A new chapter! Sorry I haven't updated sooner, been busy.

The baseball game was to be kids versus adults. I asked if some of the adults would come onto our team, but Takuya cut me off and said we didn't need any adults. I thought he was insane. However the rest of the team agreed with Takuya (except for Shiro and Rika, but they weren't really talking at the moment.) That was when I realized something. We didn't have enough players. "We don't have enough players…" The adults realized this truth about their own team.

This problem was quickly ended, however, when Yuki and Machi arrived. They had two children, a boy and a girl. I could see the girl had a strong resemblance to Yuki, as she had short silver hair. The boy had short brown hair, like Machi. "HEY RAT BOY!" I heard my father yell. "It's about time you showed up! We're going to play baseball! You better play too!"

"What team are you on?" Yuki asked.

"It's adults versus kids."

"…why are you with the adults then?"

"Why you little…"

"That's enough you two!" Tohru intervened. "Let's just play some baseball." She walked away, but I could tell she was watching them out of the corner of her eye.

"Looks like we can play now," Jiro said, slight happiness in his voice. I sighed.

"I guess so…"

"You don't like baseball Chiyo?" Ryo asked. I looked at him.

"I don't mind it. It's just… this will probably turn out badly." Riku walked over to me.

"Don't fret; I'm sure it will turn out just fine." Ryo frowned and I wondered why. "And you know, afterwards…" I realized just how close he was getting to me. "We can…" He didn't get to say anymore. Ryo and Jiro pushed him aside at the same time.

"You better not try to say anything like that to my sister again!" Jiro yelled angrily. The adults looked over to us and I knew I was getting red.

"Let's play baseball!" I basically screamed, trying to get the attention off my brother. The adults nodded slowly.

"You guys want to start?" Yuki asked.

"Yeah. We'll make the batting order." Immediately I dragged them all away and took control of the situation.

Five minutes later we were ready to go. "Takuya, you go first." I instructed, looking at my paper. He nodded and went up to bat. I went up to the children I had seen earlier and introduced myself.

"My name is Yuu." The boy said.

"I'm Yumi. It's nice to meet you," the girl said. I smiled at her. Yumi watched Takuya. "I like baseball… it's fun." I nodded.

"It is." Looking at Shiro and Rika, I whispered to Yumi. "Could you try to warm them up to us a little bit? They're pretty shy."

"Sure." Yumi dragged her brother along. I turned back to watch Takuya and saw that he was on first base.

"Alright, go up Riku." Riku grinned and went up. Ryo walked up to me.

"You should avoid him. He's kind of…"

"Say no more, I get the message. He's a pervert that I should definitely evade, especially considering the scene Jiro made." I made sure Jiro could hear the last bit. He glared at me.

"Look I was doing what had to be done."

"Jiro, it was embarrassing and everybody noticed…. Look let's talk about this after the reunion is over." I heard the bat hit the ground and I looked to see what had happened. I was shocked to see the ball fly into center field. The person there, Kisa, was desperately trying to see it. The blinding sun didn't help with what. I watched as the ball landed on the ground. Kisa grabbed it and threw it to the second baseman, who was Ayame. Takuya let out a triumphant yell as he crossed the plate and made a home run. Riku himself was stuck at first. "That was good."

"Yeah, Riku's good at baseball." Takuya said as he walked back. Jiro poked me.

"You know, this reunion isn't going to be over for about two weeks. I'm surprised you don't want to talk about it sooner. It's not like you." I nearly jumped. Two weeks? Why hadn't I heard about this?

"You're joking!" I said. "This reunion is two weeks long?"

"Yeah, where have you been?" Takuya said. "Chiyo, call up another person to bat." Still shocked from the news, I glanced at the paper. I was up next. I handed it to Takuya. He got the message and I grabbed a bat. I wasn't that great at baseball or any sport for that matter, so I suspected I would strike out. I walked up to the plate. My dad, who was pitching, smiled at me. I figured he wouldn't go easy on me, he didn't usually. Though he did have his moments where he would. I lifted the bat and stared at the ball.

"You can beat them Chiyo!" I was surprised to hear Ryo cheer. My dad threw the ball and within seconds I swung the bat. My eyes widened when I felt the bat make contact. I dropped the bat and started running. I barely made it to first base. When I looked over I saw that Riku had made it to third. I smiled proudly.

Jiro was up next. I yelled cheers to him. Unfortunately those didn't help much. He struck out. My dad bellowed a victory cry and I looked away. My mom told me my dad didn't always act that way, and I couldn't imagine a time when he didn't. Then again, according to my mom, a lot of the Sohmas had changed over the years.

"Chiyo run!" Caught up in my daydream I didn't notice Ryo go up to bat and hit the ball. I immediately started running. I slid into second base and barely made it. I looked around me. The bases were full and the next person up to bat would definitely have something to sweat about.

It was Rika up to bat. She slowly walked up, obviously petrified. She looked at me and I smiled brightly at her, hoping she might be encouraged. My dad went a bit easy on her, it was pretty clear. When he threw the first ball he threw it very slowly, but it didn't matter. Rika swung much too early. "You're fine Rika!" I yelled. She smiled at me slightly, but it quickly disappeared. My dad threw another ball and Rika swung again. She made contact. I watched the ball fly into the air and land in the middle of the field. I ran as fast as I could and only stopped when I had crossed the last base.

About an hour and a half later the game ended. We kids had won. The adults seemed a bit depressed at losing to a bunch of high school kids and went off to make dinner. Meanwhile, I partied with the rest of them. Wasn't really a party, we just sat around in a circle and talked about our amazing victory. "Rika you were fantastic!" Takuya said. Rika seemed embarrassed and looked away. Her brother smiled at her.

"Yeah sis. You were amazing."

"Really it was nothing. Shiro, you did some really awesome stuff too, like that…" and they continued on and on. I could tell they were getting out of their shell. I slowly scooted out of the circle, got up, and walked away.

I passed through the forest and sat down. I liked the peace and quiet. Then again, if I could have had just one person there, it would have been perfect.

"You like being alone, don't you?" Ryo was standing behind a tree, looking at me. "This will sound weird, but I followed you. I don't especially like lots of people around me."

"Yeah, I feel the same way. I'm not a fan of crowds." He walked over and sat beside me. "So your brother's pretty protective, huh?" I nodded.

"He's awfully annoying about it though. Someday he's going to push me to my limit… hopefully that doesn't happen too soon."

"Hopefully."

"You have any siblings?"

"Nope, I'm an only child."

"I see." We sat in silence. "Do you think they've left?" I asked finally.

"Probably, want to go back?"

"Yes." Ryo got up and put his hand out. "Want some help?" I smiled and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up.

What could have been great turned sour from there.

"What are you two doing?" Jiro was standing a great distance away, but he could see us. I scowled in irritation. He ran over to us. "Chiyo you shouldn't go anywhere by yourself." I knew he didn't really care if I went by myself, what he really meant was 'don't go anywhere with him'. That was it. I had dealt with my brother's pestering and his nonsense long enough. I walked over to him and slapped him across the face. I regretted my action when I saw his absolutely stunned face.

"Hey quit it you two!" I looked around and saw Yuu. This was a surprise. He walked over to Jiro and grabbed his arm. "I'll take him back. Ryo you can take Chiyo. They should probably be away from each other for a while." With that he dragged Jiro away. Jiro went, but I could tell he was despising me right now. The only thing I regretted was that slap. I couldn't simply feel remorse for wanting him to stop being so protective. I may have been younger than him, but that didn't mean I was incapable of taking care of myself.

When Ryo took me back I found everyone was eating. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. My dad was right behind me. "Dad!" I said, surprised.

"Ryo you can go eat. I'm going to talk to my daughter."

"Okay Mr. Sohma."

"Don't be so formal. Kyo is fine." Ryo nodded and walked away. My father looked at me. "What happened with Jiro?"

"I just slapped him that's all," I said, like doing that was nothing special.

"You know he's just trying to protect you."

"I can handle myself. Tell him that will you?" My father sighed.

"Just… try to get along with him."

"Fine…" We walked to the others.

"What's going on?" Takuya asked. I ignored his question.

"Where's the food?" I responded. He pointed at a small table. "Thanks." While I was getting food, my dad yelled for everyone's attention.

"We're going to play a game. We want the kids to get to know each other a little bit better." I sighed. "So we're going to pair up each of you in groups of two." He picked up a piece of paper. "Come over here and you'll see who you're paired with." I walked over, expecting the worst.

I was paired with Riku. Jiro wanted to talk to my dad, probably to protest, but my father was conveniently busy. I looked around. Jiro was paired up with Takuya. Ryo was with Yumi. I felt a little jealousy creep up inside me. "You ready for this?" Riku inquired.

"Um… not really…" He laughed.

"Just know this is going to be a race."

"A race?!"

"Yeah. Your dad told the parents he was really excited about this." I groaned. If my father was excited about it then this was going to be something to freak out about. He usually made weird stunts for games like this.

"Now listen up!" My dad yelled. "You kids need to start off over there!" He pointed towards the forest. "Go over there and wait for further instructions."

A half an hour later Riku and I were led to a deeper part of the forest. I started to get why we were having our reunion here. This was a great place to have games and such. I looked up. It was getting dark. "Where are we going to stay?"

"Don't you know? This is overnight. There are cabins five minutes away." I stopped walking, stunned. I never packed. What would I wear? "Hey, come on!" The person who was leading us, my mom, laughed.

"Don't worry Chiyo. I packed for you in secret."

"How come you and dad never told me these extra details?" I asked angrily.

"We wanted it to be a surprise. It was your father's idea." I sighed. My mom had good intentions, my dad just wanted to do it for the fun of it. Most likely. After a few minutes my mom stopped walking. "Okay, so here's what you do." She handed me a flashlight. "Just keep walking. You'll eventually meet someone else. You'll get more instructions from there."

"Alright." Riku said.

"Good luck you two!" She said. Then she left. I looked at Riku.

"Well, let's go…" I said, still horribly confused. What was going to happen in this crazy game? We started walking again.

"You know Ryo's a really nice guy." Riku said unexpectedly. I looked at him. "Yuu, Takuya, Shiro, they all are. Shiro's just quiet and Takuya seems like a pervert, like me. Once you get to know them you'll find they're pretty awesome."

"Oh… okay…"

"Just throwing that out there. Also, Yuu wanted me to tell you that you're cute." I gave Riku a strange look. Riku just shrugged. "Don't give me that look. Give it to Yuu. You have an admirer it seems," he said teasingly. I sighed and looked away. This was strange; then again this whole situation was strange.

As we walked my present problem came back into my mind. Two weeks. Two weeks I was going to have to deal with these strange people. The only one who seemed part normal was Ryo, and even then I wasn't sure about his sanity. I needed to get to know these people. I looked at Riku. I figured he was the one to start off with. "So Riku, do you like your place?" He shrugged.

"My parents are weird but awesome."

"You're weird yourself you know." He grinned.

"Yeah, they rub off on me."

"Are you friends with all of the kids here?"

"I've known Shiro, Takuya, Ryo, and Yuu for a while. The only one I didn't know was you and your brother."

"Sorry my brother hasn't made the best impression on you, has he?" Riku looked at me and I assumed he knew what i was thinking. I assumed correctly.

"It's not your fault he's so protective."

"Yes, but I'll take responsibility for his stupid mistakes."

"Why?"

"Most of the time he won't." Riku sighed.

"So your brother is irresponsible?"

"Pretty much. And, well…" An unpleasant memory occurred to me.

"What is it?" He asked, staring at me.

"Nothing!" I said quickly. He didn't need to know my childhood. "Anyway, we shouldn't be too far away, right?"

"Hopefully." As we walked, I started to realize I had found a brand new friend. I wondered if he would become more than that.