Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis
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"Shia-san!" Sakuno called and Shia turned to wave as Sakuno headed towards her. "How are you? You weren't at practice yesterday!"
"Yeah, well, I had a family emergency," Shia told her with a smile and it wasn't a complete lie, she had had a family emergency: She had been looking for a new one. The interveiws with people willing to adopt were taking loger than she had expected.
"Really? What happened?" Sakuno asked, innocently and unknowingly doing something Shia didn't like: asking questions that she had to think about.
"Nothing much! It really wasn't much of an emergency, but I have a note if someone trys to get on my case about it," Shia excused herself quickly.
"Oh, well, you know that the starters are being announced today right?" Sakuno asked and Siha nodded, looking excited.
"Yes! I can't wait for school to be over!" She exclaimed and Sakuno laughed as they both headed for their class.
She had told the Echizens everything, just like she said she would, about how it began, and how it digressed. Well, she told them allot of things, but not everything... That last secret was hers and her alone. All things considered the day passed fairly quickly and it wasn't long before she and Sakuno were both on the courts completely dressed down and holding their rackets.
The tension could be felt in the air as Kiri walked up, followed behind by Raina and Cara, both with small smiles on there faces, Shia assumed, because they were satisfied with the list of regulars.
"It's time," Kiri said, her vioce commanding immidiate attention from the girls on the courts they all moved closer so that they could hear. Kiri continued, "For us to announce the starters for this season. As you all know each of these eight people have been picked not only by me, but authorized by Coach Ryuzaki as well. There is no favoritism, everyone on this list were picked for their skills on the tennis court and not as if it were a popularity contest. I will now read the names of the starters." The first name, of caorse, came as no surprise, "Kiri Yamatashi," She went on, "Raina Tanako," again no surprise, "Cara Mitoshi," Cara just smiled wider as the captain said her name, "Sharr and Shira Yuuba," as always the twin girls' names were said together and both smiled identically as they heard their names, moving next to Raina. "Christine Gregory," The American girl's blue eyes sparkled as she took a step forward to join the rest of the starters, "Aine Safflower and..." The captain stopped for a moment to look around at the wating crowd as Aine stepped forward. She let one of her twisted smiles appear on her face and the crowd of girls murmmered for a moment, "Shia Raiku." Shia's face remained straight, but she was happy, Sakuno cheered from behind her and urged her to step forward. She did, her head held high dispite the whispers of the girls she passed, many of whom were not happy that she had gotten the spot. Kiri nodded to her and then turned back to the remaining group of girls, "We'll take today off, but tommorrow we're getting right back into practice. I need to talk with the starters everyone else may go." The girls left, some muttering about injustice and others waving goodbye to their friends, Sakuno waving almost wildly to Shia before heading off to change and then go home.
Cara was smiling wider than ever before as her eyes settled on Shia dn the twins,
"Welcome to being starters kiddos," She said, "Sharr, Shira, I'm sure you know about the
initiation, but our fressman may need filling in..."
"Well, Cara-senpai," Shia said, having a bit of trouble adding the last part, "why don't you fill me in so we can get it over with?"
"Come on now, don't be be so hostile, Chibi-chan!" Christine laughed, ignoring the slight glare Shia sent her at being called chibi, "It's not that big of a deal, new starters just have to take a dare from the older starters, that all. Simple really and it's fun, the girl's team at Seishun has been doing it for forever!" Though, Shia didn't fail to notice, Berdine seemed happy that it wasn't her taking a dare from this crowd.
"Yeah, remember what Kiri had to do?" Raina half laughed and half shivered as girl sent her a death glare.
"Don't mention it," She hissed, but this only made the twins want to know more.
"What did she have to do? What did she have to do?" They asked in unisen, but no one really seemed kean to invite Kiri's wrath by answering.
"Actually, I was thinking," Cara said, "There have only been two seventh grade regulars ever recorded for the girls' team..." She smirked at Shia, "Wouldn't it only be fitting to give them the same dare?" She looked over at Kiri, her expression had gone solid. "As long as Buchyou doesn't mind, that is." Somehow it didn't surprise Shia that Kiri had become a starter as a freshman. She shivered to think the kind of dare they had given her.
"I don't particullarly care," she said, her eyes betraying nothing of what she was thinking, "At least I won't be the one to suffer this time."
"It's settled then!" Cara smiled almost evily, "Shia Raiku your entry dare is to"
She whispered it in Shia's ear and her eyes widened. That was about the worst thing thay
could make her do.
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Ryoma wiped a bit of sweat off of his forehead as he saw Shia coming. He didn't think anything about it at first, he had grown used to her dropping in on practices, but then it hit him that she should have had practice. For a moment he thought maybe something was wrong, but he refused to let himself panic, especially after he saw her face, slightly red with her eyes atarring fixedly at the ground as if it was something very interesting that she had never seen before. He watched as she moved over to Tezuka and wondered vaguely what she was doing when he heard her mummble the word 'sorry' before doing something he would have never expected: she kissed him on the lips. From the fence five other girls began laughing like crazy, Starters, he presummed, then a girl with an odd smile that he took as the captain and a seemingly emotionless girl that must have also been a starter because she was wearing the jersey. It didn't take him long to notice that they weren't the only ones laughing either, Fuji, Eiji, Oishi, Taka, and Momo were laughing almost as hard. Even Kaoru chuckled a bit dispite himself. Shia was extremely red in the face and Tezuka was looking equally as annoyed as she was embarressed. Before he could yell out an amount of laps Kiri's vioce was heard over the laughter.
"I'm sorry Kunimitsu, but you know how it is," She said with a rare half-smile, a real genuine smile. Tezuka seemed to calm down a bit and the other starters began to regain control of themselves.
"What just happened?" Ryoma asked, and Eiji turned to him with a smile, his face slightly pink from laughing so hard.
"Are you blind Ochibi? Buchou just got kissed! Nyah!" he said, still laughing a bit after having said what he was thinking aloud. Ryoma looked slightly annoyed.
"I didn't mean that I would like to know what is going on. Why did she do that?" Ryoma asked. Oishi was the person to answer this time.
"Shia must have gotten a starter position," Oishi smiled, "The last time a girl kissed Kunimitsu it was because she became a seventh grade starter! You think we find this funny you should've seen it the first time when no one knew what was going on!" He laughed again.
"Why Ryoma? Worry your little girlfriend is cheating on you?" Momo laughed as the younger boy turned, blushing slightly, anger in his eyes. Shia met him with a kiss on the cheek.
"I'd be lucky if I was Ryoma's girlfriend!" She defended him and then moved off the courts, "I'll see you guys later!" She waved and then headed back to the girls' courts with her teammates.
"You almost enjoyed that didn't you?" Christine sighed and Shia smiled.
"It was one of the more... colorful things I've done since I got here," Shia grinned. The twins were smiling to, until Raina turned to them.
"Now, what should you two have to do?" she asked and both girls let out a nervous laugh. Atleast they wouldn't have to go so far as to kiss Kunimitsu Tezuka.
"I hadn't thought of it," Cara admitted. Raina sighed, knowing she had been thiking completely of getting back at Shia.
"Sharr..." Aine started, "... Should have to ask out Takeshi Momoshiro..." The speech from the normally silent girl caught everyone's attention and Shira, Cara, and Christine all began laughing hysterically. Sharr turned a bright red, something not characteristic of her. Not because she was disqusted at the idea of asking Momo out, but because she was afraid of what he might say.
"That's a terrible thing to ask her to do," Kiri said, giving Sharr that strange
feeling that Kiri gave everyone, that she was reading their mind. "What if he said yes"
she asked with that sideways smile with a hidden meaning, and not a happy one.
"That's half of the piont!" Christine laughed, "Her dare should be to go on a date with Momoshiro!" Raina sighed.
"It's not that bad comparred to stuff they've made girls do in the past," she told them, "I still remember what they made me do..."
"You didn't have it that bad," Christine insisted, "You just had to make ten prank calls a night for a week. Why does everyone let you off so easy? Maybe they just think you're innocent..."
"That's seventy prank calls! Do you know how long it took me to come up with the ten for each night!" Raina said and Cara nodded understandingly.
"Yep, I had to help her on that last day, she'd already done everything she could think of and called half of the bussinessess in the city," She informed them all, "Christine worse though."
"That's right! I had to go out with anyone that asked for three weeks!" Christine whined, "Do you know how many people ask out foreign girls!"
"Hey, remember that girl that---" Raina started, but Christine put her hands over her ears.
"Don't even say it!" She yelled, "I'm still emotionally scarred! Even if nothing happened I'll never be quite as innocent as I was before that day!"
"I had to challenge all of the boy starters and then ask out anyone that beat me"
Cara said, "I'm still not proud of the results..."
"What did you have to do Safflower-sempai?" Shira asked, and the emotioonless girl glanced at her for a moment and then looked away. The rest of the ninth graders, with the exception of Kiri, all began to laugh. "What? What happened!"
"They..." Raina laughed, "Were going to make her come to school in her underwear the next day, running around the halls screaming 'Boys be ambitious', but they saw how emotionless she was even after they mentioned it and decided it was safer to just make her try to smile!" Raina laughed again, earning a small frown from Aine.
"It took me three hours to make a proper one," she said.
"Enough," Kiri said, and they listened immediatly, "You still need to asign Shira a dare." Christine and Cara regained their devilish grins as they turned on Shira.
"What to make her do..." Cara muttered and Christine was struck by inspiration,
muttering something in Cara's ear. Cara's grin widened and she whispered the dare in
Shira's ear.
Shira went extremely pale, and fainted.