Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis
School= not much time to write =losing inspiration = giving up the novel after 5k = having time to write this = you get to read 4k+ of 'Get off me''
I'm back to update weekly
flies of butter
-**-**-1st year. The day on which the exam results are released-**-**-
She studied, studied, studied until her brain was about to drop dead from all the history facts. Literature, math, English, biology and all those other subjects were easy. But history was a different story. You had to learn EVERYTHING by heart to get a good mark. On the evening before the history exam, Midori drank several pots of coffee to stay awake and learn years and facts. She did it. With the help of her brother, who had a brain for history, she did it. She wrote the test, not leaving a single empty answer.
Today she walked to school, hoping that they were filled in correctly. As a lot of people were already there, she had to fight for a place, to see how many points she got, and how many did Tezuka get.
Hoshiwa Midori /Tezuka Kunimitsu. 498 (*)
'Huh?' she stared at the 4 words and two numbers 'A Tie?' slowly retreating she headed for her classroom, to find few people there. Haru, Fuji, Oishi and the boy who was in the same place as her in academics. She just stared at Tezuka, waiting for him to look back.
''We have the same score, what does that mean?'' she asked, when he looked back.
''Means that the dare will go on to the next year as well.''
Puppy eyes were on full force and all dignity was forgotten.
''You agreed to it.''
She made some incoherent sounds as she sat down in her desk and hid her face in her hands. Thinking.
Later on as Tezuka had turned away Haru stared at her friend with awe, unable to speak. Feeling very uncomfortable with this Midori looked up to her and asked not to tell anyone of this. It broke Haru out of her dreamy-stare.
''Huh? Why? You'd become really popular if people learned that you took on a dare which was started by THE TEZUKA, and went out as a draw.'' she whispered.
She completely uncovered her face to look at her friend. ''I'll already get enough popularity with the whole- tied for 1st place- thing, I don't need anything else.''
''Oh,'' Haru nodded, trying to understand her. ''You don't like attention?''
''No'' the girl mumbled, staring at her desk, unhappily. ''I hate useless attention.'
''Oh,'' Haru repeated herself, lowering her voice ''that's why you never tried to ace a test.''
Midori nodded and glared at the boy, who was the reason, why she now had to deal with people asking her stupid questions about stupid stuff.
''I want summer to come.'' She mumbled and lied down on her desk, hiding her face once again. Blocking the concerned face Haru was aiming towards her and the look of pure interest which was probably coming from the boy sitting behind her.
*1st year, shortly after the manager incident.*
This incident caused Midori some minor disturbances, as people kept taling about how she dated a collage student and played around the city at night.
''Hoshiwa Midori-san please report to the headmasters office.'' ''Hoshiwa Midori-san please report to the headmasters office.''
''What did you do?'' Haru asked the called girl as she got up.
''Emm...nothing?'' Midori shrugged, got up and left the classroom. As the door closed Haru noticed a certain blond smiling to herself while gazing at the door.
''What did you do?'' she asked again, only in a completely different voice.
''Hmmm?'' Yazawa looked back lazily. ''Nothing?'' she added with a grin. Observing the gossip queen with suspicious eyes, Haru hoped that her friend will be all right.
At the Headmasters office.
Midori slowly walked towards the doors and knocked on it lightly, not sure on how to act.
''Enter'' came a loud male voice, and she did.
''Hoshiwa Midori-san?'' the slightly round man sitting at the desk asked.
''Hai.'' she nodded, slightly unnerved.
''Could you explain what you were doing in such a late evening, in the city centre WEARING the school uniform with a collage student?''
''Huh? Excuse me, but I think you're mistaken.''
''I am not. As I have proof of this, and I already called your parents, or guardian or whoever that was, who answered the phone, to school. Such behaviour is unacceptable! You are not to play around at night with men! You are not to...''
''Sir,'' she sharply cut him off, 'You are going to regret calling him here' ''do you actually have any proof of this? Since I would have remembered taking a walk with an unknown collage student.''
''Of course I do! What kind of a fool do you take me for?'' and he took out what looked like a printed out photo and threw it to her. ''Here.''
After picking up the photo, she pondered what to do, suppressing the laugh which was slowly bubbling up. The young man next to her, laughing his lungs out and holding on with one hand onto her shoulder had a handsome face, his hair could be seen as completely black, even in a low quality picture as this. When Midori thought it over, she sighed, realizing that since his eyes weren't open at that moment, no one could really tell who he was. ''Sir, do you know what my guardian looks like?'' she asked, as she had decided to simply humiliating him before her brother managed to get here.
''I will in a few minutes! So? Have you remembered your walk?''
''Yes well...sir I guess you didn't know but this is my...''
''WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?'' a pissed off version of the young man in the photo came trough the door. He had his sisters eyes. The headmaster was shocked as he made the connection.
''You see sir.'' She continued, ignoring her brother, who couldn't decide how to rip off the fat man's neck .''I was taking a walk with my brother. Hoshiwa Kida.'' she pointed to the newcomer, ''Oni-san, this is my headmaster, who called you.'''
''Khem,'' he cleared his throat, wondering what to do with this mess. Unfortunately for the old man her brother had calmed down and finally understood what was going on.
''So...your telling me that this man. ''he pointed to the main culprit as he started walking towards him, ''called me here from my JOB, to discuss how my sister broke some school rules, WHICH never happened. So then...'' he concluded, ''...what do we do now?''
''Well I...I...khe-hem. You have my apologies for disturbing you.''
''Hmm...as this is absolutely unforgivable, I'll have to take Midori with me, since now that I've left my post I'll have a lot of unhappy customers waiting for me and I might lose my job, if I don't make them all happy, so excuse me.'' he turned to leave.
'I love you oni-chan.' she thought as she stood aside and watched her brother act. 'He knows that I constantly whine about the PE And English classes I have left for today 3'
''Wait a minute, wait just one minute!'' he stood up, clearly unhappy with the outcome. ''You can't just take a student out of her lessons!''
''Can't I? If I'm her legal guardian and I can account for all the lessons she missed? And...'' He turned back to face the man, trying to hide his grin.''...you will have to be ready as I might let out some interesting information about Seishuen Gakuen high calling parents and guardians to school without a reason, making them lose their jobs. May I ask where you got that photo in the first place? Are you by any possibility stalking my sister?''
The man paled a bit and just waved them to go. As both siblings got outside their grins were full of evil pleasure.
''You know it'd be kinda lame if you lost your job only because of that.''
''I guess that man doesn't think much of dignity then. I'd really like to know where he got that photo though.''
''When you said that think about stalking, I really almost believed it.''
''Yeah but seriously who could have done it? Besides I think we would have noticed someone like him following us.'' He pointed his thumb behind him as they walked down the hall.
''Yeah, ah I need to go get my stuff from my class first, will you wait outside?''
''Nah, I'd rather see what your school looks like and your classmates as well. Are you used to it all yet?''
''Slowly,'' she answered and opened the classroom door to get her bag. ''Ah Midori, what did the headmaster want and...wow who is that?'' Haru all but drooled over the man standing in the doorway. Midori looked back, then again at Haru, ''That's my brother.'' she stated and put her bag on her shoulder. ''Hey I need to go so I'll be missing out on the next lessons, but tell the teacher please that Nagisaki-sensei allowed me to go. All right?''
''Yeah.'' Haru nodded still staring the brother. ''See ya.''
''Bye.'' Midori waved and closed the door.
As both of them got in her brothers car he started the engine and drone away. ''I didn't like the blond girl sitting on the other side of you.''
''Huh? I thought you liked blonds.'' he laughed at this.
''No, heh, that's not what I meant and currently I like red-heads better. She recognized me as I entered and her face was beyond hilarious when you told that other girl that I was your brother.''
''Amai Haru and Yazawa Yumi.''
''Amai your friend and Yazawa the other one?''
''Yeah. Haru-chan drooled at you by the way.'' she glanced at him and smiled as he grinned. ''Having girls drool over me is always a compliment.''
''Right'' she smiled to herself and stared out of the window.
''I keep saying that you're good at this.'' Kida frowned at his sister
''Hmm?''
''Good at changing the topic in an unnoticeable way, so I might as well get straight to the point before you make me forget it. The blond one sent the message right?''
''Yeah, probably.''
''Hmm...I guess I'll ask Naoko to stay with the red hair.'' Midori grinned, and wanted to hug her brother.
''Kida!'' A young woman with hair red as fire poked at Midoris' brother. ''You know I hate it when you just leave like that! At least tell me when you'll be back or something! Not just ''Naoko, I need to go and beat some sense into Mi-chans headmaster as he keeps on talking gibberish.'' That's not fair, maybe I wanted to go and beat the hell out of someone too!'' she pouted and turned around to check up on a customer.
''She is my heart and soul.'' Kida said in a voice full of love and went to hug her, so she would calm down a bit.
'Both of them are beyond adorable.' Midori grinned to herself as she went in the 'employees only' room of the boutique. Her father had created the ground on which her brother created his castle. It's a nice way of saying that Kida did all the work.
She worked here part time, but as she had no qualities that could get her any other job here, she mostly worked at the registry or cleaned the place up. As it wasn't her shift yet she decided to just change clothes and go out to see whether her help was needed anywhere. But her brothers' fiancé blocked the way as she came in and pushed Midori to sit back down.
''I'm pushing Ishimoto-san on Kidas hands, since he's the only one who can sweet-talk her into not ruining her own hair. Now.'' she sat down in front of her soon-to-be-sister-in-law an also a good friend. ''Tell me how you're enjoying your school life, whether you've finally made any friends, have you managed to not be an over-achiever (although I don't see that as a bad thing), and have you found the man of your dreams?''
''It's fun, yes, yes, no.'' she answered as shortly as possible.
''Come on! Details, details! I haven't got the chance to talk to you since you started this year. And it's been 2 weeks! Have you been avoiding me? All right anyway since you don't have a chosen one, could you tell me about your friends then?''
''Well I've made two so far, and I think I'll stick with them.'' she paused, uncertain of what to say. ''Well, Amai Haru is in my class and sits next to me. I guess she's like a guide into a new world, since she talks to me all the time and there's Tama Itazura. Both of them are in the tennis club so they are good friends. And umm...well yeah...''
Naoko smiled at the younger girl, ''You're so cute.'' she rubbed her cheek and got up. ''I'll give you a new hairstyle after the last customer leaves, might as well work on those nails a bit too...''she wandered off in thought about which colour would be the best and stood up to leave, ''by the way Midori-chan, I really hope you enjoy Seigaku-high.''
''Yeah, me too,'' Midori smiled as Naoko left the room, ''me too Naoko-nee-chan.''
~~~~back to the present~~~~
''Can you imagine it?'' Naoko Jukyo exclaimed as she put the last piece of omlette in her moth. ''The old lady wanted to dye her hair pink! I know how youngsters, have a tendency to colour hair in every possible colour these days, but Ishimoto-san is 67! For gods sake!''
''In how did it end then?'' Midori asked as she put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
''Kida came to the rescue,'' Naoko smiled as she poured herself some orange juice ''and sweet-talked her into colouring her hair in a 'passionately' red tone.'' the fire-red-head smiled ''She left the store with a really beautiful dark-red tone. And do you know what she said?'' Naoko smiled.
''What? That she wanted to steal oni-san away from you?'' Midori guessed
''Yes. She wanted to steal him away, so that he'd be her personal beautician for the rest of her life.'' She laughed again and glanced at the clock. ''Isn't it time for you to go?''
''Yeah. She grabbed her bag and opened the door. ''I'm off.''
''Have a safe trip.''
It was already October. Somehow the days seemed unbelievably calm. She would talk to her fiends, ignore Tezuka, not see Fuji, evade and ignore Yazawa. It truly was heaven on Earth. She hadn't managed to skip any English lessons lately. So what? At least she got to do whatever she wanted to do during these lessons.
Leaves were colouring the world in warm colours. As she walked along the street Midori examined the beautiful colours around her, then looked at her nails and smiled at the similar orange and red maple leaves drawn on her nails ''Naoko-nee-chan really knows her work'' she smiled to herself as she finally arrived at school. To her surprise a boy, which she had been thinking about a moment ago was standing at the school gates 'Note to self: Never think about how good life is, because it just might sneak up on you and slp you in the face.'
Cautiously now she walked past Fuji, not looking in his direction.
''Ah...Hoshiwa-san, it's been a while.'' he greeted her with a nod.
''Why couldn't it have been a longer while?'' she nodded back, mildly glaring and kept on walking.
''Well now, I know you've missed me.'' he smiled at her, walking alongside with her to school.
''Why do you keep on making a complete fool out of yourself by stating that kind of idiotic things?''
''It's fun to see you frustrated when I do.''
''I'm not frustrated now am I?'' she asked him as the entered the school building
He glanced down at her, ''Yes, and it's a pity you're not.''
''I hate you.'' she stated with no emotion at all, as she took out her indoor shoes and took off her outdoor ones.
''Why do you hate me?'' Fuji asked as he did the same thing.
''Because you're generally annoying.'' Midori put the outdoor shoes back in and turned to see that Fuji had done the same.
''Oh? Am I somehow specially annoying?'' She understood the message and ignored it.
''You smirk all the time.''
''Should I become like on of your classmates then?'' he managed a completely sober face.
''You make fun of me all the time.''
He grinned at this and corrected my statement a bit ''No I play games with you all the time.'''
''Same thing...''
''Playing games is much more fun than making fun of someone. If I made fun of you, you wouldn't be fighting back, but since I play games with you, you play back.'' he smiled, ''it's not the same thing, as you think it might be.''
Since they walked together to her classroom she turned to face him. ''Could you stop stalking me already?''
''I will, but I need to talk to you. Meet me after class.''
''I'm not falling for that one again.'' she declined, referring to what happened in their 1st year.
''Don't worry, I promise that we'll just talk, see you then.'' he waved and left.
Uncertain of what to do she she pulled open her classroom door, to find Yazawa lurking there.
''Eavesdropper on conversations now? Now I know where you get your 'hot topics'''
Yazawa just grinned. ''Ne did you know?'' she made a stupid expression which was probably supposed to be an 'I know something you don't'.
''You know that anything that you tell me doesn't interest me in the least.''
''You want to get rid of Fuji don't you?'' That stopped her. How did Yazawa know that she despised Fuji? With narrowed eyes she stared at the blond.
''Yeah?''
''Well...if you get a boyfriend then he'll leave you be.''
''Why should he?'' Midori asked.
''Well you see...Fuji wouldn't want to play around with a girl who has a boyfriend.''
After staring a bit at her, Midori passed Yazawa and headed to her seat. She had found the idea of getting a boyfriend silly. And getting a boyfriend just to get rid of someone else would be kind of cruel now wouldn't it?
She had had several confessions in the last few months as well as during her second year, but the girl had turned all of them down. One of her classmates had recently confessed to her. Unlike others he had actually spent some time with her, talked and joked around as well. He was handsome, had a good sense of humour, just like her brothe...'ARGH...no' she mentally slapped herself and discarded any idea to show him any attention at all. 'I can't hook up with another guy only because I'm reminded of my brother' she slapped herself, trying to make herself understand, that following Yazawas advice would be a bad idea.
Naoko-nee-chans words were still ringing in her head ''You should find someone you love, someone other than your brother Midori. Someone you love more than him''
Impossible was all she could answer to that. Just plain impossible. She couldn't imagine a situation, where she loved someone more than her brother...never. Naoko-nee-chan had kept on telling her, that she should find someone to love. Someone that would love her. She kept on telling Midori, that not all relationships ended up like her parents.
The lessons started, pulling Midori out from her thoughts. It was English, so she sunk back in after sitting down. Her parents had married young, around 20. They were in love, but at some point the flame went out and her father started paying more attention in opening his own beauty salon and sleeping with other women, until her mother caught him. Midori was about 4 years old when this happened. They had a horrible fight, after which both siblings were separated and the mother with her little daughter went to live with her mother in Morioka, where Midori grew up. It was 4 years later when she found her passion kyudo - Japanese archery. Her grandmother owned a dojo, where she practised each day, even though it was dangerous for a 8 years old girl. It helped her forget everything and just concentrate on the aim in front of her. It saved her.
She saw her brother twice a year, when he would come to Morioka to visit her. Those four days were the happiest in the whole year. Midori turned to look out of the window, remembering the winters in the Morioka. They lived in the outskirts of the city, so it took a while for her to get to school, but on winter days, when the snow reached above her head, it was nearly impossible. She smiled at the memory.
''Hoshiwa, Midori Hoshiwa. '' the English teachers voice drew her back to reality. She looked at him. He pointed to a sentences in English. ''Translate this.''
She nearly smiled at the sentence, wondering whether the teacher was reading her thoughts. ''On the cold winter nights, I set out to fight the piles of snow, just wanting to break free and see the sky. Just wanting to see the beauty of a world not available to me.'' she read in clear Japanese.
''Good.'' he nodded, and Midori wondered what she had been thinking about before.
' Oh...right...Am I to meet up with Fuji or not?'
After the lesson ended Midori was still wondering about it.
''Midori, sorry I didn't tell you, but you seemed to be in a daze when I came in.'' Haru suddenly appeared at her desk
''Hmm...?'' Midori looked up to her friend. ''What is it?''
''Could you help me with English today after school?''
''Don't you have practice?''
''Nope, today it's out.''
''Ok sure.''
''Thanks!'' and happily she returned to her seat
'Thank you too.' the green-eyed girl smiled 'Now I know what I'll be doing after school'
Stretching out she smiled and greeted the history teacher.
*- let's just assume that the maximum points were 500, since I keep forgetting how the count the pints.
Well Tezuka never thought about the fact that getting first place might get Midori some unwanted attention, so he couldn't have known how unhappy she would become.
Ishimoto-san comes often and always asks for her hair to be dyed in a silly colour and Naoko paints Midori's nails every time she feels like it (once or twice a week)
Hope you enjoyed it and leave review!
flies of butter