[Painting in the Dark]

A teacher who was forever handing out miscellaneous pieces of advice to the class once told me this: "Personality is a mask you believe in."

From the back of the classroom, a note was passed. On it, the words 'Pretty ugly mask she's wearing then…" and a comical caricature was etched below.

But I've come to realise the true value of those words indeed, indeed. Everything's changed, and yet nothing has changed at all.

Do you get what I mean?

Good, because I don't.

For those who answered 'yes', beat me up later, I'm not done yet.

I think the greatest surprise the Shohoku Girls' Team has gotten is that Ayako isn't our captain any longer. She went back to being the manager of the Boys' team.

People have asked her why; the whole girls' team begged her to come back, but she just smiled that familiar smile of hers, and shook her head. She just says "I like." and annoys the heck out of everybody.

I think I know the reason though. One is because the boys' team rather obviously couldn't survive without her, and sad to say, that lent a rather smug expression to her otherwise sparkling smile for a few days. Another is more hard to explain, and only a pet theory.

She'd accomplished what she'd always wanted to do, and now that the dream was taking off, she wanted to let it go, like a mother bird and its chicks. Ayako was affectionately termed 'Mother-hen' by the team after all the fussing-overs and…and…just general mother-henish behaviour.

She'd seen the team through its experimental stages, and now was ready to return to what to her was normality. Some people are like that. It's only a theory though.

Yet another, but more subtle reason is because of plain, simple love. She'd kill me if she heard me, but it is too obvious. I am sorry, Ayako, but it is true, and all who know you can see it. She loooovvveeesss her Miyagi-kun.

We first began noticing this some time after that famous match. She'd suddenly stopped in a daze, and shaking herself out of the stupor, whacked herself with her own paper fan. We were all stunned. Soon it became quite regular, and we became quite worried.

Haruko thought she was going through a self-inferiority problem.

"It's obvious. Look at the signs! Whenever those basketball boys of her year walk by, she whacks herself. Can't you see? She feels inferior to them, so she whacks her…"

I didn't listen to what else Haruko had to say, nor the rest of the discussions of the girls. A sudden seedling had wormed its way into my ever-ingenious brain.

"Second year, eh…? A certain…"

"What's that?" Wa turned her head around sharply.

"Nothing, nothing…"

"Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell m…"

"Fine, fine." And I told her that Ayako had a big crush on Miyagi-kun.

We didn't know the rest of the girls were listening on.

And neither did we know that 'the girls' included our dear Ayako. Whups, whups, me bad.

Anyway, so Ayako went back to the boys. She still visits us though. Our new captain is Yuriko, no surprise there.

Or maybe there is a surprise.

Let's just say that the Yuriko of 5 months ago…I would have died laughing if she had been made captain.

And this Yuriko. I would die if I laughed at her for becoming captain.

And yet, her personality, that mask she wears hasn't changed a bit. Same Yuriko, same shy way of talking, although a good deal more of talking now, same old way of blushing whenever she's praised.

You see, if I laughed at her now, she would blush and say,

"Really? I shall try to improve at being a captain. And by the way? Do you mind if you run 16 laps around the courts? Thank you so much."

And all in a half-smiling, docile manner.

And an interesting thing happened to the RuKaWa brigade. The original members, that is. They've quit the Brigade. Yet it isn't such a surprise to those who knew them closely.

Less and less they were being known for hunting down Rukawa, and more and more they're being known as The Girls Who Beat Rukawa.

Yet nothing's changed in that area either. Remember Ru2 Ka2 and Wa2, bless their dear, loyal, fanatical souls? They are now officially Ru Ka and Wa. There was a be-you-ti-ful ceremony in which the originals passed over their pink head gear to them.

All over the place there were, Kaes, Das, Ruks, waRus, hugging each other and shedding tears. Now the originals are known by their real names. Wa's (the original one) name is Midori. We all laugh because it means green.

Don't ask me, we laugh at the strangest things.

Anyway, it hasn't really changed because the new Ru Ka and Wa all look exactly, and act exactly as the originals did 5 months ago.

Now that the originals all cut their hair (We all cut our hair short for the sake of coolness) its simply like we got three new people, instead of losing three.

Ayako, (who was still with us at that time) didn't cut her hair. Now we all know it was because she was leaving, but then we didn't. Anyway, her hair would look simply mad if she cut it short. Never mind, Wa, or Midori, teased. She could swish her voluminous hair in the opponent's face and steal the ball.

Midori was having her hair cut at that time, so it was bad of Ayako to try and whack her; the paper fan was cut into half, and Midori's hair is half an inch shorter than the rest of ours. Funny, funny.

Another great thing that has happened is that there have been literally billions of application forms to join our team. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but the size is GNINORMOUS. I kid you not.

We've had a really fun time, because it does a little to our egos to get to pick whom will get in and not. Well, that was mean. Well, it's the truth.

It's not like me to act all corny and cliched and mushy and stuff, but I'll give it a shot. Just this once. So long as no one else can hear, or it'll ruin my reputation.

You know, these 5 months, its just been this great journey for all of us. Lots of life lessons, self-identities, courage, and a whole mish-mash pot of things have been picked up along the way. That poem we were doing for English, (You know, the one English teachers make you do year after year after year. And say 'Now here is a very famous poem, but you may not have heard of it…' yeah right.) And ends with 'And that road made all that difference.'

You could probably say it now.

[+] Hurrah hurray bring out the banners, I am done. simpers I'd like to thank you for following this through with me… sorry if any one is left floundering, or thinks I rushed through at the speed of a runaway pig. I have an attention span of a pea, and if there is any debate over the size, it is around [ ] this much. So I hop around from idea to idea. It's a very bad habit that I'm trying to correct. I also hop around in between typing chapters, so that is why the churn out at the speed of a dead pig. And that is why they (the chapters) are shorter than my attentio…me. I am very vertically challenged, having grown a cm since P6 (I'm Sec 2 now), and SHRUNK by 2 cm since last year. Oh dear, I'm talking rot again.[+]

Preview from a fic likely to appear…when, June?! I swear I shall complete it before uploading it.

…xxx backed away and_gasped. Rosemary Sue-Ann Rain was as dead as a doorknob.

If you do not get the joke, you are hopeless. I have been oh-so-obvious.