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: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
To Lionfaq491: I just thought I would repeat this part of the disclaimer because you kinda brought it up. This writing is completely fictitious. The characters only act how I think they might actand they do NOT resemble anyone, living or dead. :D Thanks for your review.
-.-.-.-.-
Zell quickly walked into class the next morning and sat down in his seat next to Irvine without saying a word.
Irvine looked at him with a questioning look, but Zell ignored him completely. "Zell, what's wrong."
Zell kept his eyes locked on the front board. The instructor stood up and cleared his throat. "Open your books and turn to page 251."
Zell found the page quickly and stared back up at the board. Chayn already had his textbook open to the page.
Irvine flipped through the book for the page while whispering to Zell. "How can you believe Chayn's lies? You don't have any proof that I was with the library girl. Isn't a friends word good enough these days?"
"Quiet please, I want to learn something today." Zell's eyes didn't flicker in the least.
Irvine bit his lip. Zell was become more and more like Chayn and he had already noticed it within the past few days. He had to do something to stop the process. He wanted the old Zell back. "But Zell-"
"Mr. Kinneas. Is there something that you would like to share with the class?" asked the instructor.
"No sir."
"Then please refrain from speaking out." The instructor continued to scrawl a lengthy note on the board.
Irvine looked back to see Zell copying the note down studiously in his notes along with Chayn right beside him. Irvine copied down a couple of lines. "Zell, this is just silly, why won't you talk to me?" he whispered without looking at Zell to make himself less conspicuous.
Zell continued to copy the note.
"Common man, I-"
"Kinneas! What is the problem? Please, do share it with us."
Several students looked over at Irvine, including Chayn.
"Nothing sir, sorry."
"This is the second time that you have disrupted my class. Don't let it happen again."
Irvine nodded slightly and went back to copying the note.
-.-.-.-.-
At the end of the extremely long and uncomfortable class for Irvine, he noticed Zell leave with Chayn. He packed up his books and quickly followed them, hoping to catch a bit of what they were talking about.
"I can come over tonight again if you would like some more help with the review," offered Chayn.
"Yeah, that'd be great! Thanks a lot." Zell and Chayn parted ways in the hall toward their next classes.
Irvine was beside himself. Get together again? He had to stop them somehow... but he wasn't exactly sure how. He needed more time to think things through, but how much more time did he have?
-.-.-.-.-
A week passed and as Chayn had predicted, the instructor had given them a test. Zell thought that he did pretty well on in. He even thought that it may, in fact, turn out to be his highest mark in the class. He had been studying with Chayn approximately an hour each night for the past week, and had never felt as prepared for anything as much as he had for this test.
Irvine, on the other hand, had been fretting over the results of this test since he had taken it. His mind had been so focused on Zell lately that he had hardly spent any time studying for the test at all. Zell had seemed to breeze right trough the test, Irvine was anxious to know what his mark was as well.
Then the moment arrived; they were going to get their test results. The instructor walked around the room handing back the tests. He got to Zell. "Well done, Mr. Dincht. 83."
"Whoa, thanks!" Zell took his test in surprise.
83? Irvine wondered how Zell could have gotten such a high mark. Maybe Zell had cheated off of his test.
The instructor came around to Irvine next. "I'm very disappointed in this test, Kinneas. See me after class."
Irvine looked down at his test. 58.
-.-.-.-.-
After trying unsuccessfully to explain his poor mark to the instructor, Irvine wasn't feeling too well, so he headed toward the Infirmary before his next class, hoping that he could get out of having to go to it.
He knocked on the door before walking into Dr. Kadowaki's office.
She looked up from her desk. "Good morning Irvine," she greeted, "have a seat."
Irvine sat down.
"Now, what seems to be the problem?"
Chayn walked into the office from a room on the side and Irvine, paranoid, wondered why he wasn't in class.
"Hello Mr. Irvine. You do not mind if I sit in again do you?" Chayn took out his pen and notebook.
"Yeah, actually I do."
"Oh." Chayn, looking a little hurt, stood up and left the Infirmary. He wasn't sure why Irvine didn't like him; perhaps it was because Zell was awknowledging him and not Irvine. Or maybe Irvine... hated him.
-.-.-.-.-
Rinoa skipped happily over to Irvine when he had unfortunately met her eye from across the hallway. "Hey Irvine! How are you?"
"Tired and hungry and in a bad mood, now leave me alone," he snapped and turned away from her.
Rinoa met him on the other side. "I'm great! Thanks for asking. Where's Zell?"
"I don't know and I don't care."
A look of surprise fell across Rinoa's face. "What do you mean? Why don't you care?" She put her hands on her hips. "Are you two fighting?"
"Yes."
"Oh..." Rinoa obviously hadn't expected that answer. "How come?"
"Leave me alone."
"Fine, if that's how it's going to be, I'll just have to go talk to Zell." Rinoa stuck her nose up in the air, hoping that Irvine would give in and tell her what was wrong. She started to slowly walk away.
"Good."
Rinoa looked back and glared at Irvine before storming off.
-.-.-.-.-
"What did you get on the test?" Zell asked Chayn, wanting to know how the younger boy had done on his first test in that class.
"Perfect," Chayn replied, "how about you?"
"Eighty-three!" Zell showed him the paper to prove it.
"Well done."
"Thanks to you. I never could've gotten this mark if you hadn't've been helpin' me!"
Chayn blushed with embarrassment. "You are giving me too much credit."
"No, it's true!" Zell insisted. He looked back down at his test. "Ma's gonna want to hang this one on the fridge." He placed it carefully into his dresser.
Chayn bit his lip. "You know who I saw in the Infirmary today?"
"Who'd you see?" Zell asked, with a smile.
"Irvine," Chayn said softly, knowing that Zell wasn't speaking to him.
The smile disappeared from Zell's face. "So, do you know when we're going to be having another test?"
"He wanted to talk to Dr. Kadowaki," Chayn went on, knowing that Zell clearly didn't want to talk about Irvine.
Zell figured that one would want to talk to the doctor if one were to go to the Infirmary, but he didn't care why Irvine was there. Absolutely not. "Do I look fat when I do this?" Zell struck an unflattering pose that nearly made Chayn forget what he was talking about and burst out laughing, but he was determined to finish his story.
"The last time he went to the Infirmary he let me sit in, no problem, but this time he asked me to leave."
Zell looked into Chayn's eyes. The kid looked like he was gonna cry. Not being able to come up with anymore distractions on the spot, he decided to listen to what Chayn was saying to him. "So?"
"Do you think Irvine hates me?"
Zell scrunched up his face. "What? Oh! You mean because he acts all weird around you?"
Chayn nodded.
"He's just a paranoid jerk. Ignore him."
"So, he does hate me?" Chayn looked pale and his bottom lip started to quiver. "I do not think that anyone has ever.. hated me before."
Zell started to panic. He didn't intend to make Chayn cry. "No, he doesn't hate you! He hates me."
Chayn collected himself. "What do you mean? He was trying to talk to you. Isn't it the other way around?"
"It's confusing. I don't really know how to explain it." He shrugged.
"You could try," Chayn urged. "How come you are not speaking to him?"
"I don't wanna go into it." Zell panicked more. He couldn't tell Chayn that he like Irvine in more than a friendly way until he had found out that he had been played just like Selphie had been... only Selphie had kinda started that one by going out with Seifer, but it was bound to happen. It wasn't like Irvine paid her much attention. What had Zell been thinking when he agreed to go out with Irvine. Obviously he hadn't been thinking.
What was Zell doing getting so worked up over Irvine now anyway though? He had only been on one date with the guy and it was a double date. Not even anything real or serious. He should just let it go now. Zell looked back to Chayn. Irvine's opinions of Chayn and his stupid dream were what had slowly been splitting them apart to begin with. If Irvine hadn't have gone and been seen with the library girl, all may have still been fine. If stupid Rinoa hadn't have gone and told Irvine that he was gay-
"Who is gay?" asked Chayn bring Zell back from his thoughts.
"Er- no one." Zell hadn't realized that he had spoken aloud. He would have to be more careful.
"What's on your mind Zell? You can tell me. I've been working with Dr. Kadowaki for a long time now and maybe I can help you and Irvine set aside your diferences."
Zell stared at Chayn.
"You can trust me," Chayn smiled in a friendly way.
Zell sighed. Maybe it would do him some good to tell Chayn what happened. "Well, Irvine was going out with this girl for a while and when they broke up..."
-.-.-.-.-
End of Part XV.