7 - Welcome back, Captain!

Students around me were slowly finding their way out of the gym—temporarily turned into an assembly room. Still glued to my chair with my face buried in the palms of my hands, I remained.

When I hit the cooldown timer for the blow to my pride to restore, I got up as well. My timing couldn’t have been any worse. I was directly walking behind a disastrous duo, Noriko and Suzumi-chan.

“You did great out there, Ishiwata-san!”

Hesitantly, she said, “Thank you… I was rather nervous to be honest. I even blanked at the start…”

“Oh? Was that not part of the set-up?” Suzumi-chan wondered aloud.

“No, teehee…” I had never heard her giggle so awkwardly. “That was Komiya-kun throwing me a lifeline.”

“Are you friends with Komiya-kun?”

“No!” she instantly denied. “We just worked on the speech together…”

“I see. I see,” she repeated.

“He may not look dependable at all, but even he has his moments.”

Surprisingly, she agreed, “Mhm, I know.”

“You do?” Noriko and I questioned her at the same time.

In that little instant I learned that I wouldn’t be fit to be a stalker.

Both of them swirled my way, equally shocked.

“Bye-bye…” Suzumi-chan instantly fled the scene.

Noriko, on the other hand, had her surprise transformed into a frown, “Eavesdropper.”

“Apologies.”

“Apology accepted.”

Both of my eyebrows hit the roof of my head, “That easily?”

“That easily,” she confirmed, before lifting her fist up in front of her, “I owe you one after all. Thanks.”

“Anytime… Wait no, you owe me! You do! You really do!” I moaned whilst I bumped her fist. “What were you even panicking for? It was merely a little speech. And you were doing well, right?”

With a pout, she whispered, “Fist bump revoked.”

I sighed and warned her, “Let’s split up before people see us.”

A stinging pain concentrated on a miniscule part of my forehead, a flick of a finger.

“I just remembered! You called me by my first name for everyone to hear, idiot!”

“Right…”

Luckily, my reputation wasn’t that bad anymore. It’s not that my efforts were bearing fruit, I sort of faded into obscurity over the last few days or so. Half a victory in my book, since my tally wasn’t largely in the negatives anymore, and still a half loss, since the number was no longer big.

“How about we become friends officially?” She asked.

“Like, under contract?”

“No.” For every second her pause lasted, I felt that extra little stupid. “No longer in hiding, I meant, but on second thought, would that really be beneficial to either of us?”

It was hard to argue it would be.

“Well either way, I’m not exactly known as a formal model student, so people probably won’t look too deep into me calling you by your first name. I think.”

“You think?” Her eyes told me she wasn’t buying it.

* * *

That same week, class reps had to kick off the sport festival organisation. I stood in front of the black board, eyes on my classmates.

“As you know, we’ll be on the blue team together with class B. There are several sports where we compete in mixed teams and five where we work as a class. I’ve got an envelope with me, with in it the sports I drew for us. Should I make it dramatic or are you thinking, ‘get it over with’?”

A bit of both were being said, dramatic having the slight edge.

“The first one is,” I paused, still failing to create much of a dramatic effect, “Oh, the relay race… Yeah that’s in every envelope. Do we send our fastest runners, or what’s the strategy?”

“Isn’t that your call?” Ueda said. He’s the most vocal of our class by a landslide. When he voices his opinion, his friends usually follow.

“Uh… Not really, I propose we start by selecting our class captain first. Any volunteers?”

Not a single hand was raised in the air.

“Do you really want me to be our captain?”

For once, everyone seemed in agreement.

“Okay, new approach. I’ll reveal all the sports first, then we’ll select the members. Yell ‘Class D’ on three. One, two, three, class D!” I yelled on my own. “...That’s the spirit.”

How do I motivate this lazy bunch to at least care about the draw? I need to look at least half-decent at the sports festival itself, especially since Suzumi-chan is also on team blue, but those were worries for later.

In all honesty, I didn’t feel completely out of place within my class. Rather than being bullied or ridiculed, I felt like a class clown everyone was free to tease. I thought that might be the key to motivate them.

“There are five sports in the envelope.” I wrote the numbers one through five on the board. “For every sport we win, I’ll do a punishment you guys will come up with. One being the lightest one and five the worst one you can imagine. I’m going to check on how Class B is faring, I’ll be back in two minutes. Knock yourselves out.”

I wasn’t actually going to the other class, of course. The chance of seeing them move as a unit would only worry me more. Instead, I went to the bathroom. Staring into the mirror, I wondered when I would be satisfied. Becoming the school’s most popular guy is beyond ridiculous, I knew that better than anyone. Still, without such a lofty goal, I would simply turn into my old self again.

With two slaps to my face, I felt ready to barge into my own classroom once more. Half worried the board would be empty, half worried it’d be filled with punishments beyond my imagination.

Upon opening the door, I was met with cheers.

“Welcome back, Captain!”
“Let’s win at every sport!”

I took a look at the board.

Punishments:
1. Howl like a wolf when competing
2. Take the mic on stage during lunch break
3. Score a mother’s number
4. Run the relay race in your underwear.
5. Post it on social media

Without turning around to see their expressions, I said, “Class D, fight—”

“—Oh!!!”

In the end, we drew basketball, tug of war, three-legged race and baseball as our Class’s sports. Only one indoor sport, to the complaints of many. On the other hand, everyone seemed motivated to win on every front, well on our fronts, because Class B wins won’t count towards my punishments.

Their motivation, questionable, but it was there nonetheless; a win in my book.

Setting aside the sports festival and my training, I really wanted to join a club. I couldn’t stake all of my progress on a one off event, don’t crack your eggs in the basket, as they say. I had put the tea ceremony club behind me, joining a sports club now would get in the way of the training I was doing on my own and the only club left that sort of interested me was the film club.

I walked past the billboard clubs can pin their posters on. The film club’s call for members was still there.

Guess that’s where I’m headed then.

Current status: Class D’s class clown