If I could catch a rainbow,
I would do it just for you.
My mom and dad. My original parents. I can't remember their names, or the name of the island we lived on. But I do know that I don't have very many fond memories of them. We lived on an island, I'm pretty sure that everybody calls it 'The Island of Hell', now. There were no monsters there, yet, and if there was, it was only a geezard or a funguar or something really weak like that. We had flew past the island in the Ragnorak a couple of times, I never said anything. Would they have understood? I didn't think so.
My name is Selphie Tilmett. I will always think of myself as a Tilmett, I can't remember my parent's last name, Tilmett is my adopted parents' last name. My adopted mom and dad, I will always think of them as my parents. Your family are the people who are always there for you, no matter how bad you screw things up, that sounds like my parents.
My (adopted) mom, she was the nicest person I have ever known. She worked at the hospital in Trabia Garden and would always tell me of all the people she'd saved on the battlefield. Dad, he also worked in Trabia. He was an instructor, and would brief students on their exams. I was so close to them and if anything ever happened...
That's why I was so crushed after the Galbadian base sent out the missiles to Trabia. Both of my parents were killed that day, there was nothing I could do. Even if I had completely disarmed the bombs, the main missile was sent before we got there. Hit. Bang. Game over.
They would do anything for me, I could always depend on them. I thought that they could they could always depend on me, and in doing so, proved myself wrong. Why else would I go to the missile base with the others? I went because I couldn't bare the thought of my parents dying.
They loved me, they cared for me, they gave me a home. They treated me like their daughter. I called them 'mom' and 'dad', they never wanted me to call them that, I think whenever I called them that it reminded them that I wasn't their real daughter. I tried and tried to live up to our family standards. Dad even gave me fighting lessons. Either way, we lived our lives together in happiness.
And share with you it's beauty
on the days you're feeling blue.
"Buh-bye Sefie! We'll miss you!" said little Quistis, wrapping her long arms around me. Quistis and I were always best friends, I was six at the time and never thought that we'd be friends forever now that I was to be adopted by the Tilmetts.
"See ya, Quistie," I sniffled as I wiped off my red face with my sleeve, "bye, everyone. We will be friends forever, I know it." I lied, trying to think positive. Well, was that kind of child, I suppose I'm that sort of adult as well.
I waved through the back window as the car drove away. I can remember my cheeks being drenched with tears and later having used up a whole box of tissues just to get them dry. You can get very attached to a place where you've been all your life.
Paige Tilmett reached back from her front seat and put her hand on my shoulder. She said: "Don't worry, the Shumi tribe is very welcoming." I'd heard of the Shumi, they're huge, yellowish-green, half-human half-octopus type things with hands bigger than my whole body. But Matron always taught us that 'if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.' I just smiled.
When we got to the entrance of Shumi village, it looked almost like a gigantic turtle. With a glass shell, no head and about sixteen more legs. It made me feel like proceeding, and running away, but most of all, screaming, that place was terrifying. I had no voice to scream with, blocked by the huge lump in my throat. Inside was very different, they appeared to be growing some sort of forest in there, and the glass roof let in all the sunlight.
The Tilmetts and I were about to reach our house, when the leader of the Shumi tribe came up to me. He looked down on me with his yellowish-green skin.
My eyes widened, my mouth dropped and hey, there's my voice. "AHHHHHHH!!" I shreiked, clapping my hands around my mouth to stop from screaming anything else. I glanced over at Mrs. Tilmett, then Mr. Tilmett, then slowly back at the creepy Shumi leader. I giggled awkwardly, 'it's gonna be a long first couple of weeks.'
If I could build a mountain,
You could call you're very own.
"Are you ready, Selphie?" Dad asked, "You want me to go easy on you?" My father, Micheal Tilmett, had always tried to help me develope my fighting skills. I was ten, and dad had thought he had taught me enough to face me, one-on-one.
"You better not! I might hurt you!" I replied, readying my dual wooden-handled skipping rope.
"Don't be so sure," dad taunted. He had always fought with his wooden practice sword, now he'd upgraded it to a metal sabre, seeing as I was a few years older now. "Give it your all, it won't make any difference."
"You'll be sorry!" I yelled.
I twirled around my skipping rope- which I used nunchucks- as I ran towards my father, he showed no sign of moving backwards or advancing, or even preparing to fight. 'What the heck is he doing?' I thought, slowing to a stop. "Oh c'mon Mr. Tilmett!! Y-you said we were gonna fight!" It was supposed to sound like he WASN'T phyching me. You know that little voice at the back of your head you get when you know your doing something wrong? That happened. 'Selphie! He's obviously playing with your head! Tell him you're serious!' "C'mon, let's go!"
My father did nothing.
'Smack him!' I whirled around my skipping rope, the other end whacked my father hard in the nose. I froze, inside my stomach churned with fear, while on the outside my emotionless face looked ready to take him on.
Dad's hand moved up on his face. He felt his red, bloody nose and stared in horror at his blood stained hands, like he couldn't believe what I just did. He could've quite easily chopped my nylon skipping rope in half if he wanted to. That sharp sabre probably could've killed me, I knew, he had to go easy on me.
I tried to be brave, I once again readied my skipping rope.
Dad struck the ground half an inch beside me, piercing it far into the earth. He pulled out the dirty sword, "Selphie, watch out," he said.
I relized what he meant and jumped into the air the moment he sliced the ground below me, I think he wants to fight now. I kept barely hopping out of the way as my father tried to smack me with his sabre. He could never catch me, I could never touch him.
His sword snagged onto the back of my extra-long yellow sweatshirt and he pulled me back towards him. I struggled but couldn't get free, I actually tried to grab it with my hands, but still, I saw no chance of getting out. I thought about giving up.
"I...I..." 'Don't you dare give up!'
"You give up yet?" Dad asked, holding me from the back of my sweatshirt with his long, metal sabre. "You beg for mercy? You want some help?"
'You better not! ' "Not a chance!" I slid out of my sweatshirt and landed on my knees, wearing a baggy, yellow dress that my mom had bought me a few weeks ago. I whirled around and kicked him back with my brown leather boots. He fell backwards quite easily, I hadn't realized for a few years that he actually did it on purpose. I got down and pinned him to the ground.
He looked up at me with his serious face. "Not bad tactics," he admitted. He pushed my small body easily up from on top of him. "But try to guard your weapon a little better." I had dropped my skipping rope while pinning him down. He used the back of his sabre to shove me to the ground.
He raised his sword to his head, I protected my head with my arms. If he was going to hit me, that wouldn't be a very good shield, but it would give me enough protection. Then he struck the ground beside me. Of course, if he hit me hard enough, he could kill me. I knew he wasn't going to do that.
A place to find serenity,
a place to be alone.
"Really!?! I get to live here!?" I screamed exitedly. My parents had finished showing me around the Trabia Garden. Then, I was sixteen.
"Yes, Selphie, you get to live here," Mom replied, "although, we'll have to move out of Shumi village."
"Awww, really? Too bad," I said sarcastically. I was so relived to be leaving the freak town of the octopus people. I tried my best not to giggle, those things creeped me out. "How'd you manage to get me in Trabia Garden, anyways?"
"Oh, it was probably because of my and Michael's work here. Either that, or it was all the hard work Michael did to giving you fighting lessons," Mom answered, "the headmaster wants to have a word with you, though."
The headmaster? I figured that my parents had tied up all the loose ends, they usually do. "Really? How come?"
"Didn't say.Well, c'mon then. I'll show you the way," mom offered. She led me down the long hallways, this place looked like a military base. Trabia never got envolved with missions.
We finally reached the headmaster's office.
The headmaster held out his hand. "Hello, Miss Tilmett. My name is Headmaster Johnathan."
I looked at his hand like it was going to reach out and bite me. I hesitantly shook it. "S-Selphie." I forced a smile, that guy had always kind of scared me. His serious brown eyes inspected me. My eyes, my hair, my clothes. I had almost completely grown into my yellow dress.
"I need to ask you a few questions, Selphie." he said quietly.
"...Okay..."
He walked over to a cabinet behind his desk, it was filled with a variety of weapons. Guns, swords, whips, gloves, gunblades, and one that paticularly drew my attention, the nunchucks. "What weapon do you use?" Headmaster Johnathan asked.
I thought for a moment. I had never used any of those weapons before, the only thing I had ever fought with was my skipping rope. "I-I don't know...I've never really thought about it."
I replied.
"I see." he said. "Why don't you try the gunblade." He opened his cabinet and pulled out a steel gunblade. It was big. Bigger than my arm outstretched. But at the time it seemed like it didn't require too much skill. He handed me the gunblade and I took it. Who would've thought that a gunblade would be so heavy? It hit the ground, I couldn't lift it.
"Okay...that isn't your weapon." Headmaster Johnathan scooped up the gunblade as if it were a feather. "Instructor Tilmett told me you took fighting lessons. What weapon did you use? Did you fight with your fists?"
"No." I replied. "A-Actually...I fought with a skipping rope." I blushed. "It had wooden handles, a-and it really hurt when you got hit with them!" I stuttered.
He looked at me thoughtfully. "A skipping rope?" he asked.
"It was the only thing available! I tried using my dad's pratice sword but he wouldn't let me use it and then I came up with the idea to use a skipping rope so I went to my mom and asked if I could get a stronger skipping rope to use as a whip but she said I might hurt myself so I-"
"Selphie!" Mom interrupted. I had forgotten she was still in the room.
My face flushed red. "Sorry..."
"Thank you, Mrs. Timett." Headmaster Johnathan said. Mom nodded in reply. "Now, Selphie. You said that you used the wooden handles to fight with, correct?" he asked, not waiting for me to answer. "...Then I think you would do well with nunchucks."
"Nunchucks?"
"Yes." He continued, handing me the red metal nunchucks. "This is called the Flail. It's a beginner weapon, if you want an upgrade you're going to have to buy it yourself. However, nunchucks require great balance and aim, are you sure you can handle it?"
I just grinned, I could handle it.
If I could take your troubles,
I would toss them in the sea.
I had lived at Trabia Garden for two years before this scenario. Now I was eighteen. In the past three years I had learned that living and attending a Garden was not all that easy. The field exams I took were incredibly hard, about ten times harder then any of dad's fighting lessons. They became easier as time went on, and eventually the exams seemed to be not much of a challenge anymore.
Trabia Garden didn't approve of missions, only exams. They believed that treating students as soldiers for money was unheard of. Of course, Trabia Garden was the first Garden around, and they still seemed to hold on the rules of 'the old days.'
I was in class. My teacher was giving us another one of his lectures. This one about 'the dangers of transforming monsters into cards.' I wasn't listening, or planning to change a monster into a card any time soon.
It seemed like the boredom would never end...until Headmaster Johnathan showed up. He stood at the door for a minute until the teacher noticed him and gestured for him to come in. He glanced in my direction before he looked back at the teacher. "May I borrow Selphie Tilmett for a moment?" he asked.
'What does he want with me?'
The teacher agreed and I silently left the room with Headmaster Johnathan. He led me down the halls of Trabia Garden to his office. I had only been in his office once or twice in past two years, I was an ordinary student, one that didn't stand out. The ones that stood out, or the exceptionally strong usually got called to his office. I was hardly one of those.
"Sit, sit." He said in the same soft tone that I remembered him having. I did as I was told. "Selphie, do you have any idea why you are here?" He asked, sitting on the opposite side of the oak desk.
"No, sir." I replied nervously.
Headmaster Johnathan's office was exactly the same as the last time I was here. The last time I was here the only reason I went was because I needed instuction on my nunchucks, how to cast 'draw' spells through them. The only way I mastered it was I had to twist it into an akward 'Z' shape while casting.
"Selphie, you're special." He said plainly. I absentmindedly raised an eyebrow at that remark. Special? Since when?
"Is it because my parents work here?"
"No, Selphie." he continued. "Your progress has amazed me. You have fought and won continuously on your field exams. Your draw technique has improved significantly in the past few months. You have...ambition."
"T-Thank you, sir." I said, still not knowing where this conversation was going.
"You have caught my eye, Selphie. You stand out."
'Stand out?'
"Me?" I asked. "It is because my mom and dad's work here, isn't it?"
"No."
"Oh."
"Selphie, you should be very proud of yourself and the progress you have made here, and your parents should be, too. You are an excellent student, and I'm sure that you will make an excellent soldier." he said.
Trabia Garden never dealt with missions or soldiers, or anything that had to do with making money. "Excuse me?"
"You are being transfered."
"Transfered?" I asked, sounding a lot calmer than I felt. "T-Transfered where?" Since when did Trabia Garden transfer their students to another Garden? Did they want to det rid of me? What was this other garden like? I wanted to say all of those questions, but the only thing that popped out of my mouth was: "Do my parents know about this?"
"Your parents are fully informed, and they are happy for you. It's a big step, Selphie, as is it an honour." He said. "You are being transfered to Balamb Garden. It's much bigger, and while you are there you will be fighting for the title 'SeeD,' you will also deal with missions and field exams harder than the ones here. Think of it as a promotion."
I didn't say a thing.
But all these things
I'm finding are impossible for me.
I walked about Balamb Garden, it was huge. It was so much bigger then Trabia Garden, and so much more intimidating. Trabia Garden had given me my schedule for Balamb's
classes, I had Instuctor Quistis Trepe for homeroom. The name sounded familiar, but I didn't know where from.
Inside my new dormitory wasn't any bigger then my room at Trabia Garden. It seemed like the kind of place that missions would take place in, even the dorm rooms reflected it. The sheets were white and the bedspread was black. There was a desk, it was covered with scattered papers, and the room was painted white.
'Seems kinda boring...'
One of the papers on my desk was my schedule, I looked over at the wrinkled piece of paper. I glanced at my watch. I was late already! My first day! Way to make a good first impression, Selphie.
I dashed down the halls, when I made it to the elevator, there were already people leaving from homeroom. I tried to convince myself that I still had time and raced onto the elevator. I pushed the 'up' button, a single black arrow pointing upwards. I reached the second floor, and continued running. I looked down and closed my eyes.
'Why is this happening!?'
BANG! I was knocked to the floor, I opened my eyes in shock.
"Are you alright?"
It was Squall. The first time I'd seen him in thirteen years and I didn't even recognize him. But, he was the first person who talked to me, so I put on my cheerful face and helped myself up."There!" I said, hopping slightly forward to steady myself. "Tee-hee! I'm fine!"
Squall looked at me thoughtfully, but I knew inside he was thinking ...Whatever... In a pesimistic-Squall-like way.
"Um...Is homeroom over?" I asked, blushing slightly.
"Yeah, it just ended."
"Ohhh, oh noooooooooo...." I moaned. Now I will forever bear the title 'Late.' "I-I got lost. I'm new here, I just got transfered from Trabia Garden." I scratched the back of my neck, why was I telling this to a complete stranger? But what popped out of my mouth next really crossed the line. "Do you think you could show me around?"
'Selphie! You don't even know him!' My mind screamed at me but my face was locked in a friendly smile.
"Sure." he replied. "But you have to keep up."
"Yes Sir!"
He led me back down to the main floor and to a screen. I had seen the device when I first came through the entrance. I looked over it briefly, but I didn't understand it and kept walking. I guess I'd understand it now.
He told me all about it. He explained the different areas as he moved the little arrow around the screen, and I replied as he told me. The whole process took about five minutes, before he ended our conversation.
"And that's it." Squall concluded, beginning to walk away. "But, I have to go. I have a field exam in a few hours."
'Field exam? Oh, yeeeeah.'
Headmaster Cid said that I could start directly on the field exams, assuming that I'd gone to the Fire Cavern already (which I had). This one, I was doing.
"Oh, I'm doing the field exam, too!" I said cheerfully. "I guess I'll see you then. See ya!" I ran off in the opposite direction. Balamb Garden's exams couldn't be much harder than Trabia Garden ones...could they?
I cannot build a mountain,
or catch a rainbow fair.
I stood atop a sand dune as I watched the Galbadian missiles streak across the sky. A look of sheer horror crossed my face when I heard the explosion. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't protect Trabia.
My whole little group stood below me, watching as well but couldn't comprehend the terror I felt. I was Selphie, cheerful little Selphie in the bright yellow dress. The one who could never be sad, the one with the never-ending feelings of happiness...they were wrong.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to murder the people who did this. But the only thing I did was talk, it was the only thing I could do. I was frozen, pain and sadness and loathing filled me but I couldn't do anything.
"Please...let that be a miss..." I said shakily.
Tears stabbed at the back of my eyes, I knew. I knew it was too late when I went to the base. I knew that everything I ever knew was gone, I knew then, and I would know for the rest of my life. I wanted revenge.
But let me be what I know best...
Quistis walked up the dune and swung her one, long arm around my shoulder. She could sense my pain, just as she had the day I left the orphanage.
"It'll be okay..." she said. Those three, comforting words made me swing my arms around her. I hugged her tightly and the tears flowed freely from my eyes. She hugged me back. It seemed oddly familiar.
I pushed away from her lightly, wiping the tears from my face with the ball of my hand. "Thanks, Quistis." I sniffed. She was always there for me, from the very beginning to the very end. She was there when I felt pain, and when I needed a shoulder to cry on.
We were friends forever.
A friend that's always there.