Love-Game [A Prince of Tennis FanFiction]

[04] 50 Laps

OMG you guys, I am sooooooo sorry this took so long. I was not planning to take this long, I literally didn't even have time to type this! I still have a TON of homework to do, but you've waited long enough. Again, sooo sorry :(

ENJOY anyway~

Chapter 4: 50 Laps

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“Why are you over here?” I turn to find Ayumi giving me one of her weird questioning looks. I roll my eyes and continue watching the guy’s tennis practice, even though they aren’t really even playing tennis. They have the weirdest practices anyway.

It’s been a month since we’ve been practicing on the public courts. Apparently my body still remembers how to play tennis, good thing my mind does too. I’ve pretty much caught up to my old play style, and bad habits. I don’t plan to play in any tournaments any time soon, but Ayumi’s been bugging me relentlessly to at least try. I haven’t exactly said yes.

I come out of my thoughts and finally decide to answer her question, “I feel like it, besides maybe I can learn something” I smirk as they start a new exercise of some sort. A guy with short spiky hair, who I recently learned is Inui Sadaharu-sempai, shows the penalty drink.

I motion to the disgusting looking drink; that is not a normal color. “See look, they have penalty drinks.” She rolls her eyes.

“Practice starts in ten minutes; if you’re late again they’ll have my head.” She turns to leave while a mutter a response. That looks rather fun over there. They can only return in a certain box on the court.

One of the guys; I believe his name is Ryoma, hits a rather strong return, making the other guy let go of his racket. Ryome wins the rally and the other guy (I think he’s Oishi) has to drink the green juice. Personally, I wouldn’t want that thing anywhere near me. 

He chugs the glass of green goop and ends up crashing before even reaching the fence. Now I definitely want it nowhere NEAR me!!

Shuddering lightly, I head to the girl’s courts. I’m about four and a half minutes late. I sigh and I receive a much expected glare from the Vice Captain of the team. Apparently, she’s one of the best players on the team, excluding the captain, but she has a serious anger problem. On my first day in the club, she suddenly decided she hated me because I fell asleep during practice. I mean, when I do nothing at practice, how can I not?!

“You’re late.” She gives me a cold glare before sighing. “Fine, how about this. For every minute you’re late, you’ll run 10 laps around the courts.” My eyes widen. I can’t do that just yet, my knee will definitely give!!

I start to panic. “Wait! Can’t I do something else??”

She smirks. “No. That’s fifty laps. If you don’t start now, who knows when you’ll be able to go home” she turns with a huff.

“I was only four and a half minutes late.” I glare at her back. I could practically feel her smirk.

“I don’t count halves.” I continue glaring at her back as Ayumi tries to get her to lower the laps. After about five minutes of contemplating whether or not to put the pressure on my knee, I turn to leave.

“Fine, I’ll only count five laps per minute. You can thank your sister.” I frown as I make my decision.

“Save it, I didn’t ask for a discount” I start on my laps with the eyes of the tennis players on me. Ayumi stays by the fence watching me. She watches me until she is called to play a practice match against the vice-captain.

This time, I watch her. The vice wins when I reach 38 laps. I’m exhausted. On the fortieth lap, I trip over a rock which sends me rolling. I let out an aggravated groan. I take three deep breaths before continuing the laps. I don’t count the previous one and instead start from 39.

By the time I reach fifty my legs feel like about to fall off. My knee is throbbing and I’m beyond exhausted. I crash after reaching my check point. Practice ended some time ago, I wasn’t counting. Everyone had already left, except Ayumi. She was asleep on one of the benches, already changed and waiting for me. I want to call out to her, but I’m much too tired to do anything right now.

I take deep breaths, trying to calm my pounding heart. My knee on the other hand, I doubt I can calm. This is good, though, because now I’m almost positive I have a higher threshold for pain in my knee. I look to the orange sky as I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. It’s probably Dad wondering where we are.

I sigh softly and try to sit up. “Don’t push yourself.” I look up in utter shock. Leaning over me is not who I expected. It’s Fuji Syusuke. He’s smiling, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was amused at my pain right now. But he wouldn’t do that, right?

“Fuji-sempai?” His smile widens. “We meet again, Amamiya-san” he holds out his hand. I eye it warily for a few seconds while he continues smiling. Finally I take his hand; he easily pulls me to a standing position. I frown, trying not to put weight on my knee.

“Are you injured?” He seems a bit surprised. I simply nod, avoiding his small frown.

“I twisted my ankle while running, it’s nothing big...” I look back up, trying and probably failing to look casual. He raises an eyebrow, but seems to let it go because he’s smiling again.

“Aka-chan!!” My sister runs up to us looking rather out of breath. Where was she anyway? Either way I smirk and let go of Fuji’s hand, I didn’t even remember I was still holding it.

I rest my arm on her shoulder as she finally notices Fuji Syusuke. “Ah, Fuji-sempai?” He nods with his usual smile. I raise an eyebrow at him, why is he always smiling?? It’s really weird.

When she doesn’t start walking, I turn to her only to find her blushing. She NEVER blushes!! What the hell is going on here?! I turn to Fuji-sempai who is looking rather confused, though he’s still smiling. Being the nice one, I decide to at least introduce him to Ayu, if he doesn’t already know her. “Uh Fuji-sempai, this is my sister, Ayumi”

He nods, his smile growing wider. Her blush gets darker as he holds out his hand for her to shake, “It’s nice to meet you.” She literally just stares at him. Finally, I nudge her and she takes his hand.

I roll my eyes and pull her toward the school gates, “Come on, I’m sleepy”

She nods, looking dazed as I pull her closer to the door with my knee hurting. Goodness, I have never seen her like this; I should totally take a picture for future reference.

I chuckle to myself as we finally reach the bike rack. I guess at some point, she regained her senses, I don’t particularly remember when. “Oh my God, he is so hot!!”

I give her my straightest face ever. “Seriously, that’s what you have to say for yourself?!” She groans and gets on the bike. “That was pitiful.” She glares at me while I simply shrug. She should’ve seen it coming, I mean that was pathetic.

“You don’t understand!” She groans as I hop on the back of our ride.

“You’re right, I don’t understand,” More like I’m having a really hard time comprehending this right now. “You’re supposed to be the confident one; you were always the confident one, what happened back there?!”

She sighs, “I don’t even know, it was like, I knew what I wanted to say, but it just wouldn’t come. I made a total fool out of myself didn’t I?” We both get off the bike and I watch her pull it into the back yard area, next to our makeshift tennis court.

“Well, it wasn’t that bad...” I pull her into the house with me, she refuses to believe me. “Fine, how about a game to take your mind off it?” She immediately grins and pulls out her racket.

“Speaking of, you will not believe how good the VP is!!” I roll my eyes at her enthusiasm. This is going to be a long night...