Disclaimer: I do not own Hana Kimi or the characters found within. Thank you.

Cheating at Jumping

Gym class was always interesting, a new sport every week. Regular laps and calisthenics kept them all in shape, but the teacher continued to think up new and interesting was to torture those souls who had chosen not to join a sports club.

Today's torture had everyone peering at Sano. They had walked out into the sun to see a pile of mattresses set behind a bar, a high jumping bar. He had only been able to shrug as they all glared his way.

"You all know what this is," the teacher announced. "You've all jumped over one before, but let's see how high you can go. The bar will start at 1m. Anyone who drops the bar will run laps for the remainder of the time. The winner doesn't help clean the field at the end of the week." A low groan emerged from the crowd of students, not only at the idea of running laps when they ultimately dropped the bar, but also that their class had been granted field cleaning duty.

Mizuki, being the banty little rebel of the class, could only focus on one conclusion and thought it to be extremely unfair. "Sir, it's the high jump."

"Yes, it is, Ashiya. What's your point?"

"Don't you think it's unfair to us? We already know who's going to win!" The teacher stared at her blankly. With a huff and toss of her head she pointed to Sano. The other students began to clamor in unison.

"Unfair! No competition! He should withdraw!"

Sano, in a rare moment, turned to his classmates to announce, "I refuse to withdraw from this competition. I have too much studying to spare precious weekend time."

Mizuki almost fell back into Nakatsu in shock. "No chance," she whispered. "We have no chance." Sano only grinned at them.

"Don't worry, Nakatsu Super RE will come up with a plan," was whispered into her ear.

The coach yelled at them to stop their ruckus and had them line up. "So that every one gets plenty of turns, if you dropped the bar during your run you start your laps after you help with the pole. If you made it over successfully then get back in line. I shouldn't have to demonstrate, so BEGIN!"

The entire class had been silent as Sano, 7th in line, had taken his first jump. He had sassily shot Mizuki, 8th in line, a victory V while in the air. She had gritted her teeth and glanced backwards to Nakatsu. "Well? Plan?"

He scratched his head. "Just make it over the bar for now. Maybe he'll mess up." Mizuki glared at the soccer player and watched as Sano began his trek to the back of the line.

The jumping went quickly with only one student dropping the bar on the first round. The teacher raised the bar by 5cm to everyone's groans and ordered them to start all over again. Mizuki, being small, light and sometimes fast, was able to survive through three raisings of the bar. It was at 1m 20cm that she knew she would fail. It had been almost torturous to watch Sano's sly glances when their friends had scratched. Nakatsu's shoe had dropped the bar at 1m 15 cm leaving Mizuki as the only closely familiar competitor.

Since there were now only 5 left to jump, not a single student was running laps, instead they were all watching to see how badly Sano would embarrass them all. Nakatsu had cheerily waved and wished Mizuki well as she ferociously glared at him for leaving her plan-less. Her only chance of causing Sano to scratch was cheating, and she was too nice to trip him.

As the first boy began his run she began considering what her options were for a diversion while pretending to be a man. Her eyes were caught by Nao as he passed by on a lap due to his earlier scratch. The bar dropped to the same evil as Nakatsu, big feet.

As the second boy began she had decided that sometimes a boy would do anything he had to so that he could win. The bar bounced out of it's holders to land on the boy's stomach.

As the third boy jumped she knew there was only a few seconds left for her to gather enough courage. His bar didn't drop so much as get bowled over as he shied just before jumping and ran into it. The class was laughing as he ran around making sure the bar was even for Sano's jump. It was Mizuki's last chance.

All eyes were on the pair as Sano stepped up to the starting line. The class began whispering as Mizuki reached after him grabbing hold of his arm. He turned to see his roommate looking up at him with what could only be described as Puppy Dog eyes.

"Sano," she whispered as cutely as she could. "I… I…" The class held their breath as they watched her wrap slim arms around Sano's torso to hold him tight. She squeezed lightly and turned her face upwards, still doing her best to emanate as much cuteness as possible. "I don't mind it being you, Sano," His eyes were staring into hers with wonder. Mizuki let go, her damage done. "I don't mind losing to you," she whispered as she pulled away. "Maybe you should start your run now."

The coach started yelling as the class clamored in amazement. Mizuki watched as her favorite sports idol scratched on his best sport. He lay there, face down on the mat, while she signaled her victory to the class.

Later that weekend:

"Ashiya, what are you doing out here on the field. Didn't you win the high jump?" Nao walked over to his classmate while holding a small stick.

"I felt so bad," she explained while continuing to rake up leaves. "I did cheat, you know."

"Yeah, you did, but you still won." Nao sat down in the grass and waved his branch. "You never did tell us what Sano did later." His sideways glance caught her blush. "Oh? He did do something then."

"Aren't you supposed to be working," she spat while furiously scraping up grass from the lawn.

"Look at this huge thing I found," Nao complained presenting his stick. "It's very dangerous so I'm transporting it off the field. What did Sano do?"

"You're… Nao, you're ridiculous. Nothing happened, go away." Misuki waved her rake at him. "Go transport that to the trash bins."

Her classmate rose from the grass with his nose in the air. "Fine, I'll leave it up to my imagination. I'll imagine him grabbing you the same way I imagine Nanba-sempai grabbing me." He walked away without looking back completely missing Mizuki's light blush turn fire engine red as she began raking the same spot once more.

She was so focused that she missed Sano sneaking up on her. "Oh dear," he said as he grabbed the overlong rake handle. "You lost your rake." She turned to stare at him knowing what he was going to say next. He'd been torturing her this way ever since.

His head lowered, she could feel his breath in her hair as he took a step past her. "Are you ready to lose something else?"

Owari

AN: Well, this is a bit of pure fluff… spun of remember my own fondly remembered HS years and being forced to try out the high jump. Yeah.. I scratched so bad. Enjoy!