Author Notes: So sorry for the long wait, I was very busy with personal things, and I'm due to start Uni again *groans*.

Everyone who reviewed; thank you very much, I appreciated the comments and support. Please keep it up.
A big shout-out to TrevJames and Togeii, it's so nice and motivating to hear that my writing/stories brings a smile (even though my writing needs a lot of improvement).

Chapter 4 - Real Friend

Rinoa's POV

Selphie's yellow Jeep parked up at the school car park and we headed out of the car and towards the school building. It was a bit hot out today so I took my uniform jacket off and held it over my shoulder.

As we walked into the school building I was hoping to stay clear of Leonhart until the classes we shared when I had to see him. It had been three days since I handed him my last script and I hadn't worked on anything since, I didn't want him to give me a hard time about it. Aside from that, I still hadn't got him back for the fish incident and seeing his arrogant mug every day was making me lose my patience. Although, what I had conjured up was making me even more impatient; I knew this would make us even and I couldn't wait to put my plan to action.

We walked into our Maths class, and found Seifer already sitting in his seat. He looked up at me and smiled as I walked over to my allocated seat. Seifer always got to school before me, which was quite ironic seeing as he had such a lax attitude towards education. Well he gave that impression most of the time anyway. He always woke up early in the mornings to go jogging and normally headed out as soon as he had his shower. He always rode to school with his 'posse' anyway, so we never rode together.

I sat on my seat at the front of the class with Selphie right next to me on my left. Miss Preppy walked in at that moment, her straight blonde hair flowing out past her shoulders, her immaculately applied make-up pumping up her already pouting lips, and her red strap heels clicking away as she swayed into her seat.

I was shocked to hear a low whistle come out from Seifer's mouth as he grinned at her. I couldn't believe he was complimenting that street tramp. I watched as she rolled her eyes at Seifer, but caught her smile when she had her back to him. Yuck, she actually liked the attention, I wondered what Leonhart would think. She was flirting with the enemy after all.

I continued to watch as Seifer tilted his desk forward and bumped it into the back of her chair. She felt the nudge and turned to him with cold, raised eyes. "Do you mind?" she asked, looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Nope. Never mind a beautiful looking girl like yourself," he answered back.

She smirked at him and flicked her hair back over her slender shoulder. "That's what all the guys say," she teased and turned back around. He let out a small chuckle and replaced his table the way it was before.

He turned and met my eyes then, shrugging his shoulders at me confusingly. I felt disgusted; I really hoped Seifer didn't actually like her. She was dreadful; I doubt any guy would want to date her.

I looked over at Selphie who had also witnessed the scene and rolled her eyes.

It was break time and Selphie and I were running down the corridors towards the cafeteria. We were looking for Irvine to clue him in on our plans. We found him with some friends of his from a different class. "Irvine come, we need you," Selphie commanded.

"Ladies are always in need of Irvy," he flirted with her.

"Shut up and listen," she said, rolling her eyes to which he looked a bit hurt but overlooked it nonetheless.

"Irvine, Squall Leonhart is in your gym class right?" I asked with a smile on my face, I knew he was, but my heart just needed that confirmation.

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

I grinned at him. "Irvine, you need to help us."

Squall's POV

I took my gym bag out of my locker and made my way to the Gym with Zell. We had a double period of P.E. with some Coach from Besaid Island that was teaching us a sport called 'Blitzball'. I knew it was really popular there, but here in Galbadia people were more into sword fighting and fencing.

Once in the changing room, I met up with some of our other friends from my previous school.

"S'up, Squall," Cloud greeted me as I sat down next to him and started taking off my boots.

"S'up. When'd you get back from Midgar?" I asked.

Cloud Strife was a quiet guy from Midgar. His lack of social skills, I was told by my other friends, mirrored my own. I guess that's why I liked him; because I didn't need to converse with him that much. We both just had a mute friendship most of the time and it never felt uncomfortable.

"Came back last weekend. School sure is different now we got the DC lot," he replied, looking around at all the new faces in the crowded locker room.

"Yeah, some of them are a bit rough," I commented thinking back to Seifer.

"Yeah, heard Almasy's here, haven't seen him around though."

"Oh he's around, would be now he has his minions," I replied back, thinking back to the days before Seifer was expelled. It was like history was repeating itself. Seifer had his 'posse' while I had my friends.

"Just ignore him, I do," he replied back in his hoarse voice. Cloud was like that, he didn't take crap from anyone, though most of the time it was because he literally wasn't interested.

A tall fair-skinned boy with black spiky hair walked up to us smiling. "Dude!" he cried and grabbed Cloud in a headlock. "Long time no see, huh little buddy?"

Cloud released himself from the headlock and let a small smile run across his face.

"I want you to meet someone. Squall, this is Zack Fair," he introduced the guy to me.

"Hey dude, you went to the same school?" Zack asked, looking me up and down while I changed into my gym clothes.

"Yeah," I replied briefly and let the guy go on talking about himself and his girlfriend - the reason he was so happy the two schools merged.

Rinoa's POV

I really could not believe I was skipping class, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I left class early citing that I had a doctor's appointment and needed to leave school early. Selphie had used the same excuse in her lesson and we had met in the girl's toilets ready to put our plan to action.

I followed Selphie into the Gym and we snuck into the girl's changing room. The boys, from what we could hear, were having their shower after their long Blitzball lesson.

The door to the girl's changing room was lightly tapped on, a rhythm from the victory tune from Beginning Reality. We opened the door and found Irvine's cautious face looking down on us.

"You got it?" he whispered to us. I passed him the bag of clothes and he told us to wait there and that he'd be back in a couple of minutes. We waited again, for what seemed like hours, both holding our mouths from letting the giggles escape as we imagined the result of our mischievous plan.

Again the same knock came and Irvine opened the door, chucking the same bag I had given him, and hurrying us out of the changing room.

As we ran out of the Gym, we burst into a fit of giggles. This was going to be good.

Squall's POV.

My muscles were feelings a lot better now that I was taking a hot shower. Blitzball really kills you. I wanted to stay in the shower forever, the hot water pressure hitting my body and then descending down massaging every limb; it felt relaxing.

"C'mon boys, it's nearly lunch, ya?" Coach Wakka's voice came from outside the shower room door.

I turned the knobs off, and took my towel hanging from my peg and wrapped it around my lower torso and legs. I opened my cubicle door and walked out of the shower room, pushing past the other dozen guys all changing and walked to where I had left my clothes. I had spent ages showering because of the strain on my muscles so most guys were heading out now. I preferred it this way; I could change in privacy.

I opened up my gym bag and took out the clothes. I unfolded each one and looked down in perplex. These weren't the clothes I had packed, in fact not even my gym clothes were here. I looked around the room but couldn't spot my clothes anywhere.

"Hey dude, you lost something?" Zack asked.

I sucked my teeth. "Yeah, my clothes," I replied and slumped down on the bench with the wrong clothes in my hands.

"Well, what's that?" he asked, pointing to the bundle in my hands.

"These aren't mine," I replied. I was still looking around hoping that my stuff got kicked to a side somewhere by accident.

"Yo! Squall, hurry up dude." Zell came in fully dressed though this hair still damp from the shower.

"I can't find my clothes," I explained, still looking around hoping that it would suddenly appear in front of me. I could have sworn I packed them into my gym bag.

"Fellas, I gotta lock up," Coach Wakka came in looking at the three of us expectantly. "You, put some clothes on." he said speaking directly to me.

I rolled my eyes at the same repeated sentence I was about to utter, "I can't find my clothes."

"What'd you mean you can't find your clothes? They gotta be here somewhere, ya," he said, walking up to us and checking the empty stalls.

"Well they're not. I looked already." I was feeling chilly now, I was only wrapped in a towel and the water that I was drenched in before had now completely evaporated.

"Well, what's that?" he asked looking at the bundle in my hands.

I looked down at the clothes in my hands miserably, "They're someone else's. I think my clothes got mixed up." Though I couldn't figure out how.

"Well, I gotta lock up, so you're just going to have to make do, ya," he replied.

"What?" I looked at him shocked. "I can't wear some stranger's clothes."

"Well it's either that or you walk out in a towel, what's it going to be?" He looked at me expectantly.

Rinoa's POV

I was eating lunch with Selphie and Irvine and a couple of other people from our class. I was feeling really anxious; I kept looking over my shoulder at the exit behind me wondering when Leonhart was going to show. He had to come in through those doors to get to the main building.

I had my camera ready, I wanted to cherish this moment, and I'd personally frame it and put it right above my bed. I grinned to myself, my knee was shaking under the table; I was really nervous, I couldn't wait to get my own back.

I got bored of waiting for so long so started talking to my friend Yuffie. It was probably only a couple of minutes into the conversation when I heard laughter coming from behind me. I turned around to the exit I was glued to a few minutes ago and burst into laughter when I saw Leonhart walk in. He strode into the Cafeteria completely ignoring all the stares as if he was unnoticeable; his friends were walking behind him hurriedly trying to keep up with a look of sympathy.

Leonhart kept his gaze ahead, straight faced, wearing a short white towel around his lower torso, but what made him look funny was that he was still wearing his black Timberland boots. So he hadn't worn the red hot pants, the sky-blue boob tube top and the black bolero, but nonetheless people were still getting a kick out of his attire, or rather lack of.

I couldn't let him get away without letting him know I was behind his embarrassment; I wanted him to know the consequences of messing with me.

I raced to the door he was headed to and pulled out my camera, once there I turned to face him, getting my camera ready. He noticed me as he got closer and gave me a look of confusion. He frowned and slowed his pace.

"Say 'Cheese'," I teased and quickly took a couple of shots. "Oh, you model, you are gorgeous," I mocked him and burst in to laughter. Selphie had come up next to me and raised her hand. I high-fived her and looked at Leonhart with a smirk and my eyebrows raised.

"You did this." It wasn't a question; I just nodded my head pursing my lips smiling.

"Oh, you didn't think I wouldn't return the favour after what you did, did you?" I asked with pretend surprise.

"You are messing with the wrong person," he threatened, looking me up and down.

I walked up to him until I was face to face with him, well I was actually looking up at his sculpture like face. I wasn't going to allow him to walk all over me, or even think he had some kind of authority over me, like I was going to run and hide every time I see him walk into a room.

"Am I?" I looked at him straight in the eyes. I actually hadn't noticed how quiet the cafeteria had gotten. "I got enough tricks up my sleeve, whatever you got planned - bring it on."

He just looked at me with his piercing eyes; he actually looked like he wanted to smash me through a concrete wall. Instead, he pushed past me, knocking my shoulder and walked out of the Cafeteria and into the hallway, probably to the car park.

I didn't care; I had gotten my own back, and I meant what I said. Whatever he had planned next, I'd be able to handle it. It was Leonhart after all, how serious could this get?

Squall's POV

I skipped my last two periods and just drove home. I was so angry at Heartilly, to pull a stunt like that, that little brat has what's coming.

The entire drive down to my house people were giving me weird looks; a couple of idiots driving next to me even started wolf whistling.

Once I got into the house I ran up to my room and took off the damp towel, shivering for the warmth of clothes, and opening my drawers to retrieve them. I pulled on a pair of navy blue tracksuit bottoms and a grey t-shirt, chucking on my hooded fleece for warmth.

I sat on my bed thinking, it was 2:00 PM now. Heartilly's smug look flashed through my memory, I wanted to wipe her clean of that. I wasn't in the mood to pussyfoot around anymore; I needed to think of a way to keep her down once and for all.

I lay down on my bed thinking; she was such an annoyance, it must run in the family. Back in Galbadia Grammar, I had trouble running into Seifer, now I had problems with his bratty sister. I couldn't go overboard, I knew that. One foot too far and I'd have Seifer to answer to. I wasn't scared, but I liked my freedom, one more foot in the wrong path and I'd be shipped back to Esthar and have to live with my Dad. No way did I want that. I had to think of a way to get her to back off without getting myself into too much trouble. The only question was how?

Rinoa's POV

I got home and went straight to my room, I was quite tired after the dragging lessons, all I wanted to do was get into bed and take a nap.

I kicked off my heels and climbed into bed pulling the covers over myself up to my shoulders.

I was running. Running fast, through the hayfield and past the bumbling old red tractor. The morning before I had gotten up to play with the china doll my mum gave me. I was brushing her hair when my Dad walked into my room and sat on my bed running his fingers through my hair. He said he wanted to 'tell' me something. He said Mum wasn't coming back. I asked where she went, and he said Heaven. And I left it at that.

Zone told me where Heaven was and I accused him of lying. Watts confirmed his lie. So I ran.

I walked into the old barn and climbed the stepladder leading to the top balcony. I sat there for a long time crying into my knees wanting my Mum back.

I was feeling tired and carried myself to a corner, it was darker in the corner; normally I'd be scared. I lay down; my eyes were feeling heavy so I closed them.

I had only been sleeping for twenty minutes or so, I could feel tickling on my arms. I thought it was Angelo licking me; he did that when he wanted me to wake up. But then the tickles increased; it was all over my arm. I waved my arm about trying to stop Angelo from licking me. But the tickling started to move across to my nape and onto my face.

It wasn't tickling, it was crawling. I opened my eyes looking around me and looked down at my body - it was covered in light brown spiders. They were all over me, crawling under my clothes and into my hair.

I shrieked and screamed until I could hear my uncle making his way up the stepladder; coming to my rescue.

"Aaaahhhh, get them off!" I was still screaming, rubbing my arms over me trying to push the spiders off.

"Rinoa! Rinoa, wake up!" I could hear Seifer call out to me. Why was Seifer calling me? Seifer wasn't there.

I shot open my eyes and found Seifer looking down at me worriedly. I sat up and looked around; I was back in my bed, the covers pulled down half way and hanging off the bed from my kicking.

"You had a bad dream," he explained.

I took a deep breath and smoothed back my hair. It was wet; in fact I was covered in sweat.

"Was it the spider dream?" he asked getting up from the bed and putting his hands on his hips.

I nodded just looking up at him in silence.

"Rin, it was years ago, you're not in Winhill anymore. It's safe here." He smiled at me sympathetically. I just nodded again and looked down at my sheets. "You want something to drink?"

"Water, please," I croaked.

I got out of bed as he went to fetch me a glass of water, walking to my window I carefully opened it, looking at the sides in case any spiders were actually lurking about. I hated that dream; I hated it because it wasn't a dream but a constant reminder reliving a moment in life I'd rather forget.

Seifer returned with my water and I gulped it down handing him back the now empty glass.

"I heard what you did to Leonhart today." He started the conversation, looking at me cautiously. "Though I wish I was there to see his humiliation, I did tell you to leave him alone." He looked at me seriously and waited for an answer.

"I can handle him, he's nothing," I eventually answered back.

"Nothing? You think I got this scar from nothing?" he asked, pointing to the scar in between his eyebrows with his index finger.

"Yeah right like he's going to do that to me." I rolled my eyes and walked over to my desk to get my laptop.

"Not a visible scar, but he'll have other ways to scar you for life." I knew Seifer was trying to warn me off from messing with Leonhart, but I didn't want to give up that easily.

"Well I'd like to see him try. I'm a Caraway-Heartilly, I can stick up for myself." I said and started to log onto MSN.

"Well you wanna take him on, be my guest, but don't come crying to me when you can't handle the heat. You don't know Leonhart or what he's capable of." He tried to persuade me to change my mind.

I just ignored him, not wanting anything to get in the way of beating Leonhart, I knew I could take him on.

"Do you know who the President of Esthar is?" Seifer asked, almost out of nowhere.

"Yeah," I answered, perplexed at his change in topic.

"Who?" he asked, folding his arms expectantly as if he was testing my knowledge.

"Laguna Loire," I replied matter-of-factly.

"Really? Who's his son?" Seifer asked making pretentious questioning faces.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. Some guy about my age," I said tapping away on my keyboard indifferently.

"His name is Squall Leonhart," Seifer answered, causing my head to snap up and shoot him a look of disbelief. "Yeah, Squall kept his mother's maiden name. Don't think just because you're a Caraway-Heartilly you're untouchable. Because as far as I'm concerned, Leonhart is higher up on the food chain," he concluded and stalked off back to his room.

To be honest I didn't want to fight with Seifer, but I was stilled so annoyed that he treated me like I couldn't handle Leonhart, yet here he was wooing Miss Preppy - who happened to be one of Leonhart's minions. I mean, where was the logic and fairness in that?

But what he said did explain Leonhart's lack of fear when it came to pulling those pranks on me. Not only that, but it also explained his casual reaction to my home and lifestyle.

I looked at my list of friends; Selphie was on-line and immediately sent me a wink. I quickly told her I'd call her later and she rolled her eyes knowing my reason. I doubled clicked on Renzokuken's name dying of excitement; I couldn't wait to tell him what I had done. I knew he'd be proud.

Angel_Wings: ZOMG guess what happened today?

Renzokuken: If it has anything to do with school, please don't tell me.

Angel_Wings: Oh no. What happened?

Renzokuken: I just had a crap day and rather not talk about it or anything to do with school or jerks.

Angel_Wings: :( oh. Sorry you had a crap day.

Renzokuken: It's ok, it's not your fault. I swear I wish I went to school with people like you.

Angel_Wings: Like me?

Renzokuken: Yeah, nice, intelligent and well-mannered people.

Angel_Wings: Why thank you :p

Renzokuken: …

Angel_Wings: Hmm, ok we won't talk about school. What do you want to talk about?

Renzokuken: Anything… you.

Angel_Wings: Me? What do you want to know?

Renzokuken: Anything, I mean apart from Beginning Reality and that you live in Deling City, I don't know much.

Angel_Wings: Well… Erm, I was originally a single child but after my Dad got married I inherited my brother, lol.

Renzokuken: Same, well my sister is actually adopted, but she's older than me.

Angel_Wings: Cool. So, are we like sharing information?

Renzokuken: Hmm I guess so.

Angel_Wings: All right, let's play a game. I tell you one thing about me, and you tell me one thing about you, so we take it in turns.

Renzokuken: Ok.

Angel_Wings: All right. Well, hmmm…

Renzokuken: What is your favourite book?

Angel_Wings: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. You?

Renzokuken: Lol, are you serious?

Angel_Wings: Yeah! I loved that book when I was young!

Renzokuken: Lol, ok erm, maybe between To Kill a Mocking Bird or Noughts and Crosses.

Angel_Wings: Oh I read those, I really liked them!

Renzokuken: Yeah they were pretty cool. So what does your Dad do?

Angel_Wings: Oh, erm he works for the Galbadian Government. Yours?

Renzokuken: Lol, er, mine works for the Estharian Government.

Angel_Wings: ROFL. This is so freaky; we got a lot in common.

Renzokuken: Yeah it's nice.

Angel_Wings: Ok, so what do you want to be when you grow up?

Renzokuken: Probably become an author, but I know how to wield a Gunblade so maybe that can come to some use in the future. You?

Angel_Wings: Er, yeah same I want to write too.

Renzokuken: Guess that's why we both write fanfiction.

Angel_Wings: I guess so.

Renzokuken: What is your brother like?

Angel_Wings: He's cool. He's not my blood brother, but he's very protective. He means well sometimes but, I dunno, sometimes I wish he had more trust and confidence in me.

Renzokuken: I'm sure he does.

Angel_Wings: Hmm, yeah. So what is your sister like?

Renzokuken: She's amazing, the way she takes care of us. She's always tending to me and my Dad making sure we've eaten, making sure I've gotten my homework done. I guess she's trying to fill the role of a Mum.

Angel_Wings: Wish I had someone do that for me. It's tough without Mums.

Renzokuken: …

Angel_Wings: So… do you have a girlfriend?

Renzokuken: Lol, why?

Angel_Wings: I'm just asking. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.

Renzokuken: Do you have a boyfriend?

Angel_Wings: Not fair, I asked first!

Renzokuken: No, I don't.

Angel_Wings: Really?

Renzokuken: Lol, why do you sound so surprised?

Angel_Wings: No I just thought you would.

Renzokuken: How comes?

Angel_Wings: I dunno. I just guessed you had this hot, tall, skinny, blonde girlfriend.

Renzokuken: Lol, that's so not my type. I have a friend that looks like that actually. So the idea of a girlfriend with those attributes is totally off-putting.

Angel_Wings: Well, I know a girl like how I described. She's pretty and all but she has a huge attitude problem. Totally stuck-up.

Renzokuken: Is that her? The 'jerk'?

Angel_Wings: No the 'jerk' is her friend.

Renzokuken: Oh yeah the 'jerk' is a dude.

Angel_Wings: Yup. Anyways, lets not talk about them.

Renzokuken: Ok. Well, what about you? You seeing anyone?

Angel_Wings: Nope. No one wants to date a loser like me.

Renzokuken: I'm sure you're not a loser.

Angel_Wings: I'm only joking. Well, I've never really been interested in anyone before. I dunno, I guess I was too busy with school and books/videogames etc. And now my brother kinda scares everyone off.

Renzokuken: It's sweet that's he's protective over you.

Angel_Wings: Yeah.

Renzokuken: So…

Angel_Wings: So…?

Renzokuken: …

Angel_Wings: Lol. Are you finding this awkward now?

Renzokuken: hmm… kinda.

Angel_Wings: Can I be really honest?

Renzokuken: Sure.

Angel_Wings: With all these jerks at school and my brother scaring off any guy that even breathes next to me…

Renzokuken: …

Angel_Wings: I really wish I could talk to you face to face. I dunno, sometimes I feel really neglected. My Dad is hardly around, I don't have a mum, my step-mum is always busy with her business and I dunno. I don't have anyone to talk to! I just wish you were actually here.

Renzokuken: You know I'm always here for you.

Angel_Wings: Yeah, but it's not the same as having a real friend.

Renzokuken: A real friend? Gee thanks.

Angel_Wings: That's not what I meant.

Renzokuken: Lol I know, I'm just messing with you. Well, I don't know how that would work unless we actually met.

Angel_Wings: Actually met?

Renzokuken: Well yeah, but we both know that's not going to happen.

Angel_Wings: Why not? You don't want to meet me?

Renzokuken: No, no I do. But… I don't know it's just weird, isn't it?

Angel_Wings: Why?

Renzokuken: Because we barely know each other.

Angel_Wings: Well, we've known each other for over a year now.

Renzokuken: I know but that's just on FanFiction.

Angel_Wings: Ok, don't worry about it.

Renzokuken: No Angel, I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying, wouldn't you be apprehensive?

Angel_Wings: Around you?

Renzokuken: Yeah

Angel_Wings: No.

Renzokuken: Really?

Angel_Wings: Yes, because I know you. And if we did meet, then I'd bring my brother along.

Renzokuken: Oh…

Angel_Wings: Look, Renz, don't worry about it. I'm just having a bad day, bad week, bad life!

Renzokuken: Angel, its not that I don't want to.

Angel_Wings: Look you don't need to explain. I'm sorry I asked.

Renzokuken: No, you're not listening. I do want to meet you.

Angel_Wings: Really?

Renzokuken: Yeah. If you come with your brother, then yeah. I wouldn't feel comfortable for you to come by yourself. I mean, I'm not a killer or anything, but God forbid if this ends up being a good experience and then you meet someone else thinking they'd be the same as me and they're not exactly good. You know what can happen…

Angel_Wings: Yeah true.

Renzokuken: Ok

Angel_Wings: Ok, so we're meeting?

Renzokuken: I guess.

Angel_Wings: When?

Renzokuken: Well this weekend might be a bit too soon, so how does next weekend sound? We can meet in the Plaza Complex off the number 08 bus.

Angel_Wings: Oh that's close to me! Ok, I'll run it through with my brother!

Renzokuken: Cool.

Angel_Wings: Yay! I'm so excited.

Renzokuken: Ok well don't count your chocobos before your eggs hatch. Ask your brother if he'll be willing to come first.

Angel_Wings: Oh trust me, he will!