This is the first story that has reached ten chapters! Hurray! My muse has definitely been working overtime. I have a lot of story ideas in my head and I cannot wait to write them! The thing is, when I need her most, she's away on vacation and I have no ideas. BUT that's not important now! This should be a good chapter...and the last chapter, too. Hey, I told you guys to help me get 101 reviews! I KNOW, I am soo cruel...really. But it had to end, didn't it? Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter as much as I loved writing it. This has been my favorite chapter by far.
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Summer Nights Chapter 10
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"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Ready?"
"I'm ready."
"...wait, not me!"
Yuffie tried to pull a pair of black leather pants on, but the heat of the night made her legs sticky and therefore the leather was clinging to her thighs annoyingly. Finally, she got them on and picked up a black, long- sleeved T-shirt, pulling it on, and hurriedly smearing black cream under her eyes.
Vanera grinned and adjusted the belt on her camouflage pants, pulling a piece of cut nylon over her head so it looked like she was about to rob a bank.
"Now are you ready?" Kairi asked, dressed down in black. Yuffie nodded and smiled, picking up a bag of shaving cream and honey, flinging it over her back.
"Good. Okay, girls, this is Operation X. Our mission: to steal the boys' underwear, then proceed to smear dirt on them so it looks like they soiled themselves and set them up for all to see, and then we will put honey on the doorknobs and handles, and spray shaving cream on them while we're leaving," Kairi said in a hushed voice.
Aerith nodded, still looking a bit hesitant, dressed in pink tank-top and black pants. She didn't want to part with the pink so they had to settle for the closest thing they could get.
"Let's move out!" Kairi said in an anxious voice.
They filed out of the cabin, keeping to the walls and crouching stealthily. Yuffie just couldn't seem to stop herself from bursting out giggling every few seconds at how stupid they were acting. She hummed the James Bond song while ducking under an open window where Sheryl slept, not daring to take a peek inside.
They reached the cabin that held Squall, Cloud, Sora, and Riku. Vanera crept up and slowly opened the door, wincing when it creaked and paused, listening to see if they had woken up. Silence.
Kairi mouthed, "Move in!"
They all slowly crept inside, glancing at the forms on the beds. A sly smile crept onto Yuffie's lips when she spotted Squall, just barely illuminated by the moonlight. His face was free of any traces of a scowl or frown; in fact, he looked like he was smirking.
Yuffie opened up one of the top drawers while the others ducked under her and opened the ones below, shuffling through the clothing. A few pairs of boxers were in Yuffie's drawer.
"Bingo," she whispered, and pulled one out. They attacked the other drawers and grabbed the other guys' underwear, muffling laughs. Vanera opened the bag and pulled out a bear-shaped honey holder and squeezed some on every doorknob she could find, then on the sink handles and their bar of soap.
Yuffie plunged her hand into her pocket and pulled out a violent shade of red lipstick that her grandmother had given her on her birthday, saying she 'was a woman now and deserved to look pretty for the gentlemen.'
Moving slowly, she stepped into the bathroom and took of the tacky golden cap of the lipstick and rolled the color up, smearing it onto the mirror, spelling out the words: "Gotcha! From your favorite dream team."
She put it away just as Kairi and Aerith were grabbing the shaving cream bottles, backing out of the cabin while spraying long streams of the musky shaving cream all over their beds and the floor. Yuffie was the last to leave, making sure not to touch the door handle and closing it softly behind her.
Someone was standing stock still in front of her. She bumped into them. "Hey!"
"Busted!" came the gleeful voice of Valerie. "Boy, are you guys going to get in trouble. Look at your get-up!" she said with a sneer, staring at their black clothes. Yuffie pushed her way to the front. Everyone seemed to be frozen.
"Valerie, get lost. You're not allowed out now just as we aren't, so you should probably get lost," Yuffie said softly, remembering Sheryl's open window.
"That's where you're wrong," she replied in an equally soft voice, stepping to the side to reveal—
"—Sheryl?!"
"Hello, girls. Thank you, Valerie, for giving me the wonderful tip-off," Sheryl said with a smile to Valerie, who tossed her silky black hair with an arrogant grin.
"No problem, Sheryl."
"As for you four...I'm not surprised. You have all got to be the most irresponsible—"Yuffie hid the underwear behind her back when she said this—"and ignorant counselors I have ever had. If I was in my right mind I would send you all back home!"
"We're sorry, Sheryl..." Kairi murmured, dropping the bag onto the ground. "We should have never defied your rules..."
"That's right," Sheryl said in a pleased tone. Yuffie scowled at Kairi. She shouldn't be sorry.
"You four. In my office. Now," she said brusquely. "While I go inside and observe the damage and wake up the poor victims."
Yuffie opened her mouth to tell Sheryl to stop, but it was too late. Sheryl had already grabbed the honey-smeared doorknob and pulled her hand back in surprise. "Ugh! Just—just go! Out of my sight!"
They quickly left, Valerie watching them leave, waving her hand with a gloating smile.
The office cabin was brightly lit, as if people were still up. Yuffie opened the door for everyone and stepped into the air-conditioned room, decorated with pictures of the old camp counselors, ugly plants, and the founder of Camp Kaman. A door that said Sheryl's office was ajar.
Aerith walked inside and took a seat on a hard, wooden chair. Kairi, Vanera, and Yuffie followed suit. She seated herself uncomfortably in the seat and clasped her hands in front of her, sighing and leaning her head against the back of the chair.
"We shouldn't have done this..." Aerith said with a groan. "I knew we would get in trouble."
"It was fun, though," Vanera insisted with a sigh.
"Hell yeah, it was!" Yuffie said enthusiastically.
"I think Sheryl is disappointed in me..." Kairi said sadly.
"So? Who cares what she thinks?"
"Me."
"Oh geez, Kai..."
"Girls!"
Yuffie turned quickly, almost breaking her neck in the process. Sheryl's voice had startled her. She was standing there, looking at each of the girls for a good few seconds each, making them all squirm uncomfortably, and probably looking like someone that had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Sheryl pressed her lips together tightly and circled her desk until she got to her chair. She sat down slowly and stared at them. "So..."
Yuffie suppressed the heavy urge to reply with a "So what?"
"You defied me, and defied the rules and went and ransacked one of the boy's cabins. You thought it was fun, just a traditional camp thing, did you?" she asked with a deadly quiet voice. "If I had the authority...if I could...you four would be going home in tears."
Yuffie's eyes widened. Was this woman mad? She had seemed so normal in the beginning; now she was threatening them. This was possibly something that the authorities should be alerted about. Was she violent? The way Kairi's face was set she guessed she was thinking along the same lines.
"Now...your punishment. As I see that there are only three more days to the camp left...wait, correction. It is now past midnight. TWO days until you will be leaving my presence, maybe permanently." She paused and stared at them in turn once again. "This is a hard decision. I could send you home right now, I could make you clean more, or ridicule you in front of everyone in the entire camp."
An idea suddenly struck Yuffie. Kind of like...reverse psychology.
"No, Sheryl! P-p-please don't send me h-home! I just want to stay here! If I come home e-early, my p-parents will murder me!" Yuffie said a false terror.
A wide, wicked smile spread across Sheryl's face, which was now filled with pleasure. "Is that so? Well...I suppose..." she said with a hardly concealed pleasure, "that we will just have to send you on your way." She reached for her walkie-talkie and pressed a dark button, saying, "Linda, please pack all of the items not belonging to the camp in their cabin. Look up the name Kisaragi on the accommodations list; I'm not sure what cabin they're all in. Over and out."
A short, crackly reply came. "Roger that. Over and out."
Sheryl smiled and placed her hands in front of her, sighing like she was disappointed. Yuffie rolled her eyes and glanced at her friends. Kairi and Aerith looked ashamed and horrified, while Vanera looked indifferent.
In about ten minutes, a short knock on the door startled them out of their reverie. A woman with blonde hair came into the room, grunting as she pulled in five large suitcases, stopping to go back and get some more in the hall.
"Thank you, Linda," Sheryl said curtly. Linda tried giving her a smile, but it turned into an unhappy grimace as she walked out of the room, rubbing her back.
"These suitcases are yours, correct?"
"Yes," they said shortly in unison.
"Good. I advise you get going. No need to say goodbye to your kids, they deserve better than the likes of you," she said coolly, standing up and striding over to her office door, holding it open for them, waving her arm. Yuffie stood up, clutching her suitcases and yanked them out the door, returning Sheryl's glare with an even nastier one. Who had ever heard of getting kicked out of summer camp for doing something as pathetic as fooling around with a boy's cabin?
As quickly as they all could, they quickened their pace and dragged their suitcases onto the gravelly surface of the parking lot silently, without a word. Yuffie spotted her car quickly, but instead of going over to it, she frowned and dropped her suitcases.
"What's wrong, Yuf?" Kairi asked softly.
Yuffie bit her lip. "I'll miss you guys. This was a good way to end the summer camp, with a bang. Sort of. Well...causing trouble like we always used to, eh?"
Kairi smiled and hugged Yuffie around the neck. She hugged back and hugged Vanera and Aerith.
"I'll see you guys later. Make sure to call me!" Yuffie said in an exasperated tone. "You guys make me do all the calling."
"Okay," Kairi said with a laugh, giving Yuffie one last hug before giving them all an enthusiastic wave before running to her car just as rain started pouring again. Aerith's eyes widened. She gave a wave and ran to her car, her dress clinging to her skin, and water dripping from her hair.
Vanera waited a couple of seconds before leaving, and gave Yuffie a smile before slowly making her way to her car, not bothering to run.
A piece of wet, white paper with smudged ink on the sides was just under the tip of Yuffie's toe. Curiously, she bent over and picked it up. She was certain it hadn't been there before. Frowning, she turned it over and tried to make out the ink stains that had been blotted by the water. The only words she could read were:
Love you. Riku.
Yuffie raised her eyebrows. So Vanera had been Riku's mystery boyfriend? Maybe that was why she had hardly ever been around. Raising her eyes and waving the letter in her hand, she tried to alert Vanera, but the parking lot was empty but for the buses and her own car.
She dropped the letter into a mud puddle and sprinted to her car, fumbling for her keys in her suitcase. Her fingers brushed over an old rag, which jogged a memory within her mind. She leaned against the car. She had forgotten Squall. She couldn't leave Squall without saying goodbye, get his address to write, without finding out if what they had only happened because it had been the summer camp fever.
On impulse, before she could change her mind, she dashed up the path to get to the cabins, avoiding the office where she could see Sheryl's silhouette in the window, talking on the phone. The rain dripped off her hair, just like that night...
Finally, she reached the cabin. Remembering the honey on the doorknob, she walked around to the side to a window that had carelessly been left open and crawled through. Her grip was wet and slippery, and before she knew what she was doing, she had started to fall and gripped the curtains, which were already covered in shaving cream, and fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Gripping the side of her head and opening one eye to see if anyone had woken up, she slowly raised herself upright. No one had stirred. She stumbled over to Squall's bed, whose face was barely visible. She tenderly brushed her lips against his jaw, enveloped in his scent.
Yuffie was about to kiss him again when she saw a firm hand dart out from the blanket and grab her wrist. She gasped and fell backwards, utterly surprised. She thought Squall was sleeping.
"D-don't do that to me!" she managed to whisper, righting herself for the last time. A look of amusement flickered across his eyes.
"Sorry. What are you doing in here?"
"I've come to say goodbye."
The amusement faded away almost at once. Squall's penetrating blue eyes studied her. "What?"
"I've gotten into some big trouble and she finally kicked me...and Aerith, Kairi, and Vanera out."
"What did you do?" he asked with the shake of his head. Yuffie blushed.
"Look down at your covers."
Slowly, his gaze lowered from her to his sheets. He pushed them away and ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. "Jesus, look at the place..."
It was true; they had made a real mess of things. Yuffie bit her lip. "Look...I'm sorry. But I need to know if what we have is going to last. I mean...did we just kiss because it was the rain and the pine trees, or is there something between us?"
He studied her seriously. "I...don't know."
His answer made Yuffie let out a whoosh of breath. She sat down on the hardwood flooring and rested her fingers on the edge of his bed. "So it was...nothing?"
"No, I didn't say that. I'm saying...I'm saying...I'm not sure."
"I..." her voice cut off, unable to say it. Her throat felt tight and her eyes were dry, too dry.
"Yuffie." Firm hands gripped her smaller, slender ones. "I have feelings for you. I do. I'm just not sure that it can work out."
Yuffie nodded, her head dropping. His hands still held hers, but she was unwilling to greet his eyes. "Well...I...came to say...goodbye..."
She pulled her hands away and hesitated, then hugged him, kissing his cheek. She turned, knowing that the look of pain on her face matched his own.
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This is it, this is the end! What did you think?! I seriously hope you liked this story, because now I love it that it's finished, and honestly, I wish it didn't have to end here. Am I evil for making that the ending? Am I? I don't think so....because...there's still an epilogue! Oh joy! Hey, you're supposed to be excited! Fine...be that way!
P.S: Don't worry, the epilogue will make up for the sadness at the end.