Weeks had gone by the tanks were being repaired and due to the renewed interest of Tankery on Boston High, people in their spare time would lend their skills and expertise to the team getting its tanks back as soon as possible and even fix little niggling problems, such as the clutch slipping on rooks tank and the turret hydraulics in Bishop's tank was a bit all over the place in regards to turning speed. However as the tournament was over for them the press soon forgot about them, a blip in Tankery history, so school became the priority for the Sarah was always up to date but Tankery had taken a lot out of her, the work was literally and figuratively piling up but she hoped she could catch up.

After a Tankery meeting looking at the matches of other schools to understand the tactics and skills to help hone in their own tactics.

"So that will be it for today." Beth said closing down her laptop "Hopefully when all the tanks get running again we can improve on the King George 5th college encirclement tactic." The room then emptied Sarah walked up to Beth. "So just a quick question." Sarah asked.

"Of course go ahead" Beth responded.

"As you are the commander I thought, well it would be wrong if I didn't treat you to a home cooked meal, to show my gratitude and it's a Friday." said Sarah.

"I would never say no to a free meal." Beth said smiling.

"How does lamb shank sound to you?" Quizzed Sarah.

"What time do I get for your's by?" Beth said with a smile.

"Sixish. I'll text you my address." Sarah replied.

"I'll see you then." Beth said in turn.

She returned back to her studio shopping bags in hand with the food for tonight she looked at the time she had 2 hours, she through the bags on the kitchen counter and ran around trying to tidy her place, hoovering, throwing clothes which were scattered on the floor into wardrobes and sorting out the table, she then prepared to cook the meal as she stared her dad called her on the phone, she switched it to speakerphone.

"Hi dad how are you doing?" she asked.

"Actually very good I have some very important news but it's good and bad."

"What, what is it?" she said curiously.

"The company have decided to give me a promotion."

"Dad that's wonderful news!"

"However, it means I'm basically going to be living in Japan from now on. So that means I will very rarely see you maybe once or twice a year."

"Dad trust me I'll be fine, but that means at least when we meet each other it will mean even more."

"Are you sure? As I will say no if you don't want me to."

"Dad I'll be fine good luck you never know you might become the CEO at this rate."

"Ok, love you."

"You too."

The phone hung up and she reflected on that conversation. She would now be alone her dad now in Japan, James still touring and not having any clue when he will return, the whole world seemed a lot larger in perspective now. She continued to cook until it was basically done and smarted herself up by curling her hair a little and finishing her nails. At dead on six o'clock the buzzer went off.

"I'm here." Beth said.

Sarah buzzed her in and opened up her front door.

"That does smell really good." Beth said leaning her head back and closing her eyes to absorb the aroma.

"Well you know it's not too tricky to do." Sarah replied.

Beth walked in, looking at the memorabilia "That's a lot of good stuff you got here."

"I guess you've got a couple more posters of tanks than I do." Sarah said jokingly.

Beth sat down at the table whilst Sarah dished up the food, with all the condiments of carrot, roast potatoes, peas and broccoli. They ate the food and discussed Tankery and other subjects. Once finished Sarah lifted the plates to put them in the sink, then someone knocked at the door.

"You didn't invite no one else right." Beth said humorously "as they would be a bit disappointed as there's none left."

"No I didn't." Sarah responded.

She walked to the door and looked through the eyepiece no one was there in the well-lit alleyway. She opened the door to see no one, thinking it was a prankster she went to close the door but a white envelope caught her eye on the floor in front of her door. She picked it up and walked over to the table.

"Look what I found."

"An envelope could it be from a secret crush?"

"Don't think so." Sarah said, she turned it over to see a wax seal on the letter, with a teapot and some small writing on the top. "Looks fancy though." Showing Beth the wax seal.

Her eyes widened her mouth opened "no way! NO WAY! Open it." Beth exclaimed passing the letter back to her. She opened up the envelope very gingerly and opened the letter. Sarah looked and read out.

Dear Miss Sarah Alexander of Boston High,

I'm writing to you to inform you that you have been given the opportunity to trial out for the St. Gloriana Girls College Sensha-do team as we believe that you are worthy to join our elite team.

The trial will take place at the end of your school year on May 25th, be at Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture main port for 09:00 take this letter with you.

Yours sincerely,

Darjeeling, Commander of St. Gloriana Girls College Sensha-do team.

"What does this even mean?" Sarah said after reading it out.

"St. Gloriana Girls College is one of the most prestigious schools in Japan for Sensha-do aka Tankery some say they are better than Bovington."Beth responded back gobsmacked by what just Sarah just said

"I don't know if it's worth it or not." Sarah responded not knowing which emotion to go for from excitement to nervousness.

"I would say it's worth a go, it's during the summer break so there won't be anything happening here. And if you don't get in well we'll still have you." She smiled "but the most important question is. What will be for dessert?"

They rested for about half an hour talking about Japanese Sensha-do and how it differs slightly to European Tankery. Sarah got out some cheesecake from the fridge and cut a bit for her and Beth on two small plates they ate on the sofa a bit more relaxed.

"But isn't Darjeeling a tea? That's a weird name." Sarah said.

"They all have weird tea names, I have no idea why though they are a British themed school so they might want some British blood on the team? And also other schools have different themes like Pravda which is Russia etc."

"Can't they just have normal schools?" Sarah asked.

Beth shrugged her shoulders "Beats me the Russian school did win there tournament this year, no idea how, I haven't seen the matches, but I heard that it was something to do with the vice commander of the German school running away from her tank or something."

"That's just silly and dangerous. And I'm a little confused why boys cannot take part?"

"Sensha-do is seen as a female martial art. The rules themselves don't seem to limit the competitions to only girls. There is a boy's league but its vastly smaller and less well funded. Which I think is rather unfair, as here the ETA splits funding 50/50 between boys and girls and it's been doing wonders for our national teams and clubs. Look at London United for example 5 years ago no one knew nothing about British tankery, and now they are the talk of the town as they're now in the Finals of the European champions cup. "

"Do you think we could beat them?" Sarah questioned

"Beat who?"

"This Japanese school," Sarah said pointing to the letter.

"Not with the number of tanks we have but from what I know and this is a guess by the way." Beth said Sarah leaned in closer. "They stick to everything like glue, no free thought no initiative if the commander of the school says jump the rest respond with how high and this isn't just for St Gloriana this is for all of the schools in the JSF. So if the commander is not good the school will suffer. That's why I'm a little more lax on orders, sometimes a single commander of a tank can think outside of the box and do something strange, different, unexpected to catch the enemy off guard. But they just have to be free to make those decisions and not to be stifled. Which is why 99% of the time I think they would beat us in a match, but I would risk everything for that 1% of pure tankery."

"I will take that spirit with me, Beth, when I go for that trial." Sarah said with a smile.

They continued taking till the sunset and the cheesecake was gone.

"Sadly I've got to get back, thank you for inviting me."
"No it's my pleasure." Sarah said happily.

"Oh and this" Beth pointed to the letter "won't be mentioned to nobody."

"Thanks." They hugged and Sarah opened the door for Beth who left. She then closed the door and looked at the letter.

"If I can get in there at least I can hopefully see my dad more and also Beth is very enthusiastic on me joining." She thought.

She went to bed thinking all night about what to do.

The months rolled by, training continued, friendly matches were played on equal terms, all ending in Boston wins even getting revenge on Ramsgate. Everyone was looking forward to the summer holidays, Sarah had spoken to her dad about the offer and he was thrilled to hear the news as well as James who thought she was just lying, she wanted to tell her crew about this and not leave them in the dark, they all supported her in this. Her dad had sent her some money to fly out to Kanagawa province and to stay for a couple of weeks to acclimatise. On the day before her flight, she packed her bags, most essentially was the beret which was her lucky mascot now. And walked to the gangway where the ferry meets up with the ship to travel to land. As she was moving her suitcase she bumped into Beth who wished her good luck. The ferry arrived and she was away on a long day of travel, through ports, train stations and airports. After what had seemed like years she made it to Japan and it was drastically different from the UK for one thing the trains ran on time. She walked out of the train station to see a man in a suit with a placard saying her name.

"Yes, that's me." She said politely.

"Follow me." he said, a waiting black car was outside the station he opened the door, the car was lovely, well air conditioned and smelt of tropic fruits.

"Your father asked me to pick you up." He stated as he sat in the driver's seat. "I'll be dropping you off to your hotel." He passed her some papers. "Show these at the hotel reception they will do the rest."

She arrived at her Hotel and passed the paper over to the reception staff who led her to her room, near the top of the hotel, it was larger than her studio and was very modern in style with large open spaces and lots of tech. She dropped her bags and dragged her feet to the bed where she fell into a deep sleep at 3pm in the afternoon waking up at about 12 midnight. Over the coming days she explored the area, tasting new food, looking at the sights and trying to get to grips with the Japanese language, her dad had taught her a little bit in the past, but she was nowhere near fluent. She met up with her dad over dinner, at this lovely little restaurant he knew about, just of the bay the night before the trial where they talked about life in Japan, and what to expect from Sensha-do.

"Dad thanks again for all this you really didn't have too."

"A professional athlete needs to be in the right frame of mind before going into a match. And also see it as a birthday present. " he said sipping on a traditional Japanese tea. He looked at his watch "But look at the time, I wish not to keep you any longer you have to rest for the big day tomorrow my only advice is do what you think is right do Tankery how you think it should be done."

He got up and so did she and hugged, they parted ways and Sarah to a taxi and returned back to her room in her hotel. She set up 2 alarm clocks so she wouldn't forget and went to bed.

She awoke feeling nervous but sharp after a very good night's sleep, she made herself up with her hair and put on a fresh set of her Boston school uniform and put her beret in the inside pocket of her blazer with the letter. She left for the main port from the hotel she could see an extremely large carrier ship there, far in the distance. She arrived by taxi with half an hour to spare. The ship had a large logo painted on the front of the bow, of the teapot, smoke and little tea leaves around it, this was defiantly St. Gloriana Girls College ship, the gangway was guarded by 2 men what looked to be personal of the ship's crew, she walked up to them and showed them the letter. One of the men looked at it and ushered her onto the gangway, she walked to the top where she entered the ship to see a girl with long blonde hair and light purple eyes. Her somewhat extravagant hairstyle was complemented by a black hairband wearing a white collared shirt, black tie, blue skirt, full-length black tights and a dark blue pullover with the school emblem emblazoned on the chest she had a cup of tea in her hand. She looked at Sarah judging her with her eyes.

"Welcome Sarah to St. Gloriana Girls College."

A/N: I've gotten a little ahead of schedule so here's a cheeky extra chapter. Hopefully, if your enjoying the series please leave me a review as feedback would massively help the writing process!