Chapter Two
The chatter of students filled the courtyard during the lunch hour, the sun made it enjoyable to be outside instead of the dreadful indoors. Sakura Hinamori sat next to her boyfriend, Kunimitsu Tezuka, on one of the picnic tables next to the tennis courts. The couple was surrounded by the Top 8 Guys team, and some of the freshman that had joined the club the previous day full of questions. Sakura wished that Kasumi was going to be there, but unfortunately Kasumi was getting weighed during lunch, making Sakura the only girl at the table surrounded by a whole lot of guys. She was toying with the rice in the Benito box that Kasumi made for her and Kunimitsu when Arisa walks up to the table, The conversation at the table ceases and everyone's attention focuses on Arisa.
"Excuse me, Hinamori-senpai; can I please have a private word with you?" Arisa asked of her captain, in a hushed tone and a blush burning her cheeks. Sakura felt bad for all of the girls that always came up to the table to talk to someone, they were always blushing because they knew the chatter at the table would stop and everybody would be listening in to the conversation.
"Sure, Neoko-chan. Where would you like to have this private word with me at?" Sakura questioned as she pulled red and brown strands of hair out of her face, revealing that her blue-gray-green hazel eyes weren't staring coldly down at Arisa but were shimmering. When Arisa went up to Sakura she hadn't thought this far ahead, she actually thought that Sakura might even reject the idea of having a conversation with her, so she didn't know where she should suggest where they should go talk.
"Let's give these ladies some room to speak and go practice." Kunimitsu stated, noticing that the second year had no clue where she wanted to speak to Sakura at. He actually figured it would be easier for all the guys to get up and goes practice tennis then making the girls find a different place to talk about whatever Arisa needed to talk to Sakura privately about. Kunimitsu was the first to stand, followed by the Golden Pair, then Syusuke Fuji and Takashi Kawamura, and then by Takeshi and Kaoru Kaidoh, the last to stand was Sadaharu Inui. The small group headed towards the tennis hut to grab rackets and balls to rally with as the end of lunch passed. Sakura gestured for Arisa to seat at the picnic table once all the guys had gotten up and left.
"Now what were you wanting to talk to me about that you couldn't say in front of those guys?" Sakura inquired.
"It's not that I couldn't say what I need to say in front of them. It's just that I want to talk to you about a female tennis club thing and the guys don't really need to be a part of it. Plus, I didn't want to get Tezuka in trouble with Tezuka-senpai." Arisa began before Sakura cut in.
"Ah, you wanted to talk to me about Kasumi accidentally hitting that first year that completely over reacted? Kasumi explained everything last night to Kunimitsu and I, so there is really no point on you telling me what happened yesterday afternoon." Sakura stated bluntly.
"Well you see… I was hoping that you would schedule a meeting between the two so things could be settled and there would not be any more conflicts between the two of them. Also I wanted to tell you that I know Kasumi isn't allowed to play tennis on her brother's order here at Siegaku, but I was the one that tempted her to come into the tennis courts and rally with me." Arisa stated, Kasumi and she weren't real close friends but Arisa thought they were close enough where they would stand up for each other.
"If Kasumi did every little thing that her brother told her to do, she would never leave her house. So don't worry about it she didn't get in trouble for rallying with you yesterday, Kunimitsu will sometimes have Kasumi warm up the guys during tournaments. So she didn't get into trouble over just a simple rally with you, she only gets in trouble if she is skipping practice to mess around on the tennis courts. Since she was told to watch over the teams, she was allowed to rally or play anyone on the courts yesterday." Sakura clarified Kasumi's restriction at the tennis courts to Arisa.
"Oh, ok I think I understand now. But back to the real reason why I came to speak with you, Hinamori-senpai, do you think you will be able to have a conference between that first year Olsen and Tezuka?" Arisa questioned trying to put her worrying mind at ease.
"Yeah, I can do that if it will help settle things. Truthfully I wouldn't mind hazing the first year like the other senpais but Kunimitsu and I made a deal that we wouldn't take part of hazing anyone especially the first years. I'll text Kasumi here in a minute and tell her to meet me at the female courts before Olsen and I change for practice. I'll also grab Olsen before she makes it to the tennis hut that way we can talk about what happened yesterday, and hopefully get things resolved. I would really hate to have tension between the gymnastics team and us." Sakura said a smile forming on her lips; she was taking mental notes about Arisa. She had concluded in these few minutes of talking with the second year, that the second year reminded her lot of Oishi. With Arisa reminding her of Oishi, Sakura decided that if she didn't have a third year as her vice captain and if Arisa made the Top 8 Sakura wouldn't mind having Arisa as her vice captain.
"Thank you Hinamori-senpai, I really appreciate what you are doing. I guess I better be heading to class now, I'm thankful that you took the time to talk to me. I will see you at practice then." Arisa stammered, slightly taken about how at ease Sakura was talking with her. Sakura looked at the clock on the tower and saw that the bell rang for classes to begin a few minutes before.
"Yes, I will see you in practice and we both hurry and make it to class in time. Neoko-chan, you're a good person and I wish you well when you play in the ranking tournament tomorrow." Sakura said as she rose from the picnic table, letting Arisa in on something that she wasn't supposed to find out till tomorrow.
"Oh I have one more question to ask you, Hinamori-senpai. Is the rumor true that Tezuka and Momoshiro are going out?" Arisa questioned interested since she heard the rumors about her year mates since the previous day. Sakura busted out laughing surprised that anyone would actually believe that Kasumi and Takeshi would be dating. Arisa took Sakura's hysterical laughter as a no which she was glad to hear that because Kasumi and Takeshi in her mind made an awful couple there would be too much fighting. Arisa began her way towards the courtyard to meet up with all of her second year friends before heading towards class, leaving Sakura alone to make it to her own class. She slowly climbed up to the third story of the school; she would have just flown up the stairs if it wasn't packed with all the students trying to get back to their classes. It took her a few minutes to realize that Kasumi was the person that was just right in front of her. She wanted to say hi to Kasumi when she realized this, but Kasumi had already exited the flight of stairs and was heading towards her own class. When Sakura entered her classroom Kunimitsu was already sitting in his seat (that was right next to hers) waiting for her to return from talking to Arisa. She smiled at him before taking her seat, the teacher hadn't returned from his lunch yet so it allowed the students to talk for a little longer.
"Did you miss me, Mitsu?" Sakura question and teased her boyfriend, of so many years, at the same time.
"If you must know I did not have the complete lunch period with you. What did that second year want to talk to you about?" Kunimitsu replied not letting the teasing that Sakura was giving him affect him.
"She wanted to explain the reason why Kasumi was on the tennis courts yesterday playing instead of just watching the girls practice. Also she wanted to know if I could set up a conference between Kasumi and that first year that got hit yesterday. Which reminds me; do you mind texting Kasumi and tell her that I want to see her at the tennis courts before she goes to gymnastics?" Sakura gave a brief shortened explanation of the conversation she had with the second year.
"I can and will do that for you. Truthfully I'm surprised on how much drama is going on because of this. I was passing a group of first years and I'm guessing the one that Kasumi accidentally hit yesterday was in the center telling the group about how this mean jealous senpai got pissed that she was doing better at tennis then the senpai. So the senpai sent a ball hurling towards her, hitting her in the head pretty hard and probably gave her a concussion. To say the least it was a very interesting tale because that doesn't sound at all like our Kasumi." Kunimitsu stated, informing Sakura that yesterday's event was becoming a quickly spread rumor.
"That's just wonderful; I have a dreadful first year causing problems with my best friend over a small accident. And you're correct the senpai in that story doesn't sound like Kasumi at all, ever since what happened to you during our first year Kasumi sworn never to participate in hazing anyone especially the first years."
"Are you calling my little sister a lair?" A voice questioned. The couple turns towards the voice at the front of the classroom. It was the new transfer student from America; he had short dyed royal blue hair and matching blue eyes. Kunimitsu raised a questioning brow above his glasses, while Sakura just stared at him as if she couldn't believe that he had just butted into hers and Kunimitsu's conversation. "Didn't you just hear me? Are you calling my little sister a lair?" he repeated.
"We don't even know who you are, much less who your sister is." Sakura smarted back to him, not caring for his attitude.
"The name's Spike Olsen and my little sister is Nikki Olsen. You know the first year that got hit yesterday by that jealous senpai. Personally I think my sister is taking it too little with the name just calling the girl a jealous senpai, I think the girl is a bitch quite truthfully." He responded as he drew nearer towards the couple. Sakura wanted to lunge at the guy, but Kunimitsu stopped her with a glare of telling her to calm down for now.
"Ah that's an interesting point of view you have, because most people consider the person you call a bitch a very sweet shy person." Kunimitsu stated, a tint of ice slathered his words.
"I've been told by very many eye witnesses that the girl warned everybody by calling fly ball and to duck. It's not the girl's fault that your little sister got hurt; maybe your sister should listen better." Sakura snarled, she hated when people questioned her.
"From what I heard just a little bit ago, you sound like you're very close to the person that hit Nikki yesterday, making it sound like that you're siding with that girl just because she is possibly close to y'all. Therefore you're already bias against Nikki, when she is telling the truth and the bitch isn't. And it's just making the both of you look like sniveling idiots standing up for the bitch." Spike spoke striking nerves in Sakura and Kunimitsu.
"I'm not bias you jerk, as captain of the female's tennis club I cannot be bias against the participants of the club! Don't you dare call him and I bias because not everyone is siding with your little sister! As captain of the female tennis team I have a duty to make sure everyone is treated FAIRLY and if there is any problem I am the one to take care of it and I will do it FAIRLY." Sakura shouted at him as she leaped from her seat, she made sure she emphasized the part about being fair.
"Stop calling my little sister a bitch, you'll wind up regretting it if you don't. Kasumi wouldn't purposely injure anybody; even if it's just a soft hit she will come up to the person and apologize. My little sister doesn't lie, especially not about hitting someone. Her hitting your little sister was one of the first things out of her mouth confessing that she was rallying with a club member when she hit a bad lob. The ball accidentally hit your sister, which my sister ran over and began to apologize for what had happened. Your sister is the one over exaggerating this whole thing, trying to turn a lot of people against someone that most people think is very sweet." Kunimitsu hissed, sticking up for his little sister. Spike stepped towards Sakura trying to strike some fear into her by towering over her.
"Listen and listen to me good, Nikki doesn't lie to me either and I saw the bump on the back of her head from where the ball hit her. That bitch caused that bump because she got caught up in a fit of jealously because someone was better than her." Spike spoke the spit flinging onto Sakura.
"Listen to this Kasumi doesn't get jealous because people are better than her; she doesn't get caught up in jealous fits and starts attacking people." Sakura stared up at him; he was only an inch taller then she, debating whether or not she should just sucker punch him right in the nose. As if Kunimitsu was able to read her mind, he grabbed her arm and held onto it tight making sure she didn't do anything to physically harm the transfer student.
"I'm going to handle this Sakura." Kunimitsu said such a stern manner, even more stern than usual, as he stood up from his desk and closed the space between him and Spike.
"Oh, you're going to get it now." Sakura stated in a very serious tone.
"I really don't like how you are talking to my girlfriend or how you are talking about my little sister. I believe I actually told you not to call my sister a bitch anymore, did you think that I wouldn't hold true to my word?" Kunimitsu spoke, his eyes glaring down at Spike, as he towered over Spike by several inches. With Kunimitsu that close, Spike was slightly terrified that Kunimitsu might actually hit him physically. Spike turned on his heel mutter something about this wasn't over yet.
Sakura was making her way through the courtyard to the tennis courts; she was still fired up about what had happened in class after lunch. She wanted to take some of the frustration she had out on the freshman but knew that would not accomplish anything, expect for maybe freshman's older brother trying to attack her and at the moment it sounded really good to her. Students waved as Sakura passed them, even though she didn't want to admit it she really was the queen bee of Siegaku Junior High School. When there was movement beside her, she instantly knew that someone wanted to talk to her.
"What do you want?" Sakura growled, her mind still concentrating on the transfer student in her class. She really didn't feel like being around to people, she know if she didn't hurt want to hurt people she needed to get to the tennis courts so she could hit.
"Whoa someone has pissed you off, Hinamori." The person spoke beside her in a cheery tone that could only belong to Syusuke Fuji. She turned her head to see if her guess was right, and she was he walking right beside her. He was already dressed for practice but then again Kunimitsu did want the Regulars to arrive a little late today.
"Sorry Fuji, someone just got Kunimitsu and me in a time bomb situation. I though Kunimitsu might actually punch the person in class today." Sakura explained for her curtness.
"Wow it's only the second day and you're making enemies. Wait did I hear you right, someone was getting under Tezuka's skin so much that he almost lost his cool?" He said in a tone that made it seem like he was about to go pondering in his own thoughts.
"Kasumi-chan has undoubtly gotten herself into some trouble while we were gone at the tournament and she wonders Mitsu and I never let her out of sights normally. You got to love it whenever people are overdramatic especially first year girls with brothers in our grade. The girl got hit by a ball that Kasumi-chan hit. Her older brother heard Kunimitsu and I talking about it in class after lunch, pretty worried if I don't get this settled today they'll wind up trying to attack Kasumi-chan." She defended herself.
"Ah, little Kasumi-chan doesn't know how to keep her nose clean. If you had a free moment I wanted to talk to you." Syusuke stated as the topped the mound, were the tennis courts could easily be seen. Sakura couldn't respond because she noticed what was happening down at the tennis courts. Kasumi was doing back handsprings until she hit the fence and her two attackers chased her into it. One of her attackers Sakura recognized as Spike, and the other she concluded was Nikki, his little sister. When Kasumi hit the fence, Spike attacked. He gripped her by her throat and lifted her off the ground. Sakura was pissed, Kasumi was like her little sister and her best friend and she wasn't down there helping her out. Syusuke was wondering why Sakura wasn't responding, so he looked at the scene that Sakura was staring at. Syusuke looked slightly pissed at what was happening down at the courts, since Kasumi was a friend of his. The two make their way down the courts unsure what they were actually going to do, but they knew that it would somehow help Kasumi.
Sakura wanted so badly to run down there and punch one of them in the face but knew better than to get into a fist fight the second day of school. Sakura began looking down for something she could throw at the two to distract them and hopefully make them release Kasumi. She spotted the perfect thing in Syusuke's hand to use to advert the two's attention.
"Fuji do you by chance have two tennis balls on you?" Sakura questioned as she restrained herself to stay in the position that she was at. Syusuke was so shocked by Sakura's request that he forgot for a moment what was happening in front of their eyes.
"Um…yeah, I do actually. Kunimitsu wanted us to be slightly late today so I was going to hit some balls of the wall to get a little of a practice in. Why do you ask, Hinamori?" Fuji responded as he pulled two tennis balls out of his jacket pocket. He was still wondering what Sakura was thinking she was going to do with the racket and the tennis balls when Kasumi needed their help down at the tennis courts.
"I probably won't be able to get my perfect ace hit with your racket so do you mind using your prodigy powers and hitting the fence, maybe to startle the nimrods?" Sakura requested. She knew if she tried to hit with Syusuke's racket that it would probably wind up hitting Kasumi in the face or a few feet away from the troublesome duo. Syusuke understood now why Sakura was asking him those questions and had no problem doing what she requested. He shook his head and a smile had once again formed on his face while his sapphire blue eyes were wide open to make sure he got the accuracy that he wanted. In a blink of an eye the balls went hurdling towards the two that were tormenting Kasumi, the two balls stuck hard perfectly into the fence right about Spike and Nikki's head. The pair instantly turned trying to figure out where the balls had come from, Spike was the first one to figure it out when he saw Sakura on the top of the hill standing next to Syusuke. Spike signaled to Nikki where Sakura and Syusuke, his hand was still wrapped around Kasumi. Nikki was utterly floored by Syusuke's look, she made a mental note of getting to know him better and make him hers. Kasumi took advantage of Spike looking up at Sakura and Syusuke. She grabbed a hold of the part of the fence that was above her head, using her gymnastics leg muscles she was able whip her legs up knocking Spike in the jaw and having her legs land above her, making her look like spider-man. Spike stumbled back at the force of the impact of her feet connecting with his jaw; Nikki was too busy staring at Syusuke that she didn't notice that Spike was hit in the jaw. Syusuke began to laugh at what Kasumi had done, Sakura felt like laughing but she kept a straight face as she made her way down to the female tennis court and Syusuke followed her down chuckling to himself. Once Sakura and Syusuke made it down the mound to the tennis courts, Kasumi lunged herself landing beside Sakura, she wouldn't give Spike the pleasure of knowing that what had happened frightened her.
"What in the world are you two doing? Do you really think that you would be getting away with harassing a student on these courts?" Sakura snarled as she tried not to yell at Spike and Nikki for attacking her best friend.
"I told you this wasn't over with, you see I informed my sister about your little conference that you were going to have with that girl and requested that Nikki show me who the girl was that way I could make it perfectly clear what happens when you mess with my little sister." Spike explained a curt smile on his face; he was the tallest of this group and would use it to his advantage if he needed to.
"I believe I set up this conference so I could settle things between Tezuka-chan and Olsen-chan. Now Fuji do you mind being a mediator in this?" Sakura tried to keep a calm tone but it was slowly fading with Spike shredding it to pieces. She started up again not allowing anyone to answer or begin to interrupt. "Now I pretty much know both sides of the story, Tezuka-chan's by mouth last night and Olsen-chan your side has been spreading like wild fire around the school. Now Tezuka-chan's seems to be more truthful to people personalities then yours Olsen-chan. But you are a first year so I cannot be utterly sure whether or not Tezuka-chan is telling the truth." Sakura took a pause for a breath and to study people's faces mainly two. Nikki seemed utterly pleased thinking that Sakura was siding with her, while Kasumi looked shocked that her word was being doubted by her best friend. Sakura kept looking stern, she didn't want to do what she was doing especially against her best friend but she would explain everything later to Kasumi.
"Hinamori, Tezuka-chan has a past history of telling the truth and not straying on her words. From this other girls actions that I have seen in the past ten minutes I would be siding with Tezuka-chan." Syusuke stated as if standing up for Kasumi when he normally preferred people to suffer.
"Fuji we cannot use the behavior that we have seen against Tezuka-chan, we are here discuss the situation from yesterday. I normally would too believe Tezuka-chan, but since I want this over with I'm going to take Olsen-chan's side. Not that I totally believe her and will not punish her for her aggressive behavior that she just showed against Tezuka-chan but I want this to end. I'm going to offer her a chance to practice with the Top 8 this afternoon instead of having to pick up balls this afternoon. For her punishment is that she has to run 30 laps around the field."
"Kasumi! Kasumi!" A female voice called out, in a searching tone. The group looks up and spots a girl with dark auburn and dark brown hazel eyes. Kasumi took the calling voice as her cue to leave; she scouted back from Syusuke and Sakura ready to leave.
"Sounds like one of you gymnastics friends is looking for you, Tezuka-chan. Now I believe that ends this little conference, I hope I won't have to be having another one of these things again between the both of you again anytime soon. Tezuka-chan the gymnastics team needs you, Olsen-chan start running your laps then you can join the Top 8 practice. Olsen I believe you can leave now and Fuji you needed to speak with me earlier." Everyone left that Sakura dismissed. Syusuke looked around making sure they were truly alone, Kasumi was already on the top of the mound, Nikki was on her way to the field and Spike had disappeared.
"Yes, I do want to talk to you. I need your help getting this girl, well more like help on how to ask this girl out." Syusuke said as if he was talking about a mass of things. This made Sakura want the specifics.
"Each girl is a different type so I need to know who this girl is and I can help you." Sakura explained interested in who the girl was that Syusuke likes.
"Well it's….."