Team One
"Hey, hey!" came a voice. "Hey, wake up Taka!"
Taka rolled over and looked up. He had slept on the second couch that night while Fuji had slept in the big bed, which made him feel grand to finally not have to share a bed with Fuji. But now Yana, Kirihara and Mizuki were all standing over him.
"What?" Taka asked.
"Guess who won the challenge yesterday." Said Kirihara, showing the letter to Taka.
"Me?" said Taka.
"No." said Kirihara, crossing his arms. "ME."
"Oh." said Taka.
"After waiting for so long, I am FINALLY the Dad!" said Kirihara. "And, as the Dad, I have made an executive decision."
"What's that?" Taka asked.
"I want you to put these in Fuji's morning orange juice." Kirihara said as he put two pills in Taka's hand.
"What are these?" said Taka. "Why me?"
"Because if he finds out then he won't kill YOU!" said Yana as he offered a glass of orange juice to Taka.
Slowly, Taka dropped the two pills inside the orange juice.
"I got this idea while talking to Tachibana on the sidelines during the competition yesterday." Mizuki said.
"Good morning family." Said Fuji as he walked into the living room.
"Good morning Fuji." The family chimed.
"Guess what!" said Kirihara. "I won the competition!"
"Congratulations." Said Fuji with a smile.
"Yeah so I'm the Dad now." Kirihara announced.
"Rightfully so." Fuji nodded.
"Yeah and uh…" Kirihara went on. "You're the uh… the Brother!"
"Brother?" repeated Mizuki and Yana together in that tone that suggested they had meant to say, "That isn't what we talked about!"
"Yana, you're the Pet." Kirihara said. "Mizuki, the Mom and Taka the Sister. Okay?"
"Okay." Fuji shrugged.
Then there was silence as everyone stood there. Silently.
"Oh and by the way, Fuji." Said Yana. "Do you want some orange juice?"
"No thank you." Fuji politely declined.
More silence.
"Taka made it." Mizuki tried. "He went out and picked some oranges and then squeezed them in his hand."
"Huh?" said Taka but Mizuki elbowed him in the stomach.
"Oh." said Fuji. "Well, if he went through so much trouble."
Fuji took the glass of orange juice and downed it in about five seconds.
"Strange." Fuji said. "It tastes just like the kind we buy. Maybe you shouldn't go through all the trouble, Taka."
With that, he walked away.
"Why didn't it work?" inquired Kirihara.
"I don't—" Mizuki began but then they heard a loud THUMP from the kitchen, and when they all ran in, they found Fuji lying face first on the floor.
"You guys KILLED him!" Taka exclaimed. "Those pills were poison! Now how is Seigaku going to win Nationals? And you guys tricked ME into actually performing the murder!"
"No we didn't!" said Yana. "He's not dead at all! They were sleeping pills!"
"Now we can just have a normal day without having to worry if the person missing from the room is actually dead." Mizuki explained.
Taka paused. "Aha…" he said.
Team Two"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" yelled Eiji as he slid down the slide.
Almost the entire family was outside in full rain garb while playing in their newly acquired items, specifically the slide and the wading pool. Even though it was pouring, they were determined to enjoy these things since this was their last day in the house.
"Where's Momo, by the way?" said Choutarou as he joined Marui in the wading pool.
"He said he'd be right out." Gakuto answered as he took a turn down the slide as well.
"You know, this all seems kind of ludicrous." Marui commented.
Before anyone could tell him that he was wrong for saying something so ridiculous, the backdoor suddenly opened and Momo was there.
"HEY GUYS!" he yelled.
"HEY MOMO!" they all greeted him.
"Come here, I want to show something to you!" Momo said as he ran outside while carrying a pad of paper and doing his best to shield it from the rain with his body.
Everyone ran over and looked over his shoulder.
"Look at this," he said. "I added up all the times I played doubles versus all the times I played singles this year…"
"…Hmm…?" everyone leaned in closer.
"And look!" said Momo. "I've played doubles FOUR TIMES as often!"
Everyone paused.
"Momo!" said Choutarou finally. "You know what this means, don't you?"
"I think I do!" said Momo, looking giddy.
"You're a doubles player!" cheered Eiji, grabbing Momo and giving him a big hug.
"You're just like us!" Gakuto said, hugging him as well.
"Group hugs rock!" said Marui as he and Choutarou joined in on the hug as well.
"Aw you guys!" said Momo, hugging them back. "All this time I had no idea that I was a doubles player!"
They all remained that way for a little while.
"Oh right!" said Momo as he moved slightly, which caused everyone to pull away from him and look upon him curiously. He pulled a letter out of his pocket and handed it to Choutarou. "You won the individual thing again, Ootori. You get to switch the families around. AGAIN."
"Really?" Choutarou said excitedly.
"Have you won EVERY TIME?" questioned Gakuto.
"No, I won once." Said Momo all too quickly.
"All right…" said Choutarou. "Well, I promised I'd make Marui the Dad next so… I guess you're the Dad now, Marui!"
"Woot!" said Marui. "I have been the Brother literally the whole time."
"And Momo, you can be the Brother." Choutarou said. "Other than that, I think it would just be easiest if we all stayed the same."
Yes, he had horseshoe eyes.
Everyone agreed with this idea.
"Say, we haven't used our new radio yet!" said Eiji.
"That should be considered a crime!" said Gakuto.
"Everyone inside!" said Marui.
"We'll have lots of fun!" agreed Momo.
"Let's have…" Choutarou led.
"A DANCE PARTY!" they cheered as they all ran inside, flung off their wet raingear, put on a hip song that everyone was into and then started shaking their booties like there was no tomorrow.
Oh Team Two.
Team Three"To be honest, I don't know if I can share the same room as the two of you anymore…" Tachibana started as he exited the Kids room while rubbing his eyes tiredly.
He was surprised when he saw Tezuka sitting at the kitchen table with his chin resting on his folded hands. He looked concerned.
Aoi and David poked their heads out from behind Tachibana.
"Oh." said Aoi. "Good morning Tezuka."
"Good morning." Tezuka said. He was staring at them.
Silence.
"Let me tell you the story of a certain tennis player." Tezuka gestured for them all to sit down at the table. Awkwardly and nervously they did, taking their seats in one of Tachibana's numerous and copious chairs.
"Er…does this have anything to do with—" David began but Tezuka put his hand up to stop him.
"There once was a man who was sure that all that glitters is gold." Tezuka began. "And even if stores were closed, with a word he could get what he came for. Do you know what he was trying to buy?"
"Uh…no…" they all said.
"The stairway to heaven." Said Tezuka. "He was buying the stairway to heaven."
"…" said everyone else.
"You know, even if there's a sign on the wall, you have to be sure." Tezuka went on, standing up and pacing. "Because, you know, sometimes words have two meanings. And in that tree by the brook, there's a songbird that sings, 'Sometimes all of our thoughts are missgiven'."
"Wait, Tezuka, what did you mean by—"
"He's buying the stairway to heaven?" Tezuka interrupted.
"Yeah that," Tachibana said.
"Well," Tezuka said. "There's a feeling he got when he looked to the west as his spirit was crying to leave. In his thoughts he saw rings of smoke through the trees and the voices of those who stand looking…and it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune, then the piper will lead us to reason—"
"Hang on." Said Aoi. "I've heard this before. The new day will dawn for those who stand long and the forest will echo with laughter?"
Tezuka paused. "You have heard the story of this tennis player before." He inferred.
"I guess I have." Aoi shrugged.
"Where were you going with this story, by the way?" David asked.
Tezuka paused again. "Why did you all give me Nyquil?"
All at once, the three started explaining and pointing fingers and yelling and being frazzled. Tezuka took a few steps backwards and allowed them to continue until they all burst into tears, got down on their knees and begged for forgiveness.
"It's all right, it's all right." Said Tezuka. "I suppose there wasn't TOO much harm done. After all…"
He raised his hand to reveal he had a letter that was addressed to HIM. It was in a plain envelope, the kind they had gotten used to seeing when their teachers sent them mail.
"It seems I have won again."
"NO WAY!" yelled David, Tachibana and Aoi.
"It has to be a fake!" said Aoi.
"You were sleeping!" said Tachibana. "How did you win?"
"That certainly says something about how YOU ALL performed." Said Tezuka as he took the letter back and then took his leave.
Team Four
"Left hand blue." Said Yukimura.
He only watched as the four of his teammates struggled to reach their left hands to the blue circles without falling all over each other.
"Really, Hiyoshi…" said Saeki. "Do we HAVE to play Twister?"
"Even if it IS the hot spot?" Sakurai added.
"Yes." Said Hiyoshi. "We do."
"Right foot yellow." Yukimura dictated.
"Why do we have to listen to Hiyoshi anyway?" Ryoma asked as he stretched his foot to a yellow circle.
"Hey, that's my yellow circle!" said Saeki.
"We're listening to Hiyoshi because he's the new Dad of the house since he won the individual award in the challenge yesterday for doing so well." Sakurai answered.
"Exactly." Said Hiyoshi.
"And besides," Saeki said. "It's raining so it's not like we can go outside and play tennis."
"Right hand red."
"We could still play tennis in the rain." Ryoma said as he strained himself like there was no tomorrow to reach a red circle.
"No we couldn't." said Hiyoshi. "It's dangerous."
"And besides," said Saeki. "Our court was drawn with chalk so it's all washed off by now."
"But why do we have to play TWISTER?" Ryoma demanded.
"Because that's the game I wanted to play." Said Hiyoshi. "What would you rather do? Play Parcheesi?"
"Plus," Sakurai said, taking a deep breath as he tried to stay up. "We're definitely building up our endurance so we'll be more prepared for any future tennis matches we play."
"You guys could have just said that from the start!" said Ryoma.
They all started to pant twisted up in a knot like that.
"Yukimura!" said Sakurai. "What's the next order?"
They waited.
Then they looked over at Yukimura to see that he had ONCE AGAIN, hacked up more blood and had passed out.
So now they all looked at each other.
"What do we do?" Hiyoshi asked.
"Well, we could ruin our Twister game and run over to Yukimura's aid…" Saeki began.
"OR, we could continue to wait here for him to eventually wake up like he always does and just build up our stamina and endurance while we're waiting…" Ryoma said.
"Ryoma," said Sakurai. "That is so insensitive."
"Sorry." Said Ryoma. "But since I'm so awesome at tennis, I'm always looking for ways to stay on top."
"And I'm always looking for ways to get better." Hiyoshi added, glaring at Ryoma.
They paused, looked at Yukimura one more time and then all simultaneously got determined expressions on their faces; the kind where you just KNEW that none of them would EVER give up.
"I am SO winning this Twister game." Said Saeki.
"Not if I win it first." Said Sakurai.
"The game is only yours to lose." Hiyoshi said.
"Why are you all even bothering?" Ryoma sighed.