A Different Kind of Beauty

Chapter 4

I quickly slid my glasses on, looking at the blurred figures who I now barely recognized as Oikawa and Iwaizumi. 

"What in the world happened to your glasses?" 

"Oh, I went to wipe them off when the lens fell out."

"You have pretty bad luck," Iwaizumi said. I shrugged one shoulder, putting my book down. 

"I thought you guy's had a club practice?" I asked, my vision already freaking out. 

"We're taking a run," Oikawa said, pointing back. I looked around them to see a smaller group of guys standing a small distance away. 

"So why'd you stop?" 

"Crappykawa wanted to know who was sitting alone on an abandoned street."

"Since you found out, shouldn't you keep going?" 

"You can hardly see without your glasses, and the ones you have are basically worthless," Iwaizumi said, pulling me up. "I don't think coach will mind if you sit in on our practice today." 

"Oh yay! Anzu-chan gets to watch our practice!" Oikawa said excitedly. I gave him a confused look. This was new... 

Oikawa took my hand and dragged me along behind him as Iwaizumi grabbed my bag and followed. I stummbled along behind the excited boy as he dragged me over to the rest of the club. 

"Besides, I think Tanji-san would kill us if we left you," Iwaizumi added as an afterthought. 

"Okay! Anzu-chan, I'd like you to meet the volleyball club. Everyone, this is Anzu-chan!" Oikawa intorduced me. I gave him a look, before turning to the group. The were fidgeting awkwardly, looking really confused. 

"My name is Michishio Anzu. Nice to meet you," I simply said, giving them a small bow. 

"Oi Trashykawa! We need to keep going," Iwaizumi said. With a few nods, the guys took of jogging once more. I followed behind, my book open. Eventually I gave up and shut the book, following silently behind the jogging guys. 

A few of the guys kept glancing back at me, I'm sure confused looks were on their faces. However, I couldn't really get a good look at their faces. 

"The captain's not really..."

"You talking about him picking up random girls?"

"Please don't assume things about Oikawa-san. If you didn't notice, Iwaizumi-san also knew who I was," I said, somewhat quietly. However I did manage to grab the attention of a few guys who were closest to me. 

"Oh, sorry about that Michishio-san," one of the guys apologized. "I don't think they meant to come off as rude."

I nodded in a understanding way, causing the guys to sigh in relief. After another few minutes, I stopped and pulled off my glasses. I rubbed my temples, closing my eyes against the migraine that was appearing. I slid it up against the cover of my book, letting my eyes rest from the struggle of squinting. 

"Hey... That girl isn't keeping up with us any more." I vaguely heard one guy say, and I shook my head, my already bushy hair moving closer to my face, my glasses no longer keeping it in place. 

The ones in the very back started to slow to a stop, looking back at me. I took in a breath and started to run, my feet hitting the pavement with loud smacks. I slowly increased my speed, quickly catching up to the boys that had stopped. 

"Keep up," I said as I ran by, my voice just loud enough to catch their attention. They looked at me in shock, until one chuckled and started to run as well. 

"Let's not let ourselves get shown up by a girl," he said, causing his teammates to laugh as they followed in suit. A smile broke out on my face, and I stuck my arms out as I ran, my book still tightly clasped in my left hand. 

Eventually, we ended up running past the main group of guys, others joining in with small laughs. I was unable to see many of the details surrounding me, but I ran next to Oikawa and Iwaizumi at the front until we reached the gym once more. 

In the end, with a little begging to the coach from Oikawa, and reluctantly Iwaizumi, I ended up being the only girl in years to sit in on their practice. 

The next day, let's just say that Rinko wasn't very pleased to see me without glasses. She wasn't able to revoke her promise about tutoring the other students, but there was no way she was going to let me walk home alone anymore. 

So after some begging from Rinko, and oddly enough some of the players, I ended up spending each day after school with the volleyball team.