Disclaimer: I only wish I owned Prince of Tennis.
I am rewriting this because I actually really like this story, but I've been completely lost on what to do next. So I apologize to people who have been looking for an update. Please be patient!
The first day of middle school is terrifying for everyone, I am sure. People who say that are wrong.
It is terrifying.
Especially if it is a new school on the first day of the third year of middle school. Nevertheless, Mom always said that I had to face my fears. Somehow, I still would rather not face spiders, heights, and the first day of school.
I sighed as I ruffled my roughly cut brown hair before dragging a brush through it and slipping on my uniform. I shot a dirty look at the makeup sitting on my dresser. My older sister used to use me as a doll when I was younger and she told me over the phone that I had to use her makeup on the first day of school. I had too many bad experiences with the chemicals to use it in the near future, and she would not find out if I did not listen to her anyways.
"Midori! Come downstairs and eat!" my Dad yelled.
"Coming!" I screamed.
I huffed, took one last look in the mirror, and swept my hair to the side of my face while I turned on my heel and grabbed my new backpack and my sports bag.
Bouncing down the stairs, the acrid smell of burning food drifted past my nose.
"Heh, it seems like I ruined the eggs again," Dad grinned.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the pan in his hand before dumping the black tar into a trash can.
"Thanks, but I think I will just eat cereal," I grimace as the reek starts to clear.
Dad snorted in reply. "I'm proud of you, you know. Ever since your mom…you've just become so independent."
I smiled uncomfortably as I poured milk into a bowl.
"Look at you; you're turning into a beautiful woman."
"I'm fourteen," I shoot him an exasperated look while munching on the cereal, spoon posed halfway between my mouth and bowl.
He turns on the fake waterworks and wipes a tear that was trailing down his cheek. I did not miss the slightly upturned mouth as he pretends to sob.
"Really?" I growl, unamused.
"You're going to be late for your first day," he grins. "Hurry up and go."
I rolled my eyes again, grabbed my bags, and ran out of the apartment. I truly loved my dad. He was the only person I had other than my sister. Now that she is in college, I refused to rely on her and her cooking. She was digging herself out of the hole that our family fell into.
I sprint to school, breaths coming out as puffs as I drag the extra weight of my bags. I took a quick glance at my watch. Five minutes to be in class. I promptly collided into a mass that didn't budge.
"Oh, lucky! You're cute!" the mass grinned.
I glare back. "What's so lucky about being late on the first day of school?"
"We get to meet each other! Lucky!"
I narrowed my eyes at the boy and sidestepped, and continued to run towards my homeroom class.
I still heard the, "Darn, she ran off. Maybe I'm not so lucky today."
Upon entering the new classroom, I was promptly scolded by the new teacher. I chose a seat that was left at the front of the room. I had to rely on having good grades to boost the teacher's impression of me.
Guess who strolled in late? The lucky boy. He came in a whole fifteen minutes late. I am definitely unlucky if he's in my class of 2-A.
He seemed to have forgotten about our banter at the school gates as he grinned and ruffled his orange-brown hair mischievously.
Thankfully, the teacher yelled at him more than he did at me and he sat at the back of the classroom.
The first twenty minutes of middle school sucked. Seriously.
I sighed as I pressed my pencil to the paper and observed the teacher's messy scrawl on the board. It wasn't like me to be so bored on the first day of school. I squinted at the chemistry equation involving something about carbon and muse to myself about how teaching on the first day of school seemed pointless. Glancing around the room, I saw other students looking wearily at the board and attempting to stay awake. One was not attempting at all. The messy haired boy gently snored away while the chemistry teacher remained oblivious to his surroundings.
"That is all for today, students. You are now dismissed for lunch," the teacher announced without turning away from the board covered in chalk. Good thing he didn't too, otherwise he would probably be furious with the amount of people half-asleep and rubbing their eyes blearily.
My classmates jumped to their feet and ran out the door as soon as possible. I remained to gather my books into my heavy bag. Seeing the dozing boy, I sighed at the pity boiling away in my stomach. Ambling over, I tapped his shoulder lightly.
"Eh. Five more minutes," he moaned before wrapping his arms tightly around his head, sealing out light. I took one of the books in my bag out and dropped it on to the hand that covered his face.
"AH!"
The yell echoed in the empty classroom and I smirked. "Well, look who's up?"
He cracks his eyelids open and reveals his unexpectedly blue eyes. He yawns lazily before saying, "Where is everyone? Do I know you?"
My eye twitched again as I simply turned on my heel and walked out of the classroom. I hated people who wasted my time.
"Hello. My name is Nomura Midori. I recently transferred to Yamabuki and I am in my third year. May I sit here?" I asked, while looking at the three girls who blinked back at me.
After a second of hesitation, they smiled and scooted over. "My name is Kimura Akari," said the bluenette, "and this is Mori Azami and Hashimoto Saya," she pointed at a redhead and a black-haired girl respectively. "We are third years as well."
"So, what do you do for fun?" I smiled while munching on my lunch.
"I play tennis. I am going to help run tryouts for the school's girl's team this afternoon," Kimura replied before snapping a delicately carved octopus carrot in her mouth.
"I play soccer along with Hashimoto," Mori grinned.
"What do you do?" Hashimoto questioned.
"Oh, nothing really," I waved the question away, dismissively. "I used to draw," I lied.
"Really? I think you are hiding something," Mori said, narrowing her eyes.
"Mori!" Hashimoto exclaimed. "Sorry, she is very insightful and can read expressions and faces, which is very helpful in soccer. But she is also very blunt and doesn't realize when other people want to hide things about themselves in real life."
I sighed and plastered a wry smile on my face. "She's not wrong though. I don't do an average activity. Not like student council or tennis or soccer."
Kimura widened her eyes and leaned forward, curious. "Then, what do you do?"
"I-I'm sorry. I'm not…" I stammer.
"She isn't ready to tell us, or at least not yet," Mori reads my face with a level gaze.
"I'm not, but I suppose I could show you," I grasped my sports bag. I had a feeling that it was right to show them. Taking a deep breath, I unzip my duffel.
I knew how unusual it was for me to compete in this as a girl, but I didn't mind being different. It made me special. The teasing, the laughing, the wondering how a little innocent girl would compete, it only made me stronger.
I did it for myself and my pride. The only person who really understood that was my sister and my dad, who supported me no matter what. No one else really did. The last two years in middle school, when other girls found out, they laughed and avoided me. They claimed I was really a guy and to stop wearing skirts. Just because I chose to do this for fun never meant that I wasn't who I claimed to be.
I lifted my boxing gloves out of my bag and placed them on to the table. Shyly, I peek at the other three who looked completely shocked.
"W-what?"
"I took up boxing to take out my frustration with my family and what happened with my mom. I was surprised to find out that I actually enjoyed it. I have done it ever since, even thought it has been really annoying that no one takes girls in boxing seriously. There isn't a boxing club at Yamabuki Jr. High, but there is one in the high school division. I arranged it ahead of time with both school and the coaches and they agreed to let me practice there."
The three other teenagers simply blink in response to my lengthy explanation.
Kimura was the first to break the silence, "Wow."
My eyebrows furrowed at the lack of girls getting up from the table and running away.
"You're very brave, and different, for trying a sport like that," Hashimoto added slowly, carefully choosing her words.
"I understand now," Mori nodded.
"Most people run in the other direction," I run my hand through my hair.
"We play sports, we get it," Hashimoto shrugs. "We are not taken as seriously as guys even if we are just as good, if not better."
I laugh, "I don't hear many people saying that."
"Anyways, have you met any new people worth mentioning?" Kimura grins before sliding noodles into her mouth.
"Not really," I mutter, although a messy orangish-brown haired guy comes to mind.
Mori simply raised an eyebrow in response.
"I ran into a person at the gates, which caused me to be late to the first class of the day, though," I add hastily.
"Did he have messy red hair and blue eyes?" Mori smirked while pointing at someone a couple tables over who was shoving food into his mouth.
"Maybe," I growl and turn my face away.
"I know him," Kimura ponders and taps fingers against her chin. "His name is Sengoku. Sengoku Kiyosumi. He plays tennis too, and he is apparently really good. He never loses and he's the pride of the Yamabuki tennis team."
"He's an idiot," I retort. "All he does is flirt. He fell asleep in chemistry today. Who falls asleep on the first day of school?"
Hashimoto laughs while Kimura and Mori grin.
The bell rings, signaling the end of the lunch period. I quickly slip my gloves into my duffel bag.
After the last class of the day, I walked out of the school building, ready for my first day of practice with the Yamabuki High School division, which was next to the Junior High School. I turned to see where all the shouting was coming from. A familiar messy-haired guy with a tennis racket waved to a bunch of girls who were flocked around the tennis courts.
"I'm just going to get a drink of water from the fountain!" he called while walking out of the tennis courts.
I hugged and continued to walk towards the school's gates.
"Oi! You! Girls with the brown hair!" I heard a guy call out.
My eye twitched and I walked faster. The two big bags weighed me down as the duffel and school bag bumped into each other with each step while I briskly walked away from the courts toward the water fountain. My eyes widen as the voice registers and I tried walking faster.
"Come back!" he yelled. I felt a tug at my duffel bag. Being so off-balance with the multiple bags, I nearly tumble to the ground and the duffel bag nearly slides off my arm.
I glare at the offender before grabbing my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.
"Sorry! I just had a feeling I had seen you before," he grins, shrugging.
"You have. You made me late to class and I woke you up before lunch started," I growl back. "Thanks to you, I'm going to be late to boxing." I slapped my hand over my mouth. "I should not have said that! You didn't hear anything!" I exclaimed.
I clutched my duffel and school bag and ran towards the school gates, too embarrassed to turn around.
Sengoku
As she ran off, I wondered who she was. She never said her name, yet I was sure that I had seen her before. She might have said who she was but I was too busy looking at her long brown hair and dark blue eyes. All I remembered was her saying something about boxing. She probably said that she wanted to learn boxing so she could punch me in the face. I get that often enough. Matter of fact, a girl last week said that is she could, she would have kneed me in a not-so-nice-place. I noticed something on the ground that looked like a nametag that attaches to bags. Bending over, I grab it and read the name. Nomura Midori.
A sharp wolf-whistle cuts through my thoughts and I snap my head as I straightened myself. A third-year girl was fluttering her eyelashes at me and blew a kiss, winking, "You don't look bad bending over."
The line makes me grimace internally as red spread across my cheeks. I like girls, but I'm not so used to such straight-forward flirting. She struts away as I glance at the nametag again. "Nomura Midori," I muse aloud. "Interesting."
I bent over and huffed, hard. I never minded running, but running with bags is painful. Finally, I reached Yamabuki Sr. High for my first practice. Everything was going to be great. I would meet other girl boxers and I would finally be taken seriously for the first time in my life.
I had already changed into my normal boxing gear in the girl's locker room and pushed open the door to the school's boxing arena. I instantly walked into what seemed to be the coach."
"Ow.."
"Oh, hello. You must be Nomura Midori. I am Hayashi-sensei," a tall man with sandy hair gently smiles.
"Y-yes. I was hoping I could use the arena for practice while I am at Yamabuki Jr. High," I shyly glanced up before glancing around him. "Where are the other girl boxers?"
His smile turns rueful. "Look around."
I felt like slamming my head against the wall. Hard. Multiple times. There were only guy. I really shouldn't have expected more, but I had really hoped otherwise.
"Hey! What is the little girl doing here?"
"This is no place for kids!"
"Especially not for girls!"
I shut my eyes, wishing for the tormenting teenagers to disappear. I didn't want to deal with others looking down on me because I was a girl boxer. Had I not suffered enough in the ring?
"Quiet!" the coach's voice rings across the arena. "This is the new boxer from Yamabuki Jr. High. She will be practicing with us. Do not underestimate her."
I shoot the coach a grateful look while noticing the other boxer mashing their teeth. I knew it was not going to be easy to prove myself to the other so it was better to get the protesting out of the way in the beginning.
"It's alright," I sigh. "They want to know if I can fight. Is anyone willing to fight a little girl here?" I look around the gym, staring at the older teenage guys in the eye; challenges only lead to me getting stronger.
"I'll fight you," a long silver-haired boxer smirks, towering over me.
My eyes narrow, "So be it."
Hayashi-sensei grabs my arm, "Arm you sure you are willing to do this?"
I nod. "If I prove myself, they will not look down on me. Maybe, for once, I'll be respected."
He releases me before warning, "As you wish, but be careful. He is not a regular, but he is still good."
I nod again, grabbing my gloves out of my bag. Twisting my hair into a ponytail, I sweep the hair out of my face and grimace, knowing the fight would be tough. I step into the ring and jump a few times to warm up my legs.
"Heh, this is going to be easy. Watch and learn little girl," my challenger leers.
"Go Tamura!"
"Beat that girl!"
I shut my eyes, blocking out the cheers for my challenger. I knew better. I only needed to win, nothing else. Winning is all that mattered.
A whistle blew, starting the fight. My eyes focus on the guy in front of me. His leer stretches across his face as he feints left. I gasp as he nearly lands a blow on my jaw and instantly knew that he wouldn't go easy on my even though I was younger and a different gender. I had to bring all I had. I launch myself backwards and flipped in the air to avoid his attack. His eyes widen in surprise as he charges towards me. I read his body movement, ducking at his jab aimed at my nose. Instead, I land a tough blow at this abdomen. He flies backward, breath knocked out, not expecting my jab to have so much power.
He got up, and rushed towards me again. Aiming for my stomach this time, he lowered his arms to protecting himself while jabbing. I jump up, clearing his fist and getting a clean hook on his face while jabbing right underneath his chin. He freezes and collapses.
Silence echoes as he remained down.
"10! 9! 8! 7!" the coach yells.
"Get up Tomura!"
"You can't lose that easily!"
A satisfied smirk spreads across my face as I realize I didn't even break into a sweat.
"3! 2! 1! The win goes to Nomura!" the coach shouts.
Silence. Complete silence.
"I can't believe it."
"Tomura…lost?"
"You have to admit that she was kind of good."
My eyes snap open; I had never heard a compliment before. I glance up at the coach and he grins, nodding knowingly.
"Nomura will now practice with us. Are there any objections?" the coach announces.
Silence.
"Change and go home. Give them one night to get over their chock," the coach murmurs to me.
"Yes coach," I grab my bag and left with an easy smile on my face. I don't think I had ever left a practice with a smile on my face. I block out the sun with a hand, hoping that my luck had finally changed.
I apologize again! Please read and review if you're new to this story!