DISCLAIMER: (Wow, I'm getting tired of putting this always!) I DO NOT OWN PRINCE OF TENNIS.
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Chapter 15
WELCOME, SEIGAKU!
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-THE MONDAY AFTER THE SLAP-SESSION THINGY-
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-IN DAIGAKU THAT DAY-
Mariko opened the door to Ayashi's office, bringing with her a small plastic bag, only to be surprised by the havoc inside her friend's workplace.
A set of books was sent flying off into somewhere as Daigaku's PR and Liaison's officer, Natsume Ayashi, looked to and fro for a missing paper note. Her office table was a mess, paper clips were scattered everywhere and some of her academic notebooks were strewn all over the place.
"Oi, what happened here?" asked Mariko, dodging easily an unopened box of paper clips as she closed the door. With her eyes closed, she sidestepped as another book was sent flying by her friend; when she reached the table, Mariko put the plastic bag on top of the table.
"OI! I'VE JUST PRESSED MY CLOTHES!" Ayashi looked at Mariko with puppy eyes and grabbed her friend's collar.
"Maaarrriiikooooo-chhhhaaaaannn!" Ayashi screwed up her face as she let go of the newly-pressed uniform, "Have you seen the note?! That… idiotic… note after I made the invitation for Seigaku?"
"Eh?" the fukubuchou looked clueless at the panicking buchou, "What are you talking about?"
"The note! The one I told you not to give them! The one that had my… er… insults… I mean, insights about Tezuka-san!" she flailed her hands into the air.
Mariko replied, "Oh, that one. I don't know about it. Maybe ask Emiko, she'll know. She's the one with Shin who brought the letter to Seigaku."
Ayashi nodded vigorously, then just noticed the package on the table.
"What's that?" she pointed at the plastic bag.
Mariko pulled out "casual-looking" clothes, "Your costume for tomorrow's presentation. Bunta was supposed to deliver it but he's got some stuff to do with his art class… for tomorrow."
Ayashi nodded, "Just leave it there… or in my bag, just in case. Well, I'm off to find-" the door opened, revealing a group of three people, "-Oh! Emi-chan! I'm so glad I saw you!"
"Yeah, me too, Ayashi-chan! We've already given the invitation to Seigaku!" Emiko gave a thumbs up to the paling Aya, "Shin-chan (no! It's not Shinchan Nohara! Not that pervert kid!) helped me!"
"Hi, Aya-chan, Mariko-chan." Greeted Jun.
"Good day to you, Honey and Star!" a girlish person appeared behind Emiko. She winked at the two girls, "Lovely as ever, ne?"
"Hi, Shin-chan!" Mariko and Ayashi said in unison. Ayashi piped, "You helped without any kind of commission? That's a miracle!"
Emiko giggled, "Not actually. I told Shin that there were a lot of cute girls in Seigaku."
Ayashi and Mariko blanched. The buchou then remembered the reason why she was about to look for Emiko; when she told her friend about the wrong ending note, Emiko gasped. Shin smirked at how interesting it was.
"Oh no! I've already given it to Sakuno-chan!"
"OH SHIT." Ayashi paled, if it was even possible.
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-LATER, ON SEIGAKU-
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Greetings, Seishun Gakuen Academy
You're invited to attend at Daidouji Gakuen High School's Special Arts Day this coming Tuesday to witness series of performances and acts by different classes.
Some of the presentations include:
street dancing
singing
play/dramas
This is a small taste of what our school will present for next month's Winter Festival!
We hope that you could come!
Natsume Ayashi
Nakatsukasa
Daidouji Gakuen High School
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Sumire reread the invitation once more and passed it to the Seigaku captain, who after a few seconds passed it to the fukubuchou, who passed it to Kikumaru after a minute, who passed it to Fuji who looked mildly surprised, who passed it to Inui, who took a few minutes reading it because he scribbled some notes in his notebook before passing it to Kawamura, who was holding his racket at that time and made such a huge fuss about it, who passed it to Kaidoh who blushed non-stop for a reason the others didn't know, who because he was blushing, didn't mind that he gave it to Momoshiro who grinned when he read about it, who passed it to the already-relieved-to-his-position Ryoma (how, you'll know in later chapters!), who looked like he didn't like what he was reading.
"What do you think, Tezuka?" asked the bewildered Sumire.
Tezuka sighed, "…"
"Ano… obaa-san." Chimed Sakuno, "I forgot to give you this…" she held out a small note, which was reluctantly taken by the already headache-stricken Sumire.
If only she had known that the tennis club's performance would be affected a bit too much by the sudden interaction with a school such as Daigaku, maybe she wouldn't have agreed with the girls.
When Sumire had already read the contents of the note, a smirk lit up her face, "That sneaky Natsume."
Tezuka lifted a brow as Sumire laughed her heart out before she passed the note to Tezuka.
VEIN POPPED (very weird of Tezuka having "unknown" temper suddenly rising...)
Tezuka crumpled the paper in his hand and told the Seigaku regulars that they will be going to Daigaku the next day. Sumire laughed even harder as Tezuka threw the paper on the floor and left the room almost immediately, and at the first time, looking a little pissed off.
SWEATDROP
Oishi picked the crumpled paper and said as he read it, "I wonder what happened to-"he cut his own words as he too, started to laugh a bit.
He gave it to Fuji, who looked slightly flabbergasted by Tezuka's sudden walk out, and continued to laugh. The rest of the team gathered around as they read the contents of the paper that made their buchou lose his patience a bit.
Ryoma snorted at the writing in the paper. She really has the nerve to mock buchou… what a freak.
The rest of the players burst out laughing, due to the last parts of the message.
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PS: I want you to come so that Seigaku could learn how to do these kinds of stuff, since I don't exactly think they could dance, sing nor act (though in this I CAN be wrong). I can't be too careless in letting them take the scripts and act like idiots in front of the camera, right? Most especially Tezuka-san, since he doesn't seem to have any facial expression aside from that serious face of his. (THIS I AM SURE OF!!!!) Maybe he could at least learn to, you know, make a fake smile after watching those stuff. (PEACE!)
-- AYASHI
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-THE NEXT DAY-
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Seigaku, sans Sumire, arrived at the gates of Daidouji early that day and unlike the first time they went there, the place was no longer dull as the festive mood seemed to have seeped through the walls as the vines were blooming with beautiful winter flowers and there were fireworks in the early day.
"It's cold…" they heard a girlish voice from the gates. A young girl clad in a Daigaku boy's uniform seemed like she was waiting for someone. She had very short black-blue locks that were pushed back by a wide white headband, and on her neck was a black choker with a peace design on its center.
Sakuno approached the girl, "A-ano… excuse me?"
The girl gave a small excited squeal, though it seemed like she was actually expecting them.
"KYA! You must be those regulars from Seishun Gakuen! I'm Shin! And because Ayashi-chan can't escort you here, I'll be the one who will!" he gave a rather creepy smile that made the regulars shiver a bit, despite the fact that they wore jackets, "Please follow me! Oh, ojou-san, could you walk beside me?"
"Ah… sure…" she said, not noticing the hearts that were formed when she walked together with Shin. They were then followed by the rest of Seigaku.
Ryoma glared at the sight, "Bastard."
"What? You said something, Echizen?" asked Momoshiro.
Ryoma replied, "Nothing."
Ryoma eyed the two people before them and glared at them even more when he saw Shin's arm wrap around Sakuno's shoulder. He didn't know why he'd care, but then again, he thought, Sakuno wasn't exactly the type of person who'd say if she's bothered by something or not, as proved when she was bullied by those Ginka tennis club members. He continued to glower at the sight. What he didn't understand the most was why he was bothered that a girl had her arm around Sakuno's shoulder, shouldn't he be least concerned about it?
"Oi, Shin-san, could I ask you something?" Momoshiro suddenly asked, making the guide stop and look at him, "Why's a girl like you wearing a boy's uniform?"
Ryoma was surprised to see a surprised look on Shin's face when Momoshiro asked that particular question.
"A… girl?" Shin's lips parted a bit, after some seconds, a mischievous smile played on Shin's lips, "Oh… I see, I'm a girl."
Ryoma's brow lifted at the peculiar behavior shown by Shin. And he didn't like it.
Just call it… a boy's intuition.
Shin gave another creepy smile as he asked Sakuno's name; right after knowing her name, Shin gave another excited squeal.
Ryoma arched a brow.
"C'mon, Sakuno." He suddenly said and grabbed Sakuno's hand, dragging her away from Shin, as if somebody else was controlling his mind and body that time. Sakuno's chocolate eyes widened in surprise, and a pink blush stained her pale cheeks.
Momoshiro and Kikumaru looked at each other, grinning like mad.
"Way to go, ochibi!" Kikumaru snapped his fingers.
Tezuka shook his head.
"Excuse me, Shin-san," said Inui, taking Shin's attention, "But, aren't you supposed to escort us?"
Shin snapped back to reality, "Oh! Yes, yes! I'm so sorry! I was just too taken by the little girl's kawaii-ness!"
"…" Seigaku blanched.
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Shin led the regulars and Sakuno to a small stage in front of a school building; there was a drum set, electric guitars and an organ on the stage. The backdrop of the stage had letterings on it, "ART CLASS 1 – MUSICAL ARTS".
"Daigaku has different classes for each type of art," Shin started, "It's sort of an elective class. You see, Daigaku is known for being an old-style school-" Inui nodded, "- in the past fifteen years, the elective art class has been giving the students, er… inspiration to do what they want."
(MINI-CHART with Shin)
"Since the classes are divided by kinds of arts, first years, second years and third years share the same class, though of course, there still exists the difference of difficulty level for each year."
Inui's glasses flashed, "I see… more data for me."
SEIGAKU and SHIN: SWEATDROP
"There's the first art class, musical arts, which is also divided into smaller sections: the idiophones, membranophones, aerophones, chordophones, electrophones and voice. In those sections… oh, there's Emi-chan! She could explain those stuff to you better than I could. YOOHOO! EMI-CHAN! YOUR GUESTS ARE HERE!" Shin waved back and forth to the glassed girl on stage who waved back.
Emiko leapt from the stage and walked to them. She was wearing a blue-green cardigan; underneath it was a white racerback top. She also sported a white layered skirt and wore white flats.
"Hi, Seigaku! It's really great that you could come-" Emiko glanced at Tezuka, then coughs, "-uhm, right on time, we're just about to start, I guess... Thank you, Shinichi!"
Seigaku whipped their heads to Shinichi's (Shin) direction, the boy gave a faint laugh.
"YOU'RE A BOY?!" they exclaimed. Shinichi shrugged.
"Didn't say I was a girl, did I?" Shinichi stuck his tongue out. He took off the choker, and headband (think of Athrun Zala, oohh, swoon!) and he said, in a clear, masculine voice, "This choker has a voice-distortion mechanism, which we-" he pointed at Emiko,"-use whenever we go data gathering. Oh well, my job's finished here. Ja ne." he waved at them, but was stopped by Emiko.
"Idiot, you're saying that you won't watch us? We even asked Sachimi-chan to help us in this one and you won't watch?!" she pouted.
Shinichi sighed but shrugged off Emiko's hand, "Oi, I already 'delivered' these guys here, Emi-chan. Besides, I still have a meeting with Hyou- never mind."
Just when he was about to leave, Mariko (who appeared out of nowhere) grabbed his hair, sending him backwards.
"OI! OI! MY HAIR! MARIKO! DAMN YOU! I JUST HAD MY HAIRCUT YESTERDAY!"
Mariko released his hair, but dragged him by the scruff of his collar, "Shinichi no baka baka baka baka!" she started to shout, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY STUFF?!"
Momoshiro whispered to Ryoma, "These girls… they're really violent." Ryoma nodded.
Mariko wore a pair of cropped jeans paired with gray sweatshirt; she also wore a pair of black and red chucks. And her hair, as usual, was ponytailed.
"What?! I didn't do anything, Honey!" he shouted. Seigaku raised a brow, 'Honey?'
"Stop that Honey-bullshit this time! Where's our CD for the-"
"Aw… that's too bad, ne, Hanami-san?" a girl with flowing light brown hair said. She was wearing a pink peasant top paired with smocked babydoll dress and she too wore chucks, only they were colored black.
Mariko's eyes narrowed, "I have no time for you, Kimiko."
"Why don't you just give it up, Hanami. You can't-"
SMACK!
A cup of ginger ale splattered on Kimiko's dress, "AHHH!! My Dallas and Korban dress!!!"
"Nozomi-chan?!" exclaimed Mariko, as the girl held the tray on her front. Atsuyo was wearing a green waitress' uniform with a white apron.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Sorry!" Atsuyo bowed a lot of times, "I wasn't looking… I'm sorry… I was… thinking of a lot of things… I'm really sorry! (mumbles a little) I'm hopeless on these stuff…"
Kimiko cried and ran off, saying something like "my dress" and "it was worth" and "50,000 yen".
Mariko glanced at her kohai, who seemed to be in the verge of crying, "Oi, Nozomi-chan, it's OK. You don't have to worry about… eh?"
"That ale…" Atsuyo frowned, "I was supposed to deliver it to the third year secretary. It was worth fifty yen."
Emiko and Mariko looked at each other; they shared an evil glint in their eyes, "Oi, Nozomi-chan. You do deliveries, right?" Atsuyo nodded. Shinichi looked warily at the two girls.
Mariko took out a good 1000 yen, while Emiko gave a five hundred, "Unacha (eel tea), for Ayashi. Use all of this."
"But… Natsume-buchou hates that." Atsuyo piped.
The two grinned, "Exactly the point." Mariko added, "Tell her that if she can't finish all of those, she'll have to treat us to Tsubaki Restaurant!"
Atsuyo took the payments reluctantly, and bowed to the three; she then noticed Seigaku and bowed too, though she gave Ryoma a little cold shoulder.
SWEATDROP
It was just then that Mariko noticed Seigaku.
"Oh, you're here." She blinked, "Ehehehe… sorry about that thing earlier… oh, you'll have to watch our performance, Sachimi-chan's in my section too, street dance. It'll be right after the music performance…"
"Emi-chan's in the music class, she's the last performance in their class, if I'm right." Said Shinichi, "That little dragon girl, Kitami-chan, she's also in the music class. Nozomi-chan is in the culinary arts class, and Jun-chan is in the film class."
"You should watch the very last piece, the theatre arts. Aya-chan's in the lead role." Piped Emiko, "And… Tezuka-san… don't mind the other note, the one with the… er… ah, you know that already. That other one was a big mistake! Ehehehehe…"
"…" Tezuka remained silent.
"Oh, well, Emi-chan, Mariko-chan, gotta go!" Shinichi waved.
"What!?" the two whirled at him. Shinichi shrugged.
"I still have to practice my final scene with Aya-chan." Shinichi left.
Mariko then remembered, "Oh, yeah. Shinichi-kun is in the theatre arts class… oh well. See you later, Seigaku, Emi-chan."
Emiko stared at the two people who had just left her, then just realized something.
"Shit. Does that mean I have to escort them?"
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A/N: I'm really sorry for the VERY late update for those who reads my fic. I've had author's block AND my sister's flash drive which was the only way I could upload the fics to the net was lost... talk about bad luck... But, oh well... I hope you like them!
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