Disclaimer: (See part I.)
A/N: Quistis planned to cheat on Seifer, but he was already cheating on her! Quistis broke up with Seifer, but who was the lady with Seifer? (I own none of the original FF characters.)
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Part 3
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Quistis had never felt better in her entire life. She felt free! She and Selphie enjoyed their surprise breakfast and they invited Sam and Ray to stay with them for the day. They travelled back to their hotel to get the others.
Back at the hotel in Squall's room, Zell and Irvine were arguing about where they were going to go that day.
"Let's go to the fair!" said Irvine.
"I already told you, we got kicked out of there! If someone sees us we're dead!" came Zell.
"Oh yeah..." Irvine said thoughtfully.
Rinoa stepped in. "How about the ocean? It's not that far away from here."
"Great idea! I'll get Selphie and Quistis!" Zell ran out of the room and down the hall.
As he got to Selphie's room he noticed that she was coming down the hallway with Quistis and two guys. He ran up to them and told them about their plans.
"Sounds fun!" said Ray. Then he said to Sam, "Let's go back and get our trunks." They went back to their hotel.
"Who are they?" asked Zell.
"The one with the black hair is Ray and the one with the brown hair is Sam," Selphie explained.
"Ah..." said Zell.
"Let's get our stuff Quistis! This is going to be a great day!" Selphie said excitedly.
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The weather at the ocean very hot as the large group walked along through the burning sand.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people at the beach, and tons of kids crowded the shallow water, splashing around.
Multiple lifeguards sat watch all the way down the beach.
"What a beautiful place!" said Rinoa. "You couldn't have picked a better place Zell... Zell?" Rinoa turned around to find that Zell was no longer behind her, but already in the water.
"Whoo-hoo!" Zell shouted as he ran into the waves.
Rinoa gave a little chuckle.
"Let's set up the umbrella and towels right here!" Selphie said excitedly, jumping up and down in the place that she thought would be just right.
After setting out his towel under the large umbrella, Irvine glanced around quickly. "Would you look at all the hotties around here," he said, more to himself that to anyone else. He stood up.
"Where are you going?" asked Rinoa.
"I'm, uh... going for a little walk down the beach," Irvine thought up quickly, which wasn't a complete lie.
"All right," Rinoa agreed, as if he needed her approval before he could go anywhere. She lay out her towel. "Just be back in time for lunch."
When Irvine didn't answer her, Rinoa looked to where Irvine had previously been, only to find that he was already a ways away from the umbrella.
Rinoa sighed and continued to help Selphie and Sam set down the towels on the sand.
When the three had finished setting up, they decided to go into the water.
"Hey Quistis! Ray!" said Selphie, "We are going in the water, wanna come?"
Quistis looked up from where she had laid herself down in the sun to tan beside Ray. "Not right now," Quistis replied.
"Maybe a little later," said Ray.
"OK! You're loss!" Selphie said. "What about you Squall?"
Squall looked up at Selphie from where he was sitting. He had been wearing a long-sleeved sweater the whole time, even in the insanely hot temperature. "No thanks," he said in a monotone voice, staring far off down the beach.
"Come on Squall! It will be fun!" said Rinoa, pulling on Squall's arm.
Squall tried to resist, but it was of no use. Rinoa pulled him to his feet.
"Now take off your sweater and come in the water with us!" Rinoa instructed. "How can you wear that thing anyway?"
"My s-s-sweater?" Squall stuttered, looking down at the sweater he was wearing. "I can't," he said.
"What do you mean you can't? Of course you can! You put it on this morning! Do you need my help?" Rinoa asked, quickly becoming impatient.
"No, I just..." Squall started.
"Just what?" Rinoa prompted, grabbing the sweater and pulling it off of Squall.
"Hey!" Squall protested, but it was too late...
"Well, I'll be..." Ray said from beside Quistis. "You're as white as snow, Squall!"
Rinoa stared at Squall's white skin for a moment without so much as blinking an eye. "See? You need some time in the sun!" she said. "Let's go!"
Rinoa took Squall by the arm and lead him to the water.
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By noon the water was nice and refreshing for the group after being out in the burning sun.
Quistis, however, was still tanning on the beach that is... if tanning is the right word. Quistis was developing quite the sunburn on her skin, perhaps due to the overdue expiry date on sunscreen she had used...
Ray was at rest beside Quistis and periodically stole a glance at her.
Squall was now seated on his towel out in the sun where Rinoa had told him to stay and to get some colour, while Rinoa was walking along the water's edge picking up seashells.
Irvine still had not come back from his stroll down the beach...
Sam had swum quite a ways out and was now floating in the deep water.
"Hey! Watch out for undercurrents!" Selphie shouted to Sam.
"Don't worry; it's fine," Sam yelled back. Then he floated on his back and started to paddle his way back toward Selphie.
On his way back, Sam noticed something out of the corner of his eye. 'What was that?' he thought.
"AH!" Selphie screamed. "Sam! Get back here now!"
"Huh?" Sam looked behind him and saw the fin or a shark... "AH!!!" Sam shrieked and flailed his arms, nearly drowning himself. He recovered quickly from his shock and started swimming at top speed back to land.
A lifeguard on the beach blew her whistle and ordered everyone to get out of the water.
Rinoa, Squall, Quistis, and Ray looked out at the ocean to see all the people who had previously been in the water, now on the beach.
'What's going on?' Rinoa wondered.
Sam was the last one to get out of the water. "That was... the most scary... thing ever..." he heaved, as he lay down on the sand and shut his eyes.
"There it is again!" a small boy shouted, and pointed to the fin that had now reappeared.
The shark was coming closer and closer to the beach, but suddenly it stopped and up popped...
"A head!" shouted another small boy, "The shark has a person's head!"
"Hey! That isn't a shark at all!" Ray pointed out the obvious.
"It's Zell…" said Quistis, in a 'Not-so-surprised' tone of voice.
"What?" Sam said in a monotone, narrowing his eyes at the 'shark'.
Zell laughed and stood up in the water that was up to his waist. "I fooled you!"
What Zell was really thinking was... 'This will really get those girls to like me!'
While Zell was laughing, he didn't notice a shark fin as it swam in circles around him.
"Zell! Get out of the water!" shouted Rinoa in a panic.
Zell stopped laughing "What..." he said and noticed the shark beside him. "AH!!" Zell shrieked and bounded to the shore in record time.
"That's no shark," said the lifeguard, running out to the fin that was swimming around.
When she got up to the fin, the lifeguard put her hands in the water and pulled up...
"Irvine?" Quistis said, completely amazed.
"Hey there, baby," Irvine said to the lifeguard, looking her over.
The lifeguard took Irvine by the arm and pulled him out of the water. When she reached the shore, she took Zell by the arm with her other hand. "You two come with me," she said in an unimpressed voice.
The other members of the group watched in humiliation as their two friends were taken into a cabin on the beach.
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"You two ruin everything!" Selphie shouted at Irvine and Zell. She and the group all stood outside of the group's hotel.
"Well, not every-" started Irvine.
"Yes, everything!" Selphie cut Irvine off before he could finish his sentence. "Not only did you get yourselves kicked out of the fair grounds and were told never to go back, but now you get yourselves kicked off the beach, too?!"
"But Selphie..." Zell was about to object, but the outraged Selphie cut him off, too.
"We can't take you boys anywhere!" Selphie said, and throwing up her hands in frustration, she turned and stomped into the hotel.
Ray and Sam stood blinking at the hotel doors as they closed behind Selphie.
"Is she... always like that?" Sam asked Quistis.
"Oh no!" Quistis replied. "Usually she's worse!"
Sam gulped and turned to Ray. "I think we should be going now..."
"Uh huh..." Ray nodded his agreement, and saying their goodbyes, he and Sam went back to their own hotel.
"What are we going to do now?" Zell asked the rest of the group.
"You aren't doing anything, Zell," Irvine said walking towards the hotel doors. "You just made Selphie mad."
Zell blinked a few times. "Hey! I do recall that I wasn't the only one who made her mad! Where are you going?"
"I'm going to cheer Selphie up!" Irvine called over his shoulder.
"He's a dead man..." Zell commented quietly to himself.
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::knock knock:: Irvine rapped on Selphie's door.
"Go away!" she shouted.
Irvine took that as his cue to enter. He turned the doorknob and walked into Selphie's room. "Hey Selph!"
Selphie was lying on her bed. "I said go away!" she repeated, throwing a small pillow at Irvine.
Irvine dodged the pillow. "Well... yea but..." Irvine paused and moved to the side to avoid another pillow being tossed at him. "You left the door unlocked, so I-oof." Irvine was hit in the face with a pillow.
"GO!" Selphie demanded.
Irvine looked hurt. "But Selph! I just came to tell you that I was sorry!"
Selphie sat up. "Really?"
"Yeah!" confirmed Irvine. In his mind he was thinking, 'Score!' He would say anything to get a pretty girl's attention, and so far, things were looking pretty good.
Selphie got up from her bed, and walked over to when Irvine was standing, with a sly smile on her face. She placed her hands on Irvine's shoulders, and very unexpectedly she pushed Irvine forcefully out of her room.
Irvine, being caught off guard, stumbled backwards into the hallway.
Selphie shut the door in Irvine's face and locked the door.
"Selphie! Let me in!" Irvine said, banging on her door.
"Hey, what do you think you are doing boy?" said a short woman from behind Irvine.
Irvine turned around to see one of the maintenance workers coming out of the elevator with a cart and various bottles of cleaners.
"Hey! Is there something wrong? Answer me, or I will report you for disturbing the silence!" said the woman.
'Disturbing the silence?' What was she talking about? Irvine looked around to see people sticking their heads out of their rooms to see what all the noise was about.
Irvine started to sweat.
"What do you think Irvine is up to?" Quistis asked Rinoa as she, Rinoa, Squall, and Zell walked down the hallway of the hotel toward their rooms.
"Is that him up there?" Rinoa asked back and pointed ahead of them.
Irvine was arguing with the short woman in the hallway still.
"I was just trying to get my friend to open the door!" Irvine tried to explain.
"Yeah, sure you were... Come with me," said the woman as she walked back into the elevator. "I'm taking you to the front desk where the manager can deal with you."
"But I didn't do anything!" Irvine objected.
The short woman walked up to Irvine and pulled him down to her height. "Are you going to give me a hard time?"
Irvine was beginning to get really scared at this point. "N-n-no ma'am."
"Good! Let's go." The woman pulled Irvine into the elevator with her.
"Do you think he enjoys creating havoc?" asked Rinoa.
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"I heard that Irvine was told to pack up and leave the hotel," Squall informed his friends.
"He deserves it!" commented Rinoa.
"What is he going to do now, though?" asked Zell.
"Don't know," said Squall with a shrug.
"He's probably up to more no-good!" said Rinoa, in a 'matter-of-fact' tone.
"Probably..." Squall agreed.
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"No..." Quistis mumbled as she tossed and turned in her bed. "Let me off..." Suddenly she sat up, gasping for air.
"Another nightmare?" Quistis asked her self as she got out of her bed and walked over to the window.
Quistis opened the window to let some of the cool night air into her room. Then she walked into the washroom.
Turning on the washroom light and looking into the mirror, Quistis was greeted by her messy-haired, sleepyhead expression.
She splashed some cold water onto her hot face and tried to untangle her hair a little.
When she had finished up in the washroom, she flicked off the light switch, walked back into the dark room, and crawled back into bed.
Quistis had started to drift back to sleep when, unexpectedly, she felt the warmth and breath of someone else in her bed.
She held her breath. 'Oh my God...' Quistis thought, and tried not to move a muscle.
The body beside her rolled over and snuggled right up to Quistis' back.
What should she do?
"Mmm... Quistis..." said the male voice beside Quistis softly.
'What the...' thought Quistis. She jumped out of bed and switched on the lights in the room.
The figure pulled the covers up over his head and moaned. "Hey, would you turn down the lights? It's too late for this..."
Quistis pulled the covers off of the bed. "Irvine! What are you doing? Get out of here!"
Irvine opened his shut eyes tightly. "But I need a place to stay! Please let me stay." He gave Quistis big puppy dog eyes. "Pleeease." Irvine pouted for added affect.
"Fine!" Quistis agreed. "But you sleep on the floor."
"Thanks so much!" said Irvine.
Quistis muttered to herself and tossed a blanket and pillow at Irvine. "Just go to bed already."
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To my readers/reviewers: Alright! You did it. It's that time again now. Leave a review and follow me to Part 4!