ALOHA! WELL this is a quicker update than usual :). I really liked writing this chapter, I'm not gonna lie haha.

I hope you all have been well, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (to those of you who are AMURRICAN! xD). Aaaaannnddddddd, I have news! bbbrrrrrrrrrrruuuummmmmmmmmm *drumroll* I got into college! WHOOP-DEE-WHOOOOP! I'm still waiting for my number one to reply back with their answer, but it's settled-Imma be a college chick next year :D

But aside from my personal stuff fufufufuuu, I started another story

Your thoughts probably: (LUX! WHAT R U THINKIN GURLLL?)

Well, I just needed a story where I could let out my personal emotions and opinions, aaannndd use as an excuse to write a songfic. Seriously though, I'm writing my very first Happy Feet fanfic called Keep Me Waiting. If you're a fan of the penguin-tapping movies, it would mean the world to me if you checked it out :)

ANYWAY! Here's the latest installment of Electric Blue :D

DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy and its property, characters, and themes all belong to SE! I only own my story and OC's. Hawai'i owns itself. DDR owns itself. I am writing this story for the entertainment of readers. I do not make any money from it.


Chapter XII: Arrows Drawn

"Oooohhh! You spin me right round, baby, right round!"

"Like a record player, turn me round, right round—!"

All of the gang sang out of key and in different volumes as they both laughed and cheered their team mates on in a competition of Dance Dance Revolution. Lebreau was working her feet like crazy as she remained in the lead. Her raven black hair tossed back and forth as she jumped up and down. Next to her, on another small, arrow-covered, dancing stage, was Maqui, who was failing miserably at the sport.

The two continued to dance their little hearts out for the next couple of seconds before the song ended. Both Lebreau and the younger boy were exhausted, panting like dogs and gripping their sides.

Colorful and popping text scrolled onto the screen of the plasma television.

Lebreau—AWESOME!

Maqui—BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

"Awww, man! You gotta be kidding me…" Maqui groaned as he collapsed on the floor.

"Way to take one for the team." Gadot laughed as he ruffled Maqui's hair.

The girls squealed loudly with an uproar of laughs and snorts following,

"Girls—Awesome. Boys—LOSERS." Lebreau wiped her forehead and smirked at the group of men who were obviously the girls' opposing team. All of the guys were sitting around a large sofa chair. The girls, placed to the left, were sprawled out on a couple of blankets and large bean bags.

"That's it. I'm calling it quits." Gadot grumbled with a hidden smile, glad to be out of the humiliation as he stood up to head into the kitchen.

"And to think I had faith in mankind." Reno sobbed with a sniff as he opened a white packet containing a sea salt ice cream.

XXX

The gang, after spending the early morning hours on the water, had returned to their shared beach condo. The rain storm outside had naturally canceled all of the planned surfing training, since the lightning proved to be a danger even to the pro's. Deciding not to waste the day, everyone had agreed on a competitive game of DDR, which the men were obviously now regretting. 'Loser' was in charge of lunch.

"Alright boys, kitchen's all yours." Fang cooed pointing towards the menacing location.

All of the boys sighed.

As the men chopped lettuce and grilled salted chicken tenders, the girls made themselves comfortable in the main living room. As if a whirlwind had struck the room, dozens of piles of photographs were strewn out all over the floor and furniture from being dumped out of a cardboard box.

Serah walked into the room, having just gone to wash her face of the sweat she had acquired from her last dance-off. Seeing the pictures everywhere caused her to stop completely in her tracks and her eyes to widen.

'What in Maker's name?' she mouthed silently.

Vanille caught sight of her friend's shocked expression and smiled. She leaned up from her reclined position over the back of the couch, which was spotted with photographs,

"We usually just throw the photos we take with disposable cameras in this box."

Serah replied with a calmer-looking expression, reaching down to pick up a stray image.

It was a picture of Maqui and Yuj, and Lebreau giving them both noogies at the same time.

"These are from last year and earlier this year—" the red-head continued.

"Some were taken here, and some in Newcastle." Lebreau said, shifting her legs as she sat in an L-shape over the recliner looking at a handful of photos.

In it stood Snow and a couple of other guys she didn't recognize around him all holding their boards in one hand while holding their other hand up in the "hang loose" gesture—thumb and pinkie extended outward.

Serah smiled before sitting on the floor next to Vanille, who was comfortably sprawled on the couch, her pigtails hanging off the front edge,

"Who are all of these guys?" Serah asked.

Vanille turned her head to look, "Oh! Those are the Newcastle boys. Most of'em don't surf professionally—just for fun," she pointed at one of the men. "That's Leon, and that one's Seifer."

Serah glanced over each person and snorted when she looked at one of the other guys. A spikey, green-eyed, red-head was making a funny face while smooshing the face the of the guy next to him. Vanille noticed her friend's amusement at the particular character and giggled,

"The prankster? Yeah, that's—"

"Yo, ladies!" Yuj interrupted as he peeped around the corner. "Permission to steal the new girl."

"Oy, you can't just make'r do your work in there! Permission not granted." Fang snapped back at the blue-haired boy as she leaned against the wall, her arms crossed.

Crickets chirped as the other girls besides Fang continued to flip through photographs. Looking at Fang, he made a face and slowly replied,

"It's for the…potatoes." Yuj winked with a huge load of emphasis, opening his mouth into a strange, lopsided grin and flicking his hair.

Fang squinted her eyes in disapproval and made a face back at the guy,

'What the bloody 'ell?' she thought.

Then Reno's head appeared behind Yuj's. He cupped his mouth,

POOOTATOOOEESSS - he mouthed.

Silence hovered between the two boys and the tan woman.

Fang "oh"-ed.

Subtly giving the two a thumbs up, the boys disappeared around the corner and headed back to the kitchen.

"Serah." She said with a simple voice.

The pinkette glanced up from the pictures in her hands,

"Yeah?"

"Could you assist the gent's real quick. They're a hopeless bunch a' idiots."

Serah smirked and laughed, "Sure, no problem."

She stood from her spot and let the photos fall from her hands as she made her way around the corridor. The eyes of the three girls remaining in the room followed the young woman, their eyebrows raising and a smile forming on each of their lips.

***Blindsided by Bon Iver

Walking down a long corridor, Serah was about to continue to the end where the kitchen was when she spotted a piece of paper on the hardwood floor. The white sheet had a sharpie-drawn arrow pointing left. Looking at it inquisitively Serah picked it up before turning her head to stare in the direction the arrow guided, which led to a steep, short-stepped flight of wooden stairs with a wall on either side.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she placed her dainty foot onto the first step and continued to climb. Yuj and Reno peeped into the corridor the young girl had just exited and grinned, giving each other a quiet high five.

About four steps up, the white wall turned into windows, where she could look out and see the grey yet beautiful world outside. Rained pattered against the glass, a soft hum echoing in the thin stairwell. Serah slowed her step as she gazed out the windows. The silver ocean waters churned like liquid being sloshed around in a giant pot, but with the sound of their crashes silenced they seemed almost calm and tender in their wake. Placing her hand gently on the glass, Serah continued her ascent.

As her foot made contact with the final steps, the stairs opened up into a wide, unfurnished room. The floor was covered in the same stained hardwood as the steps and downstairs, and in the corner were about eight folded mats of varying colors. With the outer walls made completely of glass, she could see everything around her: the beach, the dunes, and the long line of other beach condos neighboring down the vacant coast. The great leaves of two palm trees fluttered near the right side of the room outside almost touching the glass.

Her blue eyes dimmed in color due to the grey atmosphere, but the shimmer of curio in her eye couldn't be covered. She set the paper in her hand down, and walked towards the glass wall in front of her, completely mesmerized by the sight before her.

The wood behind her creaked. The pinkette turned her head to see who it was, only to find herself face to face with Snow.

She wanted to grin, but the beauty of the room, the rain, and the ocean still held her emotions captive.

Snow smirked,

"Hey."

The grin appeared.

"Hi."

He stepped toward her nonchalantly as she allowed her eyes to look around the room some more.

"This is the 'zen' room. Yoga, meditating, napping, whatever relaxes you." His voice echoed quietly in the room.

Serah put her hands together behind her back.

"It's really something." She exhaled, the words flowing out of her mouth.

The girl turned back to face the window-wall, Snow joined beside her, a foot between them.

Coughing with intent, the larger man tilted his head upward.

"I can't believe it—" the burly blonde uttered. "You've been with us for only a couple of days, and have managed to win over everyone."

Serah looked up at Snow, her blue eyes wide but calm.

Secretly hiding on the top of the staircase, Vanille, Lebreau, Maqui, Yuj and Reno watched quietly.

"I mean, what's not to like? You're kind, funny, talented…pretty."

Lebreau and Yuj smacked their foreheads and Maqui shook his head.

'Pretty? Really, Snow?' Lebreau thought.

'Get it together, man!' Reno thought loudly.

Vanille simply grinned and patted Lebreau on the shoulder. The other members of the gang joined behind them, minus Vincent and Fang.

"It took me weeks—months just for the gang to let me speak without having to address everyone as 'his lordship' or 'royal surfer-queen'."

Serah laughed out loud at this, picturing Snow kissing the feet of a regal Reno dressed up in fancy 1600's attire, crown and all. The blonde laughed too.

"You're our friend, Serah. New, and still learning how to speak 'surfer', but nevertheless," he said, looking her in the eye. "You're one of the team, now."

Pulling out a plane ticket and another entry ticker for the Open, Snow held the papers to his left side towards Serah. The moment the girl caught sight of the tickets, a hand involuntarily went up to her mouth, but stopped halfway over her chest. The boys of the group on the stairwell squealed quietly, the girl's rolling their eyes.

"We've got a spot saved for you, and it would be awesome if you'd come. It's the best surfing in the world, and the rest of the gang would love to meet you."

"There's more?" Serah asked with a grin, poking at the hilarious oddity of the members of the group.

Snow snorted, reaching his hand out towards her, papers in hand.

Her blue eyes gazed into his cerulean irises covered a bit by blonde wisps of hair. She smiled, grabbing the tickets gently.

"I'm in."

A loud uproar of shouts, hollers, and cheers echoed throughout the room from the gang crammed in the tight stairwell.

Serah and Snow spun around as fast as lightning, surprised to see all their friends behind them, squished together. A light, rosy tint spread across their cheeks.

Then, realizing that they were not in fact supposed to be eavesdropping, the group began to franticly push and shove until they simply tumbled down the stairs, crying out as they did so. A large boom shook the house.

Serah and Snow rushed to the stairs and looked down. There, crushed, smooshed, and sprawled out was the rest of the gang, smiling with embarrassment.

Serah's body began to shake uncontrollably. Confused, Snow looked at the girl with worry in his eyes,

"Serah?"

Then she burst out laughing. At first, she was the only one laughing in the room as tears threatened to leak from her crystal blue eyes, then the rest of the gang soon joined in, filling the entire room with sweet laughter.

Vincent finished setting the table as he heard the merriment from down the hallway. Stepping back from the table, the man quietly grinned to himself before gazing out at the ocean through the fogged over kitchen window.

In the living room, pictures still scattered everywhere, Fang was leaning against a wall, arms crossed, holding a picture in one raised hand. She stared solemnly at the two figures in the photo: a tan girl with wild, raven hair, a tattoo up her arm and emerald eyes—her arm draped over the person next to her, and a great, toothy smile spread across her face as she stood with a board under her other arm; and beside her, a fair-skinned girl with a soft grin held her own board, her electric blue hair cascading over her shoulder.


SO MANY FEELS

Alright! There ya have it!

Also, the DDR scene was inspired by my most recent group date where we all did in fact have a gender-wars on DDR. Girls won WHOOP WHOOP ;D

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I promise I'll update on a more regular basis.

Until next time... :3