Chapter 5: Names and Dates

Dots ran across the screen of Shuyin's digital notebook, repeating without an end in sight until a sharp poke in the ribs prompted him to lift his face from the keypad. As he realized he had fallen asleep, the class giggled, and his history teacher stared at him with waning patience.

"Answer the question, please, Shuyin," the teacher unhappily repeated, quite sure his errant student had not heard him the first time.

"Uh ... " Shuyin looked across the narrow aisle between his seat and Koji's for a clue on what the answer—or at least the question—might be.

Koji rested his elbow on his desk and nonchalantly covered his mouth with his hand. "High Summoner Yu Yevon," he whispered.

Shuyin sat up straighter, though he felt rather spongy. "High Summoner Yu Yevon," he repeated. His voice had deepened by age sixteen, but concentration on his lessons had not.

The entire class fell to laughter.

"And how did she do it?" The teacher calmly pressed him to explain.

"She?" Shuyin frowned at Koji and reached across the aisle to pound a fist into his shoulder for purposefully feeding him the wrong answer. "What are you doing to me?"

Koji laughed with the rest of the class. "Nothing, man. You're the one that fell asleep."

The teacher repeated. "How did she do it, Shuyin?"

The class waited with bated breath to see what comedy the star athlete would produce next. On the spot, but at ease in the spotlight, Shuyin decided to deliver. "Well, she ... did it like this." Putting his pencil on his nose, he balanced it perfectly. His classmates appreciated his humor, but his teacher was not amused.

"Koji, since you apparently have all the answers, would you please tell us the correct answer for who first introduced alien life forms to the colony ship?" the teacher asked over ripples of laughter.

The brunette blitzball player was still chuckling at how easy it had been to dupe his friend. "Captain Spira of the Founders from Earth."

"And could you please give us the correct answer explaining how she did it?"

"The ship's life support systems were failing when a guado named Mara answered her distress call and summoned the Farplane into the ship. Once the Farplane stabilized the life support systems, she went in search of life forms that would contribute to and survive better in the contained environment." Koji gave Shuyin a sly expression, enjoying being able to show him up for once.

Shuyin frowned at him again for feeding him a false answer.

Seated directly in front of Shuyin, Kaila raised her hand. "It's Maedra, though, isn't it?"

"Yes, Kaila," the teacher agreed. "Maedra is considered to be the father of the guado on this colony, but we'll learn more about them later. He's an interesting mystery."

Kaila looked over her shoulder and quirked a brow at Shuyin. "I don't know. Summoning the Farplane on a colony ship pales in comparison to High Summoner Yu Yevon balancing a pencil on his nose."

Shuyin hooked his feet in the basket under her chair and pushed down, pulling her seat back, so the front legs rose off the ground.

"Shuyin! Don't you dare tip me over again!" Remembering he was wearing shorts that day, she reached behind her and pinched a small amount of golden hair on his leg to make him release her chair.

"Ow-ch!" He released Kaila's desk in an instant and swiveled in his seat to evade her grabby hands, but gave her head a shove before scratching the stinging spot on his leg.

Of course, this battle was as entertaining to the other students as the pencil on the nose trick, but it was interrupted when the chimes toned for classes to change.

Shuyin thought he had been saved from further hassle, but as Kaila left her seat, she attempted to smack his head in return for shoving hers. He ducked, so she mashed his face into his keypad and walked away laughing, happy to have the final word.

"Pick up your tests on the way out," the history teacher told the departing students as he set a stack of papers on the corner desk near the door. Then, he came back to his 'problem child' and sat on the desktop across from him. "That's the third time you've fallen asleep in class this semester."

Shuyin's eyes watered from the bump his nose had taken against the keypad when Kaila pushed his head down. "I know, I know. But this is the class that I have after lunch, and I have to walk all the way here from—"

"Anything that pours out of your mouth from this point forward will be nothing more than an excuse. Whatever went on before you got here, when this class starts, you are responsible for paying attention. There's no nice way to say this, Shuyin." He passed his student a print-out of his last test. "You're failing history."

He grimaced at the large, red grade scrawled across the top of his test. "It's because I'm just no good at remembering names and dates. Besides, when am I ever going to need this stuff? I'm going to be a professional blitzball player when I'm out of here."

"Right. Well, this is where I have to remind myself to watch my language with my reluctant learners, even when they deserve a good verbal thrashing because they think they're invincible. You may want to play pro when you get out of here, but there are no guarantees in life. You don't know what life is going to throw at you along the way. Nobody knows their future. So maybe—just maybe—you're going to need to know other things too. You can't ride your father's coattails forever, you know."

"I'm not riding anyone's coattails," Shuyin defended. "My old man walked out on me and my mom when I was seven. What I accomplished in blitzball, I accomplished on my own without help from him or anyone else."

"My point is the more knowledge you have to face this world's challenges, the better off you'll be. It's better to have a variety of knowledge and skills in case you need it than to get caught with your pants down around your ankles and not know what to do. I see a lot of potential in you, but I also see poor study skills. So, I've set up a tutor to help you get back on track."

"What? I don't need a tutor. I'll stay awake in class, already. Even if I have to chew my own leg off to do it." Indignant, Shuyin finished packing his bag and shifted it to his shoulder.

"You will be studying with my student assistant and staying awake in class. And I've reported your grades to the dean, your coach, and your other teachers. There's no getting out of it, Sport. You're to meet with Birana at least three times a week until your grades show stable improvement." The teacher gestured to the door where a bleach-blond girl in a pink mini-dress stood talking to Koji.

Shuyin's brows rose in surprise. "Birana?"

"Birana has the highest grade point average for this class, so she's the logical choice to tutor you. I'll be checking in with her once a week to make sure you are actually studying." He looked at Shuyin over the top of his glasses, a subtle warning. "But if your grades don't improve with Birana, so help me, I'll slap you with the ugliest, geekiest boy I can find from the debate team instead." The history teacher gave him a quirked brow, then patted Shuyin on the back and nodded to Birana and Koji as he left the room.

Shuyin closed his digital notebook and tucked his failed test into his history class folder. Okay, for a tutor, she was extremely pretty. But she was still a tutor. Tucking both items under his arm, he left his desk to join Koji and Birana in the doorway of the classroom. "Before you say anything," he told her, "I just want you to know I'm not stupid, all right?"

Birana was surprised by his confrontational greeting but smiled instead of taking it personally. "I didn't say you were. You're on the blitzball team, right? I didn't realize you're the one I'd be tutoring. I thought your name was Tidus?"

"Shuyin's my real name, and I tend to prefer it, especially when I'm not in the sphere pool." Wary about this deal, he wanted to make sure he remained in control of his situation. "I'm only doing this tutorial thing because I have to, not because I have any choice in the matter."

"That's usually the case."

"If I fail history, I won't be allowed to play blitzball anymore."

"That's probably true, too."

"And just so you know, I may be slow to get some things, but once I know them, I know them for good. So, don't get all intellectual on me or anything. Just work with me at my own pace."

"That means you might have to use colorful pictures and do pole dances to make sure he stays awake," Koji inserted with a smirk.

Shuyin frowned at his friend's sarcasm. "Do I have a 'kick me' sign on my ass today?"

"It was a joke, Shu. Geeze, lighten up." Koji shook his head and shifted the weight of his shoulder pack.

Birana gave Shuyin a reassuring smile despite his defensiveness. "However you want to do this is fine with me. I'm just here to keep your mind from wandering when you study, okay?"

Shuyin sighed in defeat. "You are so not going to keep my mind from wandering."

She tried not to smile at the compliment beneath his discouragement. "Well, at least you're honest. How about we meet at the library after school?"

"Nah, I got blitz practice after school."

"Okay, after blitzball practice?"

He shrugged without enthusiasm. "Sure."

"Great. See you there." She smiled at both him and Koji before slipping past them into the classroom and heading to the teacher's desk.

Koji shook his head in dismay. "Unbelievable. You're failing history, but what punishment do you get? One of the hottest girls on campus for a tutor. And she didn't know my name or that I was even on the blitzball team, but she recognized you right away. That means she's been watching you. Do you have the luck of the gods or just some genie that grants all your wishes?"

Shuyin tilted his head, appreciating the sway of Birana's hips as she moved about her business at the front of the classroom, setting up her workspace as the teacher's assistant. But then he groaned and made himself turn away. "This is bad. Very bad," he grumbled and walked down the hall with his friend. "I am not going to be able to keep my mind on history if I'm sitting next to a girl like that three times a week!" He stormed away, pissed at his good fortune.

))((

Birana waved to Shuyin as he entered the Zanarkand library and walked past the clear-paneled, digital indexes at the end of each row of spheres and books to the table where she waited. "You made it. How was practice?"

"I'm still a bit water-logged, but I'm here." Sitting down across from her, he slouched with disinterest. "Look, there's no sense dragging this out like it's some kind of adventure. Just tell me which hoops to jump through to get my grades good enough to stay in the game."

"Okay then, I guess the first thing we need to do is make sure you're understanding what you read. If you're misunderstanding content, everything else will be wrong. Have you started the chapter summary assigned today?"

"I haven't finished it yet." He opened his digital notebook, and the clear cover darkened into a black screen, complete with digital "stickers." After a brief search for the file, he turned it toward her, and she leaned forward to read. Self-conscious while waiting, he began tapping his fingers on the table, and his knee began to jiggle under it. While she was occupied with his homework, he studied her hair, her eyes, the shape of her mouth, and the curve of her neck. He could even smell her perfume, which was light and breezy as a summer day. Should he ask her out? No, he was here to study. But why shouldn't he ask her out? Because that wouldn't be studying. Maybe it could be a study date? "Yeah, right," he snorted to himself. Like he would actually study on a date.

"Hm?" She looked up from the notebook screen.

Shaking his head, Shuyin waved away his comment and slouched a little more in his misery. "Nothing."

Her attention returned to his writing, but after a few seconds, she smiled, amused at something.

His fingers stopped tapping the table. "Is it that bad?"

"Well, your sentences are a little ... funny."

"Funny?"

"It's the way you've worded things." She turned the screen toward him and proceeded to point out each correction he needed to make, but half-way through each explanation, he needed another explanation of what she was explaining.

Terms began to overlap, and confusion set in until Shuyin finally clutched his head in frustration. "Ahhhhh! I don't get this!"

A passing librarian frowned severely at him for the outburst and pressed a finger to her lips.

Dropping his elbows to the table, he leaned forward and hissed with a loud whisper instead of talking normally in a low voice. "Just tell me what I need to change, okay?"

"I'm here to help you think, not give you easy answers," she whispered, mirroring his position across the table. "You have lots of details in this report, but you haven't pulled them together to make chronological sense. That's probably the main reason you're failing. You're getting bogged down in the details and missing the main point. Concentrate on getting the big picture first. Then learn the names and dates. Who and when doesn't matter as much as cause and effect when it comes to history. If we can't learn from the consequences of past actions, we are doomed to repeat them."

He sighed with disgust at how together she seemed about it, considering it felt like one big, boring blur to him. But what she said made better sense than anything he'd heard sitting in class. "I guess that means I'm going to need a lot of help before my grades go up."

She laughed lightly at his defeated expression. "Yeah, probably."

He pursed his lips in contemplation then switched to a suave tone. "Does that mean you'd be willing to spend extra hours with me?"

A slow smile of suspicion crossed her lips. "Are you asking me as a tutor or a date?"

He paused, annoyed that his attempt to flirt had been dissected. "Which one will you answer 'yes' to?"

Birana was amused. "The tutor."

His expression fell. "Oh."

"But, if you bring your grades up, I might consider the date."

"Is that how you reward everyone you tutor?" he playfully asked.

"Only the adorable ones." She laughed with mild embarrassment and shook her head. "I can't believe I just said that. We're supposed to be discussing history."

He chuckled with a cheesy grin. "If I'm so adorable, how come I have to earn a date with you?"

"Adorable guys are everywhere. I'm only interested in the ones with brains."

"That's so cold."

She laughed and pointed to his electronic notebook. "History, Shuyin."

"Okay, already!" With a sigh, he sat up and set his elbows on the table to take another look at his work. "Told you my mind would wander."

"In your own words, tell me how life came to exist on Spira." She tried to refocus his attention.

He scratched his head. "Some guado that started with an 'M' ... Mara, Mela, Melonhead ..."

"You're not being very serious about this," she complained, trying not to laugh. "Try again. No details, just the main idea."

"Some stupid guado, who shall remain nameless, summoned the Farplane ... so that things on the ship wouldn't die. And then they looked for more life on other worlds."

Birana smiled. "Why?"

He made a face as if the answer was obvious, but he remained unsure whether he was correct. "So ... it wouldn't fail again?"

"Gold star. Rewrite that as your main idea, and then worry about the details that back it up. Okay?" She moved to his side of the table to sit beside him.

He returned her smile. Touching the delete key, he tried to think of a better way to restart his report.

))((

A few weeks later, after blitzball practice, Shuyin and Koji were walking down the hall toward the locker rooms when Koji grinned at Shuyin in a manner that was curious at best. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I heard that the Abes are opening a part-time slot for a junior member this summer. I'm thinking about going up for it."

Shuyin quirked a brow. "You're a little young for the pros, aren't you? We've still got one year of school left."

"Yeah, but playing in the pros is all I ever wanted, you know? If I'm good enough for the big league now, why wait? And if I'm not, at least I'll know so I can train extra hours next year and try again after graduation."

"Shuyin!" Birana called from the other end of the hall and waved. "Are we still on for today?"

"Yeah! I just have to change first!" he called back, lifting the hem of his wet shirt to indicate the obvious reason for his delay.

"Oi, still studying with Bi-ra-na-na, na?" Koji teased. "I found out some things about her, you know. In some circles, they call her Birana the Piranha because she's a real man-eater."

"Is that supposed to entice me or scare me?"

"Play the game her way, or she'll chew you up and spit you out. And with good reason. Her dad owns the Duggles … but I'm sure you already knew that. Playing her for a spot on her dad's team when you graduate by any chance?"

Shuyin chuckled and pushed open the door to the locker room. "No, I didn't know that. So, no, I'm not playing her for any position with her father."

"Ah, I see. Then you're dating her to make the Abes sweat about possibly losing Jecht Jr., so they'll be more open to negotiations, eh?"

Shuyin stopped and faced him. "I'm not dating her. I told you that. She refuses to go out with me unless I can get above a ninety on my history test. She says I'm a kinetic—no—kinesthetic learner? Something like that. It means I learn better when I can move my body and use my hands to do stuff. She says that's the reason I'm better with things like blitzball compared to things like history. So, she told me to study names and dates while handling a ball or something—so my sense of touch could help me remember." He was amused that she had logical explanations for everything he made excuses for over the years. "Anyway, she's ... kinda nice, actually. Not snobbish like I thought she'd be, considering she's so smart."

"And it doesn't hurt that she's babe-a-licious, right?" Koji grinned and wriggled his brows as he pulled the elastic band from his tied-back hair, letting the wet strands fall to his shoulders.

Shuyin shrugged and laughed as he headed to his locker and spun the combination lock to open it. "Well, there's that, too. I don't have a ninety yet, but I'm only five points shy, so I was thinking of asking her to the spring dance when I meet her today at the library. Maybe she'll make an exception about the actual score since this is a special one-time thing."

Koji peeled out of his damp, red shirt and side-tracked to a sink to wring it out, but frowned slightly. "Uh-oh."

Shuyin reached for the towel in his locker. "What uh-oh?"

"Well, don't tell her I told you." Koji flipped the damp shirt over his shoulder and returned to Shuyin's side. "But Kaila was going to ask you to the dance. She didn't want to go dateless, so I kinda threw your name into the hat for her."

"What? Thanks for nothing, man."

"I felt bad for her, okay? But there's no way I'm going to the dance with my sister, so it has to be you." Koji faced his own locker and worked the combination before pulling it open.

"It can't be me. I was going to ask Birana. Besides, it'd be too weird. Dancing with Kaila would be like … dancing with a female version of you." Shuyin shrugged with a shudder.

"Dude, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Koji flatly responded. "Look, it's like you said—a one-time thing. You can always ask Birana out later, right? You've got her wrapped around your finger just like every other girl in this school … unless she happens to find someone else before you manage to get that ninety." He grabbed a towel and his shower supplies.

Shuyin flipped his towel over his shoulder and reached for his shower supplies too. "I'll manage. Oh, and I'm thinking of taking a surprise with me to the dance, too. I'll let you in on it later." He gave his buddy a light wink of mischief. Then, he started to head for the shower stalls when their team coach intercepted him.

"How's the tutoring going?" the stern man questioned as he folded his clipboard to his chest.

"Seventy-five to eighty-five so far," Shuyin confidently reported.

"Good. Because I just got word from your language arts teacher that your grade average has dipped below the line in that class, as well. It kills me to have to say this, but ... I'm going to have to bench you until you can get your overall grade average back up to eighty percent."

Shuyin was stunned for a minute, then laughed, thinking it was a joke. "You can't bench me now. We're heading into finals."

"You're one of our better players, son, but I've already got a few teachers and the dean on my backside about your grades needing more attention than your game."

"So, I need a tutor in language arts, too?"

"No, you just need to stop acting like the class clown." The coach frowned. "I've had reports that you sleep during lectures, turn in projects late, and are completely irreverent during discussions. I don't know what's going on in your head when you pull that kind of nonsense, but you'd better get some action on those studies, or there won't be any action in the pool."

"But, my grades are improving."

"In history, maybe, but not in language arts."

Shuyin thought about what Birana had told him regarding how he learns. "But … those aren't physical subjects. I'm doing the best I can. You have to let me play, Coach. I was born to blitz. It's the only thing I do well."

"You know, your father was the best player the sport ever knew."

Shuyin snorted in disgust and shook his head. "This again. Yeah, he was his number one fan."

"There is no guarantee you're going to play professional blitz when you get out of here just because your father did."

"Did you rip this out of my history teacher's book of lectures? I'm not trying to be like my dad. And I'm sick of everyone thinking that!" Shuyin's volume unintentionally rose. "I'm trying to be me. Maybe I want to play blitzball because I just happen to like it and happen to be good at it. Maybe it has nothing to do with him!"

"You are one step away from being sent packing, Mister. I'd watch your tone if I were you. Eighty percent or better in all subjects, or you're off the team. In the meantime, Koji, you're to take his pool position." The coach lifted his clipboard and penned a note onto its electronic surface. Then, he touched the scroll through a few filed notes to make another.

"What?" Shuyin was incredulous.

Koji drew closer to be sure he heard right. "I'm up for right forward? But he's a stronger shooter than I am. I can't do his power shots."

"Maybe not, but counting average scores from ordinary shots at practice, you're the most consistent shooter on our team, Koji. Plus, you've got a real love of the game. Don't sell yourself short just because he has a legendary father. With that kind of heritage, he plays to impress people."

"I play to win," Shuyin countered.

"For your team, or for yourself?" the coach challenged his star player. "Did I also mention that Koji's got better grades?"

Shuyin cut Koji a sharp frown, but Koji only shrugged, unable to apologize for having better study habits.

"Until I see improvements in grades, this is the final roster call. Shuyin is on the bench, Koji takes right forward. Ekina comes off the bench to take the right defense, and Nan moves up to center."

"Center?" Nan overheard the coach's conversation. "All right! You just made my day, Jecht Jr." He gripped the back of Shuyin's neck in excitement.

"Shut up." Irritated that this new line-up excluded him, Shuyin headed for an empty shower stall and hung his towel on the door hook. Still in his wet uniform, he turned on the showerhead to rinse away all the itchy chlorine first. Jecht Jr. … Again … He would never escape his father's legacy. He had lost his key position to his best friend, of all people. And just when he was feeling better about his grades, he found out that he's failing another class. Of course, he already knew he wasn't doing well, but he thought …

Removing his team shirt, he wrapped it around his hand and hit the wall, but that did nothing to ease his frustration. Palms flat against the tile, he stood with his head bowed beneath the steady spray, but the cool water did nothing to ease his hot temper. Shuyin sighed in disappointment and leaned against the wall he just hit. He couldn't face Birana at the library today—not in this mood, not like this, not with news that he was failing another class. He would have to figure out a way to tell his mother, too, and she didn't need one more worry about him—not in her condition. Maybe he just wouldn't tell her. Maybe Birana would agree to tutor him in Language Arts too.

Shuyin made up his mind to cancel the library meeting today, but invite Birana over to his houseboat to discuss both subjects … and maybe the dance as well. He would get his position back on the team. He had to.