AN: Yes the LSC's are finally here and something will happen next chap. The lyrics for the cheer in this aren't actually mine. It's someone else's song, although I changed the words a bit it still isn't mine. I also have never heard of the name Larissa or even know if it exists it just sounds nice. I dunno whether you have penalties in BB but still I put them in neway. It is my fic after all.

Well that's all

Luv ya peeps hope 2 get lots of luvly reviews. -

…The crowd went wild with cheers and shouts and the long lasting whistle of Tidus. A few snobs from Macalania raised their eyebrows, but this was it. It had begun. The LSC's…

Chapter 8 Old Acquaintances

I took a bow on stage the crowd really liked me. I was overwhelmed with cheers and Tidus' whistle could be heard from a mile off. After I'd come off the stage I went to find Tidus and everyone else. As I moved past everyone in the seats apologising I saw some of my old 'friends' from Macalania. I hoping they wouldn't suddenly shout out that they knew me. I think Tidus called me and patted a seat next to him before they could have said anything anyway.

"Hey Luthae over here."

Luthae squeezed past all the Macalania snobs with thankfulness it seemed and sat beside Tidus.

"Hi so how did I do?" Luthae asked

"You were excellentariffic!" Rikku declared Luthae giggled at her friend's unique use of language.

"Yeah the words really got to you." Yuna added taking a few hinting glances at Tidus, "Don't you think so Tidus?"

"Yeah." Tidus replied enthusiastically not taking the hint.

"So," Luthae said changing the subject, "What's first in the LSC's?"

"Dunno I think there's a few blitz games lasting an hour and the first rounds of the battle tournament."

Paine was true to her word. It was the Bikanel Machines verses the Macalania Frostbite's. It was quite a fierce game Luthae thought on Macalania's part, they tackled very harshly especially a female guado with a pure white made up face. Paine, Rikku, Tidus, Buddy, Shinra and Gippal jeered when they scored, but Luthae was hesitant to do so. She felt thought that she had the right to as she was sure and Tidus and the others agreed they'd cheated on that and a couple of other goals. Of course they had gone unnoticed, as Luthae had noticed that her brother was sitting in the judges panel with the other maesters and the stadium staff.

After an hour there came out victorious guados and some very painfully defeated and injured Al Bhed. Most of them had received bruises and the goalie from the first half came out holding his head as he'd been knocked out in sometime before half time by a shot from two guado. One had made the first shot, but it was obviously going to stop before the goal if the female guado hadn't made another shot that made it continued it's journey at a speed way to fast to catch that had gone straight for the goalie's head. Luthae and the others were appalled at the aftermath when the teams had gone back into the changing room. Members of Macalania either leaned over at of walked over on purpose to members from Bikanel to gloat.

"Fayth what a bitch." Paine declared taking an evil look at the white-faced girl who was waving and blowing kisses to the Macalania crowd.

"Yeah," Luthae agreed tentatively.

The truth was Luthae knew that guado. She'd thought she was her friend until she started hanging round with these bullies who'd beaten Luthae up and taken some money and shouted insulting names at her from time to time. It had turned out that she'd been part of the gang all along and was only 'friends' with Luthae because she'd wanted to go out with her brother. After the first game there were some about three more blitz games with breaks in between the Thunders weren't in that it was The Besaid Gusts, Mi'hen Cannons, Ronso Roarers, North Wharf Winners, Killika Flames and Bevelle Beaters. Then they had one of the three first rounds of the battle tournament.

Luthae and Paine weren't in the first one but Tidus was. The other cheered him on as he was going down and Luthae did quite a feeble whistle, Yuna and Tidus had been teaching her and Paine how to do it, but Paine had given up after not being able to do it the first two times. About 50 people were lined up in opposite couples on the flat stage that Luthae had sung on. Luthae saw Larissa the white-faced guado next to Tidus and she kept looking over and batting her heavily made-up eyes at him. He returned with an expression that said 'what the?' Still she filled up with the grudge she'd had when she found out she was the source of the bullying. Luthae was like Paine in the way she didn't lose a grudge.

That's my boyfriend bitch. Go get your own like, Seymour. Yeah go get him out my life for me.

The first round Luthae found out wasn't that eventful. It was just big a knockout round, but she figured with so many people going in for it that they had to do it that way. Soon Luthae and Paine were up. Tidus had got through and knocked out his opponent and unfortunately for Luthae so had Larissa. She kept trying to cling to Tidus and flirt with him, but as soon as Tidus reached his seat and Larissa was already at hers still standing up Yuna gave her a look that said 'touch him and your dead' and Larissa, like so many others before her thought the same thing.

"Oh my, Yevon and good Fayth you two are going out, that is like sooooo cute." She knew who Yuna was of course and she gave a really high-pitched drone of a laugh that for Tidus seemed to go on for an eternity.

"LET THE SECOND OF THE THREE FIRST ROUNDS FOR THE LUCA SCHOOL'S CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE TOURNAMENT COMMENCE!" the loudspeaker blasted out.

Here goes. Luthae thought

Fayth why do they always have to do the full lot instead of abbreviating the LSC's that's just stupid. She heard Paine think, it made Luthae give a little snigger. The number was pretty much the same as the first lot 50. Luthae was up against and Al Bhed that didn't look like he knew his left from his right and Paine was up against a guy from Luca. Luthae heard Paine think that he was pretty cute for a Luca guy. That comment made Luthae roll her eyes. Paine could be rather stereotypical when she wanted or sometimes didn't mean to be.

A whistle went that signalled the players to start. The Al Bhed Luthae was against charged forward hoping to catch Luthae unawares, but Luthae was on her guard. She dodged the attack quite easily and the Al Bhed almost if not did run into the wall that had been placed round the stage area.

Stupid, everyone always does the same. Luthae thought 'Oh I'll charge and catch her unawares.' This battle should be easy if I use my powers, but that would be cheating. I don't want knowing I'm that sort of person hanging on my conscience.

Luthae turned to face her opponent and used Haste as he was going to take another attack. Luthae dodged and tried to poison him, but he was wearing a star pendant. She then used blind on him. That stopped him for a bit, but to Luthae's disappointment, after a few attacks for her the Al Bhed trying to resist the blindness but missing Luthae every time he used some eye drops and was for some reason immune to it and continued to viciously attack Luthae. She tried to doge but they were quick and continuous, but Luthae gave a good defence as that was her strength and knew what she was going to do. She watched Paine while she was being hit, Paine was smaller than her opponent, but he seemed to be pretty slow and stupid despite his gorgeous looks and Paine had the upper hand she was also giving powerful and continuous attacks, but she could afford because she was strong.

Luthae was down to her last few HP and the Al Bhed had stopped his attacks thinking he had won, but Luthae was ready. She hauled herself up off the floor and used Haste again to make her faster. Paine knew what she was going to do, she looked over at Luthae as she had finished her opponent off a while back and she smiled. She knew what Luthae was going to do. Luthae after using Haste just as she had with Ormi ran round the Al Bhed. The Al Bhed that was hopeless with something like this kept turning round and round to watch Luthae and eventually got dizzy himself. Luthae attacked him a few times after he was dizzy, she was going to attack as she went around him, but as he did not seem particularly bright she gave him a fair chance and refrained from doing so. She only attacked him about five times before thinking of something. She petrified the Al Bhed and then started teasing him with things like 'Come and attack me. Oh no you can't ' as a joke. Paine laughed

"Now that's just showing off."

A whistle blew again after a few minutes and all victors went back to an office to have a form they had been given at the beginning signed to show they had got through before going back to their seats. The losers were either getting revived, unpoisoned, unpetrified etc. Luthae went back to the seats with Paine. Everyone congratulated Paine and then Tidus asked if Luthae had got through. Knowing Paine was a good fighter they assumed she had and knew because she would have told them otherwise.

"How did you do?" Rikku and Yuna chorused

Luthae held up the form.

"I'm through!" she yelled.

Yuna, Rikku and the other whooped and Tidus gave Paine and Luthae a one armed hug.

"I knew you would be," He said "Both of you. Good thing to I didn't want to be left on my own a second longer with that guado." He continued gesturing with his head over to Larissa who saw him gave him a beaming smile battered her eyelashes again and waved at him.

The third round was of little interest to any of the guys after that and seeing as the Thunders game was up next they went to hang out in the changing room. Fifteen minutes later guys who weren't in the game left, but Luthae who was going to do the cheer for the Thunders. Luthae waited for her call from a hand backstage that was going to raise the blitz platform when she'd finish. Luthae nervously peeked out of the door it didn't feel as bad as the first time she'd done something in front of this crowd.

"Hey," she spoke down the mic, "It's me again, The Thunders have asked me do something that will hopefully get you all especially all you Djose dudes out there to get in mood for the game."

Luthae started to clap her hands twice and then hold them up in the air for the third beat. For a few seconds no one really joined in until a wave started to gradually go around the stadium for those who were supporting the Thunders.

"Thunder Thunder Thunderation

They are the Djose High team of Thunders

When they play with determination

They make a thunderous sensation. Come on guys join in.

Thunder Thunder Thunderation

They are the Djose High team of Thunders

When they play with determination

They make a thunderous sensation." A few people had started to join in then, but not as many as Luthae wanted.

"Come on!" she shouted down the mic, "You can do it. One last time."

After that comment almost the whole stadium (except for a few moody Macalania College attendees), where cheering and shouting out the song.

Thunder Thunder Thunderation

They are the Djose High team of Thunders

When they play with determination

They make a thunderous sensation

THUNDER!

The whole stadium absolutely screamed the last word followed by a whoop of cheers for Luthae. Looking out at the audience Luthae saw Buddy, Shinra, Gippal, Baralai and the other guys doing a Mexican wave. Luthae smiled

"Thank you!" she called to the audience before she went off.

The Blitz stadium was raised after Luthae had come off The Djose Thunders were against The Luca Triumphs. They all swam on. Luthae stood up in her seat and cheered and whistled for all she was worth. Larissa saw her and amongst all the cheering leaned over to her.

"You think your something special since you joined this new school don't you Luthae Guado? Well you may have got through the first round of the battle tournament, but you won't be in for much longer. And you can tell your little pal Yuna to kiss goodbye to her boyfriend as I'll have him at the end of all this."

"And you can kiss my ass." Luthae retorted. Larissa aimed a drink's carton and threw it at her. Luthae fumbled a few times but eventually caught it and threw hard back. Larissa 's eyes widened in surprise as the carton just missed her head. This wasn't the Luthae Guado she'd known.

"Piss off."

Now Larissa was surprised, the Luthae she'd known was quiet, a loner and was rubbish at catching the school hover in the morning let alone catch a blitzball or anything like that.

"Excuse me!" she said

"You heard me." Luthae replied and repeated the word again and stuck her finger up at Larissa. That had shut up for now, but Luthae had a feeling that Larissa might suspect that Luthae hadn't told the others about Seymour. She was mad now Luthae knew that and she would now do anything to get Luthae back, she was that sort of person. Luthae knew she should've just kept quiet, but it was a spur of the moment thing and it felt so good to finally stand up to Larissa properly. Anyway, she thought suddenly it's what Paine would do. After thinking that she had another reason to think that it hadn't been such a good idea. But I'm not Paine. Ooh why did I have to do that?

Still Luthae carried on like nothing had happened. She sat closer to Buddy, Shinra, Baralai and Gippal after 'the incident'. As Luthae watched the game she thought it was pretty hard on the Thunders to be up against people from Luca. Luca was the one university for blitz players and Luthae had no doubts that the High School would want to give their pupils extra coaching to live up to that standard. The Thunders were doing quite well considering the circumstances. It was two all Luthae though was expecting a challenge for the Triumphs as the Thunders had Tidus star player of the Zanarkand Abes. Tidus and the guys were moving fast and passing the ball quick so the Triumphs had a hard time working out who had the ball. Then Luthae and the rest of Djose screamed Paine had just scored another goal.

An hour later it was three all. It was down to penalties. The Triumphs had only scored one. Yuna had already scored one for the Thunders and now Tidus was up. A wave of silence seemed to wash over the stadium. Tidus looked at his friends. They were counting on him to get them through. He floated on the penalty spot for a bit looking at the ball. Remembering stuff his dad had said to him when he was younger. Up in the seats Luthae could hear Tidus dads voice ringing in his ears. You can do it she thought. You can do it. She also said it out loud which made the rest of the guys look at her strangely but Luthae's eyes remained fixed on the spot where Tidus was. You can do it. Luthae then did something very unlike her.

"Go Tidus!" She shouted, "You can do it!" She shouted it over and over again, feeling slightly self-conscious but willing to do it for Tidus. Suddenly

"Yeah go Tidus you can do it!" Gippal shouted. A minute later almost the whole stadium was cheering for Tidus.

Tidus' face brightened he was encouraged. He gave the ball a massive kick. The whole stadium went silent then.

"GOAL! Djose Thunders win!"

Luthae cheered and hugged the others, they in turn also hugged each other. The Thunders were through the first round. Luthae then thought, there were even more rounds. Would Tidus be able to keep it together for them? But that thought was pushed to the back of her mind when the guys came up from the changing room and were almost hugged to death. The rest of the events went past in a blur. More blitz games and battle tournament rounds, but the three friends competing in it did very well. Luthae to her disappointment was up against Larissa in the quarterfinals. Larissa was taller than Luthae, well she looked it and was good with magic Fira, Watera, Blizzarda and Thundera were used on Luthae one after the other. Larissa was also very fast and quick on the mark. Luthae thought she was going down and she could kiss the semis goodbye. Luthae was again in the situation with hardly any HP left and felt like crying. She'd always been afraid of Larissa even in primary school until Larissa convinced her she'd changed. Luthae remembered what she'd done and felt angry. The anger that welled up inside her suddenly came out in a charge that Larissa had not been expecting. Luthae hit her hard with her weapon. The blow that she then gave Larissa took off most of the rest of the HP Luthae had not been able too take off before. She felt stronger, more confident. Luthae gave another blow and took her opponent down. Larissa had fallen and was petrified. Not by magic in battle but in fear. Since joining Djose Luthae was starting to become more powerful. Luthae then saw from the way that Larissa slinked off meant hopefully that she might never see her again. After that Luthae beat Paine in the Semis.

Luthae felt guilty. Paine was a better fighter than her she had every right to win. Didn't she?

"It's okay," Paine told her, "I have lost against a worthy opponent. If this is making you stronger and helping you Luthae then I don't care that I lost."

Paine also had a strange feeling then. Part of her wanted to scream. She'd never been beaten b her friends before. Well maybe Nooj about twice but still. She also felt like accusing Luthae of looking into people's minds, but Paine knew Luthae was to noble for that. Luthae knew what she was thinking. She came and sat beside her.

"Look Paine, I wasn't looking into your mind okay. I don't even mean to do it half the time if I do. I wouldn't do it to you or anyone unless I thought I needed to."

"I know." Paine replied. "Well you go knock dead whoever this finalist is. Think he can beat the shit out of my mate does he, well he's got another thing coming."

Suddenly Tidus came with the rest of the guys who had been down to buy drinks after the tournament.

"Hey great goin' T." Gippal congratulated.

"Yeah we'll be cheering for you in the Finals." Baralai told him

"Yeah they're going down." Shinra cheered.

Luthae and Paine exchanged looks and Luthae suddenly looked sick.

Tidus! No I have to fight my own boyfriend. No prize money is worth that. After what happened to Larissa. If it happens again I. Could I kill him?

"Oh Fayth." Paine exclaimed, "Please tell me I'm dreaming."

"Why?" Tidus asked quickly, "I'm not against you am I?"

"No." Paine replied disappointedly, "If only you were." She made a head gesture over to Luthae. Paine had always had a feeling that Luthae had taken to Tidus and Tidus likewise so it made her job to admit it worse also her pity to Luthae greatened.

"WILL THE CONDENDERS FOR THE FINAL OF THE BATTLE TOURNAMENT PLEASE MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE CHANGING ROOMS." The loudspeaker droned.

Tidus and Luthae made their way down.

"Look Luthae," Tidus began, "I don't care if I don't win because I'm against you. Well I suppose you really deserve to. No hard feelings if I don't win, and I'll try not to hurt you."

"Nah, if you want to win, don't just not attack me because were together. I'll feel worse if I do win. Beat the shit out of me. I won't mind. At least then if I do win it will be a fair one. That's if I do. But I don't care about it now. I beat Larissa and that's all that mattered."

"You knew that guado?"

"Well I saw her once and never want to again. If you get my drift."

"Yeah I'm glad she's gone. I know what you mean."

Tidus of course was thinking of the round when Larissa and Luthae had first seen each other. He of course didn't know about the long history of them knowing each other.

"Well not long now." Tidus said squeezing Luthae's hand. They were in the corridor outside the changing rooms. There was five minutes till they were on. The blitz match was just finishing.

Suddenly a guado came down the corridor. Luthae and Tidus turned. It wasn't Larissa, but it wasn't Seymour to Luthae's relief. It might as well have been though. It was Tromell.

"Lady Luthae!" he exclaimed. Luthae hastily let go of Tidus.

The last thing she wanted was Tromell to see his master's archenemy going out with his sister.

"What are you doing here!" Tromell said in surprise, "I did not know your brother would permit you to come to an event such as this."

Luthae was constantly making discreet head gestures of 'NO!' at him but he didn't take the hint.

"Tromell?" Tidus suddenly remarked, "What are you doing here? Where's Seymour?"

"Ah Lord Seymour is judging some of the events." Tromell said proudly. He then turned his attention back to Luthae.

"Did you happen to hear about his new position in society? He is now Maester Seymour Guado as well as the lord of Guadosalam. Aren't you pleased?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Luthae gave a feeble 'yeah whatever' anyway. Tidus sussed there was something up.

"Luthae. Do you know him?"

"Erm well," Luthae stammered, "Well we're we're we're. Old acquaintances."

Well that's Chapter 8 done. Soz it took so long to update but hope it was worth waiting for. I love the titles of these. They're the last word(s) of the chap. For those who had worked that out. Well done you!  Hope you review!