Disclaimer: I'm getting sick of writing this the whole time, but I guess I have to...I do not own Prince of Tennis and yeah... . Sorry for the late update....if anyone's actually really enjoying this fanfic.....

Drama Teacher Ch. 8

Dress Rehearsal....

The word hung like an ugly painting on the wall. A dress rehearsal....the next worst thing next to the real thing....

"Echizen! Pay attention!!" yelled the teacher. Ryoma immediately shifted his eyes, though rather reluctantly, to the drama teacher.

"As I was saying," began the drama teacher, "we'll be having a dress rehearsal today. Now, I'm not expecting all of you to know your lines in a day or two, for the play is rather long. I'd say that it's about...oh...an hour and a half,"

An hour and a half!? Kuso (A/N: meaning shit)!! That meant an hour and a half of nightmare!!!

"But you all better feel lucky. If we didn't shorten out the play, the whole thing would be at least 3 hours long!" said the drama teacher.

Fine, maybe they were lucky, but still, an hour and a half!?!?!?!?!? What a pain!!! Now he was going to have to put up with the acting for the entire time!!!

"Alright, line up, line up! Time to start scene 1!!" Ryoma smacked his forehead. Great, what was going to happen now? He didn't want to know....

The other Seigaku regulars....

"Nya, Fuji, are you sure that O'chibi is having a dress rehearsal today?" asked Eiji.

"That's what the principal said," replied Fuji, with another mischievious grin.

"Are you really sure we should be sneaking a look at the dress rehearsal though? I mean, we may be having a break, but..." Oishi trailed off.

"Oishi-sempai, you worry too much. We'll just look at it and support Echizen, won't we?" teased Momo.

"Hsss....you're probably the one who never worries," grunted Kaidoh.

"What was that, mamushi!?" snapped Momo.

"Mr. Arrogant (A/N: lame insult...but i guess that's what the anime has)" Kaidoh hissed.

"Don't start again," said Oishi, and he seperated the two. Eiji sweatdropped along with Fuji and Taka. They had originally wanted to drag Tezuka along, but Tezuka had flatly refused. As for Kaidoh, they dragged him along without him having any say in this.

Fuji stopped in front of the auditorium. "Here we are," and he opened the door quietly. Sure enough, Ryoma's class was in there, starting the rehearsal.

"Seems like we arrived in time," said Taka.

Back to Ryoma and his class...

Horio was in the middle of the stage. His roll was Montague (A/N: I'm using this Sparknote book, since there is no way that I'm going to bring the huge book of Romeo and Juliet to my desk....), Romeo's father. The drama teacher was telling him how to act.

Ryoma looked at Horio. The unibrow king seemed to be quite pleased with his part. He was trying hard not to laugh at Horio, who was acting like a complete goofball trying to act noble...Everyone else, including Sakuno, was trying to keep their laughs muffled.

The drama teacher, seeing that Horio needed some help, shook her head and said, "Alright, alright, we'll work on you some other day. I need to work on other people...now let's see...who's next..." the drama teacher picked up her glasses and scanned through the page.

"Please not me...not me..." thought Ryoma.

"Romeo," announced the drama teacher.

Drat...

Having no choice, Ryoma walked up to the center of the stage where Horio was before. He felt extremely stupid just standing there, with a piece of paper in front of him.

The drama teacher began her speech, "Now, Ryoma, you play the main part along with Sakuno," Everyone nearly burst out laughing, but thankfully, they held it. Sakuno blushed, "When we start off in the first scene, you must make your tone like as if you WERE Romeo himself. In the first scene, you are to say that you are deeply in love with Rosaline. She does not appear in the play, but you will just have to act like she is,"

Ryoma didn't even bother listening to her. He knew the story...well, he didn't really want to read it, but he had to when he was back in America. They were forced to read the book as part of the curriculum.

His eyes scanned across the auditorium. The drama teacher's speech fell on deaf ears. It was awfully quiet besides the drama teacher's voice. The auditorium was rather huge, too. The ceiling was tall, and about more than 50 seats.

Ryoma blinked. What did he just see? He swore he could have seen someone dart across the seats, ducking from his view. Who could it be? His eyes looked across the auditorium again. Who was it that he just saw?

Just when Ryoma was about to think that he probably was just imagining stuff, he saw something awfully familiar...

"Echizen! Are you listening!?" yelled the drama teacher. Ryoma turned towards her.

"Yes, sensei,"

"Recite the lines that I wanted you to say," she demanded.

Ryoma dully spoke the lines out from the play. He wasn't stupid, he knew that the teacher was going to make him recite some lines out of the play. He knew the book pretty well...mainly because the teacher back at California threatened the whole class that if they didn't pass the test, they were all going to have extra homework dumped on them. The drama teacher's eyebrows went up.

"Well..I thought you were ignoring me, but since you did what I had wanted...I guess you were, now..." and she continued on.

Ryoma looked at the same spot that he had concentrated on. There, right in front of him, was the person...or rather idiot, no, actually, a group of idiots. He knew who was there almost immediately. In front of his face was Momo's spiky hair...Eiji's red hair kind of stood out slightly...Fuji's brown hair shone through the cracks between the seats, Oishi hid pretty well, but his height rather gave his spot away...and Taka's hand was slightly out in the aisle. He also slightly saw Kaidoh's hair, too.

Ryoma scowled. Why did they have to come!?!?!?

"...alright, you may sit down, Echizen" said the drama teacher. Ryoma started to walk back to his original sitting spot. When he was on the way back, he snuck a glance back towards the other regulars. They were grinning at him. Momo and Eiji had their hands up, holding two fingers up. Fuji smiled. Ryoma scowled at them once again.

Tennis Practice (got lazy..)

Tennis practice threw Ryoma into an even worse mood. The regulars were teasing him about the dress rehearsal. Eiji and Momo were imitating the lines that he had recited in front of the teachers, not to mention in front of them as well since they had hidden behind the seats. Oishi looked at Ryoma sympathetically. Fuji was grinning. Ryoma hated that grin right then and now. Who knew what thoughts Fuji was thinking underneath that smile of his!?

"Echizen, don't get any stage fright when you start the real thing," teased Momo.

"Hss..."

"Got something to object, mamushi!?"

"Hss...you're the one who couldn't speak a single line out last year," (A/N: Go kaidoh!!)

"What!?"

"Nya? Momo had to do the play last year?" asked Eiji.

"Then that means that Momo also has the same experience," said Fuji.

"Well, it was just---" Ryoma smirked. So, Momo-sempai also had to do the school play once when he was a first year....

"Don't worry, Momo-sempai, we all know that you're a real coward underneath," retorted Ryoma. There, that got even.

"Echizen, you little brat!!"

A/N: XD I thought I was leaving Kaidoh out on some of the fun, so I added him more into this one, XDDD lolz, r&r, i'mma wanna know how you thought of it, -