Introductions

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.

She took a sip of her soda while the group shed their paralysis and came closer.

"Ehh? Oh, them?" Ryoma started.

"What do you mean 'Oh, them?' chibi?" the guy who had a white piece of tape on the right side of his face said, "never mind o-chibi, I am Kikumaru Eiji. Yoroshiku! That is…" pointing to the guy in the bandanda

"We can make our own introductions," he hissed

Eiji continued the introductions like he didn't hear the snake boy's comment. "Kaidoh Kaoru. That one is Momoshiro Takeshi, The one with the notebook and glasses is Inui Sadaharu, beware of his scary "special" juices, the next one is Kawamura Takashi his family owns the best sushi restaurant ever," with that comment Kawamura blushed, "the smiling one is known as the tennis prodigy Fuji Syusuke," Fuji continued to smile but gave a slight nod towards Cindy, "the one next to him is Oishi Syuichiroh, he is the vice captain and my partner in doubles we are known as the golden pair."

It took a moment for all the names to sink into place and another for Cindy to realize that the one name Eiji had stopped talking. Looking at Ryoma, Cindy took his drink. Knowing that she had his attention smiled and said through her teeth in English, "introduction?"

Cindy covered by taking a sip of his Ponta drink and giving it back to him. She grimiced and shrugged when she tasted the drink and took a swig of her own soda.

Ryoma looked at his teammates and then at Cindy and then at his soda and smirked, "My name is Echizen Ryoma…" he got out and stopped with an "oomph" when Cindy elbowed him in the chest. "This is Ling Cindy." Cindy's eyebrow rose at the order of her name, and realized she was indeed in Japan when they said her last name befor her first name. I have to remember that they use different name order. She thought to herself as Ryoma continued, "She was my best friend when I was living in the United States."

"Yoroshiku, It is very nice to me you all. I am sorry, I don't speak Japanese very well."She said with a slight bow. They reassured her that her Japanese was very well indeed and that she would fool any one as a native "You guys should get ready your captain looks like he is about to start the practice again."

"Ryoma I am going to find the girl's changing room and then I am going to go for a run while you finish up practice. How much longer are you going to be? An hour?"

He shrugged, "an hour and a half, maybe."

"Okay, I'll see you then." Cindy watched as Ryoma went back into the tennis courts. Now to find the girls' locker room, she waited until the captain assigned the training before going to find it. They were going to hit colored balls to the same color cones, the captain was the only one that didn't participate. He was heading out of the tennis enclosure and Cindy decided to catch him. "Konnichiwa, my name is Cindy Ling. I just arrive from America, and I am going attending this school as a first year. You are the captain right? Nice to meet you."( A/N: from now on what is said is in Japanese unless bolded)

"Hai, I am Tezuka Kunimitsu," he said without taking his eyes off the court, then he turned to face Cindy, "yoroshiku." He turned back to the courts when he finished. After a bit, he turned to face her again, "Can I help you with something?"

"hai, hai" She said, an blushed slightly, a little flustered by his monotonous voice and expressionless face, "gomen, I was wondering where the girls changing room was."

The captain told her the general direction and turned his eyes back to his team. O-kay, I think I know the general directions, maybe it would be easier to change in a bathroom or something. Walking is excersie I guess. She thought as she walked, Found it, he gave pretty good directions. She went into the girls changing room.

It was a lot different than what Cindy was expecting, used to the locker rooms, she did not expect the lack of actual lockers. People here must be really trusting if they don't see the need for locks, but being born and raised in a big city, she just wasn't trusting of people's "good nature" so after she changed into her workout clothes she packed everything into her tennis bag and went to find the mens' tennis courts again

As she walked she received strange looks from both guys and girls. What? Is there a giant booger hanging out of my nose? Geeze… When she reached the tennis courts she waved Ryoma over to talk, the gesture seemed to draw every else's attention on the court as well. Ryoma looked at his captian and at his nod Ryoma slowly walked towards Cindy.

"Dude, can you watch my stuff? Lockers seem to be against these peoples religion." She said in English, tilting her head towards the main group of guys. "B-T-W, what the hell are they staring at?"her voice tinged with anger.

He pulled the lip of his cap down slightly over his face, "it's probably what you are wearing…" he said in a quiet voice.

"Whatthe hell iswrong with what I am wearing? I am just in my workout clothes." Cindy looked from her Nike sneakers, her black Adidas sweatpants with the three white stripes running down the sides of the pants, and her matching sports bra, she didn't think that bad. She gave Ryoma a questioning look.

He sighed and gave her a you-cant-really-be- this-stupid look. Which she raised an eyebrow and gave him an I-know-all-your-secrets-care-to-test-me-on-how-stupid-I-really-am, look. "People in Japan are really quiet, and reserved." Cindy only looked more puzzled, he sighed again, "they are really conservative." When that failed to register on Cindy's face he finally said, "the sport's bra? Cover up more skin."

"Oh…" She went into her bag and pulled out a spare tee-shirt she usually had for windy days. She looked at it, it said "Winners Go All the Way." She shrugged and put it on, they probably don't even know what the connotation of that phrase is.

Cindy heard only a few audible gasps of understanding coming from the guys, but the majority of them kept on staring at her. The tennis courts didn't return to normal until the captain ordered everyone to run laps.

"Better? Can I leave my stuff with you?" Cindy said, making an conscious effort switching from English to Japanese.

"I guess," he pointed to one of the benches inside the chain-link enclosure. He walked with her to the bench where she placed her bag.

"So do you have to run as well? I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to get in trouble."

His only response was to tug down on his cap and shrug.

"I'll run with you for a bit before I do my regular run, is that okay?" she said as she turned to walk back outside the enclosure with Ryoma.

Another shrug and an "I guess,"

She was used to his bad conversational skills, it was as bad as she has always known his. People outside his immediate family and close friends believed that he didn't speak because he thought that they weren't good enough to be spoken to, in short because he had a huge ego. That just wasn't true, albeit he had a monumental ego, it was truely because he believed that no matter how much stuff a person might say unless he or she can back it up, it was just a waste of oxygen.

Cindy and Ryoma started running with the group gathering outside the fence, they weren't too far behind the leaders of the pack.