Some people in the world like normality. They like when they have their entire day planned out, and they do the same thing. They enjoy the normalcy, the monotony of it all. They enjoy knowing how their day is going to go, and being able to get through it. It's simple, it's easy... It's boring as all hell. I am most definitely not one of those people. Take today for example. It's three o'clock, and I'm practicing tennis, like every day. It's a pok from the ball, a vuzz from my cellphone, and the noise of cars passing by. It's the same as it always is, and I'm getting thoroughly bored by it all.
I guess I should probably see who's texting me, shouldn't I? I let out a small sigh and reached out to catch the small neon ball, the other busy putting my racket down on the fence behind me and picking up my cellphone. Flipping it open, I spotted my cousin's name on the screen.
Riyana, Where are you? I've been searching for an hour!
I rolled my eyes at the message. Seriously? An hour? And he never thought to call me? So much for him being the more intelligent of us. I quickly typed back a reply with where I was, and put my phone away. He would show up instead of texting me back, that much I knew for sure. He wasn't much of one to text people. Therefore, I launched the ball again, and proceeded to continue practicing. Not that this was difficult for me, but going back to basics once in a while helps to come up with new moves- or at least that's what my people tell me.
Less than five minutes later, I was bored and sitting on the bench waiting for him to show up. Either he was taking his sweet time, or he'd searched to somewhere far from here. Then again, I was probably being impatient. I'm a curious person, and for him to look for me for over an hour made me wonder why he was looking in the first place. What was so important that he had to find me right now? It was another fifteen minutes before he came jogging up the pathway with the rest of his team behind him. The chestnut haired boy looked absolutely livid, and I had no idea why. Did I forget something important today?
"Riyana, this is why you need to tell me when you go somewhere! The practice matches with Hyotei are today, remember? They're going to be at the school in a half hour!" The growl of his voice told me he was not, and I repeat, not happy. I, however, turned about fifteen shades of red and jumped up to gather my things. So that's why he was so angry.
"I'm so sorry, Kunimitsu! I completely forgot!" I apologized, letting out a small squeak as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me alongside him. Eiji-kun grabbed my purse, and Oishi grabbed my tennis bag before both ran after us. I'll admit, seeing the hyper redhead with my purse was a little amusing. Kind of made Kunimitsu being angry worth it, honestly...
"Uh, not that I'm being a smartass or anything, but why didn't you just call me in the first place?" Eiji-kun snickered beside me when I asked the question, and I just raised an eyebrow in return.
"He didn't want to admit that he didn't know where you would be, apparently." Fuji's voice called out beside me. I let out a chuckle of my own, and shook my head. Oh, Kunimitsu, I thought, your pride will get you in trouble one day. "Then again, apparently he doesn't." The brunette's grin spread wider when my cousin graced him with one of his infamous glares, and the boy chuckled. I, however, considered slapping him seeing as now Kunimitsu was dragging me even faster.
Once we'd finally made it to the courts, I was more than a little surprised at the people there. Unfortunately, I had missed the match between Seigaku and Hyotei before. I retain that it isn't my fault I caught the wrong train. The creepy guy who'd been following me all over the place had me paranoid, and I jumped on the first one I could get to. It isn't my fault it took me the entirely opposite way. Nor was it my fault that it didn't leave to head my original station for two hours. I have terrible luck, but it isn't my fault.
Therefore, it wasn't my fault when I was surprised to see a boy with blue hair and matching eyes hidden behind glasses, a redhead who looked feminine who was shorter than I am (And you called me short, Momo?), a brunette wearing a cap with a Band-Aid on his eyebrow, a boy with brownish-grey hair who was excessively tall but looked younger than me, a sleeping boy with red hair, and a boy with orange-ish hair that was mumbling about 'Gekokuju'. Not to mention the giant, tan guy that looked like he could snap me in half with his pinky. I had every right to be surprised at this group. They were slightly strange. The fact that the redhead just did a cartwheel and a summersault did nothing to help my surprise either. And these were the Hyotei group that rivaled my guys? Right.
The last two were a tall man with cappuccino colored hair, and brown eyes wearing a dark suit, and a boy my age with grey hair. Let me tell you the latter of the two was gorgeous. The former was adjusting his tie as he spoke to coach Ryuzaki, and the latter had a pair of enchanting cobalt eyes staring straight at me. Below his right eye was a tear-mole, and there was a smirk perched on his lips. He, and the rest of them who were around my age, wore a white and grey jersey which I assumed was the uniform for the Hyotei Tennis Team. Like I said though, he was very, very attractive. If it weren't for my Tezuka pride, I would have gone into fangirl mode.
Instead, I tore my eyes from the boy's and turned towards Kunimitsu. His eyes were scanning the others here, and when they landed on the grey haired boy I'd been stari-looking at they locked eyes. Something sparked between the two, and I could almost feel the tension myself. A sharp tug on the collar of my tank top dragged me out of range of the tension, and put me right beside Fuji. There was noticeably less tension next to him. Well, until the gorge-the other guy turned to lock his eyes on mine. Kunimitsu practically bristled.
"Arn~? Seems your fan club has gained a member, Tezuka." The drawl of his voice did nothing to stop the attraction, I assure you. "Three clueless boys," His eyes shifted to Horio, Kachirou, and Mizuno, "One very loud little girl," Here Tomoka was his focus, "One who is torn between shy and annoying," Sakuno turned her face to the ground, cheeks red, "And one," Lastly, he turned his eyes to me. However, I wasn't quite shy this time. In fact, this time I was giving him a look to kill. "Who is as of yet, undetermined. Although ore-sama does like the look in her eyes." So that meant I'd been ogling Atobe Keigo, prick extraordinaire. Remind me to gouge my eyes out later.
Kunimitsu let out a small noise similar to a grunt, and turned his eyes to me, almost smirking at the expression he found. "Her eyes, Atobe? Her eyes say she'd like to maul you right about now."
"Ah? Has ore-sama hit a nerve?" Damn him and that drawl of his. It's hard to stay angry at a guy when his voice makes your insides squirm. I released a scoff of my own, and turned my back to him, taking a few more steps until I was beside Momo. Now, Kunimitsu, Fuji, Eiji-kun, Oishi, and Taka-san were all between the arrogant prick and I. No matter how attractive he was, that attitude was a turn-off.
"Seems this one is a ray of sunshine as well." A snicker escaped his lips, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes and think to myself, well aren't you just Mr. Sunshine yourself. Stupid bratty diva.
"Nya, Ri-chan usually is, until you irritate her!" I sent Eiji-kun a smile for defending me, although I wasn't really concerned with what the cobalt-eyed boy thought of me.
"I'm sure." His drawl really was addicting.
"How about instead of discovering whether or not Riyana is a ball of sunshine, let's get these matches started?" Ryuzaki-sensei's voice cut in, ever the voice of reason.
"Alright then." Atobe nodded, but once I turned around I realized that his eyes were once again on mine. Surely, I was warranted in the glare I sent him. He simply smirked and turned to the blue haired boy and red haired boy beside him. "Oshitari, Gakuto, I assume I don't have to tell you not to lose this time?" Both nodded in response, and I decided I would figure out which one was which later.
"Kikumaru, Oishi."
"Hai, buchou!" As usual, their reply was in sync, and after grabbing their rackets they ran into the courts with the other boys following. Ryuzaki climbed into the seat to keep score.
"Which?" The bluenett called.
"Smooth!" Again, it was a synchronized answer from the Golden Pair. The racket spun, and it stopped on rough.
"Oshitari to serve." Ryuzaki's voice echoed a bit when she talked. So, the blue haired boy was Oshitari, which meant the redhead was Gakuto then.
"Ri-chan, how do you think they'll do this time?" Sakuno surprised me, and I almost jumped when she whispered in my ear. I took a deep breath before chuckling a bit.
"It's Eiji-kun and Oishi we're talking about Sakuno-chan. We've got this!"
She giggled, and we turned back to the matches. Less than a minute after, a set of black and yellow wings blocked my vision my nose began to tickle. Another butterfly? They seemed to like me lately. That was the third one in one day. I stretched out a finger and nudged it onto my palm. It had no complaints, and easily settled there, before moving to lock its legs around my pointer finger. It almost looked like I was wearing a ring.
"I will never understand how butterflies always find you." Momo chuckled beside me. I rolled my eyes, shrugging my shoulders to tell him I didn't know either. I took this time to sit myself on the bench outside the courts, and almost groaned when the loop of my shorts caught onto the metal part. It always happened to me, always. I pulled the loop out and sighed before glancing at my finger where the butterfly still clung to.
"It's still there? Ore-sama has never heard of such a thing." Swoon. His voice. Even if he is a prick.
"Nya, it's because Ri-chan's so sweet!" Eiji-kun's voice called from the court a few feet away.
"How do you keep it near you?" The question was directed at me, I knew. It seemed like he completely ignored Eiji-kun's answer.
"Does it matter?" I asked. Normally I would entertain the idea of being nice, explaining things to people, but unfortunately for the boy with the delectable voice, he had pissed me off.
"And here I thought someone referred to you as sweet. Ore-sama must have misheard things."
"You've given me no reason to be kind. If anything, you've given me a few reasons to be rude, so I wouldn't count on my being nice to you anytime soon." I scoffed. Kunimitsu let a little smirk slide. He knew I couldn't stand people like Atobe.
"And who are you to treat ore-sama in such a rude way?" His voice was low, something that should've sounded dangerous but to me just made my inner fangirl swoon more. Go to hell, fangirl. I'm trying to tell him off.
"My name is neither your concern, nor your business, Atobe."
Okay, even I was a little surprised at the biting tone I used there. Then again, his attitude was seriously pissing me off, and arrogant people like him always made me rude.
"Right. Sweet, they said." It was almost a mumble, but I heard it and sent him a dirty look in return. I turned back to the game, however, and decided that ignoring him was the best way to go.
After a few minutes I tried to sweet the butterfly upwards, a failed attempt to remove it from my hand. It chose not to move at all. Normally if I move my hand around they leave, apparently this one was attached to me. I let out a small laugh and smiled at it before watching the match again. The Golden Pair came out on top, again with a score of 6-3.
I heard him mumble something like, "Sweet my arse." Or the like, but I ignored it. It didn't matter to me one bit.
"Well, they didn't lose the same as last time. They ended up with one less game themselves." Eiji-kun chuckled, putting his arms behind his head and walking over to me. His eyes traveled to my hand and widened almost comically. "It's still there?!"
"It won't leave, I tried." I let out a small laugh as I eyed the little thing. Its wings fluttered, but otherwise it stayed still.
"Nya, only you Ri-chan! Cause you're so sweet, nya!"
"Let's go with that, Kikumaru. You don't live with her." Kunimitsu's voice cut into our conversation, and I smirked at him.
"You're the one who left his guard down, Kunimitsu." I chuckled as the memory played through my mind. It made it even sweeter to use his catchphrase against him.
"I didn't think you would prank me, Ri." He dismissed, an eyebrow raising as if to challenge me. As if.
"You pranked buchou?!" Eiji-kun laughed, "What'd you do?!"
"I may or may not have replaced his shampoo with honey. Therefor he smelled like peaches for a whole two days because he had to use mine." I giggled. He hadn't been happy about smelling 'girly'. It 'demeaned his image'. Pah. "He got me back anyway, and speaking of which," I narrowed my eyes in his direction as he attempted to avoid my gaze, "I still owe you for that." If I hadn't been looking, I wouldn't have seen him twitch.
"He retaliated?" Fuji interrupted, his grin widening more than ever. I groaned at the memory.
"He locked all the bedroom doors while I was in the shower, and left the house. I had to wait for my grandfather to get home and use his keys to unlock my door. I walked around in a towel for about four hours." I sighed. It wasn't a big prank, but it had still been annoying. Eiji-kun just giggled at the story.
"Seems like the Tezuka household isn't a boring as ore-sama would have thought. I never realized you had a sister, Tezuka." Atobe smirked. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm not his sister." I argued. His eyes narrowed in response as he eyed myself and then Kunimitsu.
"The two of you are identical."
"She's my cousin." Kunimitsu put in. Atobe looked between the two of us.
"Ore-sama isn't stupid." It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. Then it was my turn to roll my eyes as I realized he called himself ore-sama. Ore-sama. Seriously? Conceited jerk much? "Shishido, Ootori. You're up." The boy with the eyebrow bandage, and the tall younger kid walked into the courts.
"Kaidoh, Inui."
"Hai, buchou." It wasn't chorused, but it was still said by both.
"I suppose we're using the same match up as before then?" His voice. Damn it. Stop swooning!
"No, I won't be playing just yet, Atobe. I'm not risking my arm again so close to Nationals." Kunimitsu argued. Eyebrows rose all along, except for Ryuzaki-sensei's seeing as she smirked instead.
"Oh? Then who will be playing against ore-sama?" He looked confident, as if no one could beat him. I almost wished I could wipe the smirk off his face.
"Echizen?" Momo questioned, staring at the youngest of the regulars. Kunimitsu's head shook.
"Riyana will be. She's a good player, and she's just below my level when I'm fully healed." He eyed me, knowing I was about to argue.
"I what?" I hissed, "Tying with you twice doesn't mean I can beat someone who survived an all-out match with you, and won! Not to mention, converses aren't running shoes!"
"Even if you don't win, it's a good opportunity for you. Besides that, I can't play him with my arm like this, and Echizen is going against Wakashi. Besides, you play me in your converses all the time." An eyeroll accompanied the last bit and I groaned.
"If she doesn't want to lose to badly, she can forfeit now." And that is exactly why the swoon-worthy drawl will always piss me off.
"Alright, fine. I'll play. If only to beat that arrogant look off your face." I hissed. He raised an eyebrow in reply.
"Saa, You did it now." Fuji chuckled.
"Did what?" The blue eyed Oshitari questioned as he cleaned his lenses.
"Sparked the competitive nature of a Tezuka." Momoshiro chuckled.
Meanwhile, the pairs on the court were midway through their match, with Seigaku loosing. Not long after, we lost the whole match. Inui and Kaidoh made their way out to us, apologizing. Kunimitsu assured them it was fine, and so the next match commenced with me attempting to glare a hole into Atobe's skull.
"Jiroh."
"Fuji."
Fuji headed out towards the court, while the scary tan kid dropped the sleeping boy on the ground. He jumped up like he was being electrocuted, and once he was told his opponent, he ran into the court like he was on a sugar high. How can someone go from being asleep, to sugar high in a matter of seconds? I'd like to know. Needless to say, less than twenty minutes later, Fuji had creamed the kid.
"Echizen."
"Wakashi."
Both headed out towards the court, and I had a sudden spark of an idea. "Oi, if Echizen wins this, which we all know he will, doesn't that mean the rest of us don't have to play?" I turned to Kunimitsu, but it was Hyotei's coach who answered.
"No, all players are required to play or forfeit. Even if Seigaku wins their third match here, the first singles will go on as well. Kawamura and Kabaji will not have to play again, however, as they are the alternates."
"I see." Damnit. Again. I thought I could get out of this…
"Ri, go get warmed up. Fuji, go with her, alright?" Unfortunately, I had to listen to Kunimitsu, therefor I grabbed my racket, and Fuji and I headed over to Court B to warm up. It wasn't long before we'd started a rally, and I decided it was too quiet.
"Fuji-kun?"
"Hai, Ri-chan?"
"Tell me honestly," I eyed him, watching for changes in his expression, "Do I have a chance?"
His eyebrows furrowed, but otherwise I saw no changes. "I think it could be close. You have a high endurance level, and when it comes to holding out in stamina, you beat Tezuka-buchou every time. So, if it comes down to who is more exhausted, I think you'll be fine. As for power, well, just give it your all and show him not to mess with a Tezuka."
"Alright…" He hit the entirety of his shots into the corners, and within ten minutes I was finished warming up from all the running around. Once we'd made our way over to the courts, I caught sight of Atobe's smirk, and found myself entertained by a daydream involving him, and a major muscle cramp. It would serve him right seeing as he's arrogant enough to think he doesn't need to warm up.
I watched the last bit of the Echizen-Wakashi game, and rolled my eyes when once again, Echizen creamed an opponent. It really shouldn't surprise anyone- that boy is unstoppable. He could stand in front of a hurricane and it would deteriorate in front of him. Atobe did seem annoyed to find out that his team hadn't gotten much stronger since the last match, and that brought me a bit of pleasure whist I walked onto the court.
"Which?" I sighed. As much as I wanted to cream this guy, I had a fairly good idea that he was about to bury me in the dirt.
"Smooth." It landed rough, and I heard Tezuka chuckle slightly in the background. I, in turn, smirked at the confused expression on Atobe's face.
"Alright. Tezuka, Riyana to serve." Ryuzaki cut through, leaning her elbow on the armrest of the chair, and placing her chin in her palm. She seemed the epitome of bored. I was almost insulted. Then again I was too busy being worried over whether or not I was about to be murdered tennis-style. Just because I'd done well in matches against Kunimitsu (whom I had been playing tennis with from a young age, and therefor knew the play style of) didn't mean I was about to do well in this one. Whether he had insulted my friends, or been an arrogant prick that ignited my competitive spark or not. I bit back a sigh, and served the first ball, full power. He seemed surprised if the widening of his eyes meant anything, but he hadn't returned the shot. He had actually missed by an inch. Maybe I can do this…
Alright, I take that back. I can't win this. I'm screwed.
I had done well so far. But it was match point, with a 5-4 game in Atobe's favor. Let me tell you, those four games had not been far to get. We had been playing for an hour already, at the least. I was sweating pretty badly, but apparently Fuji was right about my endurance levels, because Atobe was sweating much worse than I was. I just need to hold out against him, I told myself. I threw the ball up, and smashed it over, watching as he ran to catch it. I lucked out, because he hadn't seen the bottom spin I put on the ball, he hit a lob. From previous experience, he knew I was partial to smash dunks, so he ran backwards. I did, however, manage to surprise him with a drop volley instead. He missed it, and therefore I had one more opportunity to not let him win this match. If I got the next two points, I would only be down one game.
"45-45." If I weren't so concentrated on doing my best here, I would be insulted that she sounded impressed. It was like she doubted me! How rude!
"Ri!" I stopped, catching the ball mid-throw and turned to face Kunimitsu. "Take off those ankle weights before it gets sprained again."
"Arn? You… have weights on? As well as a sprained ankle?" Atobe's voice carried from across the voice, and despite the panting in between, it was still swoon-worthy.
"My ankle isn't sprained, it healed last week. He's being ridiculous. But I do have weights on." I groaned, kneeling down to remove one weight from each ankle. I tossed both over to the side and gave each ankle a quick massage before standing back up and testing my balance. I glanced down at my feet again, before quickly untying my shoes and throwing them off to the side too. Converses aren't comfortable for long periods of time running.
Atobe raised an eyebrow, but chose to save energy by not speaking. I appreciated the gesture. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, tightened my grip, and threw the ball up again. Atobe caught it, and a rally of speed began. I chose to ignore the fact that Kunimitsu was right about my ankle bothering me again. I wasn't giving him the satisfaction of knowing he was right. Again. The rally wasn't easy, by any means. Even without my ankle weights on, I still wasn't moving anywhere near as fast as usual, and it cost me when Atobe hit a drop volley and I couldn't make it to the net in time.
"Game, Atobe 6-4. Match Seigaku 3-2."
I allowed a loud groan to pass my lips, and simply fell back onto the court. "So. Close."
"O-ore-sama… no bigi ni… yoi na." The panting was the reply I received. Despite the fact that I lost, I was still fairly proud of myself. I did fantastic, either way. One glance at the other half of the courts revealed that I wasn't the only one laying on the ground. So was he. I sighed again, and closed my eyes.
"Oi…girl!" His voice was notably less delectable at the moment, so I was half tempted to ignore him. But I decided to be nice. So I called back with a smartass remark.
"What do you want?"
"Ore-sama seriously dislikes you."
"The feeling is very much mutual." I could hear Kunimitsu's chuckle as well as all the outright laughs from the other boys from where I was.
Midway through cursing how bright the sun was, a shadow blocked it out, and standing above me was the very person who had just claimed unhappiness towards my life. His hand was outstretched, and a tired smirk was worn at the corners of his lips. "However, ore-sama respects your skill. Seems the Tezuka family is full of prodigies."
"Prodigy? That's laughable. I've trained every day to play like I do, thank you very much." I groaned. I did take his hand and allowed him to pull me up though. Or at least, he tried to pull me up. He pulled a bit too hard, and I ended up colliding into him and we both hit the ground again. "When you pull someone up, you can't just fall over!" That was most definitely me, and it was most definitely a whine.
"You weren't supposed to crash into ore-sama!" He groaned.
"Ugh, just shut up and go away!"
"Get off ore-sama!"
"I would if you would let go of my arms, you prick!"
"A lady doesn't use such foul language!"
"I never claimed to be ladylike, now did I?"
I could without a doubt hear the rest of the team chuckling behind us, but I resisted the urge to yell at them, and instead focused on using the last of my energy to kick the cobalt-eyed boy beside me. I didn't bother to hide my smile when he let out a curse of his own.
"Thank you for the matches." Sakkaki-san, which is what I'd learned his name to be, bowed to Ryuzaki-sensei, the entirety of his team behind him doing the same.
"Thank you for them as well. We enjoyed the experience." Ryuzaki bowed too, and the rest of us followed suit.
"Oi, Tezuka." Atobe's drawl was hard to miss. Kunimitsu and I both looked in his direction, and those cobalt eyes of his rolled. "I meant the girl." I rolled my eyes and walked over to stand a few feet from him, arms crossed and without a doubt an irritated expression on my face.
"What is it now, Atobe?"
A smirk pulled at his lips and before I could ask why he was leaning towards me, he was whispering in my ear, "We'll meet again. I'll make sure of that. Arn~, one more thing." Without hesitating, or waiting for me to register what was going on, his lips were on mine. They were warm, soft, and if it weren't him I would have surely enjoyed the experience. However, it was him, and therefore I pulled back and swung my arm in the direction of his face. It would have connected too, if Momo hadn't seen it coming and grabbed me from behind. Instead, I struggled, kicking and screaming, while the arrogant bastard entered the bus his team came in.
Just as the last of their team filed in and the doors closed, his face appeared in one of the windows. Smirk included, and a kiss blown along with it. I needn't say I was pissed.
"I AM GOING TO CASTRATE YOU IF YOU EVER COME WITHIN TWO FEET OF ME!" I doubt I've ever screamed so loud in my life.
"Most girls would kill to have me kiss them, Riyana-koi." He drawled, voice echoing around us.
"I am NOT most girls, Atobe-teme!" I growled. "Besides the fact that you just stole my first kiss, you prick!" His eyebrow shot up into his hairline, and his smirk widened.
"Arn? Well, then. Don't worry. Ore-sama plans to steal your second kiss then as well as all the others afterwards. Ore-sama shall see you soon." Another wink and air-kiss later and the bus was moving while I was still being held back. I wasn't against attacking a moving bus if it meant I could maul that arrogant bastard.
"I am going to murder him. I'm going to find him, and rip him to pieces. I'm going to castrate him, and-" Momo's hand over my mouth stopped my threats, but did nothing to stop the others from looking at me like I was insane. Right at that moment, I was. Therefore, I bit Momo's hand. And once I did, I eyed all the regulars around me like a lion would his prey.
"Oi. Which one of you is going to steal my second kiss so he can't?"
"NONE OF US!"
