Tezuka frowned as he walked through the hallways of Seigaku Highschool. Freshman were everywhere. He was now a junior, and seventeen years old. School had only just started a week ago and still the freshman annoyed him. A group of freshman girls were chattering in the middle of the hallway. Tezuka glared as they looked up at him, with hearts in their eyes.

"Ah, Tezuka-kun." Fuji said, as Tezuka stopped at his locker. All the regulars from middle school, were now on the high school team, including Ryoma who came just this year. Everything was basically the same, Tezuka was captain, and Oishi was vice captain. Even Coach Ryuzaki had transferred to the high school as the tennis coach.

"Are you going to practice?" Tezuka asked, as he saw Fuji put his tennis racquet in his locker. Fuji looked at him with surprise.

"I thought you knew. They cancelled all sports events, including practices, for the entire week." Fuji said, as he started walking to his second period, world history. Tezuka scowled.

"Why?" he asked. Fuji stopped right outside his classroom.

"Tezuka, you really need to be less anti-social. This Friday is the Homecoming Dance." he said, and walked into his classroom. Tezuka sighed and walked to the other side of school towards his chemistry class. Why in the world would they cancel practice for a dance, it's not like it's going to be on the tennis courts, Tezuka thought as he walked. Then, all of a sudden BAM! Something hit him, not hard enough to knock him over, but it somehow managed to knock it's self over. Tezuka looked at the person in front of him. She was on her bottom, her cheeks as red as a tomato, and her eyes looking at him worriedly. He recognized her a Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter, Sakuno Ryuzaki. He held his hand out, and she took it, and he helped her up.

"Tezuka-kun, I'm so sorry! I was in a rush!" she said, looking at him with big eyes, that looked like she was going to cry.

"It was an accident." he said, and started to walked away.

"U-umm…" he heard behind him. He turned around, and saw her looking at him nervously. He looked at her and waited for her to speak.

"I-I'm lost." she said, her cheeks turning even redder than before, as she met his gaze and looked away, in embarrassment. Tezuka looked around for a freshman to help her, and realized everyone had gone to class. He was late to class. He looked back at Sakuno, and figured the teacher would understand, after all he had corrected the teacher's formulas a lot, so he knew his stuff.

"Fine. Where do you have to go?" he asked. She looked up at him and smiled. Her red cheeks went down to pink.

"T-thank you so much! I have to go to math." she said. Tezuka blinked and said, "There is more than one math class, you know." With that, her face flared straight back up to tomato colored.

"O-oh. S-sorry, math 161." she said, clutching the books in her hand, as she looked at him. Tezuka resisted the urge to groan. 161 was all the way on the first floor and they were on the third floor. If it was already a week and the girl couldn't find her way to class, she probably couldn't find it even if she was on the right floor.

"Okay." was all he said, and walked towards to elevator, at the end of the hall.

"I-I…" he heard behind him, and stopped. The girl hadn't moved an inch.

"What?" he said, and she met his eyes for a second, and then looked at the floor.

"I'm not a-allowed to go on the e-elevator. I'm a freshman." she said. Tezuka frowned, and then remembered that last year's freshman had tried to fit as much kids as they could, and from then on, freshman had been banned from the elevators, until they turned into sophomores.

"I see." Tezuka said, and changed his direction towards the stairs. He heard her walking behind him. As he hurried down the stairs, he saw a huge banner on the stairwell. It was advertising the dance. Tezuka resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was now on the second floor, and continued walking. He heard her running, and slowed his pace down. They were now walking side by side, in an uncomfortable silence.

"S-so, when's the first game?" she asked. He took a quick glance at her.

"Two weeks from now." he replied, and silence encircled them again. They were going down the second floors stairs, when she asked,

"Who are you p-playing against?"

"Hyotei." he replied.

"Oh." she said. As they walked down the first floor, in silence again, he decided to ask,

"How did you find your way to your class before?" She looked at him, surprised he said anything.

"I w-was always with my f-friends, and just walked with them and e-ended up there." she said.

"You really ought to pay more attention." he said, as he stopped in front of the room.

"Y-yes, I will. Thank you very much T-Tezuka-kun." she said. He nodded, and she opened the door. The teacher looked, and saw Tezuka outside the door. Tezuka remembered the teacher as Ms. Kirye, who turned red each time she saw him, like now. He realized the entire class was looking at him, as Sakuno went to her seat.

"Tezuka-kun, such a pleasure to see you again, finally decided to visit your old teacher after all this time?" Ms. Kirye said, giggling. Tezuka just stared, impassively, as usual.

"It's not really a good time, is there something you needed?" she asked, her face turning pink, but not as pink as Sakuno's. Tezuka quickly scanned the classroom.

"Ah. Echizen, there will not be practice today." he said, and quickly excused himself, and went to his chemistry class.