Chapter 3: Fuji Shuusuke

"Taka, honey, hurry up for school!" her mother yelled from downstairs.

"I'm not going!"

"What did you say?"

"I said I—"

"Well, I have to go, see you in the afternoon!"

The main door slammed shut. Taka growled and grabbed a magazine from the many, lying around on her ravished bed. She switched it angry and in the end, she let out a scream of frustration, slamming the magazine against the opposite wall.

She looked at the clock. It was already 7:40 am, and wondered if she should go to school or not.

"What should I do… go or not? No way! I ridiculed myself yesterday in front of everyone. I'm gonna be top news if I go there! But… I don't want to run away from it… what should I do… What!?"

She looked once more at the clock and stared at it for a few minutes. With a few quick motions, she grabbed her uniform, her school bag and ran downstairs, trying in the same time to put her uniform, which was kind of impossible. Reaching downstairs, she stopped, noticing the lunch box on the table with a pink note next to it. She peered into the lunch box, a smug being plastered on her face immediately. She took the note in her hands and read it aloud.

"Honey, I hope you have a great day at school. I'm sorry for not having enough time for you, but I prepared this lunch box with all my love into it. Congratulations on getting into the Seigaku Tennis Club. Mother."

She grinned at the note, grabbing the lunch box and running away quickly to get to school in time.

"I'm sorry for being late!" Taka bowed in front of the teacher.

"Please don't let it happen again." The teacher said, relaxed and continued on with the lesson while Taka, sat at her desk, noticing how her classmates were giggling about her—more or less nervous entrance. After all, that was how junior high scholars were acting in Japan, but she wasn't used to it at all and it simply got on her nerves.

After school had ended, she realized that she was either way the top news as she thought, because of what she did yesterday and now with a greater hate on her classmates and teachers because she was late and nervous about it.

"What the hell is wrong with them…? I'm gonna kick them all if they don't stop."

"Who're you going to kick?" a soft and gentle voice sounded from behind, startling Taka. She turned her head and noticed the one that was called Fuji Shuusuke, wearing his Tennis uniform.

"Practice has already started." He smiled a closed-eyes smile. Taka shrugged, remaining silent and slowly walked towards the courts, with the young boy following.

"If you're worried about what happened yesterday, don't worry. We all had that moment sooner or later."

"Really!? Then—oh nevermind."

"No one will laugh at you or talk about you. Well, except for the ones that are not in the Tennis Club." He pointed at her two classmates, whispering among them and pointing at her. As soon as the two realized that Taka was staring with hatred at them, they left immediately.

"Damn those bastards… When I'm gonna graduate, I'm gonna kill them." She hissed at them.

Fuji laughed softly. "How are people in Europe?"

"Much more mature." She said as a matter of fact, but soon realized that she may have been offending Fuji too and covered her mouth with her hand. Once again, Fuji laughed at her.

"You'll probably get used to it."

"It's kind of difficult, I have the urge to kill them every single time I see them. Back in Europe, they weren't expelling me if I were to beat a student. Just some bad marks, advertisements for me and a reunion with my parents. After that was happening, teachers were all giving me bad marks every time we would have had test-papers. And so many other things… All that mattered was if you were to have an important name. I had it, but I was one of the worst students the school had. They weren't proud with me at all."

Taka felt a little uncomfortable; spilling all that to a person she just met. Fuji smiled at her.

"I think it's pretty good to have an important name, a well-known name—"

"Yeah, everyone knows who Fuji-the prodigy is…" she laughed ironically and rolled her eyes, making Fuji look at her puzzled for a few moments.

"Sorry…" she looked away uncomfortable and a tint of red appeared on her cheeks. "I guess I'm really not used to Japan…"

"Don't worry. We all are going to help you." He pointed towards the regulars that were training on the courts. Taka realized they were already there and looked amazed at how well the regulars were all playing their own tennis, even in practice.

She smiled faintly at Fuji and noticed Ryuuzaki-sensei and Tezuka talking about the practice of the regulars. She rushed to them, dropping off her tennis bag on the ground and bowed deeply in front of them.

"Please forgive me for yesterday!"

Both the coach and Tezuka looked down at her, at first surprised but then their expressions became content.

"You can start practice now." Tezuka said stoically, as he always used to. Taka looked at them for a few moments and then rushed onto the courts starting to pick up balls and do the usual freshmen job.

The regulars stopped for a moment from their practice and stared at the angry girl that had surprised them the day before. In that moment, she looked too humble for the kind of person she was.