What A Girl Wants

Five

The first practice was kind of a mess, but because first practices always kind of were, Sae didn't let herself become bothered by it. That was just how it went. Anri had come by at the beginning to meet them and welcome them to the team, but then she made herself scarce like she normally did and Sae took over.

The newbies were a little shaky and nervous. The vets liked to puff out their chests and act like hot shit. Plus, there was a brand new dynamic that nobody had been able to figure out the flow of as of yet. Oh, the joys of first practice.

Besides Sae, the only person who seemed entirely unbothered was Ryusei. She just stood at her side, arms crossed, looking over the whole scene like it amused her more than anything else, and Sae found it comforting to have her there. She was something she could tether herself to. She could take one look at her and be like, right, none of this is a big deal. It was like a reset every time.

By the end of the first practice, they had gauged everyone's strength, flexibility, and tumbling and even managed to move through a few group stunts. As such, Sae had mostly gotten the stunt groups together and had a decent idea of who the alternates were going to be. Plus, for all the shit she gave Shuto, she had really come through with the newbies she'd recruited. Some of these girls were really good.

Reo and Nagi for instance, were two of the most promising girls Sae had seen in her four years on this squad. Reo was a little firecracker who took only a few tries to really get a stunt and could perform the hell out of it while she moved through it. Nagi was someone Sae had initially hated and nearly cut, because she looked like she'd rather die than be there, but she listened to Reo, and when Reo told her to do something she did it. Well.

Sae still had to make some final decisions of who would best compliment who in the groups of four, but those two were a solid flyer-third pair that she knew better than to separate.

And even though Sae had graciously let Rin have her the two bases of her choice, she was sourer than she usually was having to spend an entire practice having to compensate for Shuto. Sae didn't know what Rin's problem was. Maybe it was nicotine withdrawal. Sae would need to talk to her, or rather, warn her that if she cost the team nationals, she would have her smoke riddled head.

But she didn't linger on it all that much. In addition to Ryusei being calming through her ability to feel anything but amused, she was good. Just like Sae knew she would be. Because she was always right about these things. She'd always been a great flyer, but having Ryusei as a third brought her to an entirely new level. She could be up at full extension, and she could feel that steady grip more than anything else, and it felt like it would be physically impossible to fall. She even felt like she could bend deeper and jump higher before dismounting, because when she did, she'd fall into those arms every time, Ryusei looking down at her and telling her, got ya, bestie!

She could basically taste nationals, and it was only the first practice.

So, as annoyed as she thought she would be about not everyone being at her level on the first day, it was dulled by the promise of nationals and the pleasure it had brought.

The rest of the first week went better and the second, even more so. The girls were improving, just like they always did, and the whisper of promise was slowly becoming a shout. By the end of week three, the new uniforms had come in and the girls were competent enough in some of the basic repertoire routines for them to start performing at the matches for their brother school's sports matches. An exciting milestone for any new captain, but an ambitious one especially.

The numerous practices they held each week and the response to their performances were enough to feed her confidence, but the team meetings and debriefs were even better. Sae had expected them to be just her, Rin, Oliver, and Shuto, but Ryusei tended to stick around, and Sae didn't necessarily mind that.