Summary: Rinoa Heartly is your average high school senior. Except for one thing. She doesn't know where she's going in life. She's given up on everything; academics, friends, talents, interests, love, you name it. Why? Simply because, nothing ever goes her way. The one person she's been in love with for her entire high school life, is a jerk who couldn't give a crap about anyone, her teacher's hate her, and her family is being torn apart. That's when Squall Leonheart walked into her life. Could it really be any worse?

- Defiance of the Heart -
- Chapter 1 -

Fire. Fuel. Ambition. I hated it when they said it. Like on a cold windy day, their words swept through me like that chilling breeze, going right through whatever protective barriers I held up against them. It cut through me like a thousand knives, cutting me…right to my very bones. I had always felt that way. The stranger. Standing alone. Outside on that cold windy day, I would stare at others. Always looking in. Always, on the outside. The voice at the front of the room had long begun to bore me. I had drifted far from it long ago. Drifted, just as I drifted from everything else in life. My studies, my ambitions, my so-called talents, my love interests. Nothing really seemed to matter anymore. And why would it? It was all just a bad dream, I would sometimes think. But if this was a dream…then what was reality? Maybe there was no reality. Just the endless cycle of happiness, breakdown, and tragedy. Then there was that rebounding stage that lead you back to happiness again. God I hated it.

"Miss Heartly, care to share your thoughts with the rest of the class?"

My head snapped upwards towards the direction of the irritated voice. Who else but my calculus professor. His thick black eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes small and glaring towards me, in my direction. He was tapping his foot impatiently, as if expecting a reply. When I didn't answer, he sighed.

"That was not a rhetorical question, Miss Heartly, it does require a response."

I gulped, my pupils dilating. What now?

"I … I uhh…" I began intelligently.

"Your mental absence never ceases to amaze me Miss Heartly. You know, if you plan on coming to class in flesh, you might as well bring your smarts as well. Or just don't come at all."

His voice sounded sterner than usual. It caused my heart to speed up in slight fear, my cheeks stinging red as my ears picked up soft snickering from directions all around. I wanted to look. I wanted to see who it was. But I would not dare. It would only be more humiliating.

"I don't think she comes with any smarts at all, sir," an amused voice slurred out from the back. I couldn't help but turn. I couldn't help but look. The voice had belonged of course to none other than Seifer Almasy himself. My eyes caught his for a moment, his turquoise clashing with my deep ocean blue. There was something cruel in those eyes. Something cold, hostile, and unwelcoming, yet something fearless, defiant and bold all at once. He always looked down on people. I hated it. But I loved him. I always have. Don't ask me why. He isn't a very liked character. But for some reason, I had always thought him to be different. We used to get along I suppose. But not anymore. Who would have thought I could still care about someone who constantly humiliated me. As if a sudden flood of emotions hit me, I stood up quickly lowering my head allowing the raven locks to cover my eyes so that the tears I shed would not be seen. Picking up my books I stalked out of the room quietly, ignoring the whispers and quiet laughs that continued to haunt my ears from all around me.

Once outside, a good distance from the dreaded classroom, I dropped my books. They fell with a loud thud, spilling over the hallway floor. My head was still low, my teary, sad eyes still shielded by my hair. Sighing, I slid down the wall I was leaning against. Bringing my knees up to my chin I whimpered softly, hugging myself. I could subconsciously hear the soft padding of feet coming towards me. I ignored it. I didn't want to look up or acknowledge their presence. I hoped they just didn't see me. Why should they? People usually didn't see me anyways. The padding stopped.

"Um..excuse me but, are you ok?" a high pitched, almost perky sounding voice asked.

I opened my eyes and slowly looked up. It took my eyes some time to adjust after all those worthless tears I had cried out. A girl stood in front of me. She was about 5'3, extremely scrawny I might add. However she seemed to hold so much life in that tiny little structure of hers. Her big eyes were a bright vibrant green, her hair a chestnut brown, reaching down to her shoulders. It seemed to stick outwards slightly adding to her vibrancy. Her frown of concern was quickly replaced with a warm smile as she saw I had responded.

"I'm fine." I said through a shaky voice. I didn't know when it had gotten so weak.

"You sure?" she inquired again, a look of worry crossing her face once more. "Ya look like ya had an encounter with that jerk Seifer or sumtin."

I couldn't help but feel my heart sink. Everyone said that. I almost felt angry. 'He's not a jerk!' I wanted to yell. But what did I have to back those words up. What was I even thinking? Look at me. Sitting here, crying over something that jerk did say…

"I'm Selphie!" the girl exclaimed, holding her hand out in introduction.

"Rinoa," I croaked, taking the petite girl's hand as she hauled me to my feet.

She frowned once again. "Why don't I see you around? I know like everyone in this school, but I never see you."

I hated it when people said that. The reason they never saw me was because I was always invisible to everyone. Or just because I was in places where you usually wouldn't see people anyways. Like on the school roof, skipping class, gazing at the sky. Sometimes I'd lie there, staring at the clouds, hoping some strange airship would swoop down and just take me away somewhere where I didn't know anyone. That's what I really needed. To go somewhere where no one knew me.

"I..don't really go to class as much as I should I guess," I replied hesitantly, eyeing the girl known as Selphie carefully for some kind of negative reaction,

She simply blinked.

"Well, Rinoa, you certainly don't look like the type to skip class. But hey whatever, your decision." She chirped the last sentence, smiling brightly again. "Sooo wanna tell me what happened?!"

"No."

"Aww…" she sulked for a moment. It was evident she didn't like the fact that I didn't trust her.

"You're not used to having people not tell you things are you?" I inquired.

Selphie eyed me curiously. "Not really. I mean, people usually trust me ya know. I like to help people, and that's why people tell me they troubles, ya know?"

"I see."

"Say, you wanna go for lunch with me? I'm starving and it's almost one o'clock anyways."

I paused for a moment. Could I really trust this girl? But then again, did I really have reason not to? She seemed friendly and helpful enough. Not only that, it was only lunch. It's not like she could pull some nasty joke on me in such a short amount of time. Right? Of course. What am I thinking? Not everyone on this planet is like everyone I know…

We made our way out of the building and down the street. The streets were bustling with life. Cars zoomed up and down the streets none stop. People yelled at each other out of anger, but also out of greeting. I gazed across the street as a girl no older than myself waved frantically at a group of teens a few metres down the street. They quickly joined together exchanging hugs and smiles. I wish I had someone like that.

I was quickly shaken out of my thoughts as Selphie made a sharp right turn into the local Macdonald's. The girl was practically skipping as we walked up to the ordering counter.

"Ummmmmm, I'll have a happy meal, with a diet coke, no ice pleeeease. Annnnnd I'll have a smarty McFlurry with extra caramel sauce!!" the short brunette chirped at the scruffy looking guy at the counter who was pressing the buttons on his ordering machine frantically, attempting to keep up with the speed of Selphie's voice.

"I'll just have a cheeseburger and sprite please." I ordered politely.

After receiving the orders we slowly made our way around the restaurant, looking for a clear table. Unfortunately all the students tended to swarm the fast food places during lunch making it impossible to find an empty seat if you were more than two minutes late.

"Hey! Selph! Haul your ass over here before you get trampled by the nerd club!"

I spun around to the sound of the voice. To the left, a boy with blonde hair, jelled forward waved at us. He had a goofy looking grin on his face, a black tattoo running down his left cheek. He was definitely a skater punk of some sort. I think I had seen him before, in history. He had a good sense of humour. Always made jokes about the teachers. I think his name was…

"Zell!!! Heyyy what are you doing here I thought you were at the skate park!!" Selphie chirped as she dragged me over to the table where the blonde known as Zell was sitting. There was someone sitting with him. His light brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, and he wore a cowboy style hat, covering his facial features.

"Well I was gonna, until Irvine here convinced me it would be a bad idea, considering we got chased out by the cops last time." The blonde replied still grinning. Finally noticing me, he turned eyeing my curiously. "Friend of yours?" he asked, his grin shrinking ever so slightly.

"Yeaaah this is Rinoa. Rinoa, these are my buddies, Zell, and Irvine."

Zell gave a goofy wave, while Irvine looked up for a moment revealing attractive facial features, before smirking, and tipping his hat at me.

"Hey don't mind this guy, he's just a weirdo," the boy known as Zell laughed, hitting Irvine playfully on the shoulder.

"Hey hey hey, come now, I ain't the one skating in graveyards," Irvine replied defensively, earning a grumble from Zell.

A quiet beeping interrupted my thoughts as I looked down at my wristwatch. It read 1:45. Lunch was over.

"Hey, it's been great talking to you guys but uhh, I should run now I don't want to be late for class…" I said as I backed away slowly trying to get myself out. It's not that I didn't want friends. I really did. It's just that, this was all just too much for me to handle, and I needed out. Fast.

"Whaaat don't tell me you're THAT excited to run off and LEARN, are you?!" the blonde skater exclaimed in awe.

I paused momentarily, lowering my head and staring at the ground in embarrassment. "Well see…" I began, trying to think up the least humiliating sentence. "I..I have art. And I really like art. It's…probably one of the only things I enjoy." I mumbled to the blue and white tiles.

There seemed to be a moment of silence when all time stopped.

"Art eh? You must be talented to love it so much to actually want to go to class."

Blinking, I looked up to meet Irvine's honey coloured eyes. They were warm and considerate.

"Umm, yes…" I replied stupidly. "So I'll…see you around then?" I asked unsurely looking from Irvine, to Selphie, to Zell.

Selphie grinned from eye to eye. "You bet!"

8888888

I sighed as I rapidly walked out of the restaurant. That wasn't so bad, I thought to myself. They seemed nice enough. Now, if only I could get to that stupid art class on time, things would be just fine.

I could hear Mrs. Talbot, my art teacher, giving out instructions to the class. Wait, those weren't instructions. Those were introductions. A new student must have transferred or something. Oh perfect timing Rinoa. I scowled at myself for having such impeccable timing. Now I'd have to walk into the room in the middle of a student introduction. Oh well, been through worse.

Turning the doorknob, I slowly opened the door. It squeaked slightly, encouraging everyone in the room to turn and look at the intruder. Me.

"Sorry I'm late Mrs. Talbot."

The elderly woman sighed, "That's alright dear, just don't let it happen again. I'm sorry Squall, please continue."

Squall? I turned to the figure known as 'Squall.' As suspected he was new in this class. I had seen him around in the halls. Actually, I think he was in my calculus class. Oh dear Lord. That means he saw my little scene today. I audibly gulped. He seemed irritated by my intrusion. In fact, he seemed easily irritable all together. His icy blue eyes pierced through me with a dangerous glare. Despite the deadly look on his face, he was relatively attractive, I suppose. He had dark brown hair, relatively short, however a piece of it hung to his right cheek. His skin was pale, and porcelain like, somewhat like my own, only mine tended to turn red from embarrassment a lot more.

I felt uncomfortable under his glare. It reminded me of Seifer's glare, only this one wasn't exactly malicious like Seifer's. It was just…annoyed. I slowly turned to make my way to my seat, not before crashing into a stool, hitting my knee, and knocking over the watercolours. The class erupted in laughter, leaving me hopping in pain. I winced as I hopped over to my usual seat at the empty table. I was always the only one there.

Mrs Talbot shook her head, a slight smile evident on her old thin lips.

"Squall, have a seat over there at Rinoa's table. She's always all by herself anyways."

I could feel my face heat up slightly. The new student, Squall looked at me indifferently. The irritation somewhat left his face. He strode over to me silently, sitting down on the stool next to mine. I turned my head to examine him. His eyes were closed, and his arms crossed. He almost seemed to be concentrating or something. As if feeling my eyes on him, his own snapped open, immediately finding their way to me.

"You want something?" he asked coldly.

Gulping once again, I shook my head. This guy seemed more unapproachable than my calculus teacher, and I really didn't want to get on his bad side. He glared momentarily, before turning away again, listening to the instructions given by Mrs. Talbot. We were to draw a scenery of our choice. Something we remembered from out childhood. Something that represented freedom. It took me a while to think of this scenery. There really was no place in the world that I felt free in. I thought for a moment. Well, there was that one place. It was an old abandoned house, where no one lived. I think it used to be an orphanage. It closed down long ago though. I used to go there whenever my parents would fight. I couldn't stand their yelling and screaming, it just completely made me go insane. So whenever I was feeling down about it, I'd run away, and I'd run to that orphanage. Maybe because it was a place where children were, where there were no adults to really control them, or hurt them. To me, that lack of control was freedom.

Before long class had ended, and we were to hand in our drawings. Mrs Talbot eyed me warily as she looked at mine. Even I had to admit, it was rather depressing for a place that was supposed to represent freedom.

The day was now over, and somehow I had managed to get through it alive and in one piece. I walked rather quickly. I couldn't wait to get out of this place. I stared at the dark pavement as always, ignoring the shouts of the other students around me. However, before I could reach the street, I was bumped rather hard from the side, sending me crashing to the ground. I winced.

"What the..?" I looked up to see a flash of blonde hair. "Seifer?"

Yes, it was Seifer, and he did not seemed too pleased. A trickle of blood fell from his lips. He seemed to have been hit quite harshly by someone. My eyes followed Seifer's cold glare to the figure standing a few metres away. Squall. He also didn't appear very thrilled. Before long, Seifer had already attacked Squall, obviously wanting to get back at him for the earlier hit. The two exchanged numerous blows, but Squall seemed to be a superior fighter, obviously more skilled. One final punch sent Seifer cascading to the ground, blood running out his nose. By now a huge crowd had gathered, watching the fight, and cheering on. Squall cautiously walked over to the blonde, who was attempting to stand. Suddenly out of absolutely nowhere, Seifer spun around, lashing out at his unsuspecting opponent, something sharp and metallic in his left hand. With one slash, Squalls head snapped to the other direction, blood flying from his face.

I gasped. It seemed from here that he had been slashed dead. But that was not the case. A dark red line was now visible across Squall's left eye.

That was definitely going to leave a mark.

A/N: GAHA!!! First chapter complete!! Tell me what you think!!