"Tada! Everyone loves SCATTeRGORIeS!!" Laguna said, holding up a big box. Rinoa smiled at the goofy man. "I have never played before...is it fun?" The man seemed taken aback by this bit of information. "Never...played...? My dear girl you are missing out! I love this game and Squall here, why he is almost as good as his dear ol' dad! In fact, I bet he would love to teach you how to play. Rules are simple!"
"You only like it because you like writing..." Squall growled from behind them, but Rinoa turned around and looked at him with wide, nearly excited looking eyes. "Please teach me how to play!" Squall rolled his eyes and nodded. What was he getting himself into?
"Ok," he began as Laguna set up the little boards and put out the timer and the huge dice, "Pretty much, you get a list, role the dice, whatever letter it rolls on you have to think of a word and write it down...like if it rolled on T and the first thing on the list is boy's name, put a boy's name starting with T..." Rinoa looked at him stupidly and blinked. "Wow, that was the most I've ever heard you talk..."
Squall rolled his eyes yet again. "Whatever. Do you understand?"
The girl got a fiendish look on her face a narrowed her eyes. "I don't know...you play with me on my team and maybe I will understand it." Squall looked over at Laguna pleadingly but all he got was a smirk. "Yea Squall, maybe she will. You just sit down next to her and help..." Obviously defeated, the shaggy headed boy sighed and sat down next to the girl.
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"Woo! I won again!" Rinoa cheered for the fourth time. "She's unstoppable!" Laguna wailed, "I've never lost before!!!" Squall just got up and headed for the kitchen. "I'll start on dinner." he muttered as the door closed behind him.
It wasn't long before Laguna had joined him to heat up a frozen pizza. "Do you ever get tired of buying these things?" Squall asked, unconcerned. "Nope, and don't worry, I'll take care of dinner tonight. You just go out there and have a good time with your friend." Squall started for the door slowly. "Oh, but if you go to your room leave the door opened." The boy turned around to look at his idiot father with rage, "What do you take me for?! I'm frickin 10 years old!" With the last word in he stormed out of the kitchen and ran into Rinoa.
"Sorry, dad's stupid..." he said with a slight blush, helping her off the ground. "It's ok! He is just being a dad right? At least your dad is cool." They both heard a loud "Hah, I'm cool!" come from the next room. "So is it ok if I see your room?" This is what Squall was afraid of. "I guess...but it sucks..."
He led Rinoa through the tiny hallway to the last door and opened it. This time she did giggle at it. "Needs a little work huh?" Head in hands, Squall nodded once but looked up when he heard a squeal come from his guest. "Who is that girl? She is pretty!" Finally, something to talk about without embarrassment!
"That's my sis. She got a scholarship to a college in another state so she is gone for a while...I miss her..."
Rinoa looked up into his intense eyes as he talked about Ellone. "You all must have been close. I bet you miss her..." "Yea......" After a long, uncomfortable pause, Squall turned towards the door. "Let's go outside. You probably hate it in this tiny place."
He quickly shoved her out of the room and out of the house with him. After he surveyed the area he decided a walk down the road would be best. They walked down the dirt road without a word for several minutes, both deep in thought.
"Tell you what, next time I come over we will rearrange your room and put stuff up on the walls. That will make it a lot more homely!" Rinoa resolved, braking Squall's much loved silence. Why was she still thinking about that stupid room? Was it that bad? "Ok." Just as he thought he was going to nudge in a little more silence Rinoa spoke up once again, "So what are you thinking about? I can tell when you are thinking you know..."
Luckily, or unluckily, however you might look at it, before he had to open his mouth at all Irvine and Selfie walked down the road towards them. "Hey, we're over here! Come walk with us!" Selfie yelled, waving her arms in the air as if Rinoa and Squall couldn't see her from a few yards away. "Aw man, when am I ever gonna be able to make my move..." Irvine inaudibly whined.
The four gathered together and the girls giggled with each other. "Hey, let's go hiking!" Selfie offered, pointing to a shadowy, spooky looking wood. "I don't know Self, it's rumored that wood is haunted..." Irvine warned, not knowing he was just agging her on in his own little way.
"It's settled! We go! Besides, if something tries to get me Squall will save me, right Squall?" Rinoa asked, looking at him with those eyes. "Er..." "See, I knew he would be up for it!" "Yea, and Irvine will save me, right Irvine?" Selfie asked him with her hands on her hips. "Of course baby!" Irvine agreed ferociously.
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"Ahhh! It's huge!" Irvine screamed. Selfie quickly picked up the frog that had landed on his shoulder. "Oh Irvie, you're such a baby!" Rinoa giggled but it was somewhat nervous. "So you guys, where are we? I've never been this deep in any woods before..." "Yea Irvine, where are we?" Selfie demanded. "Hey, don't look at me, I thought you were keeping track of where we were!" Irvine accused.
"Great, we're lost! Now we'll just have to wait for the first one to die and eat each other!" Selfie sighed heavily. Rinoa automatically clung to Squall. "Squall, I'm scared....so scared..." The boy gently put his arm around her shivering body. "Don't worry, I have been keeping track on where we are. You're safe..."
"Wow, you sure are good with women, man. You gotta tell me your secret one day!" Irvine said, ruining the two kids' moment.
Thanks to our hero, they were all out of the woods in no time and went their separate ways.
Once they were once again alone, Rinoa tried to gaze into her rescuer's eyes but only succeeded in tripping over a stick in the road. "Watch it. Am I gonna have to save you from everything?" Squall muttered as he caught her just before impact with the gravel. "Thanks Squall..." Rinoa blushed and they continued home.
"Hey, what took you all so long? Food's been ready for an hour!" Laguna yelled out the screen door as soon as they were in his sight. "We got a little lost..." Rinoa admitted shyly. Laguna laughed, "Heh, so Mr. Man couldn't stop and ask for directions huh? Heh heh."
They got inside and saw a half a pizza on the coffee table. "What happened t..." "Oh sorry bout that! I got a little hungry while I was waiting..." Laguna retorted before Squall even finished. "Whatever."
They all sat down on the couch to eat and Laguna flipped on the TV to Wheel of Fortune. "Dad, this isn't right...Rinoa probably hates these stupid shows..." Squall assumed, just trying to make up an excuse to watch something else. Laguna and word games...oi! "No, this is just fine! I don't get to watch much TV." Rinoa said, blowing poor Squall's excuse out of the water.
They finished 'dinner' and watched a little more TV while Laguna talked through all of the good shows. Then, in the middle of one of his stories about the military the girl remembered something. "Mr. Loire, why do you and Squall have different last names?" Laguna smiled at her forwardness, "Well, long story short, me and Raine, his mother, kept our own last names when we got married but didn't want to have to give him two last names so we just combined some of the letters from each and wallah! We have Leonhart!"
"Well that's wonderful!" Rinoa complimented to both guys. "Oh, but do you have a phone? I told my father I would call." Laguna bowed in the direction of the kitchen, "Why certainly my dear, it's hanging on the wall, can't miss it!"
As soon as she was gone, Squall got up from his little corner of couch, "Why are you being so ignorant?" "I'm not, just making conversation, unlike someone I know!" his dad teased.
"Hey guess what?" Rinoa called excitedly from the kitchen, "Father said it was ok if I spend the night! Is it ok with you Mr. Loire?" Laguna gave Squall the most evil look and called back airily, "Of course! Make yourself at home!" As soon as he was done talking Squall grabbed the nearest pillow and leapt at him, covering his face with the make-shift weapon. "I'm gonna kill you!" All he could hear of Laguna was muffled hysterical laughter.
