Sorry for the extra late update, I have a good reason for it. Last week on Friday I went out so I didn't have the time to write anything and on Saturday I realized the Shingeki OVA came out and I was fangirling so hard that I forgot. I wrote it finish by Wednesday but I thought I should do a double update on Friday instead but I couldn't finish the second chapter and today was Comic Fiesta (i'm now broke cuz I bought 15 shingeki and 1 free! buttons and a shingeki doujinshi. It was worth it TT^TT) So I decided to post one first and the other when I finish it maybe tomorrow? Cuz im half done. :D At least this chapter is long.

P.S. One of my waifuus drew a picture of Lorenzo for me, it's on her deviant art account. Check it out, she's awesome. *^* Search for Lorenzo (The string that binds our fate) by FuzzieLumpkins. I'd send you a link but FanFiction won't let me.

Alice's POV

A gust of wind forces a few locks of hair to cover my face, I push them back revealing a sight before me.

I'm finally here.

Tall buildings, vast training fields and little cabins at the sides, in a valley sheltered by cut out rocks. A watch tower stands firmly watching over the academy. Yes this is it, the military training academy. I stood in front of its gate just to let it's greatness seep in.

It's been a year since the fall of Wall Maria, I'm finally old enough to enroll into this academy. My reason of joining is not something like revenge or social appearance, it was just that seeing all those people who had lost their families they reminded me of myself, the looks they had on their face. I don't want anyone else to experience the pain of losing someone important. So I joined the military to protect the people, I guess you can say it sounds kind of cliché but oh well. This year's trainee's group is held in Blanc district, every year the venue is different as each trainee group occupies the field for 3 years. I heard that next year's batch will be held at Trost.

I looked around to find a lot of people surrounding me, they were all around my age. I guess they were students too. That means that I'm not the only one that's willing to spend three years here. As expected not a single face looked familiar, we were all basically strangers but it did look like a few of them were acquainted with each other. I started to feel nervous and placed my hand on my stomach. I guess this is what we typically describe as butterflies in your stomach.

Urgh, am I going to spend my three years alone?

I mentally slapped myself for letting my brain think of such negative thoughts.

It doesn't really matter, I'm here to train myself to slay titans not make friends. I comforted myself. But still, I don't want to be left out… Wait! No, no, no! Be positive! I'm sure you can make friends! I know I was not a people person nor the best at making friends in the past but it's all going to change.

As I was having a mental conversation with myself a voice spoke to me in an arrogant tone.

"How long are you going to stand there? Unlike you, I want to get through."

I turned around to find a young girl behind me, she was average height and gorgeous, she had perfectly slightly tanned skin, wavy chestnut colored hair and green eyes.

She's so pretty!

My eyes sparkled, I've never seen a girl this beautiful before.

"Excuse me! Are you going to just stand there or what?" She spoke. "Are you even listening?"

"E-eh? What did you say?" I asked as I snapped out of my thoughts.

"I've been telling you to move!"

"Oh sorry…" I said as I took a step back.

"Gosh! Some people have no brains!" She said as she strolled off.

Well she was rude!

I let out a huff of breath and mustered all of courage to take the first step.

I won't let my resolve be shaken so easily.

I went into the girl's dormitory, it was a cabin that was big enough to accommodate all the females into just one room. I stood in front of the door, inside was filled with chit chatter that could be heard even from the outside. I walked in and saw there was a large fireplace that warmed the entire room, oil lamps that dangled on the ceiling and rows of bunk beds. There were three tiers to it each having 2 bed that laid beside each other, the entire room could fit up to 60 people. This was the first time I had ever got the chance to sleep on a bunk bed. Excitedly, I climbed up to the highest tier, as I was climbing up the ladder a familiar voice called out to me.

"You again!"

I looked up to find the brunette I had met earlier.

"Oh hey!" I replied.

"Don't 'hey' me. I refuse to sleep next to you."

I looked around to find that nearly everyone had settled down.

Oh no, it looks like I'm the only one left. We still need to put on our uniforms and head to the fields for the evaluation.

"Come on, all the other beds are taken. This is the only one left, please!"

"Fine." She let out a sigh. "But I'm taking the inner one."

"Yay, thanks!"

"Yeah whatever, just don't be a nuisance."

"Alright, I won't."

"I'm leaving."

"What?! Don't you want to go together?"

"No, I don't want to be seen with you and besides I'm not going to wait for you." She said as she slid down the ladder.

I better hurry, everyone is starting to leave.

I grabbed my uniform, got to the edge of the bed and that's when I realized.

Oh no… I can't get down…

Looking down, it looked so high.

It's alright you can do this Alice.

I put one leg on the ladder, it started shaking. I held on to the ladder.

Kya! I'm going to fall!

I opened my eyes to find myself perfectly situated on the ladder. I puffed out a sigh of relief,

"Hey are you alright?" A girl called out to me.

I looked down to find a blonde girl standing below the ladder.

"Erm… Yeah. I'm fine." I answered back

It's not that I like lying but telling her that I'm too scared to come down would be embarresing

"Alright, then I'll be leaving first."

Oh no, I'm really the only one left.

"Wait! Hold on!" I called out.

"Yes?"

"Could you help me?"

"Sure, what's wrong?"

Sheepishly I buried my embarrassed face into the ladder.

"I can't come down." I muttered.

"Huh? I couldn't hear you."

"I'm stuck!" I cried.

"Pffftt." She said as she laughed.

"Hey don't laugh!" I said but the ladder started shaking, quickly I grabbed hold on to the rung.

"I'm sorry but it's just that I've never seen anyone get stuck before." She said as stifled her laughter. "Actually I kind of realized that you couldn't come down."

"If you knew you should have just said so. It's embarrassing you know!"

"Sorry, sorry. Alright, take it slowly and don't look down. I'll catch you if you fall."

"Alright…" I said meekly.

I closed my eyes and slowly using my feet to feel for the rungs, finally I made it down.

"You can open your eyes now."

Obediently, I opened my eyes and let go of my grip.

"I thought I was going to die." I said as I gripped on to my beating chest.

I looked at the girl, now that we were standing on the same level, I noticed that she was pretty tall and had sky blue eyes.

"Hey, we better hurry if you don't want to get scolding." She spoke.

"Eh! You're right!"

"Last one there is a rotten egg." The blonde haired girl said as she dashed out.

"Wait up!" I shouted as I chased after her.

We changed into our uniforms. It was really hard because of the harness. I tied my hair into a side ponytail with a red ribbon as I didn't want my hair to get in the way of training. As soon as we were done, we ran to the fields. Most of the other trainees were already standing in line, I quickly took my place.

"You're late!" A voice boomed into my ear, it made me jump. "Cadet! Why are you late? You should be here earlier than your instructor." I turned around to find a bald man.

"Forgive me sir!" I said as I saluted.

"I'll listen to your petty excuse later while the both of you run 20 laps!"

"Eh?!" The words slipped out.

"What? Not enough? Then you'll do 40!"

"Y-yes sir!" I said.

"Now get in line!"

"Yes!" the both of us shouted in sync.

I gave the blonde girl an apologetic look, she smiled back. I stood in the back row. The instructor started the briefing and started to question each cadet one by one. Missing a few of them, me being one of them but I didn't think much of it. After it was over, I started running laps like I was told. I ran up to the blonde girl who was sprinting not too far from me.

"Hey, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to get you in trouble." I said.

"It's alright besides 20 laps is no big deal."

"Really? I think I'll be dead before I reach 40."

"Haha, don't worry I'll stay with you."

"It's alright, you don't have to. I already have caused you a lot of trouble as it is."

"I don't mind, besides the only thing I'm confident in is my stamina."

"You're lucky. I don't have any talents nor any specialties."

"That's not true. You're pretty."

"Eh? No way, that other girl is a lot prettier."

"Really? But I think you have nice hair, are your curls natural?"

"Oh yeah they are."

"I'm jealous, I wish I had curly hair."

"It's not really all that great. It's hard to manage and I get a lot of bed hair."

"I can imagine that." She laughed.

"Oh yeah, what's your name? I never got the chance to ask you."

"My name is Julie Hoult. What about you?"

"Mine's Alice Berux."

"Nice to meet you."

"Same here."

We continued chatting as we ran. After finishing our laps, we went to report to our instructor then we were dismissed and took a shower. Then, we put on our normal clothes and went for dinner. We headed to the dining area as it was in a separated building. The place was filled with chatter that was loud enough to be heard from outside and we went in. It looked like a giant cafeteria, with long tables. We got our food from the serving area and looked for a seat. Because we were late, most of the seats had been taken up.

"There's a few empty seats over there." Julie pointed out.

Both of us made our way to the table. There were a few people who had already sat there, three of them to be exact. The pretty girl I had met from before, a black haired boy who had brown eyes and a red haired boy who had amber colored eyes, that guy was pretty buff.

"Can we sit here?" Julie asked.

"Sure." The black haired boy replied.

We pulled our chairs out and took a seat.

"You two were the once who were asked to run laps weren't you." He said.

"Please don't bring that up." Julie said.

"You two are a bunch of idiots to actually come late on your first day." The chestnut colored hair girl said.

"What did you say?" Julie stood up.

"It's not her fault. I made her late!" I said.

"Then you're the bigger idiot." She mocked again.

"Hey you! You have a pretty face, should I rip it off?"

"Calm down Julie. Let's not fight alright?" I said.

"You should be a little more angry. She just insulted you, you know?" Julie said.

"Calm down alright?" the ravenette spoke.

"Yeah, fighting is bad." I said.

Julie sat down and turned her head away from the other girl.

"A-anyway, let's introduce ourselves. I'll start first." The ravenette said as he tried to lighten the mood. "My name is Jaune Bryson, I came from Trost."

"I'm next huh? Guess I have no choice but to go along with your little game. My name is Tanya Rossavelle? I'm from Shiganshina."

"That means you were there on that day?" The ravenette spoke excitedly. "Did you the colossal titan or the armored one? What does the titans look like?"

"Why would I tell you?" Tanya said.

"I'm Julie Hoult."

"Hey don't interrupt me!" Tanya spoke angrily.

"I thought you didn't want to talk to us?"

"Let's not start an argument alright?" I interrupted.

They looked away from each other.

"Anyway as I was saying, I'm Julie Hoult from Karanese"

"Did you see a titan?" Jaune said.

"Yeah I did so what?"

It seemed that she was in a bad mood so he asked no further.

"It's my turn right? My name is Nicholas Weiss, I came from the mountain areas of Wall Rose."

"Guess I'm last." I said. "Pleased to be of acquaintance, I'm Alice Berux from Fiore district."

"Pleased to be of acquaintance?" Julie said.

Dang it, old habits are kicking in.

"So did you see a titan?"

You saved me Jaune!

"Could you stop with your titan? It's getting annoying." Tanya spoke.

"Never thought I'd agree with you." Julie said.

Giving up Jaune kept his head down.

"There there, I'll tell you about it later alright?"

"You're so nice."

"Berux? That sounds kind of familiar." Tanya spoke.

Great they found out…

"Now that you mentioned it. It does." Julie said.

"You're right." Jaune said. "What does your family do?"

"Erm… Toy makers?" I muttered.

"Oh my gosh! The Southern Cross?" Julie said.

"What's that?" Nicholas asked.

Everyone looked at him with a shocked expression plastered on their faces.

"What?" he asked again.

"You've never heard of that company?" Tanya asked.

"Should I?"

"Of course! They're like the biggest toy company existing! They stopped producing new toys though."

"They made the Daisy Dolls and Bobby Bears! How can you not know?" Julie said.

"How am I suppose to know? I live in a small village."

"Wait, so why are you living in a small town like Fiore?" Jaune asked.

"I've used to live in Rayon till my parents died."

"Your parents are dead?"

Julie jammed her elbow into his rib.

"Ouch! What?" he asked.

"Why are you so insensitive?" She whispered.

"It's alright! It was a long time ago anyway."

"Rayon is a high end area, huh? It must be nice to live in a big house."

"That's not true. It's feels nicer to live in a lively house." I said.

"I have two brothers and they're both really noisy. It's a pain being with the two of them." Tanya said.

"Eh. So Tanya has brothers huh? Sounds nice." I said, someone like me who never had siblings it does sound kind of fun having a few.

"It's not nice at all! And why are you using my name so nonchalantly? Don't act like we're good friends."

"Eh? Why not? We're friends aren't we?" I asked.

"No we're not!"

"Anyways, who else have siblings?"

"None." Julie said.

"Same." Jaune said.

"What about you Nicholas?" I asked.

"I have four sisters."

"Four?!"

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

"How do you and your dad feel, being the only guys?"

"Hmm, I don't know."

"Why is that?"

"He passed away."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

"It's alright, it's not something to be sad about. He was part of the Recon corps."

"Eh, really? That's cool! I'm sure that you're very proud of your father."

"Yeah I am. I joined the army to follow in his footsteps."

"That's admirable. I'm sure you'll be a great soldier." I smiled.

Nicholas choked on his water that he was drinking and for some reason his cheeks turn kind of red.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes." He said as he coughed.

I placed my hand on his forehead to check if he had a fever but he turned his face away the moment I touched him.

"I-I'm fine really!"

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah."

"Want me to walk you back to your dorm?"

"No, it's fine." He placed his hand against his mouth as he avoided his gaze away from mine.

I did not realize but Julie who sat beside me smiled with a grin.

"Anyways, the instructor was pretty scary, huh? Now that I think about it he didn't ask the three of you for your names. Why is that?" (by 3 of you, he meant Alice, Nicholas and Tanya)

We looked at each other for answers.

"Maybe we're just lucky?" I said.

After our meal, we headed back to the dorms. We said our goodnights as the boys parted from us.

"Hey, Alice." Julie spoke.

"Hmm?"

"Always remember, boys are pigs. So, try not to get too close to them. You're cute so they'll eat you up."

I, who could not understand the meaning behind those words simply looked back at her with confusion.

Okay this arc is a little short probably another 2 to 3 more chapters but please tell me which OC you liked so far :3