Where Nathan pointed with his hand raised high, there really were Olivia and the cheerleader girls. Aiden glared at Nathan, then ran over to Olivia.
“Talk about nauseating devotion.”
When everyone laughed at Nathan’s cheekiness, Cheick appeared. He wasn’t with Sophia or Virgil.
“Isn’t that the track team loser over there?”
Hazel, who’d been laughing and chatting with Nathan, looked at Cheick and asked everyone. I told him to watch his words and called out to Cheick.
“Hey!”
Just as Cheick looked my way, I gently tossed the ball Blair had been holding, not too hard. Cheick caught the ball more skillfully than expected and trudged over here.
“…Good morning.”
Looking around at me and the team guys, Cheick said in an ominous voice.
“Yeah, good morning. Track team loser.”
Blair answered Cheick, then giggled with Hazel and a few others. These idiots are my teammates.
“Now that we’ve exchanged greetings, can the track team loser disappear?”
Cheick looked at me and asked in an even more ominous voice.
“No. If you guys aren’t planning to have a proper conversation with Cheick, could you just keep your mouths shut?”
I looked around at the team guys and pleaded, and they made annoying faces at me and answered that they’d do as ordered.
“It’s fine. Liam, what did you want?”
“Nothing in particular. I just called you over to hang out for a bit, but now I regret it.”
“No need to regret it.”
Cheick answered indifferently and went inside the school building. I kept Hazel and Blair until just before class started and lectured them.
“This is why people call us shit-for-brains football machos. Have you guys ever seen the track team practice? They give it their all just as much as we do. Maybe even more. So what I’m saying is, don’t look down on other people carelessly. And…”
“Wow, this is driving me crazy! Got it, Mr. Blake.”
“Got what? And besides, Cheick didn’t even start anything. You guys are quick to shit-talk Aiden behind his back when he acts crazy, but then you act just like him in front of other people—what’s up with that?”
“Bla bla bla bla, yackity yackity yackity yack…”
In the end, I talked alone in front of guys who wouldn’t even listen with half an ear, then went to first period, but I felt so bad I had trouble concentrating on class.
***
:-c
Sorry
I didn’t mean to embarrass you
Cheick
It’s fine
I hear it often
That doesn’t make it not an insult
Cheick
Even if it’s an insult, it’s somewhat true
What do you mean?
Cheick
I’m a loser on the track team
I’m not being sarcastic, just stating a plain fact, so don’t misunderstand
And why are you sending me a DM while eating lunch right in front of me?
“…”
I stopped eating the macaroni salad from lunch and looked at Cheick. He dipped food that looked like flour dough into something thick and ate it while looking back at me.
“I’m being mindful of you.”
When I revealed the reason for choosing DM conversation a beat late, Cheick said I could just talk normally and ate the food in his lunch box.
“What’s that dish you’re eating called?”
“Fufu.”
“Jamaican food?”
“No, Ghana. Congo. Etcetera.”
Cheick briefly explained and ate his fufu, then revealed that part of his blood was Ghanaian.
“Our great-grandfather was from Ghana.”
“Really? Thanks for telling me.”
“No problem. But… do I really have nothing to talk about with you besides bloodlines?”
Cheick put down the fufu he’d been eating and asked with a somewhat confused look. Oh my god. He was really cute.
Episode 2
This morning’s commute to school was a complete mess. Virgil, who had a lot of pent-up anger toward Sophia, ended up saying something he absolutely shouldn’t have said to her.
“Even if you hang out with Leda or those friends, you’ll just end up playing the DUFF role anyway, so is that okay with you?”
With her pride wounded, Sophia chose to walk to school even if it meant being late for class, saying she wouldn’t ride in the same car as Virgil. Virgil tried to get my agreement, saying he hadn’t said anything wrong and Sophia was just overreacting, but when I didn’t agree, he also got out of the car.
After sending both of them off in succession and arriving alone at the campus, the Rangers guys were swarming around, and I had a somewhat annoying experience when Liam from the group happened to spot me. But the Rangers calling me a track team loser was nothing compared to the Sophia and Virgil problem.
Vigil
You’re the same
You have that great Liam Blake as a friend, so someone like me doesn’t matter to you anymore
A message from Virgil. As soon as I received it, I looked around in surprise, and saw him eating lunch alone in a corner of the cafeteria. I asked Liam for understanding and approached Virgil.
“I tried to understand you, and I’m still trying. But I’m increasingly thinking I don’t want to.”
“Oh… is that so?”
Virgil stopped eating his peanut butter sandwich and looked up fiercely.
“People who only think from their own perspective are exhausting.”
“How great. So, are you done talking? Then get lost wherever.”
Virgil seemed extremely offended by my words, and I also judged that continuing to talk with him would be a loss. When I returned like a defeated soldier and ate lunch half-heartedly, Liam asked what happened with Virgil.
“A bit of an argument.”
“Ah. That must be bothering you.”
“A little.”
I ate lunch while maintaining my discomfort, then went to my locker to prepare for the next class. As I was doing that, someone touched me, so I turned around to find Leda standing there with a dazzling face, grinning brightly.
“Cheick Rowan?”
The moment a bright, fresh voice called my name, my head spun and I felt my whole body stiffen. I didn’t want to show an even more pathetic side in front of Leda like this.
“Uh, yeah, hi.”
“I have a favor to ask you. About Sophia. From now on, I’m going to pick her up for school. But there’s this guy I’ve been stuck driving to school all this time, you know? You know him too, and if it’s okay, I’d like you to take over.”
When I asked if she meant Liam, Leda laughed cheerfully, saying she liked that we understood each other well.
“I was getting really annoyed about having to talk back and forth with him about picking him up even though we broke up. What do you say?”
“Sure, whatever.”
Getting closer to Liam like this would only increase the annoying entanglements with the football team, but there’s no way I could refuse Leda’s request.
“You have the same class as Liam later, right? Tell him for me.”
“…Okay.”
“I like that you’re so obedient.”
Leda said that and giggled, then went somewhere with friends who appeared shortly after. I suffered for a while from the afterimage her laughter left behind, then only belatedly grabbed my books and entered the classroom where class was being held when I heard the class bell ring.
“Hey.”
When I spoke to Liam, who had already entered the classroom and had his book open, he smiled gently and responded.
“From now on, can I pick you up for school instead of Leda?”
If you ride with me to school, the car you’ll be riding in the morning will be our family’s third-generation hand-me-down junker instead of Leda’s sleek sports car—when I said that, Liam giggled and nodded. Then he lightly grabbed the corner of my desk and looked me in the eye.
“I don’t care about the car.”
“That’s a relief.”
“…Leda asked you, right? Is there any part of that that’s difficult for you?”
When Liam asked, I was startled for a moment, but forced myself to stay calm and said no.
“That’s a relief. Even if you said it was difficult, I couldn’t help it.”
“I guess it’s a bit awkward to keep riding in Leda’s car when you’ve broken up?”
“That’s part of it. Anyway, great. I get to see you every morning.”
As soon as Liam finished speaking, the teacher came in and started class.
When all the classes I had to take that day were over, I changed clothes in the locker room, went out to the field, and devoted myself to practice. With the state championship coming up in mid-May, most of the track team members, including the coach, trained with humorless expressions.
After working up a sweat, I showered, got dressed, and was about to head home when my gaze suddenly went toward the football field. It’s late, so the football team shouldn’t be training until now either. Thinking that, I still headed toward the field while drinking water from a plastic bottle. On the wide field, only a very small number of football team members were doing extra training, and Liam was one of those doing the remaining practice.
I watched those practicing without realizing how late it was getting, then headed toward where I’d parked my car, resolving to practice a little longer tomorrow.
“Hey, high jump champion!”
Before I’d even taken a few steps from the football field—not from the field itself but from somewhere closer—a playful voice called out to me. High jump champion. Nathan Pitt is the only one who would call me by such an embarrassing title.
“…Cheick Rowan.”
“Huh?”
“That’s my name. You seemed to have forgotten.”
“I didn’t forget.”
“If you didn’t forget, could you just call me by my name?”
Nathan said okay and asked what I’d come to the football field for.
“Sightseeing.”
“Really? By the way, did you see Charlotte? She was around here just a bit ago. And…”
Nathan made it impossible for me to escape with his formidable level of chatter. While I was only looking for a chance to escape the swamp of chatter, I saw the football team members who’d finished their remaining practice running to the locker room.
