A/N: 'Tis Chapter Four! We're pumping these out like it's nothing! *Knock on wood* Anyway, my life's getting really crazy with volleyball and all that good crap, but Melissa's still going to be writing and I'm going to do what I can. Thanks and love to our favoriters/reviewers... Who I can't bring up right now because my internet's dumb and it's really slow tonight... Sorry. =S[

**We don't own The Prince of Freaking Tennis. Got it memorized? If we did, and Melissa had her way, Atobe Keigo would be dead. But Lex likes him too much for him to be dead. So stick that in your juice box, and suck it.


"Now, Chiaki, name three types of personality disorders for me."

Oh, my God. I actually knew this one.

"Histrionic, narcissistic, and obsessive-compulsive!" I'm always ecstatic when I know an answer to something, or at least when I don't fail miserably at my schoolwork.

"Name another one for bonus points, Chiaki," she said sternly.

"Hold on, let me think a minute… Oh! Borderline!"

"Yes! I knew you could do it! If only you applied yourself more often, Chiaki, what a brilliant student you could be!" Ouch, Mom. Way to kill the moment and let me know you think that I'm always slacking off.

"You think I don't… You think I don't try?!" I was furious.

"It's not that I think you don't try. It's that I think you don't try hard enough." I looked her straight in the eyes with a loathing I can't even describe.

"I'm going out." I got up, quickly exiting the room.

"Hasegawa Chiaki! Don't you dare leave this house!"

"Watch me." I reached for the door, and at the last moment I turned at looked at my mother. "Ever think that maybe I'm just not as intelligent as you dream me to be?" A look came over her face as if she'd been slapped, and I left.

I'm used to fights with my mom, but that one was worse than most. In fact, I almost felt sort of… guilty about walking out on her like that.

Plus, as soon as I exited my house and was out on the street, I realized I had no idea what I was going to do. Even though school was already out for them, Eiji and Fuji were at practice, so I couldn't exactly ask them to go hang out.

Well… If they couldn't come to me, I wonder if I could go to them? I really hope that they have open practices…

"Nyah! It's Aki-chaaaannnn!!!" Eiji yelled as I walked over to the Seigaku tennis courts. He bounded over to the fence. "What are you doing here, Aki-chan?!"

"Not much, really. Would it be okay if I watched your practice?" I asked slowly.

"Of course! Nyah!"

Fuji started to walk over. "Fuji-san, is it really okay if I watch? I have reason to believe that Eiji-kun would lie to me."

"No, you should be fine," he answered as he leaned against the fence.

"Eiji-kun. Get back to practice," a very authoritative voice demanded.. I looked up to see that it came from a boy with chestnut-colored hair and oval glasses.

"But, Tezuka-buchou! Aki-chan just got heeeerrrrreeee!!!" he whined.

The boy named Tezuka glared. "Twenty laps."

"Fine, nyah."

Fuji laughed slightly at Eiji's crestfallen face. "Is that your captain?" I asked Fuji just to get a conversation started up.

"Yeah, it is. He's our number one singles player at Seigaku and a southpaw..."

"A southpaw? What's that?"

"It's a left-handed player. Our rookie is also a lefty."

"I would assume that the short one over there is your rookie," I said pointing to a boy in a white hat who was practicing some sort of serve against a wall.

"Yeah. That's Echizen. He's our only seventh grader that's a regular," Fuji responded.

"Hey! Fujiko! Break time is over, nyah! And quit hogging Aki-chan!" Eiji called from across the courts.

"Well, sorry, but that's my cue to leave."

"Oh, no problem, Fuji-san. I'll see you and Eiji-kun after practice." Fuji nodded with that empty smile of his, grabbed his racket and walked over to the court Eiji was on.

Um... I wasn't really sure what to do at this point, seeing as how Eiji and Fuji were the only people I really knew, and Oishi was already over on the court that they were heading to.

Then I heard a "BURNING!" and knew that I should really go and watch Taka's match.

Because, seriously, Taka's my favorite bipolar junior high schooler.

It wasn't too difficult to locate the court on which Taka was playing. All I had to do was follow the loud voice screaming various things to taunt the other player.

I found the match to actually be quite interesting. I'm not an athletic person by nature, so to see people moving the way Taka and his opponent were completely blew my mind. The kid he was playing was fairly tall, black-haired with... purple eyes? I couldn't really tell from the distance. The match ended, with Taka the winner.

"YEAH! Momoshiro, you're good, but you're not that good! I am on FIRE!"

I couldn't help it; I had to cheer a little for Taka.

"Nice job, Taka-san," I said, clapping a bit. I noticed that this... Momoshiro, was it? Well, the opponent took Taka's racket, and Taka looked over to where I was standing in confusion.

"Oh? Thanks Chiaki-san. It was nothing, really." I smiled at his shyness. It's hard to believe the two sides of him are really one person.

"Don't be silly, Taka-san. I bet that you could still beat me with both hands tied behind your back."

"But how could I hold a racket with no hands...?" Taka asked me in confusion.

"That's the point. You could win by just standing there," I said smiling.

"Hey, Taka-san! Is this your girlfriend?" The one named... Momoshiro asked with a sly look on his face.

Taka got a little red and looked embarrassed, "N-no..."

"Oh, so she is then?" His face was a bit evil-looking.

"Actually, no. I'm just a friend of Taka-san and a few other guys on your team," I answered bluntly. "My name is Hasegawa Chiaki. And who might you be?" I realized that I probably sounded a bit snobby, but this guy seemed to embarrass Taka-san, so I didn't like him all that much.

"Momoshiro Takeshi. My friends call me Momo," he replied with an air of arrogance.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Momoshiro-san." I hoped that he would pick up on the hint that we weren't going to be friends. He was far too... I can't think of a word to describe it, but what I'm getting at is I'm pretty sure we weren't going to get along. "Taka-san, could you direct me to where Oishi-san and Eiji-kun are playing?"

"Sure. It's right that way..." he said pointing off to the next court.

"Thanks, Taka-san! I'll see you after practice, right?" He nodded, and I headed off to see the "Golden Pair" play... and presumably kick ass.

"Hmm... Wonder what I did to make her not like me so much," I heard Momoshiro say.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Momo. She didn't like Eiji at all when they first met. Chiaki-san will come around.

Ooh. Taka had me there. Oh, well.

I reached the court where Eiji, Fuji, Oishi, and the freshman, Echizen, were playing and stopped to watch. I saw a guy in glasses feeding them balls, and he said something along the lines of, "We've never had Fuji and Echizen play together before, so we're going to put them together to make them learn to feed off of each other's strengths."

"Oh geez!" I couldn't help the words slipping out of my mouth as a ball came over the net just behind Eiji. This seventh grader was definitely something... and then I heard a, "Sorry, maybe next week!" from a voice I distinctly knew as Kikumaru Eiji. I looked to see him hit the ball... with his racket around his back! This kid was practically flying!

I watched the match in awe, watching the points go back and forth, mostly to the Golden Pair because this Echizen kid wasn't very good at the whole teamwork thing.

When the match ended, Eiji and Oishi were the obvious winners. The look on Echizen's face quickly turned sickly as the guy with glasses held up some sort of chunky liquid to his face. I'm pretty sure I turned a little green just looking at it. Fuji took a drink of it, and he wasn't fazed at all, so I thought that maybe it didn't taste as badly as it looked. Then Echizen took a drink, and passed out.

What sort of sick bastards do they have running this team?!