HELLO EVERYONE. No, I'm not dead…

But my computer is. ;_;

The battery ran out and won't work at all so now I'll need to get a new computer, but for now I'm doing this on someone else's laptop!

Don't worry—I'll still update as soon as I can ^^

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Prince of Tennis :)

Sorry if the characters are OOC, this is a year later and I've made their personalities a bit more different.

Also what did fanfiction do with my formatting? … :(

"Class, this is Echizen Masahiko. He is a new student from America."

"Konnichiwa," Ryoma (Masahiko) greeted half-heartedly. He absolutely hated being woken in the morning by Karupin who decided to test how sharp his claws were on his pajamas.

"Take a seat between Satoshi Horio and Akatsuka Masato." The teacher pointed to two noisy third-years that grinned at the same time. Oh, just great. Ryoma thought, knowing he was going to be tired out and annoyed by these two.

"Ohhhh-haaaaayyyy-ohhhhh doukyuusei(student)," One of them grinned.

"Ohayo…" Ryoma sighed, wondering why he couldn't have gotten the perfectly great window-seat next to that quiet, nice-looking girl.

"Hey, guess what?" The kid didn't even wait for Ryoma to respond. "I'm going to be a tennis pro when I grow up! I'm really good. I bet I'm the best non-regular on the team. I must be greater than the freshmen as well! Hey, this year I'm allowed to try to become a Regular! I just hope I'm not in the same block as Fuji, he's the only one I can't beat. However, I can beat any other Regular! You just watch!"

… This was going to be a long year.

"Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Satoshi Horio…" said the student with a thick unibrow. Ryoma sighed for what seemed like the millionth time in the morning. Because he sat next to him in his first class, he also had to be his guide around the school. Wow. So. Much. Fun."I'm part of the tennis team, so don't be surprised when I get taken away by fangirls." He bragged.

Horio pointed to a long hallway of individual rooms. "These are the practice rooms. You play the violin, right?" Ryoma nodded. "And from here is the—" He was interrupted by loud cheering from outside.

"What's happening?" Ryoma asked, peering out the window at a large crowd.

"Oh, the practice rooms overlook the tennis courts for the regulars. Soon I'll be a regular because I'm really amazing at tennis. I can beat Tezuka any day!" Ryoma's eyes were fixed on the intense tennis match.

"Are there any middle schoolers there?." He asked, never taking his eyes off the tennis match.

"I don't think so." Horio looked at Ryoma. "Hey, do you play tennis?" He shook his head. "Oh, phew. Because I had a friend named Echizen Ryoma who was really good in tennis; I couldn't even beat him! That's how good he was. He moved to America and then I stopped hearing about him. It's weird 'cause your surname's Echizen. And you're from America! But Ryoma has green hair. And you have blonde hair…"

Ryoma was about to add in that his actual hair color was green and that he dyed it, but Horio interrupted yet again. "And I think his eyes are like… uh… well, I forgot." They walked down the stairs and showed him around the tennis courts.

"You like tennis, right? You should join. Of course, I'd beat you, but I promise to go easy on you." Ryoma shrugged.

"Eh, maybe." Horio laughed.

"C'mon! Then you can be my partner for tennis! Anyway, these are the non-Regular courts." Suddenly he waved at a girl wearing a high ponytail. She waved back, shyly. "That's Sakuno Ryuzaki. You were looking at her during class, right? Last year she just wore her hair in braids. She looks so much prettier with her hair down." Horio rambled. Sakuno was trying a tennis stance, and by instinct Masahiko lightly tapped the back of her knees with a tennis racket on the ground.

"Bend your knees." He said, then walked off again with Horio, who was staring at him like he was crazy. Sakuno got up from her position and looked at Ryoma.

"…R-Ryoma?"

Did Sakuno find out who Masahiko is? Honestly, I never really liked her. She was on the cover of the first book, in a picture bigger than Ryoma's, but after that she stopped showing her face -.-;

Oh, next chapter he meets the Regulars for the first time! Will they recognize him?

And sorry it's short. This was the best cut-off for the chapter…

Review and Story Alert :)

~browni222

(PS: THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR POSITIVE REVIEWS ^^ I won't be stopping the story any time soon unless my new laptop breaks down T_T)