Secrets, Socials, and Seigaku

Chapter 8

The next morning I woke up to my dad waking me up by bouncing on my bed. “Clair! TTime to wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” He screamed.

I sat up and threw a pillow at him before mumbling “I’m up already! Please stop!” 

 You would think I was a child from the way I whined. He laughed at my sleeping state. I slept with my hair wet last night so it was frizzy and sticking everywhere, not to mention that when I was talking to him my eyes were closed. Although I couldn’t see his face his voice turned serious for a moment as he spoke. “One of your friends called earlier and said they wanted you to meet them at the tennis courts at school today.” 

 I froze and opened slowly my eyes. He was at the door with his back faced toward me. He had probably been on his way out. “Oh….” I answered quietly.

He turned around and looked at my sad expression before changing the subject. “Anyway, I’m going to come home late again tonight, do you mind?” He asked carefully.

I looked up and tried to muster up a smile. “Not at all, you do what you have to do. I’m probably going to have dinner with my friends anyway.” I replied.

He smiled when I mentioned my friends. “Okay then, I will see you tonight honey. I Love you.” He said and walked out closing the door behind him. 

“Love you too!” I shouted.

As soon as he shut the door I frowned and lowered my head. I wasn’t sad because he would be coming home late tonight. That wasn’t it at all. I felt bad because I had never given him a reason as to why I suddenly stopped playing tennis. He was worried when it first happened. After all tennis was my life. better put, It was a way of life for me. I had brought a tennis racket with me everywhere I went. So when I first stopped bringing my racket with me he started to worry. Asking things like ‘what happened?’ or ‘where’s your racket?’. The only thing I could reply with was ‘tennis is a stupid sport, I got bored of it’. Which was obviously a blatant lie. I could tell he knew it too, but he never wanted to push me into answering which I was thankful for, so he left it alone. 

I sighed to myself. And thought about what dad had told me about going to the school tennis courts. I got up and got changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a plain blue tee shirt. I went to the kitchen and grabbed a granola bar and my skateboard before heading out the door. I unwrapped the granola bar and put the wrapper in my pocket while rest went in my mouth. I threw my skateboard on the ground and took off to school. Today was bound to be full of surprises at the tennis club.

As I rolled up to the gates of Seigaku I took a look around. The place looked dead. But as I walked closer to the tennis courts I could hear Kikumaru talking, “I don’t think I can move anymore Inui.”vKikumaru wined.

I turned the corner to see not only Kikumaru but also everyone on the team besides Fuji, Tezuka, and Inui on the ground holding their stomachs. I stood there taking in what I was seeing. “Um, if you called me here to take care of everyone then let me just tell you that I hate being sick, or being around sick people for that matter.” I told them all honestly.

Fuji looked up at me with his usual smile “Clair. Glad you could make it.” he said.

I walked over to him and waved a hand in acknowledgement. “So, what did you do to them? “I asked wearily.

Fuji started chuckling. “You mean what did Inui do to them?” He corrected with a smile that was entirely to hapy for this situation. 

I turned to look at Inui surprised. “You did this?” I asked doubtfully.

He smiled with confidence. “Yes. It’s my new protein juice I invented for the match’s coming up.” He held up a big pitcher which I can only assume was the juice he was talking about. My face paled just by looking at it. No wonder Kikumaru told me not to drink anything he hands me. That stuff looked like poison a villain would use out of a cartoon. Of course I should have seen his next question coming. “Would you like to-“ I cut him off.

 “Absolutely not!” I said taking two steps back. Then I remembered what I brought with me. I unzipped my mini purse and pulled out a bottle of medicine. I threw it to Ryoma who somehow managed to catch it on the ground. He nodded thanks towards me and took some. He handed it out among the group of zombies known as the tennis team before throwing it back. Fuji looked at me in question. “Stomach medicine. I never go anywhere unprepared.” He nodded in understanding.

“Anyway, what’s this I hear about a match?” I asked Fuji.

Momo answered instead. “Well, we were going to invite you to the one we had Friday but, you left before we could invite you.” He stated bluntly.

I smiled sheepishly with one hand behind my head. “Sorry.” 

Oishi smiled as he stood up from the ground. “Relax it’s fine. We were actually wondering if you wanted to come to our match this Saturday.” He asked. 

I thought about it a second. A match, huh? I haven’t been to one in awhile. I guess it would be all right. Dad is working during the day anyway. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. I looked up at the rest of the team and smiled. “Okay then, but I’ll only go on one condition.”

Everyone looked confused at my statement. “Name it.” Oishi said. 

I smiled once again. “You have to beat them.” 

Everyone’s faces broke out in smiles. “Deal!”