Well, good news! I feel much better, and got the chapter out on time! Yay! Also, today is a snow day (double yay!) so I should be able to write most of the next chapter. So hopefully that one will be up on Saturday. I kind of had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I don't know why... It's not like it's wonderful or anything...

OH! And, I wanted to thank you all for your kind reviews! Thanks for wishing me to get well too:)

Enjoy!

Chapter 9: The Unwanted Discovery

"Did you read the paper?" Rikku asked as Yuna and she walked into the arena.

"No, I didn't," Yuna answered, "Should I have?"

"Probably," Rikku said, "Tidus isn't playing."

"What? Why not?" Yuna asked.

"Apparently his knee is a little messed up," Rikku said, "Although for their sake, they can't announce how messed up it is. He said he'd definitely be playing next weekend though. He just has to sit this one out."

"What does that mean for him?" Yuna asked.

"It means," Rikku said, "That he'll be sitting somewhere in the stands. But good luck getting to him, 'cause he'll be surrounded by people."

"That's fine with me," Yuna lied, "I don't want to see him anyway."

Rikku gave her cousin a somewhat twisted smile, as if she was trying not to smile, and she said, "Hey, Baralai's in his box. You can always go back to him."

"Don't remind me," Yuna moaned, "I was supposed to call and apologize to him last week. Luckily my father's out of town for the week."

"Here are our seats," Rikku said then. Yuna stomach churned slightly. These seats were horrible compared to Baralai's! She shook her head then, reminding herself that Tidus wouldn't be out there anyway. So what did it matter if they played well?

"Who are they playing?" Yuna asked.

"Besaid," Rikku said, laughing, "So Tidus could definitely afford to miss out on this game. They pretty much suck."

"Oh," Yuna just said, and she felt her eyes skim the crowd.

"Hey Yunie!" Rikku said then, "Look, there's Tidus!"

Sure enough, he was standing just a little ways away, talking to some students, and laughing about something or other.

"Cool," Yuna just said.

"I really wanna go talk to him!" Rikku said, "But look at the crowd around him! Yunie, why didn't you at least get his autograph for me? He's gonna be so famous someday!"

Tidus waved to the people he was talking to, and started heading up the stairs, right down Yuna and Rikku's row.

"Do you think he'll talk to you?" Rikku whispered to Yuna.

To answer her question, however, Tidus just went straight past them, and didn't acknowledge their existence at all.

"Aw, he must not have seen us!" Rikku cried.

Yuna simply looked at the ground. She knew he had seen them. He was simply avoiding them. No, avoiding her.

"It's such a shame he's not playing tonight," Rikku said, "He's so much fun to watch! Have you ever noticed how funny he is down there? I love it when he swears under his breath. It just makes me laugh. And when he gets a penalty, he gets so ticked. I think they had to talk to him about his anger issues, because once he slammed a ref out of the arena! It rocked though, 'cause the ref sucked. He got kicked out of the game though. Gippal told me that he thought it was pretty funny though."

"And there was this other time," Rikku continued although the last person Yuna wanted to talk about was Tidus, "where this player and Tidus were kind of bumping shoulders, and right after that, one of Tidus' linemen, probably Wakka—Have you ever met him? He's a sweetheart!—scored. Anyway, Tidus swam over to that guy that was bumping shoulders with him, and we were all like, "Uh-oh, here comes a fight!" because Tidus said something to him, but it almost like he just said, "Haha, who sucks now?" And then he swam off to congratulate his teammates."

"He sounds like quite the character," Yuna said sarcastically.

"Yunie, seriously, don't be so anti-Tidus!" Rikku said, "When it comes to blitzball, there ain't a better player!"

Yuna just shrugged. That was probably true.

"Yunie," Rikku said, shaking her head, "If Tidus came to me right now and was like, "Hey, let's have a one-night stand", I totally would. Any girl here would."

Yuna rolled her eyes. Her cousin simply didn't get it. There was more than just physical attraction. True, Tidus was a good looking guy. True, he probably would make a ton of gil someday. True, he was fun to watch out there. But something more tugged on her heart. She didn't know what it was. Perhaps his eyes, perhaps his smile…But even those were all physical traits. There was something more…Yuna's stomach began to ache. Love? Was it really love?

The game was getting close to beginning. The players soon came out, and Rikku jumped up and down, screaming for her team. Everybody around them was doing the same thing, jumping and dancing. Yuna found herself yearning for the quietness of Baralai's box.

Soon, the game started, and Yuna realized that nobody had seated themselves. Everybody was standing.

Yuna didn't feel like standing.

"Come on Yunie," Rikku urged her seemingly idle cousin, "You'll miss out on all the action!"

"You know," Yuna said, standing up, "I think I'll go get something from the concession stand. See you in a little bit."

"Alright," Rikku just said, as Yuna started up toward the concession stand.

Yuna sighed, for she didn't know what to do. She decided to simply go to the bathroom, and plan her next move from there. Coming to the game hadn't been the greatest idea.

To her surprise, there was quite a line for the bathroom. Sighing, Yuna decided at least it would take up time, and she leaned against the wall, waiting for her turn.

A girl came up behind her, who Yuna noticed right away was rather pretty. Her hair was loose and curly and her outfit was somewhat unique. It looked nice on her though.

"Wow, is this the line already?" the girl asked Yuna, "You'd think there wouldn't be this many people before the first period!"

"I know," Yuna said, laughing, "I was rather shocked."

"Do you go to school at the U of Bevelle?" she asked Yuna then.

"Oh, no," Yuna said, "I go to St. Maechan's."

"Oh, that's such a lovely school!" the girl said, "I got to its sister school, St. Yunalesca, in Zanarkand!"

"Oh really?" Yuna asked, for she did indeed know well of that school.

"Yeah!" the girl beamed, "I was between that school and St. Maechan's, but I decided to go to St. Yunalesca, because it was closer to home for me."

"That's what helped me make my choice too," Yuna said, smiling.

"Actually, I find Bevelle to be a really nice city," the girl said, "I love visiting here. My boyfriend goes to the U of Bevelle. I came to watch him play blitzball but…"

"Oh, your boyfriend is one of the players?" Yuna asked, "That sounds exciting!"

"Oh, it is!" she said, "Although I'm not very knowledgeable about the sport. My grandfather was a coach of some big team, but blitzball just never really interested me."

Yuna smiled and nodded, and said, "I just recently got into it. Were you at the Zanarkand game last weekend then?"

"I wanted to be," the girl said, "But I was just finishing a study-abroad program in Kilika!"

"Oh, what a shame," Yuna said, "You missed some pretty good games, on both sides."

The line ended then, and Yuna realized she was next for the open one.

"It was nice talking to you!" Yuna said, as she headed to the open bathroom.

"Yes, it made the line seem to take a lot less time!" the girl giggled, and she waved to Yuna.

Yuna smiled to herself, thinking of how nice and sweet that girl had been. She sighed, realizing how lucky that girl was. She was actually dating a player on the team. She wondered who it was then. She figured it was probably an older guy, a really good looking guy. A really nice and sweet and innocent and faithful guy. The kind of guy Yuna decided she needed.

Smiling, Yuna washed her hands and went back out, wondering if she should pick something up from the concession stand or if she simply wanted to go back to her seat.

Yuna drifted over by the concession stands, but decided against it, and started toward her seats. She stopped in her tracks then, when she realized who was standing in the hallway, talking to some lady.

It was of course, Tidus.

Yuna was about to turn around, when she heard Tidus say goodbye to the lady, and he headed toward her.

"Hey Yuna!" he greeted her, "I didn't know if you'd be coming!"

Yuna simply turned and faced him, and crossed her arms.

"I'm glad you got your knee looked at," she said, for she honestly was, "When do you think you'll be playing again."

"Hopefully tomorrow," he said, "Look, I can walk fine!" He walked a few steps, and then faced her again, with a huge, proud smile plastered across his face.

Yuna smiled despite the fact that she had tried not to, and said, "Well, I'm glad you're going to be okay."

"Me too," he agreed with her, "Who'd you come to the game with?"

"My cousin," Yuna answered.

Tidus smiled, and said, "That's nice."

"Well, I should go," Yuna said then, "I hope you get to play tomorrow!"

"Yuna, wait!" Tidus said, "Um, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"I-If it's about the other night, don't worry about it," Yuna said, forcing a smile, "I know you don't have 'girlfriends'."

"Uh…Actually," Tidus said, only to be interrupted by a voice from behind him.

"Tidey-poo, I brought you some beer!"

The two turned around, only to see that nice girl that Yuna had seen before.

"Oh, uh, thanks Dona," Tidus said, "But you know I can't drink it. I'm underage."

"When has that stopped you before?" the girl giggled, "Oh, hey! You're the girl I met in the bathroom!"

Yuna smiled a rather confused smile and said, "Um, yeah."

"Oh, you met?" Tidus said, and Yuna noticed a look of panic flew across his face.

"Kind of!" the girl said, and to Yuna's surprise, wrapped her arm around Tidus' waist, "But we didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Dona, Tidus' girlfriend."

Yuna's body seemed to freeze. She looked at Tidus, who simply looked away from her, with the words 'busted' seemingly plastered across his forehead.

"Yeah, nice to meet you!" Yuna just cried, "I'm Yuna. I-I really have to get back to my seat now. Um, bye!"

She rushed off then, praying that Dona, and definitely not Tidus, had seen the tears that were now flooding from her eyes.

As she ran away, she heard Dona say, "She seems like such a nice girl!"

-

"Rikku, I think I'm going to leave," Yuna said, taking her seat next to her cousin.

"Why?" Rikku asked, shocked, "Did something happen?"

Yuna was doing her best to hide the fact that she was horribly upset.

"Well, no, I'm just…Not in the mood," Yuna finally finished.

"How can you not be?" Rikku cried, "We're up two-to-zero, and we've only just started!"

"I really think I'll just go," Yuna said, "You enjoy yourself though! Bye!"

She rushed off then, leaving her cousin to sit there, staring after her with a confused look spread across her face.

Yuna sharply turned, only to run right into someone. Embarrassed, she said a quick "I'm sorry", and started off.

"Uh, Yuna?"

She turned around, only to see that it was Baralai. Despite herself, she looked up at the ceiling. Could this night get any worse?"

"Hi Baralai," she just mustered, deciding she couldn't be a complete jerk.

"Yuna, I've been trying to get a hold of you all week!" he said, "I wanted to apologize."

Yuna bit her lip. She was not in the mood for this.

Baralai noticed she wasn't going to say anything, so he said, "I don't know why, but I just really got the feeling that you liked Tidus. But I should have trusted you."

No you shouldn't have, Yuna simply thought.

"It's alright," Yuna said, "I was acting like the moron, not you."

Baralai took a deep breath and said, "Do you want to start over?"

Yuna thought she was going to vomit. They hadn't even been going out for a week, had they? He made it sound like they'd been going out for years.

"Um Baralai?" Yuna just said, "Tonight's kind of not a good night. How about I'll be in touch with you sometime next week?"

"Alright," Baralai said with a shrug, "I guess I'll talk to you then."

"Yeah, bye!" Yuna said, and simply brushed him aside. All she wanted was to go to bed. She just wanted to sleep and wake up and have everything over with. All she knew though, was that she was through with blitzball. Maybe she understood why her father hated it. It seemed to be ruining her life.

-

She had really assumed that spring would be coming. It didn't seem that way, however, for snow was piling down as she walked to her car from her class.

She sighed loudly, for she realized that spring was probably no where in sight. Especially for her.

She had spent the last few days pondering on why she didn't tell someone. Why didn't she explain to Rikku that she was in love with Tidus? Why didn't she explain how Tidus had lied to her? Why didn't she explain why she felt the way she did? Unrequited love, but she couldn't tell…She couldn't speak of it. It couldn't be found out.

She suddenly heard a car horn, and she knew without looking who it was.

"Hey Yuna!" he said, slowing way down, "I'm glad I found you! Look, I really need to talk to you…"

Yuna simply ignored him, and kept walking.

"Yuna!" he cried, "You have to listen to me!"

He parked his car then, right in the middle of the street, and on the wrong side of the road, and jumped out, chasing after her.

"Yuna!" he cried again, catching up to her, "You gotta let me explain myself!"

Yuna simply kept ignoring him, although he was right there next to her.

"Come on Yuna, don't be like this!" he said, "I can really explain myself!"

"Tidus, it's alright," Yuna finally managed, "I get it. She's your girlfriend from Zanarkand. And she seems like a nice, sweet girl."

To her surprise, Tidus laughed and said, "Man does she have you fooled! Nice and sweet? Yeah right!"

Yuna looked at him confused, and his smile instantly faded.

"Look Yuna, she's like…my girlfriend but not really."

Yuna rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, because that makes sense."

"It's really complicated," Tidus said, "Isn't that what you told me about your relationship?"

"Well, mine was complicated," Yuna said, and she kept walking, still attempting to lose him.

"Mine's complicated too!" Tidus cried, "Trust me, it really is."

"How so?" Yuna asked him, crossing her arms.

"I don't…Know how to explain it!" Tidus said, "I swear though Yuna, she's not…She's not really my girlfriend."

"Tidus, if she's not your girlfriend, then what is she?" Yuna asked, "She seems to think you're her boyfriend. I guess she doesn't realize that you have other girls on the side, huh?"

Tidus looked like he didn't know what to say. Finally he scrunched his nose as if he were disgusted and said, "Fine, wanna know what she is?"

"Sure," Yuna said.

"She's not my girlfriend," Tidus said, crossing his own arms across his chest, "She's my fiancé."

Yuna stopped dead in her tracks, and she turned around to face Tidus, who had stopped.

"Oh, because that's so much better!" Yuna cried back at him, "Do me a favor and just leave me alone, okay?"

"Fine," Tidus said, "But I swear, it's a lot more complicated than that!"

"Whatever!" Yuna just yelled back at him.

"Y-Yuna!" Tidus yelled back to her, "W-Wait, are you going to this weekend's game?"

"No," Yuna answered.

"But it's the last one!" Tidus cried, "Well…Until the playoffs!"

He was getting further and further from her.

"That's alright, you have fun!" Yuna simply cried at him.

He didn't say anything. He just stood back there, looking completely and utterly defeated.