Twicelight

Chapter - 3

Third person's pov:

Mark skipped quickly to Sana's side and picked up her books for her. She imagined him with a wagging tail.

"That was awful," he groaned. "They all looked exactly the same. You're lucky you had Tzuyu for a partner."

"I didn't have any trouble with it," Sana said, stung by his assumption. She regretted the snub instantly. "I've done the lab before, though," She added before he could get his feelings hurt.

"Tzuyu seemed friendly enough today," he commented as they shrugged into their raincoats. He didn't seem pleased about it.

Sana tried to sound indifferent. "I wonder what was with him last Monday." She couldn't concentrate on Mark's chatter as they walked to Gym, and RE. didn't do much to hold her attention, either. Mark was on her team today. He chivalrously covered her position as well as his own, so her wool gathering was only interrupted when it was her turn to serve; her team ducked warily out of the way every time she was up.

The rain was just a mist as Sana walked to the parking lot, but she was happier when she was in the dry cab. She got the heater running, for once not caring about the mind-numbing roar of the engine. She unzipped her jacket, put the hood down, and fluffed her damp hair out so the heater could dry it on the way home.

Sana looked around her to make sure it was clear. That's when she noticed the still, white figure. Tzuyu was leaning against the front door of the Mercedes, three cars down from her, and staring intently in her direction. She swiftly looked away and threw the truck into reverse, almost hitting a rusty Toyota Corolla in her haste. Lucky for the Toyota, Sana stomped on the brake in time. It was just the sort of car that her truck would make scrap metal of. She took a deep breath, still looking out the other side of her car, and cautiously pulled out again, with greater success. She stared straight ahead as she passed the Mercedes, but from a peripheral peek, she would swear she saw him laughing.

Next day, Sana felt excited to go to school, and that scared her. She knew it wasn't the stimulating learning environment she was anticipating, or seeing her new set of friends. If she was being honest with herself, she knew she was eager to get to school because she would see Tzuyu. And that was very, very stupid.

Sana was suspicious of him; why should he lie about his eyes? She was still frightened of the hostility she sometimes felt emanating from him, and she was still tongue-tied whenever she pictured his perfect face. She was well aware that her league and his league were spheres that did not touch. So she shouldn't be at all anxious to see him today.

Driving to school, Sana distracted herself from her fear of falling and her unwanted speculations about Tzuyu by thinking about Mark and Jb, and the obvious difference in how teenage boys responded to her here. She was sure she looked exactly the same as she had in Osaka. Maybe it was just that the boys back home had watched her pass slowly through all the awkward phases of adolescence and still thought of her that way. Whatever the reason, Mark's puppy dog behavior and Jb's apparent rivalry with him were disconcerting. She wasn't sure if she didn't prefer being ignored.

When Sana got out of her truck at school, she saw why she'd had so little trouble. Something silver caught her eye, and she walked to the back of the truck - carefully holding the side for support - to examine her tires. There were thin chains crisscrossed in diamond shapes around them. Mr. Minatozaki had gotten up early to put snow chains on her truck. Her throat suddenly felt tight. She wasn't used to being taken care of, and her father's unspoken concern caught her by surprise.

Sana was standing by the back corner of the truck, struggling to fight back the sudden wave of emotion the snow chains had brought on, when she heard an odd sound.