Chapter 5.

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Troublesome Twins: 5 Sport's Day Part 2

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There was an actual gun shot sounded for the real races and it almost made her jump every time she heard it, but she eventually learnt to blot out the shock of it and focus the energy of the shock for the leaping into action.

The day was continually hot, but at Lunchtime it clouded over and just remained hot and cloudy which was worse. A few people fainted during Lunch, and there were a few more that were announced to be dehydrated. She also heard Luffy yell and swear once or twice that it wasn't his fault, evidently from landing on or stepping on the foul line in his long jump. And probably yelling also at a few people and things that he found annoying. But she did find him funny.

The four-part relay finally came around and Tashigi found herself pumped up for it, despite the weather not being good and her water bottle running out.

She was really hot now. Sweating freely and brushing her hair back out of her face as she tried to focus on the track. She looked down looking at the spotty gravelly-tarmac and was somehow astonished at how flat and beautiful it looked right at that moment. 'Give me a spring in my step.' She said to herself or the tarmac or something else entirely.

The gun sounded and she waited looking ahead at the impossibly long stretch ahead of her. She was the third runner and she had to wait. It was agonizing to see the runners racing as fast as they could. She could tell that the first runner Jasmine hadn't had a very good start and was in the middle of the runners. 'Come on! Come on! We can do this!'

She saw the second runner Anne start running as soon as Jasmine got within 1 metre of her and bolted like a cannon down the track. Anne was fast, and Tashigi tensed up ready to get going.

"Go TASH!" Anne yelled as she put the baton into her hand, but Tashigi found she could hardly hear her at all. There was screaming and yelling and calling out from friends and colleagues that were sitting beside the track and from the contestants that were running beside her.

Within a few seconds the unthinkable happened and her left shoelace came undone and she almost tripped, but as a stroke of luck or maybe it was unlucky her shoe came off and was sent flying. She carried on though and somehow made it to the last carrier of the baton without falling over.

"Go! Go! Go!" She yelled as she put the baton into Oola's hand. Oola sprinted as fast as her bright orange trainers could carry her.

Tashigi watched impatiently, not caring about her own missing trainer. "Come on! Come on!" She watched as the girls crossed the finish line. "YES! SECOND PLACE! WOOOOH!"

She waved back at the other girls not really thinking or caring at that moment for anything else. And then finally feeling the heat coming through her sock decided to run back for it.

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Her friends and her were all busy congratulating each other over a very good series of races. When Kuina attacked her from behind and knocked her over. "I heard you chucked a trainer as a distraction! Disqualified!" She said in mock seriousness.

"It wasn't a distraction. I almost fell over because of that stupid thing."

"Well, you should have done your shoe laces up tighter." Kuina insisted.

"Yeah," Jasmine said. "That could have given us first place you know."

Tashigi suddenly felt upset. "Sorry guys. They're new shoes, I'm not used to them yet."

"It's okay." Anna said. "I can't believe we actually got second." She grabbed Tashigi's hand and pulled her in for another hug. Anna was a happy hugger.

After a little while and a few more excuses, Kuina pulled Tashigi away from the group almost protectively as if she didn't like her sister's friends. "I've had the best day!" She started. "You'll never believe what happened in the 1,000 metres…"

So she and Tashigi sat down on the grass and shared stories and the last remnants of their snacks and food with each other, both of them starving and itching to eat more.

And then out of nowhere Zoro sat himself down in front of Tashigi and Kuina, and both she and he instantly started comparing medals. Tashigi shook my head at their stubborn and competitive streaks. 'Why can't they just do what everyone else was doing for once and enjoy the moment.'

She shifted herself onto her knees to stand up, and Zoro grabbed her sleeve. "How about you Tashy? How did you do?"

"Yeah, let's see!" Kuina grabbed her other arm and pulled her down beside them again, and she showed them the four medallions that she had got… mainly from competing in the team events, but it was more than she thought she'd get.

"You got second in the relay!" Kuina smiled. "That's really good."

"Thanks! But I was surprised that you weren't in it. Why not?"

Kuina shrugged her shoulders. "I opted not to do it this year, you don't have too if you don't want to, I prefer singular sports."

Zoro nodded. "Me too."

"What?!" Kuina exclaimed in shock. "You got third place in high jump?"

"Yeah," Tashigi blushed a bit. "I've been practicing for a little while now. Since I started gymnastics." She looked at the medal still a little star-struck at how well she did. "Hopefully this will improve my overall progress."

"Well Done Tash, I'm so proud of you!" Kuina hugged her, and then running her fingers through her hair she shook it up in excitement, absolutely messing up her short black hair in the process.

"Oh no! Stop that!" Tashigi batted her sister's hands away in frustration and rolled away out of reach, coursing her sister to laugh. After she had brushed her hair back down again with her fingers she cleared her throat sitting upright and sophisticated. "So what was your favourite sport activity this year, and how did it compare to last year?"

"I liked the obstacle course this year." Zoro spoke up. "It was really different and difficult."

"Did you finish it this time? Did you actually win it?" Kuina asked hopefully.

"No… I got forth, but I was so close." Zoro grimaced.

"You got lost didn't you?" Kuina said with a knowing look on her face.

Zoro blushed and turned his head and looked away causing the offending girl to laugh. Evidently Kuina knew him better than most other people.

"I didn't win it either." Tashigi spoke up feeling bad for him. "My glasses got knocked off just as I started, and I had to find them." Tashigi adjusted her red glasses; double-checking them in search of a scratch that she was certain might magically appear on them.

"Hey! Zoro!" A few of the guys spoke up from the main field approaching the three, they had apparently decided they still had energy to spend and were kicking a football around. "Come one! We're going to play football, you want to join?!"

"Maybe in a bit, Josh." Zoro started, and was just about to turn back around when a ball hit him on the side of his head. "OI!" He yelled and picked it up, and noticing his target chucked it as hard as he could at the boy that had kicked it.

Tashigi watched as the ball spun through the air and smack-landed in the face of Sanji one of Luffy's close friends. "Hey! You want a fight MOSS HEAD!" He yelled after getting himself off the grassy field.

"You almost hit Tashigi you sh..ty moron!" Zoro said pointing at the girl sitting next to him. This unfortunately had the opposite affect to what he was hoping for, instead of leaving them all alone, as he had thought they would do, they approached the group of three and started laughing amongst themselves and the small group heard…

One of the other guys spoke up. "Zoro just want's to be left all alone with his twin girlfriends." That coursed a ripple of laughter and giggles to spread over the group, and more heads turned towards them including Kuina's friends as well.

Tashigi looked up in alarm at that. 'Why is he grouping both Kuina and me together as one person? What are they seeing?' She wanted to deny the claim, but for some reason or another found that she was tongue tide.

Zoro wasn't. "Shut up you morons! Neither of the twins is my girlfriend. You can all piss off." He lay back on the grass and pretended to ignore them.

Kuina was slightly more laid back about it, and turned towards them giving them her undivided attention. "Yeah, there is no way that's going to happen." She agreed with Zoro shaking her head. "Besides he…" She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at Zoro. "…would make a rubbish boyfriend." she sighed and raised her arms up in the air, stretching them from side to side, not seeming to care where the conversation went next.

A boy called Nick came up to her then and said. "Well, if you don't have any other plans with him, I'm free for you ladies."

Tashigi did not like what he was suggesting. 'What did he think a twin was, just a mirror image that you got if you bought the original? And who did he think was the better one?'

Kuina looked un-amused as well and said, "Is that all you've got? Can't you do any better? I'm insulted, that was beyond pathetic."

At that, a few of the other boys plucked up their courage, and started praising Kuina's qualities and abilities. Tashigi had never seen anything so strange and out of the ordinary, she was certainly not accustomed to these sort of flirtatious activities. And despite not having any previous experience in romantic relationships Kuina was doing exceedingly well at ruling the conversation overall. The boys then started suggesting different things for them to do with one or both of the girls, and Tashigi got very uncomfortable, and stood up.

She touched Kuina's arm. "I'm going down to the track now. I want to talk to my friends."

Suddenly the idea of not having both of the twins in front of them was unappealing to the small group, despite the fact that Tashigi hadn't really been spoken too or spoken a word since they had been surrounded, and they blocked her exit.

A very handsome boy with longish blonde hair but mean looking eyes spoke up. "I think you're pretty cool too, so forget your sister, if you're free how about you becoming my girlfriend?"

Zoro, apparently forgotten by the guys in this talk, stood up and grabbed the boy's fingers before they could rest on Tashigi's shoulder. "No." Zoro insisted. "She said she wanted to leave, and talk to her friends." He then took her hand in his own, and pushed through the group. Surprisingly, Zoro made them give way to him like ants do when they see a boot about to step on them.

He pulled her through and walked a few paces away from the group and let go of her hand. "Sorry about that. They didn't really mean much by it." Zoro explained. "They're just being dumbasses."

Tashigi nodded. "I wasn't really afraid of them so much, as for them, I don't think Kuina always knows how to hold back, nasty words or nasty punches." She explained.

He smiled. "No, she doesn't, but then again they'll deserve what comes to them when it does. If she does knock one of them out, I want to see it." He looked back at the group, hoping to see it happen any moment.

Tashigi saw it was now her time to leave and she made her way towards the field, but after some searching, found that her so called friends had miss-placed themselves and could no longer been seen anywhere. 'Maybe they've gone home already.'

So she went back to Zoro and sat down beside him. She wasn't sure yet why she had found Zoro so easy to sit with or to be around. It wasn't like he really encouraged it. He was simply silent. And she found that silence comforting in its strange way. She knew that that sort of reason would definitely be insufficient for most girls, but she didn't really care too much about talking endlessly at the moment either. So he was a perfect companion for now.

She readjusted her glasses and pulling her bag off her shoulders got her book out and started reading. It was a book on Greek legends, and she had been finding it fascinating.

The so called soon to be fight was uneventful, (it didn't happen) and disappointing to any of the onlookers (AKA Zoro) who was pretending to be falling asleep in the sun (or maybe he had), and Kuina seemed to be able to rule the scene with very little effort, every boy hanging on her every word. She stood up after the conversation became less amusing to her, and she made her way towards Zoro and Tashigi again.

She grabbed Tashigi by the hand and pulled her up and away from Zoro and the sea of boys that were following her. "And besides," She said calling back to them. "Who's to say that I even like boys in general?" Their jaws dropped. "I haven't made up my mind yet."

"Holy s….!" The bunch of guys nudged and prodded each other as if they had received the best piece of knowledge they had ever heard and cat-called back to her. Kuina, highly unimpressed simply ignored them, which seemed to excite them even further.

Tashigi looked up at her sister as they made their way across the field. "Um… you don't know if you like girls or boys?"

"Huh?" Kuina looked confused of a second. "Oh that, I just said that to distract them, and besides I don't really care what people think."

"Oh." Tashigi said nodding.

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Zoro was left forgotten and unnoticed by Kuina but if one was observant enough he could catch him looking back after the proud Kuina, and the kind Tashigi as they were leaving, with a puzzled expression on his face.

Zoro slouched back against one of the support beams for the stadium overlooking the field.

He hadn't noticed it before, but Tashigi was really, really different, mostly calm and quiet, when compared to Kuina… Well he thought she was at any rate, other people might find reason to disagree.

He liked it, but at the same time found himself double-checking his mind. 'Why was he thinking about them for?'

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It has been slightly hard to write this half, but it eventually came through for me. I have this terrible tendency to write a story and then leave it for a few years with every intention to get back to it as soon as possible, but getting so caught up with another story that I am not able to dedicating enough time to the first.

I hope I can get through them all. :P

Please feel free to give me some feedback. Like: Who do you ship? What part of the story do you like the most? Do you like my stories in general, and if so why? I want to become a writer some time in the future, so I'd like some feedback, as to which stories people prefer.

Thanks!

Abigail Skywalker.