Great. Just great. It lurched down at her and she jumped back, scowling at her own stupidity. Why had she walked out into the forest knowing she was wearing a skirt? She took another step back and cast blizzaga on the beast. It flinched, and though it was only a young T-Rexuar, it sounded a massive roar and jumped back into combat. By and by she'd jump to avoid a tail or a lunge, but she knew that wearing this skirt, she was in no condition to physically fight back, and so, she spent most of her time rapidly casting blizzagas against the monster.
Maybe it was the T-Rexaur's roars that the boy heard because he soon jumped into their fray and ended things with the monster once and for all. He was a Duelist like herself, Lina soon discovered, swinging fists right and left to beat away the fiend. Soon enough, it disappeared back into the throng of trees, leaving the boy to sigh in relief and exasperation. He stood, turned around and faced Lina. It was a bit awkward and though Lina did not know him, she sense tension in the pause.
"Um... Thanks for that," Lina said, inclining her head in the direction of the escaped T-Rexaur.
"No problem," he said, rubbing his knuckles into his palm and shrugging it off easily. His hand went up curtly as what he hoped could pass off as wave, then slipped pass her gaze towards Garden's front gate. Lina, after a few seconds to let this gesture sink in, followed behind him a modest distance into Garden.
At the directory board, Lina curved off to the right and spotted "old-pal" Seifer leaning against the railing with a nonchalant smirk on his face. As she approached, he turned his head to the side, flaunting a handsome profile in her direction.
"Seifer, how are you?" Lina asked. It was only a little bit awkward considering Seifer was Lina's sister's ex. Since Rinoa had left him for Squall (and with such good reason), Seifer had gelled his hair a little spikier, flashed his piercing green eyes more often, and held his head up higher to redeem himself. Other than that, he was literally more tense when the new and unimproved Lina came his way, also with good reason.
"I'm fine, Heartilly," he stated stonily. Lina could see that this conversation was going nowhere even though it'd just begun. "What do you want?" Which could be clearly translated into 'please go away because your presence makes me feel uncomfortable.'
"Nothing, Seifer. I'm just saying 'hi' and since you seem so upset, I'm just going to leave you in peace," Lina said and headed down towards the library. Seifer stood where she'd left him, staring at her. He felt something jerk in his stomach and he frowned. Had he ever felt guilty for anything worse than this? So, Lina headed off towards the library, but right at the entrance in front of the first shelf of encyclopedias, a student tapped her on the shoulder. Lina at that moment had held in her hand a small bundle of books, ones which would have assisted her in getting through the day without feeling the familiar inanition, but set them back down and turned to face whoever might be addressing her.
"Excuse me, but I think I saw you walk in with Zell. Does that mean you're fond of him or something? Are you looking out for him or anything?" the girl asked. Lina took the moment to memorize the girl's face. Her memorization since her accident had been astoundingly accurate. She could take in every little feature in her jealous-ridden face including the fakeness of her forced smile. The girl had a fairly long braid of dark brown hair pulled to the head of her head to make one pigtail and only one pigtail.
"Um... Zell? Who's that? And, I'm sorry, may I ask who you are?" Lina asked. Zell... Zell... nope, but when she said the name it seemed to roll off her tongue so easily. The girl sighed, pull down on her braid a bit and glared at Lina through impatient eyes, immediately dismissing any shred of a smile she may have been faking. But shouldn't she feel triumphant? Or had she really won against Lina?
"My name is Sadie, and Zell Dincht is the boy with the tattoo on his face that you happened to be walking in with just a few minutes ago," she stated rather stonily. Dincht. Another familiarity Lina wasn't quite able to grasp. Lina opened her mouth to respond and to introduce herself, but Sadie cut her off right then and there, "Zell is mine so BACK OFF!"
Her voice echoed throughout the library and partly into the hallway because Lina could still hear her yells as she scampered away, cheeks red, temper flustered. Just outside, she saw a reluctant Zell watching her out of the corner of her eye. How embarrassing--everyone must have been talking about it by now. She glanced at him rather shyly then headed off as calmly as she could in the opposite direction.
A destination! She needed a destination! Where was there to go? Quistis! Lina made a sharp turn towards the elevator and escaped inside it away from utter humiliation. What a first day, eh? The elevator stopped on the second floor and she struggled through the mess of students coming out of homeroom to get to Quistis's office all the way at the end of the hall. When she arrived, Quistis remained sitting, shuffling through a large stack of documents to her right.
"Hey, Quistis?" Lina asked and Quistis looked up, cheeks turning red. "Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could find out my room number now."
"Oh yeah...I um... almost forgot. Everything should be right here, just a moment please." Quistis, in attempt to hide her blush, buried her face down behind the table to rummage through another pile of papers. A moment later, she emerged successful with a white envelope in hand. "Inside here, you'll find a map of Garden, though I'm sure Rin will show you around with pleasure. I'll send a message outside to have your things brought into your room and um... enjoy!"
Lina took the packet with pleasure and pulled out the papers. Room 21. Her lucky number. She knew she'd enjoy her stay at Garden.