Dislaimer: I'm very poor…need I say more?

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Chapter 2: Acquainted Strangers

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"Fancy meeting you alone in the crowd

Couldn't help but notice your smile

While everybody else around us is going about

Can we just stop and talk a while?"

Can We Just Stop and Talk Awhile – Lea Salonga

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"Squall will do what?!"

"Will that be a problem Rinoa?" Laguna asked with a slightly sly grin. "It'll be good for Squall to get to know some people. You could introduce him to everyone and get him acquainted with your crowd."

BUT I DON'T WANT HIM ACQUAINTED WITH MY CROWD!! Rinoa sat gaping as her gaze shifted from her mother, to Raine and Laguna who were all happy about the idea. Lastly she looked at Squall who was silently laughing with his eyes focused at his food. "There's no problem," she finally relented with hesitation. Fine, you win this round. "Squall can come. I'll let Irvine know," she sighed as she turned to face Squall. "Um, its at 7 on Saturday. I guess you can come with me and Jem. So just be here at quarter to."

"Cool. Thanks Rin. That was a delicious dinner Mrs Caraway. Thankyou," he smiled warmly as he put his cutlery down.

"Why thankyou Squall. You're most welcome. Now Rinoa why don't you take Squall into the kitchen and get him some dessert."

"Sure thing, Mom," she replied quietly as she, too, put her cutlery down onto her now empty plate.

The two adolescents got up simultaneously, Squall turning to follow Rinoa. Once they were both in the kitchen, Rinoa quickly took hold of Squall and dragged him into another room.

Quietly, Rinoa closed the door and turned to face Squall, her eyes narrow with impatience. "Why the hell must you continually ruin my life?"

"Um, Rinoa…I haven't been a part of your life for ten years." Right…being a smartass will totally make this situation better.

"Why didn't you say that you didn't wanna go to the party."

"Because I actually want to," he stated in an a-matter-of-fact tone. "I need to get to know these people sometime, and this'll be a great opportunity."

"You're going to school next week though, aren't you?" she offered in desperation, tyring to find any excuse for him not to go

"Yeah-"

"Then you'll meet everyone on Monday," Rinoa cut in with no hesitation.

He rolled his eyes while shaking his head. "Whatever. Will you be doing something there that you don't want me to see?"

"What?! Of course not!" she scoffed with wide, unbelieving eyes. How the hell could he think that of me?!

"Then why don't you want me to go? It's not a hard question, you know."

" I just simply do not want you there," she said softly. I want to have fun – not be forced to remember that my dad is dead.

"What is your problem, Rin?"

Turning back to old habits, she lifted her head slightly indignantly. "You are my problem." Rinoa, who stood less than a metre from Squall, looked him straight in the eye and, believing she had the element of surprise against him, went to punch him in the stomach. "I told you if you pushed me I'd kick your ass," Rinoa quickly said before impact.

She never made it anywhere near his abdomen.

Squall quickly saw her right hand move and went to block it with his right arm, easily evading the attack by pushing her arm away with the back of his forearm. Just as swiftly, he grabbed her extended right arm with his left hand, pushing his right hand so that he turned Rinoa to have her back facing him. Then in another second, he took her left arm in his right hand and pulling both of his arms to his sides, locking her into an uncomfortable position, where her arms crossed behind her.

She squirmed and tried to get out of his hold. He's too strong.

Squall was now close behind her and stepped forward a little more to speak into her ear. "Kick my ass just like you did when we were six? Newsflash Rin, I'm not the same kid I was back then. Some people change."

"And others don't."

"I see you're a prime example of that, aren't you. Still resorting to violence when things don't go your way? You need to stop thinking that you're a perfect little princess and just accept things sometimes. I didn't ask to come back here, nor did I want to leave in the first place. If I had a choice, I would've stayed in Esthar, but that wasn't an option. So do you think I went and punched the living daylights out of my parents? No. I accepted the fact that my parents wanted me with them and that I had to come back so I could be with them, so we could be a family."

"Get off me!"

"I will if you promise me that you'll be nice and civil to me. I didn't ask to be brought back here but since I'm here, I don't want to put up with your childish antics and since we're neighbours, I see no reason why we shouldn't at least be friends."

Rinoa bit her lip and once again tried to ease herself out of his clutch. No way! He doesn't deserve such treatment, not from me anyway.

"Oh, and you have to promise that you won't try to hit me again."

"Hey! No fair! You keep adding conditions!"

"Then promise already and I'll stop."

Rinoa pursed her lips once more and tried, again, to release her hands from his oh-so-firm grip.

He smiled slightly as he felt her struggle in his hold. "You can keep trying, but you won't get out of my hands that easily." He then stepped a bit closer, so he could speak directly into her ear. "I think eight years of Tae Kwon Do did me good, don't you?"

"Quite." Once more she tried pulling free, only to fail once again. Ugh! I give up. "Fine! I promise. But that doesn't mean I like you any more than I do. I'll just be 'civil' with you."

"And?"

Rinoa rolled her eyes. I cannot believe I am subjecting myself to this! "And I won't try to hit you again, alright?"

"Alright. Can I have that in writing then?"

"What?!" she squealed as she quickly turned her head to face him as best she could.

"Just kidding," Squall laughed. "So that's a promise?"

"It's a promise! Now let go!" Squall all too happily obliged as Rinoa hastily took hold of her painful shoulders. "Ow! That hurt."

"That was the intention."

She poked her tongue out at him. "Meanie."

"Whatever. So am I gonna get dessert like your mom said I would or shall I lie and say you did when you really didn't? 'Cause if that's the case, you'd better tell me what desserts you have in your house so I can at least make it a legitimate claim."

"Come on, I'll get you dessert," Rinoa scoffed as she lead the way into the kitchen.

"How nice of you."

His response was a smirk from her as she opened the freezer and pulled out a tub of ice cream. "We only have choc chip."

"That's okay."

Rin took out a spoon from a drawer and two bowls from the cupboard, placing them on the kitchen bench top. She carefully opened the tub and dug into it, scooping uneven spoonfuls into each bowl. When she turned around to return the tub to the fridge, he quickly took the bowl with the bigger scoops and the spoon and began eating. Rinoa turned back around and frowned at Squall who offered her a grin. What the…? "You took my bowl!"

"Did I?" he queried sarcastically as he turned the bowl around and looked at its underside. "It doesn't appear to have your name on it. Are you sure?"

"I put more ice cream in it for a reason."

"I thought you were being nice."

"Ugh!" Rinoa groaned as she went to get a spoon. Returning to the bench, she slipped into one of the stools and began eating.

Squall watched her as she ate and found himself smiling a bit. She looks so cute when she eats. Wait a sec… "So you and your boyfriend, Jeremy was it? How long you two been together?" he asked in hopes to rid his mind of the thoughts he was having.

If there was ever a topic that could make Rinoa smile, it was Jeremy. "Me and Jem? Well about six months now."

"How'd you meet?"

"Why do you want to know?" she rallied with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm trying to make conversation here! Work with me."

"Fine. Well he came here on exchange from Esthar in February. We had a lot of subjects together and he didn't really know anyone else, so he'd always sit with me and then he eventually started hanging around me and my friends. Then he asked me out one day at the beginning of class and I couldn't answer 'cause the teacher had come in and she was one of those really strict teachers that hate it when you speak in class. So yeah, I said yes obviously and, well, we've been together since." She smiled as she looked down into her ice cream.

A faint tune started playing and Rinoa slipped out of the stool and made for the door. "Oh, that's my phone!" she exclaimed before exiting to go upstairs. She picked up her cell phone, glanced at who it was and answered, a smile present on her face.

"Hello?"

"Hey. What took so long? You usually answer within seconds."

"Oh, sorry, I was in the kitchen eating-"

"-Choc chip ice cream?"

"You betcha! I was just talking about you."

"You were? To who?" he asked a little suspiciously

"Oh, some guy who's moved back to Deling. He pisses the hell out of me actually. His parents and mine were good friends and mom decided to invite them for dinner as welcoming back kind of thing."

"So you have guests?"

"Yeah, it sucks."

"I shoulda called before coming over then."

"What?" Rinoa asked as she walked over to her window that overlooked the street. Sure enough, standing by the mailbox was a tall boy with black hair and beautiful dark brown eyes that were almost black. He waved when he saw Rinoa and smiled as he continued to talk.

"Are you coming down or shall I come up?"

"Wait right there!" And with that she hung up, ambled down the stairs and opened the door. As expected, he'd made his way down the path and up the small flight of stairs to the front door.

"Hello," he said softly before bending slightly to kiss her. Rinoa wrapped her arms around his neck, thankful her mother was out of sight. After a few moments, he pulled back again, Rinoa's arms still in place and his around her waist. "Good surprise or bad surprise?"

"Good of course!"

"So who were you talking about me to?" he asked as he slipped his arms from around her waist and took her hand.

"Oh, him," she said with a tone of disgust. "Actually you might know him, though probably not. He came from Esthar."

"Yeah?" he queried with genuine interest. "What's his name?"

"Squall Leonhart."

A smile broke out onto his face. "Squall?"

"You know him?"

"Know him?! I went to school with him! He's a really good friend of mine."

"He's your friend?" Rinoa asked in nervous surprise. Jem and Squall…friends? NO! They can't be!

"Jem? That you buddy?" a voice behind her sounded.

Oh God it can't be true!

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A/N- AH! OMG! Has it been long or what?! What can I say? Well…I do realise its been over two months now, and I'm really, very sorry! And to prove that I really am I've decided to update nearly every two days for the next three weeks because I'm on holidays and I also wanna get this fic over and done with so that I can start my next one. If you haven't noticed this fic isn't as…um 'deep' as my other fics, so its really simple. My next fic will be 'deeper' and I honestly can't wait to start posting it up for you guys to read. So anyway…I couldn't be bothered giving responses today… SORRY! I'M SICK AND…well…just plain LAZY! Next chapter I probably will…so for the time being, until Tuesday, please review and tell me what you think! It would be most appreciated! Have a great day!

3 e.t.