Behind a strong man [Ushiwaka /Oc]

Chapter 54 - A new start

Hello my little balls of sunshine,

as the Coronapandemic continues I'm still stuck at home. Anyone I personally know is still unscaved and we are enduring quite well. 

I finished the next chapter already and am working towards the end. My husband got me a new drawing program as well, so I'm actually reworking Tamiko's design. 

(Might add the finished version here later)

I hope you and your friends and families are all still healthy.

Hardcore readers might also have noticed that it is Tamiko's birthday today :)  Since the new chapters made it possible to calculate the characters birthday down to the year I can actually say that Tamiko would be 26 years old today. Ushijima is still 25 since his birthday is in August. What is also weird for me; Tamiko would be the youngest in my school year and Ushijima would be a year below us. 

Anyway I'm not gonna go on any further, so enjoy this chapter.

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Chapter 54 - A new Start

"Do I have everyone's email address?" the professor asked.

Tamiko nodded along with everyone else in the lecture hall. While she waited for the professor to continue she fiddled with the pen between her fingers. Her eyes wandered over the back of the heads of all her new fellow students. There were a lot of girls, but there were some boys as well. None of them she knew. Only a tiny fraction knew each other as well. They all came from around Miyagi prefecture and nobody from her own school had signed up for this course.

Amongst all the students Tamiko had chosen the middle of the room. From there she could see the board very clearly and felt like she could concentrate purely on the lectures. Proper lectures would only begin tomorrow though. The professors all wanted to assess the class, tell them what topics they would tackle and what books they would need. One or two she had at home already.

"Alright, you can all go," the professor said as he packed his own bags. "And don't forget to pick up your student ID cards at the reception."

As quick as she could Tamiko packed her belongings, shoved her ID card into her pocket when she received it and raced to the car park. As she drove to Shiratorizawa academy the first day at the university raced through her head. She always kept to herself in her school days, not gaining many friends in her own class. Maybe now was the time to jump over her own shadow and grow. Yes, she would try to talk to her seat neighbours. What could go wrong?

"Yes, this is my year," she whispered to herself. "Oh yes."

When she reached the academy feeling as motivated as she could be she got changed into her manager tracksuit, tied back her hair and met up with the coach in the gym. Today was the first day of training for the first years. It still gave of a weird feeling that she had actually played a heavy role on the selection. She had also been present during the interviews. There was also one student among them, who she had selected herself, convincing the coach to accept that student into the team. Although that student didn't know that she watched him. Her gut had told her that this particular first year was going to grow beyond their expectations. When she had told him, Ushijima had also been sceptical.

It had been a week since Ushijima had departed to Tokyo with all of his belongings. He had moved back with his mother a few days before he went down to Tokyo. Along with Tendou, who was also staying in Sendai, she had help packing. The weekend before Ushijima moved down to Tokyo she had slept over. Those two days had been so refreshing and quiet. Ushijima's mother had then organised a small transporter for the move. Tamiko had hitched a ride along and was dropped off at her home and he went further south. She missed him. It was difficult already. She was proud but also a little lonely. Since he had left they had a telephone call every evening. There were a lot of things she wanted to tell him about today but first, she had to go through this training session first.