A few days later, Kaidoh came for his next tutoring session. He picked up the book and said, "I'm really sorry I couldn’t come through this week, I had extra tennis practice, and I'm sorry…."
Tomoe interrupted him, "Onii-chan, why are you taking the book?"
"To…read it?"
"I read it" Tomoe said in a small voice, "And I made a few notes on Mark Antony… Could you edit them for me?"
Kaidoh looked positively delighted(not that you could see it on his face, his eyes though, dead give away) that Tomoe had done something, and picked up her notes and started reading them and editing them.
After their 2 hour session, Kaidoh got up to go, nodded to Julie and walked to the door. Halfway to the door he turned around and looked at Julie and said "We have music this week right?"
"Yeah.."
"And we haven't decided the song?"
"Do you want to practice?"
He looked at his watch, "Umm.. I have tennis practice now…"
Tomoe said from behind him, "We'll come by the courts when practice is over"
"Okay then.."
"Fine.."
"Bye"
"Bye"
***
An hour later, Tomoe and her set out to walk toward the school, to the tennis courts more accurately. They reached there after walking for about 15 minutes.
"Twenty laps around the court! NOW!"
"Oh my god!! Who was that???" asked Julie startled by the sudden, loud noise. Tomoe burst out laughing and said, "Captain of the Seigaku tennis team, Kunimitsu Tezuka, in year three. Very scary guy but very hot too…see over there" indicating a tall well built senior who was watching a couple of guys run around the courts. Julie laughed at her description of the captain and they walked towards the courts. They saw Momoshiro and Kaidoh playing a match against each other, Kaidoh in the lead. They finished the match and both of them walked off the court. Momo saw the two girls and walked towards them and put his arm around Tomoe who said "Eww!! Sweaty!!!" And pushed away his hand. He looked at Julie and said, "So, how come you girls are here? Missed me too much?"with a twinkle in his eye. Julie started to say something when Tomoe said "You wish! She's on a date with Onii-chan"
"DATE?!?!!?" both Momo and Julie said looking at Tomoe..
"No its not a date!! Seriously!! We just have to practice…"
"Date?!?! With the viper????? Why???? How???? Julie, when???..."
"MOMOSHIRO!!!"
They turned around to see the livid captain glaring at them. "Oops!!" said Tomoe in a small voice…Momo ran and joined the rest of his team
"Why do they call him 'the viper'??'' asked Julie, panting as they had run from the courts and had sat down on the football field(no, nobody was playing). "That’s cause … he makes that weird 'ssshhh' type exhaling noise when he wants to scare someone…plus, his snake shot"
"What's a snake shot?"
"You gotta see it to believe it"
Back at the courts, at the end of practice, the other Regulars asked Momo what him and that girl were shouting about. Momo replied, "I don’t know really, even I'm confused but all I know, is that it has something to do with Kaidoh and Julie…. Yeah the exchange student…come lets go ask them"
"Nyaa!!! Kaidoh and a girl!!!??? I cant miss this one!! C'mon O'chibi! You are treating me to burgers later!!"… (me : its Eiji!!)
"Mada Mada Dan….mmpphhh!!!"(muffled or suffocating, whatever)…(guess…)
"Eiji! You'll hurt him!!" (me:… mother hen, Oishi)
"Hmm… there is a 89.78% I can get some useful data…" (me: … the data man)
"Umm…I don’t know…. Do you really think we should follo-BURNING!!! LETS GO BABY!!!!" (taka's split personality)
*Evil grin* (the genius)
Tezuka watched the retreating backs of his fellow regulars, shook his head and walked home.
***
Football field
"Oh! There's Onii-chan! HEY!! Over here!!!"
"Hey"
"Hey"
"Soo…"
"Yeah.."
"Are you both going to say something already???" shouted Tomoe. Julie and Kaidoh looked at her, surprised (and a little embarrassed), turned to each other and both started at the same time
"The song.."
"For music…"
Tomoe made an exasperated noise and stalked away. They both looked at her, then at each other, then Julie said, "I listened to a couple of songs and there's this really nice song…"
"OW!!! What are YOU doing here??" they heard Tomoe yell. They walked ahead and rounded the corner to see Ryoma, Momo and another Seigaku Regular with bright red hair lying in a heap on top of Tomoe, surrounded by all the other Regulars except for Tezuka. "What are you guys doing?"
"Shhh…be quiet, we're trying to hear what Kaidoh's telling Julie"
"Nyaaahh!!! You keep quiet too……." the red haired boy's voice tapered off as he saw Kaidoh glaring at him.
***
Taka's Sushi Shop
Some time later all of them were sitting in one of the regular's sushi shop. Momo was introducing Julie and Tomoe. "Guys this is Tomoe, Kaidoh's cousin, and this is Julie, exchange student staying with Tomoe. And girls, this is Kikumaru Eiji" pointing at the boy with the bright red hair, "this is Oishi," pointing at a boy with very caring smile, "you know Ryoma, this is Inui" indicating a really tall guy with spiky hair and glasses, "this is Fuji" pointing at a guy with longish brown hair and perpetually closed eyes "and this is Taka, its his dad's sushi shop" about a boy with brown hair and very innocent eyes…
"Nyaaahhh!!!! You're both so cute!!!" said Eiji and hugged both Julie and Tomoe so hard it was suffocating. Tomoe and Julie exchanged slightly embarrassed looks behind his back.
"Eiji!! You're suffocating them!!" said Oishi, smiling slightly seeing their embarrassed smiles.
"Oh, sorry!! But you ARE so cute!!"
"Don’t worry he's always like that" Oishi reassured them, Tomoe giggled and Kaidoh rolled his eyes.
"Fssshhhuuuuuu! Why did you bring me here anyway?" Kaidoh glared at Momo. If looks could kill, Momo would have dropped dead. "Relax!!" Momo said defensively, "Taka has a drum set and a guitar so you guys can practice here right? We can hear it too"
Kaidoh just glared at him and ate some sushi.
After a while they went up to Taka's room and Taka gave Julie his drumsticks. Momo picked up Taka's guitar from the corner of the room and sat down, put it on his lap and strummed it wildly. Oishi walked up to him and picked it up and put it the other way and told him, "You're holding it wrong." Momo left it on the bed and went and sat next to Tomoe on the couch. Tomoe was watching Julie and Kaidoh talking near the drum set.
"They look good together don’t they?" said Momo suddenly interrupting her thoughts. Tomoe looked at him and said, "You jealous?"
"Naah…. She said she wanted to be just friends."
"You asked her out?!?!" Tomoe was absolutely shocked, Julie didn’t tell her!
"Yeah… Just now… when we were coming up the stairs, you had already gone up with Eiji"
"Oh…Okay…" said Tomoe forgiving Julie a bit, 'Maybe its not her fault.. I mean, she didn’t really get a chance to tell me did she? I wont blame her if she doesn’t tell me at all, she might think I'd get upset or jealous or something..' thought Tomoe, wandering off into her thoughts.
Julie and Kaidoh looked at each other, Kaidoh nodded and Julie hit the drumsticks together thrice and Kaidoh started playing. After he finished playing, Eiji looked at them, "Nobody's singing?"
"They're shy" said Momo with an evil grin
"You guys do have to practice right?"
"Yeah…"
"Yeah…"
"Then go practice, if you're uncomfortable practicing in front of us…."(Oishi)
"Go, go, go…get lost!!"
***
Streets of Tokyo
A few seconds later Julie and Kaidoh were standing out on the street in front of Taka's sushi shop looking a little confused. Julie looked at Kaidoh, he shrugged and said, "Lets go to my place then"
"Okay then…"
They walked in silence, both not knowing what to say to the other. Suddenly Kaidoh said, "You helped Tomoe with Caesar, didn’t you?". With a slightly guilty expression, Julie said, "Yeah, I mean that day after you had gone back, in the night we read a couple of scenes, and it just went on for the next few days. Then she said that she wanted to write the report to give you a surprise. You really care about her don’t you?"
"Yeah… she's like my little sister, though she's my age."
"Oooh!! Protective big brother and all huh??" said Julie with a twinkle in her eye.
Kaidoh blushed slightly and muttered something incomprehensible. Julie laughed. Kaidoh asked her, "So do you play any sports?"
"Yeah, basketball, a bit of tennis, not as near as good as you but still, some football.. How come we haven't had gym yet?"
"Oh, that’s cause their repainting the indoor courts and the gym, Ryuzaki sensei, our tennis coach said they'd be starting classes from next week"
"Cool"
Few minutes later, talking comfortably, they reached in front of Kaidoh's house, "Come on, my mother will be home, so will my brother, but my father will be at office". They got in, removed their shoes and Kaidoh called out to his mother. His mother came to the hall and said, "Hello! You must be Julie. Kaoru has told me about you, please come in" Kaidoh said something else to his mother in Japanese and his mother said, "Okay then, have fun!"
"Your mother's really sweet" said Julie as she followed Kaidoh into his room. He picked up a few clothes from a chair, put it into his cupboard and asked her to sit. "I'll just have a quick shower, do you want anything to keep yourself occupied, like a magazine or something?" "No its okay, I'm fine.."
After about ten minutes Kaidoh came back into the room saying, "So you ready to begin?" "Yeah sure"
They practiced for a while and then Kaoru said, "We sound pretty good don’t we?" "Yeah we do.. Its getting late, I'd better go.." "I'll drop you" "I'd say no but I don’t know the way so ya okay.."
They said goodbye to Kaidoh's mother and walked towards Tomoe's house. On the way Kaidoh asked Julie about her school and her friends and family. While Julie was talking they heard a loud whistle. They turned around to see a boy about 13 years old shouting something at Kaidoh. Kaidoh sounded irritated and shouted something back, turned to Julie and said, "Lets go"
"Who was that?"
"My little brother, Hazue…"
"He looks just like you.."
"Yeah... people say that my father, me and Hazue look like older and younger versions of the same person…"
"Awww!! Cute!"
Kaidoh turned slightly pink and they walked ahead.
By the time they reached Tomoe's house, Kaidoh had bought them each an ice cream cone, and they were having it as they walked. At the gate Kaidoh said, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then"
"Aren't you gonna come in?"
"Naah, gotta finish that Trig paper before bed"
"Okay then, see ya!"
"Bye"
Julie walked towards the main door. Kaidoh stood at the gate and watched her ring the bell. He saw his aunt open the door and let her in. Julie turned, smiled and with a final wave, walked in.
Kaidoh turned around and began to walk back. 'Julie's a nice girl…. Really friendly… She can sing well, loves sports, has a sense of humor…… and she really kinda gets me… not to mention she's VERY beautiful….' Kaidoh shook his head smiled and told himself, 'Control you idiot! Don’t let your emotions run away… she probably just thinks of you as a friend…'
Julie walked into the room she and Tomoe shared. Tomoe asked her, "So..?"
"So what?"
"So how'd it go?" Tomoe asked with a twinkle in her eye
"How'd what go?"
"Spending your day with Kaoru-chan?"
"It was fine, why?"
"No just that Sayu called and said that she and Maiko saw you and Kaoru chan walking and talking and laughing and having ice cream…. They were asking me if you and him were going out…" seeing the shocked expression on Julie's face she added, "Don’t worry they wont be spreading any rumors, I told them that you and him were going to practice."
Julie smiled gratefully and said, "Yeah we practiced for a while then he was talking about tennis, then his mom told him to do some homework and we sat and did most of the Trig paper. Then he said he'd drop me home and on the way we were just talking about stuff and he bought us ice creams from that place near the courts, then when we reached here he said that he wasn’t coming in cause he had to finish that paper and so we said bye." said Julie and then seeing Tomoe's smile she added, "Nothing else"
"No its just that he's never so friendly with anyone. He must really like you.."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah… Whatever"
Tomoe laughed and said, "No seriously!! He doest talk so much even to me! And I'm the cousin he's closest to!"
"Whatever! Again"
Tomoe laughed at Julie's fake attitude + exasperated expression and said, "Anyway, are you done with the Trig paper? Help me with these questions plz!!!"
"Yeah ok…sure"
***
The next day morning in the bus Sayu, Maiko and Tomoe were teasing Julie about Kaidoh. "Come on guys!! Grow up!!! We're just friends!!!"
"Yeah, sure! First comes friends, then comes special friends, then comes lovers, then comes?"
"Shut up!!! Come on!!!!!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!!! Whatever!!!"
Just then Momo walked into the bus and again, all the girls started laughing. Momo gave them a weird look and said, "Absolute Déjà vu" walked to the seat where Julie was sitting and behind her. Few minutes later Momo looked at Julie and asked, "What were you girls laughing about?"
"Nothing much really" then seeing that Momo wasn’t joking but was for once actually serious added, "Nothing! Seriously! We weren't laughing at you"
"Then why cant you tell me?"
"Just lyk that…" then seeing that Momo had gotten upset again said, "They were laughing at me okay? Don’t ask me why" adding that hastily seeing Momo's smile reappear on his face.
"But…"
"No way"
The bus stopped and Kaidoh got in. He looked at Julie, but didn’t show any sign of recognition. Tomoe, Sayu and Maiko giggled, got up and sat on the last seat where the boys normally sat leaving Kaidoh the option of sitting in the front of the bus with a couple of giggly first years or next to Julie. Kaidoh seemed to deliberate for a few seconds or he was just wondering why everyone was acting so weird, and walked towards Julie and sat next to her. After a while he turned to Julie and asked her, "Why's everyone acting so weird?"
"You don’t wanna know."
Kaidoh got it and didn’t want to know so he didn’t ask Julie again. Tomoe had apparently told Momo why they were laughing cause every few minutes he could be heard laughing along with Tomoe, Sayu and Maiko.
They went to class and everyone got seated. Rinko sensei walked in and greeted the class. She then told them that they would be starting gym from today. The lesson went on. Teachers came, and went. The bell rang and Tomoe turned around and said, "Its gym"
"Should I be excited or not?"
"Depends. You'll see."
They went down to the gym. The boys got in through one door and the girls through another. They all changed into their shorts and t-shirts and went to the gym. The teacher explained to them their course requirements and asked the students who wanted to play just one sport to move to one side of the room. Julie, Tomoe, Sayu and Maiko stayed with the group who hadn't specified a sport. "Okay now, the rest of you we have to find you a sport to play because you need to have one sport down for this year. Yes everyone of you." she added to some kids who had groaned.
By the end of the lesson everyone had to decide which sport club to join. Julie and Tomoe had picked tennis. They started practicing, Julie against Tomoe. Tomoe served, Julie returned, then Tomoe returned, Julie returned it with a volley which Tomoe couldn’t return. "Not bad" said Tomoe. Julie grinned and said "Thanks. You're pretty good yourself."
They played on for quite a while. Tomoe started panting. Julie hadn't broken a sweat. "You not tired?" asked Tomoe. "Tired? No way!". Tomoe and Julie were neck to neck, both having won one match each and the current match being at deuce. They needed one point to win the match and then there was one more to decide game results. Tomoe decided to tire her out and started hitting the balls to either side of the court, so that she'll either miss one of them or get too tired. Neither of those things happened. A few minutes later Julie hit a lob which hit the net, and fell to the other side. Everyone stared in awed silence. That was the first time anyone had won two matches in a row against Tomoe, the captain of the girls tennis team of Seigaku(which wasn’t nearly as good as the boys team but in any case, yeah).
After about fifteen minutes after Julie had won both match and set, the two girls went to the water fountain to wash up. "You never told me you play tennis"
"You never asked me" replied Julie with a twinkle in her eye "You never told me you were a regular, forget captain, of the Seigaku girls team."
"Point taken"
Just then Momo and Eiji came up in front of them. "Hey!!! You're looking so cute today!!" said Eiji but before he could hug them Julie put up her hands and said "Stop! We just played a match…Very sweaty.."
Eiji looked dejected and the rest of them laughed at his expression. Both the girls washed their faces and Momo said, "So, we heard the girls captain had been defeated by someone?"
"Who told you?" asked Tomoe with some amount of surprise in her voice
"I heard some girls gossiping.."
"Oh.."
"So who was it? And why aren't you very upset about it?"
"Julie"
"Julie!!!!????????"
"Yeah what?" asked Julie coming out of the changing room, wiping her face with a towel.
"You beat Tomoe!!??"
"Yeah… She's good"
"Duh she is, she's the only girl in the school who can win a match against a guy Regular"
"Why? Don’t the girls here play?"
"None of the girls are really interested in tennis here. They prefer basketball and TT. The TT team has gone to the nationals." said Tomoe
"You can't blame it on the girls actually. Even the coaches don’t give much importance to the girls team. Last year they didn’t even have a coach for most of the year", added Eiji.
"Anyway back to the topic here. You play tennis?" asked Momo to Julie
"Yeah…"
"Quite well apparently. Are you gonna try out for the team? The metropolitans will be when you are here"
"Yeah? Ohkay… Cool, do you want me on the team?" asked Julie to Tomoe with a huge smile
"Yeah sure! Anything to get us to the metros for once."
"Awesome"
"So you think you can win against me?" asked Momo to Julie
"I wouldn't mind trying.."
Few minutes later Julie and Momo were on the courts with Eiji as acting umpire(me: is that what u call them??!) Eiji said, "Okay everyone!!! Best of three! Nyannn!!!! The very cute, very hot, very pretty, very..OW!!" Oishi had hit his head "Fine! Julie on this end and Momoshiro on the other… Smooth or rough?" he asked Julie, "Smooth", the racket fell and Eiji said, "Momo serves"
Momo served, Julie returned it with a top spin and rushed the net, Momo lobbed it over her head and stood there grinning apparently pleased with himself as there was no way she could return it. Julie smiled and ran for it, jumped and dunked it on the service line. Momo stood gaping as Eiji shouted "Fifteen- Love!!!!!!! Not bad Julie-chan!!!!"
Standing at the side of the court, Inui was explaining what Julie had done to a shocked Oishi and Tomoe. "She's a speed player, kind of like Kamio from Fudomine, but she's probably lighter that’s why she could jump and get that shot"
"Speed player Nyaaahh? Might be fun to watch her against Kaidoh" said Eiji leaning against the net.
"Match to Momoshiro!!! Nyannn!!!"
Momo smirked and Julie smiled back at him. The next two matches lasted a long time, Julie playing defensive, and Momo making her run all over court. Momo rushed the net and Julie returned his slice with a volley straight over his head, Momo jumped, and dunked it inches behind Julie. "Not bad Momo!" Julie said. "Yeah I know." "Fifteen-love"
Julie won both those matches and they started play the next one.(me: cause you have to win by two games right?)Momo continued trying to tire her out, then Julie started to attack. She hit her shots to either side of the court making it his turn to run to either side. Momo soon missed a shot. And another. And another. . . . "Match to Julie!!! Nyyaaannn!!!!!"
Soon all the regulars were around the courts. They were in the fourth match, score after fifteen minutes 15-15. Momo hit a spin at her which was usually returned with a overhead shot which he dunked, but Julie straight back at him, he returned it, shocked. Julie hit shots to either side of the court. Momo was soon panting, but Julie still hadn't broken a sweat. Minutes later, the score was 40-15. Kaidoh walked past the courts and Eiji shouted "Hey Kaidoh!! Come see this match!!! Oh wait..match and game to Julie, 3-1!!!!"
Both players shook hands and Momo put his arm around her and said, "Not bad!!" Julie smiled and said, "You're pretty good yourself". Eiji ran to Julie and pulled her into a rib cracking hug saying, "Julie-chan is awesome!!!!!!!!" Oishi ran to them saying, "Eiji!!!!! You'll break her!!!!!" Eiji released Julie from his hug of doom and said, "No I wouldn’t!!" Tomoe came to Julie and they hi-fived and Tomoe said, "You never told me you could play tennis so well!"
"Sorry!"
"How'd you get so fast?? And what's with the mad stamina??!!" asked Momo.
"Yeah, we all wanna know" said Eiji, his arm still around her. Julie smiled at her neko-like new friend and said, "I practice!! No seriously! I practice running"
"How much do you practice daily?" asked Inui scribbling something into his notebook.
"Practice tennis? For two hours. And running, five kilometers twice daily"
"See, that’s why I tell you guys to stop hogging so much food and exercise for a change!!" Inui turned to Momo and Eiji. The others ran away from there escaping Inui's wrath, laughing.
Julie and Tomoe said bye to the guys and got into the girls shower rooms. They washed up and changed into their school uniform.
"Tomoe!" Julie called over the cubicle
"Yeah?" "I have music in exactly 2 minutes and I cant be late I'm going, BYE!!!" said Julie and she ran towards the music class. She bumped into someone as she turned the corner and said, "I am SO sorry!!!! And bent down to pick up her bag
"Hey.." said the person she banged into, she looked up and saw Kaidoh
"Hey Kaidoh! We're late for class!"
"Its okay. Chill! We still have fifteen minutes, the clock in the gym is set fast"
"Who'd do a thing like that??"
"Eiji, Momo and Ryoma, Seigaku's number one idiots"
Julie laughed and Kaidoh said, "I saw you playing…..you're pretty good"
"Thanks! I haven't seen you play but I've heard you're really good"
"Thanks!" said Kaidoh with a grin. 'He looks nice when he smiles..' thought Julie
"Hey Julie? If you don’t mind me calling you by your first name.."
"Yeah no problem I don’t mind"
"Cause over here only really good friends n stuff call each other by first names"
"Oh….if it was like that I'd be called William, and that’s a guy's name" said Julie laughing
"Yeah, that'd be funny… Okay then, call me Kaoru."
"Okay…What were you gonna say?"
"Lets go to class"
They reached class and since they were the first ones in, Yamato-sensei seemed very happy with them and told them to pick a piece of paper from the bowl on the table and sit down. The classroom had been arranged to look like a stage. On top of the teachers podium a drum kit and a guitar were kept. Kaoru opened the chit and said, "We're performing 7th, out of fifteen groups that’s near the middle so that’s good." Chairs were laid out in the rest of the class. Julie and Kaoru sat on two seats, and the room started to fill up. Momo walked in and came and sat on Julie's other side, "Hey!" "Hey'' he looked at Kaidoh and said "Hey viper" "Hey loser" both of them fiercely aggressive ready to pound the other's face, Julie stuck in the middle was very grateful when Yamato-sensei told the class to be quiet. He explained to the class that the chits of paper they had taken was their order of performance. He told the first group to come on the 'stage'.
Julie leaned towards Kaidoh and whispered, "What was that about?"
"What?"
"You and Momo"
"Nothing" Julie just looked at him and raised one eyebrow, he sighed and said, "We've been that way since forever so forget it" Julie made a pretend cranky face and turned toward the front of the class. Momo and Jade had got number 6 so they went up and started playing. They were really good and Kaoru looked apprehensive as though thinking whether the song him and Julie were going to sing will be as good as theirs. Yamato sensei called out, "Number 7". Julie and Kaoru got up and walked to the podium. Julie sat on her chair and arranged the drums around her. Kaoru sat down and played a few chords to check if the guitar was tuned. He looked at her and nodded. She tapped her drum sticks together thrice and he began to play. She joined in, and they played and they sang.
After the lesson the class was slowly emptying. Julie, Kaidoh and Momo were one of the first people to get out. "You guys were awesome!" said Momo. "Thanks!!" said Julie. Kaidoh just nodded and walked off. "You guys were pretty awesome too" said Julie.
"Thanks! So did you finish the English assignment? Or did Rinko sensei allow you to not do it?"
"Nope, I am doing it but she gave me an additional week."
"So which Shakespeare play have you picked?"
"She gave me Macbeth. How about you?"
"Awesome she gave me Macbeth too! Have you done your paper?"
"Not really…"
"You wanna do it together?"
Julie gave Momo a look and he added, "No, I'm not trying to get you to go out with me, as friends?"
"Okay then…"
"Great! I read the book, but I couldn't figure out where to start from"
"Okay fine then. When do you have to submit it?"
"Day after tomorrow, I don’t have tennis practice today, can I come over to Tomoe's place?"
"Lets ask her," seeing Tomoe get out of her art class.
***
