Chapter Three - I'll Play You!
The group of boys stood there, baffled. Their jaws had dropped and they were trying to work out how this ray of sunshine is in any possible way related to the moody, unsociable Ryoma. Ruka stood there, her hand linked behind her back with a cute smile on her face.
"Why is my family so embarrassing." Ryoma let out a sigh as he looked at his dazed team-mates, unable to take their eyes of the wonderful Ruka. Ruka turned her head toward Ryoma and looked at him menacingly, she began a quiet evil laugh as she lifted her hands up.
"What was that~ I'm embarrassing eh?" Her tone was low and mischievous. She grabbed Ryoma by the shoulders and started shaking him backwards and forwards quickly.
"How dare you say that about your beloved cousin who loves you very much! What sort a cousin are you?! You jerk!" she continued shaking him and blurting out words in English the team could not understand. By this point they'd snapped out of there daze, after all looks are not always what they seem. Ruka stopped shaking Ryoma and he stumbled trying to regain his balance falling onto Momoshiro.
"You okay there buddy?" Momoshiro grinned at him "Man, you've really grown, you're nearly as tall as me!" Momoshiro cried out in amazement, Ryoma didn't grow that much in his second year at junior high so this was a surprise for him. Ryoma turned a cold shoulder to him one he regained his balance.
"Momo-semplai's embarrassing to." Ryoma said bluntly turning away from him.
"What was that?!" Momoshiro shouted as he jumped onto Ryoma's back and began wrestling him. Meanwhile Ruka had turned her attention over to the regulars.
"Let's see.." She thought to herself and pointed at the boy with the glasses,
"You're Inui," she pointed at him and moved her finger to the boy with a smile on his face,
"Fuji," She slid her finger again and moved onto the shy one,
"Kawamura," she moved again to the boy with the bangs,
"Oishi," and she landed her finger at the end, pointing her pinger at the boy with the bandanna.
"Snake-san!" She said cheekily with a smile, Kaidoh hissed at her.
"What do ya' mean Snake-san! Who'd you think you are!" he shouted into her face.
"Boo. Snake-san is mean!" She replied in a childish manor "I was only joking." She stated as she looked up at Kaidoh.
"I know you're Kaidoh!" She grinned at him and he turned his face away, blushing.
"How do you know all our names, Ruka-chan?" Fuji asked curiously.
"When Ryoma stayed with me in the U.S. all he'd ever do was talk about you guys!" She giggled and Ryoma stopped fighting with Momoshiro and attacked Ruka
"Oi! Don't say things like that, Ruka!" Ryoma snapped at her.
"Naw, am I embarrassing you, Ryo~ma~kun~?" She teased him.
"Yeah. So why don't you just go home. You don't like tennis anyway, you're wasting everyone's time." Ryoma bluntly stated.
"No way! Blondie-san doesn't like tennis?" Eiji cried in a disappointed tone. Ruka froze as he looked upon her with his teary puppy dog eyes again.
"Hey, stop that. It's not that I don't like it-" Ruka backed away as Eiji's face drew closer to hers " I just-" She fumbled with her words to put it in the right way to the childish boy in front of her. What was his problem?
"Ryoma was lying. I do like tennis." Ruka said half-heartedly.
"That's a lie." Inui mumbled
"Uh,uh." Eiji moved his finger side to side "It's not good to lie little girl." Eiji tutted.
"What did you expect me to say when you give me those puppy dog eyes!" Ruka clenched her fists as she shouted in her defence.
"Well, not to lie" Eiji folded his arms and looked away in disappointment.
"Fine." She let out a sigh " I just haven't enjoyed it recently, it's not fun any more." she murmured.
"You just can't handle the training" Ryoma blurted in.
"Shut up, it's nothing to do with you!" Ruka pulled Ryoma's cheeks apart, making his face look fat and oblong.
"Ahh, stop that." He smacked Ruka's hands away and rubbed his cheeks, everyone let out a chuckle at the embarrassed Ryoma.
"Like. I. Said." Ruka continued " It was all training and no fun. I lost interest that's all" She explained
"So, you wanna play now?" Eiji popped back up into her face, Ruka stumbled backward.
"Eh? Now? Why?" She questioned.
"You claim you don't like it but," Eiji swung his arm around to the bag sitting on the floor outside the courts" That's your racquet, right?" Eiji grinned at her.
Ruka let out a sign and placed her hand on her hip.
"You got me." She said " Sure, why not? I'll play you!" Ruka grinned cheek to cheek and Eiji did the same.
