Chapter XXXVII- "It's Got Holes in it and the Pope is Holy!"

The coaches didn't have much to do as they waited for their beloved tennis players to show up outside the main entrance of the mall.

"Maybe we should have given them a time limit," Ryuuzaki remarked.

"Yes, because aside from Team Genius showing up here over a half an hour ago, we haven't even had any indication of any other team arriving!" Sakaki added as he pointed at the grinning and confident looking Team Genius as they stood there like they were being paid to look overly cocky.

"Nice job Team Genius, by the way," said Banji.

"What's our prize for being here first?" questioned Sengoku.

"We're going to wait until everyone is here so we don't have to explain it nine times," Ojii said flatly.

Team Genius looked disappointed but, in the end, they didn't care because they knew they were badass.

It was exactly then that a group of ten people wandered over to them looking super confused. As it would happen, this group of ten people was two teams; 2nd Years and 3rd Years.

"Is this where we're supposed to meet?" Momo asked the coaches.

"Well obviously," said Ryuuzaki as she made a grand gesture towards herself and her fellow coaches. "Why else would we be here?"

"Hurray!" cheered both the 3rd and 2nd Years as they jumped up into the air and clicked their heals.

"It seems only Team Genius arrived before us," Ryou observed.

"Word," said Team Genius as they struck gangster poses.

"Teaming up really worked out," said Hiyoshi as he held out his hand for Saeki to shake.

"Yes it did," said Saeki as he shook Hiyoshi's hand. (And no, it's not just completely random that these two are shaking hands. They are, after all, the captains.)

"Wait, you teamed up?" said Sakaki, sounding amazed.

"We sure did!" said Jirou.

"Well then who do we award second place and who do we award third place?" said Banji, looking legitimately concerned as if the issue was important at all.

"I think that because we're 2nd years, we should get second place," said Kamio. Needless to say, the other 2nd Years agreed, but the 3rd Years brought up the argument that they were older and therefore they deserved the higher place. Then Team 2nd Years argued that they hadn't placed so high yet so they should get it, but Team 3rd Years threw that argument right back and brought up that because they had consistently ranked in the top three, they deserved it.

"Besides, we did all the work," said Yangisawa, referring to himself and the third years. "You guys only tagged along."

"That's not true!" said Momo angrily.

"Hey guys, look!" said David suddenly as he picked up a leaf on the ground that had been munched on by the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar. "This leaf is so holey that I presume it is the pope of leaves!"

Everyone stared at him.

"What?" they all said.

"Get it?" said David. "Full of holes? Holy? It's got holes in it, and the Pope is holy!"

Everyone only continued to stare at him with blank expressions.

"Never mind," David said. "It's not funny if I have to explain it."

"It probably wasn't going to be funny anyway," Oshitari said.

"No, it was funny, trust me," David said.

"Anyway," said Ryuuzaki. "We coaches were just flipping a coin while—"

"Together?" Fuji interrupted.

"Huh?" said Ryuuzaki.

"You were all just flipping a coin?" Fuji repeated. "Together?"

"Yeah, isn't that a one person job?" questioned Marui.

Ryuuzaki glared at them. "Anyway, there was some coin flippage, and we established that Team 3rd Years have placed second and Team 2nd Years have placed third."

"Outrage!" yelled Team 2nd Years.

"HOORAY!" cheered Team 3rd Years.

"Besides, it's not like it matters because the top three teams aren't affected by Team Waitlist anyway," Banji added with a shrug.

"Oh right," said the entirety of the two teams.

"HA!" came the chorus of an extremely annoying trio of freshmen. Everyone groaned as Horio, Katsuo and Kachirou jumped out from behind a tree and pointed dramatically at the coaches. "WE HAVE ARRIVED!"

"Where's the rest of your team?" said Ojii.

"Right there," said Horio as he pointed at Dan and Ryoma who were standing slightly off to the left.

"Oh," said Ojii. "Well, congratulations because you've arrived fourth, and also before Team Waitlist so you're all safe."

Ryoma looked at his team and suddenly regretted ever doing anything productive for the team, and vowed that he would lose four challenges in a row on purpose so he could get rid of his annoying team.

"We followed you the whole way!" said Katsuo proudly as he pointed at the elder teams. "You didn't even see us follow you on that bus!"

"Yes we did," said Oishi. "We just didn't say anything because you could have easily gotten on the bus without following us so it could have been circumstantial."

"Well, we're still sneaky!" said Kachirou, looking a little dejected.

It was exactly then that a huge stretch limo pulled up to exactly where the coaches were standing. The super fast limo driver got out of the car and opened the door to reveal…

"Ah, if it isn't Team Captains minus Kentarou plus Jackal!" said Sakaki. "They are only in such an oxymoronic situation because they came in last place in the previous competition!"

Jackal frowned a little bit, but the Captains said yes, whatever Sakaki, have your fun and laugh, because someday we will defeat you.

The next vehicle to arrive was a bus carrying the entirety of the Waitlist Team. Kentarou was quite angry to discover that he had missed beating Team Captain by only a few seconds because he was sure that all of this was all a trick and they planned on taking him back but now…he was pretty much shot down. AGAIN.

"Look on the bright side, though," said Tetsu to his fellow Waitlisted teammate. "There are three teams we arrived before so that means three of us will be put on other teams! You might be one of them!"

"Really?" said Kachirou as his eyes welded up with tears.

"Tetsu, I'm so proud of you for inspiring those younger than you," said Tachibana as he put his hand on Tetsu's shoulder.

"Really, Tachibana?" Tetsu exclaimed as his eyes welded up with tears as well. He almost took his ridiculous head scarf thing in order to wipe away his tears, but he ended up just using his shirt sleeve instead.

About ten minutes later, another bus arrived and it revealed Team Doubles and… Mizuki.

"Mizuki, where's the rest of your team?" asked Ryuuzaki as the bus drove away.

"I don't know," said Mizuki, shrugging flamboyantly.

"Well, it doesn't count until they get here," said Ryuuzaki.

"It doesn't matter anyway," said Sakaki. "After all, the placings are really just split up so that there are a chunk of teams who arrive before the Waitlist Team and a chunk of teams who arrive after the Waitlist Team."

"Oh no!" Eiji exclaimed, looking at his team. "The Waitlist Team got here before us!"

Team Doubles looked at Team Waitlist standing there, and one by one, each of their lips began to quiver at the mere thought of losing one of their teammates.

"Don't worry, just pick me!" said Niou. "After all, I play doubles too!"

"But it's not the same!" wailed Team Doubles as they all hugged each other in vain hopes their gesture would keep them together forever.

By and by, Team Tall arrived in a taxi and was also quite sad to discover they had arrived after the Waitlist Team. Team Hardworking had a similar reaction, but they weren't quite as sad because they knew they wanted to get rid of Mizuki anyway.

"Well, everyone's here!" Ojii noticed as he whipped nine white envelopes out of his pocket.

"In here are directions for the next challenge that will begin right after we make some team adjustments," Sakaki explained. "Depending on the place you arrived, you get certain advantages."

"You said the placing didn't matter!" said the 2nd Years angrily.

"Disregarding the 2nd Years entirely," Ryuuzaki said. "Team Doubles gets to choose first from Team Waitlist since they placed the highest out of the people who arrived after Team Waitlist."

Team Doubles had a very tearful vote and, in the end, there were five votes for Itsuki.

"Five votes?" said Sakaki as he counted again.

"Did you vote for yourself, Itsuki?" Atsushi questioned.

"We were supposed to vote for the person we wanted to win, right?" said Itsuki, looking confused.

Team Doubles patted Itsuki on the head and decided he would certainly be missed, but they had to choose someone from the Waitlist Team out of Kentarou, Akutsu, Niou, Yagyuu and Tetsu.

"You know, Niou had a point about how he plays doubles," Gakuto said.

"I play doubles too, though," said Tetsu.

"Me too," Yagyuu pointed out.

"I could!" said Kentarou.

"Stop whoring yourself out!" Team Doubles screamed at him.

So they convened and, in the end, they settled on Tetsu. They had actually considered picking Kentarou simply because he was the only short one and they liked having everyone short except Choutarou because it secretly made them chuckle, but it just didn't seem as funny because Kentarou was a freshman so he had an excuse for being short. So, they decided to go in the complete opposite direction and choose a tall, doubles playing, second year friend for Choutarou to hang out with.

"Thanks guys!" said Tetsu. "But I sort of wanted to be put on Team Captain so I could be with Tachibana."

"How about you just be grateful?" Atsushi suggested.

"All right, so Tetsu is now on Team Doubles and Itsuki is now on Team Waitlist," said Sakaki. "Team Tall, you get to pick next. You can choose any of the five, including Itsuki."

Team Tall looked at each other. "It doesn't matter who we send," Renji said quietly so only his fellow teammates could hear. "Because we've already decided to lose the next competition to get that person back. Does anyone volunteer?"

"I'll do it," said Taka since he's such a nice guy.

"And we should choose someone we won't get attached to and won't mind kicking out in the next round," Renji added.

They looked at Team Waitlist: Kentarou, Niou, Yagyuu, Itsuki and…

"Akutsu," Team Tall all nodded at each other.

So, after the vote, Taka was sent to Team Waitlist, and most of the other people were quite surprised by this because there was no one in the world who disliked Taka so the decision seemed bizarre, especially when they had the option of sending Bane away. But no one knew of Team Tall's fiendish plan!

"And we choose Akutsu," Renji added.

This shocked everyone even more. Who in their right mind would exchange Taka for Akutsu? For realz.

"And, because Akutsu was the captain of Team Waitlist previously, Taka takes his place as captain," Banji added.

"Oh no!" Taka exclaimed. "If I had known that would happen, I never would have agreed to this!"

"Ahh…I see…" Inui said with a nod.

"What do you see?" Yuuta asked Inui.

"I see what they did," Inui said so only his team could hear as the coaches told Team Hardworking to choose someone. "They are going to lose on purpose in the next round so they can get Taka back. That team has formed an alliance."

"How honorable…" Kaidou said, looking amazed.

"We should do the same thing!" said Shishido ambitiously. But then he looked at Mizuki. "Never mind."

"Hey!" said Mizuki, putting his hands on his hips.

"You don't want to be on this team anymore anyway," Yuuta reminded him.

"Oh right," said Mizuki with a nod. "Well, then we should at least foil Team Tall's plans!"

"You mean choose Taka?" Inui gasped as if it that was the most dramatic thing in the entire world.

"Yes, it will be so fiendish and foilsome!" said Mizuki, rubbing his hands together.

But Team Hard Working admired Team Tall too much to do something like that. Besides, it was Taka and there's no way they would betray him. And, additionally, Kaidou was the captain so he had the ultimate choice and really… he would never do that!

"So we'll do an anonymous vote…" Ojii started.

"No, we're sending Mizuki over," said Inui. "There's no need for an anonymous vote."

"And I send myself!" Mizuki added as he walked over to Team Waitlist.

"Okay…" said the coaches slowly.

"Who do you choose in exchange?" asked Ryuuzaki.

"We choose Kentarou because we recognize his tenacity to get off the Waitlist Team!" said Kaidou immediately.

"We didn't discuss that…" said the rest of the team awkwardly, but it was too late because Kentarou was jumping up into the air and cheering.

"My new best friends!" Kentarou exclaimed as he ran over and pulled Team Hard Working into a big group hug. "I promise I won't let any of you down!"

"Why doesn't anyone ever choose us?" said Niou with a frown as he turned to his bestest friend Yagyuu.

"Maybe we creep them out," Yagyuu shrugged.

"OKAY!" said Sakaki. "This is all fine and dandy. Now, everyone send your captain and take the white envelope with the number on it according to the place you came in during the race. So Team Genius, you take the 1, while Team Tall takes the 9 and everyone in between."

"Your advantages and directions are inside," said Ryuuzaki. "When you have completed the task and collected the item, return to where we started and we will judge you based on the quality of the item and what place you return in!"

"Go!" said Banji as all the coaches sprinted away while the teams tore their envelopes open.

"Wow!" said Kirihara from the Team Genius huddle. "There's a hundred dollars in here!"

"All we got was a ten…" Bane complained to the other members of Team Tall.