Chapter Text
…She….didnt make the squad…
Nene’s heart sank as she looked over the two girls judging, searching for a mistake, an inkling that maybe they were joking. Sweat ran down her brow and her heart was still racing from the routine. Aoi got in but she didn’t? She thought her and Aoi preformed their routine perfectly. They should have been accepted together, that was the plan; Nene Yashiro and her best friend Aoi Akane had practiced all summer for this tryout. Nene worked so hard, she was going to be different this year, she was going to become a hot cheerleader and get herself a football player boyfriend!
But after a minute or two, after the head cheerleaders turned away to talk among themselves she realized that it was true. She didn’t make the squad. Her dreams of starting high school on the right foot and becoming popular, was crashing down.
“Nene…” Aoi looked at her with a somber expression. “Im sorry Nene…but listen, I wont join the squad without you–“
“No!” Nene snapped from her moment of despair to grab Aoi by the shoulders “Aoi you got in fair and square, please, don’t quit because of me. I would feel even worse…”
“But Nene… we were going to do this together”
“I know, but I don’t want you to quit. There’s still a chance right? There’s always next year right??” the desperation in her voice made Aoi crumble a bit. “Well…”
Aoi decided that she didn’t want to disappoint Nene further even though she felt it was wrong to accept the squad invitation. “If you’re sure…ok Nene, I’ll stay on the squad, but that means we gotta work extra hard on the weekends so we can make sure you make it next year!” she tried to sound confident for Nene’s sake, hoping the wariness in her voice didn’t give her away.
Nene only nodded, forcing a smile back at her, clenching her fists to demonstrate a determination she didn’t have. Nene hoped she was faking it well enough that Aoi wouldn’t worry about her for the rest of the day.
Aoi had encouraged Nene to still try to find an extra curricular so that she wouldn’t feel left out while Aoi would be at cheer practice. After they left the gym, Nene slumped to the registers office before the end of lunch to check to see what curricular were left (and not filled up)- Nene knew she wasn’t the sporty type, so any sport teams were out of the question. Surprisingly the list was short for non-sports:
Yearbook Committee -Full
School Paper
Speech and Debate
Student Counsel – Full; Elections pending
Marching Band
Damn. Nene thought when she saw the “full” next to yearbook committee. Yearbook could have been fun and it would have been a good way to become better known. You’d have an excuse to talk to all the handsome boys on the football team without anyone suspecting you’re just scoping out a new boyfriend. School paper was a no for Nene; she liked creating poetry and made up short stories for fun but the school paper was always too dry for her tastes. They never went after school drama either. Pass. Speech and Debate? Nope. No. No way.
Double Damn. Student counsel was full, another activity that could help Nene’s standing in the high school structure. But then again… would she really have the drive and aggression for the upcoming election to get a good spot in the counsel? Mm, no maybe not…
The final one was marching band. Nene sighed. She didn’t know how to play any instruments. Plus, wasn’t marching band on the lower end of the popular totem pole? The pit in her stomach grew, what was she going to do now? How was she going to make up for her failure at making the cheer squad??? How– Wait a minute. There was a note underneath Marching Band:
Every level welcome, anyone can also apply for flag twirler if they’d prefer to not play an instrument.
Flag Twirler? As in wave a flag around while also doing a routine that may or may not be similar to cheer? Oh…. My…. GOD. This was it. The light at the end of the tunnel for Nene; she silently prayed to every god out there. While Flag twirler wasn’t her first choice, and marching band was even lower than that, this was an ok step in the right direction. Maybe if she played her cards right, became a flag twirler and kept her socialization low to the band nerds, maybe she could learn some moves and experience to get her on the cheer team next year. Feeling lighter and more optimistic she quickly asked the office aid when the marching band signups were and where the band room was.
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Amane Yugi likes school as much as the next teenage boy, but it was better than being home. Home is angry and depressing, not the safe haven that it should be. Which is why he knew he would join as many obligations (clubs, extra curricular, etc.) so he could be at home less. He wasn’t going to repeat middle school.
Soccer tryouts are Thursday morning, he already signed up to be the TA for the astronomy teacher, and the science club signup sheet is filled out. All he had to do now was keep Tsukasa out of trouble as much as possible. Thankfully they had homeroom and some other classes together. Keeping Tsukasa tied down was a tough task but a task he was willing to take on so that the aggression at home would stay down to a minimum.
Amane was able to convince Tsukasa to join the science club at least- Tsukasa hated sports, mainly because he doesn’t like being told what to do. He almost got him to join the track team, but once Tsukasa found out he’d have to get up super early and go to meets on the weekends, Amane’s convincing lost its luster. He cursed about his failed attempt but quickly moved on to preparing for spring, he was gonna try again and maybe get Tsukasa to join the Tennis Team…
The week flew by before he knew it and Thursday morning was here. Amane was confident he’d make the team; he was on his middle school team so he knew how to play and had the stamina. The tryouts were on the football field, but there were more than just potential soccer players out and about. “The marching band?” he wondered aloud. Were they going to play to uplift the tryouts? “Its customary for them to use the field for their practice, we’re sharing today,” someone mumbles back at him. He raised an eyebrow; his middle school didn’t have a marching band so he wasn’t familiar with how they functioned. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too much of a distraction…
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Nene was in despair for a third time this week. Not only did she not make the cheer squad she couldn’t even make it as a flag twirler. She cursed at herself with her poor eye/hand coordination and her nervous clumsiness. And on top of all that here she was early in the morning at marching band practice as the tuba girl. THE TUBA. Of all the instruments they could have given her they had to give her the tuba. When she didn’t make it as a flag twirler the band teacher begged her to at least stay in marching band. Something about how they needed someone with strong legs and her legs reminded the teacher of “Sturdy elephants”. She was so taken aback by trying to figure out if that was a compliment, she didn’t hear what instrument required strong legs.
Nene was a bit of a pushover so it didn’t take long for the band teacher to guilt her into staying with the marching band. “Well I suppose if I could play the flute… that would be feminine enough it wouldn’t be too embarrassing to stay” she thought to herself. But when they dragged out the tuba (“the Sousaphone, Nene” she could hear the band teacher say in her head) she nearly passed out on the spot.
But she didn’t have choice or say now. So she tried to suck up her despair as the tuba girl as much as possible while she was at practice at least. She took a sharp turn to her left to go into her next marching sequence when she heard a very loud crowd of voices saying
“LOOK OUT!”
They had been going through goal kick drills when the sun had hit one of the instruments just right that the glare got Amane right in the eyes. He faltered at the glare mid kick, and tried to adjust himself so he wouldn’t fall. Unfortunately that adjustment put too much power behind his kick and in an off direction. Then his foot touched the ball and it was flying towards the marching band fast. All of the soccer boys screamed out to watch out for the flying ball as Amane looked over in disbelief at his powerful kick. If it weren’t for the ball careening towards someone’s head he’d be happier about his strength.
The ball made impact. a THWUMP, a girl’s scream and a crash of metal.
As soon as he heard the scream he started running over to the victim, hoping they aren’t too hurt. Tsukasa was doing well so far this week, so he wasn’t ready for that first call home yet. As he ran he noticed Coach was close behind him, being the health teacher and coach meant he couldn’t leave an injured student behind.
As Amane got closer, all the marching band kids were gathered around whomever got hit by the ball, some of them holding in laughs, others chuckling under their breath. He pushed himself through the crowd with help from Coach ordering people to move it. And that’s when he saw…
The soccer ball stuck inside a tuba.
The tuba was attached to a girl splayed on the ground, clearly rattled by the projectile. He now understood why some people were laughing, and began to stifle a laugh at the silliness and dumb luck of it all when the girl looked up at him. He hitched a breath in his throat when her ruby eyes, brimmed with tears, bore into his. Any form of laughter he previously felt was gone as his anxiety began to rise. As those eyes bore into him it was almost as if time itself stopped. He quickly scanned her facial features: soft silver hair that faded to teal, braided in one big braid slung over her shoulder, puffy, rosy cheeks, and perfect pink lips–
“Are you alright there?” the Coach’s voice broke the trance on Amane. Coach knelt down to the girl, helping her sit up. She sniffled a bit and responded with a quiet yes. The coach looked up at Amane “Yugi?” Amane stiffened and quickly grabbed the ball from the tuba, releasing it with a soft plop.
He stepped back and looked at the girl. His neck started to burn “I-Im so sorry, I s-swear it was an accident… “ damnit, why was he stuttering? He always had to apologize for Tsukasa’s actions to strangers all the time. Why was he getting so intimidated by this apology? Its not like he did this on purpose. He averted her eyes and mumbled a couple more apologies, then bowed in front of her before he heard her weakly say “its ok” the unsure sound of her voice squeezed his heart, furthering his anxiety about the situation. This girl definitely hated him.
She didn’t technically hate him, it was an accident after all, but for right now she directed all the blame on him. Everything going wrong with her at this moment was on that lanky soccer kid who pummeled her with a soccer ball. After falling over and being laughed at, Nene quickly shoved her tuba off of her as soon as the soccer coach and her band teacher started conversing. She quickly ran towards the gym, busting into the girls bathroom to cry out her troubles. God how she wishes she could be with Aoi all day after this. But because she joined marching band, she had to join regular band too, which switched around her schedule, making her drop art. Her and Aoi had scheduled everything perfectly to have almost every class together and now they only have a few. She pulled out her phone and texted Aoi, giving a summary of what happened. As she waited for a response, her tears fell and fell while all she could think about was that lanky soccer kid as the source of all her problems. “Soccer jerk” she quietly nicknamed him. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to see him again. And if she did, she’d avoid him like the plague.
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Amane sighed heavily on his bike ride home. Tsukasa walked home with some friends today so he was able to focus on his thoughts; well he made the soccer team at least. After the drama of knocking that girl down, the coach clapped him on the back laughing. Saying how if he could aim those powerful kicks to the goal then they would be sure to make it to nationals. Even his new teammates began to joke around once coach was out of earshot; Yugi is so lucky he could get it into any hole I bet. He rolled his eyes as his cheeks pinked at the memory. He laughed at the time to play nice, but what a crude and incorrect joke considering he hasn’t even held hands with a girl let alone did that with one. He was glad the girl forgave him in front of the teachers; having someone call home to his parents is something he’d like to avoid the most. It was enough to have calls because of Tsukasa but a call because of him? He’s the responsible one so it would be completely unacceptable. Still, even though she “forgave” him, the memory of her voice still squeezed at his heart. If only he could talk to her, maybe make her feel better…? He shook his head, his raven hair gliding in the breeze. Damn, why was he so hung up on this girl? She’s just a random band kid.