Disclaimer: Forget about the woes of yesterday
Chapter 7: Charity with Melody?
Next Morning…
"Morning, Tezuka-kun!" I called out as I walked out the guest room.
"Good morning, Aizawa-san." she's acting normal. Tezuka thought while he adjusted his glasses and headed towards the bathroom to wash his face.
When Tezuka exited the bathroom, he noticed Mina was nowhere in his house.
"Mother, where did Aizawa-san go?"
"Oh she went back to her house to get ready for school, of course. Kunimitsu, did Mina Chan tell you anything? Something fatal must have happened. She was cautiously checking if her parents were still at home before left."
"She seemed to avoid telling me anything so I decided to stay out of it."
"Hmm that's my typical son, icy on the outside and squishy within!" she cried as she ran up to choke her son.
When Tezuka opened his gate, Mina was already waiting for him outside.
"Sorry, I left without saying anything." I bowed apologetically.
"No, it's fine." Tezuka replied like ordinarily, unemotional and careless.
He was curious about what had happened in the previous day but of course, he promised himself he wouldn't bring it up unless she started to talk about it.
"It's almost summer vacation but we have midterms before that…" I said casually. Silence is not comfortable at this time. He might question me about the previous day.
"Yes but I'm sure you won't have any problem with it Aizawa-san. Yudan Sezu ni ikeba daijobu. (You'll be fine if you don't get careless.)"
"(Nods) What do you usually do during summer?"
"Practice tennis and read as much history as I can. And you?"
"I think I'll volunteer at the hospital, practice tennis and study ahead."
The rest of the conversation was quick, choppy and trivial. What more can you expect from the master robot? Seems like he was recycling my question with the words "And you?" all the time. But it's okay…
When I got into the classroom, I almost got ran over by the red head. (again…)
"Mina-Chan daijobu? Genki? (Are you well?)"
"Kikumaru-Kun. Yes I'm fine thank you."
I smiled as I became contented watching almost the whole class asking me about my condition.
However, I caught few words such as:
"Oh, she's back already?"
"Yeah, what a disappointment. I was able to watch my Tezuka-kun more that way"
"She's always around after school and before school!"
"It's not only Tezuka-sama! My Fuji-sama is being stolen away also!"
"No Oishi-sama!"
"No! Kikumaru-sama!"
"No Ishida-sama!" (Who?)
My 3 best friends in seigaku: Ito Hitomi, Yamamoto Kaga, and Andoh Miyuki quickly turned around to glare at them, along with Tezuka, Kikumaru, Oishi and Kawamura.
"Ahah don't worry about it guys. (Smiles) I'm really glad I get to see you guys again." I laughed it off as I urged Kaga to turn around. It's not like I want to date any of the guys they mentioned…
"So Mina how come you were sick for so long?" Miyuki questioned, not knowing she hit the bomb.
"Nya nya Tezuka wouldn't tell us your condition and we wanted to come over but Tezuka said (putting on Tezuka's stoic expression and adjusting his glasses) 'Let her rest'
Nya we were so worried!"
"Sorry for troubling you guys! I'm super genki now!!! Time to do a year worth of homework!!(Flexes my muscles…not like I have any but)" I wish time can stop at this moment. I feel so carefree around everyone.
For a moment, I saw a dark shadow on her expression Tezuka thought while he watched Mina flex her muscles and laugh.
"Oh Aizawa-san we have a student council meeting during lunch today!" Oishi exclaimed with his bang swaying side to side.
"Okay let's go together after Science. What are we discussing in the meeting?"
"The president said something about community service."
At the class council meeting…
"Meeting called to order at 12:09!" the president barked. "I feel that as inhabitants of a small country, we need to help and support each other to improve our environment. So I want suggestions from you guys about what type of community services we should do."
Community service…I volunteer at the hospital but our whole school will be a trouble for the hospital if we all volunteer. I was searching through my brain so hard that I didn't notice Oishi-Kun poking me.
"The president is asking you!" he whispered when I looked up at the friendly president Sohma Yuki. (He's from Fruits basket!)
"Aizawa san you always have good ideas. Give me an example."
"(Pause) I think we can go to senior citizens' homes because they are always inactive. We will have to acknowledge their conditions first then students can sing, draw, and play games with them."
"Good! Any other suggestions? I think we should keep ourselves busy with community service throughout the year."
"We can collect cans and clothes to donate to the homeless and the poor!" a red headed girl with freckles blurted out.
While people stormed the president with suggestions and the secretary scribbled furiously, MY condition came up. What if there are other people like me with an illness? At the end of the meeting, this is what we had:
Ask people to donate blood or bone marrow.
Go to orphanages and entertain the kids.
Recycle papers, cans and bottles within our school.
Promote saving electricity, petroleum and natural resources.
Collect cans/clothes.
"Okay I think I know what we should do now. We'll divide up the services by grades." The president announced when he was finally able to breathe. He scribbled on the chalk board
Third years must: ask people above age 17 to donate blood or bone marrow, promote the saving of natural resources.
Second years must: Collect can foods/clothes and attend senior homes.
First Years must: Attend orphanages and distribute cans /clothes to any area that needs them.
"Okay if no one has question, copy it down and present it to class. Meeting adjourned at 12:48!" Right after he said that, the bell rang.
5th Period was History but we had to shorten the period due to Oishi's and my announcement (To Tezuka's disappointment).
"Can I have your attention please?" I called out after Oishi got the teacher's approval to interrupt.
After Oishi and I took turns in explaining the process and our tasks, I added.
"By end of this week, I hope you guys can give us suggestions on where we should donate the cans/clothes and which orphanage we should volunteer at." I absolutely love the feeling when people give me their undivided attention. Except I don't like the way those girls that were talking about me earlier keep pointing at me and laughing…
Afterschool…
"Aizawa san, based on how you rally with us, I think you exceed our levels. I talked this over with Ryuzaki sensei and she said for you to practice with the boys except for Fridays. Fridays you practice with us so I can see how you're doing." Captain Minamoto declared joyously.
"Eh??" I was in the middle of content and melancholy. Tennis practice is not very challenging so I want to see how the boys' practice is but I like being around Captain Minamoto and friends I met like Koishikawa Miki (From Marmalade Boy!).
"Yes it is unusual but I think your skill is rare, like once in 100 years. Freshmen are usually not allowed to play but you're an exception so take this chance gratefully!" She reminded me of a lion letting go her cub while shaking her golden and wild mane.
"Ok thank you so much buchou!!" Should I tell her she looks like a lion? Nah…
"I'm so jealous of you! If I had smile like yours I won't have to worry about being asked to prom!"
"But buchou you're so pretty with your golden locks and you're a person everyone can admire." I said this sincerely.
"You should head over to the boy's practice before I keep you here because you're so sweet!" she cooed after giving me a hug that involved rubbing her cheeks against mine.
After giving a last smile towards the captain, I headed over to the boy's courts and approached Yamato buchou, the boy's captain. He seemed friendly, though I couldn't observe his eyes due to the sunglasses he wore.
"Umm Yamato buchou…" I greeted hesitantly. I didn't know where to start.
"I understand your situation. I'm honored to have you practice with us. I think you should join our freshman boys over there."
"Thank you for having me here." I bowed and strolled over to the group of boys wearing mint green ring collared t-shirts with matching shorts.
I spotted Kikumaru first since he was jumping around.
"Mina Chan what are you doing here?" he questioned as he landed from a successful somersault.
"The captain sent me to practice with the boys because she said I won't be able to practice properly if I stay with the girls." Did that sound humble enough? I really don't like putting myself above others…
"In other words you exceed the average girl's level." Two semicircle eyes which belonged to Fuji greeted me.
"Hey freshmen go pick up the balls and put up the nets!" a second year with blue outfit called out.
"Yes sir!!!" all the freshmen answered in unison.
ehh? Are we slaves or something?
Afterwards…
"Everyone 20 laps around the court now as our warm up." Yamato buchou asserted while receiving whining from the team.
"Oh but before that let me introduce you to a new member, Aizawa Mina Chan. She's been sent here to practice with us by Ryuzaki sensei. So let's all try to make her feel welcome."
I smiled and bowed, ignoring the guys' comments on how unusual it is to find a girl in boys' practice. I didn't care at all but I did care about how boring boys's practice was!
Nonetheless, everyone started running and little by little, people began stopping when they reached 10 laps. Freshmen started stopping first since they were not experienced in long distant runs like older members.
hmm the only people running are like the regulars and…only me?? I thought while turning around.
Oh correction, there's one more freshmen. I see green. When I focused into the image more, I spotted chestnut colored hair, pale white skin…and glasses?!
Tezuka kun?! I was impressed. He kept up with the Regulars but I didn't mention anything. It's not like I'll get any response back any way right?
After running, the freshmen were assigned to practice swinging 100 times, rally for about 30 minutes then clean up. Is this really practice? This was a lot worse than girls practice. In practice, I was able to practice variety of shots with the help of Captain Minamoto and other regulars. We had days where we help freshmen girls that didn't know how to play tennis yet. Boys' practice was an outrage!!! Seems like I was not careful in concealing my emotion and I crushed my water bottle harder than usual. Then who else better than Fuji to notice such trivial things? Fuji seems to have noticed my thought and he proposed to rally with me.
"Fuji kun are you sure? I think Inui kun wanted to rally with you though."
"Iikara Iikara (It's okay). I think Inui will watch me play even if I don't rally with him. He'll be busy with that notebook." The snow white Fuji pointed to the tall boy with glasses. Sure enough Inui was holding on to a thick blue notebook labeled "Fuji". When I glanced at Inui's feet I noticed more notebooks labeled "kikumaru", "Kawamura", "Oishi" and the thickest of all labeled "Tezuka".
"What a hard worker" I smiled in admirance.
While Inui scribbled furiously outside the court and muttered things like "Ii Data", Fuji and I rallied.
Our rally was exactly a rally. In other words, ball bounced back and forth, no special moves but I was surprised how Fuji was able to get all the balls even if it was side to side.
We were taking a short break on the court when a ball lobbed over from two courts away.
"Sorry! I hit it too far!" a freshman boy called from two courts away.
I walked toward it hoping to hit the ball back with my racket but Fuji was faster.
He extended his arms and hit the ball back to the rightful court.
"Wow Fuji that was a lucky shot!!" many boys exclaimed after they watched it in awe.
I also praised him but secretly I felt that it wasn't a lucky shot. Fuji's sky blue eyes seemed to have opened up at that moment and aimed it right into the court. I looked up and saw Tezuka staring at Fuji and I knew Tezuka had the same thought as me.
Who is Fuji Syusuke?
Hmm Hope you liked it! Review please! Oh do you guys prefer longer chapters or short? Tell me in the review!!!