The group of new students entered the Garden and proceeded to the bottom of the staircase. At the top of the staircase he elevator slowly pinged to a stop, Squall and his friends exited and stood at the top of the staircase. This was the first set of students that Balamb Garden had received since defeating Ultimecia. They had prepared to fly around the planet picking up students from each continent before returning to Balamb where the Garden would remain for a term.
Squall had been nervous but he had then decided that if anything was going to go wrong then there was nothing he could do to change that fact and so had got into his clothes and gone down to meet his friends.
Squall and his friends now stood overlooking the students of many different ages.
"Alright" said Squall "Firstly; welcome to Balamb Garden, this will be your home for a few years to come for some of you it will be less time and for those of you who, under Quistis' guidance, are learning to become teachers will be with us a lot longer, secondly; on your computers there are rules, be sure you read them and follow them to the letter, thirdly; I would like to introduce you to some of your teachers, many of them you will recognise and some of them you won't but they will become familiar to you later on in time" Squall's friends all either waved or just nodded.
"Now you will all be split up" said Squall descending the stairs "Firstly split between girls and boys" the group did so wilfully
"Now split into age groups; six to ten on the left, ten to thirteen centre, thirteen to eighteen right and eighteen plus far right" said Squall. The people did so quickly and quietly.
"Alright then" said Squall "I should stop saying Alright" he told himself making some of the pupils laugh "Ages six to ten girls go with Selphie; she's the girl in the yellow dress" the young girls followed Selphie who was taking them to the quad.
"Six to ten guys; I want you to go with Zell" said Squall. Zell descended the stairs
"Alright?" he asked them "Come on we're going to the canteen" Zell went with the young boys who instantly began asking questions.
"Ten to thirteen girls" said Squall "Can you go with Xu" Xu indicated for them to come up the stairs and they all left in the elevator.
"Ten to thirteen year old boys" said Squall "You'll be introduced by Irvine" Irvine and the boys went towards the training area.
"Thirteen to eighteen girls" said Squall "I would like you to go with Rinoa" Rinoa walked down the stairs past Squall and went with the girls who began to giggle as they looked back at Squall and giggling.
"Thirteen to eighteen year old guys; you're with me today" said Squall. Some of the guys nodded others murmured in agreement.
"Eighteen plusses you are all with Quistis" said Squall finally. Quistis took her small group of students of both genders into the elevator and took them up to her classroom.
"Right then" said Squall rubbing his palms together "We're going up to control room where you'll get to see Xu driving for a bit, I still have a few finalities to…well finalise" Squall led them up to elevator which returned and then they all went up to the third floor. When they got there the young girls were already there admiring the view from the windows. Squall, by himself, took the secondary elevator to the control deck.
"You handled it well" said Xu who had just prepared the Garden for takeoff "Most people would have frozen"
"After what I have seen freezing is not a place you want to be" said Squall
"You never have explained what happened with Ultimecia" said Xu
"One of these days Xu" said Squall as he reached for the PA. Once he pressed the button a jingle spread across the PA in the Garden.
"Prepare for take-off" said Squall "Next stop is Balamb"
Slowly the Garden rose and began its journey to Balamb.