Smells Like School Spirit

chapter nine.

☆★☆★☆★

"So, who is Sachirou?" Yuri asked, her eyes unabashedly peeking to the corner of her friend's notebook. "You never tell me that you're close with someone, let alone a boy."

Reina could barely register Yuri's question before another interruption to her supposedly peaceful lunchtime disrupted her routine again.

"Uh, Shibazeki-san," the voice that started to get familiar to her ears seemed to turn on the alert mode in her head. It was Ginjima Hitoshi, one of the wing spikers for the volleyball club. Out of all the second years, he was easily the most approachable, along with Kosaku Yuto. "Do you mind if I sit at your table?"

Reina, who was scribbling notes on her new Kokuyo notebook, suddenly stopped writing until her mechanical pencil lead broke. Leaning her back, Reina watched the cafeteria's ceilings as she contemplated whether it was the right decision to join Yuri's club to eat on their table. But then again, hanging around in class every single day during lunch breaks just proved how pathetic her high school life was since Reina exited her old club.

"What?" Reina blurted out, genuinely surprised. "Are you...being serious?"

It was not often that someone voluntarily approached her and Yuri's table. Not to mention the other kouhais from the lit club were watching this exchange with glaring interest in their eyes. The prize went to Sawaizumi Chiyo, who looked like she was ready to ask intrusive questions.

"Sorry, it is just rare to see someone, let alone from the sports club, approaching our table." Reina tucked her wavy hair to the back of her ears and adjusted her glasses that were slipping down the bridge of her nose.

"Yeah, we basically choose the corner of the cafeteria to keep up the invisibility," Yuri added with a smile. If she wanted to make Ginjima more comfortable, it was working, the latter's shoulders lost its tension as he heaved a sigh.

"Uh..." Ginjima scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. "Well, okay I have a little bit of ulterior motives. I heard the twins, well Atsumu to be precise, yammering about your wasted potential as a manager. We can't exactly ask the senpais to spare their time to help us study and I'm being real with you here, we the second years of the club are...not exactly having it easy with academics. You're the top of our class and uh, I need some help? With math, to be precise. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

"Not even surprised that it was blondie who yammered about this," Reina muttered low enough so that Gin would not hear her.

It had been a week since she started to be the manager for the boys' volleyball club. She had yet to particularly form a close attachment to anyone, but they were an inclusive bunch. Well, at least her third year senpais tried to include her during lunch breaks,, but Reina always refused.

"You can eat with us on our table during lunch breaks, Shibazeki-san," Ojiro-senpai had said during the third day of Reina's stint as a manager. She was busy loading carts full of volleyballs, but for her gracious senpai, Reina was more than ready to give him her time of the day.

"Uh...but I don't really talk to anyone," Reina answered honestly. There was always an urge to be honest with Ojiro-senpai, not because he was intimidating (that role was reserved for Kita-senpai). "I'm not good with strangers."

She had no idea what stopped him from prying in, but Ojiro-senpai knew how to respect boundaries. Maybe there was the apprehension written all over her face and meeting new people meant that there would be questions. People would ask about her family and why she had sharp eyes and experience being the manager. Questions that she was nowhere near ready to answer.