A/N: Hi! Thanks to the reviewers. I'm with Night Strider again. School's currently on hold so we're partying with fics. OK, on with it.
Chapter II
A page per day. That was the rule for this. The guntai didn't make a fuss getting ahead of the story.
The next morning found the friends and Sakuragi in an empty classroom.
"What the hell is it this time, guys?" The red head threw furtive glances at his suspiciously happy friends upon plopping himself on a desk.
The four surrounded Sakuragi and Youhei, for his part, slammed the diary in front him.
"What's this? A gift for me? My birthday's not till three months to go." Sakuragi said disinterestedly.
"No, dumbhead. Read it." Takamiya spat, still smiling idiotically.
Sakuragi shot a dubious glance at the grinning four and poured over the book.
"Stop at the end of the second entry; third page's for tomorrow." Youhei warned his friend.
Sakuragi read the 1st page before going straight to the next one.
Dear Page 2,
Math teacher got mah head swiped with a board eraser. What a sucker.
Practice game is not so cool. He got tired too soon and went home too soon. He's still cool. So am I. I'm cool. Together we look so cool.
He said goodbye to me and smiled. I just waved back. Wanted to say I…whatever.
Went home early too; no reason to stay anymore. He was gone. Wanted to follow him but he was gone too fast.
Love?
Unsigned
"Who's the teacher who whacked him with a board eraser?" Sakuragi asked lazily as he dropped the diary on the desk.
"Who the fuck cares?"
"Then why am I reading this shit?" Sakuragi asked.
"Of all things that the accursed notebook implies, why d'you have to ask for the most pointless clue? I mean, you could've gone curious about who the owner is or who the guy's love is instead." Youhei snapped disappointedly; Sakuragi's being retarded as usual.
"You guys are dead boring. You take interest in a pathetic pink notebook, containing pathetic entries of a pathetic low-life ogling over a pathetic someone who's possibly as pathetic as he is-"
"Hey, can't you read? The owner's probably from the basketball team, and we're finding out who it is. Now if you excuse us, we're on our way to the gym. And mind you, we're not going there to watch you." Takamiya said, mortally offended.
"Sorry pal, I'm with him." Youhei said, tapping the redhead's shoulder as the guntai turned to leave.
"We-wait a minute! What did you just say?"
"I'm with him."
"Not you dummy."
"You're probably not interested. Besides, we gotta run." Noma said snobbishly
"I'm coming." Sakuragi said and followed the boys.
At the gym, the guntai's eyes surveyed the court for possible suspects.
"Noma, keep an eye on Miyagi...no, scratch Miyagi; keep an eye on Chinese boy Yasuda and that cute curly-haired freshman." Youhei ordered, being the leader of the pack anyway, to which Noma nodded obligingly.
"You don't have to tell me. I'll watch Mitchy and, er, Glassman." Offered Okuusu.
"And you?" Youhei steered the question to Takamiya fat boy.
"I'll take Gori and Rukawa."
"No, fox is mine. You take that Shiozaki instead. He can be a suspect for all we know." Youhei said seriously which resulted to Takamiya snorting like a disturbed pig.
"That leaves me with foxy and... er Hanamichi, you sure you er, do not keep a pink diary, perhaps-" Youhei sweat dropped while implicating what appeared to him a possibility.
"No, it's too a goddamn minute-are you suspecting-"
"No! uh, I was just, er, asking. Yeah that's it. Maybe you should go change in the locker room because I can feel two gorilla eyes trying to rip you apart."Youhei stuttered and pushed the red head to the gym.
Minutes of careful observation was anything short of a conclusion; too many players were sticking an eye on somebody and watching everybody. There was Kogure who was checking the progress of Kuwata the freshman. On the other side was Gori, training Shiozaki. There was, of course, Miyagi having a one on one with Yasuda. However,
Mitsui was slouching off on a chair in some corner and his eyes were somewhere off beyond those high ceilings and thick walls. He was probably running out of stamina as usual and decided to regain it later. About 2 seats away was Rukawa, who for some reason, was taking a rest too. But his head was turned in some other direction that it would be unjustifiable to suspect him of scoring on Mitsui. Maybe…
The guntai gathered for a meeting to share the results of their love espionage. At the back of the building, they formed a circle and laid open the pink diary to support their evidences.
"I bet it's Kuwata; he's hitting on Yasuda." Noma whispered flatly. From that tone anyone could say that he was certain.
"No, you haven't even shot a glance at Kogure who just kept on glimpsing at the tired Mitchan." said Okuusu in protest.
"Well, sure you two? What a dumby. I'll send myself to the gallows if it isn't Gori who's itching for Shiozaki." Takamiya proffered with an even surer voice than the two's.
"Wait, let's not jump into conclusions here; we're not performing this mission for mere assumptions, right? So let's deliberate; your findings are no more credible than some silly accusations that say that a cat is a duckling. What I'm trying to say is that when something quacks, then it must be a duck…and the owner is Rukawa and he likes…he likes everyone in that stadium." Youhei declared without a trace of doubt; his face was set as that of Moses when he raised the arc of the covenant.
"Fuck you. You're the dumbest thing ever. How can you come up with such bull crap-"
"But you haven't heard my theory, have you?" Youhei started with the deepest stroke of sarcasm imaginable. "Well let me tell you then, Mr. Geniuses; the lovesick foxy boy's entries vary each day depending on who the subject is. I say, every page is every boy and yes, he likes everyone there!" Youhei shouted and flew his fingers to point at the stadium.
"Preposterous! What a load of bullcrap. Kill yourself so you may take with you your sick theories." Everybody shouted back.
"Why, what's your alternative? Any theory smarter than that, huh?" Youhei blared to defend his stand.
"How about this; don't think like a retard. Who the hell do you think would buy that? Why can't we just keep our conclusions to ourselves and then let's check our progress as we get further in the diary? I mean, eventually it will come up and don't you say he likes everyone there…it's stupid." Takamiya said seriously, which was quite odd.
"OK. Fine. Do whatever you like." Youhei said in staccato.
And they moved away from the stadium to find amusement somewhere. As they walked their way to the entrance of Shohoku, a tall someone with spiky hair was parking his bicycle on the parking lot.
Akira Sendoh had come to visit someone from Shohoku's basketball club.
TBC
A/N: OK, here we are again making insane plot twists that get everyone in a tight tangle. Hehehe. But we're trying to fix this on time since I have a feeling this will be as crazy as the other fics we've worked on. Thanks for reading. Ciao!