"She's not supposed to be on the courts."
Shishido and Ohtori turned to see Atobe standing next to them with rest of the Hyotei regulars behind him. (Of course they were behind him. Who would be brave enough to stand in front of him?) "Ah, Atobe-san! We were just about to try and wake her up", Ohtori explained, a little worried seeing a frown on Atobe's face. Atobe didn't usually frown because it gives you wrinkles and he knew that one is never too young to start worrying about wrinkles.
"Wake her up? Why is she sleeping here? Kabaji, wake her up and take her somewhere else." Atobe turned and started walking away but stopped when Mukahi stated excitedly: "Ah! She's awake!" Atobe turned around again and examined the girl with an annoyed look on his face.
And we will also take this opportunity to study the princess of this story a little closer. She was a very ordinary looking girl. There was nothing particular about her. She was average sized and had a plain face. She wore round glasses that blurred her eyes. The red mark on her forehead didn't make her any more attractive either. Right now she had a confused and scared look on her face which greatly deepend when she noticed that the great Atobe-sama was glaring at her. Being shy and easily intimitated by nature she gasped and tried to back away only to bump into Shishido who was crouching beside her.
"Whoa, take it easy! That was quite a smack you got there", Shishido said with suppressed laughter in his voice.
"That ugly mark on her head is your doing, Shishido?" Oshitari asked, slightly curious.
Ayako quickly put her hand on her forehead and winced. The mark was throbbing with pain. She tried hard to remember what had happened but all she could recall was a sudden pain and then nothing. She would've tried to remember even harder had she not looked up and see Atobe's frowning face. With a little yelp she grabbed her book and stood up. Unfortunetaly for her but fortunetaly for us and the story she had stood up too quickly. She felt dizzy and started to fall. Panicking, she tried to take a hold of something and was relieved when her attempt succeeded. But her relief soon turned into horror as she saw what her hand had caught. The sleeve of Hyotei's tennis captain's jacket. What was even worse was that instead of preventing her from falling this little act had caused Atobe to loose his balance as well. The last thought that went through her mind before hitting the ground was 'Oh no! I'm going to die!'
Silence fell. Everyone watched as if in slow motion how Atobe's eyes widened in shock, how he tried to regain his balance but in vain, how he -using his trained reflexes- made sure that the girl was under him when he fell and most of all they watched as the left sleeve of his jacket got a clear, green stain to it from the grass. Silence went on uninterrupted.
'Oh no!' Ohtori thought.
'Whoops!' Shishido thought.
'That's not good.' Oshitari thought.
'Hahaha!' Mukahi thought.
'…' Hiyoshi thought.
'…usu…' Kabaji thought.
'Zzz…' Jiroh thought. Actually he was sleeping a little further away so he didn't see what happened and hence his thought has absolutely nothing to do with the whole scene.
Atobe sat up. He was sitting on Ayako's legs but she chose to remain silent about it. Slowly, oh so slowly, Atobe turned his eyes to meet the ugly stain on his otherwise spotless jacket. The silence had by now become terrifying. Ayako lay on the grass motionless and stiff, unable to make a sound. Her legs were starting to ache but the mere thought of mentioning this to Atobe made her flinch.
"Girl…" Atobe's first words were full of threat. "You realise that you have to compensate for this?"
"Y-yes", Ayako answered weakly. She wondered which part of her body would she be willing to sacrifice. A leg, maybe?
Atobe stood up. He turned to look at the sky. "Kabaji, write this down", Kabaji said 'usu', "Walking on tennis courts without a permission. Grabbing ore-sama's arm. Making ore-sama fall. Staining ore-sama's clothes." After every announced crime Ayako's dread grew a bit. Atobe bent down and picked up the ball that had hit Ayako in the face. "Damaging the tennis club's property." An unreasonable accusation but Atobe was after blood and wasn't going to be satisfied until he could crucify the offending girl. He took off his jacket and threw it on Ayako. "First of all you will have this cleaned."
"Y-yes."
Atobe eyed her thoughtfully. How could he punish the girl? It wasn't just for compensation, no, he also had to maintain his reputation as the unforgiving and strict tennis captain, otherwise he could lose his authority and that would be unacceptable. So, back to the problem: how the hell should she be punished? It wasn't as easy as everyone seemed to think. Coming up with proper punishments that is. Of course as far as the tennis club members were conserned it was simple -just make them run laps. But when it came to outsiders Atobe was at a loss. Racking his brains for the right solution he failed to notice that his expression had become really scary, so scary that even Ohtori felt a bit uneasy not to mention Ayako who now began to shake uncontrollably with fear. Yes, Atobe certainly had a reputation to live up to.
"Ah!" Atobe clicked his fingers. A vicious grin spread on his face. Some of the regulars took a step back. Atobe had just remembered something. "From today on you will be the tennis club's number one manager and you will stay as such until the end of this year. Do you understand?"
A little explanation is in order. The position of tennis club's number one manager was the most feared one of all in Hyotei. Though it was really cool that the club was so good and even cooler that the regulars were all either handsome or downright beautiful, it was an undeniable truth that all of the regulars (well, except for Ohtori) and most of the other members were pompous, bossy, demanding, unreasonable and almost impossible to deal with without getting stepped on -no, make that being crushed to the ground- leaving the poor victim moaning and crying on the brink of a mental breakdown. Things being this way it was only natural that it was really hard to get managers to stay. Because Hyotei's tennis club was so big it needed plenty of managers. The number one manager was the one that had to take care of the regulars. That position was the hardest to fill. And now, like a gift from the gods, this little girl had practically volunteered. Atobe couldn't help but smile smugly.
…it's going to continue…
----------
Notes: At first I tried to call Hyotei's sleeping beauty Akutagawa but I found it impossible. Every time I wrote 'Akutagawa' it just felt wrong. So this is why Jiroh is called by his first name while the others are called by their last names. Don't know if you even noticed, it's just a thing that bothered me so I thought I should explain.
Also, English isn't my native language so forgive me if I make many mistakes. I do my best but grammar isn't one of my strong points.
Ah, and please review so that I know if you like it and if I should change something. (Thanks, kawaiikarupin!) This is my first attempt so please try to find a gentle way of saying 'You totally suck!' if that's what you want to say. Thank you!
