Disclaimer: (See Part I.)
A/N: Chayn is a character that I made up; I own nothing else but the plot of this story.
To my readers/reviewers: WOW! I'll bet you all thought I had vanished! Now that school is over (with the exception of, perhaps, summer school) I've decided that I'm gonna get back to the story now that I've left you hanging for sooo long. (Not like you didn't have anything better to read...) Please accept my sincere apologies and keep on reviewing! Now let's get back into the groove!
.-.-.-.-
Early that morning, far earlier then Zell had ever woken up at voluntarily, he and Irvine sat in the Cafeteria eating breakfast and going over the first day's activities.
"I'll take the little old lady shopping if you help the kid in the alley find his cat," Irvine proposed.
"Okay," Zell agreed, knowing that he didn't have enough patience to take the old lady shopping anyway, and they went their separate way, agreeing to meet up in Balamb later.
.-.-.-.-
Irvine knocked on the door of the little old lady's appartment.
She abruptly opened the door a crack to peer out at the potential intruder. "What do you want?" she snapped.
"I'm a student at Balamb Garden. Name's Irvine." He tipped his hat. "I'm here to take you shopping Ma'am." He stepped closer.
"Hey! Don't move or I'll call the front desk." The woman gave Irvine an untrusting glance over.
"Mom, who're you talking to?" came a voice from inside the room.
The little woman disappeared into the appartment and a middle-aged woman opened the door all the way, despite the elder woman's objection in the background.
"You must be Irvine." She held out her hand to shake Irvine's. "I'm Stacy, June's daughter. Sorry that you have to take my mother shopping, but since I broke my leg..." she indicated her cast leg, "I can't do much of anything."
Irvine nodded his understanding. "It's no trouble at all, I assure you."
Stacy suppressed a laugh and gently pulled her mother back to the door. "Mom, this nice young man, Irvine, is going to take you shopping today."
"Oh no he's not!" June shook her boney finger in Irvine's direction.
Stacy appologized for her mother's difficultness and forcefully pushed her out of the appartment. "Good luck." She smiled encouragingly at Irvine before closing and locking the door.
June stared up at Irvine with a sour face, obviously not intimidated by his height as he towered over her. "Don't just stand there... Move!"
Irvine scrambled to get the little lady out of the appartment building and to the grocery store as quickly as possible, wishing that he was looking for a cat instead.
.-.-.-.-
Zell bent over and peeked behind the garbage cans for the mischievous cat wishing that he had taken the old lady shopping instead. His arms and legs were scratched in all directions and he was becoming fed up. He could hear a low purring coming from the near the brick wall. He put his head close to the ground and reached with one arm behind the can to try and reach the cat.
He felt a tail, grabbed onto it, and pulled the cat out from behind the garabage cans. It hissed and clawed wildly before realizing that Zell wasn't going to let go of it this time. It gave up trying to resist Zell and latched onto his face, chewing on the top of his forehead.
Zell struggled to get the cat to let go of his face, hoping that his eyes would survive the attack.
The cat loosened its latch and Zell threw the cat away from him as fast as he could. The cat landed on it's feet and scampered down the alleyway.
"She's getting away!" cried the little owner of the cat. "Quick, let's get her!"
Zell heaved to catch his breath.
"You can't give up; you were so close!" the boy encouraged.
Zell gathered himself and chased after the animal that was causing way more damage than it was worth. If he weren't so angry, Zell might have chuckled at his Karma.
.-.-.-.-
"Ow!" Irvine flinched as June whacked her purse into his side for the forth time since they had left the appartment.
"I don't want the green peppers, I only like the red ones! Can't you read the list? Put those back and get me the red ones," June fummed, pointing to the red peppers.
A couple shopping passed Irvine giving him sympathetic looks.
Irvine switched the peppers and looked back at the list. It clearly read green peppers, but he was too afraid to comment on it. He crossed it off the list.
"What's next?" grumbled June.
"Green Tea."
June shook her head. "Doctor says I should have Green Tea, but I don't drink it. The only thing I'll drink is coffee. What's next?"
"Soya Milk."
"I won't drink nothing but 2. Get me some of that."
Irvine did as he was told.
"Next?"
Irvine went down the list naming off all the things on it, but June kept on rejecting them all and got only what she wanted instead.
"Okay, I think that'll do for now," Irvine was relieved to hear June say when he could barely see over the top of the buggy it was so full.
"You're total comes to 168.49," said the cashier.
"What?" asked June.
"One sixty-eigh-"
"I heard you the first time, I'm not deaf yet!" June turned to Irvine. "How could it come to that much? We only bought what was on the list."
"Actually, you didn't want what was on the list and picked it out yourself," Irvine told truthfully, and flinched as the purse came flying at him again.
"Well why did you let me do that?"
"I couldn't stop you," shielding himself in case of another whack.
"Would you hurry it up?" asked an impatient shopper inline behind Irvine and June.
June turned her nose to the air. "I don't want it anymore."
Irvine's jaw nearly hit the floor. "What?"
"You heard me, let's go. Take me home." June left the store.
"Sorry," Irvine apologized to the cashier and the person who came to put all of June's groceries back on the shelf. They didn't look like very friendly people, and Irvine made a mental note never to step back into that grocery store again.
.-.-.-.-
Zell and the boy had finally cornered the cat. She hissed at them and her fur stood on end.
"Here Kitty-Kitty," Zell cooed through clenched teeth. He could see it in her eyes that as soon as he made a move to grab her, she would scamper through his legs and back to the other side of the alley, and Zell really didn't want to chance her going through his legs.
"I'll go at her from the side and then you grab her when she runs," suggested the boy.
Zell wasn't hopeful that the plan would work, but agreed nonetheless.
"On three. One... Two... THREE!" The boy lunged for his cat and she immediately took off toward Zell, whom snatched her up and wrapped her tighly in his vest so that she couldn't scratch him again.
"Yay!" the boy celebrated. "We got her!" The boy took his insane cat from Zell's arms and thanked him before taking the animal home.
Zell was proud of his accomplishment but wondered if he would now need his rabies shots.
.-.-.-.-
"How was taking the old lady shopping?" asked Zell with envy as he walked up to Irvine and sat down next to him on the bench.
Irvine rolled his eyes. "Great..." he lifted his shirt to show Zell what June's purse had done to him.
Zell gasped at the bruises that marked Irvine's otherwise perfect torso.
"Nice face..." commented Irvine. "Have fun with the cat?"
Zell looked at Irvine with an expression that told him he that he didn't want to talk about it. "What's next on the list?"
"Now we have to go to Timber to organize magazines," said Irvine. "Ready to go?"
"No," replied Zell. He didn't want to go anywhere after the last job, and with all the running around that they were going to have to do, he didn't know when he was going to be able to get closer to Irvine.
"Common," Irvine urged. "At least this task isn't a stressful one, besides, the Headmaster wants us to do this one together."
Zell gave a little smile. "Okay, I'm ready, lets get a train ticket."
.-.-.-.-
The two purchased their tickets and arrived in Timber a little after noon. While on the train they ate lunch, not wanting to waste anytime serving their punishment.
They walked up the steps of the Timber Maniacs building and went inside. Irvine walked up to the lady sitting at the desk.
"Welcome to Timber Maniacs. Can I help you?" the lady greeted.
"Um, yeah, we're here from Balamb Garden to organize magazines."
"Oh right," the lady remembered, "come with me." She led them to a room. "Here you go. Please shelve them all by volume."
Irvine and Zell walked into the room and found themselves up to their chins in stacks of magazines.
Zell now realized why Headmaster Cid had wanted them to work together on sorting the magazines. "How many are there?"
"Five thousand two hundred and seventy-two," the lady smiled and closed the door to the room, leaving them to their doom.
.-.-.-.-
End of Part XI.