Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to this.
A/N: Hey guys! This chapter was written by me and mybestest friendRica. I hope you enjoy.
I wanted to say I posted this on a spur of the moment. I wanted to get it updated before Thanksgiving Break. So 2 hours before I had to leave for the airport to fly to Tennessee to visit my family for the week I decided to post this. I wrote it with my bestest friend Rica, (isn't that the coolest name ever?). Anyways I didn't have much time for editing so there will probably be some mistakes. I hope you enjoy!
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Rikku drove down the steep to hills of San Francisco and picked up Laurie at Shuyin's townhouse. An irregular silence seemed to spread over them and awkwardly they drove towards Dunsberry's campus.
Every once in awhile Laurie would glance over and Rikku before quickly looking away and hoping she hadn't been caught. However, after about the sixth time she had been caught. And Rikku grew uncomfortably suspicious that something was amidst.
"Laurie is everything alright?" Rikku said as she put a CD into the Jeep's stereo system.
Laurie nodded and pushed some stray hairs out of her eyes. "Yea everything is alright. I'm pretty pumped for the weekend." She said while flexing her muscles. Rikku suppressed a nervous giggle and put on the new CD Gippal loaned her. Soon Freebird was blasting out of the car.
"That's…cool." Rikku said awkwardly. Laurie nodded and rested her head against the window. Something wasn't right. Laurie and Rikku were both habitual talkers so the prolonged silence was becoming awkward.
After about five minutes of listening to the nine-minute long Freebird Rikku changed to CD to some stuff Lenne recorded. A song entitled Lonely Broken Hearts came on.
Wake up. Go back. He's no where near you.
Get up. Look back. He must've left you.
Hang up. Scream back. Until your black and blue.
Together we are apart.
Together we cry alone.
Together we are the lonely broken hearts.
"Who sings this?" Laurie said as she motioned her hand at the stereo.
Rikku shrugged, "It's by a band called Hats Off. Lenne is the vocalist, Paine plays guitar, I play drums, and my cousin played the bass. But she moved about a year ago."
"For a whore and a boyfriend stealer she has a nice voice." Laurie said bitterly.
Rikku chuckled, "yea she does." Laurie looked and Rikku and bit her lip nervously.
"Shuyin broke up with me. He told me he can't deny his feeling for Lenne anymore. He told me he has to be honest with himself." Laurie suddenly confessed. Rikku glanced over at the girl. She didn't seem to be distraught. In fact, Rikku noticed, she seemed to be beaming with happiness.
For the rest of the ride the silence was not awkward. Instead it was a calming silence that was backed by the fresh music of Rikku's old band Hat's Off.
Together lonely broken hearts bleed alone.
---
Gippal finished putting the last of the snacks into the cooler and loaded it into his car. "Riku are you almost ready to hit the road?" he called into the dorm.
Inside Rikku sat with a mountain of clothing and three empty suitcases. "I'm trying to determine what to pack." she called back. Gippal rolled his eyes and checked his watch. Dammit we were supposed to be on the road two hours ago. Why does Riku always have to act like such a freakin girl? He thought bitterly to himself.
About two hours later Gippal dragged an unwilling Rikku out of the house while he stuffed some clothes into one suitcase.
"I had the socks for the first day perfectly planned out too." Rikku pouted. Gippal rolled his eyes and threw Rikku's stuff into the trunk.
"We have to get going. The sun is going to set before we get there and then we'll be stuck pitching our tent in the dark." Gippal said with surprisingly sensible logic. Rikku muttered some Al Bhed cruses under her breath before getting into the cramped car.
Then after they got on the open road her attitude cheered up and she sat back enjoying Gippal's company.
---
"How can you not know how to start the car?" Rikku said bitterly from the passenger seat as Gippal fumbled around under the smoking hood of the car.
Gippal came out from under the hood and glared frustrate at Rikku. "I'm doing everything I can. Just learn to chill." He spat at her. Rikku flinched back slightly and crossed her arms.
"Let me try." Rikku said as she swung open the car door and lifted the hood. The sun was beginning to set and the purple and blue shades of color reflected beautifully off of her blonde hair.
Within five minutes Rikku had managed to have the smoking engine running smoothly and have Gippal baffled. "Wow you're better with cars then me." He said in awe.
Rikku shrugged; being an Al Bhed she had always been interested in machines. Not to mention that her dad owned an auto body shop.
"Well we better get going." She said as she wiped a smudge of oil off of her cheek. Gippal shook his head and got into the driver's seat. For some reason he found himself thinking that his roommate was somehow…attractive…Gippal shook his head and cast aside the thoughts. Things were beginning to get weird.
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Later that night Rikku sat next to the campfire and repeatedly tried to make the perfect marshmallow. Gippal was on his third s'more by the time Rikku had finished her first.
"So I guess we should sing songs or something?" Gippal said after they had finished the bag of marshmallows. Rikku shrugged and licked the leftover chocolate of her fingers.
"What do you want to sing?" she asked. Gippal shrugged and played with some leaves around his feet.
"You go first." he said after awhile. Rikku shrugged and sang a little part of a song.
Down by the bank where the bullfrog jumps from bank to banky singin' hip hop kerplop pick a number when…we…stop.
Rikku sent a cheesy grin to Gippal and winked, "Your turn Gippy!" she said jokingly. Gippal rolled his eyes and sang a campfire song his dad taught him when he was little.
Every morning at half past eight I go "nah nah nah nah" to Georgie, and every morning at half past eight he goes "nah nah nah nah nah" to me. No need to ring "ding dong" no need to knock "knock knock" for as I wipe my eyes…I open the window pop out my head and go "nah nah nah nah nah" to Georgie.
Gippal was about to continue with the second verse before being interrupted by Rikku, "Gippy maybe you should keep your day job." Gippal shrugged and opened his mouth to continue the song. "Seriously." Rikku said as she stood up and threw water on the fire.
"Loser," Gippal muttered jokingly, "how dare you insult my great talents?" Rikku rolled her eyes and went over to the tent she and Gippal had miraculously managed to set it up just before the last shards of light disappeared into the trees.
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Back at Dunsberry Prep Lenne was comfortably relaxing on her bed. Her roommate hadn't shown up yet and thus far Lenne was enjoying the luxury of having her own dorm room.
Then, in true dramatic fashion, a knock sounded at the door. Then it sounded again. And again. And slightly louder. "I'm coming hold your horses!" Lenne yelled as she slowly slid off the bed and groggily walked over to the door.
She opened the heavy aluminum door and was surprised to see a smiling familiar face looking back at her. "Hey roomy!"
Lenne was taken slightly aback, "hey Yuna."
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The next morning Gippal and Rikku woke up early to go fishing.
Err…I mean Gippal and Rikku planned on waking up early to go fishing. But this is Gippal and Rikku we're talking about. At least they had good intentions.
"Riku wake up." Gippal stood over Rikku's sleeping bag in the huge three-room-ten-person tent. "Please wake up." Gippal said as he held up a bucket of ice water and closed his eyes. "Riku don't make me use this."
Rikku moaned and rolled over onto her other side. Why were people talking to her before ten o'clock in the morning on a Saturday? "Daddy I'm sleeping." Rikku whined deliriously from under her covers.
Gippal's face went blank. Did Riku just call him Daddy? Was he delirious? Hopefully. Gippal knelt down next to Rikku more closely to hear her delirious murmuring.
"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings but I can't lie to myself anymore." Rikku murmured as she dreamed about breaking up with her last boyfriend, Symon.
"Lie about what Riku?" Gippal prompted. An evil smirk spread across his face. Can you say blackmail?
Suddenly Rikku's brain fast-forwarded to the alleyway with Tidus, "Tidus I don't know why I did that. Don't get the wrong ideas." She whispered as she began to become even more delirious.
"Tidus?" Gippal said in shock, "Riku what are you talking about?" He was about to grab the bucket and pour it on her when he heard his name.
---
Yuna and Lenne sat in the dorm room and watched television for awhile without talking. Finally the silence was broken.
"So…Lenne…it's been awhile." Yuna said as she fumbled with her necklace. Lenne shrugged and changed the channel. The movie The Notebook was playing on HBO.
"It has. Yuna so much has happened. Especially with Rikku, she's going through a really tough time." Lenne answered after watching Ryan Gosling hang off the Ferris Wheel.
"Really? Is she as killer at tennis as ever?" Yuna said jokingly. Lenne rolled her eyes and flipped the channel again. Gilmore Girls was on ABC Family.
"I wouldn't know actually. She's been pretty distant to me lately. Especially since she befriended my boyfriend's twin brother and ex girlfriend." Lenne stated casually. Yuna looked over at the teen, slightly confused. How was she taking this so lightly? Rikku and Lenne had been best friends for as long as she could remember. Maybe something had caused a rift in the friendship.
You think?
"Let's talk about something else then." Yuna suggested. Lenne perked up and switched off the television.
"Okay! I have this amazing story to tell you." she gushed excitedly. Yuna's eyes beamed with interest and she leaned forward to hear the somewhat classic tale of girl meets boy. Lenne meets Shuyin style.
---
Rikku sat in her soaking wet pajamas, in her soaking wet sleeping bag, with her dripping wet hair, glaring deathly at Gippal. If looks could kill…Gippal would have been gone approximately seven minutes ago.
"You were delirious." Gippal said for about the tenth time…that minute.
"I am very aware of that." Rikku snapped back, "I am also aware that you dumped a cold bucket of water onto my head."
"To wake you up! So we could go fishing…as planned!" Gippal said in defense.
"I've had it with camping. Let's go home." Rikku said, standing up. She huffed a breath of icy cold air out and gathered her miniscule suitcase.
Gippal shrugged and got up as well there would be no arguing with Rikku. The sky was a bright blue, but there were some clouds off to the distance. And they had planned to leave tomorrow morning, so coming home one day early wouldn't make much of a difference…except for the fact they 'd hardly experienced camping at all.
"Fine just let me collapse the tent and we'll be on our way." Gippal said as he gathered his stuff and moved it outside of the gigantic tent. "You should probably change." He added a little humorously. Rikku glared and walked away, leaving the momentous job of collapsing the tent to Gippal himself.
---
Sunday morning on Silver Crest Campus was one of the laziest days of the year. Most of the older students were hangover from a combination of Friday and Saturday night parties. The rest of the students were just tired from all the activity of the previous days.
Needless to say little noticed when Rikku and Gippal rolled into the parking lot at 6 am Sunday morning with a smoking car attached to a tow truck.
"That'll be forty five dollars for the happy stranded couple." The ancient tow truck driver said. The flashed his ugly yellow teeth at Rikku and she shuttered.
"We're not a couple and we're not happy." Gippal said as he shoved a fifty dollar bill at the guy. "Keep the change." The man shrugged and got out of the truck, let their smoking off the back, and got back in.
"Come on Riku let's go." Gippal said between clenched teeth. Rikku sighed and got out the truck. Watching the cloud of dust pick up as it drove away.
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Later that night Rikku and Gippal were on somewhat speaking terms. The incidents from earlier that night were still under strict direction to never be discussed, but somehow they were becoming less mad at each other.
Rikku sat back at her desk and switched on her computer. As it booted up she closed her eyes and let the previous day's events all bombard her at once.
Rikku and Gippal got into the car with everything loaded in the back. Rikku had changed into a navy blue sweater and a pair of blue jeans. Gippal got into the drivers seat and they were on the road by ten o'clock.
"We should get back to Silver Crest by four or five tonight. Depending on whether we stop for lunch on the way home." Gippal said to Rikku. She nodded and occupied herself with looking out the window.
"I still can't believe you dumped a bucket of water on me." Rikku finally said. Gippal suppressed a laugh and tried to explain himself.
"First off, stop being such a girl about it. Secondly you were talking in your sleep about some pretty weird stuff. I didn't know if you were being serious or not. It kind of…err…scared me. So I dumped the water on you." Rikku sighed and looked out the window again.
After a long pause she resumed the conversation, "what was I saying?"
Rikku looked at the computer screen and logged into her desktop before allowing herself to recall the rest of the events. Gippal was lying on his bed reading Al Bhed Auto Shop X-Treme magazine. Rikku had to laugh, that magazine was on of Brother's favorites.
Rikku logged onto to AIM before resuming the tale that was playing in her mind.
CarsGoVroom's Buddylist
Buddies (6/134):
ItsTWT
songbird151
xoLoveNotesxo
WestCoastsFinest
Darkxdiamonds
Playr69
Gippal paused and thought about how to respond to Rikku's question. Should he admit to her that her knew the secret? Was the secret even true? Gippal decided honesty was the best policy.
"You were saying that you wanted to tell my why you'd been acting so strange." Gippal said nervously. Rikku nodded and held back angry tears. She wasn't angry at Gippal, but she was furious with herself. How could she be so stupid?
"Did I-did-I told you why?" Rikku choked.
Gippal nodded and put the radio on. "I just want to let you know, even though it's not my style I'm not gonna treat you any differently." Rikku was about to nod but she stopped. What did he mean, 'it's not his style?'
"I would hope it isn't your style. It's not my choice OR style either." Rikku said, referring to her guy façade.
Gippal nodded in disbelief, "uh-huh. So you're telling me you aren't gay?"
A noise sounded from Rikku's computer. She looked at the screen and realized Yuna had sent her a message.
XoLoveNotesxo: omg guess what!
CarsGoVroom: what?
XoLoveNotesxo: I'm going to Dunsberry Prep! In San Francisco! Full Scholarship!
CarsGoVroom: seriously? thats awesome!
xoLoveNotesxo: I know! I'm Lenne's roommate too!
CarsGoVroom: really? I go to Silver Crest, that's not that far away.
xoLoveNotesxo: Silver Crest? That's the boy's boarding school Lenne's bf goes to…?
CarsGoVroom: umm well it's a long story. But Cid convinced me to pretend to be a boy and go here
xoLoveNotesxo: that's…different
CarsGoVroom: when I think about it now, it sounds really dumb.
xoLoveNotesxo: no rikku don't b so negative
CarsGoVroom: its been a long weekend
xoLoveNotesxo: tell me.
CarsGoVroom: well you see…it all began with tennis camp…when I was seven
Rikku told Yuna the entire story from beginning to the moment she was sitting in right now. After the story Yuna had to go use the shower and prepare for the ever approaching Monday morning.
Rikku signed off and sat down on her bed. She noticed Gippal had fallen asleep with the magazine in his hands. She allowed her self a stress relieving laugh before falling into the soft pillows. Before she knew it she had fallen asleep.
"Of course I'm not gay! Its impossible for girls to be gay!" Rikku snapped at Gippal. He stopped the car and pulled over to the side of the road.
"Excuse me? Did you just say its impossible for girls to be gay?" he stuttered. Rikku sighed and nodded annoyed. "And what the hell does that have to do with this situation?"
Rikku shook her head, obviously she hadn't confessed everything to Gippal. "Keep a secret?" she said frustrated. Gippal nodded and leaned in closely to hear what Rikku said next.
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The alarm sounded and Yuna and Lenne woke up simultaneously. The Monday morning has arrived and everyone was groggy from the weekend. Yuna jumped up and rushed to the bathroom to prepare for her first day at Dunsberry Prep. After a quick shower and the world's shortest flat ironing job Yuna slipped quickly into her school girl style uniform that consisted of a mini skirt, knee high socks, a cute collared shirt with a little Dunsberry Prep emblem embroidered on it, and a matching sweater. She re-entered the main dorm area to see Lenne already dressed.
"I took a shower in the public showers across the hall." She said as she applied another coat of lip gloss. "Ready to go?" Yuna nodded and picked up her leather back pack. She was as ready as ever.
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Rikku woke up and noticed Gippal was still asleep on his bed. What a weekend she thought exhaustedly to herself. Last night she had dreamed about the car ride with Gippal on the way home from camping. Her alarm had woken her up just as she was about to tell Gippal her secret.
Hurriedly she jumped into the shower and allowed herself to finish the story in her mind as the water rushed over her body.
"I'm not who I appear to be." Rikku said quietly.
Gippal nodded and noticed Rikku's downcast eyes and flushed face.
"I've been deceiving you and mostly everyone else in this city. Its gotten complicated. I can't handle it sometimes. But I have to do it. I have to do it for my family." Rikku explained, without really…err…explaining. Gippal nodded, still confused.
"Rikku you can tell me what's going on." He said in a comforting voice. Rikku looked up at his comforting face and realized she had no choice but to tell him the truth.
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A/N: Ahhh! Why do Gippal and Rikku become mad at each other? Yuna has arrived! What about Laurie? And how's Tidus doing? I'll stop typing questions now.
Thank you for reading please remember to review!
Lucy and Rica.
My wonderful reviewers will receive, compliments of American Airlines, an all-expenses paid trip to Rome! With the company of one FF character! (how unoriginal am I? Lol)
Responses to Reviews:
AngelsofDarkness: Thank you for the kind review. My guitar is electric, although my dad has an acoustic one so maybe I'll try to play both :) Do you play guitar? Oh and you'll go to Rome with Nooj, that way you two can jam on the guitar together, lol.
Kyritawuv: Thanks for your review too. In response to the Tidus/Rikku I can't fully answer that without giving some stuff away, but I guess I could tell you that Tidus has a "crush" on Rikku. You can travel to Rome with Tidus! Heh lucky you.
Kingleby:Thank you for your review You get to go with Paine! Have fun with that. XD
Amanda: Well I hope this chapter answered your question, mostly. Keep reading to find out more. Your travel companion is…Rikku! I bet you two would have fun shopping :)
I've got a secret: hmm what's your secret? Jk. Just remember if you tell me, its not me who can't keep a secret, it's the people I tell who can't. Anyways hope that was enough drama for you. I was actually planning on having more but I changed my mind. Anyways you will go to Rome with Gippal! Luck lucky you. And I hope you have a great Thanksgiving break, it sucks that your school doesn't let youhave off for the entire week!
Leave Reviewssssss
Lucy