Several things happening in this update - something suspicious, something hilarious, and some good old character bonding.
Q: Why was Cinderella kicked off the basketball team?
A: Because she ran away from the ball. - Maelstrom_MVF
YES! I am so happy to put this chapter up! I had so much fun writing it! I'm not going to say too much here, but that Tyler gets in in a bit of action ( when I typed "in" twice, it was intentional), a certain Kaijou duo make a scene, and two of the most socially awkward accidentally get a bit too close. BTW, I just noticed that the line breaks I put in ch1-7 weren't showing up, but they will from now on… probably. Enjoy! - Aloysius
Ch 8
It was finally the weekend and the end of Akira, Sam, and Mel's first week of school. School was fairly easy for the girls, but basketball practice was brutal with Tyler there to make sure they didn't take it easy. Tyler didn't have a problem getting Mel to practice even without going to the same school. The lived in the same house after all.
It was mid-morning by the time Akira and Mel left the house to get Sam. Tyler had left several minutes earlier, saying he needed to do something very important. The girls thought nothing of it as they got ready for the beach. The girls - with the help of Tyler - decided to go to the beach that Saturday and couldn't wait to feel the touch of the sand at their feet again.
When Akira and Mel arrived at Sam's house, Mel happily knocked on the door… only to be greeted by silence. She knocked again and the door opened to reveal one of Mitobe's siblings.
"Um, is Sam here?" Akira asked a bit nervously.
The kid shook his head. "She already left," he said in a bit of a daze.
Mel and Akira gave a confused look, but nodded back anyway. "Okay, thank you." With that, the two left for the beach.
It didn't take long for Akira and Mel to arrive at the beach and they decided to look for Sam. As they were searching, Akira noticed some basketball hoops set up on the sand and a group of people setting up their things. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the group was none other than the Seirin boys' basketball team. With them was Tyler with Sam thrown over his shoulder. It was then she realized - it was a trap. Before she could run away, she was lifted off of the ground by a pair of strong hands. It was Kiyoshi. Turning around, Akira noticed that Mel had also been caught. She was struggling to get out of Kagami's grip. The two boys carried the girls over to the rest of the group and when Tyler noticed Akira and Mel, he gave a sadistic smile.
"Ah! You're finally here!"
Akira sighed and slumped her head forward. "You planned this all along."
Tyler and Riko shared a smiled. "Yup!"
Tyler then turned to Kagami and Kiyoshi. "You two are great! You are now permanently my personal dragon catchers!"
Sam, Akira, and Mel all sighed in defeat and the three were put down from their holds. Sam was stretching her back out after being carried all the way from her house to the beach on Tyler's shoulder. She cracked her back, shoulders, and neck several times, making everyone in the group cringe. Sam shrugged, popping one more joint, before she grabbed her bag and walked to the bathrooms to change. Akira and Mel, after taking a while to snap out of their trance, followed after Sam. Minutes later, the three walked out in their swimwear.
Akira walked out first, wearing a one-piece that was black from the waist down and had black, white, and orange diagonal stripes from the waist up. Next came Mel in a dark green one-piece with turquoise swirls. Her hair was pulled back in a braid. Sam stepped out last. She was wearing a short-sleeved, black swim shirt with thin, green and white stripes running down the sides, and had on black swim trunks.
The boys blushed when they was Mel and Akira, but once they saw Sam, they deadpanned. Is she really a girl?!
It was then Hyuga and the rest of the team really acknowledged Mel. "Who is she?" Hyuga asked Akira.
Mel smirked and decided to follow Robert's example by stealing his signature introduction style. She pointed at the Seirin team. "Who am I you ask? I am none other than the shortest point guard of the century! I hop, step, jump for the stars! I am Terrence Mel! Beware!"
Sam facepalmed while Akira and Tyler nodded in approval. Everyone else just looked confused.
Akira let out a sigh as she blocked the sun from her eyes and looked to the sky. "I wish the rest of the team was here." Sam and Mel nodded in agreement and the three walked over to the beach court that was set up. "So, what are we doing today?"
Tyler grabbed a basketball out of his bag and tossed it to Akira. "You three are going to play a game against Kagami, Kuroko, Hyuga, Izuki, and Kiyoshi!"
Sam and Akira groaned, but Mel just gave a confused expression. "Who?"
"Sam and my basketball team's strongest players other than us," Akira explained. "Kagami is the redhead, Kiyoshi is the guy who's the same height as him, Hyuga is the one with glasses, Izuki is the one with black hair and is slightly shorter than Hyuga, and Kuroko is the bluenette that no one seems to notice." Mel nodded. She, like Sam and Akira, actually did notice Kuroko.
Everyone else turned around to face said bluenette and started freaking out. Mel started laughing so hard that she fell to the ground clutching her sides. Akira and Sam, who had grown use to their team's ridiculousness, only giggled. After a while, everyone calmed down and the game began.
Tyler threw the ball into the air and Kagami and Mel jumped for it. Mel, with her explosiveness, got to the ball a second before Kagami and took possession of it - much to Seirin's surprise. She quickly passed the ball to Sam. When Sam got the ball, Hyuga and Izuki guarded Sam while Kagami guarded Akira and Kiyoshi guarded Mel. Kuroko was just ready to intervene if the chance arrived.
Sam sighed. Why can't Akira or Mel get double-teamed? She started dribbling the ball around in a bunch of complicated ways, gaining speed with every bounce and throwing sand everywhere. Everyone was surprised at Sam's ability to dribble on the sand, and once Hyuga and Izuki couldn't focus correctly anymore, Sam slipped past them, making it seem like she disappeared. She jumped to shoot the ball, but Kagami was fast and jumped to block the shot. Sam, being a quick thinker like the rest of her American teammates, tossed the ball up ever so slightly to make it look like she shot the ball, and when she caught it again, threw the ball to Akira. Akira then sped down the court, somehow dribbling it like Sam did, and tossed the ball toward the hoop. From there, Mel jumped and dunked the ball, finishing the alley-oop.
Riko, Hyuga, Izuki, Koganei, Kagami, Tsuchida, and Kiyoshi's mouths were hanging open in astonishment. Akira and Sam never ceased to amaze them, and now, there was Mel. They couldn't help but think of how hard a time they would have against just three girls.
The game continued, and eventually, the boys started scoring, too. Kagami and Kuroko pulled off several alley-oops, Kiyoshi made a dunk, Izuki made a two-pointer, and Hyuga made a three, but they were still a few points away from the girls. It was the boy's ball again after Akira scored a two-pointer and Kuroko was taking it out. He passed it to Hyuga, but Akira intercepted the pass and passed it to Mel. Mel then jumped, only to be blocked by Kagami. She quickly changed the direction of the ball and passed it to Sam. Everything was going according to plan until a volleyball came flying in from outside of the court and hit Sam in the back of the head, making her face-plant into the sand. Akira and Mel ran to see if she was alright while everyone else looked to see two boys run toward them.
"Ah! I'm so sorry!" cried one of the boys. He was blonde, while the other one had black hair.
The blonde's friend hit him in the head. "I told you not to hit it so hard!" he shouted. As the two came closer, Seirin noticed that it was Kise and Kasamatsu from Kaijou. The two seemed to notice Seirin as well.
"Ah! Kurokocchi! Kagamicchi! What are you doing here?" The blonde seemed to forget all about the girl on the ground.
"Kise!" shouted the blonde's friend. "Don't just forget about the person you hit down!"
"Ahh~ sorry Kasamatsu senpai!" Kise said, turning back to Kasamatsu.
"Tell that to him, not me!"
Everyone froze. Kasamatsu had just called Sam 'him' thinking she was a guy, and the team wasn't sure how to react. They were surprised when she didn't make any move to correct him.
Sam ruffled her hair to get the sand out, and then looked up at the blonde. She was far too lazy to correct him – she gave up trying a few weeks after she cut her hair short.
Kise turned back to Sam. "Sorry about that!" He offered his hand to help Sam up and she took it. Kise then turned to see Akira and his eyes widened in surprise. "Mizucchi!" He grabbed Akira in a big hug and Kuroko flinched. "You're back!"
Akira tried getting out of Kise's grip, but ultimately failed. "Um, who exactly are you?" she asked. Kuroko let a small smile play on his lips while Kise whined.
"Whaaa~? Mizucchi, you don't remember me?! Not even my name?"
Akira shook her head and Kuroko's smile grew. "Nope."
Kise cried hysterical tears as he sulked. Kasamatsu shook his head. He turned to Sam. "Sorry about him. The idiot doesn't know the meaning of self-control."
Sam brushed herself off and nodded stiffly. She hated being hit with sports balls - it happened quite often - and she could feel her temper flare. "I'll forgive you under one condition."
Everyone from Seirin was surprised at Sam. She had not only spoken for the first time in their presence, but had made a request as well.
Kasamatsu narrowed his eyes. "What condition?"
Sam narrowed her eyes as well. "You play us in a four-on-four game of beach volleyball."
No one, not even Akira or Mel expected Sam to challenge the two to a game of beach volleyball, but they didn't complain. Instead, they smirked. Kasamatsu and Kise smirked, too. "Deal."
Sam nodded, then turned to her group. She pointed to her friends, then to herself. 'Tyler, Akira, Mel, you're on my team.'
Tyler smiled wide and punched the air. "Finally! A sport I can play!"
Kise cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. "Can we choose anyone to be on our team?" he asked. He received a nod in return. "Okay then, Kagamicchi and Kurokocchi are on our team!"
Kasamatsu looked at his kouhai with wide eyes. "What?!"
After a few minutes of arguing, Kagami and Kuroko agreed to be on Kise and Kasamatsu's team. They headed over to the net that was set up and found the rest of Kaijou's team waiting. Kasamatsu explained the situation and they sat down with the rest of the Seirin team to watch the match.
Sam grabbed the ball and threw it to Kise, hard. "You serve first."
Kise smirked. "That's a bad idea."
Sam just smirked back and got into position. Kise perfectly served the ball over the net, but Akira was there to receive it. The ball flew into the air and Sam got under it. She set the ball up and Mel jumped up and spiked it right past Kagami. He wasn't expecting such a hard hit, but readied himself for the next one.
Riko was keeping score off to the side. "1-0, Sam."
Sam got the ball and tossed it to Tyler to serve. Tyler smirked as he threw the ball up into the air and jumped, hitting an overhand serve. It zoomed past Kuroko, but Kise was quick enough to bump it. What he didn't plan for was Tyler's power. The ball bounced off with so much force, it flew into the audience, almost hitting Koganei.
"2-0, Sam."
Kise turned to his opponents. "You've got a pretty good team there."
Sam nodded and Akira and Mel started jumping around Sam. "Say it! Say it!"
Sam sighed deeply in complaint and dramatically pointed at Kise with a glare, speaking slowly and darkly. "Beware my wrath."
Kise started crying and turned to his teammates. "He's glaring at me!"
Kasamatsu could feel his anger spike toward his kouhai. "Stop crying!" he yelled as he sent a kick to Kise's side. "I'll kick you!"
Eventually, the game continued and Sam's team continued to score more and more points. In the end, it was 25 to 11. Sam's team had won. She fell to the ground and wiped to sweat off of her forehead with her wrist before turning to face her opponents. Kasamatsu had his hands on his knees and was breathing heavily. Kuroko and Kagami were in a very similar position. Kise just had one hand on his hip while he used the other one to wipe the sweat off of his face with a towel. He was breathing heavily, too.
Kise walked over to Sam, followed by Kasamatsu after he caught his breath. Kise had on a serious face, but it quickly turned into one of concussion. "Who exactly are you?"
Akira and Mel jumped to Sam's sides with giant smiles on their faces. "He's Lyons Sam and I'm Mizutani Akira!" said Akira happily.
"And I'm Terrence Mel!" finished Mel.
The two of them hopped in front of Kise and Kasamatsu. "Who are you?" they asked simultaneously.
Kasamatsu flinched back when they got closer, which didn't go unnoticed by Sam or her friends. "U-uh… um." He couldn't speak properly and his cheeks started to grow pink.
Kise chuckled at his senpai's social awkwardness toward girls. He turned to the two girls on front of him. "I'm Kise Ryota and this is Kasamatsu Yukio. We go to Kaijou High School and play on the basketball team."
Akira and Mel stepped back, allowing Kasamatsu to feel a bit more comfortable. Then, they smirked an evil smirk. "Sam, why don't you go talk with Kasamatsu while Akira tries to remember Kise?" suggested Mel. She really wanted to know what would happen if Kasamatsu found out Sam was a girl. She and Akira pulled Sam up and pushed her forward toward Kasamatsu, making her trip and fall into the boy's chest. On reflex, Kasamatsu wrapped his arms around Sam to keep her from falling, then after seeing what he was doing, quickly let go of her. He stared at Sam in surprise for a few seconds until he started walking off in one direction really fast. "Go!" said Mel as she nudged Sam, telling her to follow Kaijou's captain. Sam reluctantly complied. She grabbed her phone and went to follow Kasamatsu.
When Sam caught up with Kasamatsu, he was ordering a drink at a beach bar. When he turned around, Kasamatsu jumped a little when he noticed Sam had caught up with him. Sam walked up to the counter and ordered a fruit smoothie, then walked to join Kasamatsu, who was nice enough to wait for her despite being uncomfortable. Together, they walked to a table and sat down across from each other.
"So, Lyons-"
"Sam is fine," interrupted Sam. She took a sip of her smoothie as she cooled her temper from the match. Kasamatsu continued.
"Right, um… Sam, are you on Seirin's basketball team?" Kasamatsu asked.
"Mm," Sam replied shortly. Thinking back, she was mad at herself for getting so angry and talking. She still didn't like talking so much with someone she had just met.
Kasamatsu nodded, then tried to see how clever Sam was. "So, what have you guys been working on?" Sam pretended she didn't hear what he said and continued to sip her drink. Kasamatsu just chuckled. "Guess you're smarter than I thought." Kasamatsu then felt a dark vibe radiating from Sam and decided that he should stop poking the bear.
A waitress, who was walking by, felt it, too and stumbled, spilling water all over Sam and the table. "I'm so sorry!" she said, terrified of how Sam would react. Sam just stood up and kept a blank face, scaring the waitress and Kasamatsu even more.
By now Kasamatsu stood up to help with cleaning the table and the waitress started getting even more flustered. "Oh! I'm sorry! Let me clean the table!" She moved to wipe the table, but slipped on some water and crashed into Sam's back.
Sam, who was propelled from behind by the waitress, lurched forward into Kasamatsu, who was leaning forward to clean the table. Their lips met and they froze on the spot. Neither of them could get over the shock and they both ended up fainting backwards. All the waitress could think about was how much trouble she was in.
Mel was hanging out with Kagami while Kise was busy harassing Akira into remembering who he was. Mel couldn't help but laugh every time she saw Kuroko smiling when Akira said she didn't remember who Kise was. Getting bored of Kise's hysterical crying, Mel took a seat next to Kagami on the sand. "Sup," she said.
Kagami looked at Mel, then turned back to look at the ocean. "Yo."
Mel smirked. "So, ever think about America?"
The redhead gave a look of surprise. "How did you know I came from America?!"
The boy's question make Mel break out into laughter. "You're just like him!" she breathed, trying to catch her breath. Kagami didn't hear what she said and waited for Mel to calm down. "You do know that you're speaking English, right?"
Kagami's eyes went wide as he realized that she was right. "I didn't even notice…"
Mel put her hand on his shoulder. "Nope! You sure are an open book, Kagami!"
He blushed a little at the girl's comment. It was then he noticed how small she was compared to himself. He thought it was kind of… cute. "Ah…" Then Kagami thought back to the game he had had with Akira, Sam, and Mel. Mel had greatly impressed him with her towering jumps. It reminded him of… himself. What really impressed him, though, was the fact she could jump so high despite being so short. It was then he realized that he wanted to get to know the shorter girl more.
All of the sudden, everyone heard a ringing noise come from Mel's bag. She stood up and brushed herself off before rummaging through her bag and pulling out her phone. The number was Sam's, so she happily answered the phone. "Hey, Sam! How's it goin'?"
"Ah! Um… please come down to the beach bar near the northern part of the beach!" said an unfamiliar voice. It was the high-pitched voice of a girl and she sounded distraught.
Mel's face hardened as she became serious. "What happened?" Everyone came closer as they began to worry, too.
"Your friend fainted!"
By then Mel had immediately hung up, grabbed Akira's arm, and started running to the beach bar. The rest of the group ran to keep up and when they got to the place, they found both Sam and Kasamatsu out cold, lying on their backs in the sand. A waitress was freaking out next to them and the manager was yelling at the waitress for causing such a big problem.
Akira decided to speak up and get the people's attention. "Um, excuse me, but what happened to our friends?"
The manager finally stopped yelling and turned to the group. "Ask Clumsy here," he said pointing to the waitress.
She played with her fingers as she spoke. "Well… I felt a strong, malicious vibe radiating off of one of your friends and got spooked and accidentally spilled water all over him and the table," she said, pointing to Sam. The group could only look to Kasamatsu and wonder how he got her so mad. "After that, they started helping clean up the table and I accidentally pushed him into the other guy," she continued. "And, well… they kissed."
Everyone's mouths fell open after they learned about what happened. Kasamatsu, a serious guy who was too shy to talk to girls, kissed Sam, who was a serious girl that had never had any love experience and who Kasamatsu thought was a guy. The result was both of them fainting from shock. Mel couldn't help but laugh. Eventually, everyone shook off their shock and proceeded to help. Mel took Sam's phone back from the waitress and Kise picked up Kasamatsu to carry him. Tyler did the same with Sam.
"Sorry about the problem," Riko apologized to the manager before they left. When they were back to the court, everyone sighed. "Well, today was an eventful day."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Sorry for not updating in a while. It's time for school and such and I've been working on making classrooms presentable. I'll try to update every other week again. Anyway, I think Kasamatsu is one of the most awesome characters after Kuroko, Kagami, and the GoM. He was the one who figured out how to stop Kuroko's shot using his head – not literally of course! He's quite funny, too. I happen to really like this chapter. It's kinda funny how my friend reacted to it, too. When she read it, she couldn't get that scene out of her head and kept imagining me in Sam's place. She told me this, and trust me, it was awkward, but I couldn't help but laugh my head off afterwards. And yes, Tyler finally gets to play. Poor him, never getting enough time… oh well. It's not his story anyway. Well, see you guys next chapter! – Aloysius
Sooo… Kasamatsu and Sam… What do you guys think of that little scenario? Hope you enjoyed this chapter! - Maelstrom_MVF
