Secrets, Socials, and Seigaku

Chapter 37

“We will now be starting the second singles match between Seigaku’s Clair Brown and St. Rudolph’s Mizuki.” Mizuki stood in front of the net with a hand on his hip and a conceded smirk hanging on his face. The sun beat down from above us and I recoiled at the sweat starting to accumulate on my uniform. Mizuki gingerly held out his hand for a handshake, as that is the custom before every tennis match.

“Let’s have a good game, Clair Bear.” Mizuki chimed with a smirk.

I seethed. “I’m only going to say this once.” I told him with restrained anger. “You’re a disgrace to this sport and to humanity in general.” His grin widened with each word. “It will be my pleasure to completely annihilate you out on this court today.” I finished off with a glare and turned sharply on my heel.Completely Ignoring the sportsmanship-like handshake that was supposed to take place at the net.

I heard Horio's high-pitched voice from outside the court. “Um, Clair’s a little scarier than usual, isn’t she?” No one answered. I tried to focus on the game at hand instead of my team talking on the sidelines. Though it was impossible not to overhear the whole conversation.

“Woah,” Momo commented, surprised by the hostility in my tone. “What’s up with Clair? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this mad.” Momo trailed off.

“Inui,” Fuji asked looking over at him knowingly. “You walked Clair over here didn’t you?”

Inui smiled. “Ah, so you figured it out.” Inui stated pushing up the bridge of his glasses.

Kikumaru looked back and forth between the two geniuses. “Huh? Figured what out?” He asked with a tip of his head.

Fuji leaned back against the bench and looked out at the tennis court. “Something must have happened between them.” Fuji explained to the team, referring to Mizuki and myself. I grimaced. Sometimes he was too smart for his own good.

“’Something happened between them?’” Taka repeated. “What do you mean?” Fuji remained silent.

“Whatever happened,” Echizen commented looking up at me from under the visor of his hat. “It’s sure to make this an interesting game.”

“Good. We made it just in time.” A deep voice said from behind the bench seats of Seigaku. The whole team turned at the fairly familiar voice and was met with the memorable navy uniforms that they had seen not too long ago.

“Eh?” Momo hollered in shock. “What the hell are you guys doing here?” He continued shouting with wide eyes. Momo had completely twisted around in his seat to stare at them.

I turned to see who it was and almost dropped my racket in surprise when I saw Fudomine's tennis team standing there.

Kamio took an aggressive step forward. “Oi, shut up moron! That’s our Captain you’re speaking to!” Kamio shouted at Momo.

Momo’s eye twitched as he stood and growled, “What’d you call me, weakling?”

The glaring went uninterrupted for about ten seconds until Tezuka interjected, “Momo.” Said player gulped at Tezuka’s imposing tone before taking a look at his less than happy Captain.

“I apologize Captain!” Momo squeaked out with widened eyes before sitting back down on the metal bench.

Tezuka’s slight surprise at the team’s sudden appearance quickly wore away and turned to curiosity. “I apologize for my teammates inappropriate behavior.” Tezuka said calmly to Tachibana.

Tachibana looked to his equal. “Don’t worry about it. We figured since we were practicing over on the tennis courts we would come see how Clair was doing.” Tachibana said looking up at me with  interest before directing his attention back to the majority of the Seigaku team.