Sorry guys but no Echoes next week, as we're going to visit relatives. Days will return in two weeks, and hopefully I'll have some more chapters already prepared by then.
See ya!
_____________________________________________________________________Fifty Days
Chapter 11: Phone Call
Quistis and Xu sat in the empty classroom, paperwork strewn over the desk in between them both, looking at test scores and assessments by the faculty and other instructors and about a dozen different other types of forms and protocols designed to make a teacher's life a living hell. Xu listened attentively as Quistis pointed out certain students and added her own comments, showing her best friend who went well with who and what weapons/magic/GFs. XU kept stealing glances up at the blonde when she knew Quistis wasn't looking.
You wouldn't think from looking at her…
She was so calm and… well… normal. If it had been Xu, then… she didn't know what she would be doing right now. Borrowing large amounts of money from banks probably. Unlike Quistis she had always had a wild streak buried deep down inside that sometimes surfaced in things like Tiddles.
"Xu?"
Xu looked up. "Sorry, I was just thinking," she said.
"About what?"
Xu shrugged. "Stuff. All of this." She gestured down at the mass of words. "Taking up classes again."
"You didn't have to volunteer to do this you know," Quistis said quietly.
"It's the least I can do," Xu replied insistently.
Quistis smiled. "Thanks."
Xu raised one eyebrow. "You want to keep Seifer? You're going to have enough trouble anyways," she muttered.
Quistis' smile increased, and Xu saw something approaching evilness glint in her eye. "Oh, I have a way to shut him up," she said. She didn't elaborate further and Xu didn't ask. She gathered up the sheaf of classwork and assignments and tottered over to the door, muttering under her breath as she did so. Quistis suppress a laugh, and Xu turned back to glare at her. She waved, and the brunette walked out, having very little idea of what she had gotten herself into.
Her head snapped up quickly as a low beeping noise echoed through the spacious classroom, and she sighed and reached into her pocket for her small mobile. "Yes?" she asked wearily. She found herself sitting up straight as a familiar and incredibly welcome voice spoke.
"Mizz Trepe?" Odine asked.
"Doctor Odine. Can I help you?" she asked, then cursed herself silently.
"No, off course not! But Odine can help you! Yes I can! Odine is thinking he hass found zis meesteriouus illness!"
"When can I see you?" she asked quickly.
"As soon as you can be herr!" Odine exclaimed cheerfully. It wasn't often he could give such good news.
Quistis found her hands shaking, and smiled. "Thank you doctor," she whispered gratefully, and jabbed the button to hang up. She laughed, once, and then leaned back in her chair, smiling up at the sky, and whatever deity was looking down on her at this minute. Not usually a devout person, she found herself whispering a small prayer to Hyne in thanks. There is always hope.
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"Yes Brea?" Xu asked, turning away from the tree everyone was aiming at.
The young woman put her hand down. "Where's Instructor Trepe? She usually teaches Elemental Attenuation," Brea asked in puzzlement.
Xu shook her head. "Quistis is taking a break from teaching to concentrate on personal matters. She isn't going to be teaching your last year," she replied. Several people (mostly male) made 'aww'-ing noises and looked like they were going to complain. Xu raised her hand. "I and some other Instructors will be finishing off her classes. Sorry about the disturbance."
"Is Quistis OK?" a student shouted from the back of the crowded class-people.
Xu smiled. "She's fine," she said, managing to lie and tell the truth at the same time. "Now can we please get back to the lesson in hand?" She pointed at a random figure. "Simon, what do Fire-" She reeled off a complicated question about how opposing elements could sometimes have the same properties, whilst her mind was somewhere else completely.
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Seifer looked up as Quistis walked into the library. "Instructor," he said grudgingly.
Quistis looked across at him as if she had just noticed his presence in the room. "Hello Seifer," she said softly, the short sentence coming out cheerfully against all intentions.
"So, what are we going to study today?" he said harshly.
Quistis shook her head. "You are going to keep reading those books I gave you, and try out some of the advanced junctioning experiments – please try not to blow your head off – and then come back and write it up as an essay on the volatility of attempting to cast more than one spell at once. Pay attention to the warnings."
Seifer couldn't resist. "Just me? And where will you be?" He had been aiming for something a lot more venomous, but for some reason he just didn't have the heart.
Oh, I wonder why not. It's not like she's a different person.
Just…
"I'm going back to Esthar," Quistis replied. Seifer raised one eyebrow. "Odine thinks he ahs something," she found herself saying, and then shut her mouth.
Seifer seemed hesitant to even speak aloud the fact that she was ill. "So I keep working while you're gone?" he asked.
Quistis nodded. She drew out a chair and sat down. "Seifer, answer me one question," she said, staring into his eyes.
Seifer shrugged. "Sure. Whatever," he said casually.
"When you found out about your past with us, did you care?"
Seifer was caught short by the question, and leaned back in his seat. "Why?" he asked, trying to divert her attention.
"Because I want to know what you think, about the past, about us" she replied quietly.
Seifer just looked at her for a few seconds, and then he let out his breath when he meant 'us' in the sense of the entire gang, and just Quistis and he. He hated to admit it, but he was slightly disappointed. He shrugged. "I didn't much care," he answered, quite truthfully.
Quistis frowned. "It didn't matter to you? Anything? Zell telling Matron about lighting fireworks on the beach, Selphie always hitting Irvine when he wouldn't do as she asked, you and Squall always fighting," she said.
"You, always bossing people around," Seifer butted in.
"You always breaking everyone else's toys."
"You making Zell stop crying and sitting in the corner like Matron did."
Quistis paused. "I didn't remember that," she admitted. She looked back up. "I remember you and Zell fighting that day b the beach though," she said nastily. "As I recall, he won, and you ran off," she said.
Seifer looked surprised. "I didn't think anyone else would remember that," he said.
Quistis smiled. "Some of us are just better at remembering," she said slowly, and then looked back down at the book in front of her.
Seifer, however, kept staring at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.
Quistis looked back up. "What do you mean?" she asked sweetly.
Seifer got horrible shivers. "You said some people remember more than others. What did you mean, did-" He stopped.
"'Did' what Seifer?" Quistis asked.
Seifer took a deep breath and said it. "We weren't friends, were we?" he asked.
Quistis just looked at him for a second, and then laughed, the kind Seifer would have been hard put to describe without including the words 'airy'.
She held up one hand and put another to her mouth. She removed it when she had managed to stop laughing. "I… you thought…" She started laughing again.
"Hey, cut it out!" Seifer shouted, becoming painfully aware that he had just embarrassed himself.
Quistis stopped laughing again. "Actually I was referring to one time when Selphie poured custard over your head and you cried." Seifer's mouth fell open. Quistis went on. "But your idea is much more ridiculous. I think we hated each other at the time." She giggled. "What gave you that idea?" she asked. She knew how he thought. "Truthfully," she added.
Seifer knew he was trapped. "Just a thought," he muttered.
Quistis smiled at him. "Cute."
"Did you just call me cute?" he asked incredulously.
"I'm in a good mood today. Don't jinx it," Quistis warned. "And yes, I did."
Seifer searched for the correct response for this and, not finding one, went down not so much the path of least resistance but the path not least manly-answers. "You're not bad either," he said quietly.
Quistis just stared at him for a few seconds, and then shook her head sadly. She looked back down at the book, and quickly checked her watch. "Come on, I have to set you this. I leave in a few minutes. Timewaster,"
Seifer would normally have pointed out that it was she who had made the conversation, but he had the feeling she wouldn't have cared. He looked down at the book and tried to concentrate, and not look up at her.
Five minutes later Quistis pushed away from the table and stood. "Good. Carry on with that. I don't know how long I'll be gone, so Xu will occasionally check in one you."
"What? She'll kill me!" Seifer complained loudly.
Quistis shook her head. "Keeping you on your toes is no bad thing." She turned and walked out. "I'll see you when I see you. Remember it isn't that long 'till graduation."
"Quisty!" Seifer shouted just before she reached the door.
Quistis smiled at his use of her old nickname. Looks like you remembered some things. "Yes?"
"…Good luck."
Quistis smiled at him again, wit genuine warmth. "Thank you." She walked out, leaving Seifer standing alone in the library staring after once again.
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Quistis smiled happily as she walked from the library towards the hanger where the Ragnarok (barely) fit in. She waved at Zell and laughed as his distraction caused something angular to fall away from the ship's innards and nearly fell on him.
"Off to Esthar again?" he shouted across the metal floor. Quistis nodded. "Gimme a few." And he disappeared back inside the red metal spacecraft.
She jogged up the entryway into the ship and took the lift up to the bridge, staring into the bulkhead, for the first time in days the spectre of death not as close as she had imagined it to be. It would be the next few days under Odine's watch that would decide how close it would stay.
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Seifer heard the familiar roar of engines and looked out of the window to see a streak of read head southeast across the sky towards Esthar. He sighed, and found himself thinking of his last conversation.
We weren't friends, were we?
What had made him ask her that question, of all questions? He shook his head as if to forcibly eject the thought from his head, and went towards the cafeteria, where the dinner ladies had at least stopped glaring at him, and were working through 'dismissive' to 'polite' in small stages. It made a change.
His gave drifted back across to the windows and the rapidly thinning vapour-trail of the Esthar-bound ship.
Cute.
Did you just call me cute?
I'm in a good mood today. Don't jinx it. And yes, I did.
Seifer frowned, and tried to get on with eating his salad. However he still couldn't get the last two words out of his head.
She did?
She did…
_____________________________________________________________________Another chapter done… Ah… I'm trying to avoid the old 'they were friends back at the orphanage' thing by the way.