Note: I am sooo excited finally to continue on with this story with all the awesome reviews I had. Thanx you guys! My goal is to reach up to more than sixty, which seems to be the only amount I can get. Come on everyone! Where are those, Zelphie, Seiftis and Squinoa fans? My goal is to reach two hundred! The largest review I had was 135, but I want more this time! Geez, I am so demanding! ^_^; Let me reach 600! Hah hah! ;) Okay, this chapter will show you more of Sean Trepe's personality and the things he's going through from his point of view, but it has more Seiftis in it, so don't worry.
Chapter 7 - To Or Not To Be..Unboring
The rare afternoon sun brightened the dimly lit classroom on the second floor. As he entered, he expected a boy with impossible round, thick glasses rested upon his nose, wearing trousers that were two sizes too small. However, what he witnessed was a familiar young woman he saw three times at least on one day, sitting patiently on a desk, two rows behind. She looked up at the sound of his footsteps entering the room. He noticed that she was as surprised as he was.
"Ah, I'm glad you could make it, Mr. Almasy," came the sound of Ms. Fisher's voice. Seifer removed his attention from the girl and made a slight nod towards the teacher. Ms. Fisher moved to his side, glancing at the blond girl, then at Seifer. "You might recognize Quistis from your math class," she spoke.
Seifer nodded, but said nothing. He was still unsure whether he will continue to have a tutor after this. However, if it was his only excuse not to go home early, to a mother who didn't care about him, he would certainly take advantage of the opportunity. He moved to sit beside the girl, choosing a desk to her right and sat down slowly, the uneasiness of being this close to a girl growing larger. It was different when sitting beside a girl in class, but this- this was different. He has never been ALONE with a girl. He wouldn't know how to handle women if his life depended on it. His mother had done a great job not telling him anything about relationships between a man and a woman. That's why he stayed away from being friends with females, because to him...they were troublesome. Even worse...HE was troublesome to THEM.
"Well, I'll leave him in your hands, Ms. Trepe," came Ms. Fisher's voice, interrupting Seifer's thoughts. She picked up her binder, paper after paper stuffed inside, which were about to fall out and slung her black saddle bag on her shoulder. "Charlie will be cleaning at this hour in this area, so when you're finished, you can tell him to lock up after."
"Thanks, Ms. Fisher," Quistis said, watching as the woman closed the door behind her.
Suddenly, there was a silence in the room. Neither side spoke until the bright sunlight, which found its way on Quistis' shoulder and moved to warm her eyelids, startled her from her reverie. She looked to her side, managing a slight smile to her face towards the blond boy sitting beside her. "Well uh..." She glanced on the desk, where his math book was laying.
Automatically, Seifer opened it, not caring what page it turned to and waited for her instructions, even though he felt annoyed of having to wait until she talked. He was still feeling rather awkward.
"What do you have a problem on?" she asked, finally finding the courage to speak. The blond girl was thinking of thanking him for helping her earlier in the cafeteria, while he thought about her question, but decided against it. Quistis was quite surprised when the only possible answer he could muster was a shrug, before saying, "I don't know."
"Well, how about we start in the first chapter?" she retorted, moving the book so it was facing her. She flipped through the pages, once in a while, glancing at Seifer in the corner of her eye.
Seifer, whoever, was too busy watching the clock on the wall to notice, thinking about that same gut feeling he felt the moment he sat down beside her. He should say something, but the only thing that came out was a sniff. Whether the girl mistook that as a cold or something else, he wouldn't know, because she was too occupied with the math book in front of her to notice.
When she found the page, she stopped flipping, read the text to make sure it was the right one and looked up, nodding as if telling him to look. Seifer glanced at the large printed numbers on the book, having to slightly turn his head to the side, still feeling uncomfortable, noticing the complicated formula, he swore he'd seen before. He looked up at the girl curiously. "What the hell is this?" the blond said, for the first time.
Quistis shrugged. "Well, I thought maybe we should just start on the first page, since you don't know what you're having trouble on."
He was going to say something else, wanting to protest with the attitude she was giving him, but closed his mouth once again. Calmly, he leaned back on his seat and gestured for her to go on. As if in reply, the blond girl moved a little bit closer, feeling confident to share her knowledge to an 'unfortunate' boy and moved the book towards Seifer, enough so they could both see, while she showed him what to do. Seifer attentively listened, trying to catch every word she said the moment she started speaking. Even though she was very attractive in his eyes, he was quite unimpressed with what she was doing at that point. He felt his weight sagging on the seat, finally feeling rather foolish of wanting to stay after school for something like THIS. He expected her to be more exciting in explaining the math problems, but all he could hear was her, dragging on and on about carrying a certain number and then dividing it and then... Seifer couldn't remember what else she said after that, because her voice was drowned out by a constant humming in the blond boy's head, which was his only way to drown out the noise. He decided to think about something else, or maybe let her know how bored he was getting after she finished explaining.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Quistis leaned back to look at the young man beside her, but frowned when he noticed him with his arms folded and his eyes closed. She stared at him for a while, until she noticed him opening his eyes to look at her. Her frown grew wider. "Haven't you been listening to a word I said?" she said, rather disappointed.
Seifer looked at her tiredly. "No," he simple said.
Quistis was taken aback by his answer, that she was speechless. "Wh- why not?"
The blond boy sighed and stared into her eyes. "Because...you're...boring," he replied. He watched as she continued to stare at him, probably still stunned with his reply earlier. Quistis couldn't believe what she was hearing. All the other students she tutored listened to everything she said and there were no problems after that. She felt him standing up, ready to leave and heard him speak again. "What, is your dream to become a teacher or something?"
The blond girl looked up and made her frown even known. "How can I be boring? All the students I tutored were fine with the way I talked." She stood up as well, looking at Seifer straight in the face. She felt heat rising up around her cheeks in frustration. Did she hear right? Was this the guy who helped her in the cafeteria earlier, without hesitating to stand up against the bitchiest girl ever? The guy she was infatuated with? She thought he was one of those nice guys who didn't care who she was. Her thoughts of him being so kind and generous faded away, instead, they were replaced by the words, 'rude, obnoxious and a total jerk.'
"Why? Did they end up in the mental hospital after that?" the blond man spoke, folding his arms once more. He shuffled his weight to his left leg and smirked, waiting for her response.
Quistis felt her face reddening even more. "And to think I was going to thank you for helping me this afternoon! I thought you were nicer than that, but now I know your true colours!"
Seifer smirked again and leaned closer, his eyes seething with malice. "What are you going to do about it?"
"The question is...what are YOU going to do about it if I stop tutoring you? Are you going to threaten me like Bobby Hill?" Quistis knew she had hit the spot, because Seifer's face was suddenly replaced with hurt. He leaned away from her and turned towards the door. Without another word, he walked away. Quistis regretted of ever saying that, but she was too angry to care.
"HEY! Wait a minute!" Seifer gritted his teeth impatiently at the sound of her voice. He needed to get away fast. He didn't need this tutorial. It was impossible to listen to someone as boring as her. He turned around and was startled to feel something hard hit his chest. In instinct, he moved his hand to feel a hard, cover book beaming up at him. "You forgot your stupid book, you jerk!"
Seifer mumbled a thank you, about to leave, but the blond girl had other things to say and wouldn't let him go when she spoke again. "The nerve of you talking to me like that, while I decided to help someone as, rude (poke), loud (poke), conceited (poke) and as obnoxious (poke) as you!" With every lude word she could think of, she poked the young man in the chest with her finger as hard as she could. She stood there for a minute, rolled up her sleeve of her tanned jacket and was unaware of the bruises that grabbed the blond man's attention. Noticing his curious look, Quistis looked down at the bunch of bruises on her arm and covered them back with her sleeves. She had forgotten they were still there. "I'll show you how UN-boring I can be! Show up at the tutorial tomorrow and I'll MAKE you listen!" With that said, she turned on her heel and left, fixing the strap of her back pack on her shoulders, ignoring the silence that passed between them just now.
The blond young man watched her go, still thinking about those bruises he just saw on her arms. He was quite surprised that BOTH her arms had bruises on it and he couldn't get the curiousity out that was gnawing at his heart.
"She was quite a looker," came someone's voice from behind. "It's a shame if you two don't get together. I mean, you need a girlfriend, Seifer."
Seifer adjusted the book in his arms and glanced over his shoulder. A man around his mid fifties, with balding head and round glasses was just unlocking the door that led to the brooms and mops to clean the whole school and had heard all the remarks the blond girl had said to him. The blond young man gritted his teeth, trying to shove away the thoughts of those bruises and turned around to face the janitor. "Stay out of this, Charlie," he said firmly. He walked pass the skinny man and went the other way, so he wouldn't bump into the girl. He knew she went the same way he did, but he had shortcuts of his own back to his house that no one knew about.
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She was about to explode, about to go back to where that, tall, blond and quite handsome boy was and give him more of a piece of her mind. The seventeen year old girl found the front door open when she stuffed her key inside the key hole and with that knowledge, she twisted the door open and stepped inside. All her anger joined her inside as well.
"Is that you, Quistis?" came her Aunt's voice from the kitchen.
"Yeah, it is, Aunt," the girl mumbled. Quistis went to the kitchen, where she found her Aunt preparing an early dinner. She glanced at the watch behind her and noticed that it was only four o'clock in the evening, which was unlikely, because usually, her Aunt Charlotte prepared dinner every five o'clock. She was an hour ahead. However, despite the questions in her head about dinner, she could not get the thought of Seifer's words away from her mind. BORING? Quistis moved to sit down on one of the chairs and plopped down loudly, her face kept into a scowl, wishing she could stuff the blond boy's head down a toilet.
"Hey, Quistis, you all right?"
The blond girl looked up. She had no idea that her cousin was already there, eating the dinner that his mother prepared for them. Quistis' scowl quickly died away, trying her best to replace it with something else, but everytime her mind went back to Seifer Almasy, it continued. Travis had seen it and so did her Aunt. "What's wrong Quistis?" her Aunt questioned. Both the mother and son stared at her. Suddenly, she was feeling small.
"I had a bad day," Quistis finally said, frowning. She watched as Travis and Aunt Charlotte nodded, then continued on with their dinner. The blond girl could hear the mashed potatoes being mixed with onions on the pan and could smell the chicken roasting inside the stove. Suddenly, she was hungry. Her Aunt Charlotte gave her a plate and a fork and served her mashed potatoes and gave her one corn on the cob. She thanked the woman quietly, her mind still seething with anger towards the seventeen year old boy and began eating her mashed potatoes. She had to get going on her work if she wants to show Seifer how UN-boring she was. She didn't have time to wait for the good tasting chicken.
"A bad day? On your first day of school?" Aunt Charlotte asked.
Quistis nodded, stuffing a little too much mashed potatoed in her mouth. She coughed and swallowed quickly, much to her Aunt and cousin's surprise and looked up. "Well, the first few hours weren't bad, but after school I had to tutor someone and he's the most arrogant, most obnoxious guy I have EVER met."
No one said anything as they both waited for her to continue explaining, but was disappointed when Quistis hastilly finished her mashed potatoes and quickly stood up. "Sorry I can't talk right now. I have to get going on my homework," she said, turning around and leaving the kitchen. Aunt Charlotte glanced down at her plate. There was only the corn on the cob left on it, which her niece didn't even bother to look at and the chicken still roasting inside the stove.
When she made it back in her room, Quistis closed the door behind her and headed for her desk, a large, wooden desk, with its paint peeling off. Every time she moved on it, the desk would start squeaking, which she could care less about. Right now, her mind was set on showing Seifer Almasy that she was no dull person to be around with. She took out her cue cards from her backpack, setting aside the notes she took from Biology class and put the empty ones on the table, then fished around for pen and highlighters from her Badtz Maru pencil pouch. When she found them, she took them out, made herself comfortable on the chair and began her work.
Her math book, with two pages of homework to be done by tomorrow was laying on her bed...not opened.
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The night was suddenly becoming warm. May was suddenly approaching and he couldn't believe the changes that took place from winter to spring. The chill wind was evident during winter and snow had fallen during the first few weeks of January. He remembered being home, just thinking about those winter days when he was happy with his wife, her eyes shining with gratitude as they sat in front of the fire. She said something to him, but he was too mesmerized by the way her face shone even in the darkest shadows of the room. He held her tight, wished she would stay with him forever, but it would not last long. She came to him, told him that she was pregnant a month later, much to his shock. It was his fault of ever agreeing to become a father to the baby, when it was the baby's fault that she died, leaving him alone to wither in pain and regret.
Sean Trepe swallowed his last ounce of torture down with one gulp and slammed the glass down on the counter. The sound of hollow voices suddenly became clear- men and women. Then, there were cheers. He looked over his shoulder to see what the commotion was about and found a television, just hanging at the corner of the wall, showing baseball. It was the Seattle Mariners playing against the Boston Red Sox.
"You want another shot of whiskey, sir?" came a young man's voice. The sandy haired man turned back around, twisting his seat towards the counter and looked up at the source of the voice. He was around twenty three, still young and handsome. He had blue eyes and messy, black hair. He could pass for a seventeen year old if he wanted to, because the young man was short for his age. Sean could see himself for a moment, but shoved it away deep into his memories.
He pushed his glass closer and nodded. "Give me beer this time, young man," he said.
"You can call me Erik," the boy spoke, grinning. He picked up Sean's glass and reached behind the counter for a beer and poured some into his glass, then handed it back to the man. Sean slowly lifted the glass into his lips and began drinking. "Are you from around here?" Erik asked, finding a good conversation.
Sean shook his head, putting his beer back down. "Nah. I just moved just today from Chicago with my daughter."
The moment he heard the word, 'daughter,' Erik suddenly became interested. Sean noticed this and he quickly shook his head. "I don't think you're good enough, Erik. She's only seventeen."
Erik nodded calmly, quite disappointed and picked up an empty glass, cleaning it with the towel he had on his shoulder inside out. He listened as Sean continued to talk, this time, in a different tone. The boy knew now that the whiskey and beer were taking effect. "In fact, my daughter was the reason my wife died." He laughed bitterly.
The young man paused from what he was doing and looked up, quite stunned by his words. Erik suddenly felt disturbed where this was going.
"Yep! My dear, sweet Quistis killed my beautiful Flora the minute she came into this world." He finished the last drop of beer and pushed it towards Erik once more. "Give me another batch of beer."
"I think you've had enough, sir," Erik spoke, his voice seem so hollow in Sean's ears.
Sean slammed a hand down the counter, making the young man flinch, but Erik stood his ground. How could a father say awful things about his daughter? "Give me more beer, you asshole!"
Erik frowned, insulted by Sean's words and looked over his shoulder at the security guards who had noticed the whole scene. He nodded at them and the two, large men approached Sean cautiously. "Sir, these men will take you home now," he said. He couldn't stand it whenever someone said awful things about their children. He couldn't, because they were the same words his own father used on him when his mother died.
Sean felt two, large arms grabbing his skinny ones. He shoved them away with his weight and turned around, his face reddening with anger. "I asked for more beer! I'm a customer here you jerks! Don't I have the right for more beer!?" But none of the men listened. They advanced towards him and seized him both by the arms once more. Sean, this time did no struggle as he was led out the door. He mumbled some cursed words towards the guards as they helpd him inside the passenger seat of his own car. One of the guards joined him in the driver's seat, taking the keys from his pockets, despite Sean's mumbled protests and started the engine. "I'll take him home," the largest guard said to the smaller one.
The last time Sean heard was the car starting and the car pulling out of the parking space, before he collapsed on the seat for a long nap.
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"Hey! What the hell are you doing sitting around for? I made dinner!" came a hoarse voice from the behind him. Seifer looked up and noticed his mother standing there with a sneer on her face. He took one glance at her, then looked away. He could hear his mother snort and then could hear her footsteps disappear into the kitchen.
Then, there was a knock on the door.
Seifer sighed, grunting as he got up from the couch. He went to the door and answered it, quite surprised as a familiar man stood there, smiling. The blond young man was stunned by his father's sudden appearance. "What do you want?" he asked, quite rudely. He didn't want to deal with this right now, not with many things in his mind.
Bryan Almasy was a short blond man with a shiny bald head, making people wonder where Seifer got his genes from. Despite his height and his hair, Bryan was quite handsome for his age, with kind, deep, green eyes. He smiled slightly, taken aback by his son's rude greeting and stepped inside, just as he had before everytime he visited. He missed the house so much that Bryan didn't care to wait until Seifer invited him in. "Nice to see you too, Seifer." The bald man looked around, taking in the scene of the living room. He heard a quiet gasp from somewhere and Bryan looked in front of him to find his ex-wife Lynette gaping at him. "Hi Lynette," he greeted.
Lynette made a gesture to straighten her skirt up, even though there was nothing wrong with it and smiled. "What- what are you doing here, Bryan?" she asked.
Bryan looked at his son, who was hovering behind him and nodded. "Son, I came here just to ask you something."
Seifer frowned, turned away and sat down on one of the steps on the stairs, then looked back up at his father. It was his way to tell him to continue talking. "Well, this weekend, my wife and your sister and I, are going to Mount Everest and stay over at the lodge and I was wondering if you would like to come with us this weekend. That is..." Bryan looked up at Lynette. "If it's all right with you, Lyn."
Lynette glanced at her son.
"I'm not sure, dad," Seifer replied.
Bryan's face fell, but continued to smile. His hopes hadn't died yet. "Well, I'll give you until Friday to decide. Halle is really eager to see you and I'm sure you'd like to meet your little sister, Dominique!"
Seifer thought for a moment, then nodded. "Fine, I'll think about it."
The bald man looked at him, then at Lynette and opened the front door. "I hope you decide to come, Seifer. This would give us a chance to bond as father and son again." With that said, he turned and left, leaving an angry Lynette and a confused Seifer.
"You'll think about it?" Lynette squeaked. Her hopes of Seifer hating his father died.
"Just because he left us and married someone else, Lynette, doesn't mean I'll drive him away from my life," he said coldly.
Stunned, Lynette didn't say anything and watched as Seifer stood up and walked up the stairs.
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"Here!" She slammed the many cue cards against his chest angrily. "You go over this and I'll give you a small quiz after school!" With that said, Quistis Trepe turned and left a bewildered Seifer to wonder what was in her head. Swearing, Seifer looked down at the cue cards in his hands and looked over it, his face scrunching from anger, to confusion. He looked up and watched Quistis disappear through the crowd, then went back to looking over the cue cards she slammed towards him. Pages and pages of notes were visible on the cue cards, each heading highlighted with different colors. Instead of actual formulas, there were hand drawn pictures of stick figures forming into their own formulas, some of which made Seifer smirk. He turned towards the direction of his English class, while he continued to read through the notes, the stick figures and the other attempted pictures she drew, which were really amusing him at that moment.
"Mr. Almasy, I don't see you hurrying into class," came Mr. Adler's voice ahead. Seifer, who was entranced by Quistis' attempt to be 'Un-boring,' looked up from the cue cards and frowned at the tall, lanky man standing by the door. The blond man sighed, stuffed the cue cards in his coat pocket and joined Mr. Adler inside his English class. For Seifer, English was his one of his favorite subjects, other than Automotive, where he had to fix cars and drive some to test them out. It was one of his best classes. English, on the other hand, they were doing a study on Hamlet, which, to his opinion was Shakespear's best work yet, aside from MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet. He enjoyed learning about Hamlet's personality, even though Seifer barely shows the excitement on his face.
The blond boy sat down on his usual seat, at the very back of the class and took out the cue cards from his pocket. While the students were filing inside, Seifer smirked at the amusing pictures Quistis drew, flipped through all the pages, expecting to see more pictures, but when he got to the middle section, the pictures became less and less visible. At the very back, the pictures completely disappeared. He figured Quistis probably wanted him to REALLY study for her so called quiz she was going to give him. Disappointed, Seifer stuffed the cards back in his pocket and took out his Hamlet book from his backpack, then began to read. He heard Mr. Adler closing the door, but Seifer was suddenly thinking about his father's request to make him come to the Lodge this coming weekend. He wanted to go, yes, but he was unsure about meeting Halle and Dominique. He wanted to spend quality time with his father. He might have said that the Lodge trip was their chance to bond, but with Halle and Dominique around, Seifer was unsure if it was possible.
"Please hand in your Hamlet essay," Mr. Adler spoke, looking around the class.
Seifer sighed, waving the thoughts away from his head and took out his homework from his backpack. He put them on his desk and waited until Mr. Adler went around the class, picking up each essay homework. Mr. Adler, who was surprised at Seifer for handing out his homework at the right date, gave the blond an approving smile. Awkwardly, Seifer nodded and looked away, turning his face towards the window. It was going to be a long day, he thought.
*****************
"The nerve of him!" Quistis joined her friends later that afternoon at lunch.
"What's the matter?" Selphie asked, looking at her friend.
The blond girl looked up, the frown never leaving from her face. She took a bite out of her sandwich, which her Aunt Charlotte made this morning and put it down on the plastic container it was kept in. She wiped away the crumbs hastilly, her mind flickering from her father, who was found drunk by Aunt Charlotte just outside their door and to Seifer, the boy who insulted her. "Seifer Almasy!" she hissed. She folded her arms across her chest and sneered when she saw Seifer walk by. "I thought he was a nice guy, but nooooo! He's a total jerk!"
Rinoa and Selphie looked at each other, then burst into fits of giggled. Quistis raised an eyebrow and looked at her two friends.
"That's Seifer for you," Rinoa replied.
"What is that suppose to mean?" Quistis said, curiously.
"Well, Seifer DOES have a reputation of being a total jerk. That's who he is!" Selphie replied. "Did you really expect him to be such a goodie goodie?"
Quistis rolled her eyes. "I thought he was."
"What did he say to make you so mad, Quisty?" Rinoa asked.
Quistis was distracted by Rinoa's nickname for her, that she had forgotten what to say. She looked at the raven haired girl and stared at her curiously. "Quisty?"
Rinoa shrugged.
Shaking the thought away, the blond girl frowned again and stared back at Seifer, who had disappeared as usual at the back of the building. "He said I was boring. Am I boring?" She glanced back at her two friends.
Rinoa and Selphie looked at each other.
Quistis couldn't believe her eyes. "You think I'm boring?"
"Well...yeah," Selphie finally replied.
"How am I boring? Am I holding some kind of dull expression on my face?" She unfolded her arms and waited for her friends' answers.
"Well.." Rinoa looked away.
"I don't believe this! Of all people to say I'm boring! I'm leaving." Quistis picked up her lunch, stood up and left so fast, that she bumped into Squall, who was just joining the girls to the table.
"Quistis! Come on, we're sorry!" Rinoa called after her. "What's the matter with her?" She glanced at her friend.
Selphie shrugged. "I better go after her, before she starts hitting Seifer square in the face. I swear, I think she's the only one who can stand up to the guy." She giggled, before she left Rinoa and Squall alone once again to catch up to Quistis.
The blond girl hadn't gone too far. Selphie found her fuming in anger, sitting underneath the single tree present in the back terrace of the school. She was eating her lunch there, her mind probably still thinking about the abominable Seifer Almasy. Quistis looked up at the sound of Selphie's footsteps and frowned. "Am I THAT boring to you, Selphie?"
Selphie shook her head. "Course not! We're sorry we said that, Quisty."
Quistis frowned at her nickname again. "Don't call me that."
"Sorry." The brunette sat down beside the blond and watched her eat quietly for a while, before she spoke again. "Besides, didn't you show Seifer how Un-boring you were? You told me you did something to make the tutorial more interesting for him."
Quistis nodded. "Yeah, well, I'm not sure if it even worked. If I want to be a teacher, Selphie, I want my students to be more interesting and Seifer...he crushed my dream of becoming one."
Selphie wrapped her arms around her and shook her head. "He's just a jerk and a half! Don't listen to anything he says! Just do your best at it!"
Comforted by her words, Quistis sighed and continued to eat her sandwich silently. Selphie watched her, without a word and they sat there as silently as possible.
GoodGurl: WOAH! Long one! I'm finally done this chapter! So...how long can Quistis and Seifer stand each other? Did Seifer REALLY find Quistis boring or attractive? Hm...o_O Will he go to the weekend trip with his father and meet his step mother and step sister? Will he ever find out the source of Quistis' bruises? And Quistis... will she make Seifer show how 'Un-boring' she was with the cue cards she gave him? Hm...SO many questions! Stay tuned!
Chapter 7 - To Or Not To Be..Unboring
The rare afternoon sun brightened the dimly lit classroom on the second floor. As he entered, he expected a boy with impossible round, thick glasses rested upon his nose, wearing trousers that were two sizes too small. However, what he witnessed was a familiar young woman he saw three times at least on one day, sitting patiently on a desk, two rows behind. She looked up at the sound of his footsteps entering the room. He noticed that she was as surprised as he was.
"Ah, I'm glad you could make it, Mr. Almasy," came the sound of Ms. Fisher's voice. Seifer removed his attention from the girl and made a slight nod towards the teacher. Ms. Fisher moved to his side, glancing at the blond girl, then at Seifer. "You might recognize Quistis from your math class," she spoke.
Seifer nodded, but said nothing. He was still unsure whether he will continue to have a tutor after this. However, if it was his only excuse not to go home early, to a mother who didn't care about him, he would certainly take advantage of the opportunity. He moved to sit beside the girl, choosing a desk to her right and sat down slowly, the uneasiness of being this close to a girl growing larger. It was different when sitting beside a girl in class, but this- this was different. He has never been ALONE with a girl. He wouldn't know how to handle women if his life depended on it. His mother had done a great job not telling him anything about relationships between a man and a woman. That's why he stayed away from being friends with females, because to him...they were troublesome. Even worse...HE was troublesome to THEM.
"Well, I'll leave him in your hands, Ms. Trepe," came Ms. Fisher's voice, interrupting Seifer's thoughts. She picked up her binder, paper after paper stuffed inside, which were about to fall out and slung her black saddle bag on her shoulder. "Charlie will be cleaning at this hour in this area, so when you're finished, you can tell him to lock up after."
"Thanks, Ms. Fisher," Quistis said, watching as the woman closed the door behind her.
Suddenly, there was a silence in the room. Neither side spoke until the bright sunlight, which found its way on Quistis' shoulder and moved to warm her eyelids, startled her from her reverie. She looked to her side, managing a slight smile to her face towards the blond boy sitting beside her. "Well uh..." She glanced on the desk, where his math book was laying.
Automatically, Seifer opened it, not caring what page it turned to and waited for her instructions, even though he felt annoyed of having to wait until she talked. He was still feeling rather awkward.
"What do you have a problem on?" she asked, finally finding the courage to speak. The blond girl was thinking of thanking him for helping her earlier in the cafeteria, while he thought about her question, but decided against it. Quistis was quite surprised when the only possible answer he could muster was a shrug, before saying, "I don't know."
"Well, how about we start in the first chapter?" she retorted, moving the book so it was facing her. She flipped through the pages, once in a while, glancing at Seifer in the corner of her eye.
Seifer, whoever, was too busy watching the clock on the wall to notice, thinking about that same gut feeling he felt the moment he sat down beside her. He should say something, but the only thing that came out was a sniff. Whether the girl mistook that as a cold or something else, he wouldn't know, because she was too occupied with the math book in front of her to notice.
When she found the page, she stopped flipping, read the text to make sure it was the right one and looked up, nodding as if telling him to look. Seifer glanced at the large printed numbers on the book, having to slightly turn his head to the side, still feeling uncomfortable, noticing the complicated formula, he swore he'd seen before. He looked up at the girl curiously. "What the hell is this?" the blond said, for the first time.
Quistis shrugged. "Well, I thought maybe we should just start on the first page, since you don't know what you're having trouble on."
He was going to say something else, wanting to protest with the attitude she was giving him, but closed his mouth once again. Calmly, he leaned back on his seat and gestured for her to go on. As if in reply, the blond girl moved a little bit closer, feeling confident to share her knowledge to an 'unfortunate' boy and moved the book towards Seifer, enough so they could both see, while she showed him what to do. Seifer attentively listened, trying to catch every word she said the moment she started speaking. Even though she was very attractive in his eyes, he was quite unimpressed with what she was doing at that point. He felt his weight sagging on the seat, finally feeling rather foolish of wanting to stay after school for something like THIS. He expected her to be more exciting in explaining the math problems, but all he could hear was her, dragging on and on about carrying a certain number and then dividing it and then... Seifer couldn't remember what else she said after that, because her voice was drowned out by a constant humming in the blond boy's head, which was his only way to drown out the noise. He decided to think about something else, or maybe let her know how bored he was getting after she finished explaining.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Quistis leaned back to look at the young man beside her, but frowned when he noticed him with his arms folded and his eyes closed. She stared at him for a while, until she noticed him opening his eyes to look at her. Her frown grew wider. "Haven't you been listening to a word I said?" she said, rather disappointed.
Seifer looked at her tiredly. "No," he simple said.
Quistis was taken aback by his answer, that she was speechless. "Wh- why not?"
The blond boy sighed and stared into her eyes. "Because...you're...boring," he replied. He watched as she continued to stare at him, probably still stunned with his reply earlier. Quistis couldn't believe what she was hearing. All the other students she tutored listened to everything she said and there were no problems after that. She felt him standing up, ready to leave and heard him speak again. "What, is your dream to become a teacher or something?"
The blond girl looked up and made her frown even known. "How can I be boring? All the students I tutored were fine with the way I talked." She stood up as well, looking at Seifer straight in the face. She felt heat rising up around her cheeks in frustration. Did she hear right? Was this the guy who helped her in the cafeteria earlier, without hesitating to stand up against the bitchiest girl ever? The guy she was infatuated with? She thought he was one of those nice guys who didn't care who she was. Her thoughts of him being so kind and generous faded away, instead, they were replaced by the words, 'rude, obnoxious and a total jerk.'
"Why? Did they end up in the mental hospital after that?" the blond man spoke, folding his arms once more. He shuffled his weight to his left leg and smirked, waiting for her response.
Quistis felt her face reddening even more. "And to think I was going to thank you for helping me this afternoon! I thought you were nicer than that, but now I know your true colours!"
Seifer smirked again and leaned closer, his eyes seething with malice. "What are you going to do about it?"
"The question is...what are YOU going to do about it if I stop tutoring you? Are you going to threaten me like Bobby Hill?" Quistis knew she had hit the spot, because Seifer's face was suddenly replaced with hurt. He leaned away from her and turned towards the door. Without another word, he walked away. Quistis regretted of ever saying that, but she was too angry to care.
"HEY! Wait a minute!" Seifer gritted his teeth impatiently at the sound of her voice. He needed to get away fast. He didn't need this tutorial. It was impossible to listen to someone as boring as her. He turned around and was startled to feel something hard hit his chest. In instinct, he moved his hand to feel a hard, cover book beaming up at him. "You forgot your stupid book, you jerk!"
Seifer mumbled a thank you, about to leave, but the blond girl had other things to say and wouldn't let him go when she spoke again. "The nerve of you talking to me like that, while I decided to help someone as, rude (poke), loud (poke), conceited (poke) and as obnoxious (poke) as you!" With every lude word she could think of, she poked the young man in the chest with her finger as hard as she could. She stood there for a minute, rolled up her sleeve of her tanned jacket and was unaware of the bruises that grabbed the blond man's attention. Noticing his curious look, Quistis looked down at the bunch of bruises on her arm and covered them back with her sleeves. She had forgotten they were still there. "I'll show you how UN-boring I can be! Show up at the tutorial tomorrow and I'll MAKE you listen!" With that said, she turned on her heel and left, fixing the strap of her back pack on her shoulders, ignoring the silence that passed between them just now.
The blond young man watched her go, still thinking about those bruises he just saw on her arms. He was quite surprised that BOTH her arms had bruises on it and he couldn't get the curiousity out that was gnawing at his heart.
"She was quite a looker," came someone's voice from behind. "It's a shame if you two don't get together. I mean, you need a girlfriend, Seifer."
Seifer adjusted the book in his arms and glanced over his shoulder. A man around his mid fifties, with balding head and round glasses was just unlocking the door that led to the brooms and mops to clean the whole school and had heard all the remarks the blond girl had said to him. The blond young man gritted his teeth, trying to shove away the thoughts of those bruises and turned around to face the janitor. "Stay out of this, Charlie," he said firmly. He walked pass the skinny man and went the other way, so he wouldn't bump into the girl. He knew she went the same way he did, but he had shortcuts of his own back to his house that no one knew about.
****************************
She was about to explode, about to go back to where that, tall, blond and quite handsome boy was and give him more of a piece of her mind. The seventeen year old girl found the front door open when she stuffed her key inside the key hole and with that knowledge, she twisted the door open and stepped inside. All her anger joined her inside as well.
"Is that you, Quistis?" came her Aunt's voice from the kitchen.
"Yeah, it is, Aunt," the girl mumbled. Quistis went to the kitchen, where she found her Aunt preparing an early dinner. She glanced at the watch behind her and noticed that it was only four o'clock in the evening, which was unlikely, because usually, her Aunt Charlotte prepared dinner every five o'clock. She was an hour ahead. However, despite the questions in her head about dinner, she could not get the thought of Seifer's words away from her mind. BORING? Quistis moved to sit down on one of the chairs and plopped down loudly, her face kept into a scowl, wishing she could stuff the blond boy's head down a toilet.
"Hey, Quistis, you all right?"
The blond girl looked up. She had no idea that her cousin was already there, eating the dinner that his mother prepared for them. Quistis' scowl quickly died away, trying her best to replace it with something else, but everytime her mind went back to Seifer Almasy, it continued. Travis had seen it and so did her Aunt. "What's wrong Quistis?" her Aunt questioned. Both the mother and son stared at her. Suddenly, she was feeling small.
"I had a bad day," Quistis finally said, frowning. She watched as Travis and Aunt Charlotte nodded, then continued on with their dinner. The blond girl could hear the mashed potatoes being mixed with onions on the pan and could smell the chicken roasting inside the stove. Suddenly, she was hungry. Her Aunt Charlotte gave her a plate and a fork and served her mashed potatoes and gave her one corn on the cob. She thanked the woman quietly, her mind still seething with anger towards the seventeen year old boy and began eating her mashed potatoes. She had to get going on her work if she wants to show Seifer how UN-boring she was. She didn't have time to wait for the good tasting chicken.
"A bad day? On your first day of school?" Aunt Charlotte asked.
Quistis nodded, stuffing a little too much mashed potatoed in her mouth. She coughed and swallowed quickly, much to her Aunt and cousin's surprise and looked up. "Well, the first few hours weren't bad, but after school I had to tutor someone and he's the most arrogant, most obnoxious guy I have EVER met."
No one said anything as they both waited for her to continue explaining, but was disappointed when Quistis hastilly finished her mashed potatoes and quickly stood up. "Sorry I can't talk right now. I have to get going on my homework," she said, turning around and leaving the kitchen. Aunt Charlotte glanced down at her plate. There was only the corn on the cob left on it, which her niece didn't even bother to look at and the chicken still roasting inside the stove.
When she made it back in her room, Quistis closed the door behind her and headed for her desk, a large, wooden desk, with its paint peeling off. Every time she moved on it, the desk would start squeaking, which she could care less about. Right now, her mind was set on showing Seifer Almasy that she was no dull person to be around with. She took out her cue cards from her backpack, setting aside the notes she took from Biology class and put the empty ones on the table, then fished around for pen and highlighters from her Badtz Maru pencil pouch. When she found them, she took them out, made herself comfortable on the chair and began her work.
Her math book, with two pages of homework to be done by tomorrow was laying on her bed...not opened.
**********************
The night was suddenly becoming warm. May was suddenly approaching and he couldn't believe the changes that took place from winter to spring. The chill wind was evident during winter and snow had fallen during the first few weeks of January. He remembered being home, just thinking about those winter days when he was happy with his wife, her eyes shining with gratitude as they sat in front of the fire. She said something to him, but he was too mesmerized by the way her face shone even in the darkest shadows of the room. He held her tight, wished she would stay with him forever, but it would not last long. She came to him, told him that she was pregnant a month later, much to his shock. It was his fault of ever agreeing to become a father to the baby, when it was the baby's fault that she died, leaving him alone to wither in pain and regret.
Sean Trepe swallowed his last ounce of torture down with one gulp and slammed the glass down on the counter. The sound of hollow voices suddenly became clear- men and women. Then, there were cheers. He looked over his shoulder to see what the commotion was about and found a television, just hanging at the corner of the wall, showing baseball. It was the Seattle Mariners playing against the Boston Red Sox.
"You want another shot of whiskey, sir?" came a young man's voice. The sandy haired man turned back around, twisting his seat towards the counter and looked up at the source of the voice. He was around twenty three, still young and handsome. He had blue eyes and messy, black hair. He could pass for a seventeen year old if he wanted to, because the young man was short for his age. Sean could see himself for a moment, but shoved it away deep into his memories.
He pushed his glass closer and nodded. "Give me beer this time, young man," he said.
"You can call me Erik," the boy spoke, grinning. He picked up Sean's glass and reached behind the counter for a beer and poured some into his glass, then handed it back to the man. Sean slowly lifted the glass into his lips and began drinking. "Are you from around here?" Erik asked, finding a good conversation.
Sean shook his head, putting his beer back down. "Nah. I just moved just today from Chicago with my daughter."
The moment he heard the word, 'daughter,' Erik suddenly became interested. Sean noticed this and he quickly shook his head. "I don't think you're good enough, Erik. She's only seventeen."
Erik nodded calmly, quite disappointed and picked up an empty glass, cleaning it with the towel he had on his shoulder inside out. He listened as Sean continued to talk, this time, in a different tone. The boy knew now that the whiskey and beer were taking effect. "In fact, my daughter was the reason my wife died." He laughed bitterly.
The young man paused from what he was doing and looked up, quite stunned by his words. Erik suddenly felt disturbed where this was going.
"Yep! My dear, sweet Quistis killed my beautiful Flora the minute she came into this world." He finished the last drop of beer and pushed it towards Erik once more. "Give me another batch of beer."
"I think you've had enough, sir," Erik spoke, his voice seem so hollow in Sean's ears.
Sean slammed a hand down the counter, making the young man flinch, but Erik stood his ground. How could a father say awful things about his daughter? "Give me more beer, you asshole!"
Erik frowned, insulted by Sean's words and looked over his shoulder at the security guards who had noticed the whole scene. He nodded at them and the two, large men approached Sean cautiously. "Sir, these men will take you home now," he said. He couldn't stand it whenever someone said awful things about their children. He couldn't, because they were the same words his own father used on him when his mother died.
Sean felt two, large arms grabbing his skinny ones. He shoved them away with his weight and turned around, his face reddening with anger. "I asked for more beer! I'm a customer here you jerks! Don't I have the right for more beer!?" But none of the men listened. They advanced towards him and seized him both by the arms once more. Sean, this time did no struggle as he was led out the door. He mumbled some cursed words towards the guards as they helpd him inside the passenger seat of his own car. One of the guards joined him in the driver's seat, taking the keys from his pockets, despite Sean's mumbled protests and started the engine. "I'll take him home," the largest guard said to the smaller one.
The last time Sean heard was the car starting and the car pulling out of the parking space, before he collapsed on the seat for a long nap.
*************************
"Hey! What the hell are you doing sitting around for? I made dinner!" came a hoarse voice from the behind him. Seifer looked up and noticed his mother standing there with a sneer on her face. He took one glance at her, then looked away. He could hear his mother snort and then could hear her footsteps disappear into the kitchen.
Then, there was a knock on the door.
Seifer sighed, grunting as he got up from the couch. He went to the door and answered it, quite surprised as a familiar man stood there, smiling. The blond young man was stunned by his father's sudden appearance. "What do you want?" he asked, quite rudely. He didn't want to deal with this right now, not with many things in his mind.
Bryan Almasy was a short blond man with a shiny bald head, making people wonder where Seifer got his genes from. Despite his height and his hair, Bryan was quite handsome for his age, with kind, deep, green eyes. He smiled slightly, taken aback by his son's rude greeting and stepped inside, just as he had before everytime he visited. He missed the house so much that Bryan didn't care to wait until Seifer invited him in. "Nice to see you too, Seifer." The bald man looked around, taking in the scene of the living room. He heard a quiet gasp from somewhere and Bryan looked in front of him to find his ex-wife Lynette gaping at him. "Hi Lynette," he greeted.
Lynette made a gesture to straighten her skirt up, even though there was nothing wrong with it and smiled. "What- what are you doing here, Bryan?" she asked.
Bryan looked at his son, who was hovering behind him and nodded. "Son, I came here just to ask you something."
Seifer frowned, turned away and sat down on one of the steps on the stairs, then looked back up at his father. It was his way to tell him to continue talking. "Well, this weekend, my wife and your sister and I, are going to Mount Everest and stay over at the lodge and I was wondering if you would like to come with us this weekend. That is..." Bryan looked up at Lynette. "If it's all right with you, Lyn."
Lynette glanced at her son.
"I'm not sure, dad," Seifer replied.
Bryan's face fell, but continued to smile. His hopes hadn't died yet. "Well, I'll give you until Friday to decide. Halle is really eager to see you and I'm sure you'd like to meet your little sister, Dominique!"
Seifer thought for a moment, then nodded. "Fine, I'll think about it."
The bald man looked at him, then at Lynette and opened the front door. "I hope you decide to come, Seifer. This would give us a chance to bond as father and son again." With that said, he turned and left, leaving an angry Lynette and a confused Seifer.
"You'll think about it?" Lynette squeaked. Her hopes of Seifer hating his father died.
"Just because he left us and married someone else, Lynette, doesn't mean I'll drive him away from my life," he said coldly.
Stunned, Lynette didn't say anything and watched as Seifer stood up and walked up the stairs.
**************************
"Here!" She slammed the many cue cards against his chest angrily. "You go over this and I'll give you a small quiz after school!" With that said, Quistis Trepe turned and left a bewildered Seifer to wonder what was in her head. Swearing, Seifer looked down at the cue cards in his hands and looked over it, his face scrunching from anger, to confusion. He looked up and watched Quistis disappear through the crowd, then went back to looking over the cue cards she slammed towards him. Pages and pages of notes were visible on the cue cards, each heading highlighted with different colors. Instead of actual formulas, there were hand drawn pictures of stick figures forming into their own formulas, some of which made Seifer smirk. He turned towards the direction of his English class, while he continued to read through the notes, the stick figures and the other attempted pictures she drew, which were really amusing him at that moment.
"Mr. Almasy, I don't see you hurrying into class," came Mr. Adler's voice ahead. Seifer, who was entranced by Quistis' attempt to be 'Un-boring,' looked up from the cue cards and frowned at the tall, lanky man standing by the door. The blond man sighed, stuffed the cue cards in his coat pocket and joined Mr. Adler inside his English class. For Seifer, English was his one of his favorite subjects, other than Automotive, where he had to fix cars and drive some to test them out. It was one of his best classes. English, on the other hand, they were doing a study on Hamlet, which, to his opinion was Shakespear's best work yet, aside from MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet. He enjoyed learning about Hamlet's personality, even though Seifer barely shows the excitement on his face.
The blond boy sat down on his usual seat, at the very back of the class and took out the cue cards from his pocket. While the students were filing inside, Seifer smirked at the amusing pictures Quistis drew, flipped through all the pages, expecting to see more pictures, but when he got to the middle section, the pictures became less and less visible. At the very back, the pictures completely disappeared. He figured Quistis probably wanted him to REALLY study for her so called quiz she was going to give him. Disappointed, Seifer stuffed the cards back in his pocket and took out his Hamlet book from his backpack, then began to read. He heard Mr. Adler closing the door, but Seifer was suddenly thinking about his father's request to make him come to the Lodge this coming weekend. He wanted to go, yes, but he was unsure about meeting Halle and Dominique. He wanted to spend quality time with his father. He might have said that the Lodge trip was their chance to bond, but with Halle and Dominique around, Seifer was unsure if it was possible.
"Please hand in your Hamlet essay," Mr. Adler spoke, looking around the class.
Seifer sighed, waving the thoughts away from his head and took out his homework from his backpack. He put them on his desk and waited until Mr. Adler went around the class, picking up each essay homework. Mr. Adler, who was surprised at Seifer for handing out his homework at the right date, gave the blond an approving smile. Awkwardly, Seifer nodded and looked away, turning his face towards the window. It was going to be a long day, he thought.
*****************
"The nerve of him!" Quistis joined her friends later that afternoon at lunch.
"What's the matter?" Selphie asked, looking at her friend.
The blond girl looked up, the frown never leaving from her face. She took a bite out of her sandwich, which her Aunt Charlotte made this morning and put it down on the plastic container it was kept in. She wiped away the crumbs hastilly, her mind flickering from her father, who was found drunk by Aunt Charlotte just outside their door and to Seifer, the boy who insulted her. "Seifer Almasy!" she hissed. She folded her arms across her chest and sneered when she saw Seifer walk by. "I thought he was a nice guy, but nooooo! He's a total jerk!"
Rinoa and Selphie looked at each other, then burst into fits of giggled. Quistis raised an eyebrow and looked at her two friends.
"That's Seifer for you," Rinoa replied.
"What is that suppose to mean?" Quistis said, curiously.
"Well, Seifer DOES have a reputation of being a total jerk. That's who he is!" Selphie replied. "Did you really expect him to be such a goodie goodie?"
Quistis rolled her eyes. "I thought he was."
"What did he say to make you so mad, Quisty?" Rinoa asked.
Quistis was distracted by Rinoa's nickname for her, that she had forgotten what to say. She looked at the raven haired girl and stared at her curiously. "Quisty?"
Rinoa shrugged.
Shaking the thought away, the blond girl frowned again and stared back at Seifer, who had disappeared as usual at the back of the building. "He said I was boring. Am I boring?" She glanced back at her two friends.
Rinoa and Selphie looked at each other.
Quistis couldn't believe her eyes. "You think I'm boring?"
"Well...yeah," Selphie finally replied.
"How am I boring? Am I holding some kind of dull expression on my face?" She unfolded her arms and waited for her friends' answers.
"Well.." Rinoa looked away.
"I don't believe this! Of all people to say I'm boring! I'm leaving." Quistis picked up her lunch, stood up and left so fast, that she bumped into Squall, who was just joining the girls to the table.
"Quistis! Come on, we're sorry!" Rinoa called after her. "What's the matter with her?" She glanced at her friend.
Selphie shrugged. "I better go after her, before she starts hitting Seifer square in the face. I swear, I think she's the only one who can stand up to the guy." She giggled, before she left Rinoa and Squall alone once again to catch up to Quistis.
The blond girl hadn't gone too far. Selphie found her fuming in anger, sitting underneath the single tree present in the back terrace of the school. She was eating her lunch there, her mind probably still thinking about the abominable Seifer Almasy. Quistis looked up at the sound of Selphie's footsteps and frowned. "Am I THAT boring to you, Selphie?"
Selphie shook her head. "Course not! We're sorry we said that, Quisty."
Quistis frowned at her nickname again. "Don't call me that."
"Sorry." The brunette sat down beside the blond and watched her eat quietly for a while, before she spoke again. "Besides, didn't you show Seifer how Un-boring you were? You told me you did something to make the tutorial more interesting for him."
Quistis nodded. "Yeah, well, I'm not sure if it even worked. If I want to be a teacher, Selphie, I want my students to be more interesting and Seifer...he crushed my dream of becoming one."
Selphie wrapped her arms around her and shook her head. "He's just a jerk and a half! Don't listen to anything he says! Just do your best at it!"
Comforted by her words, Quistis sighed and continued to eat her sandwich silently. Selphie watched her, without a word and they sat there as silently as possible.
GoodGurl: WOAH! Long one! I'm finally done this chapter! So...how long can Quistis and Seifer stand each other? Did Seifer REALLY find Quistis boring or attractive? Hm...o_O Will he go to the weekend trip with his father and meet his step mother and step sister? Will he ever find out the source of Quistis' bruises? And Quistis... will she make Seifer show how 'Un-boring' she was with the cue cards she gave him? Hm...SO many questions! Stay tuned!