[And They 'Eight our Dust]

Yuriko was dressed in an oversized Yoda t-shirt, and looking very small and lost when Ayako burst in. Natural anger was warring with pity when Yuriko spoke.

"I'm s-sorry, Ayako! Very sorry. I never meant to let you down!"

"Well, get up. We'll be playing against them again soon."

"I-I can't do it. I can't play. Its no use."

Ayako suddenly felt protective of his girl, wishing there was some way in which she could help her get over the awful problem of nervousness in front of an audience.

It was something that Ayako had never met before. Of course everyone felt nervous before the match, it was only expected; but surely once the game started…

"Nonsense. You'll play again, and you are certainly going to stay in the team. You play so well it would be such a waste if you were to stop, get over this thing, whatever it is. You'll have to fight yourself when the chance comes to play in public again. You'll have to promise yourself that you'll do it again."

"It's easy to talk…" Yuriko groaned.

"I know it is. But you can't let basketball go so easily when you show so much promise."

After a long time Yuriko said in a muffled voice, "I will try. Was the game lost?"

"Well, of course, but we intend this to be our first and last defeat. So you'll play tomorrow? This time you don't have to be center."

"Tomorrow? So soon? … Alright."

"Tha'as the spirit girl!" a strange inarticulate voice came from the direction of the door. Ayako yanked it open, and Haruko, Matsui, Ru, Ka and Wa tumbled in.

There was a general round of sweat dropping.

!~!~!~!~!~!

"Pwweeeeeet!" The match had started.

Incredulity flooded over Yuriko as she caught the ball from Ayako. "This is the match. The first time, but it just mustn't be the last." For a moment, the old fear overtook her. Then Mitsui tried to steal the ball.

Outraged that someone would try to do that (She considered it a low-down, sneaky method), she quickly passed it to Haruko. But Haruko was not in the best position to shoot, she was too far away… So Haruko passed it to

"Ahhh! No! Wrong person!" She'd thrown it straight into the arms of a surprised Miyagi. Who unsuccessfully tried to elude Wa. Who scored a 3 pointer.

"Wahahahahahahahaha! Sakuragi lost to a girl!" The ever present Gundam were rolling on the floor with laughter. Steam slowly drifted up from Sakuragi's ears as he heard this. The Gundam shut up.

Fired by the insults, Sakuragi went on to get a successful rebound and actually dunked the ball (through the hoop, not on someone's head, you silly people.)

The teams fought hard, and by the end of the first round, it was 44 - 45 in favour of the boys.

^^^^^^Break^^^^^

In case any one is wondering, here are the markings. I like my fic to be nice and accurate.

Yuriko - Mitsui (Mitsui is a thief who steals balls from nice girls. So says Yuriko.)

Haruko - Miyagi (Ayako does not want to go through that again, no she does not.)(Miyagi wants to swop with Akagi. Only he isn't tall enough to be center)

Ayako - Akagi (At least the gorilla's jumping again)

Matsui - Rukawa (Cheer her on? She actually made Rukawa foul.)

Wa - Sakuragi (He's got 2 fouls already, and 2 lumps on his head from Akagi.)

The match was back on, and fought with even more energy than before. "The spectators," thought Matsui grimly, "Were just plain annoying. Now, wouldn't they shut up and let the poor girl concentrate in peace?" Playing against Rukawa was harder work than she had expected. She was fearfully tired. "And so is he." she grinned.

Rukawa was highly displeased. Why, that boorish girl had actually thwarted some of his best moves! He his eyes slitted, he glared at her. Crazy girl. She was grinning. Wasn't she tired? He thought he had worn her down. Apparently not. And apparently he'd underestimated her. She had just eluded him. Again. He ran to catch up.

Yuriko was in her best element now. She couldn't describe it. She wasn't nervous, or afraid. Everything suddenly seemed so clear cut. Why, if Mitsui wanted to steal the ball, take it right back! If she wanted to shoot, and Akagi was in the way, why, jump higher and slip the ball past him! If the time was ticking from 2 seconds to 1, and they only had one more point to draw, two more points to win, why, shoot and let the ball fall into the net!

"Yessss! We did it!" Yuriko screamed uncharacteristically. Not so much any longer, she knew, could feel that she was much a different person now. Felt more in control of herself, taller, stronger.

Ayako smiled. She knew what was wrong with herself now. It had come to her just after Miyagi had scored a point. Why, she loved him of course!

Matsui was jumping around in euphoria. She'd done it. She'd beaten the guy Haruko kept going on and on and on about. Now Haruko would have to shut up.

Haruko was shedding tears of joy. "Wa-waaaaahhhhhh! I'm so happy…" She was proud to be part of the team

Wa was yelling "Right bus! Right bus!" No one knew what she was talking about, and most were giving her strange looks.

Ru and Ka were busy dancing in the sidelines, singing. "We are the champions my friends, and we…keep on fighhhtttiinggg til the end… 'Cos we …"

Anzai-sensei smiled. He knew they'd come through. He turned to the head, sitting beside him. "What do you think now?"

"Definitely. They are now officially a school activity. This means that they can represent the school in national championships, and the school will fund them for all the equipment they need."

"Oh good," said Wa.

"Sure, Duck-man is appeased." Matsui and Wa were practically rolling on the floor.

"Shame on you." The now truly gorillaesque Akagi was roaring at the boys. "Now, do it now…" he muttered into Sakuragi's ear and pushed him in the general direction of the girls.

"Ayako…" Sakuragi's hands were in his pockets and his head low.

"We admit it…we can't do without you… It's been a mess ever since we got Mitsui as the manager."

"OI!" Mitsui yelled from across the court. He'd tried. It wasn't his fault all sorts of things kept popping up, plus the files on each player had gone missing somewhere in between the hall and the laboratories. And all those little miscellaneous things Ayako was normally in charge of.

"Well…" Ayako's eyes glinted mischievously. "I'll let you guys know soon…"

[#] Yay. Next chapter = last chapter. Me happy. U happy.

U unhappy? U happy? U review. Me happy. We all happy.[#]