Don't own any of it (other than plot 'n stuff), wish I did but boo hoo I don't and oh well I'm over it.
I'm worried about Yuffie, she's too quiet, she won't look me in the eye, even more worrying, she's actually eating one of the canteen dinners. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I think she might be planning something big, no doubt she's mad enough. I try and catch her eye across the grey plastic table but her gaze keeps flicking between the large wall clock, Riku and Cloud.
Now that I think about it she's been strange all day, avoiding me, Aerith and Vincent while constantly in deep discussion with her oldest and newest friends at this camp. I haven't had a chance to talk to her all day and now I realize there's a big secret I'm not in on that's making me really nervous.
Both hands on the clock hit six and my three friends' exchange a final look, then push back their chairs and stand up, the hall falls silent. Yuffie opens her mouth to say what knowing her will be a little prepared piece, but a stern voice from the staff table interrupts her,
"Don't even think about it, we had all the locks automated after last time." An echoing click goes round the doors and windows as they're fastened into place by remote control.
"Fuck," Yuffie mutters, but rather than despairing as we all expect her to do she elbows Cloud, "Time for plan B." she tells him. Cloud reaches into his black Doc Marten and retrieves a small object which I quickly recognise as a kitchen knife, my heart quickens slightly; if he's just doing what Yuffie's told him to then I don't think it's possible to overestimate what's coming next. He sidles over to Aeriths seat and murmurs something into her ear, then he holds the knife to her neck while she stands up and silently moves next to him, I can see exactly where this is going.
"Go an open the door then." Yuffie says unsuccessfully trying to look exasperated, she knows she's won now. The staff quickly begins a heated discussion in hushed tones while the rest of us sit enthralled, but I can only feel a deep ache inside myself. For the first time today Yuffie actually looks at me, she's ashamed (a very rare occurrence for Yuffie) and I'm utterly betrayed. She doesn't want me with her, some fucking friend 'eh?
Then I notice stuff's started happening again, there's another click as the doors are unlocked and quickly Cloud leads Aerith (still at knife point) and Riku towards the exit. Still Yuffie's watching me apologetically, trying to get at me with puppy-dog-eyes,
"Vinnie, Lulu, I'm really sorry, nothing personal, yeah?" Then she turns to me,
"Boobs, you know I lub ya' tons, but it just wouldn't work, I hope you don't hate me." Then with a quick wave to everyone else and a flirty wink to Reno she turned and ran to catch up with her fellow escapees. The retreating image of her jogging down that dingy hallway was the last I ever saw of Yuffie Kisaragi.
I catch up with the others, Cloud immediately giving me a look for taking so long but I ignore it. Pulling up next to Aerith I give her the quickest of explanations, "Picking up our bags, choring a van and heading for the highway, if you want we'll drop ya' there and they'll come get you." Next I turn to Riku who knew nothing about "plan B" and tell him "Look, we'd have never gotten out if we hadn't, we wouldn't have hurt her anyway." Strictly speaking this is a lie but he doesn't have to know that.
We reach the exit and as planned Cloud goes on to the car park while me and Riku (now with Aerith) take a slight detour. Behind some of the slightly dead shrubbery we have hidden three packs containing our clothes and belongings, maps and a small amount of money. Me and Riku grab ours, passing Clouds to Aerith (well, if she gets in on the fun part then she might as well be useful). Heading in Clouds direction I flash Riku a smile, the adrenaline rush is better than any drug I've ever taken and believe me that's good.
Cloud's inside the van we picked out yesterday (the one everyone knows has a broken alarm) he's smashed a front window and opened the door from the inside, sadly no engine noises yet, but I trust him. We pile in, Riku and Aerith clambering into the back while I slide in next to my blonde friend.
"How's it coming?" I ask.
"Not too great, no progress yet." He accidentally snaps the wire he's using and swears, pulling out another. The three of us watch him in deep concentration and for the first time I see the artistic qualities in my friend. He's a tradesman and this is his trade, I'm impressed. About to indulge my curiosity and ask him how it's done I freeze as I hear hurried footsteps across cracked tarmac and a jolt of excitement goes through every bone in my body.
"Cloud, don't mean to rush ya' or anything but hurry up or we're all gonna get busted!" I slam the van door closed and turn to him, now physically shaking. A group of mismatched staff is now no more than 30 meters away, but I am not going to let them win, not this time. I'll knee those bastards in the balls and run if I need to but this time I'm getting away. Screw the others cause if it'll help I'll go it alone. I'm such a bitch.
"YUFFIE! We're about to get caught and you're fucking day dreaming!" That doesn't startle me but the simultaneous engine noises and sound of the door being yanked open does. The van jolts into life and we jerk away from the grasp of Mr. "Oh you're in trouble now Yuffie"
We're away, so we might be headed out onto a one way road rather than the open highway but it'll do for me. With a feeling of pure ecstasy I lean out of the still open door and stick my fingers up at the gob-smacked staff.
"FUCK YOU BASTARDS! CAN'T EVEN CONTROL A FEW KIDS!" Cloud grabs me and pulls me back into the seat before I can shout more, also slamming closed the door. "Oh you're no fun." I tell him, unable to keep the smile off my face.
"Yeah but I got the van going." He says, smug.
"I know you got the van going! It's brilliant!" I shriek happily and plant a massive kiss on his cheek. He takes us flying down the empty road at at least ninety-mph while I climb into the back with the others. Before I can even get started Aerith gives me a shock that just for a minute brings me back to earth,
"Wherever you're going, I'm coming with you."
Yuffie is completely insane. Why didn't I notice that before I agreed to this? Ten minutes ago she was taking her friend hostage and now she's shrieking like a dying parrot cause she's so happy Aerith's coming with us. Maybe there's something wrong with me. Cloud's happy cause he's driving illegally, The girls are squeaking about how much fun we're gonna have and all I can think about is what my gran'll say when she hears about this. I used to be considered fearless back home but here I'm way out my league.
"C'mon Riku!" Yuffie shouts interrupting my thoughts, "Why don't you look completely and utterly ecstatic? Can you honestly say you've done anything this fun before!" She's actually wondering why I'm not happy, how dense do you get! Like I said, I'm in too deep and I've only just realised it. What an idiot I am.
From the things she's saying to Aerith a lawyer (which is what she promised me) seems to be the last thing on her mind, she's talking about the parties we're gonna have, the massive amounts of beer we're gonna drink and the guys they're gonna pull. The grin on her face is like nothing I've ever seen before, it was the first time I realised that a truly happy Yuffie is quite a scary thing. Before I even notice what she's up to she clambered over and sat herself in my lap,
"Cheer up Riku," She says "You'll be having a great time once we get to civilization, promise."
"I thought we were going to visit this lawyer friend of yours."
"We are, but we might as well enjoy ourselves first, thing is, I've got a few friends in the direction we're headed and they're expecting me." She smiles oh-so-sweetly and I try desperately not to melt.
"All right then, that's fair enough." She gives me an unexpected hug and says,
"You're a great guy Riku, now go an drive for a minute while me and Cloud have a celebratory spliff."
Now wait a minute! She wants me to drive! Is she out of her mind? Does she even have a mind? But before I can even begin to complain she's pushing me over the barrier and into the front seats with Cloud ushering me over.
"Look-" I begin, but before I can even protest the underage driver tells me,
"The one on the right makes you go fast, the one on the left slows you down, we're running away so we want to go pretty fast. Now I'll only be a minute, don't have a panic attack and don't crash the van." Then after giving me a patronizing pat on the head and a grin he joins Yuffie in the back leaving me to desperately slip into the driver's street.
I took hold of the steering wheel and stepped down on the accelerator, quickly realizing I'd used too much force as we sped forwards in a jerk which jarred us all. I heard a chuckle from the back and Yuffie sarcastically called
"Whoo! You're good at that ain't ya!" Followed by the click of a lighter and a strong smell of marijuana.
"That's just brilliant," I muttered "the only one of us who can drive is partying already." I drove down the long road for some time without to many wobbles (although I do say so myself), remembering how tedious and long this part of my journey had been only a few days ago. But still, I seemed to be doing okay, I even managed to tackle a corner, and so I let myself get cocky. Looking back I have to ask myself why I always do this, my life would be so much simpler if I just controlled my confidence. I'm officially and idiot.
It was the third or fourth twist in the road we came to, and by this point I couldn't wait till I got out onto the open highway, because of this I must have been going at about 100mph. Despite Clouds promise to come back in a few minutes he and Yuffie were now sitting in the back pissing themselves laughing over practically nothing. So still pining for the real road I stupidly decided not to slow down for this turn. It was all over very fast, just like it always is, one minute I was confidently driving down the road and the next… well, the next minute I'd misjudged all my timing and sent us straight into a ditch. I'm sure you can imagine the sort of thing that came next.
Let us recap. Yuffie (the beautiful and wise) comes up with an amazing plan to get us all out of an evil hellhole where we're used for child labor. Thanks to Yuffies extensive planning despite a minor hitch everything is going great. Everyone is enjoying themselves until Yuffie asks one teeny little favor of Riku (the ugly and flatulent) which he of course screws up, not only crashing the van but more importantly spilling the weed that Yuffie had to trade her favourite T-shirt for.
"RIKU! YOU SHITFACED MOTHERFUCKING MAN-WHORE! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!" I screeched, lying on the inside roof of the now upside down van. I began to crawl forwards to where Riku lay, quite ready to rip his balls off when Cloud sat straight up, something akin to fear on his face and announced
"The van's gonna explode. I can hear the petrol leaking." There was no time for words, we'd all seen the scenes in the soaps where the car explodes with everyone in it and for now that was enough to cease any arguments and have us all scrambling to get out the vehicle.
And that's how it was, we stood outside the burning van, bags at our feet, desolation on our faces. Riku approached me like one might approach and angry tiger.
"Yuffie I…"
"Don't even bother Riku."
"I want to apolagise, I've ruined our whole plan and when they come and pick us up it'll be all my fault."
"The plan isn't ruined. We just need to alter things a bit." I told him, he can be so dense.
"Alter things? Like what, we've got no way to get around!"
"Uh, we have legs! Duh." He looks at me in complete shock, jaw trailing on the ground.
"You want us to walk all the way?"
"No, we're going to run. You hear that? That's the other van that's and it's gonna be here any minute, so I recommend we get going." He stood and watched me as I tightened my converse boots and shouldered my pack, then, looking away from me as if I was being ridiculous he turned to see Cloud and Aerith doing the exact same thing. The three of us laughed as a conquered Riku put his rucksack on. I flashed him a grin, adrenaline now building up again and quelling any anger I had. I did a cartwheel purely cause I could and then took off at a sprint.
Running is what I do best and after 2 weeks of under-eating and hard work I was completely in my prime. I could hear the others behind me and I was reassured that they're all a pretty healthy bunch, but I knew they'd never match my speed. The wind whizzed through my hair and it occurred to me that I ended up running way too much. The first time I ever ran away I was five, I managed to get to the park when it started to rain and I went home. By age eight I was skiving off school, chased by enraged teachers and by the time I was 11 I was running from the law with pockets full of stolen goods. So just look at me now, I think in the history of 'stupid stuff Yuffie has done' this probably comes tops, which is pretty impressive. But this makes me so happy, just… this. Breaking all the rules and not caring makes me feel good, I think that's probably been my downfall.
I glance behind me to see my friends trailing, just to taunt them I turn and jog backwards.
I turn back around just in time to see a sharp corner, once again at full speed I almost run straight into the side of a passing truck. I've reached the T-junction and the long awaited highway. More trucks roll past as I wait for the others causing wind to blow through my short hair and I feel so free that I scream, the sound carried away along with all this cargo in transit. I think maybe that's what I am, cargo in transit.
My friends come into sight puffing and panting and I leap onto Cloud in sheer ecstasy, pulling Riku and Aerith over and hugging them while clinging to Clouds waist.
"We did it." Aerith panted, a huge smile adorning her features.
"Practically re-wrote history." I tell her with a contented sigh and as ever a grin on my face.
Bwahahaha! I'm baaa-aaaaack! I know it took a really really really long time but this is where the real fun begins (along with all the gooey and often not so gooey romantic bits). Seriously though, anyone who's reading this, thanks, and if you've enjoyed it the extra thanks. I've got lots of plans for the up-coming chapters (so many I know I can't use them all) so please bear with me.
Big 'YAAAY!' for all my reviewers for making me keep going, you of course all get free dohnut vouchers. And remember, if you enjoy this and don't review, you're practically stealing! (only I'm just joking so do not crai)
