DISCLAIMER : Following the word itself "fanfiction", I do not own anything in this fiction and credits belong to the rightful creators of the manga: Inoue Takehiko, the publisher, the broadcasting company of the anime and etc.

Flip... Flip...

Scribble scribble...

"Can you lend me your eraser yo?"

"Yeah..."

After some hours, the room finally started to get peaceful. Complaining won't do anything so they eventually just forced themselves into those whole bunch of school works assigned to them.

"Thanks yo..." Fukatsu gave back Minoru his eraser who sat besides him.

"Masashi, pass me more blank papers..." Sawakita without looking as he was so much into his own stuff, told Masashi who as well is sitting besides him at the same time nearer at the stack of blank papers.

"Masashi...!" Sawakita stretched his palm towards Masashi, still without looking at him.

"Masashi!" He once more called finally looking at him to see Masashi's expresionless face staring back at him. It only meant one thing.

"Please?..." Sawakita then gave him a sheepish, innocent grin. "If you don't mind, Senpai?"

Masashi is still staring at him.

"WHAT? I said 'please' and 'senpai'!"

"T'ch..." Masashi then scoffed, finally turning to the stack of papers, getting some then turning back to Sawakita.

"Thanks..." Sawakita reached out his hands to grab the papers from Masashi, when...

SWISH

Masashi swiftly jerked his hand holding the paper away from Sawakita's reaching hand.

"What the?" Sawakita stretched his hands further.

SWISH

and once again, Masashi just jerked it away to the other side.

"What the hell is your problem again? Stupid cow..." Sawakita grunted losing out of patience.

"There's something you're not telling us..."

"GOOD GRIEF! WHAT AGAIN?" Sawakita blurted out. "You really do love prying into my life aren't you!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Masashi started cackling, startling the rest of them inside the room. "Yesterday... was the first day..."

"First day what?!"

"That blonde chick seems to hate you HAHAHAHA! That was the first time a girl finally hated you...HAHAHAHA"

And the rest just rolled their eyes and carried on working.

"WHO CARES ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW? Just give me the papers and get back to your thing!"

"You like her don't you?..." Masashi narrowing his eyes at Sawakita snatched his worksheets away from him, raising it up high. "And you guys have met before!"

"HEEEEEEEEEYYYY!" Sawakita yelped angrily. "Dont you dare underestimate me you-!"

SWISH!

He then dove forward to Masashi to snatch the papers away from him.

In which Masashi just shifted his body to the other side, tripping Sawakita's leg.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

KABLAAAAAMMM!

"Yo... we're studying yo.. if you guys wanna go W.W.E., go somewhere else..." Fukatsu admonished in his calm yet stern monotone.

"In the first place, he could've just stood up and get the blank papers by himself..." Nobe added.

"HEHE... serves him right..." Masashi finally went back to his seat, and then to his papers. "There ya go!" He then threw Sawakita's worksheets back to him as well as the blank papers he asked for.

Sawakita, still lying tummy flat on the floor, with arms and legs spread open like a dissected frog, froze without budging a bit.

"Is he still alive?" Minoru asked.

The rest shrugged, going back to their stuff, except Mikio who approached and squat besides Sawakita, poking him with a pencil... "Senpai... Daijoubu?..."

"AAAAAAAAAUUUUURRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH!"

SSPPPRRRROOOOOIIINGG!

Sawakita sprung back to life roaring in fury, his nose bleeding, with all those papers flying around him, throwing Mikio aback. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" He blurted out angrily. "IT'S ME - YOU - OUTSIDE ON THE COURT, RIGHT NOW! (snivels)" Pointing to Masashi, challenging him.

"ALRIGHT... WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?"

Doumoto sensei disrupted the fuss, barging into the room.

"HE STARTED IIIIIITTTT!" Pointing to each other Sawakita and Masashi blurted out.

"Alright! Class dismissed!"

4:30 pm.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGG!

Once again the noisy chattering of students here and there, scurrying in and out of the classrooms, back and forth at the corridor.

"Hum hum hum hum..."

Hanamichi trotted to the locker room humming his self-made theme song, before finally getting to enter it.

"CHUUUSU!" He enthusiastically greeted loud-mouthedly.

Without looking back, the ones inside the locker room changing, namely Mitsui, Miyagi, Yasuda and Shiozaki just carried on to their thing, like they did not hear anyone.

"Eh?" Hanamichi confused, started eyeing them carefully one by one... "Zzup with these people?"

"Out of my way dumbass..."

KABLAAAMMM!

Rukawa, kicking Hanamichi in the behind, made his way to the narrow alley in between the lockers, while Hanamichi was left flat down the floor.

"Owwww..." Hanamichi groaned while trying to stand up. "YOU STUPID FO-!"

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! HURRY THE FUCK UP!" Akagi rushed into the room clapping his hands stepping unto Hanamichi.

SPPLLAAAT

The rest of them walked back to the door passing by Hanamichi, still like they saw nothing.

"Sakuragi-kun... Daijoubu?" Kogure asked, sitting down to check on Hanamichi.

"Megane-kuuuuun...!" Hanamichi blurted out. "Why is everyone ignoring me?!"

"You see, Shoyo almost made it to defeating Sannoh."

Akagi remarked in front of the whole basketball team who all sat down the gym floor cross legged, attentively listening to their re-assigned Captain.

"It shows how desperately they have been practicing to catch up to us." He continued.

"Yeah, hence the beard...nyahahahaha!" Hanamichi suggested out loud.

The rest looked back at Hanamichi blankly for some seconds as he continued cackling around, before looking back at Akagi who proceeded to his speech.

"You all knew what does that mean..." Akagi said crossing his arms.

"Everybody really is ignoring me..." Hanamichi by the corner, muttering to himself, sobbed.

"#1..." Miyagi spoke out. "We might REALLY have a HARD time making it to the Winter Invitationals considering it only has one seat for the prefecture's representative and that theyre all dying to face us..."

"Or #2..." Mitsui then followed. "We might have been too lenient and have been too cocky, our improvements slowed down compared to the rest..."

"It's pretty obvious..." Rukawa thought to himself scoffing as well at the other corner.

"Let me remind you that videotape we watched the past few months during the I.H. on Sannoh's match last year against Kainan..." Akagi once again suggested.

"And to remind you guys too that this year's #2 was Kainan..." Ayako added. "Thanks to our victory against Sannoh, it have been our fine assist to Kainan getting in to that slot."

"Looking back, there wasn't much of a difference between last year and this year's lineup. And they still have always been the #1 in this prefecture..." Kogure stated as well.

"Which is a good thing no?" Anzai sensei finally voiced out after listening to them for some moments.

"Anzai-sensei..." They all muttered in unison.

"The same thing goes on and on for ages. It's been 17 years since then..." He continued. "They have ALWAYS been the best, the #1 in this prefecture... and despite not making it to the #1 slot in the Nationals, they still belong to the Top 4 Teams nationwide..."

They remained quiet.. except for Hanamichi who finally stepped out from the corner blurting out. "ARENT YOU SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE US GRAMPS?! Why are you saying all of these bullshit about them being the best!" Lounging to Anzai sensei, once again, bouncing his palm on their coach's double chins. BOING BOING BOING!

"I am encouraging you all, Sakuragi-kun..."

WHAAAAAAAAACCCKKK!

"GO BACK TO YOUR SEAAAT!" Ayako whacked Hanamichi with her paper fan, pushing him back to the corner.

"Back to what I was saying..." Anzai-sensei resuming to his speech, fixing his collar. "Don't you realize what I am trying to say?"

END OF CHAPTER 16