Okay, here's the first chapter. I hope you like it. Please review and tell me what you think. Please tell me what you think of Ryoka.

Chapter 1
The Seigaku Regulars Make Their Debut

Ryoka was beyond tired. The time zones were really messing with her head, but she couldn't fall asleep now. She had to make herself get used to it. She'd have to eventually. But thirteen hours was ridiculous. Back home in America it would have been two o' clock in the morning while it was three o' clock in the afternoon in Japan, where she was now. She had only gotten there that morning and hadn't gotten used to anything.

The shoulder length haired, brown eyed girl had just flown in from America to live with her family in Japan. Her father, mother and little brother had moved back a couple days before she had. Her cousin was also there, well actually, they were staying in the temple behind their house. Not that Ryoka minded any. Ryoka was on a team of tennis players back home that were in a very large and important tournament. Her father allowed her to stay and help out. She had been injured in one of her games and had to have some surgery. She couldn't play, but she was the Captain after all. She had to be there for them to give them pointers. She had made sure to be there for every one of their matches.

The people on her team were very good and with her help and their coach they became the best. They won the tournament and advanced into another tournament in Japan. So, her coach and her seven other teammates flew to Japan with her and were staying as guests at the temple that Ryoko, her father and brother lived in and took care of.

Most of her team were exhausted and were catching up on sleep, unlike Ryoka who was walking around on her crutches. She wanted to get used to the time difference instead of sleeping. Sure she was terribly tired, but it wasn't the worst state she'd ever been in. Instead she was walking around on her crutches heading to the place she was going to be attending school after she got settled in. She also had to train for the tournament while she was in school. It was the last tournament she was going to be playing with her best friends. She was going to make it one of their best.

The school she was going to be attending was Seishun Academy like her little brother, Ryoma. He had already started school there and had been trying out for the tennis team. He was aiming to be a regular, but Ryoka had done her research. Freshman weren't even allowed to start playing until summer. But she knew her brother and how he played. He was going to go out for a regulars spot. And with his skill, he'd be able to make it, she just knew it.

Ryoka received a lot of strange looks as she made her way to the tennis courts. She didn't know what it was exactly, but she had a couple guesses why. One: she was a stranger. None of them had ever seen her there before. Two: she was on crutches and off her left foot. She was also going relatively fast for being on crutches. She just ignored it though. She was used to having people stare. She was the only girl on an all guys teen, after all. The Captain, nonetheless.

Being in the spotlight was something she had gotten used to long ago.

The girl stood next to the fenced in court and looked inside to see her little brother standing there with three other kids his age laying on the grounds. They look exhausted while Ryoma was sweating, but didn't look nearly as tired as they did. They were ordered to do fifty more sit up and the girl chuckled. That was nothing compared to what she made her teammates do. She was a part of the team too though so she had to do them too. It wouldn't have been fair otherwise.

As the freshmen all did their sit ups, Ryoka noticed two adults walk up and stop just a little ways away from her. They were all staring at the same bunch of kids. She knew they were talking about them, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. She wanted to know, but it really wasn't any of her business. So she just left the whole thing alone.

"Hey, Echizen. Turn around. It's them," the kid in the green shirt holding her brothers feet said.

"Who?" Ryoma asked and he turned his head slightly to look behind him.

Three older boys walked up to the younger boys. They looked to be eighth graders. The leader looking guy of the group had long brown hair with a green sweatband over his forehead. He looked over to where Ryoma's things were resting and then turned back to the boys. She didn't like the look on his face. He wasn't someone she was going to like, she could already see that.

"Echizen, I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you just because you can play a little," he said. Okay, he had a point. Ryoka often thought her kid brother was far too cocky for his own good, but he really was that good. "The regulars rock and they're coming back today. Don't worry; I'll put you in your place before they get back." Ryoka just glared at him.

"Look!" one of the other boys with Ryoma said.

Ryoka turned her head to see what the boy was talking about. Walking into the court were five older guys. Four of which were wearing long pants while the last wore grey shorts. All of them had their team jackets and their jacket bags behind them. The team jackets were blue and white with a stripe of red around the collar.

The boy standing in the front had an orange bandana on his head and a strange glare in his eyes that Ryoka wasn't very comfortable with. The furthest to his left had longer red hair and a little white band-aid on his cheek. The other person to his left had short black hair with a couple strange falling down into his forehead. The furthest to his right had longer light brown hair and a sweet smile on his lips. The other was very tall with thick black glasses and spiky black hair.

Hmm, they're actually cuter than I thought they'd be, the girl thought. What could she say? She was a teenage girl. Guys were bound to have her attention too. Tennis was very much important to her though.

"Everyone relax," the one with short black hair – with the strands over his forehead – said. "Just find a court and start to hit. We'll give you a chance to show us your best stuff."

That's so sweet, Ryoka thought.

"You know that's Captain Tezuka, right?" the boy in green said. "He went totally undefeated last year."

Tezuka's the one to beat then. He's the best, thought the girl.

"Yeah, he's really great," the younger boy with black hair said.

"He's amazing," the other boy with short hair said.

"Hey Ōishi," the brown haired regular said to Tezuka. "Hey, let's you and me go out and hit some balls."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Ōishi replied. "Let's warm up before Tezuka gets here."

Okay, so that's not Tezuka, but that doesn't mean Tezuka's still the top guy to beat. Ryoka just shook her head. That green shirted boy needs to get his facts straight thought. He's just embarrassing himself. She let out a small chuckle as she head the bowled haired boy say just about the same thing she was thinking. He just got embarrassed.

Ryoka was paying more attention to those two regulars rather than her brother now. Ōishi would just hit the balls over to the other boy who would hit them back and into the basket. It was rather amusing. Their reputation preceded them. They were good; Ryoka had to give them that. She'd have to try to practice against them sometime. That was, when she had the chance to.

"What are you doing here?" Ryoma asked walking up to his sister from the other side of the fence. He too was watching the older players, but he was talking to his sister.

"What? I can't come watch you practice?" she replied. A smirk played on her lips as she knew that she got on his nerves sometimes. She liked to joke around with him and tease him, which annoyed him and kind of embarrassed the boy. It wasn't like he didn't play back at all. He was just upset that he had never won a match against her.

"Shouldn't you be icing you ankle?" he pressed.

"Shouldn't you be picking up balls?" she pushed back.

Ryoma just rolled his eyes and walked back to the court. He stood on the court and continued to watch the older players. Everyone had joined in on hitting balls into the basket. Really, they were all very good. However, Ryoma and Ryoka had been able to do that for years. Being able to direct where they wanted the ball to go was very important. That didn't make it any less impressive to see done though.

"Our team's pretty darn good alright," sweatband said. "Do you get it yet? Hey you, Echizen!" Ryoka looked over too out of habit. Her coach sometimes called her by her last name so it was a force of habit. "You may be able to hit a descent kick serve, but that doesn't guaranty you'll make the team."

"Darn," Ōishi said, catching the girl's attention again. "I shanked it."

The ball flew up high and over to where Ryoma was. Ryoka just smirked knowing very well just what her little brother was about to do. He got into his form and raised his racket back. Once the ball was in a position where he could hit it, he wacked it sending it across the fenced in court and into the basket. Due to the force he had put into it, the ball bounced out and rolled to a stop on the ground.

The rest of the regulars and everyone else stared at the boy who stood up straight and rested his racket on his shoulder. He smiled cheekily as he said, "Now that wasn't so hard." Yup, Ryoka thought. And there's the cocky remark.

Sweatband guy grabbed Ryoma by his shirt and lifted him up. Ryoka didn't like that. She was rather protective of her little brother and since their oldest adoptive brother, Ryoga was no longer around to look after them, she felt it was her job. Ryoka took a step forward despite her injured ankle and gripped the fence. Her crutches fell to the ground next to her. Sure, he may have deserved that, but that didn't mean she had to like it because she was his older sister.

"What? You think you can show off here? I'll show you. You're going to learn who's on top of the latter around here."

"What's going on guy?" a male voice asked. Ryoka turned her head once more to see a boy by the gate to get in standing there with his hands in his pants pockets. He too was wearing a Seigaku Team jacket. He had shaggy light brown hair and wore glasses. He wore a stoic expression.

"Captain," a bunch of people around them gasped. So he's Captain Tezuka, Ryoka thought. "Sir!"

"You can't act like this," Tezuka said, not taking his attention away from the younger boys. "I want you both of you to take ten laps."

"But you don't understand," Sweatband said. "I was just-."

"Twenty laps," he ordered.

"Uh, okay," Sweatband said nervously.

"And as far as the rest of you go, eighth and ninth graders rally. Seventh grade pick up balls."

"Yes sir," the majority of them replied.

Ōishi walked over to where the Captain was and said, "Okay, let's go."

Tezuka and Ōishi turned and walked out of the court. Ryoka still gripped the fence as she watched them walked out and turn her way. She looked back at the guy who had yelled and threatened her brother and glared. Taking in a deep breath, Ryoka let go and bent down to pick up one of her crutches. She grabbed one and turned to pick up the other, but someone was already gripping it. She straightened up and looked at the browned haired holding it.

He glanced back at Ryoma who had started his running and then back to the girl. Ryoka could tell he was a smart guy. He had figured out that the two were related. It was kind of obvious with how they looked. Both Echizen siblings had black, almost blue looking hair and brown eyes. They resembled each other greatly, although Ryoka was much more feminine looking.

"Thanks," Ryoka said, making sure he caught her double meaning in her words.

He nodded his head and handed her the crutch. Ōishi looked at the two curiously. As Tezuka stepped away from the girl and passed the girl. Ryoka smiled softly and nodded to him as if saying hello or acknowledge he was there. He nodded back and turned to follow the Captain into the school. The girl didn't take her eyes off of them until they were completely out of sight. When they were she turned her attention back to her running brother.

She waited for him to do all of his twenty laps to get his attention. She didn't want him to get in any more trouble than he already was in. When he was done, she motioned her head telling him to come over. He sighed and reluctantly went over to his older sister.

"What now?" he almost whined.

"I've got to go talk to the coach," she informed him. "Then I'm going back home."

"Go ice your ankle," Ryoma said. She could tell that he wanted her to be careful, but also wanted her to go back home so he wouldn't get embarrassed or make her even more worried about him. He knew she wasn't happy with the guy who threatened him. "I can take care of Arai on my own."

Ryoka sighed knowing that he could. "I know," she replied. "Just be careful and don't do anything you'll regret or to get you in even more trouble."

"Whatever," he replied, turning around and walking over to where the freshmen were.

Ryoka smirked and turned around. She hobbled over to the school and entered in search of where Coach Ryuzaki to ask her something very important to team. She asked someone at the office where she was and they told her she was up in one of the classrooms. So, she managed to get up the stairs and looked into a couple classrooms to see if she was in them. When she finally saw the woman in one, she balanced herself and opened the door.

The girl didn't know there were two other people in the room with her. Once she shut the door and turned around, her eyes widened in slight shock, but recovered quickly and made her way over to woman in the back of the room, watching her along with the two other boys, Tezuka and Ōishi. She stopped in from of the desk she was sitting at and stretched out her hand to shake the other woman's.

"Coach Ryuzaki," Ryoka said. "My name's Ryoka. I wanted to ask you something important."

"Ryoka," she said with a smirk. "You two look alike." Ryoka knew that Ryuzaki was referring to her and Ryoma. "What is it you want to ask?"

Ryoka cleared her throat before replying. "My team is here for a tournament," she began. "And, well, we don't have anywhere to really practice. Seeing as I'm going to be attending school here while I'm training for our tournament, I wanted to ask your permission if we could train here." She looked unsure. "We won't be a bother, really. We have our own balls, rackets, and everything. We just need a place to practice. We're not going to win the tournament if we can't actually practice. It'll also give your students a chance to play some new…meat, if you will."

Ryuzaki smirked at her wording. "All right," she said. "Your team may use it while school is going on as long as they don't disturb anyone. If Captain Tezuka permits it, you may scrimmage with our players." She pointed a figure at the girl as if to state a point. She knew there were conditions. "You have to help clean up afterwards though. A lot of the work with the seventh graders."

"Understood," Ryoka said with a smile. "Thank you very much. You won't be sorry."

"I hope not," she jokingly, but also truthfully stated. "Ryoka, I've heard what happened to you ankle. How are you doing?"

Ryoka didn't really know how she knew about it, seeing as the tournament was in America and they were in Japan when it happened, but she did know and there was nothing she could do about it. "I can lose the crutches tomorrow. Thanks for asking."

"Don't push yourself too hard though," Coach said. "You don't want to injure it again."

"Yes ma'am. I know," Ryoka said. "I know my limits." Tezuka looked up at the girl when Coach said mentioned her ankle. Ryoka just nodded her head at him and turned her attention back to Ryuzaki. "Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow morning."

The girl turned to hobble out of the room, but stopped at the door when she heard someone say something directed towards her. "How many of you will there be?" Tezuka asked.

Ryoka curiously looked at the boy and said, "Including me, there's eight."

"We practice before school, during lunch and after school," he informed her. "You're welcome to join us at any or all of them."

Ryoka smiled at them and said, "Thanks. We'll be sure to do that. All the practice we can fit in the better." He nodded his head at her and went back to the work he was doing. "Coach Ryuzaki, Captain Tezuka, Vice-Captain Ōishi, have a nice afternoon. We'll see you bright and early."

"Oh! One more thing!" Ryuzaki called out. Ryoka turned her attention back to the woman curiously. "The girls will be playing to see who becomes a regular on the team. You are starting school in a couple days, right?"

"Yeah," Ryoka replied. She didn't really know where the woman was going with this.

"I'll have them put your name down for brackets if you want to try out. They can use all the talent they can get," she said.

"Oh," Ryoka said with a smile. "Sure, that'd be really great. Thanks."

~*The Princess*~

Ryoka had been home for a while when Ryoma got back. She greeted him with their usual small bickering and teasing. He called her Princess, which she hated greatly and she called him Junior, which he hated just as much as Ryoka hated being called Princess. It wasn't uncommon at all for them to call one another that. What bothered them even more than one another calling each other them was when others called them by their teasing pet names. Every member of Ryoka's team called them by those names sometimes and they really didn't like it.

However, North Ridge Tennis Team knew better than to always call Ryoka Princess. She would give them a break every once in a while, but if they did it too often or went too far then she'd punish them and Ryoka's form of punishment wasn't pleasant, but overall, it was beneficial to the team. She'd either make them work out more or rally against her, which was never pleasant because she loved to toy with the members of her team. They sometimes even called her Minx for how she teased and played with them during their matches. That didn't mean she liked that one either though.

"Hey Ryoka?" Mark called out.

"Yeah," the girl replied, not moving from her spot. She was reading a magazine about tennis and found a very interesting story that she just couldn't get away from. But she put the magazine down on her lap and looked up to the Assistant Captain of the tennis team she was on. "What's up?"

"Where were you earlier?" he asked. Mark plopped himself down on the ground next to her and looked out at the grounds of the temple. "When we woke up, you were gone."

"I want to get us a place to train," she replied, looking back down at the article and started to read from the place she left off on. "We're going for a six a.m. run tomorrow so be rested and ready. Tell the guys too, will you?"

"Six in the morning?" he whined. "But-!"

"No buts," the girl pressed. "You want to be ready to the tournament, don't you?"

"Yeah," Mark admitted.

"Well then we need to get in as much practice in as we can," Ryoka admitted. The black haired girl stood up with her crutches and started to walk down the hall, Mark following right behind her. "Plus, South Ridge made it into the second spot."

"They made it in?" Mark gasped. "But how? I mean, they-."

"Things have a funny way of going about," she replied. "In this case it's not very good for us, but that just means we have to work harder to beat them again and get back for what they did."

"You've got that right," Mark muttered. "I'll tell the others about practice. You just go and get some rest. I can tell you're tired."

"Thanks," Ryoka said with a kind and tired smile. "See you guy in the morning."

~*The Princess*~

Ryoka had a hard time falling asleep that night. It wasn't that she was in pain from her ankle. It wasn't because she was restless and couldn't hold still. It wasn't because she was worried about waking up that next morning for practice or dreading the fact that she had to. No, it wasn't as complicated or as simple as that.

No, what was bothering her was that the team that had caused her injured ankle. The South Ridge Tennis Team was from back in the States, like their team was. They were in the same city too. There were two teams from their city and their rivalry was a very stiff, strict and a much hated one. Nobody dared to get in the way of the two teams when they were going at each other.

However, ever since Ryoka took over as Captain of the team, she made sure that North Ridge stayed as far away from South Ridge as possible. She wouldn't let them get anywhere near one another unless it was for a tournament and if they did, she'd turn it into a match and then make her team do a very strict and harsh punishing workout. She wanted no fighting, no arguing and a clean record. She wanted to kill them with being kind to them. She'd take anything they threw at her and her team. They didn't like that. And they made sure to get back at the girl who angered them so.

Ryoka was a tough, strong willed girl who would do anything for those who were closest to her. She stood up for them. She took all the blame whenever something did happen and made sure that her team knew she did so they would feel bad about her getting in trouble for what they did. And that worked. They tried to stay away from South Ridge as much as humanly possible and started to take up Ryoka's form of torture.

The kind that was only one sided. North Ridge was nothing but nice to them. And they really, really didn't like that. And they took it out on Ryoka for it being her idea.