Author's Notes – Well, contrary to Breaking Free, this chapter will begin to touch upon the turning point as mentioned in the plot summary so that the proverbial ball starts rolling. Hopefully this'll mean that the story won't be as slow-paced as the other one. Anyways, happy reading!

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

Chapter VI – The Hazard of Association


-

Firefly, could you shine your light?
Now I've learned your ways,
'Cause they're just like mine,
Now I'm justified as I fall in line,
And it's hard to try when you're open wide.

-Breaking Benjamin, Firefly.

-

Saturday, October 30th

As of late, I'm starting to notice how strange life is sometimes. I mean, who would have thought that over an entire year's worth of pain and suffering could have virtually disappeared in about a month? Or that making a good bunch of friends could make such a big difference? Surely I wouldn't have seen that coming, or at least the old me wouldn't have seen that coming. So much has happened in the past while that I'm probably going to have to take the time and make a habit to write all the big things down, whether it's good and bad, seeing as my memory's not what it used to be. Not to mention the mini mountain of pre-Halloween homework isn't helping any. Okay… I might have exaggerated a little there.

First things first, I have to say that, compared to the person who wrote that first entry nearly a month ago, I think that I've come a long way. I mean, before, when I first got out of Obel Lake, I still wasn't usual self and now… I'm getting there. I'm proud to say that I have a lot more confidence and I know that I'm not a human blimp.

-Well, sometimes I still think that if I look at a mirror at a bad angle, or if I had a really bad day, but what's important is that I don't think that all of the time anymore like I used to. Effort counts, right?

Anyways… school-wise I'm doing well, or at least better than I thought. I'm surviving Mr. Illione's reign of short-leashed tyranny with a solid B and Instructor Kolp's reign of…um…people switching seats so they don't comfy with each other…with an A surprisingly. I'm starting to think they messed up my grade somewhere though because I never get A's. But in any case, I feel bad for Paul and Ivy. They never seem to get any breaks in that class. The only time they were seated together was the week that had just gone by and they got chewed out for the dumbest things. I mean, since when was holding hands under a desk a federal offence? Talk about being unfairly punished for simply being in love. At least Paul can thank Hyne that she didn't catch him writing down possible baby names that one Monday a couple of weeks ago. The poor guy would have been mortified…and possibly heckled to death.

Speaking of which, yesterday during lunch, Ivy told me and Adrienne that they'd actually picked the possible names already. If it's a boy, they're going to name him Ethan, and if it's a girl, Claire. I still can't believe how organized they both are with everything though. If I was in Ivy's position, I'd be a nervous wreck for the entire nine months. Then again, I don't know what's actually going on inside their heads, nor am I in any place to make assumptions on how I'd react.

-But enough of that, I think I got a little side-tracked here.

I guess that'll teach me to write in pen without any way to erase what I've already written…other than pulling out the pages and rewriting the entire entry or without making evil-looking swirly black clouds.

As for my afternoon classes, they're a bit of a challenge, so to speak. Despite what Adrienne said on my first day, Phys Ed's a pain in the butt (literally) and the teacher's a bit of a jerk. No matter how hard I try, I swear that he's got an automatic C waiting for me. I don't care if it supposedly 'builds character', I can't lift crates, boxes or heavy cube-shaped objects for the life of me – I don't have the upper body strength to lug stuff around the Garden. I guess Seifer was right all along, third period is just glorified grunt work. It's a shame I can't drop it though.

Fourth's an okay class subject-wise but the seating arrangement kind of screws the lessons up. There's always a lot of senseless chattering going on and it never stops for a second. Poor Instructor Trepe, she tries so hard to quiet the class down and nothing seems to work. I guess Seifer's back row antics aren't helping any, I almost feel guilty for finding them funny – even more so when I'm under the sneaking suspicion that he's doing it to make me laugh.

On the same note, I've been bumping into him a lot outside class. Now whether it's really odd coincidences or something else, I don't know. All I know is that he seems to enjoy our frequent exchanges just as much as I do. He still hasn't convinced me that I'll eventually loathe the Garden though. Hee, that'll be an on-going joke, I swear… But all joking aside, other than his occasional 'Seifer' moments, he's a great person to have as a friend; it's a shame that he doesn't really get along with anyone besides me.

Oh well, on to other things.

Seeing as Halloween's tomorrow and I'm going to a costume party tonight, I'm really, really excited and maybe just a teeny bit nervous. I haven't been to a party in ages and to be honest, it'll be a nice change of pace- Oops, I just heard the doorbell, Adrienne and the rest of them must be here, gotta stop writing!

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

Hearing the frantic chime of the doorbell, Rinoa hastily shoved the notebook under her bed, raced out of her room, sharply turned left and hopped down the small set of stairs. Running past the dining room, which seamlessly became the living room and eventually the adjoined entranceway, she opened the door and let Adrienne, Lucy and Natalia in. All of them were wielding large, bulky bags in tow, which undoubtedly carried their costumes.

"Hi Rinoa." Lucy said once they all entered the house. She handed her one of the bags. "We managed to find another fairy costume for you so you'll match with the rest of us tonight."

"-Thanks. You guys can just follow me upstairs and change into your costumes in either the bathroom, the empty guest room or in my room. I'll just wait until whoever is done first and change in there later."

Unlike Lucy and Natalia, Adrienne had already been to her house previously, so she started walking upstairs without any aid whatsoever. "Sounds like a plan. I'm going to use the bathroom."

Rinoa nodded and guided the other two upstairs.

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

There was fervent knocking on the bathroom door.

"-Almost done in there Rin?"

As she fruitlessly tried to pull down the top part of the costume, she yelled back. "-Almost, I- urg- just can't seem to fix the – ugh- I'm having trouble with the top part, it's too short."

"-How short?" It was Adrienne's voice resonating on the other side.

"-The bottom part with all the glittery thingies ends about an inch above my belly button. Are you sure you guys gave me the right bag when you bought everyone's costumes?"

"No, I distinctly remember handing Lucy yours. Can I come in?"

Rinoa opened the door and saw Adrienne donning the same sparkly skirt ending at mid-calf, feathery wings attached to her back and the identical glittery spaghetti-strap tank top with the feathery bottom which…seemed to show even more midriff than she was at the moment. But aside from the technical differences due to their respective heights, the only true difference was the outfit she wore was scarlet red and not royal blue like hers.

Adrienne approached her and adjusted the wings, paying the actual problem no heed. "…No, I think you have it on all right."

"…I didn't realize that it was going to go up that high. I'm not used to wearing this kind of-"

"-Don't worry, you look awesome in it."

Rinoa turned away as her cheeks burned fiercely. "Um…thanks."

"No prob. I guess now that everyone's done changing we can do all the make-up, body glitter and whatnot."

"Sure…but shouldn't we be waiting for Eden and Ivy? Aren't they supposed to be coming too?"

"-They're both going directly to the party." Natalia answered as she came into the bathroom with a bag of cosmetics in her hand, wearing a magenta version of the costume. She casually tossed the bag onto the counter. "When we gave Ivy her costume earlier today, she tried it on and freaked out. Must have realized that she wasn't ultra stick-thin anymore because of Junior. Eden's trying to coax her into wearing it as we speak."

"-It'll be a shame if she doesn't wear it though." Lucy shyly poked her head through the door, decked out in the tangerine-orange variation of the outfit. "The colour looked great on her."

After hearing this, Rinoa posed the question in her head. "…Is Ivy's costume exactly like ours, just in a different colour?"

Adrienne nodded. "Yes. When I bought all of our costumes at the store, I made sure that they were all the same kind, just different in colours. Ivy's is a like a lighter shade of violet and Eden's is emerald green."

"Oh, so she didn't ask for something with more coverage when you showed us the costumes you were going to get?"

She shook her head. "No, she did."

"…So were there problems with finding a fairy costume with more coverage at the store?"

"No, there were plenty of costumes that had more coverage."

Now Rinoa was confused. '……Okay.'

"So you didn't buy one because…"

"-She would have stuck out." Adrienne asserted boldly. "Ever since we've all known each other, we've always worn matching costumes and nearly everybody knows this. So, if you think about it, and I told Ivy this too, if she were to wear a different costume, it would draw more attention than it would avoid, especially since she still doesn't look pregnant."

Although she wasn't fully convinced, the raven-haired girl nodded half-heartedly. "…I guess that makes sense in a way."

Adrienne shifted her attentions towards the carelessly-laid cosmetics bag on the counter, reached over to open it and picked out a few choice containers. With several things crammed in her one hand, she made her way back to her again.

The taller teenager's mouth curved into devious smirk and smiled like it hurt. "So…do you want to be my first victim?"

Although the comment was most-likely intended to be a light-hearted joke, her expression and the way it was delivered almost suggested something more, something Rinoa couldn't quite put her finger on.

Ignoring such tribulation, she responded immediately, with a smirk of her own now visible. "Sure, why not."

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

Sitting in the backseat of Lucy's car, Rinoa looked out of the night scenery unfolding in front of her eyes from the right-hand window. Nothing was remotely interesting though, it was a typically-suburban view – identical houses with generic trees planted in the lawn, either before or past the sidewalk, cars parked in driveways and occasionally along the side of the road, an occasional person loitering about and the odd cat prowling the area.

Breaking away from the monotony for a fraction of a second, she sneaked a glance between the front seats. The car's digital clock revealed that the current time happened to be precisely nine 'o clock. Rinoa shivered a little.

'This is going to be one cold night.' she thought to herself, peering down at the goosebumps on her partially-exposed tummy. 'Or maybe I'll luck out and it'll be warm…wherever this party is.'

"-How much longer until we'll be there Luce?"

Lucy, who was driving, slowed down considerably for a car that'd just pulled out of a driveway.

"Not long Adrienne." she replied to the teenager in the passenger's seat. "See that corner house further down the street with all of the cars parked everywhere? That's where it is."

"So that's your friend Selphie's house?"

"-The very one." Roughly a minute later and Lucy had already found a place to park the car. "And…we're here."

Once parked, Rinoa unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. Standing on the moist and dewy grass, she took a quick look at the house before her.

'Oh Hyne…'

A modestly-sized raised bungalow made of red-orange bricks, the single-car garage on the right of the entrance door was opened and filled to the brim with a long table running along the back wall and a colourful array of various costume-wearing teenagers, most of them either holding red plastic cups or handfuls of food in their hands. And although she couldn't quite tell from where she was standing, Rinoa astutely guessed that the back table was most-likely littered with plastic cups, bowls of various snacks and bottles of booze on it. Music loudly reverberated everywhere.

Out of nowhere, Natalia waved her hand it front of her face, bringing her out of her stupor.

"Rinoa, are you coming to this party or are you just going to watch it go by?"

She blinked. "Sorry, my mind was elsewhere."

Nat shot her an incredulous look. "Sure…I'll be in the house, whether you come is up to you."

'That was mean.'

Shortly after she left and shortly after she realized that neither Adrienne nor Lucy were near the car anymore, Rinoa precariously started walking towards the house herself. While she was still ambling across the lawn, Rinoa noticed that there was a constant influx of people going into and out of the house. She gulped. So many people, yet none she knew or even knew of. It was almost like-

'No,' Rinoa firmly reiterated inside her head as she strode on, '-this isn't like that last party I went with him, it won't be like that last party. I'm going meet new people and have fun.'

She made it past the front stoop and opened the door. If it was even possible, the music seemed to reverberate even louder. More people went past her to go outside.

'Sink or swim Rinoa, sink or swim. You can do this.'

Standing in the relatively small entranceway, her options of where to go were very simple. She could go down the stairs to the right to what looked like a big, open basement, filled with people dancing away to the music, chatting and generally socializing, climb the stairs to the left and go upstairs, where it seemed be to a lot quieter, or open the door to her right, which probably connected to the adjoined garage, and risk hitting someone on the other side. After one fleeting thought, she took the stairs to her left.

Following the brief stair climb, Rinoa aimlessly meandered just to get a good feel of the upstairs' layout. In the dim lighting, she wandered past a small door and saw a kitchen to her right, empty save for a bunch of cans sparsely discarded here and there and a person in a half-undone Chocobo costume passed out on the linoleum floor.

Swiveling to her left, Rinoa saw the dining room and the living room a little further down to the left of the dining room's large table set, distinguished by the soft glow of the muted television in the left corner by the window, couch and end tables along the far wall, coffee table in the middle and a chair or two by the dividing wall that separated higher-up living room from the lower entranceway and stairs. And sure enough, there were a plenty of people idly slumped on the couches and chairs, and surprisingly enough, there was also a person in a full-body Moogle suit spread-eagled on the coffee table. Cupping a hand over her mouth, Rinoa giggled a little.

'Hee…I guess I stumbled upon the resting spot for the thoroughly wasted. Still, I don't think it'll hurt me to check the hallway in between the dining room and kitchen. And if it's just more resting spots for passed out people, I'll go downstairs afterwards.'

Leisurely taking her time to check out the darker hallway, the first door on her right had a paper tacked on to it, reading 'Bathroom'. Not needing to go, Rinoa continued her quiet stroll. A lot sooner than she expected, the hallway ended after a couple more steps on her part. Three doors marked the end of it, one on the right, one on the left and one directly in the center, all three unmarked.

'…I wonder if they're all bedrooms.'

Carefully pressing an ear against the door on the right, Rinoa didn't hear any talking or anything. Figuring it wasn't worth going in, she went on to another door. The same result produced for the left-hand door so she put her ear by the last door and- she suddenly jolted twenty feet backwards. Unlike the other doors, Rinoa had heard some background noise, and it wasn't necessarily of the talking variety like she'd hoped.

Needless to say, after that little episode, she decided to head downstairs, however when she was nearing the stairway-

"Rinoa…is that you up there?"

Peering down at the person from the top of the stairs, Rinoa instantly recognized who was calling her after faintly seeing the violet garb of a fairy costume. The raven-haired girl went down a few steps just as the other girl went up a few. Once they'd both visually confirmed who the other party was, they went back up to the top of the stairs and away from of the stream of people who were either exiting or entering the house.

"Hey, how are you holding up Ivy?"

The violet-clad teenager managed a tired smile and brushed aside a loose tendril of hair. "Have you ever been to a party where you're under the sneaking suspicion that you were only invited out of pity? I feel like that now. Everyone's ditched me already and I feel so out of place."

"We could stick together if you want; I'm not entirely comfortable here either. I haven't even been inside this house for five minutes and I've nearly walked in on someone going at it already."

Ivy's tired smile turned into an overly amused one. "That's funny, but you shouldn't stick around just for me. Go have fun."

"No, I really don't mind-"

Apparently, Ivy would have none of it and cut her off. "-Trust me on this one, go downstairs and have fun Rinoa. –And take this with you."

Rinoa curiously brought the red plastic cup the other girl had forced upon her up to her lips and took a small sip.

"-Why did you give me a cooler?"

"To help you relax." When Rinoa cast her a knowing look, she elaborated some more. "…And because somebody gave it to me when I was downstairs. I couldn't get rid of it without anyone seeing down there so that's why I was going upstairs. But since you're here, I figured you needed it more than the sink did."

Ivy's last words brought a smile to her lips. "So are you sure you want me to go downstairs?"

She nodded her head. "Definitively. Now go finish that drink and have fun for me. I've got to practice being responsible anyways."

Going down a step, Rinoa looked around to make sure that nobody was nearby before adding one last thing.

"-Ivy?"

"Yes?"

Rinoa leaned closer to be able to whisper what she was going to say. "-Are you sure you want to stay up here? If they gave you a drink they obviously don't think you're…that way. You look too nice in your costume to hide yourself like this."

Even in the darkness, Ivy's face burned a visible bright red as she inadvertently put a hand over the uncovered part of her still relatively-flat stomach.

"Thank you for the compliments but, I'm a little tired actually."

"Oh…okay. I understand."

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

"Hey Rin, long time no see, having fun yet?"

Rinoa giggled.

"Just between us fairies, I'm already having a blast just knowing that we have the best costumes around."

Adrienne had an ear-to-ear smirk plastered on her face. "Glad to see you've changed your mind. So did you see anybody you'd want to waste the rest of your weekend on in the crowd?"

"-Hey!" She objected indignantly with a bit of a chuckle. "I thought we agreed that we wouldn't talk about that topic, what's gotten into you?"

The crimson fairy lifted the plastic cup in her hand and shook it to emphasize its emptiness.

"-A few of these." she deadpanned.

Rinoa giggled some more. "Is this your way of telling me you're drunk?"

"No, I'm not drunk; I just have a bit of a buzz." She pointed to the other end of the crowded basement. "Now if you wanted to see drunk, look over there."

The pair of fairies put their back-and-forth banter on pause to look at Natalia and Eden dancing sloppily with each other on top of the very few tables in the spacious area. After the novelty of their shenanigans wore off, Rinoa picked up where they had left off.

"Hee…I think Lucy will have a hard time getting them back in the car."

"…Nah, she's dealt with a lot worse before. Trust me, that girl knows the occupational hazards of being the designated driver, but now's not the time to get into that… So, how much have you drank so far? Not a lot I bet."

Rinoa furrowed her eyebrows. "-What makes you say that?"

She started ticking off the reasons with the fingers on her right hand. "One, you didn't answer my question, two, you got all defensive about it, three, you thought I was drunk, four, you got defensive again when I said that I thought you didn't drink much, five, you're still listening to me telling you why I think you're sober, six– Oh wait, I don't have six fingers…"

Rinoa laughed. "I don't care whether you say you aren't, you are drunk Adrienne."

"This isn't about me Rin, it's about you. …And I'm gonna say it again, how much have you drunk?"

'She won't give up, will she?'

"Just this one thing Ivy gave m-"

"Aha…I thought so! Go get yourself something from the garage and don't come back unless you've got something in your cup that'll loosen you up. I want you to have fun."

"But-"

"-No buts, you'll thank me later." she insisted, now dragging her towards the nearby stairway. "Go grab something in the garage and if there's nothing there, just ask Selphie to find you something. She's wearing this really big Carbuncle costume."

"Okay, okay, you don't have to drag me, I'll go."

And just like that, Rinoa left to go past the smaller throng of people situated near the base of the stairs. Squeezing through the crowd deftly, she eventually managed to climb the stairs to the entranceway. But instead of going through the door to and into the garage, Rinoa started climbing the other set of stairs to see if Ivy was still upstairs. Sure enough, it didn't take along before she spotted her sitting at the top.

"Hey…I thought I told you to go have fun." she said weakly, stifling a small yawn at the same time.

Rinoa sat herself down beside her. "I know, but now I'm starting to wonder who thought that getting wasted equated fun in the first place because everywhere I go, everybody's drunk. I think I might have missed the memo somewhere."

Ivy smiled wryly. "You've never been drunk before, have you?"

"No, I have, but …" Rinoa hesitated for a moment. "-to be honest, it doesn't take much to get me drunk and with this many people here, I don't want anyone taking advantage of that because……I can never remember a single thing the morning after. So if I drink, I lose and if I'm sober, I'm bored."

"Hm."

She sheepishly grimaced and showed her the empty cup from earlier. "Adrienne even told me to not come back downstairs until I filled this up with something. I still can't believe I got bullied by a drunken girl."

Ivy took the cup from her hand and absent-mindedly eyed it. "Well you're not the first Rinoa; we've all had it done to us at one time or another. She's a very bold drunk, that girl." She gave the cup back. "…But if you're not comfortable with drinking anything else, my suggestion would be to either put something non-alcoholic in your cup and act drunk, or avoid the basement altogether."

"I don't think that first idea will go over too well, she'd probably inspect my cup or something. My best bet is avoiding the basement."

"So why are you up here then? Other than me, everyone who's up here is passed out- well, maybe not the people you almost walked in on a while ago."

"…I guess I wanted to talk to someone to who was still level-headed."

"I'm not level-headed Rinoa, just sober. Trust me, if I was level-headed, I wouldn't be at this party right now."

"Do you have a way to get back home?"

"Yes, I called Paul. He's coming to pick me up any minute now."

"That's good."

"You should have heard him on the phone though, it was priceless."

"-What did he say?"

"No, no, it's what he didn't say that was funny. He wanted to know what kind of costume I was wearing in case he had to spot me in a crowd and once I described it to him, the line went silent for about twenty seconds. I think I shocked him as much as I shocked myself."

Rinoa smirked. "Do I have to repeat what I said earlier to cheer you up?"

"No, I know that it looks nice, but looking nice doesn't help paranoia."

When the girl clad in blue had a perplexed look on her face, Ivy elaborated furthermore without additional prompting.

"You know how it is when you think or you know that you've gained weight and you worry twice as much about other people noticing it too? Well, for someone like me who can't fix this by dieting or exercising, it gets to be kind of worrisome because you don't know at what point everybody will start to notice."

Rinoa nodded but stayed silent, keeping her thoughts to herself as she continued.

"-I worry because I know that the minute people catch wind of this, they won't treat me the same anymore. Look at what it did to my friends already; most of them don't even want to be around me anymore. They act like they do but they don't, I can tell." She let out a load-bearing sigh. "…Sorry if I started to ramble there, it's just that it's been weighing on my mind for a while now."

"No, I completely understand. If the roles were switched, I think I'd be talking about the same things, mind you; I wouldn't have the figure to pull off that costume. I'd be in a Tonberry costume, poking the guy who did this to me with the costume's plastic knife repeatedly as I was talking."

Ivy chuckled a little. "…Thank you, I feel better."

"No pr-"

The sound of loud and clunky footsteps coming from the other set of stairs interrupted Rinoa in mid-sentence, as did the loud creak of the front door opening. Scurrying down the steps in curiosity, both girls quickly deduced that Paul was responsible for the door's loud creak and a very plastered Natalia who was accountable for the loud and clunky footsteps.

"…You ready to go?" Paul quickly asked.

Ivy nodded. "Yeah, but hold on one sec-" She shifted her attention towards Rinoa and whispered. "You wouldn't mind a little watch duty, would you?"

Before Rinoa could answer, the magenta-wearing teenager took it upon herself to fill the silence and stumble closer to Paul.

"-­­Gonna take 'er with you, huh?" She slurred heavily, bluntly poking him square in the chest with her index finger at the same time. Meanwhile, Paul subtly tried to move away from her with his mouth clenched firmly. But unfortunately for him, she still persisted. "…I bet you wished you didn't knock 'er up, eh Paul? Or should I call you Squall? …You're like the same guy now I think."

"-Natalia, you've had too much to drink."

"No Paul-" she slurred once again, "I yam fine, thank you very much! You're the one who's had too much to do if you know what I mean."

Clearly getting irritated, Paul set her on the steps to sit down.

"-Rinoa could you please watch her? I really need to get Ivy home."

Rinoa nodded.

"Thanks."

The couple exited the house and left her to baby-sit the thoroughly-sauced teenager. Question marks now roamed around inside her head. Why did Nat slip up twice with that particular name? Did it honestly mean anything, or was she just bad with names?

Regardless, it didn't look like she'd be getting any answers to those questions tonight.

When she felt a couple of tugs on her skirt, Rinoa looked down.

"Hey, 'inoa?"

"Um, yes?"

"They gotta bathroom 'round here?"

'Oh dear…'

"Yeah, they do. You want me to show you?"

"…Yeah."

"Need help getting up?"

Nat shook her head wildly. "Nope, I'm m'okay."

Surprisingly enough, she was more-or-less fine to walk up the stairs in her drunken state, the only thing that Rinoa had to do was put a hand behind her for the occasional wobble.

"You know 'inoa, everyone I like messes up."

Rinoa arched an eyebrow at this comment as they finally made it up the steps.

"-You mean Ivy and Paul?"

"No, I'm not talkin' 'bout girls, I'm talkin' 'bout boys I used to like."

"…So, you mean Paul?"

"Yeah, Paul and this guy named Squall. I think…I think you know 'im."

Rinoa's jaw dropped figuratively. "So…does that mean what Lucy said about a month ago was true?"

"If I say yes, you won't tell anybody, 'kay?"

"I won't tell."

"Goood. I don't like people knowing that kind of stuff 'bout me."

"So is that why you keep on comparing them to each other?"

"Yep, 'cause they sure don't look like another!"

Rinoa stifled a small laugh as she guided her to the bathroom. 'You're right about that one Nat.'

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Rinoa reached for the door and opened it despite the fact that Natalia was still puking her guts out into the porcelain fixture. This had been going on for several minutes and her naturally-patient nature wore thin, past the point of caring about who saw what. Besides, it wasn't like Natalia would remember this the next day and quite frankly; the stench was starting to become more than overbearing in the confined area, even with the fan running full blast.

Once the door had opened, Rinoa took notice of the knocker's appearance straightaway. In his knight costume, the brown-haired guy looked faintly familiar in a way, like a casual acquaintance that could have been in one of her classes.

He looked past her at the doorway. "Is she …going to be okay?"

Rinoa looked back and sighed. Apparently, Natalia had stopped retching long enough to pass out beside the toilet.

"I think so," Rinoa answered uncertainly. "-but I'll probably have to put her on a couch."

"-Need help moving her?"

"I'd really appreciate it you could."

The mystery knight went past her and crouched down on Nat's left. He turned his head back. "If you take the other side and put her arm over your shoulders, we should be able to bring her over to a couch."

Wordlessly, she glided over to her right side and did what he told her to do. In a collaborated effort, they eventually transposed her to a nearby couch in the living room with ease.

"Thanks for the help." Rinoa beamed. "You really knew what you were talking about."

"Think nothing of it; I had a buddy in the same situation earlier and someone helped me move him. I'm just returning the favour." He paused for a moment. "By any chance, did you mention your name earlier?"

"No, but it's Rinoa. -You?"

"Tristan."

"I think I've heard that name somewhere. Do you have Instructor Kolp at second?"

"…Yeah."

"I guess that solves that mystery."

"-I'll say. Now I know why your name sounded so familiar too. You're the girl who always gets the highest score on the chapter quizzes."

"Please," Her face went beet-red. "We're at a party, don't talk about school."

"…Okay, okay." A hint of an amused smirk now graced his features. "So other than our passed out friend over here, do you know anyone else at this party?"

"Well I don't if you know them but I know Adrienne Alts, Eden Marshden, Lucy Spencer and Ivy Wickerstrom."

"Hm, I've known most of them since middle school. –So do you hang around with them?"

"Yes. They were the first people I befriended when I came to Balamb Garden at the beginning of October."

He gave her a disbelieving look. "-Oh, could have sworn I've seen your face since last year. Where were you before?"

Rinoa felt a large pang in her stomach. "-Timber." she responded mechanically. "I used to go to school in Timber."

"Nope, can't say that I've been there."

'-And I can't say that I have either.'

"So," he continued, "-are you like your friends at all?"

She smirked a little. "-I'm getting there. I used to be really shy at first but they've kind of changed all that. Trust me; I wouldn't be wearing this get-up otherwise. We're all wearing the same costume in different colours."

"Yeah, I thought I noticed something like that. The colour's nice. …I'd say something else about it looking good on you but I'd be afraid you'd take it the wrong way."

Rinoa's smirk broadened. "Well you're in luck because I wasn't offended. And for the record, your costume's nice too."

"Thanks… -Listen, you want to get out of here and get some fresh air?"

She nodded. "Sure, some fresh air sounds good right about now."

"Alright, let's go."

-—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-

End of Chapter Comments – Don't you guys just love it when I leave you hanging with all these questions inside your head? Heehee, I knew you wouldn't, but I'm so evil that I can get away with it! Muahaha! Aah, who am I kidding…

Anywho, I apologize for not updating this a couple of days sooner, I couldn't quite figure out how to wrap it up where I wanted it to after Rinoa and Ivy's second conversation, not to mention trying to write a drunk person is kind of challenging too…and I probably didn't get it right anyway. …Oh well, it's longer than I expected so there you go.

-Emerald-Latias