A/N: Not mine.
Fall Sports Festival, continued
"Obasama," Kotoko tried to comfort her, "Naoki and I are not going into battle. There is no need to mourn over us as if we were."
"But that evil boy–! Promise that you won't let him touch you when you pass off the baton."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Hands seldom touch during the race."
"Besides," Yuuki chortled, "he'll be too busy trying to outrun Onii-chan to get touchy-feely."
"Ew-w!" Kotoko drew out the word squeamishly while Naoki smirked at her expression.
Undeterred, Mrs. Irie hugged her closer. "Nevertheless, I worry about you. Take care!" Before the girl could head towards the track, she cried, "Wait!" After burrowing through her bag, she held out a small object. "Keep it on you during the race."
She examined the small charm. "St. Sebastian?"
"Yes, according to the priest at Matsubara, he is the patron saint of athletes. He will carry you through successfully."
"Hey, Ma," Naoki held out a hand, "where's mine?"
His mother smacked his palm. "Don't be a baka, Onii-chan. You're not Catholic."
"But I–"
Yuuki's hand slapped over her mouth. "Say 'thank you', Onee-chan," the boy whispered.
"Yes," his older brother upheld the advice, "she hasn't listened for the past six months. What makes you think she'll start now?"
"I suppose so," she agreed after nipping Yuuki's fingers to make him let go. She tucked the silver coin-sized piece in her shorts pocket. "Here goes nothing."
Kotoko paused to catch her breath after her lap. As much as she did not care for Kinnosuke, loyalty to her classmates induced her to give her 'all' in the race. "Sorry, Naoki," she murmured. By the fourth and final leg, Class F held a twenty-meter lead over Class A; it was doubtful that could be overcome.
She straightened and headed to where Satomi was waving an arm. Her friends had promised to save her a spot near the finish line. "Excuse me–gomen," she muttered as she elbowed her way through the crowd. Jinko grabbed her hand and jerked her forward once she neared them; this caused a small object to fall onto the track half a meter from her feet.
"Drat!" She saw that the lead runners were not yet at the last curve. She squinted her eyes; was Naoki gaining on the Stalker? She shrugged and leaned down to pick up the St. Sebastian medal.
Several people shoving their own way to the front caused her to overbalance and land in the path of the runners. Winded, she had no time to scramble back and was only halfway to her knees before Kinnosuke's foot landed between her shoulder blades and had her eating cinders again.
"–toko!" "Kotoko-chan!" "Onee-chan!" "Babe!" All the voices merged into a cacophonous chorus.
"Ugh," was all she managed, and she found that her second attempt at rising was no more effective than the first, her left arm refusing to support her. Yeah, she thought, I remember that shoulder getting kicked.
After gentle hands prodded her limbs for breaks, she was slowly turned over and lifted. Opening her eyes, she found Naoki's worried ones on her face, which Mrs. Irie was wiping off with a dampened handkerchief. As she was carried to the school's infirmary, she heard the sounds of argument and contention as Satomi and Jinko berated Kinnosuke for injuring her. Meanwhile, he wailed 'that damn Irie' was stealing his girl away.
A quarter of an hour later, with several bandages adorning her skin, her shoulder and upper arm taped firmly, and the lower arm resting in a sling, she gave her father and assorted Iries a shaky smile. "Who would have thought that I would be more in danger while not competing?" she jested.
"Do not even think to make light of this, Kotoko-chan," Mrs. Irie admonished. "Your lovely face scratched, your arm almost broken, and all due to that jackal in human skin!"
"A little harsh there, aren't you, Ma?" Naoki disputed.
"Yeah," Yuuki added, "much as I don't like him, I could still see that it was an accident."
"I knew I should have purchased more charms," Mrs. Irie fretted in distraction. "Now, who would have been better, St. Nicholas or St. Christopher?"
"Nope." Kotoko shook her head and looked at the brothers. "I officially give up now."
"And to celebrate that," Naoki grinned, "Let's get back out there so I can wave my first place ribbon in Ikezawa's face."
For the next week, Kotoko found that more members of her class than just Satomi and Jinko ran interference to keep Kinnosuke away from her. While not blaming the boy for the mishap, she still felt safer with some distance between them.
"Besides," she told her closest friends, "with him not pestering me, now I can concentrate on the final exams. Also, I'll need to review the lists of universities that Sister Mary Honoka gave me before I left."
"College, Kotoko?" Satomi asked.
"Of course," she replied. "Don't tell me that you haven't thought about which one you want to go to."
"Class F students don't go to college," Jinko stated bluntly. When Kotoko blinked at her, she amended, "Well, more like we're told that we need not apply."
"That's not right," she argued.
"Right, schmight," Satomi said. "Just go look at our bulletin board and compare it to the other classes."
"Yeah, theirs have college posters and ours has job ads."
"Ridiculous." Kotoko stood and left the classroom.
"Miss Aihara," Hakamada futilely attempted to attract her attention. "Oh, well," he muttered, "it's not as if she needs my lecture to get a good grade."
Kotoko did not return for over an hour. The girls later learned that she had indeed checked out the bulletin boards and then made her way to the office to complain, to no avail.
"Your visits are becoming tiresome," the counselor informed her wearily. "No matter that the circumstances are not to your liking, but that is the way things have been for years. It would be futile to take on the status quo. Of course," her smile resembled a grimace, "you have nothing to worry about. Please don't exhaust yourself trying to change things for the other students. Even if they possessed the ability, they do not have the ambition to knuckle down and study."
"We'll see about that!" Kotoko's face took on a pugnacious expression as she bowed then exited the office.
"Um, Kotoko," Satomi passed the other girl's favorite onigiri from her own lunchbox, "what got you so mad about how Class F is treated?"
"Yeah, it's not like that won't stop you from going to college," Jinko patted her on the shoulder.
"Everyone knows you don't belong in our class of losers."
"Don't call yourselves losers!" Kotoko's fist pounded on the table, making her friends jump. "If that poor excuse for a sensei would control his students and teach properly, all of you would be better off."
"Well," Jinko laughed, "I don't see that happening. Do you?"
"Unfortunately not. However," she nibbled a rice ball thoughtfully then swallowed, "the tutoring I did last summer… You two did well on the homework, right?"
"You know that," Satomi reminded her. "After all, we had a small party at the cake café later."
She stared at them intently. "Would you like to go to college?"
"Well," Jinko stammered, "we never really thought we had the chance."
"Even for the escalator school," Satomi added. "But considering that I'd like to work in a shop and maybe later own one, it would help if I knew a bit more about business."
"If you're in, I'm in!" Jinko averred. "That is," she looked at Kotoko, "if you're offering what I think you're offering."
"If you are thinking intensive lessons to not only pass but excel on the end-of-term tests, then yes."
Most afternoons, once school let out, the Irie dining room became a tiny schoolhouse. Mrs. Irie was in her element, providing snacks and refreshing beverages. On the occasions when Naoki would lend Kotoko a hand in explaining more difficult concepts, she would sigh at the sight of his head leaning towards her. The matron's hopes had received a blow once she and the other girls had learned which role her son had been in when Kotoko had swept him away during the race, but, as an eternal optimist, the injury was not fatal.
Therefore, she made it her task to encourage the struggling girls' spirits with kind words and frequent hugs. After all, if they continued to visit the Irie home, Naoki could be gently pushed into Kotoko's orbit without arousing suspicion.