Yay! Two more chapters! It kind of took me a while to write these...but there's some fluff and stuff in them. :) That makes me happy because I'm a sucker for romance. Okay, a few notes about this chapter because it might help you get a visual in your head...cuz there was a definite visual in mine as I wrote this. Okay, first of all...The A-East Cheerleading outfits look basically like a mixture of Yuna's Gunner Dressphere and Yuna's Songstress Dressphere. Further Detail: The top of the cheerleading outfit is exactly like Yuna's Gunner shirt, only in yellow. (A-East's school colors are yellow and black) Also, there isn't any lace on the bottom, no arm band thingies, and no hood. The skirt portion is like Yuna's Songstress skirt...black and kind of frilly like that. HOWEVER, when you think of the skirt, you can't think of the frilly stuff that is coming down from the shirt of the Songstress Dressphere...because that's not part of the cheerleading outfit! Only the black skirt. Also, the C-South Duggles (if you need a visual for this as well) are the blitz team that the Zanarkand Abes are playing against in the first FMV of FFX. So that's what they look like. Kay, one more thing...The Real Emotion part: I do not own that song, but it is an absolutely amazing song. (Not to mention that I can't think of Yuna dancing to anything else but that!) If you listen to the song while you read the part with it in it...it matches up perfectly. (In my head it does...lol) It's kinda cool and I'm quite proud of myself. Okay, enough with the author's notes! Happy reading!

22. Dealing With Real Emotion

Zanarkand A-East's stadium was packed for the game against the C-South Duggles. Students from A-East were all in their school colors, yellow and black, and ready to cheer on the Abes. On the visitor's side of the stadium, the students from C-South represented their school by wearing purple and black. Many A-East students made signs and banners with the players names on them, "Go Abes," "Go A-East," "Crush the Duggles," and so on. The place was bursting at the seams with excitement.

Inside the boys locker room, the Abes were sitting down listening to a pep talk from Wakka to get them pumped up for the game. Wakka didn't even need to speak to get them all excited because this was their favorite game of the year, mainly because it was always so intense. Against other teams, the Abes were able to win by about six or seven goals, but with the Duggles, it's always a tied game until the last thirty seconds of the game.

"Now, we've won the last...oooh...four years against the Duggles and what are we going to do this year!" Wakka asked.

"Kick their fucking asses all the way to Besaid! WHOO!" Tidus yelled and the rest of the team burst out into laughter.

"Ya, listen to your captain everyone!" Wakka said with a huge smile, thrilled to see that Tidus' head was actually in the game today. Wakka hoped that Tidus would actually stay focused and not be side tracked like he has been for about the last week during practice. It was the first time in a while where Tidus had his full attention on blitzball and not on Yuna, and it was obvious to himself as well as the rest of his team and Wakka. "You ready?"

"Let's blitz!" They shouted in unison as they stood up and ran toward the sphere pool.

Tidus clapped his hands in front of him as the door to the pool entrance opened. "Here we go! Psyche yourself up, baby!"

"Yo, Tidus!" The sound of Wakka's voice caused Tidus to whip around. He threw a blitzball toward him and Tidus caught it easily. "I'm counting on you, brudda. I don't want any hypothetical women being on your mind to distract ya, you know?"

"I won't let you down, coach," Tidus reassured with a smile as he followed the rest of his teammates.

Tidus never got tired of the moments before the game. His captain status gave him the privilege to stand on a platform that was placed on a well-lit edge of the sphere pool with the ball that Wakka threw to him and wave so everyone could cheer. He had to laugh to himself when he saw a group of girls holding up a poster that said, "Tidus, I want to have your children!" A bright light flashed and the crowd cheered louder. The water jets started to fill up the pool and the adrenaline rushed through Tidus' body as he took in everything around him. He ran back to be with his teammates so they could wait for the sphere pool to finish filling up.

As soon as it was full, both the Abes and the Duggles went in the water to warm their muscles up. Tidus watched his teammates throw the ball back and forth to each other and looked over at the cheerleaders. Holy shit...Rikku put her on the squad...He noticed Yuna standing with the rest of the girls in the yellow and black uniforms, hair up in a ponytail, holding her pom poms in her hands, and simply glowing with delight. He had to smile at the way she was slightly bouncing on her toes...Almost like a Rikku clone...He shook his head to get that frightening thought as far away from his mind as possible. She looked up at the sphere pool and smiled, causing him to naturally smile back. She probably doesn't even realize that I'm looking at her...He thought as he turned away to toss the ball with his teammates.

"Are we ready to cheer, girls?" Rikku asked them all as they all squealed in delight. Oh Yevon, did I really just squeal in public? Yuna asked herself in her head and had to softly laugh at herself. "Okay, so the game is going to start in a little bit, so just relax here for a while, all right?"

Everyone nodded in reply as they all moved things off their seats to sit down. Yuna remained standing for a minute as she looked at the pom poms in her hands, gently shook them, and slightly bounced on her toes. I'm on the cheerleading squad. Probably the only virgin on the squad, but what can ya do? I'm on the cheerleading squad. I can't believe I'm on the cheerleading squad. What is wrong with me? Again she had to laugh at herself and then she looked up at the blitz players in the sphere pool. She could've sworn that Tidus looked her way, but she figured it was just her imagination. Oh boy, if you only knew how much make up you made me put on my neck tonight...She smiled to herself as she touched her neck gently so she wouldn't ruin the make up job that Rikku had to do again before the game. She realized she needed to calm down a little bit from nervousness, so she sat down in her seat and waited for the game to start.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's halftime!" The announcer said through the speaker system when the buzzer went off. Everyone was cheering and screaming as the blitz players left the sphere pool. "Both teams are doing great and the score proves that! Yes, everyone, the score is tied right now, 3 to 3! I wonder what we have in store for us in the second half! Just remember that this game is brought to you by O'aka the XXIII's Travel Agency chain located all over Spira..."

Rikku was scrambling around the other cheerleaders as the announcer was talking before they performed their half time show. They were to perform on stage, which would be in the middle of the sphere pool. The sphere pool had to be drained first so it could be filled with freshly chlorinated water for the blitz teams for the second half. Rikku quickly fixed her own hair, looked over every else's hair and make up, made sure they had their uniforms on correctly, made sure their pom poms were in good shape, and tried to get everyone excited.

"Yay! It looks like we're all set!" She said happily as she hopped over to Yuna. "Okay, you all set, Yuna?"

"Yeah, I think so." She was terrified out of her mind, but she tried to convince Rikku that she was capable of doing this. With a shaky smile, she quickly stretched her legs. "I just hope I don't forget anything."

"Don't worry, I'm standing next to you, so if you forget anything just look over at me, okay?" Yuna smiled and nodded at Rikku, yet still was very nervous.

"What can I do for you?" The music blared as the cheerleaders all got out into their formation to start the dance. "What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? I can't hear you...What can I do for you?"

Tidus and the other blitz guys walked to the entrance of the sphere pool to watch the cheerleaders dance like they do every game. Wow, that girl can really move...Tidus thought as he watched Yuna's moves very closely.

"Hey, Tidus, that's your girl, ya?" Jassu said as he put his hand on Tidus' shoulder. Tidus smiled yet shook his head.

"No, she's not my girl, Jassu." He leaned up against the wall and kept on watching them.

"If she moves like that in bed, I'm sure she'd be the best lay you've ever had, you know?" Datto said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that," Tidus said as he softly chuckled. "I would love to give that one a test drive."

"Wait, I thought that you did at Rikku's on Saturday?" Letty asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"No, he fucked Naida that night, don't you remember?" Keepa said as Tidus put his head down, not wanting to have that memory brought up. All he could think of was the look on Yuna's face when she confronted him about it. And of course how she smacked me...

"No, I don't remember a lot of things about that night," Letty said with a chuckle.

"Why didn't you have sex with her at Rikku's? She was drunk enough," Botta said as he fixed his ponytail.

"Yeah, I know she was," Tidus said as he put his hand on his hair and shook it so he would get some of the water off. "But, I dunno."

"Work on it tonight then, Ti," Keepa said. "When we go to Wakka's house, ya?"

"We have to be sober tonight, too," Datto said as he gently hit Tidus on the chest.

"I don't know, you guys," Tidus said as put his hands in his pockets. The other five guys on the team gave him an unexpected look as he shrugged. "I don't think I could."

"Wakka wouldn't mind," Keepa said as Tidus chuckled.

"That's not what I meant." Tidus rolled his eyes and kept a smile on his face. On the other hand, I don't think that Wakka would appreciate me having sex with a girl in his house while his wife and baby are under the same roof. Then again I don't think Wakka would want me having sex with a girl in his house period.

"Come on, what could be better than winning a game against our rivals and getting laid in the same night?" Jassu asked as Tidus shook his head again.

"Who are you, brudda?" Letty said as they all surrounded him. Tidus didn't say anything; he only kept his gaze on Yuna's dancing.

"Oh, I see, I see," Datto said as he nodded. "You really like this girl, ya?"

"Why are you guys saying that like it's a bad thing? Datto and Keepa, you both have girlfriends," Tidus said, staying slightly on the defensive side.

"Ya, we do," Keepa said as he and Datto nodded. "But we also don't have a reputation like you do."

"How come every single argument about this somehow finds its way back to my reputation?" Tidus asked as he took his hands out of his pocket and crossed them over his chest. "Is there something wrong with me actually having sincere feelings toward a girl?"

"It's not just because of your reputation, Ti, it's also because of..." Keepa trailed off as Tidus looked at him to continue. "Okay, it is because of your reputation."

"If you really like the girl, explain it to her," Botta said as they watched the song come to a close and the cheerleaders hit their final pose. "Hell, she's a better dancer than Rikku is."

"Heh, don't tell Rikku that," Tidus said with a chuckle. "I think she'd claw your eyes out and start screaming in Al Bhed."

"I'm smarter than that, brudda," Botta said with a laugh. "But in all seriousness, tell her how you feel."

"Just don't let yourself dwell on it during the game," Letty said as a friendly warning. "I think it would be more impressive if you made the winning goal and then tried to ask her out than us being all pissed off because we fucked up somewhere."

"She doesn't really care about that," he said as he ran his fingers through his hair again and sighed. "I guess we'll see what happens." The conversation ended there, and Tidus walked back into the locker room to wait for the sphere pool to fill up again. 'Don't dwell on it?' Heh, thanks Letty, that just made me think about it...