Chapter 24

Simmons progressively scanned the room, assessing the dangers that he would be facing. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw just how many people were bustling around the busy cafeteria.

"Should be easy enough to slip away," he thought slyly to himself.

He steadied himself one more time, before heading over to Squall's location at the head of the dinner queue. That was the extent of his plan. He hated to admit it, but he had come into this one unprepared. The time needed to carefully plan an operation that could not possibly fail was not gifted to him, leaving him with a risky operation, lacking in detailed preparation, which was why he was still unsure of how to distract Squall for long enough to slip the substance onto his food.

"Somehow, I doubt the 'look over there' trick will work," muttered wryly.

He was only a couple of paces away from Squall now, and he was beginning to feel the panic well up inside him.

"What to say, what to say, what to say?" That one, single question was rushing through his mind.

He felt sure that he had been seen. Squall was a highly trained member of SeeD, and so his presence would not have gone unnoticed.

"Act natural. If I do that, he has no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary."

As a plan failed to materialise the closer he got to his target, Simmons began to panic, his palms were clammy, his manner agitated, and sweat was dripping off his forehead.

"He's going to suspect something," Simmons thought, grimacing.

"Yo, Squall! Squall, over here."

Just when Simmons thought the game was up, he was saved by Zell charging through the vast crowds of people standing between Squall and himself.

"Squall!" Zell bellowed for a second time.

It was then that the opening Simmons had been praying for opened up. Squall looked over towards Zell, and turned his back on the would-be-assassin standing just metres from him. Simmons was not about to miss this opportunity. He swiftly removed the vial from his pocket and poured the contents of the bottle over Squall's lunch, before swiftly leaving the scene, ensuring that he was lost in the crowds before his target had time to turn around.

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"Squall, you had better be saving me one of those hotdogs you've got there," Zell shouted, despite the fact that he was now within comfortable talking distance of Squall.

"You charged all the way over here to tell me that?" Squall asked, exasperated. "I thought there was some kind of emergency."

"There is some kind of emergency. That meeting with the headmaster this morning made me late for lunch, and you got the last of the hotdogs."

"My heart bleeds for you," Squall replied, sarcastically.

"I need my hotdogs, man. Can't get through the day without them."

"Well I was at the meeting with you, and I managed to get here in time, so it's your own fault, and you are not eating my lunch."

"Hey, it's not my fault," Zell protested, following Squall towards the only free table in the room. "I bumped into this girl from the library on my way here, and…well…anyway, that's not what's important. What's important is that you let me have one of those hotdogs. Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"For the last time…NO!"

"Zell! Zell!" Both men looked up to see who had interrupted their argument, only to see Selphie bounding through endless lines of first year students looking thoroughly indignant at the fact that they had just been pushed, jostled, and some of them even knocked to the ground. "Excuse me, coming through," she warned, after she had barrelled into a group of four boys. Unfortunately, Selphie was too wrapped up in reaching her friends that she didn't notice the bag on the floor directly in her path. Her foot became tangled in the straps, and she flew across the canteen…straight into Squall. He flinched and took a step backwards, preventing him from falling over, but in the process, the lunch plate was knocked from his hands, and flew across the cafeteria before landing at the feet of the dinner ladies, who promptly shot Squall a dirty look, before sweeping up the hotdogs and dumping them unceremoniously into the bin.

"I can't believe they just did that. They had no right, I mean, those were perfectly good hotdogs," whined Zell. "This is all your fault," he accused, pointing at Selphie who was busy picking herself up off the floor, and dusting herself down.

"Geez, Zell, they're only hotdogs," she replied. "And anyway, I wanted to speak with you," she said, changing the subject. "What's the deal with you and the girl from the library?" she asked, curiously.

"There is no deal. There's nothing to tell," he replied.

"Oh, I think there is. Zell's got a crush. Zell's got a crush," she chanted, drawing interested looks from students across the cafeteria.

"No, I haven't." By this time, Zell had managed to turn an attractive shade of lobster pink.

"Zell's got a crush. Zell's got a crush."

"That's it! I've had enough," he screamed, turning on his heel, and storming out of the room.

"I think you embarrassed him, Selphie," Irvine, who was making his way over to the table at a much more leisurely pace than Selphie had, pointed out.

"So, I'll get the whole story from him eventually. I always do."

"I think maybe you should leave him alone for a little while," Irvine advised. "He seemed pretty mad."

"Nah, he'll get over it. Anyway, speaking of mad, have you talked to Quistis, Squall? I know you were pretty angry with her but…"

"No, I haven't, and I won't be doing so at any point in the future." Squall meant this to be the end of the conversation, but that wasn't enough to put Selphie off,

"Oh, Squall, you can't say that. She really regrets what she did, you know?" Squall just shrugged.

"Go and talk to her," pleaded Selphie. "She's really sorry for everything, I know she is."

"Selphie, I think you'd better drop it," Irvine said, putting one hand on her shoulder. "How's Rinoa?" he asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a more productive direction.

"She's fine, I guess," Squall replied.

"She wasn't offended that she didn't get to go to the meeting this morning?"

"She understands," Squall lied. He had broached this subject with Rinoa the previous evening, and she had been upset that she wasn't allowed to voice her own opinion about a situation in which she was intrinsically involved. Eventually, and with a great deal of persuasion, Squall had managed to persuade her to grudgingly accept the decision, even if she wasn't particularly happy about it.

"Really? I thought she would have been annoyed about it," exclaimed Selphie. "I know I would have been." Squall just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to discuss Rinoa's feelings with anybody. His attitude was that if she wanted Selphie and Irvine to know about it, she could tell them herself.

"Look, I was going to see her after lunch, and seen as you've already dealt with my lunch, that means now. I'll see you later," he muttered, before she could ask any more awkward questions.

"See you later, Squall."

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From his vantage point in the corner of the cafeteria, Simmons watched the scene unfolding with a grimace permanently etched on his face. If it hadn't have been for the interference of the girl, his mission would have been a complete success. As it was, his boss was going to be very unhappy.

"Very unhappy indeed."

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A/N: I'm really sorry for the length of time it took me to update. Hopefully, it'll be updated regularly from now on, because I don't have much else to do in my three hour waits between lectures. I just want to say thank you to everybody that's still reading this story.