Ego Check

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 11: Ego Check

More students came into the gym as Jin and the others continued to work without breaks, switching from exercise to exercise. Further back, Natsu and Isamu continued to cheat their way through the test, taking breaks and doing the exercises incorrectly when Tora wasn’t looking at them. Soon enough, students started dropping out at an extreme rate.

The students fled from the pain, heading to the bleachers, watching as the remainder of the class continued on without them. Finally, Mina took a seat on the bleachers, sweating and out of breath.

“Ah, seriously?! This teacher is crazy! How can she do all that while teaching us?! Is she even human?!” a voice whined to Mina’s side.

Mina turned to see a girl with light brown hair sitting beside another girl with green hair, both drenched in sweat and out of breath.

“It’s like she’s trying to kill us! And it looks like she already got one of us!” she cried, pointing to a shorter girl with light brown hair who was laying over the bleachers facedown, motionless.

“I– I don’t think she’d be allowed to teach if that were the case, Ayaka.”

“D-Don’t get smart with me Midori! I– I’m too tired to even think right now…” Ayaka stammered, out of breath.

“I wasn’t… nevermind…”

Mina let out a laugh as the girls turned to her.

“Sorry, I just thought it was funny.”

“Huh? What was?”

“Her joke. You… you were trying to make a joke weren’t you?” Mina pointed at Midori.

Midori shrugged up, slightly embarrassed.

“Seriously?!” Ayaka turned back to Midori. “That’s what that was?!” she laughed. “I can’t believe you managed to make a joke at a time like this. I thought I was going to die out there!”

Mina let out another laugh. “You two seem really close.”

“Oh, well yeah, I guess we are. We’ve known eachother for a while now.” Ayaka smiled, giving Mina a curious look. “Come to think of it, don’t I know you?”

“She was in your Japanese class earlier. I saw her when I came to meet you.”

“I was, though we didn’t really get a chance to meet one another aside from our introductions. My name’s Mina Yuriko, nice to meet you two.” Mina smiled.

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Ayaka Fujimura.” Ayaka pointed behind her at Midori. “And this is Midori Sakurai.”

Midori quickly bowed.

“Keep it up! We’re not done yet!” Tora shouted.

The three girls turned to see that their class had been cut down to only four people.

“Jeez, they must be as crazy as she is if they’re still going at it.” Ayaka sighed.

Ayaka leaned back, forgetting there wasn’t any back support she frantically caught herself and sat back up. Mina looked over towards the few students who were still following along, but only one caught her attention. In the front she saw Jin, continuing to exercise.

“He’s strong.” Midori’s sudden comment snapped Mina back to reality.

“Hm, who?” Ayaka looked over at the group as Midori pointed at Jin. “He’s seriously still going?”

“Do you know him?” Mina asked.

“Well… yeah…”

“He picked me up earlier.”

Ayaka and Mina turned to Midori in surprise.

“He did what?!” Ayaka yelled.

“It wasn’t anything weird!” Midori quickly waved her hands in an attempt to dismay Ayaka’s thought process. “He was just trying to help.”

Ayaka gave her a blank expression, clearly confused as Mina curiously looked away and back at Jin.

“But he is strong… and fast. While we were running he lapped us.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yes, twice.” Midori nodded.

“You’re kidding me…” Ayaka looked at Midori in disbelief, but Mina’s eyes were fixated elsewhere.

“Alright rookies, home stretch! This is it!” Tora yelled.

The three girls looked over to see that only two people were left standing. Jin and Natsu.

“Getting tired yet?” Natsu taunted, finally starting to show signs of sweating. “You seriously look like you’re about to drop dead.”

Jin ignored his taunting and continued to focus on mirroring Tora’s movements.

“Tch, don’t ignore me you–”

“Here we go! One lap inside the gym! On me boys, let's move! Stay outside the lines of the court!” Tora called, breaking into a sprint.

Jin reacted quickly and started following Tora as the sudden change threw Natsu off as he stumbled to catch his stride.

“Tch, he’s seriously still going? Did he cheat somehow?” Natsu thought to himself, breaking into a full sprint to catch up to Jin, finally getting side by side with him. “Still ignoring me?!”

Jin began to pull ahead of Natsu.

“Don’t you even think… that you’re ever gonna one up me!” Natsu yelled, stepping in front of Jin, tripping him as they turned the corner of the court.

Jin slid into the bleachers on the opposite side of the court as Natsu continued to sprint. The three girls and the other students recoiled as Jin slid into the bleachers on the opposite side of the court as Natsu continued to sprint.

“You thought things would go any other way?! You’re not even–” Natsu paused as he turned, expecting to see Jin on the floor, only to find that he was already closing the distance between them. “You’re kidding me… he’s…”

Jin passed Natsu, eyes focused forward, with a streak of blood streaming down the side of his face.

“... still going…” Mina thought to herself as Jin overtook Natsu.

Tora screeched to a stop ahead of the two boys, pointing to the wall.

“Against the wall you two! 90 degrees for a minute!”

Jin and Natsu propped themselves against the wall, both out of breath. Jin held his stance at 90 degrees, while Natsu was slightly above. They both continued to hold their positions, and within no more than twenty seconds, Jin fell to the ground first.

“Seriously?! That wasn’t even close to a minute!” Natsu laughed.

“18 seconds to be exact.” Tora added, holding a stopwatch in her hand. “Not bad, that’s a three second improvement from last time.”

“What?” Natsu looked over at Tora, still holding his position.

“He does this circuit on multiple occasions. Whenever he does, he records how long he held this last position to see his progress.” Tora walked over to Natsu, looking him up and down. “And in case you were also wondering…” she started, putting her hand on Natsu’s shoulder, pushing him down to a 90 degree position.

“Agh!” Natsu grunted, slipping onto the floor a second after she pushed him down into the correct position.

“That’s what a 90 degree position looks like. A lot harder to cheat your way through isn’t it?”

“I–... It’s not like he didn’t cheat! He practically–”

“Did the whole circuit work properly? I agree.”

“N-No, he… he didn’t even do all the laps! We only saw him pass by–”

“Because he was always ahead of you, as a matter of fact, he was the first one here. But I understand, it’s hard to notice these things when you’re sitting around waiting for a good time to come in without actually running all four laps.”

“How did–”

“I can still see who passes by the doors and the number of times they do so. And I can say with confidence I only saw your bright messy hair pass by the lap mark twice.”

Natsu looked as if he were about to say something, but no words came out.

“I believe I told you and the rest of the class that me and the rest of the faculty are aware of the lax policies at several junior highs around here, like the one you came from. I’m guessing you were a pretty big deal back there. But here, you’re starting from scratch. And judging by the look on your face, you’re not used to this sort of thing. Losing, I mean.”

“Lose? To him?! He didn’t even last a minute in this position!”

“That minute mark I gave was actually meant for me, not for you. If you did each and every exercise to their full extent, you shouldn’t be able to stay in that position for a minute, or even thirty seconds for that matter. In other words, if you did hold out for that entire minute… clearly you weren’t giving it your all. This wasn’t a test of endurance, it was a test to see where each of you were at and how willing you were to take a step outside your comfort zone to push yourselves.” Tora pointed at Jin, who was still sitting on the floor out of breath. “He was the first one to complete his laps, meaning he was the first one to start working on the circuit. Which of course means he’s been going constantly, longer than anyone here, and still managed to make it this far. Without a doubt, he’s stronger than you are.”

Natsu didn’t say a word, but his frustrated and defeated expression said it all.

“But that’s not to say it’ll stay that way. For you or anyone else here.” Tora turned to the rest of the class sitting in the bleachers. “If you’re disappointed in yourself, that’s fine, but don’t let it discourage you. If you’re angry at yourself or me, that’s fine, let it motivate you. Everyone starts from the bottom, but some people are just further along than you are, and you can get there eventually. Remember that this was only each of your starting lines, from here on, you’ll all grow and improve.” Tora turned back to Natsu. “How much you grow… is ultimately up to you.”

Tora glanced over at the clock on the wall.

“Congrats rookies, you survived your first day. Get changed and beat it. Remember to stretch, or don’t, it’s your funeral.” she turned back to Jin and got down on one knee. “And go get yourself cleaned up. You look like shit. Kaede’s office is next to the faculty office, she’ll patch you up. But I doubt she’ll be too happy about someone coming in on the first day of school.”

Jin began to leave with the rest of the class as they went back to the locker rooms. Turning back for a moment, he saw Natsu still sitting on the floor, wearing an expression he’d never seen on him, but one he’s seen on himself more times than he could count. The face of someone who just had a dose of reality.