Chapter 3

A/N: Hey guys, I had loads of fun writing this chapter and I hope you guys like it! By the way… Ryoma's illness… well I'm not really sure if it really exists, but I kind of got it out of a TV drama I was watching… You know… the usual cough up blood, have terminal illness story? Yeah... That one. I just added the part where she had to get the operation and I'm not really sure if the real illness can be cured by an operation or if the chances were that high. Who's your favorite character so far? Between Keigo, Jirou, Marui and Kirihara who do you like most? Anyway, I bet all of you got bored of my ranting. That's all my ranting done… for now. Onwards! Read the chapter!

Disclaimer : See the other 2 chapters and you'll get the point. If you don't then you're just like… what? A baka!? (No offence, but really… -.-)

-RING RING- "RYOMAAAAAA!" –RING RING- -BANG- Ryoma shut off her irritating alarm clock, while twitching, which her brother got her, and recorded his voice in it knowing that it was one of the rare ways that she would get up, and not just continue sleeping after practically destroying it. It was his 'farewell' gift. He had also taken extra precautions and got one that would be indestructible even if subjected to throwing or if a missile exploded on it. (I don't know if that's really possible but it's cool.)

She reluctantly got out of her warm, comfy bed and started getting ready for her first day of school.

-Insert all the stuff you do in the mornings like brushing teeth, combing hair and all the other stuff you do-

Ryoma came walking down the stairs wearing her Rikkaidai Uniform (Hehe… I forgot how it looks like. Someone please give me a description?) with white and orange bracelets on her right wrist, and on her left wrist was a black watch which was turned the other way (wear your watch correctly then turn it on your wrist 180 degrees) so it looked somewhat like a chocker. She had in her hair a crown-like clip that was a pretty gold color with real-looking jewels (which held up her somewhat long fringe) and a plain silver hoop like earring (about 2 cm in diameter) in her right ear.

She then waved goodbye to Keigo and turned down his offer of fetching her to school, saying that she would get a light warm-up skating to school.

Ryoma was skating, humming a tune with her earphones on (Fireflies by Owl City) with her school bag (think the one Ryoma carries in the manga) along with a violin case, while she heard someone call her name loudly. It was Marui with Kirihara, both running towards her, trying to catch up.

"Hey, guys!" called Ryoma, slowing down to let them catch up.

"WAH! Ryo-chan!" screams Marui as he glomped her hard.

"Yo, Ryo-chan! We finally get to meet each other again!" said Kirihara, grinning at her.

"Ohayo, Aka-chan, Marui-chan!" after thinking for a moment, she said, "Ne, Marui-chan, you do know that if you were doing this to someone else, they would be gasping for air, don't you? Also, you might want to let go now… Everyone is staring…"

"Eh?" said both of them simultaneously, then proceeding to look around. They were. All the students that were walking to school as well had stopped and were staring at them. It was kind of unnerving. The other students were surprised when they saw the famous Rikkaidai regular players call out to a girl and them have one of them glomp her. The girls stared at Ryoma in jealousy while the boys were in la la land seeing Ryoma smile so cutely.

"Ah, well. Doesn't matter," said Kirihara nonchalantly. Ryoma sweat dropped at his response while Marui just sighed. "Let's go!"

"See you during lunch!" screamed Kirihara as he ran off in the direction of his classroom.

Both Ryoma and Marui set off in the same direction. After a few minutes, Ryoma noticed that Marui was still with her.

"Ne, Marui-chan, why are you following me?"

"I was just about to ask why you were following me."

"I'm not."

"Well, neither am I."

Then it dawned on them.

"USO! YOU'RE THE NEW STUDENT THE TEACHER TOLD US?!/YOU'RE IN MY CLASS?!" was shouted, as the two pointed fingers accusingly at each other, making it echo throughout the now almost deserted hallway.

"Ah, whatever. Let's just get into the classroom first…" said Ryoma, sighing as she scratched the back of her neck.

"Hai."

Marui opened the door quickly (sliding door) and stepped inside, waiting for Ryoma to follow him, which she did.

He made his way to a seat which was unoccupied, not at all noticing all the stares and glances, or that the whole classroom was silent, which rarely, or in other words, never happened. Ryoma on the other hand took the empty seat next to him and glared back at the other students for looking at her like she was some kind of rare almost-extinct animal.

The other students quickly went back to what they had been doing before, causing the once silent classroom to be filled with laughter and hushed whispers in the air.

"So, Ryo-chan, why are you in a senior year class? Shouldn't you be with all the other freshmen?"

Ryoma looked sheepish and laughed lightly, before saying, "Well, it appears that on my entrance exams I scored full marks on everything… and the principal deemed it fit that I be put into the senior class."

Marui had a somewhat irritated expression on his face and let it show. "What the hell… Ryo-chan, you don't even need to come to school seeing as how you already… mmpf!" (I bet you can guess what she did?)

"Not a word. Everyone will be staring at me again."

"Fine, fine… but what are you going to do then?"

"Uhh… I don't know… depends on the teacher… actually, well… scratch that. I'll probably still sleep in all the classes except maybe physical education and cooking classes…"

Marui face faulted, then he laughed, thinking poor teachers. They're all going to have a huge shock when Ryo-chan is sleeping in their class all the time. It doesn't help set a role model for the others either…

Meanwhile, Ryoma was thinking something along the lines of I wonder if Miss Maya told the teachers my entrance exam scores… I hope not… then I'll have a better time seeing the look on their faces when I answer their questions. Heheh. It's going to be priceless. Maybe I should bring a camera…?

When the teacher arrived, she introduced Ryoma to everyone, though everyone had a 'what the heck' look (some might call this a 'wtf' look) on their faces when they found out her name, though she managed to wipe away their suspicions as she smiled sweetly at them. How did this erase their suspicions? Well, it's like this : the famous Prince of Tennis never smiles sweetly, he only smirks arrogantly, plus everyone knew he was a guy! (hah. How wrong they are.) Though after they got over their shock, they noticed that she was actually supposed to be with the other first years, and wondered how smart she actually was. (I didn't want to bore all of you by writing all that intro down. It gets real boring after awhile)

After listening to her new English teacher's lesson for a few minutes, she begun to feel sleepy and therefore buried her head in her arms, dead to the world. Seeing this, Marui sweat dropped, as did some of the other more observant students. Unfortunately, or fortunately for her, their teacher Miss Ayame, decided to test whether what the principal had told all her teachers was true. She then wrote out a difficult English question that none of the other students could get right, though some tried and failed miserably, and called on the sleeping form of Ryoma and asked her to answer the question on the board.

Ryoma, of course, rubbed her eyes when she was called and sleepily made her way to the whiteboard. Then, she stared at the question and took the whiteboard marker (black in case you're wondering) and the other students in the class all broke out in what they thought were soft whispers. Marui smirked, as they would probably get the shock of their lives.

Ryoma blinked her eyes a few more times and stared writing down the answer. When she was done, she went back to her seat and started sleeping again. Everyone was gaping with wide eyes at her answer. It was a college level answer, possibly even higher, and there was not a single mistake in it. They then turned back to stare at her, but discovered that she was already sleeping, and face faulted. The girl was a genius! (yeah, I think I read something similar to this in someone's fanfiction and it seemed interesting, so I included it. Though if someone can tell me the name of that particular story, I will be grateful so I can give credits to that person… I think I saw this in the anime too…)

Lunchtime…

"C'mon, Ryo-chan, we're going to meet with Aka-chan (lol. It just sounds so cute. Wait. Wasn't Aka-chan supposed to mean like baby or something?), then we're going to introduce you to our team!"

"Eh… Ok…" said Ryoma as she started slowly after Marui. Apparently she wasn't going fast enough as he started dragging her along while he started running down the long hallways avoiding random people who seemingly, without warning, popped out of their classroom.

After running for a few minutes, they reached Kirihara's classroom. Ryoma stood outside while Marui went in and dragged Kirihara out as well. He was complaining that he just managed to get some good food from someone's lunchbox and just as he was about to eat it, Marui dragged him out.

Marui just rolled his eyes and said, "If you want good food then why didn't you just bug Ryo-chan?" Ryoma protested with a loud "HEY!" but he continued saying, "plus we're going to introduce her to the rest of the team."

"Oh, right! I forgot about that!" said Kirihara, grinning sheepishly.

Then both proceeded to dragging her out of the school building and to the stairs leading to the rooftop. Ryoma rolled her eyes, thinking what… I can walk on my own, can't I?

When they reached the top not one of them were out of breath due to all of them being physically fit, Ryoma more than the rest.

"Yo, minna-san!" says Kirihara in a loud voice though the other regulars were only a few meters away from them.

"Ara? Where's Yukimura buchou?" asks Marui, noticing that he was the only one missing. By now everyone had stopped eating and was looking in their direction. Marui and Kirihara sat down with them, and only then did they realize that there was someone new… an extremely pretty girl to boot. The girl was leaning on the wall (next to the door) and looked somewhat nonchalant. (I'm not going to describe what she looks like because I've already done that earlier)

Sanada blinked and answered Marui's question when he noticed that no one else answered. "He's sick today, so he's resting at home."

"Ah. Ok."

"Guys, let me introduce you to our childhood friend…" then Kirihara gulped as he felt a massive killer intent behind him. "She's probably not going to let me have any more of her lunch for not letting her introduce herself, sooooo… I'm not going to say anymore."

He heaved a sigh of relief when the killing intent suddenly disappeared. "Yo. My name's Echizen Ryoma. And before you comment on my name, wasn't the Prince of Tennis a guy? I like some other things that will probably shock the life out of you… therefore I'll keep it to myself for the time being."

The rest, save for Kirihara and Marui, who sighed, had bewildered looks on their faces (except for the ever stoic Sanada). When they finally snapped out of their shock, they introduced themselves one by one.

A boy with purple hair pushed up his glasses, which had been on the bridge of his nose, higher and ever the gentleman introduced himself first. "Hello, Echizen-san. My name is Yagyuu Hiroshi."

Then, a guy with silver hair (dyed?) tied up in a low ponytail grinned at her. "Yo, my name's Niou Masaharu. Nice to meet cha. You're pretty cute… are you Marui's girlfriend?"

Marui, who had been drinking orange juice from a cup (stolen from Niou), spluttered and accidentally spit out the drink right into Sanada's face, and his expression, was a mixture of disgust and irritation (can you imagine how funny he'll look?).

Ryoma and Marui pointed at each other and said simultaneously, "What! Me and him/her?! Together?! No way!"

"We're only childhood friends!" protested Marui desperately.

Ryoma continued, "Yeah! I mean, he's a dork and completely oblivious when it comes to girls and his own emotions! I don't even know if he ever had a crush before!"

"HEY!" the others laughed at his misfortune. This was the exchange that broke the ice. Ryoma thought back about what Marui said before and said, "You know, Marui-chan if you didn't sound so desperate in all the things you deny, people might actually believe you."

"What! Are you trying to say that I always sound desperate?!"

"Yes."

"HEY! Stop ruining my reputation!" cried Marui, giving up of arguing with Ryoma. She was just too good to win against in an argument sometimes.

(everyone had introduced themselves after that)

"So, Ryo-chan… (she told the others to call her that) are you going to join the tennis club?"

"Well, yeah… I wanted to at first but I don't want to join the girls' tennis team… they just want to watch you guys play. Maybe I can join the boys' team…?"

"Oh…? Can you play well?"

Ryoma's thought was what the hell! They doubt my tennis skills! Do they think I'm like those wimpy fan girls of theirs? But I can't really blame them, though… I would be cautious too if I had to put up with their crap all the time. Doesn't change the fact that I can beat all of them though…

Kirihara and Marui looked like they were about to collapse in laughter at Ryoma's irritated expression. It was mild, though, and only the both of them who knew how to read her expressions after being around her for so long, could tell that she was irritated. (Yagyuu and Niou caught it too, by the way.)

Then, Marui composed himself and said, "You'll probably have to ask the principal (remember Miss Maya? Yeah. Her.) if she allows you to join first… but it'll be good if you can… that way we can keep an eye out for you…"

At the mention of this, Kirihara's silly grin went down a few notches, while the others looked confused and a tad curious at why she needed looking out for.

Ryoma sighed. "Well, I'll probably join the music club as well… I'll ask if I can join the boys' tennis club after school… and that's the bell…"

Ryoma took off after finishing her sentence and Jackal looked at Marui and asked, "Can she really play well?"

Marui smirked. "You'll have to wait and see, won't you?"

Niou called back while running. "Oi, we're going to be late for Mathematics class!"

"Crap!"

To their surprise, when they reached (they as in Marui, Jackal and Niou), Ryoma was also in there. All of them had seated themselves in the empty seats near her.

Niou looked curiously at her. "Aren't you supposed to be a freshman?"

Ryoma looked sheepish once again and replied, "Yeah, but the principal put me in here…"

The three (besides Marui, of course) looked surprised as their principal and the previous principal, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that one, and the one… - well, you get my point… had never done this before in the whole entire history of Rikkaidai.

Practically the same thing happened as in English class, except this time it was a male teacher who did it out of trying to embarrass her. No one slept in his class! That is… unless they knew everything he was teaching already… which he doubted Ryoma did.

To his shock and all the other classmates, except those who already in her class during English, though they were still pretty shocked, as they had thought she was only good in English since she had come from America, she got everything correct… and once again, no mistakes. Not even the smartest person in their class could do that! (I'm not going to mention this person again because I just put him here for dramatic effect and well… he's just random. So there.)

Physical Education was amusing to say in the least. They were playing baseball, and they picked team captains. One was Marui and the other was Sanada. Marui got to pick first and immediately chose Ryoma (due to knowing that she was good in practically every sport), while Sanada picked Jackal.

The match had started in no time and it was an understatement to say that Sanada was beaten. He and his team had gotten crushed by Marui's team, with loads of help from Ryoma, who had the best stamina and was the fastest in her old school, who were cheering happily at beating Sanada (he usually won). Sanada was stupefied and his face wore the expression of bewilderment. The whole class was laughing at his unusual show of expression, which he wiped off his face immediately and replaced with a stoic expression.

"Ja, minna-san, I need to go and see Miss Maya," said Ryoma as she left and headed towards the principal's office.

-Knock Knock-

"Come in."

Ryoma followed the instructions.

"Oh? Ryoma. What brings you here today?"

"Hello, Miss Maya, but I have come to seek your permission to join the boys' tennis club."

"That is fine if the boys' team captain allows it. However… why don't you join the girls' tennis team?"

"Well, you see… Most of the girls in the girls' tennis club are not serious about tennis or just joined to cheer the boys on. Also, boys are usually better than girls in sports and therefore tend to look down on the opposite gender. I do not want that to happen, and besides… I can probably crush them in about 10-15 minutes."

"You are that confident about your skills?"

Ryoma hesitated to think if she should trust Miss Maya and tell her the truth.

"Miss Maya, can you keep a secret?"

"Of course, dear. I won't tell another soul unless you want me to."

"Ok… Well, you see…" – Ryoma launches into a detailed explanation of who she was and why she left. –

"Well, that certainly is a tale. I will keep your secret. Although, you might want to explain to your team why you can't play too long… They will help to keep an eye out for you until you have recovered fully and taken the operation."

"Hai. Arigato, Miss Maya."

Miss Maya smiled at Ryoma as the left the room quietly, allowing her to ponder over everything that she had been told by Ryoma.

A/N: that was an awesome first day, if I say so myself! Hope you liked it. If you did, please R&R… and come back for more! The next chapter should be up in a few days.

Ja Ne, NightMare.