A/N: Thank you for your reviews! And, I'm sorry to say that Ashleigh isn't going to get a good kick in the butt for a very, very long time -evil laughter- A-hem. I'm not really trying to be evil, it's just that Ashleigh is probably just going to get worse until I set her straight -dodges rotten tomatoes- Oh, and by the way, Seifer is going to have a major role in future chapters, so don't worry, he's not just going to be some guy standing on the side :P Anyways, enough babbling, on with the chapter :)
Lost Memories of My Love
Chapter 11 – End of the Line
Rinoa's cell phone rung on the way back to Garden. She looked at the screen, and to her amazement, Caraway was calling her.
"Hello?" she said.
"Rinoa?" came Caraway's voice.
"Yes?"
"Rinoa, come back home, please," said Caraway.
"But vacation's almost over," said Rinoa, "I can't stay for long."
"You don't need to," said Caraway, "You have to come home. Your mother and I need to speak to you."
My mother and him ... that doesn't sound like good news, thought Rinoa.
"Tell me now," said Rinoa.
"No, it's urgent," said Caraway.
Rinoa sighed. "Okay."
"Thank you, Rinoa," said Caraway. He hung up on her.
"What's wrong?" asked Squall.
"Caraway wants me home," said Rinoa. "He needs to talk to me about something. Sounds important if he couldn't tell me over the phone."
"Okay," said Squall slowly, "If it's important, do you want me to take you now?"
Rinoa smiled. "That would be great."
Squall turned the car around and headed for Deling City. Rinoa looked out the window in silence, wondering what was going to happen.
---
"I'm glad you came here as soon as you could," said Caraway, inviting Squall and Rinoa inside.
"What's so important?" asked Rinoa.
"Do you ... want me to go outside?" asked Squall, feeling awkward for entering the house if Caraway's business had nothing to do with him.
"No, it's quite all right," said Caraway, "This does involve you, Squall, in a way."
Caraway led Squall and Rinoa into the lounge room, where Sera sat with her legs crossed and her hands neatly placed on top, looking smug.
"Please, sit down," said Caraway.
Rinoa and Squall sat down next to each other on the couch, still wondering what was going on.
"What's so important?" asked Rinoa.
Caraway sat down next to his wife. "Well, Rinoa ... your mother and I have been thinking about it for a long time."
Oh Hyne, please ... don't tell me she's pregnant, thought Rinoa.
"And we've discussed about it in your absence," added Sera.
"And we just think that your Garden record is very important," said Caraway.
"What?" said Rinoa.
"Well, Rinoa, we ... we just don't want you going to Esthar with Squall," said Caraway.
Rinoa stared at them both, knowing straight away that it was Sera's doing. "No ... you can't! You have to let me go..."
Squall sat silently.
"Four years is a long time," said Caraway, "And in four years, you could earn yourself four ranks, and by then you could leave Garden."
"So?" cried Rinoa, "What does it matter?"
"Your grades are important," said Sera, "You can miss out on a lot of learning if you leave."
"If you let me speak on the matter," said Squall, "I've organised it with the Headmaster. Rinoa won't have to redo the courses."
"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that she's missing out on schooling," said Sera. "If she just skips it altogether, then she'll miss out on learning vital things..."
"Then I'll just redo the courses," said Rinoa, almost in tears, "Please..."
"If you redo the courses, then you'll be at Garden until your twenty-six," said Caraway, "Do you want that?"
"No ... please, let me go," said Rinoa, "It was my choice to join Garden in the first place..."
"Exactly," said Sera, "You should have thought about it before you did so."
Rinoa tried to hold back tears, but failed. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't stand to let Squall go...
"I'm sorry, Rinoa."
---
Rinoa was miserable for the rest of the year. Squall had tried to cheer her up, but it just didn't work. He tried to get out of leaving, but Laguna wouldn't compromise. Rinoa tried to convince her father into letting her go, but Sera wouldn't agree.
She wasn't going, and that was final.
The rest of the year suddenly went by very quickly, and Squall was leaving in that day, and she was going to leave for the airport in a couple of hours' time. The others were also trying to cheer her up, and she would pretend to feel better, but she just didn't, especially when she found out that all her friends were going to Esthar as well.
They were going to surprise Rinoa, because at first she had felt sad to leave all her friends behind, so Squall organised with Laguna for all six of them to travel up to Esthar together. Laguna had agreed because he wanted to give them all special duties for the future of Esthar, so the situation was unchangeable. Finding out that they were leaving made Rinoa's heart ache even more, because even if Squall was leaving, she still had her other friends ... but now...
Caraway made her come back to Deling for the end-of-year vacation, which made Rinoa even more miserable that she had to spend her vacation away from her friends, away from Squall, and with the family from hell.
Rinoa sat in the living room as the whole family, excluding Seifer, were going through the yearly reports. She sat there in silence, feeling miserable, as Sera kept commenting on Ashleigh's wonderful progress in school.
"Wow, ninety-three percent in the yearly exams!" exclaimed Sera in awe. She looked at Ashleigh, who was looking proud.
"Ah, you really are my bright angel wing," said Caraway, patting Ashleigh on the back.
Sera gasped. "You received the second highest percentile in the year! I'm so proud of you!"
Ashleigh smiled triumphantly and looked at Rinoa.
Rinoa really hated to think what Sera would say when they read Rinoa's report.
"Don't worry, big sister," said Ashleigh, "Don't feel bad if I got a better mark than you."
Rinoa smiled weakly at Ashleigh, not knowing what else to do.
"Well, let's see what Rinoa got," said Sera, eager to prove that Ashleigh was better than Rinoa.
Sera opened the envelope and pulled out the Garden report. She and Caraway scanned down the paper. Sera didn't say anything, but Caraway looked quite amazed.
"Well?" said Ashleigh.
"Ninety-eight percent in the yearly exam," said Caraway, smiling at Rinoa.
Ashleigh looked utterly shocked.
"Placing my angel wing with the highest percentile in the year," said Caraway.
Sera looked at Rinoa with hatred and envy in her eyes, not believing that Rinoa had beaten Ashleigh.
Ashleigh couldn't believe it either. She didn't want to accept the fact that Rinoa was better than her.
Rinoa just smiled, finding the looks on Sera and Ashleigh's faces very amusing, and it was even funnier how Sera was gushing about Ashleigh's report, and she didn't even say a word about Rinoa's excellent academic achievement.
"I'm proud of you, Rinoa," said Caraway, when nobody said anything.
---
Two hours later, Ashleigh sat on the couch, reading magazines, while Sera had her hair in curlers, watching television. Rinoa was upstairs, Caraway was at work, an
They were both silent, until Sera's program ended and she turned off the television.
"How can you do that?" asked Sera.
Ashleigh looked up at her mother, unsure of what she was talking about.
"What?" asked Ashleigh.
"How can you get such a bad grade?" said Sera bitterly.
"I got the second highest in the year!" cried Ashleigh. "That's not so bad!"
"It is if Rinoa got a higher mark than you did," snapped Sera, "You want to be better than her, don't you?"
"Yes ... but..."
"Then you have to work harder to be better than her," Sera cut in.
Ashleigh was taken aback. She did want to be better than Rinoa, but she didn't want to that much. The only reason why she did was because she wanted Squall to be with her.
Rinoa overheard their conversation, and actually felt sorry for Ashleigh. She thought that Ashleigh would have been eager to be better than Rinoa, but judging by the conversation they just had, it didn't seem so.
"Don't worry about it, Sera," said Rinoa, coming down the stairs, "It was a pretty hard course and exam ... Ashleigh did great to be placed second."
Sera turned towards Rinoa. "Oh? So are you trying to brag that you were placed first in this hard course and exam?"
"No ... I'm just saying," said Rinoa slowly.
"Well, don't," said Sera sharply.
"But Sera..."
Sera, not able to contain herself any longer, slapped Rinoa across the face with great force.
Rinoa stood, flabbergasted, not looking at Sera. Her face throbbed in pain, but she didn't dare speak up.
"Why do you call me Sera?" demanded Sera.
"Because ... that's your name..." Rinoa said quietly.
Sera slapped Rinoa across the face again. "Don't act smart with me."
Ashleigh just stared at her mother in shock. She didn't think that she would ever do something like that.
Rinoa kept her face in the position where it was before, not daring to look at Sera.
"I'm your mother," said Sera angrily, slapping Rinoa across the face again. "Why do you never call me mother?"
Rinoa squeezed her eyes shut, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't know why she was crying – she had been exposed to much more extreme pain than that before.
"Say it!" yelled Sera.
Rinoa didn't know why she didn't say it then. Her teeth were glued together, and she just couldn't open her mouth.
"Say it!!" shouted Sera again, slapping Rinoa across the face.
"M-M-Mother..." Those words stung in Rinoa's mouth. She didn't want to call Sera her mother, because she wasn't ... and she didn't want her to be.
Sera was satisfied.
Ashleigh just continued to stare in shock.
Rinoa bit her bottom lip, trying hard not to cry.
At that moment, the phone rang. Sera looked at the phone and let it ring twice. Rinoa knew it was for her.
"Pick up the phone," said Sera calmly.
Rinoa didn't want to. Why didn't whomever it was call her cell?
"Pick it up!" said Sera forcefully.
Rinoa inched to the phone and slowly picked it up.
"H-hello...?" Rinoa's voice was trembling.
"Rin?" It was Quistis. "Where are you?"
"I'm ... I'm at home," said Rinoa. She glanced at Sera, who was watching Rinoa like a hawk.
"Oh, we're at the airport now," said Quistis, "Our flight leaves in a couple of hours. Hurry!"
Rinoa nodded. She didn't want to miss them. "O...Okay."
"Okay, bye," said Quistis.
Rinoa put the phone down and walked past Sera to go to her room to go the airport.
"Who was it?" asked Sera.
"A friend," said Rinoa.
Sera paused, and looked like she suddenly remembered something.
"You're going to the airport, aren't you?" said Sera.
Rinoa didn't say anything and continued up the stairs.
"You aren't going anywhere!" shouted Sera, "I know you're just going to hop onto the next flight to Esthar without your father's approval!"
Rinoa turned around and stared at Sera as if she were delusional. "No, I'm not! I swear!"
"You can't fool me, you little wench," said Sera. She ran up to Rinoa and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her towards the closet.
"Let me go!" screamed Rinoa, trying to pull away from Sera.
Sera dragged Rinoa to the closet, despite Rinoa trying to pull away from her, and opened the door. She pushed her into the closet and locked the door.
Rinoa screamed. She screamed so loudly, her heart falling to bits. "NO! Let me out! LET ME OUT!" She continued to scream, banging on the door with all her might. Her screams slowly turned into sobs, and she broke into tears.
Sera turned around and looked at Ashleigh, who was still staring at Sera in shock.
"Come on, Ashleigh, we're going to the airport to bid Squall farewell."
Ashleigh's shock disappeared, as the mention of Squall brought a smile to her face.
