Chapter II: Those socks, man!
"Thanks for letting me in on your practice today coach!" Rini spoke up happily while waving toward the older male as she ran across the court to leave the gym. "Oh yeah, it was nice meeting you two as well, Kasamatsu-senpai, Nao-kun!" she continued as she turned around for a moment to enthusiastically wave to the two males as well. Nao raised a hand and returned her enthusiastic wave tenfold while Kasamatsu seemed to raise a stiff arm toward her without actually waving it. She giggled lightly at their antics before turning around to face forward and push the gym doors open. She had to quickly go meet up with her mother at the front gate.
"Ah mom! The men's basketball team was great! You should have seen them!" Rini spoke up as she entered the car with her mother. The older woman had met her at the front gate after having picked up her car from the faculty parking.
"So, are you going to be joining them as the manager then?" her mother asked as she turned the key to her car.
"I want to, but…I don't think the coach likes me too much," Rini said before raising a hand to gently rub at the back her neck in a bit of embarrassment.
"Ah, I see. I'm guessing it's because of that model, right? I hear the female students have been giving him quite a hard time," Rini's mother said before laughing slightly at the image painted in her head. She remembered stopping by the gym once while Basketball practice was going on and those girls had seemed like they were more than just a little problem you could push under a rug. "I'll come with you tomorrow to speak with him then," she continued and watched as her daughter sent her a bright smile.
"Thanks so much mom! …There's also this…boy on the team and-," Rini began speaking, but was quickly interrupted by her mother whom was now sporting something of crazed smirk.
"Oh? Don't tell me you've fallen for Kise Ryouta too? After all those complaints about the crazy fangirls and you end up becoming one?" her mother said keeping the smirk on her lips and her eyes on the road.
"What? No, not Kise-kun. The captain, Kasamatsu-senpai, he's cute and he has these legs like…I'm getting off topic here. Anyways, I don't think he likes me too much either…I think," Rini said sighing softly as she leaned forward to adjust the air conditioner to fully blow on her face.
"Aw, Rini you're so cute! Maybe I can help with that too? When I stop by tomorrow try talking with him so I can see how he reacts to you. Maybe you just make him nervous? Then again if he's a senpai to you then he's at least eighteen and for a boy that age to be nervous around girls I wonder what kind of-," Rini's mother said clearly going off on a tangent herself. It was clear why Rini tended to ramble.
"Mom…mom! You're going off topic!" Rini said while laughing a bit at how alike she and her mother could be. It wasn't long before the two of them arrived home and Rini couldn't help wondering what tomorrow would be like.
-Time Skip (Next Day)-
Rini raised a hand to try and stifle a yawn as she walked into her last class for the day. She couldn't believe how late she had stayed up last night between studying for tests and reviewing notes from the Basketball practice she had watched. 'Ah…maybe I should listen to Yukari and admit that I have a problem,' Rini thought to herself as she gave a quick glance over her classmates to see who all was here already. She never paid much attention to her classmates in this class since she didn't know anyone which really wasn't that much of a surprise since she'd only been in this school for about a month now anyways. This class was also mostly filled to the brim with third years while she herself was still a second year. Her gaze stopped on a certain blue eyed boys though and quickly noticed that he was also staring at her with the same wide eyed, surprise look. "Kasamatsu-senpai? Good morning! I didn't know I had college prep with you," Rini spoke up happily as she approached the male watching him as he quickly stiffened and turned a bit red in the face. He nodded his head slightly toward her in something of a greeting as she took the seat beside him smiling slightly toward him the entire time. "You look different in uniform. Definitely doesn't suit you…yeah, you look better in basketball shorts and athletic socks," Rini spoke up trying desperately to make conversation, but from what she could tell the poor boy beside her just blew a fuse at her compliment. "It's a compliment. No need to freak out or anything," she spoke softly as she reached into her bag to retrieve her supplies for the class; of course, her words didn't seem to have any effect on the boy beside her and he continued to sit there stiff and red. "Do you want me to move, Kasamatsu-senpai?" she asked seriously wondering if it would help at all for her to leave. She was seriously beginning to think that maybe her mom was right last night and he was just terrible with girls. He shook his head in response to her question and she smiled brightly toward him before retrieving one more notebook from her bag, but this one she placed onto his desk instead of her own. He gave her a somewhat questioning look until she motioned for him to open it.
"Last few pages, I took notes on some of the players after seeing them practice last night. I wrote down what they seemed to be struggling in as well as work out routines and drills that might help them out. I didn't write anything on you first stringers though. I mainly just paid attention to the second and third strings since their flaws were far more noticeable then say like you or Kise-kun's," she spoke up watching as the man flipped through the pages with the same serious expression on his face. 'Damn…I was hoping to get him to as least smile a bit,' she thought to herself before resting her chin in her hand.
"I-It's um…It's…helpful. T-Thanks," he spoke up and had Rini actually been drinking something at the time she was sure she would have spit it out all over the student in front of her. That was the first time she heard him speak or at least speak to her.
"No problem! I'm going to have the coach look over it today too!" she stated happily as she took the notebook back from him. He simply nodded his head in response to her and she swore she could feel the sweat drop forming on the back of her head. It looked like it was going to take quite a bit just to get this boy to talk to her; after all, she had stayed up hours last night organizing those few pages and all she got was three words from him. "Say Kasamatsu-senpai, can I start sitting next to you every day for this period?" she asked and watched as the red on his cheeks quickly increased as he gave a firm nod of his head. It wasn't long after that did the teacher finally walk in and ask for the student's attention. She silently thanked the teacher for saving her from an awkward situation. The class was soon settling down in their seats and preparing for the lesson.
"Are you heading for the gym?" Rini asked as she quickly packed up her things glancing toward kasamatsu just in time to see him nod his head in affirmation. "Can I walk with you?" she asked orange eyes settling on him as she rested her messenger bag on one shoulder. He gave another firm nod in her direction and Rini quickly bit back her giggles at his expression. God, he'd been stiff the entire time they were in class and the red on his cheeks would always return with a vengeance if she said one word; that included when she had to answer a teacher's question.
"Kasamatsu-senpai!" a voice called out over the crowd to which both the captain and Rini turned around only to find a blond haired kouhai making his way over toward them. "Oh! You're the girl from yesterday, right? What are you doing with Kasamatsu-senpai?" he asked while smiling brightly toward the two of them ignoring the way the older male seemed to glare at him with more than just a bit of malice.
"Yeah, you can call me Rini though and I was just walking to the gym with him. We actually have our last class together," she spoke while trying to equally return the male's bright smile, but of course she ended up failing miserably at that. This man was just too happy even for her.
"I'm surprised senpai's even talking to you! He usually gets all stiff and red whenever a girl approaches him," Kise said only to have the captain raise his leg and kick him hard in the back. Rini watched as the blond stumbled forward and almost kissed the ground. She couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips at the scene.
"You kind of deserved that one Kise-kun," Rini said while trying to stifle her laughter.
"Rini-chan! You're so mean. That really hurt, you know?" Kise spoke up as the two of them quickly moved together to catch up to Kasamatsu whom had started to walk on without them.
"Eh? Well, look at the bright side as least Kasamatsu-senpai has nice legs," Rini said, but almost as soon as she said it she watched the dark haired captain in front of her freeze up. She could only imagine the kind of face he was making. Kise gave something of a wicked grin as he looked over toward Rini wondering if she had said that on purpose.
"Is Rini-chan checking out the captain?" Kise asked only to be meant with yet another violent kick from his upperclassmen. Rini almost doubled over in laughter at the sight of it. These two were like a comedy duo together.
"Kise-kun…it cannot be good for your health to keep poking at the captain like that," Rini said as she kneeled down beside the blond ace before grabbing his forearm to help him up to his feet. "And to answer your question, I checked out everyone on the team! I was wondering where the players were strong and weak and Kasamatsu-senpai has nice legs…the same way you have nice biceps," Rini said while releasing her hold on her underclassmen now that he was back up on his feet. Of course, she left out the little bit where she may have been watching the captain a little bit more intently than the rest, but that was more the socks fault than anything else or at least that's what she told herself. The three of them soon came to a stop outside the gym and she smiled brightly as she waved them off since she needed to wait out here for her mother. She doubted the coach was going to let her back into the gym before her mother spoke with him. She sighed softly before pulling her phone from her pocket about to text her mother about what she was up to, but the sound of her voice pulled her attention away.
"Oh mom! You're actually on time for once," Rini spoke up and watched as her mother sent her something of a glare.
"Oh my daughter's hilarious. Anyways, come on we need to hurry up. I have a meeting in about twenty minutes so we'll have to make this quick. I won't have much time to help your with your boy problems today either, but I promise I'll make it up to you," the older woman spoke up before kindly asking the few fangirls that had already gathered to step aside. The girls went wide eyed at the sight of the woman before quickly bowing to her and then stepping aside. Rini followed close behind her mother whom only stopped when she was able to reach out and gently tap the Coaches' shoulder. "Ah, Takeuchi-san, do you have a moment to talk?" she asked and watched as the man turned around to face her only to go wide eyed at the sight of the school's principal standing in front of him.
"T-Tokiwa-san, what are you doing here?" he asked eyes looking over Rini for a moment before quickly giving the older woman a slight bow to which she returned as well.
"My daughter here was telling me about how she wanted to be the team's manager and about how you kindly let her sit and watch practice with you yesterday. She's always been obsessed with Basketball and I just had to come and thank you personally for taking care of her last night while I was working," she said while gently pulling Rini in front of her and placing her hands onto her daughter's shoulder. The both of them made sure to keep a sweet smile on their lips.
"M-Manager? She didn't say anything about that; however, as much as I'd love to give her the position she'd have to talk with the team's captain as well," Genta said blushing lightly as the older woman continued to do nothing more than smile sweetly at him.
"Oh? The captain? That's the boy you were telling me about last night, right?" Rini's mom asked while looking down toward her daughter whom only nodded her head slightly. "Well, this works perfectly then! Why don't we all have dinner tomorrow night? We can discuss everything then, but in the meantime, I have a meeting to get to. Would you mind keeping Rini-chan here with you Takeuchi-san?" she asked smile widening a fraction when the man agreed to just about everything she said. "Great! Thank you so much and I guess I'll be seeing you for dinner tomorrow too," the older woman stated happily before kissing the top of Rini's head and then rushing out of the gym leaving Genta and Rini waving behind her.
"You two planned this didn't you," Genta asked while looking down toward the little black haired girl beside him.
"Oh course," she replied sweetly before hurrying over to her spot on the bench.