Claire stood in front of the huge door of the classroom at the school's second floor. No one else is in the hallway right now as all the applicants are already inside their respective rooms. The test will start in five minutes. She just stood there, staring at the closed door. She can't help but contemplate everything that she's been through. And now there she is, inside the school, living a normal life and about to take a goddamn test. She felt all of this to be surreal. Like the gods has been very kind to her that for once in her life, she needn't to be tough, afraid, hurt or worried. The only thing she needs to worry about is to pass the exam. She remained there for about three minutes when a tall and attractive blonde woman in a SeeD uniform and spectacles with her hair neatly tied walk towards her.

"Excuse me? Are you going to take the exam?" The woman said in what she thought her naturally sexy and sophisticated voice. The pinkette nearly jumped and was pulled from her thoughts and instantly looked at the now standing behind her SeeD.

"I'm sorry did I scare you?" The lady asked. She didn't say or do anything but stare at the woman. She looked at the folders that the blonde is holding. Is she an instructor? I'm even having doubts if she's a human. She stared at the woman's evenly symmetrical face, her unblemished skin, perfectly shaped eyebrows and almond shaped eyes adorned with deep blue irises that is covered by the glasses, long, ideal shaped nose that suits the face as a whole, the long neck and the abundance of chest, curved waist and hips to the long slim legs then up to the face again. What a perfection. She said to herself. Maybe extreme beauty and appeal is their top requirement to have the license to teach here. I'm curious at this one's ability. Now I know why studying is a struggle for their students. She thought.

"Why don't you come in?" Claire didn't even realize until now that one of her eyebrows is now raised as she analyzed the woman. Even so, the instructor spoke with finesse in her voice and with a smile.

"I'm about to." She finally replied.

The instructor tapped her ID into the sensor and the door slid open. "Come." She invited. The ex soldier stepped inside and was quite surprised that the homeroom is fully crowded. Most of them are teenagers to their early twenties. Some are busy chatting and laughing. Some quietly sits and studies and some are just patiently looking around while waiting for the exam to start. There's just a single seat at the front of the instructor's desk, at the left side row just beside the middle isle which she is sure belongs to her contrary to what she previously asked: a seat on the farthest back part of the room. And she is clearly not happy with it. Laguna, you… she cursed the old man in herself.

"Take your seat." The instructor said to her and walked to the huge crescent shaped desk in front of the enormous monitor facing the class that is designated to the teachers. The woman walked like a true model that captured everyone's attention and earned her some giggles of admiration, gushes and whistles from the crowd. Claire on the other hand quickly walked to her desk without even looking around but still she can feel the eyes that are staring at her that for the first time in her life, made her feel uncomfortable and irritated. One wrong move from these people that will annoy me and they will all be dead. She promised to herself.

Once she was set, the woman spoke. "Good morning, class." And the crowd roared with the same greeting besides the pinkette who is just leaning on her seat, her arms crossed on her chest while staring at the speaker.

"First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Quistis Trepe. Rank 10 SeeD and Senior Instructor for Academics. And I will be your proctor for today." She smiled and the crowd applauded and cheered. "Thank you, class. Second, let me show you our gratitude for considering our school as your well of knowledge. In behalf of our commander and the whole garden administration, thank you very much for participating in this year's Balamb Garden Aptitude Test." The woman slightly bowed with a smile, the class applauded and she continued after silence, "Now. As much as we wanted to accommodate all of the applicants, everybody must know that we only have limited slots so I expect that everyone are well prepared and in their top condition for this day. Truth be told, we will only accept those who are truly deserving to be part of the military force to serve this city and our neighboring countries. We, the faculty team and the commander as well, will be observing up close on your performances in today's test. Showcase your skills, give it your best and rest assured that you will wake up in one of the dorms as a student tomorrow. We will very much appreciate every effort that everybody will make and we will be looking forward to seeing your faces in the hallways of this institution, clad in your uniforms in the next coming days. So to all of you, good luck and…" She thought of the funniest words to hype her ending speech. "…break a leg." She smiled and that earned her an applause and laughs of excitement from the class.

Although a bit dull at making jokes, she's good at motivating people. Not just a face I guess. Claire thought as the blonde tapped multiple times on her personal desk computer and all of the computers in the room automatically started.

"I have already opened your computers now so let us start the first part of the aptitude test which is the exam." She continued speaking as she gave instructions on how to access the questionnaires in the desk computers. Claire starts to tap the desk screen as she follows the instructions.

"On a serious note, let me go ahead and remind everyone of our rules for this exam. This actually not only applies to the aptitude test but we really have our strict policies when it comes to even giving quizzes. This is to make sure that our students are actually learning from everything we teach them. And I bet you already knew the top rule." She added and waited for the reply.

"NO COPYING!" Everybody said in unison.

"Correct. Copying of answers from your seat mates or even asking questions during the exam is extremely not allowed. EYES. ON. YOUR. SCREEN. ONLY. Once caught by your desk cam that you are looking anywhere else, your desk computer will automatically shut down and you will not be able to continue answering the test and participate with the future activities. Gather your things and leave the premises immediately. I will be closely monitoring everyone." The instructor explained seriously and the class agreed. "If you have any questions, you can just access the chat option and tap on my name on the list. There's a chat box and you can ask me through there. No one will remove their eyes on the desk until I say so. Once you're done, inform me through chat, I will remove the exam security and on my instruction you can go and just wait for the result outside after everyone is finished. Okay, questions before we start?"

One female teen at the back raised her hand, "Instructor? How many will be picked after we finished this exam?"

"Good question." Quistis adjusted her glasses while her left hand is rested on her waist. "That leads us to the contents of the exam. And I completely forgot, anyway." She smiled at them. "As you can see we have the Exam A with the fifty items for the True or False, identification and multiple choice. And there's the exam B, which contains ten questions or scenarios for the essay. All of those items are scored one point each. Most items answered correctly, the better." She explained.

Claire is just staring at the monitor getting bored by the moment when suddenly a message popped up on her screen. And it's from Hope.

Is the exam starting already?

She replied. "Not yet."

Who is your proctor?

"Instructor Trepe"

Oh my… She's a strict one, for real.

"Why are you chatting me? Is this even allowed?"

No…

"Wow. If she caughts me, I will be out of here and you better hide your ass while you can."

Haha. Don't worry she can't see this from her desk. I've worked some magic. I'm already accustomed to their technologies here so I can tweak something on it if I wanted to.

"Fine."

Let me give you a tip.

"I can handle it. Thank you."

No. You don't understand. This is just a piece of advice that can make you advance on the second and last part of the aptitude test.

"What do you mean?" She didn't received any reply from Hope after that.

"Okay class start answering." Quistis announced. She is now sitting on her desk and is glued on her screen, busy typing something.

Claire started answering, still confused at what Hope meant. The questions are a bit easy and getting more complicated as she advance. She is already halfway on her Test A when Hope finally replied.

Ignore the first set of the exam. The one with the fifty items? It doesn't matter what score you get from it. You need to focus on the ten essay questions. There is no right or wrong answer in essay, but your ticket to pass this exam really relies on those few questions. The fifty item test is just a dummy exam. That exam as a whole doesn't really rate the hours you spent to study or the books you've read on general trivia. It tests your critical thinking and points of view in each scenarios that is on the Test B so you need to be very careful. Most applicants fail because they are being lured at getting the perfect score in Test A so they will feel confident that they will pass and they don't have to bother themselves thinking that much on answering Test B. Choosing the easy way out and avoiding to think for everyone's welfare. That's not how the bosses wants their soldiers to think.

"I see. Thank you."

No problem. Good luck.

And she continued. She still gave Test A decent answers so that it wouldn't be so obvious that she knew the secret of the exam. And she focused more on Test B like what Hope said, obviously.

One hour later, she tapped Quistis' name and typed on the chat box.

"Instructor, I'm done."

Typing…

Have you already tapped Submit on the lowest part of the screen?

"Yes."

Let me see. Okay I'm seeing it here. Hold on. Let me remove the ESA.

Alright. You're good to go.

"Thank you." And with that she rose from her seat and exited the classroom.

Claire saw Hope waiting outside the moment she stepped out of the classroom. "How did you… Never mind." She said as she was about to ask how did he knew her assigned room and instantly thought that he can easily know where she is because he works here.

"So… How was it?" The gray haired man asked while smiling.

"It's tricky but I got it." She sighed.

"Do you want to grab something to eat? The result will come out later after two hours so…" He invited.

"I'm not yet hungry." She simply answered. "I've been meaning to ask you this. And you know I just can't show my true feelings earlier because we have company and I don't want to act weird in front of them but why? Why all this? You didn't bother contacting or seeing me like you don't even know me and now you're acting so friendly, giving me advice and crap?" She glared at the man standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry. I really wanted to but I don't have the courage to face you" He sighed. "Look. I-I wanted to explain everything to you but this is not a good place to talk about "this." He whispered the last word so no one can hear him. "If you want we can go somewhere else if you really want to discuss this."

"I don't have the time." She replied. "And besides, I was just growing worried before, thinking of what might've happened to you because I thought you were still…" She stopped and decided not to continue her sentence. "But as what I've already heard from everybody and what I'm seeing right now, you're doing great. So there's nothing else to discuss." She started walking past him towards the direction where the elevator is.

"Light…" Hope called.

"It's Claire." She stopped and looked sideways. "I don't use that name anymore. See. You're being left out." And with that, she walked away.