She tried to stay calm and keep stretching along with the rest of her teammates and try to ignore the dirty looks she was getting by the other students.
Alas, it was proving to be extremely difficult.
She couldn't help but hear sneers in the distance and people muttering words under their breath.
She did a stretch wrong and it felt like an entire horde of people were laughing at her mistake.
And try as she might, it was getting very, very annoying.
But how was she supposed to do anything to combat them? She couldn't just decide to randomly attack them, that was both rude and entirely uncalled for!
Damn it Hope think! What did the old man say to do in these situations!
(I am going to put this section in italics, if it doesn't show up on your screen then I am very sorry, I have been dealing with the italics I put disappearing a lot when I publish a chapter, it gets very irritating, as I don't know if it's a me problem, just letting it be known.)
"Hope…" her old man started, as he sat down upon the deck and looked upon the moon, his expression and tone not matching his youthful appearance, "When somebody says something bad about you behind your back without your knowledge, do whatever it takes to find out what it is… and if that doesn't work, just keep going even if it proves their assumptions right or wrong. The words of others can not harm you. All it can do is hope to influence you, and if you let it do that… they then have already won."
That is what her old man told her to do in this situation, so she should probably ask her teammates about it, they were pretty tense when they were celebrating her victory yesterday, but they were also saying things about youth? It was weird.
"Hey, McQueen-senpai, can I ask you something?"
Her purple haired senior stopped her stretching for a moment before smiling kindly and acquiescing to her request.
"I can't help but feel like I'm being given the stink eye, did I say something yesterday that could have caused them to look at me like that?"
"Ah… yes, yes you did, desuwa~" McQueen answered with a smile on her face.
"I see… then what did I say, I uh, zoned out for a bit of the interview."
"Hmm… If I remember correctly, when asked why you chose the triple tiara instead of the triple crown you answered that it didn't matter, as you said that nobody was your equal and that only one or two people could hope to match you."
"I…" she felt her jaw go numb, "I… I said that?"
"Yes, yes you did, desuwa~" (I didn't mean to repeat lines, I'm crying!)
Ah… ah… why why would I say that! It's not a lie! BUT STILL!
Does her unconscious mind lack tact that badly?!
Not even she was that bad and she was raised in the mountains!
No wonder they're looking at her like that! She all but called them weaklings who couldn't hold a candle to her!
which wasn't a lie…
BUT STILL!
She wouldn't have said that!
No matter how true it was!
"I can tell you're surprised that you said those words aren't you?"
"Huh?"
McQueen looked at her with a soft smile before continuing, "It's rare, but it sometimes happens that a racers inner spirit can appear during a post race interview, but it doesn't happen most of the time."
"So… it's happened before?"
"It has yes, believe it or not, a friend of mine once said something similar before she came to japan after winning her country's respective triple crown, she got a lot of backlash for it including a couple of unsavory nicknames. But that is a matter of the past. In fact from what she told me, her father and trainer told her after the interview, that even if there were rumors that now circled about her, that she shouldn't let them hold her down and that she should keep moving and not let their words influence her."
"I… see, it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one…" she said that but she couldn't help but feel like she had heard those words before.
But where?
Where did she hear them from?
After thinking long and hard about it. (She thought about for less than a second)
She decided that it really didn't matter and that she'd much rather get ready for the partner running that they were going to do.
…
After training in the morning and "paying attention" in class she could finally have lunch!
Don't get her wrong, compared to her old man's food, this was nothing short of barely acceptable slop, that she only ate so that she could keep going.
When not compared to her old man's food, it was excellent.
So she couldn't help but be excited, if only a little.
So, after putting food on her plate, she went to sit down with teammates who were all already seated, except for Spe-chan who was still stacking plates along with a gray haired uma, who resembled somebody she saw on a sign on multiple restaurants.
She shrugged while doing her best to balance her food, before suddenly…
"YOU!" A voice cried out, filled with anger and pure indignant rage, "I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!"
She paused for a moment and looked forward, she had made it to her teammates table, and this person just started screaming randomly out of the blue. The cafetaria was quiet. Everybody stopped talking and eating, the only two exceptions were the twin gluttons still piling food on their plates.
"WELL?!?!"
The person continued screaming, was that all she could do?
She set down her plate and turned her head slowly and looked at her.
She had pale brown hair, a golden ribbon around her left ear, and a truly ugly expression.
She was mad.
Extremely mad.
Did it have to do with what she had said yesterday?
"WELL?!?!?!"
She screamed again, what was she, a harpy?
She turned fully this time, her expression calm and collected, but if one looked close enough they would see the cold disinterest in her eyes.
"WE—!"
"I heard you the first time, no need to repeat it three times. What do you want."
The girl in front of her froze for a moment, but it was only but for a moment, "Did you not hear me the first time? Who knows maybe you're not only rude! But stupid as well!"
"No. I heard you the first time, I was only wondering why somebody like you. Would even dare to speak to somebody like me."
"…Excuse me?" Her eyes narrowed, she was getting angrier, how that was possible was a mystery, even to her.
"I assume you heard what I said back then didn't you? None are equals. If you fancy yourself my enemy, feel free to try to change my perspective on the matter. If that truly is what you wish…" she paused for a moment and looked at her with a cold disinterest, "Then I'll humor you and accept your "duel"."
She turned around to sit down, their discussion in her mind over, but it seemed like her "rival" believed that not to be the case.
"You… you… YOU BASTARD!" She screamed out, "ARE YOU NOT EVEN GOING TO ASK FOR MY NAME?!?!"
She pondered it for a moment and then decided that if she ever wished to eat her food she would have to ask, "Fine. What is your name, oh "rival" mine?"
"It's Reve d'Essor, you better remember it. Because I'll be the one to defeat you!"
"Reve d'Essor? I see, then I hope your dream goes on a while longer before our match."
And with that she sat down and started eating, eventually the cafeteria decided to come back to life once more.
But while eating, Hope suddenly shook her head for whatever reason.
"Uh… what happened, I feel like I've given myself a headache…"
"Uh, well, Hope," Teio started, "You said some pretty outrageous things and even a "duel"…"
"what?"
Seeing her confused state, Teio put herself a little closer before whispering something in her ear.
"… I SAID WHAT?!?!"
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AN
I always wanted to do something like that, make a line in the chapter the same as the title, it was fun.
On another note, Hope's first rival has appeared, place your bets folks, who's going to win, the real life horse who won four races got sick and was never at the same level again, or the horse who lacks common sense, was trained in the mountains by a 70 something trainer who looks 27 because of magic and good genetics.
My bets on the main protagonist…
anyway, not much to say except that chemistry is much easier than physics and I'll see you all next time.
This is GreekAntrielos,
signing off.