-1Chapter 10: And all they need now are two
There is much buzz on the tennis courts when an unfamiliar face entered the court to join in in their daily training session. As he busies himself with his warm-ups, the freshmen are gossiping curiously amongst themselves.
"Who is that?" whispers Chuma, the plump freshman, to Taruma. Taruma's thick eyebrows knit on his forehead. "I don't know," he replies. "Probably a new recruit."
"Hmmph. I don't like him. His hair is too cool," comments Kikusho bluntly, his arms folded as he stares at the newcomer with an irritated expression on his face. Now his chance in becoming a regular member will be slimmer with that tall bamboo stick's arrival. (He should really meet Seigaku's Horio XP)
Meanwhile, the more experienced players in the tennis club are secretly watching the ex-badminton player perform his warm-ups. Well, not all exactly, for Akutagawa Jirou has fallen asleep, lying against the green wire fence.
"Have you seen him play yet?" asks Fuji, looking at the newcomer thoughtfully.
"Um, no," admits Aiko. "But his father was a national tennis player, and Ukita used to play tennis before switching to badminton," she continues.
"..."
After Ukita and everyone else are done with their warm-ups, training commences.
"Please wake Jirou-san up, Aikawa-kun," Fuji instructs Aiko with a voice so gentle she couldn't bring herself to scold him for calling her Aikawa-kun. Jirou wakes up after much shaking and screaming from Aiko.
"For today's training, I want all the freshmen to practise serving. You can use courts two and three. In court one, I would like Jirou-san to have a match against Ukita-san," says Fuji to all the tennis players lined up in front of him.
Ukita looks startled upon hearing his name and turns to look at his soon-to-be opponent who doesn't seem to have any reaction and is still yawning sleepily.
'That brat... he doesn't take me seriously at all,' Ukita thinks to himself, irritated.
'I'll show him...'
---
And the match ended with a 7-5 win to Ukita.
As you can see from the score, it was a tightly contested match with Jirou doing what he does best: volleying. But Ukita is a badminton player. He's used to covering the front portion of the court frequently as netplay (sort of like volleying in badminton) is extremely common in badminton.
Jirou had woken up from his dazed state as early as the first set, when Ukita had returned almost all his volleys. He got so excited with the way he returned his volleys that he decided to try out all the volleys he could execute to see if he could return them as well. This display of skill obviously drew the crowd and soon, the training freshmen became awed spectators.
As Ukita had claimed earlier, his reaction time is a lot faster than Jirou's and he could move very quickly. However, Jirou is the smarter and trickier player with his flexible wrist, though that did not stop Ukita from winning. Jirou thought that by hitting more volleys and high lobs, he could slow down Ukita's pace. That did not really work so well as Jirou's seemingly impossible volleys could be retrieved by Ukita. Plus, he had killer jump smashes.
Hence, the match went to the 'broomstick' (his new nickname, Aiko's influence) and for now, there is four.
---
The classroom of class 1A is noisy, as most classes would be when there isn't a teacher present. Aiko's engaged in her book, Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, oblivious to the din.
"I didn't know you like such complicating books," a gentle voice breaks into her field of concentration. "Fuh! You think you're the only one who read, Mr. Pretty Boy?" she chides.
Fuji only chuckles to himself. He draws the empty chair in front of Aiko's table, turns it to face her and sits on it, folding his arms on the table while placing his chin on his arms, smiling.
Aiko tries to ignore him and focuses on the confusing story.
They sit like this, silently for a while, until the teacher enters the class to bring them some surprising news.
"Alright, get to your seats you worthless scums," says the verbally brutal Marina-sensei. Her ponytail is tied with a bright red hairband and she's dressed in a pair of long black pants and a white shirt. Upon hearing her instruction, all the students scramble to their seats, nervous sweat trickling down the side of their faces. She's no teacher to mess with.
Fuji calmly takes his seat on Aiko's right and all is quiet.
"Ahem, alright everyone, we have a new student today. He has just transferred from Gyoken High School and his name is Takashi Kawamura. Please welcome him everyone," she announces. There is applause and a few confused looks. Why is there a new student at this time of the semester?
Aiko does not care much about this new piece of information but much to her surprise, Fuji's eyes have snapped wide open upon hearing the name of the new student in question. Does he know him?
A tall but timid boy with short brown hair enters the class and looks at the many eyes before him with a shy face. "Please introduce yourself, Kawamura," says Marina-sensei.
"Uh... Ano... Hello, everyone. My name is Takashi Kawamura and I'm from Gyoken High School. Yoroshikun Onegaishimas," he says politely, bowing clumsily.
"Alright, Kawamura-san. You can take your place beside Yamada over there. Yamada! Raise your hand so that Kawamura can see you!" she snaps to a timid-looking boy in glasses who sits in front of Fuji. "Ha-hai!" the bespectacled boy answers, raising his right arm abruptly.
As Kawamura treads his path a little awkwardly to his new seat, his eye catches a familiar face.
"EH???? FUJI!!!!" he exclaims loudly while pointing at his old friend with a look of pleasant surprise.
"Long time no see, Kawamura-san," Fuji says with a friendly smile.
---
It's finally time for recess and the students, particularly the female students, are happily indulging themselves in their bento (packed lunch). Aiko, being the lazy girl that she is, obviously did not prepare any bento for herself. Her granma used to prepare extremely cute bentos for her but since she transformed herself into a 'boy', she had asked her to stop (though quite reluctantly) because she did not want to look like a sissy.
She sighs at the sight of her female classmates excitedly comparing the contents of their bento and gets up from her seat. Just when she's about to leave the classroom to head to the cafeteria, a hand grips her by the elbow. She turns to see a pair of beautiful almond-shaped eyes beaming into her greyish blue ones.
"I made you lunch, Aikawa-san," she says a little shyly as she pushes a rectangular box wrapped neatly with a cute sky blue cloth patterned with yellow duckies toward her.
Startled, Aiko stumbles with her words, "Th-thank you, Tsukino-san."
She accepts the lunchbox a little awkwardly. Tsukino blushes and gives a polite nod before running out of the classroom with Aiko staring awkwardly after her. The classroom seems quieter as all eyes are on her. She can feel the jealous aura radiating from the male counterparts while the females look pleased at the prospect of a new topic for gossiping.
"Found a girlfriend, Aikawa-kun?" teases Fuji as he approaches the speechless girl. "Shut up, Mr. Pretty Boy," she mutters though she is still blushing. Someone else is standing next to Fuji and Aiko is about to greet him. However, she's already forgotten his name.
Looking a little awkwardly at the new student towering before her, she stutters a little. "Er... Ano..."
Seeing her discomfort, Fuji says, "Ah, Aikawa-kun. Allow me to introduce to you my good friend, Takashi Kawamura. He used to study in Seigaku Junior High School too and he's also a regular member in the school's tennis team."
Aiko's eyes flicker at the word 'tennis' and she's back to her energiser-bunny mode.
"AH??? Kawamura-san! You're a tennis player?!?! No wonder you look so tall and muscular!" she exclaims excitedly, attracting the attention of her other classmates.
Kawamura laughs shyly saying, "Ah, ahaha... I'm quite alright in tennis, I guess."
"He's just too humble to say that he's actually a very good player," Fuji comments with a smile.
"Then you must join our tennis team, Kawamura-san! You must, you must, you must!" says Aiko with ferocious spirit, fire burning in her eyes. Kawamura sweats a little, overwhelmed by her strong spirit but manages to find the form to reply, "Y-yes, I will, Aikawa-san."
"That's great!!!" celebrates Aiko as she punches her fists to the air. "Now we have five members! Hurray hurray!"
Kawamura smiles at her antics. He had never thought that his presence in this school would bring such a great reaction.
"Ah! Ano, Kawamura-san! Why did you transfer from Gyoken High School anyway?" asks Aiko, finally brought down to reality. Fuji looks at Kawamura with a more serious expression, patiently awaiting his answer.
Kawamura smiles, a little abashed and answers, "I did not decide to quit that school, Aikawa-san. I was expelled."
"What???"
---
Kawamura smiles, a little abashed and answers, "I did not decide to quit that school, Aikawa-san. I was expelled."
Fuji and Aiko are stunned silent. What can a timid guy like Kawamura possibly could have done to get himself expelled? That's unimaginable.
"What??? Buy why?" asks Aiko, clearly in shock.
He smiles again. "Ahehe... I got expelled for vandalism. Someone accidentally stepped on my tennis racquet and the string broke. When I picked it up, I sort of got a little crazy and wrecked almost all the tables and chairs in the classroom. This wasn't the first time it happened and the principal had enough of it. So, I was expelled," he explains.
'Right...' thinks Aiko. She feels as though she's been cheated. He's been expelled because of some petty vandalism?
"That's just sad," Aiko comments bluntly.
Fuji merely chuckles. 'Typical of Kawamura,' he thinks, amused.
"I'm glad you're here though, Kawamura-san," he says to his good friend, smiling. Kawamura grins back at him. Aiko watches the interaction between the two old friends with genuine interest.
She doesn't know much about this vandal, Takashi Kawamura, but that doesn't matter. As long as he plays good tennis, that's all she cares about.
And all they need now are two.
---