Date Her Instead Vol. 1

Chapter Fourteen: A Festival, A Race And An Odd Repeat Of The Past

The day had finally arrived, signaled by the constant buzz in the air from students, faculty and guests as they had all gathered at Iwanai Municipal High School for one of the biggest events of the year. The vendors were set up, calling out for business and the smells of their food helping in their endeavors. Final sound checks were being made on equipment and everything for the events was being looked over one last time before it was put into use. With all of that occurring, it meant only one thing: the sports festival was about to begin!

However, just because that was the case, it didn't mean that everyone was jumping for joy. In particular, there was one girl who would've rather still been in bed. "Seriously, I get we have a lot to go through, but does this festival have to start at the same time as a normal school day?" the girl complained. "Come on Haru-chi, get into the festival spirit!" the girl standing next to her said gleefully.

The two girls standing off to the side were Haruna and Chiyo, both dressed in the school's plain white t-shirt and navy blue shorts that served as the gym uniform. "I'd probably feel more festive if you hadn't dragged me into a race. I hate running," Haruna continued to complain. "But at least you get to run with Kana-chan," Chiyo pointed out. Haruna went quiet.

The fact that she would be competing against Kanako was something she also learned on the day the line-ups had been posted. More specifically, Chiyo had told Haruna, which caused her to go make sure Chiyo hadn't misread the board. When she saw it was true, Haruna began to have mixed feelings about it. Things were still awkward between her and Kanako. There was always the possibility that racing against one another could just make things worse somehow. However, Haruna also had a deep-seeded desire to beat Kanako in anything and this was no different.

Unlike Kanako though, Haruna didn't have any sort of goal she was working toward. All she wanted was victory. She hated even the idea of losing to Kanako and wanted to use the race between them to show that she was better than her. There was a part of Haruna that knew thinking like that was petty, but it wasn't large enough to make her care. "I have to win," she thought. "I've got to put that pipsqueak in her place."

Haruna thought that, but those words she told herself had lost some of their edge and nearly sounded hollow. The desire to win was there, but the malice that would've usually been behind it had begun to fade.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" a voice rang out over the speakers. "The events will begin in five minutes! Those of you in the first one, please make your way to the start/finish line!" After the announcement ended, the crowd that had arrived shuffled over to the track and began gathering around it on both the inside and outside. Most of the students stayed inside the track, but there were also plenty of them still getting food or standing in groups away from the action, talking. "Come on Haru-chi, let's go watch!" Chiyo said excitedly, grabbing Haruna by the hand and pulling her along.

Once they had managed to squeeze their way through the masses, the two girls chose to stand over by the second turn. "I've got a friend in this one, so I'm really looking forward to cheering her on!" Chiyo said happily. The first event of the day was also the longest: the marathon.

It wasn't actually a marathon, as asking a bunch of kids to run 26.2 miles would be very unreasonable, but it still was lengthy for the average person, standing at 5 miles. This event used to be at the end of the day, but after numerous years of everyone leaving before it could finish, the school and student council decided to put it at the beginning so people had to watch it and support the competitors. A lot of people still ignored it, but as it was the first event of the day, there were still plenty who were willing to watch.

The runners got to the line and the person who would signal for them to start was explaining the rules, which consisted of the typical no tripping or pushing and don't start before the flag drops. After nearly boring the students to death, the man with the flag raised it high in the air, then called out: "On your marks! Get set..."