Disclaimer: I'm not gonna say this again, PoT isn't mine…

Note: once again, this story is about autism. I know Eiji is a little out of character, but I promise he will be the same as he used to be.

This chapter may be a little short, but the next is a little longer.

Enjoy ^^

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 2: Weird?

Depressed Eiji came home. He went straight to his room and sat down on his bed. He put his hands into his hair and sighed. He didn't know what to do. He gave his best, but it went bad.

His mother stepped into his room.

"Another bad day again?" she asked.

"They think I am weird," Eiji sighed. "Everyone is looking at me when I pass them and nobody wants to work with me together. I do my best, but everything fails."

"So your report isn't finished yet," his mother understood. "You need to do something fun. I have made you a member of the tennis club, starting by tomorrow. You like to play tennis, don't you?"

"I do, but I think everyone will bully me," Eiji said.

"That may be true, but I like you how you are," his mother said.

But she had heard from some teachers that Eiji's classmates thought he's acting weird an pair and group work turned out badly. She decided to give a call to a psychiatrist.

"Finish your report quickly," she said. "And don't be so depressed, please."

"Hai!" Eiji went downstairs, leaving his mother behind.

She shook her head.

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

The next day after school Eiji delivered his report to his teacher. Then he walked to the courts for his first training. He changed in the dressing room and took his racket.

The door went open. There stood Ryuzaki Sumire, the coach of Seigaku.

"Are you Kikumaru Eiji?" she asked and Eiji nodded. "Follow me."

They walked to the courts. There Ryuzaki-sensei gathered the members, even the regulars.

"We have a new member," she said. "This is Kikumaru Eiji."

Eiji heard almost everyone was mumbling about him. He sighed. This was what he was afraid of.

"I didn't expect you to come here."

Eiji looked up. It was Fuji who spoke. Eiji didn't know he was a regular. The two looked at each other.

The training started. Eiji did the same practice as the second and third years without being exhausted. Then there were practice matches. Eiji had to play against one of the strongest third years, who was a former regular before he was knocked out in the ranking tournament by Echizen Ryoma and Kaidoh Kaoru (no, it's not Inui).

But nobody expected that Eiji would be this good. He won the match quite easily with 6-3. The silent, red-haired weirdo was actually a real tennis genius with an acrobatic style.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I said before it was short. Next is coming up. Hope you enjoy this story and understand a little how I felt before I knew I had autism and before I got friends.

Sorry for the quarrel between Eiji and Fuji!

Please review!

~Rie-chan~