Lili
"Its not fair! Those dam boys always get all the attention. Do they think they're better than us or something?" I frowned angrily, trying not to shout out my frustration.
Shinkokami Misa, my doubles partner, and best friend since the beginning of forever, lightly touched my arm, "Lili, is that fair? They don't ask for it," her already soft voice could barely be heard over the hustle and bustle of the burger place. Unlike me, Shinko never had any trouble keeping her voice down.
"Dam boy regulars…" I muttered angrily again. Maybe I should introduce myself; I am Lee, Sachiko, better known as Lili.
My fellow regulars from the girls' team exchanged "here she goes again looks." Our Captain, Sai Kiya, and her best friend, as well as our team prodigy, Koyumi Kisa, let out identical sighs. Our doubles 2 pair, twins Kirara Kira and Kara both giggled at us – their senpais. They were the only second year girl regulars. The other two regulars were up front getting our food. Third years Ryuzaki Rizu (coach's oldest granddaughter), and Momoshiro Kaori, our vice captain, both laughed at something the flirtatious boy working the counter said, before Rizu-chan grabbed the tray and they both walked slowly back to us.
"The boys aren't that bad," Ki-chan smiled, "Kaori-senpai's cousin is a regular, right?"
"Course you would know," her sister muttered smiling, evilly as she prepared to tease her sister.
"Yups, cause I told you guys yesterday that he made the regulars again," we all jumped as Kaori-chan and Rizu-chan slipped into the table with us.
"You did?" the always-oblivious Ka-chan sweat-dropped as she stared blankly at Rizu-chan.
Ki-chan smiled slightly as she sighed, "Sorry bout my sister." We all waved away the apology – we were use to the way the twins acted.
"Yes, I've always wanted to meet the other regulars, but some how I never have… I suppose Take-chan and I aren't exactly as close as we could be though, I mean we hardly ever talk since I joined the tennis team in year one…" Kaori continued.
I glanced respectfully at our vice-captain, and sighed. Most of my friends seemed so mature. I have a lot of years of growing up to do before I can catch up to them.
Sai, who'd been almost silent until then smiled at us, "Don't worry Lili. We will defiantly win nationals this year, no problem. I mean, our teamwork is much better than last years, and we came in second last year!"
That was our Captain for you, always encouraging and giving us all hope.
"Hai!" the twins chorused together.
"And we…" Ka-chan began
"Are much stronger," Ki-chan continued
"Than last year!" the two finished together.
"As are we," Shinko granted us one of her rare smiles.
"I'll be right back guys, I need a breath of air," murmured Koyumi, or Yumi as we called her, as she stood gracefully up. Several boys sighed wishfully as they stared at her. Yumi had always gotten the most attention from boys. With her dark blond hair, so much lighter than the dark reds, blacks, and browns that were the usual hair colors of the Japanese, she stood out like a sore thumb. More than one boy asked her out several times a day.
"Ah! Um, Yumi-sama are you prepared for our math test tomorrow?" one brave boy called out to her.
He was rewarded with a smile, "Hai, and you, Akaya-san?"
He blushed, "ah, I still must study more," he admitted ashamedly, "there is still much I do not understand."
"What is it?" her quick breather forgotten, she walked quickly over to the table he sat with his friends. I saw all of them almost faint with excitement.
"Yumi is so oblivious," Rizu-chan sighed, "She doesn't even notice that half the boys in our grade are in love with her."
"In our grade? Try the entire country," laughed Sai.
"She's too nice," meanwhile Ka-chan was whining, "she makes the rest of us look bad!"
Ki-chan smiled, and pat her twin on the back, "Don't blame her. Some are born angels, while the rest of us are destined to remain poor lonely, ordinary girls who can never be perfect."
Shinko, who, like me, had been watching the others talk, smiled shyly, "We should go and practice soon, right?"
"Eh? Oh ya…practice…" sometimes its really hard to believe Sai is our captain, the way she constantly forgets things like practice, "Oi! Yumi, we have to practice, get over here and eat so we can head over to the tennis courts!" Our captain's voice rang throughout the entire joint, making everyone turn and stare at us.
"Oh, yes, Gomen," she apologized to the boys, who she had to stop helping, "I'll eat fast so we can practice hard," she ran over.
Yumi did eat fast. Much faster than me, or any of the others, course, to be fair… she also had a lot less to eat, just a salad when the rest of us had burgers and fries, and shakes, in addition to our own small salads, "Ok, now it looks like I have enough time to grab that breather I'd wanted earlier," she stood quickly, and started headed for the door. When…
"Yumi-senpai!" a first year from the tennis club ran over, bowing respectfully and staring up at my friend with hopeful eyes, "Could you help me with my swing please!"
"Oh, um hai," once again my friend gave into another's request as she allowed the first year the grab her hand and drag her off to the courts, "I'll meet you there!" she called as they ran out the door, almost knocking over a large group of kids, about our age, "Gomen!" she called to them before running as fast as she could to catch up to the first year.
One of the girls looked surprised, then looking around and spotting us, dashed over and smiled, "Hello Captain, Vice-Captain, senpais, Rizu-nee-chan."
"Sakuno!" Rizu-chan reached over and wrapped the smaller girl in a tight hug, and smiling, "what are you doing here?"
We all looked at the junior member of out team and smiled, "Sakuno-chan, have you improved much in tennis?" Sai leaned over flashing the first year a grin.
Rizu-chan elbowed her, "It's only been since this morning, and don't you think that she needs a little bit more time than that to improve?"
Sai looked thoughtful, "Right, I kinda forgot that its only been a few hours…"
We all sweat-dropped – really, HOW did this airhead become our captain?
"Hoi Hoi! Sakuno-chan, who are your friends?" a bouncing red head came over to us. I studied him for a second, wondering why he looked so familiar. Then I remembered:
~Flashback~
"Kikumaru-sama is it, like totally, true that you became a regular on the tennis team?" one of the most annoying girls in class fluttered her eyelashes at the hyper tennis player. Shinko and I exchanged eye-rolls as we watched her flirt with the boy.
"Nya! Its true!" the happy-go-lucky boy grinned, and gave her the victory sign, "Me and Oishi are gonna be the number one doubles pair in Japan!"
I knew they'd never really be number one, at least not as long as Shinko and I were in doubles, but we'd never been ones to draw attention to ourselves, at least she hadn't, so I kept quiet… for her sake.
~End~
Kikumaru, Eiji. He'd been one of Shinko's and my classmates the previous year and was one of the boy's team regulars that I despised for stealing all the attention from the girls team.
Did Shinko remember? The look on her face made me believe that she did. "Sai, Yumi is waiting, remember? We should go to practice," her soft voice floated across the table, and we all jumped up.
"Bye Sakuno!" Rizu-chan called to her cousin as she jumped up.
"Later Sakuno-chan," we echoed as we followed her out the door, leaving a confused Kikumaru-san, and a slightly disappointed Sakuno in our wake.
By the time we'd gotten to the courts, Yumi and the first year were sitting talking while sipping sodas. The poor kid looked thrilled the famous (or infamous depending on whether of not you were her opponent) tensai was talking to her. Yumi might not be especially famous out side of the girls tennis club for anything other than her looks, but many of the younger girls looked up to her. As we approached, Yumi excused herself from the young girl and ran over to us, "Practice time?"
Sai stepped onto the court, and we all followed, "Ok, I want Ki-chan and Lili to play against Ka-chan and Shinko!" she ordered, "Rizu-chin, you and Yumi play a light practice game," she continued, stressing the word light as she looked at our prodigy, "Kaori-chan, you and I will rally for a bit before our practice game," she finished. I smiled, this was why air-headed, forgetful, and often klutzy Sai was our captain. She had a knack of knowing exactly what everyone would need to improve. Having me and Ki-chan play against out doubles partners would help us deal with playing against someone who knows our playing styles almost as well as we did. Also if Shinko or I were ever to get sick or hurt on the day of a match, the other could play with the twin we practiced with for doubles 1 if necessary.
I was a little disappointed that Sai and Yumi weren't playing each other – they were the 2 best players on our team and yet as far as I knew they'd never played against each other for many years. Probably because of that promise they made in 1st grade… I shrugged off my disappointment, playing against Yumi would help Rizu-chan finally perfect that serve she's been working on - I'm pretty sure Yumi is the only one who'd be able to figure out what keeps going wrong with it. And having Kaori-chan play against Sai will let Sai figure out if Kaori-chan has been working on her power, like she promised, so she won't always have to worry about whether or not her ability to copy almost anybodies techniques would be enough.
"Lili-senpai! Get over here so I can beat you and my little sister into the ground!" Ka-chan shouted, and I ran over quickly so we could start our game.
Eiji
Sakuno-chan seemed to have disappeared. I looked around the restaurant to see her talking to a group of older girls. I walked over curiously, a few of them looked a kinda familiar, "Hoi hoi! Sakuno-chan, who are your friends?" I wondered out loud.
Sakuno opened her mouth to answer, but one of the girls – a small girl with long black hair spoke before her, "Sai, Yumi is waiting…" her voice was too soft for me to hear the rest, but all the girls stood up, calling goodbye to Sakuno, and rushing out the door.
I was confused as of why the girls would rush out so suddenly, and felt bad for Sakuno who looked disappointed, "they were my cousin, Ryuzaki Rizu, and her best friends. I don't get a chance to talk to them very often… they're very busy…" she sighed.
"NYA! They shouldn't just leave like that! How mean!" I frowned, annoyed.
"It's fine, let's go eat," she ran over to Tomo-chan and sat down between her and Ochibi.
We ate quickly, then rushed out to the tennis courts, for tennis practice. The two girls trailed behind us, talking together. They wouldn't have to practice so they didn't feel the need to hurry.
The sounds of tennis balls being hit made us stop at the girl's courts. Eight girls were playing several matches – a doubles match and 2 singles matches. "Heeeeey, their pretty good!" I said, wide eyed as one of the doubles quickly scored a point. The taller girl quickly ran over and picked up the slightly smaller girl.
"Ki-chan! We did it, we beat Shinko and Ka-chan!" she exclaimed spinning her around and around.
"Ah, senpai… I am getting dizzy…" the girl murmured.
"That was a fluke!" another girl, who looked almost exactly like the one who'd gotten spun around scowled, "No way my baby sister could beat me! Even with playing with Lili-senpai!"
"Ka-chan, don't worry," another, slightly smaller, girl rested her hand lightly on the others shoulder, calming her down.
The next court over, one of the singles matches finished, "That's the set, Koyumi, 6 games to 2," the smaller girl, with dark blond hair grinned at the other, "You got better Rizu-chin!"
I looked around for the others. Some of the other regulars had stopped and watched with me, but the first years where already at the boys' tennis courts, and Tezuka was talking to Coach inside.
"Oh, I lost… again…" sighed one girl, "Game goes to Sai, six games to love…"
"No worries Momoshiro-senpai, you got much better. Captain hasn't lost in years!" a small first year ran over and smiled innocently up at the older girl.
"Momoshiro??" I exclaimed, a touch louder than necessary. My friends winced at the loudness, and a few of the girls (though none of the ones who'd just been playing) glanced over, laughed, and then continued talking.
"Who are those girls?" Oishi asked, nobody in particular.
"Eh?!" we weren't the only boys watching, and now most of them stared at us in shock.
The boy who seemed to be the leader of many of them spoke now, "You don't know them? Not even one of them?"
We all sweat-dropped, "No…"
He sighed, "They are the girls' team regulars. That girl there, " he pointed to the girl who'd won her game 6-love. She had long black hair, and sharp green eyes that glimmered with laughter, "She is the captain, Sai Kiya. Her opponent was Momoshiro, Kaori, the vice Captain. Normally she wouldn't lose in a love game, but she sprained her wrist a few weeks ago and it's still not completely healed," he nodded over at the other girl, whose long black hair was just a few inches shorter than the other, and had violet eyes that smiled, even though the rest of her face was full of disappointment, "Those girls," he pointed at two girls, one with dark brown hair, and one with light brown. Other than their hair colors they looked exactly the same, "are Kirara Kira, and Kara, better known as Ki-chan and Ka-chan. The one with the lighter brown hair is Ki-chan and the one with the darker brown is Ka-chan. Don't get them mixed up or they'll be pissed. They're the doubles two team."
"But they were just playing against each other!" I protested.
"The captain does that so that they can get use to playing against someone who knows all their moves. They were playing with our doubles one team," he pointed at the other two girls, a small one with long black hair, and a taller one with shorter red hair, "Shinkokami, Misa, and Lee, Sachiko. Known as Shinko and Lili. So far in the tournaments they've won all of their games with out letting their opponents score even one point."
I had to look at them in awe. They must be so strong, not letting their opponents score even one point, "What about the other two?" I asked.
"The one with the lighter brown hair is Ryuzaki Rizu, she is the coaches oldest granddaughter. And she," small hearts appeared in his eyes as he stared at the last girl, who had long dark blond hair, "She is Koyumi, Kisa. The team's tensai, and my future girlfriend!" he stared at her, as she flopped on the ground next to the girl she'd just been playing (Rizu-chan?).
"I'm beat. Nothing would taste better than a nice cold water bottle," Rizu-chan sighed.
"Mhmmmmm," the other agreed.
It was as if a small hurricane had appeared as half a dozen boys dashed about. I watched as one appeared on the court with 2 water bottles, holding them out respectfully to the two girls, "Here Koyumi-sama, Ryuzaki-sama," he said softly, bowing.
The girls looked surprised, "Arigato, but I've told you before… Yumi is fine…" said the blond.
"Hai, just call me Rizu…"
"Ah, yes… Yumi-sama, Rizu-sama," came the uncertain agreement, as he dashed back to his friends, looking as if he'd won the lottery.
"Who are you guys?" the captain came over, and leaned against the fence.
"Sai-sama!" the boy who'd told me everyone's names smiled at her.
She nodded at him, "Orochi-san," and continued to look at us, "Who are you guys?"
"Erm…" Oishi rubbed the back of his head.
"Sai-buchou! What are you doing? We need to practice if we want to continue our winning streak!" Rizu-chan, came over, with the other girl right behind her.
"Rizu-chan, I think she's talking to some people," the other girl wacked the first on the back of her head, "Sai, introduce us to your friends?" she said, going over and standing next to Sai-san.
"They aren't my friends, I'm just trying to figure out who the heck they are!" she was now annoyed, "HEY! Momoshiro, Lee, Shinkokami, Kiraras! Get over here," she shouted to the remaining members of her team.
"Um, did you just say Momoshiro?" Momo looked surprised.
"That's me! The one and only Momoshiro, Kaori!" the girl ran her fingers through her black hair, as she stopped next to Rizu-chan.
"Kaori-nee-chan… is that really you?" Momo continued to question staring at the girl.
"Hmmmm? Do I know you…" she frowned as she stared at him, "OH! I do know you! Take-chan, it's been how many years since we've talked?" she grinned.
"Many… when did you join the tennis team?"
"A year before you did," she informed him.
"Right…"
"Kaori-chan, are you planning on introducing us any time soon, or can I go home, cause Aniki is coming home today and if we're not doing anything important, I'd like to go and see him," Koyumi-san spoke quietly.
"Yumi! We still have a few hours of practice," informed her Captain, "and Kaori-chan is going to introduce us right now, right?"
"Why do I have the feeling that if I don't I'll wind up running laps," muttered the girl, "anyways, everyone… this is my cousin Momoshiro, Takeshi, but you can all call him Momo-chan," she sighed.
"And the others?" questioned Koyumi-chan.
"Um, I don't actually know them…" she admitted, "But since Mom told me Take-chan made the regulars I'm going to guess these are a few of the other regulars?"
"Hai," he agreed, "a few of them, Kaidoh, Kauru," he gave his rival a death glare, "Oishi Shuichiroh, and his doubles partner, Kikumaru Eiji, Fuji Shusuke, and Kawamura Takashi. Tezuka-buchou is with Coach planning, and Echizen Ryoma is over there with some of the others."
Most of the girls had subtle (and a few not so subtle) reactions at the mentions of the boy regulars, and not the positive ones that we usually got. Lee-chan was the first to react, scowling, not so subtly, and taking a half a step forward. Shinkokami-chan gave us a slightly annoyed look, as she grabbed her friend's arm and whispered quickly in her ear. The captain frowned, as she studied each of us, before rolling her eyes, a muttering something in Koyumi-san's ears. She nodded, and glanced at each of us before saying something back, that made the other roll her eyes, and move over to Lee-chan and Shinkokami-chan. The Kirara twins glared fairly openly before their senpai, Koyumi-chan dragged them away speaking sternly to them. Even though she was most likely defending us, I saw her give us a rather dirty look when she thought no one was looking. The only ones who didn't have bad reactions were Momo's cousin, and the girl she was standing with, Ryuzaki Rizu…
"I'll introduce you to my best friends," she said happily, "I'm obviously Momoshiro, Kaori, and this is Ryuzaki Rizu. She's your coach's granddaughter. This is our Captain Sai Kiya, but she prefers Sai so don't call her Kiya. She is the best Captain anyone could ever have! Those are Shinkokami Misa, and Lee Sachiko, our number one doubles pair. They can't be beat… and they never will be able to be," she continued to inform us, "The second years are Kirara Kira and Kara. Our doubles two team. They're almost as good as Shinko and Lili. They're rarely beat as well. And she is the best player on our team, well maybe second best since she and Sai have never played a game, Koyumi Kisa, the angel of our team. She can't say no to anyone!" as she named each of her friends, giving a few of their key tributes, I watched as they brightened, at the compliments, though Koyumi-chan let out a slight "can too!" when Kaori-chan claimed she couldn't say no.
"Don't bother with formalities with us," their captain told us, now looking much more relaxed, "we really don't like them that much. Just call us by our nicknames, everyone does," she looked at the others, who nodded their permission, before continuing, though many of them looked slightly resentful as she told us their nicknames, "I'm Sai, people call Shinkokami Shinko, and Lee, Lili," the doubles one pair showed no reaction, choosing instead to just ignore us, "the twins are Ki-chan for Kira, and Ka-chan for Kara," as she named the twins Kira, or well, Ki-chan I suppose gave us a bright smile, her former glare forgotten, though Ka-chan still looked slightly resentful, "Kaori-chan prefers just Kaori-chan and Rizu-chan is the same, and Koyumi likes Yumi better than any of the other names people call her," she finished, as Yumi grinned at us.
They all walked easily off the courts, talking. Most of them just ignored us. "LET'S GET ICE CREAM!" shrieked Sai. I jumped, suddenly the Captain who'd seemed so serious on the court was as hyper as me.
"NYA! I WANNA COME!" I bounced up to her.
"Hai!" she agreed, "Come on Yumi we're getting ice cream! Guys this is an order from your captain!" she announced. The other girl regulars sweat-dropped as the walked over to her muttering, "same old Captain." Apparently this wasn't unusual behavior for her. I smiled. If their Captain was so hyper off the court then their team must be fantastic.
I heard Yumi-chan mutter softly, "What happened to practice?" as she followed Sai-chan.
Yumi
I sighed as my best friend dragged me over to where the boy regulars stood. 'What happened to practice,' I wondered. While I stood with the boys, she ran off coming back first with the twins, then Shinko and Lili. By that time Kaori-chan and Rizu-chan had been smart enough to walk over themselves, rather than risk getting dragged by Sai. "Ok! All ready," a smiling Captain bounced over to the rest of us.
The entire boys regular team was there, including that freshman kid who'd gone over to the courts rather than watch us practice with his sempais, and the Captain. Soon Sakuno-chan ran over with one of her friends, and 3 other freshman boys.
"Yumi-senpai!" she smiled, "this is my friend Tomo," she smiled at me.
I grinned at them both, "Hey Sakuno-chan, Tomo-chan it is very nice to meet you. Are you coming with us as well?"
"Hai," the girls chorused.
"That's great!" and it really was. I liked Rizu-chan's cousin a lot, though the busy training schedule we kept (practicing from 6am till when school starts and then from when school gets out till 6 pm on weekdays and from 10am-5pm on weekends, with only a brief break for lunch) didn't leave us a lot of time to spend with other people. I continued walking with the two girls as we made our way to the ice cream store with everyone else. The twins were arguing fiercely over one thing or another. Rizu-chan and Kaori-chan were talking tactics for our next match, behind them Shinko was reasoning with Lili, no doubt trying to convince her the boys weren't as bad we we'd originally thought. Sai skipped ahead of everybody, not really paying attention to anything.
Which would explain how she ran into a pole.
A very obvious pole that anyone could see.
Same old Captain.
"YIKES! SAI ARE YOU OK!" Ka-chan ran over wide-eyed to her. I sighed. She'd forgotten Captain does stuff like the all the time.
"Here Sai, hand, good. You're fine. Don't worry," I told her, brushing the dirt off of her back and patting her on the head as one might a dog or a very small child. Likewise, she stuck her tongue out, acting her part. This happened often. I'm not sure how, as Sai is a month older than me, but somehow we fall into the parts of older and younger sister. I can't help but treat her like a 5 year old when she acts like one, while she on the other hand often acts as if I am her older sister, or creepily enough, her mother. We know it's strange but it amuses the others and we both know when it's time to act our own age again.
"NYA! Yumi-chan why do you act like her mother?" the hyperactive redhead who Momo-chan had introduced as Kikumaru Eiji bounced over to us as cheerfully as Sai would.
I responded as maturely as Sai would, a stuck out tongue, "Cause she needs adult supervision," I replied.
This seemed to confuse everyone, except for the other girl regulars, who just laughed, "Why does she act so young then nya?" he responded, frowning as he tried to figure it out.
"Cause if I didn't she wouldn't be able to act so old," giggled Sai, "We balance each other out. Her older brother can act like a kid too, so she's use to it."
"ANIKI IS COMING TODAY!" I gasped. I'd forgotten that I'd sworn to my dad I'd be home early to greet him, and I knew that he'd be mad at me for forgetting. Thankfully Aniki would be there so he wouldn't do anything about it, "Sorry guys, but I gotta go, see ya tomorrow!"
I dashed off towards my house. Hopefully I wouldn't be home too late…
Fuji
I was shocked when Yumi-san suddenly dashed off. She'd said something about her brother and then practically disappeared. Her captain looked amused, and the others didn't seem to find this especially surprising so I suppose this, like the captain's sudden change of character when she got off the tennis court, was not unusual. "Why did Yumi-san run off like that?" I asked the captain.
"Her brother's coming home today! Course she'd rush," came the easy reply, then skipped over the Captain Tezuka before I could question her further.
I wasn't really sure why I was interested where she'd gone maybe it was the feeling of incompletion in the girl regulars with out one of their team members. At first glance everything seemed great with them, but… the twins looked disappointed, the other doubles pair looked bored with out their friend, Momo-chan's cousin and Coach's granddaughter were talking to Momo-chan, but neither seemed too interested in what anyone was saying. As for their Captain… well, with out her friend by her side she seemed so… I don't know. Of course it is very likely this is all in my head.
Lili-san poked Shinko-san, "We promised Jiro-kun we'd play a match with him and his friend member?"
Shinko-san looked relieved, "Right, sorry guys but we gotta go," so agreed.
"WAIT!" two identical voices called out, and Ki-san and Ka-san dashed over to them.
"We wanna watch, you guys said Jiro-san is super good right?" Ka-san dragged her sister over, then the four of them hurried off.
With only three of the girls left they seemed to feel a little awkward. I felt a pain of guilt, after all it wasn't their fault their friends had left. I was about to open my mouth to say something, when Kaori-san grabbed Momo-chan's arm, "I FORGOT! We're suppose to be at your house in 10 minuets for the family dinner!"
Momo's eyes widened, "That's right, I'd forgotten too."
They waved by to us, as the rushed in the direction that they'd come from.
When we were almost at the ice cream shop, Sai-san's phone vibrated. She opened it and read, what I assumed was a text. She poked Rizu-san, "Yumi and her brothers are going to have a tennis doubles tournament. She wants to know if we can play too. She's already texted Ki-chan, Ka-chan, Shinko, Lili, and even Jiro-kun and a few of his friends. They want to know if we can play too."
I doubted that anyone else heard them. I didn't mention it even when both girls muttered lame excuses and ran away. On the other hand… there was no reason that I couldn't arrange for us to "accidently" go to the tennis courts that the girls were having their tournament at…