"Well, Dan, it's very nice to meet you," Lina laughed. Dan could only smile--boy was he nervous as hell. Why? Because he knew that Zell would be there, and he didn't want to upset Zell. Lina stopped shaking his hand and very suddenly hugged him. "Thank you so much for what you did for me." Well let's just say Dan didn't so that coming, so he was naturally shocked. She let go of him and smiled, "So how long are you staying?"
Dan, however, had no time to answer as Selphie can trudging through a thicket of trees and straight towards Lina. She pried the Frisbee from Lina's hands and starting beating her over the head with it. "How long does it take a person to get a Frisbee!? Even NORG could have run up here faster. I mean Jeez, Lina, what the heck?" She suddenly stopped her Frisbee rampage and looked at Dan. "Whoa, whoa.... wait just a gosh darn second. Who is that?" Selphie pointed in his direction as if he couldn't see her.
"Selphie, this is Dan," Lina introduced, rubbing the side of her head ruefully. Selphie suddenly leapt into action, circling around and over and back and forth like an eagle eying it prey. Dan looked somewhat frightened, and for good reason too--Selphie was scary when she was on the prowl. Selphie then zoomed in on him and peered at the left shoulder of his uniform with great curiosity. "Don't worry, she doesn't bite strangers."
"You're from Trabia Garden!" she exclaimed suddenly, pointing vigorously at the small Trabia badge embroidered into the shoulder pad of his uniform. Dan nodded slightly as Selphie began to poke rapidly at his shoulder and took a bit of a step back. "You are! Aren't you!? I went there myself when I was really young... well that really really young because I'm not that old, but young enough to be considered young. You know how it is. How is it there? How is everyone? Are you coming to Balamb for good? How exciting!"
"Yeah..." Dan murmured and tried to act like he wasn't scared, but he was and his expression made Lina laugh. "Well I'm transferring to Balamb Garden with a whole bunch of other students today. It's just on the other side of the hill over there." Dan pointed off in some direction. Suddenly, the others came through the trees and joined their little conversation--no more Frisbee.
"Hey, Zell," Lina smiled childishly as soon as he reached her side. She hugged him around his mid-section and looked up at him, but he was looking in Dan's direction. Dan held his hand up in a stout little wave--nervous no doubt, also hoping that Lina hadn't told him about when Dan tried to kiss her after a dance a couple of months ago. "This is Dan."
"I thought it was Ron," Zell said; it was rather conspicuous that Zell remembered his face, but the name attached to it was something different. Dan tried his best to smile, but he felt like he was shrinking something awful under Zell's stare. Zell finally took his eyes away from Dan and then to Lina and smiled. Dan relaxed a little bit--he didn't seem as intimidating when he smiled.
"No...um...that's my other name..." Dan explained desperately, but Zell didn't look up at him, just kept on smiling at Lina who was now red with blush. "You know...like how Lina's other name is Liz...yeah..." Zell then looked up, smiled very, very subtly, and nodded. From then on, everyone except Zell decided this really wasn't very interesting, so they left to go play Frisbee again, or to go become subject to Selphie's Frisbee-chucking wrath.
"What do you specialize in, Dan?" Lina asked.
"Hmm? Oh, I specialize in gunblades. Plural, yeah," Dan said as modestly as he could. The 'gunblades' plurality was a common misconception taken every time he had this exact conversation. Lina couldn't help but laugh at Dan's nervousness--she knew exactly how intimidating Zell could be, but as of right now with Lina all wrapped up in his arms, he was completely subdued. "Hey, Lina, if I could just ask you... where did you come from?"