Poppy and Lotus [COMPLETE]

•❀Four❀•

Where do I start?

I wonder, and my hand suddenly comes up to the bruise that was slowly healing on my knee. There. I could start there...

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"Ouch!"

For maybe the seventh time that day, I fell forward after clumsily failing while trying to return the tennis ball to the girls across the court. My knee suffered the fall, a sharp, burning pain from scraping the rough ground of the court. I sat back on my backside to examine it as I heard the muffled laughter all around me.

When the sunlight on my body darkens from a figure looming over me, I look up at the blond haired girl doubled over in laugher as she looks at my bruise. When the light clears enough for me to see her face, I smile back. It's my best friend Chise from kindergarten, of course. She joined the tennis club recently, and as the distance between us grew like our other friends who had found interest in different cliques, I felt the need to hold onto her. My very last best friend.

So I joined the tennis club. And I was terrible at it. But as long as I could spend time with Chise, it didn't matter. When I joined and was at her side, practicing with her, it felt like old times when we would hang out and have fun together. So much had changed since then.

"Haha! You're scraping yourself up, Ayame! You sure about being in tennis!"

How could I not be sure? It was the only thing keeping us together, wasn't it? It frustrated me that she had absolutely no knowledge of this. I can only smile up at her.

Chise extends her hand for me to grab it. The moment I reach for it so she can help me up, our opponents shout a warning before serving the ball. Chise turns away from me and rushes forward with her racket, hitting it back elegantly and skillfully. I drop my hand and get myself back up to finish the game.

We played for hours, and I made a fool of myself every second I was there. It was humiliating. The more the practice dragged on, the less attention Chise gave me. The less she asked if I was alright when I fell. Her friends made jokes, she laughed at them. Then she made jokes and they laughed at them.

When practice ended, I took my shower and was heading into the locker room when I heard the team members laughing about something. Chise's voice was among theirs. I was going to step into the locker area when I heard my name..followed by a laugh. I hid behind a wall of lockers and listened, knowing immediately I wasn't going to hear anything I could talk about proudly.

"It's so pathetic...she joined just to be with you, Chise!"

"The way she always talks about how she missed you was so sickening."

"Like, what is she, a little kid?"

"She doesn't give you any space, huh? What a suffocating friendship!"

There's a silence, and my heart is hammering in my ears as I await Chise's response. I beg her in my mind to defend me, tell them she missed me too.

But I still had the mind of a little kid. And little kids like to hope. Hopelessly.

"She's really been a brat about everything," Chise's voice is as clear as day, but I've never heard her talk in such a sharp, cruel tone. "She's always crying about how all our friends found something more important than her, like people drift apart, what's the big deal, you know? She just can't get that. It's pretty sad. And now that I found tennis, she just has to jump in so I can be with her every second! It's really fucking annoying."

The girls stop to laugh in response to Chise, but she's not finished. My eyes are filled with tears that are blocking my vision.

"I want her whiny ass to just back off. Should I just tell her? Or maybe I tell her gently. I don't know how to say it, though."

"I think you just did." I take that time to make my entrance. I wipe my tears away to hide the evidence of my hurt and fix my soaking wet hair. Gripping my towel, I turn around the corner and enter into the circle of laughter toward my clothes. The noise dies down as everyone hears I've entered the conversation. The laughter ceases, and heads begin to bow in shame. Chise looks at me in shock, and I glare back at her as I dress as fast as I possibly can.

"Why so shocked? Because I heard you? Well you sure as hell weren't whispering!"

"Whatever!" Chise jumped to her feet and walked over to me so fast I nearly dropped my bag. Her eyes were red and they were moist with the onset of tears. Where was her mask now, the one she put on for her friends.

"I'm so tired of this crap! You always whine about how everyone has left you! You turned into such a killjoy after your grandma ---"

SLAP!

My hand was stinging before I could think. The room filled with gasps, mine included. I watch as Chise turns her head back, her cheek blooming with a burning red. My hand drops back down to my side, still not quite feeling like it was mine. Like I had lost control for a second.

"You bitch!" Chise struck me back, and I let go of my bag to let my hands do what they wanted to.  I fought her back. For leaving me, for all the things she said, for forgetting I even existed...

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"But you didn't finish!" Daisuke punched his pillow.

"Yes I did. It ended there." I felt much better after telling the story. The pain was in the past, so it didn't hurt as much now. Plus I had a newfound determination...

"But what happened after you fought?"

"Duh! I won?!" I grinned down at my brother, but that wasn't enough for him, so I continued. "Of course, the coach kicked me off the team for fighting, but it didn't matter. I was going to quit anyway. I never spoke to Chise again. That was a few months ago."

"So that's what happened..." Daisuke's gaze was downcast. I felt a sense that I had depressed him and felt like lightening the mood. I smiled down at his little face and stood up on my feet, stretching.

"Man, after telling that story and crying, I feel so much better! I remembered why I started this club in the first place!" I outstretched my body in a standing starfish position and then put my hands on my hips, grinning wickedly.

"I'm starting this club to get back at those who left me -- by being happy and having fun again! I'll shove it in their faces!" I get an idea for an advertising poster that I could set up in class for a presentation and start to head out of my room.

"Um, sis?"

I look back at my brother while walking toward the door, still smiling in hopes of lightening the mood. The bored expression I get from him in response throws me off completely.

"How are you gonna do all that when no one even wants to join your club?"

BANG!

"Ow!" I accidentally slam myself into the door and fall backwards on my butt. Stupid little brother ruining all my moments of glory...

Nevertheless, I was still moving on! I couldn't believe I'd forgotten! Thank God Daisuke wanted me to tell him that story because I recalled the very reason I'd started this club in the first place.

And no matter what it takes, I was going to see it blossom.