CHAPTER 14 - The Day For Tryouts!
Many flashes of light appeared from Ino's phone camera, as she took countless amounts of selfies of her in the tight spandex shorts. She squealed as she realized her butt looked flattering in all of them, then jumping on top of Sakura to bug her on which photo to show Sai.
"Goodness gracious Ino..." Sakura was prepared to yell. "GET A GRIP, WOULD YOU?"
Ten Ten tied up her sneakers. "Come on guys, we're suppose to meet Temari down at the lobby in 10."
Hinata came out of the bathroom, hair tied with a backpack slung on her shoulders. "Okay, I'm ready!"
The girls then turned off the lights, gathering their belongings and got ready for the volleyball tryouts.
After school, Temari decided to take a nap. She had been tired after staying up late at night from doing physics with Shikamaru, and she did not get any coffee that day either since Shikamaru and her were running late.
As a result, she had just woken up, to a vibrating phone with many missed calls and spams of text messages of Shikamaru telling her to wake up, figuring she had taken her after school nap. With that, Temari ripped the covers off of her and put on her socks. She quickly ran to the bathroom, tying her hair up in two large pigtails with her side bang left out and ran back to her room to get dressed. On her way, she pushed Kankuro to the wall.
"Woah, sis! What's the rush?" He asked.
Temari spoke as she got ready, successfully getting dressed in a matter of five minutes. "I have to go to tryouts soon! And I-I overslept!" She stressfully gathered up all her necessities into a string bag. "Where the hell is my deodorant!"
Kankuro blinked, pointing into his room nervously. "Uhm.. over there."
She sprinted into his room, getting the can and spraying it under her pits within her shirt. She then ran to grab her string bag, slipped on her sneakers, not even bothering to tie them up, and ran out the apartment door, jumping multiple steps down the stairs, and ran straight into the parking lot.
Shikamaru looked at her, visibly stressed. He was leaning against the door of his car, waiting for her and took a smoke while he waited for her to finally wake up. He removed the e-cig out of his mouth. "There you are! I was wondering when you'd show up-"
"There's no time! Hurry the hell up and drive!" Temari shouted at him, forcing the door open.
The genius got into the car, not even bothering to wear his seatbelt as her tension rubbed off on him. "What a drag."
"Oh no! Where is she?!" Ten Ten worriedly thought out loud, constantly checking her phone.
Ino sat on the wooden floors of the gymnasium, yawning. "Ten Ten, if we came here for nothing, I'm so gonna-"
"There she is!"
Ten Ten ran up to Temari, hugging her. "We were worried you weren't going to show up! What happened?"
"Sorry," Temari apologized. "I overslept, I was up late doing physics with Shikamaru."
Ino and Sakura snickered to each other, causing Temari to glare at them. Additionally, Hinata went to go embrace Temari as well, celebrating her arrival. "I'm glad you're here, hopefully you got here safely."
Temari eyeballed the side of the room. "I made Shikamaru drive."
"Heh, typical." Sakura mouthed.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Kin crossed her arms, smirking evilly.
Ino stood up, glaring at the long haired girl. "The hell do you want, Kin?"
"Nothing, just can't wait to see you losers dance on the floor like clowns!" Kin told them rudely. "Hmm, how's my Shika-babe?"
Ten Ten scoffed. "Your Shika-babe? Is not your babe. Girl, get out of here."
Kin turned her smirk into a glare. "Why you-"
"ALRIGHT LADIES! LISTEN UP!" Shouted the supposed coach, wearing all green, shiny white teeth, leg warmers, and a bowl haircut. "I WANT NO SLACKERS! ALL EFFORT AND CONFIDENCE!"
Ten Ten walked up to the shouting guy. "G-GAI SENSEI?! YOU'RE COACHING?"
"OH, MY STUDENT, TEN TEN!" He continued to shout proudly. "Yes! I am coaching! The athletic head department figured that since I am best at strengthening the calves and legs, due to soccer conditioning, of course, that I'd also be accountable for bringing on an AMAZING volleyball team!"
The brunette looked up at the enthusiastic guy. "R-Right."
"FIRST! WE WILL START OFF WITH LAPS! FIFTEEN LAPS AROUND THE GYMNASIUM LADIES! I WANT TO SEE YOU MOVE IT!" Gai announced out loud.
The girls then began to jog. Ten Ten and Hinata sprinted through them easily. Temari wasn't as fast, but kept up with the pace. Sakura was around Temari's level of sturdiness, but slowed down as Ino struggled to keep up with the pace.
"OH MY GOSH, WHAT LAP ARE WE ON?" Ino asked, waving her hand as she was sweating.
"OH COME ON INO-PIG, WE'RE ONLY HALF WAY." Sakura shouted, pushing her to move faster.
Without them noticing, Shikamaru and Sasuke entered the gym. They had agreed to help Coach Asuma clean out his trunk and move in a bunch of soccer equipment into the trunk of his car in preparation for the next soccer away game. They walked towards Gai Sensei, or Coach Gai, with Sasuke having his usual irritated, cross-armed demeanor, and Shikamaru, hands in his pockets while lazily slugging his feet on the gym floor.
"Hey," Sasuke greeted Gai. "Don't make such a big announcement, will you?"
Shikamaru smiled to himself, nodding.
Gai looked down at the boy. "Sure. What's up? You boys technically aren't allowed in here during tryouts."
"Asuma asked us to put stuff into his car for the next soccer game, and YOU got asked to coach volleyball?" Sasuke sassily asked.
"That's right, my calves are strong and my heart is good!" Gai proudly said. "Good luck on your game you two."
The two guys nodded before heading over to the supply closet. Shikamaru looked at the girls, seeing a visibly struggling Ino before staring intensely at Temari.
'She's got nice legs.' He thought to himself.
"Hey." Sasuke said out loud. "You mind helping me out with these?" He asked him as he was having trouble holding some stuff.
Shikamaru glanced immediately. "Right, sorry." He would take some of the equipment out of Sasuke's hands.
Sasuke continued to gather more things, squatting down as he scavenged necessities that Asuma instructed them to take. Without turning to his friend, he blantly said, "You should just ask her out, you know."
"H-Hey! Not so loud!" Shikamaru told him.
"Psh, they're on their last lap. Gai is probably going to start screaming at them soon anyway." Sasuke told him. "So, answer me. Why don't you?"
It took Shikamaru awhile to respond back. He stared blankly at his friend, blinking as he thought of his response. Quite honestly, he didn't know why. They were always together; breakfast before class, he was pretty much driving them anywhere including small errands, and he had usual crush symptoms around her. He placed a finger on his chin, turning to look at the girls finishing their final lap. He looked at Sasuke, about to make up an answer until Gai started yelling again.
"ALRIGHT LADIES! 100 SQUATS!" Gai pointed to the air, ignoring the groans of the girls.
"I'm not so sure right now." Shikamaru honestly told him. "I like her, no doubt. And I quite honestly don't know if she does, but..."
Sasuke stopped his actions. "But.. her? Right-"
"Sasuke, not now. Let's just go." Shikamaru demanded.
As the two were about to exit the gym, the girls had finished their squats and Gai allowed them a water break. Temari walked over to Shikamaru as she drank out of her water bottle, but then Kin broke the space between them and hugged Shikamaru tightly.
"Shika-baby! You came to watch me practice!" Kin excitedly shouted.
Shikamaru began to desperately shake her off of him. "Kin, get off."
"Awe come on Shika-"
Shikamaru tried her again, this time, final. "I said get off!"
Kin, Temari, and the other four girls who were sitting on the floor drinking out of their water bottles were all surprised when Shikamaru raised his voice. It was definitely not like him to do that. Sasuke urged Shikamaru to walk, in which he obliged and they exited the gym.
"Damn," Ten Ten commented, then glowered at Kin. "Stop pissing people off."
Kin flipped her ponytail. "He's just in a bad mood, he's just mad he can't have me."
"Oh why you-" Ino was about to have it at her, then Sakura held her back. Hinata was genuinely worried for everyone.
Shikamaru was outside near the shed house of where he almost had kissed Temari. He smoked his e-cig again, trying to beat out a tension headache. He wondered to himself, why did Sasuke have to mention her? It brought up his troubling times of his past. He wish he could forget, but it just felt like a part of him. He took another draw, smoking in the bitter flavors before finally walking back to help Sasuke out with organizing the trunk of Asuma's car.
After about an hour of conditioning, the girls played a practice game. In which Temari was visibly skilled, so skilled, that Gai suggested she played a one-on-one toss with him. In which resulted in his loss, regardless of his athleticism.
"Very nice, Temari." Gai complimented. "What position did you play back in your old school?"
Temari teased. "Who said I played?" She said with a hand on her hip, then cutting off the joke. "I was a libero."
"Ahh, best passer, second best. Who was the first?" He asked.
She shrugged. "Probably some setter." She told him, not wanting to mention any names.
"I see. I like the way you move."
Temari smiled, seeing the compliment as a way that she was guaranteed on the team.
"UGH!" Ino moaned out, taking a whiff of her armpits and immediately pushed the girls out of the way to the bathroom.
Ten Ten smiled cheerfully. "That wasn't so bad! Kind of gave me a buzz."
Hinata nodded too. "Y-Yes! It really did. Y-You were all really good."
"I had fun." Temari told them. "Shikamaru is probably waiting for me downstairs, but I'll text you guys?"
"Sure." Ten Ten took a swig of water. "See you, Tem."
Temari walked out the dorm room, farewelling Sakura as she passed by her in the hallway. On her way down the stairs, she looked out the window to make sure Shikamaru was inside his Jeep, in which he was not, but he was sitting on the bench where Ten Ten and her met up on the first day. She smiled to herself, realizing how time had really flown by.
Making her way outside, she smiled at Shikamaru until she realized he looked completely buzzed. She then realized Sasuke was standing in front of him, telling Shikamaru to get over a certain girl's name.
"You need to get over Tayuya"