"I hate tennis!"

Tezuka sat in the senior classroom pondering about what Ryoma announced during their practice yesterday afternoon. Oishi and Kikumaru were sitting behind him also wondered by he suddenly decided to quit. Fuji had already left home, right after practice ended, saying he had something to do. Why would he do something like that?

Flashback-

"I'm quitting."

Everyone in the tennis club turned their heads from what they were doing. Echizen Ryoma had just declared he was going to resign from the club, also meaning he wouldn't be able to participate in the Nationals. He was holding a sports bag with his tennis rackets and his regular uniform. Eiji and Oishi stopped their game. Inui looked up from his notebook. Momoshiro and Kaidoh stopped there little quarrel and Tezuka turned his head and looked down from where he was standing, his voice was still as monotone as it has always been.

"Why is that?" Tezuka replied flatly, but you could see the change of expression in his eyes.

"I'm quitting because I'm quitting, I'll be taking my leave now." Ryoma turned around and headed towards the exit of the tennis court area. Before he could Tezuka grabbed Echizen's wrist and asked, "That's not a reasonable answer, tell me-"

Ryoma cut him off and yelled out, "Because I Hate Tennis!" He released Tezuka's grasp on him, picked up his bag and went off.

End of Flashback

Tezuka sighed. Oishi could hear the distress in that sigh. It was one Tezuka hardily ever let out, especially at school. It was the type when one is confused and doesn't know what to do. Eiji was staring out the window, spaced out. Oishi stood up, "What are we going to do bunchou?"

He paused, then said, "We're just going to have to replace him with someone else. Other than that… there's nothing much we could do, we'll see how it goes tomorrow."

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Ryoma laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling. His eyes showed tiredness and wanted to sleep, but couldn't. Too much was on his mind. He couldn't believe he yelled at his ex-captain like that, suddenly leashing his anger upon him. Karupin brushed up against him, but Ryoma didn't notice him. There was a knock on his door.

"Ryoma?"

It was his mother.

"Are you awake?"

Ryoma didn't fell like answering. He pulled his blanket up and pretended to sleep. Rinko (mother) knocked the door and opened the door just a little bit, enough for her to see through into the room. She saw a sleeping Ryoma and Karupin purring. Rinko observed Ryoma's sleeping face. It had a sort of anguished feeling on it. "He's taking it pretty hard," she whispered to herself, "I hope he feels better tomorrow."

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A knock came from outside of Ryoma's door.

"Ryoma, wake up, it's time for school," his mother called out.

"Argh…. I don't want to go…" Ryoma muttered.

Rinko tried her best to cheer him up. "What? Ryoma not wanting to go to school?" Dear heavens! Where has my Ryoma gone!" She went all dramatic, pretending to be fainting. "Plus, don't you have tennis practice today. Just because you don't want to go to school, doesn't mean you can just ditch."

"I'm not ditching, I'm at home. I don't have morning practice today."

"Why not? I thought you had practice everyday, you know Ryoma-"

"I quit." The last part, Ryoma said very softly. His mother suddenly became very disquieting. Had she heard him wrong? Did he really say…

"Ryoma? Did you say that you… quit?"

"Hn."

Rinko eyes widened, first Nanjiroh, now this? As far as she knew, Echizen Ryoma absolutely loved tennis, he had picked up his first racket at an age of 4. Since then, he has practiced and gotten better and better each day. What has the world come down to? She whispered out an 'ok' and left the room. Her son can skip one day at school. She tried her best to go bring her spirits up, but instead, she started feeling dizzy, she got to the top of the stairs but fell down, and the world went back. All that was heard was loud 'thump.'

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"Hmm.. I wonder where Echizen is today? It's almost time for school to start," Katchiro thought aloud.

"I don't know…" Horio replied to his friend, "He probably overslept or something."

"Horio!" Katsuo yelled out, "That's mean!'

From a short distance away, Momoshiro had been listening to the trio's conversation. We had been worried about Echizen ever since he had quit the club. Why would he do such a thing? Ryoma absolutely loved tennis! Why would he quit? Just like that? Musing over his thoughts, he walked towards his classroom, still concerned with the little prodigy. He got into his classroom and sat down.

Momo was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't see that the teacher had already walked in and started the lesson.

"So Momoshiro, what's the answer to this question?"

No answer.

"Momoshiro Takeshi!"

Momo, in his own mind, thought he had heard someone calling out his name but ignored it, until a heavy object dropped on his head.

"Hey! That hurt…" He shouted but then noticed it was sensei saying his name. "Oh! Ah! Sensei! W-what are you doing here?"

The teacher fumed. "Get out, Momoshiro!"

Over at the senior class, Kikumaru Eiji wasn't doing quite so well either. The teacher had called on him three times. And the three times he didn't respond. Sensei gave him three warnings but on the forth time he did it again. He got pulled out of class to sit in the halls.

"Aw… man, why didn't I pay attention, Nya?" Eiji said to himself. He yawned, "what am I supposed to do out here anyways?" He put his head down and rested his eyes.

The classroom door one over from his slid opened and out came Oishi. He closed the door and sat right next to Eiji.

"Huh?" Eiji looked up. "Oishi! What are you doing here? You didn't get in trouble did you?"

"Yeah I did, I didn't notice sensei was calling on me, so I had to come out here," Oishi said, blushing at what he had done, "I've never done this before, I guess I'm a little out of it today…"

"Hm… say Oishi do you know what happened to Ochibi? Like why he quit?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, I suggest you should go ask him." He chuckled a little. He wanted to know just as much as Eiji did.

"Yeah, I should, I'll go over to the freshman's class during lunch."

"I'll go with you.

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Oishi and Tezuka are in the same class diferent than Kikumaru and Fuji (they are in the same class) and Inui and Kawamura (they are also in the same class)