Kyandi: Hello everyone!

Hisame: We're back!

Kyandi: Sorry it took so long.

Hisame: Kyandi-sama isn't really feeling well this week.

Kyandi: I'm trying though!

Hisame: So enjoy and review.

Kyandi: I do not own Prince of tennis

Chapter 9 Friday

Come Friday, the fifth day of the bet, Hisame was becoming frustrated. Yagyuu was showing little to no interest in her beyond that of a friend. She had tried the typical lunch thing, had spent all of her free time with him, had gone everyday that week to watch him at tennis practice.

She had done all the things a girlfriend would have to please her boyfriend and yet….Hisame really didn't know what else to do to get him to like her.

She was pretty sure he liked her as a person but not in the way that she wanted him to like her. They got along really well. In fact she had over heard Yukimura say that Yagyuu got along better with her then he did with most females.

It had made her feel good but that didn't mean Yagyuu liked her. Hisame was getting so annoyed with it. She wanted him to like her but she wasn't about to force her feelings on him. That would defiantly end in nothing but loss for her.

Besides, she could handle anything Niou came up with if she lost. Right? Or at least that is what she told herself. She hoped she could because at the moment it looked like she was about to lose. No. Hisame shook her head ridding herself of those thoughts.

There was no way she was going to lose to a conniving, arrogant, smirking jerk like Niou Masahara. The boy basically breathed to annoy the crap out of her. And he enjoyed every moment of it.

Which was exactly what he had done from the first day he had met her. In fact the first words to ever leave his mouth when he first met her was an insult. He had insisted on insulting her and calling her names and he hadn't even known her then. He was just plain annoying, even back then. Hisame could still remember it clearly.

FLASHBACK

She had just started school and was on the play ground all alone. Hisame didn't fit in with others and she didn't really care too much. For a five year old she was content to sit alone and play alone.

Others called her weird because of it, but she just didn't feel like listening to other tease her because she ran to her big sister about everything, calling her The Baby, or because of the color of her eyes. That was a common one. Teasing her about the color of her eyes.

"Hey look! It's The Baby!" Hisame looked up from where she was sitting as a small group of boys neared her. Hisame didn't like boys. Not really. They were especially mean to her. Though girls were no walk in the park either.

Hisame glared at the boys, her bottom lip poking out in an almost pout. She knew what was coming. "Are you going to cry, Baby?" one boy asked picking up a stick to poke her in the arm with it.

Hisame swatted the boy's hand away with a sharp glare. A glare she had picked up from her sister who could be a raging demon when she wanted to be.

"Go way!" Hisame spat as another boy joined him in teasing her. "Or what? You'll go crying to your sister again?" one mocked giving her an extra hard jab in the arm. Hisame yanked the stick from his grip with an icy glare.

"Big baby!" one jeered. "And look at those eyes!" another added. "What's going on?" All of the boys turned, Hisame looking up as two more boys walked up. They were older boys, one plain looking. At least to Hisame.

The other though caught her attention.. He was absolutely dirty with grass stains on the knees of his pants and dirt all over him.

He obviously didn't care about trying to stay clean. Hisame knew if she went home looking like that then her mother and sister both would kill her. But what caught her attention was his silver colored hair and teal eyes.

Not many kids had hair and eyes that color. And then, he smirked. Hisame couldn't help thinking it was a little creepy seeing that kind of smirk on a six or seven year old. "Its Niou and Matsuda." one of the boys picking on her said.

"Its nothing Matsuda. The Baby was just about to cry." one of the boys added poking Hisame with another stick. Hisame swatted him hard with the stick she had already snatched from one of the boys before throwing it at him.

"Go away, jerk!" she snapped at him coldly. "Or what? You'll glare at us with those plum colored eyes, weirdo?" another asked flicking her on the forehead. Hisame rubbed her forehead before doubling up her fist and slugging the boy on the arm.

She wasn't one usually to start a fist fight but she was tired of it. "Hey! Little Plum Weirdo!" the boy snapped about to hit her back when a chuckle stopped him.

Hisame and the boy turned to the silver hair boy who was chuckling. "What is it Niou-kun?" the boy that had walked up with the silver haired boy asked. The silver haired one, Niou, smirked. "If they should be making fun of anything its not her eyes. The girl looks like she has a bubble on her head!" he remarked pointing to her pale silver-blue hair.

Hisame's frown deepened as she glared at the boy. "Maybe instead of Baby or Plum Weirdo you should call her Bubble Head. Who knows, maybe she's an idiot as well." Niou added.

Hisame huffed and turned on her heel ignoring him. She pushed one of the boys aside, pushing him into one of the other boys and almost knocking the two over before she stormed off looking all the part of the angered child she was.

She didn't get far before she turned on her heel again to face Niou. "You're one to talk about hair color, Metal Head! Your hair is silver!" she spat at him before turning to storm off again, Niou's chuckle echoing in her ear as she went.

FLASHBACK END

Metal Head…Hisame had almost forgot that that was what she had called him back then. Though she could come up with far better insults now that she was older. Then again for a five year old, she thought it had been somewhat witty.

Of course the person on the receiving end of that name wouldn't have agreed with her on that little thought. In fact, as she was thinking back to that day on the play ground, so was the other person involved in it. The so called, Metal Head.

Niou leaned back in his desk as he thought back to the first day he had met her. He had totally forgotten about it until then. Though from his point of view it was a little different. She certainly had been interesting from the very start.

That defiant look on her face, how quick she was to strike when provoked, and how she could turn something said back on the person who said it.

She hadn't even flinched back then when the boy had raised his fist to hit her back. If anything she had been ready to have an all out fist fight right then and there whether or not she got in trouble for it.

Niou couldn't help but smirk at the memory. That was the Hisame he knew. The defiant, stubborn, fiery girl that threw punches when provoked and threw insults when insulted. Yeah she could be polite, and sweet, and nice, but that wasn't how he liked her.

He liked to tease her and poke at her, make her lose her temper and show him the more fiery side of her personality. Yagyuu couldn't never and would never see that side of her if Niou didn't. To Niou that was the best part of her personality so Yagyuu deserved to see it too.

"Niou-kun, what are you smirking about?" Niou looked up at Yagyuu. Niou shrugged. "Just thinking." he told his doubles partner as Yagyuu sat down in the desk next to him. "Hey Yagyuu~!" Niou said drawling out Yagyuu's name and making the other male frown.

"What do you think of Bubble Head?" Niou asked. Yagyuu glanced at Niou out of the side of his eyes. "Why are you asking?" Yagyuu asked. Niou shrugged. "I just figure your view point of her would be different then mine is all." Niou replied.

Yagyuu remained quiet for a moment as if he was thinking it over. "She's…different." was all Yagyuu said in the end. Niou leaned his head back to look at Yagyuu with one raised eyebrow and a lazy sort of grin on his face.

"Is that good or bad?" Niou asked. Yagyuu looked at him, adjusting his glasses. "Your definition of good and bad is different from mine, Niou-kun." Yagyuu told him making Niou chuckle. Well he did have a point. "She can keep you out of trouble, that's all that matters." Yagyuu added. Niou raised an eyebrow.

Now that he thought about it, since Hisame had arrived at the school he hadn't really pulled any pranks, except on her, and hadn't really messed with anyone, expect for her. He could see how Yagyuu would think that she was keeping him in rein.

It was just that he was having too much fun messing with her to bother messing with anyone else. After all no one else reacted quite the same way as she did to his pranks and tricks. Though Kirihara offered some fun too. It still wasn't the same though.

As the lesson went on Niou ran through the list of pranks, jabs, and names he could do, make, and call her that was sure to make her temper snap. He was sure that once he made her snap in front of Yagyuu that the boy wouldn't date her.

And then Hisame would lose the bet. Man was Niou looking forward to that. He could wait to watch her squirm in defeat. Niou passed his time in class with that thought, until the final bell rung and it was time to head to tennis practice. "Lets go, Niou-kun." Yagyuu told him. Niou got to his feet.

When they reached the courts, Hisame was already there, sitting with Michiko and Suzumi, all three leaning over papers that were currently scattered over Hisame's lap. Niou grinned. "Looks like their hard at work planning your big party, Yagyuu." Niou told his doubles partner who glanced over at the three girls.

"You sure you really want to leave the whole party to them?" Kirihara asked looking over at the girls. "Oh I think it'll be…interesting." Yukimura remarked as he walked up. He had one of his I-have-an-evil-plan smiles on his face. Niou didn't know if he liked it.

Hisame glanced up at the boys before looking away once more her attention returning to the party plans. They had pretty much planned everything and were ready for the actual party.

"So we'll spend the night at your house Saturday, Hisa-chan. That way we can make everything then and be ready to take it to the party location Sunday." Suzumi said looking up at Hisame. Hisame nodded.

"So we'll meet here tomorrow after the boys' practice?" Michiko asked. Suzumi nodded. "Alright. My sister will be home for a short while so you two can meet her." Hisame told them.

The two older girls smiled. "Alright so we'll meet here and go to Hisa-chan's from there!" Suzumi said cheerfully. Hisame smiled as she watched her two new friends. Since she was going to be spending all day with the two girls that left her with only tomorrow morning and Sunday to try to win Yagyuu over.

Hisame looked up to find Niou grinning her from the other side of the courts. Oh how she wanted to wipe the smirk off his face for good. And when she won she was going to laugh in his face. Yep, laugh and laugh until she couldn't laugh anymore.

END

Kyandi: Its not too much but my brain is a little fried at the moment.

Hisame: Well a fever will do that.

Kyandi: Maybe I'll lay down and take a nap before I work on the next chapter.

Hisame: You should.

Kyandi: And I'll update Flip Side too.

Hisame: Agreed, now lets move on.

Kyandi: Alright. So everyone enjoy and review!

Hisame: And we'll be back soon!

Kyandi: Bye bye!