[First Girl]

You know something? I'm quite pissed. Actually quite pissed. It's like this, yeah? I was having an awfully hard day already, what with trying to prop my eyelids up in class, and also having my "monthly visitor" that day, etc.

And then at basketball practice --- yeah, I'm the manageress. Fancy name for the maid-of-all-work, but I'm diverging from the point. I just did the ritual of whacking where whacking is required, when Sakuragi --- that annoying guy who spouts fountains and fountains of crap, has the nerve to COMPLAIN. And did I mention that I was pissed?

So anyway, I try to apologise, possessing the utterly sweet personality within the recesses of my soul. After all, maybe I did whack a bit on the hard side. So, I'm like, explaining that I'm just in a foul mood today, because it's my time of the month and so on. And then the idiot goes clueless on me, and says in this loud voice,

"What? Time of the month? Time for what?"

I could just murder him, standing right there at the side of the courts.

Except for the fact that most of the team members seemed equally as clueless as he. The few smart ones were blushing like mad, but everyone that mattered (Akagi, Mitsui and ESPECIALLY Miyagi…) had this "Huh?" expression on their faces. And I could swear that even Rukawa looked faintly puzzled.

Then Kogure (Who, being of a higher intellect, understood my delicate situation) tried to salvage the situation and rescue the poor damsel in distress, me of course. Only in the wrong way. He frantically herded then to one corner, and explained exactly what I meant. Oh. Did you know, Kogure? It's the wrong time for a sex-education course. I can see --- yep, all those faces turning a traffic light red. I'm blushing myself.

And Sakuragi, in his oh-so-tactful way, tried to rid himself of his embarrassment.

"Then maybe we shouldn't have a girl manager. Then she…I mean he…wouldn't be so grumpy."

That was it. The final straw. The last nail in the coffin. Whatever. So I wheeled round impressively, and stalked straight out of those metal doors. And I even made my stompy footsteps extra loud for emphasis.

Later Akagi called me. He made no mention of the earlier incident that provoked Sakuragi's response, but told me in his usual gruff manner that the team wanted me as the manager, even if I was a girl.

I was still smarting from earlier on, and the gruff way Akagi put it --- wanted me, even if I were a girl… So they figured that they were doing me a big fat favour by allowing me to come back, were they?

"You know? I think the team will do fine with another manager. A male one this time." I screamed, and slammed down the phone with vigour to match that of a dunk.

Then picked it up again. I had more to say. "Oh, and I'm going to start a girl's team. And it's going to be better than yours!"

Oh couldn't I just feel the Gorilla anger radiating in waves over the phone. I slammed it down again for effect.

Fine. So I was being snippy.

Then the full horror of what I had said dawned on me.

Oh.

No.

What girls' team could I come up with?

I lay back on my bed, and started to count the cracks on the ceiling. It helps me to concentrate. And, in the middle of my deep concentration, I drifted off onto a troubled sleep.

Around the middle of the night, I sat up. The idea, the kind that comes around once a month to Einstein and once a lifetime to the rest of us had come to me. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating, but yeah, I had some idea on the possible candidates for the team. The first girls basketball team of Shohoku High.

I went to my desk, and switched on my lamp. Biting my pen-cap, I opened my notebook, normally reserved for recording stuff like how many rebounds, fouls, etc. a player had gotten for each game. I stared a bit at the block letters in front 'SHOHOKU BASKETBALL TEAM' and carefully inserted the word 'GIRLS' in between the 'SHOHOKU' and the 'BASKETBALL'. And tore out all the used pages.

'Members (possible)' I wrote on the fresh page.

'Haruko'. Yeah, that girl lived, breathed, and talked basketball. And her friends, Yuriko and that girl with two ponytails… possibly.

Four members, including myself. Who else. Oh, I knew.

'Ru'

'Ka'

'Wa'.

I put down my pen, and flung back my head, and laughed with abandonment. Wiping the tears flowing down form my mirth-filled eyes. No, seriously. I poised my pen to cancel the last three entries. But then again, why not? The more the merrier.

Oh good, I was done. I recapped my pen, closed the book, and lay back on my bed, snuggling into the duvet. Now I could sleep in peace.

Oh wait, no that sounds like I'm about to die. Change it to: Now I could slumber deeply, with pleasant dreams. Yeah.

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Yeah? The first all-girls team of Shohoku High is set to… flunk? Rule? And what will the Rukawa Brigade get up to? Wanna find out? Read on… when I upload the second chapter. (Nyahaha. This is the point in soap opera's when commercials come on.)

[#]

Be a darling… review?