November Rain
A/N: Too many plot bunnies, very little time O.O
Edit: 1/4/14 (Just changed some parts, nothing too different)
Disclaimer: Wish I did, but do not own PoT or Paradise by Coldplay.
("She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth")
Tanizaki Midori did not care much about sporting politics.
She was that 'you can rot in hell for all I care' sort of girl, not very concerned about anything in life, other than perhaps the next NBA game.
So she wasn't very distressed by her teammates' wails when she handed over her jersey and resignation form to her captain. Her high pony-tail bobbed in the air, as she apologized for leaving mid-season, aware that it might impact the team's dynamics to an extent.
Her captain Ashida Emiko studied the second year in front of her with a cool and calculating gaze. Midori shuffled slightly, and avoided eye-contact. If there was one person she didn't want to anger, it was her captain.
The rest of her team gathered around her, with expressions ranging from shock to absolute apathy. Most of them were dribbling basketballs, not very concerned with the second year's resignation. I wouldn't be surprised, she thought dryly, if they're secretly celebrating; it does make it easier for them to get closer to starting.
Ashida sighed, "There's nothing I can say to make you stay, is there?" Midori shrugged. "Well if you can get my dad a new job then maybe."
Joining Rikkaidai in the middle of the year was not the greatest of decisions she had ever taken, but considering that she had little choice in the matter, she shrugged it off unaffected. Leaving the Basketball Team was a little hard for her, but then again she was quite sure of carving a place in Rikkai's team easily, even if she had heard of rumours of how tough it would be.
She knew the mid-season move would affect her game, and that Rikkaidai was probably the worst school she could have transferred to, because it was the rival school, not just of her team, but of practically every other school in the country. The reigning champions had a history of completely annihilating their opponents, not only physically but mentally as well, and Midori had experienced that personally.
But basketball was the same anywhere, so whether she stayed in her school or shifted to Rikkai, she'd be playing anyway.
Plus, Rikkai had some awesome facilities.
Beside her, her cute little Kouhai, Funaki frowned. "Did it have to be Rikkaidai? Of all schools?" she whined. "They're our enemies-"
"Rivals," cut Ashida. "It's basketball, not some war."
"Doesn't mean you don't act as if it is," muttered Funaki under her breath, which Midori absolutely agreed with. She didn't get the whole strained relations between teams, but knew better than to ask.
She sighed softly, and adjusted the strap of her kit bag on her shoulder. She ruffled the hair of the first year, and said, "Chill, it's not like I'm going to go and tell them our strategies or something."
"I doubt it would make a difference anyway," said the tallest girl in the bunch. Her least favourite senpai shot her an exaggerated wink. "Rikkaidai doesn't need a snitch to win. I think we'd probably need Midori-chan to tell us how they play."
Not a chance, thought Midori, never ever ever.
"You'd better do well in Rikkaidai Midori-chan, do it for our school."
Midori brushed some wayward strands of her streaked green black hair behind her ear. "I'd rather do it for myself Ikeda-senpai. After all, I'm not part of this school anymore."
"So fast to forget us, I see. I'm so upset Midori-chan." Ikeda grabbed her chest in a dramatic fashion, but her black eyes had a scrutinizing look to it.
Midori rolled her eyes, and stuffed her hands into her pockets. Ikeda opened her mouth to say more-
-but Ashida interrupted. "Well Tanizaki, congratulations, I've signed your form. You are officially not part of the team any longer," she said dryly. "Good luck, I guess."
Ouch, Midori thought, you could have worded that better.
But she nodded, and muttered a quick thank-you. She looked around the gym one last time- the shining wooden floor, the school banner stretched across all the bleachers, just the atmosphere of the place. It was like she could hear the echos of the cheering and thumps and exhilaration of winning. A small part of her would miss it, but the larger part was glad to get away from the constant pulsating nature of the school, the pushing and pulling, the claustrophobia and never having the time to let your guard down. She gazed at her teammates- every one of them, and she realised that she was probably making the best decision by moving and leaving the place behind.
People like me aren't made for people like them, she thought, leaning on bitterness.
She closed her eyes for a moment before moving to the doors. Just like that, no sobs and tearful goodbyes, just a clean departure, because Midori never had been close to her teammates.
She ruffled Funaki's hair while she was passing, and gave the rest of the team a two-finger salute. Goodbye suckers.
"Oi, Midori-chan!" She turned. "We'll see you at Regionals." Ikeda shot her a challenging look, her dark black eyes piercing her own. Midori gave her a curt nod, and left through the swinging double doors.
After she was gone, Ashida muttered, "Only if she gets in the team."
Ikeda snorted.
Sugiyama Maiko was probably the most sincere person in Rikkaidai.
She had been part of the student council right from her first year, working hard and faithfully in every job she was given. Gifted with good looks, but not much smarts, Maiko had finally been promoted to the position of Secretary, when the old one quit, in the middle of her second year, more for her hard work than anything else.
So when she was told to show some second-year transferee around the school, she wasn't very pleased. She had assumed she was above such tasks, but she couldn't really argue it out with the Student Council President Yagyuu Hiroshi, whom she was secretly afraid off.
So she plastered a smile on her pretty little face, and walked up to the Office Room, where she was told the new student would be waiting.
Moving into Rikkai in the middle of the year, Maiko supposed, was an unfortunate thing. Especially, when most people had formed their own little groups and fitting in would be hard. Rikkaidai was hard enough to adjust to, when you join as a freshman and have hordes of people just as inexperienced as you. But to join in the middle of the year, Maiko shuddered.
The new girl was leaning against the wall nonchalantly, whistling some unrecognizable tune. Maiko waved at her, to which she responded with a lazy nod.
Gee, Maiko thought, she's so excited to be here.
She extended her hand. "Hello, I'm Sugiyama Maiko. Welcome to Rikkaidai!"
The girl looked at her with calculating gaze, which made Maiko feel a tad bit self-conscious. Her clear green eyes studied her until she raised her hand and shook Maiko's. "Tanizaki Midori."
She pulled herself from the wall, and straightened adjusting the straps of her bag. Only then did Maiko see how tall the girl was, easily at least 6 feet 3. It made her feel very inconsequential, since she stood only at about 5 feet 5- which technically wasn't short but in comparison to the girl, was.
"I'll be your guide around Rikkai today." Maiko tried to be as enthusiastic as possible, but it didn't seem to fool the girl as she smiled amusedly. Midori nodded, hiked her backpack, and fell into step with her.
"So how do you like Kanegawa so far?" Maiko smiled.
She considered the question and replied, "Well I've only been here three days, so I can't really make a judgement."
Maiko nodded. "What brings you to glorious Rikkai?" Midori wasn't sure if she was sarcastic or not, but she paid no heed to it anyway. "Dad got a new job, dragged us all with him."
Maiko winced slightly, "Aww that should suck." Midori shot her an idle smile, "Yeah it sucks, but hey, I'm in Rikkaidai aren't I?"
Maiko laughed. "You'll soon find that it isn't as cool as you think." Midori shrugged, "Live and learn, I guess."
Maiko shook her head at her obvious naivety to Rikkai's social structure, but decided to let her figure it out herself. Live and learn right? Plus it wasn't like she had a duty or something to help the girl out.
They quickly got past the classrooms and the labs, not many students were around because it was school hours, and they had the first period going on. One good thing about his touring thing is that, Maiko reflected, at least I'm bunking math class. The thought elicited a smile from her.
Maiko found the girl to be a slight anomaly, she was lanky and she stooped seemingly uncaring about anything, but Maiko could see the unnerving calmness in her green eyes, and the shrewd way in which she noticed everything, like she had seen better but didn't particularly care about any of it. Or perhaps it was the cultured tone of her voice yet accompanied by the green streaked hair and a possible tattoo.
But Maiko shrugged, it wasn't as if she wasn't used to weird.
Soon, she found herself leading Midori through the sprawling grounds of Rikkai. Up until that point, the girl hadn't shown much interest in anything but the cafeteria, but Maiko could see it growing as they started passing the sporting facilities.
She pointed out the vast Tennis courts, sunken below ground level, as Rikkai was built on hilly land. "Tennis is Rikkai's greatest pride and love; we've got a really good team."
There was a flash of something in her green eyes, but it disappeared as fast as it came.
Midori looked around uninterested, "Cool, I've heard of it. Undefeated champions?" Maiko nodded. "Nationally ranked, and easily the most popular people in school." They gazed at the courts for a few moments and when she was unable to garner any more enthusiasm from Midori, Maiko just added that to the list of things the new girl had to learn in order to survive Rikkai. (It had a total of twenty seven items)
As they moved on, Maiko noticed that the girl began getting more and more excited as they neared the Basketball courts. Her green eyes started brightening and the nonchalant stoop of her shoulders disappeared the minute she gestured to the gym. Although there wasn't a significant change, Maiko had fine-tuned her senses to people's emotions, so she could tell.
Great, another jock, sighed Maiko to herself, just what we need.
But politeness came first so, she led the girl inside the huge gym- complete with five indoor courts, two sets of locker rooms and the finest facilities in Japan.
Midori turned to her imploringly, "Can I shot a basket?"
"The balls are locked up, so I don't think you can."
Midori glanced wistfully at the polished wooden floor, with the basket standing tantalizingly in the end. She could hear the squeaks of shoes, the smell of sweat and passion of the games played there- the pain and work and blood and victory.
She couldn't wait to start playing.
Maiko shot her an amused look, "Rikkai has a very strong team." Midori's green eyes blazed, "I know, but what's life without competition yeah?"
Maiko laughed. "In Rikkai, you'll learn, life is a competition."
Midori could barely sit through the entire day at Rikkai.
After being shown the basketball courts by Maiko, she could feel the adrenaline flowing through her veins, every time she thought of it. She felt quite upset with her guide: who shows her the most beautiful courts she had ever seen, and not let her use it? It was like an addicting song playing over and over in her head, except the lyrics were grunts, shouts and cheers, the beat was a ball thumping against the floor and her heart beating violently against her chest, and the melody- a melody of passion and love for the game.
They should have let a better guide- or preferably a guide who broke rules- show me around, she thought, disgruntled.
She was in class 2-B, and so far things were going okay. She had been introduced by the sensei, and was seated in the last row because of her height.
There were many questions about why she transferred in the middle of the year, and why her hair was green- she pointed out to the girl who asked, it was streaked green.
Of course there were the, omg you're so tall!'s and the how's the view up there?'s which she sort of disregarded.
The extremely friendly class representative called Narumi immediately began talking to her at super-fast speeds as soon as she sat down. In about fifteen minutes of knowing her, she was already told to call her 'Rumi' and was on first name basis with her. She was introduced to half the class personally by 'Rumi' by break, but could not recall a single name once she sat down back in her own seat.
She found the extreme friendliness sort of odd, in her old school she had compared most students to ice statues. There was always an ulterior motive to most things, and she had up until then assumed there could be no person who was honestly just nice. But Izumi Narumi was slowly changing her mid-set.
She wasn't overtly fond of it however.
Narumi luckily was called for by some sensei, and had finally let Midori collect herself in her seat. She left with a bright beam and promise, "Midori-chan, just ask me anything you want okay? Just ask."
Some girls, Midori thought in the comfort of her seat, live to see me suffer.
She had hoped to catch a glimpse of some of Rikkai's basketball team members, but had thus far been unsuccessful.
The girls of Rikkai, Midori noticed, were uncommonly pretty. At least most of them. She also noticed that there were already cliques and groups, and her chances of joining any of them were slim.
Mostly because none of them looked as if they played sports.
Why, thought Midori slightly disgusted, would you discuss make-up, when there was a brilliant basketball match going on yesterday?
(When she confided this in Narumi later, she was greeted with a laugh. "Most girls," Narumi explained, "aren't into sports as much as they are into people who play sports." There was a wink, and Midori just looked very blank)
Before her sat a boy (Kikiharu?), with curly black hair that she desperately wanted to pull, just to see it roll back, but she restrained herself. He was as fidgety as her, and kept making swinging motions with his pencils, so she assumed he played tennis, or badminton.
Her doubts were cleared when some of her classmates patted him on the back, congratulating him on this victory or that victory in tennis.
Narumi who had come back, followed her gaze and smiled. Her voice dropped to a whisper, "That's Kirihara Akaya. He's the ace of the tennis team." Oh, thought Midori, I did not at all guess that from all the pats and whoops. Sarcasm served her well, when she didn't open her mouth.
Narumi's eyes twinkled, "You know you're a lot like him." Midori raised a brow, was she into mind-reading as well?
Narumi giggled. One of her other classmates called her over- she was very popular in class- and she patted Midori's head- who had never ever had her head pat before- and walked to her.
Are all people in Rikkai this friendly? wondered Midori. It sure seemed like it to her.
"Yo, Akaya!" Midori passively watched two senpai- one who looked like a walking hairstyle mishap (who has pink hair?) and the other with a head so shiny it could probably act as a mirror- walk into class and greet the boy before her.
The 'ace' tried to push off the pink-haired senpai's hand off his head, which reminded her a lot of Funaki, every time Midori ruffled her hair in between matches whenever she scored. Always the, "Get your hands off me senpai, you'll mess my hair!"
Damn, she missed her kouhai.
The boy plopped his head on his table. A muffled voice came out, "If I pretend you're not here, will you leave?"
The pink-haired senpai snorted.
"Still failing English, idiot?" he asked, a tad bit affectionately, as he ruffled the curly mess of hair lying flat on the desk. "Senpai!" he whined, "Leave my hair out of this. Jackal-senpai, do something to make him stop."
The human mirror sighed and swatted the pink-head's hands away. Unaffected, he popped a bubble and glanced around the class.
His violet eyes fell on Midori.
He slapped his kouhai on the back. "Akaya, you never told me you had a cousin in Rikkai!"
"What are you talking about senpai," he asked frustrated, lifting his head. "Have your eyes gone bust as well?"
He popped another bubble, "There's a girl version of you, behind you, so I assumed you were cousins." He gestured to Midori, to which she raised her brows. What?
Kirihara swirled backward.
Midori found herself faced with a boy with green eyes, scarily similar to her own, and a mess of curly black hair flying all around.
To come to think of it, she blinked, he does look a lot like me.
"Who are you?" he asked a little bit arrogantly, with derisiveness all over his face. Hey, she thought, just because you're some hot-shot who plays tennis, doesn't give you an excuse to be rude.
"I introduced myself, didn't I?"
"Didn't bother listening." Any other person would have felt a least a little embarrassed in admitting it, but he made it seem as if she wasn't worth his time.
Midori crossed her arms.
"Tanizaki Midori," she replied tightly, pissed with his attitude. He whirled back to face his senpai without another word. "I don't know her."
No all the people in Rikkai are most definitely not friendly.
The bell rang, and the pink-haired senpai shot her a wink and said, "It's okay Tanizaki-chan, Akaya's just shy to introduce family to us." He grinned.
Midori opened her mouth to protest loudly at the unjust assumption that such a rude boy was related to her- really how could that even be? But the pink-head had already moved half-way across the class, so she huffed instead.
The bald head shot her an apologetic smile, and followed his friend out of the class.
Is everyone crazy? She wondered.
Then smirked.
Midori reached forward and pulled Kirihara's very black very curly hair, and watched in satisfaction as he flinched.
"What the hell was that for?!"
"I'm not related to you," said Midori stoutly, and promptly ignored any more of the boy's screeches.
Rikkai, she decided, is going to test my patience.
A/N: Gosh, I don't know what I'm doing with my life xD
I have no idea where I'm going with this story, absolutely nothing. So plot ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, READ AND REVIEW? :D