A group of 4 big, burly young men watched as Duo practically skipped away from the new girl Relena. Could it be that he had actually gotten a date??? Not bloody likely. That guy had worse luck with girls than a brick wall. It was a wonder that he even tried.

It had already been decided by him and his gang that Duo Maxwell was a person they would have to deal with now. Duo’s gang had quite a reputation preceding this school, and had already proven to be a small problem.

The leader of the four men didn’t like having another NEW gang spring up on *his* turf. They were second year students, and spent the last year making sure they were the only real force at this high school. . And they weren’t about to relinquish command of their territory until AFTER they had left the school. And only then to whomever the leader chose. Since Duo was the leader of the Yankees. He would have to be the one whom they would “talk” to. Get of rid of the head guy, you get rid of the problem.

They would have to wait until after school, when no one was watching. Either way this was going to be fun. He wanted to buy a new punching bad anyway.

They later found out from the school grapevine that Duo did actually have a date, well kinda. That Relena was going to teach Duo how to play basketball. That should be fun to watch, a gang leader learning sports. It would be after the little lesson, when Duo would be leaving the building that they would strike.

Duo couldn’t wait to get out of class. He had been looking forward to this all afternoon. He quickly changed from whatever he was wearing to some good pants and a nice shirt he had hidden in his locker for just such an occasion. He then brushed his hair and put it back up in a nice braid.

He called over to his friends before heading upstairs, telling them to wait for him after school. But he new they would be hidden on the roof watching his every move, waiting for the let down. Ahh with friends like them WHO needed enemies.

On the roof Relena was already changed into shorts and a T-shirt. She took one look at Duo and dropped her ball to the ground.

“Um Duo aren’t you a little overdressed to be playing basketball?”

After a few seconds Duo clued in to what she meant, he could hear some muffled laughter to the left of him. Those guys, he would get them, they could have at least warned him.

“No, no. This is what I uhhh always wear to play sports. But if you think I should wear something more casual. NO PROBLEM. I’ll do that next time.”

Relena smiled at him. And passed him the ball. He caught it the first time round and just stared at it. “What do I do with it?”

“Well the object is to get it into the other basket. Some people just throw it in, but others who are tall enough or can jump high enough do a Slam-Dunk.”

“ A Slam-Dunk?? What’s that?”

Relena got this far off look in her eyes and started to explain. “Well, it is when you run and jump up so high that you can just SLAM the ball into the net. The first time I saw a really good Slam-Dunk was at my old school. That is where I met Heero Yui. He just ran up it the net and slammed it in so hard, he almost broke the net. He is just so amazing.”

All Duo’s warning lights starting going off at this moment. She was in love with Heero. Again he could hear much louder muffled laughter coming from the sidelines. Was he cursed? Was he paying up for some bad deed in a past life?

“So who is this Heero guy, your boyfriend??”

Red immediately rose to her cheeks. “Oh NO!!! I haven’t even met him yet.”

Duo smiled to himself, she didn’t have a boyfriend. He still had a chance. She may not be the type of girl he would EVER fall for, but she was turning out to be a friend AND it was not like he could be that picky. After that she could have all the Heero she wanted. But first he had to impress her a bit with his basketball skills. And find out if he had any.

“Well that’s no problem. I am sure you can admire him from afar. Now let’s try this Slam-Dunk thing. I BET I could do it.”

With that he made a huge run for the net. He was only wearing some old 80’s style tennis shoes and the laces started to come undone. Duo tripped over one of the laces and went flying for the net. He slammed into the net holding onto the rail for dear life. Unfortunately the railings was slippery so he couldn’t hold on for long, and fell, back first to the ground.

He slowly regained consciousness and looked to the side. He could make out Solo and the others frozen with their mouths open, not from worry, but from surprise. This made Duo a bit confused and he looked up, only to see a cheering Relena. “WOW I can’t believe you jumped that high, and WHAT A SLAM-DUNK!!!! You just have to join the team now.”

HA he did it. He did a Slam-Dunk. Actually he didn’t’ know what he had done, but he did it. Heero, eat your heart out, here comes Duo Maxwell…THE BasketBall player.

The second year gang was now waiting for Duo outside the school. They had never been more surprised in their life when watching the game. Duo had actually turned at trip into an amazing Slam-Dunk. Too bad the BasketBall team would never get to use him, after they got done with him.

“Hey Leroy over here, I found someone.”

Leroy turned his head to see one of his guys leaning over a person sleeping on the ground, right in front of the school. “We can’t afford witnesses, just get rid of him.

The other boy started nudging the sleeping boy on the ground with his foot. When he started to wake up, the gang member yelled at him. “Hey if you know what is good for you, SCRAM now. The boy on the ground opened one sleepy eye and started to stand up. He had dark bushy hair that seemed to be still in a mess from sleeping and Prussian blue eyes, eyes that were now fixed in a glare. He practically growled at them. “NEVER, EVER wake me up when I am sleeping.” That was the only thing he said before he started to kick serious butt.

Duo had never been so happy in his life. For some reason he was happier about the Slam-Dunk than he was about impressing Relena. He was just glad to have found something that he was good at, besides terrorising teachers, that is.

He stepped outside into the bright sunshine, only to be met with the sight of a tall dark man standing around a group of fallen men. He recognized them as that second year school gang he had heard about. But he couldn’t place the boy. He was now standing above the fallen students expressionless, and just stared at Duo for a few seconds. He had a little trail of blood flowing down his face, probably from the fight. As dumb as Duo pretended to be, he wasn’t really that stupid and he figured out rather quickly what had happened.

Before he could say anything to the boy in front of him. He heard a glass-shattering screech. “HEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRROOOOOOOOO!!!!! Are you ok, there’s blood. What happened, I’ll call the ambulance.”

So THIS was Heero, Duo thought. He seemed like an ok enough guy, he had taken care of this gang all by himself, didn’t he. But in one-second Duo’s good opinion of the student was gone as Heero turned to Relena and glared at her. “Shut up and mind your own buisness!”1

NOW, Duo was pissed. Relena may have an incredibly annoying voice, but that was no reason to treat her badly when she was only trying to help. He ran over to the unsuspecting Heero and punched him as hard as he could. Heero was flung back from the impact, but somehow still managed to remain standing. Relena just looked like she was going to kill….DUO. “STOP IT DUO, you’ll hurt him. Heero you have to go to the hospital.”

“WAIT a minute, now *I’M* the bad guy.” 2

Heero’s expression changed for a whole two second while looking at Duo but than went back to its normal scowl. “I SAID, mind your own business.” He then stormed off quickly in the direction of his house.

Relena could only turn to Duo and screamed. “ I HATE you!!! I never want to see you again.” And following Heero’s lead, stormed off to the direction of HER house. Great, thought Duo, just GREAT.

Heero was walking slowly back to his house, but the dizziness was starting to get to him. He stopped for a second and sighed. This was a first, that Baka had hit him harder than he had thought. Heero had been fine up until he had met Duo’s fist. Maybe he should go for a check up after-all.

TBC…….