Chapter SEVEN: His Plan, My Plan, Your Plan! Everyone Has a Plan!
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"We have to go about this Rinoa thing very subtly." Xu reminded Fujin as they sat in the Fortress of Doom.
"How can we go about the utter destruction of Rinoa subtly?" Yuki asked skeptically.
"Make her 'accidentally' fall down the stairs." Fujin suggested receiving the mental image of Rinoa falling down a mile long staircase.
"Ummm... lets try not to kill her." Xu suggested as she sat down on the top of a desk.
"Why not!? That way the world will be rid of her. We'd get an award!" Fujin screamed with joy.
"I don't think there's an award for killing Rinoa." Seifer told her.
"We'll make one!" Fujin exclaimed.
"Why would we make an award for killing Rinoa if we're going to kill her - stop it. Getting off topic." Xu said shaking her head, ridding the nonsensical thoughts from her. "Anyways. We have to come up with a plot!" Xu told them a bit annoyed at the fact they were all going off topic.
"Right. Focus people, focus!" Seifer demanded slamming his hands down on his desk. "We must think of a plan, and fast. It's blatantly obvious that Squall and Rinoa are beginning to make their moves on each other. It's only a matter of time before they begin to date." Seifer warned strategically.
"You're right!" Yuki exclaimed, shocked Seifer was acting intelligent. "We have to have someone get between them. Stalk them wherever they go and mess everything up!" She suggested.
"That will be my job." Fujin said with a high laugh.
"No. You need to be here to plan the plot, and besides it sort of obvious you want to mess things up between them. We have to have someone who doesn't know them and make it look like an 'accident'." Seifer suggested. Everyone smirked evilly and turned to Xu.
"Dammit. I knew it." Xu cursed, kicking a chair in frustration.
"Sorry." Fujin said with fake sympathy. "No time to waist, go go go!" She ordered in a rushed state as her small body pushed Xu out the door and into the hallway. She slammed the door behind her, leaving Xu alone.
"But I'm the SMART one!" Xu cried in anger.
"Did anyone just hear that?" Squall asked, looking towards the door inside the 'Hybrid Rainbows'.
"No. Shut up. Your insane." Zell blurted out hastily. "Anyways, the play. Quistis, do you have any ideas for a script?" Zell asked, turning to her.
"A few. But I have to run them by with you all." Quistis said, pulling a pad of paper with some writing on it from her pack.
"Lets hear 'em." Selphie suggested with a bright, excited, smile.
"Idea one: A powerful President is in great need for a son. He finds that his wife is pregnant and hopes with all his might it is a boy. It is a girl. Frustrated in this finding, he refuses to believe it and gives her the male name, David. He thus proclaims her as a boy. When she comes of age, he places her into a military training camp where she the learns the ways of a fighting, male, soldier. She's returned to the general and is placed as the Captain of the Guards and renowned as the Crown Prince." Quistis finished. "I realize that summary is a bit long but-"
"OOHHH I REALLY like that idea!" Selphie cheered with a clap of her hands. She looked to Zell for approval.
"Yes, I do as well." Zell agreed. He looked to Rinoa. She nodded and she looked to Squall and he agreed as well.
"Then it's settled!" Selphie cheered.
"We'll do Quistis's idea one!" He proclaimed with a bright smile and thumbs up.
"Wait, but what about the rest of her ideas?" Rinoa asked, wanting to give all of Quistis's hard time special attention.
"You don't need to know those..." Quistis mumbled. She looked down to her paper and saw the little images she drew instead of the ideas. For Idea two, it showed Quistis strangling Zell saying 'Stop calling my smart girl!'. For Idea three it showed a chicken fighting a tiny hippopotamus.
"Yes we do!" Rinoa insisted.
"Shut up! No you don't!" Quistis seethed, looking quite evil and demonic. Rinoa cowered back into her seat.
"What's the title?" Selphie asked, ignoring the other ideas completely.
"I don't know." Quistis said with a shrug.
"How about... Squall's Pregnant with Penguins?" Selphie suggested. Quistis gave Selphie a blank stare then shook her head solemnly. Squall rose up from behind Selphie, metal chair in hand. He smashed it across her head.
"Bitch." He mumbled as he stalked back to his seat.
"No one can take a joke around here." Selphie mumbled as she rubbed her head.
"Stop it!" Zell demanded, slamming a make shift gavel (a metal rod jabbed into a block of wood) down onto the table. "We must focus. The Summer Festival is in ONE week!" Zell screamed, looking to everyone. "We need to get our act together." Zell said, his eyes narrowing.
"Agreed." Rinoa said with a nod. Everyone else nodded, showing their commitment.
"Where and when is this play taking place?" Nida asked, taking out his sketch book, already starting.
"I'll help you with that. I'll work on the script at home." Quistis said with a smile as she walked to where Nida was sitting.
"What should we do?" Rinoa asked, pointing to Selphie, Squall and her.
"Since the four of us are actors, we can divide up the roles... or the roles we know of so far." Zell mumbled.
"I wanna be the main chick!" Rinoa and Selphie exclaimed at the same time. They shot each other looks of distaste.
"We'll be forced to settle this through a nice, decent, cat fight." Zell said with an evil smirk has looked to Squall. He laughed evilly.
"Oh shut up, both of you." Selphie commanded.
"We could switch half way through." Rinoa suggested. Selphie smiled in delight and they gave each other high fives.
"Dammit." Zell cursed.
Up on the roof top, Raijin stood looking out over the expansive land known as Balamb.
'It's so pretty up here.' Raijin thought contentedly. 'So boring though.' He thought depressingly as he slumped against the railing. His chin rested delicately on the cold, metallic, bar. 'Everyone's gone, doing their own thing. What am I doing? Nothing, nothing at all. Maybe I should join Fujin's freak fest, but she's just so... yeah. Don't think about it. Maybe I could join Rinoa's club. They're probably already long underway on their project.' He turned around with a heavy sigh and closed eyes.
"Hey." A soft voice greeted. He opened his eyes curiously and found it was Xu. The wind played with her uniform's skirt and tugged at her hair gently.
"Hey Xu." Raijin greeted, trying to sound uninterested.
"What are you doing up here?" She asked, walking up to him.
"Nothing at all. You?" He asked as she looked out at the island of Balamb next to him.
"You sound so suspicious. It sounds like you're trying to cover something." Xu noted with a giggle.
"Well, I'm not." Raijin insisted as he sat down, his back against the railing.
"I know you aren't. Just a joke." She said. "But what am I doing up here? Trying to escape Fujin's fickleness and bossiness." She told him. "Don't tell her that!" Xu pleaded, realizing what she had just admitted.
"I won't. That's exactly the reason I wouldn't join her 'club." He said.
"I shouldn't have joined. Stupid me. I should know by now that Fujin's totally insane." Xu confessed with a laugh.
"I'm surprised I'm still her friend." Raijin said with a low laugh. "I'm afraid she'll hurt me if I leave her though... but I'm beginning to slowly move from her." He said.
"How long have you guys been friends for?" Xu asked, curious.
"No idea, but a LONG time." He said with a smile.
"That's cool. I've known her for about two years... and you about one, yes?" She asked, just making sure.
"Basically." He agreed.
"Feels like such a short time." She said with a heavy sigh. There was a bit of silence until Raijin turned to her.
"I was lonely..." He stated.
*
Quistis sat at her computer, typing away the script as fast as she could so everyone could have it by the next day. Her glasses were low on her nose and her eyes hastily followed the text appearing on the screen. She paused for a moment and pulled her hands away from the keyboard. She sighed heavily and looked at how many pages she had just typed in the past 20 minutes, 8. She smiled with satisfaction. She cracked her knuckles and sighed in ecstasy. She leaned back against her chair and let her head hang back, her hair hanging placidly. She shut her eyes as they burned like the fire of a thousand suns. But before she could rest much, the phone rang. She bent forward with rush and snatched the phone.
"Hello?" She asked coldly, expecting it to be Zell asking how far along she was. "Oh! Hey! I'm sorry. Didn't know it was you." She confessed, embarrassed. She giggled at a comment the person made. "Always the joker. You've never changed. I'm not saying that's bad." She said hastily. "I liked your hair yesterday. Very nice, very nice. Personally, I don't care what kind of gel you use." She confessed. A loud gasp could be heard from the phone. Quistis laughed at another comment the person made. "Okay then, bye bye. See you tomorrow." Quistis said, and she hung up.
She sat there for a moment and giggled to herself....
*
"Hey Squall!" Rinoa greeted in the morning as she walked onto the campus.
"Why weren't you on the bus?" He asked, annoyed.
"I woke up late. My mom had to drop me off." She admitted with a little giggle. "Anyways, have you seen Quistis's script yet? She emailed it to me last night, it's so good!" She raved with a giddy smile.
"Really? Awesome!" Squall cheered. "We might actually have a chance at winning! I didn't think we were at first 'cause well, we do kinda suck." He admitted. Rinoa just stared past him and shook her head solemnly. He turned his head to find Selphie.
"We suck!?" Selphie screamed. "You big piece of shit! I'll kill you." Selphie screamed. She lunged at Squall and he deflected her with a swipe of his hand.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to insult you." He apologized sheepishly.
"Sure you didn't." Selphie said maliciously with a sour face. "But seriously Squall, can I talk to you?" She asked.
"Uhhh... sure." He agreed, unsure. The two walked away leaving Rinoa to watch from a distance.
"So, tonight, right?" She asked excitedly.
"Excuse me?" Squall asked.
"Are you gonna ask her out?" She asked, her eyes huge and bold, waiting for the answer she wanted to hear.
"Who's 'her'?" He asked. She smacked him across the head.
"Rinoa, you dork!" She cried, annoyed.
"I'm not gonna ask Rinoa out!!" He cried far to loudly, piquing Rinoa's attention.
"Shut up! Why not?" She asked. "Everyone knows you like her." She whispered to him.
"They do?" He asked, a bit shocked at these findings.
"Duh. It's so obvious. Plus there's this rumor going around school that you kissed her." She said with a little giggle.
"WHAT!?!!?" Squall screamed, turning everyone's attention to him.
"Shut up or I'll make sure you never have children again!!" She whispered venomously. He shut up. "So are you?" She asked, reverting back to her original question.
"I don't know. Leave me alone." Squall demanded, running away. Selphie cursed. She had scared him off.
On the roof top, alone, Squall thought as he stared down upon the people. He could see Rinoa clearly. She was talking with Selphie and he smirked as an idea came to mind. An idea that would work, that would succeed, that would be perfect. He was going to ask Rinoa out.
Squall entered the Hybrid Rainbow's room and found Rinoa and Selphie giggling like idiots and jumping around the room as Zell, Nida and Irvine were playing cards. He immediately walked to Irvine.
"You found us." Squall noted.
"Aren't you proud of me?" He asked with a laugh as he placed a card down onto the table.
"Quite." He said with a laugh.
"SQUALL!!!" Rinoa screamed from behind him. "Dance with me! Dance to the beat of the music in your heart!" She said with a laugh. Selphie doubled over in laughter.
"YOU SAID 'BEAT'!!" She screamed with a laughter as she held her stomach. She collapsed to the ground and turned red from laughing so hard. Rinoa began to lead Squall around the room. Squall was dragging his feet and attempting to pull away.
"Don't you want to dance with me, Squall!?" Rinoa screamed. She pushed him away and backed up a bit and she tripped over a chair. She began to laugh hysterically. "Hey Selphie!" She cried. "Pumpernickel!" She cried. They both began to break down with laughter.
"To much sugar." Zell commented, not looking up.
"Did you supply them?" Squall asked, accusingly.
"Didn't even see them all day. Couldn't have." He observed, not paying much attention.
"Hello everyone." Quistis greeted from the door way. She had a series of stapled papers in her hand. She looked to everyone and they looked back. Rinoa and Selphie were completely still, surprise surprise. "What?" Quistis asked, giving them all an odd face. "Is there something on my face?" She asked, rubbing her face. They all turned back to what they were doing, as if nothing ever happened. "So weird..." Quistis commented.
"Hey Squall!" Rinoa called. He turned to her and she came galloping up to him.
"What?" He asked, expecting something important.
"Alalala-Smack it!!" She yelled, and smacked his ass. She doubled over in laughter, as with Selphie. Squall just stared at her blank faced. His face was beet red. Irvine, Nida and Zell snickered from behind him. Squall turned to them hesitantly and they laughed all the more harder as they saw his face.
Xu stood outside room 106, straightening out her uniform, ready for her first mission. 'Alright Xu, think destructive and mean thoughts. Think like Fujin.' She told herself. She took a deep breath and tossed the door open. She found Rinoa bouncing around the room with Selphie, Squall blushing and Irvine, Nida and Zell laughing. 'Dammit! What did I miss? Shit.' Xu cursed silently.
"Hi everyone!" She began, calling everyone's attention.
"Xu. I've missed you so much!" Selphie screamed as she hugged her. "Where have you been!? Have you been doing it with Billy!?" Selphie gasped.
"Did you use protection!?" Rinoa asked, truly concerned. "No! You whore!" She said. Selphie turned to her and they began to play patty cake. "Oh my god Selphie! You're so good at this!" Rinoa complimented.
"Thanks! I can chase my tail to!" Selphie screamed with delight. She began to twirl around in circles, chasing and invisible tail until she fell down. She began to laugh hysterically on the ground and Rinoa fell down, laughing, with her.
"I'm uhh... gonna leave now." Xu said with a nervous smile as she backed away from the scene and out the door. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She sighed heavily. "Oh my god... this is going to be to tough." She wheezed and walked back into the Fortress of Doom.....
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A/n: Sorry I haven't written in awhile... school is tough... tee hee. Read my live journal... go to my bio thingy and click on my website. Stuff from there will be used in upcoming chapters. Check it out.