Squall's POV

I doubt that I'd ever forget the day that the Almasy twins disrupted my (formerly) peaceful life. We were entering our last year at Balamb State High School, which for most of us was a fantasy finally being fulfilled. For me though it was something of a nightmare waiting to push me over the edge.

That first day was almost completely unbearable. Granted it had started well enough but being around the people who pushed every single button (which seemed to make me hell bent on suicide on more than one occasion) and people who seemingly wished to assure that my misery and suffering were endless, made my stomach churn and threaten to re-acquaint me with my breakfast.

Honestly, there were only six people at that stage that I'd be willing to say I cared about and made me tolerate this hell. This particular school morning I had hitched a ride with one of these people. Selphie Tilmitt, a willowy girl I'd known since we were in preschool. I could only ever describe her as being the perfect personification of someone with a permanent sugar rush. Knowing her for as long as I have assured me that that was just how she was so I never worried too much.

Despite my rather small hopes, the holidays had done nothing to settle her down and quench her endless energy. Still I enjoyed the fact that I was able to vegetate out while she recounted her holidays as it meant that even if I had wanted to, I would never have managed to get a word in edgewise. So there I sat, in the front seat of her car, listening semi-attentively to her drome on about what had happened to her the last six weeks.

Her holidays, it seemed, were packed full of fun and laughs. She'd been to the movies a few times, gone to several amusement parks (some in Galbadia and even the Golden Saucer in Midgar!) and seemingly endless amounts of shopping with two of the other people I fancied friends. Yuna and Lenne, the twins were practically inseparable from Selphie and from (at least at the time) the ONLY guy I would have ever said I was comfortable with and trusted. Cloud, my only cousin and one of the only people who ever made life seem worth living.

I must admit - though I never would have dared to interrupt Selphie's impromptu recital to say so - but I was glad that I'd get to see him again. He'd spent his holiday's home in Esthar, visiting his parents. His mother was my mother's elder twin Sister so she was Galbadian and was quite a wealthy business woman, owning an expensive hotel chain and his father was the official Esthar Ambassador to Balamb. They'd been living in Esthar for the past 9 months and Cloud was left here so as not to disrupt his education. Cloud could take care of himself though which is probably why they trusted him to live by himself despite my mother's offer of letting him live with us.

Any way, I was eager to see him and to talk to him about Esthar and from memory, he was due to return to Balamb last night via the intercontinental Rail network, which left from Esthar at 6:45 am, passing through Midgar, Fisherman's Horizon, Galbadia, Timer and finally finishing at Balamb at 9:00 pm.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when I noticed the car rolling to a stop in a quiet Cul-de-sac outside of a familiar house. Sitting on the stone steps Yuna and Lenne grinned at us, before Yuna bolted down the stairs followed by a rather exasperated Lenne. They climbed into the back seat of the car and we (i.e., THEY) continued to prattle on about their holiday experiences and recount their numerous outings.

Not that I didn't care or anything but I had other matters on my mind as we neared our glorified prison. After a while, I noticed the formidable buildings looming ahead which did nothing to settle my uneasiness. When we were nearing the gate, as I expected, I saw a familiar blonde waiting outside, the sun reflecting off his blonde hair and his eyes positively glowing with joy (at least I think they were - his eyes glowed in a really awesome way most of the time anyway). He motioned to the only empty car park remaining while still smiling at the sight of all of us crammed into Selphie's small car.

I wasn't the only one who was happy at seeing Cloud either. When she noticed him, Lenne began unbuckling her seatbelt and I am fairly certain she was contemplating jumping out of a moving vehicle for a moment. Selphie was slowing down and preparing to park but before she started to reverse into the spot, Lenne launched herself out of the car and straight into Cloud's arms. I chuckled as I noticed that it was now Yuna's turn to roll her eyes in exasperation at her sister while Selphie settled for a rather endearing smile.

Despite my initial happiness at seeing Cloud's smiling face, I could feel all the barriers which I had developed over the years, erecting themselves once more. Like I'd said, I hated just about everything about this place. Most people tended to avoid me, possibly owing to the fact that they thought I was the sort of person who would one day go on a killing spree; however you still had to consider the few people who seemed to have sworn a vow to make my life hell.

Chief amongst these were Rinoa Caraway ("head Cheerleader", who'd been in more laps than a napkin and had been tossed to the wayside about as many times), Nida Matsumoto (One of the five Estharin students in our year group, though unlike the other four, he seemed to go out of his way to be an absolute pompous jerk), Wakka Vidina (Captain of the Football team and officially Rinoa's boyfriend though he's had about as many infidelities as she has - and that's saying something) and Kefka Pallazo (Captain of the Hockey club and why people thought I'd go on a killing spree when they had him around is beyond me... he's virtually insane as it is). Those four people, Rinoa, Nida, Wakka and Kefka were the four main antagonists though due to their status, most other people tended to go along for the ride.

I'd gotten out of the car with these thoughts and many more running through my head, though when I found Cloud standing in front of me smiling, I was brought swiftly back to reality. He shook my hand and then we headed into the school, passing the administration block in order to receive our new timetables.

What a first day back. I am almost certain that whoever drafted our timetables certainly didn't want us to enjoy the first day back. Double English in Mrs Kramer's class was ok but it was followed by Maths with Mr Barrett (Mr Barrett was a real hard ass), double P.E. with Mr Loire (he was strict and certainly pushed us… though we all knew he wouldn't go easy just because it was the first day back since he'd expect us to have "kept up with the training" during our holidays) and to top the day off - Science in Ms Adel's class (She was fairly nice as far as teachers went though it was clear that she thought that her subject was the most important one so pushed us about as much as Mr Loire did).

Cloud (THANKFULLY) was in almost all of my classes except for P.E., since he had elected to do Senior Music instead. He also groaned at the thought of having English, Maths and Science all in one day since all of these were rather demanding. "Well, we knew our senior year was going to be fun" he said sarcastically though that did nothing to diminish his smile. I found myself wondering (not for the first time) whether it had been grafted onto his face and smiled at the thought.

Leaving the administration block, Yuna ran into her boyfriend, Kuja who was the captain of the baseball team. I got along well with him I suppose but I didn't exactly trust him. Cloud was friends with everyone on the baseball team, whose members - in stark comparison to the Football and Hockey teams – were practically saints. At least they were all fairly nice and easy going. I waved (half-heartedly but still it was more than most people ever got out of me other than a glare) and Cloud stopped to talk to a couple of them about the lousy timetables before continuing on our way to the usual place.

We had nicknamed the place we always hung out as "Balamb Garden". A small out of the way area past all the different blocks which made up our school, past the tennis courts and through a gap in a rather tall hedge which surrounded it and separated it off like a room open to the sky. It was only a small area about 7 meters wide by another 5 or so though it was pleasant there and at least we seemed to be the only ones (aside from the "Turks") who knew of it so we were left in peace.

Occasionally, one of us had brought a friend back here though they always swore not to tell. Yuna in particular brought Kuja here on quite a few occasions and as far as we knew, he hadn't told a single member of the baseball team, despite having been a close group of friends long before. The "Turks" knew of it, but they were much like our group in a sense that they also tended to avoid most of the school.

Our two groups got along well enough to be considered friends though I couldn't really trust them since they always seemed to know way too much about everything... I used to imagine Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude spying on people. I never wanted to know what Rufus did, though he was certainly the leader of the group.

This morning we'd arrived at "Garden" and we found Elena waiting for us. She smiled, handed me a note, told me to be careful and left. Cloud looked concerned when she told me to be careful and asked to look at the note. Apparently Wakka was planning to do something to me at lunch. Best thing was that I knew ways around the school that he wouldn't have been able to find even if they had neon signposts pointing the way.

"Don't worry, Wakka is a moron. Bear in mind that Kuja hates his sorry ass and if I asked, he would certainly LOVE the chance to get even" he smiled as he said it. I knew he was kidding since he knew that this was my fight and mine alone and that even though Kuja WOULD have done it had he asked, he wouldn't have asked. He was the only guy who understood that about me. If I was in a fight then I would take it myself and not involve my friends even if the other side were not so decent and (in Wakka's case) had about 5 others flanking him.

I balled my fists and scrunched the note up. What was this guy's issue? One thing was for sure, I would never be able to fathom the mind of someone who was denser than dark matter. Ah well, at least I could avoid them if necessary. Cloud patted me on the shoulder once and I heard the bell ring. We headed towards our English class, dreading the double period.

Mrs Kramer was waiting outside the classroom for the students which arrived in twos and threes. She had her usual smile plastered onto her face as she ushered us into the classroom greeting us cordially as we passed. Her waist length black hair gleamed in the fluorescent lights. Her age certainly was not betrayed by her looks. Most people picked her as being in her early thirties though in reality she was in her mid forties and married to the school's Principal.

She closed the door and motioned for the class to be silent before gently reminding us that as it was our last year, our exams were due soon so that this year we would be working fairly hard towards improving our current grades. Cloud smiled at this since he was the top of the class, he knew he wouldn't have needed improvement though I thought I could definitely use some assistance and judging by the look on her face, Selphie felt the same as me.

She hadn't finished her lecture on the importance of studying when there was a knock on the door. All eyes turned towards the door as one of the Administration staff walked in, followed by two tall blonde people. A boy and a girl, both of whom I'd assume were slightly older than me. Both of them seemed to hold the undivided attention of the class. I guess both were probably fairly good looking in their own ways, though I wasn't exactly paying attention, allowing this disruption to let me drift off into "Squall-land" as Selphie put it.

The administrator spoke to Mrs Kramer for a moment before leaving the room, while these two blondes stood awkwardly in front of the class. I vaguely heard Mrs Kramer introduced them as Quistis and Seifer Almasy and then tell them to take the vacant seats behind mine and Cloud's, before continuing on her spiel. As they walked towards me, I noticed that they were indeed both very good looking. She wore a plain red/pink dress which accentuated her figure rather well whereas he wore a rather form hugging white tank top over some dark pants.

Cloud smiled as they passed and although they returned the gesture, I could not bring myself to do it also. My immediate impression of the two was that the girl seemed like a nice person, though I got the feeling that the guy would probably be the type of guy who would assist Wakka in harassing me.

Before I noticed, I found myself once more in Squall-land… at least until we actually HAD to work and when I was forced to get assistance.