A/N: Sorry for the long break everyone. I am back now though and will be updating regularly again. My grandmother passed away and I had to take a hiatus for that reason. Well for this story, Jackal stood up for himself, but looks like he still has some worries to face. Enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 5 – At Least It Isn't Babysitting

Jackal stared at his alarm clock watching the seconds and minutes tick by until the buzzer sounded telling him that it was time to get up. He had gotten absolutely no sleep that night and now he had to go to school earlier than normal so that he could meet with Yukimura and find out if he would live to see another day. It was the bald teen's guess that he may not, and if he managed to survive his punishment, he could only hope his tennis game was not affected. What had he gotten into? Jackal wasn't sure, but one thing he was certain of… he felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders because he had taken the offensive and stood up for himself finally. So if that was the case, why did he feel like he was about to meet the devil himself.

Getting out of bed, he sighed and got out of bed, trudging through the morning as he got ready and finally left the house. Jackal arrived at the school and stood in front of the door that led to the tennis locker room. He stood there for at least ten minutes before he took in a deep breath and exhaled sharply, "Alright, time to get this over with." He ripped open the door and marched in, firm in his resolve and determined to stand his ground. He would not be bullied. Oh lord, why were his legs quaking and did his stomach feel like butterflies were doing the samba? Oh please don't let Yukimura see the fear present in Jackal's heart, or at least not notice the shaking and the sweat pouring off of his bald head.

He walked towards the back of the locker room to where the buchou's office was and found the three demons of Rikkai Dai waiting for him. Gulping, Jackal entered and addressed his leaders with a bow, "Yukimura-buchou, Sanada-fukubuchou, Yanagi, I came as you requested." Hey being polite might save his life. He had to do what he could at this point.

The bluenette's grin grew and was clearly predatory, sending off the message, "Of course you did. If you didn't you would be living in the last ring of hell." Nodding, Yukimura pointed to the chair in front of his desk, "Why don't you go ahead and have a seat and we can talk about everything." He glanced behind him to his friend and received their answering nods.

Yesterday had been an anomaly. Never in the history of the world had anyone ever told the bluenette "no", and never before had practice been disrupted in quite so colossal a fashion. Jackal had managed to not only deny anyone and everyone yesterday afternoon, but he also interrupted tennis practice to the point that it had been hard to get everyone focused again… and Yukimura thought everybody knew better than to lose focus at Rikkai Dai… well at least on the tennis courts. Let's face it, off the courts and any time Niou was around things went a haywire, and it usually took a torundorou from Sanada of epic proportions in order to regain everyone's attention again; the only reason yesterday had not is because the non-regulars had been dismissed before it reached that point. The only person that suffered through the power slap was Marui. Who knows, maybe this morning would Sanada would find a release for some of his pent up frustrations from the day before.

Jackal sat down in the seat indicated and folded his hands in his lap. Would they be able to see how tightly he gripped his hands together? Did they smell his fear and terror? How did one person sweat so much? "You… You asked me to come here early to discuss my new duties?" Was that his voice? Why was it shaking so much?

"I did," Yukimura's smile grew. He glanced behind him again and then faced front, "We have discussed everything that happened yesterday and the discussion you and I had last night, and we have come to some decisions."

"Okay?" The bald defense player asked. Right now he wished his could have some hair in order to pull it, it might help with some of the nervousness he was experiencing at the moment. Sanada's glare was fierce and Yanagi stared at him with a blank look, but Jackal knew those eyes were all seeing; both of them saw things that others missed.

Yanagi opened up his notebook and began reading, "Yesterday, 23 minutes into afternoon tennis practice, Jackal Kawamura shouted gaining the attention of everyone in the tennis club. He refused to help his fellow tennis players: Marui Bunta and Kirihara Akaya. His rant lasted exactly 3.57 minutes. After which, we approached him and he proceeded to yell at Yukimura before rushing out of the tennis courts 2.97 minutes later."

Snickering, Yukimura said, "Thank you for the recap Renji. Now Jackal, your new duties for the remainder of the week will be to help the first years pick up balls and put up/take down the nets. You will stay away from both Marui and Akaya for the remainder of the week. Since they will not be participating in tennis practice, it should not be a problem. You have not lost your place as a regular, however, you will be in charge of all the first years for the next month. In addition, we are going to rethink your partnering with Marui for the time being, you will be Akaya's English tutor for the midterms, and you will run any laps assigned plus 20. So if we tell everyone to run 25 laps, you will run 45. Do you understand?"

"I thought I wasn't going to have to babysit anymore!" Jackal exclaimed. He got stuck on the fact that he was going to have to be Akaya's English tutor.

"TORUNDOROU!" Sanada shouted before Jackal found himself on the floor looking up at the ceiling.

Yukimura stood up and grabbed his friend's arm and signaling silently that the raven haired teen needed to back away. Then he leaned over Jackal, and he was still smiling, "Did I say anything about babysitting? I only said you had to tutor him for the midterms. You will not have to babysit anyone unless you choose to do it. In fact, we are going to tell you not to do them any favors going forward. If they ask you to do something, tell them no and do not allow them to take advantage of you. I would prefer you do that from the beginning than to disrupt my tennis practice again. We are giving you some leniency. Be grateful."

"Hai!" Jackal agreed. He was actually too afraid to say anything else at the moment. Besides, in light of everything, it was rather gracious of them. The only thing he found exception to was the tutoring, but seeing how it was only tutoring, it was something he could live with… unless it started to turn into more. It had always been under the orders of Yukimura and the others that he watch Kirihara, so hopefully the three demons would stick to their word.

"Oh and Jackal, one more thing…" Yukimura's smile grew even more putting the fear of God in his tennis player.

When the bluenette did not continue, Jackal asked, "What?"

Eyes narrowing, the buchou continued, "If you ever tell me no again, be disrespectful, interrupt practice, run off like you did yesterday, or completely lose all sense of sanity again, we cannot be responsible to what will happen to you when it happens. Be careful… be very careful. Do you understand?"

Gulping, the bald headed half-Brazilian nodded unable to speak, his voice caught in his throat with the terror that rushed through his body.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" The bluenette asked.

Jackal tried to speak again and his voice came out choked and breathless, "I…I…I un-understand."

Yukimura held out his hand to help his player up off of the floor, "Excellent. We are counting on you then. Why don't you get started on your new duties now?"

The defense specialist did not have to be told twice, he ran out of the room as fast as he could. He needed to get away from those three because if he didn't… well he honestly thought he might actually die. Alive, he was still living and breathing and he would like to keep it like that, and mentally swiped his brow that he escaped… at least for today. In a school like Rikkai Dai, a buchou like Yukimura, fukubuchou like Sanada, a stalker/data collector like Yanagi, and let's not forget the others on the tennis team, you never knew what tomorrow would. This school made most sane people (and there were very few in the middle school) live life day to day for fear of tomorrow because tomorrow might drive one completely bonkers.