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.

Yeah I don't really know what was up with the "mate" thing either.

That night had been a mixture of many things for Rinoa; she had never experienced anything quite like it. Once everyone was intoxicated enough they went on a rampage. Rinoa did more juvenile crimes that night than she had done in her entire life. There was nothing too serious there, it wasn't as if they were robbing banks, it was more around the lines of throwing rocks on house roofs, also known as "roof-rattling".

Unfortunately there is always the bad with the good, in the morning Rinoa woke up with one of the worst hangovers she'd ever experienced. All her energy was sapped, her head was thumping inside her head and her stomach felt seedier than it had in her entire life.

She'd been jolted awake by the early morning return of Caraway, she'd always been sort of a morning person so Caraway was quite suspicious at her unenthusiastic attitude. There were black bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess, not to mention the fact that the entire lounge area smelt like stale alcohol.

Needless to say he blew his top, forbidding Rinoa from ever having parties here ever again not that it wasn't a rule before.

Rinoa's days passed like minutes and her life had gone into a whirlwind of incidents that could either be considered to be changing her for the better or changing her for the worst.

1 month later

Rinoa approached Balamb High, her arms linked in between both Quistis's and Selphie's. Things had definitely changed between Rinoa and everybody in the group. The three girls had become inseparable; Rinoa was always at least with one of them. She now understood why Quistis went against everything Seifer ever said, it was because he generally had a narcissistic attitude and needed to be brought back to earth.

She'd grown quite fond of Zell, she loved his humor, his outbreaks and his honesty but viewed him as more of a little brother type, she found the same thing with Selphie, it was more like your younger siblings. This wasn't to say that Rinoa wasn't babied herself; everyone felt an obligation to guide her and help her whenever she needed them. She had been saved by all of them on various occasions from various dangers.

With Irvine, somehow, she had learned to love him. After awhile she saw a caring side of him that he didn't show to many people. It was obvious even after two weeks that the Irvine she had originally met was just a shell of the person beneath, while he still acted flirtatious and charming you could see the faithful and loveable guy underneath.

Rinoa respected Quistis above all others though; she looked up to her in a way that could only be compared to admiration. Quistis herself had taken it upon herself to take Rinoa under her wing and teach her the ropes, not that the others weren't doing the same it was just that Quistis had taught Rinoa more than she had ever wished to learn at school.

Rinoa had also met a girl named Ellone, she was Squall's older sister and was looked up to by everyone. She was the picture perfect girl and it was more than obvious that she was the exact opposite of her brother.

Speaking of which, Squall… Rinoa had felt a bond with him that she had never felt with another person. He was captivating her in more ways than one. He was the most enigmatic person she had ever met and definitely the bravest. Living next to him she had learnt a lot about him in the last month, and the same could be said on his side.

They even had quirky little traditions that neither would break for the world. For example every Sunday Rinoa would go around to Squall's, eat cereal and watch the cartoons on TV with him. It was just little things that were really drawing Rinoa in.

She found that she was talking to Lucas less and less often now, he seemed to be too busy for her most of the time and she was more than likely way to busy doing something to talk to him. They shared the occasional txt but other than that it had really gone dead.

It was that day, walking arm in arm with her two new best friends that she would find out, totally unexpectedly about Lucas's visit.

She laughed as Selphie retold a joke about Zell that made Rinoa at least snigger every time she heard it. Rinoa noticed the people move out of her way and the sideways glances that everyone always gave her now. She didn't care though, she was having the time of her life and no one was going to ruin that. At least that's what she thought.

"Looks like we have another prep boy." Quistis said offhandedly as they approached the open doors of their school.

Rinoa looked over at him; his image gave it all away. From the back Rinoa could see his spiked blonde hair and tanned skin. He had a bright yellow puffy jacket on and a pair of dark blue baggy jeans on.

Rinoa shuddered visibly, this was the kind of guy she found attractive in the past, now she just saw an idiot wearing clown pants. Even her outlook on things had changed.

He turned, giving away the side of his face and it was enough to make Rinoa stop in her tracks. His blue eyes gave it away… it was Lucas.

"Whats wrong Rinny?" Selphie asked, concern seeping through in her voice.

Rinoa didn't take her eyes off the boy, she couldn't speak. There was a mixture of happiness and dread rocketing through her body. She found a part of her didn't want him to see her, she wanted to appear invisible to him. She couldn't face him here; she had a reputation here not to mention the fact that if he so much as touches her he'd probably get his ass kicked.

"You look like you saw a ghost!" Quistis stated.

She turned her attention towards whatever was freaking Rinoa out and just saw a bunch of preppy fucks, as per usual. Then her ears caught on to the last part of the boys words. He was looking for Rinoa; he was asking every preppy person in sight if they'd seen Rinoa.

Rinoa took a deep breath and walked as confidently as she could towards him. she played with her hair a little bit, but all she managed to do was the scruff it up more and make herself look less and less like the former Rinoa.

"Lucas?" Rinoa said quietly.

Rinoa noticed the sneer behind all the faces around her and suddenly wished she had Squall beside her to reassure her that it was going to be alright. No one reassured her like Squall could.

Lucas slowly turned, the happiness on his face slowly turning to shock as he stared at Rinoa.

He stared at her new "fashion statement" with alarm written on his features. His eyes roaming all over her body in a way that made Rinoa feel a little more than uncomfortable.

She had a pair of faded jeans with a black leather belt that tied up at the side. Her top consisted of a black, flared sleeved shirt that was rather low cut, revealing a fair bit of her cleavage and enough stomach to show her bellybutton. Still around her neck was a silver chain with a ring dangling from it, it was the one thing that she would never part with, no matter where her fashion took her.

"Wow, you've changed so much." Lucas breathed, unsure of what to say.

It was blatantly obvious that she wasn't the girl that he had known before and all the erratic behavior that she had showed him lately was starting to fall into place.

"You… uhhh… you look good." Rinoa stuttered.

At Rinoa's side about two seconds later was Selphie and Quistis, both giving Rinoa the most outrageous looks in the world.

"Well Rin, aren't you going to introduce us?" Quistis enquired.

Rinoa sighed, not really wanting Lucas to be any part of her new life. It wasn't that she wanted to cut him completely out, she still wanted to be with him but she was hoping that he'd give her a little bit of warning before just popping up.

"Sorry, Quistis, Selphie this is Lucas. I told you about him right?" Rinoa asked, knowing full well that she only revealed the bare facts and not a word more.

"Vaguely." Selphie said suspiciously.

Suddenly from behind them all, Rinoa heard her death sentence. She could distinctly hear Marcia's voice screaming. Rinoa turned to see Marcia run into her arms and hug her tighter than she had been hugged in a long time.

"Rinoa I missed you so much! Oh my Hyne, I'm ganna cry."

Rinoa tried to make herself seem invisible; she didn't want this to happen, especially not at school in front of everyone! She glanced over at Selphie and Quistis who were both giving Marcia equal looks of disgust.

"When did you get here?" Rinoa enquired wrenching herself out of Marcia's vice like hold.

"This morning, are you surprised?" Marcia squealed excitedly.

"You betcha." Rinoa groaned.

"Is there a problem here girls?" Rinoa heard Seifer say from behind her.

She dared not look for she knew that not only would Seifer be there but so would the rest of the boys. Not to mention the fact that Squall would be there. She didn't want Squall to know about her when she was like "them".

"No, Rinny's just introducing us to some of her old friends." Selphie explained.

Rinoa slowly turned, Marcia turning with her. Rinoa cringed, daring not to look any of them in the eye. When she finally did she didn't see the appalled looks she expected, there was more of a mixture of amused smirks.

"Rinoa," Marcia whispered, "you didn't tell me you had such attractive friends."

Rinoa followed Marcia's eyesight and noticed it settling straight on Squall. Rinoa had known Marcia long enough to know that she was now going to be after Squall, Rinoa didn't like that one bit.

"Hello? I'm still here." Lucas said, a little bit agitated.

"Don't worry, we haven't forgotten you." Quistis muttered.

Rinoa sighed, knowing what she had to do. She turned to Squall, making eye contact with him immediately. She took a deep breath before she started; she knew that they'd know sooner or later anyway, it might as well come from her.

"Guys, this is Lucas…"

Rinoa left the end of the sentence open, it was more that she didn't want to finish it than anything, but they knew. Rinoa didn't see Squall's face change, but his eyes told a different story. He looked away from her, his face now turned to the ground.

Rinoa bit her bottom lip and begged in her mind for Squall to look at her, but he wouldn't. Rinoa turned once again and hastily made her way towards her school, once away from the prying eyes of her classmates she started running straight for the girls' bathroom, her one solace in this otherwise unhappy time.

She never wanted to have to say that to any of them, she never wanted any of them to actually see the people she was affiliated with in her past life. This was just making waves in her perfect life and she wanted them gone.

"See what you did, fucking prep!" Seifer snarled.

Rinoa had become somewhat of a younger sibling herself to Seifer, although he wouldn't show it to anyone, he did look out for her and didn't like seeing her upset.

"What I did! Why don't you all look at yourselves!" Lucas yelled back.

"And just what the fuck is wrong with us?" Zell growled.

While an argument started between Lucas and the rest of Squall's friends. He slipped away unnoticed, heading towards where Rinoa had gone. He knew that this was going to happen at some point, Lucas was going to visit and it was going just the way he had anticipated it would.

Knowing that she would've headed for the girls bathroom, he too went inside and crouched down so he could see everyone's feet. Thankfully Rinoa was the only person in here so Squall could basically say and do what he wanted.

"You doing anything in there?" Squall enquired, deciding he didn't really want to see Rinoa going to the toilet or anything like that.

He imagined that seeing that would really ruin his picture perfect view on Rinoa and might taint any feelings he may or may not have for her. He wasn't admitting to anything.

"No." Rinoa sighed.

Squall smirked and slowly slid himself under the door. Rinoa looked down at him as he did so, finding that even at times when life just didn't seem worth living Squall managed to brighten up her day.

Squall stood and straightened himself out. He leaned against the bathroom door and crossed his arms.

"You alright?" Squall asked.

"I'm fine. I'm just being stupid, I should be happy that he's here."

Rinoa faced the floor, not wanting to look up at Squall and see his face. She was so ashamed of herself, now everyone knew what she was really like.

She felt Squall's hand come under her chin and softly lift it up, making her face him.

"You're not stupid Rin." Squall said tenderly.

Rinoa leaned her head into his stomach, relishing in the fact that he wrapped his arms around her. She felt a tear slide down her face and she knew what she had to do.

"I don't love him anymore Squall…" Rinoa said quietly, "I-I'm ashamed of him."

Alrighty then, there was a bit too much Squall/Rinoa things for my taste but I did say in the summary that it was absolute fluff! The next chapter there should be a fight, a kiss and the first mention of Rinoa's dog. I'm not saying who's fighting who or who's kissing who but I guarantee that you'll be shocked.

Those were my thoughts… what about yours?