Author's Note: My sister/editor is back, and she liked the way I ended this story, so I'm going to post the rest of it today. Still Eiji's PoV at this point. R+R please. Enjoy!

Oishi left late that morning. After saying goodbye, I went back up to my room as always. As I bounced onto my bed, my eyes were drawn back to the neatly arranged photographs on my dresser. And I thought of the bell again.

I slowly walked over to the drawer. It had to be in there, right? I opened the drawer cautiously, trying not to look. If I looked and it wasn't there, I would know it was lost forever. I didn't want to know that; I didn't want to believe it. When the drawer was open, I forced myself to look.

Not there.

I sighed and closed the drawer again. This just sucked.

I looked around the room, my hand still resting on the drawer handle. Where else could it be? There was absolutely no place I could think of, even though I knew where everything went now.

Oishi hadn't seen it… he would have mentioned it…

At lunch that day, I could hardly eat. I was still suspicious of my siblings. My eyes searched across the table. Anyone here could have stolen it. Who was the culprit?

I decided not to bring it up. Then I changed my mind. It was that important to me.

"H-has anyone seen… a, um… a little bell?" I stuttered. My voice hushed to a mumble. "I lost it."

"A bell, Kitten?" Mom cocked her head.

"Yeah…" I forced myself to speak more confidently. "It's a little golden bell, and it's on a black ribbon. Has anyone seen it?"

"You mean, like something maybe a cat would wear?" one of my brothers asked.

"Yeah, sort of like that… But bigger," I answered, showing with my fingers how big it was.

"Well, why would you keep something like that?" my youngest sister remarked bitingly.

It was a valid question. I didn't answer. I was feeling uncomfortably warm all of a sudden. I couldn't look at any of my family. "Well, if no one's seen it…" I trailed off. My eyes were starting to sting. "Mom, may I be excused?"

I waited for only a "yes." I bolted into the kitchen, practically threw my plate into the sink, and sprinted upstairs. Once in my room, I dove onto my bed, grabbed a pillow, and let the tears run. I wasn't sobbing, just weeping silently.

Why had I kept that stupid bell?

I felt like such a fool. It shouldn't have been important to me. Was anything else in that drawer that important to me? I couldn't really say. I'd never lost any of it. Where was my bell? It couldn't have just disappeared…

Once again, I asked myself why I even had it. I tried to remember.

At the end of the seventh grade tennis season, we'd finished our last practice with the bell. I told Oishi to go on ahead to the locker room to change, saying I'd catch up. I was left with Captain Yamato.

"Captain?" I asked hesitantly, holding the bell in my hand.

"Yes, Kikumaru?"

"Can I give this back to you?"

"Of course." He held out his hand. I held the bell over it by the ribbon. I couldn't pry my eyes away.

After I don't know how long, I heard Yamato-senpai say, "Eiji, let it go."

I didn't move. I was staring at my reflection without really seeing it.

The Captain smiled at me and closed my hand around the bell. "You want to keep it, don't you?"

I looked up at him questioningly. "I don't know why I'd want to keep it…"

He smiled again. "It's given you and Oishi something that most doubles teams will never have."

"What's that, Captain Yamato-senpai?"

"Find that out for yourself."

I hugged my pillow more tightly now. I still hadn't really figured it out, I mused. Maybe the answer was always changing. But something had started with that little bell.

After stuffing the bell in my tennis bag with the distinct new feeling that it was important, I had walked away from Captain Yamato to catch up with my friend. Oishi seemed a little down on our way home. I proceeded to glomp him, trying to keep his spirits up. I guessed that he was upset because he thought he'd never see the bell again. Maybe that's why it was so important to me: somehow, it was important to him. He always understood things like that better than I did.

I almost took out the bell right then, so I could show him that I'd kept it. But I decided not to. I decided I'd keep it safe for him, and someday, maybe I'd show it to him again. And when I did, I'd see the biggest smile ever on his face, and we would talk about it, and remember together. And of course we would laugh, because the memories were sweet, and the whole thing was rather amusing. And I would know that I'd made him happy.

I cried again, remembering that it was gone.

Some plan that turned out to be, I thought. So much for safe-keeping.

I was so horrible! How come I had to lose things all the time? Now I burst into sobs. It was gone… Gone, gone, gone. And Oishi never even knew that I'd kept it. Maybe I could tell him…? No. Then I knew I'd cry, and he would hold me and tell me it was alright. But it wasn't supposed to be about me!

Again, the voice of my sister came into my head. "Why would you keep something like that?" What if I decided to tell Oishi, and he asked me the same question? Maybe he had grown out of the idea. Maybe, looking back, he thought it was dumb. I imagined his voice in my head. "Eiji, why did you keep this?"

I don't know why! I screamed in my head as I threw the pillow at the wall. I covered my ears, trying to shut out all imaginary sounds and voices. I really didn't know why; it made no sense. During the times we'd used it, it had meant my utter humiliation. I heard the voices of past upperclassmen in my head…

"Hey, freshman! Nice jewelry."

"Kikumaru has to wear a bell so we won't lose him…"

"What are you, a cat?"

"Here, kitty!"

Laughing, they left my thoughts.

Maybe it would be better if I never saw that little bell again.