I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to be finish. We had a lot of things going on like getting ready for school and trips to places. The next chapter is 1/3 done and might be up by Mon. School starts the 1st of Sept. for us so the chapters may time some time than okay. Well on with the story. -

Surprises, Trip to Nowhere, and Deluxe Juice

Chapter 5

After running for a bit, Britt made her way to a park. She found some swings and sat down to cry some more. She slowly rocked the swing back and forth. Britt loved to swing because it seemed that swinging helped clear her mind.

"I'm so pathetic. It seems everything I try to do ends up in ruins," Britt whispered to herself. She brought her head down and looked at her feet allowing some tears to end up in her lap. Unknown to her a certain red head was watching.

'Nyah there has to be something I can do to cheer up Britt, but what? It makes me sad that she's sad. Wait I have an idea!' Eiji thought to himself.

Britt kept moving the swing back and forth with her head down until she heard a familiar 'hoi hoi'. She looked up to see Eiji doing some back flips ahead of her. Eiji saw Britt watching him and smiled.

"Hoi hoi, Britt watch this!" shouted Eiji. He jumps high in the air and does a somersault in the air then for the landing, Eiji was going to land on his hands, but he made a mistake. Eiji wasn't able to land on his hands, but he landed on his back instead.

"Eiji!" Britt shouted while running over to the red head. She knelt down beside him. "Eiji, are you okay nyah? Speak to me!"

"Nyah, of course," Eiji said with a big grin, "and I almost got it right too. Oh well, I guess I will just have to try again. If you keep trying then you're bound to get it right. Right, Britt?" Britt just nodded her head 'yes'. "So when I finally get it right I can be even happier, because I tried so hard to achieve it. One day you be able to achieve your goals too. Plus I think our Café was a big success. Everyone was having fun and that's the most important thing, right?"

"I guess you're right Eiji," Britt said with a smile and gave Eiji a small hug, "Thank you, I think all I needed was some good advice. I feel much better now."

"Well good. Now we have to get going," he said. Eiji grabbed Britt's hand and started to pull her down the street.

"Eiji, where are we going?" Britt asked.

"We are going to play tennis of course," Eiji said with another smile, "I know that you're really great at playing tennis." Britt just nodded her head again. She was blushing a little bit because Eiji was still holding her hand.

Eiji and Britt arrived at the street tennis courts, but there were already two boys there playing. Britt recognized one of the boys as Kajimoto Takahisa from Jyousei Shounan School, but the other boy had black hair with dark purple eyes.

"Hoi hoi Kajimoto over here," Britt said while waving one hand. Kajimoto looks over at Britt and stops the tennis ball coming at him.

"Why hello Britt, what are you doing here?" asked Kajimoto standing in the middle of his side of the court.

"Well to play tennis of course silly," Britt said with a laugh. She let go of Eiji's hand and walked over to Kajimoto. Britt, however, didn't see the look glare that Eiji was giving Kajimoto. "Hey you! Do you have an extra racket I can borrow? Then Eiji and I can play you and that boy in doubles."

"I have a name, and it's Mizuki Hajime," shouted Mizuki from the other side of the net.

All four of them agreed on playing a doubles match. After lending rackets to Britt and Eiji, the game was about to begin. The teams were Eiji and Britt vs. Kajimoto and Mizuki, but before the game could start, Mal and Steph appeared by the tennis courts with Taka, who was helping Steph. Mal saw Britt and ran on the court to give Britt a hug.

"Are you okay, Britt?" asked Mal looked right at Britt.

"Yeah, Eiji cheered me up and now we are going to play some tennis," Britt said with a smile.

"That's good; we don't want Ochibi-chan to be sad now," said Steph.

"Sorry to break up this little reunion, but let's just start the game," said Mizuki while twirling a piece of his hair.

"I want to play too," said Mal.

"You can't play. We already have enough players," said Mizuki.

"We can do a drawing to see who will play," said Britt.

Everyone agreed with this. In the end, Mal took Mizuki's place and Steph, with Taka's help, was the referee. Mizuki just sat and watched for a bit then left because he was bored. The game went for an hour and half. When the game was finally over, it was pretty dark outside. Kajimoto said bye and left after the game. Eiji, Taka, and the girls started to walk home.

"You know, I feel like we are forgetting something, Steph," said Britt.

"Nyah? The team already cleaned up the mess," said Eiji.

"No it's not the mess we are forgetting," said Steph.

"If it was really important you guys would remember it," said Taka who was still guiding Steph.

"Oh crap, today is Friday, now I remember. Come on we have to go and pick up something," said Mal.

"What do we need…? Oh yeah! Sorry you guys we've got to go," Britt said while grabbing Steph's arm to help her. Mal, Britt, and Steph started to run ahead of the guys.

"Wait," said Britt who stopped and started to shout to the boys, "Tell everyone to meet us at the school gate tomorrow around noon. We have a surprise for everyone. Okay well bye, see you tomorrow." The girls were gone and the boys were kind of speechless.

"Well I wonder what that's about?" asked Taka.

"Hoi hoi I don't know, but I like surprises. We've got to go tell everyone okay?" said Eiji. The boys then left to tell everyone to meet tomorrow at the school gate around noon.

Fast Forward To Tomorrow

"Why are we here again?" Ryoma asked as he walked up to his teammates by the gate.

"Because the girls have a surprise for us!" Eiji exclaimed.

"Well it better be something good, because I'm running late for lunch and I am starving!" Momoshiro said.

"Fshhhh…all you do is eat, baka," Kaidoh murmured.

"What was that Mamushi? You want to start something?" Momo snarled.

Before any type of senseless chaos could break out, Oishi spotted the three girls, and an extra girl the boys didn't recognize. She was tall with blonde hair and sapphire eyes, and was carrying a large suitcase.

"Hoi hoi, everyone! We're here!" Britt yelled excitedly.

"Hey, what's up? What is our surprise?" Fuji asked.

"I'd like to introduce you all to my sister, Karley. She's here to stay with us for a while and she really wanted to meet you all," Mal said. Karley grinned and waved shyly at the boys.

"This is why they called us here?" Ryoma whispered to Momoshiro.

"Shhhh, Echizen. Be polite," Oishi said.

"Hi! It's really nice to meet you all! I brought something for everyone!" Karley said happily, and pulled out a huge bowl of……melon.

"….wow…thanks!" Britt said, trying to act appreciative.

"OOH! Melon! I'm starving! Thanks! " Momo said as he grabbed the bowl and stuffed his face.

"Neh! Momoshiro-kun, don't eat it all!" Taka-san said.

"Why don't we find something else to eat?" Steph suggested, swiping the almost empty bowl. "We can grab some burgers or something, kay Momo-chan?"

Karley began to mourn the loss of her melon, but then started to ogle Mamushi intensely, who suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable. Inui began to take notes on Kaidoh's odd behavior towards Karley, and vice versa.

"Fshhh…well..uh my house is that way, so…" Kaidoh began to say, moving slowly away.

"…That's…my line.." Ryoma said to himself.

"Nah! Where are you going Mamushi! You can't ditch us now!" Momo said, grabbing Kaidoh by the shirt.

"Fshhhh! Don't touch me baka!" Kaidoh snapped.

"You can't leave!"

"Try and stop me!"

"Please could you stay? I'd really like to get to know every one of you," Karley said

sweetly. Kaidoh suddenly turned red in the face and stared down at his shoes. More note taking from Inui.

"All right! Let's go!" Steph cheered and began to march forward, unfortunately, without noticing the pole in front of her since her eye was still swollen.

"Poor Steph," Mal sighed with pity, "You shouldn't be walking by yourself."

"Shut up! You're supposed to guide me! Help me up, please buchou," Steph said. Mal helped Steph get back on her feet and Taka-san continued his duty to guide the half-blind girl down the street.

"Ahhh Taka-san. You're a much better guide than buchou. She's such a mean sadistic hag, I'll bet she makes me hurt myself on purpose," Steph cooed.

"WHAT WAS THAT? You better not repeat that or I'll make that other eye swell up twice as much," Mal said icily. Steph "eeked" and hid behind Taka-san. "Besides your ma is a mean sadistic hag!"

"No! Your mom is!" Steph snapped.

"Oh yeah! That's right she is!" Mallory responded.

"Ok well let's just get going," Karley said. "But where are we going?"

"I don't know actually," Britt said.

"Well, we're going to go to …" Steph started.

"Culver's," interrupted Britt happily.

"Baka there is no Culver's, Scoople, or cheese curds in Japan. How many times do we have to tell you this?" said Mal.

"Only 863 times," replied Britt.

"Well only 53 more times to go," said Steph.

"No your wrong you only told me 803 times so there," shouted Britt.

"Either way that's kind of pathetic," said Karley "Oh wait here Britt I brought a present." Karley started to dig through her bag and pulled out a 'Scoople' plushie.

"YAY! Scoople is here in Japan, so then there IS a Scoople in Japan. Proved you guys wrong!" said Britt jumping up and down holding the plushie.

"Well, there's still no Culver's in Japan," whispered Mal to Steph who just nodded.

"Can we just go get something to eat?" piped in Momo.

"Of course, but this is only part one of our surprise," said Steph with a smile, "Let's get going. We don't want to waste anymore time."

Everyone went to a McDonald's type restaurant to eat. After everyone was almost done, the girls decided to fill the boys in a little about where they were going.

"So what is the part 2 of the surprise?" asked Oishi.

"A trip to nowhere," answered Mal coolly. All the boys stared at Mal like she was crazy.

"How can you have a trip to nowhere if it's not there?" asked Momo, who just got everyone more confused.

"We are going to take you somewhere, but you don't know where it is. It could be to that bench, a hot spring, or to the park," said Britt.

"Yep, that's it, so let's get on the bus and stop wasting daylight," said Karley.

Everyone got on the bus. In front, Mal and Tezuka just talked about 'buchou' things; across from them sat Fuji and Oishi, who talked about cacti and fish. Behind them sat Britt and Eiji, who sat and played card games. Across from them sat Karley and Kaidoh; Karley just looked at Kaidoh, who was pretending to be more interesting in something out the window. Momo just taunted Kaidoh the whole time while Ryoma talked and listened to Steph, who sat across from him with Taka. Inui was completely content in the back collecting data on everyone.

Fast Forward to the Destination

After an hour and half trip to nowhere, the group finally arrived at their destination: a beauty sparkling lake with lush forest and towering mountains in the background. There was a dock on the lake which had two boats attached. One boat was for water skiing and tubing while the other boat for sailing on like a yacht.

"Sugoi! This place is awesome!" shouted Eiji.

"Yeah, it's even better than the picture," added Britt.

"This is part 2 of your surprise?" asked Fuji.

"Yep, we can go fishing, tubing, skiing, and have a campfire tonight," replied Mal.

"So what should we do first?" asked Karley.

"Fssh…fishing," answered Kaidoh.

"Tubing," said Momo.

"Baka, we should go fishing," shouted Kaidoh at Momo.

"No way! Tubing is more fun!" Momo shouted back.

"How about we have a vote?" Steph said, trying to break up the fight. In the end, most people voted for tubing and water-skiing. Steph and Mal set up two tubes on the first boat; one double and one single tube so three people could go at a time. Britt decided to drive the boat. After everyone changed into swimsuits, it was time for some fun!

"Okay, this is the rule: once one of the three people fall off, we will switch tubers. Understand?" asked Britt. Everyone nodded. Tezuka volunteered to be the spotter, because he didn't want to go tubing.

First, Ryoma and Momo went together on the double tube and Kaidoh on the single tube, while everyone else waited on the dock. After 10 minutes of turns, figure eight's, and water splashing, Kaidoh was able to knock Momo off the tube.

"Mada mada dane, Momo-sempai," Ryoma said with a smirk. Momo fumed and pushed Ryoma out of the tube. Everyone went tubing, even Tezuka went tubing but to many people's disappointment Tezuka didn't fall off. Everyone continued tubing until they had to refuel the boat.

"Okay, so everyone has had a chance to ride in each tube?" asked Steph.

"I believe so," answered Oishi.

"Wait, there is one person who hasn't been tubing," piped in Inui, "That person is Britt."

"No that's okay I don't need to go tubing nyah," replied Britt.

"Hoi hoi, come on Britt, go one time, please? You can go tubing with Oishi and I. You can be my partner and we can knock Oishi in the water; it will be fun!" said Eiji.

"But does anyone else know how to drive the boat?" said Britt, who slightly blushed at the idea of riding with Eiji. It's not that Britt didn't want to go tubing; she just wanted the others to have their share of turns first.

"I can drive the boat," said Fuji with a smile on his face.

"Okay," said Britt with a sigh, "I'll go."

After getting lifejackets on, Eiji, Britt, and Oishi started getting on their tubes. The double tube had 6 handles on it, so Britt grabbed the front two and Eiji grabbed two other handles. From a certain view, it looked like Eiji was hugging Britt on the tube. This made Britt blush some more.

"Hoi hoi, don't worry Britt, I won't let you fall off the tube," said Eiji with a smile. After about 10 minutes, Oishi fell off the tube. Afterwards, some people went water-skiing while the others started to get ready for some fishing.

Fast Forward to Fishing on the Yacht

Everyone put their poles into the water and waited for a bite.

"How about we make this more interesting?" said Inui.

"And how would we do that?" asked Taka apprehensively.

"The two people who catch the least amount of fish will have to collect fire wood for the campfire, and try my new deluxe super juice," explained Inui.

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Mal.

"Mada Mada Dane," said Ryoma; so the contest was on. After an hour or so, Tezuka dominated the competition with seven fish, while Taka, Mal, Inui, and Fuji had six, Oishi and Britt had five, Eiji had four, Momo, Kaidoh, and Karley had two, and poor Steph and Ryoma had only one fish.

"Hoi hoi I caught another fish," shouted Eiji!

"Bring it over by me, Eiji, and I can get it off the hook for you," said Britt. Eiji swung his fish towards Britt. While trying to grab the fish line, Britt knocked into Mal, causing her to lose her balance and fall into the water.

"AHHH! MAL!" shouted Karley.

"Person overboard!" Momo announced. Oishi started to freak out and frantically search for a lifesaver. Mal didn't come up right away, so Tezuka quickly jumped into the water. After a couple of minutes, Tezuka brought Mal up, who was sputtering out water.

"Looks like the buchou are in the water together," giggled Britt, after Tezuka was helping Mal into the boat.

"I think we should go back to shore and dry off," said Oishi.

"I agree; then we can get a fire going to dry everyone off, as soon as our firewood is provided" said Karley, casting a glance at Steph and Ryoma.

"Yes, and don't forget my new deluxe super juice," said Inui with an evil laugh. On the shore, Britt and Karley gave towels to Mal and Tezuka and also got some supplies together for roasting marshmallows.

With Steph and Ryoma in the Woods

Ryoma and Steph went into the woods to pick up sticks to bring back for firewood

"It's too bad we lost; and worst of all, we have to drink that juice," said Steph with a sad look.

"Mada Mada Dane, I don't want to drink it. I want some Ponta instead, it's getting hot out," said Ryoma getting back to gathering firewood. While Steph was gathering firewood, she heard some noise from some distant bushes.

"Ryoma, did you hear that?" asked Steph looking at Ryoma.

"Hear what?" replied Ryoma, not even glancing up.

"I think there is something in the bush. I'm going to check it out; it's probably Britt playing a joke or something," said Steph, who walked over to the bush. Ryoma sighed and continued gathering. Suddenly, he heard a scream. He looked up and saw Steph running towards him. She went and hid behind him.

"There is something scary in the bushes over there, like a bear," said Steph, who was shaking in fear.

"I'll go check it out," replied Ryoma with a sigh. Ryoma went over to the bush with a log in his hand ready to attack whatever was hiding. Ryoma took a deep breath and moved aside the branches to find a deathly…. squirrel. Ryoma gets a sweat drop and turned to Steph.

"It was only a squirrel, Steph. Let's get back to the campfire," said Ryoma, walking back.

"I'm sorry, Ryoma. I guess I overreacted," said Steph. Ryoma just turned and hit Steph softly on the head with his hand.

"Mada…neh, it's okay," said Ryoma.

Ryoma and Steph brought the wood back and made a fire. Everyone gather around and started to roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories, and talk. Later, Ryoma drank both Steph and his part of Inui's juice, since she was too scared to. Everyone had a laugh when they saw Ryoma's utterly disgusted face after he drank it. When it got dark, everyone headed back to the bus and headed home. The girls fell asleep next to their seat partner. The trip to nowhere was a great success. Everyone had a great time, but little did they know that tomorrow would bring even more great surprises.

End of Chapter