Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.

Chapter 2

I was excited when I woke up the next morning. I couldn't help it. I gobbled down breakfast and power walked to school, ending up arriving 10 minutes early. The day went by so slowly, but it was ok. It wasn't even that I was excited to run; I was just so pumped to have something to do.

I changed into a t-shirt and shorts and jogged over to the track, ready to do work.

We warmed up with a mile run, , and by then, I was already sweating, I ran it in a good 6 minutes, but nobody told me that this wasn't the hardest part of the workout. We did a sprinting set that absolutely murdered my hamstrings, and then some sort of interval training that I also didn't know about, and wore myself out quickly. At 4, we split up to do specialty work. Kids that did high jump and long jump, sprinters, distance runners, and hurdlers broke into groups, all with co captains to instruct. I stood, mostly confused, wondering where I should go.

"Hey buddy!" The girl from the day before jogged over to me, a thin layer of sweat accumulated on her forehead. "How're you holding up?"

"Doing alright," I lied. I was dead tired, my legs hurt, and the worst of all, the sweat that built up under my cast. Apparently waterproof and sweat-proof are two totally different things.

"Sweet," she said, examining the runners. "Do you have any idea what you want to run?"

"Well, um, I can run the hurdles kinda." I said, scratching the back of my head.

She smiled, her pearly white teeth glinting in the sun. "Let's try it!" she exclaimed, and skipped excitedly to the starting line. There were a few other kids in the hurdle group, and they all gathered to watch. I wasn't nervous, but those hurdles looked awfully high…

She had me run the full set, and the toes of my following leg his every single bar. I wasn't embarrassed, just a bit flustered, because I used to be able to run them just fine in middle school.

"Hey, good job," she called, returning to my side.

"Yeah, right," I said, but managed a half hearted smile.

"No way bro, you just gotta stretch your groin more. Awkward, I know, but I practically had to learn the splits before I could jump the top bar." She showed me some stretched that I should do every day, then strengthening exercises that I do every other day.

"Wow, I didn't know there was this much to it," I said, after she raped every single muscle in my leg with her terrorist stretches.

"No one does," she said, stretched her own legs. She checked her watch. "8 lap cool down!" she instructed the kids, who listened eagerly. "Run 6, Walk 2."

We ran together in the cool down, which felt like another workout. I had a stitch in my side that was tearing a hole in my ribcage. "So what do you think?" she asked finally, wiping her face with a small towel. She wasn't even breathing that hard. I, on the other hand, was a wreck, sweating and gasping for air.

"I'm thinking this is going to be harder than it sounded at first."

She smiled for the 100th time. "You get used to it."

When we had finally showered and changed, I waited for Oishi to finish showering from tennis, which got out the same time as track.

"Hey," I waved. Eiji was there also.

"Hey, man. You look beat." Oishi said, slinging his bag around his shoulder.

"Yeah, I didn't think that track would be so tough." Even thinking about it made my muscles ache.

We chatted as we walked to the bus stop, passing the parking lot. The track captain was heading toward a red motorcycle that was shiny and spotless, parked under a large shady tree. She had changed into jeans and a long sleeve t- shirt with a panda on it. She settled her helmet on her head, then brought the engine to life.

"She's so badass," Eiji commented.

"I saw you guys talking," Oishi said. "Is she cool?"

"Yeah, she's totally chill, and she knows what she's doing. She rocks those hurdles."

Eiji laughed. "Yeah, she went to nationals every year since she's been on this team."

"Really?" I asked. "How do you know?"

"I'm friends with her younger brother, Kyle. Her parents moved from America to teach English here before they were born."

"Cool," I said, watching her race out of the parking lot and onto a main road.

"You like her?" Eiji asked, as he watched her leave also.

"Nah, I don't even know her name."

"It's Emma."

"Oh," I shrugged. "That's a pretty name."

"Pretty name for a pretty girl, that's normally how it works."

"No way, I used to know a totally hot girl named Agnes."

Eiji laughed again, and then slapped me on the back. "I miss you, Fuji."

"I'm not going to be gone forever. I'm only in track so I can jump right back into tennis."

"Yeah, I can't wait. Even Inui missed you."

I smiled. I missed Inui too.

We had boarded the bus, and it was almost my stop. "Oh hey, do you know anything about the track team and Lady GaGa?" I asked Eiji. He scratched his head and shrugged.

"Who's Lady GaGa?"

"I have no idea," I said. "But apparently she's a big deal."

I walked home slowly, mulling things over in my mind. When I got home, my sister was sitting at the table writing something in a red notebook.

"Hi Shusuke," she said, not looking up from her work.

"Hi, sis. Who is Lady GaGa?"

"Some crazy woman who's popular in America."

Well huh. I walked to my room, passing my mother in the study.

"Hey, mom, who is Lady GaGa?"

She looked up and gave me a curious look. "She's a lot like Madonna."

Who was Madonna?

Was it really that big of a deal? There was nothing mentioned about this crazy woman who's like Madonna in America today at practice. I shrugged it off and did some homework, ignoring the nagging feeling in my head that said I really should look up this crazy chick.

Man, I really wished I had listened to that voice now.