Chapter 3

I was so mad earlier about my favorite senpais' betrayal that I can't even think straight. As a matter of fact even the prospect of a good, brutal tennis match with the Mamushi can't shake it off.

I was so blinded with anger that I can't even concentrate on my game with the Mamushi. All I could think of was that it was reasonable to pulp someone to pieces. Unluckily for Kaidoh, he became the object of my anger and had received three of my dunk smashes… on the head.

The third time I hit the Mamushi, he fell unconscious. The old hag blew her whistle, came bounding toward me and gave me a hard knock in the head. After a stream of loud ramblings, she pointed towards the locker room, and for some reason or another, my hazy brain made a connection that she was telling me to go hide my bad-tempered ass there.

On the way to the locker room, I swear someone knocked the back of my head again. Harder than the old hag's this time. And if I'm not mistaken, the only person I saw on my way there was Inui-senpai looking decidedly wicked.

But oh well. I felt sorry for the Mamushi too. We aren't exactly best friends, but he really didn't deserve my wrath and I did deserve the conks on the head that I got.

Now that I'm alone in the locker room, and had the time to mull things over, I realized that I may have reacted a bit too harshly. I should have asked my senpais first about their respective actions - instead of flying off the handle at once. Maybe they have their reasons. I tell myself as I run a hand through my hair.

I sigh deeply. My conscience has been bugging me ever since my rear end had made contact with the bench, so I probably should apologize to the Mamushi later on. I contemplate on how to subtly apologize when the door creaks slowly open.

"Momo? Have you cooled down, nya?" The familiar voice was speaking in hush tones. I hold back a chuckle as I picture Eiji-senpai bouncing on his heels in anxiousness.

"Yes, senpai." I hear a loud exhalation. Our resident acrobat must've been holding his breath. I feel suddenly insulted. What am I? A wild and dangerous animal?

"Nya. I told you, Fuji. We should have told Momo first, nya." Eiji senpai complains as he steps into the room with Fuji-senpai behind him. The tensai firmly closed the door as he entered.

"Well, I never thought that he would pulverize Kaidoh." Fuji-senpai smiles timidly as he placates Eiji-senpai with strokes on his back.

"But I warned you didn't I? We know Momo has a short temper, nya." Eiji-senpai crosses his arms in front of his chest and pouts at Fuji-senpai.

"Well, it's done now, isn't it? And Kaidoh is okay." Our tensai finishes the conversation as he turns his back on the acrobat. As Fuji-senpai takes a seat near me, I see a flash of twinkling blue underneath his lashes. In sudden understanding, I realize that senpai must've really wanted not to warn me. Who would have he watch suffer then? I stifle the urge to shake my head. No matter what, Fuji-senpai still needs to have his entertainment.

"Well now Momo. I'm telling you now that we are still on your side and that what happened today are just steps to achieve your goal." Senpai just gives me a dazzling smile as our acrobat sits beside him. Eiji-senpai nods his head.

"You're still my shatei, nya!" He says with conviction. I manage a small smile.

"Okay, now that we are clear we move on to phase 2." Fuji-senpai says as he reaches his bag – which was sitting conveniently on the floor at his feet. I raise an eyebrow at this.

"Phase 1 is over?" I ask dumbfounded. Our tensai just nods.

"Of course. We had just planted ourselves near the enemy."

"We did?"

"Yes, we did. Momo, remember the reason why you're angry at us earlier." Fuji-senpai instructs as he rummages in his bag, looking for something.

I squint at Eiji-senpai as he laughs nervously. Hmmm. Oh yeah! Fuji-senpai somehow managed to include Kevin Smith to our club and Eiji-senpai had started to take Kevin under his wing. Oh yeah, enemy covered then. A goofy smile appears on my face.

"Okay, so phase 2 is this." Fuji-senpai finally finds what he's looking for in his bag, and holds up three tickets.

"Tickets?" I ask confused. The tensai just smiles.

"And why are there three? Are we bonding together or something?" I ask, still confused about this phase 2.

"Nya. It's not for the three of us! It's for you, Ochibi and Kevin, nya." Eiji-senpai brightly exclaims. I blank out when I heard the names.

"You're not serious!" I blurt out. Our acrobat shakes his head jovially while Fuji-senpai reaches for my hand to give me the tickets.

"Of course I'm serious. Now here you go. These are tickets for the carnival, and like the good senpai you are, you are going to treat them there."

"But, but, but…" I try to reason myself out but Fuji-senpai just pushes a burger in my mouth to shut me up. He probably had that in his bag in foresight.

"Hush. Now, Momo don't be difficult. I'm doing this for you." He says as he arranges the inside of his bag. Eiji-senpai pulls the burger from my mouth and then claps down on my back when he saw that I'm starting to choke.

"But I can't stand Kevin!" I wail after I spat a piece of the burger. How could Fuji-senpai ask me to do this?

"Don't be such a baby Momo. You need to sacrifice some you know." He scolds me as he finally pulls the zipper to close his bag. I pout miserably at him.

"What does this even do? How can I achieve something by having a date with the both of them?" I ask sullenly as I grab what's rest of the burger from Eiji-senpai's hands.

"Silly Momo. If you act like their friend, you'd know everything that's happening between the two of them."

"And?"

"And if you sense that something going terribly right with the both of them, then you could do some damage contol."

"And?"

"And eventually if you played your cards right, you could break them apart." Fuji-senpai finishes with flair. I look at Eiji-senpai who had long since abandoned the conversation in favor of doing crunches and then back at Fuji-senpai's beaming face.

What have I got to lose? And if Fuji-senpai says so, then it must be true. Heaving a great, deep breath, I exhale.

"Fine. I'll do it." I say with a heavy heart. Even though I agreed to do so, I'm still not looking forward to spending sometime with a brat. Make that two.

"Great. Those tickets are for Saturday. Be sure to invite them by tomorrow!" Fuji exclaims happily.

I look at Fuji-senpai and Eiji-senpai's retreating backs and sighs. What have I put myself into? I ask myself, as I drop my head on my hands.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as the door closed and hit its frame with a thud, another member of the club then decided to open it. Still wary about my situation and definitely not feeling well about the prospect of me asking two brats out, I try to make myself as small as possible in my area as not to attract attention. I'm not looking forward to any chats. I need all my concentration on creating a game plan to fulfill Fuji-senpai's instructions. And if they so much make a conversation with me, I might have to make another Kaidoh episode soon.

I hear the pitter patter of steps coming closer and closer in my area. I turn my back to whoever that person is so that he won't get any smart ideas that I'm all okay and ready to talk friendly. Unfortunately, the person who entered the clubroom is either really clueless or just plain brave. Irritated, I turn around and snarl;

"What do you want!"

"Hn." I freeze when I heard the reply and the voice. I only know two persons who could say 'Hn' in an uninterested tone of voice. One would be Buchou and you know you only hear his 'Hn' when he's not amused at your excuse for being late - again. And the other uninterested and bordering on bored 'Hn' could only belong to –

"Echizen!" I shriek, surprised that he was the intruder of the clubroom. He looks amused at my frozen face.

"Momo-senpai, do you have a tummy ache?" He asks as his face lights up with one his trademark smirks. He looks down at my now confused face. Tummy ache? And then, I suddenly remember. Before Echizen left for the US, back when we were the best of friends, I will always ask him if he has a tummy ache if he's in an extremely foul mood. That question almost always breaks his terrible mood and he'll be back to his usual snarky self in an instant. He once asked me why I picked that particular question. I just smiled cheekily and pinched his cheek while saying: 'Because you look constipated!'. I fondly remember that I earned a swift kick in the side because of that.

"Hahaha. Funny." I reply smoothly as I put my hands behind my neck in a show of nonchalance. But deep inside I'm really a jungle of nerves just because of his presence and my mind is going on a million trains of thoughts. I'm thinking that this may be the right chance to just plain tell him about my feelings or this maybe the right chance for Fuji-senpai's plan. Damn. I just don't know what to do.

I decide that whatever happens, it will happen. Sighing, I sneak a look at Echizen and at the moment he seems to be contemplating on something. After a moment, he sits beside me.

"Do we have a problem, Momo-senpai?" He asks seriously. My nervousness goes out the door at his question. I'm taken aback and I gawk at him in surprise.

"Why do you say that?" I ask. He looks at his hands instead of looking at me directly. Odd. He never was shy or anything. He was always straight forward about everything.

"I don't know. I just have this feeling that you've been avoiding me." Echizen says in a low voice. I think back. When he got home, I immediately went into depressed mode that besides the welcome hug I gave him, I didn't do anything to make him feel missed. At school, I dread to be in the same room as Kevin… Which is mostly likely the place where Echizen is. So yeah, if you are Echizen, you may also probably think that there is something wrong between us. I wince at my realization.

"No of course not. I'm just feeling awkward." I say slowly. Echizen looks up at me curiously.

"Awkward?" He asks with a brow raised. I shrug my shoulders as I will the butterflies in my stomach to go away.

"Uhm. You know. Because I was thinking that we couldn't hang out like we did before." I answered earnestly as I cross my arms in front of my chest. Echizen looks lost at my explanation.

"Why? I'm still the same Echizen." He states indignantly, like this is the most obvious thing in the world. I clear my throat.

"I know you're still the same. But you know…" I trail. I don't want to say this out loud for heaven's sake, so I really wish Echizen catches up. He still looks confused. I sigh.

"You know… You have… extra baggage now." I say awkwardly as I nod my head up and down to help him along. He knits his brows together as a realization hits him.

"Kevin?" He asks.

"Bingo." I say a little bit sadly. I just couldn't keep it out of my voice! He looks back at me like I'm a weirdo.

"He shouldn't make a difference. We're still best friends, right?" He asks me with wide eyes. Ouch. Is that all I'll ever be? A best friend? I ask myself forlornly.

"Yes, of course." I answered tightly as I tried my best to give him a smile. I manage a really, really small one. He looks at me scrutinizing and within a heartbeat returns the miniscule smile I gave him.

"That's good." He says shortly as he turns his back on me and starts to go out. I stare at his back longingly and just as he reaches the door, he turns back and gave another rare smile.

"I thought I had lost a friend. I'm glad that's not the case." He says, so uncharacteristically of him. Something snaps inside me and I bolt to follow him out the door.

"Wait!" I say, short of breath as I hold his wrist to prevent his from going outside. He looks up at me.

"Yes, Momo-senpai?"

"Uhm. To make it up to you, would you like to go to the carnival with me this weekend?" I ask. The butterflies in my stomach going high wire again. I study Echizen's face and he seems to be struggling on something.

"We could bring Kevin too." I say offhandedly, remembering what Fuji-senpai had instructed earlier. Damn. I really wished we don't have to include him… But Echizen seems to reach a decision when I told him that we could bring his boyfriend too. So maybe at this stage it really is essential to bring Kevin along.

"Your treat?" Echizen asks with a snarky smile. Now that's my brat. Feeling suddenly confident about our conversation, I sigh in melodrama.

"Yes, even if it breaks my heart and pocket, it will be my treat." I say as I clutch my chest in show of drama. I give him the lost puppy dog look that he never seems has the heart to say no to.

"So will you go out with me?"

"It's been a long time since your last treat, so okay. We'll go out with you" He says as he places his signature cap back on his head. He starts to stroll away leisurely.

"What about Kevin? Do you think its okay with him?" I call at his retreating back. He doesn't stop his stroll as he looks back at me.

"No. He'll do what I say. You'll see." And with that he heads down court A, where I could see Eiji-senpai glomping Kevin yet again. Becoming irritated once again at the sight - I just can't seem to get hang of the idea of sharing my favorite senpais with that brat – I lost track of Echizen. I hear him call back at me, so I strain my ears.

"Besides, you and Kevin need to get along with each other now." I barely hear him saying.

Gah. Do I really have to? I ask myself forlornly as I go back to the clubroom to brood some more. I can't go out on court and practice today so all I can do is to brood inside the clubroom. The old hag had chewed me out earlier and told me to wait for her and we'll have 'the talk' about my recent attitude towards Kaidoh. And I'm so not looking forward to that.

TBC