Chapter 2

Salty Vanilla

'This is going to be an awesome day!' were the thoughts of Ikezawa Aine as she was skipping pass the field of the school, there was football practice on the field and Aine had decided to skip out on tennis practice today. She usually didn't do bad things, in fact, this was the first bad thing that she did in all of high school.

Aine just wanted to look around the school. She was also thinking of how to "sabotage" the boys' team. She couldn't be not kind though. She just needed time to think things over. She didn't necessarily hate the boys' team, but she didn't like them either. There was only one thing that Aine ever hated, and it was the fact that even though the girls' team was just as good as the boys' team, the boys got all of the support and attention. It was like football at an American school compared to every other sport. Football would get most of the attention.

'I know! I'll just do what Ayumi told everyone to do! Since I can't intentionally sabotage anyone, I'll just distract the boys' team! But how...by being weird! Or something...'

She kept walking around, only propelled forward by her thoughts. She ended up back at the tennis courts and she realized that even though she was going to skip out today, her body wouldn't let her do the bad deed and it brought her back to the courts.

"Oh great...I can't even do something bad when I try to on purpose," Aine grumbled, feeling down. She lifted her head to look at the practice going on, but she was on the wrong side and she was at the boys' courts instead! "Oh man!"

"Aine-chan!" Momo yelled out. "Why aren't you at practice yet?"

"Why me?" Aine silently pleaded to herself.

"Since you're here, can you help me on the English homework?"

Momo was in practically all of her classes, the only class they didn't have together was clubs. They were technicallyin the same club, but she was in the girls' and he was in the boys'. Aine lifted her head and said, "Shouldn't you be practicing?"

"Today we get to do whatever we want in practice! So I'm gonna work on homework, it's like our day off! Is it your day off too? Is that why you're wondering around the school?"

"Uhhh, sure!" 'Just let him think that he's right.'

Aine skipped over to Momo to help him, she was suppose to be distracting him after-all, or that was the plan, right?

"What do you need help with?"

"Everything!"

There were two practices a day for the tennis teams. The morning practice, which was the club time that every club got, and the after-school practice, which was the extra time that the tennis clubs needed to get ready for the tournaments to come.

"Hoi, hoi! Every time I see you, you're always with a different girl, Momoshiro!" a voice called out from what seemed to be a tree. Suddenly, a boy with red hair jumped from the tree and landed right in front of Aine and Momo, his name is Eiji Kikumaru.

"Eiji-sempai! I told you it's not like that! How many times do I have to keep repeating myself? This is just Aine, she's in every single one of my classes, and I just need her help really fast on homework!"

"What's going on here, Eiji?" Oishi Shuichiro called out.

"I want to know too," Fuji Shusuke said right after Oishi. Fuji then came with Oishi on his heels.

'Damn! I let my guard down and now I'm surrounded by boys from the tennis club, the girls' team's worst enemies! I have to get out of here now! Everyone will kill me if they see me skipping out on practice to just hang out with guys from the boys' team! Kumiko and Ayumi are going to torture me! And then kill me!'

"Listen, I really gotta go," Aine started. "Well, see ya Suckers!"

"Aine-chan! Wait! My homework! I need help!" Momo was yelling after Aine as she hopped over the fence and started running away.

"You are such a player Momoshiro!" Eiji said, laughing at Momo.

Momo was too busy blushing though, "I saw her underwear...she jumped over the fence wearing a skirt...."

"What?! You're such a pervert Momo-kohai!"

Momo snapped out of his daze and glared at Eiji, "What is that suppose to mean Kikumaru-san? You never call me kohai!"

"You never call me san! Never mind, it doesn't matter, what does matter is, what did it look like?"

"What?! You a sempai, is asking me that? You're the pervert Sempai!"

"Hey, just curious."

"You guys need to calm down!" Oishi said, with a slight blush.

"Oishi! Don't tell me you saw it too!" Eiji cried out.

"Well, I didn't mean to...."

"I saw it too, Eiji," Fuji said.

"What?! Am I the only one who missed out on the action?! No fair!"

"Eiji you super-pervert!" Momo yelled out.

Just then Saori was walking by and she had heard the whole conversation. She stomped up to the boys and said, "How dare you peek at my best friend, huh?!"

"Saori-chan! I didn't mean to!" Momo yelled out, he broke out in a sweat.

"Yeah right! I know how you boys are! You guys are such perverts!" Saori yelled out right before she slapped Momo across the face. She turned towards Eiji and punched him in the gut and glared at Oishi and Fuji. "Keep your friends in tow! Got that?!" Saori walked away, trying to look where Aine went.

"God...She was one heck of a right hook!" Eiji gasped out, grabbing his stomach while he was on the floor groaning.

"She has one heck of a slap too!" Momo said angrily at Eiji. "If you weren't trying to be perverted than this would've never happened! This is why I was trying to calm her down, she can get so angry and then beat someone up in a second. That's why she's known as the strongest girl in the whole school!"

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Well I didn't see her there while you were spouting out perverted lines!"

"Okay, okay, enough arguing guys, we have to get you both to the infirmary. Momo, a bruise is forming on your face, and a big one too. Eiji, there is probably a bruise on your stomach since the punch was stronger than the slap," Oishi said while helping up Eiji, and Fuji helped up Momo.

"Wait until the whole school hears this!" A voice came from the fence. It was Inui Sadaharu. "This is very good data. Eiji and Momo can get beat up by a single girl."

"She was a strong girl!" Eiji cried out.

"I have data on her. She is part of the tennis team after-all. I have data on everyone who is on the tennis teams, both boys and girls, regulars and non-regulars."

"Well, what do have on her?"

"She is good at every single sport there is, she is also very strong."

"I can see that!"

"Her nickname is the 'Hungry Lioness', when she gets angry, there is no stopping her from doing what she was going to do. So I advise you both to stop aggravating her, I don't want to to get injured too bad and have to quiet the team."

"What a scary nickname! Momo, why didn't you tell me she was so scary?"

"I tried to!" Momo yelled back at Eiji. "Damn, my cheek is swelling!"

"Okay that's enough! I'm taking you both to the infirmary, now!" Oishi yelled out.

Lunchtime at Seigaku

"You did what Saori?!" Ayumi said laughing, milk almost coming out of her nose. The girls all had the same lunch period because they got Lunch B. But even though all of the girls were together, they were also all with the boys' team too, what a coincidence right? "So let me get this straight, you go and slap Momoshiro-kohai, and then you turn towards Kikumaru-san and punch him in the gut?!"

"Look, Ayumi, I already told you what happened. Yes, that's exactly what happened," Saori sighed in exasperation.

"I'm so happy! You did it for the plan, right? Making them our enemies and distracting/sabotaging them?"

"Actually...no. I did it because they were being perverts."

"I'm so happy too Saori! You beat up those guys just for me! I can't believe they saw my underwear!" Aine exclaimed, while hugging Saori.

"I just got so angry at them for talking about you that way."

"I mean seriously, I'm not even wearing sexy underwear or anything. It's just plain, pink underwear."

"Aine! How can you think about that now? I beat them up for you and you're too busy thinking about your non-sexy underwear?!"

"Well, I'm proud of both of you," Ayumi said. "Aine distracts her with her underwear, and then Saori goes and beats them up for looking at Aine's underwear. Wow, this was not what I expected. But anyways, we gotta step it up! This is too boring and simple, beating someone up! It's too...nice! We have to do something worse."

"I agree with Ayumi 100%," Kumiko said, having that strange glint in her eyes again, that made her eye color seem to change to a deep black. "Slapping and punching someone isn't enough, especially if you hate the person. We should do something more, like scare them so bad that they will have metal scars for the rest of their life. Or give them a life-threatening experience and then save them at the last moment, right when they decide to except death, we pull them out. They will have physical and mental scars from that one!"

"No way, too scary. We would probably go to jail for the last one by the way."

"What are you guys talking about?" Koizumi asked as she sat down with Faye right behind her.

Ayumi gave a smile at Aine and Saori and told Koizumi and Faye the whole story. While Ayumi was telling the story Miki came and sat down next to Kumiko. Faye and Koizumi were practically speechless after the whole story.

"Just don't tell Tsubaki, okay? You know how she is about being polite and respectful, that's why we can't let her know the plan unless she is willing to cooperate," Ayumi added on.

Over at a different table the boys' tennis team were eating lunch too. They were all joking and laughing, but a certain "Data Man" had overheard a little bit of the conversation going on at the table where the girls' tennis team sat.

'What plan are they talking about? And why is Kumiko-san being all scary? Who are they talking about when the girls say "they". Who are "they".' Those were just some of the thoughts that were going on in Inui's head as he tried to listen to the conversation more but he couldn't hear anything since his table was so loud.

Sadaharu looked over to Momoshiro to see how he was doing, but Momo was too busy staring at the girls' table too. 'Maybe he heard more of their conversation than I did.' But just when Inui was going to ask him, Momo blushed a deep shade of red and Inui could see Momo's throat moving up and down as he tried to swallow his own dry saliva. "Momo, why don't you go and apologize to Aine-chan for peeking at her?"

"What?" Momo asked, coming out of his daze. "You mean, go over there and apologize?"

"Yes, is there any other way?" Inui gave a mental eye roll.

"But, Aine-chan is over there!"

"Yes, that's why you're going over there to apologize to Aine-chan."

"Ummm, how about later? Like really later?"

"Ohhhh! Our Momo has a crush on one of the girls! It's either that or he's still remembering what her butt and underwear looks like!" Eiji yelled out.

"What?!" a voice sounded out. At the other table, Saori stood up and almost upset her milk. She walked over to the boys' table and said, "What did I say about you guys keeping in line?! And of course you don't listen!"

"What? No! Saori-chan! Please! I didn't say anything!" Momo pleaded.

"Yeah right!" Saori raised her hand and slapped Momo hard on his other cheek, the one that didn't have a huge band-aid on it. Saori gave one last glare at everyone at the table and left.

"Look at what you did Eiji-sempai! I got hurt for what you said!"

Before Eiji could make a smart-ass reply, Aine rushed over to Momo and said, "I'm sorry for that Momo-chan. Saori is a little violent, you have to be nicer to her, or else you'll keep getting hurt. Here, take this, and give it back when you're done using it okay?" Aine skipped back to her table, her short, purple pigtails bouncing up and down as she did. She looked like a little kid sometimes.

"Wait! Aine-chan!" Momo shouted out.

"Yeah?" Aine replied, turning her head back to look at Momo.

"I was wondering...do you wanna hang out sometime?"

"I would like to--"

"Burn!" Eiji whispered and snickered.

"--But I do volunteer work every single day, and I don't have the time. But if you want, some day, you can help me with the volunteer work I do."

"Okay, that would be nice. How about I help you do volunteer work for all of Saturday?"

"That would be fine with me Momo-chan!"

"Wow...volunteer work. Great date," Eiji said back to Momo.

"I just want to get to know her better. She even let me borrow her handkerchief."

"Have fun..."

After School During Practice: Girls' Courts

"You are unbelievable Aine!" Kumiko thoughtfully said. "You are doing a great job of distracting that idiot Momoshiro, and Ayumi must be so proud of you!"

"She already congratulated me for my 'superb role of following the plan'. She said that everyone should be more like me. Anyways, I just felt bad for him for getting hit by Saori so much. He didn't mean to see my underwear. I didn't expect him to ask me out!" Aine mumbled.

"Same old Aine. You are blind to all of the darkness of the world and always look towards the light! Aine, the angel that helps the needy and poor! Aine, the nicest and most optimistic girl in the world. Aine, the most understanding saint! You don't even like him! You couldn't say 'no' because you felt bad for him! So instead you invited him to volunteer work, thinking that he would say 'no thanks' because no one likes doing volunteer work except for you, but it backfired! You hate him too!"

"I don't hate him. I was trying to be nice anyways. I don't like or hate any of the boys on the boys' tennis team."

"You hate them just as much as every one of us, you're just too nice to admit it!"

"I know you're not nice Kumiko, but do you have to be so mean and hateful?"

"Yes! Do you not see what's going on around us? Everyone feels left out of the glory! It's all because of the stupid boys! Make sure to break his heart on Saturday, okay Aine? He actually likes you by the looks of it."

"He doesn't like me, he's just trying to be polite! Anyways, I don't think that I'll be able to break anyone's heart, not even if the person was really mean to me."

"I knew it! You're way too nice Aine. You're also too happy, but that's an argument we can have for another day. Do you want to disappoint everyone by being nice to the boys? Just break his heart! Then he'll be so sad that he'll stop playing good. You see, we are like buttered popcorn, and the boys' tennis team is like sweet, vanilla cupcakes. So you know what happens when you mix the two together? You get bad-tasting, salty vanilla! That's what you get! So go and break his heart on Saturday since you don't even like him!"

"I don't know if I can do that...but I'll try...for the team. I'll do it Kumiko."

"Now that's a good girl!"

"Ohmygod! You're doing it Aine?!" Ayumi called out from a different court. In a second, all of the girl regulars (except for Tsubaki ) was right next to Aine, giving her tips on how to break someone's heart. "The plan is really working now!"

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