Excerpt: The Last Wave

She was bored. Very, very bored.

The pale-skinned girl with auburn hair and brown eyes sat in the stands of Luca stadium, watching blitzball practice; more like, watching two people in the blitz sphere intently; her parents, two of the star players of the Luca Goers. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she smoothed her hand over the black shorts she was wearing and rested her chin on her knees as she hummed under her breath.

"Aralyn!" a young female voice called as a dark-haired girl slipped into the row she was sitting in. "Bored watching your parents practice?" Doram said, plopping down into the seat beside her.

The other girl nodded. "Can't go anywhere though, since I'm grounded," she muttered, scowling at her parents in the blitz sphere. "And before you ask what happened, I got in trouble at school."

Doram nodded understandingly. "Yeah I remember," she said softly. "You and Graav got into a fight in front of the principal, right?"

Aralyn nodded and sighed. "He and I both got suspended for a week, and when Mom and Dad found out, I was grounded for twice that." Raising a hand to wave to her parents, she looked back at he friend. "So, if you're trying to ask me to come sneak out and play tag on the Highroad with you, I can't."

Doram nodded with a bit of a sigh. "That sucks." she combed her fingers through her shoulder length brown hair and after a moment or two of silence, she continued, "You ever decide what you want to do with your life, Aralyn?"

Aralyn looked back out towards the center of the stadium as she replied, "I want to be a Crusader...I know Mom and Dad want me to become a blitzer like them but...." she sighed heavily and sat back in her seat, lowering her legs to the ground. "I just don't want to."

"You want to be able to help against Sin, don't you?" Doram said quietly. At Aralyn's nod, she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Your parents don't want you to do it cause of the risk of death, you know....?" She fell silent for a moment then continued, "*I* don't want you to go off and die, you're one of my best friends, remember?"

"Yeah I know," Aralyn said, her childish voice a soft carress against the wind. "But even friends have to do their own things, don't they?"