Balamb Garden's Yuletide Vacation
Chapter 15
Friday, December the Fifteenth
Inside his office, Squall sat at his desk and sighed mightily when he heard the fire alarm once again ringing out. It had become such a regular occurrence that the sound of it no longer carried with it any anxiety, but the Commander knew he had to treat it as genuine nonetheless.
Arising from his desk, Squall quickly crossed his office and threw his door open. He was shocked to observe something burning in the hallway and without thinking Squall began to stamp it out with his feet. The commander thought he heard someone laughing loudly but he looked around and saw no one. By the time the fire was almost out, Squall realized what the squishy substance was that was now covering his black boots.
"Oh crap!" he complained. It was ironic that the word was a protest and a description of what was covering his footwear. Squall suddenly noticed a note nearby on the floor and he bent down and picked it up.
He read, Dear Squall, Thank you so much for your dedication song to me. It touched me so much I decided to give you your Solstice gift early. Wear it in good taste. Rinoa.
Squall's vision momentarily blurred but it was uncertain whether it was in hurt or anger, but what was known was anger won out. He jammed the note into his jacket pocket with no further thought of it.
That was certainly petty of her, the young man thought. She could have come and asked me if that song was from me, but I guess that would have been too straightforward for La Princess. Well, if she wants petty, I'll give her petty! Squall had no reason to doubt the note; fore he had heard of her vow to wreak revenge on him because of the dedication song.
Picking up his desk phone, Squall punched in the code for the intercom. After the commander informed everyone to stand down from the fire alarm procedure, he proceeded to make an important announcement. "This is Commander Leonhart speaking. Until further notice, all activities for Winter Festival are hereby cancelled. I repeat, all activities for Winter Festival are cancelled. That is all."
There! Squall thought. That should fix Rinoa's decorating butt for a while.
"Squall, you should be ashamed of yourself," a woman's voice distinctly spoke into his left ear. He recognized it as being the same one he heard previously. Again when the commander whirled to confront his oppressor, there was no one there.
"This is your last warning," the voice warned.
Squall angrily retorted, "Show yourself or go away!"
"Last warning, Squall." The woman's voice spoke in a much lower tone that seemed to just disappear at the end.
Going back into his office, the commander declared as if he had spoken the last word on the subject. "The world is more than enough for me. No ghosts need apply."
Cid's normally calm, if not downright placid office environment, had become something resembling bedlam. Not only was Rinoa standing in some sort of a non-dress code gown, reciting from The Book of Hyne to him, but Selphie was jumping back and forth around him like a cricket on a hot griddle. Cid was futilely attempting to restore some order to the proceedings when Edea entered his office to discover what the noise concerned. One look passed from Cid to his beloved wife and she understood she needed to take charge and restore order.
"Children," Edea began. When that had no affect, she attempted it again but at a much higher decibel level. "Children, please!" Edea cried out. That did it. Selphie immediately stood stock-still and Rinoa ceased her loud praying.
"Now what is this about?" the former sorceress asked in a much calmer voice. Now that Selphie had relaxed her physical behavior, her emotions gained control of her and she began to sob.
"Waah!" the normally upbeat young woman bleated. "Squall...cancelled...hic...waah...all Winterfest...activities," Selphie finally managed to explain.
Edea smiled at Cid who responded, "Is that all it is? Why didn't you just say so? He can't do that. I'll take care of that right now." Cid turned on the intercom button on his desk and declared, "This is Headmaster Cid. Contrary to what might have been announced earlier this morning, none of the Winterfest activities are cancelled. That is all."
"There," he said smiling at Selphie who still had tears running down her cheeks.
"You see, Selphie," Edea pointed out, "it's always better to not jump to conclusions and to check things out before going off half cocked."
"Thank you, Matron," Selphie expressed, sounding completely childlike.
"Everyone and everything around you is your teacher," Rinoa read from The Book of Hyne.
Edea's eyes widened in surprise. She glanced askance at her husband who silently shook his head and rolled his eyes as Rinoa continued to read aloud.
~*~
Zell was hurrying to complete his shower. The excitable SeeD had just returned to his room from the hand-to-hand combat class he was helping to facilitate. He was completely panicked because Instructor Aki had not only allowed the class to run until the allotted lunch hour, she had even kept them later than that.
Ordinarily this wouldn't have bothered the blond SeeD excessively much, even if it meant he would miss scoring his favored hot dogs, but to have this happen today of all days was a complete disaster. Zell had managed by hook and crook to wheedle himself back into Nicole's good graces and she had agreed to attend lunch with him. To mark the occasion as something more special than an ordinary lunch, he had made reservations for two at the Fishy Suave Bistro in Balamb, long famous for the quality of its wonderful gourmet meals of ocean delicacies. And the reservations were for twelve noon!
Zell rushed to ready himself by only half drying and then donning a different outfit. The question wasn't if he would be able to pick up Nicole at her room and then arrive at the restaurant on time, because it was already far too late for that. The only question that remained was could they make their appearance at the famous eatery before his reservation was given away.
Discovering himself in the familiar position of being between a rock and a hard place, Zell made the illogical decision to once again utilize his hoverboard within the Garden to reach a destination quickly. It was, at best, a poor decision because the last time he had used his hoverboard to reach the front gates quickly, it had been confiscated and he was given demerits. Before that time he had failed to negotiate a turn at high speeds and had crashed into the women's restroom. It had taken him a long time to live that particular fiasco down; in fact the episode would still rear its' ugly head whenever Quistis felt like revisiting it.
This time his trip went initially well as Zell traveled from his room on the men's corridor. He'd made it to the hallway where Nicole's room was located in less than a minute, a distance that would usually take ten minutes or more on foot to traverse. Then disaster struck.
As had been the case for Zell more times than not recently, the latest snafu once again involved Rinoa. The pretty sorceress, attired in a similar robe as on the previous day, was surrounded by a group of male upperclassmen avidly listening to her read from The Book of Hyne as they traveled en masse down the corridor toward the careening Zell on his hoverboard.
The now totally misdirected youth had time to yell out only one unheeded word of warning before crashing into Rinoa and the group of young men. Not being of a particular gallant bent, the male students jumped from the path of Zell hanging ten on his hoverboard and he crashed, lock, stock, and barrel into the young sorceress knocking her to the floor where she lay unconscious.
As bad as the excitable SeeD's luck had been running, it then grew worse by leaps and bounds as Nicole and Selphie chose that particular moment to exit Nicole's room. They discovered Rinoa lying on the floor appearing dead as dead could be with Zell still balanced on his hoverboard above her.
Selphie exclaimed shrilly, "For the love of Hyne, Zell! You've really killed Rinoa this time!" Nicole stood sobbing while Zell attempted futilely to explain what had occurred when the robed young woman suddenly sat up rubbing the back of her head.
"What happened?" she asked, totally bewildered.
"Oh Zell tried to kill you again," Selphie explained while helping her friend off the floor.
"No he didn't," Rinoa contradicted wearing a beatific smile. "Remember Selphie, we are members of a vast cosmic orchestra in which each living instrument is essential to the complementary and harmonious playing of the whole."
The dark-haired woman turned toward Zell and expressed, "Thank you Zell for the wonderful enriching part you have played in my life. Come everyone, let us be off." And Rinoa set off once again down the hall reading aloud from The Book of Hyne, followed now not only by the group of male students but also Selphie and Nicole.
A few seconds later Zell decided to join them. You know, there just might be something to this after all, he thought as he walked behind.
~*~
It was nearing the dinner hour and the Winter Festival committee meeting was almost three hours old. And yet Selphie had not had the courage to call on Rinoa for her holiday decorations sub-committee report.
True, Rinoa had not done anything out of the way up until then, but the energetic Festival leader was afraid her friend might launch into preaching from The Book of Hyne at the slightest provocation. Not that Selphie was having any difficulty with accepting the message of Mystic Hyneism; she just didn't feel the committee meeting was an appropriate forum.
Finally the brown-haired SeeD could wait no longer since every other sub-committee had reported on their progress. Trusting that she could cut Rinoa short somehow if she began to sermonize, Selphie called upon Rinoa.
"Well, let's hear now from the decorations sub-committee before we end the meeting," Selphie spoke with false joviality while staring at Danine. The Festival Chairperson hoped to engage Danine in dialogue in place of Rinoa. Selphie was greatly disappointed initially when Rinoa gained her feet and said, "In The Book of Hyne it is written 'Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.' We of the decorations sub-committee have imagined the entire Garden from stem to stern holiday decorated before Solstice and we will reach our goal!"
The entire decorations sub-committee jumped to their feet and spontaneously broke into applause at Rinoa's promise. As they continued to clap, the rest of the sub-committees grudgingly followed suit until the entire Quad was awash in good cheer.
Selphie beamed and thought, What was I so worried about? Rinoa was awesome. "Okay everybody, that's it for today and great work! Keep it up, we've only a few more days left."
As most of the SeeDs and students stood up to leave, Selphie called her close friends to the front. After they had all gathered, the Festival Chairperson happily announced, "Meet me in the secret area in fifteen minutes. I have a surprise for you all. Remember now, fifteen minutes – don't be late."
It turned out to the delight of most of the people invited that Selphie's surprise in the secret area was a wine and cheese party. They were amazed to discover she had somehow shanghaied several smallish round tables of the garden party type variety. The tables were covered by red and white checked linen tablecloths and situated around them were a number of wrought iron chairs.
On the tables themselves, there were small china plates and wine goblets. The beverages being offered included, Chablis, champagne, sparkling burgundy, cold duck, brandy, and for the people who were more comfortable with less expensive tastes there was Bones Farm Grape wine and Mogen Chavitz.
The cheeses being offered included Brie from Winhill, Delingburger, which was a very unpleasant smelling cheese, from Galbadia, Shumi cheese which was a hard pale cheese with internal holes, Estharian cheddar and, of course, some Timber tangy hot cheese.
"This is truly wonderful, Selphie," Rinoa praised joyfully.
Observing that her belief in Mystic Hyneism didn't preclude Rinoa having a good time and that Quistis was already imbibing of a goblet of Chablis, Selphie was delighted. She had arranged this little party mainly for her two women friends who appeared to be having such a difficult time with the holidays.
As a matter of fact unbeknownst to Selphie, Quistis was already on her second goblet and since she hadn't eaten any food all day she was already feeling the euphoric effects of the beverage. Wine always went straight to her head. Matt looked on concerned; particularly because he believed in abstinence, of all things pleasurable it seemed.
Irvine was drinking from a snifter of brandy and suddenly burst into song. "Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good wife you'll be."
"Shut up, Irvine!" Zell demanded.
Now Zell," Matt admonished, "you can win more flies with honey than vinegar."
"What exactly does that mean?" Zell inquired. "Why would I want to win flies anyway?"
Irvine broke into hysterical laughter.
Rinoa, holding a plate full of Delingburger cheese, stepped closer to Selphie. The very unpleasant odors wafted over to Selphie who was attempting to step back when Rinoa lightly clutched her by the arm to prevent her from stepping away.
"This is so wonderful, Selphie," she said. "I can't tell you how long it's been since I had some Delingburger cheese. Now if I only had some Gysahl pickles."
Oh dear Hyne! She likes those smelly pickles too! Selphie thought with a shudder.
Rinoa smiled at Selphie's reaction. Being used to people responding to the mention of Gysahl pickles in such a manner, she took no offense. "I see you don't care for them much."
The energetic SeeD shook her head in agreement while thinking back. Now when was that? Oh yeah, it was at Trabia, many years ago when the guy Adelbert came through with some. I couldn't stand them right from the beginning.
Quistis poured herself another goblet of Chablis. Before she could raise it to her lips, Matt inquired, "Don't you think you've have enough, Quistis?"
"Tell me, Matt," Zell said becoming interested in their conversation. "How much is enough? I've always wondered that."
"Uh...well," Matt answered suddenly hard-pressed to give a definition to a rhetorical question. "Enough is different for each person."
"Huh?" Zell responded.
Irvine began laughing again, obviously quite inebriated.
"He actually means Zell that enough is too much," Quistis answered rather snottily. "Isn't that right, Matt?"
"Now Quisty, I didn't mean anything by it, really," Matt attempted to smooth the waters that had quickly blown up into a gale force.
"No Matt, you never mean anything by what you say," Quistis riposted.
She stood up, placed the still full goblet down carefully as much to prove to herself than anybody else that she could take it or leave it. "I'm going back to my room. Thank you very much Selphie. It was very thoughtful of you."
As Quistis began to walk away from the balcony leading back to the training center, Selphie suggested, "Quistis, let me go with you. You shouldn't go alone."
"I'll be fine," the blonde woman insisted. "Besides you need to stay and entertain your guests."
"Then I'll go with you," Rinoa said.
"No need," the instructor answered and disappeared into the training center.
"Matt, you should have gone with her," Rinoa accused angrily.
"You heard her, she didn't want anybody to go with her," he replied defending himself.
With that attitude, she thought, I'm surprised Squall and him aren't best friends.
A few minutes later, Quistis was lying in a heavy sleep on her bed having made it all the way back to her room without incident.
Not long after that, Seifer stood with his ear pressed against the thin walling attempting to hear if there was anyone in the hall. When he heard nothing, he stepped quickly through the hidden door and glanced around. Sure enough, the hallway was presently empty.
If asked, he would have been hard pressed to explain what he was doing or why he was doing it. Seifer certainly didn't say anything to Raijin or Fujin about what he was going to do next for that very reason. He understood instinctively they would have no idea what he possibly could be thinking about. Seifer didn't understand himself nor was he attempting to. He was operating solely on an intuitive basis rather than a cognitive one.
Seifer attempted to tell himself that he suspected Quistis of being up to something that could threaten his freedom, but if push came to shove he realized that just wasn't true. Maybe I'm just worried about her, he admitted to himself.
Seifer blanched at that thought and quickly pushed it back down to where he wouldn't be in contact with it. Stepping up to the magnetic keypad outside of Quistis' door, he pressed the universal key card he had purchased from Nida for a handsome sum into the slot and opened the door. Taking one more glance around to make certain no one was watching him, Seifer stepped quietly into the room.
The interior of Quistis' room was lit only by the moonlight filtering in through the vertical blinds and the twinkling white lights of her tiny holiday tree. Seifer didn't want to alert any one of his presence by turning on the overhead lights, so he crept through the shadows.
Seifer stopped in the middle of her room. He had no idea what he was to do now that he was here. Sighing softly, he glanced about at the simple decorations she'd put up and the heap of gifts beneath her tree. Then his eyes fell upon her desk and a letter she'd been writing. Curiosity got the better of Seifer and he picked up the sheet of paper.
Dear Winter Witch, the letter began. Seifer almost laughed aloud at the thought of sensible Quistis still believing in the Winter Witch. His amusement faded however as he continued reading.
I don't want anything for Solstice this year, Quistis' letter went on, except for all my friends to be happy again. Especially Seifer, because he's so lonely. Please make this holiday extra special for him, if you can.
A sound like the coo of a dove interrupted Seifer's reading. He turned in surprise to see Quistis stirring in her bed. Her blue eyes opened and she looked at him with a gasp.
"Oh Winter Witch! You are real!" Her sleepy voice made her sound no older than ten, and Seifer suppressed a smile.
"I'm no witch," he said.
The blonde beauty blinked a few times and her eyes appeared to focus. "Oh! Seifer! I must have been dreaming."
Seifer laughed in response.
Sitting up and pulling her blankets over her shoulders, Quistis asked, "How did you get in my room? I barred the trapdoor from inside."
"I noticed," was his only answer.
Upon seeing the paper that Seifer still had in his grasp Quistis leaped out of bed. Her face burned a deep crimson. "Hey! That's private!" The former knight held the letter out of her reach as Quistis made several tries to retrieve it.
"I can't believe you still believe in the Winter Witch!" taunted Seifer.
Finally giving up, Quistis stood before Seifer and crossed her arms. "I don't!"
"Then what's with the letter?"
The instructor sighed. "It's just something I've always done to get myself more into the holiday season."
"Oh."
"Well aren't you going to laugh?"
Seifer tossed the letter onto the desk. "Nah."
"So what are you doing in my room?" she asked.
Seifer looked around nervously and took a step toward Quistis. Sniffing the air he asked, "Have you been drinking?" He looked at his old instructor more closely and noticed she was wavering on her feet. "You have!" he answered his own question. Taking her by the elbow, he guided her to the bed.
Quistis flopped down and looked up at him suspiciously. "Remember, I have a boyfriend."
"How could I forget?" He took a seat right next to her. Quistis jumped slightly when their thighs touched causing Seifer to smirk.
Feeling a headache coming on, Quistis leaned forward and put her face in her hands. "So please tell me, Seifer… why are you in my room?" She asked again, her voice slurring slightly.
"I dunno… guess I was bored…"
She began to massage her temples. "Uh-huh…"
"Headache?" he asked, gently stroking her hair. What am I doing? he wondered, and quickly pulled his hand away. "Er, can I get you something?"
Quistis pouted. "You stopped…" Her eyes looked bleary and Seifer assumed she was still heavily under the influence. Not knowing what else to do, Seifer resumed stroking the blonde SeeD's hair. Like a cat, Quistis leaned into his caresses until she was resting against him.
It was a strange feeling for Seifer, but not unpleasant. Quistis was warm and smelled so sweet. A smile came unbidden to his lips. Quistis opened her eyes to look at him and giggled.
"What?" he whispered.
"You have a great smile, you should do it more often."
Seifer didn't know what to say. In silence he continued to twist her locks gently through his fingers. He felt the urge suddenly to kiss his former instructor and leaned down to do just that. Unfortunately Quistis had fallen into a deep sleep; her breathing was slow and even.
He laid her gently back on the bed and pulled up her blankets. Then, after planting a gentle kiss on Quistis' forehead he quickly departed.