"Managerial Mayhem"
SUMMARY: Wanted! A manageress for Hyoutei's Tennis Club. Applicant? Ito Himawari, an ambitious girl who wants to be anything but normal. What to expect: Headaches, sore legs, angry fangirls, flying tennis balls, and maybe even… love?
DISCLAIMER: The Prince of Tennis was created by Konomi Takeshi. As usual, the characters in the franchise do not belong to me and belong to their respective owner(s). Aside from the characters I create, I do not mean to infringe on any current copyrights on the series. Thank you and have fun reading!
CHAPTER THREE: The Manager is a Newbie
"An offensive or aggressive baseliner tries to win the point by hitting from the back of the court, attacking with fast balls that the opponent cannot reach or return properly."
Drinks coffee.
"A defensive baseliner, or counterpuncher or retriever, returns every ball and relies on the opponent making mistakes. He has consistent shots, makes few errors of his own while making it difficult for opponents to hit back."
Drinks some more again.
"All-court players have aspects of every tennis style, whether that be aggressive baseliner, defensive counterpuncher or serve-volleyer. All-court players use the best bits from each style and mix it together to create a truly formidable tennis style to play against. In game situations, they have the ability to select an action usually executed by one tennis style."
Stares at the empty Winnie the Pooh mug.
"Ah, my head hurts!" Himawari complained to no one in particular as she closed the book in front of her loudly, her mood foul indeed.
Just yesterday, Himawari found herself completely exposed by one Atobe Keigo during her "supposed-to-be moment of brilliance." It was embarrassing to admit, but he completely saw right through her, and played her like a cat toying with a prey. But for her to realize her dreams of finally becoming the most popular girl in school, she had to take the job. Atobe could just go and… screw a platypus or something!
Her reputation was at stake here! She spent the last three years in Hyoutei Academy building up her name so she could be praised as the perfect student. This was her ultimate chance and wasn't there a saying that the sharpest swords had to be forged in the hottest fires?
Right.
She refused to become a nobody.
The only way for her to make her cherished dream a reality was to make a good impression. She would make sure of it. She'll become the best damn manager there could possibly be and astonish them all. Atobe Keigo would simply adore her, and the other insignificant tennis club freaks would worship the ground her polished school shoes walked on. Her schoolmates would cry whenever they see her. Her teachers would wax poetic whenever they hear about her.
But first, she had to get through and memorize the book Tennis: All You Need to Know.
All five inches of it.
In only one night.
Himawari glared at her Winnie the Pooh mug. It looked… slightly mocking. With its happy, happy smile. With its cheery, cheery decoration. With its obvious disregard for good manners and right conduct as evidenced by Pooh's lack of underwear or anything appropriate to cover his exposed bottom.
Really mocking…
She snarled. She hatedbeing mocked.
"What are you looking at?"
That night, another mug was sacrificed because of anger management failure.
"So I heard that you just became the new manager, ah?" A masculine voice floated through the air. (1)
Himawari and her friends turned around to find a male student with dark blue hair that complimented his equally blue eyes standing behind them, a somewhat mysterious smile plastered on his face. They were at the middle of a hallway, so his unexplained appearance caught them off guard.
"H-Hi Oshitari-kun…" Hana squeaked, waving a hand happily.
"A pleasant afternoon, Mori-san," Oshitari greeted. He then stunningly ignored the girl's loud sigh of pleasure at being singled out for a greeting. His eyes were focused solely on Himawari. "Ito-san, congratulations. Though to be honest, I never thought you would apply for the position."
"Thank you, Oshitari-san!" Himawari chirped brightly in that annoying high-pitch tone of hers. Himawari had taken a habit of using it whenever she wanted to make an impression. "I hope I can be helpful in your club activities."
The bespectacled man smiled again, but this time, his eyes had a certain ominous glint. It was like he was thinking of some sort of devious scheme.
In a nutshell, Oshitari Yuushi was a third year at Hyoutei Gakuen and was one of the regular members of the Hyoutei tennis team. People all looked up to him as a "tensai" because he was exceptionally good with whatever he did- be it in tennis or in academics. He had no trouble in playing in doubles or singles, and sometimes preferred to play by himself against two players for practice. Everyone in Hyoutei thought of Yuushi as the cool, calm and suave kind of student.
However, Himawari was slightly wary of the bespactacled Kansai. There probably wasn't an idiotic bone in the tensai's body so she might as well be prepared for him just in case he pulls an 'Ore-sama's Insight Is Never Wrong!' act.
"You should do your best," Oshitari friendly advised with a slight shrug. "Atobe is a fastidious person. He would be very hard to please."
"So what should I do to, ah, please Atobe-san?"
Oshitari raised an eyebrow. "You're kinda bold today, aren't you, Ito-san? Nn?" (2)
"Why of course Oshitari-san! I must be willing to make certain sacrifices if I want to perform to the very best of my abilities!" The girl clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. "With great power comes great responsibility."
Now, the Kansai man looked somehow baffled. "You just quoted something from Spiderman, didn't you?"
"Oh."
"Well, in any case, we better get going," Oshitari commented, glancing at his watch. "Maybe Atobe told you this before, but he absolutely hates it when there are latecomers. You could come with me now if you want to, Ito-san." He then smirked.
Needless to say, Oshitari's action prompted Yuki and Hana to giggle shamelessly in response. The newly ordained manager tried her best to ignore them.
"Of course!" Himawari looked at her friends with a slightly apologetic look. "Gomen ne, minna –san! I have a lot of things to attend to. I hope you don't mind."
"We don't mind!" Yuki answered, pushing Himawari towards Oshitari. "Now off you go!"
"Gambatte, Himawari-chan!" Hana added heartily. "FIGHT-O!"
Himawari's friends looked even more excited for Himawari than Himawari herself. Actually, when they all heard the news this morning that their dear Himawari-chan got the spot, they squealed and jumped and did other fangirly things that Himawari thankfully didn't take any part in.
"Ready to go, Ito-san?"The smirk didn't disappear from Oshitari's flawless face.
"Well," Himawari glanced back at Yuki and Hana. "I'll see you later, alright?"
Himawari would always pass by the tennis courts whenever she would go to her homeroom.
It was nothing that spectacular, but it usually warranted the interest of many. Everytime she would take a look at the supposedly majestic grounds, there would be several sweaty tennis club members practicing here and there with great effort. Others could be seen running laps, while there were those unfortunate few who were forced to become ball retrievers and watch from afar. The talented members, especially the regulars, often played practice matches on the other side of the court. The sight of them playing against each other usually attracted the attention of love-struck fangirls, and more often than not, crowds instantly gathered to check up on their matches.
Personally, Himawari didn't get it. She didn't get why many people liked tennis. It was boring and not even a creative use of one's time. Seriously, hitting a ball repeatedly until the other side can't return it? Where's the fun in that?
"Well, here we are," Oshitari told her as soon as they arrived.
"Thank you, Oshitari-san!" Himawari gave a small bow while the tensai gave another smirk.
"It was no problem," Oshitari briskly replied. His sharp eyes searched the crowd minutely before turning his attention back to the girl beside him. "I need to first change to my tennis outfit. You should immediately go report to Atobe." He swayed his head to where Atobe was located.
When Oshitari turned his back, Himawari didn't bother to hide the rolling of her eyes.
'And so I am left to fend off the Pompous King by myself,' she half-sang inside her head.
The raven haired girl took a deep breath and slowly walked over to where Atobe Keigo was standing. One, two… One, two… One, two… Hmm! Slightly rhythmic! She stopped when she realized that she had already arrived on her destination.
"Hello, Atobe-san!" Himawari greeted with all the sunshine in the world. Pompous Pilate, that's his name! La lalala!
"Ito, go inside the clubroom and get the attendance sheet. It is located on Ore-sama's desk's top drawer," Atobe said absentmindedly, paying no heed to her.
"I… Of course," she murmured. "Right away."
The girl obediently went inside the club room while inwardly shaking a fist at the Hyoutei Captain. As expected, what greeted her when she went inside the classroom were lavish furnitures and luxurious decorations. It was not as grand as Atobe's private study, but it still looked more like a business room rather than a tennis clubroom. There was around table of white powder-coated steel table in the middle of the room, with seven chairs accompanying it. Of course, Atobe's desk stood regally on the furthermost section of the room.
Himawari looked for the attendance sheet. Like what Atobe said, it can be found inside his desk's top drawer. The girl secretly congratulated herself for a job well done. Before going out though, she looked at a framed picture of Atobe that was placed on his personal desk.
"Very soon, Pompous King, very soon…" Himawari cackled, knowing fully well that there was no one inside the club room. "I'll make you bow down to me!"
Most of the Regular members were still in the changing room, huddled together. They were all waiting for Oshitari to finish changing and frankly, the long wait waskilling them.
"Ito…" Shishido cleared his throat. "Right. I'm sure I heard of her name before."
"Is she pretty?" Gakuto managed to ask, all manners forgotten.
"Gakuto-senpai!" Choutarou looked scandalized. "We shouldn't be talking about Ito-san that way!"
"You know her?" Not that Hiyoshi was interested. Just mildly curious. The Newspaper Club's motto was "Dare to Ask" after all.
Choutarou flushed. "N-Not really…"
Jirou was yawning. Not a good sign.
"I hope she's not some lame weirdo!" Shishido commented.
"Even if she won't be cute," agreed Gakuto.
"Gekokujou," Hiyoshi stated, mostly to himself. All the others did a good job of ignoring him because what he said had no connection with the topic whatsoever.
Jirou's eyes were steadily getting droopy. A really bad sign…
It was at this moment that Oshitari Yuushi chose to step out of the changing room. All the Regulars present in the room (except for Jirou who took the liberty of falling asleep on the floor) turned their eyes to meet him with a slightly expectant look.
"You keep on frequently giving me those looks nowadays," Oshitari observed with a frown.
Choutarou was the only one in the group who looked apologetic. "Ah, so sorry Oshitari-senpai! Shall we go now?"
"I don't see why not," Oshitari replied as they all walked out of the changing room and into the tennis courts. The other members soon noticed them and bowed down in respect. Choutarou looked like the only guy bothered by their gestures.
And then, there she was.
The Regulars all came to a halt when a girl with long raven hair came out from the tennis club room. Eyes fixed on the female newcomer, they watched as she walked towards Atobe to give him the folder she was holding. Now this was an eye catch! It was a rule in their club that no person outside the tennis team could go to the tennis courts whenever there was practice. Atobe made it clear at the start of the school assembly that the tennis grounds were sacred, and to brazenly waltz in without his permission was a great travesty. So what was this girl –who was obviously not a member- doing there and speaking to Atobe of all people?
"That's the new manager," Oshitari felt compelled to point out. Who knew that his teammates could be so slow? "Ito Himawari-chan."
Gakuto was the first to snap back to earth. "Oh? She looks… okay. I guess." There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"I often see her, but I don't know her personally," Shishido admitted, adjusting his cap.
"Well," Choutarou smiled. "I think we should go there and introduce ourselves. She's going to be our manager so we all have to get along with her!"
Gakuto scratched his head. "Heard she had a one week trial period, but meh."
They wasted no time in aligning themselves in the very front of the crowd of people standing in a straight line. This was standard operating procedure. Before every practice, they must all show themselves first before Atobe.
"Everyone," Atobe called out in a clear voice. Everyone looked at him anxiously. When Atobe spoke, people listened. Whether it was about his extraordinary prowess or his great hair, it was a golden rule to never speak a word whenever he would have his "moment." To be honest, it's like one of those unwritten laws in Hyoutei. Disturbing Atobe when he is giving his speech is almost like committing suicide.
"Ore-sama knows that all of you have been informed that our club was recruiting a tennis manager. Ore-sama found someone competent enough, but she would be tested for one week. Everyone, I introduce to you Ito Himawari!" He gestured his hand to the girl who gave a ladylike bow.
"Hello everyone!" Himawari greeted, trying her best to look friendly. "My name is Ito Himawari. I hope we'll have a great year together."
All the members clapped their hands in acknowledgement. The girl privately enjoyed her fifteen minutes of fame.
Atobe purposefully coughed rather loudly. "That would be enough for now. Naa, Kabaji?"
"Usu." The giant mechanically responded.
"Everyone, return to the tennis courts!" Atobe ordered before turning his attention to the Regulars. "All of you, twenty five laps around the court."
The Regulars all sighed in relief. Twenty five laps? Halleluiah! Atobe rarely gave them anything less than fifty, so it was already a miracle if they were demanded by their buchou to run forty laps. They all simultaneously looked at Ito Himawari. Should they thank her for helping Atobe release his pent-up frustration?
Should Atobe release his pent-up frustration on her?
Himawari thought about this as she huffed tiredly and massaged her sore legs. Without any sort of explanation whatsoever, Atobe ordered, no, decreed her to run ten laps. In what crazy world did the manager have to run laps with the members anyway? She wanted to give him a murderous glare in retort, but decided against it, preferring to instead fake a smile and start running. Deep inside though, she was thinking of a kajillion and one ways on how to make Atobe suffer.
After taking a short break, she also had to get the beverages and distribute them to the members. The Regulars were fussier, she thought, since they all had their own drinking bottles and she had to get their drinks right. One opted for carrot juice, two liked energy drinks, another dude had a thing for green tea, someone liked plain water and there's a bizarre creature among them who drank garlic soft drink. (3)
GARLIC. SOFT. DRINK.
BLEAGH.
Nobody ever had the manners to mutter a word of thanks. Not even Oshitari, who only nodded politely when he gave her back his drink. She wondered if this was all the influence of their oh-so-great captain.
The only exception was a nice second year named Ohtori Choutarou. He had the most curious hair color- gleaming silver actually- and he was rather tall, though not overtly so. He was only a second year, but he gave the appearance of someone more mature and levelheaded.
"My senpai-tachi may seem really strange but they don't mean any harm," Choutarou assured when she approached him.
"Of course not," Himawari responded, switching on her 'friendly' front. They're just tennis club freaks!
"I'm glad you understand Himawari-senpai," Choutarou had a look of relief in his face. "I'm also glad that you're normal. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm the only sane one in the group." His eyes then widened as realization of what he said hit him. "Ah! It's not like I have anything against my senpai-tachi or something! In fact, I look up to them! Honestly!"
Himawari mulled this over. "I'm sure you do," she murmured softly before looking back at him. "You're a nice guy, Ohtori-san. The team is lucky to have you."
"Thank you Himawari-san!" Choutarou beamed at her, obviously inspired to work harder. With that, he made his way back to the tennis courts with renewed vigor.
The raven haired girl heaved a sigh. The day was turning unpleasant, but she had to admit that her brief chat with Choutarou made it a whole lot better. She eyed the papers that were given to her with disdain. Why paperwork of all things?
"Ah!"
As soon as she thought of what a nuisance it was to do paperwork, a strong gust of wind passed by and blew the top pages of the documents.
Damn it!
"Come back!" She exclaimed as she chased off after one of the documents.
"Oi!" A voice suddenly called out to her. She craned her neck towards the direction of the unfamiliar voice when-
PLAK!
"Tennis Ball…" Shishido finished… well, lamely. He gave an exasperated look at Hiyoshi, who did not seem bothered at al by the sudden incident, before approaching the girl. "Ah… Are you alright?"
In Himawari's mind, her suffering must be a cruel trick played by Kami-sama. Her head ached after reading an entire volume of encyclopedia about tennis the night before, and her body was sore from all the laps Atobe made her run. The tennis ball from a while ago also managed to bruise her left cheek, and she felt it sting, making her hiss in pain.
If she wasn't so self-conscious, she would've stood up right away and smacked the tennis club freaks. But that wasn't an option. The kenkyuusei Himawari wouldn't hurt a fly even. With a heavy heart, she just muttered certain profanities under her breath.
"What are you doing?" Shishido asked, looking at her strangely. Somehow, he was getting the feeling that their new manager might be harboring a secret passion for rapping. He could've sworn that she was muttering incomprehensible things a while ago in such a fast manner that no mere mortal could ever manage to keep up with what she was saying.
Himawari quickly stood up. "Why nothing Shishido-san! I was merely calculating the velocity of the tennis ball that hit me!"
Shihido felt his jaw drop. "Ah, er… You alright then?"
"Peachy!" She gave a grin that made her sparkle. "And I must say, your serve a while ago was very intense! The curved ball managed to soar wildly in the air despite flowing against the direction of the wind, zooming past the net and making a perfect-"
"Right," Shishido cut her off, obviously weirded out by the new manager. "Um, but just so you know, Hiyoshi was the one who threw the ball."
"Oh?" Himawari turned around to look at the lone tennis player with a rather unfashionable haircut on the opposite side of the court. So it was you!
Again, Shishido did not know what to say. He watched as the new manager lose the sparkle and emit a dark aura. She was still smiling, of course, but the glare she was giving the oblivious Hiyoshi could already slice three inches of steel.
"Ito! Shishido!" Gakuto greeted, suddenly making an appearance over Himawari's shoulder.
"Gakuto-san, right?" Himawari smiled prettily, seemingly undisturbed by Gakuto's arrival. Shishido privately noted that the dark aura was gone.
"Have you seen me do my acrobatics yet?" The newcomer asked excitedly, making the other two sweatdrop. But Gakuto continued, "Wait 'til you see me in action! I'm even much better than that Kikumaru of Seigaku!"
"Seigaku?" Himawari echoed.
"Just some no name school that got lucky," Gakuto quickly said, waving a hand as if to dismiss the whole matter aside.
"My, what a coincidence!" Himawari piped in, brightening up again. "Seigaku was my former school back in Junior High!"
Shishido's ears perked up as Gakuto asked, "Really? So you know them?"
Himawari scratched her cheek. "Personally? Not really. But they're really famous. I was classmates with Fuji-san and Kikumaru-san but as for personal interactions, there were none that I could share. Everyone really wanted to be friends with the tennis team, so I didn't really have the time to socialize with them. They're all so really nice though!"
Gakuto laughed. "How much 'really' did you use?"
"What?" Himawari tilted her head, confused. She bristled. Was he mocking her? She didn't like being mocked! If Gakuto was mocking her, then-
"Hey, have you seen Jirou?" Shishido said all of a sudden, inadvertently preventing the bloodshed that could've happened.
"Still sleeping," Gakuto answered with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
Cue awkward silence.
"Right, so I'm getting back to Oshitari now! I've wasted enough time here anyway! Nice to have a chat with you, Ito!" Gakuto then gave a smug smirk before hurrying back to where his doubles partner was waiting for him.
"I think I'll go too!" Shishido said, turning to Himawari. "Sorry again for the ball a while ago. Bye!"
Himawari watched Shishido leave before frowning. Tennis club freaks… I'll show you who Ito Himawari is! She then picked up the documents and plotted… things… Somehow, it involved Atobe Keigo and Winnie the Pooh…
"Oi! Stop spacing out Ito!"
"Hai! Atobe-san~!"
(1) The word is "Ah" and "Nn" is used by Oshitari after asking a question to emphasize his Kansai dialect. I just placed it here because it isn't frequently used in fanfiction.
(2) See above
(3) I kid you not. There really is such a thing as garlic softdrink.
(4) Kenkyuusei is a Japanese term for a model student
(Sidenote:) The information about tennis on the first part of this chappie is taken from my bestfriend, Wikipedia.
AN: Yo minna-san! It's been a while since my last update! Gomen ne, I was busy doing other things. School is my top priority for now. Well, in any case, a big thank you to all those who reviewed and put this story in their alert.
I still have a lot of concerns when it comes to this story. Of course, characterization is one of them because I want to keep the character's personalities as close to canon as possible. If something is bothering you, please do not hesitate to voice it out. I'll try my best to work things out.