Disclaimer: I do not own PoT.
Just from the point of view of a random student in Rikkai. Just felt like writing this -shrugs-.
Average
Yuhiko Reina was content with her life. It was average. Boring, but average.
People would ask, "How can you be content with a life that's so boring?"
Yuhiko wouldn't give a reply. She would simply walk pass them with a tiny smile. Being average was fine with her, she wanted no more, and no less than that.
Yuhiko wasn't pretty, but she wasn't ugly either. She was average-looking. It fits her lifestyle.
She didn't understand why others strived for the top so badly that they'd sacrifice sleep, play and food for it.
'Isn't it better to just do the minimum required? It's all they asked for.'
By doing so, she managed to secure a place in the average placing. She didn't stand out. She wanted a life with no drama. Therefore, she loved her boring and average life.
Why?
If you're only a person with average skills, you'll be looked over. Society focuses on the weak, and the strong. The strong prevails, while the weak are looked down upon. No one mentions a single word about the average.
On a smaller scale, in school. As a student with no outstanding abilities, nor infamous reputations, teachers wouldn't give them a second glance. Yuhiko never gets picked on to answer questions. Teachers wouldn't get disappointed if her results ever dropped down like a rocket that fell from the moon back down to Earth, like how they did whenever the top students happen to do so. She liked it that way.
The school bullies also wouldn't bother her. They picked on the weak, often the loners.. Yuhiko was average. Definitely not considered 'weak'. She has her own clique of friends. Thus, she manages to cruise through school with no problems.
She doesn't get awards. Her results weren't high enough. She didn't care. To her, the awards were just scraps of paper that would be thrown away after school ends. What was the point of receiving them?
Honour students would get selected to do troublesome tasks. They had to participate in competitions, teachers would be on their backs every second, hoping that they would win a trophy or medal back for the school. Honour students were only used. Used by the school, to bring the school fame. What was the point of that?
As an average student, Yuhiko had a normal amount of pressure when exams rolled around the corner. She didn't have to worry about losing the 'No. 1' spot, nor worry about repeating the year because they hadn't been studying at all during the whole year. She just had to get enough to pass, enough to graduate.
Yuhiko wasn't a know-it-all about the school's gossip. She doesn't gossip that much. However, she wasn't dense about what was going on in school. She gossiped just enough to know a few of the more famous rumours. Some of which would be about the boy's tennis team.
Yuhiko never did understand why the school's famed boy's tennis team was so into being the best. Rikkaidai's tennis team was famous. Known for being the 'No. 1' team in the whole country. They had won the National's Championship for 2 years in a row. They were aiming for the 3rd consecutive win this year.
They were famous. Famous could even be an understatement. In the school, the regulars on the boy's tennis team were treated like Gods.
Yukimura Seiichi. The captain of the number one team. Also known as the 'Child of God'. He had recovered from an illness of some sort, Yuhiko didn't know the details. Some rumours were blown out of proportion. Yuhiko knew not to trust those that said that he had been kidnapped by aliens and was sent to the hospital in a coma, or the ones that said that he had a heart attack and had died for a split second but recovered after hearing that his team had lost the Kantou tournament.
Ah. The Kantou tournament. Japan's number one team lost then. It had been the talk of the school for quite a few days. One had to be deaf not to know about how they lost disgracefully to a school that they'd looked down on. Yuhiko couldn't really remember the other school's name. She didn't really bother anyway.
Ever since he had returned to school, Yukimura had been giving the regulars training that seemed like hell to Yuhiko. Whenever she passed by the tennis courts, she'd see him standing there tall and strong, arms folded, watching over his team as they ran laps after laps, served after serve, played matches after matches. They never seemed to be on a break.
Sanada Genichirou. The stern vice-captain. Apparently he had lost to, oh, Seigaku's, that was the school's name, first year. She hadn't been at the tournament but, rumours spread like a wildfire. Since the beginning, Sanada had already been strict with himself. Now that he had suffered a humiliating defeat, he had been even stricter. Yuhiko wonders how that could be possible. Wasn't there a limit to how much one can push themselves?
Yanagi Renji. The data master. Yanagi was pretty secretive. Even after hearing rumours about him, Yuhiko didn't really know the master's personality. His eyes were always kept shut, hiding whatever emotions that he may have in those eyes away from the world. He is freaky, was all Yuhiko could say. He would rattle embarrassing data about any person, scaring them to bits thinking about whether he was a stalker or not. He'd never done that to Yuhiko before though, she didn't offend him or anything. He normally only did that to any bullies that he happened to spot along the way. That was another reason why Yuhiko was content with being average.
Yagyuu Hiroshi. Your typical honour student. The president of the student council, a flawless reputation in school, the kind that teachers love. From what Yuhiko has heard, his nickname was the gentleman. He was pretty much another expressionless kind. Gentle, but not really one with much emotions. If Yuhiko remembered correctly, he'd helped her pick up some papers that she'd dropped in her 1st year. That was all Yuhiko knew about Yagyuu. She also didn't understand how he could pair up well with Niou, Yagyuu's total opposite, in doubles.
Niou Masaharu. The trickster of the courts. Yuhiko would roll her eyes. He wasn't only the trickster on the courts. He was the trickster on and off the courts. Being in the silver head's class, she would often be a witness of his pranks to their classmates. He got into trouble sometimes, should the teacher manage to catch him. Yuhiko bets that he'd gotten off for more than a 100 pranks, sometimes even framing others. His targets would more often be the popular students. The ones with a lot of followers. It was probably because he liked to see the aftermath. Popular students tend to cause a large uproar. Thus, Yuhiko was also never targeted. Niou wouldn't give a damn to target an average person. The uproar wouldn't be good enough for him to be satisfied.
Marui Bunta. Another classmate of hers. A sugar loving boy. He was always chewing gum in class, popping it with a pop, just to annoy teachers to bits. He was an attention seeker, always boasting about his skills whenever possible. Mix him with Niou together, you would get chaos. Niou would be the one who plants the prank, Marui would be the one to help him escape. A nice combination? Maybe. If you want to get pranked. Both Niou and Marui were probably the school's troublemakers. Troublemakers that were still loved by the school because of their fame as the tennis regulars. Or was it because it was them?
Jackal Kuwahara. One of the more average regulars. He hangs out quite often with Marui, Yuhiko would see him pop by during lunch, calling both the self-proclaimed genius and trickster out. He didn't stand out much like the rest of the regulars. However, there was still that little factor that brought him out of being average. That fact that he was in the tennis club, as a regular, and that fact that he had the title of having four lungs. Four lungs. Yuhiko wonders how that could be possible.
Kirihara Akaya. The second year ace. Yuhiko heard that his eyes could turn red. She'd not seen it personally but, red eyes? Anyways, he was a hot headed kid. Easily angered. Very easily angered. Out of all the tennis regulars, he was probably the one who got into trouble the most. He didn't cause as much trouble as Niou but, he lacked the skills to get away from being caught. Apparently, he had lost to a player who had been blinded during the finals. An injury that Kirihara, himself, inflicted onto the other player. How could one play after being blind? Well, that was strange. Also, how do you blind someone while playing tennis? That was even weirder.
All of the Rikkaidai regulars were strange. Crazily strange. They were never out of the limelight in school. Each of them for pretty much different reasons. However, they shared something in common.
The will to be the best. The will to never lose.
They only strived for number one. No less. They had been at the top. Right at the top. And they fell. Their blood, sweat, and tears that they had shed for years, all to get to the top, vanished in just one day. Now, they worked even harder to win back their throne.
'Wouldn't it be easier to just aim for something lower?'
Yuhiko cannot understand. She probably never would understand. They were worlds away from each other. She just loves her boring and average life.
.~.
Yuhiko smiled, closing her notebook shut. The class had just ended and it was break time.
"Yuhiko!" She heard her name being yelled out from one of her loud-mouthed friend from the class next door. As Yuhiko rose from her seat, someone accidentally bumped her in the shoulder, causing her to hit her table, making the table legs screech loudly across the floor.
"Niou what the hell!"
Yuhiko looked up, noticing that it had been Niou who had bumped into her, Marui following close behind as the two ran out of the classroom – Niou not without shouting a "sorry" over his shoulder.
See?
Neither stopped to give her a second look. She was just there. It wasn't some kind of story where the female protagonist manages to catch the attention of the male protagonist after a small accidental bump.
"Yuhiko! I'm going to leave you behind!"
"Just a second!" Yuhiko yelled back at her friend, who was waiting impatiently by the door. She grabbed her bento from underneath her table, quickly adjusting the table back into position, and skilfully swerved past the tables and classmates in the classroom, towards the exit.
"Okay, let's go." She smiled, watching her friend's scowl turn into a smile.
Yeah, her average life was never going to change, and Yuhiko loves just that.
A/N: Yeah...this had no purpose. Sudden idea that came to me. Mhm. Should I just stop talking now? Maybe.