Chapter 7

Co-ed Tennis...?!

"First match! Seigaku Boys' Team: Fuji Shusuke. Seigaku Girls' Team: Faye Morgan," the umpire shouted out. "Morgan to serve!"

Faye wasn't going to bother asking Fuji if he was ready or not. She bounced the ball three times on the court and threw it up into the air. As soon as it was halfway down, Faye did a fast hit at it. The ball ricocheted off of her racket and landed at the corner of the service box.

Fuji was there in an instant and hit the ball back with just as much speed. Fuji and Faye seemed to just be rallying at each other at a quick pace. The score went up slowly; 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3, and finally the score now was 5 games to 4, Fuji in the lead.

"This is very interesting...," Inui muttered under his breath. He was recording down all of the information he could get from watching the match. It was intense, but at the same time, boring.

"Time to get serious, don't you agree Faye? I could tell you're not using your full strength, and you can tell that I'm not using mine," Fuji stated. He opened his eyes and stared at Faye.

"I agree, it is time to get serious," Faye nodded.

After the serve though, it was just back to pointless rallying. Fuji wanted the point to be over with, so he hit a lob on purpose. Faye, of course, took the bait and did a smash. Fuji went to the returning ball and did Higuma Otoshi.

"15-love!" the umpire called out.

Fuji scored the next two points by doing Tsubame Gaeshi. But Faye wasn't about to lose to him, it was already match point. Faye and Fuji were just rallying again. 'I can't lose this!' The ball was coming at her fast, Faye did a little twist with her body and hit the ball. It bounced near Fuji feet and it appeared to be heading to the left and the right at the same time, it appeared to be everywhere on the court! It seemed like there was ten balls all over the court. Just as he was about to hit the right ball, it went around his body.

"40-15!" the umpire shouted again.

"What was that shot?" Inui asked to no one in particular.

"That is Faye's 'Ballet Twist'," Koizumi said to Inui. "She's been taking ballet since she was five years old. She incorporates the ballet moves into her tennis. It's called the Ballet Twist because it looks like the ball is dancing all over the court."

Inui was furiously writing down the new information he got off of Koizumi about Faye. "Thank you..."

"Hey! Don't write that down!" Koizumi tried to yank the notebook out of Inui's hands. He had a strong grip though and wouldn't let go of the book.

"Game set, 6 games to 4. Fuji Shusuke wins!" the umpire yelled out. "Next game, Eto Ayumi and Echizen Ryoma!"

The game went by quickly and ended with Ryoma winning 6 games to 4, the exact same score as Faye's game. Ryoma's game was quite boring, no one even used special moves. Koizumi was surprised that Ayumi didn't do her "AO Serve". She was also surprised that Ryoma didn't use his "Twist Serve".

The next match was Tsubaki against Kaido. Tsubaki finished the game in under ten minutes, 6 games to 0. No one could believe that Kaido had lost that quickly to someone who wasn't even really known in the school. All of the guys underestimated the girls, and now their level of caution raised to a higher level.

"Good thing you didn't win, Kaido-san," Koizumi hissed. "You know what they say, right? No one ever wins against a yakuza...and survives!"

"Don't lie about someone being in the yakuza...," Kaido hissed back at Koizumi.

"Don't worry, the girls aren't going to lose against the guys."

"The girls are down a score. It's 2-1 right now."

The next match was Takashi against Miki. The match practically ended in the first game though. Takashi had hit the ball too hard, and it ended up hitting Miki right in the chest. She fell down and got knocked out. The girls all ran to her and helped her to the infirmary.

Someone took the racket from Takashi's hand and he reverted back to his normal self. He blushed a bright shade of red and mumbled something close to an apology. He ran out of the courts as fast as he could and went to the infirmary with Miki. He felt bad for doing such a terrible thing.

The girls had to even up the score, the boys had won three matches already, and the girls only one! Next was Koizumi against Momoshiro, and Koizumi had to win. She couldn't lose. Momo went on the court in his usual happy state. He gave a smile to Koizumi and got into ready position.

"You're all better already, Momo-kohai?" Koizumi smirked.

"Of course! I'm not going to let one girl get me down. I'm Momoshiro Takeshi!" Momo answered.

Koizumi threw up the ball and did her famous "Bubblegum Serve". As soon as Koizumi hit the ball, it bounced off of her racket with a weird popping noise, kind of like the noise you hear when you crack gum. The ball bounced in the service box, and instead of heading towards Momo, it bounced up straight into the sky. Koizumi wanted the match to be over with already, so she played her best and hardest. Momo wasn't getting a lot of points off of her. In the end though, the score was 6 games to 3, Koizumi won.

The score was evening up and the next to matches was; Kumiko against Eiji and Saori against Oishi. Eiji lost to Kumiko's weird playing style where she tricks the opponent into going at a faster pace than they usually do, which makes them lose stamina, only Kumiko could pull this off because she had so much stamina, and Eiji already had little stamina to begin with. The score was 7 games to 5. Oishi lost to Saori's "Hungry Lioness", the move was named after Saori herself, since she was known as the "Hungry Lioness", it was her nickname. The score was 7 games to 6.

The score was 4 matches against 3, and the girls were in the lead. But the last game had ended up tying the whole score. It was Tezuka versus Aine and he had defeated her in less time than it took Tsubaki to defeat Kaido. The practice matches against the regulars were tied and no one had won the battle. But that wasn't going to stop the girls and boys from scheming something to hurt each other.

Practice was over and Tezuka and Tsubaki suggested that they all walk home together. Their houses all were in the same direction after all. Ayumi politely refused the offer because she had to go to an important meeting with her parents, they wanted to show her off as the next heir to the corporation. Ayumi waved goodbye to the others as she climbed into her limo and her driver drove off.

'She's so lucky! Her driver drives her home everyday and she gets to skip out on walking with the boys.' all of the girls thought.

There was an awkward silence between the two sides as they all walking past all of the shops. The went past burger shops and Momo said, "This is my stop, see ya later!"

"This is my stop too," Koizumi said. She pointed to the music studio across the street from the burger shop. Koizumi waved goodbye and crossed the street.

"Fuji-sempai!" Saori hissed (sound like anyone?). "I think you're being stalked!" Saori pointed behind her, and there were four girls who really were following them. The fan girls pretended not to notice the regulars every time they looked back.

Fuji smiled and moved a little closer to Faye. Faye didn't notice though since she was too busy talking to Kumiko. When the four stalkers were close enough to just about touch Fuji, he put his arm around Faye's and said, "Don't you think it would be a good idea to go to my house tonight? No one's going to be home."

The girls behind them squealed loudly then ran away screaming, "Fuji-sama is about to do some very naughty things to Faye-san!"

Faye sighed and gave Fuji a glare, "Listen, I know that you're using me as your shield to protect yourself from your fan girls, but you have to at least have some consideration about me too!"

"She's right Fuji," Inui said. "If you're going to be using her as your shield you should at least make sure that she doesn't get hurt. But from what I saw today, I don't think you're only using her as your shield, it looks like there was something else going on too."

"Oh yeah! Faye! I heard what you and Fuji-san were doing in his classroom today! Tell me it's not true!!!" Aine whimpered, with big, sad looking eyes. "Everyone in the girls' and boys' tennis team know about it, Inui-sempai told everyone!"

"I told you nothing happened!" Faye had an evil glint in her eye.

Just then a car pulled up to the side of the road next to the group. The window rolled down and inside were two buff, tough-looking guys. One of the guys took off his sunglasses and said, "Ojou-sama (young lady of high respect), please get in the car. Oto-dono will kill us if he finds out that we let you walk home."

"I see, I'll get in," Tsubaki replied. She opened the car door to the backseat and climbed in. She gave a small wave—which shouldn't even be counted as a wave, more like a slight movement of the hand—and left.

"Those were scary looking people...," Eiji stated. They walked past a sports shop and Eiji saw that they had new merchandise. "Oh! The sports shop has new shoes!" Eiji ran into the shop and quickly went back out. "I'm short! Oh, Aine-chan! Can I borrow 10,000 yen (about $100)?"

"Ummm, I don't have that much...," Aine sweat-dropped. She didn't really like refusing people when they needed help.

"Oh no!" Eiji ran back into the shop and disappeared.

Soon the group got to Kumiko's and Tezuka's neighborhood. The two bid adieu and left. Oishi left with them since his house was close to Tezuka's.

Fuji said that he was going to be walking Faye home, since his house was about a block away from hers. Faye didn't argue back, she was too busy gaping at the fact that Fuji lived so close to her. He gave a small chuckle and led her away from the group.

Kaido ran off, saying he had to run ten kilometers before he went home to dinner and left. Miki saw her parents in Kawamura Sushi and went inside with Takashi, Saori went to the apartment that she and her dad shared saying that she had to get home before he went to his bar tending job, and Aine said that she was going to hang out at Saori's house for a bit.

Later that night, Tsubaki had a conversation with Tezuka discussing the problem they had on their hands. "They still hate each other, and consider tennis as the ultimate competition to solve their problems."

"They need to learn how to get along, they are all on the tennis team," Tezuka agreed.

"Tsubaki-sama! What do you think about this yukata? You will look really good in this for the festival!" someone called to her.

"Hold on a second, Tezuka-san." Tsubaki turned towards the door and standing there was one of her yakuza bodyguards holding a yukata with a dragon design on the back. She picked up the phone again and said, "Hey Tezuka-san, isn't the Hanami Festival tomorrow night?"

School The Next Day

"Everyone, you all know that the Hanami (flower viewing) Festival is coming up soon, which also means that summer is almost here," Tezuka started. "This year, during the summer, instead of going to separate training camps, we are going to a training camp at the beach, together."

There was a very awkward silence after Tezuka said that. No one wanted to go with each other, but they didn't want to tell their captains that.

"However, there is a requirement this year to be able to go to the training camp," Tsubaki stated. "You all have to attend the Hanami Festival this year, together. You also have to at least get along, or no one will go. The Hanami Festival is tonight by the way. Please get ready tonight to go with each other, unless none of you want to go to the training camp this year."

People, if you want me to update...I need more reviews. Reviews fuel the writer's mind and help the writer come up with better stories.

Hey! If you guys want to see what the characters look like, the link to their pictures are up on my profile.