Chapter Ten
Approaching the house was like an endurance test for Rinoa, the feeling that was in the pit of her stomach earlier was still there and getting worse the closer they got. Her mind was racing, She didn't want to be here, yet she didn't want to miss out on what was coming.
They were a block away when Rinoa could finally hear the music clearly. It was loud and harsh, the way she remembered it being from when she had attended a few parties with Matt and Patricia.
Looking ahead, Rinoa could see a few people mingling around on the front lawn. From the looks of it the majority of them were making out, and a number of people were already passed out on the ground.
As they made their way across the front lawn, Rinoa watched as Seifer shoved one of the pashing couples out of the way, earning a yell of surprise and anger as they fell to the ground. Seifer just gave them the bird before making his way up the front steps and into the house.
They all stood in the entrance area of the house, looking around as they scoped the place out. There were a few people mingling inside, but the majority of people were mingling around in the backyard, which was where they were going to go.
"Alright, Irvine, grab a drink and wait until you get the signal. Zell, Selphie and Quistis, work your shit. Seifer, Rinoa and myself will keep watch until the time comes, got it?" Squall asked, looking over his shoulder at everyone.
His answer was a chorus of yes's before everyone went off to do what was needed of them, leaving Rinoa, Squall and Seifer where they stood. Rinoa watched as Seifer sauntered off into the next room, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.
"You wanna get a drink?" Squall asked, making her jump slightly.
"Sorry," he replied sincerely when he saw her flinch, taking a step back.
"No it's okay, I just wasn't expecting you to ask me if I wanted anything," Rinoa replied, smiling at him.
He smirked and slanted his head towards a table in the room to their left that had all sorts of drinks on it, indicating for her to follow him. As she made her way into the next room, looking out the double glass doors on the other side of the room to see Zell in the backyard with a skinny blonde girl all over him, a few guys off to the side that didn't look to pleased. She looked past them to see Selphie hitting on a tall guy with black spiky hair, placing both of her hands on his chest as he lent in close to whisper something in her ear.
'Wow, that was quick,' She thought to herself as she continued to follow Squall.
Grabbing a plastic cup, she reached for the spoon sitting in the bowl of punch, ready to pour herself a cup.
"I wouldn't touch that if I was you," Squall said, grabbing the spoon from her hand and placing it back in the bowl, handing her vodka cruiser can.
"Why?" Rinoa asked curiously.
"The preppy boys tend to spike the punch because they know all the girls drink it. Makes it easier for them to get laid when the girls don't have a clue what's happening because they're out of it," Squall explained, opening his can and taking a swig before leading her towards the double glass doors which led to a veranda overlooking the backyard.
"Oh! Thanks for that, wouldn't want that to happen," Rinoa muttered so only he could hear her
"Don't worry about it," Squall replied, waving her off as he opened the door, holding it open for her to step through.
They stood around, taking swigs from their drinks as they waited for the signal for Irvine to do his thing. Rinoa spotted Seifer standing just below and to the right of the veranda, looking as if he had his eye on something, or rather someone. On closer inspection, she saw Quistis in the middle of the yard next to the pool flirting rampantly with a guy with curly blonde hair, her face close to his as she talked to him. She thought that she could see the steam coming out of Seifer's ears as he stood there watching them.
"Don't let anything you see here fool you, Quistis would never cheat on Seifer, likewise Zell and Selphie," Squall remarked as he came up behind her.
"I was actually wondering about that, how they can they do this sort of thing so easily? You know, flirt with other people without feeling guilty?"
"Trust me, they feel guilty about it. Zell hates doing it because he feels like he's betraying Selphie. He does it because of the way their relationship is, they love each other immensely, but most importantly they trust each other to not take this sort of thing to far."
"What about Seifer and Quistis?" Rinoa asked, looking over at Seifer to see him clenching his fists, obviously ready to crack the guy Quistis was with.
"That, is a completely different story there..." Squall started before he stopped, noticing some movement of to his right. Rinoa turned around and watched as Zell stood in front of the MP3 player on the far side of the veranda, obviously scrolling through the songs to find something worth listening to other than shitty rap music.
'What the heck is he doing? Is this part of Irvine's plan?' He asked himself, realizing that he had absolutely no idea what the signal would be for Irvine to do his thing.
His question was answered when a fast techno song started playing, earning a few 'what the fucks' from the other room.
"The hell?" Rinoa asked from beside him.
"No idea," Squall replied, turning his head as he noticed Irvine walk past them, coming to a stand still at the railing before turning to face them.
Irvine tipped his hat, a huge grin on his face as he started bouncing on his feet to the music.
"Do you feel like partying?," He asked, earning a puzzled look from both Squall and Rinoa, "I feel like partying, in fact, I feel like partying right now" He continued, undoing the buttons on his trench coat.
Rinoa's jaw dropped as Irvine dropped his coat on the veranda's timber floor, leaving himself in nothing more then his hat, a g-string and his boots.
"Oh for the love of Hyne," Squall mumbled as Irvine raised his hands slightly into the air, dancing his way towards them.
"Hold that for me darling," he said, dropping his hat onto Rinoa's head before bouncing his way down the stairs and into the crowd.
"What the hell did we just witness?" Rinoa asked as she turned to face Squall, running a finger along the brim of Irvine's hat.
"I guess this was Irvine's new thing. I think we better follow, it's not gonna take long for shit to hit the fan with him dressed like that," Squall replied, grabbing Rinoa's hand and leading her off of the veranda, nodding at Seifer, indicating for him to follow.
"Hot stuff coming through!" Rinoa heard Irvine announce from up ahead, getting a glimpse of him grabbing a cap off of one guys head, doing circles around him as he placed the cap on his head and removed it, doing that a few times before hurling it into the pool, much to the displeasure of the caps owner.
She then watched as he pulled a blonde girl away from her boyfriend as they were pashing by the pool, ramming his tongue down her throat and kissing her passionately for a few seconds before the boyfriend and his friends were able to pull him off of her, leaving the girl looking dazed from the experience.
"Shit here we go!" Squall announced as he rushed forward to break up the scuffle, Rinoa and Seifer hot on his heels.
Squall grabbed one of the guys friends, pushing him into the crowd as Seifer grabbed the blondes boyfriend and threw him over the pool fence, water covering him as the guy fell into the pool with a big splash.
"What the fucks going on here?" A guy asked as he raced over to them, obviously the person that lived here, and he wasn't looking happy about the commotion.
"Just having a little fun man, what's wrong with that?" Squall said, his voice full of confidence.
"Don't act cute with me arsehole!" The boy yelled, "How the fuck did you fucks know about tonight? It was invite only."
"Well, I guess you guys are just so bright using the school email system to send out the invites. Someone forgot to turn the option to mass send the email to the whole year level off, hence we got the invite," Zell announced as he stepped up beside Rinoa, Selphie by his side. Rinoa looked to her right to see Quistis standing next to Seifer with what looked like a hickey on her neck.
"Fuck Sean, I told you it was a bad idea to use the school network for that shit," A boy yelled out from among the crowd.
"Fuck!" Sean yelled as he turned around, looking into the crowd behind him for a second before turning back to Squall and his gang, "Whatever, what's done is done. Now, I'm only going to give you one chance to get the fuck out of here, or else the seven of you are going to get seriously fucked up by the crowd behind me," Sean announced, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
"Nah, go get fucked!" Seifer replied, Chuckling.
Sean glared menacingly at Seifer as he walked up to him until he was mere inches away from him, the look in his eyes daring Seifer to fuck with him. Rinoa watched as Seifer just smirked, blowing Sean a kiss.
"When I tell you to do something, you make sure you fucking well do it!"
Rinoa continued to watch the exchange between the two boys, and didn't miss the look on Seifer's face change into the scariest look she had ever seen on a person's face. Not even her father had ever looked that scary when he got angry.
Seifer's smirk slowly turned into a look of absolute anger. The face of a madman emerged right in front of her, and it scared the shit out of her. Seifer exhaled sharply as he took a step forward, right before his right fist connected with Sean's face, sending him flying back into the crowd. It was a bone cracking blow that made a lot of people in the area cringe, and even more look away. That was what triggered the brawl that followed...one of the many that followed.
It was all out chaos as the jocks and preppy girls lunged forward from the large group in front of them, fists and open hands flying. Rinoa stood behind every as they took the hits, unsure of what to do. She'd never been in a situation like this before. From where she was she could see Selphie laying into some girls face. Selphie, without a doubt was absolutely mental.
She had some brunette girls hair in one hand, while she was beating her face to a pulp with an empty bottle she must've found lying on the ground. The blonde was screaming as she tried to claw Selphie off of her, to no avail.
Rinoa was broken from her daze when she felt someone hit her in the side of the head, nearly sending her face first into the ground. Grabbing the pool fence for support, she pulled herself back to her feet as she turned with a puzzled look to the girl that had hit her, a red headed girl with big boobs. Puzzlement suddenly turned to fury as Rinoa lunged at the girl in a flurry of open handed slaps. She let the girl have it, allowing the years of pent up anger and hurt to come forward as she belted the girl below her. She felt a clarity that she had never felt before and she lay blow after blow, it was as if nothing else in the world mattered and that the only thing that did hold any significant importance was hurting the girl below her.
"When I tell you to go get fucked, you go get fucked!" Rinoa heard Seifer yell from somewhere close by, waking her from her trance and causing her to look at the girl below her.
The girl didn't hesitate, wrapping her legs around Rinoa's waist before rolling on top of her and started giving her the same treatment she had been receiving a few seconds ago.
Rinoa tried her best to block every blow, but failed on quite a few of them. Having her head slammed into the ground, she spotted an empty beer bottle laying on the ground about a meter away from her. Grabbing the girl by the throat, she did her best to keep the hits at bay as she reached for the bottle. Her fingers grasped around the bottles neck, and holding it like a club she swung it at the girl, glass breaking as it connected with the girls left temple, sending her to the ground in a crumpled heap.
'Oops, sorry bitch,' Rinoa chuckled to herself as she dropped the remnants of the bottle on the ground before a hand appeared in front of her. Which on closer inspection she found to be none other than Squall's.
She grabbed his hand without hesitation, using him as leverage to pull herself to her feet. Time seemed to slow as she got to her feet, chaos and mayhem all around them, yet Squall had time to flash her a smile before launching himself at a boy who had foolishly been near him at the time.
Rinoa smiled back, silently thanking him for helping her. It was weird, even with absolute pandemonium going on around them, She felt safe when she was close to Squall, it even gave her courage to carry on with the fight.
Seeking out her next target, she was about to lunge at a brunette girl a few feet away from her when she heard yelling coming from inside the house, accompanied by some barking. That was when she noticed the red and blue flashes coming from the street, and next thing she knew half a dozen cops poured out of the house into the back yard, one of them holding a leash with a Galbadian Shepard, teeth bared as it ran in front of its handler towards the crowd teenagers.
Everyone seemed to pause for a few seconds, before everyone scrambled in a mad panic, not one person on the property wanting to spend the night in a cell.
People started pushing past Rinoa, engulfing one of the officers in a wall of human flesh as they forced there way out of the backyard. Rinoa looked around for any sign of the gang, unable to see any of them. Next thing she knew she felt someone grab her hand. She spun with a clenched fist, not wanting to get locked up, stopping as she saw the person that had grabbed her hand. It was Squall.
"Come on, follow me!" He yelled over the screaming and yelling of the other teenagers, pulling her towards the back of the yard.
Rinoa was puzzled as the reached the fence, thinking that they had no where to go. That was until Squall squatted and grabbed her foot, hurling her over the six foot high fence. Once he was over the fence, He grabbed her hand and guided her through numerous backyards, jumping fences and narrowly avoiding the dogs whose premises they were invading.
Squall's car finally came into view and Rinoa hoped in, watching as Squall slid across the bonnet before climbing in and gunning the engine, burning a fair amount of tread off his tyres as he took off at break neck speed.
Rinoa found herself wondering how often he had run from the cops while out doing this sort of thing. From what she had seen, he and the others were pretty skilled at escaping, and she was glad that Squall had taken the time to grab her before taking off.
She became slightly confused as Squall slowed the car down, and was about to ask why when Irvine suddenly dived in through the open back window, complete with his coat and hat.
After that there were no pit stops as they continued on to their rendezvous point where they had agreed to meet up afterwards. From what Rinoa had gathered it was out of town, which she thought was a good thing considering the cops would most likely be searching for them in town.
Winding her window down, Rinoa extended her arm out the widow, letting the wind through her hair as she looked up at the sky, a small smile spreading across her face.
Beside her, Squall was mulling over what had happened tonight. It hadn't quite gone how he had planned it in his head. He knew that it was going to bad before they even stepped onto the property, considering the vast number of preps attending Balamb High, but he hadn't expected an all out brawl like what had happened.
He absentmindedly looked over at Rinoa, fearing that she wouldn't want to hang out with them after tonight. She had surprised him tonight, handling herself quite well amidst the chaos. He could make out a cut on her bottom lip and a bruise starting to form on her right cheek. Her hair was also an absolute mess, looking a lot like a birds nest compared to what it was like earlier in the night.
"Man, What a party! Damn that was fun," Irvine remarked from the back seat as he slid his coat over his shoulders, the adrenaline obviously still pumping through his veins.
Squall chuckled in agreement, before concentrating back on the road as they passed a sign telling them they were leaving the city.
They sat in silence for a while before Squall reached for his buttons on his CD player, turning it up and tapping his fingers lightly on the steering wheel. Glancing in the rear view mirror, he saw Irvine staring out the window, obviously off in his own little world. Squall knew that he'd be worried about the others. All of their past gatecrashes had never gone that badly, but everyone was smart and Squall had no doubt in his mind that they all got out safely.
"So how far is this place?" Rinoa enquired, breaking the silence.
"Not far," Squall replied, pausing before continuing, "Not many people come out this way, and the cops never patrol this area so it's a pretty safe place for us all to meet up if we ever get separated.
Rinoa nodded before looking back at Irvine, "Do you know how the others got out?"
Irvine shook his head, glancing at her briefly before looking back out the window. Rinoa didn't push any further, turning back round in her seat and staring out the window, looking out at what scenery she could make out in the dark.
A/N - Hey guys, this chapter was something I had been looking forward to writing since starting this story. Irvine's little stunt came to me when I was watching Jackass recently and came upon one of the party boy sketch they always fit into the films. It took a few attempts to write that part, and I'm still not sure I got it perfect, but I couldn't be bothered doing another re-write. Anyway, what did you guys think?