Chapter 2

Rinoa's Rescuer

The T-Rex jumped towards the girl sprawled out on the ground. She screamed as loud as she could, praying that someone would hear her cry for help. She closed her eyes, ready for the searing pain that would come to her once it bit her. Instead, she felt nothing. She opened one eye.

A guy was standing in front of her, sword drawn, ready for battle. A wave of relief washed over her. Some one had heard her. The T-Rex shot a ball of fire at them. The guy jumped out of the way, but Rinoa was right in its path. She quickly rolled to her left side and dodged it. The mysterious guy moved fast. He summoned the Guardian Force Shiva and blasted the monster with ice magic. Within five seconds, the beast was on the ground. Scared, it ran back off into the forest.

Rinoa stared in shock. The guy in front of her turned around and looked down at her. He had dark brown hair with a scar across his face, black pants with two belts crossing each other at the center, and a black jacket with a white shirt on underneath.

"Thanks…you saved my life." Rinoa said in a shaky voice. The guy didn't say anything, he just walked towards her and tore off a piece of his shirt and began to wrap it around her ankle. Rinoa was speechless. She didn't know what to say. "He's kind of rude because he won't say your welcome, but it's sweet that he's wrapping up my ankle for me." She thought to herself.

Surprisingly, he picked her up in his arms and began to carry her out of the training center. "Wait!" Rinoa cried. "What about Seifer?" At this question the guy stopped. An angry look came over his face.

"Seifer…he's here?" Rinoa looked at him in surprise. He had finally said something. She shook herself out of her thoughts and answered.

"Yeah, that monster's tail smacked into him when it jumped out at us and he flew into those trees!" The guy was silent. In fact a very little smirk seemed to appear on his face.

"He'll be fine."

"What? What do you mean he'll be fine? How can you say that? Don't you have any feelings at all?" He was silent at her questions and just kept walking.

About ten minutes later they were at the infirmary. Dr. Kadowakki was wrapping clean linens around Rinoa's wound. "Thank heavens you found her Squall before she was finished off." Rinoa cringed as the dressings were pulled tightly for a snug fit. "I'm sorry dear. I know it hurts. What's your name?"

"Rinoa Heartilly."

"Ah, you're the new transfer student. I'll tell Headmaster Cid about this incident to see if we can have that monster taken care of."

"Thank you." At last Dr. Kadowakki had finished wrapping her ankle.

"Squall, please take her back to her dormitory." Squall gave her a look of annoyance, but nodded his head. "Thank you." She said.

Squall picked Rinoa off the infirmary bed and walked out the door. There was silence on the way to the dormitories until Rinoa spoke up. "So, your names Squall?" He didn't answer. "I'm Rinoa." Still he said nothing. Rinoa rolled her eyes.

During the next five minutes there was silence. Then finally, he talked. "Which one is your room?"

"The one on the very end on the left!" Rinoa smiled at the fact that she knew exactly where her room was. Squall continued down the hallway until he reached her door.

"I need your key."

"Oh yeah, sorry." Rinoa pulled her keys out of her pocket on her uniform. "Here you go." He took the key and unlocked the door. He walked inside and placed her on her bed.

"Thank you so much. I'll have to make this up to you."

"……………."

"Don't you ever say anything?" Rinoa gave him a questioning look. Squall looked at her for a moment and then turned around and began to walk toward the door. "Where are you going?" Rinoa asked.

"My room." With that he walked straight across to the room in front of hers.

"His room is right there?" Rinoa said in shock. "Well, I guess I can go call on him whenever I need his help."

Her alarm clock awoke her once again the next morning. She got out of bed and walked to her closet. She grabbed a blue jean skirt and dark blue halter top. She rewrapped her ankle with fresh bandages and put on two inch platform sandals. "There, now I just need a necklace." With that she ran to the bathroom and grabbed her chain necklace and then ran out her door.

As she was walking toward the cafeteria for lunch, she saw Seifer. "Seifer!" She called out to him. He turned around and smiled when he saw her.

"Are you alright? I was so worried about you."

"Yeah, thanks to that guy Squall." At these words a strange look came over his face.

"Squall…did he say anything to you?"

"No, all he said was whatever." A relieved look came over his face.

"Anyways…I've been wanting to talk about you and me." He said, a large grin on his face.

"Yeah, what about us?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I like you a lot Rinoa."

Rinoa smiled. "I like you too Seifer." This made Seifer smile bigger.

"That's why I think it's time for us to become better acquainted with one another." Rinoa didn't understand at first, until he grabbed her around the waist, pulled her towards him, and kissed her. Rinoa struggled and then finally pushed him away from her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rinoa yelled.

"You said you like me and I liked you so…"

"Yeah…I like you as a friend. You're such a jerk!"

"Hey, nobody calls me that!" Seifer grabbed her arm and yanked her towards him.

"Hey let go!" Rinoa screamed.

"She said let her go!" A deep voice came from around the corner. Seifer let go of Rinoa's arm and looked up. Rinoa fell to the ground and looked, too. Standing there was Squall.

"Oh yeah? What are gonna do about it? Huh? Is little Squall jealous?" Squall remained silent. "It's probably because he knows he couldn't get a girl to go out with him no matter what!"

"You're wrong!" Rinoa yelled at Seifer as she stood up from the ground. "He could too! You're the one who wouldn't ever have a date if you treat everyone like that!" Squall looked at her with a shocked look on his face. Seifer's face was getting red at her yelling this at him.

"Why you!" He raised his fist toward Rinoa. She closed her eyes waiting for impact. Nothing happened. She opened them to see Squall standing in front of her, Seifer's fist in his hand. "Let go Squall!"

"First, promise you won't touch her again!" Seifer gave him an annoyed look.

"I don't keep my promises. You of all people should know that." Seifer jerked his hand away and ran off down the hallway.

"Are you okay?" Squall had turned to Rinoa now.

"Yeah, I think so. I can't believe that just happened to me."

"Don't be surprised. Seifer's a jerk. He's always been like that."

"Now when I think back to the other day, I'm really glad you left him in those trees. Thanks again for helping me out. Now I really owe you one."

"Don't worry about it….and thanks for sticking up for me…..no one's ever done that."

"Oh that, well I do think you could get a date, I mean you are….ah….never mind." Squall gave her a questionable expression.

"Whatever."

"Yup that's Squall alright. Wait a second! He said thank you! Wow!" Rinoa thought to herself.

Rinoa walked into the cafeteria, finally going to do what she had been planning to do since this morning till that interruption in the hallway. She walked through the line and got bacon, eggs, and peanut butter toast. She looked around the table and saw Quistis smiling at her from a table in the middle. She ran towards her smiling.

"Hey what's up?" Quistis said as she saw Rinoa.

"Not much." She looked around the table at the other people sitting with Quistis.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot to introduce you. This is Zell, Irvine, and Selphie." Zell hade blonde hair that spiked up. Selphie wore a yellow dress that went to about mid-thigh. Her hair was brown and flipped out. Irvine had red hair, a cowboy hat, and chaps. Rinoa got the impression that Selphie and Irvine were going out due to the fact he had his arm around her.

"It's nice to meet all of you!"

"You too!" Everyone said.

"Hey did you know that we all grew up together?" Said Quistis. "It was in an orphanage."

"Yup, those were the days. Me, Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, Squall, and Seifer." Zell said.

"Whoa! Hold on. Did you just say Squall and Seifer?"

"Yeah." Replied Zell. "What about them. Do you know them?"

"Yeah, well sort of. I've met Squall a few times, and Seifer, I don't want to think about him right now."

"Join the club." Said Zell. The rest of breakfast was pretty normal. They talked about fighting styles for a while. Then Zell and Irvine started fighting about weapons. As Rinoa looked around the cafeteria, she saw Squall sitting alone in the corner.

"Hey Zell?"

"Yeah?"

"Does he always sit alone like that? I mean, I thought you guys were his friends."

"Who Squall? We are. He just doesn't like to socialize much."

"Yeah…" Rinoa sat lost in thought. An idea had popped into her head. She was going to perform a secret operation later that night.

It was ten thirty. Everyone else had gone to their rooms for the night. Rinoa sat on her bed, ready to take action in her plan. She was going to go to the bench where she saw the magazine the other day and take it. Then she would go to Squall's room to give it to him thinking that it could be his…if it wasn't, her plan would have failed.

She peeked out of her dormitory door and down the hallway. The lights had all been dimmed for the night. She made her way through another hall till she reached the bench. As she got closer she saw that the magazine was gone. "Great! What am I supposed to do now?" She turned to walk away when something shining caught her eye. She walked toward the bench and peered behind it. There was a ring with a picture of a lion on it. Upon examining it in her hand she looked at the inside. Words were written across it.

"Let's see…what does it say?" She said out loud to herself. "Commander…umm…Leonhart! That's it! Now all I need is a list of names to know who to return it to. Hey! The infirmary has a list of names of every student in the garden! I can go there!" Rinoa ran off down the hall till she got to the infirmary.

She peeked through the door. Dr. Kadowakki was no where to be seen. "Phew! The coast is clear." She ran inside and over to the desk. She opened up the desk drawers until she found a clipboard with names. "This is it!" Her eyes skimmed down it. "Hey look! It says that Seifer had a head injury from that attack the other day! Yes! He deserved every bit of it!" She continued down through the pages. At last she spotted last names with Leon in it. "Let's see…Leonburn, Leondore, Leonfay, and Leonhart! Yes, I found it! The first name is…oh my gosh…Squall? Squall Leonhart? I had no idea he was a commander!" Now she knew she could continue on with her original plan.

She snuck back to her room and looked in her closet. She grabbed her blue shorts and tank top pajamas. Then she put her hair into a ponytail to make it appear as though she had been sleeping. "I can't believe I'm going to do this. I'll have to explain to him why I'm giving him his ring this late at night most likely. Here goes nothing." She took a deep breath and ran out her door and stood outside of Squall's room. "I wonder if he's asleep. Please don't be mad if you are!" She thought quietly to herself.