Lavender | Wakatoshi Ushijima

51 | Surreal

"Let me see.." Mrs Ito mumbles, unzipping her bag and carefully going through the papers.

I wait for my test in the empty classroom, standing before her desk. I'm about to explode. This test is half of my final grade. If I didn't do well, I'll wave those volleyball scholarships goodbye. My average will be drastically affected and it'll tighten my chances. My nerves are pulsing. The range is between one and five, five being the highest. I pray for a five or a four desperately as I hear her pull it out.

"Here you are, Ushijima." She smiles toughly, handing me the paper. I look down to find a large four at the top of the paper in bright red marker, a streaky circle around it. Adrenaline.

"Congratulations," she says.

"Thank you," I bow. I'm in shock. I'm passing literature. I'm passing.

I can't believe I did it. I couldn't have done it without her. Hana and I did it.

Before I know it, I'm back outside on campus. The students are out, the campus is empty. The weather is tranquil, there's dappling sunshine and a light breeze. I roll up my sleeves to my elbows. I start heading towards practice, eager to tell Coach Washijo of my excellent grade. I bet he won't believe me. But I'm not as excited as I want to be. Her absence weighs heavy on my heart.

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Tendo's on my left, Kiyo's on my right. The three of us are sharing a pack of dark chocolate-covered sweets, the blueberry-flavored one was out due to a first year frenzy. We're heading to the team's volleyball practice, I haven't gone in a while.

"Want one?" I angle the box to him.

"Dark chocolate? It's like you don't know me." He says, acting offended sarcastically. I pull the box back.

"Oh, right. Wakatoshi is the one who likes dark chocolate." I smile to myself.

"If you think he likes dark chocolate, you should've seen him at the tournament." Tendo remarks.

Kiyo mumbles as she chews, "He was living off of those dark chocolate protein bars, remember?"

"He barely ate nutritious food. But when he did, he had those protein bars before he'd leave," Tendo says with a sarcastic tone.

There's a twinge in my chest. Barely ate? I never knew things were so tough. He always told me the tournament was great and even showed me a few matches on his phone.

"I don't know how he got by when he had to walk." Kiyo's tone changes.

"What are you guys talking about?" There's an eerily bad feeling creeping up on me.

"When he would leave to visit you at the hospital after our matches, he told me he would walk to a flower shop after taking the bus. We had to sneak him back onto campus because he'd always come back after the gates closed at eleven," Tendo says. The words 'flower shop' are being burned into my brain.

"Do you remember when the guard caught us?" Kiyo puts a finger up, snickering.

"Coach Washijo would not let it go. He gave Ushijima a second warning and made him run an extra lap the next day. I swear, being interrogated that night was the most chaotic event. He and the other coaches thought we were sneaking out to smoke." Tendo bursts into laughter. Second warning? There was a first?

"The tournament was destined for insanity the moment we got on the bus." Kiyo shakes her head.

"Hana, picture this. Kiyo gets off the bus and Ushijima sprints out after her. When she told him you were admitted to the hospital, he's locked and loaded. Coach is yelling at him that he's going to bench him. He tells him he doesn't care and takes off with the wind. The idiot could've gotten a ride down the street, but it was like something in him snapped," Tendo says.