Chapter 12
The days of summer break went by much faster than everyone had expected and wanted; today was the first day back since the break.
"I have pictures!" shouted Tomo, handing the four other girls copies of them. She then went around the room and showed off her pictures to the others in the class.
Her bragging was cut short by Yukari's rather boisterous entrance.
"STUDENTS OF CLASS 3! I know you all want to trade stories about your fantaaaastic summer, but now is not the time!"
Yukari turned around and wrote the words SPORTS FEST in large letters on the blackboard behind her.
"The sports fest is upon us. In a matter of days, the strength of our class will be put to the test!"
"We will not fail you, Yukari!" shouted Tomo, standing on her chair with her hands on her hips and her chest puffed out.
"You better not! I have ten thousand Yen on the line!"
The class groaned.
"Hey, hey! If we win, you should buy us juice!"
Yukari calculated the cost in her head.
"Deal!"
A few days passed by and before the student's knew it, it was time for the sports fest.
Yukari sauntered up to Nyamo.
"Ready to lose Nyamo?"
Nyamo laughed.
"I don't think so. We have a pretty good chance of taking first place."
"Yeah right! Need I remind you….We have Sakaki!"
"Well, we have a contender of our own!"
"What? Who? That's cheating!"
"Eh?"
Yukari bolted off to find this mystery person.
"Hey you there! You kid!"
"Uhm, I've been in your homeroom since the start of the school year… my name is…"
"Yeah, yeah. Who's the student in Nyamo's class who is really good at athletics?"
"Oh uhm, I guess that would have to be Kagura."
At the moment, Kagura was on the blacktop, preparing for the festival. As she was doing her routine stretches, she was also sizing up her competition.
Let's see. Coach told me to keep an eye out for class 3. There's the little one, but I'm sure she won't be any kind of problem. Same goes for that spaced out girl over there… what is she looking at? Hmm, that girl with the glasses looks like she could put up a good fight, but at the same time I don't think I've ever seen her practicing. Maybe coach wanted me to watch out for the shorthaired girl on her back. She does look to have a lot of energy, but if she doesn't calm down soon, she'll be tired out before the races even start. I wonder who coach was talking…."
"Hey there Kagura!"
Kagura turned around to Yukari who was trying her best to keep an evil grin off her face.
"Huh?"
"I just wanted to come over and make a peace offering. You want this red bean paste bun?"
"Uhh…"
"YUKARI!"
Nyamo stormed toward her friend, her hand balled into a fist.
"Ahhh! She's gonna hit me! I think her top student should be disqualified for it!"
"Just leave Yukari. Go give a pep talk to your students or something!"
Yukari stormed off, muttering curse words in English, upset that her plan was foiled.
"Uhm, coach…What was that?"
"That's Yukari, class 3's teacher."
"She wants to win that bad?"
"Mhmm."
"Oh. Speaking of class 3, I don't really see anyone that would be any kind of threat…"
"Well, the person I was talking about would be Miss Sa…"
"FIRST PLACE!"
Mr. Kimura, the chairman of the sports fest gave his 'speech', which signaled the start of the fest.
As the festival took place, each class was giving their best to try and win first place. However, the competition between class 3 and 5 could not be matched. There were only two events left and class 3 was only a few points away from taking first place.
"Okay!" started Yukari. "The last two events are the 100m dash and relay race!"
"What's the plan, Yukari?" asked Tomo, jumping up and down.
"SAKAKI!" answered Yukari, pointing at the tall, quiet girl.
"That's the plan?" asked Yomi, dumbfounded.
"Yes! Sakaki, get over here!"
Sakaki slowly made her way to Yukari, a blush forming on her face from being called to the center of attention.
"Alright Sakaki. The fate of this class rests in your hands. You must beat… everyone! Especially that Kagura girl!"
Yukari pointed to a girl that Sakaki hadn't seen before. The girl's back was facing them, so Sakaki still couldn't see what she looked like.
The bell signaled the next event so Sakaki made her way down to the starting line.
A few girls down from her, Kagura was already in the start position, head down and ready for the sound of the gun.
There was a loud crack, and she took off.
Oh yeah, I have this in bag… wait who… wha?
Someone had made their way up to, and was starting to pass Kagura.
She turned her head slightly to get a look at who it was, but the girl took off at full speed. All she could see was a blur of long black hair.
Kagura tried to keep up but failed. She was exhausted when she reached the finish line in second place.
She was breathing hard when Nyamo walked up to her with a cup of water.
"Here you go," said Nyamo, handing her the cup. "You put up a good fight."
"C-coach. Who was that?"
"That's Miss Sakaki. She's the one I was trying to tell you to look out for in class 3."
Kagura watched the girl give the child prodigy a high five before sitting under a tree to rest.
Kagura was in a trance when Nyamo made a noise.
"Uhh… Kagura? You alright?"
"Y-yeah coach. I'm fine!"
"Alright good. The next event is the relay. You're going to be our anchor, and I'm sure Sakaki will be theirs. So you think you're ready for another tough battle?" asked Nyamo, putting her hand on Kagura's shoulder.
Kagura suddenly felt pumped up.
"Yeah coach! I'll give it my all!" Kagura threw her fist in the air. "We'll win for sure!"
I don't know who this Sakaki girl is, but she's going down. No holding back this time!
Kagura stood on the sidelines, watching the students of her class and class 3 battle in out on the track. Bu the time it was her turn to grab the baton, class 3 was way behind on account of the child prodigy.
Alright here we go. There is no way she catch up to me now.
Only a couple seconds had passed before Kagura saw the taller girl out of the corner of her eye.
No! Not again!
Kagura pushed herself beyond what she had before and was this time able to keep pace with the other girl. It wasn't until the last stretch that she fell behind and could do nothing but watch as Sakaki ran through the finish line in first place.
Kagura was doubled over and breathing hard when Nyamo approached her, this time with a can of juice.
"Wow Kagura. I've never seen you push yourself that hard. It was impressive."
"But, I lost coach."
"Well… yeah, but you put up one heck of a fight. You were able to keep up with Miss Sakaki. That alone is impressive. She would be a really good athelete if she actually showed some interest in it."
"W-wait. So you're saying that she doesn't practice or participate in any sports?"
Nyamo shook her head.
"Nothing at all?"
"Nope" replied Nyamo. Chuckling softly at the amazement in Kagura's voice.
Wow. Kagura looked over at Sakaki. She was crowded around by her cheering classmates
Kagura couldn't keep her eyes off the girl. She was so lost, that she didn't hear Nyamo trying to get her attention.
"Kagura? Kagura…Kagura!"
"Hmm? Oh, sorry coach. J-just tired from the race."
"Oh, okay. Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah! I'm great!" said Kagura, finally tearing her eyes away from Sakaki for a second to answer Nyamo properly.
"Okay good. Are you going to participate in the final dance?"
"Uhm… well it's not really my thing…"
Kagura suddenly stopped talking when she spotted Sakaki making her way over to the blacktop for the dance. She then noticed how the taller girl got put on the boy's side. Kagura could only guess it was because of her height. She hurried towards the line of girls leaving Nyamo staring after her, confused as to what had her star athlete acting so strange. She hurried off herself however when she saw Yukari making her way towards her to boast about winning.
Kagura decided this would be the perfect opportunity to talk to Sakaki. She had never seen, let alone met this girl before, yet she knew that she had to hear her voice.
Kagura slowly made her way closer to her objective, getting more and more nervous.
Calm down Kagura. What's wrong with you. Just talk to her. Ask her what her secret is. Kagura turned her head to get another look at the girl. Wow, she's really tall. Her legs are so long. That's probably how she's able to run so fast.
Kagura was now one boy away from Sakaki.
Okay, here she comes…
Just as she was about to switch off and come in contact with the girl she so desperately wanted to meet, the music ended. It was announced that the sports fest come to an end and student could now go home and enjoy their weekend.
She turned around only to see Sakaki and her friends making her way towards the school building to go home for the day. Kagura slumped her shoulders and headed off towards her class, unknown to why she was so sad about not getting to speak to Sakaki.
At the end of the day, as Nyamo was walking to her car, Yukari blew past her in a sprint and wildly started pulling at the passenger car door.
"Jesus, Nyamo…Hurry up!"
"What are you in such a rush for?" asked Nyamo, not making an effort to move any faster.
"I promised the class juice because I THOUGHT I was gonna get paid. I forgot I owed you ten thousand yen."
"Yeah well, you should thought about it before you made that bet with me." Said Nyamo, smirking at her friend.
Yukari's mouth dropped after realizing what Nyamo did. "You cheated me! You knew either way you were gonna end up with money!"
Nyamo chuckled as she unlocked the car door.
"You should take me out to dinner at least!" proclaimed Yukari.
"What? Why?"
"I DID win."
"YOU did nothing but stand and watch your class win for you. We shouldn't even have made that stupid bet. It was immoral."
"Oh immoral shmmoral. Are you gonna take me or not?" asked a pouting Yukari.
"Fine. But Yukari. You have to promise me you won't get completely drunk."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Of course."
