Chapter Twelve
Summer vacation came without another incidence from Aihara (other than the usual clumsiness, raucous, and mistakes). Since the end of the year exams and she'd asked me to help her study again, to which I declined, I'd been wondering if she passed her exams or if the house would be more peaceful this summer.
And on the morning of the first day of summer break, Aihara crept down the stairs, guilt written all over her face. Of course, as there always was, there was also a smile.
"Good morning." She said.
"Good morning, Kotoko," my mother said and eyed the school bag slung over Aihara's shoulder in confusion, "Doesn't summer vacation start today?" Aihara pressed her lips together and looked away from my mother.
"Yes… but not for me."
"Why?"
Clearly, my mother hadn't yet been acquainted with Aihara's scores. She may have passed the midterms with my help, but she would not have had it not been for that wretched picture. Little did my mother know, Aihara couldn't do anything right without a lot of help from others.
"Um… well, because…" Aihara hesitated and trailed off. She must've felt lucky when the doorbell rang.
"Yuuki, can you go get that?"
Yuuki slid from his chair and travelled to the main hallway. With the opening of the door came my agitation.
"Good morning!" Kinnosuke said with his voice echoing through the house and emphasis on 'good', but I couldn't see how it was as such now that he was here. Thankfully, I knew he wouldn't be staying since Aihara was leaving.
"I'm here to pick up Kotoko to attend extra classes together." He swept through the hallway to the dining area.
"Extra classes?" Her father said.
"But you were on the top 100 list for the midterms." My mother said, her jaw hanging.
"Right, but I didn't do so well on the finals." Aihara said stiffly.
I stifled a smile. 'Didn't do so well' was such an understatement.
"For you to have been on the list and still have to take extra classes, it must've been bad. You really are stupid." Yuuki said. This time, I couldn't hold it back. I didn't know why, but I found this so funny.
"Hey, stop that, Yuuki." My mother said and Aihara forced a smile.
"Okay. Well, I'm just going to leave now." She backed up slowly toward Kinnosuke who took her by the arm and marched her out the front door with the grin of an idiot.
"This is actually good for you, you know," he said on the way out, "You can get away from that beast for a while."
I held back from chuckling. What Kinnosuke didn't know was that I could have gone to the school if I wanted to. I'd recently received the schedule for the tennis club, and they were having practice today. While I hadn't been interested in going, I wondered if it would be fun to see Aihara mess around with her idiots and if it would anger Kinnosuke.
I instead opted for what would be less of a hassle, and what I couldn't do much of when she was around. I read.
I melted into a comfortable chair and had my way with the novel I was currently reading. But there existed a problem. I bored of it rather quickly, and it was new for me to have been disinterested in reading as it was one of my favorite pastimes.
Maybe tennis practice wouldn't be so bad after all…
Shutting the book, I headed upstairs where I changed and slung the bag containing my tennis racket over my shoulder.
"I'm leaving." I said as I descended the stairs and made for the front door in the hopes that my mother wouldn't catch me on the way out.
She bumbled on into the entryway. I regretted that I hadn't left without telling her.
"Where are you going?" She said as she ran her gaze over my clothes and excitement seeped from her. And I knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Tennis practice."
"But you never go to tennis practice. Why are you going now?" Her eyes sparkled with hope.
"I just felt like it. Is there something wrong with that?" I reached for the door knob.
"Oh, no. Not at all. Have fun!" My mother said. She really was getting herself worked up over nothing. Aihara would be inside and I would be outside. It was likely we wouldn't even be seeing each other.
And thank everything for that. I thought as I walked on toward Tonan.
As I came through the chainlink fence, a couple of people stared at me like they'd seen a ghost.
"Naoki Irie!" The club leader, Kudara said and made his way for me, "You're coming to practice today?"
"Obviously." I said. There would've been no other reason I was here.
"Oh, good," he said and fetched a racket quickly, "Partner with me. I could use the challenge." Kudara was by far the best player who was actually in the club (as I only played in tournaments, I didn't consider myself part of the club), so a good practice session was not on the table a lot of the time.
"Sure." I stole one end of a court. He served the ball on over which I returned easily. His serves weren't the strongest, but they definitely weren't bad. It was part of the reason he'd placed third in last year's tournament instead of second or first.
For about twenty minutes more, Kudara struggled with returning balls. He'd broken out into a sweat while I was barely hot. This activity, too, was becoming boring. I remembered why I never came to practice. It wasn't enough of a challenge, henceforth it wasn't exciting or practice for me.
At least until the school doors busted open and out came Aihara, led by her teacher. He brought her to the track and barked something at her. She responded with skittering away and beginning a run around the track. What was she doing?
In the second it took for me to notice her, I missed one of Kudara's hits. He smiled, pleased with himself. A smile also crept across my mouth, but for a different reason.
Not again did I allow myself to miss a ball from distractions, but I did watch as Aihara struggled to get done running a few laps. She stopped to breathe and her teacher got after her again. I laughed as she whined and took off again.
This was how it went for nine laps around the track until I found the perfect opportunity. As Kudara hit another one my way, she came around the curve closest to the court. I hit it at her, partially because this match was tedious enough to make me want to interact with her.
It hit her dead on the forehead. Perfect. Aihara stopped and held her forehead.
"Ouch!" She said.
"Uh oh." Kudara said as I jogged over, thankful to take a minute-long break from the match.
"Sorry, I didn't do it on purpose," I said as I reached her and scooped the ball up off the ground, "Shouldn't the class be over by now?"
"Oh, shoosh. I just felt like going for a run." Aihara said and looked to the ground.
"Aihara! Cut the marital quarrel and get back to running! You still have one lap left!" Her teacher shouted at her, making her jump a little and scramble away, looking horrifyingly embarrassed. I shook my head at her and laughed for the hundredth time today.
I went back to the match and Aihara finished her tenth lap.
"Next time, you won't slack will you?" Her teacher said as they headed back inside.
...
"Here," My mother said as she handed Aihara a glass of tea later that night, "Did you have an extra class for gym?" She inspected the light bruise on Aihara's forehead. Aihara bit her lip.
"Um… well, no…" She said, a deer caught in a headlight.
"She was slacking in her extra classes, so her teacher had her run laps." I said, hardly containing my amusement. Aihara glared at me for a moment.
"Slacking in extra classes… you must only get dumber." Yuuki said.
"That's enough!" My mother said. Again, I laughed. She was becoming more and more entertaining as the days wore on. It wasn't actually so awful having her around anymore.
