Disclaimer: The series of Prince of Tennis does not belong to me, but to Konomi Takeshi. Pocky isn't a creation of mine, but I do buy the product!
AN: I got the idea from a Prince of Tennis icon of Fuji Syusuke I'd found on a computer graphics site called: Digik one day and thought it would make a great idea for a fan fiction. Have fun reading, reviews are welcome!
"Sorry guys, I promised Inori that I'd buy the groceries for him today." A teenage girl with strawberry blonde hair apologized, heading out of the school gates with two other teens.
"But Yukari-chan, you promised you'd come over to my house so that we'd get to watch a whole marathon of "The Unfaithful" together!" Whined the mint green haired girl named Keiko otherwise known as 'Kei-kun' as she pouted her lips together, accentuating her lightly freckle dusted cheeks glowing an agitated pink.
"Yeah Kari-chan, forget about that stupid errand and your little bratty brother," The silver haired punk styled adolescent beside Kei-kun agreed, leaning his elbow against her shoulder. His name was Setsuna but the two girls called him 'Tsunako-chan'.
"Besides, you can always blame Kei-kun if you get yelled at." Tsunako-chan winked at Yukari, who giggled lightly in response.
Kei-kun wasn't too happy and blew up her cheeks, making her resemble something of a blow fish, a very red blow fish indeed. She huffed and then pinched Tsunako's arm with her long sharp finger nails. Tsunako-chan whelped in pain, drawing back his arm and began nursing it, Tsunako-chan referred to that pinching maneuver as the 'Kei-neko abuse'.
"Sorry. I can't get out of this one this time, you guys." Yukari turned to look at her friends with a remorseful look.
Kei sighed, crossing her arms across her chest. She closed her eyes and took a breath, her brows furrowed as if she was in deep thought and consideration of their situation at the moment. Yukari waited for her best friend's response and Tsunako rubbed the tortured section of flesh on his thin arm.
"Fine, but you owe us!" Kei decided, giving off a cheerful smile.
"I want Pocky and lots of it!" Tsunako-chan called out.
Yukari chuckled, happy to know that she was forgiven.
"I'll see you guys later than!" Yukari jogged off, heading off into the direction of town.
"I'm really sorry about this, Tsunako-chan, Kei-kun, but you guys wouldn't understand." Yukari thought, running past the grocer's that was the main point of her straight out lie to her best friends.
If you asked Tsunako and Kei about Yukari, they most probably would tell you that they knew almost everything about Tokugawa Yukari, from her birthday to her fears to what she liked and disliked, but this was one secret she wouldn't ever dare tell them about.
"Besides even if I do tell them, Kei-kun would flip since she hates them. I can't even bear to think of how Tsunako-chan might take it! I can just imagine the ways he'd just torment me if he did. Why can't I just tell them already and be done with it?!" Yukari grumbled aggravated beyond belief.
Yukari was currently having an internal conflict with herself about whether or not she'd tell her best friends the real reason she ditched them that day. She walked on until she bumped straight into a business man who was having a very heated discussion on his cell phone.
She screeched as she fell back on her rear bottom, her book bag fell onto the ground because of the impact she'd received.
"Oh yeah, it's because I'm such a coward…" She thought.
"What the hell is your problem you little --"
Yukari quickly rose to her feet and bowed continuously at the middle aged man who was yelling at her for being a nitwitted girl who couldn't watch where on earth she was going.
"Why is that guy yelling at her for?"
"Who knows?"
She was overly embarrassed as people on the streets stopped to stare at the spectacle in front of them, whispering and making up stories about why the man in his early thirties was shouting profanities at a young high school girl.
"Hey Yukari," An arm brought itself around Yukari's waist, her face now burning bright like the red crosswalk's light.
"I've been looking for you everywhere! It took me forever just to find you!" Yukari looked up to see her worst nightmare begin to apologize to the man who snarled at her, his face contorted in rage in such a way that a pit bull would've.
"I'm very sorry sir. She didn't mean to cause trouble…" The tall seventeen year old began. He had short cropped sea green almost turquoise hair and she resented to say this, but he had a fine handsome complexion to match his…healthy body shape.
"…We're very sorry to have bothered you sir." Echizen Ryoga finished, bowing his head.
The man grumbled in an almost visible dark cloud of fury overhead as he left the scene and the crowd that had manifested dispersed just as quickly as it had formed, leaving both Yukari and Ryoga alone on the sidewalk.
Yukari strode over to her book bag on the ground, dusting it with a hand.
"Wow that was my first time seeing a girl getting her sugar daddy pissed off like that. Does that always happen with you, little miss --:"
"Shut it Pervert. I didn't need your help; I was fine on my own before you even showed up." Yukari narrowed her eyes into a mean glare at the annoying teen in front of her.
"Is that your way of saying thank you, little miss flat chest? How rude, you've hurt my feelings." He shot her back a meager childish puppy dog pout.
"Just leave me alone." She hissed and pushed past him to continue on to her destination.