Disclaimer: Final Fantasy belongs to Squaresoft, so do nearly all the characters I use.
Bad Zell! No hotdog for you!
Chapter 2: Selphie is a legal adult, the day has turned sinister.
Seifer had been in his room for nearly four hours. From behind, it looked as though he might have been torturing a small animal. Strange machines and sharp objects were scattered on both sides of the table. A single light bulb hanging from the ceiling lit the room.
"Heheheheheh… I'm almost finished."
Odd stabbing sounds could be heard. Seifer picked up a pair of wire cutters; it sounded as though he was snapping the poor creature's bones. Seifer's voice came out in a demonic manner.
"It's finished."
He held his handy work about his head, laughing maniacally.
"It's my best center piece yet!"
He was so proud of the object he held so high: a perfectly symmetrical arrangement of flowers. He had hand picked the flowers at six AM so the little yellow blooms would still be fresh in time for Selphie's party.
"Finally, everyone will appreciate my talents!"
Fujin stood at the door. She had never seen this side of Seifer.
"What do you think? Isn't it beautiful!"
Seifer started to cry from sheer happiness. Fujin didn't know what to say, but she had to admit, it was the best flower arrangement she'd ever seen.
"PERFECT."
Seifer looked truly touched.
"Y-you think so? Thank you Fujin! I've been working for four hours. I used to make pieces like this for Edea. It was I who designed her parade float. I was her knight AND her interior decorator!"
Seifer happily skipped out his room carrying the yellow flowers, cautiously looks up and down the hall, and walked out with his usual grim expression. Fujin followed as he headed for the cafeteria.
***
Squall sat cleaning his gunblade. He carefully checked all the working parts and held it out, still inspecting it. Rinoa quietly entered, carrying a colorful gift bag, and sat on the bed next to him.
"Did you remember to get Selphie a birthday present?"
He pointed at a small white box sitting in the corner of the room.
"It's not even wrapped!"
"If it's wrapped it might suffocate."
Rinoa's face went blank.
"You got her something that's alive?"
"You told me to buy something she would like."
"I know she'll like it… whatever it is. But being around Selphie, it's not going to be alive much longer."
"…Whatever."
Rinoa took Squall by the hand.
"Come on! Let's go to the cafeteria before we're late for Selphie's party!"
Squall picked up the box in the corner and walked away with Rinoa.
***
Zell held the small silvery ring close to his eye. He looked down at the magazine. The rings weren't exactly the same, he had to make a few alterations because to his lack of time. Hopefully, Selphie would still like it. He looked at his watch.
"Damn it! I don't have time to wrap it. I guess I'll just give it to her like this."
He polished the ring one more time, put it in his pocket and headed for the cafeteria.
***
Selphie sat at a table in the cafeteria. She was smiling as usual and bobbing up and down in her seat. Irvine stood next to Selphie with a hand on her shoulder. Selphie stared to whine.
"I'm getting bored! When is everyone else getting here?"
"They'll be here soon, Sefie darling."
Seifer walked in first with Fujin and Rajin in tow.
"I made this for ya."
Seifer used his usual gruff voice as he set the flowers before Selphie.
"Heeey! That's pretty! Thanks Seifer!"
Seifer's heart filled with joy. His labor was appreciated.
"She likes it! Oh, this is the happiest moment in my life!"
Rajin put a box wrapped in shiny pink paper and a big yellow bow on the table.
"I like got ya a present too, ya know."
Fujin placed a little blue gift bag beside the pink box.
"HERE."
"Tee-hee! Thanks!"
Pretty soon all of Selphie's friends had gathered and a mountain of gifts had accumulated on the table. Everyone had cake and ice cream and hotdogs. Then Selphie tore into the presents.
She picked up the plain white box with holes in it.
"Nice wrapping job Squall."
"…"
Selphie opened the box; the tiny animal peeked up at her. Seifer peeked over Selphie's shoulder.
"Is that a gerbil?"
The bubbly brunet pushed the boy back.
"No, it's a hamster!
Seifer looked disappointed.
"Oh, I had a gerbil once. But I lost him about a month ago…"
"I thought he just like got stuck in the PVC pipe ya know."
Rajin received a kick in the knee.
"DISGUSTING."
Selphie chose to ignore the previous conversation.
"But I don't have a cage for him!"
Quistis stepped forward handing Selphie a large box.
"Open my gift next."
Selphie ripped the box open.
"A hamster cage!"
She worked her way around to the blue bag from Fujin. She carefully reached inside and pulled out…
"A remote control?"
"ROCKET LAUNCHER."
"Super cool!!"
It seemed like no time when the girl had torn through everything on the table.
"I didn't get anything from Zell… He forgot my birthday!"
Zell pulled something out of his pocket.
"Oh, here. I almost forgot!"
Zell opened his hand over Selphie's. She felt something warm and smooth drop into her palm. She gasped when she realized it was like the one she wanted. The girl jumped out of the chair and hopped excitedly.
"It's like the one I wanted!!"
"Yeah, I made it."
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
Irvine strolled over to his girlfriend and put an arm around her shoulders.
"C'mon Sefie, I'll help ya carry all this to your room."
Zell watched them leave the cafeteria. Before he knew what was happening he felt his fists clenching and rage mounting.
Quistis notice something was wrong and put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Zell?"
"God I HATE that guy!"
"We all know, let's just go somewhere."
Zell grinned wickedly.
"Okay. I'll just take care of 'Irvy Kinnepoo' later… heheheh…"
Rinoa nearly asked Zell why he was laughing. She looked up at Squall who just shook his head.