I have rewritten Chapter 2, finally!
I thank sobasicallyme and LilweenGalatrass for their review :)
Enjoy
Chapter 2 - A Setback
Behind every strong man
stands a woman rolling her eyes
Tamiko sighed when the school bell rang to announce the beginning of the first lunch break. She loved mathematics but today her mind kept wandering. She just couldn't focus. How annoying, she thought and frowned. Her stomach began to grumble when she escaped the busy halls and she decided to go and find a place to eat. Shiratorizawa Academy was a very large facility. It offered the students many activities and rooms to expand and fine tune their skills. It had taken her about two weeks to find her way around without looking at the signs and getting lost. Now she knew every corner and she used the lunch breaks on the sunny days to enjoy the scenery in her favourite spot. She sat by herself gazing over the riding area, her Benton already in hand when she heard someone approach her.
"Tamiko." she heard a low voice behind her.
She turned her head after taking a bite to see a tall man looming over her with a stern expression. Their eyes met as she chewed with filled cheeks.
"Toshi-kun." she greeted him after she had swallowed.
Ushijima Wakatoshi was a tall guy for his 17 years of age, she herself only going to his chin. And he had to be since he was the captain and ace of the volleyball club. Only recently had she found out that he was representing Japan in the U19 volleyball world championship. It was a title the school bragged about, but he himself never mentioned it. A small thing she like about him. If he weren't so serious all the time, she might even consider him to be boyfriend material but he certainly wasn't, at least not to her. He may be popular but he never boasted. It was his socialising that needed work. Many things in the arts of holding a conversation still confused him and not many could handle his bluntness. Many girls he had dated said he was so focused on volleyball that he never had time for them or he gave such honest comments that they were repulsed sometimes. All those relationships lasted only a day or two and were mainly one sided. He never showed emotion and hardly talked. He only spoke when he had something to say and strangely enough, he always had something to say to her.
"I met your brother yesterday." he said.
"Yeah, I heard. He mentioned you when he came home." she told him. "He seemed very fired up."
"His friend was interesting as well." he added, gazing into the distance.
"Hinata Shoyo?"
Tamiko had never met this kid her brother called his friend. She had only heard of him, of his naivety, of his jump, of his orange hair, his height. Ushijima nodded.
"Yeah. He has incredible jumping power." he noted.
Her eyes lingered on his face as he still gazed into the distance, the mind in the not so distant past. She followed his gaze, trying to find the spot he was looking at in the distance. A small group of crows took to the skies by a power line. Karasuno. The fallen powerhouse. The flightless crows. They had healed their broken wings.
"I did hear about that. Tobio-kun told me how proud he was of their quick spike. They call it the freak quick." she remembered.
In the corner of her eye she saw his mouth twitched up into a small smile. She could tell that this was something he couldn't wait to see and face for himself. Such a child, she thought.
"I guess they challenged you?" she asked, resting her head in her hand.
"Spring tournament. If they can fight their way into the finals." he said without looking at her.l, eyes still fixated at the horizon.
"Isn't winning boring after a while?" she wondered.
To this he turned his head, his eyes piercing into hers. The reaction didn't surprise her.
"Why would it be? Winning is always better than losing." he answered bluntly.
She chuckled. Strangely for her, he was easy to read. He may be blunt but he was also simple.
"I think it's time that you taste defeat. I wonder if my brother can give you that." she grinned at him and he glared at her.
It wasn't a glare of anger, rather than confusion. She had already trained him like a dog not to take her snappy comments to heart. And he didn't. But he often wonder why she said such things.
"Why would you want your own school to be defeated?" he asked.
She took another bite of her Benton and chewed quickly.
"It would teach you that only through loss will you know the true feeling of winning. At least in judo it is very satisfying to defeat a person you have lost against so many times." she shrugged.
Wakatoshi glared down at her and she could tell that her words went against his philosophy. It didn't bother her, but his glare did.
"Don't look at me like that." she grumbled. "You will understand one day."
He stayed silent and watched her as she ate. This was how their relationship, or rather their friendship, has been for the last year. If this was something you would call a friendship. They would talk a little, maybe even occasionally have lunch together but that was it. It never extended beyond that, either because she liked it that way or, should it grow more, it would throw them off. They had grown a little close with the same distance kept between them. She knows a lot about his past, his parents, his love for volleyball, and he in turn knows about her past, her family and the difficulties in her life.
"Winning or losing," he said and she looked at him. "Let's see how far they will come."
Tamiko smiled to herself. She was also eager to see the progress. A brief look at her watch and the two made their way back to class. They walked in silence through the crowded corridors, many of the fellow students flocking back to their classrooms. When they walked through the doorway, Yamagata Hayato, the brown haired libero with the undercut of the volleyball team approached Ushijima, with his hands in his pockets, when the pair came back to the classroom.
"I was looking for you, Wakatoshi." he complained. "Coach told me we will have longer training today."
Ushijima nodded and everyone in the classroom went to their seat when the teacher came in. English, a lesson she was excelling in. No wonder, when her own mother worked abroad in english speaking countries. The teacher didn't even choose her in answering questions. In that lesson she usually read english books of old authors that used a broad vocabulary, too advanced for her fellow classmates. She drowned in her own world while the teacher was torturing her fellow classmates with reading out loud. When the bell rang again, she had finished another chapter of her book. Next and last lesson of the day was sports. She hated sports, the running, the games. The girls had track today, endurance running. Tamiko groaned.
"10 minute warm up!" the teacher shouted.
On cue, the girls all started to do their own warm ups. Some did high-knee jumps, others jogged around and Tamiko did her stretches. Flexibility was her strong point. Splits and other painfully looking positions were never a problem. She did do yoga during her studying since it calmed her mind. It was time for the 100 meter sprint. Tamiko lazily waited for her turn. The shot always made her flinch and while she ran, she ignored the drilling shouts of the coach. The slowest as always. It didn't bother her. Sports weren't that important to the teachers unless you had terrible grades. He was only trying to encourage. Time crept by slowly as they did more runs but when the bell rang it was a great relief. After she had gotten changed, a familiar face was waiting for her.
"You really suck at running, Tamiko-chan." a light blond haired boy laughed.
"Shut up, Eita." she hissed.
Semi Eita, the setter and pinch server of the team, grinned at her while she started to walk towards the carpark. He followed closely behind her.
"Don't you have training?" she asked, remembering Hayato's comment from before.
"Yeah, but I have a doctor's appointment." he explained.
"I'll take you." Tamiko offered as she unlocked to door to her car.
"That's what I was hoping for." he grinned and hopped in.
When she sat in the driver's seat she paused for a moment.
"Wait here." she instructed him.
She got out of the car and pulled a book out of her bag. When she walked away Semi called after her and she just told him to sit tight. As fast as her feet could manage after a sport lesson, she walked over the facility and to the 5th gym. The door to the outside was open and she looked inside. The sound of squeaking trainers filled the gym and she watched the pride and joy of the school, the volleyball team, practise spikes. She knew most of the boys very well. If anything, the boys saw her as a manager despite her not doing anything in particular for the club. Her presence was just very strong.
"Tendou-kun." she shouted and a spiked up redhead jogged over to her.
"Hey, Tamiko-chan. Cute as always." he grinned.
"Spare me." she hissed but then relaxed. "Here is the book you gave me."
"Uh." he pursed his lips and took the book. "Did you like it?"
His eyes were wide with anticipation.
"It wasn't my thing, but the plot was really interesting." she confessed.
Tendo's small eyes began to sparkle with excitement. He gripped the shounen jump book and leaned forward.
"What did you think of the hero…" he started enthusiastically but then a shout echoed through the gym.
"Tendou!" the old coach ranted. "Get back here or I'll make you run five laps!"
"Eek," he squeaked and walked back. "See you on Monday."
She waved to him and then turned to the others, whose attention had been drawn to her now.
"Have a nice weekend everyone." she told them which was answered with a unison "ossu".
She waved and even the coach and the others waved back, except Ushijima, who just gazed over to her. When she got back, Semi was still sitting in her car like an obedient child.
"Washijou-san seems to be on fire as always." she noted.
"With the spring tournament coming up he is more annoying than ever. I have to do extra running on Monday." he complained and Tamiko laughed.
The evening passed much quicker than the time in school. She did the weekly grocery shopping, went to work for three hours, got home and did her homework and studies. She took her contact lenses out and put on her glasses. As she was cooking dinner for two, she heard the door open.
"I'm home." she heard Tobio shout.
"Welcome back." she greeted him from the kitchen.
"What's for dinner?" he asked.
"Hayashi rice."
When he walked into the kitchen he looked very tired and somewhat drained. When he sat down by the dinner table he rested his head on the wooden surface. To stoke his enthusiasm, she thought of mentioning something.
"Ushijima seemed very excited today." she told him.
Tobio looked up. The bait had worked.
"He will be waiting for you in the finals." she added.
A suppressed smirk of excitement adored his face. Tamiko smiled to herself and placed two full plates on the table.
"Thank you for the meal." both said in unison.
"So how was school?" she asked as they ate. "Your exams are next month, right?"
Tobio flinched, grew small in his seat and looked away, avoiding her gaze.
"Tobio-kun?" she asked in a menacingly calm tone. "Are your studies going well?"
Still avoiding her stare of death he shook his head and she rolled her eyes.
"I have exams as well. I can't help you." she told him, folding her arms.
"I know." he mumbled.
His sister sighed. This was an ever recurring moment.
"Don't you have any classmates that you can study with?" she asked.
"Yeah." he nodded.
"Promise me you will study well." she demanded and this time he looked up, his expression serious.
"I promise." he said.
Tamiko smiled and they continued to eat. The next month will be a long one.