Petal 1: Meet Rose Ryu

"Hoi! Minna! Have you heard about the new student we are going to get today?" Marui yelled out happily.

"New student?" Yukimura questioned.

"Apparently the student is a freshman," Yanagi stated.

"Ehh! A freshman in a seniors' class! How does that work?" Niou asked suddenly interested.

"The student is a female freshman and has advanced two years in all of her classes. She will probably graduate early at this rate. I don't have any other information on the girl. Apparently I couldn't find anything else about her surprisingly," Yanagi replied.

"That is surprising," Sanada said. "Usually you can get any information you want on people coming into this school so not finding information on one student in surprising."

"We'll find out more information as we get to know her. I have a feeling she is outside the door waiting to be introduced," Yukimura said smiling with his eyes locked on the door.

Pretty soon the teacher came in with a smile on his face. He stood at the front and then announced, "Today, we will have a new student in our class. She has advanced two years in her classes so please go easy on her. You can come in now," he called out to the door.

The door slowly opened and all the third years learned in their seats trying to get a look at the new kid. What they saw surprised them. They saw a girl with black hair that went all the way to her knees. She had cerulean blue eyes and a cute face that could be that of a dolls'. She had a red sun earring on her left ear and a yellow crescent on her right.

"Please introduce yourself to the class," the teacher said to the new student.

"Yoroshiku. I am Rose, Ryu Rose. I'm not very sociable so please don't try to get close to me. You might regret it later," Rose finished off with a glare.

The entire class gulped as soon as she made eye contact with them. Even the teacher gulped in fear as he said, "Is there anyone who would like to ask Ryu-san a question?"

"One, don't call me Ryu-san. It makes me feel old. Call me Rose-chan please," Rose said before anyone even raised their hands.

Everyone slowly nodded in agreement before the hands started shooting up in the air for questions.

"What are your favorite hobbies?" a random girl asked.

"I guess playing sports would be my hobby along with other things," Rose answered.

"What sport do you play?" a random boy asked.

"Tennis," she replied.

"Are you any good?" Niou asked.

"I don't know. You'll have to see to find out," she replied with a blank expression on her face.

"Demo, the boy's and girl's team are separate. That means we won't see you at all," Marui whined.

"On the contrary," Rose responded.

"Hah?" Marui said.

"My family has gotten the school and tennis association to let me join this school's male tennis team," she replied with a smile on her face.

"Souka," Yukimura said. "Seems we will be seeing a lot of each other," he finished with a smile, which was too sweet to be true, aimed at the girl.

Everyone shuddered as they saw Yukimura's smile. The girl however, didn't flinch whatsoever which was surprising to the class. The boy's smile could make anyone run away and yet this girl was able to stare right at him without moving an inch.

The teacher decided to break the glaring contest by saying, "Rose-chan, you will be seating next to Marui. Marui, can you please raise your hand?"

Marui raised his hand in excitement and watched as the girl bowed to the teacher and made her way to him. The others were surprised at her. They didn't smell any perfume, she wasn't wearing any make-up, and she was just being her natural-self which was surprising for most girls of their school. The girl didn't even go into fan-girl mode when she saw the tennis regulars. Anyone who was coming to this school died to see the tennis regulars while this girl just brushed them off.

Yukimura was certainly surprised that the girl didn't even flinch when he smiled at her. He would've thought for sure that she would have run off, but she didn't. He decided that this girl was interesting and that he would find out more about her later in the day.

After class ended, the class was certainly in shock. Why? Because Rose had actually answered any question that no one else could answer. She could even answer the questions that Yanagi had some trouble with.

The tennis regulars saw her leave the room and immediately followed her planning to introduce them to the tennis regulars right away. They saw her walking to the tennis courts and saw a fuming Kirihara waiting for them.

As soon as Kirihara saw who he was looking for he immediately yelled, "You!"

The girl looked at him and asked, "What about me?"

Kirihara walked, more like stomped, over to Rose and yelled, "People call you the young genius of her class. I'll have you know that I am the youngest prodigy at this school you got that?"

"Hai, hai, senpai." Rose answered bluntly and bored.

"Are you trying to mock me?"

"No, but are you implying that I don't have the skills to match my title?"

"Yes!" Kirihara yelled. When it came to being the youngest prodigy of Rikkaidai, he didn't want to give anyone else that title. He wanted to make sure that the girl was worth it to even be in the male tennis club.

"Akaya, stop this at once," Yukimura said trying to get Kirihara to calm down.

"Demo, buchou. How do we even know that this girl is good enough to be in the team?" Kirihara said knowing he would get what he wanted. "Let me play a match against her. If she can even gain five games against me, I'll accept her into the club and stop bugging her about it."

"Seems like a good deal Yukimura," Sanada stated, "This way we can see whether the girl is truly as good as the rumors say."

"Alright," Yukimura said before sighing. "Do you mind playing a match against Akaya?" Yukimura asked Rose.

Rose shrugged before saying, "I'll need a racket. I left mine at home today hoping to just watch your practice before I join in tomorrow."

"We can lend you one of ours," Kirihara said obviously excited about playing the girl.

Niou came out a few minutes later carrying a spare racket for Rose to use for her match.

"This is going to be really exciting neh?" Marui said popping his favorite gum.

"You bet," Niou answered. "Can't wait to see how that girl plays."