"Hurry up Tidus! You're going to be late for practice again!" shouted a young, red-headed man. Before Tidus could even turn from the inside of his locker the owner of the voice had vanished through the doorway to the pool.
"I'll be right there Wakka..." Tidus called after the fleeting voice; turning back to his locker making sure to conceal some papers before slamming the door and running to join Blitzball practice. Walking into the changing room and quickly getting changed Tidus proceeded to the dive point of the sphere pool, looking down to see his father and coach.
"Late as usual. It's about time you joined us blondey!" Jecht shouted from the water below. The water rippled slowly below him. He watched as his teammates laughed and joked around with each other, wishing he still felt the same rush when playing the game.
Stepping out of a classroom a young brunette struggled to manoeuvre her way through the swarming teenagers crowding the hallways of the enormous school. Making her way through down the hallway she located her locker and proceeded to open it and arrange her things for her next class. Her mind wandered as she slowly took the books required to move on with her day, thinking how she wished it was this easier to move on with others things in life. A loud shout disturbed her thoughts.
"Yunie!" a petite blonde girl called. Yuna glanced at the girl's attire. The blondes revealing clothes never ceased to amaze her.
"Oh hey Rikku," she answered giving her a hug. "I see you are leaving nothing to the imagination, as usual." Looking the blonde up and down, she simply smirked and continued sorting out her locker.
"Hey, when you've got a rack like this, it's worth showing it off!" Rikku explained placing her hands on her hips, pouting. Her outfit only contained a mini skirt, what could only be described as a bikini top and a scarf. "Anyway, have you seen Lulu this morning? I think we all have gym next." Grabbing her gym kit from her locker Yuna finally closed it saying,
"Yeah, I saw her just before first period; she said she would meet us there as her last class is so close to the changing rooms."
"Oh Yunie I'm so excited! I've missed school so much, This summer sucked, with you constantly with Seymour's, Lulu spending it back in Besaid and the weather here was just crap!" Rikku exclaimed, jumping in front of Yuna. Yuna rolled her eyes, thinking of how she didn't missed Rikku's hyperactive behaviour, however thinking back to her summer anything seemed better than the reality. Yuna began walking down the hall in the direction of the changing rooms, which was now being flooded by high school girls. "Oh there's Lulu, we better get going." Yuna said while looking over to the doors at a slender and pale young woman with long raven hair. Lulu looked up from her phone to greet her friends. "Hey Yuna, Rikku how you finding being back at school?"
The blonde smiled widely and hugged Lulu,
"I love it! I've missed being around you two so much! Never leave me over summer again!" Rikku shouted squeezing Lulu tightly.
"Okay, okay, let go of me, I can't breathe." Lulu managed to get out while in Rikku's grasp. "We better get changed or we are going to be late." Lulu finished before escaping Rikku. The three girls walked through the changing room doors, while Yuna thought to herself of how she wished this would be a brand new chance to change.
Blitzball practice continued in the sphere pool. Wakka and Tidus both looked up at the clock, only fifteen minutes left. Jecht was now watching his team practice from one of the seats that lay outside of the huge sphere of water in front of him. His eyes never leaving is blonde headed son for long. Jecht had been the coach of the Zanarkand Abes and the Zanarkand High teams since he had retired five years earlier. It was the first day of the new school year and the first real practice for the team since the beginning of summer. Jecht remembered the final just before summer vacation. He remembered the incident that left Tidus with a badly injured shoulder throughout summer. Jecht could see how Tidus was struggling to keep up with the training exercises that he did with such ease before. He was worried, but would never let him know.
"Tidus! Pay attention boy!" he shouted. Tidus scowled at Jecht's yelling. He was not going to let a little injury affect his performance. Tidus rose into the air above the pool, focusing on the ball just above him. When the ball was at the right level he struck it hard with his foot, shooting it straight into the water below. Jecht watched the ball hurdle towards the goal, seeing it fly straight past it. "Come on BOY! Where's your focus?" Jecht yelled, hoping to motivate, yet it would only infuriate his son. Tidus hit the water, resurfacing he swam over to his teammates, feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder, which he chose to ignore. Tidus would not let this injury ruin his career.
"Okay practice is over, go and get changed!" Jecht shouted to the team. He knew he had a lot to do to get some of these players in shape if he was going be scouting new players for the Abes. Tidus was the last to leave the pool to be met by his father. Tidus walked up to Jecht, not knowing what to expect, he knew he could not let this happen again. "Ti, I want to talk to you about your performance today. What happened out there?"
"Well, I don't know..." Tidus started before being abruptly cut off by the dark haired man in front of him.
"I saw what happened; you completely lost your focus. Is it your shoulder? If it is you need to get some more physiotherapy on it boy. How are you going to make it into the Abes in four months if you are letting this injury get worse! You know you are not guaranteed a spot just because you are my son! You have to work hard for it!"
Tidus shook with anger from his father's words but also from his body not being able to handle one practice.
"Get to your next class, we'll talk later at home." His father said, not knowing what to say or do at the time.
Tidus simply walked over to the changing rooms wondering how he was going to manage this.
Yuna packed up her gym kit and closed her locker. As the door shut she was startled to see Rikku standing right behind it.
"Shit! You scared me!" the young brunette gasped, clutching at her chest. Rikku simply chuckled,
"Sorry I didn't mean to. Just wanted to ask if you wanted to come shopping with me straight after school? There's this party tomorrow night which I think we should go to. We've got to celebrate becoming seniors!"
'Seymour is going to love this' Yuna thought, but she couldn't say no to the eyes Rikku was giving her; she knew exactly what to do to get her own way.
"Fine, I'll have to ask Seymour if he wants to come, I'll see you later, got to use the toilet before next class," Yuna answered, turning and walking to the restrooms.
"Alright I'll meet you for lunch after class!" Rikku shouted after her.
Tidus came running out of the changing rooms, knowing her was going to be late for his next class.
"Ti heads up!" He heard Wakka shout from behind him. As he turned the blonde saw a Blitzball flying towards his head. Running backwards in an attempt to catch it, Tidus soon found himself in a mess on the corridor floor with someone else. Wakka saw the entire clash, wincing before shouting "My bad, sorry guys!" then quickly running off. Tidus turned to his side to see a familiar brown haired girl that he had crushed.
"Shit, sorry Yuna. Sorry I didn't mean to land on you. Shit." The blonde panicked helping her to her feet. "Are you alright?" His worry grew as he noticed a deep purple bruise on the young girls shoulder. "Oh my god is your shoulder alright? That's a pretty bad bruise." She could hear the concern in his voice. Noticing how her top had revealed the horrible mark on her shoulder Yuna quickly re-adjusted her top to cover it.
"Yeah, I'm fine Tidus, don't worry it's nothing. Just try not to kill next time we meet in the corridor." Yuna said trying to sway the conversation away from what he had just seen. He couldn't help but smile at her, as she always had this affect on him. Helping her pick up her belonging off the floor, Tidus decided to carry on the conversation. "So how was your summer? I didn't see you around Zanarkand much." He asked while walking with her down the corridor.
"Summer was okay, ended up spending most of it with Seymour and working on my white magic lessons," she explained walking alongside the blitzer, who could not help but feel disappointed by what she said however he did not dwell on it. "How was your summer? I'm sure you had an exciting one with all the Blitzball parties I heard about." Yuna continued, feeling surprised by how much she was enjoying this little chat. They had known each other for years, had mutual friends but had never really spent any time alone together. Tidus couldn't help but laugh at what Yuna had said.
"My summer was good thanks. You know you shouldn't believe everything you hear about these parties. Anyway I've seen you at a few, and you can't say much, you know how to drink young lady." Yuna blushed at what Tidus said, remembering her behaviour at the last party she had been able to attend unescorted by Seymour. "Thank you reminding me of that Tidus, anyway I'm going to have to leave you now," Yuna said stopping at the door of the girl's bathroom. "I'll see you around," she finished turning to head into the bathroom.
"Yeah sure, I'll see you later Yuna," the young blonde said waving her off, noticing the bruise on the back of her shoulder again, he couldn't help but worry as she disappeared into toilets.
Yuna smiled to herself as she came out of the toilet cubicle, as that was the first time in months that she had had a decent conversation with a male member of the species; but she could not help but feel guilty about it. Looking around the bathroom to make sure she was alone, the young girl slowly lowered the strap of her top to reveal the bruise that the clumsy blitzer had noticed. As she lightly touched it she could not help but wince at the pain she felt. The young girl closed her eyes and focused a bright in her hand, before pressing it into the bruise. As the light was absorbed into her skin, Yuna sighed in relief, however she noticed the colour of the bruise did not fade much. Defeated the young mage gave up and put on her jacket to be sure that there were no other mishaps today. Staring at herself in the mirror, Yuna wondered how she had gotten herself into this mess.
The next class came and went quickly. Yuna sat in her seat in a daze as Lulu and Rikku chatted away, waiting for the bell to signal lunch. The two girls turned to Yuna wondering what could be on her mind as she was not as chatty as she usually was.
"Yunie we are going to meet by Lulu's car after school to head into the city centre, is that cool with you?" The young blonde asked. However she did not get a reply, Yuna continued to stare out of the window. "Hey! Are you listening to me? Yunie, where's your head?" The annoyed Al-Bhed shouted.
A startled Yuna snapped back to reality. "Sorry, I'm just not back into the school, concentrating state of mind, you know? Sorry what did you say?" Rikku laughed shaking her head.
"We are going to meet by Lulu's car after school to head into the city to go shopping for tomorrow. Is that cool with you?" she repeated herself. Yuna nodded, getting her phone out of her bag.
"Yeah that should be fine, I just need to ask Seymour, as he is meant to be picking me up after school," she explained while typing into her phone. Rikku rolled her eyes and looked back at Lulu to be met by the same look. "I'm sure the dictator won't be too upset he doesn't get to drop you home," the blonde said with a giggle. Lulu stayed quiet, knowing Seymour a bit better than the naive blonde. The bell finally rang, prompting the majority of the students in the class, including Rikku, to run out in a stampede of freedom. Lulu stayed staring at Yuna, waiting for her close friend to face her. Yuna sighed quietly to herself as she locked her phone, knowing the horrible reply she would surely receive from her 'lovely' boyfriend. Plastering a smile on her face, the brunette gathered her things together getting ready to leave before she noticed Lulu staring at her.
"We should get some lunch..." Yuna said to her friend, noticing Lulu's eyes hadn't left her. Exhaling, Yuna simply asked, "What?"
"You shouldn't listen to Rikku and her shit jokes, if you can even call them jokes. Are you and Seymour alright? You just seem a bit down anytime he is mentioned," Lulu asked with genuine concern in her crimson eyes. Yuna smiled, touched by her friend's concern; however, she believed she could handle her problems on her own and lied, "Everything is fine between us. He's just a bit stressed, you know, starting his final year of university and all." Lulu nodded, joining Yuna in leaving the classroom.
"Yunie, Lulu, over here! You'll never guess who is here!" screamed the blonde Al-Bhed over the hustle and bustle of the school's canteen. Yuna scanned the room after hearing the unmistakable scream of Rikku. Noticing the scandalously clad blonde over the other side of the room, Lulu and Rikku proceeded to cross the crowded room. Yuna couldn't help but wonder if she wasn't related to Rikku would she be friends with her, as she saw her cousin waving her arms wildly even though she knew they had seen her. She knew thoughts were not true, Yuna did love her cousin, just couldn't quite understand where she got all her energy from. Arriving at their destination, the two girls looked around seeing no one out of the ordinary.
"So who is here Rik? I can't see anyone I wouldn't normally." Rikku stepped aside to reveal a short, petite girl with long, lavish brown hair. "Oh my god, what are you doing here? I thought you were living in Bevelle Lenne!" Yuna screamed, hugging the girl stood in front of her.
"I've transferred to Zanarkand with Shuyin, how are you? It's been so long." Lenne managed to get out while Yuna hugged her.
"I'm good thank you; it's so good to see you. How come you're transferring here?" Yuna asked letting the petite girl go. Sitting down at a table Lenne explained,
"Well Shuyin is hoping to get a scholarship to Zanarkand University through Blitzball, but the Bevelle team is just awful. That city has never really embraced the sport, being the religious capital of Spira. But yeah, Shuyin's father accepted a new job here, and has kindly let me live with the family for the school year, so Zanarkand it is. Shuyin is at a try-out now for the school team, I hope he gets it." Yuna could not help but smile, it was the second best part of her day so far, second to her encounter with a certain blonde headed blitzer earlier, and she could not help but think back to it every now and then. The four girls spent the rest of the lunch break catching up, discussing how some school mates had changed in the transition to senior. Lenne couldn't help but look around everywhere. Her eyes could not take in the scale of the massive school she had transferred to, she felt slightly overwhelmed by all the change, but knowing she had friends where did take off some of the weight of all the change. "So, how good is the Blitz Team here?" Is it university scholarship worthy?" Lenne asked, slightly worried about Shuyin's chances. "Rikku, jumped to answer the question.
"The team is the best in Spira. Compared to the Bevelle Guardians they are in a whole other league. No offence but the Bevelle team is a disgrace to the sport!" Rikku explained, waiting for Lenne's reaction. Lenne looked a bit nervous after hearing Rikku's description of the Abes. Yuna noticed this, assuming she was worrying about how Shuyin would perform at the try-outs.
"Lenne, is Shuyin a good player? Like not just talented, like is he good working with a team? I've never actually seen him play Blitz. As the Abes are all quite close as a team, which is why I think they play and connect so well together," Yuna asked in an attempt to calm her friend's nerves. Lenne sighed before answering,
"I am slightly relieved. Shu is a very talented player, and I'm not just saying that because he is my boyfriend. In Bevelle High he pretty much had to coach the team, because like Rikku said, Bevelle blitz players suck. I'm sure he'll be fine; I just hope he can play okay with team mates that are as good, if not better than him. He should be fine, as you know he's not arrogant or anything." Yuna smiled at her friend saying,
"He should be fine, stop worrying so much." Turning she noticed the Blitzball entering the canteen, pointing them out to Lenne, who immediately ran over to Shuyin, kissing him in front of the entire team which set the rest of the team to start jeering at the couple.
"Alright guys, no need to get jealous," Shuyin shouted at the team of boys he walked in with. The tall, blonde turned back to the beautiful girl in his arms. Lenne looked back at him waiting for him to tell him the good or bad news. "So, I hope you like it here. I made the team, well for now; got to get practicing to get up to level these guys play at." Lenne squealed with excitement from hearing the news.
"Oh I'm so happy for you!" she said hugging him tightly. Wakka and Tidus walked over to the new member of their team, congratulating him. Tidus held out his hand to Shuyin,
"Hey, you did well out there, I'm going to have to watch my spot in the team with you around," Tidus joked. Tidus did believe this new addition to the team would help them greatly; however he did feel slightly worried that his position on the team would soon be taken, as his talent seemed to be degrading.
"I don't think that will be happening, I've heard about your abilities in the sphere pool, I've got a lot to learn from all of you," Shuyin replied shaking Tidus' hand.
"I think you'll get along with us all fine. There's a party tomorrow night, kind of celebrating becoming seniors, you should both come, get to bonding with the team, I'll text you the details later. I'm going to grab some food, bloody starving now." Tidus said before jogging off. The broad red-headed blitzer lightly slapped Shuyin on the back saying, "I couldn't agree with Ti more. You should come tomorrow; we'll start with drinks at mine." Wakka turned to Lenne holding out his hand, shaking her small one. "Sorry, what is your name?"
"Hi, I'm Lenne; you've probably guessed I'm Shuyin's girlfriend. You're from Besaid right?" Lenne asked.
"Originally yeah, moved here about eight years ago now, never been able to shake the accent, luckily it drives Lu wild. Will you be coming to the party tomorrow? The girls are coming over to mine at about half seven if ya want to come over with them as you know each other." Wakka explained trying to tempt the couple.
"I'm sure Lulu will appreciate you telling me that. We'll definitely be there. There is no better way to get to know each other as getting blind drunk together," Lenne replied laughing. Wakka couldn't help but laugh himself. "Shuyin, you've got a definite keeper here. I'll see you around got to go and see the missus." The red-headed blitzer said before running towards Lulu's table.
Last lesson was coming to a finish. The girls had found themselves in the same class as the majority of the Blitzball team, which Lenne was grateful for, as she was still finding her feet in this massive school. Yuna found herself doodling on her notepad thinking about the abusive text she had received as a reply from Seymour. The young girl felt worried about what kind of mood he was going to be in when they saw each other next. Pushing it to the back of her mind, she looked up to see Tidus taking a seat in front of her.
"Hey are you alright after our collision earlier?" the blonde asked slightly concerned but also hoping to initiate a conversation. He loved how comfortable he felt around her. Yuna smiled at him, touched by his worry.
"Yeah I'm fine, seriously stop worrying about me. I am fine. How's your day been? Heard you are back practicing with the team, I assume your shoulder is better now." Yuna asked, again enjoying their encounters.
"It's been good so far. Yeah back practicing, got to take it easy though, the shoulder is still pretty tender now and then, which sucks beyond belief," Tidus explained with a hint of sadness in his tone.
"I didn't think it was that bad. Have you tried any Curaga therapy on it? It can half the healing time. I'm qualified to level two if you want to try it out." Yuna said before her brain could stop her. She mentally chastised herself, thinking how she should not be offering her skills so openly. Tidus raised his eyebrows at the 'sort of' invitation, trying to figure out if it was an accidental flirt before answering.
"I've looked into it; my dad had some of it when he had an unfortunate incident with a shoopuf. He said it only really worked for a short amount of time." The young brunette knew the reason why.
"I'm guessing he only had the one session." Tidus nodded. "It is only temporary when used in such small doses, but for example and injury like yours could be healed in a matter of weeks with regular sessions, instead of the months it could take with machina technology. The problem is that it is seen as such an old fashioned technique that not many people want to give it the chance." Yuna fully explained. Looking at the blonde sat in front of her, she saw genuine intrigue in his azure eyes. Studying his face she could tell that the injury must have been much worse than he was leading on, so much so she concluded that it must be affecting is game. "If you want to know anything else about it, just ask okay. If you want to try it I can get you the contact details for the centre I am training with." Yuna continued, writing down the details for the centre for him.
"Thanks Yuna, this could be a real help, so..." Tidus said taking the paper before being cut off by the bell signalling class and the first day back at school was over. Yuna stood up getting ready to, "No problem, let me know how it goes if you go through with it. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, got to go shopping for this party tomorrow." Tidus stood to leave as well before saying, "I will do thanks again. Good to hear you are coming to the party. I'll see you tomorrow." Yuna couldn't help but wonder why the blitzer was so interested in her all of a sudden.
