[center][h1]Past[/h1][/center]
Serah was sort of... Just twiddling her thumbs around after Zim left. She understood that he might have wanted to do something else and not hang around with her all day, but even then it felt lonely for the poor girl. She already hardly knew anyone in the base, and it's not like she had much to pick from... The only other people in the area from her squad had already left, leaving her to play around with an empty glass of parfait. [color=00aeef]"Siiiiigh..."[/color] she softly muttered, opting to say the word aloud instead of just letting out a sigh. The girl was left there for quite a while. Even when she got up and left to scour the base, the hallways were surprisingly empty. At one point Serah could even hear all the girls giggling inside of the showers when she passed by... And opted to stay out. Her gut felt like it was being twisted and contorted in ways it shouldn't have been when those sounds echoed through the lockers. The blue haired girl considered herself not worthy of simple, fun things like that and instead left. She came back to take a shower at some point later in the day, alone, when everyone had left. 

When Serah stepped out of the showers, she almost didn't feel like going to get dinner at all... But that would end with her getting in trouble with the higher-ups. So the girl decided to do so anyway, and took a seat away from everyone to eat her food. She didn't seem down whilst eating it all, keeping up that cheery act of her and all, but had made an effort to sit apart. The girl noticed someone was surprisingly absent from all of it, Ariin... He got really busted up in that fight. Serah found it kind of odd how they were gone, the boy didn't [i]seem[/i] like they'd skimp on a meal. But as Serah had finished cleaning up her table and was about to head off, they strolled in holding... Cake?! Somehow, some way, Ariin had managed to gather the materials to bake a total of [i]four[/i] cakes without the higher-ups noticing! The girl couldn't contain her excitement, rushing over and asking him [color=00aeef]"Ooooh! Can I have a piece, please? Of the chocolate one?!"[/color] with newfound energy. Her day got brightened up a little, at least.

Then, after that day, everything started to become routine. All of the pilots got trained physically, mentally and any other combinations in between. Serah had a bit of trouble keeping up with the standard exercise routines and simulations due to her age and experience, but at least made up for it in Lorenzo's lessons. Unlike most of the people there, she always paid the most attention and studied carefully, sometimes even locking herself up afterwards just to rehearse the material. It reminded her of school, and she wanted to do the best she could because of it. It was maybe not the best reason to learn, but at least she did it. As for the aforementioned exercise, Serah tried her best at the very least. She could keep up as well as any other on condition and muscle training, but always fell short in the sparring matches against the older men of the group. The girl was always more, well, 'girly' than the rest and that stunted her techniques somewhat. The muscles she'd gathered, even though there, was also not as visible as everyone else's. Maybe they were just doomed to a fate like that. This is how most of Serah's days went, with a smile constantly plastered across her face.
[center][h1]Present[/h1][/center]
Serah was once again attentively listening to Lorenzo's lesson and frantically jotting down notes. Not many other thoughts crossed her mind and she didn't bother to look around in the class to see what the others were up to. Still, sometimes the girl has a passing thought on how she should've socialized more, because in the entire daily routine she didn't really do much of that. Her status with the rest of the group was essentially the same as it was before because she was always locked up in her room, either studying or playing some of her games solo. Lorenzo had now gotten to the point in his lecture about the Cruxi's leaders, and Serah looked up from her notes to take in the hologram's sight. The creature shown had something oddly 'Emperor'-like to it, strangely so considering it wasn't part of human culture. She'd start thinking the two were more similar than initially thought, if it wasn't for those scum causing trouble anywhere.

And then the alarms went off. Serah shot up from her seat pretty much instantly, nearly crumbling up the paper below her hand from balling it up. [i][b]"Well, what are you waiting for? To the briefing hall, you damn fools!"[/b][/i] Lorenzo frantically shouted in the group's direction and all Serah had in reply was a curt [color=00aeef]"Yes sir!"[/color] Truthfully, she'd have loved to add that she was already going but that would be a disrespectful statement which caused her to refrain from doing so. After replying to Lorenzo the girl dashed out into the hallway, trying to make her way to the briefing hall. She'd noticed Zim had departed at around the same time as her, which seriously made Serah wonder what the hell was up with this guy's timing. The girl didn't have much time to lose, so she cut a few corners to speed ahead of Zim, literally sliding in place when she arrived.