2 May 1990
A horn blasted from somewhere, forcing Cloud to jolt in shock and fear. He sat up and felt his heart racing in his chest. Someone yelled and fell out of bed, causing him to jump again. Rubbing his eyes, Cloud quickly got out of bed and grabbed his clothes to go change.
"What's the rush?" a boy snickered.
Cloud couldn't think of an answer. He simply ran into the bathroom, took a quick shower, changed into some of his best clothing, and then came out to stash his old clothes somewhere safe. He heard snickering being aimed at him, but he paid it no mind.
Was he late? It didn't feel like it was late in the day or morning, but was he wrong? Did everyone else not care, and did he oversleep with them?
Every second of his confusion scared him. It wasn't much of a stretch to say he was absolutely frightened. Cloud looked for his paper and checked the map before leaving the room. He swallowed and kept walking, looking down at the floor and the map until he found the place he was looking for. He finally moved his gaze upwards.
The lights were off inside. He jiggled the doorknob to test it. Locked. The blond looked around until he saw a clock.
He was early. Too early, in fact. Cloud sighed heavily in relief. He felt very light. He turned around to go back to the temporary barracks and heard crazy laughter.
"It's breakfast time," a recruit called. The others laughed more loudly at him. Mortified, Cloud huffed and trailed along behind them, staying away from the group to compose himself.
He was mostly forgotten about during breakfast, and he was all but ignored afterwards. When the other recruits finished their food, they scattered and went their own ways. Cloud ate slowly so his nerves couldn't sneak up on him and make him sick. While he was relieved that he wasn't late for the review course, he wasn't completely at ease yet. He didn't trust his stomach.
Despite all his worrying, he was still early when he walked back to the classroom. He took a deep breath and let it out. Midgar was too different. He hoped it wouldn't be the death of him.
After some time, someone came to the classroom and unlocked it. The older-looking man opened the door and gestured for Cloud to enter. The blond walked into a room full of desks arranged in rows. He picked one near the front and sat down.
It wasn't long after until other boys shuffled in and choose their own seats. Once everybody was settled, the instructor handed out thick packets to everybody. Cloud looked at the cover, then opened it up and found the table of contents.
General Science, Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Mathematics Knowledge, Electronics Information, Auto Information, Shop Information, Mechanical Comprehension, Assembling Objects, he read silently. Other than the science, reading, and math, he had absolutely no in-depth knowledge on the other subjects at all, if any. Cloud flipped to a random page in the Word Knowledge section and looked at the sample questions.
Antagonize most nearly means
A. embarrass.
B. struggle.
C. provoke.
D. worship.
Was this it? Was this really it? This was nothing. He already knew the answer and he barely glanced at the answer choices. The other questions were very similar, although there were a few words here and there he'd never seen before.
The instructor cleared his throat and Cloud closed the packet.
"Good morning. I am Professor Lehr," he said. "First things first: if you look under your desk, you will find two pencils and scratch paper for notes. You will be solely responsible for your own note-taking. Is there anybody who has never taken any of the entrance exams, including the practice tests?"
Several recruits raised their hands. Relieved that he wasn't the only one, Cloud raised his hand as well.
"My, you have more pressure on yourselves," Professor Lehr remarked. "Not to worry, the way I teach should be understandable to everybody, even first-time test-takers. I am here to help you, but I can only take you so far. You will have to take it upon yourselves to take notes and study to succeed. Are there any questions?"
Nobody said anything. Cloud reached down to grab the paper and pencils.
"Good. Then we shall begin."
The next several hours consisted of complete and utter confusion, along with a few moments of actual realization and understanding. Cloud's mind was everywhere and nowhere at the same time when he was dismissed for a short break and lunch. He flexed the fingers of his right hand and rotated it several times to regain feeling in the limb. He was sure it was going to cramp today. The amount of notes he wrote down was unreal. The subjects which were the most troublesome for him where the automobile- and electrical-related ones; his common sense wasn't enough for him to even guess some of the answers. Assembling, however, looked very easy to do as well.
Cloud ate quickly before walking to a water fountain. He drank greedily until he felt refreshed, then returned to the classroom to sit down and look over his notes.
The course was over for the day after a few more hours. Cloud put his pencil down and took his papers with him as he walked back to the barracks. He yawned and rubbed his eyes with the back of his free hand. When he got to his bed, he sat down and began to study. After a few seconds, however, it was obvious he wasn't actually retaining anything he learned.
The blond stashed his notes away and pulled out a tiny notebook. He opened it up and felt a pang of homesickness.
The photographs of his mother which he taped into the pages peeked out at him. He touched one, and he felt a sudden urge to go home.
But no, he couldn't. He flipped to another page and found some pictures he clipped out of a few newspapers. The black and white photos of Sephiroth reminded him yet again why he had left his hometown. His conflicted heart wanted to go home, yet it wanted to see Sephiroth again, too – immediately.
A lowly grunt like him wouldn't be able to see Sephiroth in a million years. Not unless he was promoted. But he couldn't wait that long. Cloud wanted to see him now.
He sighed and put the miniature scrapbook away. Patience. He needed it now more than ever, it seemed. He hadn't even finished step one of his plan to make it into the infantry.
Thinking of home again, Cloud took out a blank piece of paper and a pen before starting to write.
2/5/90
Dear Mom,
I made it through my first day! Midgar is huge and bright – nothing like Nibelheim. I have no idea how anybody could walk around here without getting lost. I didn't see much and I'm already overwhelmed. The Shinra building itself is probably bigger than all of Nibelheim is.
So far, the only thing I've done is review for the entrance exam (it's really easy, by the way; a lot of the content in half the practice questions I've seen are things I've learned from you), so I haven't had any spare time for sightseeing. I miss you, and I miss home already. It's pathetic, isn't it? I haven't even made it past day one without wanting to come back.
Well, tomorrow I will go to another review session, and then I will study and take the test the day after. I will let you know how I do once I get my results, or whenever I have time to write again. Hopefully, the next time you get a letter from me, you'll get one from an infantryman.
Love you and miss you,
Cloud
The blond put his pen down and was about to fold the letter up until he thought of something else. Hesitantly, he added another line.
PS: Any news on the others? Have they said anything about me?
The others. Cloud snorted. Calling Jenova's family "the others" was too kind. But, he remembered, they're Sephiroth's family, too. He yawned and folded up the letter before carefully stuffing it into an envelope. He sealed the envelope and wrote his mother's address on the front. He began to write his name on the front of the envelope, then stopped.
He didn't know the address to this place. He stood up and walked out to ask somebody in a military uniform before coming back to write the information down on a both a different piece of paper and on the envelope. Then he left again to mail the letter before returning to bed.
Stretching, Cloud laid down and slipped under the covers. His brain still felt like mush. Closing his eyes, the blond thought of several automobile and electrical parts and their functions before finally drifting off to sleep.
Notes:
Started: 2015年11月5日（木）
Finished: 2015年11月14日（土）
Uploaded: 2015年11月19日（木）
In response to Noble Winter: Aw, that's one of the sweetest things that has ever been said to me. I can't say I've ever had a love letter written to me before. :') Thank you so much. And don't worry. This fic is like my baby. I'd never let it die.
The entrance exam is based off of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, which is a timed test everybody who is trying to get into the military must take and pass to get recruited here in the U.S. The sample question is one I copied and pasted from the official website (official-asvab. com).
Welp, I was profile hopping on FFNet the other week out of boredom, and I realized something. The site has been removing links from people's profile pages and only allowing "safe" links, like links on-site or links to Facebook. If you used HTML, the link will lead back to your own profile; if you just pasted a link, it'll be completely gone. On my own profile, I've had links to deviantART, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and even AO3 removed. Jealous, much, FFNet? I swear this site is trying to commit suicide nowadays.
Speaking of links, I made a side blog on Tumblr specifically for fics. I'll post any important news on there (so I won't be apologizing profusely almost every time I update, haaaaa) along with some teasers to any upcoming stuff. Hell, maybe I'll even entire fics on there. Link is jenova-cells. tumblr. com
By the way... A super, super, super long time ago, I had posted an author's note about danadess's fics on Helter Skelter before I was forced to take the entire story down. I would like to give out a very big thank you to those who were kind and generous enough to give me a copy of Promises and Rebirth and Reunion. If I already said thanks, then oops, but if I hadn't, then I'm genuinely sorry. Those fics meant a lot to me then, and they still do now. It always makes me happy to be able to reread them. So again, thank you so much. ;~;
I really wonder why danadess did choose to disappear, though...