"I reckon we should catch a train next time." Cassy said, staring out on her window.
"What next time." Rinoa began. "No offence or anything, I'm sure your world is a lovely place and all, but I really do think we should be getting back to Balamb now!"
Amber groaned. "Do you ever quit whinging?"
"No." Selphie and Zell replied in unision.
Rinoa glared and went into a sulk. She was ignored. She didn't like being ignored.
"Guys!!" She shouted. "The whole bus turned and glared at her. She smiled
apoligetically, "Uh. Sorry."
She started again. "Guys." She said, whispering. "I'm not whinging! Why do you always say I'm whinging? I'm just worried, that's all. What if we are stuck here? What if we can't get back to Balamb. Get back to the Garden. We'll never see Cid again. Nor Edea, Xu or Nida, Watts and Zone and all these people. We wont get to smell the salty breeze of FH as we stroll around. We'll never--IRVINE WILL YOU STOP STARING AT MY BREASTS WHEN I'M TRYING TO TALK?!?!?"
Irvine looked sheepish. "I...can't help it. They're just so...There!"
Squall leans over and pats him on the shouler. "I hear you bud."
"Amen to that, brother." Zell adds in, turning around in his seat.
Seifer cocked an eyebrow, he let his eyes linger on Rinoa's chest area.
"Hmmm…" He says.
Rinoa glared. "Hmmm, Seifer? Hmmm??" She stares down at them herself. "And WHAT is so 'Hmmmm' about my boobs Seifer? I for one think that they are quite 'ohhh' and 'ahhh'." She put her hands on her hips. "So you can go shove your 'Hmm' up your arse."
Seifer snickered. "They'd be alright if I didn't know that you stuff
waterballoons into your bra every morning!"
The group gasped. Squall looked the most horrified.
Seifer made an 'o' with his mouth. "Oops." He said.
Rinoa turned a really bright red. Embarrassment clearly shown on her face.
"S-s-Seifer, you know that, t-that-"
Cassy giggled, she took pity on Rinoa, "Sweetie," she began, "it's alright, some people aren't as lucky as others. We can go bra shopping tomorrow, I'll introduce you to the wonderful product of my world. Wonderbras. Push-ups, padding, liquid fills, half cups, plus sizes, whatever your heart's desires."
Rinoa shrunk into her seat. She nodded, still a little pink.
Amber supressed laughter, she looked around at the group and at the pizza boxes in their arms. "Hope you guys didn't eat too much, that's our dinner there."
Zell looked down at the empty box in his hand. He looked around sheepishly hoping no one noticed. Seifer caught his guilty glance and began to get suspicious. He nudged Irvine and Irvine checked out Zell too. Pretty soon the whole group was looking at Zell, accusation in their glances.
Zell turned almost as red as Rinoa did.
"Zell…" Amber begun, "Did you finish that WHOLE pizza?"
Zell shook his head quickly.
"Zell…" Amber said again, "Would you mind opening that box for us?"
Zell's eye grew wide, slowly his hand reached for the top of the box.
Suddenly he pointed out the window. "Look, it's a decoy!!"
The group looked outside the window that Zell pointed at. Except for Amber and Cassy.
"What where? I can't see it." Irvine whined.
"Neither can I, where is it Irvy?" Selphie whinged.
Seifer who had immediately realized what Zell did started to sneer. "Look it's a DECOY."
"Yeah?" Selphie said, turning back around and facing Seifer. "So what if I wanted to see the……ohhhhhhh……" Selphie turned red, almost as red as Zell did.
Cassy and Amber started to crack up. "You guys," Amber began.
"Are crazy." Cassy finished.
Quistis started to laugh. "Well it got Zell out of that one."
"It's our stop." Cassy announced.
Squall rung the bell and stood up, motioning for everyone to follow him. He walked to the front of the bus by himself and waited for the bus to stop and the doors to open.
"Huh?" Amber said.
"He's use to being a leader." Supplied Rinoa.
"So he's gotta do something leader-like." Quistis added.
"He's hooked onto commander-ship like caffeine! " Selphie said, then giggled.
"I wish you'd stop acting as if you're high on caffeine." Zell grumbled.
"What was that?" Selphie asked, narrowing her eyes.
The bus was pulling to a stop, the group began to move towards the doors.
"I really like to eat nice juicy baked beans?" Zell offered.
They piled off the bus and began walking to Cassy's house.
Selphie put her hands on her hips, stared at Zell for a moment then piped up. "YEAH ME TOO!!!"
She started to jump on the spot. "THEY'RE SO NICE!"
Zell's eyes widened again and he looked a little scared. "Umm..uhhh…errrr…" he mumbled.
"Selphie!" He let out suddenly.
"What?!" Selphie asked, still jumping around.
"It's another decoy!"
Selphie stopped jumping, she bent her head forward and looked around, scanning the area seriously. "Huh, what, where is it this time. N'oh Zell, you can't trick me this time!"
Zell persisted, "No Selphie, there it is, it's a Decoy!"
Sure enough, there was an ostrich crossing Parramatta road, sporting a blanket on it's back. The word 'DECOY' written in pale slopy writing across the black background on the blanket.
"Huh?" Selphie she scratched her head. She looked around her, she was the only one left standing on that side of the road, everyone else had already crossed and was beckoning her to come over. She scratched her head again before rushing to her friends, narrowly missing a car.
The group resumed walking.
"Guys." Selphie started. "I really did see the Decoy."
Seifer snorted, Amber looked around in sympathy. "Honey, you're crazy."
Zell gave a few shouts of laughter. "Caffeine bitch."
"What was that?!" Selphie cried.
"Candy stitch." Zell replied hastily, "you know, the pink stitching on the jeans sold at Just Jeans."
Selphie narrowed her eyes again, she started at Zell for a moment. "YEAH I
KNOW THEY'RE SO NICE."
The group carried on in silence. They reached Cassy's house. She got her keys and opened the door, they all filed upstairs to her room.
Everyone made themselves at home and lounged around on her bed or her floor.
"I guess this is explanation time." Cassy said.
"Too true." Rinoa replied.
Quistis nodded her head. "Tell us one thing at a time. Slowly."
Amber took a deep breath. She opened her mouth to speak.
"Wait-" Zell said.
"Yes. Zell?"
"Do we get popcorn while hearing this?"
Squall glared in Zell's direction.
"Ok guess not, I'll shut up now." Zell hid his face in Cassy's pillow.
"Start." Squall urged.
Amber nodded. "Alright well, you know video games right?"
Zell smiled broadly and nodded.
"Well there's this video game called Final Fantasy."
"Go on." Quistis said.
Cassy took over. "Final Fantasy is just one of the many many video games made for the playstation, which is the gameconsole, it connects to a moniter screen and that's where you can play your video game."
Amber continued. "Anyways, Final Fantasy is made by Squaresoft. They made several versions of it, Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, and so and so, Final Fantasy 9 is the latest one."
"Well, that's swell and all, but what does any of that have to do with us?" Irvine asked, looking at Amber from under his hat.
Cassy glared at him, "let her go on."
Amber nodded at Cassy. "Final Fantasy 8 is the one we have in mind."
"Why?" Selphie asked.
Amber glared at Selphie, she quickly hushed and looked away.
"Because, "Cassy said, "of this." Cassy got up, rumaged through her drawers and found a magazine. It was titled "Your Guide to Final Fantasy 8" On the cover there was a picture of the whole group in battle mode.
She threw to Squall. Squall picked it up, looking at it weirdly, his eyes grew big, he was silent. He passed the magazine around the room.
"What the hell?"
"What is this?"
"Is that us?"
"Huh?"
"I don't understand."
"Hey that's a me at a bad angle!"
The magazine landed back at Squall, he silently handed it back to Cassy. "Is this some kind of a joke?"
Cassy regarded Squall solemly. "No."
Squall looked around the room. His friend's expressions mirroring his own. Shock, surpize and disbelief.
Amber coughed loudly. "So basically you guys are characters from Cassy and myself's, favorite video game."
Rinoa got up. "This is crazy."
Cassy pulled her back down, "Believe it, sister."
All of them were lost for words.
"That's why we know so much about you. We've both played the game, several times." Amber explained.
"Final Fantasy is a pretty popular game." Cassy added.
"Ohhh.." Squall said, "I thought I saw a poster in that computer store that had our pictures on it."
Cassy nodded. "And how you got here, is a weird but simple story."
Amber smiled. "We were playing with these action figures of you guys, and I guess sub-conscously, we really wished that you guys could actually be here with us, so.." Amber drifted off.
"Your wish came true." Quistis said.
Amber nodded.