The Delinquent
I don't own final fantasy 8 or Barbie or action man.
Thanks to anyone who reviewed my story.
In this chapter the characters personalities start to really come through, Rinoa should stop feeling sorry for herself in the next chapter.
Right-o
"Sorry, your dad said to just come up." he said, interrupting her assessment of him.
"No it's alright; you just gave me a fright." Rinoa sighed.
He nodded and Rinoa finally started wondering just who he was and why he was in her room in the first place.
"Who are you?" Rinoa asked once her curiosity got the better of her.
"Oh, I'm Squall, I'm your new neighbour."
Once Squall had finished making his initial introduction he made his way back to his own property. He grimaced as he opened the door, knowing exactly what was waiting for him. This was his Hades, this house and all who dwelled in it were what made his life quite literally hell.
"Squall, how'd it go?" Squall's overly excitable father exclaimed as soon as Squall walked in the door.
He was standing on the other side of the door like a dog waiting for its master to come home. Squall despised the way his father idolized him. While most people would probably love it, after awhile the novelty wears off.
"I said hello, met the daughter, and came home." Squall said offhandedly as he headed towards the phone.
Before he got there his father was right there again.
"That girls a cutie."
Squall sighed and frowned, he hated this part. This was the part where Laguna, his father, would try to convince him to start a romance with her. It was Laguna's great passion to see Squall happy and thought that bringing in a complication like that was going to make it so. Laguna just didn't understand that Squall was happy… in his own way.
"I noticed." Squall replied curtly.
"So, you ganna have a next door neighbor relationship… falling for the neighbor girl?"
Squall rolled his eyes and grabbed the phone; he took it upstairs to his room and slammed the door. He cringed as he did so, hoping that she wouldn't hear it. She would go mental about something like that.
"SQUALL LEONHART what have I told you about slamming doors!"
"Sorry Mum." Squall called out.
He listened for a little while and sighed, glad that she wasn't going to go off her rocket at him again. His mother was what one might call a "stresser", little things that generally didn't bother most people just got to her. Squall had the same problem so he usually knew what he could and couldn't get away with.
After a couple of seconds Squall began dialing a familiar number, after a few rings someone finally picked up.
"City Morgue." An over-confident voice said on the other line.
"Loser." Squall replied.
"Hey man, we all set?" the voice on the other end enquired.
Back over with Rinoa
Rinoa lay down on her bed, finally feeling that she could. She knew that she couldn't comfortably do it until her room was sorted out. She was the sort of person that wouldn't relax until the job was done. She couldn't ignore these things because she knew that if she put it off then it'd never get done.
There was just one final touch that needed to be done. She pulled out three photo frames.
The first one she pulled out was of her and Lucas; they had just been on a skiing trip in Trabia and were inside a lodge. Lucas had his arms wrapped around Rinoa's waist from behind and Rinoa was holding onto his arms lightly.
They were both smiling and Rinoa looked happier than she had in a long time. That was a long time ago though… before her mother passed away. In fact that was when her mother was doing well, it seemed that those were the only times that Rinoa could be happy.
Rinoa sighed and placed it atop her bedside table. She wanted that to be one of the first things she saw every morning so for at least a couple of seconds she wouldn't be in this hick-ass town.
The second was of Marcia. She was sitting atop a small hill with a white rose in her hand. She was staring at the rose with a soft smile on her face and once again she looked flawless. Rinoa smiled at the picture and put it beside her mirror.
The third was of her mother. She had a baby in her arms that would grow up to be Rinoa and she was smiling down at her with all the love that one person could possess.
The feeling that shone through her eyes was extraordinary and Rinoa had always loved that picture. She was unsure about where to put it so she just placed it beside the picture of her and Lucas.
Rinoa stared at the picture for a lingering couple of seconds; it was times like this that she missed her mother the most. Rinoa pulled her eyes away, not wanting to start thinking like that. She didn't need to upset herself more than she already was.
She heard footsteps coming up towards her and sighed, knowing instantly that it would be her father.
She didn't look at him when he entered and only acknowledged him when he sat down at the end of her bed.
"Rinoa, I know your upset now, but things will get better. You'll see."
Rinoa didn't understand how things could improve at all; all she wanted to do was to go home. Back to her old home where she was secure. Back where things made sense and she wasn't a stranger. Where everyone knew her name and respected her.
In Deling she was one of the most popular girls in school, she was going out with the school football captain… she was a somebody… here she was nothing.
Two days later
Rinoa tugged at the bottom of her blouse. She was accustomed to wearing a uniform, in Deling it was casual dress all the time and here there was a fashionably nonexistent uniform.
It consisted of a long red and black tartan skirt that went down to her shins, a white blouse and ugly black sandals. That was the summer uniform and she could see herself getting desperately hot in the long skirt.
The first thing she noticed was that every other student there had their blouse un-tucked, so instantly she un-tucked her own. Then she noticed that the backs of all the students' sandals were flattened down by the girls' heels, so Rinoa bent down and did the same with her own.
Other than that she couldn't see anything that stuck out as a fashion statement so she walked into the school and headed for the office.
After getting horribly lost and having to ask for directions she finally found the office. Once there she encountered an incredibly stuck up office-lady who thought her job was to make students feel as uncomfortable as possible.
She noticed a blonde boy sitting on one of the waiting chairs. He smirked at her and she smiled back, feeling a little uncomfortable by his piercing stare she turned away and waited for the lady to print out her timetable.
"Don't touch that!" the office lady shouted at the blonde headed boy who had been heading for a pamphlet.
He glared menacingly at her and grabbed it anyway, a small smile set upon his face that just begged her to protest again. She didn't, instead she just sighed and handed Rinoa her timetable.
Rinoa found her home room without much trouble, the numbering system on the classrooms wasn't that hard to follow and once she'd sussed it out she found it rather simple.
She walked in just as the bell was ringing and found herself to be one of the last people there. The teacher, an old crabby looking man, glanced at her and gave her a look that screamed "what are you doing in my classroom?"
"Uhhh… is this P12?" Rinoa enquired, feeling more uncomfortable than she had in years.
"Yes." He replied simply.
Rinoa decided that the only way to approach this situation was with confidence and didn't want the other students to sense her fear. Teenagers can smell fear and they jump at the chance to play on that, she didn't want to be the person that they tormented the whole year.
Rinoa walked towards his desk and gave him her timetable, explaining that she was new and she was assigned to this class.
"Good of someone to tell me. I'm afraid the only seat that is left is at the back, please take your seat and remain quiet until the rest of the students get here." The teacher barked.
Rinoa walked hastily towards her seat and sat down. She sat down and stared at everyone from the back of the room. It was mostly filled with Barbie dolls and action men.
She suddenly felt very comfortable; these were her type of people, normal, catty teenagers… the kind of people she could get along with. She wasn't either of these things herself but she knew how to handle these people.
She'd grown up around these people, she managed to be strangely unaffected by them but she still knew what to say and what not to say when dealing with them.
Then the door flung open and two individuals walked in. one she recognized as that boy who lived next to her and the other was a perky looking petite girl who simply radiated.
There was no other way to put it; she drew your attention like a moth to a flame. Rinoa assumed that she must be popular but judging by her uniform… maybe not.
Her skirt had two splits going up either side that revealed a lot of her leg and instead of the standard sandals she wore strap up ones that had leather bands that wrapped all the way up to her knees.
Her bottom buttons on her blouse were undone so that they revealed her toned stomach and the top ones were undone to reveal a little bit of her v-neck bright yellow t-shirt that she wore underneath. She had various jewelry on that Rinoa already knew was a big no no.
She had shoulder length brown hair that flipped out at the bottoms and emerald green eyes that sparkled with childlike inquisitiveness. Rinoa knew the instant she looked at her that she was outgoing and seemed like a lot of fun.
The girl chewed on her gum for a couple of seconds then blew a large bubble.
Squall, the next door neighbor had the standard boy's uniform on with a few minor differences. He wore the grey dress pants, but they seemed a little bit baggy on him and he had a long silver chain hanging down on the left side.
He had a long sleeved shirt on with the sleeves rolled up and a crimson red vest on over it. He had a red and black tie on that was hung loosely around his neck and the top button on his shirt was left undone. He had a large silver pendant hanging from his neck proudly and Rinoa noticed an aura of disdain that he hadn't possessed when she first met him.
He had his hands in his pocket and sat down at the desk in the front beside the door, one of the last remaining seats.
His female companion bounced her way to the back of the classroom and sat in a seat beside Rinoa. She slouched in her seat and held her hands out in front of her, grasping the end of her desk.
Rinoa noticed for the first time the carvings that were covering the girl's desk. There was a large love heart in the middle with S.T 4 I.K imprinted boldly in the middle and it seemed to stand out more than all the others.
"Selphie Tilmitt, could you please remove that gum." The teacher snarled.
Selphie, the girl who sat beside Rinoa, blew another bubble in defiance and Rinoa admired her for her courage. Rinoa would've walked straight up to the front of the classroom and threw it immediately in the rubbish.
The teacher growled and picked up the rubbish bin, he walked towards Selphie and held it out in front of her. She smiled sweetly at him, took the gum out of her mouth and stuck it on the bottom of the desk.
"That's it Selphie! You will come here at lunch time and pick off every single piece of chewing gum off the bottom of these desks."
"I gotta go to Mr Harrison's class and polish all the Bunsen burners." Selphie replied while pulling out her nail file.
She started filing her nails and smiled in satisfaction at her damn near perfect nails.
The teacher grimaced at her but didn't continue the argument any further, deciding that it was better to be left alone for a bit until he could calm down.
"See me after class." The teacher whispered menacingly.
Home room was soon over, Rinoa hadn't heard a lot from Squall but noticed him waiting impatiently for Selphie once class had finished. He rolled his eyes as he heard their teacher screaming at Selphie at the top of his voice.
"Umm, excuse me?" Rinoa said quietly.
Squall stared at her for a second with a "why the fuck are you talking to me" look before a look of recognition came over his face and he rose his eyebrows.
"Do you know where the English block is?" Rinoa enquired.
Squall glanced at the door as it opened and Selphie came out grinning ear to ear.
"What a loser!" Selphie laughed.
Squall turned back to Rinoa and Rinoa noticed Selphie giving her the same look Squall had, but no recognition came over her face.
"I'm going there now." Squall said curtly.
Rinoa nodded and walked beside Squall. She took note of the looks she was getting. People were avoiding eye contact with Squall and staring lingeringly at Selphie.
"Why are they staring at me like that?" Rinoa muttered to Squall.
He scoffed for a second then glared at a group of boys who scowled back. Rinoa could almost feel the tension between them and thought better of asking about it.
"You'll find out soon enough."
During the entire day she was approached by at least fifty people, this school was like prison, you were either in a group or getting fucked! She had found out why everyone was staring at her. She'd soon realized that
Squall and his friends weren't what were considered well mannered members of society. They seemed to have the biggest detest for any and all forms of authority. They also seemed anti mixing with the other students that attended the school and they seemed to be generally feared.
It was approaching lunch time and she'd been invited to sit with a group of girls that seemed like her type of people.
A couple of them appeared to be on the cheerleading squad, which was weird because at her old school cheerleaders had generally hung out together and with football players girlfriends. Every where's different though, Rinoa kept having to remind herself of that.
"So Rinoa, whats it like living in a big city." One of the blondes at the table enquired.
Rinoa didn't exactly consider Deling a "big city" not after visiting Esthar, now that was a big city!
"Alright I suppose. Deling's sort of lost its charm since all the soldiers showed up, it's not really the town I grew up in, but I miss it." Rinoa replied.
There was a couple of second of silence; Rinoa wondered whether they had heard her or whether they were in stunned silence or something.
"So, like, do you have mall and stuff?" another girl asked excitedly.
'Yep, exactly like my friends.' Rinoa thought as she smiled and shoved another mouthful of food into her mouth.
Rinoa listened to the girls talk about how cool it would be to have a mall in their town for awhile till she zoned out. It was an ability that she had taught herself, to just tune out what everyone was saying and go into her own world.
She starting thinking about Lucas and how she wished he was here with her. She never thought that she could miss someone as much as she missed her mother but it appeared that it was quite possible.
She was thrown out of her thoughts when a loud piercing siren starting screaming into her ears and water started pouring down on her from the sprinkler system above them all. all the girls at the table squealed and ran out of the hall.
Rinoa sat for a couple of seconds watching them all run out before she stood, she quite enjoyed the anarchy of the situation, something she wasn't used to at all.
Once outside they were told it was just a drill and someone had pulled the fire alarm, everyone seemed somewhat pissed off, except for Rinoa that was. And a certain group of people that stood not to far from her.
She noticed Squall and Selphie but there were four other people surrounding them. One she didn't recognize as the boy she saw in the waiting area of the office in the morning.
He had the same smirk plastered on his face that he had when she had seen him and was finding it quite attractive at this point. Rinoa shook her head and dismissed the thoughts; she couldn't think things like that. She had a boyfriend.
"Some classics never die." A spiky haired blonde boy in the group laughed.
"You could've at least done it in class! More specifically my Algebra class!"
Rinoa was shocked at the girl who said it. She was the most heavenly creature she had ever seen. She had thought that there was no one more beautiful in the world than Marcia but she was wrong. This girl had long cherry blonde hair that went all the way down her back. She was tall enough to be a model and had the face to match.
Her perfectly sculptured body had the blonde she'd seen in the office wrapped around it. They fused together and matched each other in a way that Rinoa had never seen before in a High School couple. Just by seeing them for an instant she could tell that they would be together for the rest of their lives.
Rinoa stopped staring when one of them glanced at her, she didn't want to be caught ogling at a group of people on her first day. Thought she couldn't shake of the feeling of fascination with the group.
"Who the fuck is that?" the smirking blonde boy enquired… otherwise known as Seifer.
Squall glanced over at Rinoa for a second; he turned back to his friends and sighed. He didn't really want to make a scene with the neighbor girl, that could make his living arrangements quite uncomfortable.
"My neighbor, leave her alone." Squall replied.
"Ow, Squally's got a girlfriend!" Selphie said in a sing song voice.
Squall glared at her and it was enough to stop any future taunts. Squall had a glare that could melt the entire continent of Trabia.
"Whatever, I'm over this. I'm going home." Squall finalized.
Squall started walking towards the car park and was followed by the rest of his comrades. He sighed once again but didn't comment on it. He knew that they were only leaving because he was. He couldn't help it if he was a bad influence on them all; it wasn't like he was the worst one out of them all. That title was held by Seifer but he was definitely in the top three.
The only time he held the title of the worst of them all was when he was mad. When he got mad he tended to do things that most people would shudder at… like his best prank of all…
FLASHBACK
Squall stood in the cafeteria line, avoiding eye contact with most of the people there. He hated people staring at him but found that in his line of work it was a given.
He felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to see the football team… or most of it, standing before him. he rolled his eyes and turned back to the line, not wanting to have this confrontation at this point. Especially without any of his friends.
The quarterback spun him around and held his fist dangerously close to Squall's face.
"Don't you turn your back on me you fucking freak!"
Squall smirked and turned again, deciding that this was one disagreement that he wasn't going to be able to avoid.
He was spun around again and this time he was pushed against the metal cylinders that you push your tray along.
"I'm talking to you!"
"And I'm ignoring you, whats your point?" Squall said innocently.
"Listen girly! You fuck with my team one more time and we'll kick you and all your friends' asses! I'm sick of you strutting round like fucking Hyne!"
With that the team walked away, leering at Quistis dangerously as they did so. Quistis had just turned up and was approaching at the time. Squall glared at them all when they did this. Quistis was his friend, he'd known Quistis longer than he cared to remember and anyone who fucked with her, fucked with him.
She stuck her foot out when the last boy walked past and he toppled to the ground, his food splattering all over his clothes.
She elegantly stepped over his body and continued walking towards Squall.
"What just happened?" Quistis enquired, ignoring the disorder going on behind her.
"We're fucking them up!" Squall announced angrily.
It was that time of year again. The stadium was packed full of people and the crowd was going wild cheering on their team. It was before the game and the school colors were proudly plastered everywhere.
Inside the changing room's chaos ensued and the "star quarterback" wasn't present. In the end they had no choice but to go out to the field and try and play the best game they could.
In the center of the field was an object covered in a black silk cloth. The fans thought it must be just a prop for the performance at the start of the game and ignored it.
But Squall and co. who sat at the back of the stadium knew better. They all sat with smirks displayed upon their faces and if anyone had paid any attention to them they would've known that they had just done something big. One of the main rules that they all followed by was whats the point in doing something bad if everyone doesn't know about it?
The team ran out on the field and everyone went in an uproar.
The team all noticed the object in the middle of the field and on closer inspection they noticed that it was moving.
One of the members removed the cloth to see the "star quarterback" sitting on a chair with his hands tied behind his back. He had a gag in his mouth and had nothing more than a g-string on.
His body was splashed in blue and white paint… the other teams' colors. The crowd went in a deafening silence and no one really knew what to do. He squirmed around and the chair toppled to the ground.
No charges were ever laid and the victim couldn't do anything but accuse Squall and co. about doing it. They were too smart to actually let him know who had done it.
But everyone knew, ever since then it had been war between the two groups. It never came to blows, mainly because the football team was fearful that they might be the next ones in the middle of the football field.
END FLASHBACK
Squall chuckled at the memory as he stepped into his car. That had been about a year ago now but in the minds of the students it was quite fresh. They could've quite easily just kicked the quarterback's ass but public humiliation was much more rewarding.
Sorry that I'm giving the popular people the stereotypical mean look but y'know it kinda fits.
So… any thoughts?