OK another chapter and we're back into the story plot! By the way people, i dont hate Quistis or anything if anyone thought that. She is actually a good character and i dont at all think she hated Rinoa. I know there are like some hardcore Squinoa fans and make out Quistis to be this boyfriend stealing poo, but i think they're wrong there since she was the one to get Squall to go after Rinoa. But hey, then there are those hardcore Quall fans that say the same about Rinoa and well... yeah she did pretty much steal Squall's heart... wooo to Rinoa =p
On with the show!
Disclaimer: I dont even know why i write these, i just see everyone else do it and worry i might be sued. But hey i dont own Final Fantasy... but i do own Beginning Reality.
Chapter 4 - The Stupid Plan
The ride to school was quite quick considering Quistis drove and showed Rinoa the shortcuts without having to go via the main town. Once the girls parked the red BMW in the car park they got out and grabbed their school bags.
Walking up towards the large building Quistis made a sharp left without even letting Rinoa know. The raven haired girl just stood silent for a second not knowing what to do. The ride in the car was mostly about how to get to school the fastest and neither mentioned anything about the promise made the night before. Rinoa didn't want to tag along with her cousin everywhere. As far as Rinoa cared, she was doing everything to make her cousin happy, she wouldn't beg to be her cousin's friend; she'd make her own. She kept on walking straight and made her way into the large building.
Quistis knew Rinoa wasn't following her anymore, a part of her was happy that she could be alone with her friends, and a part of her was upset at how she was treating her cousin. Truth was she didn't mind her cousin's company, she was just threatened when her friends would make comments about how nice Rinoa was and how funny she was, almost as if they preferred her to Quistis. She felt a bit threatened for her position as she had only just started hanging out with the gang again, albeit it was easier now that Selphie was seeing Irvine.
"Hey guys what's up?" Quistis said cheerfully smiling at every one her friends.
"Nothing much, where'd Rinoa go?" Zell immediately asked.
"Oh I guess she had to do something" Quistis lied.
"So Quistis, heard you going to the movies with Leonhart" Seifer said smirking. Quistis's eyes immediately fell on Squall who started shifting against his black Audi.
"Yeah, why is that a problem?" Quistis asked, she knew how to play this, she didn't want to make it an awkward situation that Squall would just turn around and tell her to forget it because it made him uncomfortable.
"No, just wondering where our invitation were?" Seifer said laughing softly.
"Well I only have four tickets" Quistis said and regretted mentioning the number. At first she didn't mind Seifer coming along with them to keep Rinoa company, it would have made the setting more comfortable if Squall felt awkward being alone with her for the first time. But after yesterday's lunch time scene she wished she never gave Squall the other two tickets.
"Well, who are the other two for?" Seifer asked curiously.
"Well, no one in particular." She replied honestly.
"So can I have one then?" Seifer asked amused raising his eyesbrows as if challenging the blonde. He could see Quistis was deflating, he knew she wanted it to be just her and Squall but Squall had already filled him in on the plan.
"He can come, its not a big deal right?" Squall asked finally speaking.
"Well, no its not. Of course he can come" Quistis said hiding her sadness.
"Cool, so who else wants to come? Chicken-wuss you wanna see Zanarkand?" Seifer asked Zell who was busily tapping away on his Blackberry.
"When?" Zell's replied his attention elsewhere.
The brunette and the blond looked towards Quistis. "Saturday, 6:30pm" She replied.
"Nah, my ma's got me cleaning the attic all day and then my grandparents are coming round so I gotta stay home and entertain." Zell replied.
"What about you Irvine?" Seifer asked the cowboy hoping he could get someone to come along and keep Squall company while he tried to woo Quistis.
"Sorry dude, me and Selphie got plans, she's coming over to meet my parents" Irvine said looking happily at Selphie who giggled in reply.
Quistis was happy, maybe if no one else was available Seifer would back out and it could be just her and Squall, she'd have to tell Rinoa to stay home and make up to her for the loss of two tickets.
Squall looked at both his friends, cleared his throat and with the calmest voice he could managed "What about Rinoa?" he suggested as if he was bored.
"Oh no, I think my mum's helping her with her Advanced Maths this weekend" Quistis hurriedly answered.
The two boys settled with the answer, shrugged and grabbed their backpacks muttering 'laters' to the gang before walking off. She stood there watching their backs, she knew she won over Rinoa although there was no competition, but she couldn't help shake that feeling of defeat.
Rinoa had walked into a wide open plan classroom with broad windows filling the room with fresh natural sunlight. The room was filled with roughly thirty individual desks placed in rows facing a writing board with a medium sized pinewood desk which was obviously the teacher's.
She made her way towards a free desk behind a dark haired boy and sat down taking out her writing pad and a pen. Her first lesson was Advanced Maths and she was hoping that they hadn't started on much yesterday since she was absent.
The teacher walked in and started taking his equipment out. He had long, straight silver hair that reached past his abdomen which currently he had shoved behind his shoulders. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and wore a light blue shirt that brought out the steel grey of his eye colour as well as emphasising his hair colour. Rinoa was too engrossed watching the long silver haired man to noticed someone next to her.
"Excuse me?" The girl spoke softly.
"Oh sorry!" Rinoa looked up to see a girl in braided pigtails. She was pretty with brown hair and light brown eyes and the cutest button nose that complimented her face.
"No its ok, its just that this is my seat and erm, normally I wouldn't ask you to get up but… erm well I…." the girl was obviously embarrassed and Rinoa didn't want to cause her any more.
"No no, its fine, I'll move!" Rinoa got up and looked around, she spotted two free seats in the back row to one corner, it was just behind the seat she was sitting on. Before she could get to it the girl spoke to her again. "I'm Sarah by the way" The girl put her hand out to Rinoa who tried to shake it but ended up spilling the contents of her pencil case just as the bell for class rang.
"I'm… crap" Rinoa bent down to pick up her stuff with the girl also helping her. "Sorry, I'm not crap, my name is Rinoa" She laughed.
"Right, class is about to start, can you ladies please hurry and settle down, I am ready to start" The teacher motioned with his hands for both girls to sit.
Rinoa suddenly noticed Zell already seated next to Sarah's seat smiling up at her. "Hey Sarah" he said shyly. The pigtail girl sat down giggling.
Rinoa turned around ready to sit down on one of the two vacant seats but was surprised to see only one seat left remaining, the other occupied by none other than Squall. He didn't look at her; he was too busy scribbling something on his notepad and tearing out sheets.
A student came round and collected the torn papers from him and Rinoa realised he was collecting the homework. Rinoa just ignored Squall and started to write the date and title on her book. The teacher set the class some exercises from what they learnt the day before based on some pages off their textbook.
Rinoa raised her hand and the teacher just nodded to her and motioned for her to wait.
She sat there silently. She stole a glance at Squall who was quickly scribbling down answers from his textbook, and making slight lip movements from reading the questions.
"Right Miss Heartilly, I actually don't have an exercise book for you at the moment, I will have to get one on my way down to the storage room, could you share with Squall for the time being?" He asked while looking over at Squall making sure the young boy heard.
"Sure" Rinoa mubbled. The two youths brought their tables closer with the screeching of the legs scrapping against the polished wooden floors.
The lesson went by quietly with Rinoa and Squall silently sharing the exercise book. It was actually easy for Rinoa, she had been right, her tutor already went through most of the content in the syllabus last year, so she found the factorials easy. At one point she noticed Squall deep in concentration with his pencil poised very still. He got his eraser out and shook his head while vigorously rubbing out an answer.
"Erm, you gotta use permutation on that one it's kinda like a trick question, it explains it on the next chapter" Rinoa offered.
Squall just glanced at her and attempted the question again with Rinoa's suggestion. This time he seemed satisfied with the answer. "How did you know that?" He asked so softly Rinoa barely heard it.
"Oh, I did this last year with my tutor" She replied with a short explanation.
"Cool" He approved.
They were silent again. Finally the teacher stood up and started explaining the next chapter and the necessary steps of multiplying Surds. Rinoa already knew what to do and took the opportunity to daydream about taking a walk on the beach she had saw on her drive to the school. Back in Deling she had never had the chance to visit beaches, not that Deling had many. If she were lucky her dad would drive her down to Timber and she'd spend the mornings sitting on the soft sandy beach near the edge of Galbadia reading her books and then spend the nights eating at the local hotel where her cousin Zone worked. Her memories of Deling were happy ones but lacked the same excitement she had when her mum was alive. In the recent years as Rinoa grew she became more busy with the mundane routine of her busy schedule she had less time for her personal hobbies. She knew a walk down the Balamb beach would refresh her mind and probably reignite other pastimes she now desperately wanted to act on.
Again she noticed the teacher write down exercises for the class to complete and waited for Squall to turn to the pages before quickly whizzing through them. Normally she would have been bored in such a quiet classroom with her whizzing through her work, but the extra time she was allowed to day dream was a bonus to her. The teacher walked towards her and noticed her in her day dream.
"Err, Rinoa have you finished the exercises?" he asked her quietly.
"Yeah, I've already gone through most of the stuff in the textbook before" She explained.
"Ok, hmm you don't even have your own textbook, hold on I'll go down and get you one now, I cant have you wasting time in class". He replied and walked to the front of the class.
Running his hands through his long silver hair he told the class he'd be back in five minutes, and set another exercise for those who finished before he got back.
As soon as he closed the classroom door a series of breaths were released and a couple of students started murmuring. The behaviour of the class changed immediately to a relaxed and disruptive class, thus allowing her to know the teacher was someone who would not tolerate the scene that was in front of her. One boy shouted across the classroom to another colleague to give him the answer to one of the questions. Two girls diagonal to Rinoa's were busy staring at a phone and muttering away excitedly. One student even left his seat and was seated next to another girl at the front laughing away while she told him some funny story.
Rinoa was too busy noticing everything in her surroundings she didn't notice Squall speak up. "Sorry?" She asked the brunette.
"I said, for someone who needs extra tuition from your aunt you are doing pretty well for this class" Squall repeated not looking at her.
"I'm not getting extra tuition" Rinoa replied confused.
"Oh Quistis said you couldn't come to the movies because you had to study" Squall replied now looking at the confused girl with and equally confused look.
Rinoa knew the truth, it was an excuse Quistis made, one that wasn't necessary.
"Yeah erm I was at first but after I looked at the syllabus I realised I didn't" Rinoa answered back. She couldn't believe Quistis lied like that, did she really feel that threatened? Exactly what was Rinoa going to do? Steal Squall right under her nose? And Quistis didn't have a right to do that, those tickets were for her from her father; it was a way for Rinoa to make friends. All these thoughts ran through the young girls head making her feel the promise she made last night was not enough; that Quistis didn't trust her.
"So that means you can come right? Seifer kinda needs someone to keep him company" Squall asked, he couldn't let Rinoa know what the plan was, she probably would've gone and told her cousin. Seifer wouldn't forgive him for that if Quistis found out and cancelled on them.
Rinoa on the other hand felt slightly upset that Squall only wanted her to come to keep Seifer company, a part of her wanted Squall to ask her to keep him company. What am I thinking? Here I am getting annoyed at Quistis and yet I want this guy to like me!
"Yeah, I'd love to keep Seifer company" Rinoa said happily.
Squall nodded his head but looked away, Did I do the right thing? He regretting asking her now, he wanted her to say she'd rather keep him company. The teacher walked back in and the class immediately became silent.
Placing the textbook on Rinoa's table he directed her to a different page and ordered the two to pull their tables apart. They both complied but the action meant more then just pulling their tables apart, more like being pulled apart from each other.
After her Advanced Maths class Rinoa went off to her History lesson while Squall met Irvine at their lockers and walked off to the Geography building. By 12:30pm the bell rang to indicate the time for Lunch break.
Rinoa had met Sarah again in her History lesson who introduced her to Nida, they offered for her to join them at lunch which she happily accepted knowing that Qusitis would probably ignore her. Well if she wants to lie and ignore me that's her choice. Rinoa thought to herself with anger. She hated this, she thought moving here would be fantastic; she got to live with her cousin and attend a school where she would be like everyone else and not be labelled 'The General's Daughter' and have people acting fake because her mother was Julia Heartilly. Now Quistis was a sour lemon and Rinoa felt really unwanted and a bit too normal for her liking. She accepted Sarah's invite and thought it would probably be better if she made her own friends.
Back at Squall's table Quistis sat down with her lunch tray, she picked up her fork and started mixing her garden salad around before biting into a cold cherry tomato.
"Hey blondie, Squall talked to Rinoa, turns out she is free after all" Seifer said smiling at Quistis.
"You asked Rinoa?" Quistis asked Squall trying not to sound as shocked as she was feeling. She felt a little betrayed.
"Yeah" Squall said not looking up but playing around with his fries before dipping them in hot sauce and taking a bite.
"So guess it'll be the four of us hey?" Seifer said still grinning.
"I guess so" Quistis said not entertaining Seifer's grin. She knew it was better that Rinoa was now coming to keep Seifer company but what if Squall wanted her to keep him company? This plan would fail. Stupid Rinoa. Quistis thought. She made me a promise and now she's breaking it, how could she? She knows I like him, why is she making this so complicated? She could've just said she was busy and let Squall go with me alone"
Quistis quickly finished her lunch and excused herself mentioning something about going to see a teacher about homework.
Rinoa was just finishing her lunch when she noticed someone staring at her. She looked across the lunch hall and noticed Squall and his gang, Squall quickly averted his gaze when he saw her notice him. That was quite rude. Rinoa thought to herself, she noticed Seifer, who noticed her back and waved. She cutely waved back and smiled a bit. Now he is nice. She thought to herself, Maybe this double date thing wouldn't be so bad, Seifer seemed like a really nice guy.
She looked up at the big clock attached on to the cafeteria wall and noticed she had only 15 minutes before her next lesson. Excusing herself from Sarah, Nida and the other students that she met she made her way to her locker to get her books out for Literature. It was the first lesson she had with Quistis and she thought maybe she could sort things out with her. Rinoa wanted desperately to let Quistis know she meant her promise and that there wasn't a need for Quistis to feel threatened by her. But if she did she wouldn't mind and would make her own friends.
Quistis already beat her to it. Rinoa was walking past the girls' toilets when a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her in.
"Whoa, Quistis what the hell?!" Rinoa gasped rubbing her shoulder. The blonde's sharp nails actually gripped hard and poked the younger girl's skin.
"Rinoa what are you playing at? You promised you'd stay away from Squall!" Quistis cried.
"I am staying away. Why did you lie and say I was studying with aunt Anna?" Rinoa questioned.
"Because he invited Seifer and I wanted to be alone with Squall!" Quistis cried louder.
"You can be, I'll be with Seifer so you get what you want, so why are you shutting me out?" Rinoa wanted this to be a shout but was exposed by her choking the last part out. The raven haired girl's eyes started brimming with tears. "I thought moving here would be cool, you and me would have so much fun, but you keep pushing me away, I might as well just got back to Deling."
Quistis immediately felt guilty. She didn't want Rinoa to leave, she was being selfish, there wasn't any need for her to feel threatened, Rinoa made a promise and she knew she would keep it.
"Rin, I don't want you to go back, I'm sorry I shouldn't be ignoring you. I just really want this to work out between me and him." Quistis said while taking her into a hug.
"Don't worry, it will, Quistis you are a smart and pretty girl, he would be totally gay if he didn't fall for you. So stop stressing." Rinoa said while sniffing and wiping away the stray tears.
Quistis just laughed and hugged her tight. For the now the two had made amendments just as the bell rang, the two made their way to their Literature class.
Once inside the classroom Rinoa introduced herself to Mr Valentine who sat her diagonally across from Squall. She looked over at Quistis who at first looked jealous but then just smiled.
Rinoa knew Quistis finally trusted her, now she would do whatever she could to get those two together. She glanced at Seifer who met her eyes, smiled and winked. Rinoa's smile just widened and she stuck her tongue out before turning towards the board. Both Quistis and Squall witnessed the scene between the two teenagers.
Maybe I chose the wrong person after all. The blond thought.
Maybe I'll get to be alone with him after all. The blonde thought.
Maybe my plan was stupid after all. The brunette thought.
All three students just starred at Rinoa before moving their attention to the teacher.
Yeah you know what im going to say: Review!