12. "Just Be Careful, Okay?"

Yuna sat in her last class of the day and sighed. Tidus had been running through her head all day and she just wanted a moment long break. Let me think of something else, please! She thought as she got out her binder for this class and flipped to a brand new page of paper. She started to make a To Do list for the weekend as a last resort to get him off of her mind, and Paine sat down next to her.

"Hey," Paine greeted Yuna simply as she put her backpack down next to her seat. "How've you been?"

"I've been okay, how about yourself?" She asked as she put her pen down. She knew that if she held onto her pen, she would start to tap it. It was a nervous habit that she just picked up recently, and even she was getting annoyed by it.

"Eh, not bad," she said as there was a moment of silence. If there was one thing that Yuna didn't like about talking to Paine everyday was that there were awkward moments of silence every once and a while. "So, I need to ask you an impertinent question here."

"Okay, shoot," Yuna said.

"This is weird to say because I don't think I have ever said before, but is there something going on between you and Tidus?" Yuna sighed at Paine's sentence. Hmm, how many people did he tell? Yuna thought to herself as she tapped her nails against the desk surface. He promised he wouldn't say anything...

"Nothing is going on between Tidus and I, why do you ask?" Yuna asked Paine who shrugged.

"Well, it's just that the boy never shuts up about you." Yuna sat up straight in her seat, intrigued. "It's funny to think of Tidus involved with a girl on a larger scale than a one night stand, but I guess even something as extreme as that is possible."

"He talks about me?"

"No no no, he doesn't just talk about you. He never shuts up about you. I think he told everyone about twelve times today that you were tutoring him. I asked him about it and he just played it cool, but that's Tidus. Therefore, I thought I would just go to you." Yuna shyly smiled and Paine got an amused smile of her own on her face. "Ah, so I take it that something is going on?"

"No, nothing's going on," Yuna said to Paine as Paine gave her a disbelieving look. "No, seriously. I'm tutoring him in history, but that's it. Nothing...romantic about that."

"Okay," Paine said, obviously not believing a word that Yuna said. She knew Tidus well enough to figure out that it was weird that he was talking so much about a girl. Not only was he talking about Yuna a lot, but it was sincere talk, and didn't just center around him wanting to have sex with her. That was a new side of Tidus that Paine didn't think anyone ever saw. After another moment of silence, Paine spoke again. "You going to Rikku's party tonight?"

"I honestly didn't know that Rikku was having a party," Yuna said as she looked down. Great, what a way to feel left out...She knew that Paine didn't mean anything by asking her, but Yuna definitely felt out of it.

"Oh, sorry, I..." Paine started as Yuna cut in.

"No, don't worry about it," Yuna said coolly even though she was hurt. It's probably because of the way I talked to Tidus today...That was the only logical explanation that she could come up with. She befriended both him and Rikku, and knowing they were the ones giving out the verbal invites, she was very hurt that she didn't receive one.

"I just figured that Tidus would've asked you to go or something," Paine said to save herself from opening her mouth.

"I'm just his tutor," she said quietly. Yuna knew that she wanted more than that, but she couldn't deal with the heartbreak that it would surely bring. She had been at A-East for a couple of days now, and the only positive things that she had heard about Tidus have been related to blitzball.

"Oh," Paine said as she slightly trailed off. Awkward silence again...Yuna thought as she reached for her pen. "So, how is the tutoring going?"

"Rather well," Yuna stated matter of factly, remembering what he said in history today. "He actually seems to be doing the reading, so I take that as progress."

"Really?" Paine said, impressed. "That's very un-Tidus-like."

"Yeah, that's what I've heard," Yuna said with a smile. "I'm pretty proud of myself."

"How, um, does Rikku feel about all of this?" Paine asked.

"She hasn't said anything about it." Yuna frowned at the question. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's just that Rikku and Tidus are close," Paine said as she shrugged. "She has a tendency to get jealous easily."

"I thought that Rikku was dating someone."

"She is, but it doesn't matter." Paine turned in her seat so she was facing Yuna. "You see, Rikku and Tidus have a very special place in each other's hearts. They've been through so much, and they've always been there to comfort each other. For example, when Rikku's mother died a couple of years ago, Tidus was the one shoulder she could cry on. The list goes on and on, but they protect each other with all they have."

"I don't see how I have any part in that," Yuna said thinking about the situation. "It's not like I spend a lot of time with Tidus. It's one night a week, and I've only been here like three days."

"It's not just you spending time with him, it's the fact that she knows that you're constantly on his mind." Yuna tried to understand, but she couldn't. The look on her face explained that to Paine, so Paine continued. "Rikku doesn't like change. She wants Tidus to stay the way he is, and the fact that he's now studying and thinking about a girl longer than the time he has sex with her is a major change for Tidus...thus pisses off Rikku in the process."

"Well, that's not fair to me. Actually, that's not fair to Tidus either," Yuna protested. "If Rikku doesn't want him to change and he does, it's her own fault. People change, people mature."

"Rikku doesn't understand that," Paine said with a smirk. "Just...be careful, okay?"

"I don't have anything to be careful about," Yuna said defiantly. "There is nothing going on between Tidus and I, so Rikku has nothing to worry about. Tidus doesn't have anything to worry about either."

"Okay," Paine said as she dropped the subject. Yuna was happy when there was finally silence for a moment so she wouldn't have to talk about him anymore, but not talking roughly translated into Yuna thinking some more. I'm getting a migraine from thinking about this boy! Yuna thought as she sighed. She tried to pay attention in class, but it was just about as successful as getting her mind off of Tidus.

As soon as the bell rang, Yuna got out of her seat and bolted to her locker. She didn't want to see Tidus on her way out, and of course she did. However, unlike the last few days where he walked up to her and flirted with her, he simply looked at her and sweetly waved. Why is he making this so much harder on me? She innocently waved back and continued to her locker so she could get out of the school as quickly as she could.

When she reached her car, she found herself slightly disappointed that Tidus didn't run out and find her. She shook her head at herself, threw her books and her purse in the passenger seat of her car, and started her car up. Surprisingly, it didn't take her long to get out on the road to head home.

"I kind of liked it your way, how you shyly placed your eyes on me...Oh, did you ever know? That I had mine on you...Darling, so there you are, with that look on your face, as if you're never hurt, as if you're never down..." Yuna sang along with the radio as she drove home. Music usually calmed her down and cleared her soul, but not when she was singing songs about laying eyes on people who laid their eyes on her. She was still fighting with herself over her thinking of Tidus, so she exhaled loudly as she stopped at a red light. "Yuna, get yourself together," she scolded herself as she tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. She heard her cell phone ring, so she reached over to the passenger seat to grab it out of her purse. She looked at the number and didn't recognize it.

"Hello?" She said in confusion as the light turned green.

"Hey, Yuna, it's Rikku." Yuna half smiled as she heard Rikku's cheery voice on the other end. She would've fully smiled if it wasn't for the conversation that she had with Paine earlier, but now she felt as if Rikku would chastise her for taking away her 'Tidus time.' However, Rikku sounded quite happy and bubbly, so she figured the coast was clear.

"Oh, hey, Rikku! I didn't put your number in my phone yet, so I was a little confused." Yuna explained as she continued driving to her house.

"I was just wondering what you were doing tonight. My dad is going out of town and I'm going to throw a little party," she said as Yuna slightly frowned and gripped the steering wheel a little harder. She knew that Tidus would be there, and she wasn't sure how she would feel seeing him at the moment.

"I'm not doing anything all weekend except homework," Yuna said as she pulled into her driveway.

"Great! I think people are going to start to come over at about, ooooh, I'm gonna say 9:30ish, so if you want to shakey shake your way over here at that time or any time after, that'd be great."

"Yeah, I might," she said hesitantly. As much as Yuna wanted to go, she wasn't sure how it would fly with her parents. She couldn't tell Rikku that she was an 18 year old with a 1:00am curfew on the weekends. It was embarrassing to even say that to herself, yet alone the most popular girl in school. Not to mention that after the mishap of coming home late the previous night, she would have a heck of a time convincing her parents that she was just going to have bonding time with Rikku again.

"Aww, I really hope you'll be there!" Rikku said with a slight wining tone in her voice. Yuna rolled her eyes and sighed. "People are spending the night, too!"

"If I can be there, I'll be there." Yuna said as she turned off her car and started to walk inside. A party did sound like a lot of fun. Although she didn't drink, it would be nice to meet more people from A-East.

"You promise?"

"I promise," she said as she started to take off her boots. As much as she loved her boots, they were a pain to get off and on. Rikku squealed on the other line in such a high register that Yuna had to move the phone away from her ear so she wouldn't go deaf.

"Awesome! Well, I'll see ya then!" Before Yuna had a chance to say goodbye, Rikku hung up her phone. She blinked at her phone a couple of times before she laughed and closed it.

"You owe me," Rikku said to Tidus as she hung up her phone.

"You're the best, Rikku!" Tidus gave her a huge hug then ran off to blitz practice, leaving Rikku to shake her head at him.

So the next time I update will include Rikku's party! Rikku is planning something...and only time will tell what her little scheme is :) Dun dun dun! More drama, fluff, and sarcastic remarks in the next few upcoming chapters! R and R please!