Backstreet Basketball Love Affair
by: It's Nothing Personal
xoxo
"I was better off, before I met you"
Chapter 1
"Mikan! Wait!" A girl with short curly hair and green cat like eyes shouted desperately as she chased after her best friend as if she was running for her life. It was an odd start to the day, but then again, with a friend like Mikan Sakura, this wasn't even close to being considered as anything out of the ordinary in Sumire Shoda's life anymore.
"Hahaha! Come on you guys! You can't catch up with me if you're running sooooooooooo slowly!" The brunette laughed joyfully with a wide grin plastered on her face as she skipped merrily away, ignoring the curious stares of by-passers.
"Hotaru! Do something!" Sumire exclaimed in panic at the raven-haired girl running along side her calmly, who had no signs of emotion on her face.
"I don't have to take responsibility for her stupidity." She answered back simply in her usual monotone voice, as she continued taking snapshots of the brunette's drunk state every once in a while with the camera hung around her neck, with the intent of using those pictures for blackmail.
"Then you shouldn't have let her drink that shot of whisky!" Sumire yelled furiously, they both were well aware that Mikan didn't have a strong resistance for alcohol. In fact, she probably didn't even have a resistance for alcohol at all, just a little alcohol in her system was more than enough to set her off into a drunken state, as she was in right now.
"I'm only here for the pictures," Hotaru stated bluntly.
Sumire was at her limit, she wanted to help Mikan, she really did, for the brunette had helped her countless times before, now, it was HER turn to help her friend, yet, she couldn't do anything. "Alright Hotaru, you win." She told the raven-haired girl who looked at her, expressionless. "I'm willing to pay you $100 in cash if you help me."
The greedy blackmailer's eyes instantly turned into dollar signs at the thought of making easy money, "Deal," She responded immediately as her running pace suddenly sped up, leaving Sumire in the dust. Knowing Mikan the longest and best, it wasn't hard to for Hotaru to tell what she was thinking about, her simple minded friend was always so transparent after all. But that was what Hotaru loved most about her, that her simpleness meant that she was always genuine and truthful.
"Hotaru wait! Where is she going?" Sumire screamed after her in a frustrated manner unsure if she really was going to help or taking off again as she usually does when there is too much trouble for her.
"To find the source of that idiot's anger." Hotaru yelled back.
Sumire stopped running, "She doesn't mean..." Realisation struck, and without any hesitation, she flagged a cab and hurried to the find the bastard who broke her best friend's heart.
"Helloooo!" Mikan greeted everyone cheerfully when she arrived at a basketball court. It was an indoor basketball stadium located just opposite her school, Alice Academy. The floor was so glossy that it could almost pass off as a mirror, hoops that looked as if someone bothered to climb up and polish them everyday, and a plethora of stray basketballs that still had that new smell of rubber lying around. This place was the training ground for many different basketball clubs as there were many indoor and outdoor courts available to the public. And it just so happened that today was the training day for one of the most well-known basketball club, the sharks.
"Whoa, whose chick is this?" One of the members of the team announced loudly when he saw Mikan, attracting the attention of his teammates who were all gearing up for training.
"What a babe." Another commented as they all stopped whatever they were doing and started crowding around her, hoping to get a chance to check her out from head to toe.
"I'm looking for Sugimoto Kai, is he here?" She asked as she let out a girlish giggle, as if she were shy from all the attention. This only sparked the interest of the boys even more.
"Mikan, what a surprise." A teenage guy about sixteen, Mikan's age, drawled sarcastically as he ran his fingers through his platinum blonde hair, his piercing grey eyes looked down at her petite frame arrogantly as he walked over.
"Aw man, she's your girl?" One of the basketballers asked him with a hint of disappointment in his tone.
"Well, sorta.." He replied nonchalantly with a shrug, seeing how much attention Mikan was getting, he surely wasn't going to let this chance to boast to his teammates slip away. Kai was the type of guy who loved being in the centre of attention after all, and it only boosted his already inflated ego.
Everyone groaned.
"Hey you," Mikan greeted Kai with a sweet smile, "Bastard." She swore so politely that the vulgarity didn't seem like a bad word. With her smile still in place, she tilted her head slightly to one side as if she were taunting him to reply her. His teammates gloomy expressions changed instantaneously, roughly aware of the situation, they were smug at the thought of having a good laugh at Kai for being so arrogant in the first place and also delighted to know that there the hot chick available to them again.
"Whoa whoa whoa, babe, what's gotten into you?" Kai asked nervously, not wanting to get embarrassed in front of his friends. His eyes darted anxiously between the guys and Mikan, fearful of being embarrassed infront of his team mates. "Aren't you here to beg me to take you back?" He asked as he lean in towards her, whispering the latter sentence to her.
"Wellllllll, apparently not~" She said in a sing-song voice as she twirled around on the spot in a failed attempt to imitate a ballet dancer's moves.
Just then, Hotaru came sprinting into the court. She spotted her friend in a matter of seconds after scanning through the place. "Mikan, come here." She commanded.
"But Hotaruuuuuuuu, I was just starting to have some fun." She whined and gave her best friend a pout and crossed her hands over chest, as if she were a child being told to leave the playground.
"You're drunk, you need to get home before your father gets back," Hotaru told her, in hopes that it would be enough to convince her to leave this place. It was troublesome if she had to take matters into her own hands, after all Hotaru could be ruthless in these kinds of situations. She was infamously known to be the Ice Queen for a reason.
"You're drunk?" Kai asked with a frown on his face.
"No I'm NOT." Mikan shouted in his face. "She's lying! She's lying!" She started chanting irritatingly as she stomped around angrily.
"I might have fed her a shot of whisky," Hotaru explained before they could ask her.
"Hah, wait till your dad hears this." Kai said as a smirked emerged on his face.
Mikan immediately stopped chanting, and shot him a death glare, "You wimp. All you ever know do is complain to my father. You never ever try to settle things on. your. own." Mikan yelled angrily as she poked Kai's shoulder hard. All her childishness was suddenly replaced by a chilling death aura.
All the other boys started cheering for Mikan, some wolf whistles were also heard. "You go girl!" Sumire shouted, as she entered the court hurriedly. She placed her hand on Hotaru's shoulder, "I think we should let her fight her fight right?" She asked gently.
"Yeah," Hotaru agreed. Her voice possessed a tinge of relief, which made Sumire smile for she knew that Hotaru was actually just as worried about Mikan as she was.
"Mikan, that's so not cool. Don't piss me off, cause you are well aware that I can make you regret it." He warned her as he took a step closer to her. As he was a whole head taller than her his large frame towered over her petite self.
"Bring it." She said as she closed the gap between them, unafraid, their faces were inches apart. "One on one basketball."
"What?"
"I said, let's have a game of one on one basketball. The loser has to do whatever the winner commands." Mikan said confidently.
"Hah? Are you serious?" Kai asked.
Everyone else was surprised at her request too, she could have asked for any other game why would she pick basketball where Kai would have an unfair advantage? "Mikan are you crazy?" Sumire screamed at her, "He may not be in the main team, but his skills are pretty good too! On top of that, you're drunk!"
Hotaru smirked, "This should be good." She took out her camera and started taking pictures.
"You're supposed to be helping me." Sumire reminded Hotaru.
"Sorry but the deal's off. I can make so much more money from these photos." Hotaru explained without tearing her eyes away from her camera to face at her.
"Ugh!" Sumire yelled exasperatedly.
"What's the matter honey?" Mikan mocked, she was actually enjoying watching the way he squirmed as he decides his next move. He who always had control over her, was going to be put in his place.
"You gotta be kidding me." He said as he raised his eyebrow and turned to his friends for help. Unfortunately, they were enjoying being by standers too much to get involved in the situation.
"What, are you afraid to lose to a little girl?" the brunette said as she bat her eyelashes at him innocently, making his friends all chuckle.
"Nah, I just don't play with them. If you're looking for a playmate, I could ask my seven year old sister to..."
Mikan interrupted, "You're just a big fat wimpy chicken who has no talent in basketball what so ever." She told him firmly, she knew him well enough to be certain that his anger lead to his downfall.
"What! It's on!" He agreed as he snatched a ball from someone's hand and passed it to her, "Need me to give you a handicap?" Kai asked as if he were talking to a toddler.
"That's my line." She smirked as she started to tie her hair up in a ponytail. All the guys cleared the court and cheered loudly and excitedly from the sidelines, stomping their feet on the ground in the process.
"Come here to place your bets!" Hotaru spoke through a microphone, she already had a mini booth set up. She couldn't pass up a chance in earning big bucks after all.
All the guys rushed to her, "I'm voting for Kai, obviously, that little girl would obviously lose! But it'll be a nice show to watch! She's hot after all."
"I agree!" One guy nodded.
"Same here!" another added.
"You ready?" Mikan asked as she bounced the ball from her right hand to her left easily with control.
"Are you ready to lose?" Kai asked.
"Never," She answered confidently as she started dribbling the ball forward. She dodged pass Kai with lightning speed and managed a three pointer shot before he even had the time to turn around to make a single step.
The crowd started cheering at the top of their lungs. Her talents in basketball dumbfounded them. Some of the guys started to jeer at Kai, others begged Hotaru to let them change their bets, which she obviously refused. Mikan laughed loudly, which reminded Kai that she was still drunk, "Aww, what's the matter? The little baby wants his mommy now?" She asked in a childish voice.
"Ha-ha, very funny. This is where it gets serious." He said, "It's a race to 3." He told her seriously as he got ready to defend, staying on his toes and on high alert.
Mikan simply threw him a smug look. "Whatever you say," She dribbled the ball forward again, Kai used his large frame to prevent her from moving forwards as he tried to steal the ball from her. She spun round him to get away, her hair gracefully followed in a shape of a circle, before sprinting forward and taking a shot, almost jumping high enough to make a slam dunk.
The guys went wild again. "Mikan you're awesomeeeeeee!" Sumire squealed from the sidelines as she started jumping up and up and down excitedly. No one could blame her, it's not every day your best friend thrashes her ex-boyfriend in his own game.
"What was it you said about getting serious again?" Mikan teased Kai who gritted his teeth in response.
"That chick's got moves man!" The guys started to cheer for Mikan instead, which infuriated Kai even more.
"You ready?" Mikan asked with a smirk plastered on her face.
Kai nodded. He was really serious now, no more games, he was going to put in a shot, or die trying.
Mikan was obviously too fast for him though, but he managed to turn in time to block her from moving forward. Not noticing that he moved, she slammed right into him at full speed, causing her to fling away as he was much stronger than her. It was like running with full speed into a wall.
Kai wasted no time and ceased the opportunity to steal the ball and put in a dunk shot. He was beaming with joy as he laughed arrogantly to Mikan who was on the floor in tears. "Mikan, are you okay?" Sumire asked worriedly as she ran to her and bent down, but Mikan didn't answer her. She gently touched her right ankle, which was twice its usual size and winced in pain. Sumire noticed it and whipped around as she pointed an accusing finger at Kai. "Just because you know you couldn't beat her, you resort to these dirty methods. You're so low."
All of the basketballers gave him disappointed looks. "But I didn't!" Kai yelled helplessly, trying to make them all believe him.
"Yeah, right. We all know how badly you wanted to win." Sumire said sarcastically.
Mikan shook her head, "Stop it. It wasn't his fault! I tripped over his foot!" She told them, she didn't want to deal with this now. Her head was pounding hard and her ankle felt hot. Plus, the more the guys started crowding around her, the harder it was for her to breathe.
"Mikan! Don't side the demon!" Sumire told her as she patted her back.
"Sumire, stop it. For now, let's just get Mikan some proper treatment." Hotaru said. She knew that Mikan may be dumb, but she sure wasn't a liar. In fact, she couldn't lie for nuts!
"Fine. Let's call an ambulance." Sumire puffed up her cheeks as she stuffed her hand into her handbag, feeling for her phone.
"No! I can't!" Mikan squeaked as she breathed harder. Sumire immediately withdrew her hand, knowing what her best friend meant. If they called an ambulance, Mikan's strict father would definitely be informed of what had happened, and she would be in deep shit.
Hotaru, being the smartest of the three stepped in, "Anyone know where we can get ice?" She asked the people around.
"Our first aid is only available at the our changing room." One of the guys told her.
"But we have to get our captain's permission before letting anyone else in." Another reminded him.
"Who's the captain?" Sumire asked.
"The main 5 of this squad usually come together,"
As if they had summoned the demon, the doors to the court suddenly opened loudly and footsteps were heard, "What's going on here?" A voice questioned. It held a certain authority to it.
"Cap'!" They all greeted the captain at the same time as they suddenly look towards the direction of the voice.
"I asked a question, answer it now." He told them. The way he spoke to them was as if he was the king of the world and everyone was his servants.
Silence. No one dared to say anything for they knew they would get into trouble. Not one of the members of the Sharks could ever have the balls to stand up to their captain.
"Are you gonna answer it or not?" Although he didn't say it, he sounded like he would kick them out of the team if they didn't reply him quickly.
One of the guys timidly explained everything to the captain, his eyes glued to the floor the whole time.
"Seriously? A girl thrashed Kai?" Another voice was heard, he sounded like he was mocking Mikan.
The brunette on the other hand, was suffering and no one noticed. She started to sweat a lot, and felt like all the alcohol she consumed was building up her throat. Sumire was too busy trying to catch a glimpse of the main team members but with all the tall basketball guys blocking her, she couldn't see a thing, and Hotaru was looking expressionlessly at the crowd, probably waiting for the 5 to appear so she can get a photo of them. Kai on the other hand, was looking at his captain in fear.
"Kai lost?" He asked, wanting to confirm that what he was just informed with true.
The guys nodded.
"Where is he?" Another of the five asked.
"On the court."
Mikan heard footsteps and knew that they were approaching. She didn't understand what the commotion was about. Kai lost to her, so what? It's the 21st Century; many girls are better than guys in many things.
"Which of these girls did you get your ass kicked by?" The raven-haired guy who was the captain questioned Kai, he was back facing Mikan so she couldn't get a good look at him.
Kai looked on the floor with an unsatisfied expression as he silently pointed to Mikan, as if he had no choice but to comply.
"Whoa, what a babe!" Another guy said. He had a tattoo of a star under his eye; Mikan thought he seemed pretty cool. "I was expecting a tomboy or something." He told her as he gave her a wink.
Mikan glanced at the 5-team members, and spotted a familiar face. "Mikan, is that you?" He asked when his emerald green eyes met her hazel coloured ones.
He was still as gorgeous as he was back when they were kids. With messy dark brown hair in a sexy "just-got-out-of-bed" style and firm strong emerald green eyes, in her eyes he was the epitome of hot. "Shin!" she called out happily as a smile stretched across her face, as she tried to recall how long it had been since they last saw each other.
"Shinji, you know this girl?" A blonde asked.
"Yeah, we're... old friends." He answered quickly before turning his attention to the brunette. "What happened? Why are you here?" He asked her worriedly.
"Because, your friend there was being a bastard, so she came to put him back at his place," Sumire explained as she pointed at Kai as if she was pointing to a pest.
"Her ankle." The raven-haired captain told Shinji.
Mikan pouted, she was hoping that Shinji wouldn't notice. But that guy ruined her plan. "It's sprain really badly. How?" Shinji asked.
Mikan felt a little dizzy from all the running around and couldn't think straight before she spoke, "I fell while playing a one-on-one match with Kai." after she said that, she regretted it almost immediately.
"You played?" Shinji said angrily. "You know you're not supposed to." He shook his head disapprovingly.
"It's not fair! You guys can't control what I can or cannot do! It's my life!" She told him, her head was pounding even harder.
"Wait, why do I smell alcohol on you?" he said as he took in a whiff of the air. "Are you... drunk?" He asked knowing that Mikan would never have uttered such words to him.
"Yes, she is," Hotaru cut in, knowing that Mikan wouldn't give the right explanation.
"You got drunk?" Shinji said, as he sighed and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. "What would your father say?"
"I only drank a shot of whiskey." Mikan told him honestly, "And he won't say anything. I can handle it." after she said it, she couldn't control her stomach anymore and ended up puking all over Shinji.
"Ohhhhh..." The guys echoed as everyone took a step back in order to get away from the stench.
Mikan looked on the floor, "Soory." She mumbled softly.
There was at least a good minute of awkward silence. "In any case, we need to get her proper treatment first," The raven haired guy everyone addressed as captain finally broke the ice but no one responded, he sighed, "I'll take her." He said as he squatted down beside her.
"I can..." Shinji started, but the captain interrupted.
"You have to go clean up," It sounded like an order. "I'll do it so come back as soon as possible, Shinji. Ruka, you can lead the warm up first. The rest of ya'll get ready for practice, NOW." everyone scattered immediately as he lifted Mikan up easily bridal style, making her blush a deep shade of red.
"Okay team, let's go for warm up!" The blonde boy commanded as the team followed along.
"You girls can go call a cab or someone to pick her up. She wouldn't be able to walk properly for a few days at least." the raven haired guy told Hotaru and Sumire, they responded with taking a picture and drooling respectively.
"What are you doing?" Mikan questioned, "Let me down!"
"Shut up you noisy girl. If you could walk properly then trust me, I wouldn't be doing this." He said as he started making his way to the changing rooms where the first aid was.
This so wasn't her day.