CHAPTER TWO: BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME
Mr. Holland was already taking roll, going along the line of students and placing a mark next to each student that was not in attendance, by the time Irvine jogged up the stairs to join the class.
"Hmm...late as usual, Mr. Kinneas," the teacher remarked with annoyance, giving Irvine a scrutinizing look. "I hope that you know that I take off points from your grade for excessive tardies."
Irvine grimaced, imagining failing the class merely because he couldn't manage to get himself moving after his free hour. He quickly plastered an apologetic look onto his face and thought up a reasonable excuse for his tardiness. "I'm really sorry that I was late sir, I...I was having problems with my locker." The excuse sounded lame, even to his own ears, but it was the only thing that he had been able to think of.
Mr. Holland didn't look like he was going to accept the excuse and, truthfully, Irvine couldn't blame him. "I'm afraid that excuses won't cut it anymore, Kinneas. You've already run up five tardies so far this semester, this will be the sixth. That means that you'll have to serve detention. Come by my office after class and we'll discuss when and where you'll serve it." Irvine sighed, nodded his compliance, and glumly made his way to his spot in the middle of the line, scuffing his toe along the cement floor as he did so. "Okay class, time to warm up. I want three laps. Go!"
Mr. Holland blew a whistle he always had on a string around his neck (in typical P.E. teacher fashion) and the class obediently turned and began to jog around the outside edges of the upper story of the gym, where the weights class was held, in a counter-clockwise fashion as usual. Irvine let his mind drift as he ran, the typical laps around the gym requiring no thought or attention to perform.
He recalled his promise (of sorts) to Rinoa to get her a date for homecoming and, looking around, he realized that weights class would be the perfect place to start on the task. Besides, the sooner he got it done with, the better. He didn't think he could handle Rinoa pestering him every minute of every day until he found someone to take her to the dance.
Unsurprisingly many of the football players were taking weights and quite a few of them were in Irvine's class. Let's see, there's Doebler, Smith, Vaughn, Johnson, Raleigh, Bailey, and Almasy. Which one would Rinoa be interested in? Hmm...well, Smith looks like a troll; I wouldn't date him if I were a girl and I'm sure Rinoa would kill me if I got her a date with him...Doebler's okay looking, but he's kind of a womanizer; I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself if I set Rinoa up with him...Raleigh—no, too weird...Johnson—already has a date...damn, this is hard! Let's see, there are Vaughn, Bailey, and Almasy left. Well, Vaughn mentioned something about asking Alicia and Bailey is an asshole...I guess that leaves Almasy. I don't know that much about him, but I guess it's worth a try.
Soon the warm-up run was over and everyone was once again assembled in the weights room in alphabetical order in a straight line. They all quickly did their stretches as Mr. Holland called out each stretch they were supposed to be doing and then they were dismissed to go to their benches after grabbing their recording sheets.
Irvine slowly made his way to bench number 10, second in from the right side of the weights room and one of the farthest from the entrance. He shared the bench with Bailey (that's how he knew he was an asshole) and upon getting there was promptly ordered to go get twenty pound weights from the rake. Giving Bitchy Bailey (as he had started to refer to him in his head) a glare, he quickly spun around and stalked over to the weights on the opposite side of the room, almost running into someone along the way. That someone happened to be none other than Seifer Almasy, the very person he intended to talk to sometime during the period and now seemed as good a time as any.
"Hey, Almasy, you going to the dance?" He tried to sound casual, maybe mildly curious, instead of desperate to find a date for Rinoa. He managed to pull it off pretty well, though Seifer still gave him an odd look.
"I haven't really thought about it. What's it to you, Kinneas?" The reply from Seifer was somewhat guarded, questioning. It was as if he was silently asking Irvine why the hell he was talking to him, it's not like they were friends.
"Nothing, just wondering if you had a date. I'm taking Selphie." Umm, yeah...that was kind of awkward. When Seifer just gave him a look as if he was crazy, Irvine decided that it was time to try a different tactic. "Listen, I have this friend and she asked me to find her a date for the dance. I was just wondering if you'd be interested in going with her." Irvine crossed his fingers hoping that Seifer would just agree to go with Rinoa.
"No, you listen, Kinneas. I don't need you or anyone else to get me some charity date, so if you'll excuse me, I've got to go lift some weights." With that, he gave Irvine was last sneer before turning and marching off, 25 pound weights in hand.
Well, that went well, Irvine thought sarcastically, sighing loudly before picking up his own weights and making his way back to his and Bailey's bench.
Author's Note: Hmm...this chapter was kind of just a filler, I guess. Well, Seifer was introduced, though Squall and Selphie still haven't really entered the picture. I don't really know where I want to take this story, if anyone has any ideas I'd be happy to hear them. It might take a while for the next chapter to get out, though reviews will make me work faster. ;) Hope you liked this chapter all right. I know the chapters are kind of short, sorry about that; I'll try to start making them longer.