Peggy, it's been half a year. What the hell?

Whaaattt? I don't know what you're talking about.

"Um…" The fake blonde girl looked over her shoulder to her teammates, giving them desperate looks of much needed help. She hated when Marui brought over random ass girls who had totally promised that they were wanting to be the girl's team manager and were not joining to actually just ogle the boys. Just because she was friends from grade school with Marui does not mean that he can just do this to her. She'll have to talk to him later. That little shit just left this probable bimbo with her as he skipped over to his own practice. "Look, Eche—"

"Echizen."

"Look—" The blonde girl continued.

"We're not exactly looking for a manager right now." A taller girl sauntered over to the two. She watched the Echizen girl's face fall. This was something she had seen many times: a disappointed girl who just wanted a hot guy to be her date. "I can still talk to our captain, but I can't promise anything. You're in class B3, right? We'll send Mimi-chan to you Friday morning."

"Alright," Akina took a deep breath. She turned to leave the room, when a voice pipped up from behind a weight rack.

"You might be able to play for us though." A cute brunette smiled at her— a warm light in the cold room.

"Sorry," Akina smiled back, her hand on the doorknob. "But I can't play."

Everyone stared at her retreating back as the girl exited their domain. No one said a word as the countless girl to be rejected left the room. The girls got back to work training their bodies in an attempt to prepare themselves for a battle against Seigaku that they were sure to struggle through. As the door closed, not one of the them hear the Echizen girl curse as she looked down at her phone.

Dweeb: u ned to com hme now!

Nanako 3: Karupins missing we need you home

Dad: Help your mother and dumbass brother find the damn cat.

Mom: Come home! Karupin's missing! -Mom

Oh god.

Heavy pants were the only thing coming from out of the female Echizen's mouth. Desperation pushed her to the max. The girl pushed herself even harder as she registered the area around her as her neighborhood. Maybe she'd see Karupin on her way home. God, first already getting unofficially rejected from being a manager on the girl's team and then her family loses the damn cat. Can her week get any worse?

Akina's feet slammed down hard on the hot pavement, landing with a loud slap. Her backpack thumped against her sweaty Rikkaidai uniform. She knows that she'd have to use her other uniform for the rest of the week. Her body sweat had totally soaked through to her suit. The Echizen girl waved and hollered at a group of traveling high school boys to get themselves out of her way. Who cares what they would have thought about her— all sweaty and smelly and rude? She wouldn't see them ever again. Pushing past the boys, Akina continued to pant heavily and racing towards her home.

"Akina-chan?"

"Oh god," Akina whispered under her breath as she stopped. She recognized that voice. Turning around, Akina prepared herself for the worse as she faced four out of the nine Seigaku tennis regulars. One of whom was Ryoma's captain. And a beaming redhead. "Hey guys!"

"Whatcha doing, Echizen-chan?" Momoshiro raised his eyebrow at her.

Akina leaned over a slight amount. She really should have taken a break near the park instead trying to run a marathon. She was out of shape. "My family lost my stupid cat."

"Oh," Momoshiro's expression lit up. "This cat?"

Akina's eyes slowly widened as he pulled back his uniform jacket to reveal a sleepy looking Himalayan cat. As the cat made a yawnish meow, his owner nearly jumped into the group of teenage boys. Akina's arms spread themselves out wide, almost wide enough to give the entire group a hug. "Karupin! My baby!"

Everyone laughed as the cat perked up at his owner's voice, clearly wanting his owner to come to him. Momoshiro scooped the cat from his jacket and handed off the sneaky cat to the female Echizen. The cat squirmed in her arms as she snuggled the poor cat into the side of her face. The Echizen cat meowed as Akina bundled him up in her sweaty suit. "Thank you, guys. I was getting texts from my entire family about how Karupin was missing."

"It's no big trouble, Echizen-san," Ryoma's captain said. "We're always here to help."

"Besides," Oishi rubbed the back of his head, "the cat was sitting around in our storage room. He was easy to find."

"Well that's good," Akina patted Karupin's head. "Is there any way I can repay you guys?" A course of "no"s rang out from the group, other than Eiji who proudly proclaimed to come to Seigaku who was promptly admonished from Oishi. "Are you sure? There's got to be something I can do?"

"Join Seigaku—!"

"Eiji!"

"No, really," Momoshiro waved his hands in front of him. "It's fine, Echizen-chan. Having Echizen-kun on our team is good enough."

"Well, why don't you guys come over to my house so Ryoma can thank you guys?"

With the approval from the teammates, Akina led the boys to the Echizen household, unaware that Momoshiro already knew the way. As she pushed open her house door, Akina let out a joyous shout. "I'm home! With Karupin!"

Akina smiled as she heard the scrambling thumps of Ryoma's feet as he bolted towards her. As much as he pretends to not care about a lot of things, he can't hide his love for Karupin. Ryoma rounded a corner and almost slammed face first into his older sister. Akina gasped and dropped the beloved cat. Karupin— with no hint of annoyance— waddled his way over to the pillow that Akina had thrown at her mother. It seems it had not found its way back to the couch.

"Oh my god," Akina exclaimed. "Don't scare me like that!"

"I'm sorry!" Ryoma grasped his sister's arms, bringing her in for a tight hug. "Thank you for finding Karupin."

"I didn't!" Akina rejected her praises, but still hugged her baby brother back. "Your friends did."

"Ah." Her brother seemed to have finally taken notice of the Seigaku boys. "Thank you, you guys."

Akina left her brother to his friends; they'd surely like her brother over her. And besides, she needs to help her mother and Nanako with dinner. As she crudely sliced up carrots into thin strands, her two female relatives chatted about Nanako's day at the university.

"Yeah," Nanako chittered. "He's surprisingly good looking. I wasn't expecting that out of a physics professor."

"That just goes to show you not to judge people by what they like or do for a living," Akina's mother sprouted her wisdom at her niece.

"Did you learn that with dad too?"

"No," her mother deadpanned. "He looked like an idiot and he was. And still is."

"I heard that!" Nanjiro shouted from behind a door. The Echizen females giggled as Nanjiro grumbled at their joke.

"So what's going on at Rikkaidai?" Nanako poked Akina with a chopstick.

"Hey!" Akina swatted away the chopstick. "Well, I was placed in the wrong second bell."

"Oh?" Her mother furrowed her brow.

"Yeah," Akina continued. "Some idiot put the American transfer student in an English class. So now the only other option that I can take is European History."

Nanako shrugged. "At least there was something else for you."

"Yeah, I guess. It's just annoying. Now I have to reintroduce myself to a whole new class next week."

"Oh!" Rinko snapped her fingers. "Did the girls' take you as their manager?"

The girl in question frowned. It pretty much seemed as if she was going to get a long, drawn out 'no'. But before Akina had to admit her failure, her brother came bouncing through the house, calling out his sister's name for their daily ritual.

"Akina, let's go! I got our rackets!"

Akina quickly put down her knife—carefully— and sprinted after her brother; never before had she been so relieved for her brother's interference.

"Coming!"

"Hey Echizen-chan," her red headed classmate called her. "You should watch our matches today."

"Oh, that's right," Niou remembered. "It's Friday."

"Fridays are match days, right?" Yoko asked between sips of her ice coffee.

Marui nodded furiously; a smile ready to beam on his face. "Yeah, you two should totally come watch us."

The brunette shook her head. "No thanks; it's too loud down there."

"Yoko-chan," Mauri pouted. "You never come to see us play."

"Yeah, it's like you don't like us, Yoko-chan," Niou teased the poor brunette.

"We can just play tennis this weekend." Yoko rolled her eyes. "Echizen-chan and I are still going out tomorrow."

Marui groaned and leaned back in his chair. "We have matches tomorrow, remember?"

"Only in the morning. Besides," Akina pipped up, "I have something to do in the morning tomorrow anyways."

"Oh Echizen-san," Niou turned his head towards the black-haired girl. "What did the girls' team say about you being their manager?"

The Echizen girl pouted. "They said no."

"Yeah, I'm not that surprised honestly," Niou shrugged. "Don't take it too hard on yourself. They've refused pretty much everyone." Akina's frown deepened at Niou's words. "Although, if you're really desperate to be a tennis manager, maybe Yukimura'll—"

"Oh shit!" Marui jolted in his seat, a panicked look on his face. "I forgot to do my homework. Sensei's going to kill me!"

All thoughts of rejection were forgotten as the girls and Niou laughed at Marui's expense.

"Does it seem crazier to you today?" Jackal Kuwahara muttered to no one in particular as he scanned the fences separating them from the rest of the high school population. It seemed extra packed to him.

"Nah, it think it's just you— oh!" Marui sneaked a quick peek at the fence line. A familiar face caught his attention. His hand shot up, waving at one girl in particular. "It's Echizen-chan!"

"The transfer?" Yagyu sighed out as a wave of fans screamed at Marui's wave.

A stern shout from the vice-captain had Marui quickly scrambling back to his regular stretches. Sanada sighed and turned back to his conversation with Yanagi and Yukimura. One quick glare towards the fences and the screaming quickly quieted down to a more tolerable noise.

"Keep looking like that and maybe you'll even scare off some of our extra members," Yukimura teased his vice-captain.

"Speaking of extra members," Yanagi took control of the conversation. "We desperately need a manager. Ever since Katsumi-san graduated, we've been struggling with controlling our members. And quite frankly, we have too much."

Yukimura sighed. "I know. I didn't realize how much Katsumi-san did for our team."

"Do you have anyone in mind, Yanagi-san?"

"I heard that the new transfer student tried going to the girl's team to be a manager." Yanagi saw the strained expression in Yukimura's eyes. His face might not betray his emotions, but his eyes sure do. "I know how you feel about that."

"Do more digging on her first, Yanagi. Then we'll see if we want to interview her," Yukimura sighed. "I don't want this to turn into another Mina incident."

Yanagi nodded. "Of course, Seiichi-san."

Across the tennis courts, a black-haired girl's eyes wandered over to a small group of tennis players standing around and chattering to each other. They're probably gossiping about girls, Akina laughed to herself. As two of the three moved away from a bluenette, Akina couldn't help but feel as if she was wrong. The bluenette turned his head towards the fence line, and Akina couldn't help but stare back into his cold, icy eyes. His stared seemed to pin her down, freezing her on the spot. She couldn't help but keep all of her focus on him, even when the rest of the fans were screaming in her ear and Yoko began tugging on her sleeve. Something was just… off about him.

But… what?

Mistletoe isn't just for Christmas.

I just realized that my story passes the Bechdel test. Anyways, read and review!