Author's Note – Well, I hope the wait wasn't too bad, not comparative to the wait for the last chapter, I hope. Anywho, without further adieu, here's Chapter 28. Hope you like. It's got the moment you've all been waiting for (or so I assume) – the charade at school! Yay! ;)
On a somewhat random note, if you haven't already, go check out the poll in my profile. It's about Reinventing Me and I'm curious to see the input on that one. I have no idea what a lot of people's thoughts are in regards to the question I asked on there so I thought it'd be neat to see what's what.
Hehe, the song I'm using for this chapter isn't the usual alt-rock stuff I normally put in, but it fits so perfectly that I can't help but laugh. It didn't even hit me until I heard it on the radio. See if you remember this one.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Chapter XXVIII – Practice Makes Imperfect
-
Let's give them something to talk about baby,
A little mystery to figure out,
Let's give them something to talk about,
How about love?
-Bonnie Raitt, Something To Talk About.
-
'Ten more minutes and the bus is going to be in front of the Garden...they'll be looking at me, but I'm going to be fine. I won't let them get to-'
"Hey Rin."
"Gah!" Rinoa nearly skyrocketed into the next seat in front of her. ...So much for being fine.
"Whoa, calm down. It's only me."
Managing a sheepish grin, the raven-haired teenager looked at her temporary seat buddy. "Sorry Adrienne...I'm still not completely one-hundred percent." she conjured. "Being cooped up in my room for nearly a week screwed me up pretty badly. I've got to get used to noise again."
The other teenager offered her a polite smile. "I think being at school would have screwed you up more. Things kept on getting weirder and weirder without you here."
'And here I thought I had ten measly minutes of peace before things would start to get hairy. I suppose I was a little generous with that guess. Well, no turning back now.'
"...Oh. How so?"
Adrienne hastily scanned their surroundings. Once she seemed to be satisfied with the current situation, she elaborated on what she meant earlier. "Well... after the snow day, I noticed that Nat was suddenly in a really crabby mood but when Squall told the teacher that you were sick, there was like this odd glint in her eyes."
When there was a convenient pause in her story, Rinoa figured it was her cue to say something. The other teenager was probably looking for a reason for Nat's crabbiness before continuing. And so she did. After doing a quick survey of the area for herself, that is.
"Yeah, about that...Um, she sent me an e-mail on Thursday about the 'misunderstanding' and I politely replied to it by saying that I still couldn't be friends with them because of how they treated Ivy and the gossiping. She wrote this really nasty letter back to me so maybe that's why she was acting the way you said on Friday."
Adrienne had this uneasy look on her face. "...I should have figured that much." she sighed. "Nat always gets this way whenever she's really upset. Although she'd never admit it, she liked having you around."
Rinoa grimaced. Partially in the name of the act, partially because of the innocent guilt trip she was going to have to ignore and partially due to the fact that playing stupid was getting annoying. "So I take it that there was more after the glint thing."
"...Er-yeah. A lot more. Well, it's nothing you haven't heard before but, I'm almost positive that Nat spread that 'misunderstanding' as a rumour to a lot of people to spite you."
"Oh." Rinoa started sombrely, "...That doesn't surprise me one bit."
Adrienne frowned. "I'm really sorry about not being able to do anything about it Rin. It's just that I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a-"
"-It's not your fault Adrienne. Please don't beat yourself up over it." she reasoned before concluding with le pièce de résistance, sure to coax the 'rest' of the story out of her. "I'm sure it'll probably blow over soon."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that Rin."
Rinoa furrowed her eyebrows in 'confusion'. "...Please don't tell me she's really got them convinced."
"Actually, it's more like the other way around. Squall's been acting weird enough in the past two school days to make people wonder about what she said."
The teenager had to make a modest effort not to crack a smile right now. At the moment, she couldn't help but picture Squall doing totally random and un-Squall-like things when Adrienne said that for some reason. On the other hand, there was another part of her mind that genuinely wanted to know what 'weird enough' constituted in her books, even though she was almost positive that she'd been referring to picking up her homework and doing well at reciting poems. Either way, Rinoa knew that she wouldn't get the answers she sought unless if she did what was expected of someone in her situation – ask.
"Weird as in...?"
"Well, outside of him bringing your homework, which you already know about, he did really awesome when he presented his poems even though he was the first one up yesterday. All in all, I'd say that he did better than all of the guys and maybe three-quarters of the girls-"
Rinoa's eyes widened. "...He never told me that."
Adrienne blinked. "What was that Rinoa? I didn't catch what you said."
"Oh, it was nothing." she mumbled, catching her fumble. "Go on."
"Sure. Anyways, he did so well that Kolp was practically gushing and ended up saying something like 'Ms. Heartilly must have taught you a thing or two'. Nearly all of the class started giving him weird looks until someone from the back yelled, 'Most guys write poems to get laid, not the other way around.' A lot of them started snickering then. But the weirdest thing was that Squall didn't glare at that person or at anyone, he just took his seat without a word."
Cough. "...That does sound strange."
'What I find strange is that you had this kind of pained squint when you switched Seifer with the word someone. But of course I can't ask about that because this is about me and not you.' Rinoa would have sighed now, but she knew better. 'At least I'm all 'caught up' events-wise so I'm done playing dumb for now.'
"...So?"
"So what?"
Adrienne had this smirk on her face when she consciously nudged her left arm. "How was it having him as a temporary tutor?"
"The same as it was when I was tutoring him ...only the other way around."
Her smirk grew. "So did he teach you how to write kick-ass poems?"
Rinoa couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Ha, ha. Very funny."
"Well, you got to admit that you must be one hell of a teacher to make a presentation from Squall Leonhart bearable, let alone good. Even Ivy couldn't help Paul with his poems and she's supposed to be the miracle worker." Adrienne paused for a millisecond. "...Are you blushing?"
She raised her right hand to feel her cheek, it felt warm. "...No."
"Your face says otherwise Rin."
"I'm still a little sick Adrienne; it's probably a given that I'm going to be a little red in the face."
Fully aware and taking advantage of the fact that Squall didn't take this bus, the brunette continued on with this line of questioning.
"Relax, I'm not accusing you of anything here. I don't believe a word of what Nat's rumour, I'm just curious about this whole thing because I can't imagine it being easy to get through to that guy for something like that."
Rinoa noticed that her muscles didn't seem as tense anymore. 'She believes you Rinoa; you can admit stuff people would expect you to say about being his tutor.'
"No, he's not really that bad to teach for Lit, he listens pretty well."
Adrienne looked at her incredulously. "—Really?"
The teenager nodded. "Yeah. I might have helped with that haiku but that limerick was all his. Well...I had him do a second revision of it and that's what he came up with without my help."
"Is that a swell of teacher-like pride I see there?" her friend joshed.
Rinoa shifted her eyes. "Er...no."
Adrienne softly chuckled. "You know, I did happen to know why you were red before. You're embarrassed of being told that you're a good teacher to him."
She sighed. "Well...can you blame me? If that rumour's going around, being a 'good teacher' to him is obviously going to stir up some more ideas - ones that probably won't be nice."
If Rinoa would have had the luxury to frown, she would have. '...Oh, that is so going to blow up in my face when we start looking like a couple. Sorry Adrienne.'
The other girl nodded in comprehension. "I see what you mean." she commented before leaning closer to whisper something in her ear. "...So how did you get him to get better at presenting? You've got to admit that it had to be your doing there Rin."
"...Guilty as charged." she reluctantly whispered. "Don't tell anyone this but..."
"...But what?"
Rinoa turned towards the window to inhale and exhale deeply before turning back to tell her. "...I got him used to presenting things he'd be uncomfortable with by having him describe random doodles I drew. And somehow we ended up arguing about whether or not one of my drawings was a Cactuar or a regular cactus."
At this point, the teenager was almost certain that Adrienne was doing her best not to laugh. It was a courtesy she really, really appreciated. "Okay, I, um, am not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole. Anyways, it's nice having you back Rinoa. I'll see you at break or at second period."
After she finished her sentence, Rinoa realized that the bus had finally arrived at their destination when she took a glance out of the window. And oh, what an odious sight it was to see.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Following a rather uneventful Art class – well, uneventful save for some random and possibly unrelated whisperings – fate seemed to have balance in mind. She bumped into Seifer after what felt like her first step out of that classroom. Rinoa wasn't sure of what to make of the expression on his face however. At a first glance, he seemed glad to see her, but in the next, she could have sworn he gave her a look. The glad expression overpowered the look in the end though.
"Decided to extend your weekend without me Heartilly?"
Rinoa smirked when she leaned against the wall on the door's left and crossed her own arms. No matter how hard it was to believe that he said all of those things while she was gone, she couldn't deny him the usual banter.
"There was no deciding Seifer, it just happened. Trust me, I would have told you if I'd found a foolproof way to skip school scot-free. Skipping school by yourself is never fun. Oh, and for the record, my last name's Caraway-Heartilly."
"Aah, you've got a point there. And just for the record, I don't care about the record. That's too long for my name-calling purposes." Now he was leaning against the same wall, directly on her left. "So...do you still feel like shit from this flu thing?"
"No, I'm okay now." Rinoa inwardly cringed. It looked like she was going to have to dive deep into the ocean of playing stupid and the water felt like it was going to be full of icky seaweed. Before she started, Rinoa turned to look at him. "I hope you don't mind but, I'm curious. Where did you happen to hear about that? Did the teacher say something during roll call?"
He folded his arms and looked her square in the eye. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."
She shook her head. "Try me Seifer. I've been hearing weird things all morning so I doubt it'll sound that farfetched."
"It was Leonhart who said something." He paused for a second and noticed the lack of change in her expression. "...You weren't kidding about not being surprised, were you?"
"Nope." she said matter-of-factly. "Being told that sounds pretty tame when I've been hearing people claim that I've slept with him."
When this phrase achieved to raise one of Seifer's eyebrows, Rinoa calmly looked away, drew a long breath and slowly exhaled. Glancing back at him, her eyelids felt heavy in his presence. This was the moment she'd been waiting for and dreading for the longest time now.
"...You can't tell me that it's news to you Seifer." She faltered for a split-second. "I've heard you say things about it from Adrienne. Not anything nice either."
"I don't know what she told you but those jokes weren't directed at you. I was only teasing Leonhart to-"
"—To see if they were true?" Rinoa interjected, her willpower faltering yet again.
"Actually, I was going to say to bother him about something that can't possibly be true." he corrected. "Anyone who isn't blind or as dumb as a mule can see that. Now if the rumour was about him f-"
"Seifer...please don't say anymore." she implored. "Someone's liable to mishear you and hold it against Squall. Besides, I've already heard someone joke about him and textbooks anyway."
"Heh. I was going to say something about him getting a brain transplant but I think I like that idea better. It sounds so much sexier." Just then, Seifer's eyes drifted towards something behind her. "Hey Leonhart, Heartilly tells me you get off on textbooks, is that true?"
Rinoa looked the other way to see the other teenager approaching them from the other side of the hallway. He had the faint beginnings of a bemused look on his face.
"—I didn't say that!" she indignantly yelped.
A sly grin on the blond's face was starting to form as he moved away from the wall. "...Sure you didn't."
Squall was about to pass the both of them wordlessly when Seifer reiterated his question to him. To everyone's surprise, he actually stopped. Rinoa thanked Hyne that the blond couldn't notice that her heart was going a thousand miles an hour as she stood still. She and Squall exchanged the briefest of glances before he said anything. The charge of his gaze felt like lightning coursing through her brain all the way to her toes; she instantly felt self-conscious about how she'd been carrying on the act up until now. Her mind came to the conclusion that there was definite room for improvement. He shifted his sights towards Seifer with that bemused look finally developed on his face.
"...And why am I even bothering to humour you exactly? One rumour about me getting involved with something or someone is enough." Right after, he turned to look at her. "Speaking of which, you're sitting on my left according to the seating plan. ...Try not to draw attention to that."
He left for the classroom further down the hall after Rinoa gave him a curt nod. Now it was Seifer's turn to look at her, albeit the look in Seifer's eyes was worlds different than Squall's. Mainly because she doubted Squall would ever look like he was bursting at the seams. They started walking towards the classroom once Squall had already gone inside the class.
"...What did you do to him?" he said in a low tone, "That's the first time he's voluntarily acknowledged your existence."
"...What did I do to him?" she ironically repeated, "Well let's see. I taught him about haikus and limericks, helped him on his presentation skills when I was over at his house. And oh yeah, I flashed him repeatedly like you said because it seemed like a good way to keep his attention during all of that."
In that instant afterwards, Rinoa never realized how green Seifer's eyes were, nor did she realize how big they could get.
"I was kidding Seifer."
The blond couldn't but smirk afterwards. "You know, for someone who's worried of people taking things the wrong way, I'm surprised you made that joke. Wouldn't that be the kind of thing people would 'hold against' you?"
Rinoa absentmindedly rubbed her eyes. '...Rinoa you've got to get better at this.'
"Hyne, I'm going to be absolutely boring in the next couple of weeks if this rumour won't let me joke around." she tried to josh, tried being the key word seeing as it didn't quite work.
"So...you're going to be boring because you can't joke about him? No offence, but he's already a joke, no need to point that out."
—See? Didn't work.
"No, that's not what I meant, I...nevermind. You're right, that didn't make sense. My head must still be a little foggy from the flu."
"Well, you'd better hope that the fog's going to go away soon. You're the only one who's left to present poems and I wouldn't be surprised if Kolp's got insanely high expectations for you. After all, you did teach Leonhart a thing or two."
Right after that comment, Rinoa play-swatted him. "Seifer, you so took that out of context! This is Kolp we're talking about here; she's obviously referring to the poems."
"Yeah, but that wouldn't be any fun, now would it?" he quipped.
"You're right, it wouldn't be any fun, but I'd make a lot more sense. I mean, she is a nun whacking love-struck teenagers with a wooden ruler in her spare time right?"
"Whoa, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that was me talking there." He smirked a little. "You know, I'm starting to regret the fact that this rumour hadn't come up sooner. You're a lot funnier and vocal when you're trying to prove that thing wrong. Hell, you're practically acting like me in a skirt."
She play-swatted him again, faint beginnings of her own smile starting to form. "...I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. You in a skirt is wrong on so many levels."
And with that, she opened the door to the classroom. Seifer hadn't bothered to reply to what was last said. It was probably for the better that way.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Once she was inside and seated in the classroom, Rinoa had the luck to be sitting in the very back of the class with Squall instead of the front like she initially feared. Even better, she was sitting in the far left corner with no one was on her left. With roughly half the class at their seats, most of them occupied in the front, Rinoa chanced whispering something to him by covertly doing so while she was taking out her things for class.
"Things get worse for you?" she mouthed while digging through her bag.
When Squall didn't respond to this, Rinoa figured that it was probably silly of her to expect him to talk, or in this case, whisper to her while people where still around. What she didn't figure was gentle prodding mid-thigh. More specifically, it was from a folded, sprig-like piece of paper. She swiftly took the said paper and stowed it in the binder she'd just plucked out of her bag. Ever so carefully, she unfurled it between the lined pages so it'd be a little more inconspicuous, making seem as if the thing was no more than a ripped page in there. The note was written a nearly-illegible scrawl, discernable only by squinting.
'Geez Squall, most people's writing gets sloppy and bigger whenever they're in a rush, not impossibly tiny. I need one of those ridiculously big magnifying glasses.'
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
No one in Calculus can afford to look away from the board, so no, it didn't get worse yet – wait until you present. Don't reply to or acknowledge this note after you've read it.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Quietly crumpling up the paper, she walked over to the doorway and tossed it in a nearby garbage can. Just then, a cluster of students inconveniently filtered into the room, barring her path back. Some of their gazes were fleetingly accusatory, others neutral and about three were reassuring. Rinoa felt apprehensive but okay in general. They aren't out to single you out, she thought to herself, the world doesn't revolve around this anyway—
A booming voice cut through the idle chit-chat lingering in the air. "Miss Caraway-Heartilly, could I see you for a moment?"
Rinoa turned towards the source of the noise. What would Kolp want from her, she mused. Then she mused about how unwieldy her last name was to say and that maybe Seifer was on to something there. Nevertheless, she went up to her desk at the front of the classroom. The teacher had a small sheaf of papers in front of her.
"As I'm sure Mr. Leonhart told you, the oral presentations for the poems have been moved up. I'll be expecting you to do so sometime in class so whenever you choose to do so is fine with me. Here are the poems you handed in-" She handed her the small sheaf. "The grades for the poems will be on the evaluation page for the presentation."
Briefly flitting through them, Rinoa nodded. "Could I do them before the lesson's started? I know them pretty well, so it won't take time to memorize them."
"Yes, that's fine."
With another curt nod, Rinoa turned on her heel and went back to her seat. She was slightly surprised that the teacher hadn't mentioned Squall's presentation at all; then again, maybe she was saving it for her actual presentation.
Moments later, Rinoa barely registered the feel of the chair's hard plastic surface once she sat down at her seat, only the sight of Squall looking at her with an odd look on his face.
She furrowed her brows. "...Um, why are you looking at me like that? I didn't forget to breathe, did I?"
"No. Your face...it's green."
The teenager grimaced. "Your face would be green too if you had to present in front of this kind of crowd. I can't help but picture worst-case scenarios."
'In the past two minutes, I've come to learn that confidence is a fickle thing. And that I have none whatsoever.'
"If you only picture worst-case scenarios, you're only setting yourself up for them to happen."
"Why are you trying to—" Then it clicked. "Oh. Nevermind. Gotcha."
When she'd winked as she was saying 'Gotcha', he rolled his eyes. "Don't do that...ever again."
Rinoa's mumbled 'okay, okay' was easily drowned out by the shrill sound of the morning bell but she was sure he got the idea all the same. When roll call was being rattled off at break-neck speed, the teenager gulped. Everything was happening so much faster than she'd anticipated. She turned towards Squall and quickly mouthed something to him.
"Would you mind it if I kept eye contact with you?" she whispered, "It'll make it easier for me to present that way."
He shrugged. "Doesn't matter."
"Thanks."
And with that, she glanced over her poems, making sure that she knew them well enough to recite them from memory. A couple of moments later, Rinoa got up from her seat once the attendance sheet was sent to the office. The first step she took after getting up from her seat felt like her last; the others didn't register under the weight of the numerous stares in her direction. Rinoa briefly wondered if her body was slowly going numb since nothing seemed to be properly registering anymore.
Once she was at the front of the class, she took a deep breath and looked for a particular set of greyish-blue eyes among the masses. She spotted them fairly quickly, their owner looking utterly bored but attentive by obligation. She took another deep breath, trying to keep her nerves at bay. Focusing on only his eyes, all of the others seemingly faded into obscurity. She started right then in a clear and resonant tone, no quivering to be heard.
"Waiting on a branch, the birds who will take flight wait, for just the right time."
She paused for a moment, waiting for Squall's reaction. Although she'd written this prior to the decision they'd make about faking a relationship, Rinoa couldn't help but see the irony in the revised haiku. She saw a slight shift in his posture but nothing more, nothing definitive. She took another breath. This time she couldn't keep her gaze solely on Squall, the sight of others slowly trickled into the view. To see so many students actually pay attention was almost an obscene thought. She didn't think that her haiku was that good to warrant that kind of attention, then again, nothing was to be certain with this audience.
'Just get it over with Rinoa.' her mind chastised. And so she did.
"In the Garden, we all go to class, studying math and hoping to pass, I do all of my work, and I try not to smirk—" In spite of the limerick's line, she lightly smirked. "-When the instructor falls on his-" She paused for effect. "-glass."
When Rinoa heard a couple of chuckles after she recited the last line, she sighed in relief. Her legs felt like jelly but the worst was over. All she had to do was wait for the final verdict from the instructor. The teenager looked in her direction and the teacher in question seemed to be in the process of scribbling something up for her on her desk. Once the older woman locked eyes with her, she quietly handed her the evaluation sheet without any tagalong comments. Rinoa was surprised. And not just because of that.
"Um, Instructor Kolp?" Rinoa placed the page back on the teacher's desk. "Could you tell me what that says down there? I can't read any of that. The writing's a little too squiggly."
The teacher gave her an odd look. "Are you feeling alright? I didn't use cursive for the evaluation sheets."
The teenager blinked hard. This was certainly news to her. "I think it might just be nerves."
"Hm. Take your seat for now and if it doesn't get any better, you can go to the infirmary."
"Okay."
For the third time in this class, an action didn't fully register in Rinoa's mind.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Rinoa cracked her eyes open only to blink them in confusion. Something was definitely askew. She was moving but at the same time, she knew that it wasn't her legs carrying out the motions. When she realized that they felt like they were uselessly drifting along, Rinoa quickly came to the conclusion that she was being carried somewhere. She closed her eyes. If her head wasn't killing her so much she would have kept them open or opened her mouth to find out who was exactly carrying her.
"This would be a lot easier if you weren't so damn short." the first voice on her left argued.
Rinoa inwardly smirked. 'That's definitely Seifer.' Her mind immediately went to work on the possible identity of the second carrier. 'Hm. If he was complaining height, then the second guy's probably...um...Zell! Yeah, that'd make sense. ...Only I don't feel that much of a difference.'
"Blaming me for something I have no control over? That's mature." the second voice wise-cracked. ...Squall? "Then again, I shouldn't expect any different from you."
She felt some minor jostling and a faint 'ding' of what must have been the elevator. Surprisingly enough, Rinoa found herself wanting to pretend that she was still out cold from whatever happened. Whether it owed to the fact that she didn't have her eyes open or that it was incredibly obvious, the side Seifer was on felt twice as hot as Squall's, which could mean one of two things. And Rinoa was positive that it had nothing to do with physical strain.
"Like I care." the blond sniped back amid the random background noises the elevator was providing. "I still don't know what hell she sees in you."
There was some awkward shifting on Squall's side. "...What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about today dipshit." he barked. "—The way you two were acting before the bell went and how she kept on looking at you when she was up front. As much as I don't want to say it, that rumour's starting to hold water."
"So a few random things validate a groundless rumour? You're just as pathetic as the others Almasy."
"You seem to be ignoring the fact that I know how you work Leonhart." he retorted with extra emphasis on his surname. "You never acknowledge anyone unless if you absolutely have to. And I doubt that anything that happened today counts under 'absolutely have to'. Something's up."
"Whatever. I don't need to justify my actions to you." Squall sharply countered. "...Why do you care so much about the possibility that I might be screwing around with her anyway?"
Rinoa was tempted to open her eyes when there was a dead silence after Squall's question but she knew there had to be a logical explanation for it. And there was one – the elevator door had just opened.
"...She's good friend." Seifer answered. "And the last thing I need is for you to drag her down with you even if you are just fucking around with her. She doesn't deserve that kind of bullshit. And just for the record, I know something's up because you normally would have wormed your way out of Kolp asking you to help carry her. Care to explain that one?"
This time Rinoa managed to open her eyes and say something. Her head still hurt but the dull pain was a little more manageable.
"...What happened?" she quietly asked, effectively piercing the silence Squall created. There was some minor jostling on both sides.
"Your one leg gave out and you conked your head on one of the desks. Knocked you right out." Seifer succinctly answered. "Kolp asked me and Squall to bring you to the infirmary. I was going to do it by myself but the old bat thought I was going to drop you or something."
Although it hurt to do so, Rinoa smirked. "...Why does that not surprise me? My legs have been feeling like jelly all day now."
"Hey, if you keep it up you'll probably beat Squall's infirmary record." Rinoa felt Seifer shift a little bit. "What was it, seven times in January last year?"
"...I'm not getting into that one."
"Hyne, why didn't I see that answer coming?" he sarcastically drawled before the three of them neared the infirmary.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
"So...why do I have to be here again? I'm not sick."
Dr. Kadowaki gave Squall a stern look. "To make sure the Estharian flu you both caught had nothing to do with the collapse. If it is somehow related then I'll keep you here on bed rest as a pre-emptive measure. Hold on a moment, I've just got to get a few things from the back. Stay here."
Once she was seemingly out of sight, Rinoa inched over to the foot of her bed, close to the stool Squall was currently sitting on. The infirmary didn't have many spare beds at the moment so space was tight. Most of their occupants were asleep or knocked out so at least there was a little bit of privacy here. Truth be told, Rinoa was supposed to be one of the infirmary's sleeping occupants, but there was just too much on her mind. Seifer had left the moment he wasn't needed but the instant Squall had tried to do the same, doctor had barred him from doing so. Rinoa was secretly thankful for this, it provided an opportunity to talk with him freely.
"Squall?" she whispered. He turned to face her about ten seconds later. "Just so you know, I...haven't been having the best time keeping up appearances for the charade either. I can't seem to stay consistent. One minute I'm playing it down, the next, I'm trying to laugh it off with someone and it blows up in my face. Sorry if that's going screw things up even more."
Right then, Squall looked as he was refraining from doing something, she wasn't sure what though. "...So I take you heard all of that before?"
"Yeah, I regained consciousness after Seifer was complaining that you were too short, which sounded ridiculous to me since you're not short. I'm short." At this point, Rinoa knew she was going on a tangent but quite frankly, she didn't care right now. "I think he was just looking for an excuse to hide the fact that he can be really, really uncoordinated sometimes."
"...I already knew that. I've seen him trip over his own feet more times than I care to remember. The guy's too tall for his own good."
Rinoa managed a small giggle without aggravating something. "I know that this going to sound like another insult again, but, you're getting really good at nailing down this fake boyfriend persona thing."
"...Whatever, as long as it works." He dug a hand into one of his pockets, pulled something out and gave it to her. "...This was left behind after you fell."
"Thanks."
Rinoa reached over and grabbed the crumpled piece of paper. It inevitably had to be her evaluation sheet. After she smoothed out the note, she read the contents of the page with a burgeoning smile on her face.
"I'd say that we got exactly the same thing for the presentation and poems, but you gave me yours instead of mine."
"There was a reason I gave you mine." he explained. "Read the comments on the bottom."
Peering down at the page, she glanced over the comments section.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Unit V – Poetry
Oral Mark: Fail – 52 – 56 – 59 – 62 – 66 – 69 – 72 – 76 – 79 – 82 – 86 – 90 – 94 – 98 - 100
Written Mark: Fail – 52 – 56 – 59 – 62 – 66 – 69 – 72 – 76 – 79 – 82 – 86 – 90 – 94 – 98 - 100
Additional Comments: Squall, that was exceptionally better. Rinoa must be doing a fine job of teaching you the ins and outs of poetry and went beyond what was asked to help your presentation skills because it shows. I think it would be in your best interest to ask her to tutor you further.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
The teenager looked back up and furrowed her eyebrows. "Why did you make me read those comments? I'm already your tutor."
"You always seem to apologize for everything I'm doing for the sake of the act or that's going wrong because you can't see that you're doing something to make the agreement fair. This is proof that you're contributing. I don't want to hear anymore apologies or...whatever. I don't need a saviour complex." He handed her another page from his pocket. "This one's your evaluation sheet."
Rinoa gave him back his page and accepted her own. It read,
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
Unit V – Poetry
Oral Mark: Fail – 52 – 56 – 59 – 62 – 66 – 69 – 72 – 76 – 79 – 82 – 86 – 90 – 94 – 98 - 100
Written Mark: Fail – 52 – 56 – 59 – 62 – 66 – 69 – 72 – 76 – 79 – 82 – 86 – 90 – 94 – 98 - 100
Additional Comments: Your presentation was as good as always Rinoa. My only suggestion is that you pick a more general spot to keep your eyes on if you're not entirely comfortable with looking at who you're addressing. Don't keep your focus on one person in particular because it may affect the level of engagement you have with your audience.
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
The teenager looked up with another smile. "I did really well but she told me not to look at you. You might 'affect the level of engagement' with my audience." she joshed.
Before Squall even had the chance to roll his eyes, Doctor Kadowaki seemingly materialized behind him.
"My, this is a first. You're still here Mr. Leonhart. Is there something I should know about?"
Instead of Squall giving the older woman an answer right after he looked back at her, Rinoa took it upon herself to do so for him.
"No, not really. He was going to leave right after you left but I found a way to make him stay put."
The doctor quirked an eyebrow. "...Alright then. Thank you." Then she turned her attention towards Squall again. "Follow me to the next bed over so I can run a couple of tests so Rinoa can get some rest."
Catching the hint, Rinoa scooted away from the bed's edge and laid down, not before catching Squall give her a faint nod however. The smile she had on remained well after he'd left for whatever tests the doctor had in store for him.
'This charade will probably change how people perceive you so the least I can do is make sure Doctor Kadowaki still sees you as the guy who keeps on wanting to leave her infirmary Squall. I owe you that much, regardless of whatever you say.'
--—-—--—-—--—-—--—-—-
End of Chapter Comments – Sorry it took so long. I had exams up until last Monday. Anyways, I've kinda got mixed feelings on this one since I was a little stumped for this chapter too. I couldn't have it as funny as I wanted it to be because I felt like Seifer was too much of a friend to really say anything witty about this in front of Rinoa, you know? Gah, whatever. It'll probably get better as this goes along.
Hope you sorta liked it anyway.
-Emerald-Latias
Random Tidbits - The whole 'brain transplant' thing was actually a reference to Breaking Free, where Rinoa mentions it to Squall in a library. This chapter also marks the first time I've actually mentioned Zell in all of this. Sad, I know.
