A/N: Wow…it's been a while guys. I want to apologize for the long wait on this story. I have had this chapter written for almost a year now but my life has been so HECTIC lately that I didn't have the chance to upload it. I am currently studying for my MCAT and applying to medical school, so I decided to upload to kind of calm me down a bit. My MCAT is this Friday, so I expect to definitely upload frequently on this story and my other one in the months of July and August.
Thanks for continuously reading and supporting this story, I really love you guys!
Summary: Miyoko may be a genius, but she has no clue when it comes to boys. Frankly, as the captain of Seigaku's girl's tennis team, she doesn't have time for them. However, Ryuzaki Sumire, aware of Miyoko's long term crush on Tezuka has given herself the task to get this unlikely pair together. And boy will she need some help. TezukaxOC, Rated T for language
Italics: Thoughts
Disclaimer: NOTHING BELONGS TO ME EXCEPT FOR MY OC'S
Miyoko was running as fast as she could to the courts where she was going to meet her personal trainer. Here's hoping that she doesn't have a temper like Ryuzaki-sensei and kill Miyoko on the spot. Although, the courts weren't too far away from the courts that the boy's team was playing at.
She reached the tennis courts 30 minutes late feeling extremely guilty. Even though it might seem like the norm to everyone that Miyoko is late to everything, that's not exactly true. Especially with people she had never met before. First impressions meant a lot to her since she didn't want people to think that she was crazy like right off the bat. Like Miyoko knew that she was crazy but a lot of other people didn't.
Miyoko could see the young woman sitting on the court. It was clear from her posture that she had obviously been waiting there for a long time. She ran up to what she assumed was Yoshida Yuka and automatically started bowing.
"I am so sorry! I ran into my friend's tennis game and then he got hurt and then I had to help him get better and then I forgot about the time and that I was supposed to meet you!" Miyoko tried to explain hastily. Yoshida Yuka just stared at her from her sitting position with wide eyes probably not expecting to be pummeled with an explanation so soon. She gives Miyoko a nice smile.
"Don't worry about it Hamada-chan. I haven't been waiting for that long anyways," she explains getting up from the ground. That's probably a lie... But this woman seemed kind. The complete opposite of most of the people around Miyoko. She was pretty tall (around the same height as Ryuzaki-sensei) and seemed to be in her 30s or 40s. Miyoko couldn't really tell since she looked so young. But if she was the same age of Nanjirou then that meant she was probably somewhere around that age. She beckoned Miyoko forward, so Miyoko took her tennis racket out of her bag and threw the bag to the side.
"First of all, I won't be able to actually play with you a lot since my knee could give at any moment. However, I can still help you practice and improve," she explains. Miyoko nods, listening to her words well. "I want to ask you, however, what do you want out of these lessons?"
Miyoko blinks stupidly. What did she want? She didn't really think of it before coming.
"Well, I feel like it would be a good opportunity… I mean like you were a professional tennis player! I can definitely learn new techniques from you and I'll take anything I can get. I have a team expecting me to take them to nationals you know," Miyoko says proudly. "By the way, you can call me Miyoko, I don't mind."
"Haha great! You are determined so that makes my job a lot easier Miyoko-chan. And you can call me Yuka-san, it makes me feel younger," she says giving Miyoko a wink. This causes Miyoko to laugh, finally at ease around the older woman.
"So what do you have planned?" Miyoko asks Yuka.
"Go ahead and stand over there," Yuka says pointing to the opposite side of the court. At that end of the court there was a big cart filled with tennis balls probably for the use of Miyoko's. She takes a tennis ball out of it and bounces it on the ground testing the quality of it. They were normal she supposes.
"Ryuzaki-sensei told me that you are usually busy during practice helping others while you barely get any practice. And she told me that you're not playing any game tomorrow either at the regional tournament, so these lessons will be a good refresher for you. At nationals, if you make it that far, your opponent will undoubtedly be powerful. The nationals are where your team is going to need you the most," she explains. Miyoko knew this, and somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that Ryuzaki-sensei was right about the fact that she hasn't been able to practice as much since she became captain. Yuka continues talking.
"I've set up a regimen that hopefully doesn't drain you out and the first couple times we meet we'll be doing this regimen. It includes 50 serves from your right hand and then 50 serves with your left hand. Then 100 balls of forehand to forehand and 100 balls for the backhand and then another 100 balls to practice your volley. These will be at varying levels of difficulty. If you miss any of these balls, you start over and begin all over again."
Miyoko gulps at this. This is going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow. It'll be good for her though.
"After you've completed that we'll go on a 2 mile run to cool down, I'll be doing this with you," Yuka explains. At this Miyoko raises her eyebrows.
"Are you sure your knee won't get hurt?" she asks. Yuka shakes her head.
"No it shouldn't, I do it everyday to stay in shape," Yuka explains. Miyoko nods her head in understanding. The injury happened quite a while ago so running shouldn't give it too much damage. However, playing tennis probably would since a great amount of stress is given to the knee, especially with all the turning required.
"After a couple weeks of this, I have someone in mind who can play practice matches with you since I can't," Yuka says with a smile. "Anyways…shall we begin?"
The boy's tennis team won the regional tournament and decided to celebrate by eating at Kawamura's family's sushi restaurant. They were rowdy and Ryuzaki-sensei was sure that Kawamura's family was going to be out of food if everyone continued to eat at the rate they were eating at. Her, Tezuka, Inui, and Sakuno were all sitting at the bar while the rest of the team ate at the tables.
"First off! Sensei congrats on winning," Kawamura's father says.
"It's only the district, the real games haven't begun yet," Ryuzaki-sensei replies.
"What are you saying?! The prefectural tournament will be a piece of cake. No matter what, we have the freshmen tensai on our side. He's the opposite of my useless son!" he says jokingly.
"Oi oi, don't say that Oyaji (1)," Takashi says from across the restaurant.
"Here, go ahead sensei!" he says completely ignoring his son and instead offered a drink to Ryuzaki-sensei. She hesitantly reject is saying that she has to drive home.
"Ahh, that's too bad, how about this teacher here?" he says offering the drink to Tezuka, mistaking him to be a lot older than he was.
"I'm the captain, Tezuka," he states calmly.
"Ah! I apologize greatly," Kawamura's father says rubbing the back of his neck in an embarrassed manner. The chuckles from Tezuka's teammates weren't helping much either. An hour passes and the team was still joking around and having fun with no care in the world for the time. At one point, Tezuka goes to the restroom. Ryuzaki-sensei takes this as the perfect time to deliver her master plan to the regulars. But she needs to start small. Who should she confide in first?
"Oishi! Come here a sec!"
"Hai, what is it Ryuzaki-sensei?" he asks while siting down next to her.
"What's your opinion of Miyoko-chan?" Ryuzaki-sensei asks getting straight to the point.
"Huh? What do you mean?" he asks obviously baffled from the question.
"I mean, what do you think about the fact that Miyoko-chan and Tezuka have been around each other a lot more recently?" she asks trying to get him to the answer without saying it.
"Ohhh about that? I do find it a bit odd that after 2 years of knowing each other that they've gotten so close since school has started…"
"Has he…mentioned anything to you about it?"
"Well not really. I did ask him once a while ago, when they first started speaking to each other but he just said to mind my own business and run 10 laps…" he responds thinking back to that day that he saw Miyoko and Tezuka walking together to the locker rooms.
"Wow he seems pretty defensive about it don't you think?"
"Yeah…now that I think about it, that's really weird," Oishi says, rubbing his chin. At first he thought that Hamada-san was a nervous wreck around Tezuka because he scared her but now that he knows her better he knows that she's hardly scared of anything. Hmmm….
Ryuzaki-sensei snickers at Oishi's thoughtful expression. The seed has been planted and now all she had to do was wait for it to grow. Damn, she can be a genius sometime. This way he can think of it all on his own with just a little push from her. Once he finally knows something about Tezuka's feelings towards Miyoko, then her entire plan can begin…
Scheming with the midget's love life is just so fun.
Miyoko felt dead. She was lying on her bed after her cold shower and just stared at the ceiling like a fish. The regimen that Yuka had come up with was worse than she imagined. At first, she thought it was going to be easy because she's done this at practice for years. But Yuko was ruthless. The hit she sent were back to back and Miyoko found herself running from one edge of the court to the other the entire time. The volleys were extremely hard and she had to dive for a couple causing some scrapes on her knees and elbows.
She hated to admit, but she missed a lot in the beginning. Miyoko had to start from the beginning multiple times so it took her hours to complete the regimen. But she definitely could feel improvement in her shots. Yuko told her something about it dealing with muscle memory. Miyoko definitely didn't really regret going. Yuko knew what she was doing.
However, during the lessons she completely forgot that she had the regional tournament in a couple days. It got her excited. This is the last regional tournament that she'll be able to participate in during her middle school career. And she had no doubts that they would win. The team she pulled together this year is definitely national material. She just hopes the two teams they go against tomorrow won't be too difficult.
Miyoko sees her phone light up on her nightstand out of the corner of her eye. She reaches for and it says that she has a new message. Hmm who could it be at this hour, it was so late.
We won.
Miyoko smiled. She forgot that she told Tezuka to text her the results. But she wasn't surprised by them. Ryoma was not going to lose that early on!
Good, I'm glad :)
She replies to the message and sets the phone back on her nightstand not expecting a reply back. It lights up again while she's trying to sleep. Miyoko's automatically awake though, sleep escaping her.
Good luck with your tournament as well.
She smiles wide, hiding her face in her pillow. Her heart was beating erratically and she wondered if she should get that checked out.
Don't worry, we'll win. Good night Tezuka-kun.
Goodnight Hamada
And she finally shut her eyes, exhaustion finally winning.
Miyoko woke on Sunday in a good mood…and on time. She got up and went to the bathroom to get ready. Miyoko's father didn't have work today so he was cooking this morning. He surprisingly cooked really well and Miyoko really enjoyed eating what he made. They were eating American style this morning with pancakes and oatmeal. Miyoko decided it'd probably be better for her if she only ate one pancake and then a bowl of oatmeal with some berries. Maybe the healthy food would cancel out the pancakes but we all know it doesn't work that way unfortunately.
"Are you ready for the tournament?" Miyoko's father asks and he flips another pancake. Her brother was eating his pancakes obediently but her sister and mother were no where to be found (probably still sleeping).
"I'm not playing today," Miyoko explains with a mouthful of food.
"EH?! WHY? I thought you were the captain?!" her brother shouts.
"Yeah I'm the captain, but I decided that the matches today are going to be pretty easy so there's no reason for me to play…" she says. Her brother, Hamada Daichi, nods his head in understanding.
"Still…how uncool."
"Oh shut up, at least I can hold a tennis racket," Miyoko retorts.
"OTOU-SAN, SHE'S BEING MEAN TO ME!"
"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM HE'S LYING!"
"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!"
And that was the end of the conversation. After that the two silently finished their food. Miyoko says her goodbyes and leaves for the bus so that she can make it to Shikinomori Sports Park at a reasonable time. She was going to meet Azusa and Moriyo on the bus as well.
"Are you sure you don't just want me to drop you off Miyoko?" her father asks.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I'm meeting Azusa and Moriyo-chan on the bus anyways…"
"Okay good luck then! Your Okaa-san would want to see you off too but she had a long day yesterday," he said with a big smile. He gave her a thumbs up that made her smile back.
"Thanks Otou-san. I won't let you down," Miyoko replies giving him a thumbs up back. It was kind of their thing, giving each other thumbs up. With that Miyoko went on her merry way to the bus stop. She was pretty sure Moriyo and Azusa would be on this bus but if not she didn't mind riding it by herself. She would just meet them at the registration. Miyoko checked her back to make sure she had everything she needed and got onto the bus when it came.
Moriyo and Azusa were both on there and sitting at the very back. Miyoko smiled, the excitement getting to her when she saw the two.
"Hey Miyoko-chan!" Moriyo says grinning widely.
"Ohayo Miyoko-buchou!" Azusa shouts making everyone stare at them. Miyoko cowers down into her seat.
"Azusa why do you have to be so damn loud?!"
"I don't know…I think it's in my genes…" At this Miyoko laughs at loud. That is so true. Azusa's family was extremely loud. Miyoko has been to her house a couple times and never failed to leave without a headache.
"Anyways, are you guy prepared?" Miyoko asks as she settles in for the 10-minute drive.
"Yeah I think so…I mean Azusa-chan and I have been playing doubles together for a long time. This is just the first year we actually play a match together," Moriyo explains. She sounded a bit nervous to Miyoko.
"You guys will be perfect, don't worry!" Miyoko replies.
"Oh course we will, we're Seigaku," Azusa says with a huge smile. Moriyo laughs at this.
"Okay, so you guys will be playing doubles and then the Yoshida Twins will play the other doubles match," Miyoko says out loud trying to gather her thoughts before the tournament started. She had seen the Yoshida twins finally play doubles at practice and she was blown away. They really were able to read each other perfectly. Their individual skills were average at best but when they are put together they are definitely a force not to be reckoned with. Miyoko doubts that anyone can match up against them without a struggle. She would even go as far as to say that they could beat Oishi and Eiji who are known as the Golden Pair.
"And who all is playing singles?" Azusa asks.
"Hmm well Ayane, Risa, and Hina will be playing singles," Miyoko explains. At this Moriyo and Azusa seem surprised.
"Wait so you're not playing Miyoko-chan?" Moriyo asks. Miyoko shakes her head no.
"I want to give a chance for everyone else to play," she explains.
"Oh that makes sense I guess, but you know you could have asked one of us to sit out!" Azusa replied. Miyoko laughs.
"I'll keep that in mind next time. I just want everyone to be able to play early on because we'll be facing a lot harder challenges in the future and I want everyone to be prepared. The only way they can do that is if they get experience," she explains with a thoughtful expression. The two girls agreed with her.
"Well, at least consider playing against the second school we face," Azusa says with a huff.
"Yeah yeah, whatever," Miyoko replies pulling out the registration paper making sure she had everyone's. She did. Thank Kami. She has a nightmare yesterday that she left them at home and the team missed the tournament because they were late. To say that Miyoko was freaking out would be an understatement.
They finally reached the courts a couple minutes later and saw that the rest of the team and Ryuzaki-sensei were already waiting there. They all looked a bit nervous. It was understandable considering that they were all pretty knew to this. Only Moriyo, Miyoko, and Azusa used to be past regulars, it was the first tournament for the rest. Miyoko didn't mention it before but that rarely happened. Most of time regulars usually consisted of 3rd years but this year they had a lot more 2nd years. And even the third years that they have were new. Ayane and Hina were both new to the title of a regular. Miyoko knew that they were all more than capable of winning but that didn't get rid of the fact that they should be nervous.
"Finally! You guys made it!" Hina yells. Her black hair was pulled back in a small pony tail and wasn't wearing any makeup but still looked pretty. Her fanclub was probably floating around somewhere in the background or something.
"Of course! Wouldn't miss it for the world," Moriyo responds. Miyoko pulls out the registration papers and beckons her team around her.
"Okay before I submit this at the registration table, I want to make sure everyone agrees about the setup. Ryuzaki-sensei, Azusa-chan, and I all thought that this would be the best set up," Miyoko explains.
"Ayane-chan, Risa-chan, and Hina-chan, you guys will be playing singles. Azusa and Moriyo will be playing doubles and of course the Yoshida team will also be playing doubles."
"Are you not playing Miyoko-buchou?" Risa asks in that shy voice of hers. Miyoko shakes her head.
"No not this first round," Miyoko explains. "If we make it to the semifinals then we'll see." They didn't have to participate in the First Round since they got a BYE so they went straight to the Quarterfinals.
"Start thinking about other positions you want to play after the quarterfinals," Miyoko says. With that they all made their way to the table. Miyoko was in the zone now, and when she was in the zone she doesn't really speak to anyone. However, that didn't stop the regulars from being excited together. Tamako, Tamiko, and Ayane were both excitedly whispering together and pointing at others. Surprisingly Hina and Risa were pretty close. Miyoko didn't see that coming. They are literally complete opposites. All eyes were on them. It must be surprise to everyone to see so many new regulars. Miyoko guesses that it gives them the element of surprise. And that's always a good thing.
"I wonder where Ryuzaki-sensei is…" Miyoko mumbled. Azusa shrugged her shoulders.
"She probably didn't get back till very late last night. I heard that the guy's team went out for a celebration after their win," Azusa explained.
"Hopefully we'll be in that same boat tonight!" Moriyo exclaimed. Miyoko was quick to break the mood though.
"Don't forget we have school tomorrow. We can't afford to stay out too late if we do end up winning," Miyoko says with a sigh. She was rarely one to turn down food but in this situation she had to be the responsible one. Moriyo and Azusa both groaned, forgetting the fact that they had to go to their classes early in the morning.
"Buzzkill…" Azusa mumbled. Miyoko only gives her a quick glare before she goes back to observing the competition. By looking at the suggested bracket list the first team that they would be going up against was Kakinoki Middle School. Miyoko knew of them but they had never been Seigaku's opponent since she had joined the team. She did her proper research on them and was pretty sure they would not have any problems with them. That sounds cocky, but in the girl's division for middle school tennis there wasn't really much competition until after the preliminary tournament. During Round 1 they were matched up against Kazedai Nishi and only won 3-2…that's a pretty close match for Round 1. One thing she did know was that their Kakinoki's girl's team were not as hyped as their boy's team. However, this doesn't mean that Miyoko and her team were not going to go easy on them.
After that they would either be matched up with Sato Daini Middle School or Oogosho Middle School. But Miyoko didn't want to think that far ahead just yet. They had to get through the quarterfinals first. She could feel butterflies in her stomach…the first tournament where she's captain. Never would she have thought this day would come. Miyoko has no clue how Tezuka could have been so calm yesterday.
"Hey brat, you ready for this?" someone says as they put their hand on Miyoko's shoulder. She looks to the side and see's Ryuzaki-sensei standing next to her. She takes a deep breath.
"On one hand I'm ready and the other I kind of want to run into oncoming traffic. Right now I'm leaning towards the later…" Miyoko explains. Ryuzaki-sensei lets out a hearty laugh.
"Awh don't be like that Miyoko-chan, have more faith in your team!"
"It's not like I don't have faith in them…it's more like I'm nervous that I didn't prepare them well enough," Miyoko says. She looks at her team members who all had an excited glint in their eyes and knew that she was being stupid. She did was she could, now it was her responsibility to provide the proper advice for them to reach their full potential.
"Don't worry about that, I know that you are ready for this. I wouldn't have let you get away with being captain if I didn't think you could properly get these girls ready for what's to come," Ryuzaki-sensei explains. She pats Miyoko on the head. She slaps it away.
"Don't touch me you hag…"
"Shut the hell up you brat. HAVE SOME GOD DAMN RESPECT!"
A/N: Please review and favorite! Let me know if you liked it. Next chapter will be all about the girls tournament, and maybe a little more Tezuka/Miyoko stuff ;)
