Disclaimer - I do not own Final Fantasy X-2, any of it's characters or anything to do with Square-Enix. If I did, I don't think I'd need to still be in school.

Okay, so this is my first ever fanfic, so please be nice. Criticism is welcome but don't sound too harsh if you give me any. I wrote this chapter quite a while ago in about 1 and a half hours ,when I was trying to get to sleep and couldn't. I decided that I may as well try writing and I did and this chapter was the finished product. I'm quite pleased with it given the circumstances and I hope that you enjoy it. Jess X

Chapter 1

Hitting on the Wrong Girl

Paine attempted to stifle a yawn as she sat on the grass watching the guys practise their blitz passes.

She never really understood what was so great about blitzball; how men could turn on a sphere broadcaster and within a minute they'd have their eyes glued to the screen, instantly captivated.

The guys practised passing every day and asked her if she wanted to join, but every time she turned them down and chose to sit on the grass. She'd sat on the same patch for nearly three years now and she was surprised that insect life still lived within it. She was certain she'd crushed them all to death with her behind.

Another thing Paine didn't get was why they practised in the quad. Blitz was a water sport, wasn't it? So wouldn't it make more sense to practise whilst actually in water? She sighed and lay down, glad that it was midday and that there was no dew left to dampen her shirt.

Silently, she cursed herself for not bringing her portable music sphere player so she settled on watching the clouds float past in the cerulean sky. She decided that blitzball was just another thing that separated males from females. Other things included logic (women had more); common sense (ditto); shopping; maturity; music tastes; obsessions with sex and how minds worked.

Though she'd never admit it, Paine was extremely glad to have the XX genetic code or chromosome or whatever it was their teacher had been going on about last Biology lesson. Sure, she never wore dresses or skirts, she detested anything pink or fluffy and often pretended to gag during rom-coms, but that didn't stop her from being a girl at heart.

And it was much better than being a boy who, as she liked to point out, a lot of the time thought with their dicks.

She sighed again and started humming to herself, pondering over unimportant things like if that cloud looked more like a moogle without the pom-pom thing or a seriously spasticated catuar, and whether or not Clasko, her Biology lab partner, was gay or not.

Paine sat up when she caught shot of the familiar noise in the distance. She glanced at her watch. 12.50pm, right on time.

Only a few first years and newbies were looking uncomfortable, fearing that the increasingly loud sound was an impending thunderstorm and that the shrieking was because someone had released the bite bugs from the science labs again.

She chuckled to herself. They'd find out what it was soon enough.

She raised her hand and signalled to the guys who then got into position. Gippal was in charge of the ammo a.k.a the blitzball as usual. He looked hungry. Now all they had to do was wait for their prey.

-------------------------

Rikku raced down the school corridors at high speed, her braids swinging wildly and her scarf trailing behind her. Her feet pounded against the linoleum floor tiles and her arms were out in front, ready to shove open doors or push people out of the way.

She hated it when people just stood there; they had no excuse. She was yelling 'Outta my way' and 'Move' at her second loudest volume and when she ran she sounded like a stampede of shoopufs. And if they were deaf, well…, it's not like they couldn't see her. Dressed in lime green leggings, an orange mini skirt, canary tank top, cream arm warmers and a red/yellow scarf to finish it off, she wasn't exactly inconspicuous.

She crashed through the doors leading out of the main building, dodged through the groups of people on the pathway and narrowly avoided colliding with Datto (which would have been bad seeing as he always stank of patchouli oil).

Rikku was feeling out of breath from running and shrieking but she didn't care. She had the most amazing news to tell Yunie and nothing was going to stop her, except maybe from collapsing from a heart attack.

She finally slowed down as she reached the quad and spotted her cousin sitting over the other side with her friend Lulu. She waved and began to head over, running, but at a much slower pace than before.

She didn't notice that the ribbon ties of her platform wedge sandals were about to trail loose, or the three boys hidden in the bushes who were watching her every move.

-----------------------------------

"Target spotted," whispered Baralai to his fellow comrades whilst pointing to the person in question.

"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious 'Lai. Despite the fact that I wear an eye patch I'm not completely blind y'know."

Nooj sniggered quietly to himself, recalling the numerous times that Gippal had either:

A - walked into something e.g. lampposts, doors, girls, etc.

B - asked where the hell he was when a street sign or 'Welcome to someplaceinSpira' sign was right next to him.

C - asked how a word was spelt when it was written on the board.

D - almost got run-over because he didn't see the hover coming.

Gippal glared at his friend before returning his gaze to the target. She was running across to where her cousin was sat with her friend, but at a very slow pace. She was obviously worn out because of something she'd been doing previously. He tightened his grip on the blitzball. Today he would not miss.

"'Lai, you tell me when to throw the ball and Nooj, um …… just stand there looking important so nobody suspects anything, 'kay."

"Well, would you like to throw the ball with optimum height, speed, accuracy or when there's less wind or when there's more than a -"

"Just yell, now, when I should throw the ball. It's that simple, so don't try to overcomplicate things."

Baralai sighed. No matter what he did it was always too complex for Gippal's liking. The way he spoke, his Spiran Literature essays that Gippal often copied from, even the way he dressed. All of it wasn't simple enough for Gippal to understand. He told himself it was because Gippal was simple minded, nothing was wrong with him, just his friend.

He looked across the quad to find their target. She was halfway to reaching her destination. Not long to go now.

-----------------------------------

Paine had been watching the guys since she signalled to them. She'd seen Baralai point at the girl, seen Gippal's face as he made some remark and seen Nooj apparently having some private joke with himself.

Now all she could she was Nooj standing tall, chest puffed out, trying to look normal and failing miserably whilst standing besides two bushes that occasionally shook. The bush on her right had a growth of blonde spikes sticking up near the top and the one on the left had a large white patch. They wouldn't be working on any covert operations for the Spiran Intelligence Agency anytime soon then.

Their target was still running, but at an increasingly slow pace. She must be tired from the journey through the corridors. Something was wrong though.

Paine looked at the girl's feet and saw that the ribbon ties of her shoes were undone. One step on them and the girl would trip, making their plan a waste of time. She had to tell the guys.

There wasn't enough time to reach them so she inhaled deeply.

'Just remember Paine, you don't care what people think about you. You don't care,' she told herself.

Then she jumped up, began waving her arms frantically and shouting 'No' as loud as she could.

--

Gippal squinted with his one eye. Just what the heck was Paine doing? Didn't she care that everyone was staring at her?

"What on Spira is Paine trying to say?" he asked Baralai, who was still crouched next to him.

"Now!" he bellowed in reply.

"What? And there's no need to yell,"

"Now! Throw the ball now!"

The two of them and Nooj watched the blitzball as it soared through the air, reaching its highest point almost dead centre in the middle of the quad. It rapidly began its descent but that was when it all went wrong.

Rikku stepped on one of her loose ribbon ties, stumbled, tripped and eventually fell to the ground with an anguished cry of 'Owie!'

The boys watched the ball sail right past their target and hit Paine in the face with such a force that she fell back onto the grass with a thud.

Now that wasn't supposed to happen.

--

She twitched all parts of her face to make sure it was all still intact. Yes, everything was fine apart from her left eye that was rather sore. No doubt Gippal had given her a black eye.

Slowly she stood up, slightly winded from being knocked backwards. Her gaze immediately fixed on Nooj, Baralai and Gippal. All three of them were giving her very meek smiles.

She smiled back but not meekly. This was a smile of both malice and happiness because despite what had happened, Paine was happy. She was going to get to play Hurtime which, after all, was her favourite game.

----------------------------

"Um guys. I think we're pretty much dead."

"Well you don't say. Why is it that whenever you're in charge, Paine always ends up pissed off with us, hmm?" enquired Nooj.

Baralai didn't say anything. He was too busy watching the girl who was about to kill him stride nearer towards them, a smile still present on her face.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered," said Gippal, trying to concoct an excuse so he could leave. "I have some library books that need to be back in today. I'll just go get them out of my locker and return them."

And with that, Gippal ran off, leaving two to face the wrath of Paine.

Nooj started pacing backwards, hoping that Baralai didn't hear him.

Unfortunately, he was standing on a patch of gravel so Baralai heard the crunching sound and turned to face him with a questioning look.

"Um, I, er, I was….."

Why was it that he could never think of excuses when they were urgently needed?

"I think I'll go and make out with Leblanc," Nooj announced before following the same path as Gippal.

Baralai was left standing besides the bushes with no choice but to face Paine alone. She was only ten steps away now and was a faster runner than him, so there was no point trying to flee.

He would have to face it like a man.

"Hello Baralai," said Paine when she reached him.

"Um, hi."

Why did his voice suddenly sound so high pitched?

"Would you like to play a game with me?"

He gulped. "S-sure. What's it called?"

"Oh I'm sure you're very familiar with it." She leant closer to whisper in his ear.

"It's called Hurtime."

-----------------

AN - I'm not quite sure when I'll update again as I'm quite busy at the moment but reviews are just the thing that I need to get me motivated. Thanks for reading.