Squall Returns
After school, Zell had wandered from Balamb Garden and into the town of Balamb. His mother had fully recovered from her illness, a virus that had been spreading around recently in the town. He was quite relieved. Though she was a spunky woman who was always on her feet and optimistic, she was still getting older and, to be truthful, Zell was always paranoid about anything anyways.
He wondered where Selphie had run off to. He remembered her chasing after Seifer and Fujjin, but he couldn't understand why. Surely, Fujjin wasn't planning on having her baby soon? He hoped not. The closest hospital was in Deling City, but what if she had to have it immediatly?
He needed to not worry about such things. He was such a worry-wart.
He tried to recount about everyone, thinking in his mind if there was something he left out and had forgotten.
Let's see:
Selphie, Seifer, and Fujjin had left for, perhaps, Deling City, so he couldn't go off with Selphie somewhere until they returned.
He hadn't heard from Irvine recently. Irvine had crawled into a shell and noone could quite understand why. He had always been so open with everyone, especially the women, but ever since Raiun arrived, he seemed to have changed.
He hadn't heard from Quistis all afternoon. She was probably dicussing Raiun's performance as an instructor.
That creep, Raiun. Quistis looked like she had been googly-eyed for him. What if Rinoa was falling into the same trap?
"Maybe I should stop worrying so much," he said aloud to himself, staring up at the ceiling as he rested on the soft, twin bed of his room. He sat up, and felt his weight slid back onto the bed. "Rinoa wouldn't be caught in something that easily. Quistis just probably had a crush on him because he's kind of a handsome guy." He coughed. "I don't have to worry about Selphie. She's with me." Zell thought for a second, and clenched his fist. "If that guy ever seduced Selphie, I would kill him."
Who else.. oh, of course, Squall! He couldn't help but wonder where Squall was at. He had been gone for three days, but for what?
He walked downstairs, and out of the house, and into the streets. He sat on the small embankment of porch steps, thinking to himself, when he found himself turning around to a familiar voice.
"Been a while, Zell."
Zell looked back. Squall! He stood immediatly, and ran over to him.
"Ah, man! I didn't know if you were going to be coming back! Everyone's been so worried about you, especially Rinoa."
Squall hung his head a little. "Well, I wanted to surprise her."
"You surprised her, all right. She's missing you terribly. She got into trouble in class today because she was writing notes about you."
Squall laughed lightly. "She's done that before, but I haven't meant to get her into trouble."
Zell crossed one leg in front of the other, waiting to hear Squall's reply to, "So, Squall, where have you been?"
"I went to Deling City to get a ring for Rinoa."
Zell gawked. "Oh, duh! How did I not figure that out?!"
"Don't be so hard on yourself. Well, you see, the train arrivals kept changing, and I kept missing my ride for Deling City a lot of times. I stayed a night at Timber, and a night at Deling City. If I hadn't kept on missing the train, I could've been back by the second day. I didn't mean to worry anyone."
"So, let's see the ring, man."
Squall pulled a small velvet box from his pocket, and opened it to a small, black gem that was placed on a silver band. Zell was a little disappointed.
"You got her a black gem? She likes the color blue."
"Hold it up to the sunlight."
Zell held the gem in the sunlight, and it sparkled an ocean blue, and a radiating streak of rainbow fell onto Zell's shirt from the refraction of the light. "Wow. This had to have been expensive."
"7500 gil," Squall said proudly.
Zell gawked at him. "Boy, your girlfriend is awfully expensive."
Squall smiled shyly. "Not expensive, just worth a lot to me."
Zell stuck his tongue out at Squall. "All right, Shakesphere, no poetry." Zell was still examining the two-toned gem in the light. As he began to lower it, a raven grabbed it out of his fingers with it's talons. "Oh, hell! That bird took your ring."
Irvine had just walked over from the Balamb shop. He had been stocking up on supplies. "Hey guys, what's up?"
"Have you not been listening to what's going on?!" Zell said out of breath. "Shoot that damn bird, it's got Rinoa's wedding ring!"
Unstrapping his shotgun from his holster, Irvine aimed his gun into the sky, and fingered the trigger of the gun. He held his other hand in the holster, ready to grab another bullet in case he missed. He fired. Bullseye. He shot the raven's talon, and it dropped the ring, but it had fallen a little in the distance. "Looks like it fell by the docks," Irvine told them.
"Come on, we have to get that ring," Squall told them, already on foot and running for the docks. Irvine and Zell followed.
They trailed past the hotel and saw that the ring was still falling in mid-air. It was falling for the dock waters, and just before it fell onto the surface, a fish sprung from the waters and caught the ring in it's mouth.
"Oh, please, don't tell me this.." Squall said, his heart pounding.
Rajjin was at the docks, pulling in the heard of fish with his large net. "Yo, Squall. Haven't seen ya around in a few days, ya know? Everyone says they were worried about you, ya know?"
Zell moved over to Rajjin, and helped him pull in the catch onto the docks. "We have to look through these fish! It ate Rinoa's ring!"
Rajjin laughed. "That sounds like a funny fish story, ya know?"
Zell held him by the colar of his shirt. "This isn't funny, Rajjin! That was Rinoa's wedding ring!"
Rajjin's black face turned pale. "I'll be sending this school of fish on over to the Garden. You want the cafeteria women to search them? The fish will be for the SeeD Ball."
Squall was a little bit relieved, but his heart was still thumping painfully against his chest. "That would be great."
Rajjin nodded. "Alright, I'll be sending these fish on over to the Garden. See you all later." He pulled the net onto his shoulder, then onto the bed of the truck by the dock. He climbed into the driver's seat, and headed for Balamb Garden.
Squall sat down at the docks, his face pale. "That fish will have digested that ring by the time the SeeD Ball comes along." He placed his face into his hands. "Oh my god, what have I done?"
Zell placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't fret about it, Squall. I'm sure everything will come out good in the end."
Squall stood, and started pacing. "I have to go back to Deling City."
Irvine stood as well. "You can't do that. Rinoa's already missing you. You can't run away from the problem."
"I can at least try to get another ring," Squall told them, "and if not, I have to hide away from Rinoa. What am I gonna tell her if I come back empty handed? She'll ask 'Squall, why were you gone for so long?' 'Because I was out buying you a wedding ring.' 'Oh mie gosh, Squall! Where is it?' And you know what I'll tell her? I'll tell her a damn fish ate it!" Squall inhaled deeply, and he sounded as though he was shuddering some, on the verge of tears.
Irvine placed a hand on Squall's other shoulder. "Look, if you keep hiding, it'll only make things worse. Running away isn't going to help it, and if Rinoa really loves you, she'll understand."
Squall exhaled out, and felt a tear running down his cheek. He wiped it away. "Maybe you're right."
They all followed the trail back to Balamb Garden in silence.