"…" Talking

'…' Thinking

The New Manager

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The next day Sakuno went to school earlier so she could see the Regulars practicing. She went to the tennis courts and the Regulars were already practicing. She stood up outside the courts observing them play.

"Sakuno-chan, come on in..." a voice told her.

She looked to the benches inside the tennis courts and saw Fuji sitting down smiling at her.

She nodded and entered the courts, everyone was so focused in playing tennis, that they didn't notice Sakuno at all.

"Sakuno-chan, Kaido-senpai has been acting strange since our trip to Okinawa..Do you know what happened to him?" Fuji-sempai asked Sakuno looking at Kaido sempai who was in the opposite side of the court from Eiji-sempai.

Sakuno remembered the time when she was feeling down and Kaido-senpai tried to make her feel better.

'Was it because of that?' Sakuno thought.

"Sakuno?" Fuji-senpai asked worried.

Sakuno turned to her sempai and smiled weakly "Hai?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yup, and I don't know why Kaido is acting this way..." Sakuno told her sempai the truth since she didn't know exactly what happened but it had definately something to do with her.

When practice was over, the Regulars went to where Sakuno and Fuji were sitting.

'What are they doing sitting together?' Ryoma asked himself angrily.

"Hey Sakuno!" Momo yelled coming towards her.

"Konnichiwa, I hope I didn't bother you while you were practicing..."

"Of course not! You can come by whenever you want!" Eiji-senpai said happily.

"Sakuno, I'm glad that you are here..." Coach Sumire said closing the door of the office.

"Why? I mean...don't you see her every day?" Momo-sempai asked.

Sumire gave him a cold stare but then continued with a smile "Well I needed to talk to you and the regulars..."

When she said that, everyone's eyes turned to her.

"The city tournament of tennis is coming and I will be very busy, so I was going to ask Sakuno if she wanted to be our team's manager... But I wanted everyone's permission..."

The Regulars looked at each other.

"Yeay! Sakuno is gonna be our cute manager!" Momo said jumping up and down happily.

"We are lucky!" Fuji said with a cute smile.

Sakuno blushed seeing her sempais' reaction.

"Will you agree, Sakuno?" Coach Sumire asked.

Ryoma who was looking down, looked up to look at Sakuno. Sakuno turned her eyes to Ryoma and when she saw that he was looking at her she immediately looked away and blushed.

"Yes, I will be the team's manager. Yorkshiku onegaishimasu." Sakuno said bowing.

Everyone cheered so loudly that some students stopped what they were doing to look at the place where all the noise was coming from.

"Well then today's afternoon practice Sakuno will be here as manager." Sumire said ending the morning practice.

---

Sakuno was walking to her next class when Ryoma appeared from behind her.

"Why did you accept coach's offer?" he asked.

"Um...because..."

"If you are manger then you won't be able to be in the girl's tennis club, is that ok with you?"

"Yes, I wanna be the manager of the boys tennis club so I can learn how to be organized and also I will have the chance of meeting new people." Sakuno answered with a happy smile.

Ryoma and Sakuno continued walking together to their next class.

---

Sakuno arrived at the tennis courts and no one from the Regulars were there, but only some of the tennis club members.

"Hey you! Come here!" a second year boy called Sakuno. He was standing next to other second year boys who were scary looking.

Sakuno headed towards them to see if they needed something since she was the new manager of the tennis club.

"Hai?" Sakuno said when she was standing in front of the five boys.

"Go get the tennis balls!" the one in the middle commanded. Since the guys were

Her senpais she headed to the place where the tennis balls were. When she came back with them one of the boys told her to fill in the water bottles. She quietly obeyed and went to the water fountain. When she came back she was sweating since she did everything running and the water bottles were heavy.

"Why are sweating???" one of the boys yelled at her pushing her hard to the floor.

Sakuno fell hard to the floor. She looked at herself and saw that her knees and hands were covered with scratches all over them.

"What the heck are you doing?" an angry and sharp voice came behind Sakuno who was lying on the floor.

To be continued...

--- Author's Note ----

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's shorter than the others but I had to stop where I did for various purposes… I hope you don't mind. Yup, Sakuno is the new manager, but how will she do at it? Keep reading and review!!!