Tenoh Tenshi landed in the pit, disappointed that she couldn't do better.
Oh, well. 15'2'' wasn't bad. Actually for a teenager, it was great, even in the 30th century. But then again, at eighteen years of age, Tenshi was the best teenage pole-vaulter in the country. It was pretty close to where she had been vaulting before her parents had packed her and her sister Puroko for an extended vacation in Hawaii. She had gotten badly out of shape during all that fun in the sun. But after a couple of weeks back, Tenshi was finally back in shape.
Now if she could just get out of this pit.
"Need a hand?"
Tenshi brightened at the sound of that beautiful voice that she had gotten to know so well in the last couple weeks.
"No, no. I've got it."
"Liar," teased the other girl as Tenshi fell out of the pit. "How did you ever get along without me?" She offered Tenshi a hand up.
"Usually, I'm not this clumsy. It must be your fault."
"Ara, I see how it is."
"Yeah, you made me nervous or something."
"Uh huh�"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The rest of the pole vault team was leaving the field after Tenshi's last failed attempt. But before she left, Rika grabbed Aya's arm and pointed to the pit.
"Look how nice Neko-chan is! Even helping Tenshi-san out of the pit. She's so mature for an 11th grader!" She was delighted as Mizuno Neko held out a hand to help Tenshi up.
As Neko and Tenshi walked towards the locker rooms, Rika ran to greet them. "You two are the best in Japan!"
They looked at each other and then looked at her. "Nani?" Tenshi asked her friend. "It wasn't that great a jump."
"Iie, I mean how you guys can be friends, even though you're rivals."
Neko blushed in embarrassment. "We're hardly rivals, Rika-san." Even though Neko had beaten her P.R. again today, it was almost a foot lower than Tenshi's.
"Hai, but you were the best in the school before Tenshi-san came back. A lesser person would have been jealous of Tenshi-san taking that away."
Tenshi threw her arm around Neko's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Not Koneko-chan!" she said proudly.
Rika's lime green eyes shone. "Koneko-chan?! Mah, you two really are close friends!" She winked at Tenshi.
They had reached the locker rooms and Neko prepared to separate from the other girls. They were college freshmen and therefore, were in different locker rooms from her. Rika skipped ahead, "Well, ja ne, Neko-chan!"
Neko disentangled herself from Tenshi. "Ja-" she started, but was interrupted.
"Koneko-chan." Tenshi took her by the arm. "I want to talk to you about something. And I can't wait." She led her into the locker room.
"Tenshi-kun," Neko-chan blushed, "I can't come in here." It was practically unheard of for a younger person to go into an upper level locker room.
"Of course you can. It's just like the high school one except the girls are taller." Tenshi stopped as she sized up Neko vs. the girls they had just passed. "Or not." Neko was taller than most of the girls in the school, although Tenshi was just slightly taller than she was. "Come on," Tenshi dragged her over to her locker.
