Chapter Four
The crowd was starting to grow anxious and excited causing it to become very loud around the tennis courts. It could have been from the sun's heat finally getting to them or it was because it was the final set of the final match of the districts tournaments and it was being played by the captains of the schools. The captains were Sakura Hinamori from Siegaku Junior High School and Masa Chikamatsu from Fudomine Junior High School. It wouldn't have come down to a fifth set, but since all of the third years except Sakura had quit and the team consisted mainly of first years it was surprising that they had made it this far. The sets were as the following Fudomine winning Doubles 2 and Singles 3 while Siegaku winning Doubles 1 and Singles 2. If this set followed the pattern that was set, then Fudomine would be the winner of the districts tournament and Siegaku would be working hard to keep in the tournaments to go to Nationals.
"Good job, Neoko, you did a fine job." Sakura congratulated Arisa. Arisa was walking over to the bench, where Sakura was sitting since the coach hadn't bother to show up that day, she had just won her set and to say the least she was ecstatic. She was hoping that she was showing Sakura that she didn't make a wrong decision about making her Vice-Captain. Sakura let a smile play on her glossed peach flavored lips. She was excited it would be the first time that she would be playing in the district tournament since her first year.
"Vice-Captain Neoko, you're the bench coach for this set." Sakura instructed the second year as she pulled off the white cotton jacket. She stared over at the girl with the black jacket with purple trim with the words 'Captain Masa Chikamatsu' stitched in purple. The girl had short red hair that hung right below her ears, and black eyes that seemed to pierce the soul, was watching Sakura out of the corner of her eye. After pulling off her jacket she grabbed a white ball cap with Siegaku in big blue letters. She pulled her bun through the back and pulled it down to the middle of her forehead. She grabbed her racket and made her way onto the tennis courts. She was playing with her racket in her hands, a bad habit that she had when there was nothing to do except to wait.
"Well Hinamori it seems that we finally get to meet each other on the courts after so many years." Masa commented to Sakura as she made her way onto the courts. Neither of the two cared for how the line ups went, especially Sakura with mainly having freshman on her team.
"Yes Chikamatsu it does seem that we get to meet on the courts after three years. It's going to be a shame that you will be letting you team mates waste their hard work trying to be number one against my team." She sounded cocky but no one in the female tennis club knew what powers Sakura had up her sleeve, the only ones that seemed to know was Kunimitsu Tezuka, Syusuke Fuji, and possibly Kasumi Tezuka. This was the third year that both girls had been on the Top 8 females but never had been placed against each other. Yet today the fates had a different idea and decided that it was about time that the two face each other on the courts.
"GO HINAMORI-SENPAI!" All of the first years cheered out, especially Nikki, who hadn't made the Top 8 girls. Sakura couldn't help but to let a true smile form on her face, causing her peach glossed lips to part as a chuckle escape from them. Masa wasn't sure if it was one of Sakura's mind tricks but she didn't care for it at all.
"This match hasn't even been played Hinamori. It might actually be your team that will be regretting having you play causing all of their hard work to come in second place at the district tournament." Masa returned trying to get under Sakura's skin. What Masa didn't know was that Sakura didn't let anyone get under her skin.
"If you're trying to get under my skin, Chikamatsu then it's not going to work. With the people I live with, I've got thick skin." Sakura boasted, and then she realized that her competitive side was getting out too much and she needed to retract all of the talk that her mouth seemed to say.
"Well it seems like that both of us are confident in our skills let's see who has the better skills and more determination to win this set." Masa stated as she walked up to the net. She has her hand extended ready to shake Sakura's hand. Since they had to yell to have their conversation everyone heard the exchange of words and was wondering if the proper handshake before a set would be taking place. Sakura repositioned her face to make it seem like she was concentrative on the match at hand as she walked up to the net also. She raised her hand and shook the other girl's hand; it was a strong hand shake as if the other was trying to cry mercy first.
"That's enough ladies! Head back to your positions! First to serve is Fudomine's Chikamatsu!" The referee called out to the two girls at the nets. The two released the other's hand with a push as if they were trying to push the other. Sakura went to the base line while Masa went to service line. Sakura put a finger to her lips and signaled all of the Siegaku girls to be quiet; over half of the crowd went silent with the signal that Sakura gave. Masa threw the ball up and hit it when it was in the sweet spot of her racket. It was fast but not fast enough to where Sakura couldn't return it. It took several steps for Sakura to catch up with the ball, allowing her to hit a forehand that sent the ball flying off towards her opponent. Sakura's return was even faster than the serve from Masa; Masa seemed shocked that Sakura was able to return her serve with her own speed ball. She was short of hitting the ball with any of her racket by inches. She groaned not caring for the lead that Sakura was taking already.
"Love – 15!" The referee called out to the participants on the crowd more importantly to the crowd that seemed shocked by the ace return that Sakura dealt. Masa shock her head trying to regain her concentration, she stepped back to the service line deciding that she would just have to add more speed to the ball. She threw the ball up again and once again the ball hit the sweet spot of her racket which caused the ball to go flying towards Sakura. Once again it took a few simple steps and she was able to return the ball again this time with a backhand. Masa wasn't going to let Sakura return her serves surprise anymore. In an attempt to counter Masa ran to the base line but it was already too late the ball had bounced and bounced again.
"Love – 30!" The referee called out again, this time the supporters of Siegaku couldn't follow Sakura's order and began to hoot and holler for Sakura's double ace returns.
"Well well Hinamori-senpai, it seems that you're playing a Cat and Mouse Game. I do believe that you get onto me when I play that type of style." A female's voice carried over all of the other voices causing Sakura to turn her head to see that Kasumi was standing there instead of being at the gymnastics meet that was only a few yards away from the tennis courts.
"Yes it does seem that I have picked up your technique slightly Tezuka-chan. But I do believe you need to be in a gymnastics meet instead of watching me play with a version of your technique. Now scat before I tell your older brother that you were over here." Sakura replied up to her friend. Masa was pissed that Sakura was casually carrying on a conversation while she was supposed to be playing her in a set. Masa decided to take advantage of Sakura yelling out at an occupant of the crowd, what she didn't know was Sakura was watching what the other girl would do. Masa was so angry when she threw up the ball and went to hit the ball that she missed the ball completely.
"Now now, Masa, this is just Game 1 I would hate for you to double fault!" Sakura antagonized as the referee called fault on Masa's serve. She grounded her teeth together as she tossed the ball up again and she was able to hit the ball this time with the racket but it went soaring right into the net. Masa hadn't realized it yet but Sakura has successfully gotten under her skin and would be using to her full advantage.
"Double Fault! Love – 40!" The referee called out signaling that it was now game point for the first game of the last set. Sakura let her face set back into what made her look like she was concentrating, but all knew that she was thinking up the different ways that she could take the game point. Masa closed her eyes and counted to ten, as she breathed in and out slowly. She needed to shove Sakura from out under her skin and relax to play at the best of her abilities. After she finished counting she threw up the ball again and was able to hit another speed ball towards Sakura. Wanting to try out a new move, Sakura rushed to the net meeting the ball. She swung an overhead sending the ball straight down, suspecting that Sakura might try something like that Masa had also run to the net.
She was able to return the overhead, sending the ball to the back right corner of the court. She blinked and there was Sakura in the back corner waiting for the ball to bounce right in front of her. Masa took off to the middle of the court prepared to run back if she needed to or run forward. The ball landed right in front of Sakura as everyone knew it would and she turned her racket ever so slightly when she hit the ball with a forehand. The ball went back towards Masa, as it was passing the net the ball got snagged on the net having the ball fall straight down on Masa's side of the court.
"Damn it!" Masa yelled as she dived for the ball, hitting it up and over the net. Sakura was ready for Masa though she was able to return the drop shot; Sakura used her backhand to return the ball before it even bounced. The ball went flying landing in the back left corner of the court. Masa was still on the ground when the ball had landed, she knew that there was no chance that she would be able to return the ball before the ball bounced again.
"Game 1 to Siegaku's Hinamori. Switch courts!" The referee yelled out, the crowd yelled out again. It was the first rally of the set, it didn't last long but it showed what type of player that Sakura was going to be. Masa stood up from the ground and began to dust herself off. Her knees stung slightly for when she dove for the drop shot she had landed on her knees and scrapped them on the cement of the tennis courts. Both teams had a fairly large crowd, they continuously cheered for their teams. As Sakura was making her way towards the other side of the court she stopped for a moment to talk to Arisa.
"Enjoy what you are seeing Neoko? At your next game I expect you to be playing like this or better. Also when I silence everyone who needs to be quiet, especially you, until I give the signal to cheer. Otherwise you're doing pretty well as my Vice-Captain, just remember these tips I'm telling you." Sakura stated and Arisa simply nodded her head showing that she understood what Sakura was trying to tell her. Sakura started spinning her racket over her fist, showing that bad habit once again. At the service line of the other court, Sakura held her finger up to her lips again. The Siegaku crowd was silenced again, this time she hoped they would wait till she gave them the signal to cheer this time around. She took her finger off her peach glossed lips and went to grab a tennis ball out of the pocket of her yellow skirt.
Sakura tossed the ball slightly higher than what she preferred, so she didn't swing instead she just let the ball bounce on the ground. She caught the ball after it bounce and began to bounce the ball down with the racket, allowing her to get the feel for the ball that she was using. When she felt like she was finally ready to serve a wicked smirk formed, and her blue hazel eyes locked with Masa across the court. She tossed the ball up again and it went to the height that she preferred. She hit the ball while she was staring at Masa, challenging her, the ball left the racket going faster than the serves that Masa had done. Masa couldn't register that Sakura had served because she was too in tuned to her opponent staring her down that she forget it was Sakura's serve.
"15 – Love!" The referee called out. The Siegaku crowd kept silent, while the Fudomine's crowd started booing Sakura as if she was playing unfairly.
"Come on, Chikamatsu! Get your head in the game! If you're not even going to bother to return my serves then why don't you quit right now?" Sakura yelled over to the other girl. She sounded mad but the truth was that she, she didn't believe that mind trick she had just pulled off would have worked with Masa. She expected something better from the other girl; the match was starting to become boring in Sakura's mind.
"I'm going to serve here in a moment!" Sakura yelled out as she pulled another ball out of the yellow skirt that she was wearing. She bounced the ball, till she felt comfortable with it.
"Here I go!" She yelled again as she threw the ball up in the air again. The ball seemed to be faster than the first serve, yet it flew right into the net.
"Fault!" The referee yelled. Masa seemed to have come out of the depressing thought that she might not even get a point against Sakura.
"Damn it! Too much spin on that one." Sakura muttered as she bounced another ball in her hand preparing to make the serve go in this time. She threw the ball up again and hit the ball sending it towards Masa at the same speed that the last one she hit. It went over the net this time, it landed right in front of Masa then it suddenly jumped up and went towards the opposite direction of Masa. Masa thought it was going to go up towards her face, thinking that Sakura had mimicked the kick serve that one of the first year guys was able to perform. Masa ran over trying to hit the ball, when she tried to hit the ball it seemed to disappear and reappear bouncing on the ground behind her.
"30 – Love!" The referee yelled as Sakura raised her hand up to the crowd her fingers separated in a v shape. The Siegaku crowd and Top 8 players went crazy; they had never seen anything like it. Sakura liked the pace that she has set knowing that Masa wouldn't be able to change the pace and the set of the match was as good as hers.
The chatter began to become faint as people left the chalked filled gymnastics gym, they were vividly talking about the performances they saw debating how judges could deduct points from some of the routines. Kasumi was sitting on a bench, a girl with short curly raven black hair and blue hazel eyes. The girl had Kasumi's right hand in her left hand, running her right hand over Kasumi's right wrist. Kasumi groaned she didn't know why the coach was having Hoshimi look at her wrist; she already knew that she had sprained her wrist and she knew exactly when she sprained her wrist on bars. She was cursing the team in her mind, she didn't ever think of putting a lock on her backpack or locker but someone broke into her locker the night before last and stole her grips that she used for bar routines. She found it extremely cruel of them to do that since most of the second years and third years knew she suffered from a hair line fracture at the end of last year.
"Well you're sprained your wrist. It's probably from when you did the bars routine, I would recommend that you stay off that wrist for the next few days. No more doing tricks like you did today for at least not for the next two weeks or until after I've cleared you off on it." Hoshimi whispered to Kasumi, trying hard not to let the coach hear her as the coach walked by.
"You know Tezuka if you didn't have so much weight on you, you would have been able to perform all of the movements that you do without hurting yourself. Your weight today was one hundred two pounds, that's two pounds overweight for someone on my team. I let you slide this time, but I have someone that can easily replace you if you aren't a hundred pounds or less for the next meet." The coach said as he glared down at Kasumi. Kasumi shook her head, her white angel wings banging against her cheeks, only she knew that the routines she did today. It took all of her might not too smart off about if she hadn't so much hate from her team mates and coach to where they would steal her stuff maybe then she wouldn't have re-injured her wrist. The coach started walking off, Hoshimi dug into her medical bag to grab to a new package of ace wrap.
"I'm going to undo the wrap that you have on here, you were due for some new ace wrap the one you have on has gotten really thin." Hoshimi spoke as she began the procedure that she had just explained to Kasumi about what she was doing. Kasumi winced in pain as Hoshimi began to pull the ace wrap that was stuck to her open blood blisters. Kasumi was biting the inside of her lip, to keep the sequels of pain from escaping her vanilla glossed lips even though some whimpers managed to escape through her lips. She wanted a chance to go wash her hands before the trainer started to wrap her wrist in the new ace wrap, but before she could even start to talk Hoshimi started wrapping the new ace wrap around her wrist and palm.
After Hoshimi finished wrapping Kasumi's wrist, Kasumi walked over to where her bag was and pulled on her white cotton jacket the signified to anyone who didn't know now she was the captain and whether they liked it or not the other teams wouldn't mess with her. She shifted her jacket more towards her right side so it could hide the ace bandage around her wrist. She felt careless for not locking her things away but for also getting in a rush in wrapping her wrist when she realized that someone had stolen her grips. She wanted to hide the injury from Sakura and Kunimitsu as long as she could because she knew that if they were to find out she would also get scolded from them also for making such a stupid mistake. Even though she had done well score wise, she had enough scolding for one day from her teammates and coach that she didn't want to bring anymore onto herself.
She left the gym without saying good-bye to anyone except for Hoshimi, who wasn't on the team but was a trainer that liked watching gymnastics so she was the only one who was kind of nice to her at the meet, since it seemed like everyone else just wanted her to fail. Walking outside the gym she sighed in relief because it seemed like Sakura and Kunimitsu had already left the tournament to celebrate their win at the district tournament. It was another reason why she liked Hoshimi the trainer would always update her on how everyone was doing at the tournaments. She began the short walk to Kawamura's family sushi restaurant. When she got the place she took a deep breath, checked to make sure the ace bandage wasn't showing. Kasumi opened the door to the restaurant to see that all of the guys, plus Sakura were celebrating. The scene was enough to put a smile on her face.
"Hey look who's here! It' Baby-girl!" Eiji yelled out to the rest as he went to dive for some sushi. Kunimitsu and Sakura nodded from their chairs welcoming her, while the rest seemed too occupied with their own celebrations that they didn't realize that the younger Tezuka was there. Kasumi took off her flip-flops and laid her bag on top of her shoes before heading over to sit next to Syusuke.
"Excuse me, Fuji-senpai. Is anyone sitting next to you?" Kasumi asked in her quite tone, it felt weird calling him that, but she figured it was in public she needed to be respectful. She looked different when she came from gymnastics her contacts were in, her hair was pulled back into a high phony tail, and her white cotton jacket almost covered the hem of her blue gymnastics shorts.
"Um..sure, Kasumi-chan. How was the meet today?" Syusuke was nervous when he turned to see Kasumi asking him to sit next to him. It was normal to see her in the outfit, but he had figured that she would have changed into her school uniform before heading over to the celebration.
"It was good; I place first in everything so I guess we could say I'm starting the season off right." She stammered she always got nervous when she had a one on one conversation with him. She looked at all of the food that was still left at the table she hadn't eaten anything all day except for a banana Sakura had managed to shove down her throat before they all left that morning, then she remembered what the coach had said about her weight and thought it better not to eat anything. Syusuke gave her one of his famous smiles that always made her melt on the inside.
"Would you care for any sushi, Kasumi-chan? I'm pretty sure that I can find you some sushi that isn't wasabi sushi around here." He asked when he noticed that she looked at the table in front of them but didn't get anything to eat.
"Oh, I ate before I left the gymnastics meet. So I'm not hungry at the moment." She lied, she hated lying but she didn't want to explain to someone outside her family and Sakura her normal gymnastics weight loss routine. 'That's so sweet of him; I wish I could just tell him that I have a crush on him.' She thought to herself as she looked at him.
"Hey Kasumi how was gymnastics?" Sakura questioned as she sat on the other side of Kasumi, noticing that Kasumi's jacket was pulled on the right side as if she was trying to hide something.
"Took first in all of the events so it was a good meet for not even putting everything I have in it." She replied automatically, noticing where Sakura's eyes were glued at. At first Kasumi thought Sakura was coming over to say something about her and Syusuke, but when she caught where Sakura's eyes were it was then that's when she became nervous if she would try something to reveal that Kasumi had injured herself again.
"Well that's good, I'm glad to hear that." Sakura praised as she tapped on Kasumi's wrist. Kasumi wrist instantly jerked her hand back, it wasn't extremely painful but she hadn't taken anything to relieve the swelling or pain that was already there.
"Well eat up Captain; you'll need your strength to motivate your team to making it to Nationals." Sakura said pushing a plate of sushi towards her. The plate in front of Kasumi made her scowl, because she was forcing herself not to eat even though the temptation to eat the delicious food was high. Shooting Sakura a glare, Kasumi hated her at that moment for trying to force her to do something that was already hard for her to do.
"She said that she ate before she left the gymnastics meet, Hinamori." Syusuke interjected into the conversation. He was shifting his eyes as if telling Sakura to scram. Sakura didn't believe that Kasumi had eaten before she had left the gymnastics meet, she hated seeing Kasumi going through the weight loss that she did to stay on the gymnastics team but knew it was better not to bring it up because Kasumi would just ignore her.
"Well that's funny because I know Kas hates the confession stand food. It's just weird to hear that she ate there." Sakura stated, pleading with her eyes to Kasumi to eat something even if it was just a few bites of food.
"Well I had a real light breakfast and we didn't break for lunch, so when it got done with I was really hungry so I grabbed something while we were still there." Kasumi mumbled as she continued to lie, this time it was worse because she was lying to keep her story straight with her crush and then to the person that was like her older sister. She glared over to Sakura as if telling
"Eat at least a little bit of sushi. One or two bites." Sakura pleaded with Kasumi. Kasumi let out an exasperated long breath before standing up.
"You know what I think I'm just going to go home." She said as she began to walk to the door, because she hadn't eaten that day didn't feel like arguing with everyone in the restaurant as it seemed like it would soon turn to. She pulled the gymnastics bag back onto her left shoulder and was slipping on her flip-flops.
"Imouto! Where do you think you're going?" Kunimitsu yelled out over the room to her, she looked back over to him to see Sakura standing behind him with her hand on his back.
"I'm going to head on home I'm really tired I haven't gotten much sleep with how early morning practices have been for me this year." She replied telling the truth while leaving out a small part of why she was leaving. He nodded his head, he preferred that she didn't walk home by herself but the rest of the gang, Tezuka, and Sakura would be leaving in a few minutes so he would let her begin the walk home. She walked out of the restaurant she noticed that the sun was setting off in the distance. She repositioned her gymnastics bag making sure that the bag wouldn't wind up cutting into her shoulder once she started walking. She started walking as if she never stopped at the sushi restaurant, her flip-flops clicking each step from hitting the sidewalk. It was lonely walking home by herself, but it gave her time to think and a chance to escape before Sakura made anyone too suspicious of her.
"Hey Kasumi, wait up!" A soft male's voice called out to her before she could even make it to the end of the block. She felt a red blush burn across her cheeks, she had recognized the voice but she didn't think that he would follow her. She turned her head to see that Syusuke was coming after her; she turned her head back around hoping that he hadn't caught the large blush that burned her cheeks.
"Yes Syusuke?" She questioned as if she was wondering if she had forgotten something.
"I really wanted to congratulate you on your win today in gymnastics and to see if you wanted company on your walk home." Syusuke muttered as he looked ahead instead down at her, like when they normally talked.
"Thank you and good job in today's tournament. All of you must be really please with yourselves. Well you really should be inside and celebrating instead of thinking that you need to walk me home like some five year old. I won't get lost like I used to coming home from your house after a play date with Yuuta." Kasumi stuttered she was slightly sour about the thought that he didn't think that she didn't know to get to her house from Kawamura's.
"I wasn't suggesting that you didn't know your way home Kasumi. I just thought you would like some company. You and I haven't gotten to hang out with each other much since last year and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to catch up. Plus you seemed like you were upset again, so I figured I would give you another chance of telling me what's going on." He rambled as he scratched the back of his head.
"Oh I'm sorry Syusuke for automatically assuming that you thought I was incompetent, when you offered to walk me home. I think it's pretty sweet that you actually care enough to make sure I get home safely." Kasumi apologized and gracefully accepted his offer, purposely ignoring part of what he said about telling him what was going on. They walked for several moments in silence.
"So are you going to tell me what's going on in your life or are we just going to walk in complete silence?" He asked as he playfully bumped into her.
"Sorry.." She stammered as a blush sprawled across her cheeks, "Syusuke… can I tell you something and you won't tell Mitsu?" Kasumi believed him when he said he would be her listening ear if she ever needed to get something off her chest. Syusuke looked down at the second year curious what she was going to tell him, he simply nodded her head trying to be the shoulder she needed at the moment. Kasumi opened her mouth ready to tell him everything that was going on from the hatred of the coach to her horrible team mates, but decided against it at last moment so her mouth just opened and then closed firmly. He noticed the motions, he felt saddened that she couldn't tell him what was going on in her life, but figured he just needed to be there instead of pressuring her to talk. Swinging his arm around her shoulder, he pulled into a side hug. Kasumi rest her head on Syusuke's shoulder, enjoying the moment of the embrace, thinking she could get used to this if she could manage to show him that he and her were went to be together.
"It's okay Kas, you don't want to talk about it right now." He said in a comforting tone and didn't say anymore, the two just walked in silence till he made sure she got home safely.