Me on my way to writing all this: ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

"I didn't know you could drive!" Yoko bounced in her seat, wildly looking at the small car's interior. Akina's car wasn't anything special, but it was definitely more than what the usual Japanese teenager had. And as the two girls sat in the Rikkaidai parking lot, that was all that Yoko could focus on. "You got a nice car."

Akina smiled, twirling the car keys on her finger. She checked her phone again. Just a few more minutes until Niou and Marui show up. "Thanks, but it's not technically mine. My cousin and I share."

"But still!" Yoko beamed. "This is so convenient! Do you drive to school every day?"

"Oh no," Akina scoffed out. "I only drive when I'm running late or have to get to school early."

"Oh, so you don't drive very often—"

Ring. Ring.

Ring. Ring.

"Hello?" Yoko spoke into her phone. "Oh! You guys are here? Oh? Oh, no, that's fine!... Yeah, of course. You know I'm not very good anyways."

Yoko snapped her phone shut. A slightly furrowed brow rested on her face. "So, slight change of plans. Niou invited a couple of friends from the boy's team. They're here. Is that alright with you, Echizen-chan?"

"Oh, yeah. That's fine." Akina gave her a sheepish smile before absent mindedly clutching at her elbow. It was beginning to hurt anyways.

"Sorry, Niou does this a lot." Yoko waved her hands in the air. "He has no concern for anybody else. He's such an ass— oh! Speak of the devil!" Yoko pointed past Akina to the entrance of the school lot.

Akina turned around to see four boys making their way over to the two girls. Together they stepped out of the car and waved the boys over. Marui waved back with excitement while Niou simply gave them a lack luster hello wave.

"How come you guys didn't bring Akaya with you guys?" Yoko said, pretending to be upset.

"He talked back to Sanada-san," a bald darker skin boy answered back. Yoko giggled as he continued. "So, he's currently doing extra 'practicing.'"

"Why do you want to see him so badly?" Marui pouted, his cheeks puffing up like a squirrel.

"Cause he's adorable," Yoko teased. "Unlike you."

"Hey! I'm adorable!" Marui shouted. "All the ladies come after me!"

Yoko lightly thwapped his chest with the back of her hand. "They just want to get in your pants!"

"Uh… good? That's kinda what I want."

"Bunta!" Yoko hit him hard this time— hard enough for Marui to flinch. "Seriously! They're only doing it for attention!"

"Okay! Okay," Marui held up his hands. "I was just kidding!"

As Marui and Yoko were arguing with each other, Niou waved the two newcomers over and gestured to the black-haired girl. One boy gave a shy wave while the other simply nodded towards her. The dark-skinned boy held out his hand in greeting, a smile resting on his gentle face.

"You're Echizen Akina, right?" The boy finally spoke. "I'm Jackal Kuwahara."

"I am," Akina took his hand. She shot a glance towards Niou. "I didn't realize everyone was talking about me."

"Well," Jackal's smile grew wider as a light laugh grew in his eyes. "You're the one who's been disrupting our practice recently."

Akina's brain stuttered. "I— what?"

"Yeah," Jackal laughed. "Marui keeps annoying Sanada-fukubuchou with how often he brings you up."

"I do not!" Marui stopped his arguing with Yoko to butt into the conversation. "I only mentioned her a few times! Some of which were brought up by Akaya!."

"You really should learn to ignore him though." The other unnamed boy spoke up. As Akina turned to him, he made a small bow. "Ah, pardon me. I'm Yagyuu Hiroshi. Nice to meet—"

"Alright!" Marui bounced up, startling Akina. He wrapped his arms around Jackal's and Yagyuu's necks and leaned forward. "Since we didn't get a match in today, I'm still full of energy! Let's get going!"

"Oh yeah," Akina pondered. "I didn't get to see you guys play yet. I was yanked away before I got to see your mock matches."

Niou, Marui, and Akina all turned their heads towards Yoko who simple shook her head at them. Exacerbation clear on her face, the brunette rolled her eyes. "It was loud and annoying with everyone there. Get over it!"

"Eh," Marui shrugged, his mild annoyance at Yoko pulling Akina away yesterday already gone from his mind. "We can still show off now."

"You brought us just to show off?" Jackal deadpanned to the red head.

Marui shot his head towards Jackal. "Yes," he deadpanned back. As Jackal opened his mouth, Marui quickly snapped into a smile. "I'm just kidding. I knew you wanted some game time."

"I was about to say…."

"Come on, you guys!" Yoko threw over her shoulder as the other four teenagers made their way over to the Rikkaidai tennis courts. "I want to see you guys play doubles!"

Akina laughed as the boys began running to catch up to them; it was nice seeing everyone so close. She wished her own brothers bickered as the two other Rikkaidai team members did. Despite everything, she knew those two still loved each other deep down—Ryoma just won't admit it. He was too stubborn. She shook her head, desperate to remove those thoughts from her head. Today she was just going to have fun.

"Be prepared to see some cool shit, Echizen-chan," Niou spoke. "We're the typical double teams."

"Oh, is that why Yoko wanted you guys to play doubles?"

"Yup," Yoko nodded. "The mock matches on Fridays are only done with singles matches. Niou and Yagyuu-san typically play first doubles and Jackal and Bunta typically play second doubles."

"We are the best doubles team, of course," Niou gestured to himself and Yagyuu.

Akina rolled her eyes. "I'll have to see it."

Niou smirked with a light in his eye; once he was challenged, he wouldn't let up. In his excitement to prove Rikkaidai's greatness, Niou had all four of the boys getting into the rhythm of a serious match. However, they were so fixated on their match that none of the boys noticed their two girls slip away to play their own game of tennis.

"Don't flick your wrist," Akina adjusted Yoko's posture. She straightened out Yoko's wrist, so her racket aligned with her forearm. "You can actually get injured from that."

"There's so many things to remember about," Yoko pouted. "I guess I just watched Bunta and assumed it would be easy. No wonder why he would never try and teach me."

"Yeah," Akina nodded. "Some people just aren't the best teachers."

"You're pretty good!" Yoko smiled at her. She waved her racket at the black-haired girl. "Look at how much I've improved."

Akina laughed. "I've had a lot of experience teaching others from my brother. He needed a lot of teaching."

"You know, the boy's team could really actually use you!"

"They're already pretty good," Akina admitted. Even though the boys weren't perfect, they're skills were damn impressive, especially considering their age. There wasn't much Akina could help them with. And besides, Akina had wanted to help out the girl's team instead, but they didn't want her.

"Oh please," Yoko waved the Echizen's excuses away. "I heard from Bunta that the Big Three were really struggling with managing their tennis team. I guess their old manager did his job so well that they didn't even notice how much he did. I could probably get Bunta to introduce—"

"Hold on," Akina interrupted. "The Big Three?"

"Oh, yeah. The Big Three are what Rikkaidai calls their captain, their vice-captain, and their treasurer. It's all because those three won us Nationals in their freshman year."

"They have nicknames?" Akina scoffed.

Yoko opened her mouth before shutting it quickly. The brunette pursed her lips as her mind wandered deep in thought. "Hmph. I guess that is kinda weird."

"It's actually really weird, at least to me."

"What's weird?" Marui poked his head between the two girls, startling them out of their conversation. Marui smirked and gestured to the silver-haired boy standing a few feet away from the trio. "Him?"

"Hilarious," Niou deadpanned.

Marui, ignoring the prankster, wrapped his arms around the girls' necks. "So why did you two run off, huh? I thought the entire point of this was to watch us."

Yoko rolled her eyes and scoffed. "It was actually to teach me tennis. Luckily, Akina is a good teacher, unlike someone I know."

"You saying I'm shit?"

Yagyuu watched the four friends with mild interest. Niou had previously told him of the new student's existence, but he had yet to encounter her until now. He had once thought that she would insignificant to their team, but after spending a few minutes watching the transfer coach Marui's friends, he could already tell the she would perhaps be useful to the team.

He was aware of the issues the team leaders were facing— they were unprepared for managing an entire team by themselves. So with this in mind, Yagyuu pulled out his phone and sent a quick text— one that would drastically change the hearts of two people.

Yanagi stared down at the phone in his hand.

Yagyuu: Perhaps you should go through with interviewing the new student from Niou's class.

"Who was it?" A soft voice asked.

Yanagi looked up to find his captain and vice-captain staring at him. He looked back down at his phone. "It was just Yagyuu."

"Oh," Sanada raised a brow. "He doesn't usually text. What did he want?"

"Nothing," Yanagi turned the screen off before placing it back down. He originally hadn't thought much of the girl he had to meet weeks ago, and he certainly wasn't planning on even considering her to be a manager. However, since Yagyuu mentioned it…. Perhaps he should take a look.

Daffodils always come with new beginnings.