Quinn had felt a little homesick before she even left home, and even though she loved Japan after being there for a few weeks, it was hard for her to imagine how she was going to go a whole year without her mother and Ellie.
"Hey! I don't want to hear that quitter talk!" Ellie pointed at her through the camera, and Quinn smiled through teary eyes.
"I didn't say I wanted to leave, I just said I missed you guys." Quinn absently petted Ripley, who had curled up in her lap as Valerie got ready for school. Quinn had woken up an hour early just to speak to her family. The thirteen hour time difference made things difficult for them to get in touch without planning in advance.
"Hey, you can't think about it. You think I don't miss you? I do. I really do. I just don't think about it. I do a lot of underage drinking and act like you never existed," Ellie joked. Quinn chuckled despite herself. "You having an okay time making friends?"
Quinn nodded. "Yeah. My roommate is great. At school there's another girl who was an exchange student a few years ago, and there's a couple boys in my class who keep me pretty busy."
"What kind of busy?" Their mom had been silent for most of the conversation after the initial hello, but the sound of the opposite sex brought her back into it.
"Tons of sex, Mom. Only sex. Loads of it." Quinn rolled her eyes. "The one is my partner for a Japanese project and the other sits next to me. I went and watched them play tennis the other day and I'm pretty sure the one that sits next to me is convinced that I'll be the one to carry on his legacy."
Ellie snorted. "Wow, they obviously don't know you that well yet. Remember when we did gymnastics?"
Quinn turned red at the memory. "Shut up." Quinn didn't have much talent for anything, but Ellie was the opposite, a natural at almost everything she tried.
Ellie tried to stifle a laugh, mostly unsuccessfully. "Try to keep busy, Quinn." Her mom's voice was soft. "We'll be waiting for you, but you've got to make it through the year. After all, we like not having you here, right, Ellie?" Ellie nodded vigorously, and Quinn rolled her eyes, because that was much easier than crying and having to redo her makeup before school.
She skipped the bus that morning, opting instead to walk. The time it took to get there on foot was only about ten minutes more with all the bus stops taken into account, and Quinn felt that the time to clear her head would be beneficial. She breathed in the cool morning air and bit her lip, putting one foot in front of the other all the time.
It seemed silly to be homesick after such a short amount of time, and a little selfish to boot. Quinn knew how many people wanted the opportunity she had gotten, but that didn't change the fact that she missed her mom's pot roast and her sister's stupid jokes. Their little gray monster of a cat was even tugging on her heartstrings, and even though Ripley was a kind of replacement, he preferred Valerie anyway. She'd tried to talk to Valerie about it, but the other girl had just teared up and gone to her room once the subject had been breached. It wasn't like Quinn could blame the other girl, but it definitely didn't make things any easier. Quinn wanted to scream, but shook her head and willed away the tears that pricked at her eyes instead. Briefly, she wondered what Yumiko would do, and immediately afterwards prayed that Eiji would be feeling better enough to come to school that day. Fuji had been a model friend, but Eiji left no room whatsoever for negativity whereas the brown-haired boy was a little more reserved.
Of course, when she walked into class, said brown-haired boy seemed to instantly clue in to the negative aura she'd been trying so hard to hide. Quinn gave him a wide, toothy grin, which seemed to do nothing but further his suspicions. "Good morning, Fuji-kun."
"Good morning, Palmer-chan," he said, his own smile in place as it always was, and switched to English. "Are you okay, Quinn?"
Quinn nodded, and was saved from having to defend her position by a redhead who could only be stopped by forces larger than human nature.
"Quinn-chan!" Eiji may have been missing from school for several days, but all of Japan knew it once he got back. "I forgot to thank you for the keychain you had Fujiko-chan bring me!" He bounced right back to her side and swooped the blonde up in a hug. Quinn smiled. Even if he hadn't known it, a hug had been exactly what she'd needed after such a hard morning full of homesickness.
"No problem, Eiji-kun. I missed you while you were gone. Are you feeling better?" Quinn asked the boy once she'd finally made it out of the hug. Eiji nodded.
"I don't even remember you being there the one day when Fujiko-chan brought me my homework," Eiji said thoughtfully. "I bet your Japanese project will be great, though! I don't think Honda-san really wants to work with me, but I'm not sure why she seems so mad."
Quinn's eyes flitted over to Fuji, who smiled slightly back at her in a way that made her feel suspect more than anything, and she turned a little pink with embarrassment. "Y-yeah, I'm not sure why she'd be upset…"
Eiji cocked his head to the side. "Oh well. Are you working on your project tonight as well?" When Quinn nodded, the redhead's face lit up. "We can all walk home together after tennis practice, nyah!"
With Eiji glowing like her walking home with him and Fuji was the best thing in the world, it was hard to keep feeling homesick, and Quinn suddenly thought that maybe she wouldn't even have to fake having a decent day. How could you possibly sad around someone who really was excited just to see you?
Ryuzaki Sakuno didn't even like having a crush on Echizen Ryoma. All it had brought so far was misunderstandings, but that didn't change the fact that she kept on trying to get him to notice her, and honestly, it was confusing more than anything. Sure, he was cute, talented, and kind when he had the awareness to notice her, but that didn't all have to add up to anything, did it?
Who was she kidding? This was puppy love at its finest.
Of course, she had also been kidding herself when she had told Tomoka that she could find her way to the girls' tennis courts on her own. Tomoka had even asked her a second time to make sure, because Sakuno's ability to get lost was legendary. She had found herself on the wrong side of the boys' tennis courts, too embarrassed to show her face because how would it look to Ryoma if she'd managed to get lost again? Her sense of direction had already forced him out of a tournament. Sakuno definitely didn't want to look like an idiot in front of him any more than necessary.
There was a shout (something in English?) that came towards her direction, and then she took a tennis ball to the head, and suddenly looking like an idiot wasn't even on her mind anymore.
Quinn berated herself angrily. "Look out!" would be universal, one would think, but the words had flown out of her mouth in English before she could even form them in Japanese, and the girl she'd been trying to warn had looked at Quinn curiously rather than reacting to the ball that had come straight from the boys' tennis practice. The blonde dropped her book immediately and ran to where the girl with braids had fallen to the ground. Quinn picked her head up gently, looking around desperately for help, and never had she been so happy that Eiji's vision was far above average. The redhead must have barely caught a glance of her in his peripherals, and he had whipped around. "Eiji-kun, a first aid kit! Now!" Quinn barked the words at him, a little shorter than necessary perhaps, but he didn't seem hurt by it.
"Ryuzaki-sensei! The first aid kit! Someone's hurt bad!"
He didn't know how badly the girl was hurt, but Quinn was grateful for his concern. His urgency had nearly the whole tennis team aware of the situation, and a woman in a pink tracksuit was jogging towards the bench where Quinn assumed the first aid kit was. Not wanting to wait for the woman to reach them, and a little concerned about the amount of blood, Quinn grabbed the bow off of her uniform and held it to the girl's head. The tennis ball certainly hadn't caused the cut, but it was hard to say what could be hiding in the grass. With the girl's head in her lap and putting pressure on the wound, Quinn bit her lip worriedly.
"What happened?" The woman in pink was next to her then, pulling the girl's head out of Quinn's lap, and shaking her head with worry. "Oh, Sakuno…" She trailed off. "Well? What happened?"
It was like all of Quinn's Japanese had left her, and the blonde searched for a friendly face, only to find Fuji not too far away. "Someone hit a ball that wound up all the way out here, it hit her in the head, she fell down, and I think she cut her head on something."
The woman, who Quinn figured was their coach, gave Quinn a look of confusion, and finally turned to where Fuji stood as he translated, and Quinn heard him tack on, "This is Palmer Quinn. She's an exchange student."
The girl started to stir, and she had Quinn's full attention. "O-obaa-chan?"
"Why weren't you paying more attention, Sakuno?" The girl's face went bright red, and it seemed to coincide with her looking at the freshman that Eiji was always talking about, the one with blackish-green hair and what seemed to be an attitude problem.
"Yeah, you really should be watching where you're going." That was a shorter boy dressed in green and orange, and apparently, a freshman with a big mouth and a lack of empathy was all it took for Quinn to find all of her Japanese again.
"Yeah, and you should really shut your mouth," Quinn said, sickly sweet, as she rose from where she had sat before. "Before I shut it for you. In fact, if I didn't know better, I could say with almost certainty that you were the one who couldn't keep the ball in the court, so whose fault is it really?"
"Ten laps, Horio." That was a stern boy who looked like he could have been the coach if he wasn't dressed in the same outfit that all the other regulars were. Quinn stuck her tongue out childishly at the younger boy's back.
"Saa… You do know you're an upperclassman, right, Palmer-chan?" Fuji asked, following the immature display, and Quinn rolled her eyes.
"She's hurt, and you want to talk about seniority." Quinn tossed up her hands in frustration. "Will she be okay, sensei?"
"She should be. You stopped most of the bleeding, but she might have a minor concussion from hitting her head. Thank you…?" Ryuzaki trailed off, waiting for Quinn's name. Fuji had told her before, Quinn thought, but maybe she hadn't noticed in her worry.
"Palmer Quinn, sensei."
"Thank you for helping my granddaughter, Palmer-san. Would it be possible for me to ask one more favor of you?" Ryuzaki asked, and Quinn nodded. "Would you help Sakuno get to the nurse here? She should be able to tell us whether we need to go see a doctor."
Quinn smiled and nodded again. "Sure. Do you think you can walk, Sakuno-chan?"
The girl nodded, and Quinn offered a hand to help the girl up. "Feel free to lean on me. I'll be fine." She winked at Sakuno, and looked to Fuji and Eiji. "Get back to practice. You'll know where to find me when it's done."
"Feel better, Sakuno-chan!" That was Eiji, and Fuji nodded his agreement, and Quinn didn't think it was possible for Sakuno to blush any harder, but when Quinn saw the freshman regular and the girl with braids make eye contact, him even looking a little concerned, Sakuno's face went up in flames. Quinn giggled as they walked away, and to onlookers, her face may have even been a little conspiratorial.
Once they were far out of earshot (Quinn figured the poor girl had suffered enough embarrassment for the day), Quinn sighed romantically, "That freshman regular is so cute! Is he your boyfriend?"
Sakuno sputtered, and Quinn suddenly wondered if that was a wise question as the brunette almost lost her balance and hit the floor. "Because if he's not, he should be!"
"S-senpai, don't be silly…"
"I'm not being silly! He should be!" Quinn protested, and the blonde could tell Sakuno was very glad when Eiji and Fuji came to collect the American. "Hey!" Eiji was practically dragging her away, but she would have the last word or die trying. "Think about what I said! You'd be cute!"
How Eiji had convinced them to stop for ice cream was beyond Quinn, but she didn't really mind. That morning she had hoped to talk to Yumiko as soon as possible about how hard homesickness was hitting, but the day hadn't turned out so bad after all, and as she licked the melted parts off of her fingers, she was struck by how absolutely ungraceful she probably looked.
"Anyway, I'm just saying that that girl is absolutely in love with – what was his name again?"
"Echizen Ryoma."
"Yeah, him. She's totally in love with him and he doesn't even know it. It's so tragic…" Quinn chewed on her fingernail absently, neglecting the chocolate ice cream that continued to melt all over her right hand. They had left Eiji behind a few blocks prior and were coming up to the Fuji residence. "I think we should make it happen." Fuji's silence was underwhelming. "Fuji-kun. We've got to do it. It's for the greater good."
"I didn't say no, Palmer-chan. I've always wanted to try my hand at matchmaking."
Needless to say, they didn't get nearly as much homework done that night as Quinn had thought they would, and when Yumiko had come to tell them that dinner was ready, she had found her brother staring, with eyes wide open, at a drawing (presumably Quinn's) of two stick figures holding hands, a large and poorly-drawn heart in the air above them. Quinn was standing, hands on her hips, grinning triumphantly and saying, "It can't fail!"
"What's going on in here?" Yumiko asked with a chuckle, and Quinn looked at the older girl with fire in her eyes.
"We're going to make our underclassmen fall in love."
The plan was simple enough; Quinn would bring Sakuno to the festival that was happening in a few weeks, while Fuji would bring Ryoma, and probably Eiji as well, just for the sake of appearances. Once there, they'd abandon the youngsters, who would have no choice but to enjoy the festival together.
Fuji didn't want to admit it, but Quinn looked a little like Inui when, after all was said and done, all she did was mutter the word, "Foolproof."
Yumiko found it a little hard to admit that she had hoped that the stick figures with the heart between them had been her brother and this American who had so unapologetically inserted herself into their lives.
"Hey, Val?"
"Quinn?"
"What do you wear to a festival?"
"Think it's like traditional wear. Like traditional Japanese clothes. Kimonos and stuff."
"…shit."
oops it's a little shorter and i'm sorry you had to wait a little longer! i ended up working more than i thought this weekend lol, and retail takes it out of me. sakuno makes a very dramatic entrance! thanks to my reviewers, FanBird and suna! i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! please review because they give me something to look forward to after a long hard day at work!
-syrasha
also, not that you guys care, but this one's working title was 'oh, balls'