Chapter Twelve

Sachie

We filed onto the ship that would be taking us to the island for our training camp.

"One, two, three, four..." Oishi, who had taken over as acting captain when Tezuka left, was counting us once again to make sure that no one had vaporized during the short bus ride from the school—where he had last taken attendance—to the pier.

"Oishi," Eiji sighed, losing patience. "If someone had disappeared we'd notice. Now come on!"

"Twenty, twenty one—hey!" Oishi was stopped in mid-count by Eiji and Momo who took him firmly by the arms and half lifted him onto the ship.

"Chill out, Oishi," I told him soothingly. "If anyone suddenly decides to vanish into thin air without saying anything, I'll let you know."

"And drop a note if someone falls overboard," cracked Eiji, making everyone laugh.

Chattering gaily, we made out way to the middle of the ship, where there were rows of seats placed together, eight in a row in the middle and pairs of seats at the sides. I grabbed Chiko's arm to prevent us from being separated. Fuji kept close behind me. I knew that because his crutches kept bumping against my legs.

"Come on, Chiko. Let's go find a seat—"

"Chiko! Come and sit with me!" Someone pushed past me, hitting my shoulder hard. Saki's wavy red hair, so like Eiji's got into my face as she brushed past me and wrenched Chiko's arm from my gasp, almost throwing her into one of the middle rows, where Oishi, Momo, and Eiji were already seated.

This happened so fast, I never had time to react. But seeing as Chiko had been spending more and more time with Saki lately, I had half expected it and just let her settle down and swoon over Eiji who was next to her.

But I was totally unprepared when I and Fuji passed the aisle, and Saki pulled him in too. I shrugged and was about to follow when she called out, "Inui, Echizen! Come sit here!" and motioned towards the remaining seats.

As surprised as I was to see Saki being nice to someone she had recently scorned, having him sit with the rest of the regulars wasn't a bad thing, so I kept quiet and turned to one of the side seats. Sliding into one, I found Takahashi next to me.

"Hi," I said brightly. "Excited?"

"Yes. I think it might be fun." After weeks of practicing with me, she could finally meet my gaze and smile a little.

"It will be," I assured her. "On a little island by ourselves with no one to tell us what to do—nobody will listen to Oishi anyway—and tennis day and night."

"I like tennis." It never ceased to amaze me when she made conversation on her own free will. "You can enjoy yourself and win without knowing anyone or saying anything."

Which explained her expression every time we were required to play doubles during practice.

"Hey, what's up, Tezumi?" Oh no. I knew that voice all too well. Not even bothering to look around, I sighed, "What, Ishizaki?"

"Hey, hey, don't jump down my throat yet."

"Fine. What do you want?"

"I think the question is, what do you want?" The guy loved to go psychological on me. He relished having lengthy conversations on why I didn't want him.

"Look, Ishizaki, we've been through this before—"

"No, we haven't."

Of course we haven't. We've only touched on the subject for about ten thousand times. I dearly wished that Fuji had been with me. He was normally the one who thought of the excuse for me to make a quick getaway in these situations. But since he was now sandwiched between Saki and Inui that probably wasn't going to happen.

"Will you leave me alone for just this once—"

"Ishizaki. Could you go get us some cokes?" Takahashi interrupted. True, her face grew hotter than an oven and 'cokes' came out as 'C—Cokes', but it was an interruption all the same. And it wasn't even hard to work out what she had in mind.

"Yeah, Ishizaki. I'm really thirsty."

He shot out of his seat. "Two cokes coming right up."

I looked at Takahashi in a totally new light. "You are a genius."

She even went so far as to attempt a wicked grin. The effect was phenomenal. Her trick turned out really well, mostly because there weren't any vending machines on the ship. The sight of Ishizaki scuttling around trying to find the non-existent coke was enough to render us both helpless with laughing.

I almost forgot that neither Chiko nor Fuji was there with me as I whiled away the hours talking and laughing with Takahashi. With her, I could nearly forget about Saki. I could stop thinking about how Chiko had cancelled our tennis practice sessions to go shopping with her. And I wouldn't remember that right that moment, Fuji was hanging out with the girl who had called him trash just a while ago.

During the pauses in our conversation, I would look over towards the main body of the Seigaku tennis club members. I'd catch Fuji's eye, he'd get halfway up from his seat, and I'd expect him to come over. Until, of course, Saki pushed him back down with another new topic to talk about.

I and Takahashi were the only ones sitting away from the others.

Big surprise, huh? This time, it was. It totally was.

I had gotten used to it by then. I had gotten used to hiding away from the crowd, sharing private jokes with Chiko, and more recently, Fuji. And was funny as Takahashi was, she wasn't either of the two. As incredible a person as she turned out to be, she couldn't quite distract me from the triumphant smirks Saki threw at me, knowing that my two best friends were there beside her.