Chapter 11 [Elementary Days (pt. 8)]

Ever since that day, there's been a "few" changes to Emiko's schedule. Usually, she'd go to school, come back home, eat snacks, study and finish assignments, study, study some more, do some stretchings (while studying), eat dinner, study for an hour, then sleep and repeat. During weekends, she would study (from academics to caretaking to survival skills) and eat and sleep. Really a life of a hermit.

However, the involvement of sports did require "few" changes. During school days, she'd go to school, come back home, eat snacks, practice volleyball, shower, eat dinner, study for 2 hours, then run with her father. It sounds soooo simple...yet-

"UGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! SAVE MEEEEEEEE!!"

This little ex-hermit was complaining non-stop.

"Are you okay, Emiko?" asked Sachie.

"OF COURSE I AM...NOT! MY-"

"Calm down for a second you whiner. You're hurting my precious ears for goodness sake!"

The girls looked at Kazuo, amazed on his absolute courage...to possibly die.

"Oh, guess you didn't learn your lesson from yesterday, gramps," Mayumi threatened.

"Go ahead, try to punch me all you want, you'll get into trouble either way," the silver haired boy informed. "And no matter the outcome, my golden ears are too precious for those hideous screechings. Well, it's not as hideous as yours."

Mayumi blushed with anger, like a little child who got its candy stolen, which obviously didn't go unnoticed by the said speaker. Kazuo put on a prideful look, full of joy that he finally got the "ultimate comeback." The hot-tempered girl was full on ready to charge at him, until she got one of those 'idiot' moments. This led to a quite 'hour.'

"...thank you, Kazuo," Emiko randomly spoke in the awkward silence. The girls were stunned, thinking Emiko was grateful to the boy for "winning" a fight against Mayumi. Only the grandpa could understand this "creature."

"Guess you finally got your head back in the game, huh?"

"Yep! All good now!"

"That's a relief. But why are you so...grouchy today?"

"As always, you don't have a filter grandpa," Sachie remarked.

"Eh, better than acting fake, Ms. Honey-mouth."

Though it didn't show on her face, the sweet friend was caught clenching her fists by Emiko.

"Anyways, thank you sooo much for calling me grouchy, Kazuo," the bluette sarcastically responded. "And the answer to your question is because I'm taking sports now."

...

"WHAT?!?" her three friends shouted.

"ARE YOU ACTUALLY EMIKO SHIMIZU? WHO ARE YOU, YOU SCAMMER?"

The little "angelic scammer" was irked by the comment. Fortunately, the bell rang so the group had to hurry to their seats. During class, the kids couldn't even focus on the whole lesson! They were all confused on the sudden announcement, "Emiko Shimizu, the study maniac, is actually taking sports?!?" Then lunch came by and these impatient children wasted no time to ask their goddess,

"EMIKO!!!"

"Oh, I was just waiting for you all. Let's first get ready for lunch though, shall we?"

After the set up, they stared continuously to their "target."

"...you can talk now."

"Okay, so when, no-how did you start taking sports?!?" Mayumi questioned.

"When, around 4 days ago, back when we talked about afterschool stuff. I thought maybe I should consider and talk about it with my family. How, my family is full of professional athletes so this much was a not-so-shocking news to them."

'Except for my father, he was crying tears on how I was growing up and that kind of ****.'

"4 days ago? Oh! That's when you ran away from school and ditched the rest of us, right?"

"Bingo!"

"But what sports are you taking now? Is it perhaps soccer like me?"

"No, I'm taking track and volleyball."

"Huh, really? But why?"

"My dad's side of the family is based on runners when volleyball just seem interesting, so yeah."

This was the excuse that Emiko came up with. Pretty pathetic but reasonable from what seems to be coming from an 9-year-old.

"But...soccer is a lot more fun..."

'What is this, is Kazuo Sugawara actually pouting right now?!?'

Emiko was confused on the unexpected behavior of the little boy, but she had no plans on changing her plans.

"Sorry Kazuo, but running and volleyball is already hard enough for me," she sweatdropped.

"Hmph. But soccer is a lot easier, so why wouldn't you choose it then?"

'Dude, you can't compare things if you never experienced it!'

But the dual athlete only gave a smile.

"Ughhh, whatever. Anyways, that does make a lot of sense for today."

"What do you mean by that, gramps?" Mayumi asked.

"Well, Emiko was always studying and the only 'exercise' that she ever did was stretching, which explains her terrible stamina," Kazuo blurted. "Now, if this little sloth suddenly did some activities requiring energy, don't you think she'll be dead?"

"Hmm, that makes sense," Sachie mumbled to herself.

The gramps continued, "Anyways, what's your training regiment Emiko?"

"My training regiment?" Emiko thought for a few seconds. "Let's see, during school days, I come home and eat some food. Then, I do basic warm ups for 15 minutes and practice volleyball for as hour. Because I don't have a coach yet, I use the internet to learn. After that, I shower and eat dinner. To digest my food, I study for 2 hours or more. To end the day, I jog around the neighborhood and if I'm not so lucky, my dad will join and hype me up."

'Yesterday, he was so free from the day, that I had to not only go around the whole neighborhood twice but THREE times!!!'

"I see...well, you're still a study maniac so no worries for that."

"What do you mean?" Emiko innocently queried.

"Old habits are hard to get rid of," Sachie intervened, "so if you still didn't study like crazy and stuff, then you wouldn't be Emiko Shimizu."

...

"Alright, if you say so."

"Oh, now that I think of it, I should go to my clubroom," Kazuo commented.

"Hm? But I thought you didn't have practice today?"

"Yeah, I don't. Just going to tell the coach that I'm resigning from the soccer team."

The sudden declaration shocked Kazuo's "lovely" friends. They kept on blinking, questioning if this was a dream. Once they got the guist, the three screamed,

"WHAT?!?"

"Oh, and now, I'll be joining you for volleyball practice, Emiko. Please take good care of me!"

The little, silver-haired boy smiled so sinisterly that it brought chills to their spines.

'Okay, first was my exhausting training. Next, my dad joined for running. Now, it's Kazuo?!?'

(A/N: Guess Kazuo isn't completely over Emiko, huh?)