Annie: Ahh... Gomen nasai for the long wait! I just wasn't that inspired to write.
Adrian: Yes, blame her!
Annie: :Eye twitch:
Dickson: Yes, before another fight starts, here is the disclaimer: We don't own PoT...If we did it is likely we'd get arrested...Ok, we don't own prince of tennis or its incarnation although Annie does own a few merchandise including pins and etc...
Annie: Yes! And I am damn proud of it!
William: ...Here is the chapter.
After the club practices, everybody headed home. Many people were tired from running, except for the regulars and the Canadians. Eiji walked over to them and asked, "Nya. How come you guys aren't tired? That was 30 laps!" The Canadians looked at each other then back at the plaster boy of Seigaku. "The courts are smaller then it looks in the anime..." William said. The other three covered his mouth before he could say anymore. Eiji tilted his head onto one side. He had a confused look on his face. "William! Don't say stuff like that! They don't know they are characters in an anime series!" Dickson whispered to William.
The four turned their attention back at Eiji, who was still confused, and just gave big cheeky grins. "Nya?" "Just ignore him. He doesn't know what he's talking about." Annie said with a bigger smile on her face. The hyperactive boy just blinked a few times."Oh... Are you guys playing a game?" The four just stiffened. "Err... Yeah! That's it! A game!" And Adrian gave a nervous laugh. The red-haired boy's eyes lit up. He liked games. "Can I play also?"
After the foreigners had to play, and wing, this imaginary game with Eiji, the regulars, well, some of them, decided to walk home together. "That was a great game you played." said the vice captain of the tennis team. "Sankyuu!" the girl replied. "You did know that Tezuka was watching that game, right?" The girl froze on the spot. He slowly turned to look at Oishi. "H-he was watching!" The third year nodded. 'He was watching the game and I didn't even play that well... I was using my weaker hand... Oi...' She knew her chances of getting into the knock out tournament was slim to none now. Not only has she not been playing up to her full potential, she ticked off the buchou a few days ago.
Eiji kind of figure what Annie was saying from the look on her face. "Nya shorty! You'll be fine!" With that said, Eiji started patting Annie's head, due to the fact that she was shorter then him, and shortest in the group at that moment. "Hey... That's my job..." Dickson said and went over patting Annie's head as well. The others, including the girl, just sweatdropped as the two boys were patting the girl on the head. "Are you guys sure? Do you think I will get invited into the knockout tornament?" the girl asked the others quizzically. The others just smiled, well, except for Kaidoh, while he just 'fshhh...'ed. He didn't like the idea of a girl being in a boys' tennis club, let alone the team. The others' smiles just made her worry less, while Kaidoh's hiss just wanted to make Annie hiss back.
It was the day. It was the day Annie would get her acceptance letter into the knockout tournament of Seigaku. She may be a girl but she was good and she knew the letter would come to her today. This state of mind would explain why she sitting on the porch in a rocking chair waiting for the mail. Adrian sweat dropped and went outside to speak to Annie. "Annie…come inside. You do realize who unlikely it is going to be for you to get accepted into the tournament when your so new to the school." Adrian said "I'm definitely going to get in. You really should be more supportive." Annie replied.
The mailman soon arrived and Annie easily found the letter after practically scaring the mailman away, knocking him out, and almost tripping down the steps. "Dear Annie Lam, we would be honored if you joined us in the Seigaku Knockout Tournament. Also, don't listen to your negative and unsupportive friend." she read out loud. Adrian snatched the letter away. "What! …It actually says that! Figures its from Eiji..." The girl's face lit up. She started jumping around the house. She was obviously very happy.
Dickson was in the living room, working on building a really hard pyramid made of cards. "That's it... Just… a… few… more… and I'll be done." As Dickson was about to place one of the last cards on there, a loud 'YAY!' made him lose his concentration, making the pyramid he was working on for 2 days, knock over. The boy just stared at Annie. Of course he was angry, but there had to be a reason why Annie interrupted him, a very good reason. Sighing, he cleared the table.
Annie jumped happily into the room, with the letter in her hands. "Look! I got the letter! I got the letter!" Dickson, watching the girl bounce around the room, sweat dropped, "So when is it?." The girl jumped around the room some more. "Ooo... when is it?" She scrolled down the paper. "Tomorrow? Kind of early don't you think?" "They have to get ready for the prefectuals, you know..." Dickson said. "Oh... YAY!" 'Ha looks like Adrian owes me 50 bucks…I knew she was gonna make it in.' Dickson though contently.
The next day was a great day for Annie. She very very happy and excited. Not even wearing the horrible school uniform could keep her mad today. The boys, however, was living in hell. Annie's happiness had destroyed Dickson's precious pyramid, lost a few pages of Adrian's list of numbers he received from girls, and William's... Well, none of his things were destroyed, but he didn't get that much sleep.
When it was lunch time, the group walked around the school and found Eiji eating with Fuji in the cafeteria. Annie tiptoed behind Eiji and gave him a big hug from behind. "Sankyuu Eiji!" You could see that Eiji was surprised. Well, more like choking. Fuji just sat there looking at his friend being strangled to death. He still had that smile on his face. "Oops! Sorry!" "Ahhh... Nya! It's ok!" he replied with a smile, still trying to get some air back into his system. "For sending me that letter, I made a bento for you!" She handed him the neatly made bento, and he looked at it like it was his toothpaste collection. The Canadians just had a scaried look on their faces. "Beware of her cooking..." Adrian warned Eiji. "Why? What's wrong with it?" With that said, Eiji took a bite. His face started turning colours. He quickly reached for his drink and started chugging it all down. "Nothing was wrong with it... It was just wassabi sushi..." the girl said. Fuji's ears purked up. "Can I have some?" he asked. "Sure!" was the girls reply as she handed him the bento. "It's good." he said. The others just rolled their eyes.
After lunch, they all headed to their Classic Literature class. Again, the class was simple for the Canadians. The class started learning Shakespeare. The four just ignored the whole lesson. Again, Dickson took out his out-dated MP3 player and amused himself with it. This time, it was William that had fallen asleep. Adrian had nothing to do, so he just looked out the window. Annie took out her D-Snap and started playing around with it. She took pictures of many things in the classroom; Eiji looking extremely confused at what the teacher was talking about. 'Haha! Kawaii...' she thought; Fuji waving at the camera; Dickson tapping to the rhythm of the song he was listening to; and William sleeping. These were going to be the first pictures in her new collection.
After class was over, there was still sometime before the next class was to start. "Guys! Look! I took some pictures!" Annie as the group, Fuji and Eiji gathered around her. She went through many of the pictures. "Nya! Annie! Delete that picture of me! I look so weird!" "Eh, are you going to delete those?" Dickson and William said at the same time. She looked at the boys and just shook her head. "Nope. These will be in my new collection." The girl had a evil smirk on her face, and yet, it still seemed "innocent" enough. "Evil..." They all said, well, except for Fuji; he still had that usual smile on.
The day went by and the Canadians just did the usual. During class, they were sleeping, listening to music, or just looking at other girls (Well, that was what Adrian was doing anyways.). Annie, however, wanted the school day to just end so that she could go to the knock-out tournament. The guys noticed due to the fact that Annie had her eyes on the clock and writing down notes at the same time. William leaned over and looked at her notes. He just sweatdropped and went back to his seat. "What was she writing down?" asked Dickson. "Scribbles. You wouldn't be able to read it anyways." the boy replied.
Soon the bell rung, signalling the end of school. As soon as it did, Annie bolted out of her seat and ran straight out of the classroom. She totally forgot about the others. In other words, they got ditched. "She's got tennis in the brain." Adrian said. "Better then having something else, Adrian." Dickson replied. "Hey!" Adrian shouted back at him. He knew what Dickson was talking about.
The boys finished packing and went straight to the tennis courts. Obviously, that was where they were going to find the girl. However, it took them longer then usual due to the fact that Adrian kept stopping to talk to girls. "So, if you aren't doing anything tonight, maybe we could-HEY!" Adrian was being dragged by Dickson and William to the tennis court, without anymore pit stops.
As they arrived there, there was a huge crowd in front of the board that had all the players names and their competitors on. "Erm. Where's Annie?" Adrian asked. They knew that she would be somewhere in that huge pile of boys. They ran over, trying to push their way through. But it was a tedious feat. Every time they went in, they were pushed back out. It was just as bad as a boxing day sale in a mall. Maybe even worse. "Holy crap! I am NOT going back in there! Screw Annie! She'll be fine." Adrian said as he dusted himself off. The others just sighed and decided to take a seat somewhere.
"Jeez. I wonder if she is ok." Dickson said. "She's going to kill us for not doing anything." Adrian replied. William looked at them quizidly. "Will she actually do that?" he asked. "Oh, you don't know her well enough." Adrian replied and just slumped over.
A few minutes passed until someone walked up to them. "Hoi hoi!" The boys looked up to see it was Annie, standing in front of them drinking a can of ponta. "Are you guys ok? You look like you just went shopping..." The boys just fell down in sync. William was the first to stand up. He had a neutral face on. "I only have one question to ask you." "Ok, go ahead." The girl replied. "...Where did you get that ponta?" Adrian and Dickson fell down again. Annie just blinked and pointed in the direction of the vending machines. "YAY!" And he ran off.
The girl took a seat next to the guys. She just sat there, still drinking the ponta. "So, what block are you in?" asked Dickson. "Block C." she replied. Adrian was getting bored already. "While you guys go talk about this stuff, I'm just going to go off now. Bye!" With that said he ran off. "He's going to go hit on girls again, isn't he?" asked Annie. Dickson sighed and just nodded.
"Who is playing in that block?" "Taka-san." The girl replied again. Her answers tended to be straight forward now. "Oh. Cool." "I'm also playing Fuji." She replied, eyes landing on the tensai across the court. Dickson could see that she wanted to beat him, but also not do it at the same time. Fuji was Annie's favourite character from PoT. She had a hard decision to make. "You aren't going to beat him." He replied. She turned her attention towards his and just started glaring.
Dickson almost fell off the bench, but he managed to just barely stay on. "Ok. Ok." He tried not to get the girl angry. He really doesn't want to see her angry, period. That would be a scary sight. "Well, you can beat Taka-san and take his spot on the team." Finally, something helpful. "Beat Taka! HOLY CRAP! I might as well get my wrists broken in the process! He has these very powerful moves! You really want to see me in the hospital, don't you?"
By now, the girl was practically yelling at the poor boy. "No, Annie. Just calm down. He plays aggressive baseline style. Just try landing each ball near the front and you'll be fine. But be careful, of course. Don't be repetitive so he gets use to the pattern." That definitely calmed her down. "Fine. If you say so. You're my data person." "Really now?" Dickson replied. "Yes." "How am I your data person when I don't have all the data?" Annie sent another glare at him, hoping he would shut up. Eventually he did.
Throughout the whole afternoon, Annie was playing players after players. They seemed to be surprised that a girl was even in the club, let alone beating them. Dickson was there, well, for the sake of just being there. That and he had nowhere else to go. William has yet to come back from getting his Ponta. Annie and Dickson suspect he got lost or something. Adrian. Well, they just didn't see him. But they were right. He was off hooking up with girls.
Both of them sat on the same bench again, just resting after the previous matches. This was now Annie's break. During this time, she was either drinking water (because Dickson took her ponta and money away), testing out the strings on her racket or just practising. Her next 2 matches were going to determine if she was going to be on the team or not. The 2 players of Seishun Gakuen's tennis team, Takashi Kawamura and Fuji Syusuke.
After the break, her match after it was with Taka-san. Dickson was standing next to Annie. The girl was shaking. The same thing kept going through her mind, is this match going to cause her to break her wrists? This just shook her up even more. Sure, he was nice and all, without a racket. But when that racket gets in his hands, well, it's kind of like a pre-death sentence. "At least he doesn't have the dash-hadouku yet." Dickson tried calming her down. Annie just gave a sigh.
They walked onto the courts. Before she went in, he turned back to Dickson. "Ok. If I happen to die today, I want you to have all the things that you wanted from me." That's great and all but, "Annie, you are not going to die. Maybe suffer a broken wrist and stuff, but not die." This got her all shook up. "Fshhhh..." She was hissing at Dickson. "Ok! You are not going to break your wrist. Just stick to hitting it near the net, not at the back." "Fine."
The girl stepped onto the court and just waited. Takashi's previous competitors were around it. Many whispers could be heard. "Oh jeez. Is that girl really going to win against him?" "I don't know. She very short. Small wrists. Let's just hope she survives, let alone lose." After hearing all that, Annie took a huge gulp. "Oh god. Please! Please give me the strength to not die! I truly do not want to die." she said as a prayer. After that, she saw Taka-san go on the court. He looked so gentle. He didn't look like someone was going to kill her or anything. But people knew better then that. "Hello." He said. The girl just waves back. He grabbed onto his racket. That's when it started.
"Come on baby!" He shouted. Everyone's eyes shot open, well except for Annie's. She shut her eyes. But then turned over to Dickson. "Don't worry. Just hit near the net." He mouthed. She nodded and turned her attention back to him. The game had just begun.
Authors' note:
Annie: Hoi hoi! Well, Again, sorry for the long wait. To make it up to you, the reader, I am going to add up another 2 chapters after this one! And, oh yes, the D-snap is my :takes a huge breath: digital camera, camcorder, mp3 player, audio recorder. Yes, it is all in one! a 4-in-1!
Adrian: Yes, and she uses it to torture us.
Dickson: I want it.
William: I have never seen it before.
Annie: It's blue. Oh well, you'll see it at Animecon. Anyways, Ja!