Why En*on is coming back soon! The company of the future is here!

 “What do you think, Aiko?”

“Huh?” I jolted up, my earbud falling from my left ear. “Sorry, what?” From the back of the classroom, our lovely teacher had decided to give me some special attention as she leaned over my desk.

“Give it here,” Ms. Yuki held out her hand.

“Absolutely! I love to share!” I said in the most mocking voice physically possible. We were several weeks into the trimester. Either let me listen in peace or send me to the front office. “You know, some people have to pay for this much attention. Should I consider myself blessed?”

She gave a pompous huff as I returned to my seat.

“How many times has it been now? Three?” Hana asked from my right.

“Five this week,” I said, reaching into my pocket and putting on my other earbud. Luckily for me, Ms. Yuki’s curiosity always ended at my first pair of headphones.

Hana rolled her eyes. I’d known her for half my life at this point, and that entire time her reactions to my complete disregard for the rules hadn’t changed once.

While Ms. Yuki wrote away on the whiteboard twice my age at the front of class, I pressed play on my phone, stuffed between desk rails. Game footage that looked to be shot on a camera from the mid 2000’s blared from the screen, my old game footage.

“Do you do anything else, girl?”

I ignored Hana.

I shouldn’t have passed that. I rewound ten seconds, watching the basketball sail right into the opposing forward’s hands. Our last game against Nagoya High ended a lot closer than it had any right to.

Their center is a brick on defence. Why didn’t I drive past her for the easy bucket?

“Forget it.” I tossed the phone into my bag. Class ended in five, I could hate my performance later.

Ms. Yuki wrote some more scribbles on the board. This looks important… I’d just have to ask Hana for the notes later, no big deal.

“Hana… you did take notes, right?”

She tossed her black hair back. “Notes?”
Shit

I zoned out until the room grew quiet. “Before we wrap up for the day, I have a surprise for you guys,” Ms. Yuki said, walking toward the classroom door. “We have a new student joining us!”

“In July? Feels a bit late for that,” Hana said.

I shrugged. “Osai’s not exactly a typical school either.”

“You think she’s foreign?” Hana asked.

“That or some rich kid that got expelled. You know how Osai just loves its wealthy charity cases.”

Ms. Yuki opened the sliding door.

She was super tall, six feet three at the shortest, clearly from somewhere out west. America maybe? Could be the UK if not.

Her blonde hair went a bit past her shoulders, and her green eyes shone like my mom’s old jade ring.

“She’s cute…” I covered my mouth. What is wrong with me? Sure, I was right on the money, but my mouth could learn to shut it.

“Did you say something, Aiko?”

“N-no!” I looked away to hide my bright red cheeks.

Hana just smirked in response. She totally heard me.

The new girl stood timidly at the front of the room. “My name is M-Maria,” she said in perfect Japanese. “My parents just moved to Japan. I’m excited to get to know everyone.”

“Thank you, Maria. Let me see…” Ms. Yuki’s eyes scanned the room. “There’s an empty seat near the back. That will be yours for the semester.”

Before I could blink, Maria took her seat.

The formerly empty seat right next to mine.

“I’m Aiko,” I blurted out without thinking. There was something that drew me to her. I couldn’t tell if it was her picture-perfect face or the faint flowery aroma of her perfume. God, she’s stunning though. Straight out of a foreign fashion magazine.

“Maria, n-nice to meet you.” She glanced down at my bag, specifically my Cleveland Knight’s keychain. “Do you play basketball?”

“Play? I do a bit of that.”

“She’s our starting point guard,” Hana interrupted me. “And I play the three.”

“No way!” She grabbed my hand, flipping personalities on the spot.

I blushed, but didn’t pull away. Are Americans really this casual with each other?

“That's amazing! They told me there was a team here, but I didn’t think we would be meeting each other this soon.”

“Y-yeah,” I blushed. Her eyes sparkled like fireworks.

I met Hana’s eyes. What should I do…

“One more thing.” Thankfully, Ms. Yuki quieted the class with a tap of her marker. “The school festival is in two weeks. Remember to get your shift scheduled.”

That was enough to distract me from Maria. “Hana, did we sign up for that?”

“Nope! You said we could take care of it after our scrimmage.”

“I did say that….”

I pushed my seat back and stretched. That was a later problem. For now, I needed to stretch if I didn’t want practice to be complete torture. Not to mention, one more second close to Maria would have made my brain explode.

I glanced at the clock.

Four in the afternoon. Just long enough to get a few moves in.

“Hey Maria, Coach doesn’t give us time so we usually stretch a bit before practice,” I said. “You want to come with us?”

“O-of course!" She hastily slid her chair back. It rattled against the worn tile floor.

We walked through the crowded halls. They were a bit too ambitious while building this place forty years ago or whatever, so there were always a few empty rooms for the taking.

I threw open the silver sliding door.

Inside, boxes were stacked in the corner. A thin layer of dust covered the floor, and the chalkboard looked like it had been here since the day Osai opened.

The smell alone gave away the room’s age.

“I’m assuming they told you practice starts at five?”

“Yeah,” Maria said, setting her bag down.

The three of us spread out.

Our typical routine wasn’t anything crazy, just some simple arm stuff and leg holds. That was all it really took for practice.

I tried to focus on my arms, but my eyes drifted over and over again to Maria. She moved with this effortless flexibility. It was like watching an artist at work.

"You're staring, girl," Hana whispered

"It's called observing." 

"Ok girl. If that's what we're calling it now," Hana rolled her eyes.

The silence passed for a few seconds. With me and Hana I couldn't care less, but the way Maria glanced at us made me feel a bit awkward. “You said your parents just moved here?” I asked, holding my left leg in the air.

“They just found out themselves two weeks ago. Some kind of emergency deployment.” She shrugged. Clearly, she didn’t mind the move that much.

Hana spoke. “You came at a good time, too! We needed another power forward with Aoi out.”

“Especially with the Inner High coming up in a few weeks.”

Maria tilted her head. “Inner High?”

Hana answered. “It's a massive competition! Every school in the country comes together, and one single team comes out undefeated. Single elimination, too! It’s the biggest basketball tournament in all of Japan–”

“And we’re winning the entire thing!”

I leaped into the air a few times. The well-toned muscles under my uniform smoothly moved exactly how I wanted. “This is the first time either of Osai Gakukou’s teams has made the Inner High in the past five years."

“How did that go?” Maria asked.

“It…” I caught my breath. "Well, you see, there was like-" 

BZZZ

“Crap, we’re running late!” Thank you buzzer. Maybe not the best move to trauma dump on the new cute girl.

Fifteen minutes till practice started; It was a fifteen minute walk there.

I haphazardly tossed my bags together. “We’re set up in the gymnasium on the other side of the building. Are you ready to run?”

With a nod to Hana, we shoved the door open. Coach wasn’t the kind of person to accept excuses.

But within a few seconds, Maria was already ahead of us, waving us on.

“Hana, am I going insane?” I said, watching her run off.

“Nope,” she said. “I’ve never seen a girl run that fast."

“More reason to run faster! Can’t let some newbie beat us up.” Though… my mind wandered as I watched her get further and further away. What kind of monstrous athlete did we just get?