The Delinquent

Not an owner of it.

I'm really sick at the moment so forgive me if this isn't exactly Shakespeare.

Squall grabbed hold of a plain white towel as he stepped out of the shower, looking down at his stomach he grimaced at the bruises that covered his body. He shook his head and took a glance at himself in the mirror, glaring once again at the image that mocked him.

It was a testament to how useless he was on Friday night. How badly he was beaten and he was supposed to be the 'man'. Not only that, Rinoa had seen the whole thing.

'But I got a couple in.' Squall reminded himself, feeling his masculinity start to come back to him.

It was now Tuesday so his face wasn't quite the wreck that it had been; in fact he was healing surprisingly fast considering how bad it had been. Not that he'd be winning any beauty pageants any time soon.

Yesterday had been torture; the entire football team had absolutely died when they had seen him. Squall had to make a mental note to get them somehow.

He threw on a pair of boxers and a white t-shirt before making his way downstairs to have some breakfast. He always liked to wait until he'd eaten his breakfast before putting on his pants because he usually spilt whatever he was eating on them. This was due to the fact that he was usually running around the house while trying to eat it.

Raine had seen his face, she absolutely lost her mind. She even started crying. Squall had a hard time trying to calm her down but once he managed to she informed him that it was his own dumb fault and it would do him well to remember that he wasn't Superman.

"Put some pants on you caveman!" Squall heard Selphie yell at him as he exited the bathroom.

Squall flipped her off and didn't bother to ask her why she was in his house. He was actually really used to having someone random in his house when he got up. It was usually because he was late and normal it'd be Rinoa but Selphie being there didn't really shock him.

"Fuck up." Squall replied indifferently.

He sat down on a stool in the kitchen and began pouring himself some cocoa puffs, waiting for Selphie to come along and ask for some. She was a known cereal fanatic.

"Ow yummy! Can I have some?" Selphie squealed as she sat down beside him.

After a somewhat long breakfast session Squall finally decided it was about time he put his uniform on, another day in his personal Hades.

He stepped onto his porch, squinting his eyes against the bright morning light. Selphie followed behind him, retelling a story she heard about their home room teacher. Once inside the car Squall honked his horn and waited patiently for Rinoa to come out.

Soon she was out the door, wearing the school uniform that she had now personalized to suit her individuality.

The red and black tartan skirt now had a split going up the back that stopped just under her knees. She'd coloured a section of it completely black and she'd taken down the hem to make it longer. The sandals that she had previously worn had been thrown away for a pair of comfortable white shoes with blue strips going up the side.

Her blouse was undone all the way to her chest, revealing a black spaghetti strap t-shirt that she wore underneath. To top it all off she now too had various pieces of jewellery and Hyne save any teacher that tried to remove it.

She waved cheerfully and made her way towards the car, hauling her shoulder bag along with her as she went.

"C'mon Rin, we're ganna be late!" Selphie called out.

Rinoa gave her a stunned look as she sat down in the backseat.

"Since when have you cared? I'm surprised that we're going before first break." Rinoa stated.

Selphie didn't reply, instead she just remained silently watching the scenery go by as Squall started the car. This made Rinoa somewhat nervous; this meant that something was up.

"What's going on?" Rinoa enquired after a couple of minutes.

"Nothing," Selphie exclaimed a little too quickly.

"Sure, why can't you tell me?" Rinoa asked.

Once again this was met with silence, Rinoa would've jumped out of the car then but her curiosity was getting the better of her and she remained where she was. She didn't really want to jump out of a moving car anyway, it had to be painful.

Soon the school leered in front of them menacingly and Squall's speed went down drastically, he didn't really want to even go to school today but he had to. If he didn't turn up at least every so often they'd take his name of the roster.

Once the car was parked Selphie exited and ran straight in the double doors without as much as a word. Squall and Rinoa glanced at each other but didn't say anything, they would no doubt find out eventually.

"Maybe Irvine's brought her something." Rinoa muttered.

"Irvine needs to get a job first." Squall chuckled.

They opened the doors and walked inside the hell-hole otherwise known as School. Rinoa had a bit of a feeling that today was going to be eventful, Selphie had really made that clear so far.

The second bell went off as they got to Rinoa locker, she had to pick up her pad so that she had something to do in class, and they both grimaced. Both of them had the same homeroom teacher so they both knew what was awaiting them, one of the biggest assholes in Balamb who ran his classroom like a POW camp.

Squall smirked as he opened the door to the class and Rinoa grinned widely. She didn't exactly like had a forty something old man screaming at her but it was funny to watch. He had a bald spot on his head that would go red and it was just a good way to start the day.

"I see you two are late again." He seethed as they stepped inside.

Squall glanced over at Selphie's seat to see she wasn't there yet. He furrowed his eyebrows together and tried to think where she might be.

"And as per usual you haven't failed to point that out." Rinoa said optimistically.

'I wonder what the fuck she's up to.' Squall thought, his mind continuing to wander onto things other than the sweaty man in front of him.

"I shouldn't have to point it out every single day Miss Heartilly!"

'I bet the others are in on it too…'

"Well maybe the students should form a protest and fight against the inhuman starting time of the education system."

'This better not be about Friday night…'

"Maybe you should just set your alarm earlier!"

"Off it!" Squall burst out, finally joining the argument.

The teacher sighed, apparently not having his usual amount of fight. He walked over to his desk before grinning maliciously at the class.

Rinoa and Squall took it as a sign to take their seats, Squall still at the front of the class and Rinoa had been put on the other side of the room to Selphie at the back.

"We have a new seating arrangement today."

Rinoa supposed that it was supposed to have more of an affect on them but they were already as far away from their friends as possible it was just that now so was everyone else.

The morning dragged on unbelievably long, both Rinoa and Squall were too busy watching the clock so that they could get out of here and find out what the hell was going on. Needless to say that certainly contributed to the longevity of it.

"…which is why from now on no student shall be allowed to come within a meter perimeter of the trophy cabinet." The teacher droned on.

'C'mon, c'mon! Why is this taking so long? Why did I even come to school today? I bet if I stayed home I'd still be in bed right now…' Rinoa thought.

She had her elbow resting on her desk with her hand supporting her head up. Her eyes were half closed and she was making it no secret that she was bored. Not that the teacher bothered to look her way so it didn't really matter anyway.

She saw some preppy girls in front of her whispering to each other and giggling. Then one of them glanced over in her direction, obviously just discussing something about her.

"If you've got something to say bitch then just say it." Rinoa hissed at them a little louder than she'd meant to.

"Miss Heartilly, if could leave outburst like that out of the classroom from now on please."

Rinoa huffed and leaned back in her seat, still glowering at the two girls. When they started doing the exact same thing again it only angered Rinoa further.

"Do you have a fucking problem?" Rinoa exclaimed.

"That's IT Rinoa! I've had enough of you today! You're going straight to the principal office."

Rinoa groaned and grabbed her pad off the desk. She stuffed it in her bag as she stormed out of the classroom, slapping one of the girls pencil cases to the ground as she did so.

Rinoa slammed the door as she once she was out of the classroom; she leaned up against the wall beside the door and waited patiently.

Soon she heard yelling from inside and not long after Squall came out, wearing his usual smirk he always had set upon his face after upsetting someone.

"What was that all about?" Squall enquired as they walked towards the office.

"I dunno, they were talking about me and I just sorta lost it." Rinoa sighed.

"I know the feeling." Squall muttered.

Slowly but surely they soon found themselves outside the Principals office. Originally they weren't going to go to the office at all but both of them actually wanted to stay at school today so they had to.

Without as much as a seconds breath they walked inside the office. They acknowledged the office lady with the usual nod and took a seat beside a small glass coffee table.

This room was supposed to be somewhat intimidating, used as an extra measure to freak teenagers out before the big 'discussion' with the principal. It stopped being a threat after the principal and yourself were on a first name basis.

"Why were you so early this morning?" Rinoa asked, absent mindedly glancing at the clock to see how long they'd been waiting.

"I dunno, Selphie just sorta turned up. I didn't have time to watch any TV or anything." Squall huffed.

"I know, she came and got me out of bed before she went over to your house."

"How'd she get there anyway?"

Rinoa shrugged and took another lingering look at the clock. She really hated waiting in the office, she had to see all the 'would be' offenders come in and try to look staunch.

Soon the door to the principal's office opened and Seifer walked out, his usual arrogant smirk plastered to his face and his aura of self-importance illumining off him.

"What are you in for?" Squall enquired.

"I'm still in isolation; I can't go back to my homeroom for another two weeks." Seifer chuckled.

"I thought you got off that." Rinoa stated.

"I did but…"

"Miss Heartilly, the principal will see you now." The office lady interrupted.

Rinoa rolled her eyes and stood, making her way confidently towards the "torture chamber" as they had affectionately named it.

When she walked inside she saw the principal standing with his back turned to her, he was gazing out the window with a dazed look on his face, obviously worn out from Seifer's visit. Rinoa always liked to go to the principal after Seifer had been in there, he'd either be really angry or completely drained.

"Rinoa, please sit."

Rinoa took a seat on the comfortable crimson chair that sat before his desk. She dumped her bag on the floor and all her key chains on it made a loud "clunk" when they hit the ground.

"Hey, Mr Kramer," Rinoa said cheerfully.

"I have noticed lately that these visits are starting to become more and more regular Rinoa." Kramer stoped there, pausing for affect Rinoa supposed. "And I looked on your old school records and they clearly state that you were a model student before you came to Balamb."

Rinoa bit her bottom lip, she knew what was coming. Soon all the days off that she'd have would come out and all her detentions, this was going to be a long meeting.

"Now because of your fathers influential position in the community I was willing to overlook your little rebel but you continuously give me more and more reason not to."

Rinoa was now bored of this conversation; she'd heard it all from her father, about how she was slipping off the rails and becoming a loser. How all her friends were nothing but scum and they'd do nothing but pull her down and they wouldn't be there to help her up.

She stared idly out the window and soon her eyes drifted to the football field. The principal had a magnificent view of it and it usually brought some solace when things had gotten really dreary.

She saw something written on it in big white letters. She squinted her eyes and tried to make out what it said.

"Cid Kramer wears granny panties"

Rinoa covered her mouth with her hand and tried to hold back the laughter that was itching to come out.

"What are you doing?" Mr Kramer enquired angrily.

He turned around and instantly read the words. He gasped and in a second was out the door.

Rinoa burst out laughing and ran out the door after him, literally dying to tell Squall.

She grabbed his arm and hauled him into the room, still laughing as she pointed at the vandalism.

Not long after Zell entered the room. He looked at them both quizzically but seemed to be in too much of a hurry to make any inquires.

"Zell? What are you doing here?" Rinoa asked as she approached him.

He was crouched over Mr Kramer's desk fiddling with the loudspeaker microphone.

"Don't tell me you guys planned something without me." Squall whinged.

"Shut up!" Zell hissed.

He placed the microphone back where it had previously been and hastily waved goodbye before leaving as quickly as he had entered.

"What did that asshole do?" Squall said to himself as he advanced Mr Kramer's desk. Nothing seemed to be different and Zell hadn't taken anything, the only real change was that now there was a little red light going on it.

Then realization dawned upon Squall and he took a couple of steps back. This was all part of a 'master plan', it might not be a history bender but it was an intricate one.

That was why it was only Zell who came inside the office; the others were all probably off doing something else. He glanced out the window and smirked at the graffiti now brightly covering the football field, which would've been part of it as well. You needed something pretty spectacular to get Mr Kramer out of his office.

"We should leave." Squall muttered as he lightly grabbed Rinoa around the wrist.

They exited the room and Squall started walking back to class, curious as to what was going on. He thought that when Zell had entered the office and grabbed the loudspeaker he meant to say something comical into it but just turning it on wasn't something that Zell would just do on a whim.

The writing on the field was clearly Seifer and Irvine's work, but Seifer had been in the office this morning.

'Unless they did it earlier…'

Quistis was obviously to blame for the planning of it all… all that was left was Selphie's part in this, and what the end result was going to be.

Their little prank clearly hadn't ended yet.

"Where are we going?" Rinoa enquired after awhile.

"I don't know about you but I'm going back to class, I don't wanna miss a second of this."

They soon found that homeroom had ended, Squall now had to go to woodwork and Rinoa had Science. She hurried to class, hoping that Irvine was in class. He was in her Science class so the prospect of catching up on whatever was going on would more than likely happen now.

Thankfully and extraordinarily Irvine was in class. He was surprisingly quiet and well mannered. He claimed to have absolutely no idea what was going on and maintained that he'd been late for homeroom and hadn't talked to anyone.

Then he got a txt message. His tone clearly rang out around the classroom, some sixties song from a western movie. Irvine's obsession with all things cowboy was more than a little odd.

After that he became an absolute menace, teachers all around the world would shudder to think of how totally asshole Irvine went. It only took him five minutes to get sent out and he seemed very pleased with himself when that happened.

'What the fuck is going on?'

Then there was a sound resonating through the speakers of a door closing. There was some muttering heard and then the squeaking sound of a chair.

"Those little bastards think they can get to me."

Rinoa grinned and covered her mouth with her hand, it was clearly Mr Kramer's voice and she now understood what Zell was doing.

She looked around the room and saw the whole class staring at the speaker, even the teacher. Rinoa could just picture the same thing happening in all the classrooms.

"Cid, Irvine's been sent here again."

Rinoa opened her mouth wide like she just found out she'd eaten her pet dog. She listened intently, it was like watching a soap, you were just enthralled in the drama.

"Oh for fucks sake."

Her teacher then ran out of the room, obviously going for the principal's office to stop this. Rinoa prayed that she fell and broke her hip; this was too good to miss.

"I see you're back again Irvine. You and all your friends are really making your mark today."

"Sorry I aint got no idea what your talking 'bout."

"I bet you don't."

Even through the speaker Rinoa could hear the anger behind his face, she could almost see Mr Kramer. He'd be stressed out by the football field vandalism and now Irvine was going to make an asshole of him.

"I'm willing to put aside the fact that you have blatantly disrespected your teacher again if you give me the names of who did that to the field."

There was a moment's silence, Rinoa awaited with baited breath; it was times like this she wished she had some popcorn.

"Did what to the field?"

"Did what… THAT!"

Rinoa gasped, surprised at just how loudly that had come out through the loudspeaker. She had a futile attempt at holding back her laughter but it was nearly uncontrollable at this point.

"See that, 'Cid Kramer wears granny panties'. Can you imagine if the student body saw that! But you don't care… you and your friends don't care about the image of this school. Since you all started here our reputation had decreased so far that people are actually sending their children to boarding school rather than ours."

"Mr Kramer I don't think you should blame us for your failures."

At this point Rinoa felt as though she couldn't breath but as per usual when they did something without her she had a nagging feeling inside that she wished she'd been a part of it.

That was the thing about being 'the new girl' they often treated her like she wouldn't be up to some of their really horrific little missions. She understood though, even she noticed that when she was around everyone was very alert to her whereabouts and what she was doing.

At the start she had been more than grateful, but now she just wished they'd stop babying her.

"I am honestly at the end of my rope Irvine, I don't know if I can take much more of this anymore."

'Oh great, Cid's having a breakdown…' Rinoa thought.

"Well maybe, if you don't mind me suggesting, you should go on some sort of vacation or something."

Elsewhere

Squall was wide eyed and wide mouthed as he listened to the intangible principal full on lose it broadcasted across the entire school. Zell, who happened to be in his woodwork class, was nearly in tears.

"Please tell me you planned this too." Squall said excitedly.

Zell just shook his head as he collapsed to the ground, trying to breathe and clutching his stomach.

"Well seriously Irvine, I don't know what to do… My therapist actually told me the same thing you know."

"Squall please!" Zell gasped out from the ground. "Make it stop!"

On the loudspeaker there were sounds of the door being slammed open and banging against the wall and someone bursting through the door.

"Mr Kramer, NOOOOOO"

Lunch Period

"That was fucking perfect!" Seifer clapped as he took as seat at the lunch table.

Irvine grinned at the group; he'd been somewhat cocky since the morning's fiasco.

"That couldn't have gone better." Irvine said haughtily.

"So how did this one work?" Rinoa enquired.

The question had been nagging on her brain since it happened and the only class she had with anyone since then was Squall. Apparently Zell had been too badly in hysterics to tell him anything either.

"Quisty's idea," Selphie gushed.

"Alright. Seifer made a joke to me on Saturday night that it would be really funny if someone went into the principal's office and turned it on when he was going nuts at Seifer." Quistis began.

Rinoa made herself comfortable and started pulling out her food from her bag. She could tell this was going to be a long explanation.

"So we decided to do it. Logically we needed more help and Selphie, Zell and Irvine's expertise in particular things was handy. After a gruelling Sunday night planning we finally had something going. Selphie and Irvine were to…" Quistis looked around and began talking in a much quieter voice, she hadn't actually thought about other people listening who would dob her in.

"… write something offensive about the principal so that he'd naturally run out of his office. Once he'd done that Zell was to infiltrate and switch the microphone on. While this was happening I was keeping watch outside my homeroom which has a view of field, and I was to txt Zell when Cid was coming back."

"Ok, well what about the whole breakdown thing?" Rinoa interrupted, far more interested in just the facts rather than a long winded speech.

But that was what Quistis was like; she always explained things like she was some sort of lecturer or something.

"I'm getting to it!" Quistis exclaimed. "So anyway, Seifer was supposed to rile him up a bit this morning when he went in there for his isolation. He was also supposed to point out the field vandalism but ended out being kicked out of Cid's office before he got a chance."

"Luckily it was spotted by delinquent Rinoa and everything went smoothly. Irvine wasn't originally going to get sent to the principal but sometimes you've just got to improvise."

Rinoa looked shocked, that was actually quite intricate. It wasn't like she didn't know that Quistis was an absolute plan genius it was just that for a couple of day's work she feeling pulled that off well.

"But Cid having a meltdown like that was absolute magic." Squall complemented.

"Why though? You guys usually do these things for some sort of reason don't you?" Rinoa said questioningly.

Selphie smiled and gently touched Rinoa on the hand.

"We wanted to cheer you guys up, you were so down."

Rinoa grinned at her friends, absolutely humbled by the fact that they would do that for her. She'd never encountered such friendship.

"Thanks you guys, that's really nice." Rinoa replied blissfully.

"Don't go spreading terrible rumours like that!" Seifer cried.

Whoa… eight pages… I got in a hell writing buzz. I did have a lot of time on my hand being sick and all. This chapter wasn't really as serious as all the others have been previously but I guess I just wanted them to get a little bit of a break. They are all teenagers and life isn't just drama drama drama.

You got to see different sides to some of the characters in this chapter I think, especially Seifer for some reason… at least that's what I think… yourself?