Disclaimer: W. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet… we are simply stealing a few lines. As always, Square owns the characters and places.

Balamb Garden's Yuletide Vacation

Chapter Five

Tuesday, December the Fifth

The midnight shift crew that was made up of a few SeeDs and graduate upperclassmen (who were currently waiting to take their field exam) were completely flabbergasted when 0700 reveille came blasting out of the loud speakers throughout the entire Garden at 0300 hours. It was best summed up and most succinctly put by Thonas, the tall blond shift commander, when he exclaimed, "What the hell is going on?"

Dorm room doors were flying open and both SeeDs and students were tumbling out into the halls in various stages of dress, including not much at all, but all had their weapons poised. The very first lessons learned at Garden was to obey all orders no matter how asinine and to always be prepared for a sneak middle of the night attack; the very time that the Garden would be most vulnerable.

In fact, drills of this sort were run at least once monthly and sometimes more frequently so no one knew that this wasn't a real drill except for Squall. Although the midnight shift SeeDs found it strange that no word had been passed to them as it usually was, no one said anything.

As the young men and women fell in their required ranks, there was naturally some eye cutting and sniggering going on at the strange sleep attire of certain individuals. This activity immediately ceased when Commander Leonhart strode angrily into the atrium.

He was wearing only his black leathers and carrying his gunblade. Squall's body was covered in green from hair to toe, but it certainly hadn't decreased the attractiveness of his upper physique a recently transferred SeeD from Trabia Garden named Andrea decided. She was a young protégé of Selphie's and had transferred at the suggestion of the Garden festival chair.

Andrea was extremely pretty, stood around five foot, four and had long dark hair. In fact, she had won the secret Rinoa look-a-like contest and had won one of the autographed photos of Squall that Garden's PR department handed out by the hundreds.

Even from the rather far away position where Seifer hid observing his own handiwork, he was delighted to observe that despite Squall's green complexion, his rival was clearly flushed with anger. Seifer's gloating was swiftly replaced with chagrin as he watched Squall take easy control of the situation.

"Attention!" the commander barked. "Roll call – quickly!"

After everyone was accounted for, Squall ordered, "At ease! Now you all did a good job, secure to quarters."

Everyone present hurried helter-skelter back to their rooms as rapidly as possible to quickly get back to sleep as well as remove themselves from the presence of their green commander before they laughed. As Squall watched them depart he realized that he was the only one who didn't know it wasn't a regularly scheduled drill. He certainly was never going to tell anyone, but it didn't stop him from pondering the strange current events of Garden.

First Rinoa, now this.

Seifer angrily disappeared into the hidden passageway in the wall before he was seen. So Commander Puberty won this round, well this is the just the beginning of the tricks I'm pulling today.

In the chaos, no one had thought to check on Rinoa who had awakened alone in the infirmary. Her sitter, having thought it was safe to leave the sedated girl alone, had gone to the bathroom. Still disoriented, the pretty sorceress donned in another of her white nightgowns had slipped into the darkness of Garden, which was just then settling down again until the real morning wakeup.

When Dr. Kadowaki's assistant, Brianna, returned from the bathroom she was horrified to discover that Rinoa was gone. Fearful of losing her job, the plump medical assistant went off to search for her charge.

~*~

Quistis tapped her fingers impatiently on her desk. Since she'd heard news of Rinoa's disappearance, Quistis had been trying to complete her tasks quickly so she could aid in the hunt. She was seriously concerned that Rinoa had not yet been found. There were too many places for Rinoa to get into serious trouble within Garden, if she was still on the grounds that is…

But now Quistis was stuck in her classroom waiting for a group of young women with some problem. Young women always seemed to have problems and for some reason, much to Quistis' frustration, they always came to her.

Just as the small group entered through the sliding door, Xu's calm voice announced over the intercom. "Mike Hunt… please report to the infirmary… I repeat, Mike Hunt to the infirmary for your medical exam."

Quistis tried to maintain a straight face. However, between the uproarious laughter of the students and SeeDs before her and the knowledge that Xu had been taken in by one of the oldest pranks, Quistis lost it. It was many minutes before the laughter finally died down.

"Well, look at what mine said," Reba declared handing a piece of paper to her good friend, Shana. It appeared to the blonde Instructor to be a hard copy of something printed from a computer.

Shana read aloud. "You are really a hottie, girl. But I would really like to meet U or at least get a pic of U naked. Don't take me wrong, that pic of U in your bra and panties is great too! Secret Admirer #819"

"That's nothing," Shana insisted. "Look at mine." She held out a copy of an email to her friend.

"May I see that?" Quistis asked. Shana shyly handed the printout to Quistis. The SeeD-in-training's face blushed a deep red. Shana's flush was almost as deep a red as Quistis' own. "Oh my," was all Quistis could mutter.

The young women gathered around trying to read over Quistis' shoulder. Shaking her head in confusion, Quistis asked, "How long have you ladies been getting these emails?"

Reba was the first to speak. "I got my first about a month ago. I thought it was a joke until they started coming regularly and then I found out I wasn't the only one."

Linnea, one of Quistis' own students, said, "I think Reba was the first. I didn't get anything until two nights ago."

Quistis looked around at all the young faces imploring her to help and she was suddenly filled with a sense of duty. Doing her best to seem optimistic, Quistis opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when her eyes fell upon the manliest young woman she had ever seen.

The female upperclassman appeared to be at least six foot, one inch tall and that was in her flats! She had long red hair that must have been a wig Quistis decided, because it didn't seem to match with the girl's complexion at all. The blonde instructor decided to speak with the mysterious young woman, because she didn't remember ever seeing her before. What's worse, the woman had extremely hairy legs.

She must be from Trabia, Quistis thought. It was very fashionable in Trabia for women to not shave body hair. Still, the redhead's presence confused Quistis. The instructor had a hard time believing that anyone would send this student sexually harassing emails.

"Excuse me," Quistis began. The young woman in question met Quistis gaze defiantly, smiled impishly and dared to wink her left eye at Quistis. As Quistis looked on completely bewildered by this time, the female student suddenly pressed some kind of large red button she was holding in her right hand.

BLAM!

The trash can beside the Instructor's desk exploded showering tiny pieces of paper and other trash that had been deposited therein all over the room. The other young women in the classroom jumped in surprise and fright. Several of them had dived onto the classroom floor.

The mysterious student turned and walked quickly toward the door. "Wait!" Quistis cried out. The strange female turned, smiled at her once more and then was gone. There was something about the way the woman walked that told Quistis that perhaps 'she' wasn't a 'she' at all.

It couldn't be…  thought Quistis.


~*~

After Quistis' class had ended and she had calmed down the more hysterical girls, she was officially finished with her instructor duties for the day. She enlisted Xu's help as she had promised Selphie and they proceeded to begin the search for Rinoa. Quistis had been quite horrified to learn that Rinoa had managed to flee from the infirmary during the confusion of the early wakeup. She was initially surprised to realize that the fact of Rinoa missing had not been reported over the intercom and then realized how embarrassing that would have proven to Squall to have it announced to the entire Garden that his girlfriend had gone crazy and was wandering somewhere unknown.

After a thorough search of the interior of the Garden, Quistis and Xu finally located Rinoa, who had just been saved from attempting to drown herself in one of the outdoor fountains. She had remained attired in a gauzy negligee, now soaked, through which her body was visible. Even for Rinoa, she was drawing strange looks from SeeDs and students alike, many of which were young men only present for a cheap thrill. The two women led the young sorceress to Quistis' room.

Well, she certainly seems pliant enough, Quistis thought as she sat Rinoa in a chair and wrapped the sorceress in her own pink robe.

"Rinoa, what's wrong?" Xu asked, as usual cutting through directly to the heart of the matter.

Rinoa replied quite dreamily, "Well, God reward you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter. We know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!"

"Rinoa, we're here to help you," Quistis responded, taking her turn.

The sorceress asked, "Say you?"

What is she talking about?" the blonde instructor asked.

Rinoa retorted, as if in answer, "Pray you mark."

"I have no idea," Xu admitted ruefully. After a few seconds had passed, she exclaimed, "Wait a minute...what was the name of the play that they put on during the summer Garden Festival?"

"Hamlet, I think, and if I can remember what we had for breakfast that morning, I'll die a happy woman," answered Quistis sarcastically.

Ignoring her friend's capriciousness, Xu continued. "And what part did Rinoa play?"

"Ophelia," the blonde woman said bitterly. Quistis had coveted the role for herself.

"What?" asked Rinoa.

A sudden insight went roaring through Quistis' consciousness like a runaway train. Rinoa thought she was Ophelia!

Quistis quickly responded, "Rinoa, Hamlet loves you."

"What?" the young sorceress answered sharply.

"I said Hamlet loves you," repeated the instructor.

"Quistis, what in the world are you talking about?" Rinoa inquired disdainfully.

Xu exclaimed, "Rinoa, you're back!"

"Back? What do you mean – back?" the young woman asked sounding confused. "Where am I?" she asked glancing around Quistis' room and then down at herself and pulled open the robe. "Why am I wearing my nightgown? Oh Shiva! I'm all wet!" Rinoa attempted to cover herself chastely. "Have I been sick?"

"You could say that," Quistis replied dryly. "For the past day you misplaced your mind."

"Oh I remember now," the dark-haired woman recounted slowly. "Squall threw my wreath away. Well okay for him. I don't need Mr. Squall Leonhart. I'm gonna make this the best darn holiday season that's ever been!" Rinoa vowed.

~*~

(A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews. We hope you continue to enjoy this fic as it reaches its dramatic and heartwarming conclusion. Hehe…)