Road to Eternity

Chapter 4: Work

If you only once would let me
Only just one time
Then be happy with the consequence
With whatever's gonna happen tonight
Don't think we're not serious
When's it ever not
The love we make is give and it's take
I'm game to play along

Work, Jimmy Eat World

: Can't say I was never wrong, but some blame rests on you. Work and play, they're never okay, to mix the way we do :

"Squall? Oh, Squall! Hey, Squall, Squall! Guess what I just remembered, Squall…"

"Stop saying my name."

"Huhh? Oh, sorry. Well, anyway…"

The girl tugged on her bright yellow sundress, which sent Squall shivering just looking at it in the cold, cold air outside.

December was just not the month to be wearing short, sleeveless dresses… without a jacket.

"…at your schedule? … …Come on, you had to have looked at it! Everyone has already. I was hoping they'd put first and second levels together this year for classes so that you and Zell could be with the rest of us, but they only did that for some of the classes, mostly the extra ones…"

Squall tried tuning her out, his thoughts wandering to his schedule. In fact, he hadn't looked at it yet, and it was festering in its envelope along with the disregarded welcoming letter and rules and policies sheet somewhere in his bag.

"Hel-lo? Squall?"

Selphie waved a hand in front of his face.

"Wha…?"

"You totally spaced out. And, you skipped dinner last night too! Grrr, me and Irvy and Quisty were gonna kidnap you and Zell to the movies, but then BOTH of you didn't show up!"

Squall frowned, turning to her.

"Wait… Zell wasn't at dinner?" Selphie shook her head.

"Then… where else could he be?" This puzzled the brunette to some extent.

Selphie shrugged again.

"…"

Squall decided not to worry about it too much; after all, no guy could possibly get in trouble the second day of boarding school… right?

Whatever, he thought, I just need to concentrate on tomorrow, then.

Yes. Tomorrow, when classes started and everything was officially set in motion for Squall's private hell to begin. Being locked in this… Prep school was just not his ideal way of spending the last-oh-month-of-so of his life.

Also, he had officially given up on reading Catcher in the Rye, and was setting his sights on other reading material, which was where he was headed to look for now…

Sadly, his map of the school grounds was still in the very same envelope as his schedule and welcoming letter and rules and policies paper, so he got lost and ended up wandering for the better part of an hour before he bumped into Selphie.

So now, she was leading the way to the library, which was sadly on the other side of the campus. The cold and bitter air bit at his face, and he again glanced at Selphie in her dress.

"Aren't you cold?" He asked. The brunette girl blinked, eyes wide from the surprise of his unexpected question.

"Huh? Oh. Oh, no. I never really get cold unless it's snowing. Although," here she paused to glance up at the sky, "it does look like it could snow, doesn't it? Hehe. That would really suck, huh?"

Squall followed her gaze up towards the grey-blue, overcast sky, squinting as a breeze whipped his hair around.

"Come on, hurry, or else we'll never get to the library!" Selphie called, tugging on his arm. His gaze lingered on the clouds for a second longer before he allowed the girl to pull him away.

: All the best DJs are saving, their slowest song for last. When the dance is through, it's me and you; Come on would it really be so bad:

Squall leaned back, eyes skimming the rows and rows of books. The smell of the library filled his nose; a mixture of plastic, leather, and coffee. The soft hum of voices and whispers blended with the sound of scratching pens and flipping pages, and the blend soothed his grated nerves.

"Hey! Hey! Stooop!"

Squall looked up, eyes wide. The voice seemed to be right next to his ear.

"Shhh! Shut up, you retard!"

Squall narrowed his eyes and glanced to his right, then to his left. He saw two figures wrestling over a magazine, engaged in a furious battle of whispers.

Other students were also searching for the source of the disturbance, but upon seeing it, they just rolled their eyes and returned to their previous activities like it was a normal occurrence.

Squall guessed that it was.

Still, he didn't expect there'd be so many people in the library, which was only open to students and staff, when the school hadn't officially opened. That was tomorrow.

Suddenly, the magazine flew out of both pairs of hands, and tow pairs of panicked eyes followed the flight of the periodical through the air.

Squall turned and managed to catch it with as much smoothness he had. Glancing down at it, he immediately blushed and averted his eyes from the offending picture.

"Oh! Hey, man, thanks for catching that."

Squall looked up at one of the boys that had been looking at the pornographic magazine jumped up and waved at him.

"You know, don't want the wrong people to be seeing this," he winked, before walking over the Squall and reaching for the magazine.

The stoic teen held it far in front (and away) of him towards the other boy; touching the least possible about of glossy paper as if it were contaminated.

The boy grabbed it, and glanced over it to make sure that nothing had been ripped or torn.

"Oh thank God!" He exclaimed, grinning and kissing the magazine with an expression of pure delight on his face.

The other boy stood up and backhanded the boy molesting the magazine, glaring.

"Retard! You shouldn't be looking at this stuff…"

Squall raised an eyebrow.

The boy turned to him. "Yeah, I don't like that stuff. However, this dumbass," he poked the other hard in the side, "insists on reading them, even though they're banned here."

"Who're you?" The first boy asked, grinning at Squall.

"…Squall."

The boy shrugged, still grinning. "Weird name, but whatever. I'm Mark. That's Erik over there." Mark leaned in closer, lowering his voice to a loud whisper. "He doesn't appreciate the finer points in life."

Erik scoffed, brushing some light blonde hair out of his eyes. "Yeah. Like you do; jerking off to a porno magazine."

Mark's stuck out his tongue. "Oh, definitely."

Erik frowned, a hand going unconsciously to rub the bridge of his nose.

Squall had to sympathize; he was already getting very annoyed with the black-haired boy.

"Well, we gotta get going… You know, things to do, places to see…" Mark waved a hand vaguely, face set in an ever-present idiotic grin.

"And again, thanks for catching that magazine. Wouldn't want the wrong people seeing it."

Squall shrugged; translation: no problem.

The brunette turned back to the shelves, resuming his search for a good book to read.

The two other boys disappeared around the corner, both whispering.

Just as he was fingering one that had, in his opinion, an interesting cover, a figure catapulted out from overhead, falling down onto the ground next to Squall.

"Squaaaalll! I've missed you!"

The brunette choked, trying to pry the strong appendage from his throat.

"…Selphie…?"

"Hmmm?" The girl asked.

"…I can't… breathe…"

"Oh!"

The pressure was gone, and Squall sank down to his knees, thankfully gasping in air.

Selphie kneeled down next to Squall.

"Oh, I'm sorry… Are you alright? I'm really really sorry… I just missed you, is all."

Squall glared up at her. "…What?" He gritted out. "You just saw me… ten minutes ago."

Selphie pouted. "Okay, fine. But a lot of stuff can happen in ten minutes. You could die. You could be kidnapped. You could have a life-changing experience."

"I kinda did," Squall muttered, thinking back to the magazine. He wasn't ever going to see the world the same way now ever again.

Selphie didn't hear him, or, at least, didn't acknowledge his comment. "Anyway, I just got a call from Zell."

Squall stood. "Is he okay?" he asked, worry for the hyperactive, spiky-haired blonde, first person that had tried to be his friend here, showing through even though he tried to hide it.

"Yeah, he said he was just walking around outside the gates, and he got lost."

Squall rolled his eyes. "Great," he muttered under his breath, but Selphie caught it.

"Anyway, did you get anything you wanted?" Selphie asked. Squall turned to the book in his hands.

"Uhm, yeah," he said. "Let's go."

"…Do you have your card?"

"…"

Squall blinked blankly. "…No… I'm a new student. The question is… where's your card?"

Selphie scratched her head. "Well… I've never actually been to the library before, so I've never registered one," she admitted truthfully.

"…"

"Hey! Sorry, just because I don't read much doesn't mean that-"

But Squall was already walking towards the desk.

"Hey! Squaaall!"

"Name?"

"Leonhart, Squall."

"You're not listening to me, are you? Squall! Squ-all? Ugh." She stomped her foot, glaring.

"Selphie. Calm down. People are staring."

The girl hmphed and crossed her arms.

The brunette took his new card and his book away from the counter. "Come on. Let's get back before lunch."

The girl in yellow blinked. "Okay, fine," she agreed grumpily.

The tow made their way out of the study building and into the crisp, clean air.

"Ah," Selphie breathed in deep.

"Don't you just love winter air?"

Squall blinked before turning to stare up at the sky.

"…Yeah." He said softly, a small smile.

"Don't you sometimes just wanna sit and stare up at the sky forever and ever? Cause it seems so endless…"

Squall squinted as a harsh wind started to blow, moving the grey, overcast clouds swiftly across the sky.

"…We should go back."

He turned to Selphie, was standing still, eyes still trained on the clouds.

"Don't you ever wanna fly?"

: The things we think might be the same, but I won't fight for more. It's just not me to wear it on my sleeve, count on that for sure :

"SEIFER."

The blonde blinked, turning around.

His face broke into a grin. "Fuijin! Hey, you're back!"

The girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the blonde.

"HAPPY?"

Seifer frowned, confused. "…Me…?" He asked.

The girl didn't reply. Instead, she spun around, walking away from Seifer.

"RAGE."

"Wait-What? You're mad at me? Already? Why?"

"RAIJIN."

With that single word, the girl stalked away, leaving Seifer standing in the hallway, blinking.

"Ugh. Figures," he muttered, before swiping his card in. After Princess had stalked off a while earlier (after chucking a book into the garbage disposal), he had decided to go find something to eat.

Stretching his head into their rooms, Seifer pasted on a grin. "Princess? Squally? You back yet?"

He paused, waiting for an answer (or at least a shoe chucked in his direction). However, when he received neither word nor flying projectile, he frowned.

"Huh." He muttered, switching on the light and flopping down on his bed.

He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, before he sat up and groaned.

"Ugh… What to do… what to do…" he looked around, before his eyes settled on the black duffel bag lying innocently on the ground next to Squall's bed.

"Hmm… He'll never know…" Seifer grinned to himself. "Oh, this'll be interesting…"

He shot a glance at the door, just in case, and lowered himself to his knees. After one last paranoid glance around the room, he unzipped the bag.

Hmm, nothing particularly interesting. There was the acceptance envelope still unopened lying on the very top. Seifer tucked it aside and delved deeper.

There was an uneaten bag of pretzels, and a bottle of water. Seifer pushed those aside, and saw an MP3 player, earphones all rolled up neatly around the device.

The blonde pulled it out, turning it on and looking through whatever the brunette listened to. Half of the stuff wasn't bad, Seifer thought. No emo… No rap. Pretty good for a potential serial killer.

He tucked the MP3 player back in, and reached around several articles of clothing to the bottom of the bag.

His fingers closed around something round and cylindrical. Frowning, he moved to pull it out.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

TBC…

AN – And that was very, very rushed. Sorry. xD I kinda lost inspiration for this…

And this chapter is not proofread… Hell, none of my chapters are proofread. :D haha, oh whatever.