V if for V-Ball

Lost-Remembrance (Red Tail)

For: Lif (Uplifted)

Introduction:

"You will not disgrace this family! I don't care what your passion is!"

"Really, Relena, can't you be more like your brother? Look how well off he is! Already an ambassador at such a young age!"

"Our lineage is full of politicians and government officials. You have a family tradition to uphold!"

"It's such a unsophisticated dream, dear. I don't understand why…"

"You will forget this nonsense! Study harder and stop being a fool!"

"Do you want to throw away everything that this family has worked for? Everything we've worked hard to offer to you, Relena?"

It was the same argument every time. Relena had already learned to stay silent until they, being her parents, finished with their rants. Then, she would calmly say what she always said; "I'll never stop." She still kept her word.

She had short hair. Once, it was long and held in braids, but she had long since cut it to shoulder length. Her mother had been furious when discovered that her daughter's golden hair that reached the small of her back was cropped to a shorter style.

Relena didn't care. It always got in the way when she played; more the reason why it made her family furious. The only one who supported her dreams was her older brother, Milliardo.

Relena, you see, was from a long line of famous politicians or officials. Her father was the Foreign Minister that helped with peace negations and her brother was already an ambassador at the young age of twenty-two. Lucrezia Noin, an official holding a high government job, was his fiancé. Relena was happy to know that Noin, as she liked to be called, had even shorter hair than Relena.

"Relena, are you listening?" Sighing, she raised her blue eyes to stare into her mothers. Offering a weak smile, she didn't even bother to lie;

"No."

Tension rose in the room. Relena kept her cool mask. Her mother, who had been bred into the luxurious lifestyle, was trying to fill Relena's intelligent head with fluffy little thoughts and mold her into a fine young woman. One that would bring the family a beneficial marriage—and turn her into one of the giggling dolls that gossiped about the latest dress styles or the simply scandalous news of whom slept with whom.

"Relena! Stop this foolishness right now."

Relena stood from the chair. "I don't know what foolishness you're speaking of, mother." Putting her hands into the pockets of her faded blue jeans, she shuffled out of the study, leaving her fuming mother behind.

Recently, she had applied to a new school. A lesser known one, but one with what she wanted to do with her life, her dream—volleyball.

Chapter One: C is for Changes

Walking down the sidewalk to her new school, Relena took deep breaths to calm down. She, however she may have tried, couldn't help the smile from crossing her face. She was going to a school with volleyball—not some fancy rich horseback riding and etiquette lessons.

"Hey!" Relena halted in her steps. "Hey, you!" Frowning in a confused manner while wondering who would be calling to her, she turned around slowly and cautiously. She saw a girl running towards her—wearing a guy's uniform?

"Um…hi?" Relena's face flushed. Though from a distance, the braid made the person look like a girl, she was actually a he.

"You go here?" He pointed to the uniform, a simple blue and white sailor outfit with black stockings reaching up to her knees. "Usually, I know everyone who goes here. What's your name?"

"Relena."

"Wow! You kinda sound like this guy I know, his name is Quat—"

Someone from behind the braided chatterbox smacked the other teen upside the head lightly. "Duo!" He sighed with exasperation, then turned his gaze to the strawberry blonde girl, "What are you doing here, Miss Relena?"

"Wow this is new! Quatre usually never talks to any girls—Dorothy usually kills them or at least threatens them if they try to hit on him!" Duo grinned slyly, "So…this a girlfriend or something that managed to escape your beloved Dorothy's clutches?" He earned a punch in the arm for that.

"OW!" Duo wailed with a fake whine.

"Um…" Relena was still unsure as to where in the conversation to properly greet Quatre and also answer his questions. "Ah—"

"Aw, come on Quatre! Letmee know! Pwease!" Duo pleaded, looking at Quatre with his best puppy-dog face.

Quatre crossed his arms, pointedly ignoring him. "You know Duo, you'll never be able to beat my puppy-dog eyes, so what is the point?" He slyly said with a grin.

Duo chose a different tactic; "Hilde will find her anyway—"

Relena stood there awkwardly, shuffling her feet. Mentally, she sighed heavily. Distantly, she wondered if she was going to be late for class on her first day. She didn't know the exact time when school started

"…ask her yourself; Miss Relena is standing right there."

"Oh!" That managed to pull Relena from her thoughts. She smiled at Quatre and offered a small nod before turning to Duo, "I apologize for not introducing myself earlier." Holding out her hand, she nodded to him, "My name is Relena Darlain—or Peacecraft if you wish."

Duo grinned, taking her hand and offered a small bow. He kissed her hand, earning himself a blush from the pretty girl.

"Ah, don't worry pretty lady," He said, referring to Relena's lightly stained cheeks, "I'm already taken and smitten." He batted his eyes and they sparkled with happiness, "I only have eyes for a certain purple-haired devil…"

"Duo Maxwell!" He jumped slightly, offering a small 'meep' and hearing said person's voice. "You were supposed to—" Her eyes went to look at the person standing next to Quatre now.

"New girl?" She questioned, pointing at Relena. She looked her over, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you transferring in to our school?" Usually, only the sporty and jock people came to Saiyuki High since they had a wide variety of teams. The blonde didn't look like the athletic people; she looked more along the lines of a girl that just came from a boarding school.

"I want to play volleyball." Relena spoke in such a tone that left no room for argument. She had known that this school was closest to her home—meaning it was at least a mile or more. While at the Gabriel Institute, showing up in a limousine was an every day occurrence. Most of the students in this school walked to get to the places they needed. Relena smiled inwardly, thinking of the endurance she could build. It would be good training.

Duo looked her over, surprised by what the girl wanted to do. He understood now why she wanted to transfer to their school. Volleyball was an excellent choice; the girl didn't look like she was cut out for some of the rougher sports they had at their school anyway. However, what really mattered what if you had the passion for the sport.

Quatre smiled. It was good to see Relena so happy about doing something.

Duo grinned, taking in the fiery look in her eyes when she spoke of the sport, "So you play v-ball too?!" He looked her over and added to get a laugh out of her, "Aren't you kinda short?" Relena bristled at the comment, but then realized that he was joking and gave a half-hearted chuckle too. She wasn't that short—a normal height of five feet and one inch.

Hilde clapped her hands together in excitement, walking over to Relena, "You wanna play on the girl's team?!" Smiling, she added, "I'm team captain! Hilde, I'm a junior at Saiyuki High." She offered her hand to Relena, who shook it with a smile.

"So who else is on the volleyball team?" Relena inquired, curious as to the other girls she would get to play with, hopefully. She prayed that all her training over the summer would pay off for tryouts.

They walked up to the school gates together, Duo and Quatre trailing behind in their own conversation. The school bell had yet to ring, signaling that the four were early. Students chattered around, huddling in their own groups and with their friends.

"Hey, Quatre," Duo said, slinging an arm over his best friends shoulder. "How do you know Relena? She doesn't seem like the type of girl your family would want you hanging around with."

Quatre ignored the arm slung over his shoulder. "Our families. Believe it or not, Relena's family is well known for their political standings and for the jobs that they hold. They're very wealthy."

Duo blinked and paused in his steps for a moment or two. "Wait—she said her name was Darlain—as in Vice Foreign Minister Darlain—and Ambassador Milliardo Darlain-Peacecraft?!" Quatre smiled and nodded.

"That would be them, Duo." At Duo's stunned look, he added, "Relena doesn't like to let her family dictate her life. She's actually a very kind person, although it seems she found the rebellious streak in her."

Duo cackled, "That's some girl, huh?" Quatre agreed whole-heartedly. Relena wasn't like the other girls he had come to know through his family's social parties (minus Dorothy, who was in a category of her own). He was glad the blonde didn't listen to her mother's never ending nagging on how to be a proper lady. After all, who would want a girlfriend or wife that didn't have her own mind or speak her own opinion? Certainly not Quatre, who unintentionally had Dorothy; and certainly not Duo since he had Hilde.

In front of the two chattering guys, Hilde and Relena were having their own conversation tp pass the time on the walk to school. Relena glanced at Hilde, hoping that she would get along with the other teammates. Hilde laughed and patted her on the back with enthusiasm, "Oh, don't worry! We're not crazy people who you should be afraid of." She paused and then added, "Except for Dorothy. She is kinda creepy—only if you get on her bad side."

Duo perked up, hearing about Dorothy instantly, "Yeah! She tried to stab Heero with a fencing foil. She's one cra-zy person!" Duo added in with a laugh as he remembered the incident.

Relena raised her eyebrow in a questioning manner, turning to her new friend Hilde, "Who's Heero?" She found herself questioning, wondering just how the incident with the fencing foil occurred.

"Duo! Quatre!" A red-haired girl shouted, running towards them while shouldering his backpack and dragging a tall, silent teen behind him. "There you are! We were worried that Duo may have slept in and then we'd have to worry about Hilde killing him for making her late!"

"I almost was!" She stomped her foot on the ground, "I ended up leaving without him! Turns out he was walking with Quatre and Relena—met them before he even bothered to come and see me." She pouted, but smiled to Relena despite her statement.

"Aw, come on Hilde! You know I could never forget about you," he gave her a small kiss on the cheek. Hilde blushed, making Duo cackle evilly. She smacked him hard and shouted, "Duo!"

"Relena?" The redhead looked at the blonde-haired girl and smiled, assuming that this was Relena by process of elimination, "Hello, my name in Catherine Bloom. This silent statue here is named Trowa Barton. He's my brother." Trowa nodded his greeting in her direction.

"So, Quatre, do you know her?" Catherine questioned, leaning forward. "I saw you two talking like old friends. Did she just move here? Why did she transfer here?"

Quatre chuckled at her antics, "Yes, we know each other through our families. No, she didn't move here, and she transferred here because she decided to play volleyball. I'm assuming her old school didn't—not that it would."

Relena bowed her head elegantly in return, and smirked at Quatre, "What can I say? That rebellious Winner boy must have filled ideas in my head." Quatre blushed and slapped her gently on the arm.

"What ever are you implying, Miss Relena?" Quatre responded.

She turned to the others, prepared to explain and jog Quatre's memory, "After Quatre decided to go against his family and come here, I decided to follow my dream of playing volleyball. Not even my mother could stop me."

"Oh! You're going to try out on the volleyball team?! Excellent!" Catherine cheered, "We've been needing a good player to join ever since Sally graduated and became the school nurse!"

Relena was reminded once more of her unanswered question and spoke again, interrupting the conversation to ask, "Who exactly is on the girls volleyball team?"

"Oh, well—" Catherine made a 'hmm' noise as she thought and held up her fingers, "There's Hilde as team captain, me, Silvia, Dorothy, and then there's the new one this year; Mariemaia." She pointed to Relena now, "And you, so that makes six. Perfect!"

"Then there's Quatre, Trowa, Zechs, Treize, me and sometimes Heero Yuy." Duo said, grinning as he jabbed a thumb proudly in his chest, "I'm co-team captain—Treize basically runs the team since he's got some sort of obey-me-or-die complex."

"What do you mean, Heero Yuy sometimes?" Relena asked, tilting her head to the side, "And who exactly is this Heero Yuy?"

"Oh, Heero?" Duo smirked, "He's this guy, you'll probably see him around later. Some of the girls here think it's a challenge to get him to go out with them—he usually scares them off with his death glare for a few hours. He plays soccer in the summer, fall, and spring and hockey in the winter."

Relena frowned, "Then when does he play volleyball?"

Duo shrugged, "He plays in most of our games unless something else comes along. He cares more for soccer and hockey than volleyball." He looked around and grinned, "I'll go get him to introduce you!" He bounced off to where Heero was hanging out with some of the hockey players at the school.

The darker brunette looked up and saw Duo running towards him. Duo jerked to a stop and grinned, "Heya Heero!" He greeted, slapping the more silent one on the back in a friendly manner.

"Duo." Heero raised an eyebrow at him, "What exactly is it that you want?" The teammates for the ice hockey team chuckled—leave it to Heero to be blunt as always.

"There's a new transfer here." Heero looked at Duo as if to say, 'so?'. "She's going to play volleyball for the girls team." When all Duo got was silence once more, he let out an exasperated sigh; "She wants to meet you!"

Heero looked at Duo before throwing some of his books into his schoolbag. "And why is that?" Duo rolled his eyes, admitting to the brunette that he told about the fencing incident with Dorothy and that he played for the volleyball team.

"Sometimes," Heero reminded to that statement. He picked up his duffel bag full of equipment and his clothing for soccer. "Soccer is in season and this year we got a spot for the tournament. I probably won't be able to play as much as last year."

Duo blinked and then scowled, "But what if one of the players quits?!"

Heero shrugged, "I already told all on the team of you, and Treize, my first obligations are to soccer and then hockey." He threw his bags over his shoulder. The bell rang and Heero nodded his goodbye and made his departure.

"Hey!" Duo protested, slinging his bag over his own shoulder. He ran to catch up with Heero, who was already making his way to the school doors along with the other students. "What about Relena?" Duo questioned over all the other student's chattering.

"I never agreed to meet with her." Heero cast a suspicious look at Duo, who grinned innocently. "Why do you want me to meet this Relena so bad, anyway?"

Duo just shrugged his shoulders, "Dunno." He replied, carefree as ever. The hallways were just as crowded and Heero almost didn't hear his friend's response. Duo smiled in a scheming way this time, wickedly. "Anyway, you can meet her during lunch! If you don't sit with us, I'll sic Quatre on you!" He waved goodbye as he headed in the opposite, without leaving time for Heero to protest.

Heero just shook his head at his friend's antics and headed off to his first period class, sighing when he realized that it was history class. What an excellent way to start off the day.

TBC