CHAPTER 5

When I woke up, I knew then that I wasn't in any shape or form to go to school. I feel like crap and my self confidence was so beat up that I can't imagine myself venturing out of my room. I was contemplating on faking an illness to trick my mom into letting me stay in. But my siblings had decided to spoil the plan by being so amorous this morning.

They raided my room and when they saw that I was still a big lump in bed they decided to wake me up – by jumping up and down the mattress. And me, being in the lousy mood that I'm in, lashed out at them like Godzilla lashing out at tiny little people. Needless to say that mom wasn't impressed with the matching bumps on the head that my siblings sported when they got down the stairs crying their little lungs out.

My plan went down the drain so here I am trudging my way towards school with a big scowl on my face. I really wish that I don't run into that bastard Kevin Smith. Gah. If that happens, it would surely complete my super lousy day.

I sigh as I scratch my head. And then there's the problem that will be arising tomorrow. Surely you haven't forgotten the fact that I just asked Echizen and that bastard brat on a date, right? I mean, how could I act like nothing happened between me and Kevin yesterday?! I am as transparent as one could get. Echizen may notice…

Hm, is there anyway I could cancel it? I ask myself as I stop walking altogether. I may be stalling but what do you care?!!

"Momoshiro." I jump, startled at the intrusion. I look to where the voice was and gaped.

"Tezuka-buchou!!" I greet clumsily as I try my best to look put together. I must have failed miserably because I see buchou frown slightly.

"Is there anything you want to tell me, Momoshiro?" Buchou asks me as his frown deepened for split second. I blink and his face is as expressionless as usual.

"Me?" I ask dumbfounded.

"Yes. I noticed you are quite distracted lately."

"Uhm…" I must look like a total nutcase if Buchou is starting to worry about me. I sigh as I calm myself down. I trust and respect buchou. I know he could give me a logical and sound advice. And I know I could count on him to keep hush-hush about this. But I still don't want to talk to him about it yet.

"Buchou, I…" I start to explain but he cut me off with a single raise of his hand.

"I'll just give you an advice." I look at him and he looked back at me sincerely.

"Receiving advices is a good thing. But you must also know that there is a thing as good and bad advices. Distinguishing them is up to you. And deciding what you must do is always your responsibility." I look at buchou like he had grown another head. I stopped walking and just gawked at buchou's retreating back.

Huh? I'm still pondering about what he said when I hear him call back.

"And don't be late for practice Momoshiro." Damn. There goes my plan to skip practice. Sighs.

I noticed that time is a very fickle friend. When you want time to whiz by, it goes on so agonizingly slow. And when you want time to stand still it goes on even faster. Sighs. And I thought that math would last forever.

I'm currently making my way towards the clubroom and I'm already dreading it. I'm being realistic as of the moment, and being realistic meant that I'll have to face that bastard brat sometime soon.

I'm about to cross the threshold of the clubroom door when someone pulls me back. Holding back an indignant shriek, I try to break out of the hold but another pair of hands snatches the back of my collar and pulls harder.

I fall clumsily on my behind and I'm readily dragged to the nearest bush. After being concealed by the bush my assailants released hold. When everything stops swirling in front of my eyes, I tried my best to look intimidating and faced my assailants with a glare.

"Don't use that look on us Momo. It won't work." Fuji-senpai says with a smile.

"He's right nya!! For us, your 'intimidating look' looks funny!!" Eiji-senpai chirps as he plops down on the ground beside me.

"Huh?" I ask blankly. What the hell are they talking about?! I'm dumbfounded as to why they felt the need to drag and hide my sorry ass out and all they could say to me was that I'm not intimidating?!! What the hell?!!

Fuji-senpai must've sensed what has been going on in my head because he suddenly squatted beside me and put an arm around my shoulder.

"Calm down, Momo. I just want to ask you something in private." I look at him and quirked an eyebrow. Is this so personal that the only private place we could talk freely was behind a bush?

"What is it?" I ask curiously. Eiji-senpai bobs his head furiously as he urges Fuji-senpai to go on ahead.

"Well, I heard from a reliable source that you and Kevin were at the street courts yesterday?" Our tensai 'asked'. He knew this for sure. He just wanted it to hear from me. Ha. And when he said reliable source he must meant Saeki-san.

"Yes." I answer as I hung my head low. I hear Eiji-senpai smack his forehead.

"I knew it, nya!!" I snap my attention to him.

"What do you know?" Our acrobat looks sheepish as he scratched his head.

"Ahaha. Well, Kevin was asking me where you lived, nya." Eiji-senpai answers as he hid himself behind Fuji-senpai. I look at him murderously.

"Why did you tell him?!! He made me look and feel terrible!!" All anger drained from me and I felt tears forming on my eyes.

"I thought you were on my side!!" I barely controlled myself from bawling. I push the heel of my hand to my eyes to keep the tears of frustration from falling.

I don't know why, but I just wanted to break down and cry my eyes out. Things just kept piling one on top of the other that I just can't seem handle them at all. I feel like everything and everyone is conspiring against me. I'm thinking that maybe all this 'get Echizen operation' is doomed from the start. Maybe I should just…

"I… I quit senpai." I say as I disguised a hiccup by coughing. Eiji-senpai comes of out his hiding place to look at me with big watery eyes.

"Momo, nya!! I'm still on your side, nya!! I just needed to tell him that, nya." He explains haltingly as he puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. I hear Fuji-senpai sigh as he plops down next to Eiji-senpai.

"Momo, he needed to gain Kevin's trust. So he just did what he must." I peered at the sincere faces looking at me and I know that what they are saying is true.

"Okay." I say as I take a deep breath. I hear Eiji-senpai take a breath of relief and Fuji-senpai readying himself for a litany. And not a moment too soon, did our tensai started on his tirade.

"Are you sure you want to quit?" I pause to think about it. I am tired of being continuously pitted against that bastard brat. I am loosing hope about me and Echizen getting together because the bastard brat had pounded it to my skull that he'll never let him go. And I am tired of scheming and doing things that makes me look like a loser in the end.

But… I still have a fire within me. A fire to best the bastard brat and to win Echizen over.

"No." I answer Fuji-senpai in a sad but resolute tone. He gives me a small smile and Eiji-senpai squeezes my shoulder in support.

"I'm glad to hear that Momo."

"Nya, me too. Because all our gossiping prowess would be wasted if you quit now nya." I turn to Eiji-senpai questioningly.

"Your gossiping prowess? You mean you snooped around again?" Our acrobat looked indignant at my question.

"Hmp. It's all for you, you ungrateful kouhai. Nya." He crosses his arms and tried to look hurt. If I tilt my head at the right angle I could see just a hint of a satisfied smile on his face.

"Well, Momo don't you want to hear what we heard?" Fuji-senpai asks mysteriously as a peek of blue escaped his eyelids. Seeing that spark from beneath senpai's eyelids always signals a juicy gossip. And me, like a moth to fire, nods eagerly at Fuji-senpai.

"Of course I want to hear!!" I say on the verge of hysteria. Of course, when Fuji-senpai heard something, you'd want to hear it too. Take it from me, Fuji-senpai's gossips is prime material. Always.

"Okay. Since you really want to hear it badly…" Our tensai trailed off as he looks at me sideways and gives a knowing smile.

"My last class had dismissed early today. I went to the clubroom as soon as we were dismissed because, I thought I could use some extra time." Fuji-senpai pauses to give a smirk.

"But when I arrived, I heard two voices coming from inside and I decided not to intrude." Eiji-senpai holds back a laugh at that.

"Nya. Fuji!! You're such a meanie. You just wanted to eavesdrop, right?" Fuji-senpai shrugs as I mentally urge him to continue. Outwardly, I'm nodding like mad to prompt Fuji-senpai to continue.

"Well anyway, here's what I heard…." And Fuji-senpai recounts what he heard while me and Eiji-senpai gives him our rapt attention.

"Do we really have to go with Momoshiro-senpai tomorrow?" A sulky voice asks.

"Yes." A calm and bored voice answered the first voice.

"But why?"

"I already promised him so that's why."

"Can we not go? We can cancel it." The first voice started to whine.

"I asked for your permission before and you said yes. What's the matter with you?" The second voice started to sound irritated at this point.

"It's just that… I'm suddenly worried."

"Worried? We are just hanging out with Momo-senpai. What's there to worry?" The irritation in this voice wanes and gives way to confusion.

"Are you sure you're over him?"

"What are you talking about?" Indignation. Fuji can hear the indignation in this voice. Fuji realized that this voice was Ryoma's. And not a second too soon, it was confirmed.

"Ryoma…" This one is Kevin. Fuji thought. The tensai thought he heard weariness in his voice.

"Don't play dumb. You liked him right?"

"I, I… I don't know…" To Fuji's ears, Echizen sounded confused and a bit desperate.

"Ryoma, I'm telling you now. I'm green with envy every time you get near Momoshiro-senpai. I feel insecure every time you're having a ball with him!! I feel like I'm losing you every time you're out of my sight!!" Kevin's ranting. Fuji knew for sure that Momoshiro still have a chance. With the way things are going between this two…

"Kevin. Please. I'm with you, aren't I?" And Fuji knew that he just heard enough. And with a small smile playing on the corner of his lips, he set out to fund Eiji.

"I told you Momo. You still have a chance." Our tensai looks triumphant at this.

"Yeah, we told you nya!!!" And then they looked down their snooty noses to peer at stunned old me. They are the perfect picture of the 'I told you so' look.

And me? After hearing that, I can't seem to figure out how to close my gaping mouth. Eiji-senpai had to close it for me.

Wow.

"So Momo, still want to quit?" I look at Fuji-senpai like he just announced that he was Queen of the world. I gather my wits and give him a mock glare.

"Are you kidding?" I ask him incredulously. Eiji-senpai gives me a high-five as Fuji-senpai laughs.

TBC

A/N: Just want to thank all you readers for continuously reading this fic!!! And for my reviewers who have been absolute angels, THANK YOU so much!!