Chapter Two: In Which Himeno Somehow Manages to Get Stuck with the Tennis Team
**Fuji Shusuke's POV**
I've done a lot of things in my life that have pissed people off. It kinda happens when you're on the tennis team, and have a habit of beating one's opponents. That and the fact that my personality seems to bug people. Well, that's their problem. But I've never – EVER – had someone declare their eternal hatred for me before, in the middle of class, for no apparent reason.
The girl's tawny eyes were unforgiving, her face cold. I opened my mouth to defend myself – she had no reason to be mad at me! I mean, I've never even seen her before, let alone give her reason to hate me – but was interrupted by four or five girls swarming her desk.
"How could you say that?!"
"Poor Fuji-kun! He must be devastated!"
"What kind of person are you?"
"Apologize right now!"
I almost felt sorry for the girl; she had a slightly scared expression on her face, along with chagrin. Luckily for her, the teacher intervened. "Okay, okay, settled down! Back to your seats, all of you. Himeno-san, I don't care if you hate Fuji-san or not, he's your partner and you will work with him. Any trouble will result in detention."
If looks could kill I'd be dead three times over. "Hai, sensei." She muttered quietly, lowering her eyes to the table.
"Thank you. Now can we please start class?"
Himeno turned a shade of red a tomato would envy, glared at me (like I had done anything!) and pulled out several pens and a notebook. She then began to stare at the board with such concentration that I half-expected for her to burn a whole in it. As the teacher was talking, Eiji leaned over and whispered, "Ne, ne, Fujiko, do you know her?"
"No, I don't. At least, I don't think so." I answered, squinting at the girl. She didn't look like any of the – ugh – fan girls, or any of the upper or lower classmen. According to the rumours, she was from the USA, and I've never been there before, so…. What was her problem? I studied her out of the corner of my eye. She had long, curly brown-blonde hair, tawny eyes that glittered from behind glasses, and was very slender and short. She sported a cast on her left arm, which she fingered slightly as the teacher talked.
Nope, no recognition at all. So what was with the whole hatred-announcing thing? The bell rang, and Eiji leaped over his desk to land right in front of the girl's desk. She started, staring at him. I smiled. Eiji tended to get that reaction a lot.
"Ne, ne, hello! I'm Kikumaru Eiji, nice to meet you!" he announced cheerfully, offering her his hand.
Himeno smiled at him, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you, Eiji-kun. I'm Himeno."
"So, Himeno-chan, why do you hate Fuji so much?"
Trust Eiji to go to the root of the problem. "Yes, do tell." I added, leaning against her desk. She scooted away from me like I smelled bad or something, and ignored the question. She picked up her bag, and Eiji and I exchanged a long look over her head; him confused, me annoyed. As she stuffed her books into her bag, I noticed something in there that made me pause.
"You play tennis?" questioned Eiji excitedly, also seeing the expensive racket in her bag.
Her reaction surprised me. Her face froze, and she had a strange look on her face. It was almost… surprised. Her tawny eyes were sad as she looked up at Eiji. "I use to."
"Use to?" I echoed.
"It's none of your business, Fuji-kun." She snapped. But there was no malice to her voice, just weariness. She even used an honorific! After confessing her eternal hatred to me, I didn't exactly expect that. Was this girl bipolar or something?! Eiji looked from me to Himeno, then promptly glomped onto her. She emitted a little squeak of surprise, grabbing the desk to keep from falling over.
"Nya, Himeno-chan, why don't we go to our next class? What do you have next?"
"Um… math with Takanari-sensei."
"Great, I do too! Let's go!"
"I thought I was supposed to be her guide." I muttered
Eiji winked at me over the top of her head, saying, "Well, then, lead the way Fujiko!"
Himeno raised an eyebrow at me. "Fujiko? What, are you a girl or something?"
Would you believe she was serious?!
Eiji burst out laughing as I scowled. She blinked innocently at me, a small grin on her face. A group of girls lingering near the door shot daggers at her. As much as I disliked this rude, strange, bipolar girl, I kinda felt sorry for her. Hopefully the fan girls wouldn't kill her too badly.
"C'mon, Twerp, let's go to class." I said shortly.
"My name is Himeno! Not "twerp"." She growled.
"Whatever, Twerp."
Was I sadistic for enjoying making her mad? Probably, but God knows that she's making me mad!
***
She was in EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY CLASSES! And the senseis, being the sadistic freaks they are, sat her next to me in ALL of them. Luckily for me, though, Eiji was also in my classes, and kept her attention on him. The two seemed to get along quite well, which irritated me for some reason. How come she was so friendly with Eiji but hated me so much?
It wasn't fair.
Lunch rolled around, and Eiji dragged her to our lunch table. I had a feeling that Eiji was trying to kill me: she kept giving me death glares that would kill a lesser man. But she looked uncomfortable as Eiji shoved her in a chair, and kept trying to leave, protesting, "It's not right, Eiji-kun! I don't know anyone, and I don't want to steal you from your friends!"
"Hey, Eiji, who's this?"
Momo and Sadaharu had arrived and were looking at Himeno curiously. She turned red and dropped her gaze to the table, blushing and shooting a glare at Eiji. He just grinned at her, giving the "V" sign. "I'm leaving. Sorry to bother you." She muttered, getting to her feet and turning to go.
Only to run straight into Kunimitsu.
"Oh, sit down, Hime." He told her, surprising me with the familiarity in which he spoke to her. And Hime? What was with that?
"But, Kuni-chan – " she protested.
"Don't call me that!"
The rest of the team had arrived, and were snickering as out captain slowly turned red. Sadaharu scribbled down something in his notebook, and Eiji was having a hard time laughing outright at him.
"Kuni-chan? Aww… how cute." Ryoma drawled, smirking.
Kunimitsu glared at him. "20 laps. At practice. Don't call me that."
"Kuni-chan! You can't do that!" protested Himeno indignantly.
"Yes. I can. I'm the captain, Hime."
"But that's not fair!"
"So?"
"Um, excuse me." Takashi interrupted the two. "Do you guys know each other?"
"What's with the nicknames?" asked Ryoma.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Shuichiro asked eagerly.
Both of them got a rather sick look on their faces at that, and Himeno shuddered violently. That was a rather extreme reaction. Mot girls would jump at the chance to date our captain. But not this one, obviously. Kunimitsu narrowed his eyes at us.
"40 laps. All of you."
"Hey! Kuni-chan, don't! It's just a question! An icky one, but a question nevertheless." Himeno protested, glaring at him.
"It's none of their business, Hime."
"But don't punish them for it!"
I couldn't resist saying, "Lovers spat?"
Himeno gave me a frosty look and pointed at Kunimitsu. "His name is Tezuka Kunimitsu."
"We know that. He is our captain. However, you are the unknown factor here." Sadaharu pointed out.
She pointed at herself. "I'm Himeno. Tezuka Himeno."
There was a long silence in which Himeno glared at us, Kunimitsu growled something under his breath and we stared at them. Kaoru sat back. "This is… interesting."
"You two are related?!" Eiji demanded, looking between the two.
"You never told me you had a sister." Shuichiro said to Kunimitsu. Himeno rolled her eyes, pushing up her glasses.
"Don't you see the resemblance?" He demanded. "Same hair colour?"
"I'm his cousin. Not his sister." She added.
Now that they pointed it out, I did notice the resemblance. They had the same hair colour, face shape, and even the same glasses. I felt kinda stupid – no, scratch that – very stupid for not noticing it.
"Kunimitsu, why don't you introduce your cousin to us?" Momo suggested.
Kunimitsu gave a long suffering sort of sigh. "Fine. This is my cousin, Tezuka Himeno. She's in the eighth grade and is thirteen years old. She comes from Spokane, Washington, in the United States. She speaks both English and Japanese fluently. Happy now?"
"You're in 8th grade? Why are you in the same classes as Fuji and I?" asked Eiji.
"I was in AP classes back in the States." Himeno explained in an annoyed tone. "Can we stop talking about me, please?"
It made me feel better to see her squirm. Now she knew how it felt to be put on the stop. Only, you know, not hated or anything.
"You're Tatsuya's daughter, yes? I think I've played you before. Were you at the Arena game four years ago?" asked Ryoma.
She squinted at him, recognition flashing on her face a minute later. "Yeah! You're the lefty I played, which ended up in a draw because the game went on too long."
"I was winning."
"Nope, I was most definitely stronger than you."
"You play tennis?" Sadaharu asked sharply.
Again, that flash of pain. She held up her casted arm with a forced, rueful grin that didn't reach her eyes. "I use to." I noted that Kunimitsu's face tightened slightly, and I raised an eyebrow. He shook his head slightly and, rather viciously, bit into an apple just as the bell rang. He scowled at us and looked at Himeno, who was quickly finishing up the rest of her riceball.
"Hime, are you doing anything after school?" He asked, throwing the rest of his stuff away. "Do you want to stay and watch tennis practice?"
Now there was surprise. Normally, our captain didn't let people watch. She gave her cousin a long look, and then shrugged. "Why not? I don't know my way home anyway."
Kunimitsu nodded and left, Shuichiro and Sadaharu following. I stood up and jerked my head. "C'mon, Twerp. Day's not over yet."
"It's Himeno. Himeno. Not Twerp."
"Whatever. Let's just go to fourth period."
***
Himeno trailed after me as I led the way to the tennis courts after school. She was strangely quiet, though Eiji was talking cheerfully to his new friend, not noticing his new friend's behavior. Catching her eye, I raised an eyebrow at her. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she pointedly looked away.
So much for being nice.
Kunimitsu met us on the court. As he explained the workout, Himeno looked about and found a seat in a corner of the stands. She idly bounced a stray tennis ball between her hands, a rather critical look on her face as she watched us practice. Sadaharu, no longer a starter but team manager, had come up with a new training method; little lead weights strapped to our legs. At first it wasn't that different than normal, but as we tried to match colored balls with their matching cone, we started to notice the difference.
"Oi! Eiji-kun! Stop over-extending; it'll be easier to move!" It was Himeno, from her corner. She was on her feet, pointing at people as she spoke. "Ryoma-kun, move a half-step faster, you'll hit more balls. Takashi-kun, don't be afraid to use more power!"
At first I was disgruntled with her. She had no right to interfere; she wasn't on the team. But I noticed that her observations were correct. After recovering from their shock at being yelled at by a near stranger, members of the team were taking her advice and improving. I hated to admit it, but she knew her stuff. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kunimitsu and Coach Ryuzaki exchange a long look. What were those two planning?
After practice – which was especially brutal today – we were all lying about, trying not to die as Sadaharu told us about the weights, adding more and such, when Coach Ryuzaki made an announcement.
"As all of you have realized, Sadaharu here has taken over the duty as team manager. But in addition, during her stay here, Himeno-san will be helping him make up practices. She has a lot of knowledge about American tennis that could be useful to us."
Himeno wasn't expecting this, which was obvious. She turned white, and then red, face flabbergasted, eyes wide. She opened her mouth, closed it, glared at her cousin, and then bowed to the coach. "I'll do my best to try and help." She muttered.
"I'm sure you will." Ryuzaki-sensei said calmly.
As the rest of the team left, she rounded on my. "This is your entire fault, I hope you know!" he snapped.
Then she stalked away after Kunimitsu, leaving me standing there, hurt and confused.