Okay! This is the REAL chapter six! I swear! I was stupid and forgot to save changes when I redid the chapter. Sorry. But thank you all so much for pointing that out for me! You're my heroes!
Okay! Here's chapter (what chapter was this again? Hold on…) 6! There we go! I'm having technical difficulties with my brain today, okay, well everyday. Anyway, here's more! Oh, and beware of mild language in this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Final Fantasy series. All characters, ideas, and places belong to Square.
Life Less OrdinaryChapter Six
"The Calm Before The Storm""I could just kill her!" Squall exclaimed, slamming his locker shut and growling. He was mad, really, really mad.
"Kill who and why?" Seifer asked. The guys had been a part of Balamb High School for a few weeks now and had gotten into the swing of things. It wasn't too difficult.
"Rinoa." Squall answered through clenched teeth. "She's a fucking little bitch!"
The two were walking down the hall to their first block.
"What'd she do?" Seifer asked, he had never heard of Rinoa being a bitch. She'd always been so nice to him and everyone else. Just the thought of her being a bitch was like thinking that a character from a messed up horror film had come to life. It was just unreal and totally fictional.
"She's just being so damn hypocritical. First, she denies that she even knows me when we fucking pretty much grew up together, and then she gets fucking pissy with me when I'm trying to make amends with her. I don't know what her problem is, but I wish she'd get her fucking lie straight because I'm getting sick of this shit." Squall just wanted to find her and yell at her until he went hoarse.
"That's odd, even for Rinoa. Hmm. has she given you any reason for her behavior?" He asked his seriously angered buddy.
"Seif, she's a girl! Do they ever give you any reason? All she said was that she didn't know if she could trust me because I supposedly hurt her at one point in time. I'll tell you now that is nothing but bullshit. I have done nothing to her. I haven't even seen her in six years. How can I do something to her if I haven't even seen her?" Squall demanded. They walked into the physics room and took their seats. They still had five minutes before the tardy bell rang so they ignored the work at their table.
"Who knows?" Seifer shrugged, "Or maybe you did something to her, but you don't realize that you did. It could be that."
"I don't know. She won't even look at me! I haven't talked to her since that Sunday after we got here. That was the last time she and I said something to one another. I just wish she'd come out and tell me what it is I've done wrong. I really have no desire to lose my friendship with her. We used to be such good friends. I don't understand." Squall shook his head as Drag entered the classroom.
"Well, maybe if you just go up to her and try to talk to her again, you guys will get it worked out." Seifer had no idea what to tell Squall. That seemed so unlike Rinoa. She never held a grudge on anyone before. He had a feeling that his went deeper than he was letting on.
"Hey, my home skillet biscuits! What's happenin'?" Drag asked, slamming his books down on the table wearing this huge grin on his face like he'd won the friggin lottery. "I must say, the ladies here are fabulous!" He pulled a handful of little slips of paper from his pockets. "They're just dying for a night with me!" He laughed. "But I'm still holding out for that little blonde angel, Quistis." He grinned.
Squall and Seifer just looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Drag was such a skirt chaser.
Squall put his head down on the table and groaned. He slammed his fist down on the table. "It's not fair!" The table muffled his sound, but he was loud enough to be heard by the other two and a half individuals who had come into the class.
"Mr. Leonhart, is something wrong?" The teacher, professor Deffy walked by and touched Squall on the shoulder. He sat up and looked up at the concerned professor.
"No, ma'am. I'm just a little mad at someone at the moment." Squall answered her, running his hands through his hair, which told Seifer and Drag that he was feeling a little nervous.
"Do you need to see the Guidance Counselor or the Principal?" She asked him.
"No, ma'am. I'm just a little frustrated. I'll be fine." Squall assured her, trying to smile but it came out as a bad grimace.
"All right. If you need to be excused just let me know, and I'll write you a pass." She left them, and the three waited until she was out of earshot before they started talking again.
"So who are you mad at?" Drag asked since he missed the first part of this conversation.
"Rinoa." Seifer answered for Squall, who was gritting his teeth and clenching his hands.
"How could anyone be mad at her!" Drag laughed. "She's so sweet!"
"Oh, yeah right. That's a laugh a minute." Squall spat bitterly. "She's definitely not sweet."
"I'm still trying to figure out why he's mad at her." Seifer whispered to Drag as Squall glared at him.
"What'd she do?" Drag wanted to know this juicy story.
"She's just being a bitch! And it's pissing me off!" Squall growled. Had the professor not been in there, he would have said a few other things as well.
"Well, what'd the hell did you do to her?" Drag demanded.
"Nothing! I didn't do a damn thing!" Squall exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down so he wouldn't get in trouble. The Professor was already giving him strange looks as it was and watching him like a hawk.
"Well, you had to have done something. Why else would she be mad?" Drag wanted to so badly laugh at Squall's misfortune, but he'd probably punch him in the face. He'd been known for doing it before. Squall had a very short fuse.
"I don't know what I did to the little bitch! All I know is that she won't look at me, she won't talk to me, and I'm seriously pissed off because not only is she someone that I grew up with, but she's extremely hot!" Squall grabbed the worksheet on their table for bellwork and started it just as the bell rang.
"Oh, so the plot thickens!" Seifer followed suit and got the bellwork, too. "She's more than a friend now, isn't she?"
"Right now, she's really nothing. I can't get her to even look at me, let alone say something. It's not fair, I'm telling you!" He didn't want to come out and say it that she was getting to him, that she was driving him crazy. They probably already knew that, but he was playing it safe, anyway.
"I think you should just corner her somewhere and talk to her." Seifer suggested.
"Yes, but there's only so much that can be controlled when he's got her pinned up against a wall in a drak corner." Drag grinned, raising his eyebrows.
"Shut up." Squall hissed, glaring his cousin down.
"What?" Drag asked innocently. "You know what I'm talking about." He produced his mischievous grin again.
"Shut up." Squall repeated.
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It was time for lunch, but Rinoa just wasn't hungry. She felt sick to her stomach and the thought of school food wasn't helping her any. She just wanted to go home and crawl into bed, hiding away from the rest of the world. What could be better?
Second block was absolute, complete torture. Professor Mimid just went on and on and was even more boring than usual. Rinoa thought that she was going to die and kept her head down on the table for most of the block. She had a headache the size of the Galbadian Continent and just wanted peace and quiet before her head exploded from all the noise.
Seifer ignored Professor Mimid for the entire ninety minutes and focused on Rinoa. She looked positively miserable and kept her head down for most of the lecture that the professor was giving them. He was tempted to write her a note about Squall and pass it to her, but if she was really truly pissed at him like Squall said, then he'd run the risk of getting her mad at him as well. Rinoa was his friend, and he didn't want to lose her friendship like Squall had obviously, somehow done. But he also wanted to know why she was so mad at Squall that she wouldn't even look at him. He wanted to know what his friend had done to her. He wasn't trying to be nosy; he just wanted to know why.
Maybe Selphie would know? He thought to himself. Rinoa tells her two best friends everything, so it'd only be natural that they'd know why Rinoa was so mad at Squall. It was worth a shot, anyway. If they didn't know or didn't tell him, he'd just have to find out some other way. The truth was out there somewhere and somebody had to know it. He was doing this for one soul reason: It was driving Squall insane. Squall was dying to know what he had done wrong, but Rinoa wouldn't speak to him, so it was up to Seifer to find out why. It was a hard job but somebody had to do it.
Seifer watched the clock after a while, keeping his eyes glued to the hands of the clock. He wanted this bell to hurry up and ring so he could confront Selphie. But then he found a problem. How could he ask Selphie if Rinoa was going to be standing right there? She would most definitely hear him asking Selphie why she was mad at Squall. He couldn't have that happen. He wanted to avoid asking Rinoa personally until he absolutely had to. He was afraid how she would react. He certainly didn't want her mad at him.
While he was pondering his dilemma, the bell rang and the class began to rise to leave.
"Miss Heartilly, would you stay after class, please? I would like a word with you?" Professor Mimid spoke from his desk. Rinoa nodded and remained at her desk as the rest of the class left the room.
"Go on to Pre-Cal. I don't know how long he's going to keep me." Rinoa whispered to Selphie. She nodded and exited with the rest of the class.
Seifer was so excited. He couldn't believe his luck! This was the chance he'd been waiting for. As soon as he was out of the classroom, he called to Selphie, who was almost halfway down the hall.
"Hey, Selphie!" He called to her. She turned around and waited for him to catch up.
"What?" She asked when he reached her.
"I wanted to ask you something." He said as they began to walk again. He had only a few minutes at max, so he had to talk fast. "Squall's really frustrated because Rinoa's really mad at him, and he doesn't know why. I was wondering do you know why she's mad at him?" He asked, but to his disappointment, she shrugged.
"I have no idea. I know she's expressed that she's mad at him, but she really hasn't given a valid reason why. I don't know." Selphie answered. "Sorry, I don't know more, but I've got to get to class. See ya!" She waved to him and headed down the Math hall to Pre-Cal.
Seifer sighed and mentally crossed Selphie off his list. Quistis was next, but he didn't really want to ask her. He'd leave that job to Drag. He seemed to like her so much. He growled in aggravation, making his way to Professor Screech's classroom. He suddenly felt very ashamed for being jealous. Drag and Quistis had been flirting for the past week, and it was difficult for Seifer to watch. He had to pretend not to notice, but he saw it all and was seriously bothered by it.
But at any rate, Quistis had to be asked. If he or Drag couldn't figure out why Rinoa was mad, then who knows how long Squall would last. He would lose eventually, and probably go off on Rinoa. Seifer wanted to avoid this, but had this bad feeling that it was going to happen regardless.
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Squall, Drag, and Zion were lucky enough to have 3rd lunch with the rest of the gang, but right now it wasn't too fun. Things were a little off the cool at the moment.
Seifer caught up with the Squall outside the Cafeteria, and the guy looked even more agitated than he had this morning. He had this look about him that clearly said, "Stay the Hell away from me if you want to live to see another day."
"Still pissed?" Seifer asked him as he approached.
"Oh, no!" Squall produced this awful grimace of a smile. "It's beyond the point of pissed now. It's just flat-out infuriated. Seif, I can't go in there! I'm going to kill her if I get within five feet of her! I can't go in there!" Squall exclaimed.
Seifer just slapped him on the back. "Oh, you'll be fine. Just ignore her. But I still think that you should try and talk to her. What could it hurt?" He grabbed him by the back of the shirt and pushed him forward and into the Cafeteria. The rest of the gang was already at the table.
"Oh, a lot more than you think it would. Like, for example, all the bones in her body." Squall growled. Seifer continued to shove him in the direction of the table. Squall put up a weak defense. Had he really wanted to stay outside the Cafeteria, he would have put up a harder fight, and Seifer wouldn't have been able to touch him.
"Nah, you really wouldn't hurt, would you?" Seifer asked. They reached the table and set their stuff down.
"Probably not, but I don't think I'd trust myself right now." Squall answered. He dropped down into a seat and rested his elbows on the table. He ran his fingers through his hair many times, revealing to Seifer that he truly was aggravated and mad.
"Didn't your mother eve teach you not to put your elbows on the table?" Quistis demanded, joining them after she had gone to get her lunch.
"Go to Hell." Squall snapped, slamming his fist down on the table.
"Sheesh! Calm down!" Quistis laughed. She threw her hands up, but didn't know that Drag was standing right behind her. He grabbed both of her hands and twirled her around until her arms were wrapped around her waist.
"Hey, now!" She laughed again. "Let me go!"
"Um, how about no?" He asked into her ear.
Seifer had to hide his sudden anger. He was so close to jumping over the table and knocking Drag out.
"I'm going to get some lunch. Squall, you coming?" He asked his buddy, avoiding looking at Drag and Quistis.
"Nah, I lost my appetite." Squall waved Seifer away, and the blond just shrugged and headed to the lunch line, passing by Rinoa and Selphie as they made their way to the table.
"And I was just like, 'you are such a player! The only thing you care about is how much ass you can get. You don't care at all about the people who you hurt!' I told him what had been bugging me for the past few weeks, and do you know what he did? He just laughed. The little bastard laughed at me! So right now, I'm kind of mad, and if I see him, I think I'm going to scream!" Selphie was telling her. She set her tray down and plopped down in front of it. Rinoa held a bottle of water in her hand and looked in a whole lot more pale than usual. She sat next to Selphie and turned her head to watch her while she spoke, but she wasn't listening. At the moment, she wasn't hearing anything except ten thousand thoughts echoing throughout her head, making her headache even worse than it already was.
"Rinoa, are you all right? You look like you're sick." Quistis asked, genuinely sounding concerned. But, you know, Rinoa truly did look sick.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just got a headache, that's all." She answered, rubbing her temples. She figured that the headache had been triggered by the over-whelming amount of stress that she had been feeling lately. Everything was just getting to be too much. There were just times when she wanted to scream as loud as she could, but that would never happen, of course. She just bottled all her emotions up and went on pretending that nothing was wrong.
Squall studied Rinoa's face intently, knowing that more was wrong than she was letting on. She was trying to hide from them the pain that she was feeling and maybe, she was succeeding, if only by a little. But Squall knew better than that. He saw it in her eyes. He saw that she was hiding her hurt and misery. He wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and make all that ailed her go away. He wanted to fight all her fears and nightmares. He wanted to do everything he could to be her knight in shining armor. If only she would let him, he would do all that and more.
Seifer came back moments later and was relieved to see that Drag and Quistis had separated. He couldn't believe all this jealousy that he was feeling, but he just couldn't help it. Things just weren't going as planned. He wasn't supposed to be bothered by the lack of attention she was giving him. At first, her constant flirting irritated him, but when she stopped and started flirting with Drag, that's when it started to seriously bother him. Was she doing this because he acted like he wasn't interested? He didn't know what he had been thinking. He should have taken her gamble when she offered it up instead of trying to play hard to get.
"Are you sure that you're feeling okay?" Quistis asked Rinoa, who nodded. "Maybe you should go home and get some sleep or something." Rinoa did look awfully miserable, like she was stuck in a Hell on Earth. And maybe she was. At the moment, things weren't going well for her. She was filled with a hundred different emotions, and each one of them were consuming her mind and pulling her into a state of depression that she never thought she'd have to be a part of again.
"I've only got one block left, Quistis. There's really no point in me going home now. I might as well just suck it up." Rinoa answered. She put her head down on the table, and Selphie gently rubbed her back.
"Does that mean that you won't be at Joe's after school?" Selphie asked her friend.
"If she's sick, do you really think she wants to go to a place where there's going to be loud noises that will make her feel worse than she already does?" Zell asked of Selphie.
"No, I'll be there." The table muffled Rinoa's voice, but they heard her.
"Oh, no! If you're sick you should go home and get some rest! That's just about one of the best remedies you can give yourself." Quistis' ordered her friend. Rinoa lifted her head and just stared at Quistis for a moment or two.
"I'm not sick. I've got a headache and a lot on my mind. That has nothing to do with being sick. I'll be fine. I just need something to clear my mind of what's been bothering me." Rinoa insisted. She wasn't physically sick.
"Are you sure?" Selphie asked her. "Wouldn't doing that just make it all worse?"
"Rinoa, you really shouldn't try to ignore your emotions. If you push them away, they're just going to get worse." Squall spoke very quietly. He didn't speak directly to her, but stared forward out the window of the Cafeteria.
"I know, but it just seems easier that way." Rinoa looked down to the floor when she responded to what he said. Part of her wanted to yell at him, to just explode like the hate in her had been telling her to do, but the other part of her, the one that won, kept her inner anger quiet, and she said nothing else to him.
The rest of their friends just stared at the two of them, watching them try not to look at one another. They were trying so hard to hide their emotions from everyone about how they were truly feeling about each other, and little did they know, they were revealing more than they thought to their friends.
The bell, announcing that lunch was over, finally rang and the lot of them headed out to their final block of the day.
Rinoa grabbed her books and took a few steps in the direction of the Cafeteria exit that led to her fourth block, but something stood in her way. Squall was keeping her from going, and she couldn't get around him. He wouldn't let her.
"What?" She asked icily, gripping her books tighter against her chest.
"I need to talk to you." He said.
"Now? I'm going to be late for class." She tried to push around him, but, again, he stopped her and made her look at him.
"Not now. Later. I need to talk to you. I'm getting pretty damn sick of this." He whispered harshly.
"You know, I don't have to talk to you if I don't want to. You've already said enough. Why don't you just leave me be? You've hurt me enough as it is." Rinoa pushed him out of the way, but he grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him once again.
"No, you do have to. You've lied to everyone in the school, you denied even knowing me, and now you're blaming me for something I didn't even do! I deserve to be told the truth, and you know it!" He growled, gripping her shoulders tightly.
"I need to get to class." She whispered. She wouldn't look at him and kept her eyes to the floor. She said those words but didn't move. He still held her by the shoulders.
"Promise me that we'll talk later. Promise me." He gripped her tighter, and she knew that he wouldn't let her go until she promised him.
"I can't promise you anything." She felt his hands weaken, and they slid over to her arms.
"We need to talk. I don't know how much more of this I can take, Rinoa. You've got to let me make up for whatever it is I've done. I'm innocent, at any rate. But whatever it is that I've done, don't you think I deserve to be told?" he demanded.
"Just leave me be for a while. I'm not ready to face you yet." She whispered, finally lifting her head to meet his eyes. He saw the tears begin to form in her eyes and instantly hated himself for his behavior. "Please. Just let me be alone. I'm not that strong." She begged him, and he could do nothing but oblige her request. He let go of her and stepped out of her way to give her a path to class. She took a few steps forward and then turned to look at him again. They locked eyes for a few seconds, and Rinoa opened her mouth to say something to him but didn't. She just frowned and walked away from him.
Squall watched her walk away from him and felt the anger rise once again. He was sick of watching her walk away from him while he still stood there without an answer. She was torturing him in a thousand ways, and he was dying inside because of it. She was blaming him for something he was sure he hadn't done. If he had done something to her, then she needed to tell him because he honestly didn't know.
He sighed and headed to his fourth block. He knew he was probably going to be late, but at this point, he didn't care. Nothing could make this day any worse. He had a massive urge to knock the crap out of the first thing he saw. Unfortunately, he wanted that thing to be Rinoa. He was so mad, it wasn't funny. She was pissed at him for absolutely nothing, and it was angering him more and more by the minute.
He just wished that she would come out and say what it was that he had done wrong, so he could make amends with her. He wanted to at least make an attempt to save their friendship. A friendship was one step closer to something more, and that was ultimately what he was after. He'd liked her since he was nine. They'd gotten so close in those in those few years and it was only natural that they knew each other so well. If something was wrong with her, he could figure it out instantly and would have done anything he could to make it better. But, even now, he would have done anything he could to make her happy.
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Rinoa walked slowly to her fourth block. She was on the very verge of crying and knew that if anyone said one thing to her, she'd burst out into tears. She just couldn't get past her mind how mad he was, how the anger in his voice was directed completely to her, and how she ran away from him. How many times had she done that now? It had been quite a few, at any rate. She just kept running away from him, kept hiding from what she knew she'd end up having to face. It scared her that she was stuck in a room with a thousand doors, but didn't know which one to take. So she just stayed in that room, waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to tell her which door was the right one. So far, no one had come forward, and she had a feeling that no one would. She was all alone in this place, and the fear was consuming her completely.
"I can't take much more of this." She whispered, walking into her fourth block.
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They never spoke a word after that. Every time Rinoa saw Squall, she felt three different emotions: fear, anger, and hate. And he glared at her every time they locked eyes. It seemed that all hope for their friendship was now completely gone. It couldn't be helped anymore. They were slowly heading down the path of ultimate hate and loathing.
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It was October 21st. Squall and Rinoa hadn't spoke to each other since that day in the Cafeteria, over a month ago. Their friends tried everything they could to make the situation better, but nothing worked. Squall and Rinoa were too just too stubborn to face the facts and just fix the problem. Rinoa was too afraid and too mad to look at him and tell him what was wrong, tell him what he had done to her. And Squall couldn't say anything to her without losing his temper. He didn't trust himself. He was worried that he might hurt her.
The entire gang was hanging out at Joe's. School had ended for the weekend, and they all had established that they were completely bored.
"I can't take it anymore!" Squall growled from his spot on the couch. "Every time I see her, I get madder by the second! She owes me an explanation. She owes me the truth, and I'm tired of waiting for her to come around and face her fears. If she hasn't gained the courage yet, then she's never going to!"
"Well, then go to her. Make her talk to you. If you don't do it, no one else is going to. You guys have to work this out because I'm telling you, it's getting really old." Seifer answered.
"I know. Trust me, I know." Squall sighed. He saw Rinoa standing over there on the other side of the room with Selphie and Quistis. He wanted to go over there and make her talk to him, but he wasn't sure if he should.
Rinoa wasn't hearing a single word that Quistis and Selphie were saying. She was lost in her thoughts and could feel Squall's gaze on her. She knew that he'd been watching her every move, and she wanted to turn around and look at him. She wanted to tell him off for everything that he had done. She didn't have the strength to go over there unfortunately.
"Fuck it." Squall growled. He stood and walked across the room to Rinoa. She looked around as he came closer and locked eyes with him momentarily, and he saw the look of pure terror in her face.
"I don't mean to bother you guys, but Rinoa, I need to talk to you. Now." He said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from Selphie and Quistis. She did nothing but let him pull her and they went over to the now deserted area where he had just come from. Seifer and Drag saw him coming that way and the two bolted out of the way.
"We need to talk. Now." He demanded.
A/N: Ooh! I wonder what's going to happen next. Well, I don't but I bet you do! And I promise, next chapter you guys will know about Squall and Rinoa's previous encounter…
Later Days!