A/N: Hey guys, sorry for being so inactive even though I promised to update and stuff. If most of you haven't heard, I was just recently in a play and the rehearsals took up A LOT of my time. So as a sort of Christmas gift I updated two of my stories.

Also, my laptop is acting weird, AGAIN. It's kinda doing that thing that it did a few years ago where it would shut down and restart randomly.

ALSO, HAVE I BEEN SO INACTIVE THAT I'VE LOST ALL OF MY READERS? I updated my other fic and usually people would read it/review it right away, but this time the only person who reviewed my story was a new reader of mine. SO DO I NO LONGER HAVE READERS?

Chapter 22

Back to Normal (Unfortunately)

The thwacking of tennis balls against racquets was a soothing sound to all of the tennis regulars because it was the only sound. Tsubaki quietly closed her eyes for a minute before opening them again to watch her team practice. The girls seemed to finally be content since all of the harassment stopped.

"I'm tired!" Ayumi whined as she dropped onto the ground across the net from Faye, who also quickly plopped herself on the ground.

Tsubaki looked up and dismissed the club absently, walking off on her own to head home.

"Is Tsubaki okay?" Aine asked, concerned.

"Of course she is, why wouldn't she be?" Koizumi retorted.

"She's just been so . . . spacey lately." Aine bit her lower lip and looked up the older vice captain through her purple bangs. "I hope that she's healthy."

"Aine-chan!" a certain, spiky-haired second year called from behind the fence.

"Oh, hi, Momo-san," Aine happily replied, gathering her stuff.

"He still has a thing for you?" Ayumi asked. "I'm surprised after how you tricked him."

Aine blushed lightly and turned to Ayumi. "You're 'dating' Inui-sempai! And not even for real."

"What I don't understand," Kumiko cut in, "is why either of them can like you guys since you're both so crazy."

"Me and Inui-sempai have no real relations," Ayumi haughtily huffed. "I don't know why he's in this fake relationship, but I'm only in it because my parents won't force me to marry that horrendous Atobe if they think I'm in love with someone else."

"Mmm-hmm." Kumiko rolled her eyes and left the courts. "Are you guys coming or what?" She turned around and yelled. The rest of the regulars rushed to catch up with Kumiko who was impatiently tapping her foot.

"Have I ever told you that you should listen to Oishi-san every once in a while?" Koizumi hummed as she swung an arm around Kumiko's shoulders.

Kumiko looked up in disbelief, her eyebrows knitting together and her vibe being overall annoyed. "Why the fuck should I listen to him? All he does it try to repress my inner self and oppress me."

"He's just trying to make you a better and nicer person," Aine added, falling behind so as not to catch Kumiko's glare.

"None of you have any idea what you're talking about. Am I not fun? Am I not exciting? If I submitted to him and became the type of person he wants me to be I'd have no personality. It'd be like hanging out with a squash for you guys. So see? I'm actually really looking out for all of you. If I listened to him, none of you would ever have fun again." Kumiko stuck her nose in the hair and flipped her ponytail behind her shoulder, staring coldly at any of the regulars who dared to defy what she said.

Luckily, Koizumi had no problem with Kumiko's glares. "Are you suggesting we don't know how to have fun without you?"

"Exactly what I'm suggesting. None of you would have nearly as much fun if I left this team.

"Which you won't." Koizumi looked down at the shorter Kumiko.

"Well then," Kumiko said, looking away first, "time for me to leave. Ta-ta lovelies."

"I hate when she's in that mood!" Ayumi whined. "She's so . . .mean and . . . I don't know, weird!"

"It's just Kumiko, you should be used to her by now," Miki pointed out.

"Oh whatever. At least we're invisible again."

OoO

"Well well well, what a coincidence. Look who's here." Koizumi's blue eyes flashed violently as she glared at the table of boys in the fast food place across from the arcade.

"Um, h-hi, um, K-k-k-Koizumi-chan," Eiji nervously stuttered. He sunk down in his seat, and Ryoma and Momo watched him pityingly.

"That's Yoshikuni-san to you." Koizumi slid into Eiji's side of the booth, pushing him against the wall and effectively trapping him. "So what are we all eating?"

"Just burgers and fries and onion rings and chicken nuggets Koizumi-chan," Momo grinned at her from across the table.

Ryoma had a cool stare on his face as he regarded his sempais talking to each other. Eiji was trying to press himself even closer to the wall if possible. Every time he accidentally brushed against Koizumi he froze and moved away until he was sure she wouldn't kill him. Momo was just watching Eiji. Koizumi stole one of Eiji's fries.

"Shouldn't you guys be eating healthy to keep in shape?" she asked absent-mindedly.

"We could ask the same of you," Ryoma smoothly replied. He wasn't fearful of Koizumi. Unlike Eiji, he had no reason to.

Koizumi ignored Ryoma pointedly, turning her head slightly to Eiji. "Buy me more fries."

"Y-yes! Coming right up!" Eiji sighed a sigh of relief to finally be away from the girl, even if it was only for a few minutes. He stared at her expectantly.

"What? You want me to move?" Koizumi snapped. "Climb over the booth if you have to."

With those words Eiji flipped over the seat and ran off with no shred of pride still on him.

The atmosphere around them became silent until a voice broke through. "Koizumi-fukubuchou?" Saori stood a few feet away from the booth, holding a soda and a bag full of food.

"Oh Saori! Hi!" Koizumi's attitude changed almost 180 degrees until Eiji came back shaking with the fries. Her eyes grew icy and she turned to the red head. "Thank you," she said as she snatched the fries from his hands and left with Saori.

Once they got out the door Koizumi burst into a fit of laughter. She grabbed onto Saori's shoulder to steady herself as she heaved out breaths. "That was the best!" she shouted to the air. "Did you see that?" she addressed at Saori.

"I saw that alright. Haha. Way to scare the poor boy!" Saori joined in laughing with her sempai.

"Hey, he did break my guitar."

"You don't have to still scare him about it now! He'll never be the same around you. Instead of being his peppy self he's a sniveling little mouse stuck in the corner."

Koizumi flipped her hair out of her face happily. She sucked in another breath of air before laughing again. The pedestrians on the street turned around to look at the two. "That-that was the best! Ever! I can't even believe he's that afraid of me!"

"That better show the boys a lesson on how scary the girls can be."

OoO

Tsubaki paced around her room silently. If she kept going at it she would soon wear down the rug. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror and it was wild. Her hair stuck out at places, curling more than usual, and her eyes were bloodshot with dark purple circles etched underneath. She had barely slept in days and it was showing in her appearance.

"Tsubaki-sama," a voice called from her doorway. Tsubaki automatically stopped and looked at the door. One of her two body guards stood there, the leaner one, Hosono Suzuki.

Once her eyes landed on him he bent down and knelt on the ground, bowing to her.

"Oh, just get up, Suzuki!" Tsubaki snapped. She went back to her pacing.

"Ojou-sama (young lady of high respect)! Please forgive me for asking, but are you still worried about those rumors at school?"

"Yes!" Tsubaki shouted. "People think their just rumors, and they're not. If anyone digs a bit deeper than they'll find out the truth. The truth about our family."

"You have no reason to be ashamed of your family," Suzuki said, his voice muffled from speaking into the carpet. He was still kneeling.

"I am NOT ashamed!" Tsubaki screamed, throwing her hair brush at the door.

Suzuki flinched but still kept kneeling without leaving. "I was just trying to help, Ojou-sama."

"I know," Tsubaki sighed, rubbing at her face. She never showed anger outside of her home. To everyone at school she was the polite, respectful, cold-hearted student, but at her home, she could just be how she who she always was: a Yakuza with a slight temper and fighting skills beyond anyone's belief.

"Just what is going on in here," Tsubaki's grandfather said, coming into the room with the corners of his mouth lifted. "Are you fighting again, Tsubaki my dear?"

"No grandfather," Tsubaki replied, falling on her bed.

"Then what's wrong?"

Tsubaki made no attempt at a reply.

Suzuki could hardly take the silence. "Excuse me, Oto-sama, but your granddaughter is worried about the rumors at school. Now, please excuse me!" Suzuki made a quick escape before Tsubaki could throw something else at him.

"Oh, those?" Tsubaki's grandfather tsked. "I'm sure that your friend Tezuka-san will take care of that."

"Why do you say that?" Tsubaki asked, lifting her head from her pillow.

"Oh, no reason." Tsubaki's grandfather got up and left, closing the door with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes.

OoO

School continued on as normal. The boys were worshiped, and the girls . . .were not. Miki doodled in her notebook as the teacher spoke about sine and cosine in a review of their trigonometry lesson. She glanced over at her friend Takashi who was paying close attention to the board before she caught his eye, he smiled at her lightly before turning away again with a slight blush.

The bell promptly rung to announce lunch time, and Miki made her way over to Takashi. "Hi Taka-kun," she said brightly.

"Hi Miki-chan," Takashi replied with a blush still on his check. "Um, I, I have to go, but I'll talk to you later, okay?" He didn't look her in the eye as he shoved all his stuff into his backpack and fled from the room.

"Did I do something?" Miki called after him quietly.

OoO

Tsubaki rubbed tiredly at her eyes for the fifth time in the last minute as she stared quietly at the lunch that was packed for her. She had another bad night of sleep, and she was paranoid that people were still looking and talking about her.

A shadow fell over her desk and she blinked wearily before looking up at the tall figure above her.

"Tsubaki-san," Tezukia whispered, "I noticed that you haven't been well these past few days."

Tsubaki straighted in her seat and said, "Thanks for your concern, Kunimitsu-san, but I'm perfectly fine."

"How do you explain your eyes then?"

Tsubaki knew what she looked like, and rather than replying she sighed and turned away.

"Are you worried about me?" she asked, very much unlike her school self.

Tezuka was a bit taken aback by the question. His eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter behind his glasses before he got his composure again and replied with conviction. "Yes."

Now it was Tsubaki's turn to look up in surprise. She didn't even bother hiding it.

"I do," Tezuka coughed uncomfortably, "care about you I mean."

"Oh."

"I mean, I did promise your grandfather, to protect you."

"Oh," Tsubaki said, her tone one of tired sarcasm.

"But you're still my friend, and I will protect you." Tezuka touched her shoulder lightly before turning away and walking to meet his friends.

"Thanks," Tsubaki said to herself before putting her head down on the desk.