Disclaimer: I have made an amazing discovery … I DO OWN FF8!! At home, on a shelf RIGHT next to FF7. Tee hee … *grins*
~Chapter 7: Will You Catch Me If I Fall?~
Quistis' arm flung out of her sleeping bag unintentionally and smacked Rinoa in the face. The raven-haired girl woke up with a start and shoved Quistis' arm off in annoyance. This is why she hated tents. They were so cramped and sharing one with Quistis wasn't exactly the best thing ever.
As much as she was one of her best friends, she could get quite annoying. Well, it could be worst. She could be sharing a tent with the hyperactive Selphie. Or even worse … Irvine. That would be plain freaky.
Or she could be sharing a tent with Sarah… Talk about hell. She slowly slipped out of her sleeping bag and rubbed her eyes trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness. She guessed it was around the wee hours of the morning.
She fumbled around for a pair of jeans and slipped them on top of her boxer-pajama shorts while scrunching down to meet the extremities of the tent. Then noticed her sweater sitting in a corner. She grabbed it, pulled it over her head and stepped out into the cool, fresh air of the forest.
She noticed a hunched figure that was kneeling above the dying fire.
"Hey." She made herself known.
Squall rose from his scrunched position, "Oh hey…"
She went and sat down on the bench of the picnic table. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Sarah's snoring kept me awake." He grimaced and sat down next to her.
"Oh pleasant…" She remarked sarcastically.
"Yeah… She talks in her sleep too. It's kind of freaky." He confessed.
"Do tell!" Rinoa grinned.
"She was saying some pretty weird shit. Woke me up…" Squall unearthed a stone with his shoe.
A slight silence passed between the two. The wind ruffled the foliage of the great deciduous trees, which nested owls that were searching for prey. Frogs croaked from the lake. Nature was at it's best: Undisturbed.
"What time is it?" Rinoa asked as softly as she could.
Squall looked down at his watch, "Five A.M."
Another silence. The moon glowed white against the pale sky, accompanied by silvery stars that dotted the heavens. A pinkish color tinted up above, indicating the beginning of a sunrise. A great bulging semi-circle lit the horizon.
"Wow… Look." Rinoa breathed, "It's really beautiful."
"Not really." Squall shrugged, "You're more beautiful."
She looked back at him, shocked slightly by his simplicity. He stared back into her chocolate eyes and smiled.
"You're making the highlight of my day, being the sunrise, sound corny and sappy." Rinoa accused.
"At least it'll be real." Squall smiled, "At least you know everything that happened was real. Every word spoken was true."
She grinned, "I choose 'ignorance is a bliss.'"
***
"Today is 'sports day'!" Seifer announced at the breakfast table. People sitting in the restaurant turned slightly to stare at him.
They had gone out to a nearby 'Pancake House' for breakfast. It was just so much easier than trying to cook eggs on a campfire.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Squall stuffed more toast and eggs in his mouth.
"On the highlight for today; laze around the camp for a while, go play basketball, go laze around the camp for a while… Then we go to a nearby skating park I saw around."
"Since when are you the boss?" Rinoa insisted on knowing.
"Since now." Sefeir smirked, "And everyone will abide by my rules."
"Whatever…" Muttered Squall incoherently.
Zell wolfed down his eighth order of toast and sausages. An early replacement for hotdogs in general.
"Well, ok guys. I won't play basketball though… I'm a better cheerleader." Sarah giggled.
"Ok then…" Quistis had to bite the inside of her mouth not to laugh.
"Dudes, honestly, I saw this amazing thing we could go to tomorrow. Seriously, it'll be amazing…" Irvine chipped in.
Selphie rolled her eyes and cupped Irvine's hand, "But that's tomorrow… So I guess it'll be a surprise to everyone."
"I don't like surprises." Rinoa said curtly.
Sarah made a grunting noise, "You are so boring."
"Trust me, honey, if you had known these guys as long as I have; you wouldn't like surprises either."
Squall grinned and turned to his 'fiancée', "I totally agree."
"You mean you're not on my side, Squally Wally?" Sarah whined slightly.
Rinoa started choking on her toast and she wasn't the only one. Seifer began giving Zell smacks on the back to make him cough up the toast.
"What's so funny?" Sarah asked; you could tell she wasn't amused.
Zell, who had recovered, responded, "I'm picturing something really gross but really funny at the same time."
The whole table started laughing, with the exception of Squall and Sarah. Selphie wheezed, "Zell, you are so disgusting!"
Seifer looked thoughtful for a moment, "You know I'd pay to see that."
"Not funny…" Squall responded through gritted teeth.
Irvine, being the Irvine that he is, said, "Dude, do the students in Balamb stop at your dormitory door and wonder what the hell's going on in there?"
Then Quistis began her imitation, "Oh Squally Wally, OH! Yes, yes, YES!"
Squall grimaced and signaled for his friends to shut the hell up.
***
"Yo, let's play some two on two basket ball guys!" Zell urged and spun the ball on his fore finger.
"Wooow… you're a pro!" Rinoa said sarcastically, and with that she grabbed the ball out of Zell's grasp.
"Hey!" Zell whined and Rinoa stuck out her tongue.
"Um… The girls will catch up to you guys later! We're staying here for a while!" Sarah declared.
"Since when?" Rinoa muttered more to herself then to anyone else.
"Ok, you ladies have fun. We'll be at the basket ball courts." Irvine smirked, yanked the ball from Rinoa and ran off into the distance laughing hysterically.
"You're boyfriend's is really starting to scare me." Rinoa stated simply.
***
Rinoa groaned from her sitting position. She couldn't stand another minute of it. For half an hour… Sarah's mouth opening and closing talking about Squall and how great it was to be engaged to him.
"Someone shut her up… Now!!" She felt like yelling out.
"So yah, how about you Rinoa? Do you have the hots for anyone?" Sarah asked.
This took Rinoa by surprise and yet she managed to stutter, "No." Meanwhile trying to hide her crimson face.
"Yeah, Rinoa's actually in a relationship with someone. The thing is there's this bitch who won't let go of him." Quistis explained.
Selphie gave her a glare that reminded her not to go too far. Sarah might have been an idiot but she wasn't that stupid.
"Oh really?" Sarah's voice filled with pity, "That really sucks. If I were you, I'd give her a big slap in the face."
"You don't know how much I want to do so." Rinoa mumbled.
"Well, we should go and meet the guys, what do you say?" Selphie asked.
"Good idea!" Rinoa burst out, "Let's go now!"
Sarah jumped from her sitting position and squealed, "Let's go seeeeeee my boyfriend!!!" She said in an unusually high-pitched voice. She turned around and smashed right into a tree.
Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis did their best not to laugh.
(A/N: The 'Let's go seeeeeee my boyfriend thing is actually an inside joke, brought along by CharlieGirl… Hee hee hee … some life experiences are MEANT to be in fanfics…)
***
The four girls approached one of the many basketball courts. They stared at the four guys playing as if their lives depended on it. Seifer and Squall on one team, Zell and Irvine on the other.
The men stopped as they saw the girls walking towards them. "There you are! You took your sweet time." Seifer shouted at them jokingly.
"How about four on four?" Rinoa suggested.
"Um… I don't think I'll play." Sarah spoke up meekly.
"Fine, I'll referee the game. Jump ball, taken at center!" He pointed to the circle in center court.
"Come on guys. We can beat these ladies." Seifer said tauntingly, "One's a nurse." He looked at Quistis and winked, "The other is 5'1" … And … Well… The other one is short too."
"Excuse me?!" Selphie and Rinoa exclaimed in unison.
"Let's kick their asses!" The syrup that Selphie had drowned her pancakes in that morning was starting to take effect.
Quistis decided to take the jump ball against Seifer. Both jumped in the air following the ball's trail and finally Seifer grabbed the ball and started dribbling down the court towards the net.
5… 4…
He sped down the frontcourt occasionally stopping to loop around the defense.
3… 2…
1… "5 second rule!!!!" Selphie blurted out, "VIOLATION!!!"
Zell had to agree with the girls for they were right. "Rinoa takes the ball from the sidelines…"
Rinoa sneered at her opponents and took the ball from the nearest line. "Hey, how 'bout even more pressure. First to score wins."
"Fine with me!" Irvine called out. Seifer and Squall just nodded their response as they readied themselves for defense.
Rinoa passed the ball quickly to Selphie who bounded out of her backcourt and into the guys' frontcourt.
5… 4…
Serving around Irvine and running up near the hoop.
3… 2…
1… "5 SECOND-" Seifer didn't have time to finish his sentence. The ball flew out of Selphie's hands to Rinoa.
"Fuck…" Seifer cursed and immediately stepped to defense once more.
Squall obviously had Rinoa covered and apparently this seemed to bother her. She backed right into him and nearly lost her balance, "Get off my case, Squall!"
She turned around to face him, and obviously this surprised him and he backed up a bit. Seizing the opportunity she passed the ball to Quistis who had positioned herself in her opponents key. Her only obstacle… Seifer.
She decided to throw, aiming with laser precision. He blocked her throw easily but accidentally shoved her to the side. Not enough to knock her over but enough for Selphie to cry out, "FOUL!!! SHE WAS IN THE ACTION OF SHOOTING!!!"
"We get two free throws!!!" Rinoa concluded. And Zell agreed.
"Oh bullshit!!" Seifer scowled.
"Those are the rules, Seifer…" Quistis said smiling.
Quistis stationed herself at the free throw line and shot the ball. Seifer seemed to have done something to her balance because it hit the rim of the basketball and bounced off with incredible strength. Seven pairs of eyes followed its trail. The eighth pair was gazing off somewhere and that's when it struck. Sarah received the ball on the head.
"Ahhh!" She shrieked as if announcing her pain.
"Are you ok?" Zell asked.
"I just got hit by a ball! Do I look ok?" She shrieked. You could tell she was pissed.
"Um…" Squall stuttered, "It's only a ball, you'll be fine. Let's just keep playing."
Seifer's eyes shot open. Squall had completely ignored her. That set him thinking. If it had been Rinoa who had been hit with the ball he would have rushed towards her and concluded the game should be stalled. But it wasn't Rinoa; it was Sarah. If it were Rinoa who had been hit, Squall would have started bitching at Quistis for throwing such a bad shot. But it wasn't Rinoa; it was Sarah.
"We really need to get Squall and Rinoa together, you get it?" He nodded his head in Sarah's direction, while whispering to Quistis.
Quistis understood, she too had noticed and she nodded quickly to show she understood.
"Rinoa, take the last free throw." Selphie ordered. She was taking the 'beat-the-guys' thing very seriously.
Rinoa didn't object. She took her place at the free-throw line and shot. The ball went in with relative ease and Selphie jumped around while mocking the guys, "We beat you, we beat you, we beat you!!!"
"Ahh, bullshit!!!" Seifer cussed again.
***
The group had returned to camp. Seifer had decided to go take a nap to help him get over his defeat and Sarah had decided to take a nap to rid herself of her terrible headache.
"So are we going to go to the skating park?" Selphie asked, still as energetic as ever.
"What exactly is that?" Rinoa asked.
"A park, you know… Where you can get on roller blades or skateboards and… Skate." Quistis informed.
"Riight…" Rinoa said.
"Let's go now. Sarah and Seifer'll catch up later." Squall decided.
"Yeah, let's go now!" Selphie bounced around.
"Just leave them a note or something." Rinoa suggested.
"No, I'll stay behind until they wake up." Quistis informed. "You guys, go ahead."
***
Quistis waved to her departing companions and when they were well out of site she darted into Seifer's tent and woke him up.
"Mmmph… What?" He growled.
Quistis urged him out of his sleeping back, "Now's our chance!"
***
They dragged her sleeping mattress down the little path, leading to the lake. It wasn't the type of lake you swam in … this was the fishing lake.
"Thank the heavens she's a heavy sleeper." Seifer whispered.
And they cast her out into the lake.
***
"Where's Sarah?" Rinoa asked as she saw Seifer and Quistis walked up to them.
"Still sleeping. We left her a note saying where we'd be."
Rinoa kept sipping her coke, giving Quistis occasional suspicious glares. Trying to change the subject (and succeeding) Quistis said, "Ooh, Selphie and Irvine are already skating, I wanna go! Come on Seifer."
Quistis dragged Seifer to the skates counter and left Rinoa and Squall alone on the bleachers.
"So… You don't want to go skating?" Squall asked Rinoa.
Rinoa smiled slightly, "Will you catch me if I fall?"
He grinned and scooted closer to her, "I'll always catch you if you fall."
She smiled at his answer but responded, "Nah, I don't really want to go skating."
He paused and then asked her, "Will you catch me if I fall?"
"I always have, haven't I?" She her eyes pierced his own. "As a friend."
"Maybe I don't want you as a friend anymore. Maybe I want you as something more." Squall leaned in towards her a bit.
"You know that'll never happen… Ever." Rinoa brought him back to realty.
"We'll let this kiss justify that…" And he slowly leaned down.
The same scenery mirrored in her pale, gray iris. Little did the couple on the bleachers know… The true storm hadn't even commenced.
Sammy: CLIFFHANGER!! I hope you people are observant enough to know who the gray eyes belong to. Yes, that was a hint. Please read and review!!