AN: I plan to take really good care of this fic. Handling an OC is a very delicate art.
Dedicated: to all my Fudomine lovers. aka my friends Ange Noir and Whitney and anyone who reads this fic
Girls of Fudomine
Chapter 1: Tachibana An, Kobayashi Tenko, Hiboshi Natsuki, Takada Shuuko
Fudomine was an unseeded and unknown public junior high at the start of An Tachibana's second year there, but by the time summer ended all of that changed. By then the Boy's tennis team climbed the National ranks and left a place there for the tradition to continue on until next year. It was something to be very proud of, even if they didn't win the season. Besides, with all of the team besides her brother being 2nd years, it was safe to say Fudomine would be a force to reckon with in the next tennis season.
Until then, it was time to settle back into the monotony of life without tennis, or at least without the tournaments, as the street courts stayed active as long as weather remained favorable. And boy was the weather favorable.
A sighed and tugged at the collar of her sailor school uniform. It was the beginning of September and so the heat was still getting to them. All the windows in the classroom were open and yet the heat was still unbearable. She stared out of the window and watched as outside the 3rd years were in gym class. She saw her brother from where she sat, but she knew better than to wave. If she did her teacher would know she wasn't paying attention.
"Tachibana-san."
An immediately faced the front of the class. Ok, so even without staring out of the window she was busted.
"Yes!" she yelped eliciting a few giggles from the others in the class.
"Read from page 64 please," the teacher commanded.
An fumbled with her book and turned to the pages, ignoring the stares and mockery of her classmates. If only lunch would get here. An normally had no problems keeping up in class, but the heat was slowing her brain down to a dull roar. She forced such complaints from her mind as she began to read from the text. It was no use disobeying at any rate. She was too smart for that.
--
It was finally the lunch break and An Tachibana was happy to be relieved from the duty of listening to Morita-sensei go on and on and on about equations. She was joined at her desk by her 3 friends; Natsuki Hiboshi, Tenko Kobayashi, and Shuuko Takada.
"Ugh, that was the longest lecture ever!" Natsuki Hiboshi groaned as she planted her face in her desk.
Natsuki was the friend that An knew the longest since she only lived a few houses down the street and met as soon as the moving truck appeared at the house. She also was the most spunky of the group and always spoke her mind. In fact, when An first met Seigaku's Tomoka Osakada, she immediately thought of Natsuki's antics. Natsuki also often wore her hair in pigtails too, but her bangs were long and straight and since her hair was in layers, the longer strands framed her face wonderfully.
"Natuski-chan shouldn't complain so much," a soft monotonous voice cut into the pig tailed girl's complaint. "It cannot be helped that it's so hot. The windows are open and everyone must suffer. By complaining she's only bringing it further to her attention and--"
"Ibu-kun, we understand," Natsuki gasped, raiding her head a little.
"I don't think you do understand--" the boy continued on and the girls managed to tune him out.
Natsuki's eye twitched. It was really too hot for his mutterings, although she couldn't help but blush as he swept his hair out of his face as he spoke. Despite his peculiar habit of running on and on when he spoke, Natuski still had a crush on Ibu, and she had it bad.
"Ibu-kun's right," Tenko laughed.
Tenko had her long hair pulled up into a sloppy bun to keep it off her neck and a slight sheen on her forehead, but other than that, the girl seemed unfazed by the heat. Tenko was an adaptable type. When it came to the group of girls, Tenko was the one who rarely argued with anyone. Even when Natsuki's antics riled everyone else up, Tenko was always the one who remained calm and managed to laugh at it all way before anyone else found it funny.
This was one of those occasions. Akira Kamio however was not so ready to side with his best friend.
"I for once agree with Natsuko-chan," Kamio said. "It's too hot to even eat!"
"Now it's never too hot for that, Kamio-kun!" Tenko chimed, good naturedly.
Kamio only managed a small laugh, as it was too hot for anything else, and only thanked the gods that it wasn't time to wear the winter uniforms yet.
"Are you going to be eating that then?" Natsuki asked, her head popping up from its resting place on her desk and using her chopsticks in an attempt to pilfer food from the speed ace.
He was too fast even then, successfully pulling his bentou up from under her chopsticks.
"I didn't mean that I wasn't going to try and eat!" Kamio gasped.
"You know better than to leave unattended food with us," laughed Tenko.
"You girls are insatiable!" Kamio gasped.
"And it seems as if Kamio-kun forgot that Natsuki-chan loves his mothers hand rolled sushi. Maybe one day we should all ask Kamio-kun if we could come over. I enjoy eating there too," Kamio was muttering more to himself than anyone else. It didn't seem like anyone was listening.
"I have an idea," began the 3rd of An's friends, Shuuko Takada.
Shuuko was not as agreeable as Tenko-chan, but she wasn't as quick to speak her mind as Natsuki-chan was. Still, despite her amiable nature Shuuko could also be fickle and she was quick to get a rise out of too. Just the word "test" and "exam" could get the girl to break out in a nervous fit. She was very quick to worry about any given thing, to the point that nobody wanted to take her concerns seriously anymore. Shuuko had a simple look. She has a haircut that was the same length as An and the color of Ibu, but she had kept a bang in the front. Kamio sometimes joked her by saying she had a boy's haircut, and that led Shuuko to start wearing headbands over her head. No boy wore flower headbands… or at least not any boy Shuuko ever met.
So anyway, Shuuko was about to speak for she had an idea.
"I wonder what Takada-san has to say," Ibu wondered aloud.
"Let's eat on the roof. I bet Mori and the others had sense enough to go up there by now," she suggested.
It seemed reasonable enough. It was suffocating to stay in the class room any longer than they already had, and the fresh air had to be worth some good. The group all stood up, gathering their bentou and other utensils in their arms, before turning to go to the roof
--
"Aa, it is way better out here!" Kamio exclaimed as they entered the rooftop area of the building.
As predicted, some of the other tennis players were already on the roof too and some other students from the various classes.
Shuuko Takada pushed part of her bangs away from her eyes.
"It seemed like others had the same idea!" she said as she and the others followed Kamio to where Mori and his doubles partner sat.
Since Kamio, Ibu, and Mori were in the same class with the girls, they were all pretty close. Especially since An's brother was the tennis team's captain. However, Natsuki and the others had not managed to become friends with the others so much, since they rarely saw the boys outside of school anyway. They were all 13 and up to this point, all of their friends had mostly been those of the same gender.
Maybe they should try to branch out a little anyway. If these tennis players were good enough for An-chan then maybe there was something redeeming about the male population of Fudomine after all.
-to be continued-
AN: My first time playing with OCs that are the main attraction of the fic. Tell me how I did. And yes... more tennis players coming from the other schools. Please read and review. I accept all flamers, constructive crit and praise!
