Tennis no Ojou-sama: A Prince of Tennis Fan Fiction

CHAPTER 113: Sweet Play-acting

Seishun Academy in one of its busiest times...

It was Thursday after lunchtime and the sun was shining upon the main school building, making the establishment cast a long elongated shadow towards the grounds. Inside, students could be seen scurrying from here to there, avoiding colliding with each other in corridors as they push, pull and carry around stuff to and from their respective rooms.

Since the official announcement from the student council came out on Tuesday morning, the day's classes on that week had been shortened to half a day so that the whole afternoon could be used for the preparation of the most-awaited cultural festival. To sum it up, Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon had been used for the initial stage of the preparations.

In actuality, classes should've been cancelled from Friday until Saturday so that the whole two days could be spent on working for the festival but after reviewing the plans that each class had submitted, the student council decided that two days won't be enough for the preparations. The plans were grander than they have thought because they lifted the budget ban. Last year's cultural fest had specific budget bans on the class booth and the presentation and thus things were made simpler. Without the budget ban, the classes became a lot more imaginative in what they wanted to do for the festival. There was also a competitive spirit regarding the theatrical presentation because of the rewards that the student council offered. Everyone wanted to win.

Sunday would be a supplementary day for final checking of the class booths before the festival opens to the public on Monday. It was also the final submission for the scripts to be used for the theatrical presentations and thus, even with the festival ongoing, the students still had to stay after school hours to rehearse for their play. The founding ceremony, as the students called it, had always been shown before the eve of the last day of the festival which fell on Friday morning until the afternoon. After the presentations would be the poll voting and the announcement of individual awards. On Friday night, the actual eve of the last day of the festival, there would be a bonfire which included the school's folk dance party on which exciting surprise events would be shown by the student council; whilst on Saturday, the final day of the festival, would be the final chance for the class booths to boost their sales and popularity. The festival would officially end once the sun had set and the awards ceremony for the class rewards would be announced.

The student council had planned for the festival a few months prior and thus, the plans were thoroughly made and seen through. When the students saw the printouts for the schedule of the week-long fest, they couldn't help but scream in excitement.

Thanks to the classes being cut and the preparations starting earlier than they originally thought, there was a gay and merry atmosphere all over the school and even the teachers were affected by it. Not wanting to ruin the festive mood, they let the students off the hook whenever they made noise during the morning classes. Clearly, the students won't be able to concentrate on lessons with the preparations ongoing. They even gave extended breaks and dismissed class early. The students loved how the teachers let them slack off.

Among the entire student body, only one person seemed less than enthusiastic about the early start of the preparations and it was Mami. What was the point of their class having a head start with the play if the preparations would start early? She was jeopardized by how the other classes seem to be catching up on their progress.

"That is if we're making real progress..." she thought bitterly. Her eyes start to sting with frustrated tears every time she thinks of that.

Ever since the verbal fight between Ryoma and Ryouko on Monday after school hours, their class didn't really advance too many steps. She could still remember how everyone stood on tiptoes on Tuesday morning, especially when the two main protagonists entered the classroom.