Life's Lessons

                                                       

Author's notes:  This story is going to be a series of chapters dealing with life's lessons through the eyes of the Final Fantasy 8 gang we all love.  If enough replies are made (I'm going for maybe 2) I'll add another chapter, and so on.

          About:  When Quistis dies, cold, harsh reality makes itself painstakingly obvious.

                                                        Chapter 1:  Reality must be faced

          Life goes floating on by so fast.  When Quistis died, all of us felt old and useless within minutes of the news when it was received.  None of us had dealt with the death of a close person, such as the person who helped us save the world.  So none of us knew what to do.

                We each had our own ways of dealing with the pain.

                Selphie cried.

                Irvine stayed serious and hidden from the world.  He told no jokes and rarely spoke.

                Zell spent a major proportion of his time training vigorously and the rest at the cemetery.

                But I stayed the same, at least for a little while.

                Rinoa came back from Dollet to attend the funeral.  She had seen death before, when her famous mother, Julia, died in a car accident.  She decided to help those who were inexperienced in dealing with death, the people who had been kept from the eyes of a serious death.

                I decided I didn't need any counseling.  I guess she decided otherwise.

                "Squall," she started.  "have you tried to face reality?"

                (She's acting like she's my counselor or something.)

                "I've been facing reality for 18 years."  I murmured.

                "No.  You've been here for a great deal of it, and here is not reality.  Not even close.  Here is a sheltered school, away from the all of the pain and sadness of the real world."  She seemed angry at my quiet denial.

                (I never thought she could outsmart me.)

                "Whatever…" 

                "No, not whatever!  I want you to answer me!"

                "You didn't ask a question…"

                "Squall!  Don't get smart with me!"

                "…"

                "I'm trying to help you!"

                "I don't need any help.  I'm fine."  I started to walk away.

                "Squall!"  She called after me.  I continued to walk, ignoring the cold stares that all of the other students gave me.  Even though I had saved the world, I was still known as 'the lone wolf.'  No one gave me a hard time, but then again they never did before, either.  That was okay.  I didn't care.

                Later that night, I lie in my bed, thinking about Rinoa and her constantly pushing me to do what she called 'fun.'  Going dancing or karaoke.  I remembered her cheering for air ice hockey or for the chocobo-bunny races.

                (She got so serious all of a sudden…it's scary.)

                "I guess…"  I started to say aloud.

                (I guess a close friend dying can do that to you.)

                "Squall?"  I heard Rinoa's sweet voice call.  She knocked at the door softly.  I shivered.  "Squall, are you in there?"

                "What?"  I asked reluctantly, not sensing anything behind her coming.

                "Can I come in?"

                "…Whatever."  I didn't move to open the door.  I think she knew it was already unlocked.

                She opened the door and quietly slipped inside, trying to make as little noise as possible.

                "What do you want?"  I asked bluntly.

                "To talk.  I'm sorry…about earlier.  I didn't mean to snap at you like that.  I just…get so worked up when someone I know dies…"

                "Thought so."

                "How can you be so careless?  It isn't fair to Quistis."

                "…"

                "Look Squall, I don't want to seem mean, but…you're going to have to face reality sometime, you know?  If you don't now…it will hit a lot harder when you finally realize that Quistis is…gone.  Just open up.  Please?"

                "I can't."

                "Why?"

                "I've lived like…this…for eighteen years…why change now?"

                "So you don't have to be in pain anymore, Squall.  So I don't have to be in pain anymore."

                "I'm sorry.  I can't."

                "Well, when you change your mind…I'll be here, waiting, so…when you come here, you'll find me.  I promise."

                With that concluded, she walked away, not looking back.

                Author's notes:  Wow.  That was really short.  Well, there should be more chapters, if enough people read and review.  They're in progress right now.  I've got at least four more stories coming your way, all of which are finished.  The Glittering Emotion chapter two is done, but I have to type it up and I want to revise chapter one first.  Chapter five of Mirrored won't be coming for a while because of all my other work.  Nine more chapters of this story are being written.  I might take off most of the other unfinished stories on this site (besides Mirrored) so you might wanna review and tell me what I should change while you still can.  I won't be working on them for a while, however, so maybe you might want to request for them to stay up.  Okay, hope you enjoyed the story!