"Look, you're really close, just try one more time!" Quinn encouraged Valerie, who was on her fourth cup of coffee. Amusedly, Quinn thought Valerie must look similar to how Quinn looked herself when they'd first met on that plane almost two weeks ago. All amusement drained from her mood when Valerie made eye contact with the blonde.

"I've been bilingual since I was four, and I can tell you that this is certified bullshit, Quinn." Valerie had soured considerably since they had started studying about an hour and a half earlier. "You had told me that this would be easy!" She tossed the pencil she'd been using at Quinn's face, and the blonde took it straight to the nose.

Quinn frowned. "I never said it'd be easy. I said anybody could do it if they tried hard enough." Quinn paused, and Valerie huffed, crossing her arms. "Tell you what, if you can get it right, we'll quit for the night, and take tomorrow off."

Valerie squinted at her friend, tutor, and roommate, who tossed the pencil back at her and nodded at the paper. Quinn spoke again. "Your accent is a lot better than mine, and you're really, really lucky. You just don't have much vocabulary and you're nervous about speaking. It gets way easier the more you use it."

"Don't lecture me, you gigantic word nerd."

Quinn laughed. "I know you think I'm lying, but I only got good at this after practicing for like six years, Val. You're way ahead of where I was when I'd only been studying it a year."

They had been in school around a week, and Eiji was barely pretending to pay attention in class anymore. He had so much energy, Quinn wondered how anyone kept up with him. Quinn herself, though, had to invest 100% and then some more in order to keep up with any lecture, much less understand what she was being taught. It was unimaginable how difficult it might have been if Quinn hadn't already graduated high school. She had grown quite fond of the redhead, but she did occasionally want to hit him just hard enough to knock some sense into him.

"Say, Quinn-chan," Eiji said, pausing from the steady stream of conversation he'd been keeping up with himself as he ate, "Do you play any sports?"

Quinn barked out a laugh, the silent hope that maybe lunch would bring a little quiet evaporating into the air. "If falling down is a sport, sure. Why? Do you?"

"Tennis!" He pounded his chest a little dramatically. "Why do you think I run off with Fujiko-chan after class every day?"

Quinn flicked a glance to the brown-haired boy. He was surrounded by girls all too often, or at least it seemed, so considering that he didn't ever particularly give them much of his time. "He plays tennis? He looks like I could break him if I ran into him a little too hard," Quinn said. Eiji looked at Quinn, then to Fuji, and back again.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and once again they were down the rabbit hole of figuring out whether she had miscommunicated in Japanese, he had misunderstood her accent, or he just didn't understand what she'd said for some other reason.

"Anyway! We have placement matches tonight! You should come watch!" Eiji exclaimed.

"Placement matches? Where are they placing you?" Quinn tilted her head to the side, a movement Eiji mimicked.

"Well, we can only have eight regulars. We play a tournament once every couple of months to decide who the regulars will be. I do better with friends watching, so you should show up!" His grin split his face wide open, and it was infectious to boot. Quinn returned it with a gentle one of her own. Eiji looked thoughtful for a moment. "As long as you cheer for me, of course! Our freshman already has his own fan club!" He said the word 'freshman' with a tone of wonder.

"I'm excited to see how our freshman does," Quinn heard a voice from behind them. "Having him in the mix has certainly made things interesting." She turned and made eye contact (well, kind of) with the beautiful brown-haired boy who had apparently left the swarms of girls always around his desk at lunchtime behind.

"Eh, Fujiko-chan, this is Quinn-chan! Sometimes her Japanese is bad but she tries!"

Quinn felt her cheeks turning red. "Like your English is so great, Eiji-kun…"

"What's that, Palmer-san? You were mumbling." If she didn't know better, Quinn would think the brown-haired boy was teasing her.

Her blush burned brighter. "Nothing. A pleasure to meet you, Fuji-san."

"Likewise," Fuji said. He smiled, or at least, she thought he was smiling. That seemed to just be his resting face.

"What's the big deal about this freshman? Freshmen played on our athletics teams all the time back home." Quinn paused thoughtfully. "But, I guess in all fairness, our athletics teams were all terrible…"

"Freshmen usually aren't even considered for a regular position. The last one who was considered as a freshman was our captain." Quinn blinked at Fuji's words.

"…I guess your captain's good then?"

Fuji chuckled. "Very."

"So what do you say, Quinn-chan?"Eiji's pleading turned Quinn back around to face him, and the cat-faced boy gave a pout.

Quinn sighed and leaned back in her chair, bleach blonde hair falling over the back of it. Absently, she thought that she probably should have pulled it up today. She let her head loll to the side, and she sighed, faking annoyance. "What time are they? The matches?"

Quinn had thought that Eiji's smile couldn't have gotten any wider, but it did, and within moments, Quinn's face was clutched to Eiji's chest, caught in an impenetrable embrace. "Nyaaa, today and tomorrow, right after school!" The blonde flailed her arms, trying and failing to get away from him for a little longer than necessary before finally breaking free.

"Yeah, okay. I'll be there."

Eiji really was like a cat, and in more ways than one. He looked like one, sure, and he even played tennis like one. Also like a cat, he often found himself inexplicably attached to people for no reason whatsoever besides their aura. Fuji was a reserved kind of friendly, reliable but not overbearing and always good for a laugh. Oishi was like a big brother, not that Eiji's family wasn't large enough already.

Quinn was a little different from everyone else in that she just seemed extraordinarily unextraordinary, even given her apparent gift for Japanese. If she weren't foreign, Eiji wasn't certain he would have noticed her at all. Of course, this was even more apparent when she was standing next to Fuji, who exuded perfection in every way. Eiji wasn't particularly observant, but he felt things.

Kind of like a cat.

"It's spread out over two days so people can get a little rest between matches. I usually play doubles with my partner, but the placement matches are all singles, and honestly singles is a little lonely so-" Quinn stopped listening to Eiji's unstoppable stream of word vomit just long enough to cast a helpless glance to Fuji, who only chuckled. "Eh, Fujiko-chan, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, Eiji. Nothing at all."

Quinn scowled, if not good-naturedly. It looked like the skinny boy wasn't going to be the ally she had hoped. "Full disclosure," she said in the interlude, "I don't know anything about tennis."

That was the wrong thing to say, because it set Eiji off on another monologue, and Quinn had to stop herself from visibly sighing. "Eiji," Fuji interjected, "I'm sure she'll figure it out." Quinn flashed him a small, grateful smile. Japanese was hard enough as it was, much less understanding the words that were coming out of Eiji's mouth at light-speed. Fuji, at least, seemed to have the awareness to slow down when Quinn was around. She thought she remembered hearing him speak in class, and Fuji's words had sounded much faster then.

She said bye to them so that they could change for these matches that apparently were the most important thing on school grounds, judging by the number of people around. "Good luck Eiji-kun, Fuji-san." Quinn smiled brightly at the both of them, and Fuji nodded with the smile that never left his face while Eiji gave her a hug that probably took three years off her lifespan.

"When I play Fujiko-chan, Quinn-chan, don't forget who was your friend first, ne?" Eiji winked at her and bounced away, Fuji trailing shortly behind, neither of them paying her any mind as she tried to find the words to ask which court they were playing on. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Good to know boys are still dumb even in Japan…" She trailed off as her phone rang and turned her back to the tennis courts to answer it. "Hello?"

"Quinn! Are you okay?" That was Val on the other end, and on hearing her voice, Quinn switched to English.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" Quinn raised an eyebrow to no one in particular, looking around nervously as Val sounded like she had just found out Quinn hadn't in fact been mugged and murdered.

"You idiot! You didn't come home at the normal time and, ditz that you are, I figured you'd gotten hit by a car or something!"

Quinn ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "I'm fine, Val. Some classmates of mine are playing tennis and I came to watch them. I'm really fine, but I don't know for sure when I'll be home."

Valerie huffed over the line, and said, "Don't scare me like that again, Quinn. I know you've got friends here already, but if I lose you, all I've got is the stupid cat that follows me to school in the mornings."

"So selfless,Val. I'll see you later."

"Should I wait for you for dinner?"

"No, I don't have any idea when I'll be home."

"Okay. Have fun. Check out some cute guys for me."

Quinn chuckled and hung up. Valerie had no siblings, and despite Quinn being a year older, had made it her goal to take care of the blonde the way an older sibling might. Come to think of it, she was probably older than almost everyone in her class as well. She looked around once more, scanning the courts for brilliant red hair or the significantly less conspicuous Fuji Syusuke. Well, she had thought he'd been less conspicuous, but Fuji was actually pretty easy to find because of the huge crowd around where he was warming up to play a student who looked positively terrified to be standing there.

"See you next week!"

That was the one she was looking for, although she was interested in seeing why the boy Fuji was playing was so scared. Shaking off her curiosity, she followed the voice, which had been followed by a deeper one saying, "15-love!" It took a little more searching than she would have liked, but there Eiji was, bouncing on his heels, waiting on the other boy, who wore an unseemly scowl, to serve.

It was funny; watching him play was really similar to watching someone dance, or do gymnastics, and while Quinn was sure not everyone played that way, he was fun to watch.

"Eiji-senpai." Eiji's dark-haired opponent was curt. "Please take this seriously."

There was yet another serve, and Eiji raised his eyebrows as he returned it. The redhead moved forward, and he slid a bit on the ground. Quinn was certain that he'd slipped, but then the racket was behind his back, volleying the ball back over the net once it came back his way. "What makes you think I'm not playing seriously, nyah?"

He flashed the junior a peace sign and a toothy smile, and Quinn clapped enthusiastically, lips spread in a grin. The other boy didn't seem to be very bad at tennis (although Quinn was certainly far from an expert), but Eiji was on another plane entirely, sometimes literally.

"Game, set, and match to Kikumaru Eiji."

Six to nil (love, Quinn wondered?), and that bubbly redhead had completely crushed his opposition. At least, she assumed that was crushing. When one side had a score of zero, it seemed a safe assumption. Quinn was knocked from her thoughts by that same bubbly redhead, and he didn't even have to hug her this time. The smell alerted her first.

Quinn whipped around, surprising the people next to her, placing both palms out. "Don't come any closer, Eiji-kun. You need a shower. Like really bad."

He pouted. "I just wanted to hug you and say thanks for coming to watch my match, Quinn-chan." She briefly felt bad for putting out his fire, but another whiff of sweat took the feeling away quickly. Eiji seemed to get over it similarly fast. "Hey, Fujiko-chan's still playing. I'll go tell Oishi my score and then we can go watch him?"

It should've been a statement, but it was a question, and Quinn nodded in answer. She trailed after Eiji, tugging at her skirt a little self-consciously as he said hello to person after person. It didn't surprise Quinn that Eiji knew nearly everyone, what with the way he'd swept her under his wing from the very first day. People like that tended to attract other people.

"Oishi!" They reached the scoreboard. "6-0!" Eiji addressed the boy who was tallying scores and directing people to different matches. Quinn briefly wondered how she could have missed him earlier when she was wandering through the tennis courts with no idea where she was going.

"I saw part of it. Well played match, Eiji. You're off to a good start," Oishi wrote the score on the board, and only then seemed to notice Quinn, who was staring at a bird that had landed in a tree behind them. "Who's this?"

"Eh?" Eiji blinked twice, and Oishi pointed to Quinn, who had turned back to Oishi and smiled. "Oh, Quinn-chan, this is Oishi, my doubles partner!"

"Palmer Quinn. Nice to meet you." Quinn bowed shortly.

"Oishi Syuichiro. Nice to meet you. Your accent, are you Canadian? Your Japanese sounds quite good, but you must have only moved here recently."

"American, actually. I've only been here a little under two weeks. I'm an exchange student in Eiji-kun's class," Quinn said.

Ignoring her earlier protests, Eiji pulled her under his arm. "She's going to be my tennis protégé, Oishi!"

Quinn coughed, and pushed him away. "Not likely. And you really smell horrible, Eiji-kun."

Oishi chuckled, and Eiji frowned. "Anyway," he said, "We're going to watch Fujiko-chan's game. See you, Oishi!" Eiji grabbed Quinn by the wrist and pulled her away, and the girl barely managed to turn and send Oishi a wave.

Briefly, Quinn was very grateful for Eiji. He pushed through the throngs of girls there to watch Fuji's match without so much as a second thought, and Quinn was just along for the ride. The ride, of course, was a long and bumpy one, and Eiji had very little situational awareness, but it was still a ride. When they were finally next to the court, Quinn saw very quickly why the other boy had seemed scared to play against Fuji. The official called out that it was five games to love, and somehow that didn't really shock Quinn, after the performance Eiji had put on previously. Fuji glanced their way, and Quinn smiled and waved as Eiji let out an enthusiastic whoop in encouragement.

"Fujiko-chan's better than all of us except the captain. He's a genius," Eiji said to her, and he must have noticed her look of disbelief. "Why is that hard to believe?"

"Well, he's just…" Quinn rubbed her arm a little sheepishly. "He's so little. Like skinny. I can't imagine him having any power. Maybe he could be agile like you, but it doesn't look like it." In her head, Quinn thought he almost looked fairy-like, but she wasn't sure if that had the same connotations in Japan as it did back home. "But, I mean, he's demolishing this guy, so obviously I don't know anything."

He really was winning by a large margin. The score was 15-0, then 30-0, then 40-0, then the game was over and Quinn really didn't want to know who thought up the ridiculous scoring system.

"Oh!" Quinn realized, "Did you say the other placements are tomorrow, Eiji-kun?"

Eiji looked away from where Fuji was walking off the court, a decisive victory behind him. "Yes. Why?"

Quinn frowned. "I won't get to see you and Fuji-san play then. I promised Airi I'd go shopping with her a few days ago, and she wants to go tomorrow. I'm sorry."

"You can't come watch tomorrow?" That was Fuji. Quinn shook her head. "That's a shame. If I'm playing against Eiji and you can't come, who will cheer for me?"

Quinn deadpanned, looking at the swarms of girls who had come to watch him. "Yes, I'm sure these throngs of fans couldn't be enough."

Maybe Quinn was seeing things, but Fuji's smile at that seemed a little more genuine. "Eiji, I'm going to go tell Oishi the score."

Eiji nodded and opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Quinn's phone. Quinn sheepishly asked for a moment, then answered the call while Eiji listened curiously. "Hello?"

"QUINN. I need you to come home, now!" Valerie sounded like it was urgent, but it was really hard to tell with her, and Quinn sighed, switching to English.

"What's going on, Val?"

"The cat! The one that follows me to and from school? I went on a walk and when I got home it followed me in, and we're not allowed to have pets, but I can't make it leave!" Quinn sighed, not noticing Fuji approaching again, asking Eiji if he wanted to go see someone called Echizen's match.

"So don't make it leave, Val. Wait for me to come home and we can figure out what we should do."

"But… but I think it's hungry, and I've never had a pet before Quinn!"

"You can't handle it for like, an hour on your own?" Quinn sighed.

"No, I really can't! What if it dies? I can't be responsible!" Val was almost in hysterics, and she looked to the two boys apologetically.

"Alright, I'll be home as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Quinn! I'm sorry, I just don't know what to do!"

"It's fine. I'll be there in half an hour."

Quinn rubbed her temples, and Fuji said, "We were going to ask you if you wanted to come watch the freshman's match with us, but you should probably go help your roommate with that cat."

Quinn groaned. "She's such a stupid rich kid sometimes, she never knows how to do anything on her own- wait, your English is really good if you could understand her while she was half-crying. I could barely get it."

"Fujiko-chan is top of the class in English!" Eiji blurted out, and then thought to himself before speaking again. "At least, he was before you showed up. I imagine you're top of the class in English now."

"I hope so," Quinn laughed. "Thanks for the invitation. I had a lot of fun. You guys aren't too bad at this tennis stuff."

Fuji nodded, and Eiji nodded a lot more enthusiastically. "Don't worry! There'll be plenty more to watch! After all, this is only the tournament to see who gets to play in the tournaments!"

She didn't dislike tennis (yet), but the way Eiji said it made it sound like she was going to get far more than her wanted dosage. "…Can't wait, Eiji-kun. Can't wait."

"Hey! Give me your number so I can tell you how we do on our other matches tonight!" She wasn't sure she wanted to give him her number, but she was anyway, against all her better judgment. "Don't worry about giving it to Fujiko-chan. I can give it to him later."

"I wasn't super worried, since we all can see each other pretty much every day, but thanks for your concern, Eiji-kun."

The cat was a scrawny thing, undernourished, and Quinn, to say the least, didn't have it in her heart to turn it back onto the streets. She sighed. "Val, why do you have to put us in these situations?"

The darker-skinned girl looked up from where she was filing her nails. "Like it's my fault that it followed me through the door before I could stop it."

"It's a she, by the way. And I can't put her out again, so we're keeping her, and I'm not getting deported over keeping a cat, so she's going to be a secret." As if she knew somehow that Quinn was talking about keeping her, the cat rubbed against the blonde's leg. "She needs a name. Any ideas?" Quinn asked, and Valerie stayed silent. "How about…" Quinn trailed off, thinking. "Peaches?"

"That's a dumb name."

"Well, you aren't helping! What about Ripley?"

"What kind of name is Ripley?"

"You know! Ripley! From the Alien movies?" Quinn was incredulous and Valerie shook her head. "She's Ripley. Because this one's a survivor."

Despite Valerie's lack of interest in the cat, Ripley was incredibly interested in her. If Valerie was curled up on the couch, Ripley was curled up next to her, and the same went for bedtime. Quinn undressed to take a shower, getting ready to go to sleep herself, when her phone rang with a text.

'It's Fuji. Eiji's phone is dead but he wanted me to let you know that we both went 6-0 in our second matches tonight.'

Quinn briefly wondered what those hordes of screaming girls would do if they found out "their Fuji-kun" was chatting so "intimately" with another girl.

"Thanks Fuji-san. Congratulations. :)"

jeebus. these are actually long chapters for me lol. anyway, i got a couple more subscribers and even a favorite in the days since the last chapter was published, but still no reviews! the only reason it bothers me is that i'm worried people are getting turned off of my story and i never even know why. i guess the fandom is pretty dead, but still i really would like to hear from you guys. i hope you enjoyed this chapter. i had a lot of fun writing it!

also, i do have a tumblr that i keep forgetting to advertise. the link is on my profile here, so if you don't want to review but you still want to get in touch with me, or see some little things that inspire me for this story, head there!

thanks for reading!

-syrasha