"There's seriously nothing you can do?"
"I'm sorry, Echizen-chan," the teacher shook his head. "If you had transferred earlier in the year, we might have been able to move you into a different class. And we don't allow students to have a free bell…."
"So I have to take English anyways? Even if I grew up in America?" Akina sighed. Shit's so dumb.
The teacher sheepishly shook his head. "Well, we also can't have you inflating your grade with your English class…."
Bruuuhhh, Akina sighed again. "So, what am I able to do?"
The teacher's eyes lit up. "Well, since you asked, we do have a possible solution!"
I got baited. Akina narrowed her eyes, caution resting on her mind. "And that is…?"
"Well, we could make an exception and give you a free bell, but…."
"But…?"
"You'll have to tutor a student in English. How does that sound—?"
"Alright!" Akina shot the teacher a thumbs up.
He blinked, shocked at her enthusiasm. "Oh, well okay. I'll be telling your student to meet you here in the afternoon. Does that sound alright? It's best you two start straight away."
"Yeah, yeah," Akina waved her hand in front of her, brushing off his sense of urgency. This shit will be a piece of cake.
Akina's eye twitched. Her hands clenched around a loose-leaf page; a page which contained a thick, red, fat, and juicy 'F' in the top right corner. Her eyes wandered to the sheepish boy sitting in front of her. She knew him as one of the boys on Marui's and Niou's tennis team. The name Kirihara Akaya sat— barely legible— in the top left section on the page.
"I'm assuming you wrote your name right?"
The boy began glowering at her. "Yes."
Her eyes moved down to contents of the test. Her heart sank; it shrunk and withered in the deepest pits of her stomach as she stared down at his answers— all wrong, so— so very wrong. Half of them she wouldn't have even known what he should have been trying to spell if it weren't for the teacher's key sitting on the desk in front of her. She felt her soul leave her body before drifting to the floor like the piece of paper she held in her hands.
"Okay," Akina took in a deep breath. "Kirihara-kun, correct?"
"Yes, Echizen-chan." The boy rolled his eyes at her.
"You have to take this test again, right?" He nodded at her, his bored eyes rolling circles around in his sockets. She slammed his test into the desk as she shot up from her seat. Stars appeared in her eyes as a ferocious grin grew on her face. "Don't worry Kirihara-kun!" She shouted. "We'll defeat these shitty grades of yours, and then I get my free time back!"
"…Can you be less blatant about it?"
"Seiichi-kun, do you know where Akaya-kun is?"
"Ah, he's in a tutoring session. Sorry, Yanagi-san. I must have forgotten to tell you."
"It's quite alright, Seiichi-kun. We're all very busy."
Yukimura took a glance at the school building before turning back to his ever-growing club. "Hopefully, those sessions won't take very long."
"It's Akaya-kun. He'll be a while."
The bluenette placed his forehead into his palm. Just more shit on top of everything. He took a deep breathe before looking up into the still bright blue sky. His thoughts wandered to the black-haired girl watching over his team those few practices ago. "Yanagi-san?"
"Yes?"
"Did you find anything on that Echizen-chan?"
"Actually, yes." Yanagi turned his head towards the captain, his eyes still closed. "It's interesting information, actually."
"YES, KIRIHARA-KUN!" Akina pumped her fist into the air. "You've done it!"
"YAY!" The seaweed haired boy joined the older girl in her celebration, his fist clenching his new— and now correct— practice test in his hand that was raised in the air. "We did it!"
"And it only took us—" Akina checked her phone, "—two hours!"
"Eh?" Kirihara froze. Two hours for memorizing twenty words?!
As the realization struck in, their celebration jolted to a stop. Akina's eyes snapped out from their celebratory starry expression to a now pale and horrified white. Her skin began to feel clammy; her once strong fist pump began wavering— their strength failing her. Her lower lip began to tremble. As if it was being broken under a cherry blossom tree, her heart began to constrict, tightening under the terrifying realization of the utter hopelessness of her situation. Akina wanted to fall to the floor; wallow under her oppressing circumstance that was forced upon her by her agreement with the cursed English teacher.
This shit was not a piece of cake.
Yukimura laid on his bed, his eyes gently closed as he pondered over his next decisions. The information Yanagi had provided was indeed interesting, not to mention that she was already mixing in with his teammates. Before Yukimura could produce another thought from his head, the phone by his side vibrated, almost as if the sender knew that he was beginning to form a thought. The captain slid up, quickly typing in his password before looking at the contents of the text.
It was a simple link.
Yukimura sighed. His thumb pressed the screen, pulling up an article loaded with ads. After exiting out of all the redundant information, his eyes were finally able to uncover the title: "Sibling Duo Win Competition! Echizen Nanjiro's children Echizen Ryoga and Echizen Akina Duo Debut Together at Teen Matches."
"Echizen Nanjiro?" Yukimura hummed to himself. Perhaps she'll be useful. Hopefully she won't be a spoiled brat like Mina. He quickly sent back another text before settling into a quick nap before dinner.
You: Alright.
Oh pretty, innocent daisies.
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