UNSPOKEN CHAPTER 5

-Disclaimer: Slam Dunk belongs to Takehiko Inoue, IT Planning, Toei Animation and all that crap. Put bluntly, they're not mine. Enjoy!-

History period, Monday afternoon, First Year Class 10 of Shohoku Prefectural High was getting very interested. Their regular teacher had taken an early vacation, and their substitute teacher seemed to be pretty cool. She was younger than their other teachers and her class didn't seem to be as boring as their previous teacher. Even Rukawa had the decency to stay up, partly because the class was buzzing noisily. Even though he's spacing out, at least his eyes were open.

The reason for all that excited talk was because of term project. She gave them something totally different from the boring term paper that was originally assigned to them.

It was to make a presentation about Christmas traditions in different countries, since the holidays are coming up. It didn't matter which, how many countries or how you present it, as long as it had something to do with the theme.

"It's a fairly difficult subject, and I want it to be fun so you guys get to do it by pair," she said.

Hands immediately shot up in the air. The teacher looked glad that the class was excited about the project. She called up one of the boys.

"Can we pick our own partner?" he asked the question almost everyone wanted to ask.

The teacher tapped her chin. "Well, I did say that I wanted this project to be fun, so I want you guys to work with someone you get along with, so...ok. You can pick your own partner."

"Deadline's on next Monday, you may all go now!" the teacher announced when the last bell rang.

There was a sort of explosion of chatter as the Oendans in class argued regarding who would ask 'Rukawa-sama' to be their partner.

"You got to give him the Congratlations present, it's my turn now!"

"Well, you got to carry the banner we made for him!"

Reika looked over the top of the novel she was reading and suppressed a giggle. No question about it, these girls were stark, raving mad. Behind her, she heard Rukawa's head drop onto his desk. He was asleep again.

The Oendans passed by her on their way to their Rukawa-sama, giving her the evil eye as they went along.

All at once they garbled on and on, snapping Rukawa out of his sleepy daze. They all asked him to be their partner, all at the same time. He silently wished they would go away, and leave him to doze in peace.

After a while, he just couldn't take it anymore.

Reika looked up from her novel when she heard the scraping of a chair against the tiled floor. She looked behind her, and saw Rukawa standing up, towering over the squabbling females, glaring at the lot of them.

There was a sudden hush. Apparently, his sudden action stunned the Oendans silent. After a few seconds....

"So would you please be my partner?" one of them wheedled, thus prompting the others to do the same.

A book snapped shut and another chair scraped across the floor.

Reika had stood up from her seat and grabbed Rukawa's arm. "Come on partner, we have research to do," she said, boldly pulling him past the dumbstruck Oendans. The pair of them grabbed their things and left the room.

Reika burst out laughing once they got into the hallway. "The look on their faces!" she said, clutching her stomach. "And on your face too, for that matter. I haven't laughed this much in ages."

She turned to him, letting go of his arm. "Hey, I wasn't really serious about you being my partner okay?" she told him. "If you wanted to ask someone else, its fine by me. I could ask someone else. You just looked like you needed rescuing back there, coz those Oendans seemed to be--"

Rukawa held up a hand to stop her chatter. "It's cool. We're partners."

"So do you want to start the project today?" Reika asked him. He stared at her blankly, like he didn't know what she was talking about (which he probably didn't). "The history project? Remember?"

Rukawa continued to stare at her motionlessly.

"Don't tell me you don't even know why we're partners in the first place."

Silence.

Reika let out an exasperated sigh. What had she gotten herself into? "Anyway, since we're partners and everything, and I want you to do your share. If you want to start the project today, come by my house after practice." She pulled out the piece of paper from her pocket once again, scribbled her address on it with her pen and handed it to him.

"Reika-chan!" a female voice called. Reika whirled around and saw Haruko walk up to her. The latter girl blushed beet red when she recognized who Reika was speaking with.

"Yo, Haruko-chan," Reika grinned.

"Are you going to watch practice today?" Haruko managed to tear her eyes away from Rukawa and asked Reika.

"Nope. I've got to run some errands for my mom," Reika said. "You two go on ahead to the gym. I'll see you guys around!"

She winked at both of them before she walked away.

Rukawa unlocked his bike from the bike rack after practice. Miyagi and Mitsui were just passing by and stopped beside him.

"Hey, Rukawa," Mitsui said. "Shorty and I are going to catch that new horror flick downtown. Wanna come?"

Miyagi elbowed Mitsui. "Don't call me Shorty."

"No," Rukawa replied simply.

Mitsui laughed. "I should've known. So where are you going now?"

"Watanabe's house."

"Way to go, Rukawa!" Miyagi said as he and Mitsui imitated the Oendan Girls' cheering. "So that's why she turned down all the guys who asked her out. You guys are dating aren't you!?"

Rukawa looked at him like he was crazy. "Just a project."

"Ayayay, Rukawa-kun. Such a great player, and yet too dense!" Mitsui shook his head dramatically.

"True, so true," Miyagi agreed, nodding his head.

"The girls flock to you, but you don't even notice. And now you have the biggest catch of the century within reach, you don't even make a move to take it!" Mitsui told him. "I've been thinking of getting a girlfriend too, but I just don't have the time. If only Reika was a bit older, I'll be after her faster than you can say 'three points'!"

"Liar. You're just a reject like me and Hanamichi!" Miyagi glared at him accusingly.

"What did you say?!" Mitsui growled and they started to grapple each other.

"Assholes," Rukawa muttered under his breath as he mounted his bike and left the two to continue wrestling each other.

Rukawa got off his bike and leaned it on the inside of the gates, checking the piece of paper in his hand if it matched the plate on the post. When he arrived at Reika's house, the gates were open so he just walked in. He walked past the front porch and stopped in front of the door. From where he was standing, he could hear a voice singing loudly the exact same song playing in his Walkman.

Strange. Everyone who's ever heard the music he listens to says he was a crazy punk kid who loved noise. He pressed the button of the doorbell and waited. But no one came to answer it. He pressed it again. This time, he heard another voice yelling over the loud singing.

"Reika! Get the door!" it said. "Do you hear me? Reika!"

The door was opened a few seconds later by a woman. She looked very pretty in a professional suit, but she looked a bit hassled and stressed out. She and Reika shared quite a few similarities. Their eyes were the same intense emerald green, and her eyebrows were raised in the same fashion.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" she asked him with a tight smile.

"Is Reika home?" Rukawa asked awkwardly. He never was much of a people person.

"Oh, I see. Come on in," she stepped back to let him in and led him through the house. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to come to the door sooner. I'm pretty busy right now, and I'm afraid that Walkman is ruining Reika's sense of hearing," she said. "And she'll ruin mine if she doesn't stop that singing! Follow the hallway and go inside the first doorway to the left. You can't miss it."

She disappeared into a room with double-doors and shut them behind her. Rukawa followed her instructions and got in a room that looked like a living room.

Reika was sitting on the couch, painting decals on a new skateboard and singing. He supposed that she was listening to her Walkman because she had headphones on over her loose ponytail. She didn't even notice Rukawa standing there, the way she didn't notice him when he caught her practicing by herself.

Rukawa got a little impatient waiting so he ambled up behind her and yanked off the headphones.

"Hey! What's the big--?!" she looked up grumpily and then she grinned sheepishly. "Oh, hehe, hi. Sit down."

Rukawa sat down on the couch as she put the painting tools and the skateboard away in a corner. Then she took out some books, magazines and other materials, dropped them on the table and plopped down beside Rukawa.

"I didn't think you'd come," she commented as she spread out the stuff she got. "So listen, I think it would be pretty cool if we collaged some pictures together and just cut out explanations from magazines and old books for the presentation itself. I'll type up some stuff for the written report. Also, we might as well do it by continent. That way, we can cover most of the countries easier. What do you think?"

Rukawa shrugged, staring impassively at the cutouts she was positioning at the table.

"Don't you have a say about this?" Reika looked up at him with an amused grin. "This won't be any fun if you don't at least say something."

"Like what?" he asked her as she started to leaf through one of the magazines.

"I don't know, whatever," Reika said absent-mindedly. "This could be good enough, don't you think?" she showed him a picture from the magazine.

"Maybe," Rukawa shrugged yet again.

Reika made a face. "Do you even know what the topic is?" she stared at him, frustrated. Then she sighed. "I suppose not. Find anything related to Christmas. Anything at all. Like this, 'Holidays in Holland' "

"Holiday?"

"You have absolutely no idea, have you?"

Rukawa looked thoughtful. "I don't know..."

Reika slapped his arm and laughed. "Fine, you do the cutting and pasting. I'll look for the material.Let's get to work."

"I'm so tired!" Reika stretched her arms over her head and sighed. "I think this project is getting top scores!"

"Hmm," he nodded slowly. He didn't look as tense and secluded now, unlike before. In fact, he looked...relaxed. His eyebrows weren't knitted together anymore. In fact, he was even helpful.

She checked her watch and frowned. "We can't finish this all today. Why don't we—"

Reika was cut off by a sudden entrance of an eight-year-old boy dribbling a blue basketball. He then took aim at the paint tub beside Reika's skateboard. She saw him just in time to catch the basketball.

"Koji, you brat!" Reika glared at him. "If you ruin my new board I swear I'll strangle you!"

He stuck out his tongue at her and ran to get his ball. But then, his foot got caught on the edge of the carpet and almost fell face-first on the floor. Luckily, Rukawa caught him in time.

"Arigato..." he said, suddenly timid. When he saw who caught him, his green eyes widened and he broke into a wide smile. "You're Rukawa!"

"You know me?" Rukawa asked as he helped him stand up.

"Who doesn't?" Reika said, as though it was obvious. "Listen, Rukawa-kun, it's getting pretty late. Would you like to have dinner here?"

He shook his head. "I have to get going anyway."

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere. Not until you've had your dinner."

They all whirled around to see who had spoken. The lady who had let Rukawa in earlier was standing in the doorway.

"Ka-san!" Reika and Koji said, startled.

"Dinner's ready," she told them with a smile. Then she turned to Rukawa. "Young man, join us. It's a rare occasion, my cooking. And I don't take no for an answer."

Reika laughed. "Rukawa, meet my mom. And it's probably not a good idea to say no."

Watanabe-san looked at Reika. "Reika, have you had your--"

"Later mom," she waved her hadn dismissively, putting their materials away.

"Let's go, I'm starved!" Koji grabbed Rukawa's arm and pulled him to the dining room.

"You take care of yourself, OK?" Mrs. Watanabe told Rukawa after dinner and then disappeared again into her office.

"Oyasumi-nasai Rukawa-niichan," Koji said before running up the stairs.

Reika led him out the front door. "I'm sorry we kept you too long. It's just that we hardly have anyone come over for dinner except for my mom's clients. And Koji has always adored you," she said softly as they walked toward the gate. "Your folks are probably hitting the roof. Gomen ne."

"Iie(No)It's OK," Rukawa looked down at her, when they got to his bike.

"So when are we going to continue this project?" Reika asked him. "Tomorrow's not good. I have, uhh.. stuff to do."

"We have practice game with Shoyo on Wednesday," Rukawa said. Then he did something he had never dreamt of doing. "Do you want to come and watch?"

"Sure!" Reika broke into an excited grin. "I'm going to make sure I can watch. Fujima's one of the best players in the prefecture. So Thursday then?"

Rukawa nodded as he got on his bike. "Ja ne," he said before he took off.

The wind picked up as Reika waved him goodbye.

Author's Babbles:

Not much to babble about actually. But I do want to apologize that Rukawa's kind of OOC... All part of the story I guess.

Next: something fishy's going on with the newbie..

R and R please!

Til next chapter!