Chapter Two-Of Hauntings and Mascots

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"Help me?" Zell shouted from his icy prison. "Please?" he was getting desperate. Just a few hours ago, he had tried to eat his way through the metal doors. He sighed. Hot dogs, hot dogs everywhere, and not one to eat.

Footsteps sounded, as the lunch lady strolled into the back room to get new hotdogs for the day.

"HELP ME!" Zell shouted, "PLEASE, SOMEBODY HELP ME!" The echo from inside the freezer amplified his voice and gave it and eerie ring.

The lunch lady froze. "Oh, great Hyne…" she whispered, before dropping the keys to the freezer and running for her life.

After a few moments of silence, Zell called again, "Hel-lo!" No one answered him.

"Huahh!" Rinoa cried, pulling Squall the Chocobo into a stranglehold. She called it a "hug."

"Oh, Mr. Chocobo, I just knew I could teach you to fetch!" she said, grinning from ear to ear. If Squall had been human at that moment, he would have arched an eyebrow. But he wasn't, so he just looked like a chocobo with a digestive problem. Rinoa kept talking: "You deserve a reward, Mr. Chocobo!" Rinoa went to the cabinet in her dorm, and retrieved a large can marked, "Pedigreens." "Here you go, Mr. Chocobo, for being such a good little chocobo!"

Squall stared at the lump of Gyshal greens soaking in a brown goo. Gross. He wrinkled his beak, and looked up at Rinoa. She looked so expectant, and his usually cold heart melted. Squall found it hard to believe that just twenty four hours ago, she was threatening to dismember his body and burn the carcass. Yet another reason to love her. Who wouldn't?

He held his breath and took a small bite. It wasn't exactly delicious, but Squall was hungry. Maybe he was imagining it, but the Pedigreens tasted a bit like dog food, actually.

No sooner than Squall gulped down the last of his meager rations, Rinoa had collared him with an old belt of hers, and attached a leash. She promptly began dragging him to the cafeteria.

There, everyone sat around eating bags of chips, or chocolate choco-bars. Squall was puzzled.

"Hey, wha'as up?" Irvine greeted the pair as Rinoa pulled them over to the table.

Rinoa shrugged. "Not much. I taught Mr. Chocobo here how to fetch. Why did everyone buy lunch from the vending machines?" A terrified look appeared in her eyes. "Oh, god. Selphie didn't organize a boycott of cafeteria food, did she?"

Irvine grinned sheepishly. "Nah, the cafeteria ladies are afraid to go into the stockroom. It's haunted."

From the other end of the table, Selphie piped up. "I heard it's the ghost of a dead sorceress who was buried underneath the school!"

Quistis snorted. "There's no such things as ghosts, Selphie. There's no proof!"

"Oh yeah?" Selphie asked angrily. "I bet you wouldn't say that if you were in there with the ghost!"

"I would too!"

"Prove it!" Selphie shouted. The entire cafeteria was shouting. Was someone going to brave the haunted stockroom? "I bet you all the money in my ochu bank that you wouldn't last an hour in there!"

Quistis, standing up, said, "I bet I would!"

"Fine then. Tomorrow during lunch, you have to spend the entire time in the haunted stockroom. And if you don't, you have to…um…"

"Give everyone in your class A's," Seifer helped her. The fact that he was enrolled with her probably had something to do with it.

"And if I can't you have to give me all the cash in your ochu bank!"

The two girls turned away in a huff.

The library girl, whom Zell was currently dating, came up and asked where he was.

"We haven't seen him all day," Rinoa told her. "Why?"

The library girl, Emily, shrugged. "Today's our six month anniversary. He was supposed to take me to lunch."

"THAT BASTARD!" Rinoa yelled, pounding her fist on the table. Everyone was quiet.

The awkward silence hung over the group for a while, until Selphie set eyes on Squall, cowering in fear under the table.

"Oh wow!" she squealed, "What a cute chocobo! Rin, is he yours?" Rinoa, still panting with rage, smiled downward at him.

"Yup," she said.

"Oh, Rin, you have to let me use him for the new school mascot! You just have too!"

Seifer looked skeptical. "Don't you have a bad record with animals, Selphie?"

Selphie glared at him. "I do not. I'm just not lucky." Selphie sniffed. "All the animals I have either run away, or DIE!" She burst into tears.

Quickly, Rinoa patted her back and tried to comfort her. "Don't worry, Selph. You can use Mr. Chocobo!"

Selphie sat straight up. "Really, Rin?" she asked.

"Of course!"

It was the beginning of the end for Squall's dignity.

Three hours, two baths, three blow drys, and a bottle of pink nail polish later, Squall was looking disgustingly feminine. His toes were painted pink, and each feather was teased into place. He felt very much like a rag doll. No wonder all of Selphie's pets ran away or died.

"Just one last touch," Selphie said, placing a frilly pink bow on Squall's head. Eyes full of tears, she said, "It's just so beautiful!"

Squall raised a wing to brush off the bow, but Selphie's hand stopped him. "Uh-uh, Mr. Chocobo." Her voice was as light-hearted as ever, but a little spark in Selphie's eyes chilled him to his bones.

Squall gulped an lowered his wing.

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Author's Note: I hope you all got that an ochu bank is like a piggy bank. Just so ya know.