Everything is Possible in a Story

Ayumi Nazu/Author's Note: Forth entry of the 15 One-Shot Contest! Themes that are chosen by the opponent will be used as the title of each one-shot on my side. For those who have no idea what's going on with the '15 One-Shot Contest', please go to the 'We are Game' literature entry. Ryoma Echizen's POV. Please leave a Comment if not too much trouble~

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.

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Theme #4

Photosynthesis

Written by: AyumiNazu

     “I don’t get it!” complained Ayumi, completely lost in her worst subject, science.

     I remained silent as she went on about what she didn’t get in class, what’s so hard anyway? Science is so easy!

     “Ne Ryoma-kun, can teach me?” she asked, again with her unlimited requests.

     “No,” I replied, unconsciously giving her cold looks from time to time.

     And then the pattern repeats as she gives me the irresistible puppy pout with her innocent big eyes. It’s not the first time; it’s happened quite a lot recently.

     I hesitate and then gave in, “Come to my house after school.”

     She smiled sweetly, “Thank you, Ryoma-kun!” She said and then gave me a hug, but I quickly shook her off to avoid being seen by anyone at school in that state.

     When we were walking back to class from lunch, she kept on yawning. But when I asked if she was tired, she said no while putting a hand on her mouth and yawning again.

     The next class was history and it was no one’s favorite subject. After handing in the project assignment, we had to listen to the teacher talk for the rest of the class. He really liked to hear the sound of his own voice. Almost half the students fell asleep at his monotone speech. Even I almost fell asleep. When the school bell rang, everyone rushed out of class as fast as they could, causing a stampede in the hallway.

     “Ayumi, wake up,” I had to shake her a couple of times before she opened her eyes.

     “I wasn’t sleeping,” she denied, it was getting obvious, but I played along.

     “Lets go home,” I said, “And don’t forget your science notebook,” I added before going ahead of her towards the lockers downstairs.

     As we were walking home side by side, I wondered if I should slip my hand into hers. I hesitated, we have walked far enough so that no one from school would see us, but I just didn’t know. It was feeling awfully awkward with the dead silence.

     Right when I made the decision to hold her hand, a familiar annoying voice shouted from behind, “Chibisuke!”

     “You better stop calling me that,” I yelled back to my adopted older brother.

     He hardly ever called me by my real name. Chibisuke was a nickname he gave me when we were kids meaning ‘shorty’, but I’m not that short anymore. He’s the most uncaring brother I could imagine. He even suddenly disappeared when I was three years old, or was it four? Either way, he comes back nine years after his sudden disappearance and decides to live with us! That idiot.

     “Ohhh~ Your girlfriend?” he asked with great curiosity.

     Ayumi turns around and greets him formally, he didn’t deserve it.

     “Oh, I remember you! I met you before,” he exclaimed.

     That’s right. It wasn’t the first time Ayumi came over. Last time she came was for some project we had to do the day before it was due. It was entirely the teacher’s fault for assigning projects due the next day and pairing us together. However, last time they met, she wasn’t my girlfriend, just some classmate I couldn’t care less about.

     Ayumi had a perplexed look on her face, she doesn’t remember him.

     “Anyway, we’re going,” I dragged her out of the situation before the conversation could continue.

     “Hey!”

     It ended with Ayumi, Ryoga and I going home together and he just won’t stop talking about himself, trying to make a great impression on her. As soon as I got into my room, I slammed the door in his face to prevent him from getting any closer to my girlfriend.

     Ayumi had a huge sweat drop behind her head, surprised at how much I disliked my brother. He would make a great tennis opponent, considering my dad was the one who trained him, but nothing else.

     “Have a seat,” I pointed at a cushion by the tea table where I will do all the explanations right next to her, “So what don’t you understand?”

     She takes out her science note book and flips to the fifteenth lesson, “This, this, this and this too.”

     It was basically the entire lesson that made up today’s class. Even though science was my favorite subject in school, I wasn’t too interested in reviewing the notes when I already knew all that stuff by heart.

     I sighed, “Lets start with the photosynthesis cycle. Basically it’s when plants use energy from the sun to transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. As we breathe oxygen and release carbon dioxide, plants do the complete opposite,” after explaining that much, it seemed that she still understood what I was saying, so I continued, “In chemical terms, this process would be described with the formula: 6CO2 + 12H2O + Light -> C6H12O6 + 6O2+ 6H2O—“

     I stopped after I saw her continuously yawning and not paying attention to what I was saying anymore. She was falling asleep. I rolled up the note book and hit her lightly on the head, “Pay attention!”

     If I had to go through all the trouble of explaining these things to her, at least listen to what I was saying! Besides, she was the one who asked for it.

     “That hurt,” she said jokingly while putting her hands on her head to prevent me from smacking her again.

     “Ara, is Ryoma bullying you, Nazu-san?” my mother asked as she came in without knocking and placed some milk and cookies on the table.

     “That’s not exactly what’s going on,” she replied and picked up a cookie.

     “Well, please enjoy these snacks,” my mother smiled pleasantly and closed the door behind her as she left the room.

     We were back where we started, except this time we had milk and cookies to distract us. After a little more explanation, we took a break from science and ate the well-backed snacks.

     “Do you understand how photosynthesis and respiration works?”

     “I think so.”

     It’s a good thing that she finally got it, but the fact that she’s been yawning the whole time was getting on my nerves.

     “Are you sure you’re ok? You seem really tired,” it was only natural to concern about your girlfriend’s health.

     “Huh?” her eyes were closing.

     Drinking the cup of milk doesn’t help. She became more and more tired, as though she hardly slept last night.

     “Ayumi,” I said while looking at her with a piercing glare hoping to find out what she was hiding from me.

     No matter what secrets she kept, if I were to stare straight into her eyes, she would unconsciously tell me. It always worked.

     “I stayed up all night to do the history assignment that was due today…,” she admitted finally.

     Due to the fact that I kept her awake to listen to the science note explanations, she was scared to fall asleep. Even I began to feel a little drowsy as I watched her fatigue figure.

     “Come over here, turn around and sit,” I commanded and she did as I said without a single idea of why I asked her to do so.

     I embraced her from behind and she panicked for a second.

     “Sleep,” I whispered into her ears and she stopped struggling.

     Not too long after, Ayumi snuggled into my hug and fell sound asleep without cautious. She believed in me, or perhaps she never thought of those kinds of things with her innocent mind. I held her a little closer to me, she made a good pillow.

     At that specific moment, when I started to feel comfortable enough to fall asleep as well, Ryoga popped into my room and snapped a few pictures.

     “Hey!” I hushed.

     I wanted to get up and steal that camera to delete the embarrassing pictures, but if I move, Ayumi would wake up. It was the worst situation I could be in.

     Ryoga gave a smirk and swung the camera around, “This is for slamming the door on my face.”

     “You—!“

     “Mada mada daze!” he laughed and then closed the door behind him when he left.

     A huge red angry sign appeared at the corner of my head, “I’ll get you back for that!”

     Meanwhile, Ayumi was still dreaming in her sleep, having no idea any of that ever happened. I, on the other hand, had worry about what Ryoga was going to do with those pictures!

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There you have it! To vote for the winner, please go to Ekani Polls! Make sure you read both entries of the first round before you start casting your votes! (I will post the link to Kiwi's first entry as the first comment of this blog.) Thank you for voting and commenting!