The second term has begun. And, well… there’s just been way too much happening right from the start.
First and foremost, there's Hina, who's been acting all big-sisterly toward me. Honestly, it's at the level where you’d swear you could hear the wind whooshing every time she comes near. Though to be accurate, this probably started not with the second term itself, but after that training camp at Tamaki Commercial?
Either way, ever since then, she's been butting in on everything I do. It’s annoying. I mean, sure, she’ll probably get bored soon enough, so I guess I can humor her a little until then… but still. Annoying.
And seriously—don’t comment on my underwear.
“But Yuu-chan, you do want to grow bigger, right? I think it’d be wise to listen to the advice of your experienced older sister, don’t you?”
She said this while showing off—well, let’s just say, overwhelming volume in a certain area.
……
Well… well, I suppose playing along with your little sister’s pretend game is part of being a good big brother. Yeah. Bigger is better anyway!
By the way, when I said out loud, “Someday I’ll be able to wear the same size panties as Hina!” she punched me. I don’t get it…
Speaking of things I don’t get—right at the start of the term, we had a proficiency test. The scope was everything we studied in the first term. Subjects were Japanese, Math (I and A combined), and English (both Communication and Expression together as one subject).
And somehow—I swear it was just by chance, okay? Definitely not because of my actual ability. I just had bad luck, that’s all. Yeah. That’s definitely it!
So my grade ranking was 5th. Not that it really matters whether it’s 5th or 3rd or 50th or 100th. What matters is—
Hina ranked 4th in the entire grade.
That jerk—wait, no, I mean, that girl—what’s with the whole “Eh~ this much is only natural” routine?! That was a total smug-face if I ever saw one!
Ugh. Whatever. That was just a warm-up match. The real deal is the midterms in October. Just you watch!!!
By the way, the best score in the volleyball club came from none other than Yuki—2nd place in the entire grade.
Why though?! Weren’t you totally wrecked during the finals last term?!
“When I tried studying properly for the first time, I actually did okay. Cramming the night before really doesn’t work. Steady effort every day is important.”
So says Yuki. Apparently, up through junior high and even through the first term of high school, she never studied at home—just whatever was done in class. She realized that wouldn’t cut it after the midterms and finals in the first term, so over summer break, she reviewed everything seriously from the basics—and now she’s ranked 2nd. Wild.
There really are people like that—those who can get good grades just from listening in class. Yuki’s not quite that extreme, but turns out she’s the kind of person who can do well when she puts in the work.
For the record, Mana came in 7th. She dropped to 4th place within the volleyball club and was pretty bummed out about it.
Also, apparently I got called up to the All-Japan training camp during summer break, and I beat a former Japan national team player in some casual beach volleyball match—and somehow that all got recognized.
So now, we’re allowed to use two volleyball courts in the first gym every weekday after school!
It feels a little over the top to give 8 players two whole courts, but being able to use one side for serving drills and the other for spike practice is actually really helpful. Much appreciated, school!
So yeah, that’s how the second term is going. The second term is packed with events. One of them is the Sports Festival at the end of September. And during homeroom, we started deciding who would compete in which events.
“Okay, okay~ Let’s start picking the athletes for the individual events.”
Standing in front of the blackboard to lead the selection was our class rep, Kayo. Huh? Isn’t this supposed to be my job as the PE rep?
Just as I was wondering that, Hina, who sits to my right, chimed in.
“Yuu-chan, you can’t reach the top of the blackboard, right? So Kayo’s doing it for you.”
Don’t underestimate me, Hina. I can reach the top of the blackboa—
“Of course, jumping is not allowed.”
……
My height is 156 cm. The average height for a high school girl—or rather, an adult woman—is 159 cm. That means I’m not short. A 3 cm difference is nothing!
Kayo might be slightly taller than me—maybe around 160 cm—but it’s not a big difference.
She’s writing on the upper part of the blackboard while standing on her tiptoes so everyone in the back can see, but isn’t this just because the blackboard was installed way too high in the first place?
Sure, most teachers are men and taller than the students, but this is a girls’ school. They should have taken that into consideration.
Therefore! I am not short—the blackboard is just in the wrong place!
As a side note, the reason Hina is sitting to my right is because of the recent seat change. In Class 1-2, we change seats at the start of the term and again after midterms.
Until May, the order was Hina – Me – Asuka, but after that, the three of us got scattered around the classroom. Then with the seat change in September, Hina just happened to end up to my right again.
And the person whose test score ranking matched the number of worldly desires—that person is now in the window seat in the very back row.
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I read through the handout (or something like that?) we were given for the sports festival. It had a list of the events for the day. Apparently, the sports festival at Matsubara Girls’ High School is different from the typical middle school ones—there’s no designated time for thorough practice beforehand. I mean, just looking at the list of events, a lot of them are pretty serious.
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100m sprint: 4 participants total
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100m hurdles: 2 participants total
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200m sprint: 4 participants total
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400m sprint: 1 participant
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1 mile run: 1 participant
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Obstacle course: 4 participants
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Swedish relay: 4 participants
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Class relay: 20 participants
Supplementary notes:
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Even for high-participation events like the 100m sprint, there are no preliminaries or finals—it’s purely based on time.
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The "1 mile" run is technically a 1600m run.
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The Swedish relay is half the official distance: 50m → 100m → 150m → 200m, totaling 500m.
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The obstacle course is a 100m run that includes tasks like running across a balance beam or crawling under a net.
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The class relay has each person running 100m.
Those are the individual events for the sports festival. It looks like all year groups will be doing the same events.
Still, the randomness of the class relay is kind of wild. They really want to make sure everyone does at least one event. Each person can sign up for up to two events, but no more than that.
By the way, the total number of participants needed for the individual events is 40. Since each class only has 36 students, four people will have to enter two events.
You’d think they could just adjust the total to 36, since that’s the class size, but apparently in second year and beyond, when classes split into humanities, science, and advanced tracks, there can be more than 37 students per class. And even in first year, if there are transfers and the class size goes up, the system is designed so that everyone can still participate in at least one event.
That’s… unnecessary consideration.
There’s even more to comment on when it comes to the year-specific class competitions.
1st year: Tug of war
2nd year: Cavalry battle
3rd year: Pole toppling
…
Just so we’re clear, this is the sports festival of a girls’ high school.
Like, come on. It’s a girls’ school. For group events, shouldn’t it be something like giant ball rolling or tossing beanbags into baskets? You know, the usual.
What’s up with these intense events? And then the rules say:
Cavalry battle: No biting.
Pole toppling: No tackling above the waist.
…
That’s full-on serious mode! I don’t want this!
While I was secretly taken aback, Hina in the seat next to me said:
“This year’s tug of war, huh… Cavalry battle is next year, and then pole toppling the year after. Can’t wait.”
Wait, you want to do the cavalry battle and pole toppling?
“You know, normal girls have never done those before. That’s why I want to try them.”
…Fair enough. I experienced both back in middle school, but come to think of it, the girls did other events like beanbag toss instead.
Well, already by middle school, the physical difference between boys and girls becomes clear, so you can’t really have them do the same events. And besides (tug of war aside), the cavalry battle and pole toppling involve pushing and crashing into each other, so it makes sense not to have girls do them.
It would be a pain if someone got hurt.
What’s that? At Matsubara Girls’?
Before we even talk about "girls" as a category, these students are more like wild children, so as long as it’s just scrapes or bruises, it’s probably fine!...Maybe.
“Well, it’s the kind of event that takes a lot of energy, so it might be awkward with boys around, but it’s an all-girls school, so it’s fine,”
—says Hina.
So that’s it. They all want to try cavalry battles and such because they’ve never done them.
In those events, it might look like the person on top is the key, but actually, the horse part is even more important. When the time comes, I’ll teach them.
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Bonus
Summer Break Post-Test – Year Ranking
2nd place – Arimura Yukiko
“…V!”
4th place – Tachibana Hina
“Eh~ This is just normal for me.”
5th place – Tachibana Yuuri
“…Don’t assume the moon always shines on you alone.”
7th place – Shirasagi Mana
“Eh? Well, as long as I’m in the top 30, I can aim for the advanced class, so that’s fine, but... huh? Why??”
54th place – Nabekawa Kaori
“Well, I did study normally during summer break.”
58th place – Murai Reiko
“Surprisingly, studying during the volleyball training camp paid off.”
102nd place – Maejima Mirai
“Phew, dodged being last in the club by just 7 points!”
108th place – Tohira Asuka
“I-I mean, all three subjects were about average for me, okay?!”
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