As promised, updated no later than the end of this week. I honestly had no inspiration for this one until the end so it was a bit harder for me to write... sorry if it seems a bit rougher than usual.

So, I think yesterday was overall successful. Kirihara-kun probably wasn't all that happy that I left, but I didn't really have a choice. I won't know for sure about yesterday's success until I get to school though. That means it's time to get out of bed and get ready for school!

As I finish getting ready I hear my mother call from the other side of the house. "Nami-chan! Breakfast is ready!"

"Coming!" I call back to her and hurriedly finish up.

In the kitchen, my mother was gathering her things for work.

"Are you going into work early today?" I ask her.

"Yes, big day today and I don't want to even risk being late!" She continues to flutter about the kitchen like a hummingbird. It looks like she's in multiple places at once which makes me dizzy so I sit down to feep from falling. The moment I was seated my mother appeared before me with a plate of food and then disappeared again, leaving the food in her place. Seriously, I don't know how she does that!

"Oh," exclaimed my mom as she stopped moving. "We haven't really been here that long and I've been meaning to ask you if you've been able to make any friends! So, have you?"

"Kind of," I say looking off into space trying to decide if I actually have.

"Kind of? What kind of an answer is that? Tell me all," she moves closer now, just inches from my face acting like a young girl. "Is it a boy?"

I feel my face turn red. "What? Mom! What does that have anything to do with this?"

"It is a boy! What's his name? What's he like? Is he mean to you?"

"Mpm! It's nothing like that! We're just friends!" If she doesn't stop this ridiculous interrogation I'm going to be going to school with a beet red face!

"Oh," her face fell a little bit. "Anyone else?"

"Maybe," I say. "I'm not entirely sure since I haven't really talked to her or hung out at all."

"But at least you're making friends this time! It was the right decision to move out here and force you into this school," My mother jumps up and claps her hands. "Oh would you look at the time! Time to go! Bye!"

"Bye?" I watch as she heads out the door in a rush. Sheesh, how are we even related? Oh well, it's time to go to school!

Odd, he's not here and school is about to start. Either he's late or he's just not coming to school today. It doesn't matter which because he gets in trouble both ways as long as he's not sick or something, which he seemed perfectly healthy yesterday. Oh well, might as well sit down since there's no use worrying.

"Hello there Yumiko-chan, how are you?" Kasumi-chan asked.

"Oh, Kasumi-chan! I'm fine, what about you?" I still don't know if I would consider her a friend. It'd be nice though, since I haven't had any drama with her. And she's nice despite her reputation as Goth Girl.

"Nothing wrong here. Just, you know that everyone is going to be staring at you for awhile. People are pretty upset with you," Is it just me or was there a hint of annoyance in her voice?

"What? Why?" I have given them no reason to stare or talk about me!

"Because they are jealous." When I looked at her, chills ran down my spine because Kasumi-chan looked like she could kill me in that moment. Maybe we are not as friendly as I hoped we were… Great, that makes me delusional.

"Jealous for what? I haven't given anyone a reason to be jealous of me!"

"Oh really? So you weren't hanging out with Kirihara-kun all day yesterday?"

What? How'd everyone find out about that and what's the big deal? Stupid gossips… "Well, I was hanging out with him but we're only friends."

"Just friends you say? Well, if that's the case then it should blow over in a matter of a few days and everything will go back to normal," Kasumi-chan looked happy for a moment but then her face darkened again. "That is, everything will be fine as long as you two really are just friends."

"Seriously, Kasumi-chan? What's the big deal about this?" I ask.

"Kirihara-kun doesn't just hang out with anyone. Especially not girls," She glared at me... So much for a possible friendship.

Just then our conversation was ended officially by the teacher walking into the room. Sighing, I reluctantly prepared for what promised to be a long and gruesome day.

He never showed up. Kirihara-kun never showed up to school! I am absolutely going to kill him so he can understand just how much I suffered today alone. Those stupid gossips have nothing better to do and they just get on my nerves so much! If Kirihara-kun was there he may have been able to clear everything up since they would believe him, but they wouldn't even think about believing me. Of course, they would still be jealous since I hung out with him…

As I walked home from school, more like stomped and everyone got out of my way, I thought about multiple ways Kirihara-kun could be tortured.. There were plenty of options to choose from, but I decided the easiest, most obvious, and the best choice would be to tie him to a chair, bind his hands and feet, and put him in the middle of the arcade. It would absolutely kill him to watch everyone play games, maybe even beat his own high scores, and he couldn't play a single one! That would torture the little devil! Now, when to put the plan in motion…

"Yumiko-chan!"

I look up and am stunned to see Kirihara-kun standing before me.

"You! You," My fists clench and I see Kirihara-kun take a step back. "Why weren't you in school today?"

"Training" Why does it seem like you're mad at me?" His eyes are so wide they look like they could just jump out of his head!

"Wait, what?" Come to think of it the rest of the tennis team wasn't at school either.

"We were training today! Does it really matter?"

I look at Kirihara-kun's face and see his initial shock at my anger is turning to anger at me being mad at him. "Oops… I thought you just decided not to show up. And it kind of does matter since apparently people decided to gossip. They've been mean to me all day and won't believe me!"

Laughing nervously, I search Kirihara-kun's face for any change. Luckily, it seems he's already calmed down a little. "That's it? Sheesh you're such a girl! That's such an easy problem to fix!"

"For you it is! I told you, they wouldn't believe me!"

"Yeah, yeah… whatever," Kirihara-kun looks away and then his face lit up as if he just had the best idea in the world. "Come with me!"

"Whe-," I'm cut off by Kirihara-kun grabbing my hand and dragging me off in a different direction then my house. "Ah! Kirihara-kun!"

I was dragged all the way to some tennis courts before Kirhara-kun finally stopped and let go of my hand.

Breathing heavily, I turn to Kirihara-kun and see him getting two rackets out of his bag. "Kirihara-kun… what… are you… doing? Why… are we… here?"

"Isn't it obvious, we're going to play!" Great, he has the same enthusiasm over this as he did the arcade.

"But… I don't know how to play tennis!" I say having regained air in my lungs.

"So? You know the rules, picking up on how to play will be easy for you! Take this," Kirihara-kun holds out a racket for me and I hesitate. "Just take it already!"

"But… you're not going to… you know," This isn't making any sense.

"I'm not going to what?" He asks still holding out the racket.

"You know… go Devil Mode," I look away from him, hoping he doesn't get mad.

"Baka," A racket taps the top of my head and I jump. "Of course not, now just take the racket!"

Finally, I grab the racket and Kirihara-kun nods. "Good, now let's play!"

And so we did. It was obvious he was going easy on my considering all his serves were underhand. However, that definitely didn't matter with all my faults and outs. I was grateful he was going easy on me though, or I would have been creamed. Still, I was amazed at how patient Kirihara-kun was. Throughout out 'game' he never once yelled at me for not being able to do something. Even after we finished he came to my side and helped me with my form. All in all, this was completely unexpected but surprisingly pleasant.

"There, now you can't say you can't play tennis," Kirihara-kun says as we walk in the direction of our houses.

"If you say so," I say rolling my eyes. "But still, thank you. I have always wanted to learn to play I just lacked the motivation."

"I'll teach you if you want."

"What?" I look at Kirihara-kun and see he isn't joking.

"If I wasn't willing to teach a beginner like you why would I be captain?" Kirihara-kun puts on a snooty air about himself, but I can tell he really is being genuine.

"Alright, fine. I'll learn from you. Just, if you decide to drag me off somewhere let me know first! My parents must be wondering where I am right now thanks to you!"

"Fine, fine," He waves off tonight as if it were something that didn't matter.

We reach the point where we both have to head off in different directions and stop.

"I'll be in school tomorrow so no need to worry! Also, no reason to get mad at me again either," Kirihara-kun pretends to pout a little.

"Hey, I said I was sorry," I say, flinching a little.

"Anyways, see you tomorrow!" And he runs off. Just like that. As usual…

Oh well, it doesn't matter even though it was kind of stubborn. Today was a good day… at least, the last half of today was.

Thank you for reading! Please review! :)