had no idea where that was.
"Hey, you don't know where room 214 is, do you?"
Genis raised an eye. "Are you new or something?"
"Actually, yeah."
Genis grinned a little. "Oh... Well, just so you know for the future, every room is three digits and all the rooms upstairs begin with two."
"Got it, thanks!"
Lloyd made to run off, but Genis called out to him. "I'll come with you! My Geography class is nearby."
The two were walking and talking rather animatedly. From the little bit of time they talked, he learned quite a bit about Genis. Apparently, Genis was a genius. Though he was only a freshmen, he was taking some subjects at the senior level. Because of that, though, he didn't have too many friends. Lloyd was annoyed at that.
"Just because you're smart? Well, people who can't accept that are stupid!"
"A lot of people are like that," Genis said sadly.
"Well, a lot are people are stupid than!"
Lloyd couldn't help but smile. He had found a friend already. So what if he was younger? That didn't matter.
Before he knew it, he was standing in front of room 214. Genis parted with a few words.
"It's lucky you came in only a few days into term. Any longer and you would've been in trouble."
"Thanks a lot," Lloyd said dryly. "Well, I hope to see you again."
"No problem. You'll probably see me at lunch anyway." Genis turned to leave, but stopped. "Oh! And about this teacher. She's really good and can you teach you some amazing stuff. Just don't goof off or piss her off and you'll be fine."
"Yeah? Whose the teacher?"
Genis grinned widely. "My sister." And with that, he ran off to his class.
Lloyd gaped after Genis. His sister was a teacher here? If she was anything like her brother, this could get interesting.
Walking into the class, Lloyd noticed that most of the seats were already taken by various students. A bunch of girls squealing made Lloyd's attention turn to the front of the class. A lot of girls were crowded around a single desk. The occupant of the desk was a guy with pinkish-red hair. Lloyd thought it looked almost funny. The guy had a smug look on his face and he seemed to be telling the girls a very interesting story; they were all staring up at him and his dark blue eyes.
Lloyd spied an empty seat beside a girl. She was staring at the red haired guy with disgust. He walked up to her.
"Hi. Is this seat taken?"
The girl looked surprised. "Huh? Oh, no. Go ahead."
Lloyd thanked her and took a seat. Lloyd pulled out all the stuff he needed for the class and glanced at the clock. Still a few more minutes until class started.
Lloyd decided to observe the girl in the desk beside him. She looked a bit tomboyish, with her violet top and black jeans. Her purple hair was done up in a ponytail, but a lot of it was still untamed. Her eyes looked a lot like Lloyd's, only there was more brown in hers.
Lloyd also noticed that the girl was looking at him too. "You're new here, right?" she asked.
"Right. I'm Lloyd."
The girl nodded. "Sheena."
"So whose that pompous moron?" he asked, pointing to the guy in the front.
Sheena smirked a bit. "You think so too? Nice to hear that. A lot of guys think he's cool, or some stupid thing."
"No way," Lloyd exclaimed. "I know a phoney when I see one."
Sheena chucked. "I think I like you already. That's Zelos Wilder. He thinks he's better than most of the school 'cause his family's rich. Makes me sick."
Lloyd glanced up just in time to see Zelos laughing loudly. His fan club followed shortly after. He could see that guy would be a pain. Best to avoid him if Lloyd could.
Lloyd and Sheena talked quietly before class started. Sheen didn't talk much about herself, but she seemed interested in Lloyd's dad's work.
"He makes decorative weapons? Does he make real ones too?"
"I don't know," Lloyd admitted. "He probably could, but that would cost a lot. The decorative weapons are expensive already."
"Damn," Sheena muttered. "I don't have that kind of money. I've always wanted to have my own weapon, you know?"
Lloyd was about to reply, but the door opened. The woman who stepped in could only be the teacher, Professor Sage. She looked a lot like her younger brother. Both had the same delicate facial features and the same white hair. They also had the same ice blue eyes. She was wearing a red blouse, matched with a red skirt. She was carrying a black briefcase
"Good morning class."
Various people offered their greetings to the professor. She pulled a few files from the briefcase and set them on her desk.
"We have a new student here, Lloyd Irving," she announced, gesturing to Lloyd. Most of the class glanced at Lloyd for a second before turning their attention back to Professor Sage.
"Now, I want all of you to open your textbooks to page 16 and read until 23. Do the questions at the end. After, if we have time, we will-"
The door opened and a young girl rushed in, but not before stumbling slightly. She looked up at the professor with large eyes. "I-I'm sorry Professor Sage. I wasn't able to-"
"It's alright Collette," Professor Sage said kindly. "Please take your seat. Now, as I was saying, afterwards, if we have time..."
Lloyd wasn't paying any attention to the professor; he was too busy looking at the girl, Collette, who had taken a seat near him. She was a blond, but her hair wasn't a plain yellow, it looked like gold and streamed down her back. Her wide blue eyes were looking around; she looked so innocent. She was wearing a white dress with black leggings, but there were a lot of blue and gold decorations on her dress. Lloyd thought she looked like one of those china dolls: pretty, but very fragile.
"Hey Sheena," Lloyd whispered. "Whose that girl?"
Sheena followed Lloyd's glance to Collette. Right now, Professor Sage was with Collette, telling her what instructions she had missed.
"Collette?" Sheena asked. "I don't know. No one really knows her. All I know about her is that she's late and is sick a lot. A lot of teachers don't like her, but Professor Sage is really nice to her. And speaking of the Professor, you better be quiet, she's got really good hearing."
Lloyd didn't speak after that and went about with his reading. While he did the questions, however, he couldn't help but glance at Collette. Collette was always smiling, as if she was perpetually happy. Lloyd also noticed that a few kids, mostly girls, would point at Collette and snickered under their breaths, until the professor walked by. Lloyd didn't like that, she had done nothing wrong; as far as he could tell anyway.
As it turned out, Professor Sage discussed the lesson with the class, asking them to answer various questions. Lloyd was just hoping he wasn't called on.
No such luck. "Mr. Irving? Can you tell me the reason why the War of 1625 happened?"
Lloyd breathed a soft sigh of relief; one he knew. "It was caused because Palmacosta assassinated Meltokio's prince. Meltokio retaliated and that began the war."
"Very good Mr. Irving," the Professor replied, a slight smile on her face. She turned to the front. "Mr. Wilder. Can you tell me when the peace treaty was signed that stopped the War of 1625?"
Zelos blinked stupidly. It was obvious he had no idea what the answer was. "Wouldn't it be in 1625?" He smiled charmingly at Professor Sage.
There were few snickers from the class, Lloyd and Sheena. Anyone else knew the answer. Professor Sage just sighed. "I'll see you after class, Mr. Wilder, to discuss extra homework." That wiped away Zelos' smile.
The bell rang and people started stuffing things into their bags. Over the commotion, Professor Sage called out. "The only thing for homework tonight are those questions. Have a good day."
"We got off lucky," Sheena told Lloyd. "She usually hands out a lot of homework. Whoa! That's a lot of books!" The last comment was made to Lloyd's almost bursting bag.
"Yeah, I got all my books from the office and I haven't had time to go to my locker yet. Heck, I don't even know where it is, so I'll have to go at lunch."
Sheena nodded. "What class do you have next? I have Physical Education."
Lloyd grimaced. "Calculus."
"Ooh, tough. Well, see ya later Lloyd." Sheena waved and made her way through the crowd going out the door.
Lloyd lifted his bag to his shoulder and stumbled backwards. He felt something against his back.
"Oh!"
Lloyd turned around to see who had bumped in to. It was Collette and all her books were on the floor. She was on the floor, trying to gather them. Lloyd bent down and helped her.
"Sorry about that," Lloyd said after Collette had all her books back. "This bag is really heavy and I couldn't stop from hitting you."
"Oh, it's okay,"" she said brightly. "I should have been watching were I was going, anyway."
"Uh, right..." Lloyd felt a little awkward. He had no idea what to say to her. She was looking at him like a scientist would at an interesting specimen.
"You're Collette, right?" Lloyd said lamely. He winced mentally; that sounded so stupid.
Collette just smiled more brightly. "Yep! That's me! But I don't know who you are..."
"I'm Lloyd. I just came here today."
"Ohh, you're new here? That's so cool!" She looked at the clock. "Uh oh, I have to get going, I've got Music and it's on the other side of the school. Bye Lloyd!" She ran off, her books clutched tightly in her hands.
Lloyd stared after her. She was a little strange, but he had to admit that she was cute. Clearing his mind, he looked at his timetable to see where Calculus. Room 133, and he hand no idea where that was. Groaning, Lloyd set off in search of his next class.
I hope the teacher decides to be nice to me because I'm the new student. There's no way I'll make it there in time. He sighed. This is one thing I'll hate about going to school; I'll always have to be on time.
Lloyd had indeed been late for his Calculus, but the teacher had taken pity on him and he didn't get detention. But just as Lloyd predicted, he didn't like Calculus, but made it through okay. Now he was trying to find his locker.
"Locker 1232... Here!"
Turning the combination, the lock snapped open and he shoved his History and Calculus textbooks into his locker. He had asked someone in his Calculus class where the cafeteria was; it was downstairs. Lloyd made a dash to the cafeteria; he was starving.
The cafeteria was a large room with pale white walls. There were a lot of people there, most eating, talking and laughing. Lloyd went to stand in line for the food. When it was his turn, he got some sort of meat and potatoes. He wasn't too sure what it was, but he was hungry enough not to care.
While trying to find a place to sit, he heard a familiar voice. "Lloyd! Over here!"
Lloyd saw Genis waving at him from a table farthest from the serving line. Lloyd gladly took a seat near him.
"Man! This place is packed!" Lloyd exclaimed, digging into his food.
Genis looked a little disturbed at Lloyd's eating habits, but shrugged it off. "So how was my sister, Raine?"
"Not bad," Lloyd replied. "She's really good at teaching, I felt like I learned something. Not like that guy Zelos."
"My sister talks about him a bit," Genis said thoughtfully. "She had him when he was a sophomore. She says he's actually really smart, but he doesn't try hard at all."
"Doesn't look too smart," Lloyd muttered quietly so that Genis didn't hear.
"So what do you think of this place? Think you'll like it?"
Lloyd looked around the cafeteria. He saw Zelos entertaining his usual number of fans, than to Sheena, who was talking to a few girls, all of them laughing slightly. Than he saw Collette; she was talking to a smaller girl, who looked like a freshman. Collette was talking rather energetically and the other girl just nodded. Lloyd smiled, he didn't know why, he just did.
"Yeah. I think I'll like this place."
A/N: So, how was that? Did you all like that? Please go a little easy on me as this is my first ToS fanfic.
impatient: How was that? Fast enough for you. Hope you like this chapter!
Kaimara: Glad you liked it. And I hope you like this too!
angel: Well, if you think about, Lloyd did have to move. Most younger people wouldn't be too happy about it. Don't worry, he's mellowed out a little bit.
Lord Cynic: See above for explanation of Lloyd's behavior. I'm a fan of Lloyd/Collette too, that's why I did this fic. And... interesting with "keeping an 'eye' on it." Hehe.
MoonCannon: This long enough. And no, it wasn't a selfish request. If I hadn't decided on Lloyd/Collete, I might have taken Lloyd/Sheena into consideration. But the plot of the story focuses on both Lloyd and Collette and what they go through. Sorry about that.
Thank you for the reviews and I hope to see some more. Ta for now!
