That's Just The Way It Is
By NikeGrrrrl
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Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters, Squaresoft does.
I hope we all know that by now! Please don't use my ideas or my story without
my permission :-) That's not too much
to ask of ya, right? I would never ask too much of ya great guys! You're my readers!
You rule!
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Authors Note: Well, I put a lot of time into this story,
so it means a lot to me that you guys take a minute out of your day to write a
nice little review in the box. If you hate this story tell me so! But try to
tell what I did wrong so I can get better, ok?
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One last thing before I go: Thanks to DH and Chris who
sometimes are my pre-readers on this series! Thank for all the help guys! :-)
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"My lord, that party last night was just about exhausting!"
Quistis remarked to herself in a gravely tone of voice as she pulled her stiff
body up into a sitting position on the satin sheeted bed. She tried to run her
long fingers through her golden hair, but quickly found out that would be next
to impossible, because what she used to call her hair was now a mass of
tangles.
She let
out a low groan because her head throbbed from a pounding headache. Her right
hand caressed her left temple where it ached the worst as she started to get
undressed to take her daily ritual of a morning shower. The blonde pulled
herself out her soft bed and started to walk unsteadily toward the miniature
closet, that all the unlucky SeeDs had gotten instead of the bigger ones that
were in some of the other SeeDs dorm rooms.
Suddenly,
out of no where, a loud rapping at her thin wooded door made her jump. The
startled girl let out a rugged sigh as yanked down a nearby white velvety robe
off a hanger in her closet. She tied the robe up around her skinny waist and
started to make her way to the nearby door. The brownish colored, thick, itchy
carpet felt rather warm to her cold feet. One problem that she had brought with
her from childhood was her very cold feet.
"One moment," The groggy girl said to
whoever had just knocked on her door. She walked slowly to her bathroom and
grabbed a slick, pink and purple hairbrush and started to untangle clumps of
hair one at a time. IT was a grueling process, that of untangling her baby soft
hair, but one that was necessary for the striking girl to look acceptable.
"Quistis, how much sleep do you need! It's
two o'clock in the afternoon, sleepy head!" Selphie yelled from the other side
of the dark brown wooden door. The hyperactive young girl had already been
standing in the musty smelling hallway for what had seemed to her like an hour.
She stopped her hopping and fidgeting, patience was not a gift the good lord
had bestowed onto her, and banged on the wooden door with both of her small
hands as hard as her small muscles would allow.
Quistis hurried and tried to finish the
brushing job on her, now much less, tangled hair. The blonde brushed through
her hair one last time; looked in the mirror at her fuzzy reflection(She had
lost her glasses last night), and then tossed her, now full of her precious
hair, hairbrush into a nicely woven basket full of other hair accessories.
Selphie quit pounding on the flimsy door; she was sure it was
going to crack in half at any moment, and getting into trouble was not exactly
her idea of fun. The, now very impatient young SeeD, wrinkled her freckled
nose; why did she have to go and get everyone out of their beds?
Quistis flipped through her closet looking
for her outfit that she would wear, which was rather difficult because her
clothes were so tightly packed in, and she decided that today would be her
casual day. A light purple tank top caught her eye, so she pulled it out of the
dark closet in a hurry. Remembering that her room was still dark, the girl
scrambled over to her light switch and flicked it on.
She untied her robe and let it fall to the
floor. Then, quickly pulled on a pair of dark denim jeans, that she had got out
of her top drawer the night before, and then pulled her shirt over her
throbbing head. The, now very late SeeD, ran over to her light brown dresser
and yanked open the top drawer and frantically searched through it for her
white crew socks. When she found a pair, she sat down on the soft carpeted
floor and hurriedly put them on her cold feet.
Right as she was about to scream her
leather lungs out and break her friend's door down, her newly found best friend
opened her door and stepped out of the dorm room to the blue and white colored
hallway with a tired grin on her face. Selphie sighed in relief, Quistis took
too long to get ready in the morning! Selphie barely took any time at all to
get herself ready; she'd never fully understand the complicated mind of Quistis
Trepe.
"Finally! I thought you were never,
ever, ever, ever, gonna come out of that dorm room!" Selphie said
after Quistis had shut her dorm room door with a slam. Quistis merely
rolled her eyes, and shook her head, she was finally getting used to Selphie's
attitude, which was very out of place at a military academy, happy and
go-lucky…
"My dear, dear, friend, I had to untangle
my unruly, crazy, tangled, awful looking, messy, knotted, jumbled, matted hair!
You should have seen it! Not to mention getting dressed. Did you want me to
come out here stark naked?" The ex-instructor asked the energetic teenage, that
just happened to be her best friend, in a sarcastic tone of voice.
"Heeey! Irvine might have liked it, but I
don't fly that way girlfriend!" Selphie said hitting Quistis playfully in her
left arm. Selphie was trying to get used to how flirtatious Irvine was,
but why should she care anyway? It wasn't like they were going together or
anything…
"Yeah, yeah, cut the play. Why did you wake
me up so early in the morning? I was trying to get some shut eye!"
Quistis said with a look that Selphie knew meant she was trying to get
serious, which sometime with Selphie was a very hard thing for the
ex-instructor to do.
"Early!? Ok, ok, never mind. The headmaster
wants a word with ya chica! Uh, and he wants a few more words cause I gotta get
Zell and Irvine up, too! Ugh! What a major pain the butt!" Selphie almost
yelled and stomped her foot.
"Shhh! Quiet down I have a headache. Why
didn't he tell us over the loud speaker?" Quistis asked rubbing her temples
again and grimacing from the pain. Her first stop before talking with the
headmaster would be the infirmary for some aspirin, because this headache was
beginning to hurt even worse.
"Tee-Hee! Somebody got a little too
excited last night and broke it! So, of course, Selphie the messenger has to
come and get everyone up," She said with a hint of resentment in the tone of
her high-pitched voice. The poor girl couldn't understand why she always had to
be the messenger.
"Ok, I'll be up there in just a little
bit." Quistis answered; turning on her heel and walking in the direction of the
infirmary. She couldn't go without food much longer or she would feel even
worse and sick to her stomach. Not to mention she desperately needed some
aspirin.
"We don't have a little bit! It's really
important!" Selphie just couldn't understand Quistis, couldn't she see that
it was important!? The confused SeeD sighed and run after Quistis to try
to get her to reconsider, Selphie didn't want to get in trouble.
Quistis stopped all of the sudden and
Selphie dashed right into her back, knocking both girls to the hard floor. They
both were on their backs, they both laid on the cold floor for a few moments
before Selphie let out a groan.
"Oops! Well, You need to hurry up to
the third floor, or I'll be in for it!" Selphie said to Quistis as she jumped
up to her feet and wiped off imaginary dust particles off her short yellow
dress. She reached out a hand to help Quistis off the floor.
"Ok, ok. I promise to hurry, but next time
maybe you can not knock me to the floor?" Quistis asked while rubbing her head
all the while. Selphie was not helping this headache of hers, and now she had a
bruised back to worry about. This wasn't exactly her picture of the greatest
way to start off a work day.
"Don't get all mad! It's not my fault! Just
hurry up! I gotta go get Zell…..you know how hard it is to get him up!" Selphie
hated this job, why was she always the messenger? They could have sent Irvine
instead. Now her best friend was mad at her, she let out a rugged sigh and
shrugged her slim shoulders; then ran down to the corner towards Zell's dorm
room.
"Selphie?"
Quistis asked to empty air, no answer. Selphie was already out of hearing
range. Quistis was beginning to hate this SeeD job, now she didn't even have
enough time to get a good breakfast. The hungry girl merely sighed and headed
off in the direction of the infirmary.
******
Selphie walked
down to Zell's dorm room with a heavy heart, she hated being such a klutz.
Hopefully, Quistis would get over it soon, or Selphie might go crazy. Now
nearing her next stop, Zell's dorm room, she prepared herself, this one might
take awhile.
She let out a
hopeful sigh and straightened herself, then knocked on the door nice and hard,
not to hard though, these doors were awful flimsy. She knew that Zell was not
going to get up without a fight, and Selphie Tilmitt was definitely not in the
mood to deal with someone getting in the way of her mission right now. After
all, she was already going to be in trouble for being late.
"Zell! GET UP!
ALREADY!" She yelled as she now beat on the door. This was just not working for
her, and she couldn't think of any other way to get Zell up. The frustrated
girl moaned and backed away from the door. She was going to have to go in.
She backed away
to the far wall, and then ran and kicked the door open. The small girl went
flying in from the impact, right into Zell who had just stood up. For the
second time that day, Selphie Tilmitt knocked someone else to the floor.
"Ugh! I have bad
Karma!" She shrieked as she brought herself up into a sitting position. The now
very frustrated girl rubbed her head, she had banged it up against the foot of
Zell's bed when she came flying in through his door.
"What the…? What
are you doin' in my room?!" Zell asked furrowing his eyebrows together. What a
way to start off the day, getting knocked to the floor by a crazy ninety pound girl. His stomach growled, he
needed some breakfast. The spiky haired boy turned his head to his clock that
sat on his nightstand beside his bed, two thirty! How long had he slept?
"I HAD TO GET
YOUR LAZY SELF UP! You know it is not easy to get you up! And then! You
get up and don't say anything, so I kicked the door open, and then I hit my
head, and knock you over, which is the second time today I knocked someone
over, and my luck just is awful today, and your not even dressed, so I'll be
here forever-" Selphie said in a fast voice while motioning with her hands
wildly.
Zell grabbed her
hands to cut her off, she must have been going crazier by each second that went
by. He shut his eyes and groaned, now he had a pounding headache. This day was
not looking to good for either of them so far, and Selphie wasn't making things
any better for them by going on a rampage.
"Hey! Man, calm
down, you're goin' postal on me here," Zell said to the now red in the face
teenager. She stomped her small foot, and pulled her arms away from him. The
blonde boy didn't understand how much trouble she was going to be in when she
went back up stairs.
"I HAVE TO
GOOOOO!" Selphie screeched on the top of her little leather lungs. She didn't
want to get herself into anymore trouble, and reasoning with Mr. Zell Dincht
wasn't getting her anywhere anyway. With one last heavy sigh she stomped her
way to the door and shut it with a slam leaving a very confused Zell standing
in the same place staring at the door.
He shook his
head to wake himself up a little more. "O.K. I guess I get no breakfast, big
time bummer! I hope Cid makes this quick!" Zell said to himself as he went and
walked over to his dresser to put some decent clothes on. He flipped through
every drawer in the dresser. Zell wrinkled his nose and slammed the door shut,
he had no clean clothes. What was he gonna do about that? He had no time to go
wash his piles of dirty clothes that were all over his dorm room.
The discouraged martial arts expert staggered
to the other side of his room, stepping over the piles of his dirty clothes,
over to his closet. He didn't care anymore, just as long as the clothes were
clean and not dirty. The only clothes that were in the empty, under-used closet
were clothes that his mom had bought him. Great now he would have to look like
a total geek.
******
"What is taking them so long! I thought I
told Selphie to hurry!" Squall said in an irritated voice as he paced
around the bridge of Balamb Garden. He stopped pacing for a moment and took
time to look at the scenery. The view was just dazzling from the bridge.
Green-blue wave less ocean as far as you could see on three sides, a blue
cloudless sky with a bright yellow blinding sun that was just beginning to make
its way down from the top of the endless sky, and then a rocky coastland and
upcoming mountains barely in view with cloud covered tops. Exactly what Squall
could call a perfect day…
"Yoo-hoo!
Squall! Earth to Squall! Are you spacin' out on me again!?" Rinoa raised
her voice and said to Squall. She had been trying to talk to him, when he
started frowning and looking out over the ocean. The general's daughter hated
when he would act like this. She twirled a piece of her mid-length black and
highlighted hair with her index finger on her right hand while she tapped her
foot and waited for her boyfriend to remember that she was also in the room.
"Uh,
yeah…sorry…" Squall answered as he pulled his gaze away from the beautiful
scenery. The Gunblade specialist knew it irritated his impatient girlfriend
when he took time out of the day to think, something that she should try a little
more often. It wasn't a totally bad thing that he thought a lot, well, not
totally, but maybe he should cut down a little bit…
"Back to Selphie
being late?" Rinoa asked as she let her fall back down to her shoulder. Maybe
she shouldn't have brought that back up, but she had to start a conversation or
her boyfriend might space out on her again. It was a tiring job talking all
the time to keep him in focus, and it made her seem like some never ending
jukebox that just kept playing songs, over and over and over…
"Yeah, like I
was saying, she needs to hurry up! I don't know what Headmaster Cid wants to
tell us but I know that it is important! She is slowing us down!" Squall said
in a loud voice as he started pacing again. He couldn't help but get irritated,
he could have had the job done himself a long time ago. That's why he
preferred just doing things himself and not leaving his fate in anyone else's
hands.
Rinoa let out an
amused laugh. Squall gave her a look, and she covered her mouth with her left
hand to muffle the sound. "Squall! Stop pacing silly! Everything-will-be-o-k.
al-right?" Rinoa said to him in a slow, but playful voice after she had
collected herself. He was quite the sight to see, pacing around the bridge and
getting all irritated. Rinoa knew everything would be alright, but she wondered
about Squall sometimes…
"Squall
never really ever could take high-stress situations." A medium-high voice said
from the floor below them. Rinoa gave a big smile and ran to lift just in time
to see Quistis and Irvine coming up. The brunette let out a happy laugh and
hugged Quistis when she was still standing on the lift.
Irvine opened his
mouth in a hurt manner. "Hey, where's my hug?" Irvine asked as they both
stepped off the creaky lift onto the solid hard white tile floor of the bridge.
He opened his arms and closed his brown eyes and waited for Rinoa to give him a
hug like she had just gave Quistis.
Rinoa pulled
away from Quistis and laughed joyfully. The young sorceress went over to Irvine
and looked at him. "Irvine, you might as well open your eyes and move along!
You aren't getting a hug!" Rinoa answered to his happy face. She rolled her big
round brown eyes and turned on her heel and went toward where Squall was
standing.
Quistis laughed
and hit Irvine in the stomach; then turned and followed Rinoa. The cowboy
looking boy held his stomach and pretended that Quistis had hurt him severely.
He gave her a hurt look and over-reacted as much as he could. When no one
bought his story he magically recovered and followed the girls.
"Finally!
Gosh, Quistis. It took you long enough to get up here! Now where are Selphie
and Zell!?" Squall asked in an infuriated voice. Those two teenagers
better hurry up because he was losing his patience, and it wasn't like he had
much of that to start with.
"Sorry, but
it takes me a little time to get ready in the morning! Selphie went to wake
Zell up, so it might be awhile," Quistis answered to her impatient commander.
The blonde girl wondered what the problem was, why would the Headmaster call
them up here in such a hurry?
They all sighed
and decided that they would have to wait this one out. Squall began pacing
again, Quistis sat down and leaned against the right wall, Irvine turned his
hat down and leaned against the right wall, and Rinoa sat Rinoa style with her
arms wrapped around her legs in the middle of the floor.
Garden was on
autopilot back to its Balamb resting place by the sea. The Garden made a slow
right turn and the sun came flooding in. The bright clear rays lit up the floor
and you could see all of the gray dust that was on the white tile floor. It
looked like it hadn't been swept in at least a week; after all the happened
recently it was no wonder, the whole Garden had practically fallen apart during
the whole sorceress ordeal.
It had been
about ten minutes and still no sign of Selphie or Zell. Squall was beginning to
pace faster and wore his thinking frown, while everyone else busied them selves
with minor tasks such as twirling their hair(Rinoa) or taking a minor
nap(Irvine).
Quistis sighed
and looked out the big window out to the sea. No land could be seen now and
they finally on a straight course to Balamb. No birds could be seen this far
out over the blue-green endless seeming
ocean. The blonde girl sighed and switched her gaze to the floor.
Suddenly, voices could be heard from the
lower level, arguing voices. A girl was yelling at someone… a guy. Everyone
suddenly became alert. Quistis and Rinoa scrambled to their feet to go and see
what the trouble was. Squall stopped pacing and walked over to see who it was
also. Irvine was, of course, still fast asleep.
"I don't
understand you! What is your problem! When I tell everyone, you are so gonna
get it! You're gonna be so sorry!" A high pitched voice screamed.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Review my good
friends! REVIEW!!!!!!
