Hatred to Love

A/N: Since I went on holidays for around a month and I didn't update for a while, I decided that I'd post up this chapter a week early. I know that I haven't updated on other my other fics, but I know where this story's going, and I want to finish it before I don't know what else to write about and of course before the school holidays end! Thanks for all your reviews! And if Squall seems a little different than what you're used to, remember he hasn't lost his parents or Ellone, only his twin sister! Quistis is popular except that she got 'demoted' when she started hanging out with Selphie and Rinoa.

Chapter 3 – Discovering the real Squall

The whole school day was like a blur to Rinoa. She could hardly remember a single thing. Except for the fact that Squall was in every one of her classes. Now that was really creepy! And the teachers also gave their students an awful lot of homework for the first day.

The last class that Rinoa had that day was music and fortunately Selphie, Quistis, Zell and Irvine were in that class. Unfortunately, Squall and Mandy were too.

Rinoa was in a deep conversation with Selphie until she tripped over a rubbish bin. Luckily she didn't fall inside the bin, but Squall was the one who helped her up and Rinoa didn't realise that she was still holding onto his hand.

"Keep your hands off my boyfriend Rinoa," Mandy said sneeringly.

"The last time I checked, you were dumped by him already," Selphie snapped.

Rinoa didn't have a clue what Mandy was talking about. Until she saw that her hand was in someone else's hand. Rinoa looked up and saw Squall looking in the other direction. She quickly slipped her hand out of his and she faced the other direction blushing really hard and thinking, Oh my god! I can't believe that I held his hand! There's something really wrong with me today!

"All right class, I know all of you have a lot of homework from your other classes and I don't want you to hate me for giving you more, so there's no homework for today," Ms. Kerry their music teacher said.

"Looks like Squall has a liking for you Rin," Zell whispered to Rinoa.

"He does not!" Rinoa whispered back quickly.

"Squall, man is there anyway to get Mandy off your back?" Irvine asked.

Squall looked at him. "How the hell should I know? I dumped her and now she wants me back, it's her problem, not mine,"

Irvine looked a bit hurt at the way Squall answered him but quickly got over it.

"There goes the bell kids, see you on Wednesday, second period!" Ms. Kerry called out.

Quistis, Selphie, Zell and Irvine were already on their way out the door so they could all walk home together. Selphie had discovered that Irvine and Zell lived really close to them, so she invited them to walk to and from school with them.

"Hey Rin, you walking with us?" Zell called out.

Rinoa made her way to them and said, "I can't today; I have to start on my science assignment with Squall and we're also studying together,"

All eyes were on Squall now. Squall realised that all eyes were on him and he said, "It's just Rinoa and me working together at my house. It's normal, for Hyne's sake! Lots of other people study at other people's houses!"

"Rightttttt….you're going to study," Quistis said a smile forming on her lips.

"Shut up Quistis," Rinoa said pulling Squall out the door with her.

"I wonder if something's going on with them?" Selphie whispered.

Zell smiled. Maybe Rinoa can change him back to normal again…

"So, Zell, if you said that you don't date sluts, who would you date then?" Selphie said playfully.

Zell turned scarlet. "I'm…I'm just not interested in dating anyone right now,"

Irvine chuckled lightly. "As if Zell! You're interested in that library girl, Kate. That's why you've been spending a lot of time in the library these days!"

"Is that true Zell?" Quistis asked smiling.

Zell blushed even harder. "I'm going to kill you Irvine Kinneas!"

"Zell, you do realise that you've just told us that you do like her! If you didn't like Kate then you wouldn't have said that you wanted to kill Irvine. You would've just denied it," Quistis said.

"So somebody is in love with somebody," Selphie said in a singsong voice.

"I'm not in love with her!" Zell said loudly.

"As if!!" Quistis, Irvine and Selphie replied laughing.

"So, Squall are we walking to your house or what?" Rinoa asked.

Squall looked at her as if she was crazy. "I live in Esthar and that's pretty far to walk Rinoa. We're getting picked up by a limousine,"

Now it was Rinoa's turn to look at Squall as if he was crazy. Limousine? Rinoa thought he wasn't that rich, but then again, his father probably made a lot of money being the president of Esthar.

Rinoa sat down on one of the school benches.

"Is your chauffer going to take long Squall?" Rinoa asked.

Squall kept on looking out at the road and acted like Rinoa didn't say anything.

"Fine, don't answer me, you ungrateful excuse for a human being," Squall heard her mumble.

Squall glanced at her for a while. In some ways, she was appealing to him. The way she sat on the bench with a frustrated look on her pretty face. But even if he did eventually start to date her, she'd probably cheat on him, just like Mandy did. He didn't want to be hurt again.

I'll admit it! She has a pretty face but her bubbly personality drives me insane! I don't even want to think about this. Why the hell am I thinking about this anyway? It's not like I like her or something. Squall thought.

"What do you want Squall?" Rinoa asked when she saw Squall staring at her.

"The limo's here," Squall said.

Rinoa stood up and walked over to the limousine and hopped inside.

"Aren't you coming in?" She called to Squall.

Squall sighed and walked to the limousine and sat inside and then quickly shut the door. He wanted to finish the assignment today, so that she wouldn't be coming home with him again.

Rinoa and Squall both thought that no one had seen them get inside the limousine together, but unfortunately someone did. Erika, the school's biggest flirt and gossiper.

"Oh my god! Now Squall and Rinoa's dating?! I have to tell Mandy right away!" She said to herself and whipped out her little pink mobile phone.

Erika started pacing around the school grounds waiting for Mandy to answer her mobile phone. Come on Mandy, pick up already! This juicy little detail will be vital to you! You better be grateful that I have drama club meeting on Monday afternoons! Cos' if I didn't, you wouldn't have found out that Squall's got a new girlfriend already! What could you be doing now? I thought you told me that your phone was like your best friend and you keep it at your side all the time!

Mandy was looking through her drawers for photos of Squall. She swore that they were in one of her drawers because that's where she left most of her photo albums. When they were dating, they took heaps of photos together. Squall had hated taking photos. His reason? Camera-shy. But he did eventually give in to Mandy's pleading. Mandy wanted to find them so she could remember her Squall and all the fun times they had together. She was going to use them to make Squall remember that so he'll feel guilty about it and they'll eventually begin to date again. But, could that really happen?

BBBBrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggggg……………

"What the hell does someone want now?! I'm busy!" Mandy asked as she turned away from her drawers and quickly grabbed her mobile phone which was lying on her "princess" bed.

"Hello?!" Mandy shouted into the phone.

"Woah! Mandy, if you keep on shouting like that, I'll go deaf and that means I won't be able to listen for any more juicy gossip!" A female voice said.

"Erika? Is that you? How'd you get my mobile number?" Mandy said with a hint of curiosity.

"Never mind that now Mandy, I have a piece of information that is going to be really important to you. It involves Squall and a certain raven haired girl…" Erika said.

Mandy walked over to her bulletin board and looked at a snapshot she had taken of Squall when he didn't know she was there. It was her favourite one of him, because you could see a close-up of his ice blue eyes and a lot of his handsome features.

"Keep talking Erika," Mandy said into her phone.

"Let's just say that I saw Squall and Rinoa riding in his limo together this afternoon…"

"You WHAT?!" Mandy shouted.

How dare she? How dare she steal my man! I'll get her for this if it's the last thing I ever end up doing! You're going to pay big time for this Rinoa Heartilly…

"This is your house?!" Rinoa said in shock.

"What's wrong with it?" Squall asked patiently.

Rinoa was too shocked to answer. She thought that kids with politicians as parents lived in the White House or something like that. But Squall's house, however, was a different story. It was like one of those dream houses, like the one Regina George lived in (Mean Girls).

"Do you have the keys?" Rinoa asked.

Squall looked at her. "Of course I do,"

He opened the door and let Rinoa inside first.

"Rinoa, my room's on the second floor, the first door on the right, go in there and make yourself at home," Squall said distractedly.

"Where will you be?" Rinoa asked not really wanting to know the answer.

Squall looked at her once again and simply said, "I need to take a shower," and after he said that he waltzed into one of his mansion's million rooms.

Rinoa looked around the house and walked to get a closer look at some framed photos on the wall. There were some family portraits, some individual ones and one that appealed to her the most. One of Squall which was probably taken around two or three years ago. He still looked attractive like he was now, but he was actually smiling for real in the photo. Not a fake smile, but a natural one. That also brought a smile to Rinoa's lips. Maybe there was a 'real' Squall after all.

Yikes! If I hang around here any longer, Squall will practically be done showering all ready! I have to get to his room! Rinoa thought.

Rinoa ran up one set of stairs and then ran up another. Then as Squall had told her, Rinoa opened the first door on the right.

She walked inside his room and looked around. Was this really Squall Leonhart's bedroom?

Rinoa thought that since Squall broke up with Mandy, his bedroom would be messy. But his room was incredibly neat and sophisticated.

All of his honor awards were framed and hung above his desk. His gunblade was placed near his wardrobe. Almost everything in this room didn't suit Squall's personality at all except for the gunblade and the honor awards. Maybe there really was a 'real' Squall.

Rinoa walked over to his desk because a photo had caught her eye. It was definitely an old photo, but what intrigued Rinoa the most was that the girl looked a lot like her. A younger looking Squall (probably 11 or 12 years old) had his arm around a girl that had raven black hair with two copper streaks.

Flashback

"Squall, I don't want to talk to you anymore," Rinoa said with tears coming out of her eyes.

Twelve year old Squall ran after Rinoa. "Why not Rin?"

Rinoa turned around and looked at Squall, tears running down her face.

"You do realise that today was my twelfth birthday, don't you?"

Squall nodded and placed his hands on Rinoa's shoulders.

"You didn't even wish me happy birthday today and I saw you hanging out with Mandy. You said that you never really liked her and you forgot about my birthday so that you could hang with her?" Rinoa said angrily.

The rain poured down even harder.

Squall was silent for a while.

Then Squall did something that was unlike him. He leaned down to Rinoa and kissed her softly on the lips.

"Happy Birthday Rinoa," Squall whispered.

End Flashback.

Rinoa blinked for a second. She'd been having that flashback for a while now and she didn't know whether it was real or just a dream. It seemed so real to her, but she didn't want it to be real. She had disliked Squall for a long time and she didn't want to start liking him now. Although she had to admit, he was hot looking.