Disclaimer: I don't own any Azumanga Daioh characters.

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Chapter 4

"Uh, Miss Sakaki! Good morning," Kaorin expelled a breath of relief and brought her hand to her chest. Her greatest fear had been vanquished. "We got to be in the same class again."

"Really," Sakaki, expressionless as always, replied plainly before walking off to take her seat on the other side of the room. She didn't think much of the coincidence. Tomo, Chiyo, and all the others had wound up in the same class as her as well so Kaorin was no big surprise.

Kaorin waited until the other girl was far enough away, then suddenly turned and clutched at the front of her shirt. Her collected demeanor vanished in a rush of heavy breathing and sweat as though she had just sprinted a marathon.

"I'm so exhausted!" she panted softly to herself. Just being around Miss Sakaki was enough to put her body into overdrive, but the moment of excitement was brought to a screeching halt when suddenly something passed by in her peripheral vision. It was another girl heading towards Miss Sakaki's desk. The girl was new to the class but all of the students knew who she was. The star athlete, sought after above all other competitors. Strong, beautiful, well-endowed, and popular. Kaorin darkened instantly. "It's her...."

The sound of a whistle suddenly snapped Kaorin out of her reverie.

"All right everyone!" Miss Kurosawa let her whistle drop back against her chest and stepped up in front of the class. "I don't have anything planned for today so just make sure that you stay active. I don't want anyone to lose participation credit, ok?"

Kaorin nodded her understanding with everyone else and smiled softly. Today she would earn her participation credit all right. She would earn it along with a new understanding of what it meant to be actively competitive, and the subject of her study would be none other than one of the class's top athletes. Kagura would never know what hit her.

The students around her departed from the basket ball court to go and get the various balls and equipment that they would need for the day's P.E. activities.

"Kaorin," Chihiro smiled brightly and came to a stop in front of her friend. "We're gonna start a volley ball game. Wanna play?"

Kaorin looked briefly at the girl then gazed off towards the track where she could see Kagura and a few others beginning to stretch. Now was not the time for her to be indulging in a mindless game like volley ball. She frowned and faced her back to Chihiro.

"I don't really feel like playing volley ball right now. I'm more into track and field."

"Uh..." Chihiro hesitated and canted her head curiously. "But I thought you were no good at track and field." She had never known Kaorin to be all that interested in sports in the first place. Usually they just played volley ball to pass the time.

Kaorin suddenly whirled around and clenched her fist with a defensive snarl. Being competitive meant taking no crap from anyone, even if it was a harmless observation from a friend.

"Does that mean that I can't be?! Just what're you saying?"

"Nothing. I just..." Chihiro frowned and took a step back, raising her hands slightly. "I mean you never...." She thought that it would have been fine to point out the obvious to a friend that she had known for such a long time. Apparently she was wrong, but it wasn't her place to try and discourage Kaorin from trying something new. Finally she lowered her hands and sighed. "All right, never mind. I'll see you later."

Kaorin watched the other girl head off to the volley ball court. She couldn't worry about the lines of their friendship right now. That's what notes in class and phone calls were for. Right now it was time for some cut-throat contests between herself and the class's most notorious athlete bitch. She unzipped the jacket of her winter P.E. uniform and slipped out of the pants as well. Underneath the uniform she wore the regular shirt and bloomer combination that all of the girl's were required to wear. The winter air was freezing against her bared arms and legs but that was soon to change. Gathering her shed articles under her arm, she jogged off to the track.

Kagura bent down on one leg and extended the other out to the side. After a few seconds of feeling her calf muscles tighten and extend, she then repeated the process on her other leg. Her expression was set in a determined frown as it was always harder to exercise in the winter. The cold air made muscles tight and more liable to cramp if they weren't warmed up properly before each workout.

Since swim practices were put on hold during the winter time, all of the swim team members were still expected to keep themselves in shape. This was never a problem for Kagura. Couch Kurosawa had told her that she was the closest out of all the other swim team members to being national championship material. As far as Kagura was concerned, that gold medal was as good as hers. Try outs for the national team began in a few months and she planned to be the first one in line at the sign up sheet.

"Kagura!"

The athlete looked up to see Kaorin jogging towards her from across the field. The girl had stripped out of her winter clothes and was holding them under one arm while she waved with the other. Kagura got to her feet and rested her hands to her hips as Kaorin came to a halt in front of her.

"What's up Kaorin?"

"Enough small talk! Let's race," Kaorin dropped her jacket and pants to the ground and balled her fists in front of her. She felt like an idiot, but perception was everything when it came down to putting on an act, even though she didn't want it to be an act. She didn't want to pretend to be athletic. She wanted to be athletic. She wanted to be competitive. She wanted to be a million times better than Kagura. Her smile was wide and devilish, filled with an outgoing vigor that she had never before exhibited.

"Uhhhhh.....You sure?" Kagura cast an odd look and rubbed the back of her neck. She had never seen Kaorin out on the track unless it was at the sports fest. Even then she was usually on the sidelines and cheering for Sakaki.

"Of course! What's the matter? Afraid that I'll win?" Kaorin taunted playfully and danced back and forth on the balls of her feet. The words and their implications felt foreign coming from her own mouth and that was something she needed to change. She didn't make enough jabs at people to let them know that she was a challenge. If she had to, she would take digs at anyone and everything until competitive language was a part of her life style.

"You're on!" Kagura's confused look instantly changed into a stern frown. No one challenged her without getting exactly what they asked for, and beating Kaorin would be no problem. Quickly she shucked off her jacket and pants and tossed them aside.

A race was not legitimate unless there were other people to witness it. Someone would have to be the starter, and another person would have to stand at the finish line to declare the winner. Kagura looked around the track area for two individuals who could possibly fill these jobs. Everyone seemed to be involved in their own acitivites except for one person, and she was tempted to overlook that person in favor to her own common sense.

Osaka stood in the middle of field that was surrounded by the circular track. Her head was tipped slightly back, and her arms hung loosely at her sides. The vacuous grin on her face told that even as she was standing right there, she was a million miles away in a world all her own filled with pigtails, dead animals, concepts of language, and foreign policies.

Kagura sighed. Osaka was a better candidate than no one at all. She turned and looked at Kaorin.

"Go find someone to stand at the finish line. I'll get Osaka to start us off," she exclaimed before jogging out towards the middle of the field where Osaka stood passively.

In the center of the field, Osaka felt comfortably meditative as she looked up at the clouds. Usually she could find some vestige of shape or meaning in the fluffy white bodies, but today none of the clouds looked like anything. They were shapeless, amoeba-like drones, drifting aimlessly until they either collected together or dissipated. The purpose of a cloud was to rain. She wondered what happened to the clouds that never got to turn into big rain clouds. What about the clouds that disappeared? They must disintegrate into millions of little water particles, and then those water particles collect together to form new clouds. So maybe clouds that died out got a second chance after all, but what if they didn't?

Kagura slowed down to a walk and carefully approached the day-dreaming girl. "Hey, Osaka. Got a minute?"

Osaka kept her head tilted back but slowly let it fall to the side to acknowledge the one who had stopped a few feet away. That must have been how it was. They were all like clouds, some drifting more aimlessly than others. With the realization of this awkward analogy, she wondered which ones would turn into rain clouds and which ones would dissipate before they got the chance.

"Sure……Whatcha need?" she replied in a soft undertone after a moment of gazing at the athlete.

Kagura almost wanted to cringe. Osaka was a really nice girl, but also very morbid at times. There was something odd and creepy about the way she would slip into her own world and then return with deliberations that didn't matter and were often innocently dark. If she had the mind to think about it, Osaka's world was one that she would never want to visit.

"Um…." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "Kaorin and I are gonna race. We need someone to start us off."

In a flash, Osaka seemed to break free from her thoughtful daze and shook her head slightly.

"Sounds like fun. Can I do it?" The smile on her face lost its edge of foreboding and returned to the gentle, carefree one of a typical girl-next-door.

"That's a great idea. C'mon, this way." Kagura smiled and decided against pointing out the specifics of why she had approached her in the first place. She headed back to the starting line of the track with Osaka following close behind.

Kaorin was already there at the track. She hadn't had any problem getting someone to stand at the finish line and call the winner. In this case it had been Yomi because her wrist watch had a timer on it, but Yomi wasn't the only one standing on the side of the track. In her search for someone to call the race, a fairly large congregation of students had taken interest in the fact that she and Kagura were the ones going head to head.

Hearing of Kagura and Sakaki compete was never anything new because their abilities were close to matched. However, Kaorin had no such reputation as a spectacular athelete. To watch a race between Kaorin and Kagura would have been similar to watching a tiger battle it out with a domesticated house cat. Their expectations were somewhat sadistic in the sense that they anticipated the house cat to get get torn apart, and yet they figured that the house cat must have had something up her sleeve in order to pull such a stunt. The students cheered as the competitors took their places at the starting line.

Kagura set her feet and crouched down to touch her hands to the white strip of paint that indicated the zero yard marker. This was going to be a run-away victory. Kaorin should have known that challenging her was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. There was no way that she would lose unless by some cruel turn of events she tripped and fell.

Kaorin crouched down as well. She made a subtle glance sideways to see how Kagura set her feet and then copied the posture. Her right foot was placed forward and her left one extended behind. If she thought about the facts of the situation then she would have known that there was no way for her to win this race. She paid no mind to those facts. Her self esteem had always been too low for her to do anything significant. If today was the day that she was going to change, then she was going to become optimistic. Of course she couldn't win if she didn't believe that she could, and she did believe. Today was different.

Tomo skidded up to the side lines with an ambitious smile. Someone had mentioned something about a race and that meant that there would be an inevitable winner and loser. Whoever the loser was would be one step behind her, and whoever the winner was would be her next target for unrelenting annoyances.

"Man! Kagura's gonna kick her ass for sure!" Finally there was someone besides herself who was pulling stupid stunts. Kaorin looked just as wastefully enthusiastic as she did when she challenged Miss Sakaki. There had to be something behind it. Perhaps Kaorin had consumed a lot of energy drinks that morning and was ready to take off like a rocket. She ran across the track to Kaorin's side and cheered loudly. "Come on Kaorin! Don't let that big-boobed bimbo get the best of you!" If Kaorin was going to waste efforts on trying to win the race, then she would waste just as much effort rooting for her.

The event hadn't just attracted Tomo's interest. Sakaki had been helping Chiyo retrieve a volley ball when she had noticed some students making their way over to the track. Whenever there was something going on at the track, it usually had something to do with Kagura. After handing Chiyo the ball, she walked over to see what was going on and was hardly surprised to see her girlfriend lined up at the starting line. What surprised her was seeing Kaorin lined up next to her.

Osaka raised her arms.

"Readyyyyyyyyy!"

Kagura rose up on her feet and Kaorin made sure to do the same. This was the moment when everyone would know that this race was for real. This wasn't a practice run or a meaningless event for entertainment purposes. With the one hundred yards stretched before her, Kaorin would come closer to imitating her worst enemy. In becoming like her enemy, she would then be able to obtain the one sacred treasure that her enemy had confiscated right out from under her. Miss Sakaki.

"Go!" Osaka threw her arms down and the girls shot off like human rockets.

Kaorin never stood a chance. Kagura was taller than she was, her legs were longer, she was stronger, and physically more adept. The students standing on the sidelines were surprised only by the fact that they just might have been expecting something different. It would have been pointless for Kaorin to challenge Kagura unless she had some kind of a trick in mind, but what they saw told them only that Kaorin must have been intent on losing.

One hundred yards had never been so close to an eternity of humilation for Kaorin who pushed her body past its limit. Her lungs hurt, her legs grew tired, and still the best that she could do was simply not good enough. From the very first yard she could only watch helplessly as Kagura's form got farther and farther ahead of her. Even if there was some benevolent and merciful god looking out for her out there, her good thoughts and optimism had gotten her nowhere.

Kagura laughed and held her arms out as she zoomed past the finish line. It was a small and rather meaningless victory because she hadn't worked all that hard to achieve it. Nonetheless, it was another one to tuck away under her belt. If ever their classmates had any doubts, which none of them should have, then right now she had cleared them up. She could beat Kaorin in a race without even breaking a sweat.

Several seconds later, Kaorin half-stumbled across the finish line then collapsed to her knees to catch her breath. She hardly had enough time to gather her energy before Tomo suddenly came running over.

"Damn, Kaorin! You got some crazy spirit!" the wildcat reached down and helped the other girl to her feet.

Kaorin didn't feel much like laughing about the matter but she forced a sheepish grin. If she had been on the outside looking in on herself, she would have thought that it was pretty funny too. Only it wasn't funny. For a moment she had actually been convinced that she could beat Kagura if she just believed in herself.

A few yards away, Osaka approached Kagura with a damp hand towel she had gotten from the locker room. The other students had dispersed from the sidelines of the track muttering words of disappointment. Some shook their heads at themselves. Similar to Kaorin, they thought that maybe there had been a point to the whole thing.

"Good job, Kagura," Osaka complimented in that soft, barely-there way of hers and offered up the towel to the athlete.

"Thanks, but I don't think that I'm the one who needs this," Kagura smiled and took the towel to hang over her shoulder. She was hardly sweating and the air was cold enough to evaporate what perspiration there had been. Instead she went over to where Tomo was clapping Kaorin on the back.

Kaorin looked up as Kagura approached. Goddammit if she didn't hate that bitch for being so fast and making her look bad, but a voice in the back of her head reminded her that she was the one who had challenged Kagura, not the other way around.

"Yo, Kaorin. Good job," Kagura took the towel from her shoulder and offered it to the sweating girl.

Another false grin of appreciation peeled at Kaorin's lips as she took the towel.

"Thank you..." She was at a loss of what to say. How was she supposed to be like Kagura and hate her so much at the same time? Further more if she wanted to emulate Kagura, what did Kagura do when she lost? She had no explanation for why she even instigated the race, so that left only one thing to do. She would take the matter in stride. She straightened up and wiped her face with the towel. As her body temperature lowered back to normal, the cold air became apparent against her skin.

From the side of the track, Yomi stepped up and put her elbow on Tomo's shoulder with a mischievous little grin.

"Yeah, now it looks like the school has two wildcat idiots instead of one."

"What was that?!" Tomo whirled around and growled at her long-term friend. Yomi laughed and walked backwards with her hands raised in nonchalance.

"It's only true, Tomo. Any sensible girl who suddenly starts pulling competitive stunts has obviously been hanging around you too long."

Kaorin froze with her face buried into the towel. Yomi's biting words, though aimed at Tomo, struck a cord in the deepest portion of her heart. In her attempts to copy Kagura's sportsmanship, she had instead come across as a comparison to Tomo in terms of wasteful competition. She felt herself begin to tense and knew that any moment she would start crying. She couldn't have that, but hadn't Kagura cried at the first sports fest? Maybe it would have been all right, but not now. Not after such an insignificant race.

Kagura's grin somewhat faded as she watched Kaorin. The girl was shaking just slightly.

"Um...Are you cold? Lemme go get your winter stuff. Hold on."

"I already got them."

Kagura turned and Kaorin lifted her head as Sakaki approached. In her arms she held two jackets and two pairs of pants, each neatly folded.

In an instant Kaorin wiped her eyes and straightened with a bright smile. Miss Sakaki must have seen everything. She had never felt a greater desire to curl up in a dark hole and die after such a magnificent failure.

Sakaki grinned softly and held out the girls' outfits, one in each hand. She didn't know what had sparked the race and she didn't really care. Kagura's victory had come as no surprise, and she only hoped that it hadn't surprised Kaorin either.

"Thanks, Sakaki," Kagura took the offered jacket and set about slipping back into them.

"T-Thanks, Miss Sakaki," Kaorin let the damp towel fall the ground and carefully retrieved her articles of clothing from the taller girl's hands. She couldn't believe it. Miss Sakaki had actually been holding her clothes, but more than that she had folded them as well.

Sakaki nodded and stepped back.

"That was quite a race," she offered simply. It was the best kind of a compliment that she could have given to the both of them.

"Yeah. What were you thinking anyway, Kaorin?" Kagura laughed and folded her arms behind her head. Kaorin's invitation to race had to have been some kind of a joke. "You had to have known that you'd lose."

Kaorin hesitated in the middle of zipping up her jacket. That was the one question and the one truth that she had been dreading to face. She could admit no direct answer. Indeed she had to have known that she would lose to Kagura. The loss had been inevitable, but what she didn't want to admit was that a part of her had actually been intent on winning. Her mind rushed for an explanation. There had to be something, anything besides the truth that she could say if only to justify her presence on the track that afternoon.

"Oooh...I don't know. I just didn't feel like playing volley ball today," she replied and rubbed the back of her head with a nervous giggle. The words came out sounding plain and pathetic like a fabrication as transparent as she was feeling right about now. The very idea that she would have gone head to head with Kagura as a mere substitute for volley ball was unbelievable. Her race with Kagura had not been a simple distraction. It had been her primary goal, but things would be fine as long as her generic, two-dimensional excuse was accepted.

"I see..." Kagura nodded her head slowly. She didn't know Kaorin well enough to say whether or not the spontaneous competition was odd of the girl. All she knew was that it had never happened before and she had never seen Kaorin go out of her way to challenge people, but she supposed that there was a first time for everything.

Before there was a chance for an awkward silence to settle between the three girls, Kaorin smiled and took a step backwards.

"Well, I should be off now. Chihiro needed me for a volley ball game so that's where I'll be going. Volley ball is a good group sport. Like sportsmanship ya know? All for one, and there's no 'I' in team so I'll talk to you later!" she rambled quickly before turning and running away as fast as she could. She had never been so embarrassed in all her life, and right in front of Miss Sakaki too.

"Um..." Kagura quirked an eyebrow curiously at Sakaki ."What was that all about?"

Sakaki only shrugged.

"She tends to do that."

Kaorin ran as far as the remnants of her energy would allow. In trying to imitate Kagura, apparently she had been a little bit too obnoxious and ended up acting more like Tomo.

This was going to be harder than she thought. Somehow she had to discern the differences between being a competitive annoyance and a casual athlete. She had no experience in being either such thing so the only aspect that she had to go by was what she observed. Going with her feelings was out of question. She felt like an idiot when she instigated competition, but Kagura wasn't just about competition. There was something deeper in Kagura that she had yet to fully understand. It wasn't nonchalance, nor was it casual talent. Kagura wasn't cool and silent like Miss Sakaki, and she wasn't loud and brash like Tomo. She seemed to be a mixture of both with just a touch of something extra that was all her own. Kagura was a genuine type of girl with a love for her teammates and rivals a like. Tomo was the only person who she couldn't really get along with because Tomo didn't combine well with anyone.

Kaorin stopped just outside of the volley ball courts and rested her hands to her knees to catch her breath. Method number one was scratched off of her list. Random competition for the sake of competition was Tomo's deal, not Kagura's. If she wanted to become more like Kagura then she would have to start with the details and work her way up, no matter how much she hated doing it. That was what she had to change. If she was going to get Miss Sakaki to notice her then dressing, walking, talking and generally being like Kagura would have to be natural to her. Slowly she straightened and let her hands fall to her sides. Already she could tell that things were about to get very messy.

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Note: Nothing really. R&R if ya want. :) Concept art available on my home page.