Rikkaidai High
Things were normal as could be. At least, as normal as they got for Rikkaidai. It had been 2 years since the fall of the Rikkaidai Middle School tennis club, and the regulars had moved on to high school. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi were still head honchos, even as second years. As for Marui, Jackal, Yangyuu, and Niou, they had worked their entire first year, to become regulars as second years. And Kirihara, well, he was working on it too. But high school proved to be alot more different middle school.
Chapter 1 We must start at the beginning (where else do you want me to start?)
Nakikora walked up the steps to the front door.
Suzuki Nakikora was a light brown haired girl with shocking hazel eyes, sometimes not visible when her bangs got in the way. She had and average height and an average weight with a few eye-catching curves thrown in. She could be very subtle, or very loud depending on what mood you threw her in. Nakikora held and dresses in contempt and never wore makeup unless it was an extreme circumstance. Clean and honest faces always got the benefit of the doubt is what she thought.
But she wasn't thinking about dresses or makeup at the moment. On this Monday morning she had a task at hand.
She went up the stairs knocked three times on the door, even though she knew it would do no good. No one came to the door. She sighed. She picked up a few stray pebbles and began to throw them at the window high above the door.
ping! ping! "Oy! Niou! Wake up! It's time for school."
There was no response.
"Come on! You know your mom will be angry if she comes home and finds you still here!"
Still nothing.
"Masaharu, get your sorry butt out of bed or so help me I'll go in there and throw a bucket of ice water on you!"
A silver headed figure appeared at the window. The window opened and Niou popped out of the window in his white shirt and boxers.
"You wouldn't dare," Niou smiled slyly.
"Oh?" she said innocently, "and how's that?"
"The door's locked and you don't have a key," he pointed out.
"Your mom told me where the spare key is and where the buckets are as well," she retorted.
"If you came in my room and poured it on me," he smiled menacingly, "I would pull out both your cartilage piercing and your ear studs out of your ears so fast you wouldn't have time to bleed."
"Not if I tied you to the bed first."
"Right," he rolled his eyes, "assuming you had a rope AND that you know how to tie it BUT you want me to go get ready for school. How well thought out. I win this fight, Kiko."
He shut the window. She stared at the window for a moment.
"If you don't get up," she threatened, "I'll tell your mom about the tattoo."
There was silence for a moment. Then he opened the window again.
"You wouldn't dare."
She looked at him.
"Are you actually tell THIS girl, that I wouldn't dare do something? I thought you knew me better than that Masaharu-kun."
Niou looked at her for a moment. Then he started to grin. She had won this round.
"All right, all right," he put his hands in the air, "I'll get ready. Since you know where the house key is, come sit inside for a few minutes."
He shut the window for the last time and Nakikora took the house key from under the fake potted plant and opened the door. She went into the kitchen and pulled out two coffee mugs and began making some coffee. It was a small house, but considering only Niou and his mom lived here, it wasn't a big deal.
Nakikora had known Niou ever since grade school when he had replaced her gummi worms with real ones at lunch. In return, the next day she had filled his water cup with mud and convinced him it was chocolate milk. They had become best friends ever since. In terms of size, they were about the same height except he beat her by half an inch, not that it mattered to them.
Not much mattered to them.
They liked to poke fun at each other and called each other names and sometimes help each other out on a good prank. Niou always had the upper hand on pranks and quick wit, but when it came to observations, Nakikora had Niou beat out. But out of all the things they had in common, their backgrounds, is what strengthened their friendship the most.
The coffee maker chimed and Nakikora poured some coffee into her cup. She added one sugar and slight creamer and took a sip. Just the way she liked it. Niou came charging down the stairs with his tennis bag half on and still tying the uniform of his tie.
"Oh, don't bother rushing," she said calmly, "you're five minutes quicker than I expected and we still have another ten minutes after that before we need to leave."
"Then why did you bother do wake me up this early?" he grumbled.
"One, you almost never wake up on time," she sipped from her cup, "two, we never get five minutes to sit around and three, you know you love my coffee."
He shook his head and poured a cup and sat down at the table. He added two sugars and took a sip. He did love her coffee. He sat back in his chair.
"So how's the old man doing?" he asked casually.
"Same as ever," she replied, unchanged.
"You mean drunk as ever?" he raised his eyebrows.
She gave him a dark look and continued nursing her coffee. Talking about her father's drinking habits was usually taboo.
"Thought so," he smirked, "you always wake me up early on Monday just to get out of the house."
"It's not a big deal," she shrugged it off, " so what if he get's drunk on weekends? He works hard to earn the pay."
"Nakikora," he stared at her, "it's just you and your dad at that house. Money goes to the bills and food then the rest is booze money. You need to get him in a program."
She set the mug down.
"I know," she sighed, "but I can't seem to budge him. I'll just deal with it how I usually do. Listen to me jabbering on. Let's go to school."
They put the coffee mugs in the sink and headed out the door. Niou locked it and they began walking down the street.
"You know that tattoo remark is gonna cost you, Cheeko," He poked his finger in her face.
"Don't all my remarks cost me?", she grumbled, swatting his hand, "And don't call me Cheeko."
"Oh, her name is Nakikora, some call her Kiko," he sang, "but to me, her name will always be Cheeko."
He put his arm around her so she couldn't escape and he sang noisily down the street while people who passed by stared. She turned deeper shades of red by the minute.
"Had enough?" he smiled viciously.
"Y-yes," she muttered.
"Then promise me you'll never tell my mom about the tattoo," he said sweetly.
"Sorry I don't make promises with the devil," she glared at him with contempt.
"Ah, well, how about a few more lines to that song, or perhaps change your name to Butt Cheeko?"
She glowered at him for a moment.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Ah," Niou said in mock surprise, "are you actually telling THIS guy that I wouldn't dare do something? I thought you knew me better than that, Cheeko-chan."
She blinked at him. He laughed. She sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"Some day I will one up you," she vowed sheepishly.
He let go of her.
"You? One up the Trickster? Ha!" he scoffed, "I taught you the ways of the trickster and you have yet to surpass me."
"Oh well, there will always be dreams," she sighed, "speaking of dreams, how's tennis coming along?"
"It's actually wonderful today considering there's no morning practice," said Niou thoughtfully.
"Yours too? We aren't having morning girls' practice today either. I wonder why they cut it this morning..."
"Haven't you heard?"
Both Niou and Nakikora looked behind them to see Yagyuu and Kirihara walking behind them.
"The girls court is being renovated and the school was talking about both teams sharing the courts," explained Akaya
"Thats pretty interesting brat, but I don't think that is going to sit too well with Sanada," Niou pointed out.
"It didn't," Yagyuu straightened his glasses, "he was furious. So today Yukimura and Sanada are meeting with the girls' captian and the principal to talk out a solution. The decision will be announced today at afternoon practice."
"This is going to suck," groaned Niou, "no matter how it ends Sanada is going to be TARUNDORUing our butts all over the place."
"Maybe we could play the girls in matches," suggested Kirihara.
"Great idea brat," snorted Niou, "if they wanted us to whip up on weak sauce tennis players every day we would be playing middles schoolers."
Nakikora raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
"We won't know anything till this afternoon," Yagyuu said simply.
And that, was that.
The lunchbell rang and Marui streched his arms. He usually fell asleep in history and the bell was his alarm clock. He hopped out of desk and went off to find Jackal. He spotted him paying for a lunch at the counter.
"Oy! Jackal!" Marui popped a gum bubble.
"Hey Bunta, wanna go find a table?"
They walked around the cafeteria until they saw a table, where Nakikora was opening her lunch, and Yagyuu was reading a book. Marui spied her lunch, which consisted of sushi rolls and another package with small, homemade cakes.
"Ahhh," Marui sighed feasting his eyes on the cakes.
Do you believe in sharing?" Marui said seriously.
"No, I believe in God" said Nakikora with a grave tone, "but the only reason I bake is to share."
Marui and Jackal helped themselves to a cake while Yagyuu continued reading his book.
"Do you ever stop studying?" Jackal shook his head.
"Not if I can help it," he said, not glancing up from his book.
"What in the world would make you want to study during lunch hour?" Marui wondered, licking at the icing.
"I need something to tune them out," he pointed at a grinning Niou weaving his way through tables with Kirihara chasing after him.
"Come on, give it back!" whined Kirihara.
"No way," smirked Niou, "I haven't had my morning laugh yet."
"Yo brat!" called Marui, "what did he take from you?"
"Something of mine worth value," snarled Kirihara.
"By that," grinned Niou pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, "he means a love letter from a fangirl."
"That has value?" sniffed Marui, "Che, I get one of those a week."
"That's the thing," said Niou with a devious smile, "baby boy here writes back and forth to this one."
The table looked around with intrest. Yagyuu just continued to read his book.
"Ah?" said Jackal, "who are they from?"
"I don't know," said Kirihara with a look of defeat, "it's always signed 'your secred admirer'."
"You have a secret admirer?" Nakikora took the note from Niou and read it carefully.
Niou swiped one of her cakes and took a bite.
"Mmmmmm, wonderful as ever, Kiko-chan. But you need to lighten up on the wasabi, it makes for a bad cake."
"I know," she said, still reading the letter, "last time I put too much in it and you had a stomachache, poor boy."
"Yeah," he shook his head dejectedly, "and that was your good batch."
She paused from the letter and gave him a scowl, which he returned with a leering 'puri', and concluded reading the note.
"Well, whoever it is," she handed the note to Akaya, "is probably a lefty."
"Lefty?"
"There are smudge marks on the note," Niou pulled up his uniform sleeve to reveal graphite on his left hand. "When someone writes with their left hand they usually get smudges on the paper. Nakikora and I are left-handed."
They all stared at Nakikora like she had just pleaded guilty on a capital charge murder.
"Don't look at me," she said crossly, "I don't write notes to younger students."
"Kirihara, are you sure you aren't being duped by someone?" asked Jackal.
Jackal glanced at Niou who grinned back.
"I wish I had thought of it," said Niou wistfully, "making the brat think someone actually likes him, genus!"
"No I'm pretty sure I'm not, by him at least," Kirihara tried.
He took one of Nakikora's cakes and glanced at it.
"I always find it tucked into my stuff after English class. Does this really have wasabi in it?"
Nakikora facepalmed herself while Marui and Niou laughed.
"So we probably we have a first year in your English class, probably a left handed girl," Jackal said thoughtfully, ignoring the wasabi comment.
"Wait a minute," Yagyuu looked up from his book, "are you positive it's a girl?"
Everyone looked at him. No one thought he had been paying attention.
"No," said Nakikora slowly, "But for Kirihara-kun's sake I hope it is."
"Sorry brat," Marui threw an arm around Akaya, "you're still too young for yaoi."
"Yaoi?" said a confused Kirihara, "what's a yaoi, senpai?"
"Well," started Niou, "yaoi is when-nph!"
Nakikora had clamped her hand firmly over Niou's mouth. She shook her head.
"It's something you can learn about later in life, Akaya" Yagyuu finished.
The gentleman had redeemed himself.
Niou pulled Nakikora's hand away and gave her a dirty look. She returned it with a look of equal dirt.
"Anyways," said Jackal, turning his attention back to Kirihara, "what are you going to do about the letters?"
Kirihara shrugged, "I guess I'll just keep writin-ach!"
Marui had clapped him on the head.
"What do ya know?" Marui beamed, "this little guy actually has perserevance off the tennis court."
While Kirihara tried to pry Marui off his head, Yanagi walked up to the table.
"Yanagi," Yagyuu greeted, "what brings you here?"
"I have some news," Yangai started, "Yukimura has requested that I inform you that before practice begins, there will be a meeting with the guy and girl tennis teams on the subject of the tennis courts."
"Have you heard anything abouth that decision?" asked Jackal.
Yanagi shook his head, "I asked Seiichi but he insisted that the decision be announced to everyone at the same time... though there's a 68% percent chance no one is going to like it."
"I already don't like it," smirked Niou, "that means I have to listen to a boring speech about tennis team rights while having to be near a Butt Cheeko."
Everyone gave Niou a wierd look except Nakikora, who suddenly became interested in Yagyuu's book.
That's the end of Chapter one! I don't know when I'm going to have time to write the next chapter but it's probably going to be about the fated tennis practice.
Please send me feedback and tell me what you think about the story line.
