The Star Athlete

It was a Monday morning and I just got already for the morning. I walked out of my room and headed downstairs. After reaching the living room, I noticed Aki sitting alone at the table, on her phone. I decided to go talk to her.

"Good morning, Aki." I greeted.

"G'morning." She replied. She seemed to be distracted by what she was doing on her phone.

I looked at her then walked to the refrigerator to get milk so I could make a bowl of cereal.

"Hey, Archer." Aki started.

"Hm?" I responded while getting a box of frosted flakes from the top of the fridge and poured some of it in a bowl.

"Let me get your opinion about something." She said and looked at me.

"Alright?" I answered, pouring the milk into the bowl and putting it back into the fridge.

"How do you think I'd do in a 800 Meter Dash?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Aki. "Pretty good I guess. I mean all the girls and guys seem to praise you about how fast you are. I'd say you'd do pretty well."

"Pretty good you guess?" She frowned at me a bit.

"The hell you want me to say? I'm not gonna lie to you. I've never seen you run personally myself so I can't tell you an answer if I don't have one." I said.

Aki groaned slightly and looked at her phone. "I mean you said you were in nationals in your country so I thought you'd at least have some pointers for me."

"I said that? No I was on track my senior year of high school. I never said anything about being in nationals." I said as I sat at the table with her, enjoying my bowl of cereal.

Aki and I have looked past our differences. It's the first we've had a conversation this long. Things were different around here, for the most part.

"Hey good morning you two." Momoko greeted as she made her way downstairs.

"Mornin'." I greeted back.

"Good morning Momo." Aki said, still scrolling through her phone.

"The other two sleepyheads aren't awake yet? Shame." Momoko said and sat at the table. "So how did you two sleep? Last weekend was a wild ride."

"Mmm, I slept about the same I did a week ago." I answered.

"Same here. Only difference is this joker has freewill now." Aki said.

"It's good that he has freewill now! I feel like we should've given it to him from the start though." Momoko said.

"Whatever." Aki said.

Suki and Sayaki soon made their way downstairs and greeted everyone. Well Suki greeted everyone except me. Seems she doesn't fully trust me, but at this point I don't even care anymore. After washing my bowl out, I grabbed my bag from the chair then we all headed out and I locked the door behind us.

"Well this is the first ever time you've walked with us to school. I wonder how our peers will react." Momoko said and smiled, gently and playfully bumping into me.

I smiled and kept looking ahead. "Probably confused. I mean we've never walked together before, but everyone knows we live together. By now everyone should know anyways."

"I certainly don't like people knowing we live together. It's going to ruin my image!" Suki blurted out.

"Who?" I asked.

"My-"

"Asked?" I said.

Suki was furious by that comment I made. The other girls let out soft laughter from my comment. We continued to walked to school and soon made it to the campus after what seemed like a few short minutes. We walked onto the campus and I was preparing to split from the group.

"Where are you going, loser?" Aki asked.

"Going to sit at another table?" I answered.

"Why? We accepted you already. Come sit with us, idiot." Aki said and crossed her arms.

I looked at Aki then smiled and let out a soft sigh. "Right."

I walked with the other women to their usual table and sat with them. Everyone sat in their normal spots and there was one extra space beside Aki and Momoko. I decided to sit next to Aki then set my bag on the ground.

I won't even lie, I felt like the oddball of the group. The women were having their typical women talk, Japanese Style, gossiping about the other women of the university and other girl talk. I just sat on my phone most of the time as they chatted.

Aki looked at me and noticed I was watching some sports videos. She pointed at a guy on the screen. "That's Hanshiro Tashima. He's one of the best there is right now in bowling. I didn't know you watched this kind of stuff."

"Yeah, I'm a pretty big sports fan. Bowling, Golf, Track, just about anything, I'll watch it." I said.

"Hm...Well if you're a big sports fan, what's the name of the Japanese woman who scored 60 points collectively in first and second quarter of basketball combined of this season?" Aki asked.

"Easy. Oki No." I answered.

"Wow you actually know that. Well do you know her nickname on the court?" She asked.

"Yep, The Gentle Floater which is her localized name." I answered.

"Huh. Well how about this. Who won the Japanese Golf Tourney and what was their score?" Aki asked.

"Tadao Mikota, -12." I answered.

"Hm..." Aki mumbled. She was quite impressed that I knew those answers.

"Wow, you and Aki know a lot about sports." Momoko said.

"Whoop-de-doo. Why are you shocked that he knows something about sports? He's a guy all guys know something about sports." Suki said sarcastically.

"First, L plus that's sexist plus no one asked. Second, yeah I do know a lot about sports. My dad is the one who got me into it a while ago." I answered.

"I don't care if you didn't ask, I still put my two cents in." Suki said.

"And you can take your two cents out because no one asked for them." I said then looked at Suki. "I can be just as petty as you are, Pastel Girl."

"Hmph!" Suki crossed her arms.

"Anyway, are you going to enter this year's sports festival? Aki is joining and she needs an extra set of hands to help her." Momoko said.

"No, I literally don't." Aki said. "And if I did, Archer is the last person I'd ask. Matter of fact, I wouldn't ask him at all."

"Wow. My feelings." I said with a monotone and sarcastic voice.

"Hmph!" Aki scoffed and turned away.

I rolled my eyes then shook my head. The bell rang and we all gathered our belongings then headed to class.

The first two periods were pretty normal, just did the same old stuff that I'd normally do. Lunch is what made a difference. Instead of eating alone, I was met with an unexpected face.

I looked over to see Aki sitting beside me with her tray of lunch. "Well well well...Look what the cat dragged in."

"Shut it." Aki said with slightly rosy cheeks.

"So who forced you here?" I asked and looked back at my phone.

"No one! Can't I do a nice thing without you thinking someone forced me to?" Aki asked and huffed.

"Nope." I said before taking a bite out of my carrot.

"Fuck you." Aki rolled her eyes and sighed.

I smiled and looked at her. "Based off your look, you have something to ask me. Go ahead and ask."

"I hate it how you can just read people." Aki said. "Whatever...do you think you can come to the track with me after school?"

"Why?" I asked.

"Do you really need a reason?" Aki groaned.

"Yes." I answered.

"Fiiine." Aki sighed. "I need someone to time me. Help me train, y'know..? I'm going to enter this 800 meter dash. The winner gets a huge cash reward and I'm planning to help pay for a trip Rena has been planning. You're the only other athletic person in the house. I can only ask you."

I looked at Aki then looked back at my tray. I smiled and took a sip from my tea. "Alright. I'll help you. How long do you need me for?"

"Maybe like two to three weeks. I want to be faster and faster." Aki said.

"Alright." I shrugged.

"Thank you." Aki said.

We ate our lunch together then got up once we were done eating. We rinsed out our trays and other dishes then set them on the conveyor belt, leaving the cafeteria afterwards. The bell rang and we headed to our final classes.

I sat beside Mitsuki as always in Art Class and yawned.

"Tired?" Mitsuki asked and smiled at me.

"Yeah, but I should be fine." I answered then smiled back.

Mitsuki nodded and showed me a picture that she drew. "Check this out..~ It's a picture I drew during lunch. Do you like it?"

I looked at it and smiled. "It looks pretty good to me."

Mitsuki blushed slightly and giggled softly. "I'm glad you do..! I worked really hard on it..~"

I smiled at Mitsuki. She was really cute and seemed to become less shy around me. She's grown pretty comfortable around me and it made me a bit happy that she is growing comfortable with me. Mitsuki and I have always had an understanding even when I was isolated from everyone else.

Art class went by as anyone would expect it to. It was just learning a bit of art history then drawing and painting. The bell soon rang and class was dismissed. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and boring. After I finished all of my classes, I went to the track to meet up with Aki.

"Great you're actually here!" Aki said and pulled on her shorts. She released her shorts and a smacking sound was heard as her tight shorts hit against her body.

"Yep. Now what do you need me to do?" I asked.

"Just time me. I have to get faster and better, if I don't then I can never win this race." Aki said.

I looked at her and shrugged then stood at the starting line. "Alright, but if you need any actual assistance I'm here."

"Yeah whatever." Aki said.

"Alright. Ready...GO!" I said then started the timer.

Aki sprinted ahead and ran along the track. The other women weren't wrong she was fast, but this was the 800 meter dash we were talking about. I jogged along the track with her and watched the timer. Along the 350 meter mark, I noticed her panting heavily and getting slower. She completely came to a stop and fell to her knees.

I hurried to her aid. "Aki, hey are you alright?!"

Her body seemed to have crashed and she was extremely exhausted. She ran long enough to make it more than half way to an entire lap. She tried to catch her breath but she was just so tired from running to where she couldn't even respond back.

I helped her up and helped her over to a bench and sat her down. I hurried into the building to buy a bottle of water from the venting machine then ran back out to see her laying on the bench. She looked at me and reached for the bottle of water. I handed it to her then she sat up and opened the bottle then proceeded to guzzle the water down.

'Damn she's fucking up that water.' I thought to myself.

She panted and coughed a bit as she drank the water too fast. "Fuck...I didn't even make it to a lap before my body crashed. What the hell...if I can't even make it through an entire lap, how can I expect myself to finish TWO..?!"

"Well talking like that isn't gonna help. You have to put in the work, put in the hours. You're talented in this, but you can't grow if you don't grind for the results." I said.

Aki looked at me. "Well...we can put in the work and the hours tomorrow because I'm too tired to even run again like that."

"We've only been out here for a good 53 seconds." I said.

"For real?! It felt like five minutes!" Aki said surprised. "Yep, going home! We can try again tomorrow."

"Aki." I crossed my arms. "You want this, not me. If you want the results, you have to work for it."

"I know!" Aki groaned. She stood up and walked back on the track. "You're carrying me home."

"Whatever." I said.

She went back to the starting line then began running once more after I started the timer. The results were more or less the same. Her body constantly crashed around the 300 to 380 mark. We spent 30 minutes on the track and just as she said, I ended up carrying the passed out Aki home via piggyback.

Aki was very peaceful when she slept. It was a contrast to her usual personality around me. I liked this side of Aki better than her I don't even know what side she usually has for me.

I walked into our home after unlocking the door and closed it behind us. I took off my shoes and walked ahead. Orime and Rena looked at us.

"What happened?" Rena asked.

"She's asleep. She's working hard on the track. I'm just gonna take her to bed." I said.

Rena nodded then let me go upstairs with Aki. She watched us and crossed her arms. Aki was working twice as hard to win this race. I didn't want to let Aki down either so I was going to help as much as I possibly could.