Ryoma stared blankly at the ghost. After several minutes of having a one sided conversation with Ryoma, Hikaru realized that Ryoma was staring at Sai instead of him.

Ryoma had dreaded being paired up with Hikaru for the class assignment.

Xxx

Before:

Hikaru's mother made him switch schools for the education this provided. Hikaru knew that was a big lie. He knew his mother just wanted him to go to Segaku for the sports. His mother would rather have Hikaru playing sports than Go.

Like Hikaru would ever go for that. This was a chance to start a Go club at another school. But his efforts aren't going so well. He realized his mothers plan because most of the kids at Segaku were more sporty than the kids at his other school.

His mother told him he had to find a sport activity to after school. So until he finds new recruits for his go club, he decided to stick with ping-pong.

He was not the only new member. There was a kid who had been going to Segaku since the beginning of the school year. But he did not go into the ping-pong club until now. He called himself a ping-pong prodigy. He entered in the middle of school year because he was inspired by some Echiblen guy. The ping-pong prodigy went on explaining how Echi-whatever showed the finer points of ping-pong/ and the more Mr. Ping-pong prodigy talked, the Hikaru scooted away from him to play a nice game with one of 7th graders already on the team.

Sai was complaining about not being able to play go. He went on with something about taking away precious time playing the silly game of ping-pong when he could be perfecting the fine art of Go. But after about 5 minutes of that, he became horribly excited with the game and kept asking clarifying questions to Hikaru.

Hikaru lasted a good 12 minutes of Sai running around the Ping-pong table following the ball this way and that and asking Hikaru about techniques and official rules of the game before Hikaru couldn't take it anymore.

Hikaru yelled "I don't know! This is my first day! And stop running around like you're the only one at the table!"

Sai was currently behind Hikaru's opponent. She was also in the 7th grade, and due to her small complexion, had to move more than Hikaru to reach the ball. She left crying (the boys and girls practice together but the boys and girls have separate competitions).

"Hikaru. That was not very nice. You made that poor girl cry." Sai said in a voice that agitated Hikaru to the point to where his face got red.

Hikaru spent the rest of practice apologizing to his opponent saying he was thinking out loud and how those thoughts were meant for him.

Xxx

That night, Hikaru did not allow Sai to play any Go

Xxx

Ryoma was sitting in class by the window. He wanted to go to lunch, he was gunna meet with Momo, Kikumaru, and Kawamura, and he had his favorite flavor Ponta in his bag. He just had to last 30 more minutes.

That was just enough time for the teacher to assign partners for the school project. It was the project where a boy and a girl get paired together and take care of a baby. The baby would cry and do all that tech stuff. Ryoma didn't think Segaku had such advanced Baby simulators. He thought most of the money went to sports. He wondered how rich Segaku actually was…

Without his eyes leaving the spot from where he saw starring, he slightly turned towards the teacher's direction and listened for his name. He heard a lot of names that were not his name. But when most of the class had been read off, the teacher said Ryoma's name.

"Echizen will be partnered with Shindo" with that Ryoma raised his hand. Once the teacher saw his hand, he looked in Ryom'as direction.

Ryoma stood up and said "I don't know who that is." Ryoma never let his eyes off of the teacher once he stood up.

"Echizen, don't you remember? He is the new student. He came yesterday. I remember you were in class."

….

"Shindo is a guy."

"Yes. We have an odd number of guys and girls in the class. There are 2 boy pairs and one group with one girl and 2 boys. You got the lucky draw of being one of the boy Pairs."

Ryoma searched the class with his eyes for an unfamiliar face. He ended up finding 2. The one he was looking for was sitting at his desk and waving a Ryoma.

Once Ryoma found Shindo, he sat down relatively fast. The teacher finished up saying the pairs with only 5 minutes of class left. The Ohjisama was freaking out inside his head but soon found him.

"You will all get your baby's tomorrow. Have a good lunch" and right after he said that, the bell rang.

As Ryoma was packing up his stuff from his desk, Shindo came over with an over confident smile. Ryoma glances up at the black haired (with blond bangs) boy and then went on with his cleaning. Shindo said nothing until Ryoma was done packing up. Once Ryoma got up and started for the door, Shindo followed Ryoma and started talking for him.

"So I guess we will be parents with each other. Hi. My name is Hikaru. Are you in any after school activities? Cause my mom made me go out for one so I ping-pong and I can't take care of the baby after school."

"…I have tennis."

"Oh… well this is lame then."

After a couple seconds of silence, Ryoma was pounced onto from the back and herd "o-chibi!" Ryoma almost fell but he caught himself with the sempai on his back

"… Sempai"

"Who is this person? Does he like tennis? I am so happy for you Ryoma. I didn't think you would find a friend without our help!" Momo said coming down the hall and squeezed in between Ryoma and Hikaru.

The red head Sempai got off of Echizen and Momo put his arm around home.

Kawamura came up quietly came from behind and walked next to Hikaru.

The line was in the order of Kikumaru, Echizen, Momo, Hikaru, and Kawamura at the end (and Sai behind Hikaru).

They all walked up the stairs with the Sepmai's having a conversation with each other. They got to the roof and they all sat down in a lop-sided circle near one of the corners of the roof. Ryoma grabbed the Ponta from his bag and sat it in front of him.

Hikaru watched Sai as he went around looking at the other people.

"Hikaru, are these new friends of yours, you made them really fast. Back in my day, it took time to build a good friend relationship."

To everyone else, Hikaru appeared to be starring a Kawamura.

"O-chibi, why did you just finch?" Kikumaru said as the rest of the group turned to Echizen's direction.

The capped boy took his Ponta from in front of him and popped it open. "Nothing" and then took a sip. After everyone got a good look of Echizen drinking his Ponta, all the Sempai's glares turned to Hikaru.

"So…" Momo began "how'd you meat Ryoma?"

"Well I just started my first day here yester day. And today the teacher assigned us partners for the baby project. "

Momo started to pout after that statement and looked off into the distance. Kawamura patted Momo's back. Kikimaru did too but at the same time was laughing at Momo.

Ryoma started to drink faster.

Hikaru had a confused face on. "What's wrong? Did I say something to offend you? There was an odd number of guys… it wasn't our decision."

"No. Nothing like that. Momo just got jealous." Ryoma started to drink his Ponta faster. "So is that what you were talking about with O-chibi?"

"Yes well you see, at least one of use has to be with the baby at all times. I'm in the ping-pong club and we're not supposed to bring in are personal belongings. Ya. The ping-pong prodigy goes on about how personal belongings get in the way of getting our senses into the paddle. Anyway, so I was seeing what Echizen does after school/"

"Oh Ryoma does tennis after school. You should join. It's just like ping-pong except you are on the table. Come on. Coach would so let you hold on to the Baby while you are picking up balls. And we have no prodigies… we have no prodigies that are full of themselves." Momo stopped to take a bite out of his sandwich and continued with food in his mouth "so you should defiantly join the tennis club. You take care of the baby during practice while Ryoma plays and you pick up the balls with the baby and Ryoma can take it home after practice and feed it and care for it and love it and milk it…" Momo started to trail off into a pout position.

Ryoma started to choke on his Ponta. Every one watch as Ryoma caught his breath. Kikimaru was patting him on the back. After he was done coughing, he put his can over his lips and let the last bit of Ponta fall into his mouth.

"Oh. Oh. Hikaru. Join this tennis club. You will discover what the ball you play with in your ping-pong games feels like." Sai said in his oh so optimistic way.

Hikaru was Hesitant at first. Physical education. Oh joy. "Ok. I'll tell the ping-pong club that I would like to try out a different club at the moment. And I will come check out the tennis club tomorrow with the baby.

The bell rang for class and the 5 boys left their corner to finish up class. For the rest of class, all Hikaru could think about was playing a game of Go with Sai. All Ryoma could think about was playing a game of tennis with Karupin.

Xxx

The next day in class, each student sat next to their partner and was given a baby at random. Ryoma and Hikaru were given a girl.

Now:

"Wow. This is gunna be so exciting. "Hikaru started. "What should we name her? There are just so many options. I was gunna go for an American name but that would be lame. Have you ever been to America? I haven't. Hey have you ever played Go? It is an amazing game. You should really get into it… "

Hikaru finally realized that Echizen had been starring to the side of Hikaru where Sai was. Sai was looking around the class room. Hikaru was just about to say something when the teacher came over.

"Ah. One of the boy groups. Have you 2 decided on which one of you is the mother?"

Ryoma looked to the ground. Hikaru said "Echizen. That is who we have decided to be the mother." Ryoma looked at Hikaru with no emotion.

"Oh. Ok." And the teacher opened up the baby girls back and started to type something into her. Ryoma really wondered how advanced a baby doll could get.

"Ok Echizen. Please come over here." Ryoma got up and walked over. "Ok now I want you to look into this camera with your normal face and weight for a flash." Ryoma stood with a blank face and weighted. Soon enough there was a flash. "Ok. Next into this Microphone, I want you to say mama when I say go, Echizen Ryoma when I say go again, and something you normally say on the third go." Ryoma weighted.

"Go."

"Mama."

"…Go"

"Echizen Ryoma"

"…Go"

"… Mada mada dane"

"Good job Echizen. Could you please go get Shindo?"

"Yes" Hikaru walked over to his now fake husband and told him to go over to the teacher. Hikaru went over and after Ryoma was alone, he put his head in his arms and did a tiny freak out in his head. 'How can a baby doll be so advanced? Will it even be able to move on its own! How rich is this school!'

After a couple of minutes of Ryoma rubbing his hair with these pounding questions in mind, Hikaru came back with the doll. He sat down at the same table as Echizen. The teacher went onto the next group.

"Hi Echizen!"

Ryoma looked up a starred at Hikaru. He glanced at Sai has he moved.

"You see him! That's great!" Hikaru said this so that the whole class could here. They slowly went into their own conversations again.

Ryoma's eyes glanced back and forth at Sai, Hikaru, and the baby. Sai just starred at Ryoma in awe. Hikaru had a goofy grin on his face. The doll was just starring at Ryoma with an innocent baby face, never changing.

Ryoma knew this was gunna be a long tennis practice.