Chapter 3: Meet the Rest of the Crew

AN: Well, sorry for the long wait! ^^;;;; I didn't have time to work on this chapter, so I just started now. You can kill me if you wish too, it happens to me every weekday by my friends. SO technically, I'm an extra-condensed ghost. Ah, well. Please enjoy your long-awaited chappie!

Chapter 3 Begin!

"?!"

Kurai and Kara stood to the side looking amused, while the rest of the peanut gallery, also known as the tennis regulars, stood there with their mouths dropped wide open. Except Tezuka, of course, even though he was surprised as well. He just didn't show it, just like Fuji after a second's hesitation.

"You guys are catching flies and manners of insects in your mouths, you know," Kurai pointed out.

Kara just laughed hysterically. "This is the third time today it happened! I wish I had my camera with me right now!"

"This contradicts all my data," Inui muttered under breath, scratching out all data he had on Kara and frantically rewriting it. Kurai snorted under her breath about what a stalker Inui was, and Kara was just confuzzled. (AN: confuzzled! Gotta love that word)

Awkward silence ensured…NOT. An interruption near the door to the rooftop caused them all to turn their heads toward it. Their efforts were soon rewarded when a whole bunch of people burst through, running as if their lives depended on it. And when I said whole bunch of people, I mean like 20 or so different others, boy and girl.

"Hah, hah, ffffffffft. We managed to escape them."

One of the guys with red hair who wore a school uniform panted out. The people, minus Kara and Kurai stared at the newcomers to their roof.

"You guys seriously need to tone down on your dramatic entrances. Like A LOT." Kara said to the crowd of slowly recovering people.

"Shut up, Kara. It's not like you were the one chased by a crowd of rabid fangirls AND fangirls." One of the panting boys lying half dead on the ground said. "Wait."

"You're so STUPID, Jack. You mean fanBOYS, retard." Kurai retorted. "I swear, your brain is like, backwards."

"I agree," was chorused by several other voices as they regained their breaths.

"You guys are so mean! I'm not stupid and my brain is NOT backwards!" Jack cried out, in his defense.

"You know what they say about denial, Jack." A girl with white hair streaked through with purple and red "reminded" him.

"AGH!!!!!!!!" screeched a short guy with jet black hair with a streak of red through it. "JACK! YOU RUINED MY BAG!" The bag itself had a dirty footprint right in the middle.

"Dude, pipe down, Ryouta. You're such a drama queen." Kurai lazily flicked her hand at him. "Just wash it when we get home."

Well, that phrase shook the regulars out of their stupor. At first, they just watched the verbal exchange much like a tennis rally. But then…

"Wait, you guys live together? Like together, together?" Ryoma asked.

Everyone looked at him, everyone. He shrugged.

"Everyone is curious to know. Answer the question Kurai."

She sighed. "Well, if you must know, yes."

"So THAT'S who you lived with when you moved here a year ago," Ryoma mused. "And Nanako, okaa-san, and oyaji were worried about you. You've got a lot of people looking at you."

He looked pointedly at the crowd of people staring at him. As instinct goes, everyone else did too. Then someone noticed that one of them was a teacher.

"Sensei…?" Tezuka questioned. One of the people on the ground, leaped up.

"Hai, Tezuka-san?"

Everyone else stared at the so-called teacher. He looked only just slightly older than him. Too young… Everyone thought. Early twenties, pale smooth skin, layered shoulder length brown hair, heck, he could be a model! Only then did the rest of the people noticed that he looked slightly disheveled. Scratch that, EXTREMELY disheveled. Apparently, Kurai only noticed now too.

"What the HELL happened to all of you?!"

"We told you before, fangirls and fanboys were chasing us. Short term memory loss much, Kurai?" This was said by a girl who also looked like a model. Heck, everyone in the group, including Kurai and Kara, could be models!

"I was focusing on your flashy entrance more, Chouko. Seriously, there's got to be a better way of entering a room rather than barging in, running like the devil himself is after you. On second thought, replace devil with a word of your choice."

"Excuse me, Kurai-chan." Everyone's head turned toward Fuji. He smiled softly. "Do you mind introducing them to us, before you guys continue to verbally impale each other?"

Everyone else in the group shrugged. "We don't really care. It's all up to Kurai; she's our leader."

Well, this newfound revelation stunned everyone. They all turned to her. Needless to say, even Ryoma was surprised, but did not forget to voice his opinions about it.

"Since, when did you become a cult leader, Kurai?"

"Ha ha. Very funny, Ryoma." She stated all of this with a heavily sarcasm-laced tone. "Well, then I'll start from the very beginning."

She opened her mouth to talk, only to be interrupted by the door to the roof slamming wide open. Reflexively, everyone turned toward it, only to be horrified by the scores of fans pouring out of it.

"KYYYYYYAAAAAAAA~~~ EVEN THE TENNIS REGULAR-SAMAS ARE HERE! KYA!!!!!!!!"

The fans literally screeched, killing everyone's ears that were there. The very force of the shout required them to cover their ears, lest they bleed out and die.

"SHIT, THEY FOUND US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The group of people who were Kurai's loyal cough-not-cough followers who were there second screeched. Kara and Kurai just stood there looking amused, until they found out that some of the people were shouting THEIR names in succession as well. The regulars never saw someone's expression change as fast as theirs did. The color drained out of their face, only to be replaced by a look of sheer horror.

"Oh CRAP." Kara muttered darkly under her breath, an unreadable expression on her face.

"I don't think that even crap can cover this one, Kara." Kurai quickly turned to the gaping regulars. "Sempai-tachi and Ryoma, see you later at practice. I'll introduce my troupe to you then."

With that said, they turned and all but sprinted toward the rest of their troupe. The tennis regulars were quite curious about how they were going to escape until they noticed that they were desperately scrambling to the top of the fence that enclosed the rooftop.

"Kurai-sama! Kara-sama! Mirai-sama! Chouko-sama! Yuzuki-sama! Setsuko-sama! Risi-sama! Catherina-sama! Cathy-sama! Lina-sama! Lily-sama! Manushi-sama! Nici-sama! Laurie-sama! Justie-sama! (1) Toki-sama! Minoru-sama! Jack-sama! Michi-sama! Ryouta-sama! Noboru-sama! Ayumu-sama! (2)"

"STOP!" Oishi, the every worrying mom of the team, tried to cry out, but to no avail. They jumped anyway. The girls screamed while the boys gasped. Meanwhile, the regulars gave a wordless cry of shock and sprinted over to the fence to see if they had died or splattered their guts on the dirt ground below, to put it eloquently. But no, they survived. Drifting down as light as feathers and landing gracefully on their feet, rather like angels falling down from the sky. Most people who were outside at the moment, stood their staring at them like idiots. They started sprinting somewhere to an unknown situation. Kurai and Kara looked back up at the stunned regulars, and stuck out their tongues at them like little kids and did a peace sign. Then, they proceeded to run with the rest of the group.

"KYA~ SO COOL!"

That shout reverberated through the very foundation of the school. It only reminded the tennis regulars of the bad position they were in right now. It was lucky that they only escaped with a few scratches.

"This has developed into something interesting, ne? Tezuka?" The ever softly smiling tensai proceeded to say to his friend. Tezuka rubbed his temples; it seemed like this year was going to be more of a pain after all.

*Tennis Practice*

"Meh, Kurai~ I'm bored."

A white haired girl whined while counting the clouds in the sky. Kurai gritted her teeth.

"Well, deal with it, Yuzuki. Nothing's fair in life. Anyway, don't you have your own club to attend?"

"Oh shit. Gotta go Kurai! See you later!" With that, Yuzuki leapt up from the ground where she was just a second ago. She started sprinting towards the school, where she needed to attend her flower-arranging club (3). Kurai sighed.

"So scatter-brained. I wouldn't be surprised if she got run over by a truck one day and didn't even notice."

"Kurai! Don't say that!" Oishi fretted over the behavior of his kouhai. "What if that really happens?!"

"Relax Oishi-fukubuchou," Kurai drawled. "Something as little as that won't even dent my troupe."

They didn't have much to consider her words good or bad because they were then ordered by Tezuka to start practicing. He called everyone forward.

"Everyone, the ranking matches will start soon. Here are the listings."

He showed the board to everyone. There was a drawing of breath at those words and every junior and senior looked to see if their names were on the board. Several whoops and cheers from random people were heard after that, and the disappointed sighs from others. Frankly, the freshmen didn't even bother to look, including Kurai and Ryoma. But then…

"WHAT?! Kurai and Ryoma! You're on the list!"(4)

~A couple hours later~

"Meh, Kurai~ We're here~" sang Kara. Behind her, followed the rest of the peanut gallery. "Did you wait long?"

"Nah, practice just ended. And I do believe that I have to introduce all of you guys to everyone else. This will take awhile."

Soon, the stragglers from earlier on the roof arrived.

"Now then, who shall we start with?" questioned Kurai.

Fuji smiled at her. "I believe we should start with sensei. Even if he already introduced himself as our new homeroom teacher (5) to the seniors already."

"Ah, you've got us there. Toki~ It's your turn."

The male was surprised. "Ah, I guess it's me first then. Hello everyone. I am Toki. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Mirai, Toki's sister." Was the short reply from a woman who had a pair of headphones around her neck. "I'm the homeroom teacher for some of the seniors."

"I'm Chouko!" A grinning girl said next to Ryouta, as introduced earlier in the chapter. "And these are my cute little bros, Ryouta and Michi." She said this while ruffling both their unruly hair.

"GAH. Sis. Stop it," Ryouta shouted at his older sister, at the same time while unsuccessfully trying to bat away her hands. Michi, however just dodged her hands like a DodgeMaster 2000 (6). Just like a pro. He looked almost exactly like his twin brother, despite that fact that he had silvery-white hair and silver eyes, whilst his brother had black hair and dark eyes like wells.

"I'm Yuzuki, as you probably know from before when Kurai shouted at me," a girl with turquoise hair with silvery layers to it bluntly yet cheerfully said.

"Always so blunt, aren't you Yuzuki?" Kurai drew out a long breath and released it. "This is such a pain."

"I'm Setsuko. Nice to meet you." Now this was more like it. Finally, a polite girl spoke, her melodious voice wrapping around the regulars like silk. She had a really nice voice to listen to. A traditional looking girl, she had long dark purple hair with a … bell? wrapped around a strand. "Your turn."

"Hey! Risi here." A girl with the new wave Asian style hair, as in black, shoulder-length, with blondish highlights spoke up. "I'm Chinese, like Kara and the most of the rest of the girls about to introduce themselves here."

One of the leftover girls took the initiative to introduce everyone else.

"Hello! My name is Justie and this is my trusty partner Laurie! This is Cathy, Lina, Lily, Manushi, Nici, and Rina!"

With rapid succession, she fired out their names. The regulars could only stand by awestruck as their mouths moved and spat, oh, pardon me, said names as fast as lightning. Pffffft. So much for slow, eloquent speech.

"Well, boys~ Time to introduce yourselves." Nici, one of the two Korean girls in the group, and the other two being Justie, crooned out, much like a mother to her children. Manushi clapped her hands in joy, being the only Sri Lankan in the group. Needless to say, the boys from the ensemble edged away from her as fast as possible. Ah, well, on with the introductions.

"Hiya, I'm Jack! Nice to meet'ya!" A boy with wild, messy, golden hair rather like a lion's mane, saluted with two fingers toward the astounded regulars. "I am the awesomest of the group so feel free to call me that."

"NOT. You suck, Jack, because awesomest isn't even a word." This was said by Kurai.

Ignoring the flurry of protests that erupted from behind him, the tall, graceful boy bowed. "Hello, I am Noboru. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Well, this guy had eloquent mannerisms. Probably would get along better with Tezuka than your average person, everyone mused silently.

"My turn."

Everyone's heads turned toward the soft, mystic voice of the boy. "I am Ayumu." He bowed and spoke no more.

Kurai looked a little bit peeved.

"Well, the last person is Minoru. And that's his pet cat Yori on his shoulder. Minoru doesn't like to talk; he just doesn't feel the need to."

Well, all these introductions took a total of 3 minutes, 10 seconds, and 78 milliseconds. Nah, just kidding. Around 5 minutes. The tennis regulars just stood there, while the troupe was poking them to see if they were still alive. In the end they were, but they were as stiff as a rock statue and fell over onto the concrete flat on their faces.

"Ouch…" Ryoma complained.

"Well, since we are done with our insanely long introductions, it's your turn to introduce yourselves, sempai-tachi and Ryoma." Kurai kindly pointed this out to the fallen people.

The regulars quickly introduced themselves, not forgetting their manners like the good little boys they were. Well, some of the cast looked freaked out by Kaidoh's constant hissing, and others were pondering how Tezuka could be a person and still act like a rock.

"Well, Kurai, are you coming home tonight? I know for sure that okaa-san will be happy to see you. Can't say much for the baka-oyaji though," Ryoma stated.

"Nah, how bout tomorrow? I've, scratch that, WE'VE got some business to attend to today."

Ryoma sighed. "Not again. Try not to get yourself killed this time."

Everyone in the company all but smirked. "You forget who you're talking to, Ryoma," they stated as one. Well, this vaguely freaked out the regulars, who were watching this peculiar scene.

"Until tomorrow, dudes. Later!"

With that said, the crowd of people simply disappeared in a flash. As in they were no where in sight. They sped off like the lightning in a storm over roofs, not that the regulars knew. Their eyes were human, not yet accustomed to their super-human speed that allowed them to travel faster than the speed of sound itself.

"Meh."

Ryoma turned away from his stunned sempai-tachi and left the scene, leaving the regulars with one thought in their minds, What are they…?

End of Chapter 3

Phew, that was annoying to write. Sorry if it seems confusing. So, here are the explanations:

(1)- Before this number, they were all girls.

(2)- Between this number and (1), they were all guys.

(3)- made the flower-arranging club up

(4)- I made this entire part up since I totally forgot how they showed the ranking matches. ^^;;;

(5)- I'm not sure if they have homeroom teachers so I made this up again.

(6)- DodgeMaster 2000 is an inside joke with me and my friends. Its just a name for someone who dodges flying objects quite well.

I will be explaining all the characters OCs that I have introduced in this chapter in a small profile-like thing for the next chapter. But it will be short.

CRY. I really should be off to bed now but I had to finish this for all you readers out there. Plus, I've gotten the worst grade for a math test that I took EVER. A D+. FAIL. By Asian standards. Please wish me luck that I will pass the math test on Friday; I am in desperate need or it. So review and cheer me up so that I can pass my math test? -puppy dog eyes-