-1Disclaimer: Jamie and Gabby, mine. FFVIII characters and locations, Squaresoft's. Songs belong to their respective singers.
Author's Note: Once again, I thank you for the reviews. My 'Writer's Block' disease seems to have evaporated, so for now, I hereby introduce….The Garden Life: Chapter 3!
Selphie had hung up all the posters, regarding the party that she was to put on today, in lightning speed. In doing so, she wanted everyone, especially all of her friends, to know about the party and to take time off and attend it. Firstly, she dwelled on Squall and Quistis.
Those two were the ones that mostly acted as any second not focussed on paperwork and such was a second wasted, and Selphie planned to put all her heart and soul into preparing this party, as she wanted the best for all of her friends.
With that in mind, she decided to wait for the students to appear.
After a persuasive argument with her father, Jamie was finally allowed to go out to Balamb. She had told him that she wanted to get a new outfit from there, but had actually decided to leave for Balamb, as she wanted to relax for a while. The Garden was making her feel pretty stressed out, but for what reason, the brunette didn't know.
She was just turning the corner when she saw a little boy huddled in that same corner, back against the wall. Jamie approached the boy and kindly said "Hello. What are you doing here all by yourself?" Inspecting his appearance, Jamie felt as if he had been staying around alleyways for a long time. Strands of his matted blonde hair just ran past his eyes, which shone emarald green, and his baggy top and jeans looked almost trampled on. His trainers were slowly losing their soles.
The boy's eyes showed panic as he turned around to face Jamie, but he calmed down slightly and replied "I always sit here, I have nowhere else to go", and his voice was so sweet, that Jamie had to smile at him. After Jamie asked for his name, he simply responded "Gabriel".
Jamie then understood that he was an orphan, all by himself in Balamb, and a stab of pity instantly hit her heart. "Tell you what Gabriel, you can come to Garden and stay with me. I'll sort out all the paperwork and stuff, and you can stay in Garden. I'm sure you'll make lots of friends there", She informed the boy. "So, you wanna come?"
Gabriel seemed slightly reluctant at the offer, but since he didn't have anywhere else to stay, there wasn't exactly a 'pull factor' that was pulling him back to Balamb. With a nod, he stood up. Then hand in hand, the duo set off back to Garden.
"I hope this will be okay to wear at the party", Rinoa anxiously wondered. Being back in her dorm room, she was pondering what outfit she should wear for the party. Sure, she wanted to look her best, but she wanted to wear something that would instantly catch Squall's attention. But now she was having second thoughts about what she should wear.
For the outfit she had chosen now consisted of a sleeveless black top which exposed some of her mid-body, and a light blue mini skirt with a silver belt. To complete the look, she was going to wear black boots that reached up to her knees. Great, now Squall's going to think that I'm sort of a model, and all the other guys there might start to eye me up, the raven haired sorceress thought to herself.
Just when she was finally going to do away with the outfit, a wolf-whistle could be heard, and a voice remarked "Wow, I never knew you had it in you, Rinoa". Seifer entered the dormitory wearing his usual attire, minus his trademark trench coat. A blush crept up Rinoa's cheeks, as she questioned him.
"Seifer? Wh-What are you doing here?"
Seifer smirked and walked closer to where Rinoa was standing. "Well, I had just figured out something that I could use your help with", he said. "You know about the party, right? Well, I've been planning to get Jamie onto me, and I'm guessing that you want Squall to notice you too, right?" He smirked, a knowing glint in his eyes.
"Yeah, but how did you-?"
"Rinoa, you can't think that I never noticed. It's so obvious", Seifer informed her. "Well, I have a way to get their attention", he smirked at Rinoa, and sensing an Almasy master plan, Rinoa smirked too.
Boy, Seifer. Am I glad that I met you.
As soon as Quistis had entered the Quad, she could already hear the chatter of the cadets and the poor attempt of someone trying to sing Robbie Williams' 'Let Me Entertain You' note-perfect.
She was in two minds about whether or not she should come to the party, but after some careful consideration for her friends, and how much work Selphie had done decorating the place, Quistis made her mind up and came to the party.
Selphie ran up to Quistis and embraced her in a hug, which Quistis returned. "Hey, Selphie. This looks like a nice party. You do this all yourself?" Quistis wondered, the embrace now broken.
Selphie proudly smiled at her and responded, "Nope, Seifer helped me too. And speaking of Seifer, I was hoping he'd be here by now…." Selphie worriedly peered around the Quad, and then shrugged. "Oh well, guess someone else could start off the karaoke then", Selphie said, and waved Quistis farewell, as she had seen two junior classmen mucking around with the wires connected to the karaoke machine, and was planning to give them a piece of her mind.
With a smile, Quistis waved back to her, and felt thirsty all of a sudden. Regretting not asking Selphie where the drinks were, the blonde instructor set off for someone who she recognised, a someone with blonde spiky hair.
Seifer entered the Quad and was looking around for any sign of Jamie here. Without her here, the plan would be useless and all that would have been for nothing. Giving up searching for her, he strode over to where he saw Rinoa standing.
"You remember what to do, right?" He asked her, and she replied with a simple nod. "Good. Let's just wait for those two to come then…"
Just as if on cue, Squall had appeared through the doors, followed by a couple of professional looking people in business suits. With a smirk, Seifer turned back to Rinoa.
"Alright Rin. You keep your back to him, and we'll just pretend that we're having a private conversation or something, alright?" He told her, hoping that this would get both Squall and Jamie running for them.
Squall was nodding at the business man that was talking in front of him, but wasn't really listening that much. Managing this business lark was stressful, and truthfully, he absolutely couldn't stand it. But someone's raven hair caught his attention.
When he turned in that direction after the man had quit talking to him, he saw Seifer talking to a lady figure that was undoubtedly Rinoa. But his eyes steered away from the back of her head and they took in her appearance. Squall felt really angry that she would even wear something like that in a party, let alone in public. But a part of his mind did have to admit that it showed off her figure nicely.
He narrowed his eyes slightly at the lack of physical contact space that there was between Seifer and Rinoa, as Seifer whispered something in her ear, which made Rinoa smile and walk away. Squall continued to frown, but a tap on his shoulder broke up the fragments of what he was thinking about. After looking back, he realised that it was Quistis.
"Hey Squall. Are you enjoying the party?" Quistis enquired, and when Squall merely shrugged, she nodded her head in understanding. "I kind of know what you mean. The only really entertaining thing is the cadets when they're trying out the karaoke machine".
Squall simply replied with another nod, and Quistis, knowing that she wasn't going to get much out of him, walked away towards another companion she thought more talkative. When Squall proceeded to look back at where Seifer was standing minutes before, he was surprised to find him gone.
Frowning at this revelation, he proceeded to look for Rinoa.
Jamie entered the Quad with Gabriel following behind, and spotted some junior classmen that were chatting with each other. Jamie's eyes instantly shone with an idea. "Hey Gabby, you can talk with those people, they look like nice kids, huh?" Jamie asked, but felt the grip on her hand tighten.
With a smile, she bent down to Gabby's level. "Okay Gabby, I'll introduce you to all my friends. Happy now?" When she saw him nod, she glanced around trying to find someone that she could introduce Gabby to. With a smile, she saw Irvine standing near the drinks, talking to Zell.
Walking up to the pair, the brunette smiled at them and proceeded to familiarize her 'brother' with the rest of her friends. "Hey guys, this is my brother, Gabby. Gabby, these are two of my friends, Irvine and Zell", and smiled even more when she saw Gabby shake hands with the pair. Incidentally, Irvine had raised his eyebrows when Jamie had mentioned the word 'brother', and wanted to talk with her privately, whilst Zell began to talk to Gabriel about 'shadow-boxing'.
"You adopted him as your brother?" Irvine questioned.
"I had to Irvine, because I saw him in Balamb all by himself. And there was no way that I was going to leave such a sweet boy all by himself in there. I just had to bring him here. You understand, don't you?" Jamie said, knowing that Irvine wanted to talk to her about Gabby.
"It's just that….will you be able to look after him by yourself? I mean, with SeeD and everything, would you be able to handle it?" He asked hesitantly.
"Irvine, I'm not a kid, if that's what you-" Jamie started, but Irvine cut across her.
"I know you ain't, but I'm just worried. What if something happened to the both of you?" Irvine asked, worry evident in his facial features.
Jamie smiled at the sense that he actually cared for her, and simply said, "Thanks Irvine, but I'm going to be fine" before hugging him, but she saw something that startled her.
Seifer and Rinoa were dancing together and were standing too close to each other for comfort. Jamie had barely registered that she had released herself from the embrace, and she could feel some unexpected sense of anger boil up inside her conscience. That sense of anger began to rise when she saw Seifer look at her and smirk.
Glaring at him, Jamie left for her dorm, stopping the feeling of having to punch him.
Rinoa and Seifer both left for the benches, whilst the others stayed near the stage. Rinoa was the first to start laughing. "Oh Hyne! Did you see their faces?"
Seifer began to laugh along with her. "Yeah, we totally got them", he said, only increasing their sense of laughter.
A couple of minutes passed, and their laughter slowly subsided, when Seifer finally spoke. "You know, I wonder what they'll do when they find out about this", and he pulled Rinoa with him, as he went for the dorms.
Rinoa felt pretty curious as Seifer was taking her to his dorm, and asked him "You want to take this risk?"
Seifer opened the door to his dorm and just smirked "What risk? I just want to prove to two people how we feel about each other", and locked Rinoa's lips onto his.
Rinoa felt his lips on hers, and she instantly gave in. She began to hold onto his hair for dear life, and occasionally began to moan from pleasure. Seifer had started kissing her down the neckline, and she had to admit something.
She was truly enjoying it.
Author's Note: Sorry for the long update, but I had a party to go to, but I'm happy to say….Chapter 3, complete!
Till next time!
Ciao Amigos!