A/N: I tried. I really did. Kamiko and Kobayashi just don't want to "talk" to me enough to make a full chapter out of them. Though I do love Hitomi, and I'm happy she's getting a bunch of character depth/story (as well as Hyotei, hopefully... well it's something I'm working on).
Hitomi hadn't meant to come off as rude, she had just been cranky; it was a rough night at home, one too many sentences spoken and another bottle emptied.
"You're the queen alright- queen of fools for thinking that you have a chance out in the real world. They'll eat you up like the pathetic girl you are; I know, I've taken too many women in my time, and I've seen your kind. You'll dwindle down to nothing in a matter of weeks- if you're lucky."
She argued with him, refusing to believe even one word of it, "You're wrong! I'll prove you wrong!"
"You're too small in the world of the big! Too quiet when you're trying to be loud! Too stupid and dumb! You're not enough for any world, and you're as helpless about it as the homeless out on the street! Get outta my sight before I show you what a king like me is capable of."
"-you're too quiet, Suzuki-chan, I'll have to fail you if you don't speak up!" The teacher insisted.
Hitomi frowned. Suzuki was Hitomi's seat mate, a shy girl with long black hair and small black eyes with a small mouth. Quite frankly, it made sense for a girl to have such tiny features when it mimicked her personality. She never spoke to anyone about anything, not even for school; she didn't go out for any extracurriculars, and anyone who could spot her felt like they had spot a ghost. The poor girl could barely speak above whispers, her light and feathery footsteps spoke louder than her voice.
It was this characteristic that meant she would fail this project that she had worked so hard on, merely because she couldn't voice out what she had done.
"I can hear her."
Suzuki's small eyes turned as big as they could get (which wasn't very big at all), and everyone's heads turned towards Hitomi.
Luckily, Hitomi had skimmed through Suzuki's paper after politely asking what the girl had done. It was a paper on the biomechanics of the human body. Thanks to Oshitari's vast understanding of how the human body worked Hitomi could fill in what she couldn't remember.
"Suzuki-chan was talking about how the biomechanics of the human body affects a sports player. For example, the understanding of kinematics within a sport would ultimately help to prove how effective a certain skill is. Right, Suzuki-chan?"
Suzuki glanced at the teacher, knowing that Hitomi would get in trouble if she was wrong, but nodded meekly.
Hitomi smiled, trying to comfort the girl, "I could hear her, so she shouldn't get a failing grade."
"You can get in trouble for lying, Hitomi-chan." Her sensei warned, "Everyone in this room knows that you're lying."
It was a sad day for Jirou to be napping (the silence of the room when Suzuki spoke lulled him to sleep), because no one would agree with Hitomi. No one had wanted to help Suzuki get the A she deserved. It angered Hitomi immensely.
"How was I lying if I could say all that? The human body and it's biomechanical features aren't just lodged into my brain like common knowledge! I'd have to learn it from when Suzuki-chan said it, anyone with a brain could figure that out!"
"Hitomi!"
"I'm sorry, but it's not understandable for a student to fail because she was too quiet! Especially if it's a paper that was meant for high school level! It would be stupid to fail her!"
"Go to the principal's office, now!"
The silence in the room, and the way her classmates all glanced at each other, made Hitomi feel stupid. She had made herself the fool in all this, so what was the point in arguing any further? Hitomi walked down the halls and down the steps to the office of the principal, mentally slapping herself for coming off as rude. Being rude never helped, it was the charismatic and charming, the wily and sly that got away with what they wanted. Not the brutish and blunt tactic that Hitomi had so brashly used.
She situated herself on the bench placed just outside the hall, and just as she sat she could hear the bell for lunch ring.
'Oh lovely, could this be any more embarrassing?'
Hitomi quietly watched as students and teachers alike walked across, and she could hear the student's hushed conversations, spreading rumors about situations that weren't true.
"I think she called the teacher a bastard."
"I heard that she bad mouthed that quiet girl when she wouldn't speak up for her presentation!"
"Thank you..."
One whisper Hitomi picked up on had been directed to her, and Hitomi was surprised to see Suzuki standing at the end of the bench, hands shyly clasped together and head bowed down.
Hitomi could see the sincerity in her form, and though she could barely hear Suzuki, she could understand how grateful the girl was. The girl's mouth barely moved, and Hitomi had to pat the spot next to her on the bench.
"Suzuki-chan, please sit with me." Hitomi gave a friendly smile.
Suzuki didn't move, and instead looked at Hitomi with a fearful look, one that soon turned into curiosity.
"So we can talk more comfortably, right?"
The girl in front of Hitomi nodded quickly to cover up her embarrassment, and sat down.
Now Hitomi could hear her, albeit that she was straining her ears.
"I...wanted to say thank you. M-most times I feel... Embarrassed and-and dumb to present, and I wanted to...to thank you for saving my grade." The girl bowed politely once more.
Hitomi blinked, processing the girl's small speech (it was a speech for someone like Suzuki) and her gesture of respect. Hitomi laughed, "For someone so smart, you're very dumb, Suzuki-chan."
Suzuki was surprised. Maybe thanking one of the most popular girls in school was too much, maybe Suzuki should have just accepted that Hitomi was doing her a charity favor, maybe-
"I didn't mean it in a bad way at all, Suzuki-chan. I think you're absolutely brilliant, and that paper was written well above our grade level. For you to fail would have been something like a sin, for godsakes!"
"B-but Hitomi-san is brilliant too, right? You spoke about biomechanics like you knew it."
"I'd have to thank Oshitari for that knowledge. Oshitari was interested in how far Atobe's Insight could go, and I was unfortunate enough to have to listen to him ramble about how Atobe had a natural understanding of the mechanics of muscular movement and their functions to quickly adapt to his play style and weaken the opponent's..." The shy girl just nodded quietly, and Hitomi was oddly comfortable. With her other friends, silence meant that it was boring or awkward, "Could I tell you a secret, Suzuki-chan?"
Hitomi looked over to Suzuki, who was wide eyed and curious about the information. Suzuki nodded.
"To be honest with you, I'd have to thank Atobe. Without him I wouldn't have ever heard Oshitari speak the word biomechanics, let alone speak to Oshitari. I wouldn't have known a lot of things if Atobe hadn't been there."
"H-hai..."
"..."
Hitomi noticed Suzuki observing her, and Hitomi chuckled nervously, "Let's keep that a secret between us. Atobe doesn't need another reason for his head to grow bigger, ne?"
The girl blinked at her, and Hitomi saw the hesitation in her eyes. Suzuki meekly nodded before looking down, and Hitomi smiled.
"Good."
"Hitomi, come in." The principal's voice echoed out of his office.
Hitomi sighed, "Thanks for keeping me company, Suzuki-chan. You're a good friend."
She left Suzuki speechless. Never before had Suzuki been the one to initiate a conversation. Sometimes she didn't even reply to people. She never meant to be rude, but so many insecurities and observations and possibilities were running in her mind that the only thing that came out was... nothing. After a while, once the bell rang for the beginning of the next class, Suzuki looked at the principal's door, where she last saw Hitomi.
"Wa-wasn't I the one... who was saying thank you?"
"Isn't that the girl that got you in trouble?"
Hitomi looked to where her friends pointed, and saw Suzuki sitting at a table by herself for lunch one day. After the trip to the principal's office Hitomi had been given a failing grade on her own project, and was subject to writing an essay on proper manners and respect along with a week's banishment of theatre extra curriculars.
"She never talks, does she? Not even to say thanks, I bet..."
"I thought she was mute."
"Maybe she's just mentally... unprepared."
Hitomi turned to her friends in dismay and gave them a disapproving stare before rolling her eyes and scoffing in disgust. They weren't usually this vicious, but they just... were used to being a bit gossipy. Hitomi was well aware that she gossiped at times, but really, no one ever took the time to think of Suzuki, even when there were rumors that she cried in class to herself. If the world were like that to Hitomi, Hitomi would have never even found herself the courage to speak to anyone either.
"She's not mute, and she's not dumb if that's what you're saying. Suzuki-chan can speak and she's smarter than the lot of you."
She stood up from the table abruptly, and took an apple from her tray before walking off. While walking there she picked another apple from Sakurai, the one who had deemed Suzuki 'mentally unprepared,' and walked up to the lonely girl.
"H-Hitomi-chan!"
"Don't overreact to this, Hitomi-chan."
"We were just speculating!"
Hitomi stopped, and turned around to her supposed friends, "Speculating? I'm overreacting? So, because she doesn't speak, you have a right to talk about how mentally fit a person is?"
"She's the one who got you in trouble in the first place." Sakurai rolled her eyes.
Hitomi could tell that Sakurai was offended by the way Hitomi was acting, and Hitomi didn't hesitate to show off her own offense, "I got in trouble because no one bothered trying to help someone who deserved better on what she worked hard for. And if I recall correctly you didn't even help me. Someone who you thought was 'mentally unprepared' was a better friend to me than you could ever be."
Hitomi turned away sharply and approached Suzuki's table with a smile, waving at her with the hand that carried the apples.
"Can I sit here?"
Suzuki was wide eyed, well, as wide eyed as she could get. She was never used to this much attention, as the occupants of the table Hitomi was previously sitting at stared at the two with snobby sneers. It didn't help that the table of onlookers began to grow to a cafeteria of onlookers. Suzuki wanted the attention gone immediately, and decided the best way to do that was to let Hitomi sit. Suzuki nodded, and Hitomi smiled.
"Thank you," Hiomi said, handing Suzuki the apple, "Here."
"Th-thanks."
Hitomi smiled at Suzuki, "No, thank you."
"Hitomi-chan~" Jirou entered the cafeteria and immediately took a seat next to Hitomi and whined, "Why didn't you wake me up when lunch started?"
"Don't be rude, Jirou! Say hi to Suzuki-chan!"
"Suzuki-chan..." Hitomi sighed while Jirou tried to remember who their classmate was, she even went so far as to having to turn his head towards the girl in front of them, and it was only then that he remembered, "Oh~ hello, Suzuki-chan."
"A...h-hello."
"Where's Atobe and them? Wait a minute why aren't you sitting over with your friends?" Jirou yawned.
Hitomi gestured to Suzuki, "I am sitting with my friend. They're over there in the center."
"...Kay. Bye, Suzuki-chan, see ya, Hitomi."
Hitomi nodded and waved him off, and turned back to Suzuki with a smile.
"Don't worry, Jirou doesn't remember half the people in our class because he's always asleep. He's either sleeping, hyper, or trying to go to sleep."
Suzuki smiled at that, and Hitomi set her apple aside.
"So you do smile! See, I knew we would get along."
Suzuki nodded, this time happier than before, and Hitomi was excited to see the girl lift her head up with confidence. When Suzuki did look up though she quickly glanced back down and poked at her bento with her chopsticks, "T-the tennis regulars are looking at you... Maybe they need to talk?"
"Who?" Hitomi looked behind her, and rather than making contact with Atobe or Oshitari's eyes, she made eye contact with the one who now had less of a lunch because of Hitomi. Sakurai. She glared at Hitomi and Suzuki, and Hitomi responded by smiling, then biting into her apple and turning her back to the girl.
"Well then, some people can be very rude." Hitomi shrugged, a nagging feeling made her look back to see that her (ex) friend had gone away with the others, completely irked at Hitomi's actions. Hitomi frowned a bit, after all, they had still been her friends. They had accepted her into their group with ease, albeit because of Hitomi's close ties to the tennis team, and had never given her trouble. Though now, Hitomi would have to assume that they would.
"We're friends, right, Suzuki-chan?" Hitomi asked, still staring back at the empty space.
"Y-yes."
"Then let's make a pact." She turned around to face Suzuki and smiled, "No secrets, and we'll always have each others' backs, yeah?"
"Okay, I'll keep our promise." Suzuki seemed to like that idea a lot, and Hitomi was grateful.
"In that case, please take good care of me."
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/plot/etc., of the PoT manga/anime.