AN: there's a beach scene in here and its November, so just assume that its always hot and California-ish in Luca. Also, I took the beach scene from the movie, where Freddie Price Jr. introduces Rachael Leigh Cook to his gang for the first time. ( Just giving credit where credits due.)
1. Thank you so much for the good reviews! I love you all ***blows kisses****
Chapter 4 - Cocoon
Mid-November, Luca High, 6th period lunch cafeteria.
Yuna picked over her meatloaf on her lunch tray. She'd have gotten salad if they hadn't run out.
"You know you never eat anything fattening. You must be in really great shape under all those layers of clothes you hide under." Rikku teased before stuffing a forkfull of meatloaf in her mouth.
" I really don't know how you manage to stay so skinny Ri, you eat more than anyone I've ever known." Yuna teased back.
"If your dating Wakka you have too. I need my energy, we make out like all the time. He's such a great kisser, and that's hard to find in guys now, you know what I mean? " Rikku said dreamily.
Yuna said nothing and reddened.
"What, you've never done it?" Rikku asked, but already knew the answer.
"Well . . . no . . . I . . . don't like talking about it." Yuna said, embarrassed.
"Have you ever even kissed a guy?"
"............."
"What!" Rikku couldn't imagine never even kissing a guy. The girl was missing out on the best part of life!
"Well, if you applied yourself, you'd have guys falling all over you." Rikku whined. She looked at Yuna, who was no longer listening to her. She was too busy staring over at Tidus's table. Tidus was in turn staring at her.
" You should ask Tidus to kiss you Yuna. "
"What? We are just friends....." Yuna reddened again. She broke eye contact with Tidus.
She and Tidus had begun a tentative friendship that day weeks ago when she reached out to him in computer science. They would only talk to each other in that class, like it was some unspoken rule. And only about lite, easy topics, nothing too deep. She knew he was going extra slow to gain her trust and he let her set the rules. Sometimes he would lightly flirt with her. But he never made her nervous or uncomfortable. Now she was getting more confident in herself, and people in school seemed to bother her a bit less. She would come home at the end of the day with only about half a dozen insults, a vast improvement.
" Oh come on, I know your hot for him. I don't know why he just doesn't come sit over here. Wakka wants to sit with me, but I told him lunch time is girl time for me." Rikku said.
"You should go sit with him, I mean he's your boyfriend. And I've seen you get invited to sit with other people. You don't have to hang out with me here, I don't mind sitting alone." Yuna said disheartened. Rikku was becoming rapidly very popular in school, especially since she was dating a blitz ball player. Yuna knew that by hanging out with her, Rikku was hurting her reputation.
"Why would I just leave you here? I like sitting with you. I never do anything I don't want to, I'm a free spirit Yunie, if you hadn't noticed. Now stop trying to change the subject. Tidus, Wakka, me, and unfortunately, most of The IN, are going to hang down at the beach this weekend. Tidus was hinting about wanting to ask you to be his date."
"You really think so?...I'm not sure if I can-" Yuna began to get nervous.
"Look Yuna, remember last month, when you said you wanted to be more outgoing and show the real you? Well, this is your chance too. And we all also get to see what type of bod your hiding in those potato sacks you call a wardrobe. And you can stick it to Dona. " Rikku playfully winked at her.
Yuna smiled a little.
"So, if, no, when Tidus asks you out, act surprised, but don't say yes right away, you don't wanna sound desperate...act like you don't care, and don't give him a answer right away...flip your hair and bat your eyelashes......."
Yuna continued to pick at her lunch, as Rikku rambled on her dating tips. She wondered if Tidus was really going to ask her.
~
"So you asked her yet man?" Wakka asked Tidus, watching him as he stared across the cafeteria at Yuna. Tidus looked around the table. All the other blitz players were deep in their own conversations, and not paying them any attention. Dona was for once absent, and Tidus was spared one day at least of her attempts to practically rape him in public everyday.
"I've been going extra, extra slow with her, I don't want to scare her off. I still don't know that much about her yet. I figure I can take her to meet the others at this beach thing, so they can get used to her being around. I'm gonna try to get her to come out more physically. She's a beautiful girl under all that disguise, Wakka, I wanna bring it out of her." Tidus said with passion.
Wakka nodded his head slowly. He and Tidus, after that night at the coffee house, had made some unspoken rule not to mention the bet. He really felt Tidus wanted to forget it, and actually liked Yuna. But that was hard since Seymour would pop up all the time and mention it, in fact it was all he mentioned now. He no longer was invited over to Tidus's house. Seymour also always mentioned Jecht around Tidus too, to get a rise out of him. Wakka was beginning to suspect that Seymour didn't like Tidus at all.
Wakka had known Tidus since 5th grade, and knew that he was a good guy, but sometimes did stupid things. Like taking that stupid bet with Seymour. Tidus could never back down from a challenge. He was always feeling like he had to prove himself worthy, even if his heart wasn't into what he was doing. He always did what others would expect of the son of Jecht Akard. Wakka's father was famous too, and he knew what it was like living in someones shadow. Sometimes he too, like Tidus, would do anything to break away and be seen as an individual person. That was one of the reasons he and Tidus were close as brothers. He feared that Tidus was getting in to deep with this girl. It was going to be really bad when the bet came out.
" You think she'll be okay there? Rikku says that Dona and the other cheerleaders are pretty harsh on her. In fact, so are most of the guys over here. It's kinda like sending a goldfish in the pool with the piranhas ya? , at least that's what Rikku says-"
"Rikku says, that's what RIkku says ya?" Tidus did his best impression of Wakka.
"Dude, you are so whipped its disgusting." He teased.
" I am not whipped man, it's just..I mean she has the most perfect set of -"
" GOD Wakka I told you about that man, ugggh." Tidus yelled, covering his ears.
Across the table, Seymour had made out very little of their conversation, since he'd had to pretend to have one at the same time with Barthello so they wouldn't know he was eavesdropping. But he'd heard enough to know that Tidus was bringing the mark to the beach on Friday. He may have to..create some complications, if Tidus's progress kept up.
~
Tidus stared at the clock, 2:40pm. School ended in 20 minutes, and he had yet to ask her out. The whole period she had been blushing whenever he'd spoken to her, and he felt awkward and weird, not knowing the right time to fit it in.
Why was he nervous? He'd asked out dozens of girls and never gotten turned down. He'd just turn on the old Akard charm and go in real heavy. He raked his brain for a cheesy come on move. Yeah! The old stick his feet under the chicks chair and reel her in move. Yeah, that always worked. He put on his 1000 watt smile.
" So, Yuna......" Tidus looked away from his computer screen and turning to face her. He turned and stuck his feet under her chair, hooking them in between the bars under the chair, where students put their books and folders. She turned to face him.
'He's gonna ask me now!! I gotta remember what Rikku said and act like I'm bored and not interested.' Yuna thought excitedly. ' I cant believe he's gonna ask me out!! This is so great!!'
Tidus now had his feet firmly hooked under Yuna's chair. Now all he had to do was reel her in, and ask her out real smooth and cool like.
" So...you doing good, Yuna?....I wanna ask you something..." Tidus said in a seductive voice. He tried his best deep and husky voice, but it sounded more like he was constipated.
"Oh, whatever, like now what Tidus?" Yuna cringed. She had tried to sound nonchalant like Rikku said, but it came out more like a valley girl.
" I was thinking...we could take our friendship...a little closer." Tidus said slowly. He thought in the back of his mind, that if Rikku were here she would have had a seizure from laughing so hard at how stupid he sounded.
" Oh, I don't know what your talking about Tidus, you boys are like all the same."
Yuna said in a sing-song voice. ' God, I sound so stupid. He must think I'm an idiot. But he kinda sounds like an idiot too.' Yuna thought. She batted her eyelids rapidly at Tidus, following Rikku's instructions exactly.
' Right now I know she's thinking about how cool I sound....is something stuck in her eye?'
He nodded his head up and down, something he always did when he was overly pleased with himself. ' Now, for the finishing move.'
He smiled at her, winked for good measure, and pulled at her desk with his feet. It didn't budge. The idea was to pull her real close to his chair, while she still sat in hers, thus looking cool. Well it wasn't working. He pulled harder, his face turning red.
"Umm...Tidus..what are you doing?" Yuna asked slowly. The other students stopped what they were doing to stare at Tidus. A few students began to point and laugh at him.
"My feet...their stuck between the bars under the chair..why won't this stupid chair move anyway? Is it superglued?..." A vein popped up out of Tidus forehead as he strained to pull his feet free.
"...the floors are really sticky. The janitors don't clean them often enough.." Yuna said, covering her mouth with her hand to mask her giggles. More students laughed, getting Mr. Letty's attention. He pulled his hand out of his pants and stood up from his desk.
"Hey!...is that you again Akard!! I was in the middle of someone, err ah I mean something important here!!!" Mr. Letty began to storm down the classroom, heading straight for Tidus.
"No!!" Tidus began to yank harder at the chair. It began to rock, rocking Yuna with it.
"Tidus! Tidus stop! I'm gonna fall over-" Yuna pleaded, but her pleas were in vain.
Tidus saw Mr. Letty reaching for him, and then, remembering where Mr. Letty's hands had been, he summoned the strength to yank his feet towards him. unfortunately the chair and Yuna came along with. Yuna slammed hard against Tidus, knocking him off his chair unto the ground.
"Ouch....geez I'm gonna be feeling this tomorrow...." Tidus groaned, shaking his head. He heard hysterical laughter from all sides of the room. He looked into a pair of beautiful eyes. Yuna's. Her glasses had fallen off somewhere. Her ponytail had also come undone a bit, and silky brown hair sprayed all around him. Yuna had fallen on top of him. And his damned feet where still stuck in that stupid chair. But with Yuna's soft weight on him, he could deal with it. He just hoped he wouldn't embarrass himself further and...hoped that...little Tidus wouldn't wake up and notice Yuna's hips pressing against him. Too late. He could tell she noticed, by her face reddening deeper and her frantic squirming.
The students in the class had begun to gather around them.
"Maybe you should just take your sneakers off." A short girl suggested.
" Stop this...indecent behavior right now!! This is no place for this type of lewd display!!" Mr. Letty snarled. Tidus chuckled despite himself. Mr. chicken choker? Preaching about lewd behavior? He'd have to tell Wakka this one.
"This will look great in the school paper!! Front page in the gossip column!!" Gatta, the school photographer gushed, picking up his camera and snapping pictures. Yuna and Tidus stared in horror at the flashing camera, before Yuna regained her senses and tried to get up.
"Tidus...let go of me..." Yuna squirmed in his arms. He had wrapped his arms around her.
" I can't Yuna....can you wait til..little Tidus goes back to sleep? If I get up everyone will see. . ." He whispered in a whiny voice.
" Well, I don't like. . . little Tidus poking me!" She whispered back. The students were all out of their seats, just laughing and staring at them. Didn't they have anything better to do? She squirmed some more.
"Hey stop squirming!! Your making it worse!!!" Tidus whined. She had never seen his face so red before. But she was sure it paled in comparison to her own. When he said he wanted to get closer to her, he hadn't been lying, that was for sure.
Yuna squirmed a little more, ignoring Tidus's pained protests, and then Principal Mika's voice sounded over the P.A. for the closing announcements.
"Thank Yevon for small favors.." Yuna said softly, as the gawking crowd began to disperse and gather their books to get ready to go home. Even Mr. Letty lost interest in them, running over to his computer and shutting it down quickly. A loud bell rang. All the students piled quickly out of the room, fighting to go tell what they had seen to their friends first. Even Mr. Letty had run out of the room. Well, at least they were alone. Yuna knew it would be all over the school tomorrow. Especially with big gossip and school photographer Gatta on the scene. Composing herself, Yuna picked up one of Tidus's fallen notebooks and placed it carefully in his hands. He in exchange let go of her, reluctantly. She stood up and moved away from Tidus a little, seeing him untie his shoelaces, while carefully holding the notebook over...umm...little Tidus. She looked around the floor for her glasses.
"Looking for these?" She turned around. There Tidus stood, in socks only, with a notebook in front of his waist, dangling her glasses in his hand. He had a sheepish grin on his face. She knew, in that moment, that she would never again see a man in such a horribly embarrassing situation again, and yet somehow still look so attractive and horribly cute. If she wasn't carefully, she would lose her heart and soul to this blitz jock. She put on a annoyed face and walked over towards him. She reached for her glasses, but he pulled his hand away just before she could reach them.
"You better watch it girl. I've got the fastest hands in Luca High." Tidus teased.
" Obviously not the fastest feet." Yuna said, laughing.
He smiled at her for a minute, enjoying the sound of her laughter. He stopped smiling for a moment and cupped her chin. Her laughter faded and the atmosphere in the room got heavier.
" Why do you wear these Yuna? Why do you hide behind them? You have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen." The words were out before he knew what he was saying. He inched closer to her, placing the glasses gently back on her face.
" I..." Yuna put her head down.
' Shit!! I've pushed her a little too much.' He reprimanded himself.
Tidus quickly changed the subject, suddenly remembering what he had been trying to do before he had the biggest klutz attack in the history of Luca High.
" I've just made the biggest fool out of myself, so you have to oblige me, to soothe my wounded ego. I'm going to this, this thing at Kilika Beach Saturday...I want you to come, as my date."
Yuna nearly screamed yes, but, suddenly remembering Rikku's advice to act noninterested, she flipped her hair and turned away from him, walking towards the door.
" Well..?" Tidus asked.
Yuna stopped in the doorway and turned towards him. " Well, gee, I'll have to think about it. " She said coyly, before exiting the room.
Tidus grinned from ear to ear. Yuna Lescing was turning out to be something else.
~
Two days later...Saturday morning
"So I'm picking her up in like a half hour, I've never been to her house before."
Tidus talked in his cell phone, Wakka on the other end. He dug around his closet for his swim trucks.
"I'm picking up Rikku in my jeep. We can all just ride together." Wakka suggested.
"I don't wanna. I kinda wanted to talk to her alone, it's a hour drive to Luca."
"She's still shy right? You don't wanna mess things up for yourself. It'd be easier if we all ride together. Rikku says we could be the new fantastic four. She says that double dates are double the fun and she-"
"Yeah, yeah I get it." Tidus chuckled. " Okay, I'll call her and tell her we're all riding together."
"So there's these rumors going around all in school about you and Yuna groping each other in class." Wakka teased.
"It was an accident. And you know that gossip Gattu took pictures of it, its going to be in the school newspaper next month."
" Dona's pissed off. You don't mind your name being connected with Yuna's brotha?"
"No, I don't. I'm not ashamed of her, to be around her. Everyone's going to flip when I show up with her, but they won't have enough balls to actually make a negative comment. I could show up with a monkey on my arm and they'd say nothing about it." Tidus bragged. He said bye and hung up the phone. He found his blue cargo shorts and a gray tank top and put them on with brown sandles. He heard two knocks at his door and Rikku popped in. He'd have to remember to lock it next time. She was wearing a white string bikini with gold sequins, and a silver belly rope around her stomach. The girl definitely wasn't shy about her body.
"We're not at the beach yet. You might get a little cold. Don't you have anything to wear over that?" Tidus scowled like a overprotective father.
"Of course silly, I'm also wearing this." Rikku pulled out a small straw hat and put it over her head.
"So did Wakka tell you we all should ride together?" Rikku asked.
"Yeah, I gotta call Yuna and tell her-"
" I already did that. She tried to squirm out of it again, but I wouldn't let her. Rikku told Tidus triumphantly.
~
"Yuna, there's a jeep outside honking for you." Ariel yelled to her daughter from her spot at the shop window.
" I'm coming down" Yuna yelled from upstairs.
"Do you mind madam?" A cranky customer complained.
" Just a moment miss, it's just that its my daughter's first group outing and I'm excited-"
" I am not paying you to hear your life story!! Get over here and contact my dearly departed Poopee!" The old woman snarled. Ariel rolled her eyes and went back over to her client. If this was how the woman always behaved, dear Poopee was better off dead. Yuna had told her all about Tidus and her friend Rikku, and she was happy for her daughter.
Yuna ran downstairs quickly, ignoring the knots in her stomach. She had been glad when Rikku had called and said they would ride down together. She wasn't sure how to react if she had to be alone in the car with Tidus all that time. They had never been alone before. She had her long hair in a long braided ponytail down her back. Her glasses were still in place, though lately she had been thinking a lot about what Tidus had told her that day in computer class, about her eyes. She had a modest one piece red swimsuit on, underneath a pair of jean overalls. She was still a basket case when it came to dressing. Rikku had offered her wardrobe to Yuna, but it was a bit too small and revealing for her taste. She slipped on ugly green sandles and ran out to the black jeep.
" Hey Yunie." Rikku said. Wakka and Tidus grinned at her. She looked at Wakka's attire. Was he wearing...speedos? White speedos? And they had gold sequins on them. She bit her tongue to keep from laughing. If it wasn't Tidus embarrassing himself, it was Wakka. Rikku noticed her staring at Wakka.
" I know aren't they great Yunie? I wanted us to match." Rikku said happily. "And they were on sale like 95 percent off, I mean there was a whole truck of them left the store clerk told me!!"
"Oh, how shocking!!" Yuna said sarcastically.
Wakka turned red and Tidus laughed loudly, making a whipping motion with his hand, complete with sound effects.
Tidus pulled Yuna into the backseat with next to him and they pulled off.
The hour passed by easily for Yuna, the foursome having easy banter with each other. Yuna had never had this much fun in a long time.
When Yuna saw the Kilika Beach sign her heart lurched. Could she face all of The IN? It was easy with Rikku, Wakka and Tidus, but the others had always been cruel to her. Her self confidence sank lower and lower as they found a parking spot, on a hill above the beach. It nearly died completely when she saw Seymour and about three other blitzball players walking towards them.
" Hey guys, we made it the same time, the others are down at the beach already." Seymour said, stopping in front of the foursome. The other jocks looked shocked when they saw Yuna, and gave Tidus questioning looks, but said nothing. Seymour leered at her and winked. He didn't seen surprised to see her there. Tidus put a supporting arm around her waist and she jumped a little as a warm feeling washed over her. He had never touched her like this. Well, except in that classroom disaster, but that didn't count. He was comforting her. She would have hugged him if she weren't so nervous.
"This is my friend Yuna." Tidus said brightly.
"Oh hi Yuna."
"What's up."
"Nice meeting you."
The jocks all said in unison. Suddenly they had relaxed again, as if accepting her somewhat.
"Nice suit Wakka!!" Seymour sneered and everyone laughed except Wakka and including Rikku, as they all headed down to the beach.
"It's gonna be okay." Tidus whispered in her ear as they walked down the sandy hill and headed towards a larger group of people, the rest of The In. About 6 other blitzers and 7 cheerleaders, including Dona, who saw Yuna and nearly yelled in outrage. Her face twisted into a bitter scowl as she watched her approach, but it was quickly reversed into a beautiful, seductive pout as she caught eyes with Tidus. Her bikini was even skimpier than Rikku's. She seemed to be using a black piece of ribbon as a bikini top. Everyone smiled at the approaching group and stared in shock when they laid eyes on Yuna. She grabbed on to Tidus's muscular arm, wishing she could die right then and there. She felt like a sideshow freak on display. Here she was, poor social outcast, trying to hang out with these beautiful rich teenagers? What had she been thinking? Tidus tightened his grip on her waist, causing another snort of disgust from Dona and a few gasps.
" This is Yuna, and she's gonna be hanging with me for a while." Tidus said cheerfully. As if he had cast some magic spell, the tension seemed to disappear, well not from Dona, and The In began talking amongst themselves.
" You see, you're okay, Yunie." Rikku walked over to her and put her hand on Yuna's shoulder.
" Who wants to play volleyball? Everybody pick teams!!" The big team goalie Borthello said.
The group walked over to a large volleyball net and divided up into teams. They had decided to do girls vs. guys, with Wakka on the girl team as punishment for wearing speedos. A few guys pulled off their tank tops, and Yuna walked over to the side, turning around and pulling down her overalls, revealing a curvy, tanned body. Small waist and hips that rounded and led down to long, toned legs.
She turned to see the entire group staring at her. Quite a few of the guys had their mouths open. She reddened, but she couldn't say she was surprised. They had probably expected her to be disfigured or something. Dona didn't look to happy, but what was new?
~
Tidus walked Yuna back to her house from Wakka's jeep. The rest of the day had gone well for Yuna, they had played a few games of volleyball, and swam some, and Tidus had never left her side, even though Seymour kept trying to call him over and make him. And Dona kept "accidently" brushing hard into her, and had tried a few times to hit her with the volleyball, "accidently" mind you, but it was still a good day. The In had been more receptive to her after they saw her in her swimsuit. Kinda weird. Guess they saw her as a human being now. Tidus had gawked at her body the whole time, getting angry when he would catch the other guys staring too. Seymour had watched her too, like he was trying to undress her with his eyes. He kept smiling weirdly at her. The guy gave her the creeps.
Yuna and Tidus stopped at Yuna's door.
" I had a great time!! You're right, it wasn't so bad."
" I'm glad you liked it..Yuna..." Tidus reddened a little.
" I was wondering-"
"So you wanna-"
They both laughed as they spoke at the same time.
"There's this party next week. I want you to come with me, Yuna, but alone this time. I mean, Ri and Wakka will be there, but not like today." Tidus said, his voice intense.
" I...okay." She looked into his eyes, and quickly looked down and blushed.
He lifted her head up. " I want you to come without those, Yuna" he said, gesturing towards her glasses. " I wanna see your whole face, for more than just a moment." He was watching her as if he had uncovered some great treasure.
" I...alright." She pulled away from him, smiling, and ran into her house. She watched him climb back into the jeep from the window and screamed in delight and happiness.
" I take it things went well?" Ariel asked from across the room.
"SHUT UP AND FIND MY POOPIE!!!!" The cranky customer yelled.
~
"So are you ready then, Yuna?" Rikku asked Yuna over the phone.
Yuna lay on her bed in her pajamas, the phone to her ear.
"Yes, Rikku...I really like him.. And I'm ready now...Ready for the real me to come out..." She said shyly.
"Yesssss." RIkku hissed on the other end. " We'll go shopping, on my step dad's credit card, do you know it has no credit limit!!! But we won't show the new you until the party next week, for a more dramatic entrance, We'll get your hair cut and a whole new wardrobe....and..."
Yuna listened to the girl rattle on and sighed happily. She was coming out, becoming a new person. She hoped Tidus would be pleased.. She was glad she had found a guy to trust.
Across town, Tidus lay on his bed, and wished with all his heart and soul he had never made that stupid bet. It could ruin his chances with the most amazing girl he had ever met. What was he going to do?
END CHAPTER