A/N: So, to recap, Squall's been enrolled in the prestigious Garden High, and he's now living with Zell and his family. After a tear-filled good-bye, Edea leaves Squall. And now, Chapter 2, R&R please

Chapter 2: First Day

Ma Dincht's voice rang out through the whole house. "ZELL!!! SQUALL!!! WAKE UP, IT'S TIME FOR SCHOOL!!!" Squall moaned. He got out of bed and wiped his eyes. He hadn't slept much; he had cried himself to sleep around one. He started changing clothes and looked at Zell's sleeping body.

"Uh, Zell, wake up," he said. Zell snorted. Squall frowned. This wasn't getting anywhere, and if they didn't hurry they would be late, and Squall didn't want that to happen. "Zell!" he threw a pillow at him and knocked him out of bed.

"Hey!" Zell got up quickly, and looked around. "Man, you got to let me get some sleep!"

"No time," Squall said as he put on a clean white shirt, "We're going to be late."

Zell smiled. "Oh yeah, today's the first day of school!"

Squall shook his head. Zell seemed to forget everything.

Zell looked across the wall at the clock. "Oh damn, we ARE gonna be late!" He put on his clothes hastily and ran down the stairs. Squall put on his black jacket with the fur collar. He grabbed his gunblade case and his backpack and went down the stairs after Zell. He saw Zell stuffing his mouth with some toast. Ma Dincht greeted him.

"Hi Squall, come have breakfast, but hurry because you two are going to be late if you don't hurry up." Squall grinned. Everything looked great. He spread some homemade jelly on his toast, and the tangy taste of the jelly went great with the crunchy toast. He crammed it down and ran after Zell, who was already out the door.

"See ya, Ma!" Zell yelled to his mother. Squall waved to her, and ran down the street after Zell.

Squall and Zell walked into the courtyard. Squall looked in wonder at the enormous school. Students were milling around the courtyard, and some were heading to their classes.

Zell looked at his watch. "We got here with two minutes to spare!" He smiled and elbowed Squall, "Not bad, huh?"

Squall shrugged and said, "I guess."

Zell took out a slip of paper. "Come on, we both have 262 for homeroom." He pointed to one of the buildings, the one closest to the offices. "We call that the old building; it's the first one that was built, and a lot of classes are held there. 262 should be on the second floor." As they walked up the stairs, Zell eyed Squall's gunblade case and asked, "Man, why did you bring that thing?"

Squall shrugged. "I got in here because of my skills with a gunblade, so I thought it would be a good idea."

Zell stopped Squall. "262, here it is."

They walked in, and a man said, "Hey guys, come on in and take a seat." They sat down together, and the man smiled. "I'm the teacher here, the name's Laguna Loire."

Squall looked at the man. He didn't look like a normal teacher. He had long black hair, and he wore a clean white shirt under a dark blue jacket. He wore long brown pants, and leaned against the board. He had a casual air about him. He looked around. "Looks like everyone's here, so I guess I'll call roll."

He grabbed a sheet of paper and started calling out names. Squall looked around at every kid when Laguna called their name, and saw that Irvine and Selphie were in his homeroom as well. He couldn't wait to talk to them again. When everyone had been present and accounted for, Mr. Loire grinned and threw the paper in the trash.

"Ok guys, welcome to Balamb High. All of you are freshmen, right? This is your basic Weapons Training class. As you can see, I'm not an ordinary teacher. I think that kids have to have fun to learn, not spend all their time studying and being bored out of their minds. Thus, I came up with my own way of teaching, one that's more relaxed and focuses on learning things hands-on rather than studying." He looked around. "Does anyone have any questions?" A black-haired girl raised her hand. Laguna nodded to her. "I won't remember any of your names the first day, so you'll have to humor me. Your name?"

The girl shifted uneasily in her seat. "R-Rinoa Heartilly, Mr. Loire."

Laguna smiled at her. "Call me Laguna. I figure if I get to call you by your first name, you should call me by mine. And don't worry, there's no need to be nervous."

She smiled shyly. Squall noticed that she seemed a lot prettier when she smiled. "I wanted to ask, is this the only class we're going to have, or...?"

"Oh, no, you guys have a few other classes," Laguna replied, "In fact, I have your schedules somewhere around here..." He fumbled through his desk. "Found em! Okay, you guys go to your second period in about 10 minutes, so I don't have that much time to teach you anything..."

He passed out the schedules. "Just try not to get in any trouble, and stay away from Principal NORG. You don't want to get sent to his office." Squall looked at his schedule. There were six classes printed on it, along with the names of the teachers and the room numbers.

Student: Squall Leonhart

Class/Teacher/Room #

Period 1: Weapons Training/Laguna Loire/262

Period 2: History/Adel Figera/239

Period 3: Study Hall/Micheal Caraway/330

Period 4: Sciences/Ward Zabac/263

Period 5: Lunch/Cafeteria

Period 6: Mathematics 2/Kiros Seagill/261

Zell peered over at Squall's schedule. "Hey, sweet, we have a lot of classes together. Hey, wait, Mathematics 2? I thought the freshmen started out with 1." He looked at his own schedule. "Come to think of it, I got 1."

He looked at Squall, puzzled. "Think it's a mistake?" Squall was about to answer when Laguna walked up between them.

He sat on Squall's desk and said, "Hey guys, I'm sorry to interrupt what I'm sure was a fascinating conversation, but I'm trying to talk, and I just hate when someone's talking over me." He looked over at the two of them. "So don't, alright?"

"Yes, Mr. Loire." they said in unison.

"That's Laguna to you guys," he said. He started walking around the classroom.

"Ok everyone," Laguna said, "We have 5 minutes before you go see your next class, so I want all of you to get to know each other a little better. Part of working in a team is knowing who you're working with, so I want you to get in groups of 5. You can push your desks together if you want."

Everyone started running around, and Squall and Zell were about to push their desks together when Laguna said, "Hey, you two! You guys seem to know each other pretty well already, so go find separate groups."

Zell scowled and walked off to find another group. Squall looked around; it seemed all the groups were set. He noticed the girl that had introduced herself as Rinoa hadn't found a group either.

"Hey, you two!" a voice said. Squall turned around and saw a group of three. "We need two more people, come on!" He nodded and sat down next to them. Rinoa did the same.

The speaker wore a grey trenchcoat that seemed way too big for him, and he had short blond hair. Squall did a double take.

"Seifer?"

Seifer's eyes widened in recognition. "Hey, it's Squall!" he said with a grin. They shook hands.

Rinoa looked surprised and asked shyly, "You two know each other?"

Seifer grinned. "Yeah, me and Squall here used to live at an orphanage a while back. Oh yeah," Seifer nodded to the girl sitting next to him. "This is Fujin," the girl nodded, "And Raijin." the boy on the opposite side of Seifer shook Squall's hand.

Squall looked at them. Fujin and Raijin were nothing alike; while Fujin had white hair and wore sunglasses, Rajin was a tall brown-skinned boy.

Squall looked over at Rinoa, and saw her clutching her binder nervously in her hand. Her schedule was hanging out of her binder, and Squall saw, in bold black ink, Rinoa's schedule. He realized that they had almost every class together, even Mathematics 2. However, she was taking a class called Advanced Sciences.

Whoever she is, she's obviously very intelligent, Squall thought to himself.

Seifer followed Squall's eyes, and, with a raised eyebrow, spoke to Rinoa.

"So, who are you?" he asked. Rinoa blushed and looked away.

"I'm Rinoa, I moved here from Deling City. My dad got a job teaching here, so here I am." Seifer grinned at her.

"Interesting," he said. The bell rang shrilly.