Getting to know You (Oikawa Tooru )

51.

There she was. The woman who ruined everything for me at Aoba Joshai after Sensei left.

The screams, the cheers, all of it disappeared when I saw her standing on the sideline. I gathered the girls for stretches as I reminded myself not to look at her.

"Don't waste your time" I thought as I called for everyone to pull up their right light and lean forward towards the toes of their left foot. "She's not worth it and you know it."

I closed my eyes and room a deep breath as the other two captains led the counting and then I called for the team to switch feet.

It was now or never, but I wasn't in this alone. I opened my eyes as we moved to the next stretch and looked to my teammates one by one. I had to remember to play together. That was Oikawas biggest weakness he had to overcome. He tried to play by himself and I can't make that same mistake. Not today and not ever.

The whistle blew and we sent the girls up to do shots on net while Chiya, Alana and I made our way to meet the other captains.

Junko had warned me but Hina had taken my place as captain. She had looked up to me and quietly did what she had to in the background. She worked hard from what I could tell. She didn't talk to me much so I didn't know much about her other than that.

But there were others. Others who didn't kiss up and worked their way to that position. I know there were other girls who should be where she is right now. But they aren't. Unless something changed that shifted everything after I left.

I shook the captains hands with a forced smile l, maybe squeezing a little too tight.

Just breath. Play with your team and take a breather if you need to remind yourself of what you need to do.

"You're the away team so which side of the coin do you choose?"

"Tails." Hina called. The head referee nodded and flipped the coin. It rotated in the air before landing back on the ground.

"It is heads. Shiritorizawa you have opportunity to start the game with the ball.

I looked to the girls beside me who nodded, following our normal strategy. "We'll take it in the second half." I turned to look at the girls across from us. "We gotta give Aoba Joshai a chance to start right?"

They gritted their teeth and Chiya patted my shoulder to remind me to walk away.

I followed them back to the bench and sat down for a drink of water as the team was called in to go over our line up one more time. Everything was in order. Everyone was stretched and hydrated. We all had enough sleep and enough to eat this morning.

I took a deep breath as I leaned over, putting some water on a small towel and placing it on the back of my neck.

Everything will be okay.

I turned to look up at the stands, scanning for the people I was looking for. There was Junko and Iwa. My parents were sitting a few rows away, probably wanting to give them space. And Oikawa, Sitting as close to the bench as he could get without sitting on it himself. He smiled at me and I felt my heart warm.

I can do this.

I stood up and threw my towel onto my bag as Sensei called for me to make my pregame speech. Of course today, I was going last. "Alright ladies, remember we all have one another's backs, this is a normal game. Starting the season off 0-0. If we think of it like that we can do anything with it. Play your game and remember we are Shiritorizawa!"

The girls cheered as the whistle blew and we ran out to our designated position. Alright, center dense, it felt good to be home.

I gave the goalie a thumbs up and she smiled and gave me one back. "We've got this captain!"