Nida didn't get back to his room until well after sunset. After rambling through his speech at the assembly—he himself couldn't remember most of what he'd said, and the faculty had introduced him as "another graduate"—he'd finally made it to the cafeteria for some disgusting cold noodles, and then taken the long way back to avoid all the students who were gossiping about the exam.

When he made it into the room, he flipped on the monitor to check the news. It was mostly about the invasion of Dollet; apparently Galbadia would be allowed to keep a small garrison of soldiers at the communications tower, and the speed with with Dollet's army had collapsed meant they were basically finished as a global power.

A whole segment of the story was devoted to SeeD's intervention, which was a lot more attention than Garden's mercenaries usually got. Nida wondered if the mission might have been an even bigger deal than he'd realized.

"Hey, you're back." Nida's roommate stepped into the common room as he was nearing the end of the news report. "Congrats. How's it feel to be a SeeD?"

NIda turned off the monitor. "The faculty forgot I'd graduated, and the headmaster said I don't stand out."

"Cool." Zak wasn't in the SeeD program, and his main interest seemed to be Triple Triad, so he could afford to be laid back about pretty much everything. "You should have them send you on spy missions and stuff. Just stand next to people while they're talking about the top-secret info. You'd be a natural."

"Please don't joke about how forgettable I am."

"Hey, you know those stories about how GFs cause memory loss? Maybe you're actually a GF, and you snuck out of the computer to take human form, and then erased everyone's memory. Including YOURS."

"You're making another joke. I just said don't do that."

"Sorry. I forgot."

Nida sighed.

Zak pulled out a box of cards and started sorting through them. "Oh, yeah, the faculty came by earlier. They took a bunch of notes on the place, and left your uniform in the room."

Nida blinked. "My uniform?" He glanced down at his clothes to confirm that he was still wearing his uniform, and then realized Zak meant. SeeDs were Garden employees, not students, so his outfit was out of date.

The SeeD uniform was hanging on the wall of his bedroom, immaculately folded and looking like it had just come from the factory. Nida hadn't expected to find one already waiting for him, but he quickly remembered why it made sense. The reception for the year's new SeeDs was held on the night of their inauguration, with a formal dance in Garden's grand ballroom.

Nida wondered if he could skip it. He was exhausted, and it had been the better part of a week since he'd gotten a decent night's sleep. And besides, he was easily the year's least notable graduate; even Selphie had a bigger presence in Garden, and she'd been a student for less than three days.

Then again, basically every SeeD and instructor was supposed to be at this party. And if one of the three new SeeD members didn't show up for his own reception, that probably would get him noticed. And not in the way he'd want.

He took the uniform down. The fabric was smooth, and felt lighter than it looked. When he put it on, it gave off the faint smell of new upholstery.

There were more pieces to it than the regular student's uniform: Along with the high-collared tunic and pants, it had an over-the-shoulder belt and a semi-firm shoulder cowl, embroidered in the front and fastened by a silver chain.

It was the sort of uniform they only gave to people who were supposed to look important.

Nida spent a moment staring into the mirror, at his reflection of himself wearing the uniform. Then he set out for the ballroom.

He hadn't been at the reception for ten minutes before he realized how conceited he'd been. The hall was full of people who'd been working with each other for years, and they were all either dancing with each other on the big ballroom floor or hanging around the edge of the room chatting about Garden business or missions they'd been on together. Nobody had announced the new SeeDs' arrival, and nobody seemed to particularly care that he was there. He absolutely could have skipped the whole thing without anybody noticing at all.

The others were coping with all this just fine. Zell was shaking hands with everyone in a SeeD uniform, enthusiastically explaining how much he looked forward to working with them. It was actually pretty good networking, although being Zell he put about 120 percent more energy into the effort than was necessary.

Selphie, on the other hand….

"'Scuse me! You right there!"

Nida was a little surprised that there was anyone in the room she hadn't talked to yet; she'd been bouncing back and forth across the dance floor since before he'd gotten here. Right now she was chasing down Jeck Ingram, one of the younger SeeDs; Nida him saw hanging around the library a lot, although he didn't seem to read much.

"Oh, hey," he said, acting as if he'd just noticed her. "You're a SeeD like me, huh? I just graduated last year, myself. I don't remember seeing you around, so you must be new."

Jeck somehow managed to sound even more full of himself than Seifer without even being interesting, but Selphie either didn't notice or ignored it. "Yup!" she said gamely. "Say, do you wanna join the Garden Festival committee? You can help out whenever you have the time."

"The Garden Festival?" Jeck frowned. "I thought it got canceled or something."

"No way! I guess the old committee chairman had to graduate, though, so we're looking for more members. It'd be a really big help if you could participate." Selphie's appeal actually seemed to be improving with practice. "Please?"

"I dunno." Jeck scratched the back of his head. "That's more of a thing for students, isn't it? I'm pretty busy with SeeD operations, so I don't think it's a good use of my time."

"Oh." Selphie looked downcast. "Well, think about it, okay? We're gonna have meetings every day in the 'Quad,' or on Garden Square if people can't make it!"

Every day? Nida had been feeling bad about ducking the question when Selphie had asked him, but it didn't seem like she was making this easy. He snuck away before she noticed he was standing there.

The only refreshments at the reception came from a tiny buffet that seemed to have been added almost as an afterthought. Nida filled a tiny plate with some tiny vegetable skewers, thinking it was a good thing he'd made it to the cafeteria first. Then he picked up a normal-sized glass with some faux-alcoholic drink in it, and realized too late that now he didn't have any free hands. He wandered around for a while, and found absolutely no flat surfaces where he could set the drink down, so he quickly drank the whole glass, handed it to the next waiter who came along, and then started on the skewers.

Standing at the edge of the room, eating and watching the other SeeDs paired off on the dance floor, seemed like the perfect metaphor for how his life was going wrong. He noticed that even the other people standing around weren't eating anything, which made him self-conscious, which made him eat faster, which probably didn't help his image.

Basically everyone had paired off on the dance floor by now, leaving him more conspicuously isolated than ever. He'd lost sight of Selphie and Zell completely, so the only other people still on the sidelines were some of the Garden instructors and administrators who were too busy talking business or whatever.

And there was one other person. Nida noticed a dark-haired girl in a pale dress who was standing alone in the middle of the dance floor, looking up through the skylight in the roof. She didn't look familiar, and there were only so many girls around his age at Garden and in Balamb town. Sometimes Garden clients were invited, and maybe the more senior SeeDs could bring guests, but she didn't seem to be here with anyone.

She looked down from the skylight, glanced around the room a bit, and Nida realized that he'd been staring for a while just before she caught sight of him. Cocking her head with a sort of quizzical look, she stared back for a moment, and then started walking straight towards him.

Nida realized that he'd been holding the last of his vegetable skewers halfway between the plate and his mouth throughout the whole staring exchange. He quickly returned it to the plate.

"Hi," she said, smiling pleasantly when she reached his spot by the wall.

"…Hi," Nida replied.

"Um…." She glanced around the room one last time, shifting her weight to one foot. "Can you help me? I'm trying to find Headmaster Cid. Is he around here anywhere?"

"The headmaster?" Hoping to recover the first impression by at least seeming helpful, Nida looked around himself. "That's him over there. By the window."

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. "Great! Thanks a lot!" And she promptly hurried off.

"…Happy to help," Nida replied, although she was already well out of earshot.

Finishing the last of his food left him with an empty plate and nothing to do. Nida started looking around for a dish tray or someplace where he could leave the plate, and then probably just head back to the dorm to brood about how life was always disappointing.

"Hey there."

Nida almost jumped at the voice, and then turned around to see Lauren standing behind him. She was wearing an extravagant orange tube dress, with fur cuffs around her wrists and a huge one swallowing her neck.

"Sorry," she said, looking more amused than sorry. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."

Nida sighed. "That's a…nice dress."

She grinned. "Thanks. It was my grandmother's, and it's been hanging in my closet for years; I figured I'd better find an excuse to wear it before the moths devour it."

"…Your grandmother wore that?"

"I try not to think about it." She clapped him on the arm. "But hey, welcome to SeeD! Congratulations on the Dollet mission; I heard you really ended up on an adventure."

"It was mostly just a really long walk," said Nida.

"Yeah, that'll happen." Lauren shrugged. "Most SeeD jobs are about 5 minutes of excitement and 12 hours of boredom. Apparently a lot of people wash out because they can only handle one or the other."

"That's encouraging."

"It should be." She elbowed him. "You're one of the elite now, Nida. You really need to start acting cooler. Maybe get a catchphrase, or something."

"…What's yours?"

"I mostly just strike poses." She struck a pose. "Hey, so I've been wondering. Why didn't you take the exam with me last year? When you said you weren't gonna take the test, I thought maybe you'd changed your mind about becoming a SeeD."

Nida blinked. "I was 16 last year."

"You wouldn't have been the first SeeD to pass the exam at 16," said Lauren. "And you must have had enough credits to qualify. I mean, we were taking half the same classes that year. And some of those technical courses you did are still way beyond me."

"There's no way I would have been ready."

"Yeah; better not do anything that sets you too far apart from the crowd, right?" Before Nida could think of a reaction to that, she let out a breath and deftly swiped the empty plate from his hand, giving it to a passing waiter. "Well, we're both here now, and tradition demands that a senior SeeD have at least one dance with the graduates." She motioned to the dance floor with an overly formal gesture. "So would you care to dance with me?"

Nida took a breath, and made a kind of resigned smile. "Sure."

Lauren extended her hand. "Then lead on, good sir."

Doctor Kadowaki was working late as usual, and Quistis had been drawn by the lights in the infirmary more than anything else. She hadn't even consciously known whether Squall was still there; he might well have been released while she'd been busy with the field exam and its aftermath.

Still, here she was, and there was Squall, lying sideways on the bed and glaring at the wall.

"How is he?" she asked, from safely out of earshot on the other side of the room.

"The cut was quite deep," Kadowaki replied. "I was worried there might be a concussion, so I decided to keep him overnight. He hasn't said a word since this morning, but he's been up and about a bit. He even disappeared for a bit this evening, but the first time I noticed was when I caught him sneaking back in. Hasn't moved from the bed since."

Quistis nodded, not taking her eyes off him. "Is it all right if I go talk to him?"

"Of course. Poor kid could probably use some company."

Even with the doctor's approval, Quistis hesitated to approach him. She could only guess at what kind of mood he was in after being forced to sit out the SeeD exam. Squall kept his thoughts to himself, but she'd seen him push himself harder throughout the year than even Seifer, or any of her other students for that matter.

Her former students. Quistis had to get used to that, as well.

"I warned you all those fights with Seifer would get you into trouble someday," she said, trying for a lighthearted tone and failing completely.

Squall didn't reply. He didn't even move, or give any indication that he was aware of her presence at all.

"For god's sake, Squall," she tried, more serious this time. "You've been getting in fights like this for as long as I can remember. I know I've warned you that sooner or later, one of you would end up in here." She shook her head sadly. "Why couldn't you ever just walk away?"

Squall shifted on the bed, but didn't offer any sort of answer.

"Well, you're only 17," she said. "You'll get two more chances to complete the training. Though you'll have to take the class with another instructor, I'm afraid." She tried to be upbeat again, but it still wasn't working. "They revoked my license, Squall. Said I lacked leadership qualities, that I'd failed as an instructor. As of midnight, I'm just a regular SeeD again."

Quistis didn't know why she was telling him this. A selfish part of her wanted him to know that he wasn't the only one who'd had a bad day, but maybe she just wanted him to care. About her, or anything really. Or maybe she just needed to talk with someone. She didn't know.

When Squall still didn't respond, she sighed and stood again. "I'm sure you know this isn't the end," she said. "Just…remember that."

She turned to go, but paused as one last thought came to mind. "Oh, in case you hadn't heard, Seifer didn't pass the exam either. He could still try again next year, but…" She hesitated. "I think this is the end for him. He won't ever become a SeeD."

That was the hardest thing to say, harder than saying that she'd lost her Instructor's license. Squall and Seifer had both been her students, and had both been recognized as outstanding potential SeeDs. Both had been up for graduation this year, and neither had passed. She couldn't help but think that maybe if she had managed to restrain Seifer's belligerent tendencies, somehow prevented the morning's duel….

She realized that she'd finally got a reaction out of Squall. He still wasn't looking at her, but he had rolled onto his back and was staring at the ceiling. For the first time, Quistis saw the nasty scar that Seifer's blade had left. Healing magic and bandages had reduced the size of the injury, but it still was enough to make Quistis wince at the sight of it.

After a few moments, when it became clear that Squall still wasn't going to directly acknowledge her presence, Quistis turned to leave. When she did, she spotted a woman standing quietly by the entrance, wearing a blue sleeveless shirt, green sash and distant expression. Kadowaki was out of sight somewhere, leaving them all but alone.

"Do you need anything?" Quistis asked, a bit hesitantly. There was something strange about this woman; she seemed familiar, in a way Quistis couldn't quite explain. "…I'm sorry, have we met before?"

The woman hesitated a moment; Quistis thought her expression turned slightly hurt. "Do I look familiar?" she asked.

Did she? Quistis tried harder to place either the face or the voice. Both reminded her of something, but she didn't know who or what. "…I must be thinking of someone else," she said.

"I see." The woman's expression told Quistis that she might have picked the wrong answer. Nodding to Squall, she asked, "Is...he going to be okay?"

Quistis frowned. She hadn't thought that Squall was dating anyone, and she knew he didn't have any living family, so the woman's interest in him made her even more mysterious. "…He'll be fine. In a few days, he'll just have a nasty scar and a badly bruised ego."

"That's good to hear." The two of them stood there for another awkward pause, before the mysterious woman nodded again. "Well, thank you," she said, then turned and left.

After trying for another moment to sort out the encounter in her mind, Quistis gave up and started walking back to the dorms. One thing after another had piled up on her today, and now she felt more exhausted than she had been in years.