Hey! It's the second chapter! I made it to the second chapter! Is happy for no reason Oh well… ummmmmmmmmmmmmm sorry… Anyway- I really wasn't as happy with this chapter as the first one, but I still think it's pretty good. Please read and review it- and by the way- DON'T EAT THE POTATOES!!
I do not own Tidus, Yuna, Rikku, Dante, Trish, Lulu, Wakka, or Kimahri.
That doesn't stop me from wishing, though. I also don't own Julia, Hwoarang, or Lucia.
Chapter 2: A Day School Ruled the World
It was a few days after Christmas, and school had already started up again for Rikku. Trish was beginning the difficult task of waking Rikku up and threatening her to get ready.
"RIKKU! Get up right this minute!" Trish yelled up the stairs, a mixing bowl in her hand, "You are going to miss the bus!"
"NOOOOOOO… no more school! Make it leave me aloooone!" Rikku whined dramatically, tumbling down the steps.
The commotion had brought Dante out of his room, "What's going on?" He yawned and peered into Rikku's room, "Did you sleep with your Twister mat as a blanket?"
"YUMMY FOOD!" Rikku grabbed at the bowl Trish was holding.
"Get ready for school," Trish expertly moved the bowl away from Rikku's greedy fingers, "Then you can eat breakfast."
Rikku tumbled back up the stairs and stared at Dante, grinning stupidly, "Will you be my daddy?"
"HUH?" Dante stared back at her, his eyebrow quirked.
"For school! It's Bring Your Father To School Day, and I dun want Cid to go," Rikku tugged at his sleeve, "Puh-WEASE?" She gave him her best puppy-dog-eyes look.
"I-I have other s-stuff to do today…" Dante looked to Trish to save him, "Besides… I really don't know anything about you… as a uh… person?"
Trish smirked cruelly, "You do not have other stuff to do today, you can go with Rikku. In fact, you should! It's a wonderful idea! You need to get out of the house more, anyway, and you can get to know Rikku… as a person?"
Rikku clapped happily and ran down the steps. In a short matter of time they were both ready to go to school and Rikku had eaten breakfast. They heard the bus pull up and the driver honked.
Rikku grabbed her bag and Dante's arm, "Let's go!" She dragged him out the door and onto the bus.
Dante stared at all the children on the bus. All the children on the bus stared at Dante.
"Sit with me!" Rikku grabbed his arm and shoved him onto the seat beside her.
Dante looked at the kids sitting around them with their fathers. He realized suddenly they all looked like they were seven or eight. He turned back to Rikku, "So… exactly what grade are you in?"
"This year I'm in … … …" Rikku suddenly looked stunned and then began to count on her fingers, starting over many times, "Third grade!" She looked very pleased with herself for remembering.
Dante was obviously surprised and shocked, "What?! How old are you?!"
"I'm… … … … … … …" Rikku again looked puzzled and began counting on her fingers. Finally she shrugged and looked back at him, "I dunno, quit asking me all these hard questions! Ask Yunie! She's 19 and really smart."
Dante slapped his hand to his forehead and began muttering angrily.
"Excuse me?" The man sitting across the aisle from them asked, "Is that your little girl?"
Dante glared at him, "NO!" He shouted.
"Yup! He's my DADDY!" Rikku hugged him around the neck, "He hunts demons or marshmallows or somethin' like that and he watches TV a lot and he annoys Trish and I secretly think he's secretly in love with Tri-"
Dante clapped his hand over her mouth, "NO! I'M NOT EVEN RELATED TO HER!"
The man was covering his son's ears and staring at them in shock.
"Dante?!" A familiarly annoying, Russian-like accented voice drifted over the seat, "Is that you?!"
He turned around quickly and peered down at the person sitting in the seat behind them, "Oh no… That's not you, is it, Lucia?"
Lucia blinked up at him, "I-I-I thought you w-were d-dead! But here you are! With your own little son!"
"Why are you going to school?" Dante looked at her in confusion.
"The elves wouldn't listen to me! They put me back in kindergarten because they said I was as stupid as I sound…" Lucia cried in anguish, "Are you married?"
Dante decided it would be best to lie to her, "Ummm…Yes!"
"TO WHO?" Lucia demanded, her eyes welling up with tears.
He tried to think of a possible person. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind, "You know… Trish?"
Lucia blinked, "Ahhh, yes! The woman on the motorcycle at the end of DMC II! I thought it was you, but when I ran to the door, she beat me up and told me to stay away from you."
Rikku suddenly poked her head over the seat, "I didn't know monkeys could talk! I just thought they used sign language like that one movie where there was a volcano and everything went BOOM!"
Lucia and Dante stared at her in silence.
Suddenly, Rikku turned pale and gasped, pointing at a boy in the back of the bus, "That's the boy who asked me out! I said no!"
"Why didn't you say yes?" Lucia looked at the tall boy in the back of the bus, "He's cute… except his dye job is bad and red isn't a good color for him."
"I can't go out with anyone!" Rikku replied in shock, "Yunie said she didn't love anybody but Tidus and she said I shouldn't love anyone who isn't like Tidus, so I have to wait to go out with someone who is another Tidus!"
"That freaky box man?" Dante asked.
Rikku nodded.
"Tough break," Dante shrugged and then grew angry, "Gosh you people are so messed up!"
"Heck is the place people go if they don't believe in gosh," Rikku said cutely, but she was met with blank stares.
Lucia began bawling, "LIFE IS SO UNFAIR! I HATE TRISH AND I'M GONNA KILL HER!"
The bus came to a sudden stop and everyone began filing out. As soon as Dante and Rikku were off the bus, Rikku raced into the building, leaving Dante behind. It took him several minutes to find her, but when he did she was putting her book bag and coat on a hook and talking to her teacher about how great her daddy was.
"See! This is him! Isn't he cooool?!!" Rikku jumped up and down and pointed at Dante.
"So you are Rikku's father," the teacher, who looked like she was only in her teens, scoffed, "I've been waiting to meet you for some time."
"The thing is, well, I'm kind of a replacement person- I'm not really her father- she just… well-" Dante started, not sure how to explain the situation without sounding like a complete loon. However, he wasn't quite sure with himself at the moment that he wasn't a complete loon.
"It's no wonder this poor little girl is as confused as she is!" The teacher spat, "My name is Miss Chang."
"She's seventeen, not a little girl, and she's NOT my kid!" Dante said loudly and angrily.
Miss Chang smiled cheerily at the rest of the children and their fathers as they entered the room and sat down. Her expression turned ice cold as she turned back to Dante; "I want to have a private word with you, sir, after class is dismissed. Apparently you have issues going on at home that are too difficult for you to handle emotionally. As an educator, I am here to help my students learn and achieve their goals to the best of their abilities. I think you are stunting your own daughter's ability," Miss Chang spoke haughtily and then turned on her heels, walking to the front of the classroom without giving Dante a chance to defend himself.
Rikku tugged on his arm and made him sit down in the tiny desk beside her own.
Miss Chang walked up and down the aisles explaining that the fathers were to tell about what they do for a living, and then the children could question them after they were done speaking.
"Mr. Sparda, would you please go first?" Miss Chang requested nicely.
Dante stood uneasily and walked slowly to the front of the room, asking himself mentally what the heck he was doing to himself, "Hi," he said in an effort to sound relatively cool. There was no reply.
"Well… Ummm… My name is Dante Sparda… and I'm supposed to be Rikku's father today- but I'm not usually- I think she said her real father's name was Sud or something…" He stared blankly at the people staring blankly at him.
"What's do you do for a living?" A father asked, ignoring his previous statement about Rikku.
Dante looked around uncomfortably, "I… uhhh… My job is hunting devils," he tried to think of something else to say and finally squeaked out, "Devils… … … never cry…"
A little boy raised his hand and started squirming in his seat.
"Yeah?" Dante tried to sound tough.
The boy bit his lip, "I have to go to the bathroom!"
Miss Chang laughed cutely and tilted her head to the side, "David, remember what I told you about staying on a subject we are all talking about? Remember I told you that's why you never have any friends? Think about what you are going to say before you speak and then your classmates might actually like you."
David began to cry, "Miss Chang, I wet my pants!"
Miss Chang sighed in a tone to subtly hint she was frustrated and pursed her lips, "David! Remember what we were just talking about? You just got off the subject again! And you didn't raise your hand before you spoke."
Dante stared in shock at Miss Chang and then at the poor little boy who had wet his pants.
Rikku abruptly got out of her seat and ran over to Dante, her wide eyes sparkling and chibified, intensifying the brilliant green of her eyes.
"Oh!" Dante melted and clapped his hands together in joy, "Look at 'er! In her wee little boots! She's so cute- just like a little bunny!"
Suddenly, Rikku up-chucked on Dante's shirt and began to cry, "My tummy hurts!"
Dante screamed in repulsion like a little girl, "You puked all over my cool demon-slaying shirt!" He moaned in agony.
"Why don't you both go to the office and sign her out. You should take her home because she probably doesn't feel very well," Miss Chang advised as she led them both to the door.
"You're a master of the obvious, huh?" Dante snarled at her and then left to find the office, Rikku scampering along behind him.
It took, to his shirt and his shirt's dismay, over ten minutes to find the office and sign Rikku out. He then realized Rikku and he had ridden the bus and couldn't drive home. He phoned the house, and to his relief, Trish answered.
"Hello?" Trish muttered into the receiver.
"Trish! Oh thank goodness! I need you to come pick us up! The teacher is really mean and scary and Rikku barfed on me and this elementary school is as big as a freakin' university!" Dante yelled.
"Who is this?!" Came the confused reply.
"It's me! Dante!" He cried.
"Oh," Trish sighed, "Sorry, the car is broken again, plus you didn't shovel the driveway this morning so it's probably stuck anyway. And you could just fly home because you still have your devil gauge up."
"I never thought of that! Wow, Trish, you're really smart!" He smiled broadly into the receiver and wondered at Trish's intellectual genius.
"Hopeless," he heard Lulu mutter.
"Right… see you later, then," Trish hung up quickly.
Dante hung up and turned to Rikku, "Hey… Ummm… Want a piggy back ride?" He couldn't think of any other way to carry her back home.
"Yeah!" Rikku clapped and jumped onto his back tightly. He turned into a devil and flew out, giving the school a new skylight while he was at it.
"Oops," he sighed, but kept flying anyway.
"So how was school today?" Lulu asked when Dante and Rikku walked in the door.
"GET HER OFF!" Dante yelled and jumped up and down, trying to shake Rikku off his back.
Rikku giggled and held on more tightly.
Lulu sighed, "Hopeless," and cast Thunder on Rikku, which immediately made Rikku detach herself from Dante's coat and run up the stairs crying.
"Thanks," Dante scoffed and walked upstairs to clean off his shirt and get another one.
After he had gotten another shirt and put it on, he knocked on Rikku's door, feeling bad for having caused Lulu to make Rikku cry.
Rikku opened the door a crack and peered out at him, "Come in… HURRY!" She whispered harshly, grabbing his shirt and pulling him in.
Dante's eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly, but he turned on the light anyway, because he was scared of Rikku. There, in the middle of the room, the coal was in several rings around the golden shoe- and around the coal, a ring of hungry looking potatoes- how they looked hungry, Dante wasn't sure… but they did… And they were turning towards Rikku and him.
And so it begins… next chapter will be up soon!