Ok people sorry for the late update, been really busy with a lot of things. This chapter isnt really a big insight into the story just a brief look at the characters.
Some of you might not like my take or involvement in the game, but this is what i think the characters would have thought of other FFs, plus it was fun to write!
Disclaimer: Dont own a damn thing! All Final Fantasy characters belong to SquareEnix!
Chapter 2 - All about favourites
Rinoa walked alongside the mute tour guide noticing his walk and general posture. From his build she could tell he worked out; he was lean and muscular in the right places. She would say he was about five foot eight inches give or take. His medium brown hair fell from his head onto parts of his face, mostly covering the top of his cheeks and parts of his eyebrows.
"Erm Squall?" She spoke softly. He turned to look at her briefly.
"This is a tour guide right? Shouldn't you, you know, like talk?" She said while lightly chuckling.
"What exactly am I supposed to say?" Squall retorted. He didn't like talking to this girl, he felt he had to think about every word carefully before letting them escape from his mouth.
"I don't know, but make it fun!" Rinoa laughed, folding her arms onto her chest and waiting for him as if he were to perform a magic trick.
"Well… this is the library, most people come to read, others just come to check out the cute Library Girl" Squall replied in a monotone.
"Cute Library Girl? Do you have a crush on someone Squall?" Rinoa giggled.
"Yes" Squall replied. Rinoa gasped at this, but instantly felt a wave of remorse for Quistis.
That's why he won't go out with her.
"But not Library Girl, I don't really go for girls with pigtails" Well I didn't really go for girls until I saw you. Squall thought to himself. Wait that didn't come out right!
"Oh, but there is someone?" Rinoa smiled, she wanted more from this conversation. But unfortunately for her Squall just turned on his heels and walked out of the library and headed towards the huge circular fountain in the foyer.
"Ok well, lastly we have the Quad and the Infirmary, if you get hurt, this is where you will go, and the Quad is where we hold all our functions, except the major ones like the Graduation Ball" Squall informed the newcomer and looked at his wrist inspecting the time. It was 10 minutes past lunchtime and he was getting quite hungry, not only that but he was due to meet Zell to get the latest video game off him. "So that concludes our tour." He finally ended and started walking away.
Squall was finally reaching the Cafeteria when he noticed small hurried steps next to him, turning slightly as he kept walking he noticed Rinoa still following him trying to keep up. She noticed him staring at her and smiled before opening her mouth to explain.
"I noticed you headed in the same direction, I am going to meet Quistis, honestly, I'm not following you". She explained.
"Whatever." Was all Squall replied.
Walking into through the double doors of the Cafeteria Rinoa noticed round tables seated for six spread across the floor. Each table was more or less filled with students excitedly talking about their first day at school and half eaten lunches being left stranded.
Scanning the wide room Rinoa finally noticed Quistis at the back talking to a girl with short brown hair seated next to a boy in a cowboy hat and a couple of other kids. She noticed one of them to be Seifer who was talking to and equally blond boy, shorter but with a vivid tattoo on his face.
Squall also spotted the gang and pointed towards them talking to Rinoa at the same time. "Well there's your cousin, I'm heading that direction too" He didn't have to offer, Rinoa knew he meant she could follow him.
Once they reached the table Rinoa noticed the cowboy hat boy talking to a teacher and showing her a bruise on his shin. As they neared the woman looked up and smiled at Squall and Rinoa.
"Hello Squall, I don't think I've ever seen you with a girl before, is she your girlfriend?" The woman replied. Rinoa giggled and looked at Squall as he was put on the spot, she could see his cheeks were growing red.
"Yes" Squall coolly replied. A series of gasps were heard and Rinoa chuckled herself.
"Oh my God, Squall are you serious?" Rinoa laughed, she knew he wasn't by the facial expression he had before he replied. "Because you know I am going to take it seriously?"
"I'm serious" Squall replied. He wasn't serious, but it was the only way he could get out of being made of fun of being seen with a girl. Sure he had never had a girlfriend before or even hung out with girls, but was it so impossible for people to think he could have a girlfriend?
"Oh" Rinoa was shocked. She actually didn't know how to respond to that.
"I'm seriously joking." Squall finally continued. The tattooed boy and his friends started laughing at the scene.
"Well anyways, good to see you again Squall, do stay out of trouble this year, save you from any more scars" The woman replied and nodded towards Rinoa before walking away.
Squall sat down next to the tattooed boy and Rinoa walked across the other side and sat on the vacant chair next to Quistis. "Hey" she said cheerfully to her cousin and instantly noticed the sadness in her face.
Quistis shook herself and then took a deep breath. "Guys this is Rinoa my cousin from Galbadia. She arrived last night and will be starting here." She introduced Rinoa to the gang and told her their names.
The brown headed girl was Selphie Quistis's long time friend, Irvine was the one with the cowboy hat and the tattooed faced boy was known as Zell.
They all displayed the well mannered greetings and the general questions about Galbadia.
"So how comes you moved here Rinoa?" Zell asked through a mouthful of hotdog.
"Zell, at least swallow before you talk, you're going to put her off from hanging with us for the next year" Selphie said disgusted.
"No its ok, well I moved because my dad thought it would be better if I finished off school in a town that was more quite. My family are going through quite a lot of trouble and some issues so they thought it wasn't fair if I was put through that." Rinoa replied.
The group were a bit silent with a few sympathetic 'mhmm's. That's when it hit Rinoa what her sentence had meant. "Oh its not like that, its not like I'm from some troubled family, my dad just works a hectic life" she tried to clarify. To be honest she didn't want the attention to follow her which is why she didn't bother to tell her new friends. It wasn't something she liked boasting about. She had moved to Balamb because her dad thought it would be better if the press didn't bother her in her last two years at school. Since Galbadia and Esthar had reconciled after years of war Rinoa's father the General was always under the spotlight about how and why all of a sudden the two countries were joining forces. Not only that but the General was married to the late Julia Heartilly the famous singer. So either way Rinoa was sure to be spotted by press.
"Dude, you got my game?" Squall finally pipped into the conversation.
"Oh my God, dude I totally forgot to give it to you" Zell said excitedly.
The atmosphere of the table immediately changed as the boys all sat up and anticipated as Zell rummaged through his bag. Selphie and Quistis just rolled their eyes and started talking about some lesson they were in before lunch. Finally Zell retrieved what he was looking for and smacked it onto the table. "Booya!" He cried.
Irvine and Seifer both high fived each other and Squall made a grab for the object. Rinoa looked at it carefully it looked like some DVD case but the back of the cover told her otherwise.
"I swear they said the battle system in this one is beyond fantastic!" Zell explained excitedly. "It's a lot faster and the graphics are awesome!"
"I just like looking at the lead lady" Irvine smiled and tried grabbing the case off Squall who easily dodged and kept reading the back cover.
"What is that?" Rinoa asked innocently.
The three boys looked at her incredulous while Squall continued reading. "Don't tell me you don't play video games?" Seifer asked with mock disgust but quickly smiled showing her he was joking.
"Oh no I do, just not that much" Rinoa quickly inputted.
"Three words Rinoa" Irvine seriously while pointing to the case Squall had in his hand. Squall was now looking directly at her and opened his mouth.
"Beginning…" Squall said
"Reality…" Seifer continued
"XIII" Zell finished.
"Beginning Reality XIII?" Rinoa laughed, "Oh so you guys RPGers?"
"Yep, to the bone!" Zell smiled.
"Tell me you have played the series, it's the best game out there nothing can beat the Reality series!" Irvine said seriously excited.
"Yeah I think I played VIII once long time ago, I borrowed it from my friend but I accidentally spilled my drink over it and couldn't get past the third disk so I never got to see the ending. Shame it was really romantic as well." Rinoa said reminiscing about her younger days.
The boys all looked at each other then at Squall and chuckled. Shaking his head Seifer spoke next.
"VIII was crap, the couple were stupid, no one falls in love like that, the main girl should of gone off with Refies" He said and finally took the case off Squall now trying to read the back cover.
"What?!" Zell pipped in. "Aonir and Llauqs are so cute, that Refies was just an ass that couldn't get anywhere".
"Whatever, VII was best in my opinion, it had a dark story line, a good battle system and sure the graphics can't be compared to VIII but nonetheless it was still wicked. I'd love to be part of that group AVALANCHE." Seifer gazed into the case adorningly.
"X-2 was the best, what is better than having a three lead females?" Irvine smirked and lifted his eyebrows.
"Your such a womaniser Irvine" Quistis said now getting into the conversation. "That game was to silly, Yuna was completely innocent looking in X and then they made her so slut-like in X-2 it was just some stupid way to make guys buy video games and degrade women."
"Gosh woman, how many times, its celebrating women, not degrading them" Irvine argued back.
"Oh yeah Irvine, the best way to 'celebrate' womanhood is to dress in the most revealing clothes and dance around while shooting bullets" Quistis retorted while shaking her head. "Yuna was better in X, I liked that one, plus that Tidus was funny and charming".
"Anyways, personally I think IX is the best." Zell said smiling and drumming his fingers on the table.
The group were silent until Seifer spoke up. "Chicken-wuss, you always do out retard yourself."
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Zell got angry, "it's a cool game and Zidane is a better character than most pessimistic broody characters in the series.
"Yeah I liked IX too, I thought Vivi was sooo cute!" Selphie said all giddy.
"What about you Squall?" Rinoa asked noticing he had gone back to his mute mode. "Which is your favourite?"
Squall looked up at Rinoa, he didn't really want to reply, he felt vulnerable around Rinoa, like she had this force that made people like her and he was falling into it. Something about her just made people look and smile at her cute innocence. He would have liked to always share interests with her but after learning who her cousin was he wasn't sure if this was going to be possible. Its just a question about a game, what is the big deal. He thought to himself, he felt he was over thinking, but at the same time he knew his answer was just a small inclination to something that he thought meant a whole lot greater.
"My favourite in the series is VIII" He finally replied.
"Oh how comes?" Rinoa said surprised. She was shocked he even answered she didn't know if he would continue.
"I liked the story line, it wasn't too unbelievably 'dark', sure it had some elements that didn't make sense like the time compression bit, but it was a good idea, you know the whole SeeD and Garden thing, how they train these people as SeeDs and they remain a SeeD. But what the people fail to realise is that seeds grow into flowers and they haven't. And when Llauqs meets Aonir he is a SeeD and closed off from the world, but she opens him up and he metaphorically becomes more than a SeeD, he starts growing."
"What a load of -" Seifer didn't finish. Quistis punched him the arm.
"I thought that was sweet Squall" Quistis said while blushing. Squall met her gaze and then averted his eyes. He felt guilty, he wanted to take Quistis to the movies to get her with Seifer but exposing himself to Rinoa he felt as if he done something behind Quistis's back. The sooner her and Seifer got together the better, he didn't like this feeling and wanted rid of it soon.
The bell rang indicating the end of lunch and students started making their way to lessons. Seifer headed down the back corridor with Irvine, Selphie and Quistis for History while Zell and Squall made their way towards Advanced Maths. Rinoa walked behind Squall making her way towards the entrance doors, she was about to walk off when she realised she still had one question left.
Lightly tapping Squall on the shoulder she got his attention. Squall turned to face the raven haired girl. "Erm Squall, you know at the end of Beginning Reality VIII, do Llauqs and Aonir finally get together?"
Squall smiled at her turned walking away before turning his head while still striding down the long corridor. "Maybe" He shouted back.
Ok another chapter done, maybe i'll have a little surprise for my readers this week, its not an update in the story, just something to make it a little more realistic! ;)
Anyways please review this chapter, i'd like to know what you thought abou the VIII character's opinions towards other FF characters, do you think i got it right? No, why not?