Hello everyone! I'm happy that the story has been faved and attracted a few 'story alerts'. Thank you all, for liking the first chapter!
Important to note: Subtle changes in POVs - from Akemi to others
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Prince of Tennis franchise or iPod. They belong to their respective owners/creators/company.
Next day
The sky was partly covered with thick angry clouds.
Much as a change of weather was good for everyone, especially for someone who's far used to cooler summers, Akemi hoped it wouldn't rain later today as she needed to run to the supermarket straight afterschool for tonight's dinner party at her neighbour's.
After giving the clouds another worried glance, she hoisted the strap of her bag higher up her shoulder and started towards the direction of the school.
About twenty minutes later, she paused at the top of a hill. There's a long narrow road built along the slope that gently steeped downwards in a straight line before curving behind a row of traditional Japanese houses.
Akemi had to admit the people living in there were one lucky cookie.
The view from the top of the hill was (and she could only find one word to describe it) breathtaking. Not only was she able to see her school and the city centre from here, but also the the long stretch of sandy beach this part of Kanagawa was famous for.
Sadly, Akemi had not physically been to the beach yet, and she blamed the many boxes and crates waiting for her to unpack at home.
She sighed dismally, sticking a pair of earphones into her ears with one hand, while the other was already roaming the glass surface of an iPod in search of a good playlist. When she did find one, she let out a happy sigh and tapped play before hastily returning the iPod back into her pocket.
Humming to an upbeat Jazz music, she continued down the hill, adding a few awkward skips in her steps as she did so.
Halfway to school, she was joined by her class' vice president, Hinata Chitose.
Aware of social courtesy, Akemi swiftly packed away her earphones and greeted her classmate with a bow.
They chatted with one another. When the topic of conversation inadvertently reached to how she was settling in the city, she replied with a shrug and a "So far, so good." In truth, she missed her adopted country, and wondered if this place would ever replace it. She didn't mention it though, for fear of possibly offending Hinata, so she kept a happy demeanour throughout the rest of the journey.
However, Hinata was not one to be fooled. As they passed through the school gates, she studied the girl beside her closely.
Hinata had a few friends, and they all made up the small community of the Handicraft Club, but none were from her class. She once had a best friend whom she grew up with. They would do everything and anything together. But everything changed when she moved to Tokyo after graduating from the same middle school. Communication between them started to dwindle until Hinata completely lost contact with her. It stopped bothering her once her dearest mother had given a precious advice to her.
'Move on, Chitose. Like society in every parts of the world, life is very volatile.'
As the words kept repeating in her head, all the puzzles seemed to piece perfectly together. Out from the corner of her eyes, the observant Hinata noticed how distant Akemi's eyes were.
When Akemi caught her looking, she gave her a large smile before overtaking her to get to their classroom first.
Right then, Hinata could only feel sorry for the girl.
XXX
They wouldn't stop pestering her.
After going through such a gruelling Q&A session yesterday in front of twenty odd students in her class, Akemi figured she was spared from anymore questions. Though there was a small part of her knew that the possibility was close to zero, and if possible, right down to the negatives.
The moment she had sat down, her desk was completely surrounded by a wall of faces.
Akemi nearly fell off her chair in fright then.
In the midst of the chaos, Hinata was trying to calm everyone down but without any luck. It seemed like it was very easy to lose oneself in a sea of students – especially for one so petite.
Fortunately, help soon came in the form of the class president who was, by all miracles, managed to squeeze through the tiny gaps.
"Come on, guys. Relax," he pleaded, gasping for air as, he too, was not spared from being pushed around by his classmates. "Enough with the questions. You all basically got a summary of her life yesterday. Plus you're scaring Noda – I mean – Akemi-san," he hastily amended, remembering her request made during introduction.
Perhaps it was the fact that he was the highly respected class president, or mysteriously charismatic. But it mattered not to Akemi for his words worked like magic. Her classmates immediately departed, albeit begrudgingly, back to their little groups.
"Thank you very much, Yagyuu-san," Akemi sighed in relief as Yagyuu readjusted his glasses that had gone slightly askew. "I'm not trying to be rude, but being bombarded with questions early in the morning is a bit too much for me to handle." She smiled gratefully at Hinata who had already returned to her seat, seeing as there was no need for her to interfere anymore.
"My pleasure, Akemi-san. It is understandable, given your situation yesterday," he assured, settling down on an empty seat beside hers as Akemi chuckled sheepishly at the truth. "If there are any problems at all, just let me or Hinata-san a shout. I see the both of you are getting well acquainted with each other."
"Yes, we are," Akemi replied without missing a beat.
"That's good to hear," Yagyuu smiled, showing no sign that he was perturbed by the guarded look in her eyes or the stiffness of her smile.
The rest of the morning came and gone, and by the time Akemi checked her watch for the umpteenth time it was another hour until their lunch break. She sighed inwardly, and turned her attention back to the history textbook in front of her.
When the bell finally rang and their history teacher had left the classroom, she quickly packed everything into her bag and stood up.
It was not lunch break yet, nor was it time for them to go home. They have another lesson before then, but Akemi was exempted from English for the current academic year. Apparently, she scored exceptionally on that particular subject's paper when she did her entrance exam to earn a free break every weekday. Well, she did grow up in an English-speaking country. Her parents and former tutor would probably be disappointed if she didn't get the exemption.
On the day of the stairwell incident (Akemi could still a dull throb in her eardrums and head every time she thought of it), she was asked to meet with the school principle for a briefing. It was then she was informed of her freedom. But much as she was flattered, Akemi had wanted to at least sit through one or two English periods before accepting the exemption.
That she did, and she accepted the exemption after yesterday's trial run.
Avoiding everyone's eyes, Akemi shuffled towards Yagyuu. The class president, who had already been informed of her exemption by Miyagi-sensei earlier, dropped a laminated tag on her opened hand as soon as she walked past his desk.
There was a stunned silence in the class as the door closed with a thud, wondering what had happened to their new classmate. But when the door opened again, everyone immediately snapped back into attention as their English teacher walked in with a rather battered-looking book.
'Girl sure doesn't like attentions,' mused Niou; stifling a yawn as Suzuki-sensei announced the topic of the day.
As minutes ticked by, a small plan was beginning to form in his mind.
Yagyuu looked away from the blackboard where the teacher was writing an excerpt from H.G. Well's War of the Worlds to the quivering back of Niou.
'Looks like I have to watch him closely for the rest of day,' he sighed wearily, dreading whatever the Trickster's plotting.
"Niou-san! If you have something funny to say, why don't you share it with us!?"
Another sigh escaped from Yagyuu, as the whole class burst into laughter at the latest rebuke.
XXX
The corridor was deserted, which suited her well.
She glanced around as she wondered where to spend her free period. The library was out of the question since Akemi wanted somewhere with a bit of noise to read her history textbook. She had felt pretty much at a lose during the previous lesson on Japanese history.
She had a lot of work to do, and this free period was the perfect timing. If all went well, she might as well put the rest of her free periods into good use.
Her next idea was the cafeteria. This would have had been a great choice, if it weren't for the fact that she had arrived outside the bolted doors leading to the cafeteria.
Seeing no other options, Akemi reluctantly turned away and headed towards the library. But just as was about to step into the corridor that would take her to said destination, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
Silently berating herself for not thinking of this earlier, Akemi wheeled around and headed towards a familiar stairwell where she nearly lost her hearings permanently.
Minutes later, Akemi staggered to a stop in front of a pair of double doors, feeling slightly out of wear. After a few gasps of air, she gave one of the doors a push; nearly blinding herself as the light suddenly filled the landing. She narrowed her eyes against the light and stepped through the doors before closing behind her.
"This is definitely not an ordinary private school," she muttered, leaning against the doors.
When Hinata had shown this place to her yesterday, Akemi had found it very hard to believe that they were standing on the rooftop of their very own block.
Apparently, it was converted into a rooftop garden by the Gardening Club only a few years ago that had started out as a middle school students' project. Seeing the popularity with staff and students alike, the school head had agreed to implement the same concept when a fellow second year moved up to high school.
Akemi gently pushed herself away from the doors and walked down the cobbled stone path, admiring the neatly arranged flowers and decorations around her. There were hedges shaped into different types of birds, and even a gazebo at the very centre of the rooftop garden.
She gave it a pensive look, before turning right and left the path. She wandered around for a bit, stopping every now and then to read the neatly scrawled handwriting on the small wooden signposts which showed the names of every plants including (to her excitement) herbs.
It wasn't before long until she stumbled upon a garden shed that looked like it had seen better days.
"Odd," she remarked, noticing a gap between the shed and the neat row of hedges beside it. There was just enough space for one person.
Always the curious type, Akemi carefully squeezed through the gap.
"Damn it!" she exclaimed, tugging at one end of her skirt that had caught a branch until it gave, nearly sending her to the ground. She glared at the woody culprit, smoothing her skirt. But all anger instantly vanished the moment she turned around.
Akemi gasped, and slowly made her way past a wooden bench to stand in front of the railing.
'I can see the sea from here,' she noted, feeling awestruck as a gentle breeze tickled her skin. She gave the air a little sniff. 'Mmm…and smells like it too.'
Thinking that she had enjoyed the view enough, she turned back towards the bench and sat down. She studied her surroundings. It was nothing compared to the rest of the rooftop garden behind her. But oddly enough, she felt that this place was special.
'Like a sanctuary.'
Smiling in content, she reached into her bag, and took out her Japanese History textbook and iPod. She set the latter beside her and flipped through the history book with a frown.
'I sure have a lot to catch up on,' she sighed in despair, finally settling on the first chapter.
Akemi was glad that the school had excluded Japanese History from the entrance exam, or else she probably wouldn't have been accepted. She enjoyed a little bit of history in general, but the subject was never her strong point. So there was a lot of memorising and drawing mind-maps involved throughout her education.
'Come on, Akemi. You can do this!' she nodded in determination, uncapping a highlighter.
XXX
It was Yukimura's idea to have lunch at the rooftop garden.
Since it had been nothing but scorching hot for the past few days or so, he wanted to check on the herbs planted a few days ago, to make sure none were suffocating in the heat.
Finding no reasons to disagree, the Sanada and Yanagi agreed to go with him.
But when they had arrived at their usual lunch spot, it was already occupied by a fellow student, whom they immediately recognised as Noda Akemi.
She was lying on her back fast asleep with a book in one hand dangling precariously over the ground, and oblivious to the three guys staring at her in puzzlement.
They glanced at one another, wondering what they should do. It wasn't as if there weren't any other benches around, and there was the gazebo. But they had wanted somewhere secluded...a place where no fangirls could spot them from far. No one apart from them, the students of the Gardening Club, and the groundskeeper knew of this place as it was very well hidden by the garden shed and bushes.
"We could just sit on the grass," Yanagi finally suggested with a nonchalant shrug.
The other two merely shrugged in agreement, finding no other options, and the three back tracked a couple of steps before settling down on a nice patch of grass.
By the time they had finished their lunch and Yukimura had returned from checking on his herbs, it was near the end of lunch break, and they found themselves in the same spot behind the bench, staring down at Akemi who was still sleeping contently.
"We should definitely wake her up," Yukimura said. Not bothering to wait for the others to respond, he walked around the bench, picked up the book that had fallen off her grasp, and bent slightly over her. "Excuse me, miss," he said, placing a hand on one of her shoulders. "Break time is almost over. You should go back to your class."
XXX
Akemi stirred slightly in her sleep.
There was music playing in her head, and her upper body was moving on its own; almost like someone was shaking her. Somewhere in her head, a voice shouted for it to stop. The shaking stopped but it didn't last long after a few moments.
Conceding defeat, she groggily opened her eyes and was met with an oddly shaped shadow. She blinked several times, the shadow slowly sharpening before her. When her brain finally registered that it was a face looking down at her, she shrieked and shot straight up on the bench, violently tugging the earphones out from her ears.
The sudden movement caught the person her in surprise, but he reacted fast enough to avoid a hit on the head.
Oddly enough to Akemi, it sounded like they were not alone. Looking like a deer caught in headlights, she glanced frantically around.
There were two others behind her. Both had very weird haircuts; the tallest of them seemed to be fine with his eyes perpetually closed, and the other looked terrifyingly scary even when he was briefly caught off guard. The one who had presumably woke her up, had a rather feminine face with curly blue hair. If it weren't for the fact that he had a prominent lump on his throat and was wearing the male school uniform, she would have had easily passed him off as a girl.
(But back to her predicament)
"Are you alright?" Blue-haired boy asked in concern when Akemi was silently staring at them in shock with wide-eyes.
XXX
Yukimura took one step forward, holding out the history textbook to her. He had meant to return it, but his movement seemed to have spooked her...judging by the way she had leapt from the bench and fled.
The last thing the trio saw of her was the black school bag of hers before it disappeared behind the bushes. The leaves rustled for a bit, followed by a rather loud "Curse this overgrown plant!" and an unmistakeably snap of a branch breaking in half.
After the footsteps had completely faded away, Yukimura glanced at the book in his hand and then back to the spot where Akemi had disappeared.
"Wonder what that was all about…"
"70 -"
"Not now, Renji," Sanada interjected, massaging his temple. He then turned to Yukimura and reluctantly asked for the book, telling him that he would return it to her.
"That's quite unlike you, Genichiro," Yukimura smiled with a knowing glint in his eyes. Nonetheless, he handed the book to Sanada, who looked less than pleased at his best friend and maybe himself. "You're always avoiding contact with girls in any form because you're afraid they might turn out to be one of your fangirls. Yet, this is the first time you're going to talk to one out of your own freewill."
One of his eyebrows' twitched in irritation. Sanada always prided himself for being the dignified vice captain of the tennis club, but it took a large amount of patience from him to explain to his best friends, why he had suggested it in the first place. Despite the understanding was cleared, it didn't stop Yukimura from teasing him endlessly as the trio left the rooftop garden.
XXX
All conversations halted abruptly when the door was violently thrown opened, quickly followed by Akemi who stumbled rather ungracefully into the classroom.
She was panting really hard, looking like she had just ran the entire length of Honshu (the main island of Japan), and had to use the door frame for support.
Hinata was immediately by her side and was shortly joined by the class president.
Like everyone else, Niou just watched from where he was, albeit with a bored look. But inwardly, he was brimming with curiosity.
"Are you alright, Akemi-san!?" Hinata nearly squeaked, grasping both her shoulders.
Yagyuu made to help her, but he was waved off. He had to refrain from going against his gentleman's code to disobey a lady's request.
"I-I'm fine - honest," she wheezed; face contorted in obvious agony.
"I think you need to come with us to see the nurse," Yagyuu disagreed politely. "You look too pale to be fine."
"But that's my natural complexion."
Even her voice was weakening.
"Sickly pale, Akemi-san."
She was clenching her stomach really tightly.
"But I -"
Thump
Like a wooden block, Akemi collapsed onto the classroom floor and laid there motionless.
"Ah..."
"She fainted."
XXX
When the bell rang signalling the end of school, Akemi was still red-faced as she hurriedly left the classroom. Other students were starting to spill onto the corridor, leaving her with no choice but to make a dash towards the stairs, and she was out on the school grounds in half the time it would normally take for her.
From one of the windows above her, Niou and Yagyuu were quietly observing their new classmate as she sprinted past the gates. Even from here, they could spot the flushed ears.
The classroom was empty except for those who were on cleaning duties.
When Akemi finally disappeared from view, Niou heaved himself from the window, plopped himself down on a random chair with his feet resting on the desk, and pulled out his phone.
The school had a strict no mobile phone policy, but that's only in place until the end of school.
Beep. Beep.
'Hmm?'
Yagyuu checked the new message.
"We should go down to the changing rooms. I just got a text from Yanagi-san saying Yukimura-buchou has a very important announcement to make before training," he informed, glancing from his phone to Niou casually tapping away on his own phone. Behind his glasses, Yagyuu's eyes narrowed. He quickly manouvered around the desks and chairs, and snatched the device out from his best friend's hand.
"Hey, I was using that!"
Yagyuu took one look at the phone and sighed. "Delete this please," he held out the phone to Niou.
It was bad that he took a picture of Akemi at a state (undoubtedly, for future blackmail material), but to upload it on a social network site where everyone could view (and worse 'share') was the very last straw. Yagyuu was glad he caught his friend before the picture was up on cyberspace.
"No!"
Throwing aside his usual manners, Yagyuu asserted in a firm voice, "If the school finds out about this, you'll be in big trouble." He paused in thoughts. "Though I suppose detention is far less severe when compared to what Sanada-kun will have installed for you if he knows…" he trailed off, waving the phone in front of Niou's face.
"Oh fine!" Niou snapped, snatching his phone back from Yagyuu.
His best friend made sure Niou had deleted the photo – and to his horror, a few more – from his phone, before urging his friend to leave the classroom before both of them get in trouble with their bad-tempered vice captain of the tennis team.
XXX
That night
It's a good thing tomorrow's the weekend.
She couldn't believe it when she found herself in the school nurse's office, and was strictly instructed by the matronly nurse to never skip any meals or starve herself.
Yup, Akemi had not only embarrassed herself in front of her classmates, but also Miyagi-sensei who happened to be the teacher to start the next lesson.
She had to resist the strong urge to hit her head on a nearby wall as she trailed behind her parents.
So instead, she focused on the task of carrying the plate of freshly baked apple pie. After all, dropping it on the ground would mean that she had wasted all the time and energy in making the scrumptious pie for the dinner party, in addition to earning her mother's scorn for breaking a new plate.
A weary sigh escaped through her parted lips as they stopped in front of the wooden gate of a traditional Japanese house on the slope. She waited patiently behind her parents, adjusting her hold on the plate as her mother rang the doorbell. Her father was looking around him with an aloof expression.
She flicked a glance at the Kanji characters, 'Sanada', inscribed on a wooden sign next to the gate.
No sooner, they were greeted by a boy around her age who looked vaguely familiar.
Akemi eyed him warily; a very bad feeling settling in her stomach as her parents exchanged greetings.
Eventually, it hit her like an avalanche of boulders.
Very stiffly, she bowed at him in greeting and mentally groaned in dismay.
'This is going to be a very long night.'
