Chapter 2: Someone New
Disclaimer: Nothing but Alan, the rest is Squaresoft's idea.
A/N: Whenever I use "+", that means that there's a change in setting. Forgive me for not pointing that out earlier. bows head Thank you for the good reviews and thank you Arashi for being a patient beta. You are the muffin. I will try my best with this fanfic.
As expected, the halls of Balamb were crowded with all different kinds of people, both trainee and SeeD alike. In fact, there were so many, Alan completely lost himself trying to look for the Quad.
"Excuse me, do you know where the Quad is?" he asked what appeared to be an Instructor.
"Yeah, it's right over there." The Instructor pointed to a doorway in which a majority of the students were coming out of.
"Thank you." Alan bowed his head, getting an odd look of wonder and bewilderment in return.
With that he left, unaware of the beeping noise that came from the stranger's pocket. The Instructor reached inside and fished out a radio, still beeping frantically.
"Seifer here. What is it now?
"Have you seen him yet?"
"Yeah, I sent him your way." The tall man chuckled at the fact that no one believed him able to work the Disciplinary Committee.
"Good work. Zell will take care of him from now on."
"Right."
He put the radio back in his trench coat pocket and resumed trying to keep order amongst the crowds of students.
"My name is Alan Fellman and I'm here to register for my classes." He stood straight and tall, noticing the Headmaster was also at the table working with the rest of the Instructors. The blonde woman he was talking to, who had identified herself as Instructor Trepe, reached into a file cabinet behind the desk and ran her fingers across the labels. Alan could feel that he was being watched from somewhere and it unnerved him – he just wanted to hide from everyone.
"Oh, here it is." She pulled out the manilla folder that contained few documents detailing Alan's background information. Alan didn't get a chance to look at any of them since she quickly passed them to the Instructor sitting beside her.
"Instructor Dincht will be your advisor from here on out." She smiled and indicated the beaming man next to her. Upon closer inspection, Alan could make the tattoo on the left side of his face, but adverted his eyes when he realized that the Instructor had noticed his staring.
"I'm Instructor Dincht, but you call me Zell. Please, sit down."
Alan sat down in the plastic chair, rubbing his hands against his pant legs and tried to keep himself calm.
"Alan, right?"
He nodded. He had to fight to look directly into the Instructor's eyes, since they looked like they knew more about Alan than he himself did. He hated this feeling; nausea and anxiety churned in his stomach, producing a burning feeling that caused his throat to begin to close. Ewwww.
"Well, let's get started. I'm going to sign you up for the basics, things like history, english, and whatever else needs to be taken for your first year. Are there any electives that you want to take?"
"No, I was hoping that maybe I could just have a free period?"
The Instructor's look changed from inviting to inquiring.
"Why?"
"Because...I didn't look in the handbook for classes. I was told everything was going to be decided for me."
Alan blushed. But it was true. He hadn't looked at it; too busy moving from Winhill. Zell just leaned back in his chair and scratched his head - this was not going as Alan hoped it would.
"Well, I'm not sure that I could let you have that. Let me look into–"
"I think we should let him have it. Don't you, Instructor?"
The Headmaster had snuck up on Alan from behind, causing him to jump when he heard the ice-cold voice.
Zell looked up at the Headmaster, down at Alan, and simply said, "Sure."
He wrote down a couple of illegible things and put the papers back in the folder. The Headmaster then patted Alan on the shoulder and walked away. Alan studied him while Zell muttered a few curses under his breath.
"What was that?" Alan asked.
"Nothing. Now that we're done here, and since I'm your advisor, I advise that we go eat lunch." Zell was using a toothy grin that seemed to say "you-can't-resist-me-so-just-gimme-what-I-want."
"Ok, that's fine."
Zell clapped his hands and jumped out of his chair and leaped across the table. The athletic type, Alan thought.
"Come on, I want you to try something!" Zell had already left the Quad, the remnants of his voice barely reaching Alan's ears amongst the conversations of all the other students, leaving Alan to wonder just how fast Zell really was. He proceeded forward, making his way through the people, following a figure he believed to be Zell. Or at least his trademark hair.
"Hurry, I don't want you to miss it!" The voice was urgent.
As he hurried himself to keep up with the figure in front of him, he could smell something that would have been classified as food, but he wasn't sure whether it was or not. He figured that he find out soon enough, since they were getting closer to its source.
The tray was full; full of this; full of that; and full of the things in between. Alan eyed the oddities over, picking one or two objects between his index finger and thumb in order to get a closer look at it. Zell, on the other hand, had no problem eating. He made it seem like it was disappearing, and fast.
"What is this?" He held up a long piece of meat enveloped by bread.
Zell looked at him, using a smile that warmed Alan's heart and made him feel like everything was going to be fine. A nurturing smile.
"That is one of the greatest things about this place. It's called a hot dog."
Zell picked up one from his plate and held it at the opposing ends with both hands.
"Do like this."
Alan mimicked as closely as he could.
"Now open wide, and just bite down on it."
Alan held the piece he bit off in his mouth, using his tongue to taste it lightly. Zell, having already eaten his, raised an eyebrow at him.
"Chew."
Alan raised and lowered his jaw, letting the juice from inside the hot dog spew into his mouth. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad.
"It's good." He chewed with vigor and confidence that the food would not be the death of him.
"See, I told you. Now hurry up. There's something I want you to see."
Alan stuffed more things into his mouth in order to keep up with Zell. He was happy that he had the thought of calling him a friend. But his grandmother told him that people should earn respect, not have it given to them. So he'd just have to wait, and hope that Zell would continue to be there for him like he was now.
