The Delinquent

I don't own final fantasy 8 or anything else mentioned in this story that probably has a copyright thing on it.

Cheer cheer to those who reviewed my story and to anyone else who has taken pleasure in reading it.

Squall waited with baited breath for his blonde headed friend to exit his house. He glanced at the seat beside him, taking a couple of seconds to stare at Rinoa who occupied the seat. He tore his eyes away before Zell could catch him doing it and looked towards the front porch of the house.

Out walked Seifer. His usual aura of arrogance surrounding him. Squall watched him approach; it almost felt as though it was in slow motion. He'd known Seifer for years and knew what he was going to react like when he saw Rinoa.

He'd done damn near the same thing when he saw Selphie sitting in Irvine's car the first time she came. The difference was that Selphie had hung out with them for a little while before she came… and she wasn't hanging out with the fucking cheerleaders!

Seifer leapt over the door and planted himself in the back seat. (Squall's got a convertible… it's not a flash one it's just a convertible)

At first he didn't even notice Rinoa, either that or it hadn't had time to register in his mind. Then finally it did, it took until Squall had pulled out of his driveway and started driving down the road but it still happened.

"Oh fuck, I thought you were Irvine!" Seifer exclaimed.

He sniggered at himself for a couple of seconds before his eyes widened and he sat straight up in his seat.

"Squall, what the fuck! What the hell do you think your doing?" Seifer yelled loudly.

Rinoa started to feel quite uncomfortable and wished that she hadn't agreed to come tonight. So far it had been alright, Zell had made conversation most of the way but Squall had seemed somewhat apprehensive.

"Nah fuck this, drop me off I'm not getting done!" Seifer continued screaming.

"Chill out Seifer, its all good!" Squall shouted.

"No its not!" Seifer replied.

Squall sighed and pulled over at the side of the road. He leaned over his seat and faced the back so that he and Seifer could discuss it. Then realizing that he was making Rinoa incredibly uncomfortable he stepped out of the car and pulled Seifer with him.

Rinoa sat in silence and glanced over at the arguing boys every couple of seconds. She was wondering what the hell she was getting herself into but was more worried that Seifer wouldn't come. If he didn't come then it'd be her fault.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come." Rinoa sighed.

"Don't worry about him; he just blows things out of proportion." Zell laughed.

Rinoa strained to hear what they were saying but they'd caught on and were talking in hushed voices. Soon Squall nodded and Seifer stomped his way back to the car. He opened the door and slammed it loudly but didn't say anything more about Rinoa's presence.

"We should have balaclavas or something for this shit." Zell said as they approached a café.

Rinoa's body froze up and she widened her eyes considerable.

'They're ganna fucking rob the café!' Rinoa thought.

"Nah fuck it, we'll be right." Squall replied as he parked and exited the car.

"Guys, I'm not down with this." Rinoa said quietly.

"What?" Zell enquired.

Seifer rolled his aqua green eyes and walked to the front of the car. He being one of the least dense people around at the time immediately knew what she had presumed they were doing.

"We're not robbing the place if that's what you think!"

Rinoa sighed and left the car. She smiled as Zell held the door open for her but her mind was full with thoughts of what exactly they were doing tonight. She knew that it couldn't be a law abiding thing, that she'd picked up from the conversation in the car.

As soon as she walked in she noticed Selphie and Quistis sitting at a booth accompanied by a long haired boy. She assumed he was Irvine because of the hair and what Seifer had said in the car.

"Hey babe." Seifer said Quistis as he sat down beside her.

She smiled and repeated the same acknowledgment before turning to Squall. She too obviously hadn't noticed Rinoa, but was a lot quicker than Seifer to pick up on it.

"Hey Rinoa, what are you doing here?"

Quistis was a bit more tactful on how she said it, much better than her other half.

"Oh Zell and Squall invited me." Rinoa replied.

Quistis turned to stare at them both, a smile was still set on her face but you could tell by her eyes that she was upset.

"Oh did they."

Suddenly something dawned on Rinoa that she hadn't actually noticed, the entire group had an incredibly large amount of black on. At first she assumed that they must be gothic or something but they didn't come off that way.

Squall had a pair of baggy black pants, damn near exactly the same as all the boys except for Zell who wore baggy black three-quarters. Squall accompanied this with a black muscle t-shirt and a long black leather coat that went down to his knee's.

Seifer had the same except he was lacking the coat.

Quistis had tight leather pants on that showed off her godlike body and Rinoa could tell that others in the group were taking notice of it. She had a black spaghetti strap top with this and a black beret tilted to the side of her head, her long blonde locks were left out and Rinoa thought she looked immaculate.

Irvine was… interesting looking as always. He had the baggy black pants and a baggy black t-shirt with "badass" written on it in bold red letters. The interesting part was the black leather cowboy hat that he had on his head. Rinoa could tell that he was definitely an individual… but she was starting to notice that they all were.

Selphie seemed out of place. While she did conform to the color code she seemed to have missed the memo about covering up. She had a cleavage showing long sleeved top on that had little flares from the middle of her forearm all the way to her wrist. She wore a black and grey checkered mini skirt and knee high black boots with dangerous looking heels on them.

Zell looked identical to the boys, except for the three-quarters which have already been mentioned.

Rinoa looked down at herself and felt immediately out of place. She had faded flared jeans on and a white sleeveless t-shirt. Nobody had mentioned it but she did feel like the odd one out.

"Oh shit, Rinny's ganna need something else to wear, that'll stand out and we don't need that!" Selphie burst out.

"I got extra's in my car, its always handy." Quistis replied.

Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief but at the same time felt a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She still had no idea what the hell was going on and it was starting to make her more than a little nervous. Finally she couldn't hold it anymore and had to ask.

"What are you guys doing tonight?"

She'd earned herself the undivided attention of everyone at the table and suddenly wished she never said anything. Maybe that would've been better but Rinoa had never been one to hold back if she needed to say something. She was shocked that she lasted this long at all without saying anything but she didn't really know these people and was a little bit shy.

"We Rinny, we. You're here to now." Quistis corrected.

"Fine, what're WE doing tonight?"

"We're breaking into the school and stealing our files. Not only that but Selphie has made a request for us to fuck up her home room for giving her another lunch time detention. You want your file too?" Seifer enquired in a sing song voice that Rinoa found a little too casual.

Rinoa's mouth was agape, she could understand why they didn't want her here and by the sounds of it this was a mild unlawful activity compared to what they were used to.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to be a part of this, she'd never dob them in, that wasn't what she was like but she didn't know if she really wanted to start her first day at school by fucking it up.

She glanced at Squall, who sat beside her, one look at his smiling face she didn't know if she could say no. she felt an attraction towards him and had tried to shake it off all afternoon. She was with Lucas who was ten times better looking and whatnot than Squall, but he had a personality and a charm that just grew on you.

He had an enigmatic side, an aloof side and a fun side. Rinoa had seen nearly all of his moods in the couple of hours she'd met him and wanted to know more. She couldn't say no.

"I haven't really got anything in my file that I want taken away." Rinoa said slowly.

"Don't worry girl, we can change that!" Irvine laughed.

Squall felt an uneasiness be taken away, Rinoa had basically been accepted. She hadn't even really tried and hadn't been aware that they were judging her but she passed. He hated that one thing about them; they did judge people even though it was the one thing about everyone else that they hated.

Squall was obviously going to assume that a new member of the football squad was going to be a dick and they were going to assume that Rinoa was one of them from that day forth.

Rinoa was about to come with them on an criminal activity, he and the rest of the gang were going to assume that she would be a part of the group and it was going to break they're hearts when she went back to the popular people tomorrow. Squall hoped she wasn't like that but suspected that she would be.

Half an hour passed and soon Rinoa was talking away like she'd known the group for years. She and Quistis were currently talking about school and Squall was actually quite interested in listening to what they were talking about.

It gave him a pleasant change from listening to Selphie and Quistis… while he loved them both like sisters after awhile of whose hot and who are not you get a little sick of it.

"But don't you do work in class?" Rinoa asked as Quistis informed her of their past exploits.

"Yes and most of the teachers love me. In fact I've had about three of them ask me why I'm with him," Quistis laughed, pointing at Seifer, "but the best way to fight the systems from the inside."

Squall glanced down at his watch and stood up.

"Right, we've got work to do."

Rinoa stepped out of the public bathroom wearing long black bellbottoms and a black turtle neck. She had a black beanie on her head and steel capped boots. As soon as she put hers on she noticed everyone else's.

She felt like a bandit, it was an exhilarating feeling that she wasn't quite accustomed to but was thoroughly enjoying it. Took a bow when she exited, feeling quite comfortable to act herself in front of these people. What a concept, actually being yourself. Another thing that Rinoa was used to but once again, quite enjoying.

Selphie wolf whistled quietly and she heard various claps around the group. She knew that a vast majority of them were sarcastic but it was applause nonetheless.

"Right, can we go now?" Squall enquired impatiently.

"Hold up bro." Zell said as he pulled something out of his backpack.

It was a bottle of black stuff that Zell dipped his finger in. he wiped it about half an inch below each of his eyes and did the lid back up. Placing it back in his bag he then nodded.

Seifer scowled at him the whole time, his face turning to disgust after awhile.

"Sweet merciful mother of Hyne! We can't take you fucking anywhere!" he snarled before leading the pack back out towards the road.

They all circled around outside a house a couple of blocks away from the house. Quistis informed them all from a plan of the school that she'd acquired while staying late one night that it would be safest to approach the school from behind and slip in one of the windows.

Irvine had checked out the windows over the last couple of days and found one near the ground that wouldn't be that hard to wedge open. They couldn't just smash a window or the alarm would go off. In reality nobody would come to check it out for about an hour once it started to annoy the people living nearby but they still didn't want to take too many chances.

All day Zell and Irvine had been setting off the alarms and fire alarms so that they'd think they were faulty. They did it tactfully, being experts in the setting off alarms department; it was something that they started on so they'd mastered it pretty well.

Selphie had provided some walkie-talkies from her little brothers; this meant that they could split up into two teams. One would infiltrate the office and retrieve the files, Seifer had given them enough information about the cabinet to let them now how to get to it quickly enough.

Unfortunately the principal had recently moved their files into his office and kept them in his safe, luckily enough for them no one knew that office quite like Seifer did and Quistis was a genius so they were kinda just relying on that.

"Alright, Seifer, Quistis and Rinoa you're coming with me. We'll infiltrate Principal Cid's office and retrieve those files. Selphie, you'll lead Irvine and Zell to your home room. Fuck. That. Place. Up. Contact me and tell me when your done otherwise once we're completed we'll come and help out. Should anyone catch us you all know the rules but try and avoid it cause it arouses more suspicion about who done this and we're already ganna get enough. Right… let's move." Squall concluded.

He clapped his hands together and the six menaces all took off towards the school. Rinoa stood in confusion not quite knowing where she was supposed to be going. It wasn't until Selphie grabbed her and pulled her along with her that she kind of understood.

"Whats the rules about getting caught?" Rinoa asked as they sped along towards the school.

"Squall always said that your only in trouble if you get caught, he saw it on Aladdin when he was like five and he's kinda lived by it ever since. So rule number one, don't get caught and rule number two is if you do you weren't doing nothing and nobody was with you." Selphie informed.

Rinoa gulped but didn't say anything. They soon approached a fence and Rinoa could see the school looming ahead. Selphie pulled her up against the fence and they scaled along it till they got to the back of the field.

Using what shadow they had they ran towards the side of the school. The moon was on the other side of the school creating a shadow to one side, after Quistis informed them where the moon would be at what time they deducted that now would be the safest time to go ahead with the plan.

Once they'd gotten around to the back of the school Rinoa saw Zell wedging open the window. He had a screw driver slid in between the window and was pulling it towards himself. The alarm wasn't going to go off so they could get away with things like this.

Soon there was a loud popping sound and the window flew open. Zell fell over with the force of it; he got up and put the screw driver back in his bag. Squall jumped in the window first, followed by Quistis. She helped Selphie who was behind her and started walking slowly down the hallway. Seifer was in next followed by Rinoa who got a hand from nearly everyone.

Zell gave her a hand up and Selphie helped her in. She was wide eyed and obviously a little sketched out. This being her first time doing anything like this was bound to make her a little nervous so they were trying to make her as comfortable and as calm as possible. If she started hard out sketching out it could mean disaster.

Once inside Rinoa followed Quistis as she led her around various corners. She had no idea where she was and it was pitch black but she still pressed on not wanting to look like a wimp.

She glanced behind her back and only saw Seifer, Squall was up ahead. She was momentarily confused as to where everyone else had gone and it only dawned on her when she remembered the rest of the plan.

Finally Squall stopped in front of a door near the front of the school. Rinoa recognized it as the office immediately.

"Would you do the honors?" Squall enquired.

"Why certainly." Seifer replied taking the pick from Squall's outstretched hand.

The "pick" as it was put was just a straightened out thin piece of wire, but it was all he needed. Rinoa later learned that Seifer was second best beside Zell at picking locks. Apparently Zell was an absolute genius at it, a real prodigy.

The door soon slowly swung open, making that high pitched creaking sound as it did so. Rinoa clenched her eyes together as it did so, it sounded a lot quieter during the day.

They burst through the door; Quistis headed in a different direction than Seifer and Squall and silently urged Rinoa to follow her.

She pulled open a large cabinet with draws that rolled out quickly. Inside were loads and loads of vanilla folders. All alphabetized and looking very neat and tidy. Quistis ordered Rinoa to take Quistis's backpack and fill it up with as many as she could. Quistis helped and they were soon stuffing them inside. They didn't bother to pick up the ones that fell on the floor but for ever one they dropped they'd grab four more.

"Why are we doing this?" Rinoa asked while she continued to cram the bag up to its brim.

"We can't just get ours. If we grab others as well they can't pin it on us. It's pretty strange if only our files are gone."

Soon Seifer and Squall came back out of the room looking quite aggravated.

"Fuck this, that safe wont open. Squall you stay here and help with this, Quistis, get this fucking safe open!" Seifer demanded.

"Oh no you did not just talk to me like that!" Quistis snarled as she walked towards the principal's office.

Squall stayed behind as he was requested to do and helped with the files.

"So everyone had a part in this, what did you do?" Rinoa asked after a little bit of silence.

"Aye?" Squall asked in confusion.

"Well, everyone else did something towards this and it seems to me like you did nothing." Rinoa said.

She had a terrible feeling that he may take offence to that but hoped that he wouldn't. She hadn't meant for it to come out as it did but her mouth had a bad habit of running away with her.

"I came up with the idea. Cid told me that if I get another black mark on my file then I could get expelled and/or referred to a military school. That was about a month ago now and so I decided that the easiest way to get rid of that problem would be to steal the file. I needed help of course because an ill designed plan could mean the difference between success and disaster." Squall concluded.

Rinoa raised her eyebrows; it was the most that she'd heard him say, except for when he was briefing everyone on their positions. He sounded so much like a leader, like he was naturally born to control something major. It was something that suited him to a T and Rinoa found the trait a little more than mildly attractive.

She nodded and went back to stuffing Quistis's bag. Soon it was too full to fill anymore and Squall started picking up all the files on the floor and tidily placing them back in the file cabinet.

"Appearance is everything." Squall said as he put the last one back in its place.

Rinoa glanced inside the cabinet before Squall closed it. She was curious as to why he bothered doing that, as soon as someone looked inside the thing they would know that heaps were missing but she didn't bother to say anything, she supposed that she'd find out sooner or later anyway.

As soon as that was done Quistis and Seifer ran out of the principal's office. They informed Squall that Selphie and co. had finished their mission and were heading back to the cars. She also told them that it would be wise for them to relocate themselves before they were caught.

Running down the dimly lit hallways Rinoa had a feeling that she didn't know existed. She was glad to be leaving and couldn't wait to be back in the safety of her home but didn't want this to end. It was so liberating, like jumping into an ice cold lake on a hot summer afternoon. Rinoa had a good feeling that this year was going to be like no other before.

When they finally did make it back to their cars they looked around but couldn't see Selphie and the others anywhere. Squall called out to them in vain but they received no reply.

A cold chill started up and Quistis and Seifer moved into Quistis's car. Squall sat down in his own even though it wouldn't shield him from any of the shrill bitter cold. Rinoa opened the door and sat in the front seat, watching the bushes that waved in the wind for any sign of life.

Suddenly three figures burst through the bushes and all three dived in the backseat of Squall's convertible.

"GO GO GO!" Zell screamed.

Quistis pulled out and with a loud burnout that sounded as if it took about an inch off her tires she was gone. Squall followed suit just in time to see two men run out after Zell carrying large shotguns each.

"What the fuck was that!" Squall exclaimed after the initial shock wore off.

"Well… You guys were taking forever! We got bored!" Selphie defended.

"Yeah and like, there was this house that we noticed and it was screaming out to be vandalized!" Irvine added.

"They had lawn ornaments Squall… lawn ornaments! You know I can't resist something like that. How was I supposed to know that they'd take it so seriously?" Selphie continued.

"I dunno, maybe because they're cops! Everyone knows that!" Squall retorted.

"I don't care who they are, how dare they have such dangerous weapons in their house! What if they'd hit me!" Zell exclaimed.

Squall sighed but didn't persist the matter. He was used to there antics, hell he was even more used to his own. He couldn't deny the fact that lawn ornaments were very appealing. It was nearly as bad as solar lights… nothing was more alluring than solar lights.

Wow that didn't take long at all. It's just that I'm really enjoying writing this! I wrote this one over a series of days so sorry if the information is a little off but I did try. Hopefully I'll be able to keep updates pretty regular, if you don't hear from me for over four days, I've probably got writers block.

But on a more important subject… what'd ya think?