Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Concealed and Camouflaged ❯ Laments and Perks ( Chapter 3 )

Concealed and Camouflaged

Chapter 3: Laments and Perks

 

 

“I'm passing back your test you took the other day. Some of you scored very well, and some of you scored very poorly. Those of you who didn't score well, I expect much more out of you on the next test,” Mr. Takamura announced as he began to pass back the math quizzes.

 

He passed by JungAh's desk and dropped her desk. Written in large fine print in a bold red, the score read 67%. There was a sticky note on her test that read: Please meet me after class.

 

“Well at least I almost passed,” JungAh murmured to herself.

 

(:O)

 

“Oh it's ok baby, I'm here for you and so is your pops, now suck it up,” Emma stated to the `supposedly upset' flour sack.

 

Fuji picked up the flour sack and began pat it lightly.

 

“Wow, you're really good at this stuff,” Emma commented.

 

Fuji smiled back at her.

 

“I don't know, this stuff just comes easily to me for some reason,” Fuji remarked as he continued to pat the baby's back.

 

“Oh it's ok sweetie, hush-hush, or I'll have to attempt a lullaby,” Chie cradled the sack as Inui watched blankly.

 

“There's a forty-two percent chance that it's hungry, and a fifty-eight percent chance that it's just cranky,” he continued to scribble down notes.

 

“I think this thing it's just in need of a diaper change,” Chie replied as she got up and retrieved a Huggies diaper from the demonstration desk and changed the `baby'.

 

“Chie maybe you should burp it,” Emma stated as she watched Chie strap the baby onto her back with a piece of long cloth.

 

“Naw, I've been starving this dude for a couple of hours, I don't think so,” Chie said as she patted the baby on her back.

 

Inui just continued to whirr his pen all over his notebook. Emma went on watching Fuji comfort the sack of flour.

 

(:O)

 

JungAh walked up to Mr. Takamura's desk, he was sitting there with his hands folded together, elbows resting on the table, and had his chin placed on top of his hands.

 

“Ms. Kim, I believe that for the past few days, your math work hasn't been improving very much and you've been struggling quite a bit with this material. From what I understand, the demands of American schools are much different from the Japanese schools no?” he asked.

 

“Yes, that's very much true. I'm not even sure about half of the things we're studying at the moment,” JungAh replied nervously, but honestly.

 

“I see, well I'm willing to give you an extra credit assignment to bring your grade up and redo this test. I'll give you one and a half weeks to prepare. What I highly suggest is that you get yourself a tutor or a classmate to study with. Well, that's about it, you're excused to leave now,” Mr. Takamura offered and let her leave.

 

“Thank you very much Takamura-sensei,” JungAh bowed lightly and left the classroom.

 

Once she was out the door, her expression dropped. She felt a mixture of happiness and sadness. She failed a test, but she could make it up if she studied hard, there might be a chance of her passing. But with her math passing math was like trying to convince a preteen that Santa Claus really did exist. A false hope that was doomed to die.

 

She walked to the usual table in the cafeteria. The girls were sitting there, chatting brightly. JungAh sat down and put her head on the table. Failing was new… Well, she had fail some in elementary school, but she'd improved quite a bit. Back in America, she'd had it easy compared to here in Japan. She at least made it somewhere in the B's and once in a while a low C, but failing? Also, when she was at home, any grade lower then an A was always scorned. She'd always been scorned about math, but she always made B's since the math field was never her strongest. So failing was a definitely something to worry about. It was like a slap in the face, and like a slap, it stung.

 

“Yuki-baby, what's wrong?” Meachan asked as she began to pat JungAh on the back.

 

JungAh grabbed her test with trembling hands and put it on the table. Her eyes began to water and with her voice shaking she managed to say,

 

“I failed. I've haven't failed since the fourth grade when I moved to a new school district.”

 

A choir of `Awe's….” could be heard and Meachan hugged JungAh tightly.

 

“The teacher said I could make it up if I studied, but I need a tutor,” JungAh sighed.

 

“We'll tutor you!” they all exclaimed.

 

“Really?” JungAh immediately brightened up.

 

“Of course we will. Well, let's go over some of the questions,” Emma suggested.

 

The girls took the test and looked it over.

 

“Well, you have to take the percentage of this player's shooting rate and move over that many times, and then you draw a line, since it's a dependant situation…” the rest was a blur of everyone talking at once and JungAh began to get confused.

 

“It's hopeless… I'm screwed!” JungAh cried and began to bang her head on the table.

 

“No, don't do self abuse!” Chie shouted.

 

“Yuki-chan, maybe you should ask one of the guys. They're coming here right now after all,” Aika recommended.

 

The boys sat down noisily but then shut up when they saw JungAh's face. She looked stone cold and her were wide and open eyes and began to water. All at once the boys made a comment.

 

“Nya what happened?”

“Sss…”

“Are you feeling well?”

“Who was it?”

 

The boys went on with their rampant.

 

“You guys might want to glance at this first,” Emma remarked as she flipped the tests over to the boys view.

 

They cringed slightly. Failing was a real reality shaker to them to.

 

“I can make it up in a week and a half, but the problem is, I'm not very good with this material at all,” JungAh mumbled as tried to control the strain in her voice.

 

“We can help with that,” Momo winked at JungAh, who blushed but nodded eagerly.

 

They turned the test around and glanced at it, trying to solve it in their heads.

 

“In this problem you're trying to figure out the chances of the player making the one and one shot right? You know what a one and one shot is don't you?” Oishi asked.

 

“Uh huh! I got that much, but I'm not to sure of how to solve this problem,” JungAh answered.

 

“This problem is a dependant problem since-” Kawamura began.

 

“No, this is an independent problem-” Eiji cut in.

 

“Eiji, Kawamura is right, this is a dependant situation-” Oishi began.

 

“No you're wrong and Eiji is right-”

 

And soon once again did the whirlwind of disagreement begin and JungAh grew frustrated. She chewed on her lips and tuned out the arguing voices. The thought of what her parents would say if they saw her grade crossed her mind. Fear grew at the bottom of her pit as shame began to wash over her. Her eyes began to water as she thought of the dissapointment in her parents' scorn and the waterworks began.

 

“This is a dependant situation since it's a one on one shot. You take the percentage rate, which is 30% and fill in three of the columns, and then you go down three and overlap with what you filled in, only what you filled in,” Tezuka said bluntly.

 

The boys rubbed their heads, slightly embarrassed. JungAh's face faltered for a minute, but the entire situation of the problem registered.

 

“Oh, I see... Thank you so much Tezuka-sempai! Do you know anything on scale factors? Oh wait, if it's too much of a problem I'll find someone else,” JungAh began to wave around her hands and confused herself slightly.

 

“I can assist you with that,” Tezuka offered.

 

“Thank you so much Tezuka-sempai! I don't know how to thank you! Oh I know, um… I'll make lunch for you!” JungAh suggested as she clapped her hands together.

 

“Nya! Yuki-chan, what about us! I wanna try your food!” Kikumaru called out, several heads turned at this request. Hungry eyes were all bellowing out to her.

 

“I'll make food for everyone since you tried to help me,” JungAh said as she smiled broadly.

 

“Yay!” Kikumaru cried.

 

“Ok, go on,” JungAh looked serious as she turned back to Tezuka who was examining her mistakes on her test.

 

(:O)

 

“Aika-baby! Let's go to the store,” JungAh exclaimed from the door as she slipped into her shoes.

 

“Oh me to!” Chie cried as she slid into the room with her socks. The flour sack was still on her back.

 

“Coming Yuki-baby,” Aika called back and laughed softly.

 

JungAh was goofy and childish in her own way, but Chie could be just as funny, since she didn't really care what people thought of her.

 

“Are you sure you don't want any help with making the lunches? It is a lot if you think about how much those boys eat,” Aika stated.

 

“I can do it! I said I would make it and I will,” JungAh raised her fist and attempted to look serious.

 

“Oh JungAh, I see the fire burning in your eyes,” Chie clapped her hands to her face.

 

“Or maybe it's just me wearing my glasses. I have no more contacts, I'll have to find an eye doctor somewhere,” JungAh sighed and then giggled at her comment.

 

“Let's try that store,” Aika pointed out.

 

They walked in and Chie went off to the health and organic plants. People began to stare oddly at Chie, but Chie went on ignoring them blindly. Chie dawdled along the aisle, examining every new thing that caught her eyes. Suddenly, she saw something she recognized, Inui!

 

“Look kiddo, it's your daddy!” Chie glanced at her baby and pointed to Inui.

 

Some of the women gave them looks but shook their heads and continued down the aisle.

 

“Hello,” he muttered as he continued to examine a fruit that resembled an acorn with hairy spikes.

 

“What are you doing?” Chie inquired as she sniffed the fruit and shrugged, the sign read durian.

 

“Looking for things to put into my new juice,” he answered.

 

“Really? Sounds good and healthy, I'd like to try it one day,” Chie went on observing the different fruits and herbs.

 

“I have a bottle right here,” Inui took out a bottle out of nowhere. The juice was an odd shade of gold with swirls of red mixed into the liquid.

 

“Cool,” Chie took off the lid of the bottle and chugged it down.

 

Inui noticed this and quickly summoned his notebook and continued to write things down in his notebook.

 

Chie chugged down the last of the juice and smiled, she had juice stains on her lips but wiped it off and smiled then handed the juice back to Inui, “That was really good. But I'd put in something sweeter, like lemons and limes, and maybe a few kiwis.”

 

Inui nudged up his glasses with his finger and gave his infamous smile.

 

“I see. I'll take that into further observation, what else do you think it needs?” he asked, his pencil posed and ready to write down whatever else he may need.

 

Chie grinned at this, “Well… Let's see…”

 

(:O)

 

“Are you sure you don't want help? Because you make out lunches to,” Aika stated as she watched JungAh looking at food.

 

“No it's all good, you can make dinner tonight Aika-baby. We wanna try the Aika special tonight,” JungAh teased lightly.

 

“Ok then, I'll do it,” Aika smiled back.

 

“Yay!” JungAh cheered.

 

“Ok, well, I have the things for dinner anyways, are you done Yuki-baby?” Aika asked as she put in the final box for dinner.

 

“Yeah, let's go find Chie darling,” JungAh laughed as she skipped down towards the health department.

 

(:O)

 

“That's very interesting,” Chie replied.

 

“Chie-baby! It's time to go,” JungAh shouted with almost no shame.

 

“Ok, I gotta go man. I wanna try your juice later! And remember, this Sunday at three o'clock,” Chie waved and turned around.

 

Inui smirked and nodded, “Sunday at three it is.”

 

Chie grinned at him and then went up back to the girls.

 

(:O)

 

“So Chie, what was that about, neh?” JungAh nudged Chie in the arm and gave her suggestive glances.

 

“Oh, me and Inui got a date this Sunday,” Chie replied and flexed her eyebrows teasingly.

 

“Oh me oh my!” JungAh pretended to swoon and then laughed giddily. Aika laughed along with them.

 

“Oh Aika-baby, what are we to do! Chie's growing up so fast!” JungAh linked arms with the two girls while shifting the groceries in her arms.

 

“We'll have to let her go, it'd happen sooner or later,” Aika sighed.

 

“It's ok darlings, I'll never forget you guys,” Chie sniffed.

 

“She says that now, but once they get close, we won't see her for a couple years,” JungAh whispered loudly to Aika.

 

(:O)

 

“I'll do dishes!” JungAh cried and rushed out back to retrieve the bucket.

 

“No! You do dishes all the time!” Meachan shouted.

 

“But it's what I do at home!” JungAh called back.

 

“Well not here and besides you need to study,” Meachan declared.

 

“Ladies, I say it is time for zhe terminator!” Chie stated, trying to make her voice sound masculine and dumped a bucket of water on top of JungAh and Meachan.

 

“Cold!”

 

“Shit!”

 

Chie cackled as Emma and Aika rushed out to see what all the noise was about. Soon Meachan and JungAh started splashing Chie, and then at once began the water war.

 

(:O)

 

“Aren't you going to bed JungAh?” Emma asked.

 

She was standing near the door that separated the two rooms. The other girls were already asleep but JungAh was awake with a textbook and several notes strung about.

 

“No, I'm going to study. What about you?” JungAh asked her eyes were red-rimmed.

 

“Naw, I can't sleep actually, want some help?” she offered.

 

JungAh nodded eagerly, Emma smiled and sat down next to JungAh.

 

(:O)

 

“Tada! Dig in guys!” JungAh announced as she handed out chopsticks and napkins.

 

Soon an ensemble of hungry hands and hoards of snipping chopsticks popped in. JungAh laughed at this and scooter her own lunch box away from the boys, as following the other girls. She'd also made lunch for the other girls daily, so they all decided that food within hand reach of the boys would be dangerous.

 

“What do you guys think?” JungAh asked, her face thoughtful and anxious.

 

A mouthful could be heard from the boys, JungAh cringed slightly at this as food flew from a few mouths.

 

“Well that's good to hear…” JungAh's expression glowed. She felt a warm feeling of relief pass her body they liked the food.

 

“Sango-chan, I here you and Inui are getting together, as in being an item, is that true?” Momo grinned slyly as he raised a thumb.

 

Chie, who was sitting next to Inui and feeding him glanced at Momo and said, “Well what do you think?”

 

“Nya! It's true?” Kikumaru exclaimed.

 

“Of course it is. Who can resist him? And besides, we have a baby,” Chie remarked as she leaned into Inui and flexed an eyebrow playfully.

 

“What!” everyone shouted, except for the girls, Fuji, and Tezuka.

 

Chie grinned and undid the cloth on her back, revealing the sack of flour.

 

“I know what you think, it's all because of us that he looks this good,” Chie stated sarcastically as she patted the sack.

 

Everyone sweat-dropped at this and giggled uneasily.

 

Emma reached for the wasabi that JungAh had brought and a hand brushed hers. She looked up and saw Fuji.

 

“You like wasabi?” Emma inquired.

 

“Yes, I do,” Fuji replied, his eyes open and staring at her curiously.

 

“And here I was thinking that I was weird for liking this stuff,” Emma blinked.

 

Fuji gave his trademark smile. Emma smiled back; this would most certainly be interesting.

 

“Pinky-chan, are you coming to the game this Sunday?” Kikumaru asked.

 

“You guys have a game? Well I'm sure we'll all go then. What time is it?” Meachan replied.

 

“It starts at eleven and ends whenever the team finishes the game,” Eji answered.

 

“All right, we'll most definetly be going then,” Meachan's face became determined.

 

(:O)

 

“Well here it is!” Emma clapped her hands together.

 

They arrived the tennis courts, but were about twenty minutes early.

 

“Here's a map, maybe we can find the court that the boys will be playing at,” Aika leaned down and looked at the map.

 

“It says court 3, so let's get to court 3,” Meachan decided.

 

They looked around and found themselves at court 3. To their surprise, the Seigaku regulars were already there warming up.

 

“Hey guys!” JungAh called out while waving her arms about.

 

The girls walked into the court since the game wasn't about to start for another fifteen minutes. They noticed that there was also another boy they hadn't met before.

 

“Oh I know you, you're Echizen, Ryoma from my English class,” JungAh remarked.

 

He shrugged and went back to warming up.

 

“Nya! Ochibi! We've met someone that's actually smaller then you!” Kikumaru shouted as he grinded his fist against Ryoma's head.

 

“Are you blind? I'm not short, I'm just space efficient!” JungAh argued.

 

“Of course you are,” Kawamura patted her head as JungAh inflated her cheeks.

 

“Oba-chan! Have any of you seen my ba-chan?” a girl flashed in, she had two long braids that were swinging wildly behind her as she panted.

 

“Sakuno darling!” JungAh cried and immediately put her arms around the girl.

 

“Oh hello JungAh-chan, what are you doing here?” Sakuno asked as she glanced around the see some of the new faces.

 

“To see the game of course!” JungAh replied.

 

“And we're JungAh's non space efficient friends that are also here to watch and cheer to no end,” Emma dropped in while leaning an elbow on JungAh's shoulder.

 

“Oh yeah Sakuno-chan, these are my friends, Hotaru Baudelaire, Pinky and Ookami Imamato, and Sango Liu. Guys, no wait I mean ladies, this is Sakuno Ryuzaki, she's in my English class to,” JungAh introduced both ends.

 

“Hello sempais, nice to meet you,” Sakuno stated shyly.

 

“She's so cute!” JungAh cried and hugged her again.

 

Sakuno blushed and most of the people laughed, they were pretty much used to JungAh's attention.

 

“You guys are going to have to leave soon, the game is going to start,” Oishi began.

 

“Ok, fine I see when we're not wanted,” Emma stated sarcastically.

 

They left and stood outside of the court to watch the game. The girls watched, their eyes wide open as they followed the ball everywhere. Kaidoh appeared and he grunted. JungAh was about to say something to Aika, but noticed a change in her face.

 

 

“Hoho! Ookami-dear do I see something happening between you and this man on the field with the bandana?” JungAh leaned in and put an arm around Aika.

 

“No, we're just good friends,” Aika replied quickly.

 

JungAh continued to grin slyly, the other girls had their eyes glued to the game. The rest went on like that, and when the last player, which was Fuji appeared, JungAh and Meachan disappeared with their bag.

 

“Vending machines, where were those vending machines,” Meachan stated.

 

“I think they're over there, wait they are!” JungAh pointed out.

 

They walked there, but noticed that behind them they heard two voices talking. One they recognized as Momo, and the other was female. They looked at each other and nodded, then stuck their heads out from behind and watched.

 

There was Momo indeed and the girl he was with had orange hair and was teasing him about her older brother.

 

“Whatever, I better go back, watching my brother's match is important, later Momo-chan!” she said and ran off.

 

That's when the two sneaks decided that it was best time to make their appearance. The two sneaked up behind Momo and slapped his back.

 

“I'm striking gold today with Mr. Cupid! What do I see here Momo-chan?” JungAh and Meachan grinned slyly.

 

“Nothing, that's just An-chan. We're good friends, that's all,” he answered.

 

“Oh, so it's An-chan? Chan? Neh, Pinky-babe, I think we'll need to get involved with this sooner or later,” JungAh linked arms with Meachan.

 

“Oh yes, be prepared Momo-chan!” the two waved off and made their way back to the vending machine.

 

They bought and selected different juices and hauled back their collection to the girls. The game was about finished when they arrived. Fuji made the last serve and the ball went out for a while until Fuji made his finishing blow and the game was won. They cheered and then ran to the boys or in Meachan's and JungAh's case they made their way slowly and began to hand out the drinks. When there was only one drink left, one drink that had Kaidoh's name on it, JungAh decided it was about time for Aika and Kaidoh to get to know each other.

 

“Ookami-dear! It seems like Kaidoh's the only one without a drink, how about you hand this to him!” JungAh quickly handed the soda to Aika and ran behind Emma and Chie to watch her plan hatch.

 

Aika glanced at the soda and then slowly but surely approached Kaidoh.

 

“Here, I thought you might be thirsty. It was a good game you played,” Aika stated and gave the can to Kaidoh.

 

Kaidoh grunted and Aika smiled lightly, then he looked up and said,

 

“Thank you.”

 

Aika blushed lightly and then nodded replying, “No problem.”

 

And from behind them some distance away, the girls and tennis regulars watched this ongoing conversation with a grin.

 

(:O)

 

“Inui-kun!” Chie cried as she linked arms with him.

 

It was about time for fourth perioud, Skills for Living advanced. Chie and Inui shared this class together and Chie decided that since they were going out, that walking together wouldn't be so bad. Their date the day before was quite interesting. First they decided that looking for things to put in Inui's juice would be fun and found an assortment of things together, and in the end they just walked around every store and restaurant that sounded fancy.

 

“Oh my god. What is she thinking? How did they ever get together?”

“I know! He may be a regular but he isn't exactly easy on the eyes you know,” two girls were whispering obnoxiously together and watching Chie and Inui with disdain.

 

Chie, who wasn't exactly deaf, heard this. She looked up and noticed that Inui's expression was blank. Then an idea struck her and she grinned with mischief.

 

“Oh Inui, you know how SEXY you are, and how I FREAKING LOVE YOU!” Chie began; she paused and realized the whispering stopped, “INUI-KUN YOU ARE FREAKING SEXY AND I LOVE YOU! BECAUSE YOU ARE MY FREAKING HOT BOY FRIEND!”

 

Inui sweat-dropped and Chie smiled. They continued their stroll to fourth period. Chie turned her head and stuck a tongue out to the girls and raised her middle finger and then winked at them.

 

(:O)

 

It was 3:30, when the school bell rang; signifying that school was now over. Students charged out of their classrooms and got ready to leave. JungAh ran down the hallway and into room B107, math.

 

“Hello Ms. Kim, please sit down, your test is already on the desk, you have as much as you need. Good luck,” Mr. Takamura stated and sat onto his desk.

 

JungAh nodded, she sat down and took out her pencil and began the test.

 

(:O)

 

It was almost five o'clock when Mr. Takamura handed JungAh back her test with a smile.

 

“I think you'll be very pleased with your grade Ms. Kim,” he said.

 

JungAh felt slightly relieved and nodded. She walked out of the classroom while clinging to the test. She didn't look at it until she was outside of the school. Stopping by the tennis court, the boys were packing up and were ready to leave, and the girls were all walking with them. JungAh smiled shyly at them and they all came up to her.

 

“So how did you do?” a hoard of questions popped out.

 

“I don't know, I haven't looked yet,” JungAh replied.

 

Taking a deep breath, she raised the test. The score read 92% Great Improvement! JungAh bit her lip to keep from screaming.

 

“Hell yes!” Meachan roared.

 

More cheers could be heard. JungAh smiled and laughed, she felt relieved. Then she walked up to Tezuka.

 

“Thank you so much Tezuka-sempai! I don't what I would've done without your help!” JungAh bowed.

 

“Your welcome,” he answered.

 

And for a minute, JungAh swore that she saw his lips stretch into a small smile.

 

(:O)

 

The girls were walking home and were giddy since JungAh's math score improved.

 

“Oh you guys, I have some news,” Emma said.

 

Silence devoured the clamor of the chatting.

 

“Go on,” Meachan stated.

 

Emma smiled, “I'm going out with Fuji.”

 

Eyes widened to the size of saucepans, “WHAT!”

 

“Oh my god, it's the ultimate hot couple, second to Inui, and me” Chie remarked.

 

And the girls pretended to swoon and joked around. This was most certainly a good day indeed.

 

(End Chapter)

 

Haha, lot's of action there… Hope you guys had fun reading this, since I kept getting stuck on this. A lot of stuff going on and a lot more to come, please continue to read please! And review, I like reviews… [hint][hint] Ok, later lovelies!