Chapter 2

"Thank you for letting us use your house as headquarters!" Miho, Eiji, and Fuji trilled as one as a puzzled Asa let them into her front door the next morning. Oshitari brought up the rear, his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans and a bored look on his face. Everything about him emitted the attitude of 'why on earth was I dragged here?'

"Ah… OK?" Asa offered, shutting the door after her friends made their grand entrances. "I'll go make some tea, then! Please make yourselves comfortable." She showed them to the living room, and they settled down, Fuji pulling out several sheets of paper and laying them down nice and neatly on the coffee table. Asa chuckled nervously as she slipped into the kitchen to make the promised tea. Was it just her, or were they taking this whole 'humiliating the Sasabe's plan' a little too seriously?

Looking thoughtful, she pulled out the tea set and filled a kettle with water, setting it on the stove so that it could boil. In the living room, she could hear her friends conversing in hushed voices. I wonder what they're planning, she thought, taking the whistling kettle and pouring some of the boiling water into the teapot, adding in the tea leaves and watching them float at the top of the water for a while before setting the top onto the pot. Or perhaps I should be saying that I wonder what Fuji is planning…

"Tea's ready. I found some biscuits, too. Uh… what were you guys planning?"

Fuji looked up innocently from where he was sprawled out on the couch, frowning at a pad of paper in his hands. He was the very image of a scheming little boy, what with his accomplices Miho and Eiji also frowning at similar pads of paper as they sat with their backs against that same couch. Oshitari was still looking like he could care less about being here, although he accepted a cup of tea graciously enough. "Tea!" Fuji said brightly, bouncing upright and pouring himself a cup of the steaming liquid. "Thank you lots!"

Asa smiled at him as she sat down on the couch and picked up a biscuit, nibbling on it as Fuji chattered away cheerfully. Sometimes she wondered whether or not he really was fifteen years old. He certainly acted much younger on many occasions.

Fuji sidled up to her, smiling mischievously. Almost as if reading her mind, he chuckled and teased playfully, "Are you wondering why I don't act more mature? That's 'cause I am only three years old…"

"Well… when you put it like that…" Only he could pull off that excuse, she supposed, since his birthday was on Leap Day. Some people were just so lucky. She heaved a sigh as she popped the rest of the biscuit into her mouth, savoring the milky flavor.

"Ne, Aa-chan, want to hear our plan for paying back the Sasabe's?" Eiji asked cheekily, grinning up at his friend.

"For the sake of my sanity, I'd rather not." Somehow, she got the impression that she'd be up for nights on end worrying about how on earth anyone could live through one of Fuji's punishments.

"Oh… I see…" Fuji looked faintly disappointed but cheered up rather quickly, refilling his teacup and taking another sip. "In that case, how about you don't watch?" he offered. "I suppose you could say it will be a scarring experience. But that's just the fun of it, ne?"

"Uh…"

"It's settled then! Just sit back and wait for the good news!"

Fuji was a little too cheerful about scarring the Sasabe's, and Asa began to wonder why on earth she ever decided to become Fuji Syusuke's friend. The reasoning was simply too complex for her to figure out at that exact moment.

***

True to Fuji's word, she did not have to watch the Sasabe's go through Fuji's horrendously sadistic punishment. It seemed, actually, that it was so life-scarring that even Miho, Eiji, and Oshitari, all three of whom helped Fuji hatch his plan and then carry it out, could not bring themselves to talk about it. Walking to school on the first day, Asa listened quietly as the three conversed in hushed voices, every once in a while shooting the smiling Fuji a frightened glance. Even Oshitari, who was in Asa's opinion never daunted by anything, seemed frightened of the brown haired tensai.

"I suppose it's not a good idea to ask what happened?" Asa ventured forth when they were halfway to the high school.

All three whirled on her. "NO!!!" they fairly shrieked as one.

Asa leaped backwards, clutching her schoolbag for dear life. "O-ok…" she squeaked out. If it managed to shake them up so badly, I'm glad that I was spared from watching it.

The rest of the trip was carried on in silence, although they had to sprint when they neared school because the warning bell was ringing. "You know… you'd think that they'd be a tad bit more lenient on the first day of school…" Miho panted as she scrambled after Eiji and her brother. "Tough luck, eh?"

All five managed to make it into the schoolyard before the gates closed, much to all their reliefs. "Let's see where our classrooms are," Asa offered in betweens light pants of breath. "I'm going to suppose that that's where everyone's going, right?" She pointed to the students filing into the school building. "I think in that large welcome packet it said that our classes would be posted on a bulletin in the main hall." Her companions gave a nod and they slipped into the stream of uniformed students.

Asa wedged herself in between two girls who were ecstatic about their class arrangements. "Look, look, Saa-chan!" one of them was exclaiming to the other, clapping her hands. "We're going to be in the same class!" It'd be nice if I was in Miho-chan's class, Asa mused as she scanned the names on one of the sheets of paper tacked onto the bulletin board. Actually, I suppose it'd be nice if I was in class with any of my friends. "Class A3…" she muttered to herself when she found her name. Ijuuin Asa was printed neatly next to her class number and grade. Pivoting on the spot, she forced herself out of the mass of students.

Fuji was standing at the edge of the crowd of people, having managed to find his class number already and having then decided that it was a tad bit claustrophobic to stay in the front, although he would have liked to see all of the frustrated expressions on the other students when they figured out that he was just standing there in order to take up space. That would have been amusing, to say the least. "Ah… Aa-chan!" he said brightly, waving the girl over when he saw her squeeze out of the crowd. "What class are you in? I'm in Class A1."

"Oh… A1…?" Asa drooped momentarily before shaking off her initial disappointment. Guess that means I'm not in Fuji's class… but there must be other friends that got into my class, right? "I'm in Class A3."

Fuji masked his own disappointment quite well, if he should have said so himself. "Is that so?" he asked amiably. "No problem; I'm sure there'll be other of our friends in our classes." He smiled cheerfully at her before pointing a finger at the ceiling as an idea struck him. "Let's go see what class everyone else is in! I think we have a few minutes before they're making our first class start."

As it turned out, Class A1 had a lot of their friends in it. Atobe Keigo, Mukahi Gakuto, and Inui Sadaharu all got into Fuji's class. Miho was in Asa's class, along with Shishido Ryou, Eiji, Tezuka, and Akutagawa Jiroh. Oishi had been put into Class A2 with Oshitari, and Kabaji was in Class A4 with Taka-san. "It'll be fun with both Eiji-kun and Miho-chan in my class, ne, Fuji-kun?" Asa asked brightly. She was silenced by a glare from a rather annoyed looking Shishido. "Well… it was a thought…" she squeaked, shrinking back slightly under Shishido's killer glare. The bell for the first class suddenly rang, and the students scattered. Asa waved to Fuji before running off with Miho to find their classes. "We'll see you guys at lunch, then!" she called over her shoulder as they turned a corner and ran down another hall.

Fuji waved cheerily back at them before he was dragged off to class by Inui. Atobe was walking just a little in front of them, since it was clear that it was above his league to run to his class in order to get there on time. "I wonder what they're going to teach us on the first day?" Fuji asked. "Or are they just going to do that boring orientation thing they usually do? That wouldn't be fun…" He paused for a moment before launching into a spirited monologue. "I'm going to sign up for the tennis team as soon as school's over! Are you going, too, Inui? I bet you could have a lot of fun making new delicious Inui Juices for everyone! Also, I think that--"

Poor Inui was left to listen to Fuji's happy chatterings all by himself, and even shoving the prodigy into the classroom didn't do much to stop him. He just simply switched topics. Inui gave a sigh. As much as he would have loved to be in the same class as Fuji so that he could finish his data gathering on him, he wasn't sure his sanity would last for a long time if Fuji kept talking the way he was now.

"—and did you know that… saa, Inui, what's wrong?"

"Nothing… absolutely nothing…"

"Oh... if you insist..."

***

When school was over, Asa discovered that Fuji had already developed a fanclub. This was discovered when Fuji had popped over to Class A3 to meet up with Eiji and Tezuka after classes, and the girls in the class instantly flocked to him. This added to the flock of girls who had followed him from his own class. Point being: Fuji was popular, possibly even more so than Atobe. Speaking of Atobe, I wonder how he'll take this…

"You'll miss the signups if you stay here all day," came Atobe's haughty voice. He, too, was followed by a flock of girls.

Asa and Miho sighed in exasperation. "You know what, Miho-chan? I have a feeling that this is going to be a long year."

"I second that," Miho sighed, planting her hands on her hips as she watched the two boys. "Although… personally, I'm rather surprised that the girls in Class A1 didn't flock to Atobe but instead flocked to Fuji. Does this mean anything?"

Asa thought for a few seconds, and a little image of a chibified Fuji and Atobe popped into her head. Both chibi versions were dressed as shepherds, and each had a flock of little chibi sheep. "Uh… I think I won't comment on that…" There was no doubt in her mind that Fuji and Atobe would plan something painful for her if she blurted out her little mental image. They had pride, after all.

"Come on, let's go sign up!" Fuji chirped brightly, grabbing Eiji and Tezuka by the wrists and bowling straight out of the crowd. The three of them left a trail of dust in their wake, or, more like Fuji left a trail of dust in his wake.

Asa sighed again. "Well… it's great that some of them have plenty of energy to spare," she offered. "Let's go, too, Miho-chan! The girl's tennis team is also signing up today, and you wanted to enter, right? We've got to hurry! Hurry!"

It took a while, but the two girls finally managed to push their way out of the building. It certainly got crowded with so many students all trying to leave to go home at one time. The signups for both of the tennis teams were full of people, with long lines extending from behind each registration table. "Look at all the people, Aa-chan!" Miho gasped as they took a spot in line for the girl's team. "This will make getting onto the Regular's line-up all the more difficult."

"Yeah, but won't that make it all the more fun?" Asa asked, smiling brightly as she stood next to Miho.

"I know!" Miho said brightly, turning to her friend. "You should sign up, too! You'll be able to learn more about tennis, and it'll be fun, as well!"

"Do you really think so?" Asa asked, not looking too sure about this idea. Miho nodded enthusiastically, so she offered her friend a little smile. "Well, I suppose it won't hurt…" Except two seconds later she was shaking her head. "Gomen, Miho-chan… but I just remembered that I have work. You know, at the sweet shop. Sorry…"

"No problem! Just come to our matches, then!"

"Ah… hai!"

Footsteps behind them directed their attention to Fuji and Eiji. "Are you signing up?" Fuji asked, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Miho-chan is," Asa offered, pointing to her friend. "Did you two sign up?"

Eiji popped up from behind Fuji and nodded enthusiastically while Fuji chuckled. "Of course we did. It went really smoothly, too, as opposed to what I thought. I thought that it was going to be really difficult to sign up, but the senpai-tachi running the registration table were really knowledgeable. It's not often you meet people like that." He smiled brightly, waving slightly as Tezuka and Atobe walked over to join them. "Ranking matches are going to start the day after tomorrow; tomorrow we're all getting tennis team uniforms and everyone's going to begin training to rebuild strength and stamina," he finished.

Asa watched as Miho filled out a clipboard for her own registration and then bounced over to meet up with her friends. "Sounds like the boy's tennis team will be busy, ne?" she asked absentmindedly. "Oh, look at the time," she muttered, glancing at her wristwatch. "It's already three o'clock…"

There was silence for a few minutes before she suddenly let out a startled shriek. "Oh no! Three o'clock; I have to be at the sweet shop!" She gave her friends an apologetic smile. "Sorry guys. I have to go. See you later." And then she was off, running out of the schoolyard, one hand digging into her schoolbag for change that she could use to catch a bus to get to the shop. Maybe I should have asked for a later shift, she thought, running to the bus stop and pausing to catch her breath for a few seconds.

Five minutes later, she got off the bus and dashed into the shop. "I'm so sorry I'm late!" she said to the other girl who was also having a shift that day. "I know your shift ended earlier. Thanks for covering for me; something came up and wouldn't go down."

The other girl smiled kindly at her. "No problem. You'd better hurry up and change. Work extra hard and the boss won't know a thing." She winked playfully at Asa and she grinned back.

"Thank you!" she said brightly and vanished into the back room. She emerged a few minutes later dressed and ready for work.

"Alright!" she said brightly. "Time for work! Ijuuin Asa is ready for anything!"