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Kelsey hadn't slept in her own room since she had arrived at Garden, which had only been two short days earlier. Sunday woke her at nine o'clock but like the other mornings she found herself alone is Squall's room. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She wanted to go back to sleep but something was nagging at her to go get dressed and ready for the day. She followed her instincts and got up and went to get ready in her own room, which proved to be a good decision because the newbs had training the morning and Kelsey had missed previous instructions on where to be.

Squall hadn't gone anywhere special, like he had the previous morning, but he knew the way the Garden worked and if anyone wanted a good productive day they had to get up before six thirty. That was when the main Garden began to open. The cafeteria started to cook; the parking lot garage opened and the library threw its doors open. The training center didn't open until nine and the infirmary was usually always open.

Squall only knew this all from repetitiously attending the Garden for years. He wanted to get some work done. Cid had made all the commanders fill out a lot of paperwork and he needed to finish. Quistis was also made a commander and he figured she'd be up as usual but she seemed nowhere to be found, not that he was really looking.

Squall was secretly happy to hear that Seifer was going back to the war immediately but very disappointed when he heard Seifer had made commander of his troupe, after all. He almost didn't want the war to stop because if it did him and Seifer would see each other much more and both could speak of their hatred for the other.

Squall wasn't going to the war right away. In fact, his troupe was staying to fight for Balamb should anything go wrong. They sent teams that morning but his team would be called in as needed. There was doubt in his mind that they would not be needed. Jiksid was a strong Garden.

He was in Cid's office around six fifteen and before that, talking to Cid about the war and things and Cid would listen like a father and Squall would argue like his son.

By six twenty-nine, Squall was ready for the computers to start turning on and for life to erupt in Balamb Garden. When the clock hit six-thirty he grabbed a pen and a pad of paper and descended to the ground floor by the elevator.

He had been the operations manager of the Garden for over six years now. He was much more a piece of his Garden now but he had gotten the job when he was still young at the Garden and had perfected it. Maybe this was the reason everyone in the Garden knew him. He had been offered the choice, of course, to drop the childish job for that's all it would every really be, but for some reason he had refused. He had many other much more complicated jobs; he was one of the top SeeDs and top SeeDs rarely delivered supplies or helped in different departments other then their own.

It also wasn't the same as it had originally started out. He no longer had to stock the supply cabinets or clean messes, as a rookie student would do. All he had to do was oversee the operations.

Secretly in his mind, he felt that it was an essential part of is childhood he had been scared to let go of. All the people he delivered to had known him since his youth and he felt that they were his family and every morning they waited for him. It was how he started off every weekday. Of course, he only did the checking in before a younger student nicknamed Jones took over. When he was on missions or having meetings Jones took his job over completely and did all the things his job had originally included. But when he was still around, he did it as frequently as he could.

He took a left and walked straight into the library and stopped at the counter.

"Six thirty-three. You're late." Said the kindly old woman looking at her watch. She was shorter than Squall but her eyes were worn and dull as if they'd seen too much.

"Gladys, Gladys, Gladys, if I was early every morning then I'd throw your whole day off."

They talked for a while before he moved on to the training center staff, the parking lot staff, the cafeteria staff, the Quad staff, the infirmary staff and then the Garden staff, at different checkpoints around the Garden. He wrote down all their needs and wants on a little notepad and then dropped it into Jones's mailbox. He sipped the decaf coffee he had gotten on his trip to the cafeteria and rode the elevator back up to Cid's office.

He walked past the secretary and into Cid's office, smiling. And so it was as it had been ritualistically done for the past years of Squall's attendance at his Garden and he would have it no other way.

Monday at eight, the Garden was a different story. The Garden still started at six-thirty, but instead of the nice, calm Garden that it was the previous few hours, it was much busier. The elevators never stopped and people were rushing up and down stairs and hallways with stacks of papers and coffee cups. People were talking about meetings and memos and Cid's secretary was hard at work, juggling five of Cid's callers on hold while doing massive amounts of paperwork.

Kelsey stopped by his room after getting ready and told him that she was having her first class that morning.

"Who's the instructor?"

"Instructor Trepe. Who's that?"

"Oh, you'll be fine." Squall told her with a faint trace of desire in his voice.

"What if I do bad?"

"You can't. Not in her class." He reassured her.

"She's nice then?"

"Well, she's a helpful teacher. If you're doing something improperly, she will help you. That's what an instructor does, instruct." Squall explained. She frowned. She looked whiter and more timid than he had seen her yet. He patted her on the back.

"You'll do fine."

"Will you walk me to her class?" She asked and seeing the doubtful look in his eyes she added, "Please?"

"I've got a lot of work to do but I'll walk you to the elevator how's that?"

"Lame." She told him, running out the door.

"Have a good day!" He called after her, a note of laughter in his voice. She waved without looking back. It felt wonderful to have his sister with him. He had never had that feeling before of watching over anyone. Now he felt like he had grown a strange new heart overnight, a heart that suddenly worried about his thirteen year old sister.

He sighed as he pulled on his jacket and headed after her, unwilling to go to his office for a hard day at work. Unhappily, he sulkily trudged to the elevators himself.

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Kelsey dragged herself into the classroom where most of the class was already assembled. She sat down at the corner table with her roommates, Erica and Courtney, leaned against her chair, arms folded, and listened to them talk to some unfamiliar girls. Then she came in. A woman came in. She had reddish-blonde hair and a deep purple SeeD uniform on.

Kelsey sat up. She had seen this woman before but she couldn't place her face. She unfolded her arms and stared at her. Blinking, Kelsey racked her brains for somewhere this woman might have possibly been that she had, somehow this woman's visage was stuck in her brain.

She had known of her brother only because they'd been close as young children but since she was six, only seen pictures of him from that time on. She hadn't kept in any touch with him nor her mother and it didn't seem possible the woman could have had any contact with her at all from that period of her life since she had lived near Trabia Garden most of her young life.

Her father had insisted, however, that she go to Balamb Garden even she had argued till she had been blue in the face that she didn't want to. Most of her friends from grammar school were attending Trabia and she had wanted to as well. She'd had no idea Squall attended Balamb Garden. She's always assumed he was a Trabia.

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Okay get a grip on yourself. You've got to scare these newbies into submission, Quistis's mind told her. She looked up at all the staring faces.

"Good morning." She said to the class, in a sweet voice. A few people muttered a distinguishable "good morning" back.

"My name is Instructor Trepe and that is how you will address me. I'll be teaching you and I'll probably have a number of you in the years to come. In the future, you may even be working with me. But I need to get a few things straight with you all first." She told the class kindly; who were mostly paying attention.

"If you think this is a game," she said, losing her smile. "or something fun to do and that you'll coast through and get your SeeD rank by getting mediocre grades and by not doing your best...THEN GET OUT!" She bellowed loudly, pointing to the door. A couple of the students were jolted by the sudden increase of volume and jumped.

"I am a fair teacher." She said, returning to her sugary volume. "If you do hard work and have a good attitude while getting good grades, you should go far. I notice your effort and there will be NO slacking off in here." She could've patted herself on the back. Most of the newbies looked scared out of their wits that she might have another outburst again. It had taken all her strength to yell at them because she really was a kind teacher but she had taught for too many years to know that if you came off all nice and calm then students will walk all over you. Quistis Trepe wanted all her students to know that she was a force to be reckoned with.

"Now, I will be calling each of you into my office," she pointed to an adjoined room, "to discuss your SeeD training and career pathss, after I call roll. Take note of where you are sitting and sit in the same seats all week. I will call you by row, from right to left. This will take a few days."

Kelsey sighed. She was in the back left corner, meaning she would be the very last to be called.

Quistis called roll. When Quistis called out "Griffith, Kelsey," Kelsey didn't even look up, but simply raised her hand. When the attendance was finished, she told them to talk quietly while she met with each student.

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