THEN

The first time Anna had encountered Kuroko was when she was packing up late in the gym whilst Akashi was consoling along with the captain and the coach. Carrying the brooms to the storage room she heard the sound of dribbling from the third-string gym next to her.

I swear Ahomine if you even think about staying late in the gym, and outsmarting by training in the third-string gym I swear to God-

As Anna opened the door she found cones set up, house lights on but no one to be seen.

"Ahomine! Don't hide from me or I'll double your suicides!" she yelled as she looked around.

Dribbling was heard from behind as she sighed turning around but found nobody there. Anna felt chills go up to her spine, as she looked to the other side and no one was there.

"Sei!" She yelled frightened.

"Excuse me-" Dropping her equipment Anna ran crying as she dashed out the gymnasium and into the main building where Satsuki and Midoriama were waiting outside the room.

"Help!" Anna yelled running towards them as it caught their attention.

"Anna-kun!" Momoi cried as Anna ran into her arms as Midorimama raised his brows in concern. "Are you alright?!"

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Midoriama examined.

"I did!" she replied wiping her tears, "I was putting stuff away and I heard dribbling from the third-string gym. I thought it was Anoime-kun and when I walked in the house lights were on and there were cones-, But no was there. I heard more dribbling and I looked around but no one was there! Then I heard a voice so I ran!!"

"Poor you!" Momoi engulfed her in a hug.

"What's going on here?" As the other two looked up to see Akashi exiting, his eyes then laid on Anna who was crying.

"Anna, dear. What happened?" he said worryingly as Anna fled to him, and hugged him tightly.

"She saw a ghost in the gym! The house lights were on. And there was dribbling. But no one was there!" Momoi cried as Midoriama sighed.

"There's no such things at ghosts," Midoriama pushed up his glasses.

"Says the one who believes in horoscopes!" Anna fired as Seijuro only patted her.

"Anna, I'm afraid Midoriama is right. Perhaps you're working too hard, and the psychological effect of hearing dribbling is inside your head." he offered.

"The cones were set up! The lights were on!"

"Those insipid third-years perhaps forgot or were too lazy," he said, "Come, dear. You can sleep over tonight."

"I swear I-,"

"Anna."

"Alright, alright."

---

"Bwahaha! YOu baby!" the dark blue-haired male laughed from across the table as an irk appeared on Anna's forehead.

"SHUT UP! I SWEAR TO GOD YOU'VE BEEN DRIVING ME NUTS CAUSE OF YOUR FRIKIN OBSESSION!" she fired as Anna turned to her pink-haired friend.

"Honestly, Anna-kun is right," Satsuki sniggered as her childhood friend only stuck out his tongue.

"Well at least I'm not scared of anything!" he boasted pridefully.

"Well-, Oh my god Aomine stop talking right now," she said seriously.

"Pff- as if-,"

"There's a bee!" Anna feigned as she pointed her index finger above his head as Anoime screamed making everyone look. "Run Aomine! RUN!"

---

"Thanks for the help, Anna-kun!" the pink-haired female thanked her friend as they held the baskets that were dry.

Blowing a strand of hair Anna replied: "It's alright, there are two more loads as well. And we're both managers so I don't see why I shouldn't."

Momoi smiled, "I don't know how you do it!" she exclaims.

"Do what?"

"All of this. You're smart-,"

"No, I'm not."

"Yes you are, you're in the smart classes!" Momoi retorts.

"Yes, but I'm the dumbest one there. I'm scraping the surface unlike Mi-Kun or far out of my reach Sei-chan." she modestly effuses, "If you think I'm an all rounder-huh. You're wrong, you're thinking of Sei."

"I mean you did really well in Home Ec, and your good in gymnastics. You scored pretty well in that Math exam. And you knew all of that economic stuff," she protested.

"Well doesn't mean I'm good in everything else! I barely passed Chemistry! And Biology I almost failed. I just want to move down already! Oh, don't get me started in History!" she groaned. "I don't understand why we're learning about Geography. We have the internet to tell us what landmark and I don't care about what special formations about rocks and stuff-!"

"Hey, Satsuki!" A girl called out. Two girls holding baskets approached.

"Hey, guys-! Ah, Anna-kun these are my friends from homeroom and classes," she introduced.

"Hi," she nonchalantly said as the two girls giggled.

"Wah! Hirose-kun, you looked so cool in that dance thingy for gymnastics-"

"Routine," she corrected. "It's called a routine."

"You look so skinny there! Wah, I couldn't look so skinny in that costume. It would make me look fat!"

"No you wouldn't," her friend giggled.

"What type of diet do you do?!"

"No. I run a lot. I play basketball. A lot." she blankly stated. She wanted to get out of here.

"That sounds hard," she complained.

"Anyway. Satsuki!" The other girl said, "You hang out with Aomine-kun a lot right?"

What type of question is that?!

"Yeah, I guess..." Momoi replied unsurely.

"You're so lucky to be Aomine-kun's childhood friend!" she proclaimed.

More like a curse.

"Does he have a girlfriend?" the other one eagerly asked.

"The only girlfriend he'll ever get is him buying more of those gaurve model magazines," Anna snorted as the other girls turned to her. "Look I'm sorry but at the moment he's only interested in mindless girls who plaster themselves on magazines with big breasts."

Satsuki was speechless, but it was true about her childhood friend. The two girls only exchanged looks.

"Well still, I think he carried the last game," the other girl smiled.

"He's so cool!"

"Well, I think it was a team effort," Anna stated as a half like glare was shot at her. "Momoi really picked up the last play. Seijuro really did well and took the ball, Anomine made it past two thirds and Mursakibara guarded. Midoriama made the last shot." Anna informed.

"You don't have to bring it down,"

"I'm just informing you it was a team effort," she muttered.

"Well-," as her tower of towels were leaning dangerously, a hand stopped it in time as he pushed it back up.

"Be careful," Akashi smiled as Anna blushed dimly looking away.

"Th-thank you," she barely got out blushing as the redhead turned to his friend.

"Anna," he smiled as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Let's go Midoriama."

Continuing to walk, the tall green-haired male gave an approving nod to Anna as he followed.

"Akashi-sama's, cool too," she said.

"Sama?" Satsuki questioned with the highly regarded horrific.

"Yeah! He's only a first year, but he's already the vice-captain!" she exclaimed.

"That's Sei for you," Anna mumbled.

---

"I can't believe you made me agree to do this," Anna sighed as Aomine walked with her to the third-string gym.

"Well maybe because you don't fake there's a bee chasing after me till Midoriama and Akashi came to see us, and greenhead said there was no bee in the first place," he chided.

"I swear you better die first or else Akashi will make your life a misery if I don't come back in one piece."

"Okay, Mrs Akashi~" he teased as Anna stoped.

"Shut up!"

"What?! You practically are married," he rolled his eyes.

"How so?"

"He and you are always together. You come to school together. He carries your books-,"

"He's being a gentleman. It's called chivalry."

"Whatever you say." he rolled his eyes as he spun the basketball on his finger as they walked in, Aomine pushed the door open as a spine chilling shock runs down their spines. Anna then pushes him in front as Aomine shakes.

"What was that for?!"

"I'm sacrificing you. I rather let you die first!" as she looks around.

"Excuse me," a voice comes from behind as Anna freezes, her male friend feeling to her as he shoves her forward, hiding behind her letting his face hang down.

"Oh, GOd! Son of a mother! Take her not me! I promise not to bring gravure magazines to school!" he rants as Anna fixates her eyes shut.

"don't take me! PLEAsEEE! He has more meat! I'm more skin and bones! I didn't mean to be mean to Aomine! PLEASE! I Wanna go see the world! PLEASEEEE! I wanna marry sei and have babies and live in a castle and have a pet dragon!!!" She yells as she can feel Aomine shaking. Anna slowly opened her eyes, as her fear declined as she stared at the light-blue haired male with matching coloured orbs.

"Hirose-kun, Aomine-kun," the male said as Aomine rigidly turns around seeing the boy holding the ball.

---

"So you're so invisible no one noticed you're here?" Aomine asked as she hit him.

"That's mean Ahomine!"

"Says the one who ranted about-,"

"I'll shut up if you shut up or else I'll snitch," she chastised.

"Aomine-kun, Hirose-kun..." as the two turns to him, "You know our names?" they said in unison.

"Yes, you became a first-string starter as a first-year and you're the acclaimed analyst manager, you're famous."

"Really?"

"So who are you?" Anna asked.

"I'm on the third string," he blankly replied.

"no, she means your name," Aomine cut in, "And it doesn't matter what string you're on. You love basketball enough to stay every night to practice right? There's no such thing as bad players who like basketball. That's my theory,"

"It's not like your the first one to think of that," she snorted.

"OI!" Aomine glared at her as she only stuck out her tongue in response, this scene making the other chuckle.

"I'm Kuroko Tetsuya, nice to meet you."

"Well, I'm Hirose Anna, you can call me by my first name with a horrific," she smiled.

"He already said that he knows your name," he retorted.

"Shut up dipsh*t, I'm just being polite." She stuck out her tongue as she turned to him, "Hey if you're playing here by yourself and practising, why not practice with someone you can play with!" She got up as Anna pulled him up as well excitingly.

"Yeah! One on one! Kuroko! You and me!" Aomine began to bounce the ball as he felt a kick to his hip.

"OI! I'm the one who asked him!" she fired.

"Pff, we all know I'm the better player!" he boasted as the emerald eye girl glared at him and scoffed, folding her arms.

"Yeah, right. You can't even guard properly," she remarked. "Laker traitor."

"please Cleveland Cavaliers! Lakers are overrated!" as Anna gasped aghast at his comment.

"Excuse me?! How dare you say that-,"

"Yeah, you lose to the Bulls-,"

"Shut the hell up! We have won seventeen NBA championships while they only won six! How many have you won?!" she taunted.

"You know what? Scissor, paper, rock it!"

"Fine!"

"Scissor, paper, rock!" As Anna make scissors Aomine smirked as he clenched his fist forming a rock as an irk made its way to the girl's forehead.

"Arsehole." She muttered.

"Come on, Kuroko!" Aomine grinned as Anna rolled her eyes as she got out her phone and started videoing.

"What is she doing?" Tetsuya turned to the girl sitting holding up the camera.

"Anna-kun does that a lot, sometimes she videos us practising so she can observe," Anoime answered.

"I see. Be prepared," he warned as the dark blue-haired male smiled as he got ready. Kuroko dribbling made his forward as Aomine quickly turned around, however at the very moment he was about to reach for him Kuroko dribbled the ball on his knee whilst he was in a lunging position.

Anna deadpanned as Aomine processing only had his jaw dropped.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Take it easy prick," Anna sighed turning off the camera.

"HE told me to prepare myself! I was expecting something epic!" Aomine ranted pointing at him.

"Huh?" Kuroko turned as Anna raised a brow, "When I said to prepare, I meant I'm on the third string, I'm pretty bad so prepare."

With that statement said Anna choked that only left a confused tanned male. "You're weird." Aomine rubbed the back of his neck as it made Anna chuckle.

"Your something else Tetsuya," her Chesire smile danced on her lips, "You're something else."

NOW

"Thank you for coming! Enjoy!" Anna exclaimed as she waved from behind the counter as the customer left. Quickly adverting to her tired expression as she sighed she waited for her current shift to end as she gazed at the clock slowly ticking away on the wall.

"Twenty hundred yen, one more shift to go," she exasperated.

"Hirose-san!" Anna turned around at her manager, "Your shift is over, waiting shift is now."

"Hai!" She said as another girl took over her register as she re-did her ponytail back, taking off her black apron.

"Table five, Hirose!" Her manager instructed.

"Hai!" Taking the tray she blinked as she saw the mountain of tangerine wrapped burgers pile and a simple milkshake awaited her.

"Twenty burgers?" She aghastly said as she chuckled. Dexterously holding the tray and milkshake.

"Twenty burgers and a vanilla milkshake?" She smiled.

"Anna?" she heard a familar voice as she looked at the two.

"T-tetsu?! T-taiga?! What are you doing here?" she burquely whispered.

"When did you start working here?" the red head male blinked.

"Since I moved to Tokyo, I work here on Friday nights and on Saturdays and sometimes on Sundays why?"

"How do you do my homework?! How do you study? English, we had English exam and you landed top?" Taiga questioned as if it seemed impossible.

"It's called multitasking," she snapped, "I do homework in the library before I go home."

"Do I get friend discount?" Kuroko asked.

"No," Anna chuckled as she looked back, "Well I better go before my manager gets pissed."

"When does you shift end?" Taiga inquired.

"Till ten-thirty on Fridays, one to nine on Saturdays-, not that you've asked."

"Will wait for you,"

"It's alright you guys. I'll take a look at your last game at regionals tomorrow and write notes."