Hurricane - Ushijima Wakatoshi

Chapter One

Arianna Soto had often been compared to a Hurricane. She was called a force of nature, and she certainly was a force to be reckoned with.

Was.

Currently the Arianna Soto sitting glumly in the back of the Shiratorizawa High School classroom could be a completely different girl than The Arianna Soto; vice captain of the Nozomi Junior High volleyball team. That Arianna was a force of nature. This Arianna was nothing more than a slight breeze, remnant of a once powerful and destructive storm that swept the coast.

She wasn't anything like how she was before.

Arianna's teachers were concerned, the girl who sat in the classroom with her dark hair falling over her dulled golden eyes was alway on time, and always prompt. But she never seemed to be truly present; those dull eyes of hers held a far off gaze. She was distant, distant from everyone and everything. There she sat, in the center column of the second row of the class, yet she was so far removed.

She used to have this sort of whirlwind of energy around her, and now the wind was knocked out of her sails as she wobbled between classes on crutches.

"Ari!" For just a moment Ari felt she was back on the court. There was a slight hint of urgency in the voice that pulled her to the past, only for reality to rush in with a sickening gut punch. The golden eyed girl didn't need to turn around to recognize the voice of who called her. So instead she paused in her strides.

"Hey Mei." The shorter girl had caught up with her best friend, not that it took much effort to. Mei Akinai's alert gray eyes flicked upwards to bore into Ari's skull, and she lightly pushed a longer strand of her dusty pink hair out of her face. How Mei managed to get away with having an unnatural color in her hair Ari could never figure out, but it always made her smile- especially when Mei was in the mood to change her hair color.

"You have everything right? And like you don't need any help with anything?" Her eyes showed a deep concern, and to Ari there was no ignoring the slight glance that Mei took of her right foot. The foot that was currently confined to a cast. Ari shook her head in response to Mei's second question.

"I'm alright, and I have everything." Ari had to look down at Mei, being that she clocked in at 5' 2, eight inches shorter than Ari. Ari took every opportunity to tease her best friend for being that much shorter. Ari sensed the hesitation in Mei's voice before she even began asking the question.

"Any phone calls?"

"Not yet, but you'll be the first to know."

"This is borderline harassment. She can't keep doing this- and to make the school ban you from the team- the devil woman has gone too far this time."

"No one's gonna see my mom's phone calls as harassment other than you Mei."

"Alright, fair point. But there's gotta be something we can do! I mean look at me! I break rules all the time!" She motioned wildly to her hair. "Minor rules, but still rules!"

"I..." Ari hesitated, breaking rules sounded fun, breaking rules sounded like having freedom once the cast was off. Only Ari could plan ahead, and she knew what the consequences of breaking the rules meant for her. "I can't. You know how she is, she'd pull me out and I'd be forced to transfer. I really don't want to leave." Mei's eyes shone with disappointment, but she nodded anyway. "I'll see you at the dorm Mei, I've gotta go."

Mei was about to go after Ari, but she was called from the opposite end of the hallway. "Akinai!" the voice shouted. Mei Froze and her eyes widened as she recognized the voice. Shit, she thought to herself. "Get your ass over here!" she stiffened as she turned around. She knew what this was about, she'd ditched morning practice... again.