The Ultimate Stride | Prince of Stride Fanfiction |

7 | Bathroom Trips

| {Kyouko's P.O.V.} |

"Well isn't this uniform just the cutest little thing," I mused as I held the large, royal-blue jacket up to my body, capturing the attention of everyone in the club room.

    We had just gotten out of class, so everybody was still trying to shift out of their disinterested, brain-dead student mode. I had no trouble in accomplishing that because I was extremely excited for our first Stride match that would be taking place the upcoming day.

"That's obviously way too big on you," Hozumi pointed out as he gestured to my small body, not catching my sarcasm.

Instead of resting somewhere around my hips, the hem of the jacket reached more towards the tops of my knees. I knew it was too big, I was just trying to make a joke to liven up the mood a little.

    "No shit, Sherlock," I answered in English, confusing everyone with the exception of Takeru who was trying to stack protein powder cans into a pyramid on top of the coffee table.

He really likes that protein drink...

    "Watch your language, Kyouko," Takeru warned me half-heartedly as he tried to properly balance the cans on top of one another, fully focused on the task.

"I'd rather watch TV," I answered, not taking his words seriously. He sighed and continued to rearrange his cans, ignoring my silly comment.

After the wedding photo shoot with the surprise addition of Takeru, things had been a little different between us.

    Takeru would actually go out his way to ask me questions about myself, and instead of giving me one worded answers whenever I asked him a question, he'd sometimes add on little stories of his own that would strike up fresh conversation.

    Also, sometimes in class I'd catch him staring at me, and we'd make awkward eye contact for an uncomfortable fifteen seconds before I would finally decide to look away, too embarrassed to continue.

    It was weird, but I thought it was kind of cute of him.

I was finally starting to get to know him a little better, and I was more than happy about it.

    As I unknowingly began to stare at Takeru's growing protein can castle, I was pulled from my trance by the sound of Riku's soothing voice.

"I always forget that Kyouko is from America because she speaks Japanese so fluently," Riku sighed as he stared at the colorful carp streamers hanging from the ceiling. He was laying on the ground, and his boredom was very evident on his face.

"Me too. It makes me want to try harder in my English class so I can actually understand what she's saying half of the time," Heath agreed as he began to remove more uniforms from the old box he had pulled out of a nearby locker, searching for our proper jersey sizes.

    "I'm jealous of Fujiwara who can understand English so well, it's just not fair," Nana pouted as she rested her head on the windowsill, looking out onto the school grounds with sleepy eyes. It was very warm that day, so we had opened the windows to let some fresh air in.

She looks tired.

I knew she had been working very hard with her timings as our relationer. Ever since we had turned in our official entry for our match against Saikei Academy, she had been doing lots of work with Dan-sensei after practice to pinpoint our average and max speeds.