A/N: I've been having some trouble loading the correct chapters with the
matching stories. My computer's kinda screwed up or something. If you can
see this under the story Camp Chocobo, PLEASE tell me so in your reviews!
Thanks!
What a beautiful day, thought Quistis. It was early morning, and although the thought of living in a cabin disgusted her, she had to admit it was very peaceful. She could hear birds chirping and sunshine streamed through her window as she brushed her hair.
She closed her eyes and took a big breath full of untainted air. She smiled. She smelled sweet flowers of all kinds, minty pine trees, smoke…smoke? Her eyes snapping open, the blonde stood on the tips of her toes to see through a particularly high window facing the mess hall.
After hurriedly jamming a boot onto her foot, Quistis ran toward the mess hall. Since the kitchen was next to her own cabin, she could only hope that the smoke was from something burning, and not from a full-fledged fire.
The former Balamb Garden instructor thrust open the doors of the kitchen to see Selphie scrubbing at something inside of the oven, the scent of smoke still thick in the air. Noticing her friend gaping in the doorway, Selphie stood up and greeted Quistis with a mock salute.
"Heehee! Hi, Quisty!" Selphie giggled at the speechless blonde. Gesturing behind her, Selphie continued. "Um, I bet you're wondering what happened, huh? Well y'see, the funniest thing happened! I was trying to make pancakes, but I kinda messed up. Everything's okay now though!" the brunette chirped happily.
Seeing that Quistis was still not up to talking, Selphie wiped a bit of something unknown off her face and turned to resume her cleaning. "The batter was really messy," she explained. Quistis could only look disgusted as she watched Selphie. Brown batter? For pancakes?
Sighing in exasperation, Quistis realized that the time for talk had passed- though she had much to ask- and helped Selphie clean up in a comfortable silence.
And it came as no surprise to her that Selphie had decided that today the camp would have cereal for breakfast.
~*~*~*~
"Awesome!" exclaimed Zell as he jumped into the air enthusiastically. He looked again at his assignment card and smiled broadly. He tapped Squall on the shoulder. "You can just call me Wilderness Hike Instructor Zell!" the blond boy bragged as he pointed proudly to himself and smiled again.
Seifer was disgusted, on the other hand. He was to be in charge of the super soaker water gun station. How boring… he mused. Couldn't they have let me be something more…I don't know, prestigious?
Rinoa stood on her tiptoes and looked over Squall's shoulder to peek at his card. "Heeey!" she exclaimed. "You're at the pool? Super! I'm in the arts & crafts cabin, right near the pool!"
Irvine, on the other hand, was not as elated at his 'station'. He looked again at his assignment card. Why? Out of all the assignments…why do I have to be an assistant at the chocobo riding station? He thought dismally. Selphie brought him out of his worries with an unexpected hug from behind. And then right back into his worries as she yelled, "I'm the camp cook, I'm the camp cook!"
Quistis was completely neutral to her assignment- a group leader. She was in charge of a small group of kids and bringing them around to each station. Scanning over the throngs of kids at the lunch tables, Quistis began to pick out which kids she hoped she did and didn't get in her group.
~*~*~*~
Zell's face fell as he eyes the mountain he would be in charge of helping kids climb. "Too hard for you?" teased Mrs. Shefeild as she spotted Zell's expression of dismay. The tattooed teenager turned to her and answered "Well…no, but…couldn't the hike be…I dunno…maybe a little closer to the cafeteria?" he asked hopefully.
Mrs. Shefeild chuckled. "Don't worry, Zell. You'll still be back in time for lunch," she told him as the Wilderness Hike Instructor of Camp Chocobo sighed in relief. "You just might be a little late. The hot dogs go fast, but you'll be back before the Sloppy Joes sell out." Zell's eyes widened in horror at the prospect of hot dog deprivation. "Um, but…uh," protested Zell as Mrs. Shefeild walked away.
"Ah, man!" he whined as he sat down on the ground cross-legged with his head in his hands.
~*~*~*~
Well, buddy, it could've been worse, Seifer told himself as his watched a few kids running around and dousing each other with water guns. Lifting his arm from the armrest of his beach chair, Seifer grabbed his lemonade (complete with a mini-umbrella!) and sipped it through his bendy straw. It could've been worse.
Then the boredom began to set in. Seifer actually found himself watching the little squirts squirting each other. Squirts squirting each other...heh. Then he sighed. Hyne, you know you're bored when that drivel gets entertaining…
~*~*~*~
Why am I doing this? Squall thought to himself. Why did I have to give in when Selphie told me she signed me up for this? Why couldn't I just say no? he wondered.
At first he had tried to treat this like any other assignment- get it done, get it over with. It had always worked with SeeD assignments. But no, the little bite bugs had to go and have a sand castle contest! And the screaming was starting to get to him.
Making it look like he had to go get something from the beach shack, Squall left his position, figuring the kids couldn't kill anyone in 10 minutes. Inserting the key into the shack's lock, Squall glanced back at the kids to make sure they were okay. Taking the key out, Squall opened the door and took a step in…
Into Rinoa. Yup, Rinoa was in there and Squall, assuming she was in the arts & crafts cabin, bumped right into her. "Ow!' she exclaimed as her hand flew to her lip. Squall frowned. "Rinoa? What are you doing in here?"
Rinoa plopped herself down into a chair of the small room and pulled her finger away from her mouth to see a small flow of blood coming from it. "Nursing a bloody lip, what does it look like?" she asked in mock-misery.
Squall raised an eyebrow, obviously missing the sarcasm. "I meant before I came in here. You're supposed to be in the arts & crafts cabin," he reminded her. Rinoa pouted, but with her hand applying pressure on her lip to staunch the blood flow, it ended up looking ridiculous. "Well, you're supposed to be watching the kids on the beach and you aren't," she responded.
"I was getting something," Squall stated simply and defensively. "What?" Rinoa questioned, not believing a word of it. "Um…" said Squall as he looked around. Rinoa jumped to her feet. "I knew it! You weren't getting something! You were getting away," she stated matter-of-factly. The girl then smiled in defiance, and her hand flew to her lip again as the blood flow started up again.
"Ow…" Rinoa muttered, looking at Squall accusingly. Squall sighed in annoyance. "I wouldn't have accidentally hit you if you were back in the arts & crafts cabin where you were supposed to be," Squall reprimanded Rinoa. Rinoa attempted to pout again. "But I'm not, and you did hit me," she complained in mock-anger.
Squall frowned again. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" he asked sarcastically. Rinoa's eyes flew up to the left corner of the cabin mischievously. "Kiss it to make it feel better," she said in a way that reminded Squall of a six-year old.
Before Squall could ask 'What?!' as he had intended to, a small boy opened the door, almost in tears. "Johnny wrecked my sand castle, and-" the boy was silent as he watched Rinoa leave the shack for the arts & crafts cabin. Forgetting all about his sand castle, the boy turned his curious eyes to Squall. "Who was that?" the boy asked.
"A fallen angel," Squall answered in annoyance as he walked back to the beach with the boy to reprimand Johnny. The boy cocked his head in confusion. "A fallen angel?" he asked, sparing a glance at Rinoa as she closed the cabin door behind her. "Yeah," muttered Squall. "Heaven wouldn't take her," he joked as he smiled a bit.
~*~*~*~
"Anybody here? 'Lo?" Irvine asked as he approached the chocobo stables. He opened the creaky stable doors and stared into darkness. A hand from within the stables grabbed the cowboy's arm and hurriedly pulled him into a headlock. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded a feminine voice from directly behind him. "I-Irvine Kinneas, ma'am! I'm here to h- help with the chocobo ranch!" he answered, wondering what exactly was going on.
The girl's tone of voice changed completely, from business-like and serious to perky and cheerful. "Oh!" she said, as her arm left Irvine's neck and flicked the lights on. Irvine let out a breath he was embarrassed to find he had held. Irvine turned around to face the aggressive chocobo trainer and his jaw fell.
Long red tresses fell around an elegantly shaped face adorned with exotic green eyes and full red lips. Though she appeared frail, Irvine knew- in fact, his arm still hurt a bit- that she was strong. Maybe this won't be so bad after all, Irvine thought.
As she unlatched a door and began to harness up a chocobo, the redheaded girl casually offered an apology. "Sorry 'bout that. It's just, my little brother comes up here to bother the chocobos sometimes. I was trying to catch him in the act," she explained. "Instead, I caught you," she giggled.
Irvine smiled charmingly. "Feel free to catch me anytime, Miss…?" he trailed on, indicating he didn't yet know the lady's name. Shaking her head, the chocobo trainer replied "Lynna. Just Lynna."
" Lynna," finished Irvine politely. Lynna smiled and gestured over to a stall housing a particularly large chocobo. "Go harness up Giovanni over there. Good thing they gave me a cowboy, someone who can actually ride, to help out around here," Lynna added.
Irvine then remembered why he didn't want to be here again. Starting towards the chocobo, Irvine muttered 'Yeah. Good thing."
~*~*~*~
"Ooops…" whispered Selphie to herself as a hot dog exploded in the oven. She glanced over at Hortense, a senior camp cook, to make sure she wasn't watching. Hurriedly cleaning up the largest hot dog pieces and dropping them into the trashcan, Selphie yelled "Hey, Hortense! You make the hot dogs, okay? I'll stir the soup for a while!"
Hortense emerged from the other room of the kitchen. Selphie flinched. Although she had spent all day with the stocky tangle-haired old lady, she still wasn't used to the giant wart on her face that was near impossible to ignore. "Eh?" the old lady asked.
"You," started Selphie as she pointed to Hortense. "Make the hot dogs," she said, gesturing to the opened hot dog package. "And I'll," Selphie said, pointing to herself. "Stir the soup," Selphie finished as she made a stirring motion.
Hortense nodded in a way that made Selphie want to barf and proceeded to remove the hot dogs from the packaging. Shuddering a bit, Selphie exited to go stir the soup.
It wasn't that Hortense was mean or anything- she certainly wasn't- but Selphie felt a bit uncomfortable around the senior camp cook. Normally, she wouldn't be as shallow as to judge someone on appearance…but she was totally creeped out!
Sniffing the air a few times, Selphie stopped stirring. She glanced down at the soup which had quickly begun to smell awful since Selphie had entered the room. Turning off the stove, Selphie raised the ladle to her lips and took a sip.
Selphie nearly choked as she spit it back up. Looking around frantically, Selphie added a profuse amount of pepper and kept stirring, hoping the pepper would make it taste different.
Well, it certainly did.
~*~*~*~
"Can't you color another picture?" asked Quistis. "NO!!!!" bawled the child Quistis was futilely attempting to calm down. "I WANNA COLOR DA CHOCOBO!!!!!!" said the kid as he crossed his arms stubbornly. "Look!" said Quistis in mock excitement. "A pretty moomba for you to color!" said the blonde girl.
The child sniffed once, and hit the coloring book. "NO!!! IT'S NOT A CHOCOBO!"
"Well, I'm sorry Aizena already colored the chocobo, but there's nothing you can do about it now…" comforted Quistis.
The little boy sniffed. "In'a color a chocobo…" he complained.
Quistis had never been good with little kids. They were loud, annoying, and took up entirely too much time. And 3 out of 5 of her group members were ones on her "Bad Kids" list.
"You can't color the chocobo," said Quistis. 'I'm sorry, but-"
At this the little kid got right up in her face "IN'A COLOR CHOCOBO!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.
Quistis lost it. Narrowing her eyes, the former instructor's face turned a light shade of red with anger. The little kid shut up, and looked about as if he were about to cry again.
"Color…the…moomba…okay?" Quistis breathed, trying very hard to calm herself. The little kid, terrified at that point, nodded his head and took out a blue crayon. As he messily colored the moomba blue, he glanced back at Quistis every few seconds in pure terror.
Quistis put her head in her hands as she muttered to herself "Why me? Why me?"
What a beautiful day, thought Quistis. It was early morning, and although the thought of living in a cabin disgusted her, she had to admit it was very peaceful. She could hear birds chirping and sunshine streamed through her window as she brushed her hair.
She closed her eyes and took a big breath full of untainted air. She smiled. She smelled sweet flowers of all kinds, minty pine trees, smoke…smoke? Her eyes snapping open, the blonde stood on the tips of her toes to see through a particularly high window facing the mess hall.
After hurriedly jamming a boot onto her foot, Quistis ran toward the mess hall. Since the kitchen was next to her own cabin, she could only hope that the smoke was from something burning, and not from a full-fledged fire.
The former Balamb Garden instructor thrust open the doors of the kitchen to see Selphie scrubbing at something inside of the oven, the scent of smoke still thick in the air. Noticing her friend gaping in the doorway, Selphie stood up and greeted Quistis with a mock salute.
"Heehee! Hi, Quisty!" Selphie giggled at the speechless blonde. Gesturing behind her, Selphie continued. "Um, I bet you're wondering what happened, huh? Well y'see, the funniest thing happened! I was trying to make pancakes, but I kinda messed up. Everything's okay now though!" the brunette chirped happily.
Seeing that Quistis was still not up to talking, Selphie wiped a bit of something unknown off her face and turned to resume her cleaning. "The batter was really messy," she explained. Quistis could only look disgusted as she watched Selphie. Brown batter? For pancakes?
Sighing in exasperation, Quistis realized that the time for talk had passed- though she had much to ask- and helped Selphie clean up in a comfortable silence.
And it came as no surprise to her that Selphie had decided that today the camp would have cereal for breakfast.
~*~*~*~
"Awesome!" exclaimed Zell as he jumped into the air enthusiastically. He looked again at his assignment card and smiled broadly. He tapped Squall on the shoulder. "You can just call me Wilderness Hike Instructor Zell!" the blond boy bragged as he pointed proudly to himself and smiled again.
Seifer was disgusted, on the other hand. He was to be in charge of the super soaker water gun station. How boring… he mused. Couldn't they have let me be something more…I don't know, prestigious?
Rinoa stood on her tiptoes and looked over Squall's shoulder to peek at his card. "Heeey!" she exclaimed. "You're at the pool? Super! I'm in the arts & crafts cabin, right near the pool!"
Irvine, on the other hand, was not as elated at his 'station'. He looked again at his assignment card. Why? Out of all the assignments…why do I have to be an assistant at the chocobo riding station? He thought dismally. Selphie brought him out of his worries with an unexpected hug from behind. And then right back into his worries as she yelled, "I'm the camp cook, I'm the camp cook!"
Quistis was completely neutral to her assignment- a group leader. She was in charge of a small group of kids and bringing them around to each station. Scanning over the throngs of kids at the lunch tables, Quistis began to pick out which kids she hoped she did and didn't get in her group.
~*~*~*~
Zell's face fell as he eyes the mountain he would be in charge of helping kids climb. "Too hard for you?" teased Mrs. Shefeild as she spotted Zell's expression of dismay. The tattooed teenager turned to her and answered "Well…no, but…couldn't the hike be…I dunno…maybe a little closer to the cafeteria?" he asked hopefully.
Mrs. Shefeild chuckled. "Don't worry, Zell. You'll still be back in time for lunch," she told him as the Wilderness Hike Instructor of Camp Chocobo sighed in relief. "You just might be a little late. The hot dogs go fast, but you'll be back before the Sloppy Joes sell out." Zell's eyes widened in horror at the prospect of hot dog deprivation. "Um, but…uh," protested Zell as Mrs. Shefeild walked away.
"Ah, man!" he whined as he sat down on the ground cross-legged with his head in his hands.
~*~*~*~
Well, buddy, it could've been worse, Seifer told himself as his watched a few kids running around and dousing each other with water guns. Lifting his arm from the armrest of his beach chair, Seifer grabbed his lemonade (complete with a mini-umbrella!) and sipped it through his bendy straw. It could've been worse.
Then the boredom began to set in. Seifer actually found himself watching the little squirts squirting each other. Squirts squirting each other...heh. Then he sighed. Hyne, you know you're bored when that drivel gets entertaining…
~*~*~*~
Why am I doing this? Squall thought to himself. Why did I have to give in when Selphie told me she signed me up for this? Why couldn't I just say no? he wondered.
At first he had tried to treat this like any other assignment- get it done, get it over with. It had always worked with SeeD assignments. But no, the little bite bugs had to go and have a sand castle contest! And the screaming was starting to get to him.
Making it look like he had to go get something from the beach shack, Squall left his position, figuring the kids couldn't kill anyone in 10 minutes. Inserting the key into the shack's lock, Squall glanced back at the kids to make sure they were okay. Taking the key out, Squall opened the door and took a step in…
Into Rinoa. Yup, Rinoa was in there and Squall, assuming she was in the arts & crafts cabin, bumped right into her. "Ow!' she exclaimed as her hand flew to her lip. Squall frowned. "Rinoa? What are you doing in here?"
Rinoa plopped herself down into a chair of the small room and pulled her finger away from her mouth to see a small flow of blood coming from it. "Nursing a bloody lip, what does it look like?" she asked in mock-misery.
Squall raised an eyebrow, obviously missing the sarcasm. "I meant before I came in here. You're supposed to be in the arts & crafts cabin," he reminded her. Rinoa pouted, but with her hand applying pressure on her lip to staunch the blood flow, it ended up looking ridiculous. "Well, you're supposed to be watching the kids on the beach and you aren't," she responded.
"I was getting something," Squall stated simply and defensively. "What?" Rinoa questioned, not believing a word of it. "Um…" said Squall as he looked around. Rinoa jumped to her feet. "I knew it! You weren't getting something! You were getting away," she stated matter-of-factly. The girl then smiled in defiance, and her hand flew to her lip again as the blood flow started up again.
"Ow…" Rinoa muttered, looking at Squall accusingly. Squall sighed in annoyance. "I wouldn't have accidentally hit you if you were back in the arts & crafts cabin where you were supposed to be," Squall reprimanded Rinoa. Rinoa attempted to pout again. "But I'm not, and you did hit me," she complained in mock-anger.
Squall frowned again. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" he asked sarcastically. Rinoa's eyes flew up to the left corner of the cabin mischievously. "Kiss it to make it feel better," she said in a way that reminded Squall of a six-year old.
Before Squall could ask 'What?!' as he had intended to, a small boy opened the door, almost in tears. "Johnny wrecked my sand castle, and-" the boy was silent as he watched Rinoa leave the shack for the arts & crafts cabin. Forgetting all about his sand castle, the boy turned his curious eyes to Squall. "Who was that?" the boy asked.
"A fallen angel," Squall answered in annoyance as he walked back to the beach with the boy to reprimand Johnny. The boy cocked his head in confusion. "A fallen angel?" he asked, sparing a glance at Rinoa as she closed the cabin door behind her. "Yeah," muttered Squall. "Heaven wouldn't take her," he joked as he smiled a bit.
~*~*~*~
"Anybody here? 'Lo?" Irvine asked as he approached the chocobo stables. He opened the creaky stable doors and stared into darkness. A hand from within the stables grabbed the cowboy's arm and hurriedly pulled him into a headlock. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded a feminine voice from directly behind him. "I-Irvine Kinneas, ma'am! I'm here to h- help with the chocobo ranch!" he answered, wondering what exactly was going on.
The girl's tone of voice changed completely, from business-like and serious to perky and cheerful. "Oh!" she said, as her arm left Irvine's neck and flicked the lights on. Irvine let out a breath he was embarrassed to find he had held. Irvine turned around to face the aggressive chocobo trainer and his jaw fell.
Long red tresses fell around an elegantly shaped face adorned with exotic green eyes and full red lips. Though she appeared frail, Irvine knew- in fact, his arm still hurt a bit- that she was strong. Maybe this won't be so bad after all, Irvine thought.
As she unlatched a door and began to harness up a chocobo, the redheaded girl casually offered an apology. "Sorry 'bout that. It's just, my little brother comes up here to bother the chocobos sometimes. I was trying to catch him in the act," she explained. "Instead, I caught you," she giggled.
Irvine smiled charmingly. "Feel free to catch me anytime, Miss…?" he trailed on, indicating he didn't yet know the lady's name. Shaking her head, the chocobo trainer replied "Lynna. Just Lynna."
" Lynna," finished Irvine politely. Lynna smiled and gestured over to a stall housing a particularly large chocobo. "Go harness up Giovanni over there. Good thing they gave me a cowboy, someone who can actually ride, to help out around here," Lynna added.
Irvine then remembered why he didn't want to be here again. Starting towards the chocobo, Irvine muttered 'Yeah. Good thing."
~*~*~*~
"Ooops…" whispered Selphie to herself as a hot dog exploded in the oven. She glanced over at Hortense, a senior camp cook, to make sure she wasn't watching. Hurriedly cleaning up the largest hot dog pieces and dropping them into the trashcan, Selphie yelled "Hey, Hortense! You make the hot dogs, okay? I'll stir the soup for a while!"
Hortense emerged from the other room of the kitchen. Selphie flinched. Although she had spent all day with the stocky tangle-haired old lady, she still wasn't used to the giant wart on her face that was near impossible to ignore. "Eh?" the old lady asked.
"You," started Selphie as she pointed to Hortense. "Make the hot dogs," she said, gesturing to the opened hot dog package. "And I'll," Selphie said, pointing to herself. "Stir the soup," Selphie finished as she made a stirring motion.
Hortense nodded in a way that made Selphie want to barf and proceeded to remove the hot dogs from the packaging. Shuddering a bit, Selphie exited to go stir the soup.
It wasn't that Hortense was mean or anything- she certainly wasn't- but Selphie felt a bit uncomfortable around the senior camp cook. Normally, she wouldn't be as shallow as to judge someone on appearance…but she was totally creeped out!
Sniffing the air a few times, Selphie stopped stirring. She glanced down at the soup which had quickly begun to smell awful since Selphie had entered the room. Turning off the stove, Selphie raised the ladle to her lips and took a sip.
Selphie nearly choked as she spit it back up. Looking around frantically, Selphie added a profuse amount of pepper and kept stirring, hoping the pepper would make it taste different.
Well, it certainly did.
~*~*~*~
"Can't you color another picture?" asked Quistis. "NO!!!!" bawled the child Quistis was futilely attempting to calm down. "I WANNA COLOR DA CHOCOBO!!!!!!" said the kid as he crossed his arms stubbornly. "Look!" said Quistis in mock excitement. "A pretty moomba for you to color!" said the blonde girl.
The child sniffed once, and hit the coloring book. "NO!!! IT'S NOT A CHOCOBO!"
"Well, I'm sorry Aizena already colored the chocobo, but there's nothing you can do about it now…" comforted Quistis.
The little boy sniffed. "In'a color a chocobo…" he complained.
Quistis had never been good with little kids. They were loud, annoying, and took up entirely too much time. And 3 out of 5 of her group members were ones on her "Bad Kids" list.
"You can't color the chocobo," said Quistis. 'I'm sorry, but-"
At this the little kid got right up in her face "IN'A COLOR CHOCOBO!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.
Quistis lost it. Narrowing her eyes, the former instructor's face turned a light shade of red with anger. The little kid shut up, and looked about as if he were about to cry again.
"Color…the…moomba…okay?" Quistis breathed, trying very hard to calm herself. The little kid, terrified at that point, nodded his head and took out a blue crayon. As he messily colored the moomba blue, he glanced back at Quistis every few seconds in pure terror.
Quistis put her head in her hands as she muttered to herself "Why me? Why me?"