Night Five
Team One
"I am happy with myself because I won every single competition I was in today." Fuji said as he and his family entered their little house. "Including the entire tournament and all the tiebreakers."
"Um…we're happy for you too, Fuji." Said Yana.
"How wonderful." Said Fuji.
"Oh look!" said Taka as he picked up an envelope that was on the kitchen table. He looked at the name on the front. "It's for you, Fuji."
"We've never received a letter at night before." Said Kirihara as Fuji took the letter and opened it.
"It says, Your special prize will arrive tomorrow morning. And, remember, this is the last night in your houses, everyone." Fuji read. "You are permitted to leave and return to your own homes at noon tomorrow, no earlier." Fuji suddenly stopped and looked up. "That's all."
"Neat!" said Taka. "Too bad we have to wait until tomorrow morning to get our special prize though. It makes it kind of pointless, especially if we leave at noon."
"I hope it's another cake." Said Yana.
"That's all the letter said?" Mizuki said, looking strangely at Fuji. "Then why was it addressed to you?"
"Oh." Said Fuji, looking at the letter again. "Well, it also says that I won the individual competition for the day, and therefore I should change the family roles before we go to bed."
"WHAT?" yelled Kirihara, tearing the letter out of Fuji's hands and reading it over. "That's not fair! I was finally the Dad! I was finally going to be able to sleep in the big bed!"
"I don't know what the big deal about the big bed is." Said Taka. "I would rather be a Brother or Sister because then you wouldn't have to share with anyone."
"It's not like it matters anymore anyway." Yana pointed out. "After we got that second couch and all."
"Hm…yes…" said Fuji. "About that…"
They all leaned over to see that BOTH of their couches were missing.
"Um…where did our couches go?" said Mizuki.
"Oh, I got rid of them." Fuji said.
Everyone stared at him.
"Why?" they all said. "How? When?"
"The new family assignments are as follows." Fuji began. "Taka will be the Dad and I will be the Mom. Mizuki, you will be the Pet. Kirihara and Yana can fight over the Brother and Sister roles because I don't really care. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get changed for bed."
Fuji departed.
"Hey Taka," said Yana slowly. "Don't you think it's a little creepy how EVERY TIME he wins, he always makes himself the Mom and you the Dad?"
"Yes." Said Taka, looking uncomfortable.
"Guys, I think I found our couches." Said Mizuki, pointing out the window.
They all looked out the window to see two couches in the backyard, but they were both aflame. In the rain. Yes.
"Lame." They all said.
"Now where am I supposed to sleep?" Mizuki sand angrily.
"You could sleep on the floor…?" Kirihara suggested.
"I refuse to sleep on the floor!" said Mizuki.
"Oh!" said Taka. "I think there were sleeping bags in the shed!"
"Wait, no," said Yana, looking more closely at the burning couches. "The sleeping bags are in the bonfire as well."
Kirihara pushed Yana out of the way and looked at the pile of burning furniture.
"Why is he allowed to get away with that?" he asked, looking back at his so called family members. He looked so ultimately offended by what he was witnessing, and who could blame him?
The rest of the family gathered around the window and observed Fuji's handiwork.
"Because he's FUJI." Everyone answered.
Team Two
"Does the rain look like it's going to stop anytime soon?" Eiji said, looking out the window woefully.
"I don't think so." Said Gakuto with a sigh.
"I wanted to get some real use out of our slide…" Eiji said, reaching his hand out the window just to double check that the rain he was seeing VISUALLY was actually there. Sadly, he was not hallucinating.
"Guys, I think we did pretty well in the tournament today." Momo said somewhat randomly. "We made it all the way to the end. It came down to a basketball toss and we were just unlucky."
"Oh dear." Said Choutarou as he stopped stirring the homemade chicken soup he was making with so much love and totally from scratch. "I think it's all my fault we didn't win today."
"Why would you say something like that?" said Marui.
"Because it's true…" Choutarou said sadly. "I did terribly in my match, and if I hadn't done so terribly then we would have maybe won that game and we wouldn't have even had to go to the tiebreaker. And then I wouldn't have had the opportunity to make an even bigger fool of myself!"
Choutarou looked like he was about to burst into tears AGAIN, but Eiji ran over and comforted him.
"It's all right, Ootori!" he said. "You did everything you could! And we don't mind at all!"
Choutarou sniffed. "Really?" he said.
"Yeah!" said Eiji. "Besides, you didn't even do THAT bad!"
Choutarou looked at the letter on the counter. "But that letter said that I did so badly in the last game that that's why they took the individual win away from me and gave it to you." He pointed out.
Eiji paused and looked at the letter. "Who cares what our coaches say!" Eiji declared.
"I suppose it can't be helped." Choutarou said finally.
"By the way, Eiji, do you plan on changing the family at all?" Gakuto asked.
"I hadn't planned on it." Eiji answered. "Why? Do you have any preferences?"
"Well…" Gakuto said slowly. "I'd kind of like to NOT be the Sister anymore."
"Don't change anything unless you're making me the Dad." Momo said threateningly.
"All right!" said Eiji. "Fine! I wasn't going to change anyone anyway! Geez!"
He sat down at the kitchen table, and the others joined him except for Choutarou who continued making his loving chicken noodle soup.
"How long until that's ready, Ootori?" Marui asked. "I'm starving."
"Oh." Said Choutarou. "You guys can uh…there's leftovers in the refrigerator…"
"Leftovers?" everyone gasped.
"Yeah…" said Choutarou. "I don't think I'll have time to make dinner tonight."
"Why, because you're too busy making…dinner?" Momo said skeptically.
"Oh, this isn't dinner." Choutarou said as he pulled a Tupperware bowl out of a cabinet and started pouring the soup into it. "This is for Shishido to help him feel better."
The others looked at each other.
"Is someone coming over to pick it up?" Gakuto asked.
"No." said Choutarou as he took a raincoat out of the closet and started putting it on. "I'm going to go over right now and drop it off! If you put the leftovers in the microwave for about a minute and a half, then you should be all right. There's also some dolphin safe tuna in the pantry, or you could even just make some Easy Mac!"
Choutarou was finishing up this sentence as he slid out the door and into the pouring ran with the soup under his arm.
The rest of the team was only looking at each other with gaping mouths.
"Our…DINNER." They all said, sounding devastated.
Team Three
Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table except they weren't using any of the actual kitchen table chairs. Instead, they were using the beanbag chair, Tachibana's chair and the three comfy chairs they had. They DID have a reason for using these chairs instead, mind you.
Whence they received the letter from the coaches that informed them who the individual winner was, Tachibana became so angry that he smashed all of the kitchen chairs. Him and his crazy temper.
Tezuka sat in the beanbag chair because he had since claimed that one as his own.
"Why did you win?" said Tachibana suddenly, slamming his hands down on the table. "WHY DID YOU WIN."
Tezuka folded his hands.
"The letter explained why I won." He reminded him.
Tachibana picked up the letter. "For sheer determination and pushing through the pain and your recurring injury for the betterment of your team, we award you, Tezuka, the individual prize of switching the family around tonight."
Then he ripped the letter up into tiny pieces.
"NOT FAIR." He said angrily. "I was the only one who won all my matches. I thought I was OBVIOUSLY going to win."
"You thought wrong." Said Tezuka. "Obviously."
"WHAT?" Tachibana said angrily as he stood up, but the other three family members stood up from their comfy chairs (since Tachibana was of course sitting in his OWN chair!) and kept him from smiting Tezuka like he had the kitchen chairs.
"It's all right, Tachibana." Said Aoi. "Keep in mind there's only sixteen hours until this whole thing is over and done with. So it's really not going to matter."
"You're right." Said Tachibana, sitting down and trying to get back the cool. "I suppose it never really mattered in the first place…"
Then he looked over at Tezuka looking all smug and became insanely angry.
"I can't help it if I am just so superb." Said Tezuka.
"You did NOT just use the word superb to describe yourself." Tachibana said crossly.
"Oh yes I did." Said Tezuka. "Yes I did."
"Fine." Said Tachibana, taking a deep hoot breath. "I will NOT let it get to me. Just a little while longer."
Tachibana and Tezuka then commenced in glaring at each other.
"Well guys." Said Aoi, standing up. "We're not gaining anything from sitting around glaring at each other! How about we go and do something that doesn't involve sitting or glaring?"
"So do you guys want to watch television or something?" David shrugged aimlessly.
"Well, that sort of involves sitting and glaring." Aoi said.
"So you DON'T want to watch television then?" David inferred.
"Er…no, I'm game." Aoi shrugged.
"You guys too?" said David to the other captains, but not to Kabaji, since it's not like Kabaji's opinion mattered.
"Sure…why not?" said Tachibana and Tezuka.
Everyone stood up and looked at Kabaji. Then they proceeded to not help him as he moved the three comfy chairs and the beanbag chair back into the living room so they could watch television.
Then they proceeded to only watch as he turned on the television and then sat down.
It must have been bad karma or something because as soon as they sat down, all the power in the entire house went out.
Everyone sat in absolute silence for a very very very long time.
Then they all collectively let out a loud groan.
"Whhhhhhhyyyyy…" they all moaned childishly.
Team Four
"Yes, it DOES say that I won." Ryoma said as his entire team huddled around a candle since their power had gone out as well. They were trying to read the letter they had received from their coaches.
"Let me see that!" said Saeki, swiping it from Ryoma and stealing the candle all for himself. "What? This is lies! All lies!"
"Well, he IS the only one who won his match." Yukimura pointed out.
"But he lost the tiebreaker." Said Sakurai as he put one of Ryoma's patches from the hospital over his eye.
"That doesn't matter." Said Ryoma. "Besides, let's not take forever to ponder about WHY I won. Let's just know that I did win."
"Hey, instead of arguing, how about we find more than just this one candle?" Hiyoshi suggested.
Then they all realized that they were standing in about a square foot of space.
"All right," said Ryoma. "And while you guys are looking for candles, I'll pick out our new family roles."
"I HATE it when he wins!" said Saeki angrily as he took the candle and stormed off in search of more candles as all the rest just sat there at the kitchen table in total darkness.
They twiddled their thumbs until Saeki finally returned with a few more candles.
"Wow guys," he said. "Thanks for helping by the way."
"YOU TOOK THE CANDLE WITH YOU." They all said, their tones elevated slightly.
"WHATEVER!" said Saeki as he sat back down and lit all the new candles they had.
Everyone backed away from each other, but remained in the kitchen table area.
"Okay, Ryoma." Said Saeki in attempt to break the silence. And it worked because now the silence was ever so broken, and probably beyond repair. "What are your new assignments for our family? And please make it brief, because I'm ever so irritated right now."
"Well," said Ryoma. "I don't really remember what everyone is already, so I'm just going to ask whoever the Dad is to just switch with me."
Everyone took a look at the item they were wearing.
"Oh that's me." Said Hiyoshi, taking off the tool belt.
Ryoma handed him the bow.
"Lame, you're the Sister?" Hiyoshi complained but he put the bow on anyway because he probably LIKED IT! But that's quite unlikely.
"Not anymore." Ryoma reminded him as he put the tool belt on.
"Guys, I have seriously been the Mom this entire time." Sakurai complained. "Can't someone switch with me for at least the last night?"
"No." said everyone.
Just then, there was a flash of lightning and the room illuminated.
Strangely enough, the room REMAINED illuminated.
"The power's back!" exclaimed Saeki as everyone jumped up excitedly and cheered.
Then the power went out again.
They stood in their positions of utter joy for a few seconds before slowly sitting back down.
"Never mind…" Saeki said with a sigh.
