Chapter 3 - Ty's Point of View

The warmth of the sun is what woke me the next morning. At first I didn't want to get up, but I dragged myself out of the bed I had made on the floor and stretched. My eyes wandered around the room and fell on the sleeping boy that was half off and half on his bed. This made me laugh. I stepped over to Ryoma and poked at him slightly in order to see how deep of a sleep he was in. The only move he made was a little twitch of the hand and nothing more. My next thought was to try to see how many practical jokes I could play on his while he slept, but then I figured that would be too mean for even me. So instead I crawled onto the bed and sat down next to him. I then placed my feet on his side and pushed with all my might.

THUD!

The next sound heard was Ryoma falling face first to the floor. I laughed again and leaned over the side of the bed.

"Morning. Time for school, Sleeping Beauty." I said as Ryoma got himself into a sitting position. He scowled at me.

"That wasn't funny, bone-head..." He grumbled and got to his feet. His eyes still looked rather sleepy and I could tell that he was starting to wake up.

I sprang from the bed and grabbed a clean uniform from the bag my mother had brought over the night before. I threw it on quickly and ran downstairs to avoid being hit by my friend. He was a bit pissed at me for pushing him out of bed.

"Hurry up!" I called up to him. "Breakfast is gonna get cold if you take to long!"

Shortly after I yelled to him, I heard Ryoma's feet on the stairs as he made his way slowly down to the dining room. The next thing I knew was my head was hurting like hell.

"HEY! What was that for?" I said in almost a whine as I rubbed my head.

"For pushing me outta bed." Ryoma replied a little irritated. That made me laugh.

"Sorry. You wouldn't wake up so I had to do something."

"You could've woken me up a little nicer you know..."

Another laugh.

"I could have. But I didn't feel like it." I finally said as I scarfed down my breakfast. Ruoma was done before me and had already gotten his school things together. I ran to gather mine and met him in front of the house. Momoshiro was standing there waiting for us as well.

"Hey! Momoshiro!" I waved as I rushed towards them. Momoshiro waved back with the same old smile on his face.

"Yo, Ty." He said as I finally came up to the two.

"Let's get going." Ryoma muttered as he made his way down the sidewalk. He was already about five feet ahead of us so we had to speed up our walking in order to catch up. It didn't take us long to reach the school, however, and most of the Tennis team came into sight.

"What's going on?" Ryoma asked Oishi, the vice-captain.

"Tezuka posted up the date of the Preliminaries. We came to check it out." Oishi replied.

I stepped up to the paper that was placed on the bulletin board to see when, where and what time the District Preliminaries would be. As I read it, I could feel some one breathing on my neck and it made me shiver slightly. I turned my gaze to the person behind and froze. It was Kaido. I then realized that I had the worst luck of them all. I always managed to run into Kaido and he always gave me the worst kinds of looks imaginable. Yet I couldn't seem to take my eyes off the older boy. His gaze on me and I could feel my face heat up although I couldn't Understand why.

I quickly turned away and stepped aside to allow Kaido access to the what was posted. Ever since I had arrived at Seigaku, Kaido seemed to be the one that I had the most encounters with. The first meeting didn't go so well, but the next time he looked at me didn't seem so bad. Although it did scare me a little. This time seemed a little unusual to me. I couldn't really tell what kind of look he gave me. It almost felt comforting yet it made me nervous at the same time.

The only thing I could do was watch as Kaido read the bulletin. He then turned and made his way out of the crowd. I decided to follow.

"Kaido...?" I asked once we were out of sight of the crowd. My heart seemed liked it stopped when he turned around to face me with that same scowl on his face.

"Why did you follow me?" He hissed. My mouth felt dry as I tried to form the words that I wanted to say to him.

"I'm sorry... I don't know why I followed..." I replied in a meek voice. I lowered my head quickly so as not to look him straight in the eye. Then I heard him hiss again.

I was starting to get even more nervous then I already was as I stood there in front of him.

"Meet me back here after school today. Before practice starts. I want to talk to you. Got it?" Kaido said. It was more of an order then it was a request, but I nodded in reply and turned to leave.

"Don't you dare forget or else." I heard him say. I turned to look back at him, but he had already rounded a corner and was gone from my sight. When the coast was clear I felt as if I could breath again and I let out a sigh of relief.

"There you are."

I jumped in surprise and turned around to see Ryoma standing behind me.

"Oh... Hey, Ryoma. Don't sneak up on people like that. You almost gave me a heart attack." I grumbled a little.

"Sorry. Why are you over here? Class is starting soon. If you don't hurry your ass up you'll be late. Come on." Ryoma walked away quickly and I followed. My mind was spinning with questions as I thought of what Kaido wanted to talk to me about.

Once in class, my eyes continued to wander towards the clock and my mind was closed off to what the teacher was saying. I wanted to tell Ryoma what had happened, but I didn't want him asking me question I did not have the answers for yet. As I thought of what would happen when I went to met Kaido, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

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RING!

I bolted up right in surprise when I heard the bell ring. I had slept through most of my classes and had been woken by the lunch bell. I got to my feet quickly and made my way to the cafeteria, but realized I wasn't too hungry. So instead I went to the spot where I was supposed to meet Kaido. There I sat until I fell back to sleep. I didn't want to go back to class and intended on waiting there until he showed up.

I was again woken after, what felt like minutes of sleep. This time it was by some one shaking me. My eyes opened slowly and I glanced up to see Kaido staring me in the face.

"You wanted to talk to me?" I mumbled sleepily.

Kaido wore a slight smirk on his face.

"Yeah..." He helped me to my feet and then leaned against the wall of the school.

"What about?" I asked quickly looking at my feet.

"You're new here... And yet I've seen at least three times since you showed up. Why do you think that is?" His reply came out in a hiss.

I shivered.

"I don't know..." My face was getting red again. "Did I do something to make you mad? I mean I am new here."

No respond. I looked up to see Kaido staring me down.

"Is there something on my face? You're staring at me..." I mumbled. I knew what I was feeling now. I was starting to have a crush on him.

Don't think such things moron! I thought helplessly. He would never go for some one like you... Would he?

"You're blushing." Kaido muttered into my ear.

I didn't know how he had gotten so close to me all of a sudden. It surprised me. Without thinking I backed away.

"I gotta go! I gotta find Ryoma." I then turned and ran, leaving Kaido standing by himself.

Moron! How could you do that! I felt terrible. I had probably made a complete fool of myself in front of some one that seemed so mean and yet so likeable. I couldn't figure it out. I guess I just always have fallen for the wrong people and did he seem like the wrong person.

I finally stopped to catch my breath.

"Stupid!" I growled at myself. I continued to walk towards the courts where I knew I would see Kaido again. I had to talk to him properly. I had to get things straightened out or it would most likely torment me for days.

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Practice was already starting when I arrived, but Kaido was no where to be seen. I went into the changing room and sat there.

"I'll see him to tomorrow. Then I can talk to him." I reassured myself.

What would the next bring though? I closed my eyes trying to think.

"Don't think about it for now." I finally decided. "I can think about it when the time comes."

I got changed quickly and rushed out of the room to join the rest of the team on the courts. For the rest of the afternoon things went pretty smoothly. I managed to avoid seeing Kaido for the rest of the day and managed to get myself home in one piece without any mishaps.

Once home I changed and crawled into my bed. It was time for bed anyway seeing as I spent most of the time with Ryoma and Momoshiro and I was tired.

Tomorrow. That's when I'll get to see him. That's when I'll finally get to talk to him and sort out my feelings.

I closed my eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep.