Chapter #1

"Shinji! What are you doing? Kick it or get off it, but do something quick!" Touji yelled from the goal box. Shinji, not being one to be very skilled with a ball, immediately froze up at the sight of the two incoming defenders, Kensuke and Akau. With them closing in fast, he had to act quickly.

"Come on Shinji! Get move'n!" Touji yelled again from the backfield. 'Yea, easy for you to say' Shinji thought. Now his options were really growing thin, Kensuke was only about 2 meters to Shinji's right and Akau was about the same distance if not farther on Shinji's left. Once more Shinji froze up and prepared himself for impact. "Ya idiot! Kick the ball or som'then!"

Not only was it the middle of the day, but Shinji had been out on the field for all of last half and most of this half(which makes you wonder who's on the bench (), so now it feels like his brain is about to liquefy in his head. With Akau beginning to bear down on him, Kensuke weaving like an idiot trying to confuse Shinji, and Touji yelling from backfield, Shinji did what came naturally to him. He closed his eyes and swung his foot forward. Time seemed to slow down as Touji's expression changed from frustration and anger to one of shock and amazement, Shinji opens his eyes to jump to keep from being slide tackled by Kensuke, and the ball bounces off Akau's face, sending him to the ground and the ball skyward. As time returned to normal, Shinji turned his head just in time to avoid a full hit on the face, but still got most of his face hit.

After nearly falling flat on his back, Shinji looked around the field. Akau was still holding his face while lying on the ground and Kensuke was trying to recover from his failed tackle attempt. Touji was yelling some damn thing or another, but none of it was getting through to Shinji, who was himself recovering. When Shinji finally saw the ball, the back field was nearly completely empty and the ball was slowly coming to a stop right in front of Shinji. He took the initiative. After moving around the body of Akau with the ball, he began to dribble the ball as fast as his legs would let him.

"Yea! Go Shinji! It's all you!" praises echoed from his teammates as he drove past the last defender. Only one person was left between him and the winning goal. Rei. She always seemed so enigmatic, so reclusive. He noticed that she seemed to have opened up more since the beginning of the year, but still didn't have any friends. 'At least none that I've met,' Shinji thought to himself.

Most of his classmates, well mostly Kensuke and Touji, told him what she was like before he came to the school. Part of Shinji wanted to ask Rei if what they had said was true, part of him was too scared to come even close to her. She was also so quiet, Shinji wanted to ask her about that. Although it had no base in truth, Shinji thought that maybe, if what Touji and Kensuke had said was true, the reason she had become more social, especially with him, was because of him. Secretly, at least he hoped no one else had found out, especially Rei, he thought that, sometimes, like when she blushes, she was actually kind of cute. Shinji blushed himself at the thought.

While Shinji was daydreaming, he became increasingly close to Rei, who was prepared in standard goalie pose. Once Shinji got his head out of the clouds he concentrated on how he was going to get the ball past Rei. 'Oh my,' Shinji thought as he noticed how drenched in sweat Rei was. Shinji swore to himself that the people who made soccer gear deliberately made the jerseys that way, just for him. Once again, Shinji blushed, but even more so. 'Stop it Shinji,' thought Shinji to himself, 'You've got to pull it together, everyone is counting on you! Oh... but Rei looks so... no, got to stop it, she's the goalie. But how to get around her...' At this point Shinji's face was beginning to resemble that of a cherry. 'Come on, Shinji! Snap out of it!'

'What is he doing now?' Rei thought, 'Well, if he isn't going to make the first move, then I will just rush him.' Of course, Shinji was not concerned in the slightest to this fact, but with the girl who was running with the intent to not only achieve possession of the ball, but to sweep Shinji's legs out from underneath him.

"Go Shinji! Let her have it! You can do it!" and a thousand other phrases were shouted in support of Shinji and his, according to them, noble endeavor. It all came down to one thing, whether Shinji was more skilled than Rei. As Rei dove for the ball, Shinji froze up again. 'What am I going to do?'

Just before Rei hit the ball, Shinji pulled it back and kicked it up into the air, much to his and everyone else's surprise, except Rei's who was busy sliding forward on the ground. Not entirely knowing what he was doing, Shinji jumped up, kicked the ball, and landed, just in time to be nailed by Rei. Shinji had just enough time to watch the ball go into the net before his field of vision was encompassed with alternating scenes of Rei, the sky, the ground, his legs, and varying combinations as Rei made contact and they began to roll over each other.

Rei quickly and suddenly got up, brushed herself off, and blushed a little bit more before looking into the net. Shinji thought for sure he saw a hint of embarrassment and depression amidst the emotionless visage of Rei Ayanami as she looked, according to Shinji, longingly at the goal box. Suddenly Rei approached Shinji. His blush grew even more, "Uh... uh... sor...sorr" As Shinji was cut off by Rei, looking emotionless as always, but a little happy and embarrassed, "Good game, Ikari." as she extended her hand to him. Shinji took it in his own and shook it, "Thank you, but I really have no idea how I did that. Oh, and you don't have to call me Ikari, just Shinji is fine."

"Oh... Okay, good game Shinji." Rei said somewhat awkwardly.

'Is that a blush on her face or is the heat getting to me?' Shinji thought quietly to himself.

"Rei... uh... how to say this... would you like to ... um... maybe..." But Shinji's chance was quickly broken as his teammates lifted him upon their shoulders like he was a war hero coming back from the battlefield. Shinji knew he should be happy, and he certainly looked happy enough, but he was nowhere near happy on the inside as his first attempt at asking Rei to do something with him out of school and NERV research was shattered. Anything would have been fine with Shinji, even just a study session so he could get to know her better, maybe understand why she is always so quiet, among other scenarios that he had played out a million times or more in his head. 'Oh well, I'm sure there will be plenty of other times.' Shinji thought as he looked backward at Rei as the mass that is his team moved him away. Shinji knew for sure, unless he was hallucinating, and he hadn't done that for a long time, that Rei had the smallest smile as she looked and waved at him. 'Good game, Shinji, good game' Rei thought and blushed, if not visually then on the inside just before becoming part of the mass holding Shinji up. 'Moving closer to me!' hoped Shinji as he became a little more excited. This was one of the few times since Shinji had started to go to this school that he had ever been so happy, he had scored the winning goal, he was being praised by almost all of his peers, and somewhere in the group was Rei. He hoped happy things like this would happen more often from here on out.

End Chapter #1