Fate, Reason, and Destiny - Chapter 2 As Sunny looked up at the main building, she smiled. She had managed to um… escape the wild group of hellcats... erm, girls, and had managed to go through the day without anything else happening. As she heard the bell ring and gathered her stuff, Haruko stopped by her desk. “Sunny…” she said hesitantly. Sunny looked up, and smiled. “Yes?” Haruko grinned. “We’re going to go see the guys practice, why don’t you come with us?” Sunny frowned. “Practice? For what?” The girls started to giggle, and as they made their way to the Gym, they told Sunny about Shohoku’s basketball team, about its past, and how they had match coming up with Ryonan. So everyone was practicing. Especially Sakuragi. Sunny frowned at this. She hadn’t seen him today during lunch… she shrugged. She was the type of person to have horrible timing. At the sound of noise and cheers, her attention was distracted once again as she looked into the gym. There, she saw the red head boy, the brunette, and many others. Her eyes widened as she watched them play. Basketball had never been her favorite sport -why is it the ball always ended up hitting her head?!- But watching them play… it was different, this wasn’t basketball, it was Basketball. “Sunny, why don’t I introduce you to a few people?” Haruko said, grinning. Sunny smiled back. This girl was really nice, helpful, and so… nice. Yet she seemed slightly… well, air-headed sometimes. “Oniisan!” she called out. Sunny turned to see Akagi look at them, and let out a small noise. That was her brother?! But they… they… they didn’t look alike at all! She looked between them, still amazed at this, yet was dragged forward. “Oniisan, this is Sunny. You’ve met her, haven’t you? Sunny, this is my brother, and he’s the captain of the team.” She said, her voice proud. Sunny smiled. She remembered that pride… she had it herself when she talked about her younger brother. She watched Haruko’s older -and definitely taller- brother smile slightly. Yet he seemed distracted somehow, and she couldn’t blame him. The game was… was… magnificent. “Haruko…” she said softly. “I’m… I’ve got to go.” Haruko looked back at her, startled. She sighed. She didn’t know how to explain it. So much was new and so much of that was so exciting. She didn’t think she would be able to handle watching this basketball game on top of that. She smiled. “I will see you tomorrow.” **The next day** She entered the school with a small smile on her face. Stifling a yawn, she paused by the entrance, and leaned against the pillar. Why did she have to wake up so early?! Closing her eyes for a moment, she stifled another yawn. BAM “F---“ she yelled, and looked back to see a… bicycle?! Looking up, she saw the same blue-eyed boy who was playing basketball, and glared at him. “Excuse me.” She bit out, and saw that he was… Asleep? Before she had a chance the wake him up, two rows of hellca-girls appeared in front of her. While they glared daggers into her back, they comforted him at the same time. “Stupid hell cats.” She muttered. Sitting there and reaching for the books, she sat her cursing to herself. She was still sleepy dammit! As she leaned forwards to reach for the last book, a pale hand appeared and reached for it for her. She looked up, startled, to see a tall man with short black hair smile at her. “You were attacked by Rukawa’s brigade as well, huh? I thought it was only us males they attacked.” He grinned. Sunny grinned back. “Rukawa’s brigade? And I thought they were just hell cats.” “NANI?!” Sunny turned to see half a dozen women glaring at her, and jumped up, backing away. They seemed satisfied about this, and ignored her once more, lavishing their attention on the blue eyed one. “Thought so. What did you do to set them off?” the student asked, grinning. “They're usually trying to recruit members.” Sunny turned. “Their not jealous because I’m so great?” she asked and laughed at his expression. “Sorry, ego talking.” As he handed her the book, she smiled. “Arigatou. My name is Sunny.” “Mitsui.” He said. Sunny frowned. He seemed… familiar. She snapped her fingers. “Your another one of them basketball players, aren’t you?” she blushed. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded…” she looked up at him. He was tall, but no taller then Haruko’s brother.” -anyone taller then her was tall…- He grinned. “I am.” He seemed to puff out his chest, and Sunny giggled. The boys were friendly here, not like the ones in her old school… she stopped smiling at the thought of that. Back at home; they ignored her half of time. At least now… now they paid some sort of attention to her… “Hey, did I say something wrong?” he asked worriedly, seeing the pained expression on her face. Sunny suddenly looked back up, and smiled. “No, everything’s just… just fine.” She nodded, and looked back up with a grin, “So, have the hell cats attacked up before?” “Hell cats…” he smiled at that. “You don’t know how many times…” **lunch time** “Sunny, why don’t you come with us? The boys are going to practice again. They do it after school everyday.” Sunny looked up, and smiled. Picking up her two sandwiches, she nodded. “I’d love to.” She smiled apologetically. “Sorry about yesterday… I guess I’m still not so used to all this.” No sport was admired this much back at home, she thought to herself. Haruko smiled back, and they made their way down to the gym in silence. When they arrived, a few people were watching from the entrance. She recognized some of them as the guys who always followed Sakuragi around, and chuckled. They looked in, and watched from the entrance, yet she couldn’t help but fidget. She was getting hungry and… and… Her legs were starting to hurt. (Didn’t you ever wonder?) Walking inside very quietly, she chose a space in the sideline and sat down. She looked back, and saw that Haruko was staring intently at one of the players with a very… love sick look on her face. She tried to see who it was, but couldn’t manage to find the player. They were all pretty good. She recognized Mitsui, and realized he was very good. She watched for a moment, and felt herself get into the game. She smiled, maybe this school would be a good influence on her. “Lets take a break.” Akagi’s soft voice came. “Sunny, I never got to introduce you to the players.” Haruko said, and walked up to her. Helping her up, Haruko led her to a rather short player with brown hair. “This is Ryota,” she said, smiling. “This, is Kogure.” “This is Mitsui-san,” she said. Sunny grinned. “We’ve met before,” she said. Haruko looked surprised. Mitsui smiled back. “This morning.” Sunny raised an eyebrow, “I was um… pushed over by a few girls.” She said. Mitsui grinned, and nodded. “Nice to meet you again,” he said. “This is Rukawa-san,” Haruko said. Sunny turned at the sudden softness in her voice, and saw the blue-eyed boy ignore her. Sunny frowned, and saw Haruko’s eyes soften. So this was… this was the guy? Rukawa… she thought to herself, as if she was tasting the name on her tongue. It was a nice name. She should have guessed… after all, Rukawa’s brigade? “Rukawa…” Haruko said softly, and Sunny frowned as he ignored her. She knew what it was like to be ignored by a guy, especially a guy whom she had a crush on. -It happened what… 7…8 times a school week?- and she knew the feeling was not nice. A very mischievous smile appearing on her face, she walked over and picked up the basketball. I’m not doing this for you Haruko, I’m doing this for myself. she was never good at aiming. 1 out of 15 times did she ever get her target. Yet as she threw the ball to the other side of the court, its flight was true… And it got Rukawa smack in the middle of his head. “BWAHAHAHAHAHA!” (This was not Sunny) Sakuragi laughed, and everyone turned to see Sunny standing there, face flushed and looking kind of sheepish. “You were hit by a girl!” he said, grinning. The red head walked up to Rukawa san, and teased him mercilessly, before Akagi came up to him and hit him on the head. -Ouch-. The tall captain turned to her, and Sunny felt like she was about to melt on the spot. She knew she had no excuse for what she had done, and she watched as a girl arrived, her hair in a ponytail and a cap, and watched as she glared at her for a moment… Before breaking into a smile. “You're Sunny, aren’t you? You shouldn’t go around attacking players like that, especially with a ball. Since you're new, your off with a warning this time…” she quirked an eyebrow. “I’ve got to say, that was a… um… original way of getting his attention.” “RUKAWA!” Sunny turned to see the hellcats arrive, and smiled. “I’m sorry…” she said, and then ran out of the Gym, pursued by some of the hellcats. A few minutes later... Sunny crept back into the gym, looking around rather worriedly. “She ran back into the GYM. Got you now! We’re going to get you for hurting our RUKAWA!” Letting out a yelp, she ran into the first door she saw… She looked around, and realized she was in a locker room of sorts. At the sound of a shower being turned on, she frowned. Please say this is the female locker room… (Alright, maybe she was secretly hoping it was male…) “Where is she?” Sunny yelped, and walked away from the door, going in further through the locker room. As she sat there, hoping that the girls wouldn’t come after her, she heard the shower got off… Uh oh. Before she could open her mouth, from a corner Rukawa walked in, with a towel draped around his waist. Her mouth opened as she stared for a moment, and watched his eyes fix themselves on her with a glare. For a moment, she forgot how to breathe. Remembering herself, she turned her back towards him. “I’m sorry.” She said, her voice filled with embarrassment. “I honestly didn’t mean to come in here, but I can’t leave.” She felt her face turn red. “Those girls are going to kill me!” Silence. Sunny sighed. “Well, can I turn around now?” she asked. “Anyway, I’m sorry about the basketball. I honestly didn’t think it would hit you. I’ve got awful aim most of the time, so you don’t know how surprised I was… besides, it was you who banged into me with the bike in the morning. So we can call ourselves even.” Silence. “Are you still there?” “You can turn around,” came a quiet voice. Sunny turned, to see him watching her with the strangest expression on his face. “Nani?” she asked. Rukawa sighed. “Odd.” Sunny stuck her tongue out at him. A very immature act, yet she was… feeling immature. “Thank you.” She said. “Where is she? She couldn’t have gone that far!!” Sunny sighed. “Listen, the bell is about to ring, if you promise to get me out of here, I um..,” her eyebrows knit into a frown. “I’ll do what ever you ask for the whole week.” She nodded. “Homework, house work, you name it.” She watched him for a moment, and then looked down. Oh well, maybe he wasn’t going to help her. Suddenly, something flew over and landed on her head. Looking up startled, she looked down at the uniform. “Ryota’s spare,” he said. Sunny grinned. “Don’t look back.” She warned him. Getting out of her clothes, she quickly pulled on the men’s uniform. Ryota was the one closest to her height, yet the uniform was so big! Folding hers over and making it as small as possible, she walked over to a mirror. “What about my hair?” she asked. Rukawa tossed her a cap. Stuffing her hair into the cap, and pulling it over her eyes, she grinned. “You know what? I look pretty good…” she blushed, realizing who she was speaking to. Rukawa looked up, and something flickered in his eyes for a moment… Sunny thought it was amusement, but she wasn’t sure. As he headed towards the door, she let out a yelp and followed quickly. They walked out, and Sunny tried to make herself as small as possible, sticking close to Rukawa. She looked up slightly, and saw the girls enter and exit from all areas. Upon spotting Rukawa, some of them swooned, some of them promised revenge on the girl who had thrown a ball at his head. As they walked out of the gym, Sunny let out a sigh of relief. She looked up at Rukawa with a smile. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll return the clothes later on.” As she headed towards the main building, she turned with a smile. “Thank you… Rukawa” To be Continued... **Previous ** Next **