Teiko's basketball

Shock

Chapter 21:

Shock

Sora was packing her bag. It had been an awesome first day. She was one of the last to leave. Akira came into the classroom and shut the door. Sora looked up and smiled at her. Akira, on the contrary seemed very nervous and fidgety.

"Sora, can I tell you something?"

"Sup?"

Akira fidgeted and bit her lip. "Don't get too shocked or anything... I know this is going to sound extremely weird..."

"Go ahead..." said Sora looking at her bag and not quite looking up.

"Aomine asked me out!" said Akira quickly closing her eyes.

Sora crashed to the ground in utter shock.

"I accepted..." said Akira.

Now Sora was speechless. "When... Why? You're... Committed!"

"Sora-san, please stop..." muttered Akira with her head in her hands, "I don't know why I agreed in the first place... He seemed desperate... What the heck am I supposed to do! It's not exactly like I like him!"

Sora held up one hand to stop her. "Time to call in the brigade."

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Meanwhile in another part of Teiko:

Akashi and Midorima were shooting hoops in the court when a mad Aomine rushed in. "I need advice," he screamed.

Akashi and Midorima looked at each other and then stared at Aomine.

"What did you just say?"

" I said I need advice, dammit! My freaking life is at stake! I'm gonna die..."

"Start at the beginning Aomine," said Akashi with a concerned expression. The only time he had been so freaked out was sometime in the first term when someone had convinced him that the locker next to his was haunted.

"It's that friggin' Haizaki! He told me that I could never find a date in this life and goaded me into asking out Akira! I don't know how I got into this damn mess! What the hell do I do now?"

Akashi facepalmed himself while Midorima simply looked amused.

"Let's call the war-council then..." sighed Akashi. "After we kill someone..."

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The girls' war council:

Sora came back to the class. She had brought Satsuki with her. Judging by the 'kyaa' expression on Satsuki's face, she knew what was going on.

"Right," said Sora, "Let's begin! Operation Akira starts now!"

"Operation Akira?" said Akira in a skeptical tone.

"Akira-san, this is your first time right?" said Satsuki.

"I told you people, I just agreed because he begged! It's not like that!"

"Nae, when are you going?"

"This weekend," said Akira facepalming herself.

Satsuki and Sora looked at each other. "Where?"

"Dunno. He said he would tell me later--"

Now it was their turn to facepalm.

"Fine. Satsuki and I will take care of this. Come to Satsuki-san's house next weekend. We'll prep you."

"Fine," said an absolutely gloomy Akira. Before she left, she turned back one last time.

"Should I admit I was hasty and freaked out? Then we can cancel--"

"Shouldn't you have thought of this before? But if you are having second thoughts..."

"Nah. You're right. I'll grit it out. He'll think I jilted him or something..."

After Akira left, Sora turned to Satsuki. "Say what you will, something's fishy."

"Totally! Let's go investigate."

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The boys' war council:

The entire gom gathered in a corner of the court. After properly dealing with Haizaki, it fell to them to decide what to do.

"Aomine-kun, you are so cruel..." said Kuroko once he had heard the story.

"I just lost my head! My pride was at stake you know! What would you have done?"

"I would have refused to assent to Hazaki's challenge and buried him instead," said Akashi.

"He just an aho," said Haizaki who was pressing an ice-pack he had 'borrowed' from the nurse's room. Aomine had beat him up properly.

"Aside from that, we need to decide what has to be done, nanodayo. There are two things which can be done now."

"They are?"

"Either confess you had a bet or actually proceed with it. You can't do the second one, so the first one it is, nanodayo."

"But Midorima-kan, what if Akira gets angry and never speaks to Aomine-kun again? She might have taken this seriously," reminded Kuroko.

Everyone looked at Aomine who looked like a child lost in a fair. "Let's go with the second option," he said with his head in his hands.

"Okay, then where are you going to take her?" inquired Akashi. Seeing Aomine's expression, he sighed and continued, "OK, it's up for vote then. Everyone suggest something."

"Restaurant," said Murasakibara without thinking.

"Cafe?" suggested Haizaki.

"Park," said Kuroko.

"Just buy her her lucky item and call it quits, nanodayo," said Midorima.

In the end, Murasakibara's idea won. Everyone agreed that it would be better if it was somewhere they could immediately help if things went too bad. Just as they were finishing their discussion, the girls entered.

"Hey, can we have a minute?"

Everyone stared at each other like culprits caught red handed at a big heist. Akashi finally nodded.

"So..." began Satsuki "Mine-kun, are you going out with Akira?"

Aomine vigorously nodded in fright.

"Where?"

"Restaurant!" they all chorused and checked each other's faces to see if they had done the right thing.

"Ohkay... Fine then. Good luck."

As they both went out, everyone breathed in relief.

"Thank goodness they weren't suspicious. Otherwise they would have definitely said something to Akira."

The others murmerred that they thought so too.

"Okay. Let's go over the plan once again..."

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After Sora and Satsuki had walked a few paces away from the court, they collapsed laughing.

"Did you see Aomine's face?"

"Hell yeah!"

"And they did a chorus! Seriously, do they think we are that dumb?"

"Who knows?!"

"Maybe we should warn Akira..."

"Mmmm... Maybe. This is definitely going to be worth the watch..."

Reader, here we must take a minute to appreciate and sympathize with Akira, who is probably the only innocent person who is not involved in any side of this scheming.