Chapter 11

"You did what?" Iwaki asked incredulously as he paced in front of his star players, all kneeling shamefaced in front of him. None of the boys said a word. Each had some mark or bruise on them to show their guiltiness, courtesy of the two female strikers.

"They were peeking on us and then they made the wall fall down." Nana stated.

Iwaki looked at her and then at his players again. There was a moment of tense silence and then he asked, "Did you see anything?" All the teenagers in the room gaped at their coach in shock. The boys were floored! They had fully expected to get blasted by their coach, now here he was asking them if their plan was successful! The two females in the room, however, were thinking along a different line; one more of exasperation, rather than shock. Boys, they rolled their eyes at the thought.

Iwaki cleared his throat hurriedly and amended his previous question. "What I meant to say was, 'What were you thinking, trying to look at the girls?! How shameful!' Yes, that's what I wanted to say." He fought down a blush and glanced at Nana and Rin who were rolling their eyes.

Both girls sighed and Rin spoke in an off-handed manner, "It's fine, just drop it already. I'm tired and we already got our revenge on these idiots." She indicated the various marks on the boys to demonstrate her statement.

Iwaki sighed, "You two can go to bed, but I'll stay and talk with these misbehaving troublemakers." The girls exited the room without another word about the subject except a casual goodnight and closed the door after them.

There were a few moments of silence in the room after the door had closed behind the girls and then Iwaki turned to the boys and raised an eyebrow and asked, "So, that ended rather disastrously for you, now didn't it?"

...

The next morning, Iwaki had the girls wake up the boys before dawn, again, and run the same exercise they had done the previous day. This time, everyone knew what to expect so they got right to the chase, literally.

Rin once again was in a horrible mood and tagged about half of the club. However, after she had a carton of milk, she mellowed out and went back to normal.

The dining room was nearly silent as the boys were exhausted from the morning run and all the training exercises they had done the previous day. Rin didn't talk to anyone either and instead was on the internet on her phone the entire time.

As the boys followed Iwaki into the forest to start their training again, Rin stayed behind and slipped into the hot springs. It was the time of morning before the sun had become full strength and she wanted to enjoy a good soak before starting the day and with no one else around.

As she relaxed in the bath, she looked to the wall the boys had knocked over and saw that the repair men had strung a thick canvas across the gap. She didn't have to worry about anyone seeing since all the boys were training. She took a quick picture of the tarp and sent it to her friends.

A few minutes later, she got a response from Liz.

What a hoot! The message read.

Yeah, it was funny after we beat up all the ones who did it.

Dude, I wish I was there right now!

Soon soon. Patience child.

Bleehh!

She chuckled at her friend's maturity level, which was next to zero. She spent another half an hour in the bath, texting Liz and some other friends back home, catching up and swapping stories and gossip.

She finally got out when the sun was making the air too hot to be in the hot springs. She decided to find the boys and set out with her water bottle and phone. Iwaki had told her that they were going to the same place as yesterday, so she headed there without getting lost.

She entered the scene just as Araki was being put in a headlock by Oda. She stared at the pair curiously. "What are you two doing?" She asked.

Oda looked up and then replied, "I am teaching him a lesson." Rin nodded in response.

"Oh, okay. Have fun, then, I guess," she went to stand next to Nana who was keeping time for the exercises.

The time at the training camp went by in a flash and soon it was time for the promised free day to enjoy the park or doing anything the team wanted.

A bunch of the kids elected to stay at the hotel to nurse their sore bodies while Rin and the others practically ran to the amusement park. Rin had been anxiously waiting for the camp to end so she could go to the park again. This amusement park was considerably smaller than the previous one she had gone to, but it still had a few good rides.

Her enthusiasm wasn't alone as the others were extremely grateful and beyond excited that Iwaki had given the them the day off. They arrived at the park entrance at mid-morning, just beating the afternoon traffic and bought their tickets. Immediately after passing through the gates, Rin dragged Araki and Oda to the nearest roller coaster and got on. It didn't have the same big hills and the ride was shorter than the other one, but it was still enough to get her heart leaping into her chest with every jerk and drop that the machine experienced.

After that, they went on the ride called The Tower. It was a tall tower to which a box with seats attached to it rose and fell at random intervals. From the bottom of the tall structure, the group could hear the screams of the current riders.

Nana backed out along with Kakeru. Surprisingly, Takase along said he didn't want to go on. With that, Rin, Oda, Araki, Mako, Kaoru and Kota strapped themselves into the seats along with a few other teenagers and the ride began to rapidly ascend.

As the ground got further and further away, Rin's anxiety began to make itself known. She hadn't really been thinking when she had gone on this ride. She hated heights with a passion. The only reason she could stand the roller coasters was because the thrill overtook the fear.

Now, however, she had plenty of time to curse herself out as the ride kept going up, and up and up. She gulped and squeezed her eyes shut, praying that it would be over soon. She really shouldn't have gone on this ride.

Suddenly, without any warning, the ride dropped and Rin let out a shrill scream of surprise as the rush of wind blew her hair straight up. She stared, riveted, at the ground below them as it came closer and closer.

The ride came to an abrupt halt and began its rapid ascend again. Rin clutched the chest restraints with white knuckles and kept her eyes tightly closed. She could hear the excited voices of her teammates in their seats and she wanted nothing more than for the ride to end so she could get her feet back on solid ground again.

Unfortunately, the ride rose and dropped for another three agonizing minutes, before gently coming to a complete stop at the boarding platform.

Rin struggled out of her seat restraints as fast as she possibly could and stumbled off the deck and down the stairs to where Nana, Kakeru and Takase were waiting. She latched onto Nana and didn't let go for a while.

The brown haired girl patted her friend on the back, comfortingly. "How was it?"

"F-freaking terrible. I'm never doing t-that again," Rin mumbled miserably into her friend's shoulder.

"It's okay. I forgot you were scared of heights."

Rin stepped back and adjusted her ponytail. "Yeah, so did I. Ironic, right?" Nana smiled and nodded.

For the next few hours, Rin went on nothing but the small, children rides. She got quite a few strange looks from the kids, as well as whispers from behind raised hands from the parents, but the striker didn't pay them any mind. She wasn't interested in getting a thrill anymore. All she wanted to do was calm her mind down and relax a little.

This was the reason why she was now preparing to ride the Merry-go-Round. She selected a white, princess-looking pony and hopped into the saddle. Next to her was a little girl about five years old and what appeared to be her older brother.

The brother looked like he'd rather be anywhere, but the Merry-go-Round with his little sister. His sister, on the other hand, was bouncing up and down excitedly on the fake pony and chattering away a mile-a-minute. The boy and Rin's eyes locked for a brief moment and she threw him a sympathetic glance. He returned it with a shrug of resignation.

The ride started up, along with the happy music and the ride started to twirl slowly. The little girl started yelling in glee as her pony bobbed up and down at regular intervals. The boy had a hand secured around his sister's waist because the way she was flopping around in the saddle, she was bound to fall off.

As the ride made its second trip around, she spotted Nana and Kakeru standing at the edge of the fence, waving. Behind them stood Oda with a judging look on his face. As she passed them, she stuck her tongue out at the midfielder.

The boy jumped in surprise at the motion and gave her a confused look. "Excuse me?" he asked.

"Oh, not you, someone who was judging me for riding the Merry-go-Round," Rin quickly assured him that she hadn't been doing the rude gesture towards him.

"Oh, okay," the boy said slowly and returned his attention back to his phone. Rin sighed and rolled her eyes. The guy most likely thought she had a screw loose or something! Just great, she groaned silently.

The ride was coming to a stop when she felt a hard tug on her pony tail. She turned around in surprise and saw that the little girl from before was leaning half out of her saddle, one hand pulling against the straining reins and the other clutching a handful of her long, black ponytail.

"Holy cra-crabs!" Rin burst out as she whirled around to steady the little girl who was about to fall. She sat the girl straight again and saw that her brother, who was supposed to be watching her, was busy texting while leaning against the carriage next to the pony.

When the ride stopped completely, she lifted the girl down from the pony and tapped the boy on the shoulder. He looked up in surprise, an owlish and slightly guilty look on his face. Rin indicated the small girl attached to her leg. "Weren't you supposed to be watching her? She almost fell and knocked herself out!"

The boy glared at her and then at his sister. "Sorry," he muttered. He held his hand out for the girl and she took it with a big smile. Rin glared at him as they walked off the ride. She wanted to slap some sense into the decrepit teenaged brain of his, but refrained for the fact that there were many small children present.

She settled with a sigh and stepped off the Merry-go-Round and went to find her friends. Oda snickered as she approached the trio and she shot him a dirty look. "And what, exactly, is wrong with riding the Merry-go-Round?" She challenged.

Oda quickly stifled his laughing and cleared his throat. "Nothing, nothing at all. You are free, pfft, to be, heheh, as childish, pffft, as you wish, haha," he did a terrible job of concealing the returning laughter as he said this.

Rin shared an exasperated look with Nana and the two girls sighed. Boys, they shook their heads.


Hehehe Bahamas tomorrow! This is a generous gift from me since I won't be here for most of break :)