Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything used in this fic.
A/N: Ok this story might seem far-fetched, but there's and All-Boys boarding school like an hour from my house called Georgetown Academy and they scout the US and give out HUGE Athletic scholarships. Their tennis team rocks too. I know because I went to the tennis match when they played my high school's boy's team last April and they were amazing. And they were pretty hot too. . Anyways enough ramblings on with the fic.
xoxoxoxoxoxox
Rikku sat on the carpeted floor of her bedroom staring at her short fingernails trying to hold back stifled cries. Her two best friends had come over to help her pack and to take her shopping for a new "wardrobe". Rikku smiled as Lenne held up a Blitzball magazine she had bought for Rikku to take with her.
"All the guys at our school like this magazine so you'll probably fit in if you look like your reading this. I glued articles from Vogue over the stupid stuff too. So you can learn about fashion and drool over hot blitz players." Lenne said as she handed Rikku her latest creation.
Lenne and Rikku had known each other since they were two years old. She had always been creative as a child and that talent had only expanded in her teen years. Lenne was into music and had made Rikku a few mix CD's to take with her. Over the years Rikku had learned she could always rely on Lenne whether she had ripped her favorite blouse and needed Lenne to mend it or she was going to an All-boys boarding school and Lenne gave her a blitzball magazine with Vogue articles pasted over the boring blitz articles.
"Thanks a million Lenne." Rikku said sadly as she hugged one of her oldest friends tightly.
"Hey its okay chica, it's not like I'm going anywhere. You know my cell number. I'll send you a Blitz/Vogue magazine every month too. Don't cry remember we still have to go shopping!" Lenne said cheerfully as she wiped a stray tear off Rikku's face.
"Enough with the tears. You guys act as if Rikku were going to her execution." Rikku's other best friend Paine said from her perch on Rikku's queen-sized bed.
Rikku rolled her emerald colored eyes, "you're so sympathetic Dr. P." Paine shrugged and motioned to a rather large gift wrapped in newspaper. Rikku squealed and happily began to open it.
Paine and Rikku had met in Pre-school. Actually the friendship had an odd beginning. Paine and Rikku fought over the same hot wheels car and ended up in a timeout corner together. The two preschoolers, fed up with being punished by their eighty-year-old teacher, decided to do a preschool jailbreak. And they did. They spent the rest of the day on the monkey bars in the neighborhood playground. The rest is history. Today Paine, Rikku, and Lenne went everywhere together and they had even planned on getting an apartment together after college.
"Aw Paine you didn't have to get me a present!" Rikku said as she hungrily tore open the paper to reveal the gift inside. Paine and Lenne exchanged glances and covered their ears awaiting Rikku's familiar gift-opening-excitement-screech. "OOOOOOHHHHH MYYYYYY GGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDD! E muja oui Paine!" Rikku shrieked excitedly as she hugged the gift Paine gave her dramatically.
"Hear that Paine she loves you and your huge presents." Lenne said jokingly as she nudged Paine in the ribs lightly.
"I thought if she was going to be living in a dorm she'd probably need one." Paine shrugged as she looked at the metallic blue minifridge/microwave/minifreezer that Rikku was clutching preciously.
"Ahem, Rikku, we'd best be going if we're going to buy you an entire wardrobe and grab a bite to eat before the movie tonight." Lenne said excitedly. Since today was going to be their last full day together Paine and Lenne were accompanying Rikku on her shopping trip. And then they were treating her to dinner at their favorite place, La Pineapple, and then they were catching the new movie Gossip Girl on its opening night.
"Yea," said Rikku wistfully, "we'd best be going."
----
Rikku clamored down the stairs and sat in the wooden chairs of the kitchen table. The aroma of bacon, eggs, buckwheat cakes, and biscuits wafted to her nostrils. Cid and Brother sat in the other two seats at their small kitchen table. Cid was sipping coffee quietly and reading the Al Bhed in LA newspaper and Brother was stuffing his face with bacon. Rikku quietly picked at her food wondering if anyone else had noticed the date on the calendar, September 1st. Arrival day for Silver Crest, her new boarding school, was today.
"Uh Rikku yna oui kuehk du ayd dryd pyluh?» (Uh Rikku are you going to eat that bacon?) Brother said while pointing his fork at her plate and licking his lips hungrily.
"Oui dyga ed." (You take it.) Rikku said gloomily. Brother hungrily stabbed the bacon on Rikku's plate and shoved it in his mouth, swallowing it within one bite. Rikku lowered her eyes and cleared her throat to try to have her father notice her.
"Princess after you finish that breakfast go upstairs and change into that outfit Lenne picked out for you yesterday. I swear that girl is good at putting together outfits…" Cid said from behind his newspaper. Rikku sighed and put a small forkful of scrambled eggs into her mouth, swallowing it as if it was thick paste.
"Sure Pops." Rikku mumbled as she stuffed the rest of her food down her throat and swallowed without really tasting it. "I'll be ready around," she hastily glanced around the kitchen until her eyes settled on the clock, "ten o'clock."
"Sounds good." Cid mumbled as he began reading a controversial article about automotive oils. Rikku sighed and looked at the clock again, it was 9:30. Guys only took about a half hour to get ready, right?
----
Rikku pulled her red jeep into the parking lot of the nearest Wawa. She had just said goodbye to her dad, Lenne, Paine, and Brother. She realized, as she poured herself a steaming mug of coffee, that there was no turning back now. Rikku looked at her attire in the security TV hanging above the door; there she stood dressed in loose fitting men's jeans, a polo shirt, and a pair of Nike sneakers. Her recently shortened shaggy blonde hair was stuffed into a LA Lakers baseball cap and her green eyes seemed almost clouded over instead of the sparkling jewels that usually danced on her face. Her chest was bound so tightly that nobody would even suspect she was a teenage girl. And that fact made her the saddest of all.
After the grueling car trip Rikku found herself at the Silver Crest campus in Southern California. Awake on three grande cups of black coffee and one can of Red Bull Rikku happily burst out of the car and up to the nearest registration table.
A boy with short blond hair that fell about in layers looked up at her and smiled revealing the shiniest white teeth she had ever seen. His large blue eyes and tan skin reminded her of some model she'd seen in an Abercrombie catalog.
"Hi welcome to Silver Crest Academy, what is your last name?" he said suddenly startling Rikku out of her daze.
Clearing her throat distinctively Rikku managed to say in the manliest way possible, "Chanek." The boy raised an eyebrow slightly at her voice before thumbing through various manila envelopes.
"Aha!" he said victoriously as he produced an unusually thick envelope from the stack. "Mr. Riku Chanek, sophomore. Dorm Suite 73. Hey that's my dorm too!" the boy said a huge smile engulfing his face. "Name's Tidus Wes-Tara and after I'm done this registration table duty we should hang out." Rikku smiled and noticed one of the K's in her name had been dropped. Pops probably thinks it makes my name look more masculine…whatever at least it's pronounced the same way. She thought as Tidus rambled on about a cafeteria pass and class schedules.
---
Once she was safely inside her empty dorm Rikku realized athletes were treated on a higher par then the rest of the school.
A regular student's dorm would consist of two twin beds, one for each roommate, two small closets, and two cheap pinewood desks. Rikku knew, there was a picture of "the average student's dormitory" in the brochure her pops had given her about Silver Crest.
The room Rikku found herself standing in was very different from that picture. Different in a good way. Sprawled before her was a small living area with two sofas and a 27" color television. A bookcase and coffee maker were also in the small living room. Adjoined to the living room was a bedroom area complete with two queen size beds and two walk-in closets.
That's when Rikku learned of the first horror she was going to have to face at Silver Crest: sharing a bathroom. And not just sharing a bathroom, which every girl knows is a horror in itself; she had to share a bathroom with that Tidus boy. Well, thought Rikku, I'll just find a way to make that bathroom exclusively mine.
Suddenly Rikku's ears perked up at the sound of the heavy oak door in the front of her dorm suite opening. "Mister Riku! Your luggage has arrived!" a deep voice called mockingly. Rikku sprinted from the bathroom into the living area to make sure all of her eleven various items of luggage, including the minifridge contraption Paine gave her, arrived safely.
"Finally!" Rikku said as she gave a five dollar tip to the delivery boy. He laughed sarcastically and gave her back the bill.
"I'm doing this because the school makes all students who have attended Silver Crest at least five years have to volunteer for some arrival day services. You're lucky you're new." the luggage delivery boy said gravely. Rikku nodded and took back her money. Only then did she notice the single swirly green eye that was focused on a clipboard as he absently checked names and baggage off of his delivery schedule. He's Al Bhed. Rikku thought subconsciously.
"Well thanks again for delivering my luggage." Rikku said uneasily as she watched the guy begin viscously attacking the thick pile of paper on his clipboard. "Um…are you okay?" Rikku said quietly. His laughing green eye met her and he raised an eyebrow.
"My name is Gippal and how would you like to help me deliver the rest of this luggage. I'll pay you twenty bucks. And trust me after the amount of luggage you brought the rest of the job will be easy." Gippal finished and flashed a perfect smile at Rikku. She stood uneasily for a minute before opening her mouth.
"That's a nice offer of you, but being new here I signed up for a private tour of the campus. And I have to unpack…hope to might up with you again though." Rikku said as she flashed him a smile equal to his own. Gippal nodded and left the room, only to enter it again with three measly bags that he set down on the floor.
"Your roommate's luggage. You two are the heaviest packers on campus." Gippal said to Rikku offhand. She nodded and after the door to the suite clicked closed for a final time she let out a huge breath. Now that guy was hot. Hotter then Mr. Abercrombie. Thought Rikku briefly. But, as usual, her thoughts were interrupted by another knock on the oak door.
---
"And this is the campus chapel." Rikku's tour guide Baralai said as he pointed to an out-of-place looking building. Rikku nodded and continued trudging along through seemingly never ending tour. Baralai was a nice enough guy but sometimes he did ramble on. "And coming up on your right is the first oak tree ever planted on Silver Crest's campus. It was the generous donation of Mr. and Mrs. John Hamilton. They were the founders of the booster club here at Silver Crest…" Baralai continued rambling until finally Rikku had had enough.
"Its not that I don't find this tour…so very…interesting Baralai. But my friend," Rikku looked around the school lot hastily and spotted on familiar face, "my friend Gippal is going to meet me soon. So I have to go meet him because he's meeting me." Rikku said in a mumbling rush. Baralai stood back, confused, and nodded his head slightly.
"Okay tell Gip I say hi." he said slowly. Rikku nodded and began happily skipping away, until something hit her. Baralai and Gippal are friends! Baralai will ask Gippal if he had fun hanging out with me. I need to go find Gippal immediately! Rikku thought suddenly. And she was off looking for a one-eyed Al Bhed who was most likely still delivering luggage. Well she was Rikku, Cid's daughter, and she would find him.
---
Half an hour later Rikku, Tidus, Gippal, and Baralai were seated in a white booth at an Applebee's located conveniently on campus. Still a bit flustered from her embarrassing confession to Baralai about trying to blow off the tour early Rikku eagerly welcomed the free meal Silver Crest granted to first year students.
A short brown haired girl shuffled over to the table. Her name tag read LAURIE and she whipped out her notepad to take their order. "Hey boys pick up a new one?" Laurie said cheerfully. Tidus nodded and thrust his thumb in the direction of Rikku.
"He's my new roommate. His name is Riku." Tidus said carelessly. Rikku nodded and hid behind the menu, she couldn't bare pretending to be a boy in front of girls…that was just weird, in her opinion anyway.
"How sweet!" squealed Laurie. Tidus blushed and ordered ribs from the menu. "Excuse me, Riku are you ready to order?" Laurie asked Rikku sweetly.
Very quietly Rikku managed to order a southwestern half-sized salad and a glass of mineral water. Not very manly is it? Rikku thought bitterly as she watched the other three guys dig into heaps of food without even thinking of the calories. Well, who cares? Rikku thought with a new anger, it's not my fault I want to keep my flat stomach. With that Rikku bitterly picked at her salad not noticing that the other members of the group were slightly bewildered at her eating habits just as she was of theirs.
About twenty minutes into their dinner two more people joined the already cramped booth. The first was Tidus' twin brother Shuyin he sat at the very edge of the booth and stole some chicken fingers off of Baralai's plate. The second was Laurie. Her shift was over for the night and she came and sat down right in Shuyin's lap.
"Alright so everyone is coming to Shelinda's house party this weekend?" Laurie said to the group as they finished up their last bites. Gippal nodded and Tidus and Baralai said a quiet "yes". Shuyin said something about not missing it for the world, only Rikku was left.
"Who else is going to be at the party?" Rikku said quietly. Laurie looked slightly confused before answering with a long list of names Rikku had never heard of.
"Well my cousin is coming to town to visit, so she'll be there, and Lulu and Wakka of course. Um Nooj might come and word has it that if he does show up he'll bring Le Blanc, you know the foreign exchange student attending my school? I think Clasako, Elma, Dona, Bartello, Kairi, Yuffie, Nhadala, and I don't know…others…" Laurie said easily. Rikku nodded and unwillingly agreed to go to the party.
"Perfect Riku, this'll be the chance for you to meet everyone who's anyone." Shuyin said happily as they exited the restaurant and said goodbye to Laurie.
"I guess." Rikku said slowly as she began to trudge back to her dorm to begin the momentous task of unpacking.
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A/n: Well that was a longer chapter and the next one will envolve a par-tay. Anyways Rikku has met mostly everyone and ya. So please review!
and for a bonus...
Lucy's Deepest Darkest Confessions:
I guess not. But I feel like rambling a bit. I started school today and it was okay. Plenty of old friends, but my school from last year did spilt so many close friends of mine are going to the East high school instead of the West one like me. Our highschools run 10-12. I played a tennis match today too. I'm second singles which is really good, I think. The girl I played was named Lucy too. But here's the confession, my real name isn't Lucy. Its Lousie. I know lameness. Wouldn't you go by Lucy if you were me? And since my oppenent was named Lucy, like really Lucy, I had to submit Lousie to the line judge for the scorecard. So tomorrow on the schoolwide annoucements it will annouce: "Lousie Maendel defeated oponent Lucy (whatever) from Council Rock South with a clean score of 6-0 6-0." Lousie! ugh...anyways nobody is probably even reading this...whatever...what kind of name is Lousie Rhea Claire? Stupidness i'd love to hear someone's name who is worse then that...if its possible...