LAS, Chapter 9
Life’s A Stage
Author: thesundaywriter
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, and a cacophony of Romance, Angst, Comedy etc...
Pairing: TezukaOC
Chapter: 9
Summary: In order to master the play known as life, we have to play up on certain roles. Thing is- how do you know when you've gone too far?
Life's A Stage,
“Come on, just a little bit more...” Jackasa muttered to herself as she added a few more drops of solution into the beaker. She gave a mental exclamation of joy when the liquid inside started to turn blue. Now she could write down the results and hopefully have a slightly earlier lunch break. Shima-sensei usually allowed them to go off once they had finished their experiments and handed in their reports to him.
Halfway into writing her analysis, Jackasa made a mistake and while reaching into her pencil case, she suddenly remembered that her eraser had been missing since that morning. Normally, if she found herself in a situation like this, drawing a line over the error would have sufficed; but it was weird to cancel pencil writing, plus, there was an entire line she wanted to rewrite and writing on top of it would make it look cluttered up and messy. She sighed. It looked like she’d have no choice but to borrow someone’s eraser, and considering that her bench partner and the ones sitting right in front of her had already left; the only person she could go and was not busy with their own experiment was Tetsuya Mano, who sat two benches in front of her. Though she could ask the two people sitting behind her… but they were Saikoubi’s devotees; and at the moment, Jackasa just did not want to have anything to do with Seigaku’s ice queen for a while.
Not especially when it reminded her of what had happened two weeks ago.
“Thank you Mano-san. Sorry to disturb you.”
“That’s fine. Say, do you need any help in carrying your things back to the classroom?”
“Nah, I should be alright. But thanks for the offer.” Jackasa smiled.
“You sure? You’re still limping a little.” Mano referred to her injured leg.
Jackasa’s injury was unfortunately related to the incident with Saikoubi. Two weeks ago had been Seigaku’s annual sports meet, and Jackasa had signed up for tennis, upon a certain red-head boy’s persuasion. And let’s just say it had not gone very well. Since her relationship with Tezuka had been discovered by the tennis team members, it had not taken long till accidental, unintentional slips were made during practice; and gossip travels fast on the vine when in a high-school. Thankfully, the rumour going round was just that Tezuka had a girlfriend but said girl’s identity was unknown- she and the tennis captain hid their relationship well, making sure they weren’t intimate with each other in public, and with their already established status as two who were usually at loggerheads, it was not hard thing to do. In fact, most people did not really believe that Tezuka even had a girlfriend anyway.
How Saikoubi came to know was thanks to Horio, whom she just happened to overhear talking a tad to loudly (as usual) to Kato. She had then ambushed the two unsuspecting ichinen and threatened them into giving her more information. Unable to lie, they had told her that Tezuka was seeing Jackasa, “But that was it! We swear we didn’t say anymore!” Horio and Kato had pleaded to Tezuka, who had seemed then to be resisting very hard to make them run laps or something.
So Saikoubi, knowing the secret, had taken it out on Jackasa during their match. The cheer-captain had the edge in the game she used to be in the girl’s tennis team in middle school; just that she had dropped tennis in favour of cheerleading upon entering high-school.
Needless to say, Saikoubi had gone all out and ruthless in the game, during which she had casually dropped some snide remarks about how inappropriate the relationship was.
“At the end of the year, you’ll leave and Kunimitsu will forget all about you”, Saikoubi sneered at Jackasa when they crossed paths to change courts. “Someone like you cannot fully appreciate tennis and his passion for it. I’ll bet behind those smiles, they’re just pitying you because you’re a poor exchange student and living with their dear captain. But you’re really just hindering them you know. Look at your tennis style, you’re pathetic.”
Throughout the game, Saikoubi had continued with her scathing comments whenever she had the chance, and the irony was that no one else heard what she was saying. Her words had been masked by a saccharine smile that was dazzling to her supporters and at times, it even looked at if she was cheering on Jackasa. No one knew that in reality her words dripped with venom.
The match had been fierce and intense. Although somewhere in between, Jackasa had managed to win just one set, but it was through sheer luck and due her inbuilt flexibility and speed. But the running to and fro had started to make her tire out, and Saikoubi had seen through that; and used the opportunity to bring out her true power and special skills that she had been hiding. Because it looked like an accident, no one could really out the cheer-captain for foul play, but some in the audience felt that in the last two sets, Saikoubi had intentionally aimed her shots at awkward angles, and that was how Jackasa had come to sprain her ankle…
And that was how Jackasa had ended up in her current situation. Though she had been taken off the crutches, she still wore a light layer of support bandage around the afflicted area; and there were the occasional moments where it started throbbing with dull pain. During which, she’d wryly think of Tezuka and his shoulder. So this is how it feels...
Back to the present, Jackasa was just in the midst of thanking Mano for his eraser, when there was a loud “Shing!” that resembled glass exploding, followed by a girly shriek. Jackasa turned around and to her horror, the beaker containing her experiment had been shattered to pieces.
“What the…”
“Now what’s the problem here!” Shima-sensei’s voice boomed as he came rushing down the aisle. Seeing the glass on and around the table, he ordered the students around that area not to move, and sent Jackasa to fetch the lab technician to clean the mess as it is dangerous to touch chemicals.
Then, he took Jackasa aside and asked her what had happened, which was quite fruitless, because she had not been at her desk. What was shocking was that the when the lab technician had cleaned the place up, he reported that there were traces of a mildly inflammable chemical in the solution. Which was really weird, because the experiment did not deal with any?
Shima-sensei thought for a while, and then looked gravely at Jackasa, “Before you added the chemicals, did you check the label on the bottle first to see if you were adding the right one?”
“Y…yes sensei, I’m quite sure I did!” Jackasa was a little taken aback, “I mean, the experiment went without a problem. I even wrote down the results.”
“Hm, very well then, I shall let this pass. Just be careful in the future Jackasa-san. Since you’re done you can hand in your report and leave.”
“Hai…” Jackasa was about to return to her lab table when a nervous girly voice spoke up. It belonged to Marika, the girl who sat behind her, and Marika’s partner Reiko was with her too. Great, just what she needed, bitch queen’s lackeys had probably come laugh at her. She braced herself.
“Ano… Shima-sensei, sorry to interrupt you. But it concerns Jackasa-san’s experiment. If we may…”
Mariko was one of those girls who seemed to stammer and shyly avoided looking at whoever talked to her. But considering she was friends with Sato Saikoubi, so the fumbling nervousness was probably just a ruse to get people to overlook her. Saikoubi hated brainless airheads and she made it known frequently, when such girls tried to win their way into the cheer captain’s inner circle. Plus it was rumoured that Saikoubi consulted Mariko for ideas whenever she wanted to make someone’s day unforgettable (in the negative sense). Whatever it was, Mariko was more than meets the eye.
Whatever it was, either the rumours were exaggerated or Mariko was very convincing in her act that even Jackasa found it hard to believe the girl could have a vicious streak in her.
“Go on Mariko-kun.” Shima-sensei said.
Mariko turned to Jackasa with a look of pity “Ah… Jackasa-san… I… d…don’t know how to say this… ” Mariko stopped and looked as if she was about to cry. Reiko patted her on the back and told her to take a deep breath before talking. “Your report… it… it’s… I tried to save it but it’s ruined!”
Next to Mariko, Reiko held up a piece of paper that was soaked translucent; the only thing to distinguish it as the aforementioned assignment was that the top of the page with Jackasa’s handwritten name and the experiment title had been miraculously left untouched. “It must have blown into the sink. You should weigh down next time.”
“Wha…” Jackasa was perplexed. She could have sworn she had not put her assignment anywhere near the sink. In fact, because her bench partner had left, she had purposely put it on the empty table; and she had weighed down the paper with her pencil box. Plus there was no draft in the lab that would have been strong enough to blow it into the sink. It just wasn’t possible.
Unless…
Jackasa studied the two girls carefully. Those two sat at the back of the lab. There were no witnesses if they decided to do something... her lab report was soaked through as if someone had stuck it directly under a running tap.
Since there was no solid evidence, Jackasa was unable to officially accuse the two girls of sabotage. Shima-sensei still insisted she must have been careless somehow, and made her to stay back after school to redo the experiment.
The third year members of the Seigaku tennis team were eating lunch when Jackasa came up to the table and sat down at a free space after uttering a rather un-genki “Ohayo...”
Because she seemed engrossed with her lunch, she did not notice that a shared look of concern passed amongst the boys, which somehow led to Oishi being made the one to ask “Ano… Jackasa-san… are you alright?”
“Oh, I’m just peachy.” She replied despondently, as if she was distracted by something.
“Sa… Jackasa, by any chance, did you meeting with Shima-sensei not go well?” Fuji cheerfully piped.
“What? You were called in by your teacher?” Oishi blushed and stammered, “I didn’t know! I’m sorry I asked, Jackasa-san.”
“Nah, it’s ok, it’s no big deal. It’s just that things haven’t been going well lately.”
Of course at this, everyone became curious, and knowing that she was not going to escape, Jackasa explained the whole situation.
For the past week or so, weird things had started happening to Jackasa. For example, some of her assignments went randomly missing- work that she sworn she had done and packed, because when she returned home, they were not anywhere in her room. Often a day or two later, she’d arrive at school to find said work mysteriously on her desk. On top of that, the marks of her weekly quizzes had dropped, particularly for the maths and science subjects. Upon inspection, she had found faint markings to suggest that someone had tampered with her answers, adding numbers here and there so that her workings and solutions were wrong. And there had been that chemistry lab incident. It all seemed rather fishy if you asked her, but she could not seem to pinpoint who would want to spite her.
“Nyah, Maybe it’s her.” Eiji said in a staged whisper. There was no doubt to which ‘her’ was being referred to.
“But how, I mean, they’re not in the same class!” Oishi pointed out. “Plus I don’t see why Sato-san would want to spite her… she won that tennis match…”
“She injured Jackasa on purpose! What makes you think she didn’t do this too! I bet she has some kind of scary psychic powers!”
“Shh! Not so loud Eiji! We’re in the canteen! And you know there’s no such thing as psychics.”
“But she di(d)… nyah…” the lanky redhead sighed in defeat as the entire table looked at him.
“Anyway, as we were saying, Sato-san won the match so I guess that’s out…”
“Actually, Sato-san did not really win in a way.” Inui suddenly stated from his seat, where he was scribbling goodness-knows-what into his notebook rapidly. Everyone immediately turned their attention to the data collector.
Inui was unfazed. “Sato-san only won because Jackasa-san was injured and they couldn’t continue.”
“But she’d have won anyway because she had better knowledge of the game, and there was only one set left…” Oishi began then realized what he had said and blushed once more. “Ah… sorry Jackasa-san, I shouldn’t say that…”
“That’s alright. I know I suck at tennis.” Jackasa smiled slightly. Thanks to the tennis regulars, she was feeling a little better although she was still confused. “But Oishi-san does have a point there.”
“Sa… you know, Inui might have something going there.” Fuji commented. “That is if you are thinking what I am thinking…”
“Please, do enlighten us.” Inui’s spectacles seemed to gleam, reflecting an unknown light-source.
The blue-eyed tensai continued, “Sato Saikoubi is upset that she did not win the real prize.”
“Huh? There was a prize involved?” Eiji asked, forgetting he was supposed to stay silent, “You mean, like a bet? Jackasa-san,” he turned to the said girl, “you made a bet with the ice queen?”
“Huh? There wasn’t anything like that!” Jackasa protested.
Kawamura, who had been quiet all this while, suddenly piped up “Erm… I think what Fujiko means is that Sato-san and Jackasa-san somehow ended up playing for something without actually making a bet, but it was probably something they both understood… and I have no idea what I’m saying…”
“You’re so clever Taka-san” Fuji grinned, causing Kawamura to blush slightly. “That is exactly what I mean.”
“Which is?” Jackasa asked. Now they were speculating that she made some sort of bet that never existed. This was just turning weird. She wondered if she had done the right thing to tell them about her worries in the first place.
At that moment, more Saikoubi’s words from the match just rang in her head. “They’re just having fun at your expense. You’re a foreigner who amuses them.”
Oh just shut. up. already. Jackasa scolded the taunting voice mentally. She decided to add to the conversation to distract her from thinking of ridiculous thoughts. Of all things, she certainly did not want to end up agreeing with Saikoubi.
“So Fuji, Inui,” Jackasa interrupted the conversation, “I believe you guys were about to say something?”
“Sa… we got sidetracked.” Fuji smiled. “But I’m surprised you haven’t guessed by now Jackasa.”
“Um…” Well, if I knew I wouldn’t be asking right…
“It’s rather simple if you think of it… what is the one thing that both you and Sato-san desire?”
“Erm… to win the match?”
“Nyah, tell us already Fuji!” Eiji whined.
“Alright, alright,” Fuji grinned, patting his friend on the head. “The answer is right there.” He opened his eyes and stared directly opposite him.
“… Fuji…” Oishi spoke up in the silence, “There’s nothing there but Tezuka…ah…” he made sense what his teammate was saying and nervously averted his eyes from the tennis captain’s piercing stare.
It did not take long till one by one, the truth dawned on everyone at the table. And when they realized, eventually everyone was unconsciously staring at Tezuka, who in turn felt extremely awkward, although he did not show it.
“Are all of you done objectifying me.” Tezuka’s voice was dangerously low, and his glasses glinted with an uncanny likeness to Inui’s when the latter had just completed another one of his infamous health concoctions.
“Sa… But even you have to admit that it is a strong possibility Tezuka. After all, you’ve never really rejected Sato-san’s advances in the past have you?”
Tezuka shot a narrow glare at Fuji. “I was indifferent to her. Isn’t that enough? If the girl cannot take the hint then it’s their problem.”
For a moment, everyone was stunned at the tennis captain’s response. It was rare to show any feeling, and yet he had snapped out that statement quite defensively.
“Sigh, Tezuka, if I didn’t know you so well, I’d call you cold”, Oishi smiled at his childhood friend wryly. “But back to the matter at hand, I do think that you should go and talk to Sato-san. Even if she turns out ‘innocent’ in all this, you’re the only one here who would be able to elicit an answer out of her.”
“Nyah, Oishi is right. She wouldn’t give the rest of us the time of the day! C’mon Tezuka, you want know who’s been bullying poor Jackasa-kun right?”
Oh no, I have a bad feeling about this. Kami-sama, please don’t start... Tezuka groaned inwardly. The last thing he wanted to do was to explain what had happened one summer two years ago... back when he was fifteen, and not knowing any better. He had allowed himself to get into something that he was desperately trying to forget.
Unfortunately, his mental pleas were in vain. Inui chose this moment to add to the discussion. “You know, it’s really curious as to why Sato-san would go to such lengths with Jackasa. Even though she has done some pretty mean things, she has never physically hurt someone she was having issues with before.”
“Great to know that I’m So Special.” Jackasa replied sarcastically.
“I’m sure she will get bored of it after awhile, so don’t worry about it too much Jackasa-san.” Fuji patted her reassuringly, although his eyes never left Tezuka, whom his next statement was directed at. “Are you sure that you’ve nothing going on with Sato Saikoubi?”
Fuji’s query was answered with a resounding wham as Tezuka’s clenched fist met the table, the impact of which made the plastic bento boxes and utensils on it vibrate. Fortunately the noise from the other students in the cafeteria masked the noise. Tezuka’s face was still in its usual stoic mask, but the lines on his forehead and the angry blush on his cheeks sad that he had snapped. His mouth twitched and he looked as if he was about the say something, but he was just glaring at Fuji rather menacingly; not that Fuji seemed to care, the tensai met his captain’s stare with a frosty smiled that dared the former to challenge him.
Tezuka rose from his seat, and for a moment, it seemed like the taller boy was actually going to reach over and punch Fuji. The atmosphere was so tense that even Oishi was mentally preparing himself to tackle Tezuka if needed. Oishi’s mind was in panic-mode, running a list of explanations and excuses he would have to make to the other students and teachers in the cafeteria when they saw their student president engaged in a brawl with one of his good friends no less.
Fortunately, the vice-captain’s worries did not become a reality. After a moment, Tezuka broke eye contact with Fuji, gathered his things, and left the table.
“Ahem…” Jackasa’s nervous interjection made them realize that they had all gone awfully quiet for some time.
“Can someone please explain what the heck is going on?”
“If you’re trying to make me think less of you, you have succeeded. Not that I had a very high regard of you.”
The words had haunting, taunting, provoking her for the past two days. Saikoubi growled and in her anger, kicked a can lying on the pavement into a flock of unsuspecting pigeons, causing them to scatter and fly away in a feathered flurry.
Tezuka had come to her as she knew he would. But from there, nothing had gone as Saikoubi had planned. Sure, she had not expected the stoic captain to sweep her up in his arms, admit the error of his ways and make sweet fucking love to her. But his words had been harsh, biting and the look in his eye had been that of contempt.
It was supposed to be the perfect plan. She had just meant to show Tezuka that that the foreigner was not suited for him in the long-run, and yet Tezuka was acting as if she had tried to kill his dear girlfriend. Sure, he might have reason to believe so during the tennis match in which Saikoubi had been accused of injuring Jackasa, but Saikoubi knew that Jackasa would not have gone down without a fight. The girl was tougher than she appeared, and probably knew full-well what she was getting into when she accepted Saikoubi’s challenge.
Saikoubi’s point had been more to wake Tezuka up. The girl was going to leave and return to wherever she came from at the end of the year. Unlike Saikoubi, Jackasa did not have or understand the passion for tennis. She hadn’t been there for the selection matches - when Saikoubi had pointed that out, Tezuka had merely shrugged and said that there wasn’t need for her to be there.
When she had followed up and asked what he thought of her being there, he had said it didn’t matter. “But,” he had added, “Just so you know for your own good, if you keep this behaviour up people might this you’re getting desperate.”
Desperate. Do desperate girls make a habit of going for the most perfect and difficult guy of the lot? Saikoubi was no innocent and had a couple of sexual relationships in the past, but if there was one thing she hated most was to be rejected. If Tezuka thought she was just some easy lay then he was sorely mistaken. No one escaped her on their own accord. No one.
Saikoubi stomped angrily to the café where she had arranged to meet Mariko and Reiko. But the sight of something, or rather, someone, made her stop in her tracks.
Her rival for Tezuka’s affections was standing at the entrance of a bookshop a few doors away from the café. She was talking to someone on the phone. But what interested Saikoubi was that Jackasa seemed to be looking up and down the road, as if was waiting for someone. To prevent herself from being recognized, Saikoubi slipped on her big vintage sunglasses and hid herself being a rack of clothes displayed outside a discount clothes shop.
After a while, Saikoubi was beginning to think that her efforts were for naught. Maybe the person Jackasa was waiting for wasn’t going to show up, or maybe she just liked to stand on pavements- people could be weird like that, so who knew? Whatever it was, Saikoubi was going to be late for her appointment if she did not get moving soon. It looked like she was just going to have to suck it up and walk past Jackasa. Maybe the other girl would be too preoccupied to not notice her.
Squaring her shoulders, Saikoubi was about to walk out from her hiding spot when a car pulled up in front of the bookshop. Now this would not be an unusual thing on any given day, but the car was a big black jaguar with tinted windows. What more, Jackasa was walking to the car. The back door nearest to her swung open and a man stepped out. No, not a man, Saikoubi realized, but a boy. And from his stature, he appeared to be around their age. She couldn’t see his face as his back faced her- he was holding the door open for Jackasa- and he had silver blonde hair and wore a school uniform with checkered pants. The uniform was seemed somewhat familiar but for the moment rang no bells in Saikoubi’s memory… and for some reason; she thought she recognized the boy. Jackasa stiffened when the boy had come out of the car, and she immediately looked up and down the street nervously, as if she did not want to be recognized, or it could be that the boy was some celebrity and she was scared of him being recognized… perhaps it was both.
Whatever it was, by the time both Jackasa and the mystery boy had gotten into the car and drove off, Saikoubi was smirking gleefully.
She had the perfect material for revenge. Now all she needed was the perfect plan and timing to use it.
There was a skip in her step as she walked to the café.
Author: thesundaywriter
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, and a cacophony of Romance, Angst, Comedy etc...
Pairing: TezukaOC
Chapter: 9
Summary: In order to master the play known as life, we have to play up on certain roles. Thing is- how do you know when you've gone too far?
Life's A Stage,
“Come on, just a little bit more...” Jackasa muttered to herself as she added a few more drops of solution into the beaker. She gave a mental exclamation of joy when the liquid inside started to turn blue. Now she could write down the results and hopefully have a slightly earlier lunch break. Shima-sensei usually allowed them to go off once they had finished their experiments and handed in their reports to him.
Halfway into writing her analysis, Jackasa made a mistake and while reaching into her pencil case, she suddenly remembered that her eraser had been missing since that morning. Normally, if she found herself in a situation like this, drawing a line over the error would have sufficed; but it was weird to cancel pencil writing, plus, there was an entire line she wanted to rewrite and writing on top of it would make it look cluttered up and messy. She sighed. It looked like she’d have no choice but to borrow someone’s eraser, and considering that her bench partner and the ones sitting right in front of her had already left; the only person she could go and was not busy with their own experiment was Tetsuya Mano, who sat two benches in front of her. Though she could ask the two people sitting behind her… but they were Saikoubi’s devotees; and at the moment, Jackasa just did not want to have anything to do with Seigaku’s ice queen for a while.
Not especially when it reminded her of what had happened two weeks ago.
“Thank you Mano-san. Sorry to disturb you.”
“That’s fine. Say, do you need any help in carrying your things back to the classroom?”
“Nah, I should be alright. But thanks for the offer.” Jackasa smiled.
“You sure? You’re still limping a little.” Mano referred to her injured leg.
Jackasa’s injury was unfortunately related to the incident with Saikoubi. Two weeks ago had been Seigaku’s annual sports meet, and Jackasa had signed up for tennis, upon a certain red-head boy’s persuasion. And let’s just say it had not gone very well. Since her relationship with Tezuka had been discovered by the tennis team members, it had not taken long till accidental, unintentional slips were made during practice; and gossip travels fast on the vine when in a high-school. Thankfully, the rumour going round was just that Tezuka had a girlfriend but said girl’s identity was unknown- she and the tennis captain hid their relationship well, making sure they weren’t intimate with each other in public, and with their already established status as two who were usually at loggerheads, it was not hard thing to do. In fact, most people did not really believe that Tezuka even had a girlfriend anyway.
How Saikoubi came to know was thanks to Horio, whom she just happened to overhear talking a tad to loudly (as usual) to Kato. She had then ambushed the two unsuspecting ichinen and threatened them into giving her more information. Unable to lie, they had told her that Tezuka was seeing Jackasa, “But that was it! We swear we didn’t say anymore!” Horio and Kato had pleaded to Tezuka, who had seemed then to be resisting very hard to make them run laps or something.
So Saikoubi, knowing the secret, had taken it out on Jackasa during their match. The cheer-captain had the edge in the game she used to be in the girl’s tennis team in middle school; just that she had dropped tennis in favour of cheerleading upon entering high-school.
Needless to say, Saikoubi had gone all out and ruthless in the game, during which she had casually dropped some snide remarks about how inappropriate the relationship was.
“At the end of the year, you’ll leave and Kunimitsu will forget all about you”, Saikoubi sneered at Jackasa when they crossed paths to change courts. “Someone like you cannot fully appreciate tennis and his passion for it. I’ll bet behind those smiles, they’re just pitying you because you’re a poor exchange student and living with their dear captain. But you’re really just hindering them you know. Look at your tennis style, you’re pathetic.”
Throughout the game, Saikoubi had continued with her scathing comments whenever she had the chance, and the irony was that no one else heard what she was saying. Her words had been masked by a saccharine smile that was dazzling to her supporters and at times, it even looked at if she was cheering on Jackasa. No one knew that in reality her words dripped with venom.
The match had been fierce and intense. Although somewhere in between, Jackasa had managed to win just one set, but it was through sheer luck and due her inbuilt flexibility and speed. But the running to and fro had started to make her tire out, and Saikoubi had seen through that; and used the opportunity to bring out her true power and special skills that she had been hiding. Because it looked like an accident, no one could really out the cheer-captain for foul play, but some in the audience felt that in the last two sets, Saikoubi had intentionally aimed her shots at awkward angles, and that was how Jackasa had come to sprain her ankle…
And that was how Jackasa had ended up in her current situation. Though she had been taken off the crutches, she still wore a light layer of support bandage around the afflicted area; and there were the occasional moments where it started throbbing with dull pain. During which, she’d wryly think of Tezuka and his shoulder. So this is how it feels...
Back to the present, Jackasa was just in the midst of thanking Mano for his eraser, when there was a loud “Shing!” that resembled glass exploding, followed by a girly shriek. Jackasa turned around and to her horror, the beaker containing her experiment had been shattered to pieces.
“What the…”
“Now what’s the problem here!” Shima-sensei’s voice boomed as he came rushing down the aisle. Seeing the glass on and around the table, he ordered the students around that area not to move, and sent Jackasa to fetch the lab technician to clean the mess as it is dangerous to touch chemicals.
Then, he took Jackasa aside and asked her what had happened, which was quite fruitless, because she had not been at her desk. What was shocking was that the when the lab technician had cleaned the place up, he reported that there were traces of a mildly inflammable chemical in the solution. Which was really weird, because the experiment did not deal with any?
Shima-sensei thought for a while, and then looked gravely at Jackasa, “Before you added the chemicals, did you check the label on the bottle first to see if you were adding the right one?”
“Y…yes sensei, I’m quite sure I did!” Jackasa was a little taken aback, “I mean, the experiment went without a problem. I even wrote down the results.”
“Hm, very well then, I shall let this pass. Just be careful in the future Jackasa-san. Since you’re done you can hand in your report and leave.”
“Hai…” Jackasa was about to return to her lab table when a nervous girly voice spoke up. It belonged to Marika, the girl who sat behind her, and Marika’s partner Reiko was with her too. Great, just what she needed, bitch queen’s lackeys had probably come laugh at her. She braced herself.
“Ano… Shima-sensei, sorry to interrupt you. But it concerns Jackasa-san’s experiment. If we may…”
Mariko was one of those girls who seemed to stammer and shyly avoided looking at whoever talked to her. But considering she was friends with Sato Saikoubi, so the fumbling nervousness was probably just a ruse to get people to overlook her. Saikoubi hated brainless airheads and she made it known frequently, when such girls tried to win their way into the cheer captain’s inner circle. Plus it was rumoured that Saikoubi consulted Mariko for ideas whenever she wanted to make someone’s day unforgettable (in the negative sense). Whatever it was, Mariko was more than meets the eye.
Whatever it was, either the rumours were exaggerated or Mariko was very convincing in her act that even Jackasa found it hard to believe the girl could have a vicious streak in her.
“Go on Mariko-kun.” Shima-sensei said.
Mariko turned to Jackasa with a look of pity “Ah… Jackasa-san… I… d…don’t know how to say this… ” Mariko stopped and looked as if she was about to cry. Reiko patted her on the back and told her to take a deep breath before talking. “Your report… it… it’s… I tried to save it but it’s ruined!”
Next to Mariko, Reiko held up a piece of paper that was soaked translucent; the only thing to distinguish it as the aforementioned assignment was that the top of the page with Jackasa’s handwritten name and the experiment title had been miraculously left untouched. “It must have blown into the sink. You should weigh down next time.”
“Wha…” Jackasa was perplexed. She could have sworn she had not put her assignment anywhere near the sink. In fact, because her bench partner had left, she had purposely put it on the empty table; and she had weighed down the paper with her pencil box. Plus there was no draft in the lab that would have been strong enough to blow it into the sink. It just wasn’t possible.
Unless…
Jackasa studied the two girls carefully. Those two sat at the back of the lab. There were no witnesses if they decided to do something... her lab report was soaked through as if someone had stuck it directly under a running tap.
Since there was no solid evidence, Jackasa was unable to officially accuse the two girls of sabotage. Shima-sensei still insisted she must have been careless somehow, and made her to stay back after school to redo the experiment.
The third year members of the Seigaku tennis team were eating lunch when Jackasa came up to the table and sat down at a free space after uttering a rather un-genki “Ohayo...”
Because she seemed engrossed with her lunch, she did not notice that a shared look of concern passed amongst the boys, which somehow led to Oishi being made the one to ask “Ano… Jackasa-san… are you alright?”
“Oh, I’m just peachy.” She replied despondently, as if she was distracted by something.
“Sa… Jackasa, by any chance, did you meeting with Shima-sensei not go well?” Fuji cheerfully piped.
“What? You were called in by your teacher?” Oishi blushed and stammered, “I didn’t know! I’m sorry I asked, Jackasa-san.”
“Nah, it’s ok, it’s no big deal. It’s just that things haven’t been going well lately.”
Of course at this, everyone became curious, and knowing that she was not going to escape, Jackasa explained the whole situation.
For the past week or so, weird things had started happening to Jackasa. For example, some of her assignments went randomly missing- work that she sworn she had done and packed, because when she returned home, they were not anywhere in her room. Often a day or two later, she’d arrive at school to find said work mysteriously on her desk. On top of that, the marks of her weekly quizzes had dropped, particularly for the maths and science subjects. Upon inspection, she had found faint markings to suggest that someone had tampered with her answers, adding numbers here and there so that her workings and solutions were wrong. And there had been that chemistry lab incident. It all seemed rather fishy if you asked her, but she could not seem to pinpoint who would want to spite her.
“Nyah, Maybe it’s her.” Eiji said in a staged whisper. There was no doubt to which ‘her’ was being referred to.
“But how, I mean, they’re not in the same class!” Oishi pointed out. “Plus I don’t see why Sato-san would want to spite her… she won that tennis match…”
“She injured Jackasa on purpose! What makes you think she didn’t do this too! I bet she has some kind of scary psychic powers!”
“Shh! Not so loud Eiji! We’re in the canteen! And you know there’s no such thing as psychics.”
“But she di(d)… nyah…” the lanky redhead sighed in defeat as the entire table looked at him.
“Anyway, as we were saying, Sato-san won the match so I guess that’s out…”
“Actually, Sato-san did not really win in a way.” Inui suddenly stated from his seat, where he was scribbling goodness-knows-what into his notebook rapidly. Everyone immediately turned their attention to the data collector.
Inui was unfazed. “Sato-san only won because Jackasa-san was injured and they couldn’t continue.”
“But she’d have won anyway because she had better knowledge of the game, and there was only one set left…” Oishi began then realized what he had said and blushed once more. “Ah… sorry Jackasa-san, I shouldn’t say that…”
“That’s alright. I know I suck at tennis.” Jackasa smiled slightly. Thanks to the tennis regulars, she was feeling a little better although she was still confused. “But Oishi-san does have a point there.”
“Sa… you know, Inui might have something going there.” Fuji commented. “That is if you are thinking what I am thinking…”
“Please, do enlighten us.” Inui’s spectacles seemed to gleam, reflecting an unknown light-source.
The blue-eyed tensai continued, “Sato Saikoubi is upset that she did not win the real prize.”
“Huh? There was a prize involved?” Eiji asked, forgetting he was supposed to stay silent, “You mean, like a bet? Jackasa-san,” he turned to the said girl, “you made a bet with the ice queen?”
“Huh? There wasn’t anything like that!” Jackasa protested.
Kawamura, who had been quiet all this while, suddenly piped up “Erm… I think what Fujiko means is that Sato-san and Jackasa-san somehow ended up playing for something without actually making a bet, but it was probably something they both understood… and I have no idea what I’m saying…”
“You’re so clever Taka-san” Fuji grinned, causing Kawamura to blush slightly. “That is exactly what I mean.”
“Which is?” Jackasa asked. Now they were speculating that she made some sort of bet that never existed. This was just turning weird. She wondered if she had done the right thing to tell them about her worries in the first place.
At that moment, more Saikoubi’s words from the match just rang in her head. “They’re just having fun at your expense. You’re a foreigner who amuses them.”
Oh just shut. up. already. Jackasa scolded the taunting voice mentally. She decided to add to the conversation to distract her from thinking of ridiculous thoughts. Of all things, she certainly did not want to end up agreeing with Saikoubi.
“So Fuji, Inui,” Jackasa interrupted the conversation, “I believe you guys were about to say something?”
“Sa… we got sidetracked.” Fuji smiled. “But I’m surprised you haven’t guessed by now Jackasa.”
“Um…” Well, if I knew I wouldn’t be asking right…
“It’s rather simple if you think of it… what is the one thing that both you and Sato-san desire?”
“Erm… to win the match?”
“Nyah, tell us already Fuji!” Eiji whined.
“Alright, alright,” Fuji grinned, patting his friend on the head. “The answer is right there.” He opened his eyes and stared directly opposite him.
“… Fuji…” Oishi spoke up in the silence, “There’s nothing there but Tezuka…ah…” he made sense what his teammate was saying and nervously averted his eyes from the tennis captain’s piercing stare.
It did not take long till one by one, the truth dawned on everyone at the table. And when they realized, eventually everyone was unconsciously staring at Tezuka, who in turn felt extremely awkward, although he did not show it.
“Are all of you done objectifying me.” Tezuka’s voice was dangerously low, and his glasses glinted with an uncanny likeness to Inui’s when the latter had just completed another one of his infamous health concoctions.
“Sa… But even you have to admit that it is a strong possibility Tezuka. After all, you’ve never really rejected Sato-san’s advances in the past have you?”
Tezuka shot a narrow glare at Fuji. “I was indifferent to her. Isn’t that enough? If the girl cannot take the hint then it’s their problem.”
For a moment, everyone was stunned at the tennis captain’s response. It was rare to show any feeling, and yet he had snapped out that statement quite defensively.
“Sigh, Tezuka, if I didn’t know you so well, I’d call you cold”, Oishi smiled at his childhood friend wryly. “But back to the matter at hand, I do think that you should go and talk to Sato-san. Even if she turns out ‘innocent’ in all this, you’re the only one here who would be able to elicit an answer out of her.”
“Nyah, Oishi is right. She wouldn’t give the rest of us the time of the day! C’mon Tezuka, you want know who’s been bullying poor Jackasa-kun right?”
Oh no, I have a bad feeling about this. Kami-sama, please don’t start... Tezuka groaned inwardly. The last thing he wanted to do was to explain what had happened one summer two years ago... back when he was fifteen, and not knowing any better. He had allowed himself to get into something that he was desperately trying to forget.
Unfortunately, his mental pleas were in vain. Inui chose this moment to add to the discussion. “You know, it’s really curious as to why Sato-san would go to such lengths with Jackasa. Even though she has done some pretty mean things, she has never physically hurt someone she was having issues with before.”
“Great to know that I’m So Special.” Jackasa replied sarcastically.
“I’m sure she will get bored of it after awhile, so don’t worry about it too much Jackasa-san.” Fuji patted her reassuringly, although his eyes never left Tezuka, whom his next statement was directed at. “Are you sure that you’ve nothing going on with Sato Saikoubi?”
Fuji’s query was answered with a resounding wham as Tezuka’s clenched fist met the table, the impact of which made the plastic bento boxes and utensils on it vibrate. Fortunately the noise from the other students in the cafeteria masked the noise. Tezuka’s face was still in its usual stoic mask, but the lines on his forehead and the angry blush on his cheeks sad that he had snapped. His mouth twitched and he looked as if he was about the say something, but he was just glaring at Fuji rather menacingly; not that Fuji seemed to care, the tensai met his captain’s stare with a frosty smiled that dared the former to challenge him.
Tezuka rose from his seat, and for a moment, it seemed like the taller boy was actually going to reach over and punch Fuji. The atmosphere was so tense that even Oishi was mentally preparing himself to tackle Tezuka if needed. Oishi’s mind was in panic-mode, running a list of explanations and excuses he would have to make to the other students and teachers in the cafeteria when they saw their student president engaged in a brawl with one of his good friends no less.
Fortunately, the vice-captain’s worries did not become a reality. After a moment, Tezuka broke eye contact with Fuji, gathered his things, and left the table.
“Ahem…” Jackasa’s nervous interjection made them realize that they had all gone awfully quiet for some time.
“Can someone please explain what the heck is going on?”
“If you’re trying to make me think less of you, you have succeeded. Not that I had a very high regard of you.”
The words had haunting, taunting, provoking her for the past two days. Saikoubi growled and in her anger, kicked a can lying on the pavement into a flock of unsuspecting pigeons, causing them to scatter and fly away in a feathered flurry.
Tezuka had come to her as she knew he would. But from there, nothing had gone as Saikoubi had planned. Sure, she had not expected the stoic captain to sweep her up in his arms, admit the error of his ways and make sweet fucking love to her. But his words had been harsh, biting and the look in his eye had been that of contempt.
It was supposed to be the perfect plan. She had just meant to show Tezuka that that the foreigner was not suited for him in the long-run, and yet Tezuka was acting as if she had tried to kill his dear girlfriend. Sure, he might have reason to believe so during the tennis match in which Saikoubi had been accused of injuring Jackasa, but Saikoubi knew that Jackasa would not have gone down without a fight. The girl was tougher than she appeared, and probably knew full-well what she was getting into when she accepted Saikoubi’s challenge.
Saikoubi’s point had been more to wake Tezuka up. The girl was going to leave and return to wherever she came from at the end of the year. Unlike Saikoubi, Jackasa did not have or understand the passion for tennis. She hadn’t been there for the selection matches - when Saikoubi had pointed that out, Tezuka had merely shrugged and said that there wasn’t need for her to be there.
When she had followed up and asked what he thought of her being there, he had said it didn’t matter. “But,” he had added, “Just so you know for your own good, if you keep this behaviour up people might this you’re getting desperate.”
Desperate. Do desperate girls make a habit of going for the most perfect and difficult guy of the lot? Saikoubi was no innocent and had a couple of sexual relationships in the past, but if there was one thing she hated most was to be rejected. If Tezuka thought she was just some easy lay then he was sorely mistaken. No one escaped her on their own accord. No one.
Saikoubi stomped angrily to the café where she had arranged to meet Mariko and Reiko. But the sight of something, or rather, someone, made her stop in her tracks.
Her rival for Tezuka’s affections was standing at the entrance of a bookshop a few doors away from the café. She was talking to someone on the phone. But what interested Saikoubi was that Jackasa seemed to be looking up and down the road, as if was waiting for someone. To prevent herself from being recognized, Saikoubi slipped on her big vintage sunglasses and hid herself being a rack of clothes displayed outside a discount clothes shop.
After a while, Saikoubi was beginning to think that her efforts were for naught. Maybe the person Jackasa was waiting for wasn’t going to show up, or maybe she just liked to stand on pavements- people could be weird like that, so who knew? Whatever it was, Saikoubi was going to be late for her appointment if she did not get moving soon. It looked like she was just going to have to suck it up and walk past Jackasa. Maybe the other girl would be too preoccupied to not notice her.
Squaring her shoulders, Saikoubi was about to walk out from her hiding spot when a car pulled up in front of the bookshop. Now this would not be an unusual thing on any given day, but the car was a big black jaguar with tinted windows. What more, Jackasa was walking to the car. The back door nearest to her swung open and a man stepped out. No, not a man, Saikoubi realized, but a boy. And from his stature, he appeared to be around their age. She couldn’t see his face as his back faced her- he was holding the door open for Jackasa- and he had silver blonde hair and wore a school uniform with checkered pants. The uniform was seemed somewhat familiar but for the moment rang no bells in Saikoubi’s memory… and for some reason; she thought she recognized the boy. Jackasa stiffened when the boy had come out of the car, and she immediately looked up and down the street nervously, as if she did not want to be recognized, or it could be that the boy was some celebrity and she was scared of him being recognized… perhaps it was both.
Whatever it was, by the time both Jackasa and the mystery boy had gotten into the car and drove off, Saikoubi was smirking gleefully.
She had the perfect material for revenge. Now all she needed was the perfect plan and timing to use it.
There was a skip in her step as she walked to the café.