School Days

"Nice boat"

Flashback to 15 minutes earlier

Hideki said goodbye to the bus with his teammates as he went to the other direction. 

A little bit of tangent, in the bus the team praised Hideki for his performance on defense and offense in particular, Yamamoto the manager said that Hideki's stats are all higher than 4. Yamamoto the player said that his stats indicate that he almost had a triple-double if he stayed at least one more quarter, and this fact was backed up by Coach Suzuki.

After seeing the bus leave Nambara, he walked towards the cafe where Kanai was working, he would reach there in 15 to 20 minutes depending on the traffic. So he started to walk towards the cafe. 

When Hideki was near the cafe he passed by a river with a boat that's painted with underground idol pictures, one of them his favorite. That's why he was 'wowed' by the boat and said, "Nice boat"

A/N: Sorry, I won't include Ai Hoshino in this story as her death is canon event.

After 5 minutes, Hideki arrived at the cafe very excited to share the news with his mom, and good timing it was Kanai's break time (her boss gave her more time to spend with Hideki) as there were fewer people in the cafe, so the mother and son bonded on a meal prepared by Kanai herself (she borrowed the kitchen).

After eating the food and bonded for 30 minutes, Kanai got back to work and Hideki told her he'd go back home so he could take a rest. 

Now Monday rolled around and Hideki's back to school and we're not skipping to his practice first, let's check on what Hideki does at school, so inside the classroom, the first period was Homeroom their teacher got in and said, "Okay class, sorry to announce but there would be an emergency meeting today for the teachers, so your next periods until 12, or if the meeting finishes early, is "free study" period. You can accomplish unfinished assignments or homework. So before I go to the faculty lounge for our meeting, let me check your attendance first."

Well, we came in to watch at the wrong time. But why not look at what Hideki's doing instead?

After the teacher finished his roll call, Hideki got bored after 10 minutes, because Hideki finished all that was needed to be finished. 

Surprisingly, Megumi approached him. Maybe it was not mentioned in the earlier chapters, but, Megumi is Hideki's classmate. Megumi asked Hideki "Hideki-kun, have you finished your homework" Hideki told her "Yes, I have finished my homework Megumi-chan. How about you?" Megumi said "I only have English left, can you help me?" Hideki happily told her "Yes, I would like to help you, I'm getting bored doing nothing here"

It's not a secret that Hideki's smart in school and in English it was as if he was the assistant 'assistant teacher', so he asked Megumi "So Megumi-chan, which ones are you having problems with?" Megumi told her, "Making sentences for these questions." On their assignment, they were only asked basic English questions such as "Who are you" "Where do you live" and "Who are your parents", but the tricky part here is they have to write this in English, and that is where Megumi is having a difficult time.

So what Hideki suggested was he give his example in English and he'll translate it to Japanese and give her the word-by-word translation, since if Hideki had taken a shortcut Megumi might not learn from this, but she didn't understand so Hideki explained to her what he wants to do and for her to learn English at a pace she's comfortable at.

As they skimmed through the assignment, Megumi is now at the last question, which was: "What do you like", she blushed and looked at Hideki and Hideki saw Megumi and to the question so he told her, "It's not about who do you like, but what do you like? Me for example, I like basketball." Then Hideki provided another example, "Another example is that I have a friend who likes ice cream, but compared to ice cream he likes car much more."

So Megumi, thought of a phrase and said "Can I say I like to help my friends?" Hideki said, "Sure, and you say it like this." They continued on that question and that end's Megumi's English assignment.

Now Megumi and Hideki were sitting beside each other and there was nothing to do at the moment and there was still around an hour before the teachers got back so Megumi decided that this was the time to talk with Hideki as normally they only talk about classes or basketball and she thinks Hideki is not a social person.

So Megumi asked Hideki "Hideki-kun, do you only play basketball or are there other sports you've played?" Hideki responded, "I've also played volleyball but not in an official capacity. Well, I've also tried cheer dancing if you want to know. " Megumi had a face of awe and confusion, so Hideki told her "Well, it was to add my repertoire and show that I am flexible, both literally and figuratively. Well some of them are from my grandparent's suggestion." 

Megumi then asked, "But why try cheerdancing? Won't guys say it's a girly sport?" Hideki chuckled and said, "Well, at first that's what I also thought, but upon joining it after a month, I learned things that basketball doesn't teach you and I am incorporating some of it's warmups to my daily routine. Lastly, it also builds my core and lower body strength as I was taught to lift girls near my weight class"

Hideki then continued to speak "You'll also think the same question you asked before for volleyball, I assume?" Megumi nodded then Hideki told her, "Well, I asked my grandfather to also teach me about volleyball to improve my block timing and court awareness, as a basketball player you can try to shoulder the defense or offense by yourself but in volleyball, I was taught to communicate with my teammates."

Megumi was still in awe of Hideki's experience, but she then asked a question to Hideki, "But why learn other sports when you can just use the weight room to train or ask a trainer to train you to do other things?" Hideki smiled at her question and said "I could have done that but I want to know the mindset of the people participating in those sports, and my grandfather told me to try other things while I am young so my body is adept at many things." 

Megumi now wants to talk about other things, "Well let's talk about another topic Hideki-kun, so why do you…" Hideki stopped her and told her "Hey, I think it's my time to ask questions can't I?" Megumi stopped and covered her mouth and said "Oops, I'm sorry about that Hideki-kun, I'm free to answer questions I can answer"

Hideki then asked, "So why did you join the basketball team?" Megumi told him, "Well, to be honest at first I joined because I was curious about what my clubmates in the Sports Admirer Club about a certain somebody in the basketball team, I won't mention names to protect each person's anonymity." But Megumi was just talking about herself. 

Hideki then said, "Ho, naruhodo. But wait, aren't you the Sport's Admirer Club's founder?" Megumi blinked three times, chuckled nervously, and said "Yes, uhm, How did you know that?" Hideki smiled and said "Well, I have a friend who's a member of your club. So tell me, why did you build the club?" Megumi chuckled again and said "Well. I tried to make a club on a whim, it was supposed to be a club for a specific person, but I thought if I built as general and a collective group, the school would accept it." Megumi then covered her cheeks in embarrassment and said "Lo and behold, the Sports Admirer Club was built, and I am embarrassed by how many members we have"

Hideki laughed and noticed his flip phone vibrating and saw his mom texting him to go by the cafe so they could walk home together, as he sent the message and returned it to its home screen, Megumi saw the image and asked, "Minato-senpai" Hideki heard this and said "Senpai?" It was like Hideki had three question marks above his head as he was looking at Megumi. Now he was suspiciously looking at Megumi.

(The image was the same one in the boat that Hideki saw last Friday)

Before Hideki could say anything, their English teacher and his assistant came in and proceeded to start the classes. Now for Hideki's class performance, let's see how he fares in class, in no particular order.

In English, Hideki was a great student as always, and helped his classmates.

In Mathematics, Hideki showed great knowledge at their current lesson.

In Science, Hideki showed that he learned the current lesson in his homework.

In Music, Hideki was knowledgeable about music theory.

The subjects that we missed today were History, Japanese, and Economics.

Well, that's all for Hideki's school life, as after the last period he and Megumi left for the Basketball Club.

*Terms used:

Triple Double: A player achieves a double-digit stat in 3 of each of these categories, points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. Example 10 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists