The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 1



 

“Eh? Halloween party?”

 

Atobe Keigo nodded his head, waving the invitation for all of his club members to see. It was a clear, crisp piece of paper with intricate blue designs as a border. There was information on time and place on the invitation. No doubt everything about the invitation was done with only the highest quality. Such was expected of the Atobe family.

 

“Ore-sama is holding a Masquerade Halloween Party, for the population of Hyotei. Be awed at the sight of my prowess.”

 

The tennis club looked at each other, blinking.

 

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“Ne, ne -chan! Isn’t it exciting? We’ll be in Atobe-sama’s house! Oh I can’t wait! I must get my seamstress to whip up the best dress her nimble fingers can sew!” The girl giggled, twirling around in her school uniform as she imagined herself on the dance floor with Atobe Keigo. Her friend, , merely looked on with slight interest.

 

“Sou ka… Masquerade Halloween Party…” murmured, looking at her own invitation with hooded eyes. “What are you going to go as, Aya-chan?” Her friend, , clapped her hands gleefully and sighed as she imagined her costume.

 

“I’ll be going as a beautiful maiden, who Atobe-sama can’t resist!” She gasped, before digging into her bag and producing a pencil and paper. “I must design my dress! It has to be perfect so I will be the apple of Atobe-sama’s eye!” And so, she left her friend to entertain herself as she sketched down the details of her Halloween costume.

 

sighed, before bidding her friend goodbye and grabbing her bag off the table. The wheels in her head started to turn, and a vision of herself dancing with the King of Hyotei popped up in her mind, and a slight blush made its way to her cheeks. Alas, that dream would never come true.

 

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“Hmm…”

 

sighed, lying against a sakura tree as she loosely held a day planner in her hands. Flipping through the pages absentmindedly, concluded that her life was boring and she had absolutely nothing to occupy her time. Huffing and dropping the book next to her, thought back to the MHP (Masquerade Halloween Party), and remembered her friend sketching a rather poor drawing of a dress.

 

The ideas were good, just the drawing was horribly done. That gave an idea.

 

She smiled and grabbed her own sketchbook, flipping to a blank page and breaking out her mechanical pencil, beginning to draw. Her drawing skills weren’t horrible, but they weren’t the best either. They were good enough so that people didn’t mistake her horse for a flying pig.

 

It was in that position that Coach Sakaki happened to pass by, and sneak a peek at her agenda. Interest piqued, he made his way over to the quiet girl and cleared his throat. It was very loud, and coach-like, so did the one thing any person caught off guard would do.

 

She jumped in her seat, sending her pencil and sketchbook flying.

 

“S-S-Sakaki-sensei?” stuttered, gathering her things and stuffing them into her bag as she quickly stood up and bowed. Sakaki nodded to the student in greeting. He was a very well known teacher, being the coach of the infamous Hyotei Tennis Team. Girls had been trying to get him to pick them to help out at the tennis courts for years.

 

“I’m sorry to intrude.” He told her, to which she shook her head. “But I was wondering if you’d like to help out in the tennis club; as a manager.”

 

blinked. Once. Twice.

 

“Eh?”





©Snowflake October, 2007