The drill: I don't own Slam Dunk or any of its characters, they are the products of Takehiko Inoue's creative mind …I will find me a corner now and bawl my eyes out.

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CATCHING UP

The unlikely band of friends was now at the school cafeteria. They've just finished with their snacks. Sakuragi was still stuffing his face with all the food he could get because he was being a pig as usual. He didn't have to pay for it anyway.

"So how come you're here, huh? I would've thought that you'd be skipping this year because of your accident." It finally occurred on Sakuragi to question his friend…in between mouthfuls, of course.

"Well, unlike some people I know, I have been known to use my brain from time to time." She pauses to let that sink in before continuing and smiled as Sakuragi nearly choked at his attempt to voice out his protests. "My parents were able to take me home after a month at the hospital. I was so bored with being cooped up at home with only the physical therapy to occupy me that I actually begged my parents to let me study at home."

"You who swore to never touch a book even if your life depended on it? Study? Ha! Are your parents aware that they might have brought the wrong girl home from the hospital?"

Keiko ignored this jibe and continued as if nobody interrupted. "Dad had a talk with the principal and they made the arrangements. I was to study and do all the assignments at home for four months; after which they'd give me special tests and let me come back if I passed them all. So here I am."

"How come you didn't tell us about this? Why all the secrecy? If we'd known we would have planned something to celebrate your return. You know, the usual…an ice cream fest or a tournament at the arcade, or maybe we could try sneaking into the game center again." This was from Mito whose eyes were already glazing over the thought of playing pachinko.

"How could I tell you when it was obvious that you'd forgotten all about me? My so-called friends abandoned me." This was ended with a huff to demonstrate her disappointment.

"Not true! We visited you every week until about 2 months ago. That was when you suddenly got angry and threw all of us out. I distinctly remember you telling us to never come back and bother you again. If it weren't for your mom's updates, we wouldn't have known if you were still alive." Sakuragi has now finished eating and was able to give his full attention to the conversation. Keiko, on the other hand, was keeping quiet…still sulking. "If there was any desertion, it was on your part not ours. So stop laying the blame on us." Hanamichi was obviously getting tired of her accusations. He was also a bit worried about his friend since it has never been her style to play the victim. She'd sooner sock anyone in the head than be called a weakling.

"Well???" Sakuragi's voice had taken a challenging tone to which Keiko replied with an unusually quiet voice. "It's just that…I didn't want to be disappointed. I wasn't sure that I would be able to…"

"You were afraid that you wouldn't pass the tests??? You should've just asked my help then. Everybody knows I'm the genius around here. Hwahahaha…ulk!!!" This was cut short by the little fact that Keiko had got up in a flash and was slamming her fist on top of Sakuragi's head while kicking his butt. She wasn't really angry, though. She was actually grateful that her friend stopped her from voicing out her worst fears. This was her way of thanking him.

"You nitwit, I have more brains than you could ever dream of….Hey stop that…I wouldn't trade brains with you even if they threatened to kill me, you %#&*!!!...Aw! That hurts…Baka baka baka!...Hey stop it already, Keiko…" This went on for a while until Haruko ventured to ask a question, she was probably thinking that Sakuragi was getting beaten up quite enough already.

"Um, Keiko…I don't understand. Why didn't you want to see your friends anymore?" Keiko paused at this and decided to go back to her seat but she did not answer immediately. "Were your injuries that bad?"

"Oh, no!, she answered quickly. "Not really. It was just a silly motorcycle accident…of course I was driving when I wasn't supposed to but that's another story. I was just at the hospital for a month and had therapy at home for four months after that. My doctors were quite confident that I…um, I'd be able to walk again. That's why they advised me not to attend classes yet so I could focus on my therapy and heal faster."

She paused to look over each of her five friends. "I wasn't getting things done with these guys showing up almost everyday so I told them to bugger off."

"She must have been real scared to lash out on her friends like that…", thought Haruko. "I would be if I was in her situation. I think she's kinda sweet, maybe a bit loud but…she's a lot like Sakuragi in some ways. I think I'd like to be her friend, too."

"So…Haruko, what do you think of Sakuragi?"

"Ahh…" Needless to say, she was quite surprised at the sudden change of topic.

"Is he any good?"

"???"

"I'm sure he still has a lot of work to do but, if I know my friend here, he'd be wowing everyone in next to no time. I've never seen him take anything seriously until now." She was deliberately being suggestive, her gaze slowly moving from Sakuragi to Haruko.

"Oh, yes! He's improved a lot, you see. He's really helped the team with his rebounds. He's become a big asset to the team, really." Of course, Sakuragi's face was beaming at this and his ears were getting big with all this praise.

"Looks like I came back to school just in time. My timing couldn't have been any better." She was secretly smiling at the result of her ploy.

"But Keiko, it's summer vacation", one of the goon squad ventured to comment.

"So?"

"There aren't any classes yet."

"I know that, dummy! As I said, my timing couldn't have been any better …" she sits up and throws her arms around the shoulders of the two guys nearest her and addressed everyone around the table. "So…where are we all off to this afternoon? Wanna go to the beach?"

"Can't…still have to watch today's tapes. You know, the work of a genius is never done."

"Ok, we'll all help then", Keiko answered quickly. She didn't seem to mind not being able to go to the beach at all.

"Hehehe, that's a good idea! Then you can watch him make a fool of himself…the tapes we made yesterday were so funny, I think they'd sell…"

The End of Part 2.

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Sorry this turned out to be so long. I wanted to establish my new character's history, a bit grueling but necessary. I just hope it wasn't too boring.  

I REALLY should research the school system in Japan one of these days but I'm too lazy. Still am. I'm making a lot of assumptions here. Could anybody tell me the names of Sakuragi's 4 friends? I only refer to them here as the goon squad. I only caught one of their names…Mito, I think he's the fat guy with glasses. I'd appreciate it if someone could enlighten me regarding this. It's one of the reasons I'm writing at a snail's pace. What's the usual pacing for chapter updates anyway? Am I gonna get lynched if I update my story once a week? O_o

Special thanks to my very first reviewers…I'm glad my story made you laugh.

Regus12—my goal was to make her as bad as Sakuragi…Keiko would be flattered that you think she's much worse, I'm sure)

pixie-atme—she's actually named after the killer whale who starred in the movie "free willy" and maybe after the race car driver, too ^_^

animegurl_05 and Zackire—I can only say that it's basically a HarukoxHanamichi pairing but a lot can and will happen later on. I'm a bit insane enough to put in something on everyone else if I can.