Chapter 15
"I just can't get over how great hotdogs are, Irvine." Zell took one last bite of his hotdog, savouring every moment of it, being sure to inhale as much of the hotdog aroma that was drifting from his lunch as humanly possible.
"You know what, Zell?" asked Irvine. "Hotdogs are just like women."
"How can you say that? They just don't compare," protested Zell, gently picking up the next hotdog of his overflowing dinner plate. "Give me a hotdog any day baby."
"Now, while hotdogs do have their obvious advantages, you just can't beat a good woman."
"Pft. I just don't see how you can say women are just like hotdogs."
"Well, think about it, Zell. Hotdogs require time and money, as do most women. Also, you have to queue up for hours waiting for one that you can take home, only to find that there's none left and you were just that little bit too late."
"You don't get women from a canteen though, Irvine," he said through a mouthful of hotdog.
"I don't know," the cowboy replied. "That lady behind the counter's been giving you the eye for a long time."
"What!" Zell spluttered, spitting his lunch out all over the table, much to Irvine's amusement.
"Had you going there, man," he laughed.
"You made me waste good hotdog dammit!" he screamed at the top of his voice, causing the other students in the cafeteria to stop and stare.
Irvine merely laughed. Suddenly aware of the attention that they were receiving, he tipped his hat towards a nearby table of female students who immediately started giggling amongst themselves, proud that he had thought to acknowledge them.
"See, look at them all. Hunting in packs, giggling, talking amongst themselves, probably about us. Women are scary."
"You have a lot to learn. You just need to know what they like. When you get used to them, you'll see they're not scary at all," Irvine explained. "You know you have the attitude of a nine year old towards women, they're not some completely different species or something."
"Oh, no? Then why do they have all that make-up? Just what in Hyne's name is it for? Do they really have faces covered in horrible, slimy scales that they don't want us to know about? And what's with all the shoes. How many feet do they really have? Do they sprout extra ones at night time when nobody else is around? And why do they have to go to the toilet in groups of two or more? Why does it take so many of them?"
"You've thought about this way too much. You need to calm down."
"You're right. I'm going to get another hotdog."
"That's right, Zell. Go and see your girlfriend."
"Ok, that's it," screamed Zell finally snapping, leaping across the table and grabbing Irvine in a headlock. "You take that back."
"Hey, man, take it easy. Take it easy." Luckily for Irvine, he was rescued from the situation by Selphie, who came bounding into the cafeteria at full speed.
"Guys," she announced, trying desperately to get their attention, tapping them both on the shoulder at the same time.
There was no response from either.
"GUYS!" she shouted at the top of her voice, getting her the attention she requested. When she saw the mass of students staring at her in disbelief, she suddenly became embarrassed. "Just go back to your food everyone."
"What's the matter, Selph? You seem tense."
"I just saw Squall being escorted to the Headmaster's office by some other SeeDs. It seemed pretty important too. He came out of there looking really angry." She had lowered her voice to a whisper so that nobody could possibly overhear. "Do any of you guys know what happened?"
"No," replied Zell. "But I passed Rinoa earlier. She said she was going to see if she could spend the day with him."
"Was he with Rinoa, Selph?"
"No, there was no sign of her."
"Maybe we should ask Quistis," suggested Zell.
"I'm not so sure. I went up to the classrooms to find her, but all I found was a note on the door saying that all her classes this morning had been cancelled."
"That never happened when we were students," moaned Irvine. "Some things just aren't fair."
"Guys, something's going on. We have to find out."
"How?"
"I thought maybe we could ask Squall."
"You have got to be kidding me," Irvine protested. "You said he was angry. Zell, back me up here. Would you want to talk to a very angry Squall."
"No way, I'd rather face a whole herd of ruby dragons that hadn't eaten for weeks."
"Well, this could be your lucky day. I hear there's an excursion being run to the Island Closest to Hell that's leaving in about an hour." Both men could see from the look on Selphie's face that they weren't going to get out of this one. They were going to have to speak to Squall.
"Oh look, he's not here. Let's leave," announced Zell. "I'm going to go check for him in the students lounge."
"No you don't," replied Selphie, grabbing him by the arm. "First of all, we haven't even looked yet, and second of all, when have you ever seen Squall in the student's lounge?"
"I think that was the point," said Irvine, who soon found himself on the receiving end of a particularly nasty look.
Selphie ran on ahead, dragging the two men behind her.
"See, I told you he'd be here," she said proudly as the sound of a dying T-Rexaur greeted their ears. This was quickly followed by the anguished cry of a large number of grats that were under attack. All three SeeDs gulped, knowing what to expect.
"That's Squall alright. And he's mad," pointed out Irvine.
"Erm, Squall?" asked Selphie, quietly, hoping that he would not react badly to the disturbance. "Squall?" she asked, a little louder this time.
"What?" he snapped, obviously irritated at the interruption.
"We…we were just wondering if you were ok."
"It's no concern of yours."
"But, we…we've known each other for so long, and…and we always work together," she stammered, nervously, losing all of her confidence.
"Yeah, well I don't work with you anymore so you can just leave me alone."
"What do you mean, Squall?"
"What do you think I mean? Have you suddenly become deaf or something? I said, I don't work with you anymore."
"You mean, you're…leaving SeeD?" she asked, a look of disbelief registering on her features.
"I think being fired is the better term for it," he growled, stalking past them on his way out the training centre.
"What do you mean?" she shouted after him.
"Why don't you ask your dear friend Quistis?"
"It had to be her," he thought to himself as he paced the corridors of what was soon to become his former home. "It had to be somebody that was there otherwise how could they 'cast doubt' on the facts. This person was there on the mission."
"It couldn't possibly have been Zell. He's not a bad guy. Sure, he can be a little hyperactive at times but he's always honest, that's something I can't fault him for. If he had have had any doubts, he would have come to me first."
"And as for Irvine, he was always trying to set me up with Rinoa. If he thought Rinoa was lying and deceiving us then he definitely wouldn't have done that."
"I know it can't be Selphie, either. There's no way she's that good of an actress to fool me into thinking she didn't know anything about this. And what would she have to gain if she asked me about it unless she genuinely had no clue about what was said."
"That only leaves one person."
"Quistis."
"That's it. That explains why Quistis' lessons were cancelled. She's been to talk with the headmaster," Selphie explained.
"You don't think she'd actually tell him to get rid of Squall do you?" asked Irvine in disbelief.
"Not in those words, no. But do you remember how she would always ask us what we thought of Rinoa and if we trusted her."
"Hey but she was just jealous, Selph. It was obvious that she liked Squall and Quistis didn't like that."
"But Squall has loads of girls after him," Zell pointed out.
"It was also obvious that he liked Rinoa in return though. He always brushed the other girls off so Quistis didn't feel threatened by them."
"Yeah, she once told me that what she wanted above all else was for Squall to grow to like her more," said Selphie.
"See, there's your answer."
"Deep down she knew that it was never going to happen, though. I could see it in her eyes. I don't think this is just jealousy."
"Well, maybe it's just clouding her judgement. Maybe she really does think that Rinoa's bad news, and she can't see the truth because she's blinded by her feelings," offered Zell.
"Maybe you're right."
"Should we go and see her?" asked Irvine.
"I'm guessing she'd want to be alone now. I don't think we should disturb her."
"Well we have to do something. I don't want to wait round for Squall to do something stupid."
"Zell, this is Squall Leonhart we're talking about. He always plays by the rules."
He knew exactly where she had been taken.
The detention centre.
Although the name conjured up images of students sitting at desks in a room being forced to do maths in their lunch hour, it was in fact a far more sinister place. In fact, it resembled a prison. This would be where they had taken her if they thought she was deceiving SeeD and could perceivably be a danger to all in Garden. If Caraway found out that Garden was harbouring his daughter, the consequences could be dire for all involved.
This was what Squall wanted to avoid at all costs, even if it meant for once in his life, breaking all of the rules that he lived by.
A/N.
Huge, huge thanks to everybody who had reviewed this. All of them mean so much to me and I don't think I thank you guys enough. I also want to apologise for not updating this for a while. I was focusing on Romance Sans Paroles and then I got given four pieces of coursework to do. Yuk. I'm supposed to be doing my further maths coursework now, so shush, nobody need find out. And sorry for the slight insanity at the start of the chapter, I've been listening to too many Madness songs. So, as a last note, please review.