Chapter 14
If only he knew
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"Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I just couldn't get out of it. My boss is being a major bitc- uh I mean… Look! My column is just about finished, I promise we'll be there very soon. Let's look on the bright side of this, you have Seymo-"
"No! No no no No! He is the problem! It's been two weeks, TWO weeks and already nearly all my hair products have been emptied, he hogs Rikku's en-suite leaving ME to listen to her complaining, he takes the car without us knowing, he spends all day watching soap opera's, I mean we even have to COOK for him, for yevon's sake, we can barely cook for ourselves. Also, he talks so much, sometimes all I want is a moments of peace and qu-"
"Oh damn, love to chat with you sweetheart but I've got another phone call coming in-"
"No daddy no-"
"- I'll talk to you soon.."
"No dad, you can't leave me like this-"
"Love you!"
-click-
"daddy? DADDY!!?"
"Mr Braska's on the phone? Hey let me talk to the guy." Wearing nothing but a white bath robe with a half eaten banana in his left hand, Seymour carelessly snatched the phone off Yuna after coolly striding out of the bathroom.
"Hey Braska my man how-" frowning worriedly at Yuna, Seymour slowly placed the phone back onto it's cradle as he took another bite from his banana, not once taking his eyes off her bi-coloured ones.
"Babe.." he started hesitantly, "it's unhealthy for you to be fantasizing about.. your dad. I mean sure, he looks great for a 40 year old but I mean, come on….what?"
In Yuna's entire life, she had never been so utterly disgusted, "ARGH!"
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"Lawrence, Rikku, Kate, Janey and…." Rapidly scanning the white piece of A4 paper in her delicate hands, the blonde teacher finally located the remaining name, "Tidus. You guys have not yet handed in your Evaluation essays on the camp. I expect them on my table first thing next morning or else don't bother getting a grade for it."
The classroom was filled with whispering as students took it as a silent indication to speak once Miss Daniels turned her back. Without the presence of Squall, it left Tidus sitting next to an already occupied Wakka whilst he did nothing better than stare at the back of Yuna's head.
"Now that that's out of the way, I have another rather pleasant announcement to make. It has to my attention that-"
"Students and Teachers, may I have your attention please?" pausing for a moment, the principal continued, "Phone calls have been made and confirmations are settled. It has finally been decided that Zanarkand High and Luca High will take their competition of Blitzball in two and a half weeks from today on a Friday night. I myself will be attending this occasion; hopefully I will see many familiar faces in the crowd, supporting the Zanarkand Abes."
From the point where the date was officially announced, the rest of the principal's speech was completely drowned out as classroom after classroom roared in excitement. Many students from other classes ran down the hallways screaming and yelling in anticipation, ignoring their teachers' threats of punishment. As a few kids ran passed Miss Daniels' homeroom, many of them did a double take before running outside the classroom door and started smashing on the clear glass window.
"Yo Tidus man, make us proud!"
"We're depending on you to whip up those Luca punks!"
"We'll be right behind you bro. We've got your back!"
"Show those kids what Zanarkand High's made of!"
Other shout outs were made to both Wakka and Tidus before the students were literally pulled back to class. Despite Lulu, Yuna and Tidus, their own homeroom had also erupted in cheers and expectedly all the attention was drawn towards the blonde Lord. As her blue and green eyes scanned the room, she noticed that everyone was staring admiringly at the person situated right behind her. Closing her eyes, Yuna so desperately wanted to take a glance at Tidus herself. She wanted to turn around and show him her enthusiasm. She wanted to turn around and tease him about his admirers. And most of all, she wanted to turn around and simply show that he was on her mind… constantly.
Without knowing, for once in a long while, she had sub-consciously allowed her heart to dominate over her mind, and her head slowly turned around. To her surprise, as soon as her eyes reached Tidus' side face, she realized that the expression wasn't as happy as she had previously assumed it would be. Yevon, Yuna had forgotten how handsome he was, allowing inner instincts to take over her better judgments, she continued staring at his side face.
To her horror, before she was able to shift her gaze else where, Tidus' blue orbs found hers. Time seemed to have frozen and everything around them was a mere blur. Though Yuna wanted to pull away from his heavy stare, she couldn't bring herself to do it, and instead, the only thing she found herself capable of doing was present him with a smile. Not a cheerful smile, not a taunting smile, just a smile of recognition.
Yuna nearly wanted to leap out of her chair and throw herself at him when he blushed and smiled a one hundred watt genuine smile. This was how she had previously pictured him to be, this was how happy she knew he was suppose to be.
"Uh, I um… Do it for Zanarkand." Yuna said timidly.
Tidus' heart nearly leapt off his chest. Two weeks. Two whole damn fricken weeks he had been deprived of her angelic smile and voice. Two whole hellish weeks she had avoided him, never being any less than 100 feet away from him during breaks. And all of a sudden, here it comes rolling back in, within TWO MINUTES!! Maybe Yevon finally felt sorry for him. Maybe Yevon acknowledged the times when he spent the entire night awake, thinking only of Yuna. The times when he would walk pass a boutique and find something he thought would look good on Yuna and buy it. The times when he even fantasized about Yuna lying next to him in bed. Finally, Yevon opened its eyes.
Wanting ever so desperately to continue this sacred conversation, Tidus leaned forward in a futile attempt to indicate that he also had something to say. But the moment Miss Daniels interrupted the entire class, Tidus felt like ramming his head against the blackboard for being so slow and dumbfounded.
'Yevon, why must you tease me like that? Why?'
"Goodness! Settle down! In two and a half weeks, you may all celebrate, but for now, you will all pay attention to me, to the announcement that I wanted to make." Clearing her throat, she continued from where she left off, "It has come to my attention that this class has already submitted two individual assignments, one being the camp. Now, a section of the criteria is based on group work, so your upcoming-" before she got to finish, the class began groaning aloud, "Glad to hear you're happy. Your upcoming assignment will be between two people and NO, you may not choose. We have all ready wasted enough time in this class so I will now quickly read out your partners." At that, she grabbed the class list with the already assigned couples.
"Okay, Mathew and Lucas."
"Lulu and Lawrence."
"Rikku and Kate."
"Tidus and Yu-," 'Yes, please let it be PLEASE!' "no wait, sorry. Tidus and Jim."
'YEVON WHY? WHY WHY WHY?! Have you decided to neglect your pal Tidus again?'
"Dana and Dan."
"Yuna and Simon." and she went on until the class was randomly paired up.
"None and I mean, none of this assignment requires outside school work. Everything is marked according to what is done during class. This tests your ability to work under limited amount of time and tests your ability to cope with stress and what is thrown at you unexpectedly. Take it very seriously. This will help you a great deal in exams. I often get students coming up to me telling me that they've studied the wrong thing and had to work with what they had on the spot in the exam. Every period you will be given a different assignment and every assignment will be due by the end of the lesson. Today, your first assignment is-"
"ALREADY?!" someone yelled out.
Smirking slightly and glancing at the clock, Miss Daniels knew of the remaining ten minutes, "The probability of Zanarkand High defeating Luca High in Blitzball!"
This provoked another loud applause from the class.
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Scribbling down something really quickly, Tidus immediately sprinted out of class as soon as Period two was over. Damn that was one boring class. From period one with Yuna to Period two with absolutely no one, Tidus had taken the liberty of giving himself some shut eye. Once he reached the hallways, he quickly located Yuna's locker and slipped the little white piece of paper through the slits. Spinning around straight away so that he wouldn't get caught by Yuna, he was however unfortunately confronted by none other than Myleena.
"Hey Tidus! Whatcha doin?" she asked sweetly.
"Nothing Myleena." He answered bluntly.
Though slightly hurt by his harshness, she continued, "Well, just wanted to give you a hug and, train hard." And with that, she hugged him tightly before turning around and leaving Tidus alone.
Just as Tidus started moving, he looked up to see Yuna with her head down and her body gestures seemed worn out though she was tightly grasping the books in front of her chest. The brunette took a deep breath; looked straight at Tidus and forced a smile as she walked passed him to her locker.
Running his gloved hand through his blonde locks, the blitzer sighed inwardly. He knew exactly why she looked so worn out, because he himself was tired of these misunderstandings, though she on the other hand perceived them as hurtful acts directed towards her.
'Don't worry Yuna; you'll see soon enough that these are all misinterpretations. I'm just sorry you have to go through all of this. You look tired. And it's my fault.'
He shook his head slightly with a dampened mood as he tiredly walked away from the scene. This is too much for her that she can't even express her anger anymore. The smile and the words of encouragement were merely an act of obligation. He was now nothing to her anymore, that's why she didn't even regard him highly enough to take up any of her mind.
All these negative thoughts swarmed through his head, trying his hardest not to let them faze him. Little did he know that the misunderstanding Yuna had of him mirrored his own misunderstanding of her actions. If only he knew that Yuna's inner battle had finally sided with him. If only he knew Yuna, against her own will, had already forgiven him. If only he knew Yuna had finally believed in his words of self justification, then he wouldn't be so clouded with a sense of depression.
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"Rikku. Hey are you busy right now?"
"Oh hey Lulu, um, one second…. SEYMOUR I MEAN IT! YOU DON'T COME OUT IN 30 SECONDS, I'M GONNA BREAK THIS DOOR DOWN MYSELF!... hey Lu, what's up?"
"Uh, nothing. Don't worry bout it. Bye"
"Oh okay," Rikku replied, confused, "C-ya!"
Once Lulu hung up, she grumbled lightly to herself. How could she forget that this Seymour guy was now living with Yuna and Rikku hence leaving them car-less hence forcing them to take public transport. And now she was stuck back at school without a lift home, and public transport was definitely not an option. Silently, the raven haired beauty began cursing about her 30 minute hold up by her English Literature teacher, thinking to herself that it was highly un-necessary to spend half an hour complimenting her on her grades. However, if it weren't for his traveling eyes, Lulu would NOT have been so pissed. Sighing aloud, she grudgingly made her way to the school gym where she would simply have to wait for either Tidus or Wakka whilst quietly chanting, "One and a half hour is not long, one and a half hour is not long…."
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Upon reaching the gym, Lulu's mouth opened ever so slightly once she caught sight of the training. The intensity, the force, the determination, she had not realize how much this meant to the Blitzball team. Gradually making her way to a vacant seat, the amazement on her face slowly seeped away. The looks on everyone's faces were so serious and the atmosphere was so tense. Yelling and shout outs were heard loudly as it echoed through the entire gym, making Lulu seem insignificant being so out of place. Her eyes scanned around until she was finally able to make out the orange spiky haired blitzer.
Deciding that her eyes were going to rest upon the training figure, she allowed herself to lean back and wait patiently for Wakka to notice her. Just as the miscellaneous voices were starting to drown out, a familiar voice snapped her from staring at Wakka back to reality, "Lulu, what brings you hear?"
Auron walked over to her with a navy wife beater and knee length board shorts with a white towel draped over his broad shoulders. He seemed a bit out of breath which Lulu concluded that he was also training along with the team. "Hello sir."
"So, you interested in joining?"
"Oh Yevon no! I'm here to wait for my ride home." Lulu replied with a horrid expression.
Chuckling to himself, he merely sat there, expertly observing his players.
Lulu herself, despite continuously glancing at Auron, kept her focus between the two top players. Unknown to herself, a little frown had made its way onto her delicate face. Her attention was once again distracted by Auron chuckling softly next to her.
"See something wrong?" he asked, obviously detecting her confusion.
"Yes." She replied, still not taking her eyes off the pair, "Why… why are they training with so much…" desperately trying to find an appropriate word, Auron decided to help her out.
"Anger?"
"Yes!"
He shook his head before instructing Lulu to watch more carefully, and so she did.
After minutes of silent studying, Lulu did not understand where this was leading to.
Sensing her uncertainty, Auron began, "Watch how Tidus delivers the ball and then watch how Wakka receives the ball."
Nodding, Lulu gave her observation another go. She watched as Tidus fiercely throws the ball and as Wakka, just as fiercely, catches it. Then all of a sudden, she detected something else. A difference? She knew there was something different about the way they trained, but her mind simply did not allow her to put it into words.
"There is something different with the way they are training, but, I can't tell."
Without looking at Lulu, Auron kept his eye on the two players before explaining, "It is Tidus who delivers the ball with anger, not Wakka. Wakka must keep his guard up, he must remain cautious or else he could get hurt. The aggressiveness amongst the two are very different." Without bothering to explain any further, he looked at Lulu, "I don't know what it is, I don't care what it is, but I do hope that this weird behaviour of Tidus will disappear. If not, it may cost us the tournament."
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Tapping her lean fingers on the side of Wakka's car, Lulu waited impatiently for her chauffeur to get changed. Suddenly loud footsteps and panting were heard as it approached her, "Lu, sorry. Did you wait long? Come on, let's go." Wakka heaved as he opened the car door for his companion. The pair silently hopped into his car, and not long afterwards, they were on their way to Lulu's house.
Heavy silence fell among them and the only noise they heard were the vague sounds from the outside world and the low rumbling of the engine. Wakka fidgeted slightly in his seat whilst Lulu kept her gaze outside the door window. Her mind was still occupied with explanations to Tidus' hidden demeanor. WAIT! Throughout all these practices, Wakka must have known ages ago. Cutting through the silence like a knife, Lulu spoke.
"Wakka." At the sound of his name, he cursed himself for jumping.
"Y-yeah Lu?"
"Have you noticed any changes with Tidus lately?"
At this, even if it were Lulu, he could not help but roll his eyes, "Well of course! He hides it during class but, man; I am scared for my life during practices." He exaggerated.
"Hm, this has definitely got to do with Yuna. I tried to ignore it, but now, I don't know. I didn't think it was this bad. What is even going on? Yuna has not spoken to Tidus ever since we came back from camp."
As disappointed as Wakka was with the topic of conversation, he replied, "This might sound stupid but I don't think it's all that bad ya?"
Lulu gave him a questioning look.
"I mean, I have never seen Tidus this concerned over a girl. NEVER. Maybe, just maybe, he's starting to grow up. BUT of course I'd prefer him to remain professional with Blitzball or else Coach is going to make him regret it."
Silence once again claimed them as Wakka made a sharp turn to the left. His eyes were kept firmly on the road but his mind was elsewhere.
"Uh Lu?"
"Hm?"
"I, I uh, wanna ask you something." Nervously, he quickly stole a glance at Lulu before diverting his eyes back onto the road as he made another turn into Lulu's street.
Taking her silence as his cue to ask, he decided to wait just a little longer, until he got to the front of her house to ask. Braking almost abruptly, he turned off his engine and merely sat there looking ahead of him.
"Wakka, what is it?"
Silence.
"Wakka?"
No reply.
"WAKKA! Is there some-,"
"Is there an 'us'?" There he said it! He finally asked her!
"…what?"
Cringing, Wakka could not believe that he had to repeat himself. He couldn't. He just couldn't! His courage had left him completely, and physically and mentally, he was drained. Closing his eyes, he slouched down, "Don't worry 'bout it. Have a good night Lu."
Without even hearing a 'bye' from Lulu, she left his car, leaving him to close his eyes in exasperation.
He felt so miserable now, almost betrayed. All this time, he had led himself to believe that Lulu had actually returned his feelings, but now he realized that all Lulu wanted to do was 'muck around' with him, just like she did at camp. Nothing but a fling. None of the official boyfriend and girlfriend crap. Just a fl-
Suddenly the sound of the door opening and closing caused him to open his eyes again. There she was, sitting there looking at him. "Lu what-," before he could finish, Lulu quickly yet smoothly pulled him by the neck towards her as their lips locked in a passionate kiss.
It seemed like forever before they both parted breathlessly, staring at one another.
"So, I guess that answers your question huh?"
Chuckling, Wakka replied, "Better than I could ever expect." this time, Wakka pulled her in for their second kiss.
Gently pushing him off her, Lulu warned, "You know Squall might kill you for this right?"
Smiling mischievously he countered back, "I can take him on anytime."
Smiling at each other, their lips met for the third and final time that night. This was official. They were official.
'Wonder why she even bothered to leave the car in the first place? Oh well, I'm not complaining, Yevon her tongue..'
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AN: Yes I know the chapters are getting boring, but what did you expect, this is a high school fic, I repeat a high SCHOOL fic.) Thanks for the reviews guys!! Have a nice day!
I've got a new fic out, it's called 'Chocolates and Charcoal'! Go check it out!!
SkyeLight