Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Prince of Tennis, but I do own my OC(s) and this fanfic's plot.

A/N: Sorry for the super procrastination. School's been busy and I need to keep up with my marks. Anyway, enjoy the story! Hope you like it! (There will be a little interaction between Ryoma and Menou in this chapter, but there will be more for the next one! I promise!)

The Dreamer Serve9:

School Festival Part 2

~Menou's POV~

I trailed behind Ryoma silently, watching his back. Playing with the bunny's ear, I moved my gaze from Ryoma to the doll. The bunny – which I named Yuki, simply because it was white – was really cute. It had a pink ribbon with white dots, tied neatly around its neck. I played with it a bit, I just loved dolls! I bet Yuki would want to meet my teddy, Rin. I grinned at my new doll and hugged it again, letting out a small squeal.

Ryoma glanced at me and turned away with a mumble sounded like 'girls'.

I frowned, but joined him soon at the...Seigaku's Regulars Haunted House?!

Before the realization dawned on me, someone had covered my eyes with his hands. I shrieked in surprise, but the person did not let go. I tried to pry them off my eyes with one hand while the other held Yuki, but to no avail. I dropped my shoulders in defeat, hearing chuckles come from behind me. The chuckles sounded so familiar in my ears and it clicked something in my mind. A certain face appeared in my mind...

"Fuji!" I shouted as I forcefully pried his hands off my eyes.

I was greeted by his grinning face. I pouted and glared, but his wide smile did not leave his face. I kept my pout in my face, although it was so hard. I could not resist Fuji's smile for too long! I wanted to smile when I saw his grin. He noticed my struggle, I assumed, since he was chuckling again. He raised his hands in surrender and I stopped my glare. The pout soon followed the glare, disappeared from my face.

He looked over me, towards the booth. "A lot of students have come to our stall. We really enjoy it." He smiled and at the same time we heard screams came from the stall. Soon after, students were seen dashing away for their lives. I sweat-dropped at his carefree response.

"Although I had to say that your brother doesn't seem to like it so much." He indicated with his head behind me.

I turned from Fuji, searching for my brother. He was sitting down in a chair near the entrance of the booth. He was closing his eyes with frown on his face. Annoyed was the right word to explain him at that time. The source of the annoyance had to be his fan girl, who currently was flirting with him. I made a disgusted face at the sight. Not that I was so selfish to keep my brother for my own, but the way she leaned towards my brother seductively...I did not like it.

"I can understand why," I said.

"Aren't you going to save him?"'Fuji asked, indicating to my brother with his head.

I made a face and waved my hand dismissively. "I won't risk my life to save him from that kind of woman. I'd better stay safe here, watching from afar."

The light-brown haired regular laughed lightly, "Well, in the mean time, since your brother is 'busy', why don't you take a look at the Haunted House?"

"What?" I exclaimed incredulously, "Have you forgotten how much I fear ghosts – or anything related to that?"

He smiled, rather evilly, I had to say. "I haven't, but you need not be afraid. The ghosts are all the regulars, you will recognize them."

I shook my head vigorously, disliking his idea so much. "There's no way I'm going inside!"

"Now I wonder why you are so afraid of ghosts," he suddenly said.

I shrugged and lied smoothly. "No reason."

The truth was that I was fearful towards ghosts because of my childhood. When I was a small kid, the older kids had picked on me. They once scared me by leaving me alone in a graveyard. I remembered that I saw something white and flowing moved towards me, causing me to…pee in my pants. Although it might sound normal for a kid to do that – I was four year old back then – I still felt embarrassed about it. After that, I could only cry and wait until the adults came to take me back. The older kids got punished, of course, but it did not help the fact that I had developed an intense fear towards ghosts.

"Ah, but I'm afraid you will go in nonetheless," he replied with a small mischievous smile.

I suddenly got a very bad feeling and before I could retort and question him, someone grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the Haunted House. My brother raised an eyebrow when he watched the person dragging me to the entrance. Before I could ask for his help, we had entered the dim-lighted room. The place immediately gave me the creeps, but first I had to find out who the mysterious person was.

I turned my head to see who pulled me and gasped in response. "Yume-Buchou?!"

"Hi!" she greeted excitedly, her grip firm on my arm.

"Why are you dragging me inside this haunted house?" I tried to escape from her hold. My voice shook slightly in fear.

"Aw, come on. It's fun!" She raised her other hand to the air in high spirits.

I was way too late to get out and decided to follow her. I did not want to enter any further, but I also did not want to be left behind, alone! Hugging my doll firmly, I trailed after Yume.

The place was even dimmer than yesterday. There was no light from the lamps, only small candles in one place or another lit the path. It was also decorated with fake tombs and broken boards. I almost cried because of the fright I felt inside. Yume, however, seemed so carefree. She laughed loudly on our way through the place. She even poked at the lantern-ghost-like decoration.

We had been half-way through the path when someone came up from behind a tomb, I screamed loudly and instinctively hid behind Yume. Yume, however, stared at the ghost curiously. She examined it carefully and in turn, the person stayed still. I bet the person was surprised at Yume's reaction. Yume leaned towards the person's face and grinned evilly.

"Hello, cousin," she said with an almost wicked smile.

The ghost-person stepped back. '"Damn it! Why are you here?'"

From the voice, we could tell that it was indeed Momo. I felt a rush of relief; at least it was not a real ghost, only Momo-senpai. Yume crossed her arms, her smug smile was plastered on her face.

'"Don't be stupid, Momo. Of course, I am here to see the boys regulars' booth." She rolled her eyes and stared at her cousin. "Anyway, you have a price to pay for trying to scare me."

"Huh? Don't tell me." Momo took more steps back, a slight fear showing in his voice.

Yume cracked her hands and grinned evilly. She took a heavy step forward while Momo stepped backward carefully, crouching a bit. They took one step by another and then Yume started to yell with a high-pitch voice. She raised her hand to the air and ran after the frightened Momo. Their voices echoed at the room until they were unheard and their forms were gone. It was a bit funny, actually, seeing a ghost being chased by a person. I sweat-dropped, but then I realized something.

I was left alone.

"Yume-buchou!" I screamed and ran forward, chasing after them. "Wait for me!"

My eyesight didn't help at all, without my glasses in a dim room, I was as blind as a bat! I used my hands to figure where the wall was. Now I wonder why I was so afraid of something that I could not see well. I slowly walked deeper and hoped the tunnel would end. I was scared and alone. What else could make the situation worse?

Unfortunately, there was something that could.

Something touched my shoulder from behind, slowly and lightly, and I had to run for goodness sake! I ran blindly, and strangely was able to run without hitting something. I screamed all the wa and stopped when I hit someone. Instinctively, I raised my fist and was about to punch whoever was there, blocking my way. My knuckle was caught mid-way by a much bigger and stronger hand.

"Hey, what's the rush?"

I let out a breath of relief and lowered my hand. "Fuji, you scared the hell out of me!"

The said guy chuckled. "I did nothing and I have scared you?"

"You're the one started it!" Pouting, I crossed my arms. "First, you made me go to inside. And then guess what? I'm left alone inside while Yume-buchou ran after Momo-senpai. I'm freaked out!"

He smiled and patted my head. I shoved his hand away, glared at him, but it was almost impossible to stay angry with him. Still with the same cheery smile, he took my arm so suddenly that I had no time to respond. Blinking in confusion, I followed him. Fuji slowly moved his hand from my arm to my hand and held it. I could not help but to smile back when he grinned at me. I held his hand back and wandered around the festival together. Ryoma, Yume-buchou, Sakuno, and everyone else were forgotten and left behind.

Not that I liked him the same way I liked Ryoma, but Fuji Shusuke was the best friend and brotherly figure I had always dreamed about. My real brother was the best, I knew that, but he was not exactly the carefree type of brother. Maybe because I grew up with him, the serious and calm older brother, I tended to be and like a more laid-back and cheerful person. We did not have much brother-sister bonding, and so Kunimitsu-nii and I were a bit…distant. Fuji was less serious than him– they were similar in the sense that they were both so cool. I automatically felt and looked at him as another older brother. I wished I had them both from my older brothers. Selfish, I knew, but I could not help it!

When we were walking down the food stands, the light-brown-haired regular treated me to my favourite food: taiyaki. I took them and devoured them one by one. He laughed lightly upon watching me eating the food with gusto. I stuck my out tongue childishly, which only made him chuckle even more.

"Menou-chan! Fuji!" Someone called our names and we turned around.

I grinned broadly, waving my hand. "Hey, Eiji-chan!"

The acrobatic player approached the two of us, followed closely by the vice-captain. Oishi had a soft smile on his face and he raised his hand to greet me. I nodded my head in acknowledgement. Eiji, on the other hand, snatched my food from my hand and ate it happily.

"Eiji!" I scolded him.

He grinned and licked his fingers. "Too bad, it's gone."

I growled at him, but he raised his hands in surrender before I did something. Oishi shook his head and sighed softly. Fuji just simply smiled. I insisted on him giving it back to me for it was mine, but Eiji being Eiji, pretended that he was innocent. Flailing my hands wildly in the air, I persisted again. Instead of giving me the taiyaki, he bought me a cotton candy as an apology. I was not truly satisfied, but it was acceptable, and ate the sweet.

Fuji shook his head, chuckling. "You're really easy to persuade, aren't you?"

I raised an eyebrow, still eating the sweet. "What do you mean?"

He pointed at the cotton candy. "Buying food is one way of persuading you."

I frowned and averted my gaze from him to the Golden Pair. Oishi and Eiji nodded in unison, causing me to pout. Was I that easy to persuade? In the middle of my protest, a friend of mine came and told me to return to the booth since it was yet again time for my shift. I bid good-bye to the three regulars and went back, changing to the maid dress…again.

The time flew very fast when you were busy. I experienced that too, it was hectic when the customers flooded our booth, but then I realized that the clock had shown the closing hour without me noticing. My class celebrated our profit – we were lucky we had profit instead of loss like some other classes – and we got a treat from our homeroom teacher. Again, we did not notice the time flew, but we soon remembered it when the announcement for the dance came.

"Attention to all students! We hope you have enjoyed this school festival!"

I could hear a loud cheer, echoing from one place to another.

"Soon, we will come to our climax event: The Folk Dance! Hopefully you have gotten your partner for the dance, if not, too bad! Let's gather at the field and let the music start! To start, let's play the first request!"

Surprised and confused, I asked to Yoko. "What is The Folk Dance?"

She seemed aghast at my lack of knowledge. "Don't tell me you don't know!"

"Yeah, I know, that's why I'm asking." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "Could you just tell me about it?"

Shaking her head in amusement, she told me, with many details. It was basically a simple dance between girls and boys. They could also change partners during the interlude of the music. There was a myth behind it, though, saying that if they could dance the last dance with the person they liked, they would become a lover soon enough. It was a typical story at every school, I did not really believe it. What I meant was, every school had the same legend! It was quite strange for every school to have the same tales, right? Still, I put some hope to it, just like many other girls did.

"I'm going to ask Kou!" One of the girls whispered excitedly, a little too loud, I thought.

Kou was Yoko's twin, and he was quite a popular guy. He was in the athletic team, being one of the best runners at school. A quiet and very-much distant guy, he only talked to few people. His classmates only saw him talking to either Yoko or teachers. He could talk to us once in a while, but it was very rare. His looks were not bad either, having short black hair with dark brown, calm eyes, and a tall build made him even more attractive to the girls in my class.
Save for Yoko, a few other girls, and me.

"Hey! Not fair! I want to ask him too!" Another retorted, having an argument.

Yoko shook her head. "I can't understand why Kou is so popular."

I giggled. "He is simply cool the way he is."

"So, who are you going to ask, Menou?" She asked curiously.

I blushed pink and stuttered, "N-No one."

Someone tapped my shoulder from behind and I turned my face to meet…

A/N: Cliffhanger! If you want me to publish the next one faster, please review ^^ Thanks for reading and your constructive criticism.