Teiko's basketball III: Three's a charm

Mix-ups

Akira watched the g.o.m casually chatting in the opposite bench and frowned. They were so annoying in times like this. Especially that aho. He had a towel on his head and supposedly was in a contemplative mood, thinking with his eyes closed. But Akira knew better and would bet every bit of change she had that he was sleeping. Even on their best days, the g.o.m rarely had any respect for other humans. Now that they were their opponent, the whole show just got crazier. Akira glanced at Sora and groaned. Sora was reading on the bench! Akira had heard her mention that the book was good, but talk of going to extremes!

"Oi, you idiot captain, shouldn't you be doing something?" said Yukiji, who was extremely suited for such situations. Sora held up one hand and quickly slammed the page shut. She rose to walk in front of the team and cleared her throat loudly. The team turned to listen to what she was going to say. "Yosh, listen up girls!"

Her voice seemed to ring loudly, causing a few heads to turn but Sora continued as if she didn't care. "Like every year, we are going to be pitted against the best. First string vs. first string. And let me tell you, I'm not harbouring any delusions. There's a good chance that we may lose. Badly--"

"Oi, I think you switched a funeral speech with a pep talk... Shouldn't you be saying this somewhere else?" muttered Mayu.

"—Nonetheless," continued Sora, "I want to wipe that horrible smirks out of their faces. Anyone who is with me can follow me to the court."

"True that..." said Akira.

"Payback time!" said Mayu pumping her fist.

"Miyu-chan, Satsuki-san, is there anything we ought to know?" said Sora.

Mayu and Satsuki exchanged a glance. "Actually, yeah," blurted out Satsuki, "I'm not sure if you'll be playing basketball." The team exchanged confused glances. "What do you mean?" said Mayu.

"Last year we had to play something like tag and basketball combined. It may be something like that," said Sora.

"Pretty much," said Satsuki, "I'd rather you be prepared."

"Both the coaches can be diabolical on occasions like this," supplied Miyu.

"I know right..." muttered Akira, "I feel like quitting already..."

"Don't worry. No one's going to ask you to slow dance with Aomine," said Sora with a small giggle. Akira choked. "Hell I will. Over my dead body!" she exclaimed shooting a glare at Aomine who chose to wake up just that instant. Aomine noticed and shot the rest a puzzled glance making the entire team laugh. "Hey, hey... You can't all imagine the same thing," groaned Akira.

"Let's go, team! It's time," said Sora.

All the ten players assembled at the center of the court. The coaches came up to them and Sora could see that coach Yatori was carrying a small white box. Sanada sensei had a basketball, so Sora still felt safe.

(A/N: Yatori Sayo is the girls' team coach for those who haven't read the previous books)

"Right, listen up!" said coach sharply, "Sanada sensei here tells me that the boys are now much more skilled than you and in your current state, you cannot beat them. I feel like I must agree--"

Sora felt Akira stiffen next to her and she sympathized with her. Even though the statement was true, she still felt hurt when coach put it that way. It was all part and parcel of being in Teiko's team. Eat or be eaten... The coaches were known to be openly partial to those who were good at the game. Sora knew that they were being slighted because the boys were better as of now. Even though the whole situation reminded her of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest', Sora vowed that the girls would do their best in whatever challenge coach would put forth.