Disclaimer: We don't own Final Fantasy VIII…
A/N: Okay! We tried squeezing everyone's ideas in this chapter! And I think we got them all! Special thanks to Virginia! (Our Beta Reader) she helped us SO much with this chapter! ::::Big Hug!!::::
The Garden Festival Committee!
"Squall! I repeat! Come to the third floor deck." Cid waited, he had been waiting for thirty minutes, he kept calling Squall over the intercom but he never answered. Sighing, he turned to Nida who was busy piloting the Garden. "Go get him!" he said. Apparently he was very annoyed at this point. Nida saluted in response and Cid took the controls.
Nida ran all the way to Squall's room, when he finally got there he was out of breath. But nothing prepared him for what he was about to see. Squall was laying on the floor, hugging his gunblade and a stuffed penguin to his chest, above him was a tent that was tucked into a dresser drawer. It looked like something a five year old had put together. But none of this was as bad compared to Squall. He was sound asleep on the ground, his medium length hair was pulled into pigtails, and his fingernails looked painted! Blue? But it wasn't nail polish, because Nida noticed the blue Crayola Magic Marker next to him. To top it all off, he was snoring, loudly.
"Squall?" Nida asked quietly. "Squall?" no answer. "SQUALL!!" he jumped up and looked around. Seeing Nida he rubbed his eyes tiredly and yawned.
"Whaddaya want?"
"Well, uh Cid's been calling you for the past half hour," he explained eyeing him suspiciously. "The Garden Festival is tonight and since you signed up on the committee, you are in charge of finding the entertainment. You were actually supposed to have it already done, but from the looks of it…" Nida stopped. Squall shot up off of the floor and covered his mouth with his hands.
"The Garden Festival? Tonight?! I forgot all about it!" Nida watched confusedly as Squall jumped around his room, trying desperately to get ready. "Okay, I will have the band ready for tonight!" Squall said zipping up his pants and running into the attached bathroom. Nida just nodded and left the room, his hand on his forehead, he tried desperately to get the disturbing image of Squall out of his head.
Shortly after Nida left, Selphie trudged on her way to the cafeteria for her morning dosage of Lucky Charms. I can play the guitar, hmmm, and Squall's voice probably would sound very cool singing…hmmm hmmm hmmm…she thought. I guess I need to get a band together. She concluded as she stepped into the cafeteria.
"Lucky Charms please!" she exclaimed. After picking up her bowl and getting a muffin, she sat down between Zell and Irvine.
"Hey Squall!" Zell greeted her, however Irvine slunk away. "What's up?"
"I'm puttin' together a band! You wanna join Zelly-welly? Uh, Zell?"
"Uh, sure…" he said stuffing his face with his Strawberry flavored Pop-Tart.
"Yay! How about you Irvy? Can't you play bass guitar?"
"I'm not joinin' your God forsaken band!" Irvine shouted running out of the room.
"What's this about a band?" Seifer asked sitting down. "I play the bass guitar…"
"Really?!? You can join! Practice starts in five minutes, and we have to be ready for the concert tonight at five! I'll get Quistis to do wardrobe!" she exclaimed. "Meet me in the Quad after breakfast! As for now, I'm gonna concentrate on me Lucky Charms!" she laughed madly as she scooped the last of her cereal in her mouth.
"Okay…" Seifer replied somewhat uneasily. Selphie smiled and left the table.
"I'm gonna go find Quisty now!" she reported to the others.
"Was he wearing pigtails?" Zell asked turning to Seifer after 'Squall' left. Seifer nodded in response.
"And he had blue fingernails…"
*Selphie's dorm, in Squall's POV*
Squall sat in the middle of the floor. Rinoa and Quistis had not slept all night, nor did he. By this time of night, his brain didn't seem to function properly anymore. He stared into space; his eyes were feeling heavy…NO! He wasn't going to sleep! The last time he did that…he shuddered. Didn't even want to think about that. Quistis once again turned to the digital clock.
"It's now 8:00, and since we have the Garden Festival tonight, we better get some sleep. Because Selphie has a lot of last minute errands to run." She pointed to a heaping pile of papers sitting on a table. Squall, however wasn't paying any attention, as soon as he heard them say he could sleep, he did. Rinoa and Quistis giggled and did the same.
"Selphie! Selphie! Get up!" it seemed like only five minutes later that someone was already harassing him to get up. Squall sat up and placed hand on his forehead and let his eyes come into focus. "It's noon! The Garden Festival is starting in about five hours you need to run the last minute errands." It was Irvine.
"Leave me alone." Squall said falling back into his sleeping bag.
"Get up!" Irvine this time grabbed him by the arm and stood him upright. Squall fought back but to no avail, in this form Irvine was stronger then him. "You better hurry and take a shower and get dressed…" he suggested. Squall motioned him to leave as he started heading to the attached bathroom. From the looks of it, Rinoa and Quistis had already left.
"You don't need any help do you?" Irvine asked waggling his eyebrows.
"I'll manage…" Squall said dully, and slammed the door in Irvine's face.
"O-okay! I'll just wait for you out here then, eh?"
"What are you doing in Selphie's room?!" Seifer's voice came.
"On second thought Sefie, I'll be seeing you later! Bye!" Squall gave a sigh of relief and continued on his way to the shower. He looked in the mirror for a split second, he was doubting whether or not he wanted to take a bath, even if it had been several days, going to the bathroom in her form was bad enough! But then he noticed something different. Blood?
Am I bleeding to death!? "Girls have to go through a lot more then you boys give us credit!" something Selphie had told him before, a long time before. Then all of a sudden it snapped, he knew what was going on, though he didn't want to believe it. Health, the class that he thought was the most pointless, had described what puberty was like for both guys, and girls.
But I never paid any attention in class! What am I supposed to do!? He looked back down at the splotch of blood, and then started to look desperately around in all her drawers.
Five minutes later Squall jolted out of the bathroom. Nothing but tampons! I followed the directions just like it said on the back of the box…it's pain! God, it's worse than fighting Ultimecia, and she was bad enough! Spinning around with amazing speed, he checked the clock. It was now 12:30. Better get dressed.
He put her dress on, and he tried to pull her boots on while standing up. That was disastrous. Jumping up and down in place, trying to balance himself, he knocked into her desk. His head hit against her stereo, and it started blaring music. But the song itself was horrible to listen to.
Have you ever seen me singing in the sunshine one lovely afternoon? You can hear me if you really want, you can hear me clear pretty soon. "Ahhhhhhh! Turn it off! It burns! It stings! It's torture!" he covered his one of his ears, and with his other hand he tried to figure out how to turn off the stereo. Finally, he succeeded with the evil noisemaker.
Completely and utterly exasperated, he sat on the bed and continued to put on the boots. When he finished, he noticed Selphie's collection of CDs. I haven't listened to decent music in awhile. I wonder if she has System of a Down? He walked to where she had her CDs on display. One of the covers was brightly colored and on it was the title "My Friends' Theme Songs!"
As he scanned the songs on it, he noticed one was labeled 'Squall's Theme'. I have to hear it! He put it in the stereo and waited. A blast of guitar started the song, then a man started singing.
What did I do to ignore them behind me? Do I follow my instincts blindly? Do I hide my pride from these bad dreams and give into sad thoughts that are maddening? Do I sit here and try to stand it? Do I try to catch them red-handed? Do I trust someone and get fooled by phoniness, or do I trust nobody and live in loneliness? 'Cuz I can't hold on when I'm stretched so thin, I make the right moves but I'm lost within, I put on my daily facade but then, I just end up getting hurt again by myself. MYSELF! I ask why but in my mind I find, I can't rely on myself. MYSELF!
Before long, Squall found himself head banging to the beat. Wow, she knows me a lot better than I thought. He scanned the list and decided to listen to them all. Zell's theme song was the Oscar Meyer Weiner song. Irvine's theme song was 'Cowboy' by Kidrock. So on and so forth. Squall was actually having a lot of fun, but lost track of the time. When he looked at the clock it was nearing two. THE GARDEN FESTIVAL WOULD BE STARTING IN THREE HOURS!
He hurriedly grabbed all the papers for Selphie's last minute errands and ran out of her dorm.
*Later that Night…*
Selphie helped Zell and Seifer set up the stage. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself! The Quad was already starting to fill as never before with students ready to have a full night of fun.
"Ready! A-one, two three!" Selphie exclaimed. Seifer and Zell nodded and started to play 'We will rock you'. Squall's fanclub was standing in front of the stage screaming their heads off. There were several posters that said, "We love you Squall!" one that said "Squall rocks my face off" and one that read, "Seifer is a hottie!" (Three guesses on who was holding that one, and the first two don't count ^_-).
Squall had walked in late; he was so sick and tired of wearing Selphie's bright orange dress, that he scrounged her closet looking for anything less colorful. Eventually he found a simple black dress with a note attached to it that said, 'For funeral use only.' He completely disregarded it and put it on. Black! He was so happy to be wearing black again!
When Squall walked in, he noticed something weird. Selphie was wearing pigtails! In his hair! And even weirder was that the boys that had long enough hair, did the same thing. Is it possible Selphie started a new fad? I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna KILL her!
He leaned up against a wall in the back of the crowd and started thinking of plans to kill her slowly and painfully. However, Irvine interrupted his train of thought when he approached him.
"Can I have this dance?" he bowed, trying to act charming.
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"C'mon Sefie! Do it for me baby!"
"Irvine Kinneas, when I say 'no' I mean 'no'!" Squall shouted back at him. Irvine walked away looking a bit distraught. Squall didn't really care at this point, maybe I could sneak into her room at night, and stab her! No wait, that wouldn't work, can't lift the gunblade. Hmmmm…
He continued to think and lean against the wall. He remained there most of the night, and didn't hear much of Irvine either, which made him even more content. Eventually, after playing 'Myself' (Selphie figured she had to be somewhat fair to Squall) Selphie's band stopped playing. "Thank you Balamb Garden!" she yelled over the commotion. The room erupted in applause. "Now, for the rest of the night, Zell will be DJing!"
"Oh my God! I love you Squall!"
"Hold my hand!"
"Kiss me!"
Several other shrieks were coming from the fanclub as she stepped off the stage. "Hey that isn't right! Bunch of perverts!" Selphie started, but her remark was drowned out by the sound of a million girls glomping her.
"Get OFF of him!" Rinoa yelled literally ripping the other girls away from 'him'.
"Gee, thanks Rinny!" Selphie exclaimed hugging her. This is better. Rinoa thought hugging 'him' back. But almost as soon as Selphie started hugging Rinoa, she let go, because she saw Squall standing so lonely in the corner. She figured she should say hi!
"Hey party pooper!" she said slapping his shoulder. Squall grunted to acknowledge she was there. "Why the long face, scroooooge? And WHY are you wearing my funeral dress?"
"Why are YOU wearing my hair in pigtails?" Selphie shuffled her feet but didn't reply. While she looked down at the floor, he leaned in to try and pull one of the hair ties out but failed, and instead landed flat on the floor, leaving something on the wall that Selphie couldn't help but laugh at.
"Did TOM come to visit?" she asked between giggles.
"Huh? Who's Tom?" she pointed at the wall and there was a small splotch of blood there. Squall blushed, and then Selphie shrieked.
"Oh my God! Turn around!" this isn't good, what if he walked around with blood showing through all day? How embarrassing! This is ME we're talking about.
"Why?"
"I need to look at your butt…"
"WHAT?!" he shrieked.
"What?!?" Rinoa repeated, obviously overhearing her.
"Nothing Rinny!" Selphie turned around and rubbed the back of her head nervously. Rinoa eyed 'him' suspiciously and walked to where Quistis was standing. "Now turn around!"
"No!" he protested. Selphie wasn't in the mood for arguing; she instead grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around by herself. Sure enough, there was a big red splotch on his butt, but it was barely visible because of the black dress he was wearing.
Thank God he wore black! "You're coming with me…" she said grabbing him by the arm and leading him out of the Quad. "And cover your butt while walking, I don't want anyone to see that!"
Hehehe, revenge, Squall thought. Instead of listening to her he just walked out and didn't pay any attention to the strange looks, and stares he was getting. Selphie lead him back to her dorm and searched through the bathroom.
"I should have pads in her somewhere…" she threw miscellaneous objects out of the depths of her vanity, but sure enough there weren't any. "Don't worry," she stated getting up, "I'll ask Dr. Kadowaki for some."
Squall opened his mouth to argue, but before he said anything she took off down the hall. "Selphie-er, Squall! Get back here!" but Selphie didn't give him so much as a sideways glance. "Dammit!" he kicked the ground with disgust and sat down on the bed to wait for her return.
Selphie skipped, extremely fast down the hall and stopped in front of the infirmary. Hope she's in there! Selphie continued at her excited pace.
"Hello Squall, what brings you here?" Dr. Kadowaki asked looking up from some paperwork.
"Got any spare pads?" Kadowaki spit her coffee that she had just taken a sip of all over Selphie.
Wiping her mouth with her sleeve she apologized, "Sorry Squall, uh, why do you need pads?" What would Squall say? Poopy! I'm in his body, make up something fast!
"Uh, R-Rinoa bled through her outfit a-and she's too embarrassed to come down in her state…" Wow! I'm getting good at this! Go Selphie! Go Selphie! It's your birthday! It's your birthday! Kadowaki nodded and dug through some of her drawers, finally pulling out a box of pads.
"Here you go…" she said raising her eyebrows. "Rinoa must be lucky to have a boyfriend who cares enough to come get pads for her." Or is secure enough for that matter, she thought silently.
"Thanks Doc!" she winked and skipped on her way out. As she was on her way back to the dormitories, she knocked into Seifer.
"Pads? Leonhart, why the hell do you have these, 'Extra Absorbency Maxis'?" he read off of the box.
"None of your business!"
"I think it is…" Seifer replied smiling wickedly.
"Leave him alone Seifer…" Both Selphie and Seifer turned around at amazing speed to see Zell standing there with his arms crossed across his chest.
"What are you gonna do about it chicken-wuss?" Seifer spat.
"Yeah, what are you gonna-oops," Selphie bonked herself on the forehead. Silly goose! He's on your side! "Heya Zell!"
"Hi Squall. Rinoa's looking for you…"
"First I have to take these to Sq-Selphie…" she said holding up the box. Zell nodded, even though he was still confused.
"Uh, hello people." Seifer said, all the attention had been removed of him and he felt left out. ((Oh! Poor Seifer ::::hugs him:::)) "I'm still here!"
"Go back to the party!" Zell told him as he starting to do some shadow boxing.
"Chicken-wuss, swatting flies again?"
"Shaddup!" Zell yelled back at him. Selphie restrained him. Seifer chucked and walked away.
"Tell Rinny that I'll be back at the party in a while."
That's funny, Squall never calls Rinoa Rinny. Rinoa told me to find out what's going on if I can. Maybe I should follow him? "Okay Squall. I'll go tell her."
Selphie smiled in approval and started back to the dorms. Zell walked behind her, trying to keep enough distance so that she didn't see him.
"Brought ya the pads!"
"You went to Dr. Kadowaki's office, in my body, and asked for pads?" he asked shaking his head. "Did anyone see you on the way back?"
"Nope, just Seifer and Zell." All the color drained from Squall's face. Zell, who made himself comfortable leaning against the wall by the doorway, but made sure to stay out of sight, gasped but quickly covered his mouth.
"I can't believe you would do that to me!" Squall yelled.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Selphie all of a sudden screamed. "My Irvy pictures!" this is too weird! Zell thought, but continued to listen. "What did you do to my Irvine shrine?!"
"I can't stand looking at his face for too long, that's all."
"You are so mean!" Selphie replied, tears started to form in her eyes. Zell couldn't take it anymore, he stepped into their view.
*Zell's POV (So things might get confusing…. 0.0)*
"What are you two talking about?"
"How much did you hear?" Selphie asked pursing her lips and crossing her arms.
"Enough to confuse the hell out of me…that's for sure." He replied.
"Should we tell him?" Squall asked Selphie. Selphie shook her head no. "C'mon, he's already heard some of it, and if he knows maybe he can help us…"
Selphie hesitated but complied, she motioned for Squall to answer the question. "Me and Squall switched bodies, I'm actually Selphie." He said.
Zell laughed hysterically, "HAHAHA! Good one Squall! I never thought you had a sense of humor!" he rolled groping his sides.
*Back to Normal POV*
Squall had enough of this.
He stood up to where Zell was rolling in hysterics on the floor and
kicked him. Good and swift in the
buttocks.
"Ow! Hey!" Zell stood up. "You two are serious aren't you!" the two nodded. "Then I have to tell the others!"
"No you don't!" Squall said grabbing him by the back of the neck. "No one is to hear anything about this, you hear? But, you can help stop spreading the rumors, got it?"
"Okay okay! Let go, let go!" Squall let go of him. Zell rubbed the sore spot on his neck and started for the door. "Zell will hereby start on rumor control immediately!" he saluted them sarcastically.
"Yeah! Go get 'em Zell!" Selphie excitedly saluted back. Zell laughed nervously and took off in a sprint down the hall. Too weird! He thought to himself. Oh well, I better keep my promise though!
"As for you mister!" Selphie said pushing Squall into the bathroom. "You are gonna get a full fledged lesson on TOM!"
"What the hell is this Tom you keep talking about?"
"TOM is the code word for Time Of Month. It works really well." She giggled madly and shut the door behind her.
*Meanwhile*
Wow, Selphie bolted out of the party awfully fast. Irvine thought as he walked down the hall. I better go check on her. Even if Selphie had said some mean things, he didn't think she meant it. She hadn't been acting herself lately.
He rounded the corner to her dorm, just as he walked in he noticed 'Squall' walk out of her bathroom, with a big cheesy smile on his face.
Selphie had a big kick out of the whole thing. That the almighty Squall, couldn't put up with something that she had to put up with monthly. She had left him with a box of Midol, so when she left the bathroom, she couldn't help but be all smiles. However, when she exited, she noticed Irvy standing there.
Selphie opened her mouth to say something, but Irvine didn't wait to hear it. Instead, he stormed out, knocking over a few people on his way. "Irvy! Stop!" She yelled chasing after him. Irvine, seeing 'Squall' run after him, ran even faster. Eventually Selphie fell behind and stopped running.
Yep, I'm going to get revenge. So help me Selphie, I will get revenge! Squall said sitting down on her bed. Only two more days to go! He reassured himself. Better go back to the party…but I better change first. Damn! I don't want to wear yellow!
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A/N: Hey hey hey people! That one was longer than we expected and we apologize! But we hope you liked it! And about you pairing people, don't worry, this is a Squinoa, Selvine fic! It's just that we don't focus on the romance. ^_~ Remember ideas are always welcome! We need as many as we can! Oh! And are there any girls that are obsessed with Squall and everything about him? We are going to have a chapter dedicated to the fangirls and a make-your-own-fangirl thing. Just review us the following. (Not a Mary-Sue…just a fangirl) ^_^
Fangirl's Name- Fangirl's Physical Traits- Fangirl's Personality- Habbits? Hobbies?-Oh and by the way, about the songs in Selphie's room. If you didn't already know, the first one is from an earlier Final Fantasy, it's a perky song that Mickayla downloaded for us. (Thanks babe!) And the second one is called 'Myself' and Linkin Park sings it…R&R! Our goal is 80!