3. A Fair Warning
Yuna sighed as she sat down in her seat for the last class of her day. She had only been at A-East for about seven hours and al ready she was overwhelmed. The more she went through her day at Zanarkand A-East, the more she missed everything back in Bevelle. She missed her friends, her grandparents, and most of all, Yu Yevon Academy. Everything in Zanarkand was so different, and she wasn't sure if she would be able to accustom herself to this new environment. She was used to being the most popular and loved girl at her school. Whenever she used to walk down her hall, she would be surrounded by people asking her how she was, what new ideas she had for the school, how her family was, and so on. She really didn't meet anyone new here yet, except for Tidus in her first hour class. As cocky as he appeared to be, she was upset when she didn't see him in any of her other classes, but she figured that she would be able to see him in first hour tomorrow.
She unconsciously tapped her pen against her notebook, indulged in her own thoughts, when a tall girl sat next to her. Yuna looked at her and thought to herself, Oh wow, I wouldn't want to get into a fight with her…The girl had short silver colored hair, a serious look on her face, and eyes that looked like they could kill. Yuna tried not to stare, but the girl noticed it.
"Can I help you?" She asked with a scorn look upon her face. Yuna shook her head and then went back to tapping her pen. "Paine."
"I'm sorry?" Yuna asked politely to the girl.
"My name is Paine." Yuna introduced herself to Paine and stopped tapping her pen. "You're new right?"
"Yeah, I guess everyone knows that about now," Yuna said quietly. She was quite aware that everyone in the school knew her as the 'new girl' and she wasn't too happy about it. At least I'm well known…she thought to herself as optimistically as possible.
"But you're still alive, so consider yourself rather lucky," Yuna wasn't sure how she should take this girl's humor. It was a little on the dry side, very unlike her own. She wasn't aware of the look she was giving Paine, and Paine cracked a smile. "I'm kidding."
"Oh, of course," Yuna said with a smile. "It's just weird being the only new girl, ya know? Especially since it's almost homecoming and stuff like that."
"Yeah, I see what you mean," Paine replied as she looked forward again. Yuna was kind of uncomfortable; this was possibly the most awkward conversation she's ever had with anyone. Well…she thought, Maybe not as awkward as the one I had withMr. 'Blitz Star'this morning…
"Hey, I have a random, yet not so random I guess you could say, question," Yuna started as she sat up straight and faced Paine. "What do you think of the blitzball guy, Tidus?"
"What about him?" Paine asked as Yuna scrambled to think of an excuse.
"Well, I've just seen his picture everywhere in the school, and I figure that if I want to be part of this school I should vote for homecoming king and stuff, and I, um, know that he's up for king," Yuna said, quite proud of her excuse.
"Tidus won't have any competition for king, and he knows it," Paine explained, almost in annoyance. "He is by far the most popular guy in this school. He's the star player of our blitzball team, he's the best looking guy in school, and let me tell you, that bastard knows it."
"Ah, one of those," Yuna said as she sank back into her chair a little bit, a little disappointed. Paine noticed her disappointment and smirked.
"Why the look?"
"Look? It's not really a look, it's just...Oh, well, he was just trying to hit on me today in history class, and I was just wondering if it was how he actually was. I mean, after a minute of me being insulted by the way he was talking to me, he kind of became sweet, but I figured that he was just trying to feel me out and see which 'side' of him I liked the most. I figured it was just an act," Yuna tried to laugh it off, but it obviously bothered her. "I guess I was right."
"Okay, let me tell you something." Paine wasn't going to lie to Yuna so she figured she could give her a heads up about Tidus and his reputation that was well known all throughout Zanarkand. She turned toward Yuna so she could grab Yuna's full attention as she explained. "I love Tidus to death. He's good friends with some of my good friends, so we hang out on occasion. However, just as a warning, don't get involved with him. Yes, he's good looking, yes, he's a very talented athlete, but the only thing on that boy's mind is sex."
"Well, that's what is on most guys' mind when they're 18 years old," Yuna said as she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not that naïve."
"Yes, this is true, but Tidus is different. Like I said, he knows he's the most popular guy in school and knows that he can get down any girls' pants for that reason. There aren't many guys who can walk around saying, 'hey I fucked the entire cheerleading team,' ya know?"
"The entire cheerleading team?" Yuna cried as her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She leaned back in her seat, thinking of that situation. "Oh wow."
"Okay, I'mexaggerating a little bit becausethat's not exactly true," Paine continued as she tried to calm Yuna down. "The head of the cheerleading squad, Rikku, is his best friend and they've never had sex. Well, as long as I've known them both they haven't."
"Hey, I think Rikku was in my history class," Yuna said as she perked up a little bit. "Blonde, short, kinda perky?"
"If she was sitting by Tidus, then yes." Paine said as she rolled her eyes. "The thing about Rikku; she will protect Tidus with everything that she has. They're best friends, and when you see one, the other isn't far behind. I hang out with her quite a bit as well, due to the fact that her boyfriend is my boyfriend's best friend, so I guess you could say I know her fairly well. Although she looks like she's rather on the dumb, girly side sometimes…Well, she really is dumb and girly, but what I'm trying to say is that she'svery malevolent."
"Ah," Yuna said as she watched the teacher walk inside the room. She opened up her notebook, and then looked back at Paine. "So, you said she's the head of the cheerleading squad, huh?"
"Yep," Paine replied dryly as she reached into her backpack for her book and notebook.
"Hmmm," Yuna said quietly as thoughts started to come together in her head. She needed more information about this Tidus before she sought him out again.
The second the bell rang, Tidus leaped out of his seat. He walked briskly to his locker to put everything away so he could go to the sphere pool to practice blitzball. This was Tidus' favorite time of the day; being in the sphere pool practicing and not thinking about anything else. As much as he loved flirting and fooling around with girls, blitz was higher on his favorites list.
"What's your hurry, Ti?" Rikku said to Tidus as almost ran into her. "Ah, that's right. Time to kick the crap out of your teammates at practice, huh?"
"Of course!" He exclaimed with a boyish grin. "You gonna kick the crap out of your squad too?"
"You know me," she returned as they started to walk toward the gym. "Oh, shit, I forgot that I need to go to my car because I left my sweats in there. Wanna come with?"
"Yeah, I guess I have a few minutes to spare," he said as he looked at his watch. They walked outside into the sunshine as everyone else raced to their cars. If there was another thing Tidus loved about having blitz practice right after school, it was the fact that he didn't have to deal with the traffic every day to leave the parking lot.
"Oh hey, look," Rikku noted as she motioned a little to the left. Tidus followed her shrug and broke into a smile when he saw Yuna walking to her car. She gently moved her hair away from her face as the breeze tossed it in a way that made Tidus go crazy. When they reached Rikku's Mercedes convertible, she looked at Tidus and batted her eyes. "It's your lover girl."
"She's not my lover girl," Tidus exhaled as he watched Yuna's every move. "She will be though. Just give me time."
"Let's think about this logically," Rikku said as she unlocked her car and bent over to grab her sweats. "The second that girl hears about your reputation, she'll run all the way to Luca. She's got the word 'virgin' tattooed all over her forehead."
"Virgins are the best to break," Tidus said with a devious smile and looked at his watch again, not noticing the glare in Rikku's eyes. "Okay, I've got about five minutes before I have to be in the sphere pool. Do you think I have time to go talk to her and risk Wakka biting my head off?"
"Go talk to her so I don't have to deal with you anymore," she shot at him as she locked her door and started to walk toward the building. "Call me later."
"I will." Tidus looked in Rikku's rear view mirror to check his hair and ran his hand through it a few times to calm the strays. He exhaled as he walked over to where Yuna was getting into her car. He knew that he didn't have to hurry; she wasn't going to be able to get out of her parking spot for about another ten minutes due to everyone else trying to get out of the parking lot. She put the top of her convertible down and rolled down her windows. Tidus watched her as she put on her sunglasses and applied some lip gloss. God, she's so damn hot…He thought as he walked closer to her. She wasn't facing him, so he walked right up to her car and rested his arms on her car door, scaring her half to death.
"Oh my Yevon, please don't ever do that again!" She gasped as she placed her hand over her heart to make sure it was still beating.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," he said sincerely with a smile. "I just wanted to say 'hi' and ask you how your first day of school went."
"It was fine, thank you." Yuna's response had a very noticeableedgeto it. She didn't forget what Paine said and she knew that she didn't want to fall for a guy like that.
"Hey, you okay?" Tidus asked when he heard the sharpness of her tone. She nodded at him and looked behind her to see if she could move her car yet. The quicker she could leave, the happier she would be. Tidus noticed where she was glancing and smiled.
"Zaon, how long does it take to get out of here?" She questioned as she tapped her fingers against her steering wheel.
"Well, it takes a long time," he said as she sighed. "So you might want to hold your chocobos until then."
"Okay, look," she started as she moved her sunglasses to the top of her head and looked at him. "I really appreciate that you're trying to be nice to me, ya know, making me feel welcome and whatnot, but if you're just trying to get down my pants, you better lay off."
"Whoa whoa whoa." Tidus put his hands up to stop her from continuing. He was taken a little off guard by her outburst, and he wasn't used to being talked to like that. "What are you talking about?"
"I've heard a lot about you, Tidus," she said matter-of-factly as she checked behind her again. Thankfully she saw that someone was going to let her in, so she started to back up. "I'm not that kind of girl."
"What?" Tidus called out in disbelief as she turned up her radio and drove away. He scoffed and walked toward the sphere pool for practice in defeat. For the first time in his life, he wasn't looking forward to practice.