Daystar - 8 - Jaded

"Damn, why do they have to call us out here at 2:00 in the morning?"

"Relax Seifer, they need our help is all."

"I know they need our help instructor, I just need to know why they're bringing us out in the early hours of the day!"

"God Seifer, stop complaining!" Selphie slammed her black duffel bag down on the ground, and covered her ears. "I can't walk all the way to the town listening to this."

"Well I'm sorry Selphie, but some of us actually stay away from drugs, or Ritalin, or whatever the hell you're on all day. You can't expect everyone to be as happy as you."

Irvine retrieved her luggage from the dirt road, and carried it himself.

Seifer pulled his bag strap higher on his shoulder, placed a cigarette in his mouth, and began digging in his pocket for a lighter. The only light that the 4 SeeDs had was the moon, and the stars. They arrived on a bus, but the driver had students from another Garden on board, and so they had to walk the rest of the way to the town. They were told to bring anything they needed for a 2-week stay.

-

"Will someone please refresh my memory and tell me why they need our help? They already have about 10 or 15 SeeDs down there. Are they that weak?" Irvine removed his hat.

"No, puberty boy found a dead body, broke the news to everyone, and scared them shitless. Damnit, anybody got a light?"

"He didn't find a dead body. He found a girl, and she like killed herself in front of him or something." Selphie added in, wrapping her arm around the tall cowboy's.

"Whatever, cutie." Seifer found his lighter, lit the cigarette, and blew the smoke into the sky. "Ahh, that's priceless."

"Do you mind?" Quistis fanned the smoke that trailed down to her face.

"Sorry Ms. Health."

Quistis shot him a mean look.

"Actually, this is how the real story goes. He saw this weird figure, and he approached it. When he was close enough, he saw that it was a girl, and when he tried talking to her, she just...died." The young blonde replied, informatively.

"Wow, that's weird. This town sounds so creepy!" Selphie moved closer to Irvine, and flinched, and yelped when Seifer kicked noisily at the ground.

"Oh man, how do they expect to save the town by calling you to help them? That's a joke." He took a long drag off his cigarette.

"Seifer, will you please stop bullying everyone for once, and concentrate on our destination?"

He smirked.

"You know what? The only thing I wish I could say right now, is wake me up when we get there. Why did the bus have to drop us off right here? How come-"

"You guys tell me to shut up, but you don't say anything to this idiot when he starts rambling?"

Seifer slapped Irvine on the back of the head, making his hat fall to the ground.

Quistis sighed.

"I might as well be making this trip with a group of preschoolers." She added in annoyed, bending over and picking Irvine's hat up.

"I get so sick of hearing you say things like that! What makes you better than everyone else?"

The angry blonde flicked his ashes onto the dirt.

"Anything looks better than the way you all are acting right now! Why can't we just find the town, settle in for the night, and start out fresh in the morning?"

"Fresh?! How am I supposed to start out fresh?! It's almost 2:30, and they're probably going to wake us up at 5:00 or 6:00! I need at least 9 hours of sleep!"

Selphie whined, and made everyone want to cover their ears.

"Selphie, SHUT UP! It's obvious you need your fucking beauty sleep, but there are more important things to worry about. Are we even going the right way? It shouldn't take this long to get to a supposed "run-down" village." Seifer turned around, and peered behind them.

They did come a long way. The little town only lay 3 minutes ahead of them.

-

The rest of the walk was silent. Quistis was getting more and more annoyed by Seifer's cigarette smoke. Seifer was just plain pissed about the mission. Selphie was afraid to talk, because of the insult she just received, and Irvine hummed a familiar sounding song, out of boredom.

"Mmm hmmm hmm."

Seifer stopped walking.

"Will you cut that shit out? It's driving me crazy!"

"I need to be entertained."

"I'll entertain you!" He dropped his bag on the ground.

Selphie finally spoke up.

"Wait guys, we're here!"

All four of them stopped and gazed at the huge lit up sign in front of the deadly town's entrance. It read: "Welcome to Calm Gale, where even the thunder storms are serene."