Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis
Leaves
It was a bright and sunny morning at Hyoutei, and tennis practice was going smoothly. Well, not really.
"Do you have any idea how badly you're losing?!" exclaimed Shishido after getting a return ace off Gakuto's careless serve.
"Yeah, yeah," Gakuto yawned as he got in position for another serve. "I couldn't get any sleep last night."
"Staying up and playing video games isn't an excuse," Shishido hit the ball back to Gakuto's side of the court.
"Wha—" startled at the other boy's completely correct statement, Gakuto accidentally lobbed the tennis ball way out of bounds, past some trees, and out if sight.
"Get it," ordered Shishido.
"What? No!" Gakuto shouted. "Let the first years get it. I'll just use a different ball," as he reached into his pocket he couldn't feel anything resembling a tennis ball. After quickly searching his other pockets, and looking around the ground no other balls could be seen. Man, those first years were getting quick. "Just this once," he said, walking off the court and on its trail.
…
"Gah! Where'd it go?" complained Gakuto while searching through tall, uncut grass. "I should just find some other random ball."
"Keep looking!"
Gakuto spun around, "Shut up, Shishido!"
"Just hurry up," Shishido impatiently said.
"Whatever…" mumbling, Gakuto caught sight of a greenish-yellow thing hiding in the grass. "Finally!" Gakuto pushed aside the long strands of grass and grabbed the found tennis ball, as one of the strands rubbed against his finger. Staring at it, Gakuto stated, "That's…not grass." He picked it and ran back to where Shishido waited.
"Where's the ball?" Shishido questioned.
"Oh…I forgot it. But look at this!" Gakuto held up a freshly picked, healthy sized four-leaf clover.
"…You choose to bring back a weed, but not the tennis ball?!"
"It's not a weed! It's a four-leaf clover, and they're lucky!" Gakuto exclaimed. "I bet I'll win this match now."
"Clovers are weeds," stated Shishido, "and they're not lucky. Just lame. You won't win just because of that."
"Shishido-san!" called Choutarou running over to the two older boys. "We have to…" he stopped, as his eyes wandered to Gakuto's hand. "Mukahi-san, is that a four-leaf clover? I use to have one of them, but I lost it years ago."
"Yeah, it is," smirking, Gakuto turned to Shishido. "I'm sure Shishido would love to hear about that story. He just told me about how much he likes them."
"Really, Shishido-san?" Choutarou said excitedly. "I never thought you'd be interested in something like that."
Taking a quick glare at Gakuto, Shishido sighed then looked at his doubles partner, "Yeah." Changing the topic, he said, "What were you saying before, Choutarou?"
"Oh right, Atobe-san said we had to practice our doubles formations," he replied.
"I'll be there in a second," said Shishido as Choutarou nodded and walked to a court where their opponents waited. Shishido turned back to Gakuto, "Don't think you're lucky because we're stopping the match you're losing 5-2. We'll finish it at afternoon practice."
Watching Shishido walk away, Gakuto said, "That was kind of lucky. Especially with all the pre-regulars videotaping this with the hopes they could take my spot. Wait…" Gakuto looked at all the pre-regulars that were close by. "Get out of here! It doesn't count if a regular loses to another regular!"
…
"Yuushi!" Gakuto burst into Oshitari's classroom, bouncing over to where he was, "Look what I found!"
"Gakuto…" Oshitari looked up from his romance novel. "Class will be starting soon."
"I know, just look at this!"
"Hm…" Oshitari glanced at the clover, "Something you found during morning practice?"
"Yeah, how'd you know? I only showed it to Shishido and Choutarou."
"The leaves," replied Oshitari. "If it was found any sooner than that, they would be more curled up than they already are."
"Huh?" Gakuto looked down at his clover. "Yuushi! It's wilting! Save it!!"
Oshitari opened his novel and continued reading, wanting to find out what happened next before class started. "Pressing it between the pages of a book will suffice."
"Okay, I'll try it," Gakuto grabbed Oshitari's book right out of his hands.
"Gakuto…" Oshitari signaled for the return of his novel.
Reluctantly, Gakuto gave it back to Oshitari who promptly continued reading. Eyeing something on his desk, Gakuto asked, "Hey Yuushi…would a piece of paper work?"
"There's no reason why it wouldn't," turning a page, Oshitari ignored Gakuto's actions.
"Thanks Yuushi!" Gakuto took the paper that innocently sat on Oshitari's desk and scurried out the classroom, just in time to be on time for his own class.
…
"Where were you?" questioned Shishido while he watched Gakuto fiddle with the four-leaf clover and a piece of paper.
"Unlike you, Yuushi didn't say anything bad about my new good luck charm," Gakuto placed the now folded paper, containing said charm, on the side of his desk.
"But did he say anything good about it?"
"…"
"Exactly."
"Alright class," said their teacher who had just entered the room, "I hope you all did your homework."
There were collective groans from quite a few people, Gakuto being one of them.
"You should do your homework more," Jirou cracked open one eye, "because the more time you spend in detention, the less time you get to practice."
"I could say the same with you and sleeping," Gakuto commented.
"Mukahi, please put question twenty-one on the board," came their teacher's request.
"Hey Shishido," Gakuto whispered. "Give me your homework for a sec."
"No, just take the detention for not having it," refused Shishido.
"What detention? She's never given us detention for not having homework, why start now?" Gakuto questioned.
"Detention for not doing your homework? That's a great idea," their teacher commented. "Now Mukahi…number twenty-one, now. Or you could just take the detention."
"Thanks Shishido…" as Gakuto sarcastically said this, a light wind blew through an open window, gently opening the paper on his desk and not moving the clover inside. Looking at this he said, "What the heck, I've got nothing to lose." Gakuto stood up and approached the board with the paper he took from Oshitari, and his four-leaf clover. He looked at the answered questions on it. Exactly twenty-one and the subject was the right one. After copying Oshitari's work for the math problem onto the board, Gakuto stepped back to await his fate.
"Mukahi…that's…" their teacher paused.
Gakuto stood still, awaiting the oncoming detention.
"…Correct," she said, causing Gakuto to look up shocked. "I have to admit I wasn't expecting anyone to be able to solve that problem. You may sit down now."
"…What…?" Gakuto didn't move from his spot.
"You got it right," she repeated.
A smirk began forming on his face, "HA! See Shishido!? Four-leaf clovers ARE lucky!" Gakuto ran over to Shishido's desk and shoved the clover in his face.
Shishido tried to swat his hand away but failed miserably because Gakuto saw it coming. "Everyone gets lucky once in a while. That had nothing to do with it."
"Sure…"
…
Gakuto was about to bite into the sandwich he brought for lunch, but stopped when he noticed Shishido's grimace. "What? You know it hasn't worked since first period," he waved the clover in the air, as if something magical would happen.
"Are you sure there just haven't been any chances for it to work?" asked Choutarou who was eating lunch with them.
"Yeah," stated Gakuto, "because Hiyoshi's still here."
Hiyoshi flicked some rice at Gakuto.
Gakuto wiped it off his forehead, "Come on, you know I'm just joking."
"…"
"Gakuto."
At once, he jumped out of his seat, turning around to the new arrival. "Yuushi…! I…kept your homework warm for you," Gakuto handed over that paper, and that paper only.
Oshitari took and examined it, "Thankfully this is only class work from a previous day, with little relevance to what our class is currently learning." He proceeded to sit down with the other regulars.
"…Really? So why'd we get it for homework?" Gakuto thought about it, and said to Shishido, "THAT was lucky though."
"For Oshitari, not you," Shishido commented.
"Yuushi would get mad at me if I took something important from him," explained Gakuto. "So it's lucky for me too."
"…This still doesn't prove anything."
…
"Alright everyone," said another of their teachers, "pop quiz. It's not much, so you only have two minutes to take it."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Gakuto. "That's not fair!"
"I'd agree with you if this didn't prove you weren't lucky," said Shishido.
Gakuto looked at the quiz placed on his desk, not really understanding any of it. "Did we even learn this?"
"It's to see how much you already know about new material," the teacher answered.
Gakuto spent the whole time staring at the first question, until the teacher said, "Time's up."
"But…" Gakuto watched his paper get lifted off his desk, "I didn't even start yet!"
"I couldn't finish either…" said Jirou in an attempt to cheer up Gakuto.
"Everyone…" said the teacher looking through the papers. "The only reason for this quiz was to see who reads the directions. Since most of you have been ignoring them recently…this may change that."
By this point, most of the class looked confused.
"Let me read them for you…" she started. "Do not answer any of these questions. If you do, you will receive an automatic zero."
"Hey!"
"No fair!"
"That's a cheap trick!"
"Lame!" Shishido added.
Gakuto looked up, "And if we didn't answer anything?"
"You get a perfect score," came the reply.
Gakuto turned to Shishido with a smirk and the four-leaf clover in hand.
"…"
…
"Ready Shishido?" Gakuto eagerly walked out of the locker room. "We'll finish our match and I'll win it!"
"Just because you've been lucky with some things today, don't think you'll win the match," Shishido followed.
"Just admit it," Gakuto held up his four-leaf clover, "this thing's lucky."
"…"
Gakuto moved the clover in front of Shishido's face. As he stared at it in annoyance, a large gust of wind blew past the two of them.
Accidentally loosening his grip, the wind took the four-leaf clover, blowing it away.
"Hey!" as he went to chase after the charm, Gakuto's hair blew in front of his face, blocking his sight.
"I guess it doesn't want you to find it," Shishido stated. "Can we just finish the match now?"
"No!" Gakuto brushed back his hair and ran after where he thought it went. "That thing made me lucky all day! Come back!"
Shishido watched Gakuto's hopeless attempt, and said sarcastically, "Good luck."
End
I've had four-leaf clovers blow away before. It's very sad. D:
Also, because I have a feeling someone is going to mention it... No, I did not choose Gakuto because he's short and has red hair. Good observations if you noticed that though.
And speaking of observations, can anyone guess why the question Gakuto had to answer was number 21? :)
Anyways, thanks for reading and if you feel like it please review.