Disclaimer: We don't own FF8, its characters, or places. We don't own the idea of chocobolate either. That comes from the mind of Jeremy Chapter. In fact, if you happen to see references to other fanfics that haven't been mentioned, that's because none of us can remember which fics they came from. Giving credit where credit is due is nearly impossible because of the sheer number of fics that were deleted from this site. Please look upon any references as tributes to the greatness of the fics they were borrowed from.

Balamb Garden's Yuletide Vacation

Chapter Ten

Sunday, December the Tenth

Quistis was sitting on a couch and relaxing with her long legs stretched out over a folding chair in the staff lounge at the end of the B wing of classrooms on the second floor. Not having slept well the previous night, the instructor was exhausted. She had been unable to rid her mind of the Seifer problem as she tossed and turned throughout the night.

Knowing for certain that Seifer was living within Garden, most likely with his posse, was satisfaction enough for Quistis even if others chose to remain in denial. What bothered her was that she just couldn't understand how he was doing it. Although she did realize she was missing some vital piece of information pertaining to his prankish activities, this didn't stop Quistis from masochistically torturing herself to solve this bizarre riddle. Grateful that so far Seifer had seemed to be more interested in perpetuating cheap tricks rather than really doing any real harm to anyone, Quistis could at least in good conscience take her time with this mystery.

When the lounge payphone began to ring, Quistis sighed in frustration. She was feeling particularly lazy and since there was no one else currently present it fell to her to answer it. Groaning slightly as she stood up, the pretty blonde took her time walking over to the telephone hoping whoever was calling would just give up.

Picking up the receiver, she said, "Hello."

A high-pitched voice answered, "Hello, hello, is anybody there?"

"Hello," Quistis replied a bit louder.

Again the voice reiterated, "Hello, can you hear me?"

Feeling suddenly frustrated far beyond the situation, Quistis practically screamed into the phone's mouthpiece. "Yes, I can hear you!"

"Okay," the weird voice answered. "You don't have to yell."

"Oh sorry," Quistis apologized feeling chagrined at being guilty of taking her frustration over the Seifer problem out on some totally innocent person.

"What? Speak up, I can't hear you," the voice accused.

"I said I was -, oh never mind," the blonde instructor replied. "Who did you wish to speak to?"

"Is Amanda Huggenkiss there?" asked the voice.

"I'm sorry, who did you say?" Quistis inquired assuming she had misunderstood since everything about this conversation had been confusing since the beginning.

"I said," the voice retorted distinctly, "is...Amanda...Huggenkiss...there?"

"Well, I don't know who that is, but I'm the only here," the blonde woman admitted.

"Then who are you exactly?" the voice snottily demanded.

Quistis stiffened at the tone and the question. "I'm Instructor Quistis Trepe, who is this?"

"This is Yank Maroot," a familiar deep voice retorted. "Bwahaha!"

The line went dead. "That was Seifer," Quistis spoke aloud while hanging up the phone. It was as if he knew I was the only one in here. How could he have known that?

Quistis suddenly looked up at the security camera in the corner of the room. There are cameras all over the Garden. Is he able to utilize the security system? Quistis shivered at the very thought of the sheer havoc Seifer could wreak if this were the case.

"I have to get to the bottom of this," Quistis vowed.

"What did you say, Quisty?" Rinoa asked from the second room of the lounge area that she was currently decorating.

"Oh, nothing," Quistis answered not wishing to be drawn into another fruitless discussion concerning Seifer. "Just talking to myself, is all."

"Talking to yourself, huh? Hehe, getting a little crazy over the holidays, are we?" Rinoa inquired stepping into the doorway from the other room.

Quistis stared at Rinoa in shock. The sorceress' newest creation was the most risqué and by far the silliest. She wore a tiny brown bikini that had an artificial reindeer's tail affixed to the back. The ensemble would have been complete with the antlers affixed to the top of her head, but Rinoa took the look a step further by gluing a flashing red LCD light to her nose. Before the instructor could think of an appropriate way of responding to Rinoa's new outfit she heard Squall's voice just outside of the lounge door.

Squall was standing in the hallway talking to the new SeeD from Trabia Garden. Quistis supposed Squall had been on his way to accomplish some errand when the young woman had stopped him, but it was still surprising to see him standing still for the conversation.

The young woman of course was Andrea and she was presently standing very close to Squall and had stopped him on his way by placing her right hand on his chest intimately. "You know, Commander Leonhart, I just love the holidays," she cooed. "Especially the colors… red" -she paused dramatically and ran her left index finger down Squall's cheek-"and green..."

Quistis observed that beneath Squall's still green skin he was blushing furiously. "Please just call me Commander," he said. "The other way is just too formal, it was good to see you again. Now you must excuse me as -."

The sound of "Ah-oooh-eee!" split the air interrupting Squall, who realized with haunting familiarity what that particular frequency implied. "Angel Alert! Angel Alert!" he called out as loudly as he could.

Having been so engrossed with watching the young female SeeD's less than discreet flirting with Squall, Quistis was startled to see Rinoa Angel Winging once again. Ducking down, Quistis quickly cast reflect onto herself.

In a panic Squall again called out "Angel Alert!" Squall, who had remembered to junction Diablos that morning, quickly cast reflect on himself and pulled out his cell phone. He attempted to call the Angel Alert Team but the private number that was supposed to always be open for an emergency such as this was busy. I'm gonna kill Nida, thought Squall. This wouldn't be the first time Garden's ex-pilot used the emergency line to make personal calls.

Squall followed as his girlfriend floated out in the hallway at ceiling level randomly casting magic. Watching helplessly, he saw Andrea hit with confuse and realized too late that the Rinoa-look-alike had somehow missed the Angel Alert procedure orientation. The pretty young woman began to run wildly around in circles, banging off the walls as she ricocheted down the corridor.

Squall called the upper office, which was answered by Xu and not Nida for some strange reason. "Call for the Angel Alert team and the doctor to the end of B wing, second floor," he ordered. "And tell the doctor there's a female SeeD who's afflicted by confuse also."

"Immediately," Xu answered and hung up. The ever-competent woman quickly made the necessary announcements over the intercom. As Squall watched the chaos caused by his girlfriend and her seemingly twin sister, he struck his lowered forehead with the palm of his hand in his familiar gesture.

Squall remained in the corridor until he was certain that both Rinoa and Andrea had been successfully medicated and the situation brought under control. He joined the small human convoy that transported the two young women to the infirmary where they would not be released until they were no longer a danger to themselves and/or others.

Has this thing gone too far with Rinoa? Squall wondered, looking at Rinoa's sleeping figure through the observation window. Should I speak with the doctor in hopes of Rinoa receiving some psychological treatment for her emotional problems? The green man didn't realize that he too would qualify for some assistance in that area and would be insulted if someone broached the idea to him.

Squall absently wandered from the infirmary back up to the lounge where the day's drama had all begun. He nodded at Quistis who was tidying up the lounge area as best she could. She nodded in return at him as he crossed the room and stepped into the second room that Rinoa had been busily decorating.

I can't believe it, the commander thought completely stunned. Even for Rinoa, this is truly over the top. In an unbelievably short period of time, Rinoa had pushed all the furniture into the center of the room, covered it all with sheets and drop cloths and repainted the entire room in murals of the holiday season.

You know actually she seems to have some talent, Squall thought, surprised to find himself impressed with Rinoa's artwork. Maybe I should let her take those art lessons she has been clamoring about. But how did she do all this in such a short time this morning? Or was she up all night?

The green commander had heard the rumors of how much coffee Rinoa had been ingesting and that it had been approaching Balzac's record of seventy cups a day. Maybe I'd better go down to the coffee shop and have her cut off. But what good will that actually do? She probably has a coffee maker in her room as do most people, despite the rules and regulations prohibiting it. Plus the coffee shop would be losing a presently good source of revenue.

Squall knew Scarbutt's Coffee was in Garden under a trial contract. If the popular chain failed to produce enough revenue to impress Cid their contract would not be renewed. Unsure if he could live without his daily chocobolate frappuccino, Squall decided to let that matter drop.

Squall was suddenly struck by a new thought. Where is she getting the money for all this? Oh she's probably using her trust fund, he realized. But that's no good either. She could waste all of her inheritance, not that it's any of my business, but she may need that money later. She could easily end up an old maid the way she's headed. Squall accepted with a sigh that he would need to speak with the doctor about Rinoa possibly receiving some sort of counseling. He just prayed to Hyne it didn't involve relationship counseling too.

Squall turned and left the newly painted room, passed by Quistis with another nod and headed down the hall to return to his office. Along the way it seemed to the commander that everyone he passed was so obviously looking away from him that they might have just as well stared directly at him. With a glower Squall quickened his pace until he was almost running back to the solace of his office.

Upon reaching the door of his office and discovering it ajar, Squall finally reached his boiling point. He exploded when he saw that the student who was sandpapering the baseboards in preparation of retouching them with white enamel was wearing a green jumpsuit. Falsely assuming he was being mocked, Squall barked out, "You will stand at attention when a superior enters the room!"

Startled and terrified the younger man leapt quickly to his feet.

"What are you doing?" Squall asked in an accusatory tone.

"Uh...sandpapering your baseboards?" the upperclassman tentatively asked, correctly assuming some sort of word trickery.

"No, I don't mean that. Don't you salute a superior officer when he enters the room?"

"Yes sir!" the student enthusiastically answered slamming his hand holding the sandpaper against his forehead rubbing a pimple the wrong way.

"No, no!" Squall almost stamped his foot in frustration but managed to stop himself before he was mistaken for Rinoa. "Throw that sandpaper down!" When the cadet did as ordered, the commander next asked, "Who told you to wear that green suit?"

"Sir?" the student answered in complete confusion.

"Are you deaf too? I said who told you to wear that green suit?" Squall repeated.

"No one, sir."

"Oh came up with the idea on your own, did you?" the commander probed.

"Sir?" said the young teenager again, completely out of his depth.

"Look, I absolutely hate this repeating myself for every question. How about you just take that work uniform off?" Squall explained.

"All right, sir," the cadet acquiesced reluctantly. He bent over slightly and began to unbuckle his belt.

"No, no! For God's sakes, not in my office," the young man's by now totally frustrated superior officer yelled. "What kind of a fruit do you take me for? I believe you need a work detail for all this chicanery."

"Sir, I'm already on a work detail," the student explained. "That's why I'm not in class."

"Are you arguing with me?"

The cadet silently shook his head, being completely and irretrievably befuddled by this time by everything that had passed in the last few minutes.

"I can't hear you!" Squall screamed, sounding exactly like a Marine Drill Instructor.

"No sir! I'm not arguing. I would be most happy to do any extra work detail."

"Good, now let's see," the commander mused pensively. "I have it. I want you to go down to Ms. Heartilly's room, rip down all those trashy decorations and repaint the room in the traditional Garden colors."

"Yes sir!" the upperclassman enthusiastically replied while throwing up his right hand in a wild salute. As Squall returned the cadet's salute, the younger teenager fled the room happy to have escaped alive.

From somewhere behind him Squall heard a distinctly feminine sigh. The minute hairs on the presently startled man's arms and the back of his neck stood on end as he whipped around to find that he was indeed alone.

Writing it off as a trick of his mind brought about by stress, Squall began to rummage through the paperwork he had planned for that day. Then the voice spoke, "Oh no, this is surely all wrong, Squall."

Oh great, he thought sardonically. Now Quistis isn't the only one having hallucinations.

The phone on his desk rang out and Squall grabbed out at it, glad to have some distraction from whatever it was that was happening in his office. He heard Cid's voice command, "Squall, come up to my office for a moment. We have some important business to attend to."

"Yes sir," the commander answered. Squall set the phone back on its' cradle and then pressed the palm on his right hand up into his forehead attempting to push the headache he felt suddenly arising back further into his brain. What the Diablos else can go wrong today? he wondered.         

When Squall first entered Cid's office, the first thing he observed out of place from the normal mess was the figure of Nida sitting glumly in a chair in front of Cid's desk. What's wrong with him?

He next realized there were several attractive young women clustered around the front of Cid's desk loudly chattering in an angry tone. You know, come to think of it, Squall ruminated, how come you never see anything but attractive young women here? I mean some of them are beautiful, some are pretty, and others are attractive, but there are never even any plain women here, much less unattractive. And they all have great figures too! You never see any too fat or too thin. How does Cid manage this? And why does Edea let him?

Linnea's voice sliced right through Squall's thoughts. "He was trying to sell my brand new night gown and then he had the nerve to deny it; but it had my name in it."

Cid nodded approvingly at her, happy that someone at least was obeying his strong suggestion to put their names in their clothing to cut down on unauthorized 'borrowing' and outright stealing.

Next Squall heard Shana accuse, "Yeah, and the perv was trying to sell my 'unmentionables.' You know there's a big market for that kind of thing."

"Oh my dear, we don't have any secrets here. You're free to mention whatever you want," the Headmaster advised. Squall looked on suddenly aghast. He knew damn well Cid understood what the girl was speaking of and he suddenly cleared his throat and glared at the middle-aged man who fell silent.

Reba filled the heavy silence that followed by explaining, "Yeah, and he was trying to sell my 'Winnie the Pooh' bedside lamp that I've had since I was a little girl and you can get a fortune for them on Ebay."

"You can?" Nida asked suddenly lifting his head in interest.

"Nida!!" Cid admonished causing the SeeD once again to lower his head and stare at the floor. Brianna and Danine then went on to recount the things of theirs that they had discovered Nida attempting to sell at his flea market booth.

"Okay, thank you ladies," said the Headmaster. "If you will all excuse us, Commander Leonhart and I will discuss this problem in private."

The young women began to leave Cid's office and Nida stood up from the chair. "Not you, Nida!" Cid declared. "Sit." Nida dropped like an anchor back into the chair. As soon as the office was cleared of the young women, the Headmaster said, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Nida finally glanced up. "I didn't take any of those things."

"That's a little difficult to believe," Cid said.

Squall understood immediately the fine line of semantics Nida was using. "Who gave them to you?"

Nida appeared completely panicked. He was attempting to discern who he was most scared of – Cid and the commander, or Seifer and his posse. The threesome won the contest of fear, hands down. Nida answered, "No one gave them to me. I found them out behind the garbage dump one afternoon. I guess someone stole them and then stashed them there and was going to come back later."

"Come on, Nida," Cid chided. "That's far too thin to be believed."

Squall was astonished. He would have bet his yearly income that Cid would have given into Nida's lame story. He was delighted to see the Headmaster suddenly developing some backbone, particularly when he could use the feeble excuse of the holidays to sweep the whole thing under the rug.

"It's the truth," Nida whined.

"Last chance, Nida," the Headmaster said. When Nida didn't answer, Cid continued. "Then you will turn in all monies made by your ill gotten gains and since you refuse to own your guilt. We can not imprison you in the disciplinary room so I am forced to suspend you forthwith. You will turn in the Gil you made on Saturday and remember I have your own accounting of that right here. Commander Leonhart will escort you to your room to pack and then you are to leave the Garden. I'm sorry it had to turn out like this, but you refuse to stand up like a man and tell us who else is involved. Good luck and goodbye."

With that, Cid sat back down at his desk and began to fuss with papers lying upon it. This was Cid's usual way of stepping away from the drama and leaving it to Squall to clean up as usual. Truth be told, Cid honestly had no idea how to properly handle this situation. There had never been an episode such as this and Cid therefore had no protocol to act upon. Such dishonesty within Garden was an embarrassment at the very least. He did not want to publicize the incident and give the rumor mill further fodder with which to attack SeeD.

A half an hour later Nida had turned in the necessary fine to Squall and packed all his belongings. Squall escorted Nida from the Garden as per the orders from Cid. Step by step Nida hung back a little more each time until he was a full three to four feet behind the commander. Suddenly Squall realized he didn't hear or feel the presence of Nida beside him and he stopped and turned. He observed that the hallway was completely devoid of any presence but his own.

Well this is just one more damn thing I can't explain. I'm not even surprised anymore, Squall thought ruefully.

~*~

After slipping into a secret passage in the hallway, Nida hurried along as quickly and quietly as he could through the subterranean world beneath Garden. His suitcases were slowing him down considerably, but the young man refused to just leave them because it was all he presently owned in the world. Fighting the red-hot bombs and stupid grand mantises that had taken refuge within Garden was more of an annoyance any real danger.

After wisely stashing his belongings in a safe place, Nida finally climbed down the last ladder leading to the lowest MD. Entering the area where Seifer and company had set up housekeeping the former pilot was quite surprised to discover no one was home.

Oh well, Nida thought, No doubt they're up to no good somewhere. He sat wearily in an armchair wondering what was to become of him. A lump in the cushion of the chair caught Nida's attention by causing his bottom serious discomfort. He stuck his hand down carefully under the seat cushion not knowing what to expect and gingerly extricated a glass jar. Nida unfastened the tin lid with great difficulty because he wasn't strong enough to easily undo what Seifer or Raijin must have sealed. Hell, if Nida had thought about it he would have admitted that Fujin could have fastened it also.

Finally removing the top and taking a good look into the interior, Nida felt his breath stick in his throat for a minute. It was full of Gil! Hyne! There must be thousands in here! There wasn't a doubt in Nida's mind that he was owed this money because he had just lost his position as a SeeD because of Seifer. Of course his admittance of Seifer was the fault of the Garden staff, too. They had decided to return Garden to its rightful place outside of Balamb without so much as a thought given to Nida's feeling at losing his position as pilot. And that stingy Squall would never permit Nida to pilot the Ragnarok.

Nida was just one of those people who was unconstitutionally unable to admit that he had ever done anything wrong or had any negative behavior to face up to. It was only those around him who were at fault.

Glancing behind him as if somebody had surely crept up on him in the last minute, Nida suddenly realized how fortunate this all was for him. Only Raijin would so careless as to leave this much money thoughtlessly stowed under a chair cushion and it might never even be missed. If it were, Raijin would be blamed. He was owed this money, he was positive or he wouldn't have found it, Nida reiterated to himself.

Nida sprang from the chair and ran to the ladder. Being careful to clutch the jar close to his body for complete safety, he pulled himself up the ladder with one hand and two feet. After Nida reached the next level, he immediately headed to one of the passageways that were located on the next two levels and disappeared into the walls. He laughed aloud maniacally to himself once he felt safe within the security of his hiding place.

~*~

After sleeping for several hours Andrea woke up from the sedative. Ow! My head, she thought blaming the medication, not remembering that she had deliberately slammed her head into the walls while under the effects of Rinoa's confuse spell. The doctor had ordered an X-Ray of her taken to check on possible concussion and the technician being a wise ass reported 'nothing was found'.

The dark-haired beauty glanced to her right and espying Rinoa lying in the bed next to her suddenly remembered exactly what had happened. Because she had heard nothing else since her arrival from Trabia except for what a cold fish Squall Leonhart was, she'd decided to seduce the handsome commander as a way to assert her femininity.

Andrea had no way of knowing that Rinoa had been nearby.

Rinoa's sheet had slipped to the floor leaving her covered only in her small bikini and reindeer's tail. Rinoa suddenly appeared so fragile that Andrea's heart went out to her. I was wrong. I had no right to do that. At least the medical staff had the common sense to remove those ridiculous antlers. Andrea had heard all about the commander's atrocious behavior towards his lady friend and she made a vow to herself right then that she would help Rinoa any way she could.

As if the young sorceress had read Andrea's thoughts, Rinoa regained consciousness and turned to look at Andrea with an accusing glare. "Oh, so it's you," Rinoa said in a hoarse voice.

"Rinoa, I know we really don't know each other, but I want to apologize for my behavior," she explained.

"Well, I should hope so!" Rinoa replied haughtily, but there was a certain light in Rinoa's eyes that led Andrea to believe she had been forgiven.

"You have to admit," Andrea said, "even being green Squall is pretty appealing."

Rinoa laughed. "Yeah, except when he lets his personality get in the way."

"That's what I heard," admitted Andrea who was also laughing. Rinoa reached across from her bed to Andrea with her left hand and touched her on the arm. "I like you, how'd you like to go get some coffee after we get out of here."

"Sure, I'd like that. Do you think I could help with the decorating committee?"

"For sure!" said Rinoa. "The more the merrier, I always say."

Just then one of the nurses entered the room. "Well, you two seem to be getting along famously. I'll go get the doctor and let her know you're awake. You should be out of here in no time."