Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Beneath the Mistletoe ❯ The Christmas Festival ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Notes: It's a...FFVIII Christmas! XO. Heheh, anyway, none of
the characters belong to me of course...as is a must with all
disclaimers. Though, if I had my way, I'd most certainly claim a
certain Squall Leonhart ^___^;. Um, another little note...Selphie and
her megaphone belong strictly to mah pally Rhi...as well as the
term...'Ritalin Buddies' XD. Being that as it is...enjoy my little
ficlet! :D and be forewarned, this fic contains absolutely no
plot...pointless insanity...and rather rambly paragraphs... o_O;.

The decorating at Balamb Garden had already begun. Garland was being
strewn up along the bare walls and various Christmas trees were being
dragged in by the students so they could throw them up in their rooms
and give a little bit of the Holiday cheer there as well. A few of the
junior class men had started a tinsel war, and were covered head to
toe in shimmering streamers of silver. This, of course, had not
pleased the ex-disciplinary committee (which was currently in the
process of not being so 'ex' any longer). Seifer Almasy (still the
same platinum blonde hair, still the same silver trenchcoat) was
currently badgering the out-of-line students, and he was naturally
backed up by his 'posse'...Fujin and Raijin. Naturally...

To an extent, it seemed as though things hadn't changed since the fall
of Ultemicia. Exam candidates had busily locked themselves away for
the upcoming SeeD tests, and Balamb's reconstruction had been
completed. Well, complete to the extent of being able to fly it again.
There was still a pretty hefty amount of damage on the exterior where
it had crashed into FH. Squall Leonhart, Garden's current leader, was
trying his best to come up with ways to raise money for the repairs.
Everyone's SeeD salary combined wasn't enough to undo the damage...and
that was saying a lot. But, for the most part things had gone back to
the way they had been before. Garden still had it's qualms as far as
associating with a certain few sorceresses or a certain other
'knight,' but generally things went back to being the same.

With the failure of the Garden Festival, Selphie Tilmitt had organized
a special Christmas project which had been titled cleverly, 'The
Christmas Festival.' The Quad was being dressed up with various
decorations such as trees, banners, etc. Unfortunately with this
project, the wave of complete power was passed on to the organizer and
that meant the loudest mouth of Balamb Garden, became even louder when
it was amplified by a megaphone. A few of the people on the committee
wore ear muffs as a joke, although some believed that it really did
save shattering ear drums. Somehow or another, Selphie had roped all
of the other five 'heroes' into aiding in this project, and at the
current moment...that was where most of them were.

The boss of everything was making her 'rounds, surveying all the work
and commending some that she liked, criticizing the others. Zell
Dincht had assigned himself to Christmas light duty. Juggling in hand
one hot-dog and the tangle of wires, he was having a pretty difficult
time sorting everything out. So, he paused, scarfing down about half
of his food--cheeks stuffed to the maximum with the -last- hot-dog he
had. Yet, when it came to Zell, he managed to break the limitations as
far as shoving food in his mouth. Ketchup dribbled out of the end of
the bun and plopped down on some of the lights, but Zell didn't seem
to notice. He was far too busy finishing off the last of his lunch.
After he did so, the duel-using fighter glanced up to see Selphie walk
by and offered his fellow 'ritalin buddy' a salute, before he put two
hands into this light-sorting deal.

As always, Squall and Rinoa were found together. They were off sorting
through packages, well not exactly packages. They were wrapped boxes
that contained nothing, but Selphie said it was the principle of the
thing. So, together, they moved off to that tree, and placed a few
multi-sized ones beneath it. Squall seemed so much happier since Rinoa
transferred to Garden and he made certain he was the one there to help
her find everything. After all, since he was the leader...he had to
make it his top priority to make the new student feel welcome.

Even ex-headmaster Cid and Edea were there...as well as Nida and Xu,
who couldn't help but offer a hand. It was nice in a way to be all
together again, working toward a common goal. Even if it was something
as small as 'The Christmas Festival.' Quistis Trepe was taking a break
to sort through papers she had brought along with her. After the fight
with Ultemicia, Cid had requested that Quistis retain her job as an
Instructor at Balamb, which she more than graciously agreed to. So,
deciding to be more responsible than ever, she took every chance she
got to update the grades or write out reports...just something to do
with the job. She certainly didn't want to end up being too lenient as
she had been before when she first got fired. One leg crossed over the
other, and she marked up a sheet of paper with red just absently
minding her own business.

So, that was everyone. Everyone except one certain gunslinging, cowboy
as a matter of fact. And Selphie, of course, being the first to
notice, pointed the megaphone in a random direction, "Where's Irvine?!
Booyaka! This is so totally like him to blow off the project!"

Poor Nida, who had been on the worst receiving end of Selphie's wrath,
clamped his hands over his ears and made his way as quick as possible
away from the girl. Xu rushed after him to make certain he was all
right.

"I haven't seen him, Selph!" Zell chimed in, attempting to detach the
wires that were slowly devouring his arm.

"You should check the girl's dormitory. I had to yell at Mr. Kinneas
about being down there during the evening hours a few days ago..." Cid
removed his glasses, polishing the lenses on that red vest of his.

"Maybe he's just standing in the doorway waiting for his orders..."

Everyone spun around, and saw of course, the same ol' Kinneas. Chewing
grass in mouth, rifle in one hand, he pushed himself
forward...moseying on over to the megaphone-totting Selphie, "Hey,
sweetcheeks, sorry I'm late. Got tied up back in the dorms..."

"Yeah, I'll bet..." Xu muttered sarcastically, standing up straight
once it was clear that Nida would be fine and no one had to fuss over
him.

"Hey, come on! I did! This whole garden life isn't for a..." He tipped
his hat and lowered his voice. "...dangerous sniper like me.
Naturally, all the womenfolk around these parts come flocking to my
side and I can barely make it out edgewise without being attacked by
the likes of the girls around here. They just can't resist my
charm..."

Selphie furrowed her brows, and then turned the megaphone in Irvine's
face, "Get to work, cowboy!"

"Agh! Geeze, all right, all right!" He made his way over to Zell.
"Looks like you need help."

"Yeah, BABY! These things are just getting messed up everywhere. And I
plugged them in and they still didn't work!"

"Hm..." Irvine freed the other from the deadly grips of those
Christmas lights, and then the two of them began to look over
everything.

"Hey, Zell...I thought you were supposed to be the 'mechanical genius'
around here. How come you can't figure it out?" Rinoa, who happened to
overhear, decided to question. "After all, you did figure out how to
get in the Deep Sea Research Center that time..."

"Yeah, but this isn't just real machines. These are Christmas lights,
baby! They never work right for anyone..."

"That's true..." Squall had to agree.

Quistis glanced over toward the group who had all assembled to figure
out the light mystery, and then just shook her head with a small
smile. It took that many people to solve a simple thing. They were
probably missing a light somewhere in the chain. It didn't take a
total intellect to realize that. Of course, Quistis was quite
smart...so perhaps it did. No matter, she went back to her grading,
repeating the same series of correcting until she got to the last
paper. A shadow came over the test, and she raised her brows, turning
slightly to see just who was behind her.

It seemed Irvine had broken away from the others long enough to come
over and greet the teacher. Well, it was probably more like he had
seen that she was alone for a while and decided to hit on her, but no
matter, he grinned and motioned upward to one hand that was dangling
above her head. The blonde raised those azure-tinted spheres to spot
the small leaf of mistletoe that was pinched between his fingers. A
faint look of disgust crossed her visage, but she quickly masked it
and looked toward Irvine with surprise.

"Don't look so shocked, Quisty. The mistletoe chose you...and you know
what that means..." He offered a great big wink.

She wasn't quite sure how to respond and still sound polite about it.
Opening her mouth to say the first thing that came to mind, she wound
up being cut off by a rather hideous zapping noise. That was followed
up by a rather annoyed Squall, yelling out, "Zell! You got ketchup on
the wire!"

At that point, the instructor gathered the papers and clutched them
close to herself as she stood, "Well, Irvine...I have to get these
things back to my classroom. It was nice running into you now, maybe
we'll do that whole mistletoe thing some other time?"

"You can count on it, sweet thing..." Irvine gave the classic Irvine
wink, before he of course headed off to Selphie.

Free from him for now but not wanting to take another chance, Quistis
rushed off into the hall, walking briskly toward the elevator. Much to
her misfortune however, she collided right into someone. Her balance
teetered, but thankfully was not lost. Though, the papers she was
clutching dropped to the floor, skidding across in various directions.
Quistis sighed heavily, and then spared a glance to see who she had
hit. And as always, bad luck forced it to be the last person she ever
wanted to bump into--Seifer Almasy.

"Going somewhere in a hurry, aren't ya, Instructor Trepe?" He sneered
toward her.

The two members of Seifer's posse weren't far behind, and they too
mimicked the sneer of their leader.

"Seifer, I don't have time for this. I need to get these papers to the
class room..." Quistis bent down and began to pick up a few.

"Oh? So, high and mighty instructors don't have time to listen to the
rules of the Disciplinary Committee? Or, is it that they just don't
have to. Maybe, the rules are bent for you and you're lowlife
friend...Squall. How many times did -he- run through the hall to get
where he was going?! How many times did -he- spend time with Rinoa
doing all that..." Seifer cringed. "Couple stuff...?"

"You aren't even on the Disciplinary Committee yet...they haven't
voted you on. They're still a bit suspicious after all..." The teacher
frowned, and then moved away to gather a few more of those tests.

"Yeah?! Well, they're gonna reinstate me!" He nodded
as-a-matter-of-factly.

"That's right, ya know!" Raijin made sure to get his two sense in.

"REINSTATE!" Fujin backed up the both of them.

Quistis blinked, "Yeah...it's possible. But, you had better be on your
best behavior if you want a good report. Everyone's watching you.
Squall especially..."

Seifer tightened up with anger at that last remark, but simply
'hmphed' and stepped out of the instructor's way. A simple head motion
forced his goons to do the same, and the woman was given access to the
elevator. After picking up her things, Quistis rather pleasantly
dismissed herself with a 'good evening' spared to all three and then
she disappeared through the sliding glass doors.

With narrowed eyes, the blond leader turned sharply to Fujin, "Fuj,
add Instructor Trepe to -the list-..."