Final Fantasy Bachelorettes

Squalls_Lover · 02-13-2007, 02:12 AM

Chapter 1

“You know, if you get your scores up in physics, maybe we could have a job common sector, Rikku.”

Rikku rolled her eyes as she bit into her ketchup laden hamburger and elicited a hopeful smile from Yuffie. She chewed slowly and carelessly wiped the sauce that had splattered across her inflated cheek. Her observing friend smirked at Rikku’s desperate display of hunger.

“Hungry?” Yuffie winked jokingly, to which her best friend smiled and finally swallowed.

“They should really make long and narrow burgers, these ones are just…” Rikku sighed in contempt as she finished off her second burger. The Sector 7 Academy’s outdoor canteen was beaming with bright sunlight and Yuffie stretched up from her seat to rearrange the white parasol that emerged from the center of their table.

A cool shade covered the young students seated opposite one another and the breezes that swept past added a nice touch to the hot summer’s midday.

“That physics thing is chocobo-

e, I dunno if I can pull that off, Yuffers.” A noisy sucking sounded as she finished off the last droplets of her banana shake. Rikku placed the large shake cup down and ran a hand through her long ginger hair as she stretched backwards and yawned.

Yuffie gazed at her friend curiously with her short dark brown hair wavering around her slender jaw line as she wondered about her statement. There were many students on identical chairs, tables and parasols sticking out towards a serene blue, bright and cloudless sky.

A cheerful blanket of oblivion was cast over the students as they chattered, laughed and joked through their lunchtime. Then, the ominous bell rang and it was back to classes once more. Rikku and Yuffie hurried to the tray dispenser, hastily brushed off the empty shells of their former food and scattered towards the large lime green corridor with a herd of students all heading the same way.

Rikku disappeared through a black door and just on the opposite side was Yuffie’s classroom. The rush of students soon died down as everyone reached their respective classes and the corridors were cast with utter silence.

Seifer Almasy’s crisp footsteps were heard prominently trekking down the same corridor, scrutinizing the classroom door windows for any misbehaving students he could take ‘care’ of later on. Not far behind, Selphie lingered silently in her soft padded pink sneakers and short yellow summer dress.

Her usual smile was weighed down with the burden of having to work with Seifer on the Student Patrol Team of the Academy. She sighed as she ambled along tapping an electronic device to a sensor of every classroom door. As she took the readings of every classroom’s attendance her digital notepad blinked green to signal they were all present.

Seifer glanced back at his companion and smirked as he noticed the way her dress wavered suggestively around her thighs. He raised his gaze quickly to meet hers as they neared the end of the lime green corridor and halted at the last door to take the last reading. Selphie’s twinkling green eyes may as well have been blue by the depth of the icy glare she shot him as she placed the device to the last sensor.

Unaffected by her apparent display of coldness for him, Seifer leaned against the wall next to her, just about to close in on her with another one of his witty remarks, when the sensor went off.

Alarmed, Selphie glimpsed at the flashing red light from her device before tip-toeing to look in from the window of the classroom door as to who was missing. The lesson went on as usual, as it was the Academy code not to let missing students ruin the flow of the lesson for others. Their disciplining was to be done with by the Patrol Team.

Having recovered from the small interruption, Seifer rolled his eyes, snatched the digital notepad from his assistant’s grasp and shook his head at her as he typed away on its keyboard to ascertain which students were missing.

“That’s how it’s done. You’re still pretty green.” He sneered at her as he displayed the notepad to her with profile details of the missing students. Two photographs showed up side by side with generic details along the sides. Names were displayed in bold at the top of the photographs.

There was a black long haired female student with fair complexion and black eyes; named Rinoa Heartilly whereas the other student was male, had medium brown hair, a milky complexion and crystal clear blue eyes named Squall Leonhart.

“Oh, I know her! She’s in my creativity session.” Selphie pointed out, smiling to see a familiar face for a change. She’d only been patrolling with Seifer for a few days, and never before had a red sensor alarm go off like that. She was new to everything, but that just worked in Seifer’s favour in criticizing her, the way he criticized everyone.

“That’s not our concern, we’re gonna have to find them right now and see why they’re not here, where they oughta be” Seifer continued, matter-of-factly and casually tossed the notepad back to his assistant before carrying on ahead. Selphie just nearly caught the unexpected flying object and growled under her breath before sighing and following.

You’re not exactly where you’re supposed to be, either. Selphie thought spitefully, narrowing her eyes at him as she walked close behind.

Seifer Almasy was 28 years old, and an exceptional student case. Sector 7 Academy, or any of its neighbouring Academies for that matter, didn’t expect students to stay beyond 27, in which they’re supposed to complete their final year and be allocated a job title by the meticulous process of “scoring”.

The Academy motherboard computer, or commonly known to the students as “mother” has a database of all students, behavioural records, subject and testing scores according to which she allocates them their destined future career or job.

Being a special case, Seifer had failed most of the tests and accumulated a record low score, that didn’t even enable him to land a job in the cleaner’s sector, which is known to be the lowest of the low. Hence he had to be allocated further tasks to boost his score, such as being team leader in the Academy’s Student Patrol Team.

It was his last year, after which he would automatically be placed in the cleaning sector’s bottom rank if he didn’t score high enough in appropriate fields, subjects or responsibilities.

Students that gathered enough score to qualify for an actual career or job were given the option to leave earlier and be allocated to that specific job title in the working world by the Academy as and when vacancy permitted.

Every aspect of education and work was determined by these Academies, and there were no alternatives to finding a career or choosing your own path – your scores were your only point of flexibility in steering towards your desired career.

Yet, despite the cold, controlling eye of the “mother” that decided the future of millions of candidates, there were the likes of Selphie, who would dream to land their desired career and not be intimidated by the harsh, functional and pragmatic system. Often when the Academy motto was announced, “All parts of the body, whether small or large function as a whole – as do we as a society.” she would giggle and roll her eyes, causing her fellow students to sometimes see beyond their hopelessness.

The mother often announced that everyone was equal in rank because they all performed important roles in maintaining the greater being: society. Despite this, students who were allocated a position in the cleaner’s sector were often either looked down upon for not achieving enough score or miserable with their destined career.

Just then, an announcement hit the air, opened by a familiar tune: “Everyone has an equal chance at securing a career – work hard and there will be a level playing field waiting for you.”

Seifer glanced back at Selphie to see her reaction, as she was near to being famous in the Academy for her antics at such times, and raised an eyebrow as she continued on normally behind him.

They turned the corridor and headed through the double glass doors that led to the outside lunch area. All white tables were wiped immaculately clean with their parasols gently wavering in the wind and the chairs tucked neatly underneath as if no one had yet even thought the word “lunch”.

All was silent except for the breeze that kept lifting Selphie’s short summer dress slightly to Seifer’s amusement. She walked behind, throwing daggers at him with her eyes as he glimpsed back at her with his intrusive sneering face.

“Where’re we going?” she asked impatiently as he made his way across the tables and chairs and into another set of double glass doors. To her surprise, he stopped, nearly making her crash into him from behind. She halted just in time, caught herself and stepped back, gazing at him in irritation.

Seifer turned around and held his chin between his thumb and fingers, whilst resting his elbow on the other arm and thought to himself for a moment. Returning his blue gaze back to her, he commented:

“I bet you any amount of gil that these two are together. I don’t know them, but I’ve seen them around. And I have a slight hunch as to where they can be, just shut up and follow me.”

Sighing, Selphie did as she was told and he continued on down another long light lilac corridor. Either side, there were dorm rooms and beyond the corridor there were the Infirmary to the right and a small chill out spot, referred to as the Restory by the Academy, on the left, which was usually closed if all students were simultaneously in class, but open if some were in class and others were free.

Then of course, there was the category of students, which was extremely rare and often dealt with harshly, that decide to bunk off lessons and meet up there.

Selphie and Seifer turned left and headed straight for the polished wooden double doors, when a few familiar faces emerged from them. Aeris smiled and shook her brown plaited ponytail head as she gazed up to Zack who also seemed lost in conversation as they walked side by side. Aeris’s green eyes widened for a moment as they noticed Seifer and halted.

Zack tilted his spikey black haired head and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the Patrol leader and his assistant approach them.
Aeris smirked at Selphie as she noticed she was wearing the same dress as her but in deep pink with brown knee-high boots. Seifer took the notepad from Selphie and drew closer to the two that had just left the Restory grounds.

He typed a few letters on the notepad and held it up for display to them.

“Seifer Almasy, Student Patrol. Have you seen these two anywhere today?” He eyed Zack up and down, noting his prominent presence and how easily he must score, but not in the Academy, but with the ladies. Even Selphie smiled shyly as she noticed the muscles on Zack’s arms and stomach through his thin black vest.

“Hmm…nope, haven’t seen them today, have you?” Zack glanced back at Aeris who seemed to stand by calmly and examine the photos.

After a pause, she rolled her eyes and laughed, “Oh of course I have, but I don’t know about the girl. Squall was here about an hour ago.”

“ How long have you been here?” the patrol leader insisted.

“Well, I’ve been here for around two hours.” Aeris nodded, smiling at Zack, who concluded:

“I arrived about fifteen minutes ago and am out to go training now. Paine, Tifa and the guys are waiting, so, I’ll catch ya later, Aeris.”

The black haired hunk took the jacket Aeris was holding for him, swung it over his shoulder stylishly before rushing away from the scene.
Seifer’s gaze followed him as he disappeared around the corner and he turned his attention back to the green eyed beauty.

“So, did this guy say where he was going or if he had any plans for the day?” he asked as he typed in the information he had just gathered about Squall onto the notepad. Selphie leaned against a nearby wall and yawned, glancing up at the sky that showed through the glass roof.

It was a beautiful sunny day, spent in the ugliest of ways. She ran fingers through her gentle ginger-brown bouncy hair that curled up and out at the sides of her face.

Selphie studied him as he spoke to Aeris, noticing how the grey sleeveless shirt didn’t do his figure any justice, because he wasn’t as ripped as he imagined to be.

He probably sees something else in the mirror to what we do. Has illusions of being hott… Selphie thought and giggled out loud, thus interrupting the investigation. Seifer glanced sharply at her and the fierceness of his temper gleamed in his cold eyes.

“What’s so funny? I’m trying to locate these jerks here and all you do is giggle around like a friggin chipmunk on crack!”

At this point, Selphie and Aeris both burst out laughing. Bewildered by them, Seifer growled under his breath before heading down the corridor to continue the search, whilst the girls held onto each other to prevent themselves from falling down from too much laughter.

To Be Continued...in Chapter 2

Hope you enjoyed it, I loved writing it.