Hi! I'm sorry that it took so long but I rewrote this chapter a couple of times to get everything right! Please read and review!
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Disclaimer: I don't own PoT, or Rolls Royce, or any of the companies mentioned.
A slimy tongue was licking my face.
A slimy tongue was licking my face.
My eyes fluttered open and an Afghan Hound was wagging its tail above me, looking quite pleased with itself.
"Beat!" I exclaimed, petting its head. "It's been so long!"
"Yeah, I swear Beat likes you more than he likes me," Keigo drawled.
I sat up and glanced at him, hands in his pockets of his silk purple pajamas, leaning against a post of the bed.
"Well yeah, I gave Beat to you," I shrug, covering up a smile at what he was wearing. "Doesn't that mean Beat has known me longer?"
He rolls his eyes, "He lives with me. Anyways, rise and shine. You said you had to be at the pool soon, right?"
My eyes widen with realization before I throw myself out of bed and run to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Keigo laughs and calls, "Will you calm down? You can skip breakfast because I know you're not going to eat before practice."
"No!" I attempt to yell back with toothpaste in my mouth. I never ate before practice; it made my stomach hurt and made me feel like throwing up.
"Why are you running practice anyways?" he says, now leaning against the door to the bathroom.
I spit out the paste and rinse my mouth out. "Yukimura may or may not be in the hospital for an unknown reason and Sanada doesn't know yet. So I'm subbing in for Yukimura until Sanada realizes what's going on."
"Is he alright?"
"The doctors aren't sure."
"Does he realize you're going to kill the team?"
I turn around to look at him and grin, "Of course not. What's the fun in that?"
He laughs, his eyes twinkling with mirth, "I hope they are ready for a whole different side of you."
I shoot him a sadistic smirk back while I twist my hair into a ponytail and sweep back my side-bangs.
"Are you sure you want to drop me off?" I ask worriedly, getting the feeling that I was disturbing the Atobe duo's sleep.
"Don't be silly," Mrs. Atobe smiles.
"We insist," Mr. Atobe nods while sliding into a Rolls Royce. "We had work in the area anyways."
"Just get in," Keigo, who was smartly dressed in dark jeans and a casual blazer, pushes me into the car.
I slide over to the window, behind Mr. Atobe, and buckle up. Two butlers pull open the enormous gate and Mr. Atobe zooms off on the isolated road, letting the engine purr.
"Ah," Mrs. Atobe says aloud. "Jade, I forgot to tell you that it would be advisable for you not to look in the tabloids."
"They may or may not be questioning who you are in relation to us," Mr. Atobe adds.
Oh, I so called it.
"It's not like I read them anyways," I smile easily back at the duo.
"Go to sleep," Mr. Keigo changes topics. "You probably still haven't fully recovered from the time zone shock from moving here, and you exercise too much to not be sleeping more than nine hours a night."
I don't say anything, complying. I tilt my head up and close my eyes, reveling in the luxurious seating in the luxurious car.
I felt a gentle shake of my shoulder and I open my eyes and yawn.
I blink rapidly to get my eyes into focus and Keigo smiles slightly, teasing, "Well that was attractive."
"Oh shut up," I groan back.
"We're at your flat. Go on in and get your swimming stuff and we'll drive you to the pool," Mrs. Atobe encourages.
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"Yes, yes, we're sure," Mr. Atobe waves away my doubt.
I couldn't help but feel like I was troubling them. I slide out of the car and bound up the sidewalk to the door before kicking the door open after unlocking it. I shut it with a bang behind me and scoop up my swim bag that I had discarded by the door two days earlier and run into the bathroom, stripping and pulling on the dry swimsuit and my black drag suit on top. I make sure the bag has plenty of extra goggles and caps because the other tennis players would need them. I pull on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and stuff extra clothes into my swim bag just in case while checking if my brother's racket was still in the bag. As a last thought, I throw a roll of athletic tape into the bag for my shoulders as I pull on running shoes. I open the door to the flat again and lock it before slipping the key into my swim bag.
Efficiency is the name of the game. Most work in least time possible.
I walked down the sidewalk that I had ran up a few minutes earlier. Throwing open the door to the expensive car, I plop on to the lavish seat before closing the door gently.
"Can you tape my shoulders later?" I ask Keigo while buckling myself in.
"Yeah, whatever," he agrees as Mr. Atobe zooms off in the direction of the school.
"Jade," Mrs. Keigo turns in her seat. "You have a swim meet next weekend right? I would love to come but I believe we can't. Keigo should be able to though."
"It's alright," I smile back. "I know you're busy and it's fine."
"Well, we still wish we could come," Mr. Atobe's gruff voice cuts in. "But it's ok, we'll watch you at prefecturals and nationals."
"If I get that far," I add to his sentence.
All three of the Atobe family simultaneously burst into laughter.
With a chuckle, Mr. Atobe turns left before saying, "You still think you're not that good. Sometimes you need to have a little pride in yourself."
I duck my head down in embarrassment.
"We're at Rikkaidai, Jade," Mrs. Atobe says. "Go with her Keigo."
He wordlessly exits the Rolls Royce Ghost as I do the same on the left side, shutting the door with a click. I straighten my back to see a Niou with wide eyes staring at the car. I smile at him before pushing Keigo towards the direction of the school gate.
"Come on, I'm not going to be late. I have to get out a net from the supply closet too."
He groans before switching to German, "Do I have to?"
"You said you'd tape my shoulders, you lazy bum."
He rolls his eyes before following me through the gate and towards the swimming pool, leaving Niou to admire the car.
"You know," Keigo utters quietly, "you really should have gone to Hyotei. You would have had an easier life there."
"But my grandmother's old flat is here and we didn't have time to buy more property here."
"You really think my parents would let you come to Japan without a place to stay? You could have just stayed with us. Have you even seen the size of our house?" he protests.
"Don't you mean mansion?"
"Exactly."
I pause at the small shed near the swimming pool to pull out an extra tennis net as Keigo continues to try to convince me to go to Hyotei.
"Yeah, sure, I would have had it easier, but I have to admit I am having fun here," I reply, handing him the net.
He cradled the net in his hands as I shut the door and continued towards the small pool, still arguing.
"No one takes swimming seriously here. Plus, you would have had me to make your life easier," he tries to change my mind.
"Don't you mean harder?"
He huffs, annoyed, before dropping the net by the poolside. I check that the poles at the midway point of the pool are still intact and could be used. I was exactly on time for practice according to the hour clock by the poolside, which only marked what part of the hour it was and not the time of day. Everyone else was around the poolside, chatting quietly. Niou runs to the deck of the pool-his bag bouncing against his body-panting and saying something about a Rolls Royce. My heart pounds in my chest; the doubt that I had tried to push out of my head in the car ride sweeps over me.
I toss a roll of athletic tape at Keigo and turn around, knowing that he caught it easily. Crossing my arms and grasping the edge of my shirt, I effortlessly pull it over my head, exposing my barely clad back for the world to see.
"Your strap is in the way," Keigo says, standing behind me and tossing the hair off my neck.
I slip it down, exposing my shoulder while pulling up the front of my swim suit to cover my chest.
Keigo pauses, looking down at my right shoulder, and then clears his throat. He seemed more hesitant than usual. He pulls a piece against the bottom of my deltoid and stretches it, wrapping it around the back of my shoulder, and then continues to pull thick pieces around the front, and in line with my rotator cuff.
"How does that feel?" he asks. I wriggle my shoulder to find it well stabilized.
"Not bad," I comment, slipping up my right shoulder strap and throwing the left one off my shoulder.
His light touch and fast fingers are comforting as it gives better support to my shoulder.
"AHH!" I hear a yell and the skid of sneakers slowing to a stop against pavement. "STOP HARASSING JADE-SENPAI!"
I turn my head partially to see Akaya flapping his arms and shouting.
"You're late!" I call out to him.
"How can you stand these people?" Keigo murmurs in German, his hands smoothing down a piece of tape.
I giggle at the disgruntled expression that I knew was on his face. But, on the inside, my social anxiety was pressing the same question. It was usually easy to block it away after my therapist helped me before I left, but today it seemed so much worse. The bad feeling in the pit of my stomach ate away at me, as I could feel everyone judge me. After over a week with the Rikkaidai team, the freezing feeling that I thought I had finally shaken off returned, worse than ever. Swimming usually helped me calm down, which is why I never missed a day in the pool, but Coach Dan wanted me to take a break. I guess he didn't understand.
"All done," he announces, stepping back. Whirling around, I snatch my shirt off his shoulder and pull it back on swiftly, trying to fight the feeling of trying to shrink.
"Not that I'm against seeing people strip," Niou drawls, "but what are we doing that requires you to tape your shoulder?"
Keigo and grins at me, maliciously. "That's my cue to leave," Keigo smirks in English. "Give them hell for me."
"Hell to infinity and back," I promise him, fake-smiling. His face changes, catching my discomfort.
He pulls my shoulders towards him and presses his lips against my temple. I freeze and don't say anything as he pulls away. "I'll call you later," he promises, eyes softer than usual, and he stalks off towards the front of the school.
I'm shocked to silence as I try to figure out what just happened. He must have done that as a friendly gesture. That was the only explanation. It was not calculated like his normal moves though, as it only amplifies the lowkey terror boiling away inside of me. I pull on my coldest expression and survey the people in front of me, never feeling more alone in a group of people. Even though I wanted to tuck my tail between my legs and bound off, I made a promise to Yukimura.
He kissed her. He kissed her. Not on the mouth, but still. What happened to just being friends? She looked just as shocked as I felt. Something in the pit of my stomach snarled and I curled my hands into a fist, not wanting to give away my thoughts. I brush my reddish-pink hair out of my eyes.
Her face changes, exuding a cold expression of stone. Almost like Sanada's.
"Take your shirts off," I command in Japanese. "I saw Yukimura yesterday evening before leaving the hospital and I'm stepping in just for today because Yukimura didn't know how to tell you that he might be in the hospital for a while. Sanada will run the rest of the practices, but I'm running today's. Be glad that you only have a day with me running practice."
They tennis regulars stare back at me, eyes unsure. Never had I wanted to avoid social confrontation more.
"Did you not hear me?" I bark at them, the power I was emitting and the anxiety in my stomach twisting together, battling. "Take your shirts off. I'm a swimmer, I'm used to seeing people with their shirts off. It means nothing," I add, soothing their moral reason to refuse.
Niou, both unexpectedly and expectedly, was the first to comply. Pulling his shirt off, he looked slightly pleased with himself. Then Akaya, Yagyuu, Marui, Jackal followed his example.
"I see no reason for why this is necessary," Sanada challenges.
"Take your shirt off Genichirou," Yanagi advises before pulling off his own. "We're getting in the pool and your shirt will just slow you down."
"Let me see how good you are in the water," I say aloud. "You have 500 yards of freestyle, and going down to the wall on the other side and back is a 50. So ten laps. I'm feeling generous, so your time limit is ten minutes. If you don't make it, there will be a punishment."
Ten minutes would be extremely easy if they were adapted to the water, but they weren't. It would be tough for them to make. I toss goggles and caps towards them, knowing that they probably didn't have their own since they were tennis players. I struggle to remain patient with the feeling inside of me as the social anxiety in me chanted, beating at the sides of my head. I needed to jump into the pool. I needed the water. I needed the feeling of flying.
"Everyone wears goggles and a cap. Jackal, you can just wear goggles," I say, nodding toward the Brazilian. "Stretch the cap over your head and stuff as much of your hair as you can inside."
I point to the manual swimming pace clock with a rotating second hand. "Dive in and get started when the minute hand points to the ten and the second hand points to the 60. Good luck," I add.
The regulars stare back at me, still unsure if they should panic and run for their lives yet. Hint hint, they probably should. But that would make me happy and it would break my promise to Yukimura. I just couldn't win today.
"No, not everyone can be in one lane," I say, feeling a bit unnerved with them looking back at me. "Yes, we'll do tennis stuff later. This is warm-up."
It was like talking to statues. Is this how Yukimura normally felt?
"Um," Akaya scratched his head. "I'm pretty sure we all know how to swim, but this seems so irrelevant."
Before I can open my mouth, Yanagi replies, "The water puts more pressure on our diaphragm, making us spend more energy to make our heart and lungs to keep working. We're conditioning."
"Exactly," I agree, glad that Yanagi believed in me slightly, otherwise I felt like shrinking down to a miniscule size so no one could look at me. Regardless, I still felt like disappearing. I step out of my clothes, exposing my black dragsuit on top of my normal swim suit, and I pull my navy blue swim cap and goggles on to my head with practiced ease. Stuffing my clothes into my swim bag, I turn around to find the rest of the regulars looking at me.
"What?" I squawk at them, truly perturbed and my insides begging for the water to wash away my social anxiety that I had hoped would never return.
"Um, well I never thought I would say this," Niou runs his hand over his hair in a swim cap, "but you're barely wearing anything."
I close my eyes in annoyance, wishing that everyone could just dissipate with a flash of smoke like in movies and I could suddenly be on my couch in my flat, "Yes Niou, this is what competitive swim wear looks like. You're making a bigger deal of this than you should. Surely you've seen girls walk around in bikinis."
On the inside, I shook, realizing that they weren't used to the skin of swimsuits for other reasons than strolling around on the beach. How could I make such an obvious mistake? How could I be so ignorant?
They agreed, mumbling that they had seen girls in bikinis, or at least all of them but Sanada had.
"Hurry up and get in the water!" I yell at them, seeing the clock ten seconds from the 10 hand. The freedom of my inner turmoil was nigh.
I jump on to the block and throwing my arms back, I launch myself over the chlorinated water. The impact of my body against the water kept me shivering as the cool waves washed over my torso. The exhilarating feeling swept through me as I did a quick flipturn at the opposite side. Looking up, I could see the regulars tentatively jumping in and swimming decent freestyles.
Frowning, I put my head back down and kept moving through the water, my shoulders feeling better than they had all week. The one day of a break that I had really did wonders, not mentally but physically. The social anxiety was slowly eroded away like the gentle waves in the pool, even though it still existed.
I had come to terms with it before I had left, knowing that it would never truly leave. It hadn't been an issue since the plane ride to Japan, but right now it had flattened me as if it was a train. Memories of the past week flash in my head; meeting the team in front of Coach Dan, eating with Hyotei in both Atobe's mansion and in the café with a few Rikkaidai players, and so much more….where had my previous anxiety gone? Where was my fear of judgment until now?
The unsure feeling, unsteady resolve, and unsettled judgment of myself had never actually vanished, nagging away at a corner of my mind. Is there a reason it was so strong today?
Whatever, did it actually matter? Did anything matter?
Man, the existentialism is strong in this one.
Thoughts flashed across my mind as I took it out on the water, letting the cool waves wash over my heated head. A sharp whistle pierced my thoughts and I swam to the nearest wall and look up.
A half-amused man in an athletic jacket drops a whistle from his lips and raises his eyebrows at me.
Well, I'm in trouble.
I cough, trying to make up an excuse, "Coach Dan? What are you doing here?"
"Well hello to you too. I don't remember saying that you should be in the water, did I?" he cocks his head, slightly smiling and ignoring my question.
"Um, well, I just wanted to swim?"
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head slightly, "I should be mad at you, but I can't feel mad because I was like you. I needed swimming everyday to keep me in check."
My shoulders relax, realizing I've been let off the hook, "So, this is okay?"
"Only if you swim breaststroke for the rest of practice."
My shoulders tense up again, "You're joking, right?"
He smiles, "Does it look like I'm joking?"
As much as I wanted to say yes, I knew better than to do so, "But…but…" I fake stutter while throwing my hands up as I kick my feet to stay afloat, "I have six minutes to do a 200."
He rolls his eyes again, this time at my dramatic protest, knowing that it was easy even for me to do the breaststroke in six minutes. "If you can't do that, you have fifteen laps of lunges tomorrow. And I was here to check on the status of the pool. It may need more chlorine," he finally answers the prior question. "Oh, and you get a punishment later. I have to go visit another school and talk to the swim coach regarding the district meet, so you have to come with me tomorrow. Come to the pool in the morning like usual." He continues talking as I gaze off, not exactly listening to him. "Anyways," he finishes, "continue and meet me at the normal time."
I internally moan, thinking of the time that was wasted, leaving only two minutes and forty seconds to finish. I growl to myself before pushing myself off the wall and going into the best breaststroke I was capable of, which wasn't a very good breaststroke. The choppy strokes barely pushed me through the water as I struggled to move at my normal pace. I gasp, feeling like I was going to die from both the ridiculous stroke and the punishment I was going to give the tennis players for not making the interval. Soon, even I wouldn't make the interval.
Oh, the shame.
I start to feel the burn in my shoulders as I pull at the water with my arms and kick my feet in an erratic circle, feeling somewhat like a dehydrated person in the desert searching for water on hands and knees. I let the water glide over me, dragging me down as I push off the walls, trying to extend as far as possible before starting the horrid stroke.
Horrid isn't really the right word for it. Maybe loathsome.
I pull through the water, feeling awkward. Swimming was clearly not my thing. I looked up at the rest of the team and they too were more or less swimming at the same pace that I was. Save for one girl beating us by several laps, and maybe Sanada, we all were unaccustomed to the water.
And that girl looked like she was flying. She was doing a different stroke than us and was still beating us. Her head dipped in and out of the water and her legs twisted into an odd kick that propelled her forward.
The creature at the bottom of my stomach was pacified at the sight of Klysen dipping in and out of the water, even though it still shook slightly at the thought of what Atobe had done to her earlier.
For some reason, I couldn't help but trust her, even though she had never ran our practice before. I just knew that she somehow knew what she was doing.
Panting, I snap from a gliding streamline to an awkward fold of arms and legs and back to streamline, feeling like a caterpillar. My concentration wipes away my anxiety, focused solely on the stroke that seems to hold my death sentence.
I push off the wall, extending my body to the final twenty-five yards. My freedom was so close that I could taste it. I pull at the water with my hands and snap my legs together, letting my head bob up and down with each stroke to complete the breaststroke.
It was impossible to look good while doing this stroke. It was useless and the slowest stroke possible. I snarl underwater, frustrated at the time that was ticking away. I pass under the flags marking the five yards from the wall while I glide in my streamline. My skin feels hot as I pant, extending my arms towards the walls. I grasp the lifeline of a wall while puffing. I had finished with only ten seconds to spare. I watch the tennis players as they take easy strokes around the pool, failing to touch before the time limit.
I exhale, before lifting myself out of the pool by the medal rod attached to the bottom of the diving block for backstrokers. I plop myself down on the top of the block with a squelch and I wrap my arms around my knees. Water drips from my face down to the platform I was sitting on as the swimmers-come-tennis-players milled around in the pool.
Sanada finishes first, gasping as he gripped the wall of the pool and glancing at the clock that signified his doom.
"Sorry," I half-smiled. "You didn't make it. Until everyone else finishes, you can do squats."
He grunts while crawling out of the pool and starts doing his exercise. Normally, the one who finished last would do the most, but I always favored discipline for not making the intervals. Therefore I gave the most to the one closest to making the interval so they would get stronger. Yanagi finishes next with everyone else trailing behind. I motion for them to join Sanada and they groan while they start to do squats. I whip off my cap and goggles and parade in front of them, feeling almost like a military sergeant in front of his soldiers. I wonder if they doubted themselves as much as I do. I swallow down the shrinking doubt and anxiety and throw my shoulders back.
"Now," I declare. "You guys didn't make the time. Normally, the squats wouldn't really affect you, but you swam and now you're doing squats." I paste a smirk on my face and tuck a few strands of hair back into my bun. Swimming was tough on the muscles, so therefore their legs should be a bit stiff. I traced my eyes up and down their legs, watching them pant and grunt. Satisfied with their amount of squats, I clap, gaining their attention. "You'll be doing burpees next. This is what they look like."
I drop to the ground on my hands and feet, kick out my legs to pushup position, do a pushup, pull my feet back up to the position I dropped to the ground in, and then jumped up with my arms extended towards the sky, one hand on top of the other in a streamline. "You'll do five minutes worth of burpees. If anyone messes up, we'll add thirty seconds."
With my hands on my hips, I pull myself to a full height and yell "Begin!" while checking the clock to note when they began.
"Ne, Jade," Akaya whines while jumping up. "My legs hurt."
"That's kind of the idea Akaya."
"I'm your favorite, aren't I?" Niou tries to haggle as he drops into pushup position. "You can cut back a little bit for just me, right?"
I pause right in front of him, remembering how I said I would give him laps if I could at the tennis tournament. If I recalled correctly, Sanada had given him laps for my comment that poked fun at Sanada's uptight nature. A grin unfurls across my face.
"Normally, I would say you're not my favorite, because you're not," my eyes light up sadistically while talking slowly. "But you're right. I do owe you specifically a favor, don't I?" I crouch down as he does a pushup as his eyes light up with the hope of possible freedom. "So Niou, you have laps of lunges around the pool until everyone finishes, and then you finish the rest of your burpees."
The light in his eyes instantly dies as he growls at me, "That's not exactly what I had in mind."
I smile innocently back, "Do you want more laps? Because I can definitely make that happen."
And in a flash, him and his scowl are doing lunges around the pool. I bite my lip to hold back a giggle.
I turn back to the tennis players, who were trying to keep doing burpees while their legs shook. "Anyone else want special treatment?" I asked, the smirk returning.
Marui, Kirihara, and Jackal frantically shake their heads indicating otherwise while Sanada, Yanagi, and Yagyuu give a single, resounding, "No!" Marui massaged his thighs before he transitioned into another pushup, feeling the burn in his legs. I take a glimpse at the clock that marked that they had three minutes left.
"You're doing great!" I encourage. "Akaya, do the pushup properly or I'll start adding time."
He moans and fixes his pushups, lowering himself the ground properly instead of keeping his butt up in the air. Even Jackal was panting and wiping sweat off his brow. I glanced back at Marui, checking that he wasn't too tired to keep going. During practice last week, he had said something about a stamina issue, which is why he must have eaten that cake yesterday before his match. He was breathing heavily and slowing down. Should I tell him to go faster, or should I let him be because he was trying?
The second was probably better; he'd just be burned out by the end of practice if I took the other option. His goggles and cap covered up his bright red hair and his head bobbed up and down with every pushup transitioned into a leap into the air.
The Rikkaidai tennis players looked different, vulnerable. Human. They hadn't been fazed at all during their tennis matches yesterday, save for a few instances. They barely sweated and gave an effort to win. This must be what they look like when they truly struggle. To see the strong tennis players groaning and panting while trying to complete their exercises was truly different than their normal shield of invincibility.
I pause momentarily from watching the tennis players to look at the clock, and just in time too. "Stop!" I yell.
"Oh thank goodness," Jackal muttered. Sanada grunts in agreement, having done the most exercises out of everyone in the group.
"Niou!" I yell out to the Trickster, who was slowly circling the pool while doing lunges with his hands on his hips. I motion for him to hurry up join the group and he snaps up and moves into a leisurely jog; he shake his legs to soothe his thighs, which should be aching by now. When he gets close enough, I push his shoulder down and say "You have four minutes of burpees left. Do them now."
He doesn't bother to retort and just sighs before dropping to his hands to begin his burpees.
"Everyone else, grab that net at the side of the pool and put it on the poles at the halfway mark. Tell me when you're finished."
I pull my cap and goggles back on and dive back into the pool, wanting to soar across the surface.
She looked like she was flying across the water as she barely splashed, elegantly doing strokes of butterfly. Her arms swept from by the side of her body to in front of her as she kicked not unlike a dolphin. I force myself to tear my eyes away from her graceful form and throw one side of the net towards the opposite side of the pool. Yagyuu attaches the net to the pole next to me and slides it down to the surface of the water while Jackal scoops up the opposite side at does the same. Within a few minutes, the net was ready. I rub at my thighs, feeling drained already.
Jade dips underneath the net effortlessly, not even breaking her stroke before rising to the surface on the other side of the net. She stops and looks towards the net.
"Good work," she declares while lifting her goggles off her eyes. She wasn't even panting or tired. "Everyone grab their rackets. We're going to play water tennis."
"The rules are simple," I explain. "Everyone plays at the same time. We'll have two balls in play and Marui, Sanada, Yagyuu, and I will be on one side while Yanagi, Akaya, Jackal, and Niou are on the other. If the ball touches the bottom of the pool, it's a point for the other team. There is no out of bounds but all balls must stay within the pool. The person closest to the ball will have five crunches as punishment."
"This will be easy!" Akaya laughs with relief.
"Don't be so sure," Yanagi says, calculating, "The water is difficult to move in, and therefore it will be hard to even hit the balls out of the water."
"Exactly," I agree, jumping back into the water with two balls and a racket in hand. The rest follow while Sanada slides in from a sitting position.
Lame.
I kick my legs towards the deep end that my team would be on. "Is everyone ready?"
They groan in response, trying to kick with their legs and stay afloat.
I toss the first ball into the air and serve. The ball flies over the net and I let the second ball join it as Jackal treads water and attempts to hit the first back. He barely succeeds as it nearly results in a cord ball and Marui slams it back towards the other side.
Before long, the tennis players are struggling to just return the ball as the number of crunches begins to pile up. I have a fair amount of crunches as well and the tennis players almost seem like dolphins, diving after balls sinking to the bottom of the pool and trying to return them over the net. My anxiety felt long gone as I bobbed along, diving into the water and hitting balls.
Never had I thought that it was possible to torture someone in so many different ways. However, Klysen seemed skilled in doing just that. For almost an hour, we had played her game of water tennis, struggling against the water to return neon-green balls that were quickly becoming the bane of my existence. I was exhausted and I probably had the most crunches out of anyone to complete.
I collapse on to my back, taking a quick rest from the seventy-five crunches I had left. Klysen obviously had finished first, with a mere fifty crunches while everyone else had over a hundred.
She was a decent tennis player, but she was so good in the water that she could easily reach the ball before it hit the bottom of the pool while the rest of the players struggled, unaccustomed to the resistance.
I tucked my hands behind my head before starting the crunches again.
"See you guys tomorrow at school," Klysen calls out while waving and picking up her swim bag. "Finish the rest of your crunches, put up the net, and go home and get some rest. Sanada is taking over from tomorrow."
The rest of the players and I wave back while Akaya mutters, "Well, as soon as we leave we can stop the crunches."
"Finish your crunches," Sanada orders. "She ran practice so follow her instructions."
Sanada had been oddly quiet during practice, more so than usual. We were all worried about Yukimura but it seems like the responsibility for the team had hit him hard. Even if Yukimura would be back within a couple of days, Sanada had been Yukimura's right-hand man for two years and they had played tennis together even before that. Anyone would be affected by the lack of Yukimura's presence in his place.
Sanada struggles to his feet and begins to disassemble the net and Yanagi soon does the same on the other side after finishing the crunches. I huffed with every crunch, feeling so physically drained that I could sleep for days. The squats and burpees earlier wouldn't have felt bad had we not swam before that. I would forever have respect for swimmers as they seemed to participate in a hellish sport that took a different kind of strength than tennis did.
The rest of the team grabs their bag and pulls on a shirt and shorts before grumbling about the crunches and the burpees and squats and the water tennis as I remain on the pavement, finishing.
"I'll wait for you," Niou says, sitting down next to me as I finished my two-hundredth crunch with only twenty-five to go.
I pant back, "Thanks," as I rub my stomach while doing the crunches. I was exhausted and wanted to sleep.
"I'm hungry," Niou declared. "You want to go out to eat?"
"Yeah, can we?" Kirihara cuts in, sitting down as well.
"No way," I make a face. "I'm too tired."
"Yeah, your girlfriend was tough on us," Niou agrees.
I scrunch my eyelids together while protesting, "Not my girlfriend, Niou. How many times do we have to have this conversation?"
"If you don't want her," Yanagi butts in, "I'll have her."
The rest of the team pauses before turning to look at Yanagi Renji, the cold, calculating monster who never opened his eyes; the Datamaster. The creature in my stomach rumbles in irritation.
"I was joking," he says with a twisted smile and a shrug, calming the creature in me. "Besides, Marui probably wouldn't be happy if I was serious."
Niou's nose twitches, "Don't do that. It's scary."
"I'd be fine," I retort, not sure if I was lying or not.
Yagyuu clutches the cap and goggles in his hands while nodding, "That was weird. Klysen-chan forgot to take her caps and goggles from us."
Jackal freezes, "Don't tell me that she plans to give us more practices like that."
Akaya and Niou groan at the thought as Sanada interrupts, "Don't be silly. I'm running practice until Yukimura comes back, and that means we're back on the tennis courts."
A collective sigh of relief escapes from everyone's mouth as I finish the last of the crunches. I roll myself over and push myself off the ground, feeling stiff and achy.
Yeah, Klysen was definitely a sadist. A sadist that a part of me felt an affinity to.
Thank you for reading! Please read and review and constructive criticism is welcome!
I want to point out that Jade's anxiety has always been there, it just hasn't been as apparent until now. All signs of her anxiety include doubt, self-questioning, and much more. For more information on social anxiety, look it up as it is an actual problem that is very much part of society today.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and I'm really sorry for the wait. The next chapter should take less time in comparison!