So, I just went back and reread this and edited a bit. Hopefully this version is much better! I think it is! 3

-Michy

The day was peaceful, a sort of serene atmosphere enveloping everyone around. People strolled by on their way to pick up the groceries, or walk their pets. Couples peaked into the windows around, looking at anything that caught their interest. It was simply one of those days where one simply wanted to relax, to let the warm breeze blow through their hair and simply think about the beauty around them. It was just one of those peaceful days, the kind that were perfect for making plans.

Akemi Hazao was no different from the people milling about with their friends or partners. She slowly meandered down the sidewalk, and finally stopped beside a familiar building. Her blonde hair fell to her waist, encased in pink streaks and highlights to the point where most people passing by thought the blonde might have been her highlights instead. Her bangs fell over her right eye in a soft swoop and a few loose strands framed her face where the layers were too short to stay in the high ponytail she sported. The bangs over her right eye tickled the tip of her nose, her left eye left exposed to shine in all it's magenta glory.

Most didn't believe her when she said she was a tennis player. She was 'too petite' they said. Obviously, they'd never seen how much she ate. She was much like Marui Bunta in the way that she ate more sweets than anything. She didn't eat the sweets for energy or stamina, but simply because she loved sweet things. Her taste buds thrived on the sugar in any confectionary good. It was one of the reasons why she was so often found baking in her kitchen. Despite her addiction to candies, she still managed to maintain a toned form. She was lithe, graceful, even just in how she walked. In truth, she looked more like a dancer than an athlete, but honestly the girl couldn't dance to save her life. She was a walking contradiction, without a doubt.

She was a fairly good tennis player, in her opinion. Not great, but acceptable. She was fast, and she had a few good moves up her sleeve. Her only problem was her lack of power. She wasn't very strong, not like Momoshiro from Seigaku. She had gained quite a few friends from her tennis love, though. People liked to tell her she was fun to play against because of her charismatic and friendly demeanor.

Passersby glanced at her when she let out a loud sigh. She scanned her surroundings with a small frown tugging at her lips, her eyes filled with slight disappointment. Another sigh escaped her lips as she let herself fall back to lean against the brick wall behind her. She couldn't believe he was late again. He was always late anymore! And besides that, Akemi was already cranky that her beloved cousin would be bringing his girlfriend aswell.

Yazu Kiroyaki. Her cousin Tako's girlfriend of seven months. The girl was tall, with long brown hair to her hips, pine green eyes, and a petite figure. However, by far her best feature was her personality. She was like Keigo Atobe and Genichirou Sanada all wrapped up into one, and timed by five. In other words, she was rude and annoying. She was extremely conceited, taking to teasing Akemi about her pink streaks, telling her no boy would ever want her. Yazu's favorite thing to say to Akemi was that the pink haired girl would never be as pretty as she.

Akemi simply rolled her eyes. She was above wasting precious air arguing with someone who couldn't even match the brain capacity of a pebble, let alone a stick. However, around Taro, Yazu was a bubbly, charismatic girl who loved animals and was friendly to everyone. Completely the opposite of what she was like when he wasn't around. The only words that could sum up Yazu Kiroyaki even slightly were the ones Akemi preferred; snooty, prissy, annoying, fake, and pretty much any other insulting word in the dictionary. It wasn't uncommon for Akemi to ask Taro how the 'Barbie' was doing. Not how 'Yazu' was doing. Because that would insinuate that Akemi thought of her as a human being. No, she was 'Barbie'. Because she was fake, plastic, and pretended she was perfect. Yep, barbie.

Unlike Yazu, Akemi was naturally bubbly and happy. She loved to make new friends, and she would help anyone in need, friend or not. She encouraged anyone she saw needing it- it was the reason why she had so many friends. She could also be sarcastic though, and could through out a rude comment like a sailor when someone threatened her loved ones. She wasn't perfect, and she didn't try to be. She accepted who she was, and if someone else didn't like it- oh well. Their loss.

But there she was, leaning against the same building, waiting on her cousin and the barbie. Again. It was probably Yazu making him go into a random store, knowing Akemi hated it when they were late. Again. Akemi couldn't tell Taro, for fear of upsetting him, but she really wished her would just dump her already! The pink haired girl couldn't stand seeing her, let alone spending more than five minutes with her. Yet, there she was, waiting for them again. She just wanted to go get some ice cream, talk to her cousin a little, and maybe play a short game of tennis. But she had no doubt that her plans would be ruined again. Just like they always were when the brunette joined the cousins. Always.

Yazu was the typical cheerleader. She couldn't play tennis to save her life. Because of that, she was completely opposed to letting Taro and Akemi play tennis when she was around. Taro, the loveable boy he was, had tried to teach the green eyed girl how to play, but it proved impossible. Impossibly in the way that the girl ended up bloodying her own nose on her serve. That bad. So any tennis excursions were cause for Yazu to argue, and thus cause for Akemi to get pissy. It was a never ending cycle.

The magenta eyed girl had brought her racket bag anyway. Whether Yazu liked it or not, Akemi was playing tennis even if she had to cut family time short to do it. She wasn't about to let some prissy brat ruin her free day. Again.

"Akemi! Hey!" A tall boy sporting shaggy blonde hair and chocolate colored eyes ran over, stopping a few feet away. The irritating barbie wasn't far behind, lips pursed and eyes shining in her typical pathetic glare while Taro wasn't looking.

"Took you long enough! What happened this time?" The pinkette questioned, pushing off the wall slowly.

"Yazu saw something in one of the stores that she wanted. Sorry! How late are we?" The cheerful boy apologized, bowing slightly. Yazu donned a celebratory smirk that was promptly ignored by the other girl.

"About fifteen minutes." Was the sighed responce. "Now, let's head out for that ice cream!" Her eyes sparkled at the sheer mention of the sweet, delicious frozen treat, and Taro chuckled.

"Sure!" He laughed, beginning to walk beside the girl. A sudden grip on his arm stopped him, Yazu sporting a pout on her pink lips. "What is it, Yazu-chan?" His look became confused as Yazu batted her eyelashes at him. Akemi let out another sigh, rolling her eyes as she mentally commented about how she'd called it.

"I don't want ice cream, Taro. I want tea and a salad. Not some fattening sugar-coated monstrosity." She whined, her voice squeaky and more pathetic than usual. She sounded like a two year old. Taro bit his lip, looking over at a twitching Akemi. The barbie did not just say that about ice cream. She did not.

"Akemi... Can we go to the local cafe? You can get ice cream, that way Yazu can get her food too." He pleaded.

"Ew, I don't want to watch her eat it either! Taro, can't we for once not have ice cream?" Yazu scrunched up her nose, before sticking out her lower lip again and whining. Taro nibbled his lip again, and she hugged his arm, sending him pleas with her eyes. He shifted his gaze silently back to his cousin, wondering how to ask.

"Akemi..." He asked it in a low tone, one that almost pleaded with her. The pinkette frowned, looking away with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

"Yeah, let the little barbie doll have her way. Again." She muttered. Chocolate eyes widened, as her cousin registered the insult and Yazu donned a pained expression.

"Akemi! That was cruel and unnecessary. Apologize to Yazu!" Taro demanded, hugging his girlfriend close.

"No!" The pinkette growled, turning her back on her cousin and walking off by herself. "I'll go on my own then. I'm not missing out on something I want to do just because that plastic thing on her arm bats her eyelashes at you and gets her way. She does it every time and if you haven't realized, the last seven times we went out for ice cream, I never got to get ice cream!"

"Akemi! That's not true! It's not her fault she doesn't like ice cream!" He called back and turned to the girl (thing) on his arm. She stuck out her lip further, and pulled out her puppy-dog expression. Taro faltered a minute, registering Akemi's soft footfalls becoming farther away and sighed. "Sorry, Yazu-chan, but do you mind getting ice cream this time?"

"Hmph. Fine." Yazu whined, crossing her arms. Taro smiled at her slowly, and turned to Akemi's back. The couple took larger steps to catch up, neither catching the disappointed look in Akemi's own eyes. Taro always picked Yazu. Even if he chose to do what Akemi did for wanted. If Yazu had said no, without a doubt Taro wouldn't have followed the pink haired girl, and they all knew it.

"We'll go. I hope your happy, now she's mad at me!" He hissed under his breath in the ponytailed girl's direction. She scoffed lightly in reply.

"Good, maybe she will finally realize she's not a freaking princess!"

The boy sighed and didn't respond. He didn't understand why she Yazu. Around him the girl had never been mean to his cousin at all, Yazu was always nice to her. He just didn't understand. Akemi hadn't bothered to tell him about how his precious girlfriend treated her when alone. Even if she had, it was doubtful that he would believe her at all. Not his precious Yazu-chan! She would never be like that! Ever!

They finally reached the Ice Cream vendor, and Akemi's eyes lit up as she raced to the window. Taro joined her side after giving Yazu's hand a small squeeze. She glared from a few feet back as they ordered. Akemi got a medium bubble-gum cone, and Taro a chocolate one. Taro teased about Akemi's ice cream matching her hair, and Akemi joked about his matching his eyes.

They walked back to Yazu, and sat on thebench, Taro in the middle, Akemi on his left, and Yazu on the right. Yazu scoffed and faced away from the other two with crossed arms and a pout, and Taro leveled his cousin with a 'see-what-you-made-me-do' look. Her response was to snort and turn the other way from him.

That was about when a cheery redhead caught the pink-and-blonde haired girl's eye, and her eyes widened happily when he locked eyes with her. Next to him was a boy with wavy black hair and bright green eyes. Both boys' lips turned up into a large grin as they raced towards the naturally blonde haired girl.

"Akemi-chan!" The redhead called, gracing her with a large hug. A smile lit her face as she returned the hug before letting go. It made her day to see her two favorite people after dealing with the prissy barbie!

"Bunta-kun!" She giggled, turning to his companion, "Kirihara-kun! What are you guys doing here?" Taro glanced at the boys, raising an eyebrow, and didn't catch Yazu practically drooling.

"Same thing as you, apparently." Kirihara replied, a small smile tilting at the edge of his lips while he crossed his arms behind his head. His green eyes scanned the pink cone in front of his friend as he smirked to himself.

"Ne, Akemi-chan, your ice cream matches your hair..." Bunta giggled. Taro let out a chuckle, and Akemi groaned.

"For the second time, yes, it does." She laughed.

"Eh? Someone already told you?" Bunta questioned, a small pout on his lips. Unbeknownst to the others, Yazu eyed his pouted lip with a hungry look to her eyes.

"My cousin, Taro Haruka." She pointed at him over her shoulder. "Taro, this is Bunta Marui, and Akaya Kirihara." Bunta nodded in greeting to the brown haired boy, and Kirihara smirked slightly, giving a small wave in responce.

"Ah-hem." A small cough brought the group to remember the brunette with them. The boys raised an eyebrow as they realized the girl was with Akemi, but hadn't been introduced. It was odd, considering how their friend was normally the first to be sure to include everyone.

"Kirihara-kun, since when do you go on ice cream trips without me having to drag you?" She questioned her black haired friend. Taro sweat-dropped as his cousin ignored his girlfriend still trying to get Akemi's attention. The pinkette continued to ignore her. Kirihara and Bunta found it odd that Akemi was ignoring her, and by the look in her eyes it seemed she wanted them to do the same.

"Yeah, well, he dragged me." The green eyes boy explained with a shrug and a groan. Bunta snickered, and Akemi giggled at the mental image. A second later she let out a small growl and turned to look at the girl a few feet behind her.

"What is your problem exactly?" She growled. Bunta and Kirihara's eyes widened at their friend's cruel tone. Apparently, Akemi did not like the girl. At all. That was new to them, seeing as how Akemi got along with pretty much everyone so far as they knew. She was even on Sanada's good side for crying out loud! Nioh was nice to her!

"Hmph. Well, you were ignoring me. And besides, you never introduced me to your friends." The priss stuck out her bottom lip and batted her eyelashes, naive enough to actually think Akemi would give in to her. Hah.

"They don't much care for plastic dolls, I figured I'd save them the trouble of having to deal with you."

Both Rikkaidai boys stared, open-mouthed at their pink haired friend. Since when did she have a cruel side? It was new, but not entirely misplaced.

"I recommend the bubble-gum flavour, Bunta-kun." She smiled sweetly, licking her ice cream to stop it from melting on to the ruffled white tanktop and cutoff short-shorts she adorned. Bunta blinked suddenly at the change in behavior, but grinned when he heard the topic change to one of his favorite things. Unfortunately, before he could reply on his personal favorite flavors, he was interrupted.

"Ewh! Taro-kun!" Yazu whined.

"Akemi, don't be so mean." The chocolate eyed boy groaned.

"I'll be nice when she falls off a cliff." The girl hadn't even turned around to address her cousin.

Bunta gaped openly for a second, and Kirihara raised an eyebrow. The brunette whined in the background, but Bunta continued his conversation. "What kind of good flavours are there?!" His eyes lit with excitement, practically bouncing up and down.

"Bubble-gum, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, cookies and cream-" Akemi began, but growled again when she too was interrupted. Again.

"Who cares about freaking ice cream! Honestly! All it is is fattening, disgusting, hyper-making ice. Honestly, how can you stand to eat it!" Yazu rolled her eyes as she ranted, not even noting the open-mouthed Bunta and the narrow-eyed Kirihara. Akemi herself was twitching slightly, and Taro burried his head in his hands with a groan.

"Understand now?" Akemi questioned her friends. They both nodded in responce, and Bunta finally closed his jaw.

"Definitely." He replied, shaking his head to clear the shock of anyone insulting such an amazing thing as ice cream. It seemed impossible to him. The girl must be insane, he was sure.

Kirihara cut in, a smirk on his lips. "Oi, Akemi-chan, you're ice cream's melting. You might wanna eat some more of it's yummy goodness so it doesn't get wasted..." Yazu glared at him, a small growl issuing from her at his emphasizing. Akemi, however, grinned, and licked her ice cream stable again. This was why she was best friends with that boy. His cruelty was coming in handy for her.

"Arigatou, Kirihara-kun. I wouldn't want such a delicious treat to melt, would I?" She snickered. Taro groaned again.

"Ne, we're going to the courts after we enjoy our ice cream. Wanna come, Akemi-chan?" Bunta asked, smirking a bit himself. "I may be a tensai, but I still love to play, I'm not practicing or anything, since I'm perfect, but still. Wanna?"

"Hai-" Once again the blonde/pink-haired girl was cut off by an annoying barbie.

"Taro! I did not come out with you today to watch your cousin eat that disgusting monstrosity, and play tennis!" She hissed, standing up and growling at her boyfriend.

"Y-Yazu!" Taro protested, standing up and throwing his hands up in defense.

"Pick one. You're girlfriend, or her. She's always mean to me and I have done nothing wrong to her!" Yazu whined, jutting her lip out again, "Either spend the day with me, or we're through."

With a growl, Akemi's ice cream was shoved into a surprised Bunta's hands, and Yazu found herself nose to nose with a pissed off blonde girl, her shirt clenched in the angry girl's hand. Taro dropped his ice cream in surprise, Bunta scrambled to hold on to Akemi's with wide eyes, and Kirihara's jaw had dropped. None had seen the girl's temper before. It shocked them all.

"No reason why I hate you, huh? Suddenly you've forgotten how you treat me when he's not around? The hair pulling? The 'no guy will ever like you, you're too ugly' comments? The purposely spilling hot coffee down my shirt? That's nothing to you, huh?!" The girl growled once she'd finished ranting, before rounding on her brown eyed cousin, and hissing at him instead. "Whatever. Spend the day with her. But don't bother calling me to schedule another 'family outing'. You wanna spend all your time with a plastic barbie, go ahead. I'd rather spend the day with people who actually give a crap about me and what I like to do."

The girl paused a moment before turning back to Yazu and pushing her so that she had to stumble back a few feet to catch her balance. She calmly proceeded over to Bunta, took her ice cream, grabbed her tennis bag, and glanced back at the scene in front of her. All three males looked like they were on the verge of a stroke, and the lone other girl started to pout and crocodile cry.

"A-Akemi! Y-Yazu, please!" Taro cried.

"Taro, she pushed me! Are you gonna let her do that to me?!" Yazu screached, her lower lip trembling pathetically.

"No, Taro. I'm so sick and tired of forcing myself to be near you because every time you choose to do whatever she wants. The only reason she's still around is because you spoil the little brat. Guess family doesn't come first, afterall." Akemi hissed, fighting back the water forming in her eyes. She closed them tight, turning to Kirihara and Bunta and taking a deep breath. "I'll see you at the courts." After a small pause, she growled and stormed over to the brown haired girl and shoved her ice cream cone down the barbie's shirt and storming off in the direction of the courts.

Taro's jaw was on the ground, Bunta looked like he'd seen a ghost, Yazu was shrieking her lungs out and flailing her arms around in the air- It was quite a sight. Onlookers stared at the scene with wide eyes, and dropped jaws. Kirihara? Kirihara was pissed, his eyes slowly starting to change color. His eyes narrowed on Taro, before turning it on the shrieking barbie.

"SHUT UP." He growled. Bunta stared at him in surprise too. What was happening today?! Yazu froze in mid-shriek, and Taro looked at Kirihara in confusion.

"Kirihara...what...?" Bunta was cut off by his senpai before he could even ask.

"If you can't see now that the thing on your arm is ridiculous, then you're a damn idiot, Haruka. Akemi-chan is never like this. That's more than enough proof in itself. Come on, Marui-sempai. We've got an important person to comfort because of these pricks." He sent a scathing look at the shocked couple, and proceeded to drag his senpai off after their friend. His eyes were almost fully red, and the thought crossed his mind that he probably shouldn't go anywhere near a tennis court or racket right now, but he dismissed the thought as concern for his friend took over. No one made his best friend cry and got away with it. Those two would pay. As soon as he finished comforting the blonde haired, pink loving, magenta-eyed girl.

A/N: ... I edited. Like, majorly. It needed it, so I hope you enjoy this new version better! 8-27-12.

-Michy