Serah didn't like cramped ships much. Those had some very nasty memories attached to them. She was hesitant to get on this one, even, but its not like she had much of a choice. She'd been drafted with no other prospects open to her. Once on the shuttle, things weren't so bad. Serah kept to herself, her eyes closed and humming a little familiar tune to herself. One picked up a long time ago. She wasn't sure from where, though. The journey felt familiar and safe, unlike her initial gut instinct- though all the people were strangers to her. New faces, new names she'd get to know, maybe. It didn't feel right at the time talking to anyone. Too crowded, too loud. So she kept to herself, cheerfully humming her little song and taking note of everyone on the ship.

Even so, when they landed, Serah was the first pilot out and gave herself a nice, long stretch as she did. Something about a space so stuffy didn't suit her. Well, unless it was inside of Atty's cockpit. That one suited her just fine, it felt safe and familiar. She was smiling to herself and had a spring to her step when she thought about it. She couldn't wait to pilot him for real- she was only allowed brief control before as part of the testing procedure before. She wanted to examine his parts and practice her movements- it made her buzz just thinking about how fun it would be.

Before any of that, though, there was a proper initiation to take care of. Serah silently took note again of the people around her as they walked side by side. A lot of them were much taller than she was, but there looked to be some girls her age. Or maybe not... well, at the very least, they were girls her [i]size[/i]. And one of them... looked oddly familiar. Maybe she was just imagining it?

Serah just followed along, hands clasped behind her back, keenly listening to everyone else being introduced. 'Officer Ritsu is pretty cool,' she thought. Mature, calm, collected- the polar opposite of herself, really. But the other superior officer... Lorenzo... when he turned to look at her, when he said the following to her:

"Yes...I can see you have the potential for greatness, lassie. You have the [u]eyes[/u]..."

Her heart stopped. Her shoulders stiffened, she caught her breath and shivers ran down her spine. Despite her being more or less the only one to get a positive comment from this man, she [i]feared[/i] it. A primal fear welling up from deep within her psyche, a voice screaming at her that he's bad news. Even as Ritsu got the briefing back on track, his gaze lingered on her just that little bit longer. Long enough to make her deeply uncomfortable.

The rest of the briefing went without incident, for a time. Ritsu and Lorenzo ran the cadets through their schedule and the upcoming test, seemingly to determine a squad leader. Serah glanced over at everyone again, but nobody seemed too eager for the role. She didn't think herself really suited either. Well... until one of the guys spoke up, anyway. Loud and boisterous and calling for a skirmish among the group. A... weight lifting skirmish? For pilots? Was physical strength really that important to pilot frames? Surely even [i]she'd[/i] make a better leader than this one...

The question distracted her for just long enough that the comment aimed towards their tevranian friend flew right past her, and was only snapped back to reality when the group began to bicker among themselves. When Aurora sidestepped the whole issue asked her question to the officers, Serah took the opportunity to sneak past everyone. This way she, too, could sidestep Griff's grandstanding entirely. Waddling on over to Elora, the first words out of her mouth were: [color=00aeef]"Long time no see!"[/color] It must have surprised the girl given the deer-caught-in-headlights stare she gave Serah in return. The energetic one just kept her hands behind her back, looking up at Elora like a curious little birdy with a warm smile. [color=00aeef]"Hehe, sorry. I just have this feeling you remind me of someone. I'm Serah- Serah Gene. What's your name again?"[/color]