Lloyd: Okay, I have no idea where our beta went - she still hasn't answered us for our last chapter, so we'll keep going without a beta until she responds. If necessary, we can always go back and change a chapter. Now, that aside, it's our next chapter who-knows-what-number. I'm not keeping track - FanFiction does that for me. This is our longest one yet, even though a whole lot of it is just random goofing off. Woot!

Also, thanks to all of our reviewers (which I've been neglecting to do at the moment). And thanks, netbattle_zero for pointing out a few things. Weeks should have been days, since we thought that we had put two weeks instead of just a little over a week - small typo. And as for your other point, that'll be coming in soon.

Genis: With two people writing/checking every chapter, we should be able to manage without a beta...(This chapter 3 by the way). Thanks a bunch for reviewing, everyone who did. Merci beaucoup! Muchas gracias!

On a side note, I started a game on Mania mode without noticing. Whoops. Currently level 18 and just reached Palmacosta, where the grasshoppers like to eat my soul. And this is an experiment in playing as Colette. Let's see how far I can make it! ^.^

Katherine burst through the cafeteria door, dragging Colette behind her. "Carl! We need a Palma Potion!" Carl only looked out from his position in the kitchen, realizing that it was Katherine. He had gotten somewhat used to her unusual boughts of random-ness, but the customers had not. They gave the loud girl the oddest of looks, which only intensified when she was followed by two others. Carl walked up to the small group, wiping his hands off on a towel. "Well, what do you need a Palma Potion for? Those things aren't cheap you know."

Katherine pushed gently pushed Colette forward. "She's the one that needs it. Can you help her?" Colette seemed a little nervous as she smiled and gave a small wave.

"So you need a Palma Potion? Why not just buy it at Marble's?" Carl asked, looking at her curiously. While they talked about needing the potion, Caitlin was zoned out again, fingering the hilt of one of her swords, since she already knew the reason and had no need to listen in.

"Ah, yes. We would have bought it there, but we ran out of Gald," Colette answered, and Lloyd nodded behind her. "But if you aren't able to help, then that's okay, too!" she added. Carl shook his head.

"No, it's fine, I can help. We do happen to have a few in the back right now, just in case anyone would like one, since they are rather expensive. But I'm afraid we can't just give it out for free, miss," he said, sounding a little regretful.

Lloyd frowned at him when he mentioned that. "Then how much are you selling them for? Less than they were in Marble's, right?" he checked, and Carl nodded even before the question was completed.

"Don't worry, we aren't selling them for nearly as much as that. Is 200 Gald more affordable for you?" he asked, and Lloyd nodded. The group had enough Gald for that, if just barely. "Good. Then, Caitlin, you know where they are kept, don't you?" he said, and Caitlin started out of her zoning, jumping a little when her name was mentioned.

"Uh...yeah. I know where they are," she said, and moved around the others to disappear into the kitchen and fetch one.

"So...how did you guys run out of Gald?" Katherine asked, trying to break the ice while Caitlin fetched the Palma Potion. Genis answered, having just come through the door. "Lloyd found the weapon shop. I don't know how he did it, but he convinced Kratos to pay for new swords."

Katherine raised her eyebrows as she looked at Lloyd. "Wow, you must have been really convincing if he spent all of your Gald on you."

"It wasn't all on me," Lloyd said defensively. "A lot of it went into supplies and stuff too. Anyway, we have just over 200 left right now, so not all of it was spent." There was a small crash from the kitchen, accompanied by Caitlin's startled yelp and then a muttered, "Dammit!" She appeared a moment later, holding a bottle with the potion and inspecting one of her sword sheaths as she walked.

"Stupid sword," she grumbled, looking back up at where she was going. "Has to go and hit everything." Lloyd was trying to smother his laughter again and Colette smiled. "Shut up, or I'll risk throwing this at you," Caitlin threatened, holding up the Palma Potion. Lloyd backed up a couple steps but was still snickering quietly.

Katherine sighed. "You still haven't gotten used to those? It's already been a week or so."

Genis laughed. "It took Lloyd a few months to get used to his swords. For a while, he was almost as clumsy as Colette! There was one time when-" Genis stopped talking when he saw Lloyd's face. "Or...never mind."

"What happened?" Caitlin asked instantly, putting the Palma Potion down by her side, though it was quickly taken by Carl before she actually did throw it. She ignored the fact that she wasn't trusted with something fragile, looking between Colette, Lloyd, and Genis curiously.

"Nothing," Lloyd answered, shaking his head, and Caitlin rolled her eyes but didn't press. "But you'll get used to having those," he added to change the subject slightly, pointing to the two swords. Caitlin looked skeptical. "Just don't hit stuff with them." He snickered again and made the other twin swordsman give him a not-very-menacing glare, since she was kind of holding back a smile.

"Anyway, here's the potion that you needed," Carl interrupted and Lloyd's snickering stopped. He looked around behind him, expecting the Professor or Kratos to be behind him since they had their money, though they hadn't followed the kids into the cafeteria.

Genis looked around realizing that Raine and Kratos hadn't followed them. Katherine looked at him, curious. "You do know that you need to pay for this, right? Oh right! That other guy has your Gald, doesn't he?" Colette nodded. "Well, I can go get him for you. He shouldn't be hard to find, he's the purple guy, right?" Seeing another nod from everybody, Katherine opened the door to the hallway. "Do any of you want to come with me?"

"Naturally," Caitlin said, nodding. She didn't want to sit around the cafeteria waiting for Katherine to get back. That would just be really boring, and she did not cope well with boredom.

"Of course you want to. Does anybody else? Eh, what are your names anyways? You are Lloyd, right?" Katherine faced Lloyd.

"Yeah, that's me," he said, nodding. "And these are my friends, Genis Sage and Colette Brunel," he added, pointing to each in turn. "And Kratos is also with us, the big mercenary in purple, and the other person with us was Genis' sister, Raine." Caitlin simply nodded, a little tempted to say that they already knew that, but she didn't. That would be bad and stupid.

"Well my name's Caitlin, and that's my friend Katherine," she said, pointing to her hyper-active friend. "Okay, so, introductions aside... You guys coming, or do you want to wait here for us to bring Mr. Mercenary here?"

"We can come with you. Genis probably knows where the Professor and Kratos are, right Genis?" Colette stepped to the doorway, joining Katherine.

"Well, they shouldn't be that hard to find. The Professor is probably around here somewhere, since it's a school, and Kratos...well, he could be anywhere," Lloyd said, giving Kratos' position a moment of thought before giving up and shrugging.

"Then let's go find him, and you guys can get your Palma Potion," Caitlin said, going out passed Katherine and Colette and then heading down the hall. She stopped at the front door and looked back over her shoulder to make sure she was being followed. Lloyd had moved out of the cafeteria as well and followed her over, as well as Colette. "Come, Katherine and Shorty!" she called, grinning.

Genis 'humphed' as he and Katherine joined the others. "I'm not short!" he muttered at last, the five of them all walking together. Katherine giggled.

"Yes, you are pretty short compared to all of us. I'm a little short too, but I don't let it bother me." (This was a complete lie. She let it bother her. A lot.) Genis looked at the girl sideways.

"You also don't befriend people much older than you. In fact, you're just about Colette's height, and Caitlin is just about Lloyd's height, minus the hair."

Colette grabbed Katherine's hand. "You're my height? Then we can be friends! You'll be my first girlfriend!"

As Katherine tried to say that Caitlin could be her friend too, Lloyd shoved his hands into his pockets. "That's right, Colette wants me to figure out how to be friends with that assassin. How do you do that?"

Katherine looked at Colette. "Assassin? You want to be friends with an assassin?" She knew that this was Sheena they were talking about, but still, it sounded extremely absurd when spoken out loud.

Colette nodded and smiled. "Yeah, because she seemed really nice actually. I don't think that she's really all that bad," she answered. "And I feel a little bad for her, since she got hurt a lot." Caitlin snickered for a second, mainly because she knew one of the times that Sheena had gotten hurt would have been falling down that mine shaft on the Ossa Trail.

"But she's still an assassin, right? What if she's trying to trick you into thinking she's good?" The comment sounded a little ludicrous even to Caitlin, who had said it. Colette shook her head, obviously not thinking that was true. "Well, either way, it's kind of silly to trust and befriend someone who wants to kill you."

"Yeah. But Colette still thinks she's a friend," Lloyd sighed, shaking his head and looking around the Academy. "Do either of you two know where Kratos might be?" he asked, looking at Genis and Colette. The Chosen thought for a moment before answering.

"Maybe he's wherever Raine is, waiting for us?" she guessed.

Katherine looked at Genis, for some reason expecting him to keep track of his sister. "Do you know where they are Genis? Is Kratos even with Raine?"

Genis shook his head. "No, I think I saw Kratos slip into a classroom when I was following you, and Raine went upstairs."

"A classroom? What would he be doing in there?" Katherine asked as she opened the door to the first classroom she saw. Inside were a teacher and student, talking to each other, a huge bookshelf with a young girl looking through the books, and in a chair leafing through a large dusty-looking book, was Kratos. Katherine had to wonder why he was reading in the first place, wouldn't he already know what was in it? Maybe he was just reading it to see how bad Sylvarant's books were. Or...Katherine really didn't know. And she sure wasn't asking him.

Lloyd had already hurried up to Kratos to explain what had happened with a few very exaggerated hand movements. "These two girls, Caitlin and Katherine, helped us find a Palma Potion to give to those people. It's only 200 Gald, a lot cheaper than at Marble's, but we need you to pay for it," the twin swordsman said, dropping his arms to his sides as he finally realized that he was motioning a lot and without real reason behind the movements.

Kratos glanced at the two girls. "200 Gald? That may be less expensive, but it's still too much. We only have 500 Gald left, and we need it to fall back on."

Lloyd was sullen. "But..." Colette turned to Katherine and Caitlin. "Is there another way we can get the Palma Potion? Something we can do to help perhaps?"

Sensing a sudden spark of inspiration, Katherine smiled. "Yes there is actually. You could help us waitress, and maybe Carl will give the potion as payment! That would be awesome, because there aren't enough waitresses right now. Actually, Caitlin and I are pretty much the only ones."

"He'd probably give you some Gald too, so that you have more to 'fall back on,'" Caitlin said, making very small air quotes around the last three words. She thought that what Kratos said was kind of stupid - they'd still have 300 Gald and what would they need it for, besides this anyway? - but she didn't really want to tick him off. She really did not think that it would be good to mess with Kratos, especially whenever he didn't know the person and could easily hurt them. Though the reasoning behind this assumption was greatly influenced by her dislike of him and the mass of FanFictions she often read.

"Okay!" Colette said agreeably, nodding. "That sounds like fun!" Caitlin made a face, though didn't say what she thought about waitressing, like how hard it was to remember who ordered what and where they sat, or that people got really mad if you messed up. Having random people get mad at you for something simple did not help a person's self-esteem.

"Then we should go tell Carl. You know, I feel like I'm going in circles now," she sighed instead of mentioning her thoughts.

The girls all went back to the cafeteria, Lloyd and Genis opting to stick with Kratos rather than serve food to random customers. "If you feel like you're going in circles now," Katherine muttered, "just wait until later." Opening the door, Katherine found Carl struggling to keep up with the rush of customers demanding service. She grimaced slightly, then led Colette up to the poor man. "Carl, is it okay if Colette helps us waitress in exchange for a Palma Potion and a little Gald?"

Carl looked at Colette briefly, his expression turning relieved at the prospect of more aid. "That's fine," he agreed, and Colette smiled, thanking him. "Hopefully it'll be a little easier with some more help, and that seems like a reasonable payment." Caitlin just nodded before grabbing Colette's hand and leading her back into the kitchen and away from all the people.

"Hey, Ge - er - Katherine," Caitlin said, glancing back at her friend and correcting herself before she called her 'Genis'. "Do you think there's another uniform for Colette?" As she spoke she grabbed her own uniform, changing into it quickly. She flinched when she knocked over a couple more things when her swords were tossed aside, and those objects joined the few others scattered around the floor from a few minutes ago.

"Probably. If there's not, she can borrow mine. I mean, my clothes do sort of match the uniforms..." Katherine looked down at her outfit, the white and blue similar to the uniforms.

Caitlin nodded, picking up the mess that she'd made because of her swords and then dumping the load on the counter. A can rolled off and fell to the floor again. "Alright," she agreed, picking up the can and glaring at it before slamming it down on the counter. Colette giggled as the twin swordsman went to search for a spare uniform without knocking anything else down. "Ah-ha!" she cried triumphantly a moment later, pulling out another uniform. "Here you go, Colette."

"Thanks!" Colette said cheerfully, changing into it. "So what can I do to help?"

"Well...you can help me remember who ordered what and where they sit and bring the food to them. Katherine has the easy job," Caitlin offered, sticking her tongue out at Katherine.

Colette nodded. "Alright, that sounds fun," she said, still really happy. Caitlin was starting to wonder if she'd hear her be anything but happy, even though she knew it happened a couple times in the game. Once Katherine had also changed into her uniform, they went out to start serving the large group of people.

The day passed pretty quickly. Katherine stayed behind the counter, taking orders and making the food to give to the other two, while Caitlin and Colette worked on getting it to the right people. They had split the room up half and half, and Caitlin had to admit it was a little easier. She still screwed up a couple times (with one person, she screwed up a few times and they ended up shouting at her in annoyance, where she had almost snapped back but decided against it) but it was a bit easier. Colette had the same problem of remembering where people sat and what they ordered, though she didn't seem to mess up quite as much, just tripping occasionally either over people's feet or thin air. A couple plates of food had been dropped throughout the day by her.

Carl seemed pleased whenever the day was over and the three girls had switched back to their normal clothes, relieved from work early. "Thanks for your help, miss!" he said gratefully to Colette, offering her the Palma Potion that had been promised as well as a bag of about 700 Gald. "I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help," she said, taking the payment he offered her and smiling. Carl nodded, saying something about coming back to help another time if she was able before he went to make sure things were cleaned up before closing the cafeteria down for the day. "Thanks for telling me about this job. The others will be glad to have the potion and the Gald!"

"It's not a problem at all. I'm sure Caitlin's glad that she finally got some help, she messes up a lot. Do you want to walk to the inn with us? We're headed there now." Katherine ignored Caitlin's protest to her comment, and just kept talking to Colette.

"I wouldn't mind, but I need to find the others first. Is it alright for me to go get them first?" Colette started drifting towards the classroom where she left Lloyd, Genis and Kratos. Katherine smiled.

"That's fine with me! Let's go find them!"

"Off to find Lloyd, Shorty, Mr. Mercenary, and Shorty's sister!" Caitlin declared, pointing in the direction of the classroom a little dramatically and "accidentally" hitting Katherine at the same time. It was just a teeny bit of payback for her comment a second ago, since Caitlin had noticed her protests being ignored. "I bet they got kind of bored waiting for you," she added, lowering her arm back down to her side (or rather, her sword's hilt which she preferred to rest her arms on now).

"They aren't you Ll-Caitlin. You get bored really easily. But I guess it has been a while, maybe they're all reading?" Katherine opened the door to the empty classroom, half expecting to see everyone reading. Ok, maybe not Lloyd, but at least Genis might be reading. Instead, only the original occupants remained, the girl reading and taking notes at a desk, the teacher and student trying to work a problem out. Kratos, Lloyd, and Genis were not in the room, which left the question of where they could possibly be. "Ehh, maybe they're upstairs?" Katherine muttered, closing the door and moving towards the stairs.

"Either that, or they left already, but I doubt they'd do that," Caitlin said, looking at Colette. "Unless, you know, they just thought you were taking so long getting done that they got fed up waiting for you and decided to go somewhere else." It seemed like a reasonable thing to do, even if it would never happen.

"No, they wouldn't have left," Colette said, shaking her head. "They probably are upstairs waiting."

"Then let's go upstairs," Katherine muttered, rolling her eyes. The girls walked up the stairs and found Lloyd pacing back and forth at the top of the stairs, tossing a rock up in the air and catching it. "Hey! Lloyd! Where's everyone else?"

Lloyd snatched the stone out of the air, turning to the girls with a brighter air about him. "Genis is taking some sort of test, and I was supposed to wait out here for Colette. She and I can take the test if we want to, the Professor said something about it being a good chance to test our abilities or something."

"Who'd wanna take some boring old test?" Caitlin said, making a face. She had been glad they were at the Palmacosta Academy, since that meant that they wouldn't actually be with the group when they took the test, so she wouldn't have to. She didn't like tests, not because she did poorly on them (actually, she generally did fairly well, though sometimes just by cheating), she just didn't like them.

"It's a good thing the Professor isn't here - she wouldn't like hearing someone say that," Lloyd said, and Caitlin adopted an innocently curious expression, since she knew they hadn't called Raine that before, and even though it was quite obvious who he was talking about, it was easiest to play ignorant. That and she wasn't supposed to know what Raine was like.

"Professor?" she asked simply, and Colette nodded.

"Uh-huh. Genis' sister was our teacher in Iselia, so we call her the Professor," Colette supplied.

Katherine nodded. "That makes sense." She may have already known, but she wasn't going to let them know that. "Do you think it would be alright for me to take the test too? It might be nice to know ... whatever it is that the test would tell me, I suppose. Please?"

"I guess you could... But you'd probably have to ask the Professor or Kratos," Lloyd answered, while Caitlin was looking at her friend as if she had just lost her mind. Who in their right minds would want to take the test? Then again, it was Katherine she was talking about...this was the girl who told their Spanish teacher that she would much rather take a test than do a project, who took the ACT in 8th grade, and who took the PSAT as a sophomore.

"Thanks! I'll go ask! Where are they?" Katherine's energy levels soared, and upon recieving an answer of the third door on the right, ran to the door and cautiously opened it. Inside, the room was quiet, Genis laboriously working on his test. He looked up when Katherine opened the door, then quickly turned back to keep working. Finding Raine reading in the corner, Katherine asked her if she could take the test too. "I don't see why not, but it is a timed test, and you won't be given an extension." Katherine nodded, and Raine pulled a stack of papers off of the desk to the side, handing it to her. "You can sit over there and start working."

Colette had come in to take the test as well, though Caitlin refused to go in there and test at all. She sat down with her back against the wall, her swords crossed behind her. "So...you don't want to go in and take the test either?" she asked, looking up at Lloyd who had also remained outside the room. He shook his head, leaning against the wall.

"No. I'm not very good at tests," he said, shaking his head, and Caitlin nodded. Of course she had known that already, but again she wasn't supposed to let them know that.

Katherine had always been a little curious about what was on the test that Genis took. It would obviously be somewhat difficult, but she didn't expect anything really complicated. How much would decline affect the acedemics in Slyvarant? Did they have logarithms and stuff like that? She loved logarithms, they worked, like algebra in general. You just follow all the rules, and you get an answer. Looking at the test, she noticed a few different sections: math, science, history, and...logic? Really? Logic? What the Niflheim would that be? Whatever, it was the last section so she might not even get to it. Start with math, then go through in order, no skipping around.

Math question number 1: Given that x=13, what is the solution to 5x-12? Well, that was relatively simple. 5 times 13 minus 12, easy. What was 5 times 13? Better do that real quick to make sure she wasn't wrong. Once she got 53 for an answer, she went on the next problem. The next looked a little harder, but not much. Would there be graphs? Katherine had said before that graphs were the bane of her existence, so she hoped not.

Caitlin looked over at the door to the room before groaning and leaning her head back against the wall. "I'm bored," she complained, having nothing in the hallway to entertain herself with. Lloyd slid down the wall and sat down as well, nodding.

"Me too," he sighed, also glancing at the room. "How long do you think they'll take on the test?" Caitlin shrugged in response - she wasn't sure if the time limit was even mentioned in the game. Though no matter what it was, it'd be too long.

By the end of the math section, Katherine's head started to feel like mush. She had been on summer break and had had no reason to acctually use her brain. Science was next, and she figured that there wouldn't be much chemistry on it, at least not elements sort chemistry. Maybe reactions and stuff? She did expect physics and maybe some genetics too.

Science question number 1: In the synthesis of water from its elements, 20g of hydrogen would produce what volume water vapor? Lookie, chemistry! Umm, the problem looked like mass-volume, so it would go something like this: 20g hydrogen to 1 mole hydrogen over 2g hydrogen to 2 moles hydrogen over 2 moles water to 22.4 L water over 1 mole water. The answer: 224 liters of water vapor. Cool, she could still do these.

Science question number 13: The alleles for white flowers and red flowers are codominant. What are the possible genotypic and phenotypic ratios in the cross between a white flower and a pink flower? Yay, genetics! This rocked! Genetics was the reason that Katherine got an A in Biology even though she got a D on the final (long story). White and pink? That was pretty easy too. The phenotypic would be a 2 pink:2 white ratio, while the genotypic would be 2 RW:2 WW.

While Katherine was going through the test, the other two who weren't in the room had succumbed to massive boredom. "Wanna play a game?" Caitlin asked after a minute, while messing with the hilt of one of her swords. Lloyd looked at her questioningly.

"What game?" he asked, and she looked around for something to keep them occupied for as long as the test would take. Or ten minutes, whichever worked.

"Word association!" Caitlin said after a second. "I say a word, you say another that relates to it, and so on. Summon Spirit."

"Uh...Efreet."

"Fire."

"Fire Ball."

"Mage."

"Genis."

"Um...short?" Lloyd laughed at Caitlin's answer before thinking about his.

"Colette!" Now Caitlin laughed. Colette was kind of short, even though it wasn't as short as Genis. Then again, that was a four year age gap between the two.

"Chosen?"

"Remiel." This is where the game came to a stand-still, since Caitlin had adopted a confused look at the angel's name. Lloyd noticed it and smiled a little sheepishly. "Oh, yeah... You wouldn't know him. He's an angel that is helping Colette through her journey of regeneration."

"Oh...okay. Then angel!" Caitlin said, deciding to try and continue the game.

Katherine had to leave some of the science questions blank because she didn't get them. Next was history. Yay. Not only did Katherine not know the most basic of Slyvarant's history, but these would be difficult questions designed to test their knowledge. Maybe the game's scant information would be enough to get through this section.

History question number 1: In what location did King Cleo III make a pact with the wind spirits? That was easy! The stone dias in Asgard! Katherine scribbled down her answer and moved on to the next question.

History question number 2: Who was the first Chosen? Another easy one! Spiritua!

History question number who cares anymore: Who was the founder of Hima and what was his fate? The era of answerable questions had long passed. She'd only answered a few questions and had given a couple others the answers she wanted them to be. Like that Luin was founded on the priciples of goodness and love (they always win!) or that if they wanted an answer they should ask a mercenary (they know everything!).

Outside in the hall, the word association game had continued on from 'angel', going through 'wing', 'bird', 'fly', 'frog', and lots of other things until they somehow reached 'school'.

"Raine," Lloyd continued, seemingly entertained by the game.

"Professor."

"Math."

"Icky."

"Tomatoes." Caitlin snickered at his answer. "What? I don't like tomatoes. They're gross," Lloyd said.

"They kind of are, but they're not that bad," Caitlin told him. She hadn't understood for a long time why he thought that tomatoes were so gross - as well as Kratos - but she thought it kind of funny anyway. Mainly because in fanfictions, people made fun of the pair of them and their 'fear' of tomatoes. "And I don't know where to go from there..."

"Uh...I don't either," Lloyd said, frowning and looking around the hall for something else to do.

Finally the logic section. What would this section be? Glancing through the problems, she saw a whole bunch of analogies, and a bunch of other word problems. Well, Katherine wasn't bad at these...

Logic question number 1: Torture is to Flay as Execution is to... Wow, what a cheerful question. Hmm, flaying was a form of torture, kind of, so decapitation was a form of execution! Decapitation!

Logic question number 7: In another language, the phrase mangez vous les saucissons means do you eat sausage. Also, the phrase voulez vous les saucissons means do you want sausage. What would the phrase voulez vous manger les saucissons mean? Haha! French! Simple. Voulez vous manger les saucissons means do you want to eat sausage! Go foreign language!

"So where are you guys gonna go next?" Caitlin asked, now sprawled out in the hallway, lying on her back and looking at the ceiling. She ran the risk of being stepped on if someone came down the hall, but wasn't really thinking about that. They could still go around her if they noticed the twin swordsman lying there in the first place.

"We don't know yet," Lloyd said, shaking his head. He had slid down the wall a little more so he was more slouched against it, half-lying across the hall now. "We still have to figure out what the next seal is." Caitlin nodded, which felt weird lying down like she was. They fell silent for a second before Caitlin spoke up again, randomly.

"I Spy..." she said slowly, arching her head back so she was still lying down, but looking upside-down now. She saw Lloyd snickering at the random change. "...something...red."

"Your jacket?"

"No."

"My jacket?"

"No."

"Your gloves?"

"No."

"Mine."

"No."

"Boots." Lloyd pointed to his own boots and Caitlin shook her head. "Yours?"

"Yes." Caitlin grinned upside-down. "Your turn!"

Inside the room, the test had been stopped as time had just run out to do it. The headmaster went and collected all the tests. "I will be back soon with the results," he told the people in the room. Colette went over to talk to Genis about the test once the headmaster left the room. Katherine slumped, her forehead against the the table. Her brain had throughly begun to feel like mush, and the table was nice and cold. Bleh. She didn't expect to do too well on it, seeing as she left over half of the history section blank, but she figured most of what she did answer was right. She turned her head to cool off a different part of her head and noticed Colette and Genis walking towards her. "Uhh, hi?"

"Yeah, hi." Genis and Colette pulled up chairs and the three of them sat together at the table. "So Genis, how do you think you did?" Genis grinned.

"Awesome! The questions were really easy compared to what Raine gives us. You guys must have done pretty well too!" Colette smiled.

"Except I didn't know too many of the math and science questions, but the history ones were easy!" Katherine pushed her forehead farther into the table.

"I guess I did okay in math, science and logic, but I didn't know most of the history questions. I'm not good at remembering historical facts."

A couple minutes later, the headmaster came back in with the scores. "I have the scores of the tests," he announced a little unnecessarily. "Colette with 210" - Colette smiled, pleased with her score - "Katherine with 217" - Katherine groaned - "and Genis with a perfect 400." Genis' grin got bigger as Colette congratulated him as well. She also congratulated Katherine for her score, even though it wasn't that good. "Now, Raine and Genis Sage, I would like to have a word with the two of you in my office. Please come this way." Genis and Raine stood and followed him.

"Where are they going?" Katherine asked, getting up with Colette to go back out to the hallway.

"Well, Genis was going to go to this school originally, so maybe the Professor is still trying to get him here?" Katherine nodded.

"That makes sense." In the game Genis had never stayed, but maybe now he would? How different would the beginning of the game be without Genis? Actually, it didn't really matter right now. The girls had found the twin swordsmen in the hallway, and were giggling at their amusing positions.

Caitlin stopped halfway through saying 'floor' (Lloyd's color in I Spy being brown) when she saw Katherine and Colette and heard them giggling. "Oh, hi!" she said, rolling onto her stomach and getting up, though she leaned against the wall right afterwards. "Whoa... I'm light-headed," she said, holding her head in one hand as Lloyd got up as well.

"How'd you guys do on your test?" he asked as Caitlin shook her head quickly to clear it, pushing off the wall to stand normally.

"I think we did good! I got a 210, and Katherine got a 217," Colette said happily and Caitlin smirked at her friend.

"But isn't it out of 400?" she asked, snickering at the fact that Katherine had failed the test she had so wanted to take.

"I didn't fail it! If there wasn't a history section, I would have done really well! It's not my fault I don't know any history."

"You don't know any history? What about the question about Luin? What did you put for that?" Colette asked, looking at her curiously.

"Luin? Umm, I put that they founded Luin on the principles of goodness and love." Caitlin made a face at the first half of Dwarven Vow number seven - she, like Lloyd, didn't like it. She found it too be too cheesy, even for Lloyd to be saying, and that was a pretty dang cheesy line.

"You seriously wrote that? No wonder you failed the history part of the test!" Caitlin told her friend. She didn't know the answer either, but it definitely wasn't Dwarven Vow number seven.

"Hey, where are Genis and the Professor?" Lloyd asked after a second, having noticed that they hadn't followed the two girls out of the room.

"Oh, the headmaster wanted to talk to them once we were done with the test," Colette answered, looking back over at the room.

"When they're done, maybe we can finally go back to the inn. It's actually pretty late..." Katherine turned to find a window to confirm her speculation. Seeing bountiful sunshine, she laughed. "Or, maybe it's not really that late." She was hoping to get back to the inn and think about what was going to happen now. She hadn't put that much thought into it before, but now that they had actually met the actual group, it was something she really needed to start thinking about.

Caitlin looked out the window as well and nodded. It surprisingly was only about mid-afternoon - what had happened to work lasting until late? But she wasn't complaining about that. If there were a few hours were they didn't have to go around and wait tables, she was okay with it. "We need to get out and train some more tonight," she told Katherine, and Lloyd looked between them with interest.

"I guess we're off work for a while, training wouldn't hurt. I'll go check with Carl." Katherine bounded down the stairs cheerfully.

"We'll just wait for Shorty and his sister then," Caitlin said, watching her friend disappear. Since they were all headed to the inn anyway, she might as well wait around for Genis and Raine to show up. She leaned against the wall, already bored, and watched the door a little absently, hoping they would come soon.