"Hey Haruki."
"Hm?"
Ikeda said, as he walked towards my seat. After he sat down in his seat in front of me, he began talking again.
"Did you know? The sports festival will begin this weekend?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You see, apparently, today will be the day the classes choose their participants."
"Hee~, so? I'm not taking part in any activities, why should I care."
"About that… It's not voluntary."
"..what?"
"There'll be a raffle draw today where the class representative will pick from a box of names written in paper…"
As Ikeda was explaining this, however, our homeroom began. And with it, so did the selection.
"Alright everyone, it's time for the raffle, which will be done by the class representative. Please cooperate with us everyone~." The teacher announced to the class.
"""Yes.""" (Students)
'Well, as long as I don't get picked, it should be fine…'
—
"Well… shit."
I said, while eating lunch in the cafeteria with Ikeda.
"Hey, watch your language. You even used English to curse. Do you really hate it that much? Getting picked for the sports festival?"
It was as Ikeda said. I was unfortunately picked to take part in the festival.
"Not really. Luckily, I'll be taking part in the 100-meter relay. I'm pretty decent at running, so it won't be a problem, but…"
"But?"
"It's not a solo event. There'll be 4 people participating in each group's grade."
"Ah, that… Why do you hate interacting with people so much anyways?"
"It's not that I hate it, I just find it bothersome."
"…I can certainly see that coming from you."
He then picked up the gyoza on his plate with chopsticks and continued.
"But, I'll be there with you, you could probably survive there with my help."
"Sure…"
It was very fortunate that me and Ikeda were assigned in the same game. But what really bothers me is the two unknown people we'll be with us. Ikeda had the same thoughts too.
"Why are we teaming up with class 1 again? It would've been better if we teamed up with Class 3."
"The class Hina is on?"
"Yup."
"I figured…"
If you're wondering about the teams, let me explain.
There are 4 teams this time. Each team is divided into 2 classes in each grade. Red team has the classes 1 and 2, Blue has the classes 3 and 4, Green has the classes 5 and 6, and Yellow has the classes 7 and 8.
The events will be separated for each grade to make it fair. And in the 4x 100-meter relay, there will be 4 participants in each groups, 2 from each class.
I didn't bother listening to the other events since I'm not taking part in them, so I only know the specifics about the relay run. But I already have the detail I needed.
We'll have 2 random teammates from class 1.
"Hey Haruki."
Ikeda called out to me as I was lost in thought.
"What do you think if we get Sakurai Fumiko on our team?"
He asked me the question I didn't want to hear.
"…I'd probably hate it."
"Why?"
"Well, she is the prettiest girl in our school. The boys will kill me if I, some unknown loner, gets teamed up with her."
"I suppose that's true…"
'Though it probably won't happen. It's a 1 in 30 chance after all. It's unlikely that Fumiko-san will get picked as 1 of the 2 participants in the relay event…'