His Score (Mitsui Hisashi x OC)

Chapter 25: Against the Sophomores

Third Person POV

The girls gathered in two rows and listened to their sensei who wore a yellow polo shirt, baggy jeans and a whistle around his neck. "Everyone! Today you will perform basic skills in basketball in an hour. After that, we will have a practice match. The fundamentals of basketball have already been discussed, all you need to do is to execute them and have fun!"

Out of all the different reactions, Haruko was the only one cheering in excitement. Yakumo got worrisome for her performance while Matsui tried to make her feel lighter. Rei too was worried a little,  she did not expect a match yet she wasn't surprised at all.

She looked around to her classmates and she knew they weren't experienced with basketball because of their reactions. They were worried just like Yakumo but they did practice the basics, they just didn't know it was gonna be today.

The class gathered and followed their sensei's lead, all went ahead to the gym but it wasn't empty. Another class was already in there and occupied the second court, the anonymous class just arrived earlier and the girls gave each other glances. Rei looked around to them and knew they were seniors. A familiar girl with curly locks caught her eye and to her surprise, it was Ayako.

Ayako noticed Rei as well and they waved hands. The class started later and Rei was performing well, her dribbling skills were neat and passing balls weren't hard for her either. Ayako was observing in a distance while she stretched to prepare her body.

Rei's final activity was to make a lay up shot, although most of the class were just newbies, they were still required to perform and get graded. If a student can make a shot they get a perfect score from that, if they can't they'll just need to do more ball passes.

One by one the students did their shot but only a few made it. It was Haruko's turn and she got the ball through the hoop. Everyone clapped and Matsui prepared for her turn. She dribbled and did as Haruko did and threw the ball up, it hit the rim and bounced a while but it still got through the hoop. After a few clapping and cheering, it was Yakumo's turn.

She pursed her lips and gathered her courage and strength to execute the shot, but sadly she did not made it. "It's okay, Yakumo-chan! Nice hustle!" Rei said to her friend with a towel on her hand.

"You did great!" Haruko said with a smile.

Yakumo thanked the girls and Matsui grabbed her from her shoulders and said, "I'll count on your passes this time!"

Next, it was Rei's turn and she got into position. She waited for her sensei's cue and when he finally blew the whistle, she dribbled to the goal and made her way up and did a lay up smoothly. Her friends cheered and clapped with her good performance as she did made the shot.

At the other court, the seniors were playing a match. Ayako witnessed Rei's lay up and so did the other student, "She got some pretty solid basic skills huh?" The familiar voice made Ayako turn her head and met her eyes with the girl, "Hoga-san."

"That's your assistant manager, right?" Hoga asked and Ayako nodded. Hoga seemed pretty interested and Ayako got the message, "You're pretty curious of her. Do you plan on taking her away from the basketball club?" Ayako said with a low voice and Hoga giggled at her remark.

"Haha! You're pretty sharp."

"And so are you, Hoga-san." Ayako was a bit worried but as far as she had known, Rei never showed any interest of joining the basketball club. Hoga is the current captain of the girl's basketball club and watching Rei's basic skills in a distance made her grew in interest.