Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 8............ so sorry..........

~* Where Life Begins *~

~* Chapter 14: You CAN Dance! Now Dance Like You Mean It! *~

******************

~* Day 22: Taste The Rhythm and Dance To It! *~

Rinoa awoke with a quiet yawn. She blinked several times which made a portion of sleepiness remove itself from her. She looked around at her surroundings and found just where she expected to be, her dorm room. She lifted herself up and threw her legs over the side of her bed. She swept a hand threw a part of her hair and noticed something on her floor that she had not noticed previously. It was a black leather jacket with the topped heavily rimmed with feathers. She picked it up and immediately knew that it was Squall's. She smiled as the thought of them together yesterday echoed through her mind. She folded the jacket up and placed it on her bed. She ran her hand through her hair once more and found it of an almost greasy texture. She grimaced and decided a shower was in order, then she would take the jacket to Squall.

Squall took his seat at a lone table with a tray of food in the cafeteria. He pushed himself up close to the food and began to eat. But before he could eat much, someone said from quite aways away.

"So? She left you?" A hyperactive voice asked. Squall didn't look panicked, but, inside he was horribly panicked. He was talking about Rinoa, he knew it. And the only person he would be talking to would be... Irvine.

"Shit." Squall mumbled through a mouthful of food. He began to pick up his tray until he heard the conversation push on.

"I can't fucking believe it!" A deep voice exclaimed. It was Irvine's voice, it was obvious. "That damn whore." Irvine cursed quite loudly which caused people around him to look at him in a strange way. An anger flared through Squall. It was an anger he thought could never exist in one person.

"Dumb fucking BITCH!!!" Irvine screamed as loud as he could, which caused everyone in the cafeteria to look at him.

"Dude calm down." Zell commanded with a light hearted voice. Squall's anger surged and coursed through his body.

"I want to snap THAT FUCKING BITCHS DAMN NECK!!!!!!" He screamed as loud as he could. "DUMB GODDAMN WHORE!!!!!!!" He screamed. Something snapped inside of Squall, along with the fork with which he had been bending and twisting out of its form through Irvine's screams. Squall sat up from his seat with such a hurry that it caused his chair to slam to the ground and skid for about four feet behind him. This caught Irvine's attention just as Squall spun around, revealing himself.

Squall glared as his ungloved hand made into a fist and Irvine smirked.

"Look what the whore dragged in!" He said with a laugh as he took one step forward. "Where's your jacket Squally boy? You look so plain without it. All you have is a white tank top under it. Well, if that's all you got under that jacket of yours I'll be happy to buy you something that does actually go under it." He said with a smirk as he took a few more steps forward.

"I'm surprised you want me to wear anything there. You always seem to be looking at my chest and then your mouth begins to water." He countered while taking his few steps forward.

Irvine laughed. "Well, are we going to sit here and chat all day or is this going somewhere else?" He asked walking up to Squall. Squall glared and began walking up to him, a bit faster than Irvine.

By the time Squall was close to Irvine, Irvine's past screams came racing back to Squall.

'Dumb fucking BITCH!!!' He heard Irvine scream in his mind. With the scream Squall's right, balled up, fist flew at Irvine's face. Irvine stumbled back from the blow to his cheek.

"Well, that was quite a surprise!" Irvine said with a quick laugh as he wiped the spit off of his cheek and lip.

"Fight!" Someone screamed from the already large crowd of people around them.

Irvine continued to laugh as he put up his fists in a fighting stance. His laughter abruptly stopped as his fist flew for Squall's face. Squall attempted to dodge out of the way but it was to no avail. Irvine crashed his knuckles into Squall's nose. The sound of cracking cartilage tore through the large room. A chorus of 'ooohs' sang through the crowd of people.

Irvine gave another laugh as blood began to fountain out of Squall's nose. Squall ignored his pain and pushed on.

Squall awoke to find the same brunette haired girl staring down at him.

"Finally you are awake." She said with a sigh.

"Rinoa, right?" Squall asked attempting to sit up but Rinoa pushed him down.

"You might not wanna sit up, for one your head has been cracked and two you are in your boxers." Rinoa said with a laugh. Squall blushed lightly and looked away from her. "And yeah, it's Rinoa." She confirmed. "But what happened to you?" Rinoa asked in a worried tone.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it." Squall told her.

"Well, if you wanna talk about it, I'm here." Rinoa told him.

"I don't talk much." Squall told her.

"Well, when you want to I'll be happy to listen." Rinoa told him with a smile as she patted his hand....

The memory flashed through his mind which made him instinctively smash his fist into Irvine's stomach. Irvine doubled over while gripping his stomach in extreme pain. Squall brought his other fist straight into Irvine's face and Irvine wailed in pain as he flicked his head back, his cowboy hat flew off and began to slowly glide down to the floor.

"What are you doing here?" A pissed off Squall asked her.

"I was waiting for you." She sheepishly replied.

"Why?" He quickly asked. He didn't want to push the conversation but this was a question that had to be asked.

"I wanted to talk to you." She told him as her fingers found the tip of her black skirt. The tips of her fingers began to rub over the fabric of it.

"Why?" He asked again.

"Because you're an interesting person." She answered him.....

Another flew through him and with it, another fist was forced into Irvine's cheek and then a strong kick into his chest.

"Selphie!" Rinoa yelled to her friend who was running ahead of her. Selphie heard Rinoa call and she skidded to a stop and yelled back.

"C'MON!!! FOLLOW ME!!" She yelled as loud she could through the noise and jumble of the main hall. Rinoa was perplexed but followed her anyways.

When they both finally stopped they were both in the cafeteria, flocks of people were running around them into what seemed to be a big circle of people. Rinoa could hear cheers and hollers from the circle. The cheers were so loud, almost as if it was a fight.

"What the hell is going on!?" Rinoa asked looking from the circle and back to Selphie. "Is it another stupid 'Card Battle'?"

"I have no idea, everyone seemed to be in a rush here so I followed. It was complete curiosity." Selphie admitted to her with a wink as she ran up into the mass circle of people. Rinoa sighed in annoyance and followed her into the mass of people.

The two girls pushed their way to the front. Selphie was the first to arrive with a smile, but when she saw what was happening, her joyous smile faded and a stoned face took the happy ones place. "Selphie! You've got to tell me what it is!" Rinoa said with a laugh as she finally found her friend at the front. She looked to her friend and found the side of her face. "Is something wrong?" Rinoa asked, suddenly becoming worried about her. Selphie slowly nodded and she lightly pulled Rinoa's face to the center of everyone's attention. She gasped and cupped her mouth with her hand.

Nobody took notice of Rinoa, no one that is until Irvine found her out of the corner of his eye. He smirked and looked back to Squall.

"Rinoa!" Irvine called in a sweet voice as he looked back to her. The name instinctively brought Squall's eyes to Rinoa. Squall expected her to have one of her sweet faces, like everyday, but it was different this moment. Her face was one of horror, she was terrified.

"SQUALL!!!" She called. "BEHIND YOU!!" She screamed. Squall's mind immediately picked up on where he was and what he was doing. He spun around just to find Irvine bringing a massive steel chair straight for his head. The last thing he heard for the day was a cry from Rinoa....

"SQUALL!!"

******************************************

A/N: Well, I know I haven't written in SUCH long time... And I really DO plan on finishing this story!! I really, really do!!!