A/N: I love that you guys are interested in the story so far. :) Your words mean a lot.

Chapter 3

"Hi Mom." Yuna breezed past her mother, Endrea Braska, upon entering her penthouse from the elevator. A crystal chandelier hung unnecessarily from the ceiling of the spacious living room, highlighting all of the expensive furniture done in bronzes and deep burgundys, the fluffy, cream-colored carpet, the ridiculously large wide-screened plasma television, and the rest of the Braska family's exceeding wealth. The rest of their home was done up much the same way. Sometimes, Yuna found herself embarrassed by her mother and father's outlandishly overpriced décor. Because they made good money didn't mean they should invest in useless additions to their home like gold-plated toilet seats and ultra-machinized vacuum cleaners, did it? It was just plain tacky.

"Yuna, sweetheart, won't you sit down and have a cup of tea with me?" Endrea requested, rising from the couch she resided on and carefully setting her book down on the glass coffee table. "We need to catch up. We haven't spoken in a while, dear."

Endrea's impeccably angled face and sharp cheekbones reminded Yuna of the Zanarkand model that her mother used to be. At fourty two, she remained beautiful. Her platinum bob was freshly highlighted and her lithe frame remained slim and toned from Pilates. Her face was close to wrinkle-free thanks to a recent round of Botox. Yuna could see the green coloring and cat-like shape of her mother's eyes that'd she'd inherited.

"No thank you, Mom," Yuna declined, taking two baby steps toward the hallway. "I have to go over my monologue for my audition tomorrow."

To be completely honest with herself, Yuna inwardly cringed every time either her mother or her father mentioned spending any kind of quality time with her. Lately especially, she'd much rather be alone and do more productive things than to sit through idle small-talk with her mother over expensive tea.

"Okay, well, we should spend some time together soon," Endrea insisted, fanning her hand dismissively. "I'll book us a day for a spa treatment. Daddy should be gone next weekend."

"Why does Daddy have so many business trips?" Yuna inquired. She may not have been family oriented, but she still prefered to have her entire family at home where she knew where they were. Like the rest of her life, Yuna liked things to be where they were supposed to be. "He works far too hard for someone his age."

"He's fine, dear," Endrea reassured her with a smile. "He works hard to support this family so that we have the pleasure of living very comfortable lives. We should appreciate him more for it."

"I guess you're right," Yuna agreed distractedly, and then began to walk backwards slowly toward the hallway. "I'm going to go get started on my lines. And I already ate, so you can tell Diana." Diana was the Braska's housekeeper. Currently, she must have been out running an errand.

Once in the confinement of her room, Yuna sat her bag down right by her computer desk and kicked off her shoes, placing them right in between her black gladiator sandals and three-inch satin pumps inside her walk-in closet. Yuna's room was decently accomadable with a queen-sized bed with pink satin sheets, a study desk, vanity mirror, and dresser tucked away in different corners, and her own bathroom. A flat TV was mounted against the wall centered directly in front of her bed. Yuna loved her room and all the privacy it provided, and spent the majority of her time in it.

Yuna muttered to herself, racking off the beginning lines of her monologue as she undressed. She had memorized the majority of it, but paused during some parts to try and recollect which line came before another.

She had chosen a monologue that would envoke a powerful meaning. She admired the character in her piece, how she hailed from high aristocracy and let the world know it. She was completely comfortable with herself and didn't give a damn if anybody dissapproved of her. She was strong; admirable. Yuna felt just a little bit proud of herself as she uttered the lines under her breath, stripping down to her underwear. To even pretend to be somebody like that felt like an honor.

Yuna discarded her clothes into the hamper in her closet, and reached for a pair of little cotton shorts before her iPhone suddenly rang out a Britney Spears melody inside her bag. She hurried over and dug inside for it, tapping the screen without really checking it and then holding it to her ear in one fluid motion. "Hello?"

"I know you must be swamped," a boyish voice greeted Yuna's ears sarcastically. "But I still have one burning question."

"Is that you, Tidus?" Yuna held the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she wriggled into her shorts. Why in the world would he be calling her? How did he even get her number in the first place?

"No, it's the pizza guy." Tidus' voice sounded like an eye roll. "Yeah, it's me."

Yuna had been on the phone with Tidus for all fifteen seconds and she was already annoyed. "How did you get my number?" She walked back into her closet and grabbed an old, ripped band tee.

"I've had your number," Tidus clarified. Yuna could hear him cut the engine to his car in the background. "We exchanged at that one pizza place a couple of months ago."

Yuna had to rack her brain to remember hanging out at a greasy pizza parlor with Rikku, Tidus and Gippal over the summer. She did recall a conversation, albeit brief, with Tidus that ended with him swiping her cell phone and programming his number in while she did the same. "Oh, yeah."

"Anyway," Tidus continued, as if Yuna's quick memory relapse had been nothing but an interruption. "About my burning question: I've been a little behind in AP Bio and want to know if you'd mind studying with me."

Yuna blanched. Study with him? Didn't he have one of his meathead blitzball friends to copy off of? Then again, if Yuna really thought about it, none of them could manage any AP class, let alone one that required labwork. She sighed. But if that were the case, how had Tidus ended up in AP Biology in the first place? His easy-going attitude could hardly qualify for any type of success in such a rigorous course. Either way, she had better things to do than to tutor a lazy, stoner, good-for-nothing like Tidus.

"Yes, I would mind," Yuna enunciated every syllable of her words, sharpening them like knives. "You should try taking notes like everybody else."

"Kind of figured you would see it that way," Tidus responded easily. "But I'll have you know that that class is one of the only one's I'm failing, and I need my final science credit."

"Really?" Yuna pretended to be shocked. "I would figure between smacking a ball around underwater and chain-smoking until your lungs turn black, you would find some time in your daily activities to finish a paper or prepare a few flash cards."

Yuna dug her words as deep as she could into Tidus, but she could only cut so deep considering she barely knew him. But if he was even the slightest bit affected, he didn't show it. "I've been cutting down," Tidus replied, coating his speech with his signature dry humor. "I only smoke a quarter pack on a good day."

Yuna jaw tightened. What could she possibly do to get him to leave her alone?

"You're like, the smartest girl in our class." Tidus seemed to realize that his earlier approach was going no where. "And there's no way I'm failing and jeopardizing any chance of me escaping that hell hole. We don't even have to be friends, I just need a little bit of help."

He almost seemed a little desperate, and Yuna wanted to let his words sit so she could soak in his neediness. It was nice to have this little bit of power; a little bit of control. She sat down at her vanity and began to remove her makeup with a clean baby wipe while she considered.

"Fine," she agreed. "But this is not going to become some coffeehouse, study-session shit. I'll come over twice a week to go over notes and help you make some flash cards. That's my limit."

"I knew you'd come around." Tidus's voice was almost smug, and made Yuna briefly consider changing her mind. "I'll talk to you more about it later, though. I have some business to attend to at the moment."

"Don't let me keep you," Yuna said, before pulling her phone away from her ear and ending the conversation by tapping the screen again.

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

Lying shirtless on his back atop the blue comforters on his large bed, Tidus slid his phone shut and gazed at the ceiling above him. Typical posters of his favorite movies and iconically curvaceous females hung on random places on the slate grey walls of his room. An entertainment system designed for a living room but installed directly in front of his bed took up a lot of space on the wall in front of him. The closet to his far right was exploding with the latest in Ralph Lauren, Armani, and Abercrombie and Fitch--all sent to him by his erratic mother whom was completely convinced that he would actually wear shit like that. The large window that took up a good portion of space on his wall to the left poured in just the right amount of light from the setting sun through his blinds. His hardwood floor glistened, and on it lay Blink, his miniature Yorkee-poodle, asleep.

In reguards to the "business" Tidus was supposed to be "attending to," he slid his phone back open, scrolling through his contacts with his touch screen until he came upon Gippal's number. He quickly selected it.

Gippal picked up on the third ring. "Yo."

"Hey," Tidus greeted his old friend, eyeing his bedside table on his left. "I'm not doing anything right now, you want to come over?"

"Now?" Gippal sounded a little surprised. "Dude, I just got home."

"I know," Tidus said. "But I manage to score some goods today, and my dad's not due home for another three or four hours."

"Dude!" Gippal exclaimed; a total change of heart. "Nice. That sounds like just what I need right now. Want me to call Wakka and Baralai?"

"What the fuck do I look like?" Tidus spat. "I only have enough for me and you. Plus I think Wakka's at an extra practice and Baralai's at work."

"Makes sense," Gippal relented. "I'll be over in ten."

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

Within just a half hour of Gippal's arrival, both he and Tidus were baked like bread. They sat on the dark hardwood in front of Tidus's bed with two Xbox 360 controllers clutched in their hands. Their eyes were bloodshot, as if they'd just applied a fresh coat of crimson eyeliner. They stared blankly at Call of Duty on Tidus's television, a tall, customized bong nestled between them.

"Duuuude," Gippal drawled, laying his head back against the bed as his character was slaughtered on screen. "This has to be the best shit I've had in a while." He sat his controller down and turned to bend his head down to the bong below him for another hit.

Through Tidus's foggy, stoned mind, he could still distinguish Gippal's typical senselessness. "You have some kind of a complex, man." Tidus shook his head, attempting to address Gippal's general lack of vocabulary while under the influence(using words such as "dude" and "shit" far too frequently), but to no avail. Gippal inhaled deeply, his mouth against the water pipe, effectively ignoring him.

"Mmm," Gippal sighed afterwards, releasing a humungous cloud of organic smoke into the air. Tidus briefly noted that he'd have to Febreeze the room down later, but knew he'd soon forget.

"Hey, you're hogging all of it." Tidus slid the bong toward himself, lowering his head and sucking in the biggest hit that his lungs could hold. He held the smoke inside of him; it stung his throat painfully, begging to be released, but Tidus had become so used to the feeling that the sting could have been a warm sip of green tea. He let the weed seep into his brain and numb his senses to a comfortably familiar dimness. It felt like throwing a blanket over his body, or diving into a deep ocean: everything blurry, dark, and peaceful. Tidus tried to absorb all of those wonderful feelings before releasing the burning smoke.

His body felt like hot jelly as he stood up and walked toward his open window, staring out at the city before him. He could hear Gippal mumbling to himself behind him.

Most people in the city of Zanarkand were aware of who Tidus and his friends were. The smartest, the hottest, and the richest. Everybody in his usual gang--which included Rikku, Baralai, Lulu, Gippal, Wakka, and Paine--hailed from higher society. Zanarkand's Finest, they were sometimes nicknamed. Tidus, for example, resided in the Kingston Lofts, of which his father, a skilled architect, designed. Gippal's mother, in another instance, was partnered with Lulu's father in one of the best lawfirms in the city. Thus, because of Tidus and his friend's wealthy and powerful backgrounds, a lot of pressure is implemented when they'd be expected to go to the same Yevon-oriented, private colleges that their parents went to, and succeed just as efficiently. In a situation like Tidus's, where he was hardly passing a basic AP class, private college seemed like a long struggle away.

Unlike Yuna, Tidus thought bitterly. She seems to have her shit together just fine.

Tidus refused to continue his reverie, leaning ever so slightly out the window to catch the late-summer breeze. He'd have plenty of time when he was not blitzed beyond oblivion to contemplate his sudden magnetic attatchment to Yuna and her rigidly uptight ways. To think about why she seemed something of a project to him, like a bike that needed tuning up. He'd always enjoyed a challenge, and Yuna--from her remarkable study habits to her strict, unstimulated way of living--would definitely be one suitable enough. But he wondered what would compel him to desireto make such a change in Yuna, a person whom, before today, had hardly ever spoken to.

"God fucking damn it!" Tidus exclaimed suddenly, turning away from his window. "This stuff must not be working well enough." He hated and could never comprehend his uncanny abillity to think somewhat clearly and hold a train of thought steady for a ridiculous amount of time even while he was high. Wasn't this stuff supposed to detach you from your thoughts? So why was he still stuck with his while Gippal sprawled haphazardly across Tidus's bed, smiling lazily with not a care in the fucking world?

"Just relax, man," Gippal said slowly. Call of Duty had been long forgotten, but apparently he hadn't bothered to shut it off. "I swear, when you lay down, it's like, uber chill-mode." He giggled slightly at his own stupid expression.

With another toke or two, Tidus hoped to be in "chill-mode" soon as well, so he could leave behind his confusing thoughts about Yuna.

A/N: I made this one a bit longer than the last ones. And don't be fooled; just because all of the characters seem like they're gonna be rich snobs, fear not--like I've said, I've kept every character with the personallity their supposed to have, whilst Tidus and Yuna have some minor adjustments. BTW, this story's been inspired by Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad."

Please reviewwww! :)