Note: Hi y'all! You must love Modern Day so much! Hee hee! Anywayz, you'll have to guess who is the next character is going for third chapter, because I don't feel like telling! Heh heh! ;) Well, here it is!
Chapter 3 - Remember Childhood
"Heeeeyyyy!" A little girl, around the age of ten, appeared from behind the bushes, tackling a little boy, startled. The little girl giggled, pinning down the boy on the ground and started tickling him. The boy couldn't stop laughing and when he couldn't take it any longer, he found a way to get away from her assaults and stood up quickly, before running away from the shorter girl. "Where you goin'?" the girl asked.
The boy laughed, stopped, then turned around, running after the girl this time. "My turn!" the boy yelled. In his hands, he held a water gun. The water gun, though small, could still reach the little girl. The boy was also pretty fast at running, so he had a chance to squirt the little brunette's back.
The girl gasped and started running away from the blond boy's retaliation. She felt the cold water touching her back. The boy caught up to her and tried tackling her as gently as possible, but the girl didn't know where she was going and she ended up tripping on a log and she fell on the ground, twisting her ankle. The girl turned around, grasping her ankle and began to cry.
The boy ran upto her and kneeled by her side, watching her holding her ankle. "Does it hurt?" he asked, putting a hand on the girl's right ankle.
The girl winced at the pain, nodding her head. "Yes."
The blond shook his head and began to laugh. "Come on, it doesn't hurt!"
"It does so!" the brunette replied, frowning. She touched her ankle again, but she yelped in pain. A damn of tears began to fall from her eyes
"Okay, okay..." The boy stood up, turned around and kneeled back down. "Here, I'll take you home on my back," the boy offered.
The girl wiped her nose and looked up at her friend. "Really?" she asked, sniffling.
Her friend nodded. "Yeah. Come on, hurry up! You're mom's going to be worried about you if you went home by yourself limping." He went closer towards her so she didn't have to do any moving and held out his hands for her to take. "I promise from now on, that we help each other whenever we need it." He held out his right pinky at her.
With her own pinky, Selphie hooked hers with Zell's and stared at their fingers intertwined. "I promise too," she replied.
The girl smiled, taking her hands in his and pulled herself up quickly. She wrapped her little arms around his neck and with all his might, her best friend pulled her up, while she struggled to wrap her legs around his waist. With no hesitation, the boy began to carry her back towards the direction of the Tilmitt house. Selphie rested her head on his back and closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of her best friend. "Thank you, Zelly..." she whispered.
Zell blushed. "No problem. Didn't we promise each other just now, we would help each other out? I mean, we're best friends aren't we?"
Selphie nodded slowly. "Yeah...best friends."
"Zelly?" Selphie whispered in his ear.
"Yes, Selphie?"
Without thinking, Selphie leaned forward slightly and kissed Zell on the cheek. "Thank you."
Zell blushed, saying nothing, embarrassed by the kiss she gave him. Selphie giggled, realizing the red colourings on his face. "Don't worry, Zelly! We're best friends! A kiss on the cheek just mean we're best friends, not lovers!"
The blond boy nodded. "Okay..."
They arrived at her house a half an hour later. They were greeted by Selphie's older brother, Cameron, who ran quickly towards them. With worried eyes, Cameron, looked at Zell's tired face and glanced at his little sister, who had her eyes closed. "What happened?!" Cameron asked.
Zell glanced over his shoulder at Selphie, then back at the older boy. "She fell asleep. I had to carry her because she hurt her ankle."
Selphie's father later came out, holding out his arms. "Let me take her inside. Thank you very much Zell."
Zell nodded, losing his grip on the girl. Mr. Taylor Tilmitt took his daughter in his arms and began carrying her inside the house, but before he could, Selphie had waken up from her sleep, calling her best friend's name. "Zell? Where's Zell?"
"I'm here, Selphie," came Zell's voice. He ran to her side quickly. "What is it?"
"Thank you," Selphie whispered.
Zell nodded. "You said your thank you already."
"I know, but I just wanted to say it again," Selphie replied smiling.
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"Selphie? Earth to Selphie!" Selphie blinked. Was she thinking about THAT again? It has been a long time since she reminisce that time. The hyper girl looked up at her friends, looking at her curiously.
"What's wrong?" came Quistis' voice, a new girl in school. She was a smart person and she was glad she became friends with her, otherwise, she would have gotten tutoring from snobby Brandy McFadden. She had asked the blond girl for help in Math and Quistis, without hesitation, agreed to help her.
The brunette shook her head. "Nothing," was her simple reply, before turning her attention on her food, laying cold on the plate. She scooped up some mashed potatoes with her spoon and stuffed it in her mouth, chewing it as slowly as possible. With quick eyes, though not quickly enough, glanced at a young blond jock sitting on a table across from where they sat. Rinoa was the only person who noticed her look, while Quistis, oblivious to everything around her, continued eating her lunch.
"Yeah, right, Selphie!" Rinoa boomed.
Startled by her voice, Selphie almost jumped off her seat. She looked up at Rinoa with a questioning gaze. Quistis, who hadn't noticed anything, though, the girl must have been thinking of something else, looked up as well, looking curiously at the raven haired girl. Rinoa leaned closer and lowered her voice. "Were you thinking of THAT again?"
Selphie sighed. Rinoa knew her a lot. They were best friends since elementary. In fact, her, Zell and Rinoa were best friends, but were never that close. Her and Zell were best friends long before her and Rinoa. Before the bouncy haired girl could answer, a blond boy with an odd looking hair style appeared, interrupting the conversation between Rinoa and Selphie.
"Hey, Rin! Hey, Selph!" he spoke, sitting beside an empty chair beside Selphie, then putting his tray on the table with him. "Hey Squall," Zell added, realizing Rinoa's boyfriend sitting there.
"Hi, Zell!" Rinoa and Selphie replied in unison.
Squall just nodded his head in response.
Zell glanced across from him, noticing the new girl sitting beside Rinoa. "Hi, my name is Zell by the way," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake.
Quistis shook his hand and from what Selphie could see, rather awkwardly. She probably isn't used to shaking strangers' hands, Selphie thought, sipping a little bit of her very hot, chicken soup.
Selphie giggled, watching Zell shake the blond girl's hand, then watched him pick up his chicken sandwich from his plate, then bit a large bite from it. The blond glanced to his side at Selphie's plate full of fries and took a handful from it without asking. Zell looked up and grinned, while Quistis just watched with wide, curious eyes. Selphie just shook her head and laughed.
It was only three years ago, when they were both thirteen years old that one day, Selphie didn't have anything to eat, beause her mom and dad forgot to give her lunch money to buy her lunch. She told Zell and Rinoa that she was going to meet her mom at the front of the school to get her lunch. Rinoa believed that, but Zell was not fooled. When lunch came, Selphie went out to 'meet' with her mom at the front, but before she could walk out of the school, Zell was already there. "Zell! What are you doing here? I thought you went to eat lunch already?" she had said to him that afternoon.
Zell just shook his head and grinned, lifting up a lunch bag to show her. "I was going to, but Jenny packed a big lunch for me that I couldn't eat by myself. I thought maybe you'd like to eat them with me. How about it?"
Selphie hesitated.
"Just like old times," Zell spoke, hitting the right spot for Selphie.
The girl sighed, then finally nodded.
Later that afternoon, they ate their lunch, but after school, when Selphie went to Zell's house to hang out as usual, she found out that Zell's Aunt didn't pack any lunches. Zell must have bought those two large sandwiches and the two muffins from the cafeteria, asked someone for a lunch bag and fooled Selphie. The girl was mad at first, because he lied to her, but she came to realize that Zell was just doing what they promised each other when they were ten...
"Hey, Zell!"
Selphie jumped back to reality, blinked a couple of times, before looking up as Kent Marshall approached their table.
"Hey, Kent," Zell replied, biting his sandwich again. "What is it?"
Kent placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Coach needs you right now."
"Now? I'm eating," Zell replied.
"He said that if we're not there in ten minutes, we have ten laps to do after school before practice. He said that we were having an emergency practice."
"Emergency practice?" Selphie asked, looking at Zell.
The blond glanced over at Selphie, nodding his head. "Yeah, emergency practices are practices we REALLY need if the other team we're playing are REALLY good. And this is a REALLY good sandwich," Zell added, lifting up the top of the bun and looking inside.
Selphie couldn't help but laugh at his joke, no matter how lame it was.
Kent rolled his eyes. "Hey, come on, man! You said you hated doing ten laps around the field!"
Zell nodded. "I do." He stood up, putting down his sandwich on the table and gave Selphie another glance. "See ya later, Shorty!" he said, before leaving the table for the field with Kent.
Selphie watched him go. With the corner of her eyes, she could see Quistis staring at her constantly, as if offended by Zell's behaviour. Laughing, the younger girl glanced at the blond and smiled. "It's okay, Quistis. That's how we always act around each other. I'm used to it. Shorty is also another name he calls me other than, 'Selph.' We call each other names all the time!"
"Then, what do you call him?" Quistis asked.
"I call him... Loser," Selphie replied, casually. She scooped a little bit of soup on her spoon, blowing on it a couple of times before stuffing the spoon inside her mouth. She looked up to see Quistis staring at her, curiously. "Okay, okay, I don't call him anything. We don't do it all the time though."
"Yeah, but Selphie does call him Bull-Charger whenever we see him at football practices," Rinoa added.
"Wow," was all Quistis could say, confused.
Selphie sighed, laughing. "Bull-charger because he acts like a bull whenever he goes after the opponent with the ball," Selphie answered.
"Oh..." the blond spoke. Selphie knew Quistis didn't believe her.
"How about you and I go to the emergency practice and see him work his stuff?" Selphie asked her.
"Right now?" Quistis asked, glancing at her unfinished sandwich.
Selphie stood up. "Yeah, right now." She grabbed Zell's unfinished lunch, took a large bite, then grabbed Quistis' hand and pulled her up. She dragged the taller girl out of the cafeteria and towards the back doors, leaving Rinoa and Squall alone.
*********************************
The practice was already on the way by the time they were seated on the bleachers. They sat in the middle row, in the middle seats, watching the footballs jocks do their best on the field. Coach Maxwell, who has been Balamb's best coach for thirty years, guided the players with their moves, telling them where to go in situations if the ball were to ever reach in the hands of the opponent. "All right, boys! Let's start our game. We don't stop until we got this move right. Dincht, remember your position."
Zell, standing in the middle of the field nodded at his coach. Selphie watched as the coach blew his whistle. The group with the yellow bibs had the first kick off, while the ones with no bibs stayed in their positions at the yellow bibbed group made their move forward. Her best friend was on the yellow bibbed side. He was a quarter back, so his job was to say the usual, 'hut! hut!' before the ball was thrown to him. One of his teammates, Neil Albarac ran forward like lightning, passing the other team by with his fast feet and quickly turned to wait for the ball to come his way. Zell threw the ball as hard as he could and the massive, brown, ball flew thirty feet into the air, landing in the hands of Number 32, Warren James, the opposing team.
Coach Maxwell blew his whistle, shaking his head. "Zell, where's your head today? Didn't you see where your teammate was?" He approached the blond on the field.
Number 19, Dincht, wiped his forehead with his arms and nodded, knowing full well of his mistakes. His coach patted him on the back, backed away from the field and turned around to face the other players sitting on the bench. He pointed his thumb towards someone and nodded. "Marshall, let me see how you do with your throw. Dincht, you're off for today. You can go and finish your lunch. I'll see you after school."
Zell nodded. "Yes, sir." He took off his bib and ran towards Marshall, throwing the bib as he passed his friend. Kent caught it with one hand, glancing over his shoulder at Zell and ran to the field to join his team. The blond jogged over to the bench, to where the water coolers were, grabbing a paper cup from the bench and poured half of water into the cup. He turned and drank the water full.
"Hey, Selphie? How long have you and that jock been best friends?" came Quistis' voice, interrupting her from her observations.
"That, jock, Quistis, has a name and his name is Zell Dincht, you know," Selphie replied, turning her head towards the blond girl.
Quistis turned her eyes away from her. "I'm sorry. It's just hard to believe that..."
Selphie noticed that Quistis was having a hard time talking to ber about personal things. The girl turned away from her, putting her attention back on the field and sighed. "Don't apologize. People always ask me that anyway. Yeah, it must be hard to understand how a girl like me could have ever ended up being friends with a cute boy like him. I guess you could say, our families grew up together too, so they stayed close together."
"Which one of your parents were friends with his?" the blond asked.
"My mom and his dad were best friends. Actually, you could say, they almost went out once, but they decided to stay friends after that."
"Why?"
Selphie laughed. She noticed now that Quistis was a curious person. "I'm sorry, Quistis, I just don't feel like answering that right now. In all honesty, I don't even know the answer to that question. My mom just told me, they stayed friends and they have been friends ever since. Best friends, I should say. They even got married to different people at the same time at the same church." The questions Quistis was asking, was the same ones Rinoa asked when they first met. She was tired of answering the same questions over and over again. Soon, she'll tell her.
"You're lucky," Quistis began.
It took her a moment to realize that Quistis was talking to her again, before she looked up with curious eyes. "What?"
"You're lucky that you have a best friend you can rely on."
"Why? Don't you have a best friend?" SHE was getting curious with Quistis' own past.
Quistis shook her head. "No," she replied, taking her eyes away from the shorter girl.
Selphie placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be your best friend," she spoke.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Well, since I'm your best friend from now on, Selphie, if you need someone to talk to, you can always talk to me too."
Selphie smiled, wrapping her arms around her new best friend. "Of course I will. I'll tell you everything about me and then vice versa...deal?"
"Deal," Quistis replied.
"Now, that's been said and done, I have to go meet Zell before Lit. class starts. He needs my help with the homework he missed because of practice." Selphie gave Quistis' hand a squeeze, before running down the bleachers to meet the blond. Zell was still by the field, watching the practice of his teammates, when Selphie found him. She placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him. She giggled when Zell almost jumped.
"Hey, Zell, don't you need help with your literature homework?"
"Oh yeah," Zell replied, nodding his head. "Hey, Marshall!"
Kent turned around. "Yeah?"
"Fill me in on your practice, all right?"
Kent nodded. "Yeah, all right." He waved his hand good bye at both Zell and Selphie.
Selphie smiled. Kent was a nice guy. There was a rumor that he had a crush on her before, but it later changed when he found out that she was best friends with Zell. He must have thought then that Zell and her were dating, but there was no dating between them. Her and Zell were JUST best friends and nothing more. "All right, let's get going." Selphie looked up and watched Zell put his towel on his shoulder, before she led the way back inside the school building.
******************************
After school came. Selphie was already sitting on the bleachers, watching the football jocks practice their throwing. Ever since they lost the game last year from Varsity, the Balamb Coach Maxwell has been working his players really hard, three hours of practice everyday, with the possibility of having Emergency practices whenever the Coach felt like they needed it and with that, it doubled their days of practices. Selphie was looking all over for Zell, but he was nowhere to be found. She could tell Coach Gerald Maxwell was also looking for him, because his head was searching around for the best kicker, Number 19. Kent Marshall wasn't there either, his star quarterback. The girl glanced at her watch. It was already five minutes pass three. She knew how angsty the coach was when his players were late, even if it was five minutes pass. She understood that the Coach would be upset. Coach Maxwell had three kids to pick up every six o'clock and he didn't like starting late for the practices. He didn't like staring practices either without his two star players.
The Coach turned to Number 02, Neil Albarac. "Where the hell is Dincht and Marshall?"
Neil had no idea either, so he just shrugged. "I dunno, Coach. Should we start the practice without them?"
Gerald took a long deep breath, taking a moment to calm down and finally nodded. "All right. Start doing your twenty laps around the field."
Neil nodded. "Yes, sir." He turned around and left to tell the other players present about the laps. Selphie heard moans from some of the players, but they started their laps anyway. None of them would dare confront their Coach with their complaints. Coach would start blowing at them with his temper if they complained. He told them once none of them should do any complaining if they were to join the Balamb Lions.
After a couple more minutes, Zell and Kent arrived. Selphie sighed a breath of relief. She was worried that something happened to them during their Chemistry class- thinking they might've blown up something with their experiments. Kent was always putting Zell into trouble. She remembered the first day of high school, she and Zell were just walking in the hallway, when Kent came running down, bumping into Selphie, almost knocking her down. Zell caught her just in time. He grabbed Kent by the shirt before he could run away. Kent was forced to turn around. He was holding a spray can. Without thinking, the young man stuffed the spray can into Zell's hand and ran off. Principal Wickham, an English Principal appeared later and once he noticed Zell with the spray can, he immediately put him into detention without a form of interrogation.
"Dincht! Marshall!" Coach Maxwell approached them with a serious look. "Why the HELL are you both late?! You know how I don't like to waste time!"
Selphie watched as Zell rubbed the back of his nervously. "Sorry, Coach. We went out to get something to eat and we got stuck in traffic," Zell replied. Kent was just standing there, his head bowed down, but Selphie could see he was trying to hold his laugh.
Maxwell took a deep breath, rubbing the top of his nose irritably and finally looked at the two boys straight in the eyes with a hard expression. "If you two boys are ever late again, I can cut you out of the team, you hear me?"
Zell and Kent nodded in unison. The Coach turned around and went back to the field, followed by his two late players.
Selphie was the only one who noticed that the two boys weren't carrying the food they supposedly bought from a faraway fast food restaurant. She furrowed her eyebrows suspiciously. She watched as Zell and Kent whispered to each other about something personal and when the Coach turned to call them, the two boy broke apart from their conversation and joined their teammates in the field.
********************************
The practice after school came by so quickly. Time passed quickly. Selphie packed her homework in her backpack and closed her locker, where it automatically locks itself without having to hook the lock into the hole. She placed her back pack on her shoulder and left the building casually. He was already there, sitting on the bench. He had his back towards her, throwing a football around into the air. When he threw it up in the air again, Selphie reached out and caught it with one hand. She watched as Zell noticed his disappearing ball and watched him stand up and turn around.
"Nice catch," Zell commented. "You're improving."
Selphie threw the ball back again with the same hand and smiled. "I have you to thank for that." It was last summer, when Zell was teaching her football ever since he started joining the team and the first time she tried catching the ball with one hand, the ball ended up bouncing off of her arms and landing on the blond's head. Selphie laughed, thinking about Zell's reaction when the ball made contact with his head. Playfully, he chased after her around the front yard of her house, while Selphie ran away, screaming. She fought back with a water hose and she turned on the tap water as far as she could so the water came out hard. She aimed it straight at him, forcing Zell to back away for a little bit. Zell went inside her kitchen and later came back, carrying a large jug of water. He used one of her father's water jugs from work and with one quick move, he chased her to the pool and splashed the water all over her. Selphie fought back, pulling him towards the pool, but Zell was able to grab her arm and pull her with him. They landed in the pool, laughing.
"All right, girls, let's get going." The blond stood up and began to walk away.
Selphie stuffed her hands into her coat pocket and joined Zell's side as they walked down the sidewalk. She glanced at him when she was sure he wasn't looking and stared at him for a while, curiously. When Zell turned to look at her, she turned away, pretending nothing was going on. However, Zell did not see pass that. He stopped and turned to face her.
"Okay, what is it?" he asked.
The girl looked at him, coyly. "What are you talking about?"
"You're doing that 'look when he's not looking thing' again and that usually means you want to ask me something."
Selphie shrugged. "I was just curious about something."
The two, as if on cue, began to walk together down the street. Selphie was quiet for a while, trying to think of how to start the conversation about him and Kent being late for today's practice. "Well uh... I'm just curious about you and Kent being late for practice today." She took a deep breath and removed her hands from the pockets of her jacket and laid them down beside her.
Zell stuffed his hands in his pockets this time, switching with Selphie and glanced at her. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? And I told the coach that we went to get something to eat, but the traffic was so bad, we couldn't make it in time."
The girl nodded, looking up, staring at Zell straight into his eyes, making sure he wasn't lying. She hated it when she doubted her best friend, but something was not right with him. Before she could ask anymore, Zell quickly changed the subject.
"I'm starving! We'll order pizza at my house when we get there!" Zell spoke, grinning.
Selphie looked at him strangely. "But I thought you just ate?"
Zell shrugged. "Yeah, I know, but I'm hungry again. You know how practices make me hungry all the time!"
The girl doubted him again, but shrugged it off. She knew Zell never gave her straight answers whenever she asked something, but she was beginning to get worried about him. He never avoided her questions, but this time, he was. What bothered her right now was how big Zell's appetite had grown from a small plate to ten plates. If people were to compare her and Zell, she would be the one with the most appetite, even though her size and height are pondered upon, but Jenny and her mother both knew that Selphie could eat ten round chocolate mousses than Zell could. Sighing, she nodded and smiled. "Yeah, you're right. I'm kinda hungry too."
They arrived at the Dincht's house half an hour later. If Selphie were to become six again, she would be looking around curiously at the large house that Zell has lived all his life ever since his parents both died in a car accident when they went for Hawaii for their wedding anniversary. She would be scared at the sight of big Uncle Oliver Prisely coming down the stairs or the sight of a little boy walking beside him, teasing her about her long and bouncy hair and her height. Selphie verbally fought back with insults of her own and the first time she did that to him, her mother punished her for being rude. She doesn't remember exactly how they became friends, but after a lot of intense insults from each other, the insults eventually turned into light teasing and then the teasing changes from verbal insults, to small mocking comments. When they both turned six, Selphie and Zell soon became close friends and has been inseparable since. Her mother and father teased her about how they were 'glued' to each other most of the time. During their kindergarten days, when Selphie's parents didn't let her go to certain school trips, Zell would stay with her and miss the trips altogether, because, according to him, the funnest part of being in trips was having his best friend there to make fun of the crazy animals together. Zell complained to the teachers all the time about putting him in the group with Selphie whenever she wasn't in the same group as him during class projects and the teachers had to be forced to stick the two friends together in the same one for years. Or whenever Zell left a room, Selphie would soon follow. When high school hit, Selphie stuck by Zell and Zell stuck by Selphie. To her, she stuck by him, because since they met, Selphie has always had a crush towards Zell. Eventually, when high school came, that crush turned into something more to her best friend.
"Hey Zell! Hey Selphie!" Jennifer Prisely came out of the kitchen, holding a dish towel. "How was school today?"
Selphie smiled and nodded. "It was all right!"
Jenny smiled back and went back to the kitchen, not bothering to question on why Selphie answered instead of Zell.
The two quickly made their way up the stairs. They were just walking fine, until Selphie had the urge to race him to his bedroom. It must have been reminiscing the past that brought her to want to pretend like they were kids again. Selphie giggled as Zell tried to run pass her, but with Selphie's height and fast legs, she was able to beat him on the bed.
"HEY! No fair!" she heard Zell spoke. She sat there on her knees and waited until Zell appeared in his room. Zell ran towards her and tackled her down and began tickling her. Selphie laughed hard, almost to the brink of tears. Zell wrapped an arm around her neck and rubbed the top of her head, doing their childhood, 'noogie.'
"Stop! You're ruining my hair!!!!" Selphie squealed.
Zell laughed. "Hah! Hah!" Letting go, he joined Selphie on the bed and relaxed himself on it. Selphie did a double take, making herself comfortable on the bed as well, just opposite of the blond. She rested her back against the cold wall and sighed. They were both gasping for breath. They were just getting too old for wrestling now. "Yes... (gasp) I (gasp) WIN!" Zell punched the air and grinned. "Booyaka!"
"Hey, that's my line!" Selphie said, wrinkling her nose.
"Whatever!" Zell replied, sticking his tongue out at her. "Let's order pizza!"
Selphie sighed. "Now?"
"You said you were hungry!"
"All right! I'll call!" Selphie stood up from bed and walked towards the phone on Zell's study desk. She picked up the reciever and dialed the right number for Pizza Hut, just by memory. They ordered so many pizzas from Pizza Hut that Selphie ended up remembering the number. The person who worked there, by the name of Irvine, who hit on her most of the time, recognized her voice that he knew exactly what she was going to order. "Hey! I'm not paying for it again!" Selphie spoke, glancing over her shoulder at Zell.
Zell had the television on now, his eyes glued to the television. He waved his hand and nodded, without looking at her. "Don't worry, I'm paying it!"
Selphie planted a fist on her hip. "Oh really?"
The first ring was on the way on the other line.
"Really!" Zell replied, giving her a thumbs up.
Selphie shook her head and laughed. The second ring...
"Hello, Pizza Hut, what can I do for ya?" came a male's voice on the other line.
"Hi!" Selphie spoke, recognizing the male voice to be Irvine Kinneas as usual.
"Selphie! The usual darling?"
"Of course!" Selphie replied.
"Hey, Selphie! Adding to the usual pizzas we order, could you also add another batch? Make it pepperoni this time!" came Zell's voice behind her.
Selphie turned around and looked at him curiously. "Why?"
"Just order it!"
Sighing, Selphie nodded. "All right. Could you also add pepperoni to the order, Irvine?"
"Sure," the young Pizza Hut worker with a Southern accent spoke.
"Thanks a lot!"
"No problem sweet cakes! Your order will be there in half an hour!"
"All right! Ciao Irvine!"
"Ciao Little Lamb!"
Selphie put the phone back on the reciever and began walking back to her spot on the bed beside Zell, but not before the blond spoke to her. "Hey, Selph, the money is in my right jacket pocket." The girl paused and turned to the other direction. She walked over to the door, where Zell's school jacket hung and reached inside his right pocket to find the money for the pizzas. When she was sure she felt it, she pulled it out, but accidentally pulled something unexpected. The item in her hand was not the roll of money that Zell usually rolled up to make room for his pens in his pockets, but it was a small white tube made of paper. Inside, there was brown coloring and when Zell wasn't looking, Selphie lifted it up to her nose and smelled it. Marijuana... she thought. Marijuana..she recognized the smell. It was the same fume she smelled when she went into her brothers room while he was out with his girlfriend, Patty. That was just a year ago. At nineteen, her brother was in jail for illegal drug possession. Her hands shook in fear. Zell was smoking...
"Hey, Selph! What's taking so long? Are you having troube looking for the change?"
"No, I got it," she replied. Selphie quickly stuffed the pot back inside the pocket and found the right roll of money somewhere deeper inside the pocket and pulled it out, leaving the marijuana inside to be used by Zell...again... She knew now why Zell was late for his football practice this afternoon.
"Are you okay?" Zell asked, when he noticed her nervous face.
Selphie looked up and smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I'm fine." I'm the biggest liar, she thought.
GoodGurl: Wooh! That was a long one! There you have it folks! A little story of Selphie herself! Hee hee! And you all must be surprised that her and Zell are best friends and what's this--?! Zell is smoking? AH! I wonder why? Zell's story coming soon!
Chapter 3 - Remember Childhood
"Heeeeyyyy!" A little girl, around the age of ten, appeared from behind the bushes, tackling a little boy, startled. The little girl giggled, pinning down the boy on the ground and started tickling him. The boy couldn't stop laughing and when he couldn't take it any longer, he found a way to get away from her assaults and stood up quickly, before running away from the shorter girl. "Where you goin'?" the girl asked.
The boy laughed, stopped, then turned around, running after the girl this time. "My turn!" the boy yelled. In his hands, he held a water gun. The water gun, though small, could still reach the little girl. The boy was also pretty fast at running, so he had a chance to squirt the little brunette's back.
The girl gasped and started running away from the blond boy's retaliation. She felt the cold water touching her back. The boy caught up to her and tried tackling her as gently as possible, but the girl didn't know where she was going and she ended up tripping on a log and she fell on the ground, twisting her ankle. The girl turned around, grasping her ankle and began to cry.
The boy ran upto her and kneeled by her side, watching her holding her ankle. "Does it hurt?" he asked, putting a hand on the girl's right ankle.
The girl winced at the pain, nodding her head. "Yes."
The blond shook his head and began to laugh. "Come on, it doesn't hurt!"
"It does so!" the brunette replied, frowning. She touched her ankle again, but she yelped in pain. A damn of tears began to fall from her eyes
"Okay, okay..." The boy stood up, turned around and kneeled back down. "Here, I'll take you home on my back," the boy offered.
The girl wiped her nose and looked up at her friend. "Really?" she asked, sniffling.
Her friend nodded. "Yeah. Come on, hurry up! You're mom's going to be worried about you if you went home by yourself limping." He went closer towards her so she didn't have to do any moving and held out his hands for her to take. "I promise from now on, that we help each other whenever we need it." He held out his right pinky at her.
With her own pinky, Selphie hooked hers with Zell's and stared at their fingers intertwined. "I promise too," she replied.
The girl smiled, taking her hands in his and pulled herself up quickly. She wrapped her little arms around his neck and with all his might, her best friend pulled her up, while she struggled to wrap her legs around his waist. With no hesitation, the boy began to carry her back towards the direction of the Tilmitt house. Selphie rested her head on his back and closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of her best friend. "Thank you, Zelly..." she whispered.
Zell blushed. "No problem. Didn't we promise each other just now, we would help each other out? I mean, we're best friends aren't we?"
Selphie nodded slowly. "Yeah...best friends."
"Zelly?" Selphie whispered in his ear.
"Yes, Selphie?"
Without thinking, Selphie leaned forward slightly and kissed Zell on the cheek. "Thank you."
Zell blushed, saying nothing, embarrassed by the kiss she gave him. Selphie giggled, realizing the red colourings on his face. "Don't worry, Zelly! We're best friends! A kiss on the cheek just mean we're best friends, not lovers!"
The blond boy nodded. "Okay..."
They arrived at her house a half an hour later. They were greeted by Selphie's older brother, Cameron, who ran quickly towards them. With worried eyes, Cameron, looked at Zell's tired face and glanced at his little sister, who had her eyes closed. "What happened?!" Cameron asked.
Zell glanced over his shoulder at Selphie, then back at the older boy. "She fell asleep. I had to carry her because she hurt her ankle."
Selphie's father later came out, holding out his arms. "Let me take her inside. Thank you very much Zell."
Zell nodded, losing his grip on the girl. Mr. Taylor Tilmitt took his daughter in his arms and began carrying her inside the house, but before he could, Selphie had waken up from her sleep, calling her best friend's name. "Zell? Where's Zell?"
"I'm here, Selphie," came Zell's voice. He ran to her side quickly. "What is it?"
"Thank you," Selphie whispered.
Zell nodded. "You said your thank you already."
"I know, but I just wanted to say it again," Selphie replied smiling.
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"Selphie? Earth to Selphie!" Selphie blinked. Was she thinking about THAT again? It has been a long time since she reminisce that time. The hyper girl looked up at her friends, looking at her curiously.
"What's wrong?" came Quistis' voice, a new girl in school. She was a smart person and she was glad she became friends with her, otherwise, she would have gotten tutoring from snobby Brandy McFadden. She had asked the blond girl for help in Math and Quistis, without hesitation, agreed to help her.
The brunette shook her head. "Nothing," was her simple reply, before turning her attention on her food, laying cold on the plate. She scooped up some mashed potatoes with her spoon and stuffed it in her mouth, chewing it as slowly as possible. With quick eyes, though not quickly enough, glanced at a young blond jock sitting on a table across from where they sat. Rinoa was the only person who noticed her look, while Quistis, oblivious to everything around her, continued eating her lunch.
"Yeah, right, Selphie!" Rinoa boomed.
Startled by her voice, Selphie almost jumped off her seat. She looked up at Rinoa with a questioning gaze. Quistis, who hadn't noticed anything, though, the girl must have been thinking of something else, looked up as well, looking curiously at the raven haired girl. Rinoa leaned closer and lowered her voice. "Were you thinking of THAT again?"
Selphie sighed. Rinoa knew her a lot. They were best friends since elementary. In fact, her, Zell and Rinoa were best friends, but were never that close. Her and Zell were best friends long before her and Rinoa. Before the bouncy haired girl could answer, a blond boy with an odd looking hair style appeared, interrupting the conversation between Rinoa and Selphie.
"Hey, Rin! Hey, Selph!" he spoke, sitting beside an empty chair beside Selphie, then putting his tray on the table with him. "Hey Squall," Zell added, realizing Rinoa's boyfriend sitting there.
"Hi, Zell!" Rinoa and Selphie replied in unison.
Squall just nodded his head in response.
Zell glanced across from him, noticing the new girl sitting beside Rinoa. "Hi, my name is Zell by the way," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake.
Quistis shook his hand and from what Selphie could see, rather awkwardly. She probably isn't used to shaking strangers' hands, Selphie thought, sipping a little bit of her very hot, chicken soup.
Selphie giggled, watching Zell shake the blond girl's hand, then watched him pick up his chicken sandwich from his plate, then bit a large bite from it. The blond glanced to his side at Selphie's plate full of fries and took a handful from it without asking. Zell looked up and grinned, while Quistis just watched with wide, curious eyes. Selphie just shook her head and laughed.
It was only three years ago, when they were both thirteen years old that one day, Selphie didn't have anything to eat, beause her mom and dad forgot to give her lunch money to buy her lunch. She told Zell and Rinoa that she was going to meet her mom at the front of the school to get her lunch. Rinoa believed that, but Zell was not fooled. When lunch came, Selphie went out to 'meet' with her mom at the front, but before she could walk out of the school, Zell was already there. "Zell! What are you doing here? I thought you went to eat lunch already?" she had said to him that afternoon.
Zell just shook his head and grinned, lifting up a lunch bag to show her. "I was going to, but Jenny packed a big lunch for me that I couldn't eat by myself. I thought maybe you'd like to eat them with me. How about it?"
Selphie hesitated.
"Just like old times," Zell spoke, hitting the right spot for Selphie.
The girl sighed, then finally nodded.
Later that afternoon, they ate their lunch, but after school, when Selphie went to Zell's house to hang out as usual, she found out that Zell's Aunt didn't pack any lunches. Zell must have bought those two large sandwiches and the two muffins from the cafeteria, asked someone for a lunch bag and fooled Selphie. The girl was mad at first, because he lied to her, but she came to realize that Zell was just doing what they promised each other when they were ten...
"Hey, Zell!"
Selphie jumped back to reality, blinked a couple of times, before looking up as Kent Marshall approached their table.
"Hey, Kent," Zell replied, biting his sandwich again. "What is it?"
Kent placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Coach needs you right now."
"Now? I'm eating," Zell replied.
"He said that if we're not there in ten minutes, we have ten laps to do after school before practice. He said that we were having an emergency practice."
"Emergency practice?" Selphie asked, looking at Zell.
The blond glanced over at Selphie, nodding his head. "Yeah, emergency practices are practices we REALLY need if the other team we're playing are REALLY good. And this is a REALLY good sandwich," Zell added, lifting up the top of the bun and looking inside.
Selphie couldn't help but laugh at his joke, no matter how lame it was.
Kent rolled his eyes. "Hey, come on, man! You said you hated doing ten laps around the field!"
Zell nodded. "I do." He stood up, putting down his sandwich on the table and gave Selphie another glance. "See ya later, Shorty!" he said, before leaving the table for the field with Kent.
Selphie watched him go. With the corner of her eyes, she could see Quistis staring at her constantly, as if offended by Zell's behaviour. Laughing, the younger girl glanced at the blond and smiled. "It's okay, Quistis. That's how we always act around each other. I'm used to it. Shorty is also another name he calls me other than, 'Selph.' We call each other names all the time!"
"Then, what do you call him?" Quistis asked.
"I call him... Loser," Selphie replied, casually. She scooped a little bit of soup on her spoon, blowing on it a couple of times before stuffing the spoon inside her mouth. She looked up to see Quistis staring at her, curiously. "Okay, okay, I don't call him anything. We don't do it all the time though."
"Yeah, but Selphie does call him Bull-Charger whenever we see him at football practices," Rinoa added.
"Wow," was all Quistis could say, confused.
Selphie sighed, laughing. "Bull-charger because he acts like a bull whenever he goes after the opponent with the ball," Selphie answered.
"Oh..." the blond spoke. Selphie knew Quistis didn't believe her.
"How about you and I go to the emergency practice and see him work his stuff?" Selphie asked her.
"Right now?" Quistis asked, glancing at her unfinished sandwich.
Selphie stood up. "Yeah, right now." She grabbed Zell's unfinished lunch, took a large bite, then grabbed Quistis' hand and pulled her up. She dragged the taller girl out of the cafeteria and towards the back doors, leaving Rinoa and Squall alone.
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The practice was already on the way by the time they were seated on the bleachers. They sat in the middle row, in the middle seats, watching the footballs jocks do their best on the field. Coach Maxwell, who has been Balamb's best coach for thirty years, guided the players with their moves, telling them where to go in situations if the ball were to ever reach in the hands of the opponent. "All right, boys! Let's start our game. We don't stop until we got this move right. Dincht, remember your position."
Zell, standing in the middle of the field nodded at his coach. Selphie watched as the coach blew his whistle. The group with the yellow bibs had the first kick off, while the ones with no bibs stayed in their positions at the yellow bibbed group made their move forward. Her best friend was on the yellow bibbed side. He was a quarter back, so his job was to say the usual, 'hut! hut!' before the ball was thrown to him. One of his teammates, Neil Albarac ran forward like lightning, passing the other team by with his fast feet and quickly turned to wait for the ball to come his way. Zell threw the ball as hard as he could and the massive, brown, ball flew thirty feet into the air, landing in the hands of Number 32, Warren James, the opposing team.
Coach Maxwell blew his whistle, shaking his head. "Zell, where's your head today? Didn't you see where your teammate was?" He approached the blond on the field.
Number 19, Dincht, wiped his forehead with his arms and nodded, knowing full well of his mistakes. His coach patted him on the back, backed away from the field and turned around to face the other players sitting on the bench. He pointed his thumb towards someone and nodded. "Marshall, let me see how you do with your throw. Dincht, you're off for today. You can go and finish your lunch. I'll see you after school."
Zell nodded. "Yes, sir." He took off his bib and ran towards Marshall, throwing the bib as he passed his friend. Kent caught it with one hand, glancing over his shoulder at Zell and ran to the field to join his team. The blond jogged over to the bench, to where the water coolers were, grabbing a paper cup from the bench and poured half of water into the cup. He turned and drank the water full.
"Hey, Selphie? How long have you and that jock been best friends?" came Quistis' voice, interrupting her from her observations.
"That, jock, Quistis, has a name and his name is Zell Dincht, you know," Selphie replied, turning her head towards the blond girl.
Quistis turned her eyes away from her. "I'm sorry. It's just hard to believe that..."
Selphie noticed that Quistis was having a hard time talking to ber about personal things. The girl turned away from her, putting her attention back on the field and sighed. "Don't apologize. People always ask me that anyway. Yeah, it must be hard to understand how a girl like me could have ever ended up being friends with a cute boy like him. I guess you could say, our families grew up together too, so they stayed close together."
"Which one of your parents were friends with his?" the blond asked.
"My mom and his dad were best friends. Actually, you could say, they almost went out once, but they decided to stay friends after that."
"Why?"
Selphie laughed. She noticed now that Quistis was a curious person. "I'm sorry, Quistis, I just don't feel like answering that right now. In all honesty, I don't even know the answer to that question. My mom just told me, they stayed friends and they have been friends ever since. Best friends, I should say. They even got married to different people at the same time at the same church." The questions Quistis was asking, was the same ones Rinoa asked when they first met. She was tired of answering the same questions over and over again. Soon, she'll tell her.
"You're lucky," Quistis began.
It took her a moment to realize that Quistis was talking to her again, before she looked up with curious eyes. "What?"
"You're lucky that you have a best friend you can rely on."
"Why? Don't you have a best friend?" SHE was getting curious with Quistis' own past.
Quistis shook her head. "No," she replied, taking her eyes away from the shorter girl.
Selphie placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be your best friend," she spoke.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Well, since I'm your best friend from now on, Selphie, if you need someone to talk to, you can always talk to me too."
Selphie smiled, wrapping her arms around her new best friend. "Of course I will. I'll tell you everything about me and then vice versa...deal?"
"Deal," Quistis replied.
"Now, that's been said and done, I have to go meet Zell before Lit. class starts. He needs my help with the homework he missed because of practice." Selphie gave Quistis' hand a squeeze, before running down the bleachers to meet the blond. Zell was still by the field, watching the practice of his teammates, when Selphie found him. She placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him. She giggled when Zell almost jumped.
"Hey, Zell, don't you need help with your literature homework?"
"Oh yeah," Zell replied, nodding his head. "Hey, Marshall!"
Kent turned around. "Yeah?"
"Fill me in on your practice, all right?"
Kent nodded. "Yeah, all right." He waved his hand good bye at both Zell and Selphie.
Selphie smiled. Kent was a nice guy. There was a rumor that he had a crush on her before, but it later changed when he found out that she was best friends with Zell. He must have thought then that Zell and her were dating, but there was no dating between them. Her and Zell were JUST best friends and nothing more. "All right, let's get going." Selphie looked up and watched Zell put his towel on his shoulder, before she led the way back inside the school building.
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After school came. Selphie was already sitting on the bleachers, watching the football jocks practice their throwing. Ever since they lost the game last year from Varsity, the Balamb Coach Maxwell has been working his players really hard, three hours of practice everyday, with the possibility of having Emergency practices whenever the Coach felt like they needed it and with that, it doubled their days of practices. Selphie was looking all over for Zell, but he was nowhere to be found. She could tell Coach Gerald Maxwell was also looking for him, because his head was searching around for the best kicker, Number 19. Kent Marshall wasn't there either, his star quarterback. The girl glanced at her watch. It was already five minutes pass three. She knew how angsty the coach was when his players were late, even if it was five minutes pass. She understood that the Coach would be upset. Coach Maxwell had three kids to pick up every six o'clock and he didn't like starting late for the practices. He didn't like staring practices either without his two star players.
The Coach turned to Number 02, Neil Albarac. "Where the hell is Dincht and Marshall?"
Neil had no idea either, so he just shrugged. "I dunno, Coach. Should we start the practice without them?"
Gerald took a long deep breath, taking a moment to calm down and finally nodded. "All right. Start doing your twenty laps around the field."
Neil nodded. "Yes, sir." He turned around and left to tell the other players present about the laps. Selphie heard moans from some of the players, but they started their laps anyway. None of them would dare confront their Coach with their complaints. Coach would start blowing at them with his temper if they complained. He told them once none of them should do any complaining if they were to join the Balamb Lions.
After a couple more minutes, Zell and Kent arrived. Selphie sighed a breath of relief. She was worried that something happened to them during their Chemistry class- thinking they might've blown up something with their experiments. Kent was always putting Zell into trouble. She remembered the first day of high school, she and Zell were just walking in the hallway, when Kent came running down, bumping into Selphie, almost knocking her down. Zell caught her just in time. He grabbed Kent by the shirt before he could run away. Kent was forced to turn around. He was holding a spray can. Without thinking, the young man stuffed the spray can into Zell's hand and ran off. Principal Wickham, an English Principal appeared later and once he noticed Zell with the spray can, he immediately put him into detention without a form of interrogation.
"Dincht! Marshall!" Coach Maxwell approached them with a serious look. "Why the HELL are you both late?! You know how I don't like to waste time!"
Selphie watched as Zell rubbed the back of his nervously. "Sorry, Coach. We went out to get something to eat and we got stuck in traffic," Zell replied. Kent was just standing there, his head bowed down, but Selphie could see he was trying to hold his laugh.
Maxwell took a deep breath, rubbing the top of his nose irritably and finally looked at the two boys straight in the eyes with a hard expression. "If you two boys are ever late again, I can cut you out of the team, you hear me?"
Zell and Kent nodded in unison. The Coach turned around and went back to the field, followed by his two late players.
Selphie was the only one who noticed that the two boys weren't carrying the food they supposedly bought from a faraway fast food restaurant. She furrowed her eyebrows suspiciously. She watched as Zell and Kent whispered to each other about something personal and when the Coach turned to call them, the two boy broke apart from their conversation and joined their teammates in the field.
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The practice after school came by so quickly. Time passed quickly. Selphie packed her homework in her backpack and closed her locker, where it automatically locks itself without having to hook the lock into the hole. She placed her back pack on her shoulder and left the building casually. He was already there, sitting on the bench. He had his back towards her, throwing a football around into the air. When he threw it up in the air again, Selphie reached out and caught it with one hand. She watched as Zell noticed his disappearing ball and watched him stand up and turn around.
"Nice catch," Zell commented. "You're improving."
Selphie threw the ball back again with the same hand and smiled. "I have you to thank for that." It was last summer, when Zell was teaching her football ever since he started joining the team and the first time she tried catching the ball with one hand, the ball ended up bouncing off of her arms and landing on the blond's head. Selphie laughed, thinking about Zell's reaction when the ball made contact with his head. Playfully, he chased after her around the front yard of her house, while Selphie ran away, screaming. She fought back with a water hose and she turned on the tap water as far as she could so the water came out hard. She aimed it straight at him, forcing Zell to back away for a little bit. Zell went inside her kitchen and later came back, carrying a large jug of water. He used one of her father's water jugs from work and with one quick move, he chased her to the pool and splashed the water all over her. Selphie fought back, pulling him towards the pool, but Zell was able to grab her arm and pull her with him. They landed in the pool, laughing.
"All right, girls, let's get going." The blond stood up and began to walk away.
Selphie stuffed her hands into her coat pocket and joined Zell's side as they walked down the sidewalk. She glanced at him when she was sure he wasn't looking and stared at him for a while, curiously. When Zell turned to look at her, she turned away, pretending nothing was going on. However, Zell did not see pass that. He stopped and turned to face her.
"Okay, what is it?" he asked.
The girl looked at him, coyly. "What are you talking about?"
"You're doing that 'look when he's not looking thing' again and that usually means you want to ask me something."
Selphie shrugged. "I was just curious about something."
The two, as if on cue, began to walk together down the street. Selphie was quiet for a while, trying to think of how to start the conversation about him and Kent being late for today's practice. "Well uh... I'm just curious about you and Kent being late for practice today." She took a deep breath and removed her hands from the pockets of her jacket and laid them down beside her.
Zell stuffed his hands in his pockets this time, switching with Selphie and glanced at her. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? And I told the coach that we went to get something to eat, but the traffic was so bad, we couldn't make it in time."
The girl nodded, looking up, staring at Zell straight into his eyes, making sure he wasn't lying. She hated it when she doubted her best friend, but something was not right with him. Before she could ask anymore, Zell quickly changed the subject.
"I'm starving! We'll order pizza at my house when we get there!" Zell spoke, grinning.
Selphie looked at him strangely. "But I thought you just ate?"
Zell shrugged. "Yeah, I know, but I'm hungry again. You know how practices make me hungry all the time!"
The girl doubted him again, but shrugged it off. She knew Zell never gave her straight answers whenever she asked something, but she was beginning to get worried about him. He never avoided her questions, but this time, he was. What bothered her right now was how big Zell's appetite had grown from a small plate to ten plates. If people were to compare her and Zell, she would be the one with the most appetite, even though her size and height are pondered upon, but Jenny and her mother both knew that Selphie could eat ten round chocolate mousses than Zell could. Sighing, she nodded and smiled. "Yeah, you're right. I'm kinda hungry too."
They arrived at the Dincht's house half an hour later. If Selphie were to become six again, she would be looking around curiously at the large house that Zell has lived all his life ever since his parents both died in a car accident when they went for Hawaii for their wedding anniversary. She would be scared at the sight of big Uncle Oliver Prisely coming down the stairs or the sight of a little boy walking beside him, teasing her about her long and bouncy hair and her height. Selphie verbally fought back with insults of her own and the first time she did that to him, her mother punished her for being rude. She doesn't remember exactly how they became friends, but after a lot of intense insults from each other, the insults eventually turned into light teasing and then the teasing changes from verbal insults, to small mocking comments. When they both turned six, Selphie and Zell soon became close friends and has been inseparable since. Her mother and father teased her about how they were 'glued' to each other most of the time. During their kindergarten days, when Selphie's parents didn't let her go to certain school trips, Zell would stay with her and miss the trips altogether, because, according to him, the funnest part of being in trips was having his best friend there to make fun of the crazy animals together. Zell complained to the teachers all the time about putting him in the group with Selphie whenever she wasn't in the same group as him during class projects and the teachers had to be forced to stick the two friends together in the same one for years. Or whenever Zell left a room, Selphie would soon follow. When high school hit, Selphie stuck by Zell and Zell stuck by Selphie. To her, she stuck by him, because since they met, Selphie has always had a crush towards Zell. Eventually, when high school came, that crush turned into something more to her best friend.
"Hey Zell! Hey Selphie!" Jennifer Prisely came out of the kitchen, holding a dish towel. "How was school today?"
Selphie smiled and nodded. "It was all right!"
Jenny smiled back and went back to the kitchen, not bothering to question on why Selphie answered instead of Zell.
The two quickly made their way up the stairs. They were just walking fine, until Selphie had the urge to race him to his bedroom. It must have been reminiscing the past that brought her to want to pretend like they were kids again. Selphie giggled as Zell tried to run pass her, but with Selphie's height and fast legs, she was able to beat him on the bed.
"HEY! No fair!" she heard Zell spoke. She sat there on her knees and waited until Zell appeared in his room. Zell ran towards her and tackled her down and began tickling her. Selphie laughed hard, almost to the brink of tears. Zell wrapped an arm around her neck and rubbed the top of her head, doing their childhood, 'noogie.'
"Stop! You're ruining my hair!!!!" Selphie squealed.
Zell laughed. "Hah! Hah!" Letting go, he joined Selphie on the bed and relaxed himself on it. Selphie did a double take, making herself comfortable on the bed as well, just opposite of the blond. She rested her back against the cold wall and sighed. They were both gasping for breath. They were just getting too old for wrestling now. "Yes... (gasp) I (gasp) WIN!" Zell punched the air and grinned. "Booyaka!"
"Hey, that's my line!" Selphie said, wrinkling her nose.
"Whatever!" Zell replied, sticking his tongue out at her. "Let's order pizza!"
Selphie sighed. "Now?"
"You said you were hungry!"
"All right! I'll call!" Selphie stood up from bed and walked towards the phone on Zell's study desk. She picked up the reciever and dialed the right number for Pizza Hut, just by memory. They ordered so many pizzas from Pizza Hut that Selphie ended up remembering the number. The person who worked there, by the name of Irvine, who hit on her most of the time, recognized her voice that he knew exactly what she was going to order. "Hey! I'm not paying for it again!" Selphie spoke, glancing over her shoulder at Zell.
Zell had the television on now, his eyes glued to the television. He waved his hand and nodded, without looking at her. "Don't worry, I'm paying it!"
Selphie planted a fist on her hip. "Oh really?"
The first ring was on the way on the other line.
"Really!" Zell replied, giving her a thumbs up.
Selphie shook her head and laughed. The second ring...
"Hello, Pizza Hut, what can I do for ya?" came a male's voice on the other line.
"Hi!" Selphie spoke, recognizing the male voice to be Irvine Kinneas as usual.
"Selphie! The usual darling?"
"Of course!" Selphie replied.
"Hey, Selphie! Adding to the usual pizzas we order, could you also add another batch? Make it pepperoni this time!" came Zell's voice behind her.
Selphie turned around and looked at him curiously. "Why?"
"Just order it!"
Sighing, Selphie nodded. "All right. Could you also add pepperoni to the order, Irvine?"
"Sure," the young Pizza Hut worker with a Southern accent spoke.
"Thanks a lot!"
"No problem sweet cakes! Your order will be there in half an hour!"
"All right! Ciao Irvine!"
"Ciao Little Lamb!"
Selphie put the phone back on the reciever and began walking back to her spot on the bed beside Zell, but not before the blond spoke to her. "Hey, Selph, the money is in my right jacket pocket." The girl paused and turned to the other direction. She walked over to the door, where Zell's school jacket hung and reached inside his right pocket to find the money for the pizzas. When she was sure she felt it, she pulled it out, but accidentally pulled something unexpected. The item in her hand was not the roll of money that Zell usually rolled up to make room for his pens in his pockets, but it was a small white tube made of paper. Inside, there was brown coloring and when Zell wasn't looking, Selphie lifted it up to her nose and smelled it. Marijuana... she thought. Marijuana..she recognized the smell. It was the same fume she smelled when she went into her brothers room while he was out with his girlfriend, Patty. That was just a year ago. At nineteen, her brother was in jail for illegal drug possession. Her hands shook in fear. Zell was smoking...
"Hey, Selph! What's taking so long? Are you having troube looking for the change?"
"No, I got it," she replied. Selphie quickly stuffed the pot back inside the pocket and found the right roll of money somewhere deeper inside the pocket and pulled it out, leaving the marijuana inside to be used by Zell...again... She knew now why Zell was late for his football practice this afternoon.
"Are you okay?" Zell asked, when he noticed her nervous face.
Selphie looked up and smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I'm fine." I'm the biggest liar, she thought.
GoodGurl: Wooh! That was a long one! There you have it folks! A little story of Selphie herself! Hee hee! And you all must be surprised that her and Zell are best friends and what's this--?! Zell is smoking? AH! I wonder why? Zell's story coming soon!