Chapter 1.

New beginnings weren't easy for anybody. A new job, a new house, a new city, first day at school, kindergarten, university… that's why they are called beginnings, aren't they? The start of a new chapter in your life and those weren't always easy. Particularly if your new chapter in life happened to be in your second year of high school and a new city, which dramatically changed your whole life. You had to make new friends, say goodbye to your few good old friends and get used to a new high school. It wasn't the end of the world, of course it wasn't and yet it was for any 16-year-old young girl.

"Aya!"
"Coming right away, mom!"

16 years-old Shibazeki Aya shouted back at her mother from her bedroom as she was finishing getting ready for her first day of high school. Originally from Sendai, her, her mother and older brother moved to Kanagawa after her mother got a promotion at her job, but most importantly, when her father abandoned the whole family to move to Australia with his much younger personal assistant. It wasn't easy at all on any of them. Midori, her mother had to be the strongest of all of them to keep providing for her two kids. A twenty-year old young man with the mental age of a 10-year-old kid and a 16-year-old girl too mature for her own age. Quite a difficult task for everyone involved.

"Morning, mom" she greeted the woman, kissing her cheek as always. No matter how old she was, Aya would always greet her mother the same way. "Did you sleep well?"
"I did, darling. And what about you? Ready for your first day?"
"Not as excited, but it will surely be okay, mom. Where's Kyô?" she asked as she took a seat at the kitchen table.
"Here am I, my sweet little sister," said the guy himself going down the stairs. "Missed me?"
"In your dreams."
"Stop you two. It's not time to be arguing at the table. Let's have breakfast."

Moms, huh? Tamers of beasts. Both Aya and Kyô complied and whispered a silent itadakimasu as they started to eat whilst sending each other death glares all the time during breakfast. Sweet sibling banter. Aya loved Kyô and thought of him as an amazing older brother, but most of the time she couldn't stand him since he teased her all the time and at every given chance, which only angered her further, and much to her dismay, it only seemed to amuse him more and more.

Once she finished her breakfast, she said goodbye to both her mother and brother and grabbed her school bag, ready for the day. She headed to the train station first, arriving just on time to catch the train. "You gotta love the rush hour…" She said to herself as she was pushed further inside when the train reached the next station and more people boarded the train and she found herself stuck the opposite door of the train and a really tall boy in high school uniform. The train stopped by her new school, so it was only natural that the train was full of mostly students, but what was really eye-catching about the guy was not his above average height, but rather his spiky hair. How in the heavens? Aya herself spent 20 minutes maximum when she was getting ready to go out, but this guy? It required some skills and large amounts of gel and hairspray, so kudos to him.

We are now approaching Ryonan high school station...

As it that was her stop, Aya tried her best to fight her way out of the train, clutching her school bag tightly to her chest until she finally made it out. And as she assumed, many of the students in the train were indeed from the same high school, including the funny hair looking guy. She followed the crowd until she reached the large board by the entrance to check which classroom she'd been sorted into. Not that she had a preference or anything, given that she knew no one, so her only wish was for it to be a classroom with normal and nice people.

"Shibazeki…Shibazeki… ah! There. Class 2-7. Where to now…" She whispered.
"Are you also in class 2-7? You are new, right?"

She almost jumped in the spot at the sudden voice belonging to a guy next to her. Did she speak that loudly for someone else to hear her?

"Is it that evident? I'm Shibazeki Aya and I recently moved here with my family, so everything is new." She introduced herself with a polite bow of her head.
"Aida Hikoichi, very nice to meet you!" He replied with enthusiasm. "I can show you around the school if you'd like. It is pretty straightforward but you can ask me for anything!"

Both Aya and her newly made friend marched into the large high school building and as soon as she went inside, she could tell how different It was to her previous school. This, of course, was a private school whereas her old one was public, so it was very easy to tell them apart. Ryonan had very well-maintained facilities –even some of them seemed brand new– and large outdoor spaces as well as sport facilities such as a swimming pool, volleyball, football or even a basketball court. The school had everything a student might need in their school life. Other than that, it wasn't that much different from her previous school. The same excited faces going into their classroom, happily chatting with the friends they hadn't seen over the holidays. And the same old and tired of his students' shenanigans homeroom teacher.

"So, Aya-chan! Are you going to participate in any club or extracurricular activity? You know, I'm in the basketball team." As soon as the orientation hour finished, Hikoichi turned to Aya since his seat was before her.
"I haven't had any time to look into it yet to be honest…" She laughed. "Perhaps the literary club if there's any. Or even the tennis club. I was part of that team in my old high school." She weighed her options. She actually really enjoyed tennis in her old school but it probably would be too time consuming when finals and deadlines approached, hence, literary club sounded like a safe option.
"Tennis?! Another sports enthusiast like myself. Noted!" He kept on nodding. "If you've got time later, would you like to watch basketball practice? It's going to be fun!"

And so, with that very innocent proposition, Aya ended up watching the basketball team's practices almost every day since the first day for two weeks straight. At first, only because Hikoichi asked her to, but later on, the female began to enjoy herself and actually have a good time. Thanks to that, she even managed to become acquainted with another girl from class 2-3. It was hard not to notice her for she'd always be there at every single practice on the same spot. Petite girl with short chestnut hair plus round cheeks and a kind smile to her overall calm demeanor. Orihara Megumi was her name.

"Sendoh, you lazy knucklehead!" Taoka Moichi's loud voice echoed in the gym. "When will you stop being late or skip practices?! You are supposed to be the captain. What kind of example you are giving to your teammates?!"
"Sorry Coach. I lost track of time in class. Won't happen again." The boy said with an apologetic smile, and soon was surrounded by his other peers.
"Hey Megumi-chan… who's that guy?" Aya pointed to him, quickly recognizing him, or rather his hair, from the first day in the train.
"That's Sendoh Akira. Class 3-4 and captain and ace of the team. As you have noticed already… he often skips practices."

That was quite the understatement for she had never seen him attending practice ever since the school year started and Aya must have missed 3 or 4 of those practices and the team met every day after school. However, his carefree nature was almost contagious. He was late and even skipped practice before, yet the Coach wasn't even that mad at him anymore. As soon as Sendoh stepped into the court after changing into his training clothes, even Aya herself could tell the air had drastically changed among his teammates. Judging by how Coach Taoka was calling him off, one would think that Sendoh was a slacker and didn't care about practice, but once he was playing, it was different. The charisma he oozed by making the simplest of movements, how effortlessly he made everything else see and the way he commanded his team… he was a natural leader and even Aya couldn't take her eyes off of him during the whole practice. It was completely mesmerizing. Everywhere he moved to, everything he did, her eyes would follow naturally.

Aya didn't notice practice was over until Hikoichi's high pitched voice snapped her back to reality.

"Were you saying? Sorry I was spacing out for a moment!"
"I was saying, Aya-chan..! You look like you are enjoying yourself. See? I told you! I know you haven't enrolled in any club as of yet, so that's why I'm here with a proposition you won't say no to!"

Despite protesting, she was soon dragged to where the rest of the team was by Hikoichi.

"Coach! I would like to introduce you to our new team manager!" He announced happily, to which Aya looked at him dumbfoundedly, shaking her head quickly.
"I am most certainly not! Hikoichi, what are you even thinking?!"
"Come on, Aya-chan! You are an ace at Math, you have nothing to do after school and you are enjoying watching practice."
"B-but…" Aya tried to protest and decline further but her tries were drowned by Coach Taoka's deep and imposing voice.
"You've got a point, Hikoichi. Ever since you started improving, you've got less time to be our manager, so this is a brilliant idea. You." He addressed Aya." Name and class. Do you know anything about basketball?"
"Shibazeki Aya…class 2-7 and well, I know the basics. Not much really."

Whatever it was, Aya was already starting to regret not actively declining the offer. Despite her very basic knowledge of basketball, Coach Taoka officially named her the team manager and entrusted Hikoichi with teaching her everything she needed to know about her duties and must know about the sport and so Aya's journey at being the basketball's team manager began clumsily but steadily. Hikoichi let her borrow several of his notebooks filled with data and stats and basically the 101 of everything she needed to know about being a good manager. He also gave her a box with videos he'd recorded and that she needed to watch. Even sometimes he asked her to stay after practice so Aya herself learned the basics from first hand. From time to time, she felt she applied to be a team player instead of the manager, however, she'd be lying to herself if she said she didn't take a liking to it. Both Hikoichi and Megumi went the extra mile to help her with all the things she needed to know and soon enough, she considered herself to be knowledgeable about the sport. In a couple of months. Her relationship with the other team players also improved the better she got at it; it was as if they finally were acknowledging the effort, she put into a being a good manager for them.

She liked Hikoichi. He was far way too enthusiastic most of the time, but he was pure and genuine and Aya couldn't be more thankful for that. The other guys, she got along with just fine with. The third years were tad scary but nice overall. The vice-captain, Koshino-kun was pretty nice and often took on the role of captain instead as the… captain himself often skipped practices. Even sometimes, Uozumi, the former captain, dropped by to see the guys and mostly, to scold Sendoh for failing at being a good captain.

Ah… Sendoh. Quite the character. He was by far the nicest and whenever he was playing, Aya's full attention was on him. Despite him skipping practice every now and then, his skills only improved further and Aya often wondered how that was possible. Must be because he was a genius, wasn't he? He really wasn't the best captain off the court, but all of the other guys loved and respected him the most. Aspired to be like him.

The basketball team practiced in the morning and after school and Aya had to come in early to prepare everything for the boys, which at the beginning was quite the task, to wake up early, but she started to get used to. And then she also had to tidy everything up after the boys mopped the surface of the court, which usually took her long and often ended up being just her in the gym.

"Shibazeki-chan, have you finished tidying everything up?"
"Sendoh-kun? Are you still here? Don't tell me…" Of course, she knew. "Don't tell me Coach made you run 20 laps around the field for being late." As she tried to suppress a laughter.
"Guilty as charged." He confessed, the sweetest of smiles adorning his face. "It seems you everything is nice and clean, so I'll go to the park. See you tomorrow."
"Wait! May I watch your practice?"

With yet another genuine smile, Sendoh gestured for her to follow him, to which Aya quickly grabbed her belongings and followed him to a nearby park, where the male often practiced after school whenever he was late. She knew there was an upcoming practice match soon, so probably that's why he was practicing after the practice itself, but then again… he shouldn't miss the team practice in the first place, but that was just how he was, wasn't he? Carefree and laid-back Sendoh.

"Shibazeki-chan, would you be so kind to stand here and play defense? I guess it must be boring to be just sitting down there just watching me play by myself."

Although in fact, Aya was enjoying watching him play. In a way, it felt like a privilege to see him like that. Standing up from the grass, she walked to where he was pointing to and then proceeded to show her what to do with her arms and hands. In summary, pretending to be an opponent, so it wouldn't be as easy for him to just score, but Aya doubted she could be of any real help, but she just did as Sendoh instructed her to do to the best of her abilities. Slowly, the dark mantle of the night was taking over and replacing the warm colors of the sunset, a sign telling them that was probably a good idea to wrap it up and go back home. Despite the late time in the evening, neither Aya nor Sendoh seemed to mind and he continued practicing until he accidentally knocked her over.

"Are you okay?!" He hurried to her side, making sure she was all right before helping her up.
"All good, Sendoh-kun. No worries." Actually, her back hurt a little bit, but she didn't want to worry him, so she simply smiled it off with a dismissive hand.
"Are you sure?" Furrowing both of his eyebrows, he asked once again, leaning down to examine her face from up close, which earned a flustered reaction from the female. "Will you tell me if you are hurt, Shibazeki-chan? And it is late. Let me walk you home."
"I'll tell you, promise." She nodded and took a look at her watch, eyes widening by how late it was. "It is very, very late… Your parents are probably worried. I can walk home on my own, really."
"I insist. And my parents aren't worried in the slightest, trust me. It is late and I can't let our hard-working manager go home on her own. It is my duty to walk you home as the responsible captain I am."
"Try unreliable." She pointed out in a joking manner as she hoisted her bag over her shoulders and he did the same.

The two of them set off in a steady pace, Sendoh being a couple of steps behind her as he was merely following her home and he knew if he matched her speed, he'd probably end up walking ahead of her simply due to his height and long step. A comfortable silence had settled and only the subtle sound of their footsteps against the pavement could be heard. Sendoh wasn't the overly talkative type if he didn't have anything to say and neither was Aya, so this kind silence suited them both.

"You know, on my first train ride to school, I vividly remember a certain spiked hair guy helping me out of the train as I nearly slipped while trying to get out."
"Did I?" He chuckled at her from above, now finally catching up to her in an effort to walk next to her. "It does get crazy during rush hour. You gotta be careful there, but I'm glad I was there. See? Even from before, fulfilling my duties as captain looking after the unofficial yet to be manager."
"What caught my attention was undoubtedly your hair. If I may…" She grinned. "How many bottle of gel do you use? It is hairspray?"
"That's a secret I shall take with me to the grave."
"I'm sure your full weekly pocket money goes into your hair care."
"No further comments. But I can assure you it requires lots of skill."
"You truly are no fun." She ended up laughing and nudging him playfully on his side while they slowly reached her house. "So here it is. Thank you so much, senpai for being such a reliable captain for once in a while." She teased. "I had fun watching you practice and helping you."
"Come join me next time too, okay? It shall be fun. Good night, Shibazeki-chan."
"Good night, and don't be late tomorrow!"

But Sendoh was already off on his way back to his own house and Aya stayed by her front door seeing how his tall figure became smaller and smaller until he disappeared from her sight.

Perhaps, new beginnings weren't as bad as she thought.