🕊 Chapter Five: Tiebreaker 🕊
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Ten minutes passed, and it was getting close once again. It was Alaina, Yukio, and two other girls on their side, and Rin and two other boys on theirs.
"Careful out there, Alaina! Wouldn't want that pretty face of yours to get bruised!" He called and threw the large red rubber ball in her direction.
"What are you talking about, Okumura-? Wait, did you just call me pretty?"
She was moved to the side, the speeding ball hitting the back wall.
"Damnit!" He cursed at his failed attempt.
"WATCH YOUR MOUTH, OKUMURA!"
"Sorry, Sir!" Rin looked back towards Alaina, who spoke briefly with another girl. He recognized her. She was a snobby stuck-up brat from one of their old Seventh-grade classes.
"Oh, hey~... Miga..." Alaina trailed, greeting the snobby girl. "I didn't know you were on our side."
She nodded with a smile. "Yeah. You're welcome by the way. You would've gotten out if it weren't for me."
Alaina looked away and rolled her eyes. All hell would break loose if she caught you rolling your eyes at her. "
"Did you just roll your eyes at me?!" She exclaimed, her loud voice piercing Alaina's ears. "I'll have you know that my dad is the guidance counselor of this school!"
Alaina sighed and turned to her with a forced smile. "Yes, Miga. I know. You've told everyone that every time someone got on your nerves. Which was every day." She looked over her shoulder before turning back with a smirk. "Maybe you should take a trip to see him. This might hurt..."
"Huh? Are you threatening me?!"
Alaina smiled at her, pushing her to the side onto an oncoming speeding red ball.
She screamed, her head throwing back as she fell dramatically to the ground. She clutched her nose with tears pricking in her eyes. "Rin, you jerk, that hurt!"
Alaina ran up to the line with her hand held up above her head, laughing. Rin ran forward, high-fiving her with a laugh. "Nice one, Rin!"
"UGH! You both are insufferable!" She stormed out of the gym, her few friends hopping down from the bleachers to join her.
They shared a look with each other, quirking their brows. "She's one to talk."
Alaina nodded in agreement.
Rin smiled slyly and punched her shoulder. "One v. One me."
Alaina smiled and pat his cheek a few times. "You couldn't hit me even if you wanted to."
He smirked. "We'll see about that."
The both of them turned around and sprinted to grab a ball. They synchronized both of their throws, the balls crossing over one another as they flew through the air. Rin's ball was thrown across the gym towards Yukio, who stood in the back corner who was speaking to a teacher who stopped by.
"Rin!" Yukio whined, annoyed at his cheap shot.
"You're out, Four-eyes!" Rin laughed at him, pointing as Yukio said goodbye to the teacher and walked towards the bleachers.
Alaina's ball had been thrown towards two girls who were huddled together, remarkably making it all the way through the end of the game. The ball hit the center of their chest at the same time, bouncing off.
"Yokota! Morikawa! You're out!" The teacher blew his whistle, gesturing to the bleachers behind him with his thumb.
They slugged their way to the bleachers, clutching your chest, mumbling to themselves.
Rin and Alaina stared each other down. Rin was sweating, you could see it from his white and yellow baseball T and school track pants. Alaina's tight white T-shirt stuck to her skin, her navy blue shorts allowing her legs to breathe.
"Look like it's just us," Rin commented with a smirk, staring her down with a ball in his hand.
Alaina smirked, chuckling. "It's what you wanted, wasn't it?"
"Of course it was. I wanted to be the one to get you out."
"Who said I was getting out?" She snickered.
He smirked in return. "Me." He cranked back his arm and threw the ball, Alaina swiftly jumping back and throwing her own. They were both too fast. It was too risky to try and attempt to catch them. It was better to duck and dodge.
The balls collided mid-air, bouncing elsewhere, one of which hit a kid who was reading a book, knocking it out of his hands. "Hey!" He cried.
"Sorry, Kirito!"
Alaina and Rin stared each other down like two Alpha lions competing to take their prey. The kids were calling and chanting out their perspective leaders' names chanting them on.
There were several balls laying around and only two people left. The air was thick. The tension was evident. And the risk of failure was great. They stood there for what seemed like minutes, only lasted a few seconds before they rushed forward, grabbing the closest ball to them and making their attack.
"Eat/Take this!"
The balls curved over one another, making their eyes widen.
The sound of two rubber dodgeballs colliding with faces could be heard from in several different classrooms. The boys in the bleacher covered their faces, physically feeling the impact the rubber ball left. They when crazy, jumping up and down.
Their heads flung back, falling to the ground.
The teacher's whistle blew loudly, "Tie!"
They had hit each other at the same time.
Alaina slowly sat up, groaning as she gripped her head. Her vision was blurry and covered in dark spots. She rubbed her eyes, eventually seeing legs in front of her. She looked up, blood trickling down her nose. She saw Rin's goofy smile staring down at her.
She laughed and took his outstretched hand, being pulled to her feet. They stared at each other for a moment before glancing down at their shared bloody noses. They laughed.
"You two alright?"
The two looked over and saw their gym teacher staring at them with cross arms. Alaina nodded her head with a smile. "Yessir! We're all good."
He nodded his head and smiled proudly at them. "You both went hard out there. Good work you two. Now go clean up. You're getting blood everywhere."
"Right away, Teach." Rin grinned and lazily saluted to him before turning around to walk out of the gym.
Alaina smiled and bowed her head, running to catch up.
He chuckled at the two. Everyone knew they were close. Anyone new could tell that after just being in one class together. They were inseparable.
Rin and Alaina went into their separate bathroom to clean up and wash the blood off their faces before walking back out, gym uniforms still on.
"Guess you're not so good as you thought you were." Rin chuckled, wiping the dried blood from his nose with the back of his hand.
Alaina sniffed, wiping her nose off with a tissue. She threw away the dirty tissue and smiled up at him. "Guess not." She dusted off her hands and grabbed her hand sanitizer, squeezing a dollop on their hands.
"And did you call me cute out there? In front of everybody?"
Rin smirked and shrugged his shoulders, rubbing the sanitizer around. "I only said it to distract you. It worked didn't it?"
Alaina frowned and put away her hand sanitizer. "So then I'm not cute...?"
Rin gawked at her, watching her walk away. "Wha-?! No, I never said that! Alaina!" Rin ran after her, grabbing her shoulder to turn her around. Her face was red and tears were pricking from the corner of her eyes. Her cheeks were puffed out as she tried to hold back her laughter.
Rin scoffed and rolled his eyes at her face. "You just love messing with me."
Alaina couldn't hold back anymore and burst out laughing, letting the tears flow from hysteria. Rin scowled and walked with her to go home.
"So then I am cute!"
Rin shook his head, "You're so annoying."
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It was the end of the day, just walking out of school from gym class, not bothering to change clothes. Yukio however, was not so indecent and took time to shower and change back into his uniform.
"How was your day today, Yukio?"
Yukio looked down at his friend, smiling at her. "It was good. I managed to ace both my calculate quiz and honors biology test."
Alaina smiled. "Same as always."
Rin smiled patting his brother on the back roughly. "Way to go, man."
Yukio stumbled forward, staring nervously at Rin with a smile. "Thanks, you guys."
"So what's for dinner tonight, oh, honorable Rin Okumura?"
Rin smirked triumphantly to himself at the nickname. "Not sure. Thought you'd cook dinner."
"Whaaa?! But you're the better cook!"
"I cook all the time! You should learn to cook too!"
"Fine! Whoever makes it home first doesn't have to cook tonight! Yukio, you in?"
Yukio smiled and shook his head, waving his hands. "No, no. I have homework I need to get done. You guys go ahead."
Rin and Alaina smirked at each other, getting ready to sprint home. "Ready?!" She started, beginning to count down.
"Set...!"
"Go!"
They both took off in a heavy sprint, leaving their few bags with Yukio to carry home. They lived a little ways away, but it wasn't too bad. They sprinted across crosswalks and jumped over branched which fell down from the storm a few days prior.
They saw the monetary growing near, laughing with each other as they raced each other. It was one of their favorite things to do- Taking evening walks coming as a close second.
They rounded into the monetary gates, rushing up the porch to slam inside.
"I WIN!" They shouted.
They toppled over, running nearly a mile straight to see who could get home first, resting their weight on their knees as they panted to catch their breath.
"Welcome home, Rin. Alaina."
Alaina huffed, standing straight as she smiled at Izumi. "Hey there, Izumi."
Rin rose his hand up to silently wave at him, still catching his breath. He shot up, slouching back as he took deep breaths. "How can you run for so long?! I was dying once we passed the pharmacy!"
Alaina laughed breathlessly, hands on her hips. "I ran for five years in track, Rin. You build up an immunity over time."
Rin nodded his head, recalling the time when Alaina did in fact run Track from first grade to sixth. "Oh, yeah, I remember that. Why did you quit, again?"
"Geez, Rin. Your memory really is bad. I told you, I was falling behind and Yukio suggested I take a break from it to get caught up."
Rin scoffed, "That damn four-eyes is always going on and on about studying. Never thinks about anything else!"
Alaina smiled. "Well, he is trying t get into True Cross. He has to have good grades to attend, you know this."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But just because he's trying to enter doesn't mean we are."
She smiled. "You have a point there."
"Oh, hey there, Yukio!"
The two friends turned around, seeing Yukio standing before them, eyebrow twitching as he carried three bookbags.
Alaina laughed nervously and walked over, taking her bag. "Sorry, Yukio. I wasn't thinking."
He sighed. "It's fine. Just warn me beforehand."
She smiled watching him walk off to most likely do his homework. "Will do."
"So, Alaina," She hummed, turning around to see Rin smirking at her. "what's for dinner?"
"Wha- You snake! I totally won!"
"Dream on, nerd! My toes were at least a tenth of an inch ahead!"
The two of them laughed at his reference. "I was first, everyone saw it!" She added.
"Why don't you two stop arguing and both cook dinner?" Maruta suggested, popping from behind the corner.
Alaina smiled and clung to Rin's arm, dragging him to the kitchen. "Good idea!"
"Wha-?! Hey!"
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