My Big Ball of Gas

Chapter 3

"Tada!" Tendou-san reveals a cozy little ramen restaurant. The lights inside illuminated a few figures inside the restaurant. The street lights revealed a "Welcome" and "Open" on the front of the restaurant.

Semi-san ushered the team inside and orders 19 bowls of "the regular."

"They won't mind how there's so many of us right?" I whisper to Tendou-san.

"Don't worry, we come here all the time," Tendou-san reassures.

One by one, the bowls of steaming ramen starting coming out the kitchen.

"Here, try it first Miss 'It's just ramen'," teases Semi-san as he passes me the first bowl.

I grabbed my pair of chopsticks and took my first bite.

Immediatley the flavors of the soup infused in the cooked just right noodles burst inside my mouth, satisfying my taste buds.

"Holy shiz thish ish sho ghood," I mumble through my mouthful.

"See!" exclaims Semi-san.

I swallow the ramen my mouth and quickly apologize, "I was too quick to judge this place, and for that I am wrong."

"What's with the fancy language?" asks Tendou-san, but I just shrug and return to eating my ramen.

Despite the bowl of ramen steaming, I quickly ate it all in about 5 minutes.

"Damn, that was good," I say as I pat my stomach, fulfilled.

"I'm glad we saved you and put you back on the right path," jokes Semi-san.

The rest of the team finishes eating, and we begin our walk back.

.

.

.

The days begin to blur together as time passes on like it always does. It was a cycle of morning practice, school, after school practice, studying, repeat, day in and day out. Over weekends, I hung out and studied with the girls or the volleyball team and we would visit the park or street markets.

Soon enough, the month of practice matches came about.

"Line up!" Saito-sensei shouts at the beginning of morning practice one day, "As you know, this week is the start of May, which also means the start of our practice matches. We'll have one each weekend, so make sure you keep them free."

"If you can't make it speak up now," says Washijo-sensei, in a semi-threatening tone.

We all gulped, afraid for our lies if we did speak up.

"Good," Washijo-sensei grunts.

"So the way it'll work is we'll have a joint practice on Saturday and the practice match on Sundays. Some will be away while others will take place here. The one we have this weekend will be away in Hyogo against Inarizaki, who placed third overall at this year's Spring High Nationals," explains Saito-sensei.

"Wow, third place!" I say, breathless.

"We'll be sleeping over at their school's practice center's dorms. Make sure to bring your own futons. We'll leave right after school at the beginning of club times on Friday and drive to the train station. It'll be about a 6-hour ride, so we expect to get there by 11 and go to bed right away. Then we'll leave Sunday around to get back on campus around 11 as well. Are there any questions?" finishes Saito-sensei.

We all stay quiet.

"Great! Now let's keep practicing hard to show off our best," encourages Saito-sensei.