Jo stretched out in the booth at Maji burgers, tapping her fingers on the table whilst bting her lip. Her eyes were focused on the paperwork in front of her, causing her to clench her hands into a fist. She didn't want to be studying, she wanted to be playing ball, but she had failed her last test and Meyer was adament that she wasn't allowed to train with the team unless she improved her school work. Jo took solice in knowing she wasn't the only one to fail her first test of the new term.
Ishimura was sitting across from her, her hair pulled back by her bandana and a pair of black glasses slightly skewed on her nose. Her gaze was intense as her eyes shifted from word to word in her text book, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she tried to remember the words and the meanings. The test had been a surprise for her, a revise of what the class had learnt earlier in the year. She didn't do so well.
"Hello Ishimura-San, Jo-San." The pair looked up from their respective notes to see that Kuroko was standing at their table. Ishimura blinked twice, her eyes hazy from being stuck in the world of her text book but Jo moved over a little so Kuroko could sit with them. He only had a shake, but Jo had a feeling that Maji was going to be cleaned of burgers in a minute.
"Hey Kuroko, what's up?" Jo grinned, her eyes flicking to her sheet of notes for a moment. SHe knew she should be studying but she couldn't be impolite. Ishimura delivered a grunt of welcome to Kuroko before returning her attention to her notes. Surprisingly she was one of the best studiers of the group, even better than Takami, however that was only applicable when she brought herself to study. She was stuck so far in the world of the human body at the moment she was going to have trouble being pulled back out.
"Kagami-Kun and I have just finished practice," Kuroko replied, sipping at his drink quietly. Jo nodded, having already guessed that Kagami would be waiting for his burgers. At least with Ishimura preoccupied with studying he would eat them all for himself. She was about to say something to him when she spotted the tower of hamburgers and her breath caught in her throat. She knew Kagami ate a lot, Ishimura had mentioned it, but she hadn't realised that he literally could empty Maji out of it's burgers.
"Ah, is it all right if I sit with you?" Kagami questioned, looking around his pile of hamburgers. Jo nodded as Ishimura shifted closer to the window, not taking her eyes off her text book. She gave Kagami a grunt in welcome at least.
"Ano, Ishimura-San, what are you studying?"
"She's Biology," Jo replied when Ishimura didn't. The latter turned the page, rubbing her forehead as she scrutinized the diagram. She looked confused but there was nothing Jo would be able to help her with, she barely managed to pass Biology back in middle school. "And I'm on Physics."
"Wow, they're pretty heavy subjects," Kagami commented as he started unwrapping a burger. Jo looked up to him, one eyebrow raised before she shook her head. It wasn't the first time someone had been surprised by the subjects they were taking, so they were used to it. For some reason people seemed to think they were just basketball nuts, that was all they did and they didn't care for school. Well, Shira was the exception.
"Yeah, we noticed when we failed our tests," Jo sighed. Her fingers started drumming on the table again, trying to figure out what to do next. Pretty soon her mind was going to turn to mush and she wasn't going to be able to learn anything new from her texts, but she couldn't leave while Ishimura was so deep in her studying.
She grabbed her notes and stuffed them in her bag, giving up for the night. A two hour session of heavy studying was enough to fry her brain and her body, she felt tired for no good reason. She let out a huff, sinking back against the rest of chair before looking to both Kuroko and Kagami.
"Have you considered a tutor?"
"I have a class with Takami and she helps me study, today she just had to help her dad so I'm usually set. Ishimura, on the other hand, would do well to get a tutor."
"Biology," Kuroko mumbled almost to himself before looking back up to Jo, "Midorima-Kun is very good in that subject."
"You hear that Ishimura, you could get Carrot-Chan to tutor you," Jo grinned, kicking Ishimura's leg. The other girl jolted, looking up to Jo having not heard a single word. She blinked twice, looking around in confusion as the haze in her eyes clear up. Her eyes narrowed in on Kagami's empty hand and her fingers shot out, grabbing his wrist tightly. She yanked his hand close to her face, frowning at it.
"Hey, what are you..."
"Distal phalanges, intermediate phalanges, proximal phalanges, metacarpals, carpals," Ishimura listed off, dragging her finger down his middle finger and into his palm. She frowned to herself, turning his hand over as if he were some sort of model for her biology class. "Fuck, I can't get the muscles."
"Can I have my hand back now?" Kagami questioned. Ishimura released his wrist, running her fingers through her hair. Jo could still hear her muttering 'fuck' under her breath as she racked her brain for an answer.
"Yeah I think Ishimura will be happy with a tutor."
"I don't need a tutor Jo, I just need..."
"Kuroko says that Midorima is 'very good' with biology and so far you've failed a test so yeah, you're going to get a tutor," Jo replied, crossing her arms across her chest. She could feel Kuroko watching her intently but she ignored him, her gaze focused on Ishimura. The latter sighed, pulling her up so she was looking at Jo directly as she pulled her glasses off. She held them lazily before relenting into a nod. Although her pride was taking a blow, she knew Jo was right. She wasn't doing bad in biology, but she wasn't doing particularly well either.
Ishimura closed her text book, shoving it into the bag under her table and snatching one of Kagami's hamburgers. He didn't get a chance to scold her before she unwrapped it and attacked the burger, finishing the whole thing before Kagami had a chance to finish chewing his mouthful. He was staring at her in complete surprise, btu Ishimura just let out a groan and leant her head back onto the seat.
"How's training going?" she questionned as she covered her eyes with her forearm. She looked like she was completely disinterested but Kuroko didn't seem fazed. He scratched the back of his head and looked to Kagami.
"We are preparing for the Winter Cup."
"Really? I had no idea." Jo winced at how thickly laced with sarcasm Ishimura's voice was. Kagami almost choked on his hamburger, glaring at the girl sitting next to him, but again Kuroko didn't seem to be too bother by her attitude. Jo realised that he probably wasn't surprised by Ishimura's behaviour, whish was surprising for her. Had they caught up before this?
"We are playing a match against Shutoku in three weeks," Kuroko continued. Ishimura raised the arm off her eyes and looked to Kuroko lazily. Her interest began at 'playing' and her attention was grabbed at 'Shutoku'. She threw herself forward, her fore arms smacking against the table top with such a loud bang it made Kagami jump, but Ishimura looked very interested in what Kuroko was saying.
"An official match? I didn't know they started already."
"Well to be fair Ishimura half the time you don't know when our matches are official or not," Jo laughed. Ishimura nodded her head as though to say 'fair point' before grinning to Kuroko. She grabbed his wrists in her hands excitedly. She'd caught up with him a few times since school had started again, but never with the other girls. Takami had been so focused on her school work, Shira was too busy helping her mum and Meyer, well, Jean was being even more difficult with rehabilitation so she was going along to 'supervise'. Saka had all but disappeared off the face of the Earth, Kazuki along with her.
"You going to showcase that new move Tets?" Kagami's mouth fell open when he heard Ishimura's nickname. Jo looked slightly stunned, fully aware that Ishimura very rarely used someone's first name that was outside her family. She didn't even call Shira her first name. Kuroko didn't seem surprised at the name and Jo narrowed her eyes slightly. If Kagami hadn't looked so surprised as well, she would have assumed Ishimura was hanging out with the Seirin team, something Meyer had told them they weren't allowed to do anymore.
"If it is necessary."
"Well don't get too excited," Ishimura teased, grinning happily and completely unaware of Jo's accusatory glare. She knew that Jo would know she hung out with Kuroko by now, of course it was never planned, not entirely. Their midnight meet ups continued and, although Meyer was determined not to interfere with Seirin's training regime any more (especially after the dirty looks Riko was giving them when they ran into her accidentally shortly after returning to school), Ishimura was helping him train to the best of her abilities. She gauged that was fair.
"I am excited, Ishimura-San."
"Well, I got something else you need to be excited about. The Shutoku party."
"Party? By Shutoku's team?" Kagami questioned. Ishimura looked to him again, her eyes growing wide when she saw he'd already managed to clean off half of his plate of hamburgers. He had to have eaten fifteen burgers in the space of ten or so minutes. Ishimura reminded herself to never offer to buy him lunch.
"The female team, the Captain Katsumi Ai, is throwing the party. Both Shutoku teams are going to be there, as well as the Iwozuka teams and a collection of others," Jo answered, running a hand through her hair. She wasn't sure if Katsumi would be all right with Ishimura asking if Kagami and Kuroko would like to come but she settled on the fact that she wasn't going to be the one getting in trouble.
"What's so good about the party that Kuroko would get excited?"
"We crashed the Shutoku party two years ago. Trust me, you want to come," Ishimura started cackling as she thought back to the party. Jo attempted to scold her but her lips were cracking into a smile as well. It was probably one of the funniest nights of their middle school career, mostly because of Takami's antics. They had been sworn to secrecy never to speak of it again, but that didn't stop them from thinking about it.
"Besides," Jo added, managing to control her grin and look serious, "won't it be good to meet with Shutoku on friendly terms before your match?"
"I do not think Coach will be too happy with us going to a party two weeks before a match," Kuroko answered without thinking about it. Kagami looked deflated as he nodded. Jo let out a relieved sigh. Their refusal was good, that meant Katsumi wouldn't get irritated at them for inviting Seirin along without her consent. Ishimura looked slightly defeated, letting her head fall into the palm of her hand.
"Oh yeah, she's a bit of a hard ass isn't she?"
"Is Meyer-San not?"
"Well we're currently banned from the gym because of our test scores, but she's never put us in the Boston crab hold either," Ishimura replied, laughing slightly. Kuroko's eyes narrowed as his eyebrows pulled together, once again regretting telling Ishimura about it. She had lost her ability to walk in a straight line she had been laughing so hard, unable to even form a coherent sentence. Ishimura was distracted from Kuroko's irritated expression when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She looked at the screen for half a moment before sighing, already aware of what her mother had sent without needing to open the message. "Well kids, it's been fun, but I have to get going. Baby sitting duty. I'll Hiroku you said hi Tets."
Ishimura grabbed her bag and before Kagami could get out of the seat to let her out she moved, sitting on his lap and swinging her legs around. She hopped off, not even considering out incredibly awkward that had just been for Kagami, before ruffling Kuroko's hair. He knocked it out of the way, scowling.
"Ishimura-San, I've asked you not do that."
"And they've started calling Grumpy-San, huh." Jo watched as Ishimura walked out of Maji, laughing to herself and leaving her behind with an irritated to Kuroko and a blushing Kagami. Jo sighed, tilting her head as she looked to Kagami. He was bashful, which was surprising because he wasn't too bad looking. His eyebrows confused Jo though. Seriously, what was going on with them?
"Say Kagami, you notice you blush a lot?"
"What? No I don't!"
"Huh," Jo huffed, her head tilting to the other side. She didn't need to be Takami to figure out why Kagami seemed to be so shy. He blushed profusely when Shira called out about the kiss, looked like his face was about to catch on fire when Ishimura sat on his lap and spluttered when she'd dragged his finger down his fingers and along his palm. He was so cutely innocent.
...
"Do you often play by yourself?" Aomine looked up when he heard someone call to him. He jumped slightly, seeing a girl stretch her legs out in front of her from the seat not three metres away from him. He hadn't been aware she was sitting there, but she had his Touou jacket around her shoulders rather comfortably, her eyes lingering on him before she looked to the hoop. "Kind of pathetic really."
She looked familiar to him, but he couldn't place her. He knew for certain that he'd never met someone with hair that was blue at the roots and faded into green near the ends, yet he couldn't shake this familiarity she had. She didn't go to Touou, her vest was a velvetty green and her skirt was grey. She wasn't wearing any shoes that Aomine could see, in fact her feet looked a little dirty like she had come to the court bare foot.
"Do I know you?"
"Ah, so you don't remember me." She didn't seem too unfazed by this information. She jumped off the chair, holding his jacket closer around her shoulders as she skipped towards him. When she reached him she ripped his jacket from her shoulder, gently placing it around his and then leaning back on her hip. She was about as tall as he was, probably just a few centimetres shorter. "We played a game a few months ago. My friend called you an idiot."
"I get called that a lot."
"Not surprising, you seem like a self righteous dick," she shrugged. Aomine clenched the ball tight in his hands. Who the hell was this chick and why the hell did she think she could get away with talking to him like that?
"Tch," he clicked his tongue, turning to make another shot in the basket. He thought she would go away, but as he rose his arms to line up the shot she was standing in front of him, her head tilted to the side and her lips parted slightly. Her pupils seemed to have grown in size, her gaze boring into his own. He felt a little uncomfortable at her closeness.
"Let's play one-on-one. I'll go easy on you."
"That's not necessary. The only one who can beat me, is me." Her lips curled into a smile as she let out a deep, heart filled laugh. She doubled over, the sound escaping her in breathy laughs and Aomine frowned. He was worried that she may have been on something, but then she managed to compose herself after letting out a snort and she covered her mouth slightly.
"You know if you take that out of context it would mean you really do play with yourself often." The sound of her chortling filled Aomine's ears and turned his ears the slightest shade of pink. He scowled at her, watching as she tried to contain her laughter. "Sorry, sorry, you just left yourself wide open for that one. I'm Shira Tamiko."