Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters. The plot's mine though.

"I-I like you Sanada senpai! Will you go out with me?" a girl with long brown hair said shyly to the strict senior in front of her. The senior in question though, said no and without another word, left the poor girl standing in the hallway to pick up the pieces of her newly shattered heart. Nonsense, he thought, as he made his way back to his class. Don't they have anything better to do?

As he walked back to his classroom, he heard someone say to him, "How heartless of you Sanada san! Rejecting that poor girl's feelings." He turned to see that it was Ellen Kimihiro. She was in the same year and class as Sanada. He was one of his female 'acquaintances'. He liked to keep a fair amount of distance from women, even though they tried their hardest to befriend him. But Kimihiro was a different case altogether. She was distant towards only him. And it bothered him more than he deemed appropriate.

Choosing to avoid her early morning taunt, he entered his classroom and quietly took his seat. A few moments later Kimihiro too entered. But unlike him she quickly dashed to her seat (that was next to Sanada's), dropped her head on the table and fell asleep. Sanada gave her sleeping form an irritated glare. How on earth she managed to get top grades even after sleeping through class, was a mystery to him. Yes, she had better grades than him. Yes, she was the popular vice-president of the student council. But it was all just a façade. He was sure of it. He knew what a monster she was and wondered why no one else could see her true colors. He sighed at the foolishness of his peers.

When does she wake up? He wondered, looking at the clock. It was still pretty early in the morning, but she was already tired. He thought of asking her about it in the most distant and uninterested way possible. But his mouth blurted out the words in a rather desperate manner. "What time do you get up?" he asked and immediately clamped his mouth shut and waited for a minute. She didn't move. He sighed in relief, thinking that she was probably sleeping and had not heard what he'd said. But luck was not on his side today. Because a moment later Kimihiro raised her head slowly and looked at him with a very bored expression on her face. "Around 8." was her short reply. Sanada nodded and looked at the clock only to see that it was 8:20. He gave the girl beside him a shocked stare before blurting out, again, "But how?! I knew women-"Kimihiro cut him off midway. "Do you even know women?" she snapped at him. "You keep running away from them and you claim to know how women's psychology works?! Good one." She rolled her eyes. She just could not tolerate this sexist pig named Genichirou Sanada. "Of course I know women." Sanada claimed. "Oh really? Then would you be kind enough to tell me what I might need right now?" she asked in a sugary tone. "What you need is to be disciplined so that you can spend your mornings more productively and not by sleeping in class." He answered matter-of-factly. She gave him a creepy smile before turning her expression into a very angry one and countering, "No! What I need is for your loud mouth to shut up so I can sleep in peace." And with that, Kimihiro went back to sleeping.

Round one: to Kimihiro. She smiled contentedly as she continued to sleep leaving a fuming Sanada trying his best to not throw the girl out of the classroom through the window. This was going to be one long day.

Yukimura Seichi walked into the cafeteria to see a very distressed Sanada sitting at a corner table. Yukimura took a seat beside him and asked, "What's going on Sanada?" Said boy gave a side glance to his best friend and captain. "It's that girl again! I now have to do a project with her." He sighed. Yukimura chuckled at his friend's predicament. He knew Kimihiro personally but she wasn't as horrible as Sanada thought she was. Their habit of always disagreeing with each other is what made Sanada think like that.

"She isn't that bad, Sanada." "Are you kidding me?" he asked incredulously. "She has managed to turn my disciplined life upside down. She attacks me whenever I try to prove my point. My sanity wavers because of a single female's existence!" Yukimura's shoulders shook with mirth. "Sounds like you're in love." Sanada's jaw dropped at the comment. "Yeah right!" he retorted.

Soon the other members of the Rikkai Dai Tennis team joined them and Sanada forgot his troubles. Yukimura stole glances at his best friend and smirked. He had never seen him so stressed. Especially over a girl. Kimihiro had the ability to make THE Sanada Genichirou go mad with frustration. The feared fukubuchou of Rikkai Dai himself was now terrified. And all because of a girl. Yukimura being the sadist of Rikkai Dai was already thinking of ways to make his fukubuchou squirm. He couldn't wait to put his plans into action.

Kimihiro sat in the library after school going through reference books for her and Sanada's project. She was waiting for Sanada to come and join her after his tennis practice. She wasn't too bothered about the pairing. Sanada was doing a fine job reacting for them both. She decided to concentrate on the actual project than make a fuss about the pairing. They had planned to take all necessary preparations today and tomorrow and complete the poster on Saturday at Sanada's house (much to his dismay).

Sanada came into the library to see Kimihiro sitting at a table with her head resting on her arms. "Did you even do any work? Or is the topic beyond your understanding?" Kimihiro just rolled her eyes at the remark. She pushed all the books and notes that she had gathered on their project, towards Sanada and went back to her resting mode. After going through the material Sanada was sure there was nothing more to add. Kimihiro then pushed a piece of paper towards him. He noticed that it was a list of things to buy for the poster. "We have to buy these." She said. "NOW." Sanada knew there was no getting out of it. He was now forced to spend more time with this evil witch. He was quite surprised to see her being so cooperative about the project. They both packed their things and exited the library.

They were leaving the school together when Niou Masahiro and Kirihara Akaya spotted them. "Hey! Isn't that the fukubuchou?" Kirihara asked. Niou wanted to ignore his kouhai. But his constant pestering forced him to focus on the school gates. And sure enough it was their fukubuchou leaving the school grounds with a girl. His jaw dropped. Are they holding hands?! Niou wouldn't have believed it in a million years. But here he was, in flesh and blood. Watching his strict fukubuchou leaving school with a girl. I need to know more. He thought smirking.

Kirihara though, had run out of patience and was now running back to tell the others. He burst into the club room and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Sanada fukubuchou has a girlfriend! The world's coming to an end!"

To be continued…

Thank you Scarlet Hibiscus for your helpful review!