Well, here's the next chapter, hope everybody enjoys it! Can't wait for some reviews or favs. also, note-Ria calls them by their first names because it's a habit she had from america. Please R&R!

The basketball practice was so intense and amazing, that it shocked Ria to the core, and she wondered what would happen in an actual game between another school and Teiko.

They-would-dominate! There was no doubt about it, she watched them warm up and practice, she watched their captain berate them mercilessly, she watched Ryouta the copycat, Daiki the ace, Shintarou the shooter, Atsushi with his pure power, and Tetsuya's shadow passes...and she watched Akashi, who was just pure awesome...in his own little world.

Ria still thought him a jerk, but that was her opinion. They whole team seemed to have respect for him, and besides that, Kuroko didn't seem to mind him, and he actually didn't seem afraid of him at all. Which meant if Kuroko wasn't afraid she wouldn't be afraid, except maybe she was afraid of the fondness Akashi had for Kuroko, which sent shivers down her spine.

Ria wasn't even sure that they noticed her up on the bleachers, watching intently. They only started to notice her when she came down and sat next to Satsuke, who was promptly taking notes, observing, filling out forms and all kinds of weird stuff. When she saw Ria she frowned and pointed to the door. "Visitors aren't allowed," she said, "It's Akashi's rule."

"Oh," Ria said, shifting uncomfortably in the empty seat next to Teiko basketball team's manager, then she smiled and nodded, "but Akashi's the one who said I was allowed! I told him Tetsuya wanted me here and he said it was OK just this once."

Satsuke thought a moment, then smiled back, "well, if you're Tetsu's friend then that's ok! I'm Momoi."

"Hi then, I'm Ahriiah Sy-...I mean, Syseko Ahriiah. Sorry, I come from America, so I'm fairly new, I actually just arrived today, so...yeah."

"Oh!" Satsuke beamed at Ria and exclaimed, "I could show you around! If you're Tetsu's friend you're mine! Plus, I know somebody who's from America also. He's really tall and he has red hair and red eyes...did you know that...how can you speak Japanese so fluently if you're new...Kuroko chan is really awesome..." and so Ria sat with Satsuke and listened, talked, and listened some more, grateful that she didn't actually have to do much. She watched the notes Satsuke wrote as they talked, mainly about Teiko's basketball team and a few others. Ria was surprised at how much Satsuke knew about other people, and she meant to ask about it, except as soon as the thought came to mind the practice suddenly ended with Akashi calling for them to arrive on time next practice (this was mainly directed towards Ryouta, who continued to practice even while everybody left).

Ria stayed and watched, wanting to know as much as she could about Teiko's basketball team, which she was sure she could acquire the information quite accurately with the always sunshine Ryouta.

She stayed over on the sides of the court curled in a ball with her knees against her chest and elbows resting on her knees, her forearms against her cheeks while she rested her chin on her elbows and observed Ryouta's solemn training. Ria had thought he was always sunshine at first but it looked as if he was as gloom and doom as Akashi right now. He must be upset that he had extra training.

After he was finished he ran the laps obediently before finally coming to the bench to dry off. When he did so Ria stepped down and sat on the bench next to Ryouta. For a moment he didn't even know she was there until finally, "Uwaaaaaaaah, who are you? what are you doing here?!"

"It's me," Ria said, giggling.

"How long have you been here?" Ryouta asked.

"A while now," she replied.

"You're just like Kurokocchi," Ryouta whined, pouting, "So you're not Akashicchi's girlfriend?"

Ria snorted, "No."

"Aaaawwww...and I thought he'd actually gotten smart, I would have asked you out the first I saw you if I was him!" Ryouta sighed and toweled his hair, then his long legs, afterwards he stood and offered his hand, his smile making her heart skip a beat, and for a moment she just stared at him in shock. Asked her out? No way Ryouta! Please do! she thought desperately, hoping he would somehow hear her plea through some sort of magic. when he didn't though, she sighed and accepted his hand, commanding the disturbing thoughts to go away so they wouldn't effect her outward appearance.

"So, Ryouta..."

"Yeah, what?" asked as they walked outside together.

"What's Teiko's basketball team like?" Ria asked slowly, making sure she wasn't offending him by accident, but he seemed quite cheerful. He immediately beamed and started a long conversation about how they were called the Generation of Miracles, how they had been recruited and how he had joined. He talked about how amazing Daiki was, and how Daiki could dunk, and how he planned to beat Daiki, and Daiki this and Daiki that, and he talked about how they had won all the matches they had ever played, how Murasakibara was so creepy and how he ate a lot and how Midorima was into "Oha-Asa" horoscopes, and then he talked more about Daiki, and how Daiki had beat a person named Kagami Taiga who was really good at basketball though and airhead, and he talked about Daiki this and that, and how amazingly good at basketball he was and how Daiki could probably beat a whole basketball team by himself and how Aomine used to play street-ball.

It was so shocking that Ryouta had changed from the Generation of Miracles to Aomine in so little time that she found herself rapt in Ryouta's blabbering about this supposedly amazing guy.

When Ryouta finished, finally out of breath, Ria was awed by his enthusiasm, and it only inflated her good spirits more, so she started asking question and Ryouta answered without hesitation. She asked about Daiki, how Daiki acted, and Ryouta told her about Daiki's "The only one who can beat me is me," rule, which really set Ria off. He also told her about the principle of the school with was 'winning is everything,' which also made Ria angry.

So she asked about Akashi, and the blond got so enthusiastic that she didn't have to ask anything about the team captain after that because Kise didn't leave anything out. He told her everything he knew about Akashi, which was surprisingly much, and she learned that the red haired mismatched eyes captain was probably one of the scariest people ever, and how Akashi was known to make people run laps for even the slightest thing. He talked about how Akashi took them out to eat at very nice restaurants after every game they played against a strong opponent.

And then their chat moved on to the green haired star shooter, then to Tetsuya, and then to Kise himself, who talked so much about himself, that he was a model and the copycat, that Ria became dizzy from all that was said.

"This is where I turn, Ryouta, see you tomorrow...I'm allowed to come watch practice again if I want right?" She asked, turning to wave at him as she left.

Ryouta nodded, "If he approves," the blond said, beaming at her and waving back.

"If he approves my ass," she mumbled, grumbling on her way home, when she arrived at the doorstep she heard a call from inside. "Is that you, Arii? I need your help, I can't find the cooking pan!"

Ria froze in shock, then entered the house warily, "Grandma, why are you here?" she asked, slipping off her shoes and walking into the cooking room.

"Oh, honey you're home!" her grandma exclaimed, hobbling over to Ria and wrapping her slender arms around her granddaughter.

Ria pushed her arms off though. "Grandma where's mom?" she looked around in confusion. Though her mom wasn't there normally in the morning to see her off because she was sleeping her mom always took the liberty of saying hi to her when she arrived back at home. It was too much to walk around the house all the time with baby about to come but...

"C'mere honey," her grandmother said, pulling her into the cooking room, "show me how they do it these days, my mind seems to be clouded somewhat."

"Grandma!" Ria shouted, her aggravation getting the better of her, she ripped her arm out of her grandmother's grip and whirled around, hoping to see some sign of her mother.

There was silence, and when she looked back to her grandmother the woman was crying silently at the table. "Grandma, what's wrong?"

"She's dead...your mothers dead, she died having twins at the hospital today, I'm sorry."