A New School, New Friends: Part 1


I waited outside the classroom patiently as the students began to settle in. Some of them saw me and observed me with curious eyes. My new teacher was already inside, typing away on her laptop. As soon as the bell rang however, she closed her laptop immediately and stood up and addressed her students. I wasn't even really paying attention to what she was saying until her head popped out the door.

"Alright, Ogiwara-kun, come on in."

Stuffing my hands into the pockets of my blazer and strolled into the classroom. Immediately, everyone turned their gaze to me. Some more in curiosity, whilst others were very analytical. One particular girl with a red streak in her midnight black hair was staring at me like I was a chess board or Rubik's Cube.

Sitting at the front of the room, beside the window and just in front of the teacher's desk was Kumagawa, who was waving at me excitedly. The teacher coughed and I realized that I had just been standing in front of the classroom looking around.

"O-oh, right. Um…I'm Ogiwara Shigehiro, please take care of me!" Everyone else responded with an automated response, with only some of them actually meaning it. The only one who didn't say anything at all was the girl. Throughout the whole ordeal she had just been staring at me like I was a really hard minesweeper level.

"Alright, Ogiwara-kun there's an empty seat behind Kumagawa-kun. That'll be your spot until after winter break. Got that. Now settle down everyone!" The rest of class went by quick. Like, really quick. But that must have been because I was having a wonderful time actually. Not. It felt like forever, with Kumagawa constantly at my back, yapping about this and that that thing and what he did this weekend what he was planning on doing during winter break, not only that, but that girl kept staring at me the whole time!

Halfway through class our teacher Ms. Yuzuki brought Kumagawa outside to have a talk with him. I thought that she was berating him or telling him to leave me alone, but no, when Kumagawa re-entered the classroom with a grin on his face stretching ear to ear. Oh that's not good. That's not good at all.

Kumagawa then went around me and walked over to the girl. The girl's face broke out into a wide grin of her own as Kumagawa whispered something into her ear. Afterwards the two of them looked at me and I felt a shiver run down my spine. Just my luck. Hopefully this isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be.

After class I hurriedly tried to make my way to my second class. Too bad I didn't know where it was, and as it turns out Kumagawa thought of that as he was waiting for me at my locker. Standing beside him was the girl.

"Um…Hello, I'm Ogiwara Shigehiro."

She stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Kawasaki Yume! Nice to meet you! But just call me Yume." I couldn't help but flush at the abrupt contact as Yume pulled me into a sudden hug. "Anyways, Kizashi-kun here was telling me that he's been assigned to be your…guide of sorts. But since he himself still gets lost around the place, I'm here to help. So if you have any questions feel free to ask! Don't be afraid." Yume leaned forward and smiled slyly. "I won't bite."

I flinched and she threw her head back in a hearty laugh. Beside her Kumagawa rolled his eyes and tugged at my blazer. "Come on. I'll show you around, then you can head to your next class. What is your next class anyways?"

After taking a quick glance at my time table, I looked back up at Kumagawa. "Um…Physics in room 3C." Yume's grin grew even wider.

"Well whadaya know! I have that same class! Give me your time table, we might share some more of the same classes!" Without even asking for my permission or before I could even react, Yume quickly snatched the paper from my hand and began to analyze my paper. "Well, well…Seems we have the same schedule here. After science, we got phys. Ed, and then lunch and then math class, that sounds fun right? And we got English last. You learning English? How good are you at it?"

"Well, my family and I spend ours summers in San Francisco, so I kinda have to be somewhat fluent in English. So to answer your question, yeah, I'm good at speaking English."

Yume grinned once more. "Would you say you're the best?"

"What? What does that have to with anything?"

She let out a whistle. "Oh nothing."

Kumagawa moved beside me and nudged my side. "Yeah, she's gets really anal when someone's better than her at something. So don't think too much of it. Anyways, it seems that Yume-chan has the whole, school guide thing on lockdown, so I guess I'll hand her the reigns." Kumagawa then looked down at his watch before starting to walk away. "Well, Gotta scramble Ogiwara-san, I'll see ya in math class!" and disappeared around the corner.

He seemed like a nice guy. Kinda hyperactive and tiring, but a nice guy nonetheless. I got the feeling that he would become more tolerable. Beside me Yume had finished analyzing my paper and had somehow slipped it into my bad without me noticing. I looked at her puzzled, and she merely smiled at me.

"Come on Ogiwara-kun. Let's get to class." I nodded and closed my locker.

"So where is class 3C anyways? I mean, it's probably upstairs." I asked, trying to make some small talk. Yume giggled and I felt some sweat form on my forehead.

"Yeah, it's upstairs." She then point up the stairs where we currently going up. "After these stairs you go left and then you take the 2nd right. That's class 3C. It shouldn't be too hard to remember, so don't worry about it. Anyways, where are you from Ogiwara-kun?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You're a transfer student and students don't normally transfer in the middle of school unless they've had a change of scenery. Shizou High is one of the best high schools in Fukuoka, both academically and athletically so distance doesn't really matter unless you live out of the city. But even then the school has dorms nearby, so again distance isn't really a problem. The only other reasons would be that you were bullied or you were a problem child for your school, neither of which really seem to fit the way you've been acting so far. That eliminates every possibility except a change in scenery." Yume smiled slyly and showed me her notebook where she made a sketch of me with a bunch of stats written down on the side. My height, my hair and eye colour, my posture. All the way down to my speech patterns.

Yume was smart. The fact that she could estimate my height exactly was kinda terrifying and amazing at the same time. "Um…Yeah, I just moved to Fukuoka yesterday because my dad got a promotion in his job and he got relocated to Fukuoka. Nothing to do with my behaviour or my relationship with other people."

"Where does your dad work? Is he some kind of corporate suit?"

"Hmm…Not really. He works for Nintendo and he got reassigned to Fukuoka. Good thing about having a dad work for one of gaming's Big Three is that I get early access to games and demos." A smile worked its way onto my lips. "You wanna see the new Zelda game?" I saw Yume's eyes flash in curiosity before returning to their normal green.

"Nah, maybe later."

Physics class again passed rather quickly. As class ended, I began putting my papers into my bag when I noticed Yume making her way from all the way in the back of the room. I stood up and waited for Yume to reach me.

"Ya ready to go to gym class?"

I nodded. Gym class was probably going to be the only class that wasn't going to be full of rules, expectations, and code of conduct, course overviews and all that boring stuff. From what I'd heard from Yume, the entire week before winter break was just an open gym where we could choose to do whatever we wanted as long we were exerting outselves.

The gym was huge. It was definitely larger than my last school's gym. Numerous banners were displayed all over the walls and just above the entrance to the gym itself. Most of the banners I noticed were basketball related. 5 National championships during the 90's, 2 during the early 00's, and 8 straight finals appearances. Though apparently last year was the end of that streak when the team ran into the eventual champions in the first round.

I shook my head and made my way to the changing room. Just thinking about basketball made me long to feel the rubber. To feel the great sensation of making a three pointer. Most of the guys seemed to notice, me the new guy and looked in my direction with curiosity before quickly changing going off to be with their friends. Though there was one guy whose gaze lingered on me. His eyes had the same look in them that Yume's did.

Our supervisor was off to the side watching us intently under the cover of looking at a sports magazine. Seriously? They already have a magazine of the Seirin's Winter Cup victory? Agh…Why am I surprised again?

Yume was off to the side and again, I felt my face turn red. She was beautiful I have to admit and hey gym clothes didn't exactly hide much of her extremely long legs and her curves. She must have caught me looking and winked at me.

Shaking my head, I made my way over to the basketball racks. I noticed however that most of the guys were off playing badminton or ping pong or volleyball. There were only 3 guys that were actually playing basketball. Including myself. Most of the girls were actually playing a sport, mostly badminton or were running on the track outside, and not hugging the wall and just talking amongst each other. Though admittedly there were also some girls doing that here as well.

I stood at the three-point line and took a shot. The ball was short and hit the front of the rim and bounced off to the side. Should've held my follow through just a bit longer. Hmm, I think I also might've released the ball a little early. I could feel a gaze on me as I jogged to the ball. Turning my head to the side I spotted the guy from before looking at me intently. It was then that I noticed Yume standing beside him notebook in hand. She shot me another smile and gestured for me to continue with what I was doing before.

Sighing, I dribbled the ball up to the half court line before turning around and dribbling to the three point line where I promptly pulled up and drained the shot, remembering to keep my follow through.

Quickly grabbing the ball, I made my way back up to the three point line. I did a quick crossover to the left and then shot a fade away jumper from just inside the arc. Yume let out a satisfied sound as she wrote something down on her notebook.

It was like this for a good chunk of the class, Yume taking notes as I, in a sense, showed off my plethora of moves that I hadn't used in a long time. As expected, most of them didn't go in, though none of them were air balls aside from the one moving three that I took. But then again, unless you were Midorima or Mibuchi or Steph Curry, there was a slim chance that a moving three would go in. I don't know why, but I just felt compelled to see if I was just as good as I was back before…the incident.

As I pulled up for a shot from the free throw line, I heard someone come up from behind me. I paid it no mind though and went through the motions. Right as the ball left my hand, someone smacked the ball out of the air. Landing a few feet away from me was again the dude from before. He had black close cropped hair and bright blue eyes. "Um…Can you give me back the ball please?" I got the feeling that he wasn't about to do that.

"What's your name?"

"Ah…Um…I'm Ogiwara Shigehiro? And can you please give me the ball back, I kinda want to continue shooting some hoops."

"You will. Against me. Your ball." He tossed me the ball back, and I frowned.

"Um…No. I…I don't think so, I'm just gonna enjoy shooting some hoops by myself. It's a nice offer and all, but I'm fine by myself. Maybe later." Or not at all. Yeah that would be good. That would be really nice. Yeah, I'd prefer not to do this at all.

"No. If you even manage to score against me once I'll leave you alone, how's that sound? We got a deal?" That did sound nice, but I would've preferred not to do this at all, but I don't think that this guy was taking no for an answer.

I sighed and nodded my head slowly. "Can I at least get your name? I want to at least know who's going to kick my ass."

"Homura Reki. And thank you for reconsidering my offer." I scoffed and backed up to just behind the three point line. "Now let's begin."

Tch. There's no holes in his defense. That I can see anyways. His reach seems pretty long. Long enough that I won't be able to go around him. Maybe I can break him down and get a clean look off. I narrowed my eyes and did a quick hesitation move to the right, before crossing over to the left as quickly as possible. I may have lost my footing, but I managed to recover. I frowned as Homura was on me real quick.

Stepping back, I took a moment to think about what to do next. Homura was a good defender that much I could tell. I could also tell that he wasn't even trying his best to guard me. My first step simply wasn't fast enough to blow by him and my handles weren't as good as they used to be and his footwork was stellar. There's simply no way I would be able to break him down. So my best bet was to see if I could drain a shot from the outside.

Inhaling deeply, I did a hesitation move. Homura saw this and backed up slightly, giving me some space to shoot. I hopped up from the balls of my feet, giving me some extra lift. I brought the ball up to my forehead and released it. I consciously held my follow through this time and watched as the ball clanked off the back of the rim.

Homura jumped up and brought the ball back down with one hand. I rushed forward and tried to snatch the ball out of his hand. He must've seen me coming though and spun around me to the just in front of the three point line and shot a fade away. It was nothing but net. "Nice shot."

"Thanks."

I received the ball at the top of the key and did a quick jab step. Homura didn't fall for it at all and instead moved closer slightly, cutting off any chance of me driving by him. Instead, I entered the post and put Homura against my back. I then began to back him in. No good, Homura got low and pushed against me with all his weight.

I wasn't good enough to spin around him like Shaq with his famous black tornado, and my hook was trash. My only hope was to fade away, or somehow get Homura on a fake and drive to the basket. I slightly move my shoulders towards the basket trying to get a reaction, but nothing. I then pivot on my left foot and did a pump fake. As I brought the ball into the air, Homura reached in and snatched the ball from my hand. Damn, he's quick, I wasn't even able to get my fake off!

"That's enough. I got enough data Reki-nii." Yume called out. "Besides, it's almost time to change anyways." Homura nodded and tossed me the ball back before walking back to the locker room. Yume smirked at me. "Gotta admit, you'd make a nice addition to our team."

"Team? Student council or something? Sorry, not my thing."

"Oh no, I'm the manager, and scout and trainer of the basketball team. It's my job to scout out to every freshman and see if they're a good fit. I'm also the one who supervises the tryouts. I'm also the one who goes to other schools to try and recruit players and, as the name implies, I plan the team's training. So basically I'm the coach in everything but name and knowledge of strategy and rotations and all that stuff. And from the looks of it, you have some skill. Though, you seem kinda rusty. When was the last time you played against someone one on one? Or even touched a basketball? You were kinda just running on muscle memory alone out there."

"Oh...Maybe a year and a half, give or take a few weeks. I wasn't that bad was I?"

Yume shook her head. "No, it just seemed to me that judging by your movements you were obviously part of a team. Your jab step was too good to be just something that you picked up from watching basketball games. Plus, streetballers would just try to straight up break Reki-kun's ankles or put him in the spin cycle. No you recognized that you wouldn't be able to blow by Reki-kun at all, so you just settled for a jump shot."

"What are you trying to say here?"

"I'm trying to say that you could've been very good if you had kept up your skills. I don't know why you decided to stop, but you could've been the ace of a team you know."

I almost snorted at the thought. Even if she was right and kept honing my skills, I wouldn't have ever been good enough to even think about challenging the Miracles, let alone being a school's ace. Though the thought of training as hard as I could and joining a good team to try and beat the Miracles had crossed my mind, I decided against. There's simply no way for a normal person to beat the Generation of Miracles. "Well, I don't know about that. I could've been a decent starter and definitely a good bench player, but definitely not an ace. I think you're getting me mixed up with someone else here."

Yume scoffed. "Please, I've been around enough good players to know that you could've easily been as good if not better than them. I don't know what happened that made you stop playing but know this, whatever made you think that you can't be a good player, was wrong. Or you gave up too easily. Either way, you can be a good player at this school. I can get you up to your previous level of skill and maybe even get you above that level. I can do that."

"That's a nice offer, but I'll have to respectfully decline. I can't play basketball. At least not with a team anymore. And it's not because I think I'm better than them, I'll just hold them back. I'll be a liability. You wouldn't want someone like me on your team."

Again Yume scoffed. "You're selling yourself short. But I can see that you won't budge on this decision. Can you at least consider trying out for the team? We're dangerously undermanned and our Ace is off in New York doing god knows what. We'll need all the manpower we can get. So please at least reconsider my offer. Come by sometime after school this week. After that, I won't bother you anymore because our training camp starts during the break."

"I get it. Now can we please get to the cafeteria, I'm really hungry."

I passed by the giggling Yume and began making my way to the changing room. "Can you please wait for me outside? Thank you." I called out before disappearing into the room.

Join their basketball team eh? Can I really do that again? Can I really stand on the same courts as the Miracles?


The rest of the day went by without any hitches. With a sigh, I pulled off my shoes and placed them in my locker before grabbing my outside shoes. Today was boring. It was nothing but rules, expectations how I should behave and a ton of homework assigned. Presumably to catch me up or something. The only entertaining parts of the day was phys. Ed class and lunch time.

I noticed that Yume didn't hang out with any other girls except for her best friend, or who I assume was her best friend. Though we had only passed by her in the halls, so I couldn't really get a good grasp on their relationship. Yume lead me to a table outside in the school's courtyard. I took out the bento my mother had prepared for me and finished eating quickly. Yume simply ate a sandwich. During the entire period we discussed basketball.

"So which is your favourite team?" She asked me.

"Well, I used to be a big fan of the Kings until they started to suck ass, kinda sucks to see Boogie playing for a terrible organization, but to answer your question though, I hopped onto the Warriors hype train."

"Ah, so you're a bandwagoner. Never would've expected that. Watch out though Kizashi-kun's Clippers might upset your boy Steph."

"I'll have you know that I've been a fan of the Warriors since 2012 when they were finally getting good. I bet you're just a salty LeBron fangirl."

"Pssh, hell no, OKC all the way!" Yume exclaimed, taking a sip from her water bottle. "If KD wasn't injured last season we would've made it to Western Conference Finals at the least. I can't say if we would've beaten the Dubs though."

"If the Thunder were healthy last year they would've been at least the 2 seed or 4 seed minimum. Warriors still would've won the Championship though"

"All right enough what if scenarios." Yume took out an apple. "Next question. Who's your favourite player not named Stephen Curry."

"How'd you know Chef Curry's my favourite player?" Yume shot me a pointed look. "Alright, fine, Dwayne Wade. Dude's still a beast despite all the injuries. If he and Bosh had been healthy the whole year, they would've made the playoffs at least. What about you?"

"KD. Dude's the best scorer in the League. People seem to forget that KD was the MVP in 2014. People also seem to forget that he's a 4 time scoring champ, plus he's been the clutchest player since he entered the League."

It was like this for the whole period. The rest of the classes, as I said before were nothing but a blur. Though math class even more of a chore than my last school's class. Our teacher…wasn't a good teacher to say the least. Oh the other students would've disagreed because 'Sensei gives us Ice Cream!' and 'Sensei lets us work in groups with our friends! You're just jealous because you don't have any friends!' And to those I say: Wrong.

She's just wants to be called a good teacher without actually being one. Math class was the second class of the day where I didn't get bombarded with rules and expectations, as we dove right into the group work. She didn't even tell us anything except to do pages 314 up to 316. Immediately everyone split off into the cliques.

On one side were the popular kids who seemed to actually be working on the assignment while talking at each other at the same time. Across from them, on the other side of the room, were the slackers. Too busy talking with each other and goofing off to actually be doing anything. Scattered all around the room were the other smaller groups of friends just doing their thing. It was weird how our sensei didn't have it so that there was only a certain number of people in a group.

Yume immediately went over to me. "Hey."

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Partnering up with you dummy."

"Uh, I think Tokone Sensei said to be in groups, not partner up with someone. I don't think 2 classifies a "group."

"Look around Ogiwara-kun. Tokone Sensei doesn't care what size your group is, as long as you get your work done. She's not a good teacher, but she isn't bad either. If only she actually taught us stuff instead of trying the "cool". Not that I'm complaining though, I mean, I finished the whole textbook already, so she doesn't care what I do really."

"You finished all the questions? How many pages are in this textbook? Like 500? How long did that ya? A month? Did you finish just last week?"

"Actually it took me, a little over half a week." Yume leaned in, a smug smirk forming on her face. "Impressed?"

I scoffed. "Yeah, no. You just seem like a nerd."

"Well, I'd like to think that I'm a cool nerd. You know, a sports nerd. Doesn't that make me cool or something?"

"Not really? Makes other girls jealous of you because you're closer the hot jocks on the team. I mean, you are right? Isn't that what happens in these sports anime? The only strong female leads are usually childhood friends, or is related to someone on the team, usually the ace. Right?"

Yume looked at me as if I had grown another head. "This isn't Slam Dunk you know. But yeah, I am childhood friends with someone on the team."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Who?"

"You'll have to find out."

Afterwards I didn't even have to do any work as Yume pulled out a folder with the papers in which she had put her homework papers and let me copy off of her. English wasn't at all that interesting. I was way ahead of the class in terms of fluency in the language. Though Yume wasn't that far behind.

After school was over, I thought about Yume's offer. It wouldn't hurt to do so, but I wasn't sure if I was ready for that kind of commitment, I had no doubt that I would be able to make the team. It was staying with the team all the way to the end that I doubted I could do. Rather than going immediately, I made my way over to a nearby outdoor basketball court and sat down on a bench on the sidelines.

I didn't know what to do. But I knew someone who might have an idea. Quickly, I texted my parents and told them I was going to be late. Though then again, back in our old city I usually hung out at the mall after school with my friends.

With a reluctant sigh I dialed up Kuroko's number.

"Hello?" My lips form a light smile as I recognize his quiet, deadpan voice over the phone. It had been a while since last actually talked to him. Though, while this wasn't face to face like I wanted, it was better than nothing.

"Hey Kuroko. What's up?" Even through the phone, I could hear Kuroko gasp quietly. "Sorry I waited this long to call, but there were some complications that prevented me from calling earlier."

"No, it's fine Ogiwara-kun. Um…Is there a reason for calling me right now? I'm about to head to practice."

I scrunch up my face. "Practice? It's only been two days since the Winter Cup finals, are you sure you should be practicing right now?"

"Well, no, I probably shouldn't, but we haven't really done much actual practice. Coach just gathers us into the film room to watch our previous games to see where we could improve and our goals for the future."

"Oh really? What do you guys plan to do next? The next biggest thing after the Winter Cup is the Summer Tournament and the biggest one of all are the Nationals, which if I am not mistaken starts in late May."

"You are correct Ogiwara-kun. Our next target is the Nationals. Most of the big hitters such as Shizou and Kannoh and Kyouchin were recovering from last year's Nationals, so they could not participate in the Winter Cup." I could hear the sound of yelling in the background. A male and a female voice. "As you can tell, Kagami-kun is quite, how you say, pumped."

"Ha, yeah, I can tell. But, um…I need your help with something."

"Anything Ogiwara-kun."

"So listen, um…I just got to my new school, and the manager of the basketball team seems pretty interested in me and offered to give me a tryout for the team. Um…As you can tell, I'm not sure what to do. I have until the end of the week to show up in the gym and actually try-out, but if I don't show up after that, they'll stop bothering me."

"Well, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. On one hand, I've regained my love for basketball, though you'd claim that I'd never lost it all, but on the other hand, I'm afraid to fully commit to another team. Another team that I…That I'll fail because I'm not good enough."

It was silent for a moment and I was afraid that Kuroko had hung up on me, disgusted. "Ogiwara-kun, you don't know that. If the team fail's, it won't be completely on your shoulder to bear alone. That's what having a team is about. Besides, you can't really say that about a team that you've never even really met have you? Give it a few days and then, when you've thought about it, long and hard, then you make your decision. Personally, I'd take the offer, but I'm not you. Still, it would be nice to see you in the Nationals. Kind of like we're keeping our promise right?"

Our promise huh?

"I'll…I'll think about it. Thanks…Tetsuya. Bye."

"Goodbye Shigehiro-kun. And good luck."

I know what I must do now.

Ogiwara Shigehiro was an interesting boy, Yume decided. His skill with the ball was slightly above average at best, but she suspected that that may have been because of his lack of training. But, despite that, she felt as if he had potential. Not Generation of Miracles, or the Dragons of Kyushu level potential, but still, the potential to be a good player. Maybe even become the ace of a team.

Beside her, Homura sat in a fold up chair staring at the door, waiting for Ogiwara to arrive. For some odd reason, Reki was oddly certain that their new recruit would come. Sitting on the stage and spinning a ball on his nose was Kumagawa.

Yume hoped that Ogiwara Shigehiro would join the team. They needed his talent. And without Akagi or Ashiya, then the new recruit may have been more necessary than she thought. They had been waiting for over half an hour.

Sighing, Reki stood up. "Well, I guess it's time to go ho-hmm?"

Standing there at the doorway, a determined expression on his face. Was Ogiwara Shigehiro.

"I'm not late for anything am I?"


I'm sorry if I got the school aspect wrong, I based most of it off of anime and manga tropes and what research i did wasn't that helpful really. So again, I apologize if I messed it up.