A/N: Sooo… It's time for another chapter in this epic story of action, drama and passion… Oops wrong story! Ah, there we go… Time for another chapter in this pathetic, cheesy story… ;-) Moving on!
Seeing that you guys would like to read a pirate story, I decided to get on with it. I'll just think of a few more stuff in the plotline, but I'll start writing it when this fic is over. We-hee! I love pirates! I mean, I must've played the entire 'Monkey Island' games at least five times each!
Chapter 7: Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
The next day, the whole Garden was excited about the Summer Festival. It would begin in the early afternoon hours and go on until late at night. It would consist of a concert at first, then the play and finally a dance in the Garden ballroom. Especially for that day, the Garden was stationed at FH, where a big amphitheatre-like construction had been built, courtesy of the FH mechanicals. Selphie had been feeling on the edge the entire day; she wanted everything to be perfect. Zell and Shizuka had returned from their trip in time for the Festival and were just as excited as everyone else in the Garden.
At six o' clock, the entire student body as well as the instructors had gathered at the Quad, waiting for the concert to start. Squall, Rinoa, Quistis, Irvine, Zell and Shizuka were standing at the front row, chatting until the concert started.
- "So, Shizuka… What did you think of Esthar?" asked Rinoa.
- "Oh it was simply amazing!" the girl replied. "All this technology! And the President was so nice! And such a simple man… I simply loved this trip!"
- "Did you get to see the Lunar Base?" asked Quistis.
- "Only from the aircraft." said Shizuka disappointed. "I wish we had time to go there thought…"
Nearby, the three guys were discussing as well.
- "How'd it go then?" Irvine asked Zell.
- "The trip? Amazing…" said Zell with a dreamy expression on his face.
- "Didn't we all go to Esthar last year?" asked Squall.
- "Yeah, don't you remember?" replied Zell.
- "Of course I do. I just don't see what you're all excited about…" said Squall.
- "Can't you tell?" said Irvine smirking. "Our boy here got some 'action' last night…" he added, pinching Zell's check.
- "Shut up…" said Zell, but he didn't seem the least bit bothered. "*Sigh* She's great…" he said, resting his head on Squall's shoulder.
Squall looked at him, then turned to look at Irvine and all three of them burst out laughing. Right next to them, the girls did so as well. Irvine walked over to them and hung himself from Quistis and Rinoa's shoulders.
- "S'up ladies?" he asked. "Care to tell us what's so funny?"
- "Wouldn't you want to know…" said Rinoa.
Just then, Selphie emerged from the closed curtain on the scene. She was wearing a pair of really short blue jean shorts and a white shirt on top. She shyly walked over to the microphone and switched it on. She slightly tapped on it and blew. A few people noticed her and turned around.
- "Testing, testing… 1, 2, 3… Testing…" said Selphie. When she was sure it was working well, she spoke. "Can I have your attention please?" she said. The humming stopped after a minute or so and everyone turned to look at her. "Thank you." she added cheerfully. "I'd like to welcome you all to the 51st Annual Summer Festival of Balamb Garden. All of us participating have put a great deal of effort into it, so I hope you all enjoy it! Our Festival will begin with a short concert by our very own Balamb Garden band! Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls… I give you the 'Garden Gang'!" said Selphie applauding.
The audience started to applaud as well, as Selphie left the stage. Her friends in the front row were cheering and whistling and one could easily hear Irvine yelling 'That's my girl!' even over from all the cheers from the crowd.
The curtain was pulled and out came the band. It consisted of two girls and three boys. The guys were playing drums and bass, while the girls were playing guitar, electric and classical, and one of them did vocals. As soon as the applause had died down, the drum player set the rhythm and the band began to play. All of the songs they played were known. They were pretty good. The crowd's mood was soon up and they were cheering harder than ever. In between the chaos that reined in less than five minutes, Quistis looked around to try and catch glimpse of a familiar face… She couldn't find him. He wouldn't miss it, would he? He said he'd come… 'Actually, he said he'd come to the play… Oh well…' thought Quistis. She went back to cheering with her friends and forgot about it for a while.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
- "Thank you 'Garden Gang'!" said Selphie jumping back up on stage, once the concert was over. "Whew! What did y'all think?!" she asked the crowd. A loud cheer came out of the audience. "And there's more where that came from! I'll ask all of you to proceed to the 2F exit, where you will be shown the way to the theatre, specially constructed just for today. Given the opportunity, I'd like to thank the FH mechanicals for their enormous amount of help! See you all over at the theatre!"
The crowd slowly dispersed and headed over to the 2F. The walk over to the FH theatre took quite some time, but it gave the play contributors some time to prepare.
- "That concert was phat!" said Irvine excited. "These guys were good!"
- "Indeed. They played the songs really well!" agreed Quistis.
- "Seems like Selphie pulled out a good one…" said Squall.
- "Yeah… My sweetie is real good at this stuff…" said Irvine smiling.
- "Oh, I am so telling that to Selphie!" said Rinoa chuckling.
- "You wouldn't dare!" said Irvine.
- "Why not? It was so sweet…" said Rinoa.
- "Zell, back me up here man!" said Irvine desperately.
- "I don't think he can hear you Irv…" said Quistis smiling. Zell and Shizuka were walking together, hugging and kissing all the time.
- "Traitor…" mumbled Irvine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
When everyone had reached the theatre and had found seats, Selphie came back up on stage.
- "Is everyone here? Good!" she said. "The play you're about to watch is a modern version of the famous drama 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare. The text will remain exactly as the original, but I should tell you that we took the liberty of taking out a few scenes we thought wouldn't match the play's style and because well… we thought they might bore you!" Everyone laughed. "Anyway, I'd like to ask for your patience for ten minutes, for the cast to get fully prepared. Thank you!" she said, running backstage.
Quistis kept checking around her for any sign of Seifer. Just when she'd lost all hope, she saw him coming down the stairway to the theatre, hands in his pockets, with a casual look on his face. As he strode down the stairs, Quistis noticed that quite a few girls turned their heads to look at him. She couldn't really blame them though; he looked really handsome. He was wearing a pair of dark, purposely worn-out blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt. He hadn't tucked it inside his pants, but had let it hang loose. The first couple of buttons were undone, revealing a small bit of his chiseled chest. His hair looked messy, but in a charming and deliberate sort of way and they were quite spiky. Obviously, he'd gelled them into spikes which, Quistis had to admit, suited him a lot better than his old hairstyle.
Seifer walked down the stairway and stood there for a minute looking around. Quistis saw one of the girls she had seen him chatting with yesterday, get up and walk over to him. 'Oh no you don't…' thought Quistis. "SEIFER!" she called loudly while getting up; it worked. Seifer spotted her, smiled and walked over to her. The other girl caught up with him though. For a minute, Quistis thought she'd 'lost the fight', but was relieved to see that they only spoke for a minute and then Seifer walked over to her.
When he got there, he took a good look at her from head to toe. She was wearing a pair of light, tight blue jeans in knee length. She wore a white slim belt, which matched her white strapped top. She had worn her hair in two low ponytails; a couple of thick, long, golden strands were framing her beautiful face. When he saw Irvine giving him a suspicious look, he decided to speak.
- "Hello Instructor." he said smiling.
- "Hello Seifer." said Quistis smiling back.
- "Did you want something?" he asked.
- "What?"
- "You called me. Did you want something?"
- "Oh yes… I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow."
- "About the training?"
- "Yes. Due to the fact that the Festival will go on until late hours, we'll only train in the afternoon, OK?" she asked.
- "Oh, good…" he said. "Good, now I can stay for the whole Festival."
- "So… who are you with?" asked Quistis, trying to act casual.
- "I just came here actually… Alone… but this friend of mine asked me to join her and her friends…" said Seifer.
- "I see…" said Quistis smiling. 'SHIT!' she thought.
- "Hey Seifer…" Irvine piped in.
- "Hey…" said Seifer. "What's up?"
- "Not much… You're here for the play huh?" asked Irvine.
- "Yeah, I heard it's gonna be good." he replied.
- "Yep. Selphie's directing it… Hey, why don't you sit over here with us?" he asked. Quistis felt her cheeks redden.
- "Uhh… I kinda said to this girl…" began Seifer, but Irvine interrupted him.
- "Do you rather sit with her or us?" he asked. Seifer smirked.
- "Would I pass up the chance of spending time with my lovely Instructor?" he said looking at Quistis. "Never. I'll take you up on that…" said Seifer making his way to the empty seats next to Zell and Shizuka -who btw where still kissing-. When he saw them, he turned around to face Irvine. "You don't mind sitting here, do you?" he asked grinning.
- "I'm sitting over there." he said showing him an empty seat right next to Rinoa and Squall. "Sorry…" he said grinning. Seifer turned over to look at Quistis with a pleading look on his face.
- "Alright… I'll sit over there, you can sit on the edge…" said Quistis.
- "Thank you…" he whispered relieved as they sat down and waited for the play to begin.
Nida happened to walk past them, trying to get back to his seat. He was with a girl and they were talking and laughing about something. When he walked in front of Squall and Rinoa, Squall greeted him, while Rinoa looked at him with her eyes narrowed.
- "Hyne, what did I ever do to her?!" he said confused.
- "What?" asked the girl he was with.
- "Nothing… Hey, there are our seats…" he said walking towards an empty pair of seats.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
'Juliet' appeared on her balcony, wearing a black leather mini skirt, a black strapless top and leather boots. Right underneath, 'Romeo' stood looking at her wearing jeans and a red shirt.
- "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon…" began 'Romeo'.
- "He's good, isn't he?" whispered Quistis to Seifer.
- "I like Juliet better…" he replied with a grin on his face.
- "You only like Juliet because she's wearing as less clothes as possible…"
- "That's not true… She's actually good…" said Seifer smiling.
- "Whatever… I don't think I've ever seen her around…" said Quistis, trying to recognize the girl who was playing Juliet.
- "Sure you have… It's Angelina Shaffer." said Seifer.
- "What?! No way!"
- "Yes way… Look closely…"
- "Hyne! It really is her!" said Quistis, squinting her eyes while trying to look closer at the girl. "Romeo is Drake Silveria right?" she asked.
- "Yeah, I think so…" replied Seifer.
- "Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!" continued 'Romeo'.
- "Ay me!" began 'Juliet'.
- "She speaks! Oh, speak again, bright angel! For thou art as glorious to this night, being over my head as is a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds and sails upon the bosom of the air…"
- "Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not…"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
- "A thousand times good night!" said 'Juliet.
- "A thousand times the worse, to want thy light. Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books, but love from love, toward school with heavy looks." said 'Romeo'.
- "Hist! Romeo, hist! Oh, for a falconer's voice, to lure this tassel-gentle back again! Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud; else would I tear the cave where Echo lies, and make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine, with repetition of my Romeo's name."
- "It is my soul that calls upon my name: How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, like softest music to attending ears!"
- "Hyne, if women actually fell for such crap…" mumbled Seifer.
- "Crap?! Shakespeare's words in all their splendor show the greatness of love and how it can prevail over any obstacle!" said Quistis, sounding offended.
- "Geez… Take it easy… All I'm saying is that this guy can't expect a girl to fall right into his arms just because he spilled her a bunch of lines he might have easily stolen from a poem… Women need actions, not just words…" said Seifer with a serious look on his face.
- "He died for her! What more could he do?!" she asked exasperated.
- "Of course that was a really great thing to do, but he did it afterwards… How do you know he wasn't trying to get her into bed first and then got to fall for her in the way?" he asked. Quistis looked puzzled for a minute.
- "I guess you could be right…" she said raising an eyebrow.
They turned around and looked at each other and burst out laughing. Irvine turned his head and looked at them. 'Well, well… I hope that's not what I think it is… For BOTH their sake…'
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
- "Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. Oh happy dagger!" said 'Juliet' snatching 'Romeo's' dagger. "This is thy sheath." she said stabbing herself. "There rust, and let me die…"
As 'Juliet' fell to the floor unconscious, the audience erupted into cheers and applause. 'Juliet' and 'Romeo' got gracefully back up to their feet and bowed for the audience. The rest of the cast came in as well, accompanied by Selphie and they all bowed once again. Selphie grabbed her microphone and spoke to the audience.
- "Alright folks! They night is still young and we've got one hell of an ending for this night. Everyone return to the Garden and proceed to the ballroom, where an informal dance will be held. Just a few drinks and some light music to dance to. G'night!" said Selphie delightedly, as the curtain closed again.
The crowd began to leave their seats and proceed to the staircase to return to the Garden. Selphie's friends however stayed behind to wait for her.
- "Wasn't that awesome?!" said Rinoa excitedly.
- "Great Festival alright… Easily the best one so far…" commented Quistis.
- "Meh, if it weren't for that crappy Shakespeare play…" said Seifer. Everyone turned to look at him. "Just kiddin'!" he added innocently.
- "Hey guys!" yelled Selphie a few feet away.
She was running towards them in a jumpy sort of way. Irvine walked over to her and as soon as she reached him, she jumped up on his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist, giving him a fiery kiss. Irvine seemed to be taken by surprise, as he almost dropped her at first. After what seemed like an eternity, Selphie got back down to her feet.
- "Hey sweetie…" said Irvine out of breath.
- "Oh I'm just so excited!" she said.
- "Yeah, we can tell… And so is Irvine if I'm not mistaken…" said Zell with a smirk, looking down at Irvine's crotch. Irvine immediately got the point and walked behind Selphie, rubbing the back of his head; everyone snickered.
- "Didn't it go great?!" asked Selphie, seeming to be the only one not to notice anything.
- "Yeah, it was amazing!" said Shizuka. "Come on, we'll be late for the dance!" she said grabbing Zell from the waist and leading the way.
- "So… Enjoyed our company?" said Irvine to Seifer, walking over to him and hugging him from the shoulder.
- "I must admit that even though I didn't think I would, I did." said Seifer smirking.
- "Good… Nice to see you had lots of… fun." Irvine said, looking sideways at Quistis, who was walking and chatting with Rinoa. "Are you coming to the dance with us?" he asked.
- "If I'm not bothering… sure." said Seifer shrugging.
- "Great… see you there. Let's go baby!" said Irvine grabbing Selphie's hand.
Seifer laughed at the sight of Irvine dragging Selphie along; it was usually the other way round… Their company was fun after all. Seifer felt comfortable with these people. He had known them all his life. And they seemed to have totally forgotten what had happened during last year. They really had believed that he was being controlled. Not that it made him less of a cocky bastard, but at least he wasn't considered a cold-blooded murderer. And then there was Quistis… She had been so nice to him he couldn't believe it. It kinda made it harder for him to use her now… But what was the big deal anyway? She'd enjoy it too… Besides, he didn't have any reason to stay in the Garden after becoming a SeeD, right?
- "Must be really hard trying to act all nice now, isn't it?" asked Squall interrupting his thoughts. Seifer turned and looked at him startled, then smirked.
- "Harder than I thought it would be…" he replied.
- "I see. So… In what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" asked Squall mockingly.
- "Irvine invited me. If I'm getting in the way, just say so…" said Seifer narrowing his eyes.
- "I never said that… You seem to be behaving yourself lately…"
- "Thank you mom…" said Seifer mockingly.
- "But I should warn you…" said Squall putting a finger on Seifer's chest. "If you ever pull any tricks on Quistis… you'll be sorry you were ever born…" he added leaving.
- "Nice to have talked to you too…" said Seifer mockingly, putting his hands in his pockets and continuing to walk up the staircase.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: I just had to give Seifer a new haircut… I thought the old one didn't really do him justice. Imagine him with hair just a bit longer spiky and gelled… Roar! Don't think of Zell's gravity defying hair, just something as spiky, but normal ^_^ Anyway, you might have found the 'Romeo and Juliet' play a bit too classical, but there's a reason I've chosen that specific play… It'll all make sense later in the story ;-)
ON THE NEXT CHAPTER OF 'LOVE CONQUERS ALL':
The last part of the Festival, the ball, will be critical for our two heroes. What will happen there, that will make them become cold towards each other?
Seifer, Zell and Squall get into a fight among each other… Can you guess why?
Finally, Seifer and Quistis are in danger… great danger… Spooky… ;-)