A Simple Kind of Life
An FF8 Fanfiction
By Aria
arianna@envy.nu
Part One: Search
Quistis Trepe stared at a plant, sitting propped against a wall within the Cafeteria of Balamb Garden. The lush green leaves, waxy in appearance, jutted out of the bark of the plant at odd angles, making it looking more like a bad hair day than the plant. Unperfect, but what was during those times? "Close to nothing," Quistis thought as she shifted her gaze towards the approaching figure as it took striding steps toward her. Female, about 5'4", and the most noticeable flip hairdo ever.
"Heya there, Quisty! How are you?"
"I'm fine, Selphie. What's up?" Quistis' tone was her normal, a calm, deep tone that seemed to wash over you like water over a glacier. That kind of tone that was deep, mature, and with such authority yet such compassion, all combined into one.
"Well, as a member of the Balamb Garden Festival Committee, I have to go around inviting people to... well... this."
Handing over the closed, parchment made envelope with the SeeD seal closing the flaps, Selphie looked up at Quistis with a smile. "I expect you to come, Quistis. After all, you are Balamb Faculty." She giggled incessantly for at least 5 seconds, a trademark of hers, as Quistis stuffed the envelope away into a pocket of her dress.
"Thank you, Selphie. I'm sorry, but I have to go attend to some things. I'll see you later, ok? I'll try to come." With those words, Quistis smiled weakly, albeit fakely, and walked toward the Cafeteria exit, not noticing Selphie as she continued to pass out more invitations with the utmost perkiness.
*
Flinging the invitation on her desk, Quistis lept ontop of her bed, burying her face in the pillow and initiating the daily crying ritual that she had been doing recently. The tears squnted free of the prisons of tearducts, staining the pillow as she wept, ruining the "10 feet tall and bulletproof" reputation that she established for herself so carefully, so very well. If anyone, gods forbid, were to see her like this... well, Quistis just plain refused to even think about it.
She wasn't in the need of crying until not too long ago, actually. Everything was going along just swimmingly until Ultimecia was destroyed. The sorceress' destruction allowed peace to permeate the land, and peace had a way of making one discover about themselves a great deal more than one would, say, in the middle of a war. It was for that reason that Quistis begun to spiral downward.
But why sould someone of Quistis Trepe's stature, social and financial position be on a path of self-destruction? Why her? Love. Love, unfortunately, was one of those emotions that could kill just as powerfully as it could give life. She lacked this, wanted it desperately, and most definitely would give any of her possessions for it. She thought she had loved her pupil, the young and very attractive Squall Leonhart, but this turned out to just be a maternal instinct she felt due to the fact that she had raised Squall in the orphanage that Edea Kramer ran when they were very young. She, of course, had forgotten this due to the Guardian Forces they called forth within battle. An undiscovered side effect to them was that the more you used them, the more they would take a place in your brain. Consequently, information and memories stored there would gradually slip away at random.
The loud and abrupt rapping at her dormitory doorway alerted her to silence her reverie of crying immediately. Gaining her composure in an effort to not sound as if she was doing what she really was when she spoke, she wiped her eyes. "Just a moment," she called out.
Looking into a large mahogany-framed mirror that lay opposite her in the room, she examined her status. She looked like a wreck. Her normally tight and displinary-looking hair style was in utter dissaray, jutting out every which way, and not unlike the plant she had saw only moments ago. Her eyes were swolen from the tears, a puffy red instead of the smooth, light tan that was their normal state. Figuring that she couldn't change her condition in a quick enough period of time as to not keep her visitor waiting too long, she rushed to the door, opening it and fearing the worst.
"Hi Quistis, -- Oh my Gods, what happened to you??"
Quistis shook her haid. Due to the greeting part of Rinoa's last comment, Quistis almost instantly and intuitively knew that Rinoa had come to ramble to her about troubles with Squall, which really were non-existent. Quistis knew this because Rinoa was a rather doubtful sort of person when it came to relationships - she had come to Quistis numerous times before, and the instructor knew how she sounded when Rinoa was having problems with the iceburg-in-residence. "It doesn't matter, I'm fine now Rinoa."
"You sure? You seem totally stressed!" Rinoa was starting to almost sound as perky as Selphie, Quistis thought as she shook her head. "I'm fine Rinoa, thank you. Now, why don't you sit down and we'll talk?" Quistis started towards a chair.
"Oh, don't worry. This won't be long. Squall just said he didn't want to go to the Prom with me."
Quistis looked confused, because she really had no clue what Rinoa was speaking of. "Prom? What Prom?"
"Didn't you get an invitation? Selphie was passing them out earlier."
"Oh... so that's what that was. I'll look at it later." Quistis thoughts drifted back to the parchment envelope.
Time passed, and Rinoa lost patience. "Well?? Can you help me?"
"Oh! Sorry, Rinoa, I forgot. Hmm... Well, I doubt it's anything serious. Why don't you do something like..." Quistis searched for a topic. "Promise him a 'special treat' if he were to go with you?"
Seeming to catch the drift, Rinoa responded, "Hey, that's not a bad idea! Thanks Quisty!" With that, she turned and left, closing the door softly behind her.
Sighing, Quistis went over to her desk where the envelope lay. She picked it up into her thin fingers, feeling the grainy texture of the parchment. She moved those fingers towards the SeeD seal, opening it and taking out the letter closed within. It said:
Balamb Prom
You are cordially invited to attend Balamb Garden's first annual Prom.
We have selected you, and you only, because we deemed you worthy of attendance.
Please join us tonight. The Prom begins a 7:30, Balamb Standard Time.
Note: All SeeD and Faculty are required to bring a date, and are expected to attend.
If we were good enough to invite you, we feel that you are good enough to show up. Do so.
Headmaster Cid
and
Balamb Garden Festival Committee
Quistis felt the tears well up within her again. A date? Mandatory attendance? This was more than she could bear. Quistis dropped the note and envelope on the floor, running back to that pillow that provided her solace, and cryed herself dry. The parchment and note lay on the floor, forgotten. How could someone like Quistis ever find someone to love... her?