Title: Seating Arrangements
}Disclaimer:
I don't own Prince of Tennis.


As the two arrived to class it was filled with people already. "Oh there's Oishi-san," Ai gasped, "I didn't know he was in our class."

"Didn't you read the whole class roster?" Hikari asked.

Ai rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, "Well I was mainly looking out for your name to check the other names."

"That's okay," Hikari smiled, "So which one is he?"

Ai slapped her forehead, "You don't know which one he is?"

Hikari stared at her friend, "Are you turning into one of "them"?"

""Them"?" Ai asked.

Hikari looked away, "Rabid monkey?"

"NO WAY!" Ai gasped, "I-I-I…"

Hikari giggled, "I was just joking."

Ai slapped her forehead again, "You shouldn't do that."


Oishi blushed when Ai Mitsuoka walked into the classroom. Tezuka raised an eyebrow at this. "Why is your face turning red?" he asked.

"Ai's in our class," Oishi hissed, "And my face is not turning red!"

"But it is," Tezuka said blankly.

"Really?" Oishi sighed, "I can't help it."

"Why not?" Tezuka asked.

Oishi sighed again, "Not everyone is in control of their facial expressions as you are Tezuka."

"So which one is she?" Tezuka asked.

Oishi slapped his forehead, "You don't get out much do you."

"What's that got to do with anything?" he asked.

Oishi turned to his bespectacled friend, "You lay so much focus on tennis and school work that you end up lacking a social life."

"I've never felt the need for a social life," Tezuka pointed out.

Oishi raised an eyebrow, "Are you really content living life the way you are? Because I admit I worry sometimes."

"Why would you worry?" Tezuka wondered.

Oishi sighed, "Because by lacking a social life you don't get close to anyone at all. I think that while you do have friends they aren't very close to you the way I am, and I just worry that as time goes by you'll be alone."

Tezuka stared silently at his friend for a while before answering, "It's understandable that you feel that way. But I'm sure I can manage."

"Really?" Oishi said, looking skeptical, "Do you really know what it's like to be alone Tezuka? Because I don't think you understand that."

"We should go sit," Tezuka said, "Ryuuzaki-sensei will be arriving soon."


Sure enough, within a few moments the pink tracksuit clad woman arrived with her brown, though slightly graying, hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Good Morning," she called.

"Good Morning Ryuuzaki-sensei," the class chorused.

Ryuuzaki-sensei smiled, "Okay everyone, this is your final year of Middle School so I'm going to shake things up a little."

This resulted in a few groans from some disgruntled class members.

"Now now, settle down," Ryuuzaki-sensei said, "Now Suzumiya-chan, I see you sitting next to Mitsuoka-chan, why?"

The pale girl sighed, "Because she's my friend."

"You know each other well," Ryuuzaki-sensei elaborated.

"I guess," she mumbled.

Ryuuzaki-sensei then turned to Oishi, "It's the same with you too, isn't it Oishi-kun. You're sitting next to Tezuka-kun because you know him."

"Sensei," Ai said, raising her hand, "Where are you going with all this?"

"I'm going to make a new seating chart and place you all with other students that you may not know so well," she answered.

"What?" Hikari yelled, unintentionally drawing attention to herself.

Ryuuzaki-sensei sighed, "You all have your cliques and rarely branch out. I think that it's time we all took a chance to see people differently, look past the stereotypes. Now all those sitting to the left move forward, those in the front row move to the back."

Sakura rubbed Hikari's shoulder reassuringly. "It won't be too bad," she said sympathetically as she moved to the back.


Tezuka moved forward to the now empty seat in front of him, and was surprised to see the odd girl from the library as his new seatmate. She looked up and groaned, "It's you again!"

"Did I offend you in some way?" he asked.

"You wouldn't get it," she muttered bitterly.

"So you're Suzumiya-san," he stated.

"Yeah, Hikari Suzumiya," she introduced herself, "There's no need for you to introduce yourself, Kunimitsu Tezuka."

"Hn," he grunted.

The two sat in an oasis of silence. Tezuka glanced at his new seatmate, trying to gauge her reaction to his presence, 'She's quiet, very quiet for a girl. Then again she did say she wasn't a mindless, rabid fangirl, why did she feel the need to be defensive about that anyway?' He turned back to the front of the classroom as Ryuuzaki-sensei started the math class, to be honest math was actually one of his least favorite subjects so he wasn't really looking forward to the lesson but he knew he had to listen in order to keep up his point-A grade in all his subjects. He looked down to the sheet that Ryuuzaki-sensei had handed out to the class. 'This is going to be a long class,' he thought, 'And Oishi won't be able to help explain some of these formulas to me.' He was surprised when he heard the scritch-scratch of pencil against paper beside him and turned to find Suzumiya scribbling in the answers to the questions. 'How can she fill those in so easily?' he wondered, watching as she worked steadily through the sheet.


Hikari looked down at the sheet that just got handed out. 'It's another ease-in sheet,' she thought, 'Nothing new, may as well start filling it in.' She started working through the geometry sheet with ease, remembering what she had learned in the advanced-placement night classes that she had taken last year, although she wouldn't be taking them this year, as she had opted for independent study, just to try something different. She could feel Tezuka's gaze on her so she turned to find him looking at her with a slightly amazed look on his face. 'What's he so amazed about?' she thought angrily, 'I do have a brain!"

"You're good at this," he said.

Hikari almost choked on her own spit again. "What was that?" she asked.

"You're good at this," Tezuka repeated.

Hikari could feel a slight blush across her cheeks, "Thanks." She looked to see his sheet still blank. "How come you haven't started your sheet yet?" she asked.

Tezuka looked away, Hikari could swear there was a slight tinge of pink on his face, and then again, she could barely see it so she wasn't so sure. "Math isn't one of my best subjects," he admitted.

Hikari had to stifle a giggle, who knew that THE Kunimitsu Tezuka actually had a flaw? "If you want I can help you," she offered.

"Really?" he asked with a slightly hopeful tone in his voice.

"Sure," she replied, "I'm no super genius, but I am actually kind of good at math. So I'll help you."

"Thank you," Tezuka said, feeling grateful.


A/N: Hope you like it, the stupid document manager wouldn't let me double-space paragraphs, so I'm using the line-breaks, and as a sidenote they also indicat slight POV-changes.