No, I am NOT dead! Mwaha! Tricked you all, didn't I? (gets tomato thrown in face) Okay, I know, I know. I am super incredibly most awesomely godly sorry about the delay. I just had major writer's block for this story, but all of the sudden, inspiration found me again! I will begin writing the next chapter tomorrow, and plan to have it up by Friday of this week. That's a promise.

Oh, and one more thing: I'm making one of those review restriction things. It may go up later, but for now, I want AT LEAST 12 reviews for each chapter. Otherwise, I'll go on a little hiatus again . Hehe.

Thanks SOOO much to all of my reviewers! If you guys hadn't reviewed at all, I would not have stayed up all night to finish this chapter. I really really appreciate all the support you've given me. It makes me feel SOOOO good. It really does.

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX, characters, or related indicia. I think that about covers it...

YUNA POV

Unfortunately for me, the next two days went by too quickly. Before I knew it, it was Thursday, the day that Tidus and I were to work on our project together after school. I found myself getting very nervous, and started thinking up strange schemes in order to get out of it. I thought that I might fake a cold, and tell Tidus that he shouldn't come over because I didn't want him to get sick. But that made it seem like I cared about his health, which I didn't. I thought that I might tell him that I had to babysit that night, but I figured that he would tell Rikku, who would then want to walk home with me. Finally, I just decided to try and sneak past him on my way out of school. Maybe he wouldn't remember where my house was?

Of course, that plan didn't work either.

I practically ran out of school after the bell rung. I could see the gate so clearly. All I had to do was get past it, and I would be safe. In a moment, I began to run, desperate to get out of there. I was almost through home free, but then I heard him.

"Hey, Yuna! You ready to go?"

I slowly turned to see Tidus standing in the parking lot, waving at me. "My car's over here! Come on!"

I sighed. So much for my brilliant plan. I tried not to drag my feet as I walked towards Tidus' yellow sports car, wishing that the day would be over. I opened the door and slid onto the black leather seat, noticing how the car smelled oddly like strawberries.

Tidus sat in the driver's seat and closed the door. Soon, we were off.

I was really surprised at how nervous I was. My palms were sweating profusely, and I was biting my lip so hard I thought it would bleed. Why was I acting like this? It was just Tidus, the same jerk that had had the goal to make my life a living hell for the last few years of my life, so why was I so fidgety?

I sighed. I knew that I had just answered my own question.

"Anyone home in there?"

I jumped when I realized that Tidus had been talking to me. "Oh, sorry," I said, sighing. "What did you say?"

"Do I turn here to get to your house? I can't really remember…" Tidus said sheepishly.

"Yes," I said, and went silent once again. I saw Tidus glance at me, but I pretended not to notice. It was probably just because I had my fists clenched so tightly that my knuckles were turning white. My behavior probably seemed really weird to him. It seemed weird to me.

Finally, we reached my house. We both got out of the car, and I walked up onto the porch and unlocked the door. I had gone inside and hung up my coat and backpack when I realized that Tidus hadn't followed me into the house. I went back outside onto the porch, and was surprised to see that Tidus' car was there, but he wasn't. "Tidus?" I said, but there was no reply. I walked off of the porch and looked around, but I couldn't find him. I walked around to my backyard, and could see Tidus in the distance, standing near the ocean. I sighed, and just took in the view of my backyard for a moment. It felt like I hadn't been out here in a long time since I had been working overtime so much lately.

To the left, I had a couple of fruit trees and a small vegetable garden, both of which were bare as of now. To the right was endless forest, but on one of the trees was a tire swing that Gippal had made for me for my sixteenth birthday.

But, out of all of that, my favorite part of my home was the sand and the ocean.

During the summer, whenever I had free time, I would swim. I loved the water; the feeling of it, the smell of it, and the beauty of it. Part of the reason I did love the water was probably because my mother used to take me to the beach all the time when she was still alive. While there, she would tell me wonderful stories about my father, about his courage and bravery, about why she fell so in love with him, and about why he had to leave us. While my mother told those stories, I would draw pictures in my head: pictures of my father and mother and me, all together. I felt that I got to know my father through those stories, being that I hadn't gotten the chance to before he left to fight Sin.

"Oh, sorry, Yuna."

I snapped out of my trance to see Tidus walking towards me. "For what?" I asked.

"I just kinda wandered off. I didn't really mean to, it's just…It surprised me how different this place is during the day. It's nice," Tidus smiled.

I gave him a small smile. He was actually one of the few people who had ever come here during the day. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one who thought it was nice. Lulu liked darker environments, and Gippal, though he didn't come over much, liked being around civilization, so neither of them was particularly fond of my home. "Well, we'd better get to work," I said. I turned to walk to the front of the house again, and this time Tidus followed me. We entered the house, and I walked around, opening all of the shades

. "Do you want anything to eat?" I asked Tidus, who was standing near the door.

"Oh, um, just a snack is fine. Doesn't really matter what it is. I'll eat it. Trust me," Tidus said, giving a crooked smile. "Alright," I said, walking into the kitchen. "And you can sit down, you know. You don't have to stand there the whole time."

When I came out carrying a box of granola bars, Tidus had sat down on the couch, and was looking around the room. "Nice place," he said.

"Um, thanks," I murmered, setting the box down on the coffee table. I don't know why he bothered complimenting my house when his was probably much bigger, considering his dad was a retired blitzball player. My house was probably the size of his closet.

I fetched my backpack and took out our paper and the social studies book, and we began working. I felt odd knowing that, if some random person came up and looked through my window, this would look like a date, even though it was anything but.

TIDUS POV
The whole time I was at Yuna's that day, I felt really, really nervous. And it's weird, because I'm usually so cool when it comes to girls. But with Yuna…damn, I was a wreck. If our hands would brush while we were working on that small coffee table of hers, I would feel heat rush to my face, and then I'd have to look at Yuna to see if the same was happening with her, but it never seemed to. And that, for some reason, slightly disappointed me. But only slightly.

Yuna had also seemed kinda dazed in the time before we worked our report. I would try to crack a joke with her, or be nice to her, and I would barely get a smile. Was something on her mind? Or was she just like that because I was with her? It was most likely choice number two.

"…Tidus?"

I looked up from my work to see Yuna staring right at me. "Huh?"

"Can I ask you something?"

Did she actually want to talk about something with me? "Sure, shoot!" I hoped I didn't sound too excited.

"If…" Yuna sighed. "If I ask you this, can you promise me that you'll tell me the truth?"

"Ugh, yeah, I guess," I said, getting a bad feeling about this. What could it be about?

Yuna took a deep breath. "Now, you may think I'm totally crazy for asking this. But…it's been missing for quite awhile."

Missing? What was missing?

"And I lost it the same day that we ran into each other. So please, just tell me the truth…"

Oh shit.

"Do you have my journal?"

Oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. What was I supposed to say? If I stayed quiet too long, it would be obvious that I had taken it. If I answered too quickly, it would seem suspicious. So what does someone like me do in a situation like this?

Why, play it stupid, of course.

"Journal?" I said, trying to put a clueless look on my face. "What journal?"

I must've done a pretty good job of not knowing what I was talking about, because Yuna got a relieved look on her face after I spoke. "Never mind. Just forget it," she said, going back to her paper.

Yevon, if what I felt right then wasn't guilt, I don't know what it was. Dona still had Yuna's journal, so even if I wanted to give it back to her I couldn't.

About two more hours passed in complete silence. We had gotten less done then I thought we would: only about three and a half pages out of the eight that we had to do were completed. It turned out that the project was harder then it seemed. So I figured that I should ask if we could work on it again outside of school. I actually didn't mind being here with her too much, granted I still felt really guilty acting like I knew nothing about what happened to her journal.

"Um, Yuna?"

Yuna looked up from her writing. "Hm?" she said.

"Do you think that…maybe since we didn't get much done today that we should get together this weekend or something?" I asked.

Yuna looked surprised for a moment, but she quickly said, "Oh, I can't. Sorry," she said.

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid for even asking, "It's no big deal or anything." Before I could stop myself, I added, "Do you have other plans?"

I hoped she didn't think I was being to nosey, and knew it wasn't my business, but I just had to ask. Yuna, again, looked surprised. "Oh, I just have to work all weekend. I really can't miss it."

Yuna worked all weekend? What a drag. But, something seemed a little off with her. "Oh, well, when's your lunch break on Saturday? I can come by then," I offered.

Yuna seemed shocked by my persistency. But she shook her head. "I really can't. I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's no problem," I said. "Do you have any time open next week?" Actually, I think I was surprised by my own persistency, too.

"No, I don't have free time for a while now," Yuna said quickly. After seeing the odd look on my face, she said. "It's, ugh, going to be getting really busy at Opurson's. They have the most business in fall and winter."

"Oh, okay," I said. I couldn't believe that I had practically begged her to get together with me. I sighed, then looked at my watch. "Oh, crap. I gotta get home. I have blitz practice in twenty minutes." I stood up and grabbed my bag. "Thanks for the food, Yuna. See you tomorrow." I smiled, trying once again to get her to smile back.

"Yeah. Bye," she said. I got no smile. I sighed and walked out of the door and into my car. Damn, she was difficult to get through to.

YUNA POV
I guess overall it went okay. Not great, but not terrible, which I was thankful for. I would've been under more stress knowing that it had gone badly. I think.

I felt slightly bad about lying to Tidus about why I couldn't get together with him anymore after school. My fourth and final year of summoning class was starting up on Monday night, and I didn't think he would really understand if I told him. He and his lack for people's privacy would've probably wanted an explanation, and then he would tell all of his friends, who would in turn tell the rest of the school, which wasn't good, considering no one else that I knew was studying to be a summoner like I was. Who knows what their views of me would've been?

Granted, I guess I didn't much care about how they viewed me. But I still didn't want to tell Tidus. Becoming a summoner was more of a personal matter.

The next day, I found myself to be moving incredibly slowly, which surprised me since I had gone to bed early. I ended up hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock at leastfive times, and then it took me about twenty minutes to shower. I even had to skip breakfast in order to get to school on time.

Struggling through the crowd as I made my way through the school towards my locker, I saw Lulu standing at hers, sorting through some books.

"Good morning, Lulu," I yawned as I came up to my locker and started entering the combination.

"Huh? Oh, hello," Lulu said dully. I glanced at her while I was putting my books up, and noticed that she didn't have her hair in the regular ponytail and braids today. "Wow, Lulu! You're hair looks really pretty down!" I said, smiling at her. "You should wear it like that more often."

Lulu didn't respond. I closed my locker and turned to her, a worried look on my face. "Lulu? Did you hear me?"

"What? Oh, yeah. I guess I just thought I'd try something new," Lulu said, and I could detect a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"Oh," I said, lowering my eyes to the floor. Something was wrong with her. Now I just had to find out what. Looking at her, I realized that I couldn't see her face very clearly behind her hair. "Hey, Lulu, why don't you put your hair behind you ears or something? Show the world your pretty face!" I smiled, but Lulu showed no reaction. "Lulu? Hey, Lulu, is something wrong?"

Again, there was no reaction. I slowly reached my hand up to move some hair out of her face. "Lulu, what…?"

But I never got the chance to finish. Right before I was about to move her hair, Lulu grasped my wrist with her pale hand, her nails digging deeply into my skin. I gasped as white-hot pain flowed up through my arm and desperately tried to wrench my wrist from her grip. Within a moment, Lulu let go. I hastily pulled my hand away, clutching it as it throbbed.

"Lulu! What in Yevon…!" I could only manage to say those few things. I couldn't believe what had just happened. Had it been real? Had Lulu actually grabbed my wrist like that? Had Lulu actually hurt me?

I noticed the hand that Lulu had grabbed me with was trembling. "Yuna…I...I'm sorry, I don't know what…" But before she finished, she ran off, and I could hear her sobbing faintly.

I leaned back against my locker and sunk to the floor, trying to comprehend all that had just happened. In a moment, the bell rang, but I didn't move from my spot. I couldn't. Had Lulu gone to class? I wondered. Most likely not.

I told myself that I had to get to class, that Mr. Auron would definitely be quizzing me on my whereabouts later on. But I felt as though I was made of stone; I couldn't move a muscle. My wrist still throbbed. My head suddenly ached. I felt as though I could throw up, even though I had no food in my stomach.

Soon enough, I felt a tear sliding down my cheek. Lulu, the one person who I had always trusted, who had always been there for me, through thick and thin, had just hurt me. Both physically and mentally.

But something had been wrong with Lulu today. There was no doubt about it, especially now. I had never known Lulu to be so violent, except that one time a few months ago with Barthello, and even that was only because she was defending me.

Using the wall for support, I slowly got to my feet. I had to find Lulu. I had to find out what was wrong.

"Yuna?"

I looked up to see quite an odd site:a milk-mustached Tidus standing at the end of the hallway, holding a box of doughnuts.

"Ugh, hey," I said, pulling the sleeve of my navy blue jacket over my bruising wrist, hoping he didn't notice.

"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in class or something?" Tidus asked, wiping the milk from his mouth before pulling a chocolate doughnut out of the box and taking a large bite.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Well, shouldn't I be saying the same to you?"

Tidus shrugged. "I felt like doughnuts for breakfast, and the line was long. So I thought 'Do I wait for my doughnuts? Or do I go to art class with grouchy old Ms. Lucil?' So, obviously, you can tell which one I chose." Tidus smirked, taking another bite of his doughnut.

"Yeah, obviously," I said, picking up the books that I had sat down next to me while sitting on the floor. "I'd better get going," I said quickly, walking past him.

"You didn't answer my question, Yuna."

I stopped in my tracks. "What question?"

"What are you doing out here? I mean, I always figured you weren't really the hooky type."

"Oh, I was just resting. I'm really tired this morning," I said, faking a yawn.

Tidus raised a blonde eyebrow at me. "Oh really? You were resting in the middle of the hall? At school? In plain site of any student or teacher?"

I bit my lip. I didn't have a response for that one. "Oh, I don't know, I just kind of picked a spot!" I said. "Well, I have to get to class, so…"

"Class is almost over, you know," Tidus said, sitting down in the same spot that I had just been in moments before. "If you want to spare yourself the embarrassment of walking into the room during the last couple minutes, you could always chill with me and have a doughnut," Tidus smiled, waving a rainbow-sprinkled doughnut enticingly.

I thought for a moment. I really didn't want to go to class, but I didn't exactly want to 'chill' with Tidus either. I could always walk somewhere else in the building. But what if I ran into someone?

That rainbow-sprinkled doughnut was starting to look pretty darn good.

"Alright," I said softly, walking over to where Tidus was sitting. I sat down next to him, and he handed me the doughnut.

"I knew you'd cave. You seem like the sprinkle type," Tidus said, shoving the rest of his chocolate doughnut into his mouth.

I smiled softly and took a bite of the doughnut.

"So, you still can't study this week, huh?" Tidus asked. I looked at him with wide eyes, and he blushed.

"I-I didn't mean it like that! It just came out wrong! What I meant was-"

But I smiled and cut him off. "I know what you meant. And, no, I can't get together with you to work on our project this week."

Tidus sighed, obviously relieved that he hadn't had to explain himself further. "Oh, okay. Just let me know when you're free."

I nodded, taking another bite of my doughnut. We sat in silence for a minute or two, but suddenly, a loud, booming voice shattered the quiet.

"And what are you two doing outside of class?"

Both Tidus and I turned to see none other then Mr. Auron.

"Mr. Auron, sir," I jumped up immediately, grabbing my books. "I-I…we were just…"

"I expected better of you, Ms. Braska," Mr. Auron said, walking towards us. My gaze sunk to the ground. The one thing I hated was when people were disappointed in me. It made me feel extremely guilty.

"What were you doing out here," Mr. Auron continued. "With him?" he glared at Tidus.

"Hey, get off my back, Auron," Tidus snapped, standing up. "We were just hanging out. Yuna seemed upset, so I offered her a doughnut. Is that such a bad thing?"

So Tidus had noticed that I was upset. I suppose that I had never been much of an actress in the first place. But what puzzled me was how up-front Tidus seemed to be with Mr. Auron. As far as I knew, they weren't acquainted. I thought that Tidus was still stuck in the algebra one class with Mr. Rin.

"Don't talk to me like that, Tidus. Iwill inform your father immediately," Mr. Auron snapped back.

"Oh, you're tattling on me, now are you, Auron?" Tidus said mockingly.

"You and I both know that he can have you removed from the blitzball team quicker then he can make you cry."

Tidus' expression went from shocked to saddened to furious in a matter of seconds. After a moment, I heard him speak in a soft yet malicious tone.

"Go to hell. You and my old man both."

And he stormed past Mr. Auron, who looked him in the face the entire time he passed.

Now, even though I was dumbstruck and confused by the sudden outburst between the two, I had to admit that Tidus' exit would've been a little more effective if he hadn't had the box of doughnuts tucked protectively under his arm.

I stared after Tidus for a moment until I heard Mr. Auron sigh. I looked over to him.

"Mr. Auron?" I said cautiously.

Mr. Auron looked over at me. "Yuna, why were you with that boy?"

"Oh, ugh…" I paused. "Tidus pretty much told the truth, sir. About me being upset and all..."

Mr. Auron shook his head. "You really shouldn't talk to him, Yuna. He's nothing but trouble. I thought that you would've learned after all these years of schooling with him."

I lowered my gaze once again as I detected the hint of disappointment in Mr. Auron's voice. "Well, sir, we have to do a project together and…"

"Projects are excusable. Eating doughnuts in the middle of a hallway with him while cutting class is not. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," I said quietly.

"Good. Now, the bell is about to ring. I won't penalize you today, but if I catch you outside of class without a pass again, I will have no choice. Now, exchange your books for the next class. I will see you tomorrow." And he walked off in the same direction as Tidus.

I sighed and walked over to my locker. What did Mr. Auron have against Tidus?

Tidus POV
I stormed off after my encounter with Auron. What right did he have to embarrass me like that in front of Yuna? And the two of us had actually been getting along before he came, too.

I turned the hall towards my locker when a thought struck me. Why did I care so much what Yuna thought of me? She was nothing to me. I swore that the Yevon damned girl was getting inside my head.

As I put the box of doughnuts in my locker for later, I heard an angry voice call me.

"Tidus!"

I rolled my eyes, knowing who it was. "What do you want now?"

"Don't disrespect me, boy," Auron stopped at my locker.

"What, like you just disrespected me?" I snapped, shutting my locker loudly.

"What were you doing talking to Yuna?" he asked.

"What, is she restricted only to school rejects and annoying old men?" I said, and angrily began walking down the hall away from Auron when I felt him grab my shoulder and whip me around sharply.

"You stay away from her, boy. You truly don't know what you're getting yourself into."

A smirk appeared on my face. "What? Are you afraid that I'm going to get involved with her? Because that, Auron, is the last thing on my mind."

Auron let go of my shoulder. "It shouldn't be in your mind to begin with, boy." And, without another word, he walked off.

"Touchy much?" I muttered to myself as the bell rang and students came pouring out of their classes. Auron sure did seem protective of Yuna, though, andI had no idea why. But I wasn't scared of him. I mean, really, how bad was it that I was friends with Yuna? I almost wanted to be extra nice to Yuna, just to spite Auron.

I sighed as I made my way towards history. Maybe I would ask Yuna about Auron. Then again, maybe not. I knew enough about her personal life to last me forever.

Tell me what you thought!
Most sincerely,
Inannalia