Practice
"Hai, Buchou." Everyone said in unison, the captain then broke the group into smaller singles groups and two doubles groups.
She decided it would probably be best if she just waited until the practice matches were over to greet her friend. He was playing against an angry looking guy in a green bandana.
If she didn't know better she would have said that it was a grudge match. The green bandana boy was directly across from her, and her friend had his back towards her. From what she could see from the other side of the court, the bandana guy looked like a cobra or some sort of snake.
"Kaido, Echizen pair. One set match, Echizen to serve..." the referee called out.
From her vantage point she could see that Ryoma was using his right handed serve. "Twist Serve!" a group of people shouted together. And sure enough it was the Twist serve, a serve that went for the body of the opponent. It was a difficult serve to return, but not impossible. After hitting a few twists shots and getting 40-love, Ryoma took pity on the snake boy and hit a returnable shot to the snake boy. Ryoma held his service game.
Cindy knew from the times that she practiced with Ryoma, that he was barely being serious. She didn't realize how long she zoned out but when she started paying attention again the Ryoma was leading 4-1 and it was time that they changed sides.
"Kaido-sempai, mada mada dane."
True to his form, all the Kaido did was hiss. As Ryoma was getting ready to receive the serve, something on the other side of the fence caught his eye. "15-Love…30-Love…" the referee shouted. As Ryoma was staring at the new visitor, his opponent had gotten two serves in. the last call brought his attention back to the game but his attention was divided half on the girl who had just arrived and the other on the game, as a result he lost three consecutive games to Kaido. There was whispering from the blue and white uniformed boys who looked to be the regulars, about how Ryoma was doing. She was too far from them to hear what they thought.
She could however hear the theories that were put forth by the people next to her on why Ryoma was doing so badly. So blamed it on an illness, and others blamed it on girl troubles. But all the other matches stopped to watch what looked like the breakdown of a prodigy. Ryoma lost the next game, the score was now 5 to 4 with Kaido leading. Cindy knew that she was probably the reason, he must not be concentrating at all at this point, I must have really been a surprise.
"Concentrate, baka, or I am going to beat you…fshhh…" Kaido hissed again.
That must have been enough to snap Ryoma back to the game. The game ended with Ryoma winning seven to five. The captain assigned everyone twenty laps around the courts for watching the match instead of practicing. Everyone moaned but quickly left the courts to run not willing to see if the captain would add additional laps.
Ryoma's only reply was "Mada mada dane," and while he was about to leave the courts the captain stoped him. "Buchou?"
"Echizen, I said twenty laps for everyone." The Captain said in an even voice.
"Hai, Buchou." With that he started to run the laps.
Wow, all this running he probably is going to be thirsty later, I am getting thirsty just watching him. I wonder if there are any vending machines, Cindy headed towards two girls in the green school uniforms, and asked the girl in braids if there were vending machines actually she asked if there was a juice machine but she sort of understood and pointed. Cindy thanked the girl and quickly headed to the vending machines.
"Sakuno! Who was that strange girl who asked you where the 'Juice machine' was? Couldn't she say vending machine? I know she must be here to get my Ryoma-sama's autograph. Sakuno, as the president of Ryoma's fan club it is my duty to protect him from the clutches of strange women…" Cindy heard the girl in the pig tails yell at the girl in the braids.
Cindy smiled and then turned the corner and couldn't hear anything else. Hel-lo, soda machine… what should I pick…Ponta? What the hell is Ponta? From the button it looks like a peach drink…interesting…I'll get this Ponta drink and if I don't like it I wont get it any more, you live and learn. She got the change ready to buy the drinks, she pushed the button for the Ponta. What else should I get? Hum…that looks like lychee soda…I would probably like that… Cindy was nearly finished putting in the money for her second drink the girls she asked about the vending machines were right behind her.
"Gomen, but I don't want Ryoma's autograph." Cindy said without turning around and finished putting in money and pushed the button for her soda. "I don't even like him that much." The can dropped down to the pick up area and Cindy bent to retrieve the two cans and turn and left the speechless girls.
At the end of ten laps everyone was panting and after the fifteenth lap most of the non regular members had dropped out. The only ones to complete the twenty laps were the regulars. They were breathing heavily after the twenty laps, the captain then told everyone to take a break.
Cindy came just in time to hear that it was break time. She caught Ryoma's eyes, which was hard considering that he was currently in a head lock with one of the other Regular members, and held up one of the sodas, the ponta.
Cindy watched with an amused smile as the smallest regular tried to get free. She watched as he finally untangled himself from the older tennis player's grip. Saying something, which supiously looked like "mada mada dane," and pulled his Fila hat lower on his head. Ryoma walk towards Cindy with his racket safely tucked between his arm and his side. When he go close enough, took the offered drink.
"When did you get here? I thought you weren't going to come until tomarrow." He said opening his can and taking a sip of it.
"I just got in this morning, your mom was supposed to tell you and pops that I was coming early to get everything in school ready so I could start next week. I am already behind." She said eyeing his hat covered head and said with all the seriousness she could muster. "Is it just me, or are you shrinking?"
Ryoma looked up and raised one of his eyebrows and said, "It's just you."
The corner of Cindy's mouth quirked up, she looked up to see the group of regulars had closed the distance and were halfway between where they were to where Cindy and Ryoma now were. As she opened her can of soda she said, "Hey, Ryoma, When are you going to introduce me to your tennis friends." She said loudly enough that the group inching towards her heard.
