Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fic, except for Amathera and Gay Pride Kuriboh, who unfortunately does not make an appearance. This chapter is sort of lame, but I felt I had to update SOMETHING, and well…this is a no-brainer to write. As always, read and review, or Seymour will huff and puff and blow your house down.

Amathera yawned and stretched, blinking sleepily at the sunlight that dared to invade her peaceful bedroom. It was Saturday after all; didn't the sun know she didn't want to be awake yet? She had to wake up early nearly every day to go to school, even though she was so smart she could have skipped high school entirely, and she felt she deserved to sleep in on weekends. Grumbling, she pushed herself out of bed and shut the heavy drapes, plunging the room into darkness again. She jumped back onto her bed, snuggling into her comforter filled with pictures of chocobos, her gorgeously shining silver hair splayed across her pillow, practically glowing in the dark.

She muttered incoherently as her lids slowly closed, her mind drifting, memories sifting through the past few weeks of school. She was on the verge of falling asleep when the phone suddenly rang as loud as it possibly could right in her ear. She sat bolt upright in bed with a yelp, blearily glaring at the phone, which insistently continued ringing.

"You…you…" she sputtered, then angrily snatched up the pure gold phone and held it to her ear. "Hello???"

"OMG hi!" a voice exploded.

Is that Tidus again?! He had been calling her house frequently, sometimes saying absolutely nothing, other times acting a complete fool and obviously making up excuses as he went along as to why he was calling her. She still had no idea where he had gotten her phone number from. She took a few moments to compose herself, smiling prettily as if the power of her smile could travel through phone lines. "Hi," she said in a breathy tone.

"I was, you know, uhm…wondering if you…er, you see…"

Amathera fidgeted, playing with her nightshirt. "Yes?" she prompted helpfully, mentally patting herself on the back for being so charitable. Her gaze fell upon her rocket launcher perched proudly on her desk, a bright neon pink ribbon wrapped around it, and her eyes glazed momentarily, causing her to miss whatever it was that Tidus had said. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she cutely asked him to repeat himself.

"Uhm…well, you see, Rikku and her boyfriend…the park…wanted to invite you…" He coughed, lowering his voice from its usual high pitch, sounding much surer of himself than before, even a touch cultured. "What I am trying to say is…would you like to go to the park with us this afternoon?"

Amathera felt her heart flutter, though distant thoughts of Lulu pecked at her mind.

It's just the park…just this one time…it's not like Lulu would get angry if I hung out with my classmates, right?

Having thoroughly convinced herself, Amathera tried to maintain her calm, cool composure and not let her excitement bleed through. "Certainly," she said, shifting the expensive golden phone to her other ear, somehow not dropping it even though a solid gold phone would likely weigh a great deal; she was a strong girl, after all. "What time?"

"We'll pick you up…say around noon?"

"Sure, sounds great." Before she could say anything else, Tidus squealed in her ear and hung up the phone. "How does he know where I live…?"

Her golden eyes flicked to her clock, and she shrieked, leaping out of bed. "Oh my GAWD it's ten o'clock, I have like so little time to make myself look beautiful for him! Oh no oh no oh no!" she cried out in despair, disturbing everybody within a ten mile radius. Outside a dog started barking at her, undoubtedly singing praises of her intelligence and magnificence and sparkliness.

There was a knock on the door, followed by her mother's voice. "Are you okay, Thera dear??? I heard you scream!!!"

Amathera flung open the door and collapsed into her startled mother's arms, sobbing. "No, I'm not all right!" she choked out. "Tidus is really really hot and he's going to be here in two hours and I look like a wreck and if he sees me like this he'll never ever speak to me again and then the world would just positively end for at least a month!"

"Oh honey, you're beautiful no matter what!!!!" her mother said, stroking the glowing silver hair and silently plotting the gruesome death of the annoying boy who clogged up their answering machine day in and day out. "Go and take a shower and I'll pick out the perfect outfit for you!!!!!"

Amathera calmed down immediately, wiping the tears from her reddened cheeks. Unlike most women, she was gorgeous when she cried. "Thanks, mama!" She kissed her mother's cheek and fairly flew into the bathroom.

After using up all of the hot water in the entire district, Amathera emerged from the bathroom fresh-faced and radiant. Her burnished eyes were bright, and her hair hung in damp curls down her back. She had a towel wrapped around her svelte form, held in place by one creamy pale hand. The black polish on her nails – courtesy of Seymour – stood out in sharp contrast to the white of her skin.

Her cat wandered over, blue eyes narrowed. The cat's tail lashed back and forth angrily as she sat down at the head of the stairs, watching Amathera warily.

"Fluffy!!!!!" she squealed, dashing over to the cat. She stopped dead, however, when the cat hissed and swiped at her. "Fluffy, what's your problem!!! Oh dear, I don't have time for this…" She spun on her heel and dashed into her room, eyes darting to her clock.

11:00.

She eyed the outfit draped across her newly made bed and smiled. "Oh mama!" she said softly, eyes filling with tears as she thought of how thoughtful and wonderful her parents were and how she was so very lucky to have them. The outfit her mother had chosen was simply perfect.

She let the towel drop to the floor, and a young boy living next door peeking through his telescope fell over, blood dripping from his nose and undoubtedly blinded by her splendor. She spent a few minutes admiring her nude form in her full-length mirror, turning this way and that so she could see every angle. She pursed her lips and her lower lip began to tremble.

"I'm…fat!" she whined, crossing her arms and looking away from her reflection. "I'm fat and ugly and I have a horribly angst-ridden past, so Tidus is never going to fall in love with me and marry me and make me live happily ever after! Now I am going to have to start skipping meals and become dangerously weak until it gets to the point where Tidus has to help pull me from the brink of death and make me realize how pretty I am naturally!"

"Stop your crying, hunny!!!!" her father bellowed from downstairs. "You're hot and you know it!!!!!"

"Thanks, dad!" she called, immediately cheering. She was prone to rather violent mood swings, a byproduct of her harsh childhood, but they had never bothered her. The only person they seemed to bother was Seto, but he had learned to deal with the volatile girl while training her to run the corporation by his side. She sighed as she thought of him, her arms dropping back to her sides. She remembered the feel of his eyes boring into her, his hands on her skin, so innocent and yet so full of mischief…

She snapped out of it when the phone rang again. Suddenly self-conscious of her nudity, she grabbed the towel and hastily wrapped it around herself again; a well-bred lady never answered the phone without clothes on.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Thera!"

"Lulu! You caught me at a bad time, I just got out of the shower –"

"Oh I think that's the perfect time," the girl purred. Amathera blushed. "I just wanted to remind you that the deadline to enter the talent show is Monday. Have you decided what you are going to do?"

"Yeah," Amathera replied shyly. "Seymour and I are going to sing a duet."

Silence.

"Lulu?"

"You're singing a duet with who?"

"Seymour." Her gaze drifted to a picture he had drawn her, taped up on her wall proudly. It depicted their school building in flames, tiny figures leaping out of windows to escape the deadly blaze while others were trampled by their classmates. The outer doors, however, were barred, and Seymour stood outside of them, laughing and exulting, his arms around a girl who looked strangely like Amathera.

"…"

"Is something wrong, Lulu?"

"Why him?"

"Why not? He has a nice voice, and we have the same taste in music."

Click.

"Oh dear," Amathera sighed as she stared at the dead phone. "I must have said something wrong…" She placed the phone back in its cradle and frowned, hand tightening around her towel. "Oh well, she'll forgive me by the end of the day!"

She flung the towel across her chair and picked up the dress from the bed, holding it reverently. It was slinky, a pale blue covered in flowers, with spaghetti straps and an a-line hem. It had been a birthday present from her parents a year ago to celebrate her Nobel Peace Prize, specially imported from some European country – they were all the same to her – and came with a brand new Mercedes that she still couldn't drive.

She slid into it and slipped her feet into a delicate pair of sandals, doing a twirl in front of the mirror and admiring the way the skirt flared about her calves. She ran a brush through her hair and pulled it up into a complicated twisty ponytail, leaving several tendrils free to brush against her smooth skin. She deftly applied makeup, even though she didn't really need any, and spritzed just a touch of perfume onto her pulse points. She was putting the finishing touches onto her appearance when she heard the doorbell ring, and her parents exclaim rather loudly.

"So you're Tidus!!!!!!! It's so nice to finally meet you after hearing your voice so often!!!!!"

Amathera flew down the stairs, almost stumbling when she noticed the rather large knife her mother was clutching behind her back. Her mother noticed and laughed nervously, backing away into the kitchen. "You two have fun now!!!!!!!!!"

Amathera blinked and shifted her gaze to Tidus. She felt frozen to the spot, he looked so good. His blonde hair was tousled, bits and pieces falling over his beautiful eyes. He was clad in a tight black shirt showing off his muscular chest and loose black slacks that hugged his hips in a way that made Amathera's mouth go dry. He had a devil may care grin plastered across his tanned face, and in his hand he held a single rose.

Her father shot the boy a mildly dirty look before following her mother into the kitchen.

"This is for you," Tidus said, striding over to her and presenting the pretty little flower. It was in much better shape than any of the flowers Seymour had given her, and it emitted a rather pleasant scent. Not to mention it wasn't splattered with blood.

"F-for me?" she stammered out, shyly taking the flower from his hands and raising it to her nose, inhaling deeply. She smiled at him and tucked the rose into her hair, twining it with the glittering strands so that it wouldn't fall out. "Thank you…"

"You look lovely," he said, looking her up and down rakishly. She blushed and found herself unable to respond, though she mentally berated herself for it.

She never felt this unsure of herself around Lulu, so tongue-tied and helpless. She did not even feel this awkward around Seymour! Especially since his sole reason for existence was to cause romantic tension. But now that she was in front of this tanned hunk of manflesh, staring up at his imposing form, she felt small and delicate and fragile. When he took her arm and guided her to the door, asking how her morning had been, she only squeaked in response, her blush deepening.

He did not seem to notice her unease and continued chattering inanely, talking about some sport or other that he and someone named Wakka excelled in, telling her about the Big Game that would be coming up in a few months and how he wanted her to be there to cheer him on. She only half paid attention, eyes riveted on the two people waiting for them in a dark blue Jetta.

Rikku she recognized from school, though she did not have any classes with the girl since Rikku was a year or two younger. She was small, blonde, and tanned, and seemed to possess absolutely boundless energy. She always bounced from class to class, dashing through the hallways and giggling like an idiot, though anyone who knew her knew she was anything but stupid. She was wearing a tight white tank top and about a ton of cheap gold jewelry, and Amathera had no doubt that the girl was probably wearing tattered jeans a few sizes too big.

It was the person behind the wheel that shocked her. Rikku's boyfriend.

Auron.

Her Fine Arts teacher. Her old Fine Arts teacher. He had to be at least in his thirties, and to Amathera, that was ancient.

And wasn't it against the rules to date a teacher? Besides, that was just gross. Why wasn't he in jail or something?

Her surprise must have shown, for Auron shifted in his seat uncomfortably, offering her a wavering smile. "Hey there Thera."

She did not respond, just stared rudely. She refused to open her mouth until Tidus had coaxed her into the car and they had driven a few miles.

"Oh my god, you two are dating?!" she blurted out.

Rikku glared at her. "Yeah, what'sit ta ya??" The words sounded odd considering her thick southern accent.

Amathera shrunk back against her seat, cowering beneath Rikku's intense glare. "Well…teacher…old…"

"You had better watch yo mouth - aww yea foo. He's da love of muh life and if ya tell on us i kill ya, boo. Nothing iz going ta come between us you know das right!" Rikku snapped her fingers briskly.

Amathera just sighed heavily. She had a feeling this was going to be a long day. However, when Tidus leaned over and draped his tanned, buff arm across her thin shoulders, drawing her closer to him, she found her little silver lining.

Lulu stood staring at the phone, her dark eyes burning.

"How dare she…she didn't even ask if I wanted to sing with her for the Talent Show!" She growled and kicked a plush pillow across her massive bedroom, feeling less than satisfied when it hit the wall softly.

"Picking Seymour over me!" She fairly trembled with rage. She spun, her dark hair flying behind her. "I won't let her get away with this. I won't!"

Smiling evilly, she picked up her phone and dialed Yuna's number.

"Hey Yuna? It's me, Lulu. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, and yourself? Whoa, calm down there girl. Hush." Lulu's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I have something you should know…it's about Thera…"