First shot at a fic. Hopefully there will be less grammatical & spelling errors than expected. Enjoy!

- word: speaking english.
- word: sound fx.

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.

- xoxoxoxoxoxox -

"The bad things in life open your eyes to the good things
you weren't paying attention to before." -Unknown

Excuse Me

"Akazawa, please answer the question on the board."

"Yes," the girl replied, looking at the question. "The answer is 34?"

"Correct, now moving on .." the teacher started, continuing the math lesson. The girl sighed, resting her arms on the desk. She took a sideways glance at the person beside her, and immediately tensed up as she remembered who it was.

'Kikumaru-san ..' the girl thought, a faint blush coming across her cheeks as she turned back to her desk. She let her dark brown colored bangs hover over her glasses, trying not to look so excited that the redhead was sitting right next to her. 'Calm down .. it's only one class.'

It was no use.

The girls cheeks reddened immensely, her heart beating faster and faster as more thoughts of the Regular flooded her head. His clothes, his face, the way he placed that white bandage on the right side of his cheek, it was too much.

She was in love.

She tried to relax, silently slapping herself as she fixed her gaze to the front of the class, trying to focus on the lesson. Fortunately for her, math was one of her good grades, but the classes bored her to death with those long-time lectures.

"And here we have a certain .." the teachers voice drifted off, the girls ears shutting down as she only heard one thing.

"Ah, crap! If I don't finish this by next period I'm doomed!" Kikumaru quietly panicked, writing intensely fast on the piece of paper, going down line by line.

His voice.

'Kikumaru-san ..' the girl sulked, wishing she had the courage to speak to the boy. She left her bangs hanging, not wanting to show the class her current state. She looked down at her notebook, looking at the page full of names. She also drew small pictures around the names, arrows piercing the heart, a volleyball smashing over the net, a cute chibi picture of her crush. But all these only surrounded the names she flooded the paper with, and she blushed as she repeated the name.

His name.

"POP QUIZ!" the teacher cheered, holding up the pile of papers. A loud groan came from the students, expressing their hate for the dreaded quiz. "Who wants to pass them out? Oh! Thank you Ikeda-kun! Great help!"

"But I-- please, no!" the student pleaded, but fell under the stare of the teacher. Slowly he stood up, the pile of paper thrown into his arm. As he passed each paper to desk after desk, a blank look was expressed on his face, worrying some of the students.

'Kikumaru-san ..' the girl thought, hearing the rustle of papers as they were handed out.

"Now, the quiz won't take long, just one piece of paper with questions about your upcoming math test .."

'Kikumaru-san ..'

"Akazawa-san .."

'Kikumaru-san ..'

"Akane-saaan .."

"Kikumaru .. san."

"Ah! You finally answered!" Kikumaru grinned, holding up his pencil at the girl. She quickly turned to her crush, her heart beating much faster than it ever was. She covered her mouth and nose as soon as she took sight of him.

"Kikumawu-sanfh!" Rin said, her words muffled by her hands. Noticing this, she let go of her face, her blush still showing. "W-what is it?"

"I need to borrow your sharpener, my pencil broke!" Kikumaru grinned, pointing at the wooden object. Rin quickly nodded and rummaged through her supplies, but considering how nervous she was at the moment ..

CLANG!

She dropped the box.

"There it is! Thank you," Kikumaru said, picking up the blue tool. Rin made no effort to talk as she quickly bent down to gather up her things, placing the supplies in her box as she sat up straight. "You should be more careful, nya," Kikumaru advised, holding out the sharpener to Rin, startling her, which caused her to automatically drop the thing she was holding.

CLANG!

Which was the box.

"Y-you're welcome." Rin said, trying to avoid all the stares in the classroom. She took the sharpener out of Eiji's hand, bending down again to get her things.

"Okay! Pop quiz, start NOW!"

'Oh no ..'

- xoxoxoxoxoxox -

Akane sighed, taking her lunchbox up to the roof. After math class, everyone in her homeroom was talking about how ditzy and clumsy she was. She was lucky that some of her friends were there, who stood up for her when they heard such things.

"How embarassing .." Akane muttered, opening the door to the roof. A gentle breeze made Akanes hair slightly dangle in the wind. The sun shone down on the roof, assuring a good lunch, and the clear blue sky welcomed her with it's sight. Also, to make her lunch even better, -

"Rin-saaan! Over here, over here!"

- her friends waited for her at the corner of the roof, waving to the girl as they started eating their lunchbox.

"I'm coming!" Akane replied, walking over to the small group. A bunch of her friends made it tradition to eat at the corner of the roof, occasionally bring others to enjoy the lunch with them. But today it was just a few girls chatting in a circle. She sat down in the circle, placing her lunchbox in front of her, untying the knot on the cloth.

"You caused a lot of racket in Math today, Akane-san," a girl said to her.

"It wasn't my fault Yuzuki-san, he surprised me!" Akane retorted, opening the lunchbox. It was full of Japans delicacies, the main dish being a roll of sushi. "Itadakimasu."

stare.

"Waaai! I'm so jealous! Akane is so lucky to have a mother who cooks so well!" another girl complimented, some others agreeing with her. Akane laughed a bit, taking a bite of her lunch, offering some to her other friends.

"But really Akane, you don't usually act like you did today, what happened?" Yuzuki asked, eyeing the girl, who currently started fidgeting while being asked the question.

"Nothing really." Akane finished the last bite of her lunch.

'I can't tell them yet ..'

gulp.

"Goshisosama!"

"Already finished?!" the girls asked, looking at the empty box. Akane nodded, closing the container and tying the cloth on top of it.

"It's no wonder, a lunch that good-looking would be finished sooner if it were in my hands!" a girl smirked, placing her hands on her hips. "Oh! Akane, I forgot to tell you that the coach wants you to meet her after school."

"Oh really? Thanks Rin," Akane said, standing up. "Well, I've got to go .. I have an English test after lunch and I haven't been studying too much."

"Oh, I see. Good luck with your test then, bye!" Rin said, waving to Akane as she left.

"Don't we have Science next period?"

- xoxoxoxoxoxox -

"Please be around here, please be around here .." Akane hoped, walking near the tennis courts. Rumors around Seigaku said that most of the Regulars on the male Tennis Club hung around here during lunchtime. Her hair swayed with the wind, comforting the girl as she walked along campus. "I wonder if the rumors are true .."

"Akazawa-san?"

"Kya!" Akane shrieked, rattled by the sudden voice. She closed her eyes and spun around, waving her arms around as she heard a slap, knowing that her hand made contact with something. Opening her eyes, she looked up to see nothing there. "Then what -- who did I hit?" she wondered, her eyes widening as she lowered them to the ground.

"Kawamura! Are you okay?!" Akane panicked, looking at the reddened cheek. "I'm so sorry!" she bowed in front of him.

"It's okay Akane-san .. sorry for scaring you." Kawamura replied, smiling as he rubbed his cheek. Akane bent down, slightly shocked of what she did to the teenager.

"I really am sorry! It's just a reflex of mine to hit the nearest thing when I'm scared, even if it's a really small thing, like sneaking up behind me!" Akane briefly explained, informing the sushi apprentice.

"Then I'll be more careful next time," Kawamura said, standing up as he brushed the dust off his shirt. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Well, I was looking for Kikumaru-san .." Akane said, looking up at Kawamura. "Do you know where he is?"

"I'm right here, nya!" Kikumaru replied, standing a distance away from Akane, looking from the right side of Kawamura. "What's up?"

'Cute!'

"Ah! Kikumaru-san! It's just, that, uh-- well, I just wanted to --" Akane continued stuttering, trying to find the words she wanted to say. 'Why did I come here?!'

"Thank you for borrowing my sharpener!"

".. Akazawa-san, shouldn't it be the other way around?" Kikumaru asked, but looked to see that the brunette had already left.

- xoxoxoxoxoxox -

Read & review. Thanks.