Chapter 4. At last!

P.S.

I don't own One Piece.

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Troublesome Twins: 4 Sport's Day

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It had been so hot that day, that Tashigi was certain there had to be a few people at her school that might report that their running shoes had melted into the track, and would be unable to race. A terrible excuse of course, but she was expecting it.

An 'Athletics Day' was something her school as a general rule was apparently really good at. Of course one could always find the sick child, or depressed zombie child… or the lazy kids that either refused to do sporting activities due to health reasons…. Or well…. They could just get away with not doing it because their family was wealthy and dainty. But in general everyone seemed rather fit. The school was full of people who were brilliant in mind as well as in body and they excelled in sports. And Tashigi was so surrounded in the brilliance from others that she felt quite blinded.

It didn't help that she had somehow been accepted into the fittest and most athletic group of people in the school, thanks to the dragging around of Kuina that refused to let Tashigi out of her sight for the first month.

And so Kuina made Joanna, Kagoma, Jessie, and Luce all firm friends of hers befriend Tashigi as they had done to her. But somehow, somewhere along the line Tashigi felt the falseness of their relationship and felt that she was riding in the shadow of her sister too much, as whenever Kuina wasn't around Tashigi and Kuina's friends really didn't have much to talk about.

One the beautifully free occasions that she was by herself she would enjoy her own company or would somehow find herself gravitating towards Zoro and his friends. Why? Well, they were loud! Louder than anyone else in the school and if Luffy had come that day you can be sure to locate him by the sound of his voice that echoed all across the school somehow. She assumed She joined them on occasions because they always looked liked they were having so much fun, even when Zoro didn't seem too. They were an odd mix. There were Jonny and Ussaku (friends of Zoro's) and a few others that Tashigi could never remember the names of, but mainly joining into the loud gang were Luffy, and Luffy's friends; the red-haired beauty Nami, an artist who had a temper that made you think there should be a 'Tsu' in front of her name; a curly black-haired guy named Usopp a prankster and an awful liar; the blonde-haired guy Sanji the flirt, a smoker, and surprisingly good cook, and there was a boy called Tony who never seemed to talk because he was always too shy, but was actually the smartest in the group and when asked directly might be able to tell you that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up.

Tashigi had found quite a strange, and firm friend in Luffy D. Monkey… (no… apparently that was his really name), and it suited him exceptionally well. For one; he was so incredibly flexible, that many people have to give him second glances to double check that he was human; and two and three, well, he argued over food, and whom would get the biggest portion out of everything, and he loved swinging off things… So yeah. He was Luffy the Monkey. Well that's what everyone called him.

And Luffy didn't seem to mind. He enjoyed the attention, and you could never seem to find him by himself, he was always surrounded by a sea of people that were either following him because they liked his company, or they liked picking on him (because no matter how rude they were he seemed to be able to laugh it off), or they were being picked on and everyone knew that Luffy never aloud bullying around him, (he had been given a lot of detentions, for starting a fist fight over the smallest of things). And Tashigi was one of those easy targets that Luffy felt that he was entitled to befriend… for reasons. That only made sense to him…

Tashigi was in one such occasion as this, and was sitting on the grass of the sports field when she noticed Zoro and his friends approaching. She waved to them and was pleasantly surprised when Luffy bounded up to her and skidded to halt in the grass and slid gracefully down into a comfortable seating position.

"Hey Tash!"

"Hi," She said looking up at all of them, and then addressed Luffy. "What sports are you doing first today?"

Luffy scrunched up his face trying to remember everything he was doing. "Oi Nami! What am I doing today?!"

Nami shook her head as she approached them and sat down opposite us, not seeming to care about whether or not she had a view of the field. "You're doing the single men's race first, then the long jump… then the high jump… and then we are doing the group relay… and then.."

"YEAH!" Luffy raised his hands up into the air. "I'm going to rule the long jump this time."

"If you don't step on the penalty line again." Nami said shaking her head.

Usopp laughed. "Yeah, you suck at that, but as for me, I'm betting I'm going to be win the men's race." He smirked and smoothed back his curly black hair. "My aerodynamic nose will give me an edge over everyone else."

"I'll take you up on that." Nami grinned. "I'll bet fifty pounds!"

"What!" Usopp looked shocked. "I'm not betting money! I don't even have that much, my mother can't afford to give me pocket money."

Nami pouted. "But don't you think your nose will give you an edge over everyone else?... Come on. I'll give you fifty pounds if you win, just think of that!"

"No!" Usopp looked devastated that he was actually turning down an opportunity to win fifty pounds. "Besides even if I'm two milliseconds behind someone else I'd have to pay you fifty pounds!"

"Don't worry." Nami waved her hand up and down as if dismissing his worries. "It's not like I'm not reasonable, I'd allow you to pay me back in small doses if you cant pay me it all to me at once."

"ACE!" Luffy yelled, interrupting the exchange between the two, as he saw his brother coming around the corner of the playing field.

Tashigi looked at him running towards his older brother and saw Ace preparing himself for Luffy's hug landings, he dropped the bag he had been holding up in order for him to get into a rugby tackle position, and was not knocked over by the big monkey that was his younger brother.

"Why are you here!?" Luffy asked.

"Well, Gramps told me you had a sports day today so I thought I come by and cheer you on." He looked out over the field and smiled at the way things looked obviously pleased with the weather.

"I thought you had joined the travelling circus?!" Johnny spoke up looking at Ace.

"Oh I did." Ace nodded and then dropping his bag onto his younger brother to hold and carry made his way over to the group. "I have booked off practice to come here today."

Tashigi looked curious. "What is it that you do?"

Ace seemed a little absent-minded, and before answering her, he pulled off his t-shirt leaving his chest bare to the sun and the stares from onlookers who shook their heads at his carefree behaviour. He lay back in the grass and sighed. "Well," He finally answered. "I…"

Luffy answered for him, "Ace plays with fire for a living. He does lots of tricks and throws it, eats it, spins it, and jumps through hoops of fire. It's so cool to watch him perform!"

Ace smiled at Luffy's description. "Yeah, that's what I do."

Tashigi listened on and off to the conversation at hand, and although they weren't as serious and focused as Kuina's team of friends were with sports, they were certainly a competitive group. Tashigi felt her nerves get tighter because of the build up with each passing minute so much so, that when Luffy decided to get up and do some stretches Tashigi joined him much to everyone surprise, and soon, due to that action, others took up suit and they had their own band of followers who were copying their every move. Luffy being the show man he was; decided to do some very bizarre and strange warm up positions just for fun, to see if everyone could really do 'HIS' warm up, and when they had finished Tashigi had found she needed to drink half of her water that she had thought would last her the whole day.

"Hey Tash." She turned around to see Zoro standing behind her, almost looking about ready for battle, what with his sleeves pushed up and his arms crossed.

"Hi Zoro, what race are you looking forward to most then." She was getting an idea that a lot of this group had preferences.

"Don't know," He muttered, not really sounded as if he cared all that much. "Why are you not with your sister?" He asked, mildly curious.

"Well…" Tashigi rubbed her shoulders trying to loosen up some more. "I've been finding it a bit stressful. I decided that I wanted to be by myself today."

He nodded. "Joanna, Kagoma, Jessie, and Luce are bossy, and they don't call each other friends really."

Tashigi smiled. "They're not bossy, they are just determined to do their best. I like them, but I just find their space a little bit stifling at times."

Zoro frowned. "Stiffling? What does that mean?"

"It means… um… to be crushed, or to suffocate, and to find it difficult to breath in a close atmosphere."

"Uh." Zoro nodded not really expecting such an in-depth reply. "So what you find it difficult to breath when you're with those girls?"

"Well, it's more …" Tashigi tried to find the right words. "It's more that they feel too perfect and fit to be around all the time, and they're so good at sports it makes me feel that I'm being crushed under their expectation as Kuina's sister, that I'm going to be just as good as her."

"Oh." Zoro said nodding again. "Makes sense." He looked up at the sky then and winced as he got an eye-full of sunshine that instantly gave him the power to see blue-spots everywhere once his eyes where earth bound again. He moved up and sat down beside Tashigi. "What about you then?"

"Huh?"

"What race are you looking forward to most?" He asked.

"I like the team building games." She started with a smile. "I like being a part of a team. The relay is always fun. I wish it was at the beginning instead of the single races."

"I like the single races." Zoro started up. "I like trying to beat my last personal best. With the relays you're only as good as your next runner, and if one of you is rubbish it lets down the whole team."

She looked back at him. "Which is why it's fun to practice together." Her eyes scanned the field for her team. "My Relay team haven't arrived yet…"

Zoro turned his head and looked at the huge school clock that had been built into the announcement tower that was at one end of the huge sports ground. "It's almost 9:30, we should be getting started soon."

Tashigi nodded. "Yeah I know, but they haven't got here yet.

"Hey Tash!" Kuina was making her way over to her.

"Hey Zoro!" She started with a smile. "So right now my 100 meter dash time is like .. 13 seconds maybe 12. But by the time track meets start I plan to get that down to 11 seconds."

He frowned. "12? You didn't get down to 12."

"I did. And I know that some people might say that it is impossible to get down to 11, but I know that I can do it because I always work hard and I have a lot if determination."

"I'm going to stopwatch you." He stood up and walked over to her, and they made their way down to the runner's track. A few people were doing some warm ups, but nothing had been started yet.

For some reason Tashigi followed them down to watch them. Soon though, she was asked to be the stopwatch holder for Kuina and Zoro as they both couldn't decide on who should race first and both were skeptical about how honest the other would be about their precious time. So Tashigi was left with a whistle in her mouth and two stopwatches in her hands and standing at the end point of their 100 meters ready to be their judge.

She had watched the coach with them before so she knew how to blow the whistle. Two short blows and one long one meant get ready in positions, another two meant get set, and another long blow meant go.

"Whiwh! Whiwh! Whiiiiiwh!" They both crouched down and got into positions.

Tashigi got her hands ready to press the start buttons her own fingers cold and shaky from the tension, even though she wasn't the one racing. "Whiwh! Whiwh!" She could tell they both became taught and tight ready to spring as soon as they heard the next whistle.

"Whiiiiwh!" She whistled and pressed start.

They both bolted down the track like bullets from a gun, and ran towards her. They had decided the stop signal for Tashigi would be when they tapped her shoulder.

'Three, Two, One…' Tashigi said in her head as they approached her, shutting her eyes and relying on her sense of touch to press down on the stop buttons when either of them hit her left or right shoulder. Kuina's was her left, and Zoro's was her right.

"Beep beep" It sounded so close after the other.

Both Kuina and Zoro were breathing hard having pushed themselves for a brief couple of seconds to the max.

"Zoro, you got 13.10, and Kuina you got 12.56."

"Woooah!" Kuina fisted the air, and then fell back onto the track lying on her back.

Zoro shook his head, grabbing his timer as if he didn't' belief it himself. "That's not good enough."

Tashigi looked at him in amazement. "What do you mean? But anything below 14-15 seconds at your age is outstanding!"

"At my age?!" He said frowning.

"Well. Yeah." Tashigi nodded.

He stood up and walked away, not seeming to care about any other statistics apart from the ones he could change. Kuina on the other hand was delighted and went of to see Luce that had come up to watch them, to tell her what her new time was.

Tashigi watched Zoro as he was pounced on by his friends, and praised for his run. But it was like watching water washing over a rock, he was unmoved and uninspired by them. It made Tashigi sad that Zoro made himself so miserable, seemingly for no reason at all.

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The first activity was the hardest. The single races were always full of energy and exhausting to anyone that hadn't been training regularly. The boys and girls had separate races of course and that was possibly the reason that Kuina had boasted to Zoro before the races had all started up, so that they could both compete against the other to the best of their ability.

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They all bent down and got into racing positions. Tashigi always found it was harder to start than she had remembered from the previous practice sessions, but that might have been because she wasn't as nervous then as she was now.

Tashigi was in racing group C for running, which indicated her being put into a group of girls that were a similar speed to her. It wasn't that bad, as there were five groups overall for girls for her year, but with Kuina in group A. Tashigi felt like she was occasionally being frowned upon for not trying as hard as Kuina. That was what all the sports captains thought anyway. They were identical twins so that meant they should both be good at whatever the other twin was good at… No one seemed to take into account that they had never met each other until half a year ago, and they had both been brought up under very different circumstances and given very different instruction and tutorage.

The girls' teams went first, starting with E and working up to A.

As expected she did fairly well coming in third in her set, Tashigi didn't come last, but then again she didn't come first either, and that meant nothing to anyone who was just slightly more competitive. Which was one of the reasons Tashigi preferred the relays.

Next came the high jumps, and then the long jumps, and they also did the jumping over the hurdles, which was always good fun to watch, as for some reason it was funny to watch someone, who had been bragging about their speed and strength in one round, fall over a hurdle in another.

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To be continued…

Thanks guys for your reviews. Please enjoy the story.

Abi Skywalker