THE WOES OF INTER-GENDER TENNIS
CHAPTER II
TO GENDER-BEND, OR NOT TO GENDER-BEND...?
Ryoma glared at the tennis ball that she hit onto the wall of the clubroom - in the same spot each time - as she recalled the conversation that she had held with her grandmother the previous day…
"Why do I have to wear the girls uniform?!" Ryoma protested as they walked towards the clubroom, and out of earshot of the others.
"Look, if it was me, I'd let you walk onto the courts in a swimsuit as long as you played a decent game, but the officials are being very strict with health and safety with this - it's a trial run after all" the old coach explained, with some sympathy in her voice.
"Health and safety? Please tell me that's a joke," Ryoma replied in disbelief.
"Sorry, I'm one hundred percent serious."
Ryoma stared at her. What did her clothes have to do with health and safety? That was stupid! Health and safety? How the hell was she supposed to be a health hazard? How was having a vagina a health hazard? What was she going to do? Bat her eyelashes until they passed out?
"The officials are concerned about your health and safety Ryoma, not the boys."
Ryoma briefly wondered if her grandmother was a mind reader, but pushed the thought aside.
"That's being sexist!" she protested, slumping onto one of the benches of the clubroom grumpily.
"Maybe so, but theyre also being realistic. Like it or not, there are some strong players in this tournament, much stronger than you are physically. Like it or not, you are at a physical disadvantage because you are a girl."
Ryoma grimaced; she didn't like it, but her grandmother had a point. She had seen Kawamura-Sempai's shots and could tell that some of them would be incredibly difficult for her to return with her current physical strength. Strength that was far above that of the average female player.
"But that'd be like telling them to go easy on me because I'm a girl! That's still being sexist!" she countered.
The coach sighed.
"In a way yes, but after the announcement is made to the schools I think it will have an opposite effect."
Sensing Ryoma's confusion, she continued to explain.
"The other players will probably want to have a good game with the girl who was good enough to be put in the competition. I think they'll be harder on you; they'll be protecting their masculinity or something equally ridiculous"
Ryoma pondered this and found it make sense in an obscure way. The pig-headed ones may think she was mocking them if she wore shorts as she normally would (though she really did not see how that would matter since she would probably end up mocking them anyway).
"That still doesn't explain why I have to wear the girls' uniform!" she grumbled.
Her grandmother sighed in exasperation.
"Ryoma, remember this is only a trial. The officials are already breaking traditions by letting you enter the boys' tournament. I realise people would be more open minded in America, but this is Japan"
"You don't say"
A glare silenced the first year.
"You have to remember that Japan is very traditional Ryoma, and in tennis, the boys have a different tournament from the girls. This is a trial experiment that flies in the face of tradition, and if you run around in shorts there wont even be a semblance of tradition left for the old coots that make the rules. Capise?"
Yes. The officials had their chauvinistic brains stuck in the olden days and would not know modern if it danced a Macarena naked wearing a Santa hat.
"…bunch of chauvinistic traditional old gits…"
Her grandmother graned in frustration after catching her mumble.
"Why are you being so stubborn about this? The only thing different to the boys uniform is the skirt and design, and I know you have a few tennis skirts of your own"
Oh crap, she'd just had to ask didn't she?
"…it's too short! I saw one of those con-artists from yesterday leering at one of the regular girls because the skirt barley covered her ass during lunch! And besides, I like shorts!"
There was silence for several moments before her grandmother howled with laughter.
Ryoma did her best to ignore her as she grumbled about treason.
…well, at least she didn't have to worry about it until she got a regular spot. And she could probably get away with wearing her cycling shorts underneath. Maybe she could even wear shorts during practice (unlikely - if the officials were so insistent, then the old bat would stick to the rules).
In any case, she was safe for now. She was also finding it amusing to have the others think she was a boy. It was actually to her advantage; if she could show her skills in the guise of a male, they'd probably take her much more seriously when they did find out she was a girl.
Either that, be pissing mad, or freak out, and going by the members of this club she suspected it would be the third option that won out.
In any case, this was something to be shared with her messaging companion; she only wished she could be there to see their reactions.
Ryoma rested the rickety old raquet on her sholder with a triumphant smirk as Arai collapsed in an exhausted heap on the othe side of the court.
That would teach him not to mess with her rackets again.
"You havent seen my raquets by any chance have you?" she asked in an innocently deadly manner.
One of the con-artists who had given arai the raquet before the so-called match seemed to have an epiphany.
"Hey, its weird, but I remember seeing a bag in the old store-cupboard… let me go check!" he replied hurridley.
Ryoma fixed a level gaze on the sweating boy, before turning away and walking over to the gaggle of fist years as he hurried towards the clubroom.
"Thanks for the warm up Arai-Sempai" she said as an after thought.
Horio and the other first years squaked their praises as she took a glug of water from one of the offere bottles.
The con-artist came over with her raquets, with an overley enthusiastic yell of 'Found them!'
As she fished around in the newly regained bag for her usual red raquet she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Looking up from the bag and over her shoulder, she found herself face to face with the second year from the previous day.
'Oh crap, what was his name? It's something like that sounds like a fruit...'
"Momo-Sempai!"
'Momo! That was it! Thank you Horio. You were actually usefull for once…'
"Hey Echizen, you want to take off from yesterday since the old lady interrupted our game?" he asked with an enthusiastic, cocky, and friendly grin.
After deciding he would be able to give her a real match (if Horio's blabber of the regulars true skill was anything to go by), she nodded in agreeement and followed him onto the court that she had just been 'playing' on with Arai.
"You can swerve first, since I asked for the match" Momo added taking his side of the court.
Ryoma pondered over wether she should youse her favorite swere before deciding it would help stop any more raquet-incidents. Catching sight of the badages on his ankle (and reccaling the old bat mentioning the injury the previous day), she decided that she would use her right hand for the time being - if he wasn't going to be playing at full strength then it was only fair that she should do the same.
When the first swerve landed, she felt severaly eyes widen in disbelief, followed by the murmurs. The group of regulars seemed to be even more interested than they had been moments previously.
'Do these people have nothing better to do? Like practice their own tennis?'
"You can do a twist?!" her opponet gawped.
Ryoma snorted. Surley he wasn't that blind? She fired off another twist swerve before he had time to reply, and was mildly impressed when he managed to catch up befor it fully rose. However, that wouldn't be enough to return her twist swerve. His mumbling when the ball shot off in the wrong direction indicated he had also recognised that fact.
They continued to rally, and Ryoma noted that her shots with her right hand were being easily returned - with more ease than she was comfortable with. Maybe she had jumped the gun a bit with the right hand. After all, just because he had an ankle injury didn't mean it was impossible for him to run.
After some time, Momo seemed to catch the timing of her swerve and she dashed to the net. The impact was heavy on her raquet, and Ryoma understood what her grandmothe had meant by disadvantages. She knew her physical strength was above normal, but she didn't think she'd be able to hit that hard just yet - maybe if she started weight tarining…
The ball was returned once agin but she was already in place for it; the balled gently rose over the net, plopping to the ground.
"You can do a drop volley too…?!" her opponent complained, panting.
Ryoma surmised that his injury was playing up, and decided it would be best to get this over with as she adjusted her cap. After switching her raquet to her usual hand, she fished another ball from her pocket. Momo's eyes widened in realization.
"No way! You're a South-Pa-"
"What's going on here?"
Ryoma tuned to the entrance to the courts to find yet another regular. The autorative atmosphere surrounding the brown-haired boy was a bit different though. The murmurs around her indicated this was the Captain…
'…Shit. Why can't I remember any of their names?'
"Free Practice lasts fifteen minuets - that ended ten minuets ago. Twenty laps."
Ryoma glared at Momo for getting her into trouble on her first proper day of club activities.
The boy grinned with appropriate sheepishness.
Momoshiro gave his companion an exasperated look as they passed Arai for the third time. Ryoma had pulled his phone from her pocket almost immediately after starting their twenty lap punishment. He was amazed that he (actually a She) could twiddle with the electronic gadget, and manage to jog at their current pace at the same time.
He'd probably trip up over his own feet if he tried to do the same thing. He remembered seeing him fiddling eith the thing in-between, before and after practices too. It was like he never let go of the thing.
"Echizen, are you glued to that thing or something?" he aske the first year.
Ryoma did not stop the fiddling, but did manage a monosyllabic reply.
"No."
Momo sighed to himself. The first year was obviously not the talkative type, but he couldn't stand the silence.
Usually he was at the very least arguing with the stupid Viper, and the lack of even minimal noise was unsettling.
The problem was he had no idea as to how to strike conversation with his companion. According to Horio, Ryoma was just as unsociable in class.
The only people he would associate with with any enthusiasm were the coach's grand daughter and that loud girl with the bunches.
"you have a scary handicap, dude" he informed his younger companion, moving past Arai once again.
He hoped discussing common ground would stir up some sort of conversation.
Much to his surprise this earned a snort of laughter from the younger player. From there, the conversation was less forced - albeit almost onesided. Momoshiro would badger Ryoma with questions that would be answered with as little effort as possible as she seent yet anoter text message - to two recipients.
"You lived in america right? How long were you there fo- Oi! Watch out!"
As momo voiced his question, Ryoma's phone finally caused her down fall - literaly. One rock in particular stuck upwards from the path they were running along, unnoticed by Ryoma. As she fell forwards, an arm yanked itself around her waist moments before she came into contact with the earth.
'Whoa, how much this guy weigh? Is he eating right?' Momoshiro asked himself, noting the first-year's lack of weight.
After making sure Ryoma was standing firmly on the ground, he snatched the phone from her hands with an exasperated expression.
"It's because youre glued to this thing! How are you supposed to run and text at the same time?!" he berated his companion loudly, placing the phone in his own pocket to be returned once the laps had been completed.
Ryoma twitched in irritation.
Oshitari watched as his captain once agin gawped at his phone in horror.
"…Did what?! How is that even possible? Are the proletariats that stupid?!" he yelled to himself, before showing the message to his silent friend.
"This has gone too far Kabaji!! We need to put a stop to this! This is madness!!"
'yes, this is madness indeed' Oshitari thought to himself, watching Kabaji nodding vigorously in reply.
What on earth had happened to their captain? He never shouted in such an uncouth manner, if he shouted at all. Oshitari had gone through as many scenarios as he could think of, and found no verifiable reason for thes outbursts and phone-obsession other than some psychological illness. The stress had probably cracked him as it would have done to any normal person years ago.
But how on earth are you supposed to ask someone if they've gone loopy? Oshitari had some odd friends, but he had never had a crazy one.
He was unsure of the exact protocol for the situation.
The other regulars were no use; Jirou had fallen asleep on the benches again, Wakashi was watching atobe with the hopes of finding out how to over throw him (really, he was bordering on stalking!), Gakuto couldn't give to flying fish over Atobe's mental state, and Chotaro and Shishido were busy practicing.
Thus, Yushi Oshitari found himself heading for Coach Sakaki's office in the music building.
If anyone would be able to find out if Atobe needed psychological help, it would be their coach.
Now he just had to make sure the man wasn't in another meeting…
"Well Tezuka? What do you think?" the coach asked him as they watched the courts from her office.
Her question was mt with silence.
"Bear in mind, you don't have to add her because she passed the official requirements. That was just permission for playing in the team in general. Wether she joins the ranking matches is up to you" she added as an after thought.
Tezuka made no hurry to answer her; this was a delicat matter after all. The other first years may see it as unfair if hen entered the boy, correction, the girl into the Ranking Matches. No doubt some of the second and third years would be unhappy with the decision. Then again, he could hardly ignore his, no, her talent. It was obvious without the information from their coach that Ryoma had plenty of match experience against skilled players, something that wouldn't go amis in the upcoming matches.
More to the point, what would happen whne the rest of the club realised she was a girl? He could see the regulars accepting the information easily enough - for some reason Kikumaru instantly popped into mind - but he couldn't exactly ignore Arai's previous action.
"If youre worrying over her gender, I wouldn't bother. Ryoma can hold her own in a fight as well as tennis."
"She prefers it?" he asked the coach in surprise.
"She dosen't give a damn either way, but she does beleive it will make the others take her seriously. All that being said, she's really just trying to avoid wearing the girls uniform and tennis skirts untill they become a requirement" the woman replied in frustration.
"Skirts?"
What did skirts have to do with this conversation? And since when were they a requirement?
This was tennis, not one of those american pageant-things…
"The officials are insistent that the girls at least restrain themselves from wearing shorts - Ryoma calls them, and I quote, 'chauvinistic traditional old gits'. She isn't fond of skirts, especially the one for the girls' regulars that she'll have to wear if she does well enough in the ranking matches."
Tezuka assumed this was meant in the sense that she would become a regular during her second year. After all, he hadn't decided if he was adding her to the ranking matches yet. Though thinking back to her match with Momoshiro, and the match with Arai, he could see nothing but the gain of a strong player despite his reservations…
"Gather up!" Tezuka called lodly.
Sensing the unusuall seriousness in the captains voice (he was frowning more), the club members dropped their raquets and immediately gathered in front of the club officials. Their coach stepped forwarfd with an official-looking piece of paper in her hand.
Those near the front - the current regular players- caught sight of the official logo for the national tournament and understood that the letter came from the higher ups in charge of the entire competition.
"As you know, the official tournaments leading to nationals are two weeks away from us," their coach began, fixing her gaze on the group of students.
"I don't think I need to go over the rules, but I will be posting them on the clubroom notice board. The reason I've had Tezuka call you up like this is because this years national tournament is going to be slightly different."
She received several looks from all but one first year.
"What does that mean? Is there a going to be change in the rules or setup?" a regular with brown hair and gentle tempermeant asked.
"I'm getting there Kawamura" she informed him, calming him slightly.
"I could read out this letter but its full of technical mumbo-jumbo so I'll give you the long and the short of it; the officials have been given budget cuts due to the credit crunch, so the girls' tournament has been cancelled due to lack of interest. However, a small number of girls who have met with the officials standards will be participating in the boy's tournament instead."
There was silence for a few moments before the courts exploded with questions, yells, and other forms of interest.
"Quiet!" Tezuka yelled, and calm returned to the tennis courts.
"As far as I have been able to discern, only forty girls have been entered into the boys teams, and only around eleven actually managed to get a regular positiont; One being Rikkai's captain, and a pair of twins from Jyosei Shounan.
"That's only three… Where are the other eight from?" Arai noted.
"Only forty? That's hardly any!" Momo noted, sounding somewhat put-out.
"Is this only for this year? I thought Rikkai's captain was a girl last year too…" Fuji asked curiously.
"Uwah! Chibikos? Seriously?!"
"This was not considered in my calculations, but should generate some interesting data…"
"Eiji! Inui! Theyre not to goggled at like zoo animals! Coach Ryuzaki, is this really a good idea? some of the players are…"
"Quiet!" the captain yelled with double the force.
"There's only thirty because of the standards put in place by the officials - they wanted to be certain those entering would be able to keep up." the old woman continued.
"Wheter they like it or not , you boys have a physical advantage. The officials are being very strict with the healt and safety red-tape too, so you don't need to worry too much Oishi" Ryuzaki informed them, answering momo's question along with that of the vice- captain's.
"In answer to Fuji's question, this is not the first time this has happened, but this set up is being used as a trial for a more permenant basis; if it goes well, it may become a common sight for girls who meet the official's requiremnts to play in the boys tournament. Clubs may even be merged permanently."
Fuji nodded, giving a curious yet unseen glance to one of the first-years at the back of the crowd.
Ryoma paid no attention - her mind was on a cat toy she was planning on buying for Karupin.
"Wow! So the Chibikos are really good? I wanna play one! I wanna play one!"
"Eiji!"
"He has a point though Oishi..." Fuji defended his classmate.
"Fuji is right; the officals wouldn't have let any old girl join the competition. Theres a ninety-nine percent probability that they have considerable skill" Inui added.
Ryoma listed to this interaction with an almost unnoticeable, but repetitive, tick in her right eye. Oishi was right! She wasn't some sort of zoo animal! She began to wonder if objections would have been better than this… excitement. Maybe her mother was right; it wasn't that her father was more perverted than other men, he was just made no effort to hide it like most others.
If she didn't want to play the strongest players she could, she wouldn't be facing the possibility of that pathetic excuse for a skirt in this hive of closet-perverts.
"Coach Ryuzaki, what about the other eight? You didn't tell us which teams they play for…" Arai reminded the old woman.
Ryoma tensed up; was she going to tell them? Not that she was specifically hiding her gender, she just thought it would have been amusing to turn up to the first match in that skirt and watch their reactions. The other first-years wouldn't say anything - she had informed Horio and Tomoka of her decision. The gossipers had told the rest of the year, and the entire year group was seemingly supportive of the whole thing.
But her grandmother…
"I'll let you try and guess, it wouldn't be any fun if I gave you all of them would it?"
'Scratch that. The old bat is enjoying this just as much as me'
Marui wondered which god he had insulted to earn himself such a bad week; two detentions, extra maths homework, and a draft essay on social class for sociology, comparing the Marxist and weberian theories no less.
To add insult to injury, Snada had been in a fould mood all day because their captain had been admitted to the hospital after collapsing at her job in the sports shop. In otherwords, he was talking it out on them through torturous training regimes. Even Renji, who had been drafted to compose said training scheemes, was looking none too pleased with the Spartan training their vice-captain was putting them through.
Stupid Hypocrite! He shouldn't have made the damn training schedules so hard should he?!
He blew another bubble in irritation, collapsing on one of the benches that occupied the clubroom, pulling out his phone, finally able to read the message Ryoma had sent him in the middle of their run.
- - -
From: -R.E·Tennis01-
To: .:Awesome-Prowess:./.:Candy_Pop:.
Subject: Confirmation of a Sex-Change
To update day two of my middle school life, due to incurable idiocy and the fact I cant be bothere to clarify, most of my club members think I'm a boy.
Just thought you'd like to know.
- - -
Marui decided to ask his father to call his uncle and make sure Ryoma wasn't suffering fom some sort of illnes that had caused her to turn into an idiot.
His uncle Nanjiro was far from sane, he hardly saw the man but he had to be if his mother was anything to go by; they were twins after all.
Maybe this was some sort of genetic illnes? The one that had Ryoga of to god knows where evry other week?
Maybe he should get himself tested to be on the safe side. This was the only reason he could think of someone to allow such a misunderstanding as mistaking someones gender to go unqualified. Then again, this was Ryoma.
She was probably enjoying this, and that old coach-granny of hers was probably having a whale of a time watching her regulars question their orientation. His family members were nothing if not twisted; he should know, he had noticed the same qualities in himself when he had nothing to occupy his time.
He only wished he could twist his way out of Sanada's spartan training.
Ryoma seated herself on one of the benches in the clubroom. She had finally succeeded in disentangling herself from the clutches af Kikumaru and Momoshiro. For some reason the two ahd taken a liking to her; it wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the suffocating hugs they were so resistant on.
"I see you finnaly managed top run away" Ryoma looked tp her right to find another of her seniors seated next to her, replacing his raquet in his bag.
She nodded in reply, but still felt nervous. He hadn't let down that smile once.
"Can I ask something?" he asked.
"Go ahead" she replied.
Fishing a water bottle from her own bag, she wondered what a third year could possibly want to ask her.
It wasn't like they mingled much…
She couldn't even remember this guys name.
"Why did you join this club?"
Ryoma snapped her eyes to meet his, they were still narrow and he still smiled, but her instincts were screaming that this guy knew far more than he let on.
She was sure he didn't mean the tennis club, but they Boy's tennis club.
Something told her getting on this guy's bad side was to be avoided at all costs.
"Family tradition" she replied to his question carefully.
She wasn't exactly lying; her father had been insistent that she attend the middle school he and her brother had attended, with her grandmother as a coach (also a former student). Even Sakuno had joined the tennis team, even if it was the girls one. It just hadn't been named an actual tradition yet.
The third year made a noise akin to understanding - or at least, understanding what little she had told him.
"You seem fairly close to Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter, are you dating?" another third year asked, seemingly appearing from nowhere.
Ryoma near fell off the bench from the shock, not succeeding to supress her yelp of surprise. Several other ears pricked up at the 'D' word, and Ryoma found a new conversation to hold with Sakuno; gossip is not limited to the changing rooms of the girls tennis club. The boys club rival the gossipiest of female clubrooms.
"My cousin" she answered Inui's question, after recovering from the surprise and suppressing a roll of her eyes.
There were several outraged crys and Ryoma found herself wishing for earplugs.
'How?' was the most common proclamation, and she proceeded to answer their question.
"Sakuno's dad is my mother's brother."
"So Coach Ryuzaki is your grandmother? Interesting…" the tall glases-wearer began scribbling in a notebook that looked new.
Ryoma hoped it wasn't her own personal one like the other regulars seemed to have gained.
She stood up and replaced her raquety in her bag, hoisting it over her left shoulder as she headed towards the door.
"Echizen, where are you going? You need to shower! You've been playing a lot and all that sweat will be dirty…" her vice-captain protested.
Oh yes, that would go down swimmingly, getting into the showers with a bunch of guys. Or most likely not.
Ryoma could care less about changing in front of them (not that she did) but showering drew an obvious line.
"I don't like communal showers. I'm going straight home anyway; a little sweat wont kill me before I get there. You worry too much Oishi-Sempai." she replied calmly, before walking out of the clubroom and closing the door behind her, ignoring the worrier's protests.
I hate the college computers. I had this all set up nicely and my session timed out before I could save it.
I had to re-do it on my laptop, and my spell-check isn't so wonderful.
Hoped you liked.
Nat.
xxx