Six miracles: Crossed paths

Chapter 2 || Seirin High

Seirin High

Akira groaned as someone accidentally elbowed her in the ribs. "Nae, Tsuya-kun, would you think that being a new school and all, there would be less of a crowd here while choosing clubs..." Akira turned around to find that Kuroko was nowhere in sight and sighed. As expected. He had probably been buffeted by the crowd to somewhere far away. Akira was blocked by a tall guy in a neon yellow vest. "Hey, would you like to play football? Registration for the girls is over there."

"I don't play football," said Akira, "What's with the vest?"

"Oh, this?" said the guy picking at it gingerly, "We usually aren't this weird but we've found that it attracts attention. Seems to be working anyhow."

"Oh. Okay," said Akira, standing on tip-toe and scanning the crowd for Kuroko. After elbowing sevral people, Akira now found herself in the thick of the crowd. "Oi, Kuroko! Chibi-san!" she yelled. "Manga club!" she heard someone yell and paused. Wow, so there really was a manga club. Akira decided that Kuroko would be fine for a couple of minutes and went to check it out. A girl who was cosplaying a popular anime character was holding up a colourful banner and waving it from side to side. Akira disentangled herself from the crowd but then froze as she heard someone yell "Basketball! Basketball club!"

Akira had been part of Teiko's club for three years and hearing the word 'basketball' fired her up. The memories from her final year at Teiko made her choke a little bit but she moved it the direction of the noise. A bunch of people were sitting at the registration desk. Only one of them was a girl. Akira was reminded of the time she and Sora had done the canvassing for the club. A tall red-head was leaving the desk as Akira turned up. He didn't see her and they collided into each other.

"What the..." began the guy angrily.

"If you can't see a person coming before you, then how can you play basketball?" demanded Akira, "This isn't a child's game you know."

The guy looked like he chewed back a retort and then left with a 'tsk'. Akira didn't know why she had chosen to pick up a fight. Oh well, no harm done. Akira headed towards the desk from which the sounds had originated. A girl with a boy-cut was exclaiming about 'golden eggs'. Akira blinked wondering whether she was at the right desk. She had no intention of getting caught by the Treasure hunt club or some other weird group but she decided to take the risk anyway.

"This year's first years are just going to be insane!" the girl was yelling. Akira smiled internally. Of course, I'm one of them.

"Excuse me, but this is the basketball club, right?" said Akira.

The girl looked up. "Yes."

Akira grinned from ear to ear and took her place in front of the desk. "Sign me up! I could be a potential starter you know."

The people behind the desk exchanged glances as though they were in some sort of dilemma. "Well?" said Akira, beaming, unaware of the uneasy glances that they were exchanging. Finally, the girl cleared her throat. "Sorry, this is the boys' team."

"Oh," said Akira, "That's okay. Where is the registration for the girls' team?"

"There isn't one," said the girl hesitantly.

An awkward silence prevailed over the registration desk. Akira felt like someone had dropped a rock over her head. "What... What do you mean... No girls?"

"This is a new school," said a guy with glasses, "Even the boys' team was started only last year."

"So I can't play?" said Akira.