What about Nida?
by Lady Aliena

much, and the few pieces of dialogue I took from the game. Since Nida's hardly

in the game at all, most of the dialogue is original, but everything else is

Square's.

You may not know me. It seems that most people don't. I don't know why. I guess

I just blend into the crowd. I've lived among these people for years - walked

the same halls, ate the same food, learned the same lessons, and yet it seems

I'm forgettable. Not that I'm complaining, or anything.

I remember sitting in class. Quistis was the teacher. She was so beautiful, the

way she'd always try to act stern and come off older than she really was. I sat

in the front always wanting her to call on me. I knew my stuff, I really did. I

was a top student, but she always seemed to focus on 2 of my classmates instead

- Seifer & Squall.

I didn't like Seifer much. I thought he was a bit of a jerk. Squall, on the

other hand, seemed like a good guy, if he'd let you get to know him. We all

applied to be SeeDs together. We trained side by side and yet Squall acted as if

he had never seen me before in his life. What's up with that? How do you train

together everyday and not even notice one of the people you're training with?

And then the meeting with Headmaster Cid..."Do your best, even though you don't

stand out." Oh well...I get used to things like that.

Oh man, I'm starting to sound whiny. Sorry about that...Let me continue with my

story. That night at this party, I built up the courage to talk to Quistis.

Walking over to her, I noticed that a dark-haired girl had drug Squall out onto

the dance floor and he was stumbling all over his feet. I couldn't help but

smile. I guess you can't be good at everything. I tentatively made my way to

where Quistis was standing talking to a girl named Xu.

"Um...excuse me, Quistis...my name is..."

"Oh, Nida! I heard the good news! Congratulations on making SeeD!"

Let me say now that I was shocked out of my mind! Quistis actually knew who I

was!

"I don't know if you two have met, but Nida, this is my friend, Xu. Xu, this is

Nida, one of my students."

I had never really noticed Xu, but facing her, I noticed she was quite pretty.

Not striking, like Quistis, but sweet looking.

"Hi," I said with a newfound confidence. (Quistis actually recognized me!!)

Xu smiled, "Hello, Nida. It's nice to meet you."

"Well, ok...umm...bye!" and I left. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that

Quistis & Xu exchanged weird glances. Looking back, I realize how dumb I must

have looked walking away so quickly without really making conversation. But at

the time, I was satisfied. I was noticed!

After I had become a SeeD, I began thinking big. Someday, I would be in charge

of Balamb Garden. After all, I was one of the elite SeeDs. I tried to act macho

around the girls, but the reaction I got every time was, "Who are you again?"

One day I was coming out of the elevator when I smashed into someone and knocked

something out of her hands. It was Xu.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry...Xu, is it? Remember we met the night of the SeeD

party? I'm Nida."

"Oh yes, I remember you," she said bending down to pick up what she had dropped.

Triple Triad cards!

"You play too?"

She looked up at me and nodded so I did what any macho guy would do. I

challenged her to a game. Maybe if she saw how good I was, she'd mention it to

Quistis. Unfortunately, I lost the first game we played. And the second. And the

third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth...

"You're pretty good, you know that," Xu smiled at me.

"You've got to be kidding! You beat me every time!"

Xu laughed. "I didn't say you were better than ME. I just said you were pretty

good. Say, we have this card club. Would you be interested in it? There's a

bunch of us that play...me, Quistis..."

Quistis was a member of the card club? "Sure, I'd love to check it out!" I

replied enthusiastically.

"Great," she said writing on a scrap of paper, "Meet us in room 202 at 2:30

tomorrow. See you then..." she smiled and gathered up her cards (and those of

mine that she won), and walked towards the elevator.

So, I began to play cards with the card club. Unfortunately, Quistis was never

there. Xu told me she was forced to resign from being an instructor and so she

was on a SeeD mission somewhere. I couldn't believe it. First of all, she was

the greatest instructor at this Garden! But I also couldn't believe that here I

was, a SeeD, and I wasn't being asked to go on any missions. So I marched up to

Cid's office.

Cid looked up from his desk, "Can I help you, ummm..."

"It's Nida," I said, "and I want to know if there are any missions for me."

Cid shuffled through some papers and looked in some drawers until he found my

file. "Oh yes, Nida, you just became a SeeD. Well, I'm sorry I don't have

anything for you right now. Maybe you can just watch over the Garden, you know,

in case anything happens..." he said, putting my file back into the drawer.

I thought, yeah right...like anything ever happens around here! "Thank you,

sir."

"No problem, Norris," Cid said, waving me away.

"Nida."

"Whatever..."

Anyway, I did start noticing strange things happening around the Garden. The

garden faculty would stand around looking furtive and talking in hushed

whispers. I never trusted those guys. Anyway, I was walking down the hall one

day when I saw a couple. I decided I wanted to know what was going on, so I

strained my ears to see if I could hear ANYTHING. I couldn't really just stop

there and eavesdrop because they would run off. As I was walking slowly by, I

caught the word "NORG." What's a norg, I thought? I tried to hear other things

they were saying, but they noticed me and ran off.

The next day I woke to chaos! Xu was pounding on my door. "NIDA! NIDA! Get up!

We need you out here!"

I jumped out of bed, quickly put on my SeeD uniform and ran out the door.

Frantically, Xu pulled me out past the dorms and I gasped when I saw garden

faculty and SeeDs all in battle with one another. "What's going on?!??"

"Garden Master NORG wants Cid out. I don't have time to explain. We have to help

our friends!"

"What's a norg?" I asked, but she didn't hear me. We split up and she rushed off

while I ran towards the infirmary and joined the students there. We fought and

there were many wounded. It seemed like no matter what we did, we had to fight

more & more. All of the sudden, guess who shows up? That's right. Squall,

Quistis, and that girl that had made Squall dance the night of the party. They

started fighting with us and for once, we had a break from the battles. Squall

went in to talk to Dr. Kadowaki. When he came out, I said, "Hey Squall."

He looked at me blankly, "Who are you?"

"What!? Oh man, it's me. We passed the SeeD exam together. I can't believe you

forgot."

Squall nodded, though I know he still had no clue who I was. "Oh yeah..." he

said.

"Gee...well it's just like you to forget," I frowned. He shrugged and took off.

I wanted to go find Xu. Funny thing, I had always thought I liked Quistis, but

when everything had happened, the person I thought of the most was Xu. What was

it with me and instructors?? I started to run out of the infirmary wing when I

felt this great rumbling. A bunch of us ran to the nearest window and watched in

amazement as the Garden began to glow and it seemed like it was floating. We saw

missles in the sky go racing by and strike the ground where Garden used to be!

Garden was flying! I don't know who was piloting that thing, but there we were

standing in amazement at the window as we flew out and landed calmly on the sea.

There we sailed on and on...right into a little town!

That's right. Whoever was piloting the Garden crashed into this little fishing

town in the middle of the sea that's called Fisherman's Horizon, or FH. The

morons! Luckily no one was hurt and the FH people were very friendly. They

offered to fix up the Garden and even taught me the ins and outs of piloting the

ship. I begged Cid to let me pilot the Garden. If he wasn't going to give me a

real mission, at least he could give me a job!

"Sure, sure...that's fine, Nolan," he said, again, waving me away.

"It's Nida!"

"Whatever..."

So I became the pilot of Balamb Garden. Quisti, Xu, and I were assembled on the

bridge. I was getting restless because the repairs to the ship were finished.

All of the sudden the elevator doors opened and Squall came walking in. To my

chagrin, Quistis & Xu beamed and started clapping. So half-heartedly, I clapped

too. After all, he had saved the Garden from a norg, though I still wanted to

know what one was! I spoke up, "Hey Squall, you know the FH technicians were

fixing the Garden, right? They just finished, meaning...the Garden's ready to go

anytime. Oh yeah, I'll be piloting the Garden. FH technicians taught me

everything about piloting this thing. So let me know when you want to go."

When Squall agreed, I announced over the intercom, "May I have your attention

please. The Garden will be leaving FH shortly. Please prepare for departure." I

also knew Squall wasn't the talkative type, so to be mean, I added, "I will now

hand the mic over to our leader, Squall."

I have never seen Squall so white. He froze and then snapped, "A speech? Forget

it! Cut the mic!" Laughing to myself, I complied.

We set a course for Centra. I was kind of enjoying the power of being in control

of a huge ship. Hey! I had always told myself I'd be in control of Balamb Garden

one day and that day had come.

As we neared Centra, I noticed another Garden, which looked to me like Galbadia.

"Squall, take a look." I handed him some binoculars. "What do you think?"

He sighed and shook his head, "The battle is inevitable."

I suggested he give his orders to everyone over the intercom when ready. When he

finally did, he rambled on and on. I told him all that was kind of unnecessary.

I mean, people get freaked out during battle. All they need to hear is

whatever's necessary - not all that other stuff. Needless to say, he didn't seem

to appreciate my opinions on good order-giving.

He ran down to Cid's office, I guess to meet with the other SeeDs. I just stayed

on the bridge piloting the Garden when I saw something that made my heart stop.

I frantically pressed the intercom button, "Squall! Get up to the bridge NOW!"

He ran in and looked as I pointed towards a flying Galbadia Garden headed

straight for us! Squall told me to keep going, however. As we were fixing to

collide with Galbadia, I screamed, "We're going to crash!!"

Squall yelled, "Go RIGHT!" So I steered right as best as I could and heard a

horrific noise and I fell over from the impact and hit my head. Everything went

black. I must not have been out very long, but when I woke up, Dr. Kadowaki was

there and she asked me to call Squall up to the bridge. So, I did. Squall and

his friends rushed in and began to fill Dr. Kadowaki in on the situation. From

everything they said, it was pretty bad, but Dr. Kadowaki urged Squall to get on

the intercom and address everyone. She said it would be good for morale.

Squall grimaced, but realized the truth. He turned on the intercom.

"Everybody...this is Squall..." he began and then gave the most moving speech. I

didn't know he had it in him. Dr. Kadowaki told him he was great and then it was

my turn. I was going to bash Galbadia. Though it pained me to hurt my ship, I

did it. While everyone ran off to fight, I was beginning to feel faint.

Dr. Kadowaki noticed my head, which was starting to bleed, "Nida! We have to get

that fixed right away!" She ran downstairs to get a few supplies and came back

up and bandaged me up.

"Are you ok, Nida?" asked a soft voice. It was Xu.

"Xu! I'm fine. I don't know about the Garden, though."

"Well, the Garden can be fixed," she said, "I'm more concerned about the shape

of my friends."

When Dr. Kadowaki left the bridge, I said, "Xu, can I tell you something?"

"Sure!" she replied.

"Well, it's just that, you see, I've really enjoyed talking to you..." I'm

really going to do it! I'm going to tell her what I feel!

"Me too, Nida. You're a good friend."

"What I'm trying to say is that, Xu, I li-"

"Nida, don't," Xu said. "I value your friendship, but I just don't think of you

that way. I'm sorry."

"Oh," I felt awful! "Don't worry Xu, what I was trying to say was I like

piloting the Garden. I'd love to continue." Good save, Nida!

"Oh!" she laughed, "How embarrassing! Well then, never mind!"

We both shared a laugh. I think she knew what I was REALLY going to say, but

because we were friends, she didn't want me to feel embarrassed.

Garden came out ok that day. The damage wasn't as extensive as I thought. I just

kept piloting and I was good at it. Squall, Quistis, and the others eventually

went off to save the world or something. I stayed at Garden. I guess I was never

meant for glory like the others were. But everything was turning out good.

I was walking down the hall one day when I heard a couple of people talking.

"There are the new SeeDs."

"There's 4 of them!"

"I recognize Whitney, Brent, and Aston, but who the heck is that other girl?"

"I've never seen her in my life."

I looked at the new group and heard Cid congratulating the new SeeDs: Whitney

Lockheart, Brent McDonald, Aston Van Buren, and Janna Mattheson. What made me

really interested was what he said to Janna - a girl I couldn't remember ever

seeing in my life. "Do your best, even though you don't stand out."

I had to meet her! I walked up after the meeting was over and said, "Hi, I'm

Nida."

"Who? I don't think I've ever heard of you!" she said.

"Get out of here! I'm a SeeD and the pilot of this Garden."

"Oh, well then, I'm Janna. Nice to meet you."

"Are you new here? I don't think I've ever seen you around."

"I've been here 8 years!! But you know, someday, I'm going to be in charge of

Balamb Garden."

This was too good to be true! I put my arm around her and said, "Julie, this is

the start of a beautiful friendship."

"It's Janna..."

"Whatever, " I laughed. "By the way, do you know what a norg is?"

The End