Hey guys! Sorry this took a little while, I had soccer practice, and after that, I realized that I needed to get in shape. XD
The good news was that the Advanced Tennis class was on a different set of courts, so Riku wouldn't have to see how bad Yuffie was. The bad news was that Tifa was in Beginner's Class too, except she was good and Yuffie was terrible. Tifa's swings were smooth and always hit the ball. Yuffie kept letting go of the racket and nearly hitting the instructor with it. She was pretty sure that Tifa was laughing at her, and these tales were going straight back to Naminé.
By lunchtime, Yuffie's arms ached and her hair was sticking to her face. She was so relieved when the instructor finally let them go, she didn't even care that she would now have to face Riku and Naminé again.
Yuffie was gathering her stuff, when a voice said, "Hey," right behind her, and she jumped.
"Sorry to startle you," Tifa said, bouncing on her heels. "I just wanted to say, don't worry you'll get better. I was pretty bad when I started. I'm still not good enough for Intermediate or Advanced."
Yuffie couldn't think of anything interesting to say, except for, "Thanks."
Tifa kept looking at Yuffie, as if she was thinking, how did a girl like you snag Riku? Yuffie thought, I'll answer that if you can tell me why you agreed to be best friends with the scariest girl in school.
"Well?" Tifa said.
"Well what?" Yuffie asked.
"Aren't you starving? Let's go have lunch!"
Let's? As in "let us"? Us? Me and Tifa? There's an us in there?!
Tifa spun her racket impatiently while Yuffie quickly grabbed her bag with the hat, the extra sunscreen, and the brown-bag lunch her mom had packed. She followed Tifa up the walkway to a bunch of picnic tables under the trees. The other Tennis for Teens campers were gathered there, along with the lifeguard training glass, and a group of basketball campers.
Riku was already sitting at a table, unwrapping his lunch. His hair was half wet from the showers and drying in the sun, so it was kind of spiky and darker than usual. That day his T-shirt was a light blue, making his eyes even bluer. He saw Yuffie and waved.
"Wow," Tifa said. "Did you see his face light up when he saw you? That's so cute. My boyfriend never looks that excited to see me."
Yeah. I guess Riku's a really good actor.
"You have a boyfriend?" Yuffie asked.
"Oh sure," Tifa said. "Cloud Strife. Naminé set us up in April." That made sense. Cloud was athletic and blond and agreeable and would fit in well with Naminé's idea of who her friends should date. For one thing she'd never want to date him. Anyone she'd dated was off the menu for everyone else.
Tifa peeled off to join Naminé and her Glare of Death in the line for pizza, and Yuffie hesitantly went over to Riku's table. See, this was why Zack should be there. She'd know exactly who to sit with and how. And if she wanted to spend lunchtime reading her book, he wouldn't mind. But of course she had to sit with Riku, right? A girlfriend would normally sit with her boyfriend. That was the girlfriend thing to do.
She set her lunch bad down on the table, opposite him, and he immediately reached out and grabbed it.
"Hey," she said. "Eat your own lunch."
"Sit next to me," he whispered frantically. "Or else she will."
Yuffie looked up and saw Naminé heading up their way. She scooted quickly around the end of the table and managed to sit down next to Riku before Naminé plunked her tray down on the table.
"Oh Riku," Naminé said, ignoring Yuffie. "I saw you playing tennis when I went by the courts earlier. You are so talented."
Thanks," Riku said, opening up Yuffie's lunch. "Jeez Yuffie, your mom really likes carrot sticks doesn't she?"
"We suspect she owns stock in them or something," Yuffie joked. Riku laughed; Naiminé didn't.
"Not to mention," Naminé went on as if Yuffie didn't even talk. "You look so hot in shorts. Not every guy can pull that look off-right Yuffie? It must be so hard to concentrate with your boyfriend right there, looking that hot."
"Oh, we're in two different classes," Yuffie said awkwardly.
"Here, Yuffie," riku said, and she realized that he was saying her name a lot more than usual. He broke his cookie in half and handed her the bigger piece. "To make up for all those carrot sticks."
"Really?" Yuffie said. She met his eyes as he handed her the cookie. He looked so worried, she couldn't stop herself from smiling.
"That is so cute," Tifa said, sliding onto the bench, next to Naminé. "Cloud totally refuses to share his food with me. Once I ate a french fry off his plate when he had clearly finished eating, and he, like, didn't speak to me for the rest of the weekend."
"He's probably helping you watch your weight," Naminé said nastily. "I'd say he's doing you a favor."
Tifa looked hurt. She stared down at her pizza, poking it with her plastic fork but not eating. Yuffie wished she was brave enough to tell Tifa that Naminé was being crazy-and mean for no reason- but she was too afraid to butt into their conversation. Naminé had enough reasons to hate her.
"So what are you going to do for your afternoon activity?" Riku asked Yuffie. She realized there were sign-up sheets on all the tables. The list of choices included more tennis (no thanks) learning to papier-mâché (yeah, maybe if I was still 8), Ultimate Frisbee, and pool volleyball. Sadly, going home and watching TV with Zack wasn't on the list.
"I don't know," Yuffie said. "None of this is my idea of fun. I guess Frisbee sounds the least painful."
"Really?" Naminé pounced. "I thought for sure you'd want to be with your boyfriend. Unless you don't really want to hang out with him, but I'm sure that's not true.
Yuffie gave Riku a confused look, and he tapped POOL VOLLEYBALL with one finger. "I'm a team captain," he said. "Ariel-the woman in charge of the pool activities- asked me to be because I've had lifeguard training."
"Oh," she said. Now what? On one hand, if she stuck with Frisbee, she wouldn't be acting like a real girlfriend, would she? But on the other hand.. Pool volleyball meant a bathing suit. In front of Riku and worse, Naminé. At least the red bikini was safely hidden under her bead at home.
"Come on," Riku said, taking one of her hands in both of his. "It'll be fun."
"You don't really want me on your team. I'm terrible." Yuffie said.
"I know," Riku said. "I want you on the other guy's team."
Yuffie swatted him with her free hand. "That is no way to talk to your girlfriend," she said, forgetting for a moment that Naminé was right there, intently watching them.
"You're right," he said. "My apologies, sugar plum. I'm sorry, honey pie. I'll never do it again, my little pumpkin. Is that better?"
She wrinkled her nose at him. "I feel so edible all of the sudden."
"Cute enough to eat," he said. Yuffie looked down at the table, turning pink again. He didn't have to overact quite so much. Naminé would catch on if he kept being so ridiculous.
"Adorable," Tifa said, shaking her head. "I aspire to be that adorable."
Namine stood up, grabbed Tifa's arm, and yanked her away. As they hurried off, Yuffie heard Naminé whisper, "Nauseating," just loudly for Yuffie to hear.
Yuffie pulled her hand free and wrapped up the remains of her sandwich. Now that they were gone, how was she supposed to act?
"I think it's going well," said Riku. "Don't you?"
"Um, sure," Yuffie said. Is the sense of me not being dead yet? Sure, it's going fine.
"You don't have to do volleyball if you don't want to."
"That's okay," Yuffie said. "I'm sure it'll be fun. Besides, after tennis I could use a swim."
Have I said thank you for this?" Riku asked. "Because seriously. Thank you for this."
"I'm not sure I'm helping. She's still paying so much attention to you."
"I'm sure she'll get over it soon. You won't have to pretend much longer."
So instead of pretending to date you... I can go back to pretending I don't like you.
Yuffie sighed. When do I finally get to stop pretending?
I finished! Yay! does her little happy dance Jeez, it's like 1 in the morning. Heheheh that's bad. I'm suppose to be up and moving at 8.
The Little Mermaid plushies (just because I was watching that movie today) to:
brisFH28
Bonbon the Cat
Warriorcat's Spirit
Secret Agent 99
It's going to be awhile until the next chapter comes up. I've got double sessions for soccer Thursday and back to school Tuesday. And I'm a Freshmen. Oh joy.
Erin
P.S- I'm changing my username to Forever Yours.