"A Weary Gardener."
From Jo's Playlist: No Sweeter Love by Allie Paige
Jo's phone dinged and lit up harshly late in the darkness.
The Seder dinner that night was delicious and stressful and wonderful as always. They FaceTimed her brother and his family to act as an illusion of being together for the event. Her heart cinched at seeing her brother after such a long silence between them. They had always been close, albeit not in age, but his work on the farm alongside teaching pulled his attention away and her move from Rome diverted hers.
Two weeks of silence was their new record.
Jo rolled over and squinted at the bright light. She rubbed her bleary eyes with the back of her hand and propped up on her elbow.
Kuroo sent her a text. How was Sedar?
A smile slipped on her face, despite her attempt to stomp it away. She flopped on her back, thumbs wiggling in the air while she thought on how to respond.
It was good. We FaceTimed by brother and his little family. Felt like we were back in the States. She pressed the phone close to her thudding heart and closed her eyes. She quieted the buzzing of her thoughts in a silent prayer of peace.
Her mind was a raging storm and her heart an uprooted garden. She had to start over again. She had to decide who to weed out and who to replant. Who she could plant this time around.
She was a gardener with an aching back and sore knees. No matter how much she tended to her Italian friends, they were still wilting beneath her fingertips.
She didn't want that to happen here as well.
Her phone chimed and all stillness in her mind was upheaved.
Do you have the one sibling? He asked.
I do. He's about ten years older than me. Do you?
Yeah. Hey, how do you feel about being away with the team this weekend? We have a few matches set up for some teams in Tokyo and out of the area.
Jo gnawed at her bottom lip. The likelihood of her parents agreeing to her being away so quickly was slim, especially since it was Passover, but not impossible. But she could at least try.
She didn't know if she wanted them to let her go or tell her to stay home.
Jo no longer knew what she wanted here.
I can ask my parents in the morning. Where are you guys going?
Another Tokyo school and then a smaller district. It's two hours from here. No pressure if you can't! It's Passover for you, right?
Jo stared at the screen. A warm, gooey feeling eased over her chest and heart, sliding down to her stomach. He had remembered. Granted, she told him two nights ago, but it was still meaningful.
It was more than what Matteo had done.
She took a few moments to reply, rolling over onto her side. Yeah, it is. There's a chance I can go, though! It sounds fun.
A few minutes passed before he replied. I'll have more details after practice tomorrow, but we will leave Saturday morning.
Okay! I'll let you know what they say.
Another few minutes passed. Jo picked at her sheets with her nails while she waited. Texting him almost felt counterintuitive. She could open her window and knock on his and hear the words from his own lips. That impulsive, adventurous part of her that had bloomed in Rome wanted to. But she remained rooted under her heavy covers with her phone settled against her ribs.
Finally, the phone dinged. Well then, I'll see you in the morning for running. Try not to get too sick this time ;)
Jo's mouth fell open, mortified.
Her father's response was immediate.
"No." He didn't look up from his phone.
Jo frowned, fingers tightening around the stem of her mug. She swiveled on the bar stool to look at him. "But it could be a good way for me to get to know the team and see where they need to improve." Her throat felt tight. He didn't even listen to her this time. She gave her mom a desperate look.
Jo's mother's eyes flickered between Jo and her father. She took a slow sip of her coffee, one arm wrapped around her abdomen and her back resting against the counter by the stove.
Jo's heart sank. She would agree with her dad. Jo knew the firm set of her mother's jaw and the remorseful glint of her dark eyes well enough. The same as when she told Jo they were moving.
"We just don't know these boys, Jo," she said in her soft voice. Always the soft flower to her father's thorns. "Maybe for the next away game. We can talk about it then, okay?"
Jo opened her mouth to protest but shut it at the shift of her mother's mouth into a frown. Now was not the time to argue with her parents. As unfair as it felt, it made sense. She couldn't expect them to let her wander around the country a week into starting school but it didn't make her feel any less juvenile.
And her father wasn't even looking at her. He just kept his eyes glued to his phone, reading some article and grunting in thought.
Feeling a bubble of frustration claw up her chest, Jo slid off the stool and took her mug upstairs to get ready for school. She felt her mother's eyes burn into the back of her skull as she slipped away.
Rarely did he actually listen to her. Letting her go to school with Kuroo and Kenma was out of character for him. Jo had a fluttering hope that he was slowly agreeing to the idea that she was testing out her wings here. Getting ready to leave the nest for college.
In Rome she was allowed to go about the city with the freedom of a bird. But moving made him clamp down, closing the cage door temporarily.
Jo hadn't minded then. She had time to let him warm up to letting her explore with her new friends she had made swiftly. But here...the train stop here was not as long. And she was itching to explore as she had once done in Italy. With or without a friend group. She needed to go.
Jo's phone dinged, snapping her out of her bitter thoughts.
It was Bri. Are you free to talk? Can we call?
Jo glanced at her FitBit. It read seven thirty. She had fifteen minutes to get ready for school and meet Kuroo at the gate to make the eight o'clock train. A phone call with Bri would take longer than that. And she had an inkling that the conversation would only worsen her mood.
How about tomorrow? She put the phone down and pulled out her uniform from the closet.
Bri's response was immediate. Perfect! Does five p.m. your time work?
Jo pulled the skirt and blouse on, tucking in the tails smoothly. She brushed her dark hair out, pulling it into a neat low bun. I might be a bit later than that. I work with the volleyball club here.
Just call when you have time! I can't wait to talk to you :)))
Jo's heart missed a few beats and the air in her lungs felt stale. Same here :)
She had missed Bri. The two hadn't been particularly close but they did click well. Since her move, a chasm had spread between her and her old group. She didn't even think about reaching out to talk to April and Maria about the web she was entangled in. She had called them once on her first day of school but the group conversation was stale. Wilting. They tried to talk during all of Jo's lunch break but already the cracks had formed in the soil. The weeds had sprouted and no amount of ripping them out would change that.
The thought of reaching out to them after almost a week of silence made her heart squeeze again. She pressed her hand to her chest, trying to take deep breaths but the irregular beat continued. The muscle seemingly jumped into her throat.
Fear grappled at her nerves. She stumbled back onto her bed, chest rising and falling rapidly against her shaking hand as she stared at her ceiling.
It was just an irregular heartbeat. Nothing to worry about. Just breathe. Breathe.
Jo closed her eyes, focusing on expanding her ribs slowly. Feeling the pull of the cartilage and the tissue of her lungs expanding. She held her breath until it burned and let it out through her nose gently.
Her heart kept pounding against her fingers but it was steady.
Another text pinged.
It was Kuroo. I'm at the gate, hurry up!
Her chest squeezed again around her lungs and heart but she forced herself up.
Jo slid down the stairs, gripping the railing tightly to not land on her face.
Her mother poked her head from the kitchen. She handed Jo her bag as Jo was slipping her shoes on and pressed a kiss to her temple. "I love you. I'll see you tonight."
"I love you too," Jo said, leaning on the wall to balance as she pulled her stubborn shoe on.
Jo's mother slid her palm over Jo's forehead. It was cool against Jo's skin. "Are you feeling okay?"
Jo nodded, slipping away from her mother's gentle touch. "I'm fine, just tired,"
Her mother pursed her lips. "I know you're upset about not going with the volleyball team," she started but Jo waved her off.
"It's fine, Mom. I get it." She pulled the door open, flashing her mother a peace sign. "I'll see you tonight, try not to kill your students!" She raced down the steps and pathway.
Kuroo grinned at her as she slipped around her gate and Kenma inclined his head, eyes glued on his phone.
Jo forced a bright smile on her face. "Let's go."
Kenma was another anomaly Jo had interest in studying. His hair always hung over his amber eyes with a lock tucked behind one ear, so though he were hiding. She was surprised he got away with the length of it as it fell just at his chin.
His shoulders were perpetually curved. Either he was looking down at a video game, his phone, or paper in his hand. Even during practice his shoulders would curl in and his arms hang long by his side.
His athleticism was lacking compared to his teammates. He didn't react quite as quickly as the others when the ball flew over his head. His chest rarely heaved like the others after a set. Instead of lunging for it, he opted to observe it and the other team on the other side of the net. Those amber eyes narrowing in thought.
He was the nervous system of the body of the team. The brain, Kuroo would say.
So when Nekomata asked Jo for her opinion on that day's drills, she did not hesitate to say laps.
She swore Kenma narrowed his clever eyes at her after she uttered the word.
But Jo asked if she could add a few twists to the day's condition workout. She and her father had sat down the night before and brainstormed a few circuit drills that he believed would be beneficial to the team as a whole.
"What they really need is to be personally trained," he had said the other night, pencil twirling along his knuckles. "Observe as much as you can and I'll help you devise a workout plan for all of them."
So observe, Jo did. It was something she enjoyed, and was startlingly decent at, thanks to her father.
After their laps, Nekomata had them perform wall sits without a break at her request. When forty five seconds had passed, they were ordered by Titus (who was enjoying this all too much) to do lunges halfway across the court then switch to side squats for the other half.
With sweat dripping from their foreheads and chests heaving and a few moments to breathe, Titus, again, told them to each do ten pushups. To finish the circuit off, he barked at them to do ten burpees.
And then the cycle repeated two more times with no breaks.
"I think you've made an enemy out of some of them," Titus said, crossing his arms as the team collapsed on the gym floor after the last burpee.
Jo shrugged her shoulders. "Technically they don't know it was me. Could have been you, or their coaches,"
Titus shook his head, a sly grin on his face. "I've always kept my ideas to myself. The coaches haven't done circuit training like this before. It's too new. Too American."
A few of the athletes had given her some hard glances. Narrow eyes, slanted eyebrows wet with sweat. She wasn't gaining any favor with them by making them work like this. But how would they improve if they didn't push themselves?
She was sounding too much like a manager.
But would it be all that bad?
Yes. It would be.
Jo caught Kuroo's eyes and an understanding passed between them. Pushing himself so he had his legs stretched in front of them, he said, with a voice commanding attention but still soft at the edges, "Okay guys, it's time to cool down."
At once, like a well oiled machine, the others followed suit and stretched their legs, reaching forward to pull their toes back. Kuroo barked a one and the team replied with an equally sharp two. The process repeated until they reached ten.
"It feels like a group of soldiers," Jo said. The team then shifted to their backs, twisting their torso's so their right legs were on the left.
Titus nodded. "I remember we would have some sort of hype music going,"
Jo smiled. "For track we would sing out loud. Especially while planking,"
He rolled his shoulders and neck, as if shaking off the tightening of his core and cramping of his shoulders. "Planks," he said with such acidity that made Jo huff a laugh.
Naoi came beside the two teenagers, a critical eye on the boys stretching. "You came up with quite a different workout, Jo," he said.
Surprised by the praise, Jo bowed her head politely. "Thank you, sir. It was a fun challenge to puzzle through." Jo enjoyed the interesting challenge.
His eyes sparkled. "Maybe the two of you could come up with some drills. I think a change of pace will help improve their flexibility as not just a team, but as people,"
Titus and Jo blinked at one another. "That would be fun," Titus said slowly, waiting for her approval.
Jo dipped her chin. It would be fun. Working alongside an old friend from an old country. Pushing a group of testosterone high boys was just the icing on the cake. "Let's do it," a grin bloomed on her face.
Jo fell into easy conversation with Titus. They began bouncing ideas off one another as they began to clean up the court. At the end, Titus had a notebook pressed the the wall of the gym to store their ideas. A combination of exercises from their history of sports and her few years of ballet was formed.
"Let's talk this over in a few days," Titus said, stuffing his notebook in his bag.
Jo nodded. "We could eat lunch together or something,"
"Sounds perfect," Titus grinned.
Jo found Kuroo and Kenma waiting patiently for her outside of the gym, completely engrossed in Kenma's game. She couldn't help the little smile form on her face as their expressions changed comically.
Friends, she thought absently as they walked to the train station, her hands in the pockets of her blazer. Maybe her mom had been right. Regardless, she wasn't going to force anything. Perhaps letting the pieces fall into place on their own would be okay.
And let the winds dictate her direction for now.
AN: School has started yet again and I have more time than I originally planned! How's everyone doing? Staying healthy I hope. Please drop a review and let me know of what you all think! I very much value each and everyone of your opinions :)