That's Just The Way It Is: Chapter Two
By NikeGrrrrl
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Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters, Squaresoft does.
I hope we all know that by now! Please don't use my ideas or my story without
my permission :-) That's not too much
to ask of ya, right? I would never ask too much of ya great guys! You're my
readers! You rule!
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Authors Note: Well, I put a lot of time into this story,
so it means a lot to me that you guys take a minute out of your day to write a nice
little review in the box. If you hate this story tell me so! But try to tell
what I did wrong so I can get better, ok? Please, please?
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One last thing before I go: Thanks to DH and Chris who
sometimes are my pre-readers on this series! Thank for all the help guys! :-)
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"What? Hey, now, don't go tellin' everyone! I'm
sorry, ok? It will not happen again!" A masculine voice hollered back at
the young woman in a desperate tone. The voice sounded a lot like…Zell! It was
Zell and Selphie! What were they quarrelling about, and so violently? Something
must have happened on their short way to the bridge.
By the sound of their irritated voices the two
teenagers were in a major disagreement. Which was very out of the ordinary
because Selphie hardly ever raised her voice the slightest bit, unless the
hyperactive girl was shouting out in pleasure. No one that was on the bridge
could even imagine what Zell could have done to make Selphie so upset that she
would yell at one her dearest friends.
Quistis made her way to the lift where she would be
able to make out their shapes and hear the two arguing young people better.
"Tell everyone what?" Quistis questioned to the quarrelling pair as she
squinted and bent over to peer down through the cracks of the lift. The blonde
girl could barely make out Zell and Selphie's shapes, Zell had both of his
hands raised in a innocent gesture, quite typical of him when he was in any
kind of trouble, and Selphie was motioning with her hands chaotically.
Rinoa followed behind Quistis slowly and wore a
thoughtful look on her soft featured face. The brunette put her hands behind
her back and tilted her head as she followed Quistis's lead, a natural born
leader in Rinoa's mind. General
Caraway's daughter stayed about five steps behind her lead, and opened her ears
to all sound so that she could hear what their friends were saying below them.
The sorceress had outstanding hearing now, one of the pluses of being a
sorceress.
Squall wrinkled his nose and followed behind the
two girls. He hoped that the two teenagers were going to come up to the bridge
soon, he was losing all of his patience very quickly. The brown haired boy
could barely make out their voices, and he could tell there was an intense
argument going on between the two teenage SeeDs, that were some of his best
friends. He hoped nothing to awful had just happened…
"Fine then! If you wanna act like such a jerk…I'll
just have to leave!" Selphie yelled in a voice so loud and high pitched it
startled sleeping Irvine, well he had been sleeping. Quistis saw Selphie stomp
her way to the door and shut it with a slam. Then Zell put his head in one of
hands for a moment and then sprinted after the distressed brown haired SeeD.
"Selphie! Headmaster Cid has to talk with us! Come
back here before we get into anymore trouble!" He yelled as he ran off after
her leaving four puzzled teenagers to let their minds wander to what the
meaning of that could have been. Why would Selphie get so angry over nothing?
It just didn't make any sense, and Zell had never made Selphie mad before then…
Irvine let out a yawn and stretched is arms above
his head, knocking his brown leather cowboy hat to the floor. It turned in
circles and finally sat on the hard tile floor waiting for the boy in the
cowboy get-up to set it back upon his head. He bent over so he could reach it
quickly. He snatched it quickly, the gunslinger didn't want anyone to see his
hair which was very messed up from having the hat on his head.
"Do you sleep with that hat on?" Quistis asked
thoughtfully, she knit her thin eyebrows together and waited for an answer from
their drowsy cowboy comrade. It seemed to her that he never separated himself
with his gun or cowboy hat. Quistis allowed the muscles of her rosy
cheeks to pull back and form a small curious smirk. She was guessing that he
would reply to her and say something that had obscene implications.
Irvine positioned the hat carefully on his head,
and then leaned against the wall with an arrogant look on his dark tan face.
"Well, well, why would you care to know what I sleep with Quistis Trepe?
You seem so very interested." He said back to her in a voice that made Quistis
frown deeper.
"No, I do not care what you sleep with, I
was just thinking you never seem to part with your gun or that dumb cowboy
hat." Quistis answered back to him in a matter-a-fact tone of voice. She had
already prepared herself for his comeback to her innocent questions. When the
words reached Irvine's ears he opened his mouth and wore a hurt look on his
face.
He placed his right hand on his chest, and then
flinched as if he were in sudden pain. "Ouch, now that hurt me right here," he
said pointing to where his heart was located in his chest. Quistis rolled her
piercing ice blue eyes and marched over to where the loud speaker was held. She
could keep herself entertained and kill some time while trying to repair it
Irvine shrugged his shoulders superficially(He was
still trying to pretend that Quistis had offended him); then pulled his soft
leather hat over his brown eyes and, for the second time that day, tried to get
some more sleep in. After all, he hadn't even gone to sleep the night before,
how could a guy sleep when there were so many ladies that adored him?
"I wonder what Zell and Selphie were arguing
about?" Rinoa mused aloud. She started to twirl a piece of highlighted blonde
hair around her right index finger. She then plopped back down to the floor and
sat with her arms around her legs. She was completely out of ideas already.
"I have no idea, but it must have been bad, 'cause
Selphie doesn't get that mad for no reason. And second of all, they better
hurry up! Anyone wanna volunteer to go and get them back up here?" Squall asked
hopefully, but all he got were looks from Rinoa and Quistis, Irvine of course
was already out cold again.
"I'm fixing the loud speaker, sorry." Quistis
answered as she picked up a medium sized, shiny, silver wrench from the gray
and white square toolbox that was already sitting beside the broken down loud
speaker. It was apparent that someone had already been in the process of fixing
it when they were called up here.
Quistis stuck the whole upper half of her body into
metal box where all of the loud speaker's wires were kept, the internal organs
of the system. She tinkered with the wires and such in the gray metal box for about
two minutes and then slowly, to make sure she didn't bump her head, pulled
herself out.
"Somebody
broke this baby good," she remarked as she dusted of her hands off and sat up.
The blonde girl bit her lower pinkish lip, and tried to think of what she could
do to fix the loud speaker. Some of the inside wires had been badly damaged.
Squall pretended that he hadn't heard her, he let
out a strong sigh and started pacing around the bridge again. "Whatever their
problem is, they better resolve it and hurry up here before I lose it." Squall
said in a dark tone of voice.
******
Zell hoped he could reach the elevator before
Selphie went down, because then he would have to wait forever and then he
wouldn't be able to find her for ages, Balamb Garden had too many good hiding
places. He had to reason with her, she had such a big mouth. The short blonde
boy reached the elevator just as Selphie was pressing the button, she gave him
a look of pure venom as she frantically pushed one of the buttons.
He dove desperately toward the closing doors of the
elevator and put his hands between the doors and stopped them from shutting.
Selphie put an outraged look on her face as he scrambled to his feet and hopped
into the elevator. He smiled broadly, and hit the 1F button and watched as the
doors silently slid to a closed.
"It's gonna be a long ride down," Selphie said in
an unhappy tone of voice as she moved to the far side of the elevator, and away
from Zell. The petite girl let out a rugged sigh and leaned against the cold
hard glass of the side of the elevator she was on. She watched as they made
their way down, the fountain on the first floor getting bigger, and bigger.
Zell opened his mouth to speak to Selphie, but he
was interrupted as the elevator made an earsplitting noise and came to a stop
with a jolt that knocked both of SeeDs to the hard, thin, red carpeted floor.
It must have been Selphie's bad "Karma" because she had been knocked to the
floor a great many time for one person in just one day.
"Ouch…"Selphie said as she slowly opened her blue
eyes and rubbed her head with her left hand where she had bonked it against the
thick glass, the same place she had bonked it on Zell's bed. She pulled herself
back up into a sitting position and looked out the window, they were almost
even with the second floor now.
Zell let out a low groan and pulled himself up,
too. He rubbed his right arm which had been smacked against the tough elevator
door. "Are you alright?" He questioned to Selphie, it looked like she had been
smacked up against the thick glass window.
"Does it look like I'm alright?" She snapped back
at him and ran her thin fingers through her silky brown hair where she had been
rubbing her head. The brunette gave him a mean look and turned back to continue
staring out of the transparent window.
Zell sighed and pulled himself up to his feet. He
lifted the sleeve of the gray T-shirt he was wearing and took a look at his
arm, there was a bruise that was already forming. The short blonde boy sighed
and pulled his sleeve back down, that would hurt him a lot tomorrow.
He moved a couple feet over to the panel on the
wall. Zell tried to open it, it was jammed shut. The impatient boy then
proceeded to punch the dark shiny silver panel as hard as he could manage. The
door or the panel popped right open after his fist had hit it.
"Ouch! Man that friggin hurt!" Zell screeched after
he had punched the hard metal panel door. He rubbed his right fist with left
hand. Now his right hand hurt along with his arm, he would be about useless
tomorrow. The blonde boy stared down at his hand, it was already bright red.
"Well, duh, Dr. Odine! Punching a some metal thing
will hurt!" Selphie said in the meanest voice she could manage. Zell frowned at
her; then turned back around and pulled the panel door off. He started pushing
buttons and when nothing else worked he punched all of them in desperation.
Selphie
opened her mouth in outrage; stood up and ran over to where he was standing.
"What do you think you are doing! You're gonna break it!" She yelled at him in
a viscous voice. The petite girl didn't want to be stuck in this elevator all
day.
Zell rolled his baby blue eyes at Selphie in a rude
way. "Look, if you have a better idea I'd like to hear it." The spiky haired
boy spat back at Selphie, she frowned at him as much as her soft features could
manage. Zell shrugged his shoulders and stared defiantly back at her.
******
Back at the bridge the four teenagers weren't doing
much of anything but waiting for their two friends, that were now stuck in an
elevator, who hadn't came back yet. Squall had returned to his pacing, while
Quistis had finally given up on the loud speaker and sat thinking to herself,
Rinoa was twirling her dark hair watching Squall pace with an amused look on her
soft featured face, and Irvine was still fast asleep.
Squall sighed, and stopped pacing to look at the
clock on the left wall, almost four o'clock. He gave his amused girlfriend an
unpleasant look. "This is so hopeless, they are never going to come back, and
it's been almost thirty minutes!" Squall yelled helplessly. Until their friends
decided to come back, they were stuck with nothing to do, and no news of what
Headmaster Cid was going to tell them.
Quistis Trepe sighed for thousandth time that day.
She stared out the window to see if they were getting any nearer to their final
destination. The girl's glance first fell upon the sky, seagulls could now be
seen flying around carefree with not a trouble in the whole wide world; Quistis
began to envy them. Sometimes she wished that she could fly off and leave all
of her troubles behind her.
The young SeeD squinted do to the bright yellow sun
that was now in the way of her view of the seagulls she had been watching fly
in a lighthearted manner. The blonde girl moved her neck and ice blue eyes to
lower her gaze to see if they were nearing land, to her surprise a sandy coast
could be seen not too far from where they were!
The girl smiled gleefully and leaped up to her feet
as swiftly as she could manage. "Look guys! We're almost home!" She said as she
made her way to the transparent glass window so she could look out and pick up
a better view of the landscape. The blonde shuttled past Squall who had just
stopped his pacing to glance out and see if Quistis was indeed right and they
were almost home.
******
"Oh, I got a great idea let's just wait for it to
start back up then!" Zell yelled back at Selphie. He frowned and sat down and
leaned against the elevator door with a bump and a heavy sigh. He put his legs
out straight in front of him and crossed them at his ankles. This was not his
idea of a good day, they were both going to be in trouble, and then he was in
double-trouble of course.
Selphie sighed and sat down beside the gloomy
blonde boy. She sat Indian stile with her hands folded in her lap. Zell turned
his head to the side and looked at her. "Why are you sitting by me Miss
I'm-oh-so-mad." He asked her in a non-welcoming tone of voice.
The brunette frowned at him and opened her mouth to
yell some mean and hurtful comeback at him, but she stopped and closed her
mouth. "Enough of this! I'm tired of being mad! Being mad sucks big time! I
don't know Squall can stand it!" She announced in a loud unhappy voice.
Zell laughed at her care-free spirit, leave it to
Selphie to brighten up somebody's day. "Hey, I'm sorry, ok? I'll try to be a
little nicer ok?" Zell asked her in a nicer tone of voice. Maybe he shouldn't
have been quite so mean to the library girl…but she was just so annoying and
she never would leave him alone!
"Yep, you are going to be nicer, and you'll start
off by saying you are sorry to Lili when we get down stairs." Selphie said in a
matter-of-fact voice. She couldn't believe how mean he had been to her, she
liked him so much too! Selphie liked her, Lili was little too shy to be one of
her main friends, but Selphie liked her, she was always very polite and nice.
Zell frowned and groaned in an unhappy manner and
pulled up his hands and put them behind his head. "Come on Selphie, please
don't make me!" Zell bellowed in a very loud voice. He moved his hands back to
his side and frowned deeply.
"You made her cry!" Selphie said in a
defending voice. Zell had made quite the scene, making the poor girl cry in
front of everyone at Balamb Garden. It had been just awful to watch, that poor
girl was just head-over-heels for Zell. Then he had to go and make such an ass
of himself, Selphie didn't like to let her friends to make fools of themselves
either.
Zell flinched at her words, but shrugged his
shoulders in a passive gesture. "She'll get over it." He answered flatly. With
an outraged mixed with surprised look from Selphie he gave up. "Ok, ok, if we
ever get out of this elevator I will I sat that I am sorry? Are you happy now?"
He asked raised his eyebrows.
Selphie moved over and gave him a big hug. "Good!
Now I can be happy again!" She said before she hopped up to her feet. Grinning
from ear to ear she walked over to where the panel was. The brunette looked at
it thoughtfully for a moment. "High-YA!" She yelled as she kicked it.
The elevator shuddered back up to a start. Selphie
jumped up in the air triumphantly and smiled so hard it looked like her face
was going to get stuck with a big grin on it. "Did anyone ever tell you not to
make faces 'cause your face might get stuck like that?" Zell asked in a
semi-teasing, semi-curious voice.
Selphie pulled her cheek muscles into a even bigger
smile, which Zell hadn't thought was possible, and said, "Yes, and it hasn't
got stuck yet! Even if it did, I wouldn't mind 'cause I like this smile!" She
said in her normal happy voice as she pointed to the grin that she had
plastered onto her face.
Zell laughed and scrambled to his feet, they were
almost to the first floor now. He knew
he would have so much fun saying sorry to that library girl, too. What was he
going to say? The blonde boy hardly had ever even talked to her, he barely knew
her! A "ding!" interrupted his thoughts as the elevator door silently
slid open to reveal the huge, bubbling, clear blue water fountain at the center
of Balamb Garden.
******
"Whenever sang my songs…" Rinoa hummed mindlessly
as she watched the Garden get closer and closer to the Balamb coastline. "On
the stage…on my own…" she continued while staring out over the horizon.
Whenever the girl got bored or scared she would always sing one of her mother's
songs, it made her feel better when she was sad and it was something to do when
she was bored. Her father had wanted her to be a singer…she hated singing
though, that really had upset him.
"You have a pretty voice," Quistis said to Rinoa as
she turned to face her. The blonde girl had never heard Rinoa sing before then,
her voice really was quite exceptional. Even though Quistis wasn't exactly fond
of Rinoa Heartily she had to admit she had quite the voice. When Quistis was
younger she used to sing, but then she got caught up in teaching and dropped
the ambition. It wasn't as much as an ambition as it was a hobby for the
younger Quistis Trepe.
Rinoa looked surprised
to what Quistis had just said. The blonde girl really didn't like her all that
much, she must really sing good then… "Oh, well, thank you! General Caraway
used to think so also, but that was a long time ago when I actually called him my
"dad"." She answered in a normal voice. It took all that she had to keep the
resentment out of her voice.
Quistis shook her head
to let Rinoa know she was still paying attention, Quistis thought it best not
to bring up the subject of Rinoa's past, especially the issue of her father.
The blonde girl sighed and continued to start thoughtlessly out the window, she
could see many birds now flying around with no certain purpose, and the
coastland was coming into view very quickly. Soon they would be home, back on
solid ground, that was a big plus for Quistis because she was getting tired of
being in the air.
Irvine woke up, and
pushed his cowboy hat away from his eyes so that he could see, back to the top
of his head. The gun slinging boy walked over to where everyone else was
standing mindlessly looking out the window. It seemed that Zell and Selphie
still weren't here. He worried about them, what had they been fighting so
viscously about? It was very unlike Selphie to get quite that mad, well, unless
she was mad at him.
"So, what's happened,
and what time is it?" Irvine questioned his friends as he walked up and stood
beside a frowning Squall, nothing out of the ordinary there. Maybe it had
annoyed Squall that he was so laid-back he could even take a nap when waiting
for important news. "Yes," Irvine thought to himself, "he is sooo obviously
jealous."
Quistis, without
turning her head to look at him, said, "Well, nothing has happened, and it's
almost four thirty now." They were all running very behind schedule, and with
no indication that Zell and Selphie were going to join their four companions on
the bridge any time soon it wasn't looking good for them either. This obstacle
of not having the other members of their party missing was beginning to become
very serious.
******
Zell and Selphie strode off the elevator
simultaneously. There were about ten or twelve people impatiently waiting for
the elevator to come back down from the upper two floors. Most of them seemed
relieved that the elevator had finally made its way down to them, not half as
relieved as Zell and Selphie, but a few other ones wore the same infuriated
looks on their faces.
"What took so long, huh!? What were you guys doing
in that elevator for that long? We can only imagine…" A male student remarked
in a mocking tone of voice as he grinned a grin…that looked like something that
should be on Seifer Almasy's face. It was eerie how much the two of them looked
alike.
Zell rolled
his blue eyes in a tired manner. He had been through too much today to deal
with some young jerk. "Great, we have a new Seifer Almasy already." He thought
to himself unhappily, he had just started to enjoy the freedom of no Seifer
when some brat comes up thinking he is all powerful and mighty like Seifer used
to think before all of this happened. "Well, he isn't Seifer, and I am way
older than him." Zell thought to himself.
Selphie reacted the same way as Zell, she had never
cared for immature jerks, but this guy made her feel really scared for some odd
reason... "I don't know what you would have done, but we tried to fix
it! Now leave us alone," Selphie said dismissively as she proceeded to walk
down the stairs toward the fountain. Zell gave the boy one last malicious
glare, and followed behind Selphie. The young man just grinned the same grin
and thought to himself, "Yeah, I'll leave you alone…for the time being."
When they were finally out of hearing range of the
people that were by the elevator, Zell motioned for Selphie to come and sit
with him on the ledge of the fountain. The two of them changed their direction
and sat down beside the tranquil water of the fountain. A light mist of cool
water could be felt as they sat beside the huge bubbling fountain.
Zell leaned forward and rested his elbows on his
knees and turned his head took look sideways at Selphie. "Selphie, is it just
me, or did that kid look exactly like Seifer?" Zell asked her in reflective
voice. It couldn't be pure coincidence that some fifteen-year-old looked
exactly like their old rival. Or could it?
Selphie stared straight out in front of her with a
blank look on her face. "That was really creepy, Zell. Something wasn't
right with guy, he really creeped me out. We have to tell the others right
away…" she trailed off. That guy was really odd; out of place. She had never
seen him before, and no one new had joined Garden…
"Let's go…" Zell answered to Selphie. He
straightened himself and them stood up quickly. Selphie was still sitting in
the same exact spot, staring off blankly in front of her. "Uh, Selphie, are you
ok?" Zell questioned uncertainly. She was really acting strange,
"Yeah…I just…don't feel to well anymore…" Selphie
said right before she tipped back and fell with a splash into the clear blue
water of the fountain that was behind her.
TO BE CONTINUED…
REVIEWS PEOPLE! THOSE ARE WHAT I NEEEED!