Day Four
Team One
Yana, Taka and Kirihara were all lying on their backs in the grass in the backyard looking up at the clouds.

"That one looks like a tugboat." Said Taka, pointing.

"Which one?" said Yana.

"That one right there." Taka answered. "Look at where I'm pointing. See?"

"Well…sort of…" Yana said.

"Not so much anymore." Taka sighed.

Kirihara rolled over suddenly. "Guys." He said, looking serious.

"Hm?" they both said.

"Have you noticed that both Fuji and Mizuki have been missing for like… twenty minutes?" Kirihara asked.

Yana and Taka both sat up straight and looked around.

"I remember Mizuki saying he had to go to the bathroom, but I don't even remember Fuji leaving." Said Yana.

They stared at each other.

The three stood up and slowly started tiptoeing towards the house. They poked their heads in the backdoor like a totem pole as they peered around the corner.

"…Hello?" Taka called quietly.

"Fuji?" Yana said.

"…Mizuki…?" Kirihara said nervously.

"Oh, hello everyone."

They all jumped and looked behind them to see Fuji standing there with horseshoe eyes as usual while holding a platter with four glasses of lemonade.

"I was just bringing this outside for everyone." He smiled.

"…Why are there only four?" Taka asked, his voice shaky.

"Oh, I'm not thirsty." Fuji admitted.

"So…one of those is for Mizuki, then?" Yana concluded.

"Yes." Said Fuji. "Where is he, by the way?"

Fuji leaned back so he could see past them in the backyard.

"We thought he was with you." Said Kirihara.

"That's why we were concerned." Taka added.

"Hm…no…" Fuji said, shaking his head.

"Are you SURE?" Yana asked suspiciously.

"Quite sure." Fuji nodded.

"Then you don't mind if we search the house in all the creepy places where one might potentially find a body, right?" Kirihara said as he and the other two quickly slipped by Fuji.

"Well, no." said Fuji as he followed him with his tray. "You can do whatever you'd like. As long as you drink my lemonade."

"Fuji, that lemonade is POISONED." Said Yana.

Fuji only continued following them, but it's not like he confirmed. But he also never denied it.

"Mizuki?" Taka called. "Are you alive?"

Just then, the front door opened and Mizuki walked inside.

"MIZUKI!" cheered Kirihara, Yana and Taka.

"Yaaay." Said Fuji, looking a little less excited.

"What's wrong with all of you?" said Mizuki, raising an eyebrow.

"We thought Fuji killed you!" said Yana.

"I was just checking the mail." Said Mizuki. "We haven't gotten anything yet."

"That's a relief." Said Taka as he turned to Fuji. "We're sorry for suspecting you, Fuji."

"That's all right." Said Fuji. "As long as you've learned your lesson. Now, lemonade anyone?"

The others looked at each other and all started making excuses as they sprinted away from Fuji as fast as they possibly could.

Team Two
Choutarou was slowly coming around, and as his surroundings slowly came into vision, he saw most of the rest of his family sitting around him.

"Oh look, he's awake!" said Gakuto. "Welcome back Ootori!"

"What's going on?" said Choutarou. "Why am I tied up? Why is everyone tied up?" Then he looked in front of him to see a large easel with a rotating spiral and words underneath it that said, DOUBLES ISN'T THAT GREAT. This made him gasp. "And what is THAT?"

"Momo said he's performing an intervention, because he thinks we're too obsessed with doubles." Said Eiji.

"MOMO did this?" Choutarou gasped again.

"Yeah, and he chloroformed you." Said Marui.

"He what?" Choutarou gasped again again.

"We don't really know where he went though…" Gakuto admitted, looking around. "He sorta left a half an hour ago without saying when he was going to come back."

Just then they heard the door slam open.

"That must be him." Said Marui.

"Choutarou?" called a voice from the other room.

Choutarou looked perplexed. "That sounded like Shishido." He said.

"What?" said everyone else.

Choutarou turned his head as far as he could to see the doorway, and eventually someone rounded the corner. It was…oddly enough… Shishido!

"Choutarou…what the hell?" Shishido said, standing there looking shocked.

"Shishido!" Choutarou exclaimed. "I knew it was you!"

"…Shishido?" said Gakuto, Marui and Eiji.

"Guys, Shishido came to rescue us!" said Choutarou excitedly as Shishido came over.

"What's going on here?" he demanded. "Why are you guys all tied up? And…" he caught sight of the rotating spiral and it shocked him the most of all. "What the hell is THAT?"

"Momo tied us up and is making us listen to speeches about why we're too obsessed with doubles!" Gakuto whined.

"I can't believe you're here, Shishido!" said Choutarou.

"Yeah…" said Shishido. "My stupid family is making me stay outside all the time and I got bored so I figured I'd come over and visit you… and it's a good thing I did!"

"At first I thought it was too good to be true," Choutarou continued. "And then I sort of thought that maybe I was dreaming or that I was hallucinating since I'm still kind of dizzy from the chloroform—"

"CHLOROFORM?" Shishido practically screamed. "I'm getting you out of here Choutarou!"

"Oh, thank you Shishido!" said Choutarou happily as Shishido started pulling fruitlessly at Choutarou's bindings.

"Us too, us too!" cheered the other doubles players.

"Shishido is such a hero." Said Marui.

"I wonder if Oishi will show up to save me…" Eiji wondered, but then he noticed Momo slowly advancing towards Shishido who was EVER so distracted. "Look out, Shishido!"

"Wha…?" Shishido turned around only to be ambushed by Momo. The two of them started rolling around on the floor crashing into things and breaking things as all the captured people cheered for Shishido.

"You're going to ruin everything!" Momo yelled. "I was finally making progress with them!"

"You're on drugs!" Shishido yelled at him.

"No I'm not!" Momo argued.

Team Three
The room was silent. The five family members were sitting all together for the first time in a long while.

Tezuka turned to Kabaji who was sitting on his right and held up a fan of cards. Kabaji took one of the cards, looked at it and then discarded one of the cards from his hand along with that one.

"Curses." Tezuka said under his breath.

Kabaji turned to Aoi, who was on HIS right, and offered a fan of cards to HIM.

Aoi was under SO much pressure, but without anymore Arrid, he didn't know what he was going to do to stifle his stench. Nevertheless, he reached out and took a card from Kabaji.

When he brought it back to his hand, he frowned.

"I seem to have picked the Old Maid…" Aoi observed. "And darn it all! I frowned! Everyone probably knows now that I have the Old Maid!"

His eyes darted back and forth.

"But maybe…" he thought. "If I play it up over the top, then they might think that that frown was an attempt at a bluff…"

"AWWWW MAN!" Aoi shrieked so loudly that everyone else at the table jumped and backed away from him.

"Calm down." Tachibana urged him.

"Sorry, I'm just SOOO disappointed!" Aoi said.

"Yes…" thought Aoi. "Now they all think that I don't have the Old Maid even though I DO…"

Aoi didn't exactly know what that proved, though, but he presented his fan of cards to David so the game could continue.

David reached for a card.

"Pick the Old Maid, pick the Old Maid, pick the Old Maid…!" Aoi pleaded in his head. "If he doesn't pick the Old Maid then I'll only be able to date all the ugly girls in my grade!"

David reached for a card that WASN'T the Old Maid, and then suddenly redirected and chose the Old Maid.

He took it back to his hand.

"YES!" Aoi screamed in his head. But he tried not to show it.

David didn't flinch. He just turned to Tachibana who calmly reached for David's fan of cards.

Tachibana took a card that wasn't the Old Maid and contently made himself another pair for his pile. Tachibana turned around to Tezuka, completing the circle.

As Tezuka placed his hand on one of Tachibana's cards, he suddenly threw his own cards up into the air, clutched his arm and collapsed to the ground.

"My shoulder!" Tezuka exclaimed as he writhed around on the floor.

This sudden action made everyone else at the table jump once again as they all watched him.

"What are we supposed to do?" Aoi asked.

"Um…" said Tachibana. "I know! We have to make him an ice pack!"

"I'll do it!" Aoi said as he got up and ran to the freezer. He pulled out the ice cube tray only to find it empty. "ALL RIGHT. Who's the wise guy who used the ice and didn't refill it?" he demanded angrily.

"Oh sorry, that was me…" David admitted.

"My shoulder…" Tezuka continued to writhe.

"Skip the ice and get some painkillers." Tachibana said.

"All right!" said Aoi as he opened up the medicine cabinet. He couldn't reach the top shelf so he jumped as high as he could and grabbed the closest box. Then he returned to Tachibana and handed him the pills.

"Here you go, Tezuka." Said Tachibana as he handed Tezuka the pills and a glass of water that he went and got while no one was looking.

"Thank you." Said Tezuka as he sat up and civilly took the pills with water.

"Um…can we finish this game?" David asked since he was still sitting at the table with Kabaji.

Team Four
"No, no, no…" said Ryoma, coming over to Sakurai. "Your form is all wrong. If you stand up that straight there's no way you'll be able to do the twist serve."

"How should I stand then?" Sakurai asked.

"More of a relaxed position, but being tight at the same time." Ryoma answered, demonstrating the pose.

"Wow, Ryoma, it sure is nice for you to come around and teach us how to do the twist serve." Said Saeki as he went through the motion.

"Yeah." Said Ryoma. "I am SO bored that I'm teaching you guys how to do my tennis moves. THAT'S how painful this is for me."

"I'm not going to argue." Said Hiyoshi. "Even though the twist serve isn't really something I'd classify as my style of tennis, I wouldn't mind adding it to my list of things I can do. And, if I master it perfectly, coach'll definitely give me a permanent spot on the Regulars."

Everyone stopped in mid stroke.

"You're not a regular Regular?" Yukimura questioned.

"Well…sort of." Hiyoshi answered. "I'm on the Regulars for the most part, but most of the time I'm just the reserve player so not really."

Everyone took a step away from him.

"What's with the taking the step away from me?" said Hiyoshi with a glare.

"We don't want any of your non-Regularness to rub off on us…" Sakurai said.

"Well, I AM a Regular." Said Hiyoshi.

"Sure, of course you are." Said Yukimura, coming back over to Hiyoshi and putting an arm around his shoulder.

"Don't worry." Said Saeki. "You still have another year."

"You know something?" said Hiyoshi. "These…JOKES you make…" he sniffled. "They can be so hurtful!"

Everyone raised an eyebrow.

"Strong Hiyoshi…strong Hiyoshi…" Hiyoshi said, clenching his fist and looking up to the sky as his voice shook and he trembled, tears forming in his eyes. "BREATHE."

"Whoa." Ryoma whispered to the three other family members that weren't him or Hiyoshi. "I think we hit a nerve or something…"

Just then, the familiar sound of bells and joy was heard coming down the street. Everyone turned around in slow motion and were pleased to see that…

"THE ICE CREAM MAN!" they all shouted as he cruised up to where they were.

"Yes, yes, YES!" said Sakurai as he fished through his pocket and pulled out a dollar. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pop, please!"

"Here you go!" said the ice cream man.

"YAY!" said Sakurai as he happily started eating.

"I'll have an ice cream sandwich." Said Yukimura, handing over the dollar.

"Eat up!" said the ice cream man.

"The Smurf one with bubble gum eyeballs!" cheered Saeki, giving the dollar to the ice cream man.

"Right here!" said the ice cream man.

"I'll take the snow cone!" said Ryoma, giving his dollar to the ice cream man.

"Here's yours!" said the ice cream man, and then he looked at Hiyoshi. "And what'll you have?"

"I think I left my dollar inside…" Hiyoshi said, patting his pockets. "Wait here for me! I'll be right back!"

"Okay!" said the ice cream man. As soon as Hiyoshi departed into the house, the ice cream man's eyes narrowed and he put the pedal to the metal disappearing down the street in a matter of seconds.

Hiyoshi came out a second later with his dollar and looked around.

"Where'd the ice cream man go?" he asked.

"He left… and literally burned rubber." Sakurai answered, pointing at the screech marks on the street.

"But…" Hiyoshi's lip started quivering. "But…" Then he clenched his fist dramatically and looked off into the sun again. "Strong Hiyoshi… strong Hiyoshi… BREATHE."