Chapter Sixteen:
I'm letting everyone know now that updates may go up in frequency, but that's only because I already have 30+ chapters written. After that, they may slow down to about 1 every week or two.
A/N: Gullwing Yunie: you felt Tessa's pain? Wow. Nothing else to say really.
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"What the hell happened to you?" Phelan asked when he saw Tessa. Everyone else turned and looked at her as she approached.
"I took a wrong turn and fell down a flight of stairs," Tessa said, and she winced with each step. "Sorry it took me so long, but I'm good to go."
"Are you sure?" Xu said. "Maybe you should go back."
"No!" Tessa yelled. "I mean: I'm fine. It looks worse than it is. I checked myself, and nothing is broken. Believe me."
"Alright then, let's go," Xu said, keeping an eye on Tessa. "I have your tickets here. Since this is an exam, the cost is the Garden's, but if you become SeeDs you have to pay for own fare and supplies."
"Thanks," Phelan said as he took his ticket. "Should we get on?"
"Yeah!" Zell yelled as he grabbed his ticket from Xu. "Let's go kick some Galbadian ass!"
"We're reconnaissance," Tessa told him irritably as she took her ticket from Xu. Phelan shoved her bag into her sore arms, and she groaned painfully. "We're not supposed to engage in physical confrontation unless absolutely necessary."
"How boring," Zell said as Xu finished passing out the tickets. He began bouncing on the balls of his feet and punching imaginary figures.
"Come on, Tough Guy," Rinoa said as she grabbed Zell by the ear and began dragging him to the train. "We're going to be late."
"Whoa!" Zell yelled. "Let go!"
"Fine," Rinoa said as she released the SeeD. "But are you going to behave, Chicken-wuss?"
"What did you say?" Zell yelled as loudly as possible. Tessa slapped her forehead out of frustration, but regretted it when pain shot through her face. "What did you call me?"
"You heard me," Rinoa said. She put her hands on her hips and leaned into his face. "Now, are you going to behave?"
Zell dropped his head and kicked the ground. "Fine, whatever you say."
"Wow, he's whipped," Phelan whispered to Adette.
"What, should I be horrified?" Tessa whispered back. " Is it such a terrible thing to be a strong-willed woman?"
"I never…" Phelan started to say, but Tessa cut him off.
"Let's not ruin things. We're going to be stuck together for a week."
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"This is the private SeeD cabin?" Tessa said in wide-eyed admiration. The train cabin housed a large sofa and a set of bunk beds. In addition, there was a mini-bar and radio. "This is so much better than the cabin I rode in when I first came to Balamb!"
"Actually," Xu said as she put a hand on Tessa's sore shoulder, "this is the student cabin. The SeeD cabin is next to it. Of course, the student cabin isn't used often, seeing as how it's for the sole use of students taking exams."
"Student cabin?" Tessa said. "I've never heard of a student cabin before."
"It's a special cabin, exclusively for this train," Zell explained. "You guys are the first ones to use it, since it was just installed after the Sorceress War ended. The main method of transportation for exams is still vessels, though."
"We will leave you now," Xu said as she saluted the students. Tessa looked around and saw that the others were already saluting. She hastily saluted and lowered her hand after Xu lowered her own.
"So, what is your deal?" Adette asked Tessa after the other three left the cabin, leaving the students alone.
"What do you mean?" Tessa asked.
"You are completely unprofessional, you have authority problems, and you don't confide in people," Adette clarified. "Not to mention the fact that you seem to hate men."
"Hate men?" Tessa said out of surprise. "What would make you think I hate men?"
Adette sat on the sofa and watched as Phelan threw his bag into the top bed. "It's just that you haven't said anything kind to either Phelan or Mr. Zell today."
"Why should I?" Tessa said. "Phelan is an idiot, and Zell seems to be an idiot as well."
"Even if you do feel that way," Adette said with a look of pity at Tessa, "you do give off a hostile vibe. How many friends do you have?"
"The quantity of friends doesn't matter," Tessa said angrily, "it's the quality."
"Oh, that few," Adette said. "How sad."
"Fuck off," Tessa said as she gave Adette the finger. She turned around and stormed out of the cabin, her pack bouncing against her shoulders.
"Whoa, slow down," someone said as Tessa passed by. She narrowed her eyes and was about to go off when she realized who it was.
"Sorry, Miss Heartilly," she said, Adette's words burning in her ears.
"Miss Heartilly?" Rinoa said. "You gave me the impression that you weren't a robot. Look at Xu, we're friends and she calls me Miss Heartilly."
"Then you want me to call you Rinoa?" Tessa asked. "But you're hero!"
"And so are you," Rinoa said. "I was talking to Zell, and he said he remembered you. Did you really save Selphie from some lunatic?"
Tessa thought hard and got a momentary flash of red eyes in her mind's eye, and then she shivered out of unrealized fear. "I wouldn't really say I saved her."
"Still," Rinoa said, "you have a lot of potential from what I've seen. You look like you've been through hell, and you're still walking. Xu told me that you were attacked by a T-Rexaur and lived. Not many people can make such a claim, especially medics. They're not supposed to be strong people outside of medicine."
Tessa back away from Rinoa and into a wall, "How did you know I'm a medic?"
"When Xu asked you if you should go back to the Garden, you said that you checked yourself. Only a medic would say something like that."
"You know medics?" Tessa asked curiously. "That's amazing."
"Well, I have been living at Balamb Garden for a year," Rinoa said with a smile. "You want to go to the observation car and talk?"
"Sure!" Tessa answered enthusiastically. Then she mentally kicked herself. "I mean, why not?"
"Come on," Rinoa said with a laugh. She walked down the hall and disappeared through a sliding door. Tessa shouldered her pack and followed.
The observation car consisted of large glass windows through which the train's passengers could view the passing scenery. Tessa wondered why one had even been put on the train since it spent 80 of its traveling time in an underwater tunnel. The car was lit only by a small set of dim lights installed in the ceiling, which didn't illuminate all of it anyway. Tessa looked at the windows but only saw passing darkness. "Where are you?"
"Over here by the window," Rinoa said. Tessa tried following her voice with little success. "No, on your left."
She finally found Rinoa and sat next to the fuzzy figure that flickered in the brown light. "Want did you want to talk about?"
Tessa heard Rinoa sigh before speaking. "I think I know what happened to you, and you didn't fall down a bunch of stairs. The only stairs in the whole station lead up to the train."
"Okay, what do you think happened?" Tessa asked, thoughts of the blonde woman in her mind.
"I think you got into a meaningless fight to vent some frustration, and you got your ass kicked. It's not hard to figure out, really."
"Wow," Tessa said sarcastically. "You have so got me figured out. Are you going to tell me I'm a redhead next?"
"What is your problem?" Rinoa said in mild outrage. "I haven't talked to someone like you since…"
"Since whom?" Tessa asked. "That idiot Zell?"
"Hey!" Rinoa said. "He's my friend! Moreover, no, I wasn't thinking of him. My god, why are you always so angry?"
"Could it have something to do with the fact that I'm constantly being harassed by a culture saying that every I do is wrong?" Tessa asked. "Might it be because I'm attending a Garden where all of the women are thin and beautiful and never get dirty or have bad hair days? Do you know what kind of message that sends?"
"Wow," Rinoa said. "I never thought of it like that."
"No one ever does," Tessa said angrily. "I mean, I was the first person to challenge the skirt-and-uniform issue. I literally fought for the right to pants!"
"That was you?" Rinoa said. Tessa saw a movement under the light but couldn't really distinguish it. "Quistis told me that it a SeeD that told her she could stop wearing a skirt."
"Yeah, I never get credit for my work," Tessa said. She stood up and stumbled out of the observation car, tripping in the dim lighting. She had just opened the door when she heard a woman scream.