Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.
A/N: Got this idea after receiving an email…some very important notes:
Okay, everyone that went to the following schools:
Seigaku, Fudomine, Hyotei, St. Rudolph, and Rikkai.
Now go to the same boarding school to finish off their education. I shall call it Hikari High. The original high schools were…burnt down…let's just say Niou Masaharu went a bit too…far with his pranks….
A girl, who looked to be sixteen, walked around campus to look for her best friend, considering that latter decided to skip the school assembly…which was totally very unlike her.
She decided to pry for information later but now she needed to get the news to the other.
The brunette finally found the girl under a tree, reading papers, which the other gathered to be notes. She stopped walking and studied the teen.
The new uniforms they received were red and white. The skirt stopped about three inches above the knees, which was different, considering the ones they wore in middle school were a bit longer. It seemed to her peer wasn't quite used to the short skirt…she chuckled.
The girl was biting her bottom lip, a sign that she was nervous, so that meant whatever the reason she decieded to blow off the assembly was probably a good one.
Thinking the quiet was too much, Osakada Tomoka broke the silence the other created around her.
"Oi! SA-KU-NO!" The older girl looked up when she heard her name being called.
Sakuno watched as her loud friend came up to her. She sighed, 'So much for studying.'
She closed her blue binder and shuffled over to make some room for Tomoka. Tomoka plopped down, facing Sakuno, who had her legs drawn up against her.
"Oh my gosh! You missed like the best assembly ever! Oh and I don't think drawing up your knees is a good idea, these skirts are shorter than the other ones, remember?"
Sakuno's face turned red and nodded her head as thanks after she folded her legs under her, making sure that she was covered. "Anyway, they created a new game!"
Sakuno starred at the girl, she lost study time because of this? She had a major Science test next class! "A game, Tomo-chan?"
She waved her pointer finger at Sakuno, "Not just any game! A cool game! See what happens is that we have 10 weeks." Sakuno nodded, not seeing the reason why the Council interrupted their lunch break for something like this…
"Every week what they do is- you know that bulletin board in the Main Hall?" By the main hall, Tomoka meant the room that one would step into after coming in through the large double doored entrance and Sakuno nodded again.
"Right, so what they do is that they post up a sign. Then you give roses to that person! Isn't that cool?" Sakuno was lost, she didn't know what Tomoka meant by that. She knew the younger girl was really excited; hence the explanation was pretty bad. She just nodded and decided to ask someone else about this 'game'.
Tachibana Ann walked around the school campus.
The ground was a healthy green, Willow trees were isolated all around, leaves of trees turning a red colour, a girl being harassed; fall was just wonderful.
She blinked, that last part didn't sound right. Turning her honey coloured head around, she saw the same guy was trying to get money off of Ryuzaki Sakuno…again. Sighing, she walked over to them.
"Niou-sempai, I don't have any money this time!"
"Ha? You usually do though! Why don't you have any today?" Sakuno's cheeks had turned a little red in colour, meaning she was embarrassed. Niou smirked.
"What happened?" Sakuno did not want to tell the older youth that she had tripped over a dog and her wallet went flying, spilling the contents out which the little kids refused to give back this morning on the way to school.
"I-I forgot it at home."
"Hah... I'm so sure." Sakuno looked down at feet before turning her gaze back to the sempai.
"Why don't you ever ask anyone else for money, sempai?" It was true. For the past month they had been at Hikari, Niou bugged Sakuno everyday for lunch money.
"Uhh…actually, I think that they're still mad at me about the whole fire incident. It wasn't my fault that the chemicals were inflammable."
Sakuno knitted her eyebrows in confusion,
"The first school you burned, Rikkai Dai, was a mistake, but what about the other four?"
"Atobe told me that those chemicals weren't flammable." He said in a matter of fact voice, arms crossed and eyes closed.
The younger student raised an eyebrow, "Ano…what were you and Atobe-san doing with the chemicals…?" She asked, leaning in closer and clutching her binder closer to her chest. Niou opened an eye,
"You really want to know?"
Sakuno frowned in thought before answering, "I suppose."
"Well then…" He cupped a hand near around her ear, lips grazing over the top.
"It's…a…SECRET!" Sakuno yelped in surprise and pain. She forgot momentarily about the binder and let it drop. Niou laughed and picked up the binder for her.
"Niou-san, way don't you stop harassing poor Sakuno-chan everyday?" Ann finally reached the two. After the male handed the binder over to its owner, he stuffed his hands in the uniform's pants pocket. "Whatever, I'm going to go now. Later Tachibana, Ryuzaki." He strolled off and Sakuno guessed that he went to go look for Yagyuu-sempai, whoever that was.
She found the usage of names odd though, Niou would usually call her by her first name, not last.
Ann rolled her eyes, "Sakuno, honestly, you should stand up to guys more often or they'll keep bugging you."
The said girl tilted her head, "Thank you for the advise, Ann-chan, but Niou-sempai wasn't bugging me." She smiled at her.
"I see…anyway, where's the other girl?" The pigtailed girl knew who she meant; there seemed to be an unspoken rivalry between the two whenever she was around. But An and Tomoka had never displayed it outright, making it hard for Sakuno to distinguish their relationship.
"Oh, she went to go find Horio. Speaking of which, he's the Student Council President now right?" Ann nodded, wondering what the girl wanted to know. "Was he the one that thought of this new 'game'?" Ann let out a giggle.
"Surprisingly, yes. I never knew he had such a side to him."
Sakuno frowned, "What do you mean?" Ann raised an eyebrow, "Didn't she tell you about the game?"
"Well…Tomo-chan tried to but she was too excited, if you know what I mean." Even if two girls didn't get along too well, the one thing they had in common was their reference to each other. They always called each other 'she', 'her', 'that', and 'you'. Because of that, Sakuno felt she had a duty to say each of their names as much as she could whenever she conversed with Tomoka or Ann.
Ann nodded, knowing what she meant. "Did you want me to explain it? Seeing as how I didn't see you at the auditorium."
Sakuno nodded, "Please?"
"Alright then. What you do is give roses to people. Every week, one of the student council members will put up a word on the bulletin board and you give a rose to the person or people you think fits that word. For example, if the word was 'sibling', I would give a rose to my brother and whoever else I consider a sibling. Do you get it?"
Sakuno nodded again, "I think I do…and I can give a rose to as many people as I want?"
Ann nodded, "Yup."
Sakuno was impressed, "Wow, I can't believe Horio-kun thought of this. Not that he wasn't capable of this!"
The older girl merely smiled and patted the other's head, calming her down.
"I know, but it was more like everyone's idea. They're doing this because of the tennis players. There's so much tension between them all. They're trying to get them to get along." Ann looked out to the distant tennis courts, where the two uncounsiously walked near, and grinned.
"From all the way over here I can hear them going at it."
Sakuno giggled, "I know."
Tezuka Kunimitsu, Akazawa Yushirou, Atobe Keigo, Tachibana Kippei, and Yukimura Seichii - all captains of their previous school's tennis team - starred at each other, arms crossed, totally expressionless. One of the 5 was going to be captain but the question was...which one?
While they were engaged in their 'game', the courts were in chaos.
Inui had come up with another mixture of juice and was trying it on the freshmen, seeing as how they didn't know the effects of it…
Kaidoh Karou, Momshiro Takeshi, Kamio Akira and Kirihara Akaya were all exchanging insults at the top of their lungs and oddly enough, no one seemed to hear.
The Fuji brothers, Syusuke and Yuuta, were playing against each other in a friendly match but wasn't going too well, seeing as how Mizuki Hajime was shouting subtle insults towards Yuuta. The older Fuji would stop the game every five minutes and ask who Mizuki was.
Ibu Shinji was mumbling to himself while he practised against the wall and managed to hit a freshman, knocking the air out of him.
"Oh no…what if he's dead? He can't be dead, no. He's probably knocked out. Yes, knocked out…not dead. Where did the ball go…? Have to find the ball…" He continued to mumble to himself while he went to go look for the yellow ball.
Kaneda Ichirou, Kawamura Takashi, who was there to deliver an item to the tennis coach, and Ishida Tetsu watched as Oishi Syuichirou went around, trying to break up the argument the four boys were having.
"I would hate to be him right now." Kaneda said and the other two boys nodded.
Oishi heaved a relieved sigh when the school's shrill bell rung, indicating for students to get back to class
Ann sighed as she made her way to Math class, 'This is going to be an interesting year…'