Eternity In An Hour
Three minutes and twenty nine seconds had passed. Aomine was not the one who was keeping count of it. His hand rested upon the desk before him. The rest of him, rested on one of the two chairs in the room. The only other chair was occupied by the one counting the seconds with great precision.
Twenty more seconds passed. At three minutes and fifty nine seconds, the person spoke.
"Four minutes. I assume that is enough time for you to settle down. Lets begin."
The voice lacking all tone and emotion spoke in a volume that seemed like it was adjusted in just the right amount. Just loud enough to reach him. She did look like she had spent a lot of care in setting the right decibel to deliver that particular phrase.
She cracked open the book before her – the one she had been staring at in her four minute period. Waiting, longing and looking forward to nothing more but just that, her eyes began to scan the page. It was no scan though. It was a short lookover. One glance was all it took as her lips set themselves in a firm line, as if nodding in confirmation in her own way.
The boy paid no mind to any of it as his eyes remained fixed at the blackboard behind her. She took charge of his glance by drawing a deep breath.
Aomine's eyes flickered to the sight of her lips parting slightly to allow air to pass through them. A mere second later the same slight gap let out a whoosh of the air she had drawn in. The small tremor on her lower lip caught the boy's eye before he shook his mind off it.
He was supposed to be un-focusing his attention.
But next broke out the clear voice. The voice had no tone to it to sound like a sweet melody. Yet, the emotionlessness possessed a life to it as it rang clear for him to hear. It was too clear, too uninterrupted and too well directed towards him. The words made their way into him before he could realize that they were.
He resigned from trying to not listen to them. It was the same as long as he didn't show it out that he was.
The slim hand appeared under his chin holding a sheet containing a well written report of all that she had spoken. Aomine looked at the spiky edge that the bone in her wrist made as she held it up for him to accept. As always, the stillness he maintained for the exact five seconds she held it in the air would follow her dropping it to fall between his hands.
"And why do I need this tutor you're imposing upon me?"
Aomine's tactless question had rendered itself as completely pointless as Satsuki Momoi and his coach dismissed any chance of him rejecting their most reasonable proposal.
"Because you're failing in everything and your attendance is terrible along with it. If you don't maintain a good score you won't be allowed to take part in club activities. Take these classes now or miss the camps during the vacations by attending remedial classes."
It hadn't been much of a choice.
"I'm not here by choice, y'know? So you will do good if you don't expect concentration and attention from me."
The boy wanted to make it very clear as they were the first words he ever spoke to the girl. No emotion appeared over her plain face.
Her right shoulder drew back minutely, to prove that she was taken aback by his words. But that was all the change she showed.
"Are you ready to work hard?" her voice questioned and he noticed just how drained it sounded.
"No" he scoffed at her stupidity.
"Is there anything you have ever worked hard for?"
More than you in your little cot with all the books instead of growing a decent pair of boobs could ever dream of, he answered in his mind.
"A friend of yours said you need this to be a part of the basketball team. But I see no point in it now as you are going to quit."
Aomine could make out even in her odd way of speaking without tone that it was no question or a guess. It was a statement she was making.
"Who says I'm quitting?" he questioned in curiosity.
"You must love basketball if you want to be in the team. If you did you would be settling your academic scores to stay put. Seeing you aren't and also seeing that you're not ready to work hard now, you must have decided to quit."
The girl drew back as if talking in a stretch exhausted her more than any other activity could. Aomine drew back as well. He had been hearing the same from Momoi and the others as well but somehow, she put it in a different way in her odd manner.
"I will be leaving now and I will also inform the friend of yours who asked me to tutor you."
Her mumbled words reached him loud and clear as she stood up. He noticed that the act of her standing up was not much. Not much length on this thing, he noted to himself.
Amused, confused but more dazed than anything, he stared at his hands as the words left his mouth on their own accord.
"I'm a basketball player. A really good one."
The girl paused, when she did, the air about her froze in indication of her pausing. She let three seconds pass through which she looked like she spent it in thought. There was no evidence of this thinking period as she resumed her spot in her chair.
"I'm [Name] [Surname]."
A/N : This fic is going to be very short. More like a really long one shot.