Day 1 of Tryouts

"I hope this works." I mutter under my breath. The bathrooms had been empty, so I had quickly gotten changed and hurried to the field. Getting changed had taken longer than I thought, I was in such a hurry I had nearly forgot my beanie.

Arriving at the field, my expectation was confirmed. All the players trying out for the team were snobby rich dudes. I instantly hated them all. I let out a sigh of relief knowing that none of them even noticed me. Looking around, everyone is talking to each other. Carefully, I listen in.

"I hope the girls show up." One of them say. "Me too." Replies someone else. "What's the point in playing if there's no one to show off to?" Another one goes on.

They're all sickening.

After stretching, I stand up and begin walking the area of the field. I can feel the others attention turn towards me. I already had the disadvantage, I had never played on this field and it felt unnaturally flat. Well, at least the coach will notice me. Ugh, what am I saying? I only wanna make the team. Not be noticed. I ignore them to the best of my abilities but I can't. I hate it, I hate it all.

It didn't take much time for the coach to arrive. We were all handed numbers to help the coaches recognize us with only a glance, I received number 11. Coach had us start with the basic endurance drills. In length we did a few laps around the field and three sets of triple suicides. From what I had observed the fastest person was some red head. Some people dropped out pretty quickly but, most people toughed it out. Looking at the stands, it was obvious why. The girls were here.

They all seemed to be swooning over us, I just chuckled at the thought that I was actually a girl. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have been able to tryout for the soccer team if people knew that. So, naturally I continued to hide it. I had to pin up my long hair under my beanie and wear a slightly baggy top 24/7.

One of the guys was flirting with all of the girls during our water break. From the back it looked like he had blonde hair and was only slightly taller than the average student. I always find it pathetic when guys do that. It seems rude to everyone around in my eyes. But hey, what does an honor student like me know about rich people? For all I know every guy in the school is like that.

"Gather up!" Coach Hibiki yelled. All of us headed over to him expecting a drill. I think we were all surprised when he said we were going to scrimmage against each other. "It will determine many factors and capabilities quicker than some drills. However, the losing team will not be coming to tomorrow's tryouts." He said explaining his reasons. "The captains will be Hinata and Fotoshi." The fast red head and a black haired dude stepped up. "You'll be picking teams like elementary students. Fotoshi will go first." Students were picked one by one. I was chosen last by Hinata. "Hinata's team will choose jerseys first." Everyone wanted the royal blue jerseys, leaving Fotoshi's team with forest green or pale yellow. They had chosen the green.

I threw the jersey over my shirt and we began the game with Fotoshi's team kicking off. They had me playing left midfield. The game was pretty even. Annoyingly enough, I hardly ever got the ball since I was a honor student. The few times I did were because I got it away from Fotoshi's team. On one of those occasions I had to do a high kick while jumping just to get the ball out of the air. The ball had a lot of power in it but no control. In other words, the guy who kicked it had the natural ability but no knowledge on how to use it.

After making a failed attempt at controlling it, I looked to see who kicked it. It was that flirting blonde from earlier. After a few goals we ended in a 2-2 tie. It was actually pretty fun, however our last goal was scored by the blonde on the other team at the last moment. He was just a show off. We ran another lap around the field as a cool down. Once we were finished, we were instructed to listened to the coach.

"Well, you all did decent." He grunted. "However, we do have high expectations for you. So the people who are to come back tomorrow are numbers, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 40, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 62, 64, 65, 67 and 68.

Yes! I thought to myself. I could still make the soccer team.

"For those of you who are confused by the results, let me explain. Today we tested 6 different things. The first priority was your sportsmanship. Second was the ability to play under pressure. Third was your determination. Fourth was your overall attitude. Fifth was your general skills. Sixth was your knowledge of the game." He looked at us with determination. "For those who didn't make tomorrow's roster. I was never going to kick you out for losing. I do hope you learn from this and stop flaunting for girls." Just as I began to like Coach Hibiki he continued, "Girls are weak and unable to appreciate the world of sports. I'm disappointed in all of you for being such idiots."

It was infuriating. I tuned Coach Hibiki out. My jaw and fists were clenched and I'm pretty sure my legs were shaking. Luckily, I was in the back so no one could really see me. I however saw them. Some were agreeing, others were ashamed, others were angry that they couldn't hang out with them. The blonde one from earlier seemed to have the same reaction as me, but then again he was a sad excuse for a human being too.

"You're dismissed." Coach Hibiki finished. I quickly grabbed my stuff and took the bus home.

Day 2 of Tryouts

After a day of long classes I hurried to the girls bathrooms. As usual they were empty. From what I had heard they were all visiting a club run by 'charming' guys. "Stupid." I muttered under my breath. The girls at this school are just as idiotic as the guys. Putting on my beanie I ran to the field.

Feeling accomplished I pulled my black and green ball out to practice ball control. I chose to do the basics first. Bells came first and toe touches came second and juggling came third I continued it in a repeating pattern. Looking up I was surprised to see that this time instead of talking the guys were practicing some shots on goal. The black haired guy, Fotoshi, was playing as goalkeeper, and he really rocked at it. As I went back to my own practice I began thinking about what the coach said yesterday. I don't understand how he could say that girls can't appreciate sports. From what occurred yesterday you'd think that the boys were the ones who didn't have any appreciation for soccer.

"Hi there!" I jumped in surprise. I didn't think anyone would talk to me. I turned to see the ever flirting blonde. "I'm Suoh Tamaki." He sounded way too cheerful.

"Uh, hello." I said with surprise.

"I meant to tell you yesterday that you were awesome when you got that ball out of the air! It was amazing!" He was acting like a seven year old! "I've never seen that happen before!"

"What do you mean? There were plenty of other players taking the ball out of the air." I asked. It wasn't that big of a deal right?

"Yeah but that was my starlight kick! Most people get hurt when I do it but Fotoshi asked me to. Oh! Did I get you hurt?" All of a sudden he kept on asking me questions. I pretty much ignored him and continued my warm up, but he kept on talking, and talking, and talking.

It hadn't even been 5 minutes before I ran out of patience, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Leave. Me. Alone." He looked shocked and crouched in front of the bleachers muttering incomprehensibly. Suoh, Suoh... Now where have I heard that name before? I question myself. Suoh... My eyes widen with shock as I realized that he must be a relative of the school's chairman. Oh crud, I'm in trouble.

"Gather up boys!" Coach Hibiki says approaching us, we all jog in together. "Now the chairman refused my proposal to only allow the boys to have access to the field. So now that the girls are here we are going into the weight room for some strength testing."

I was dead. I could do a lot of the same things as the guys but I sucked at weights. Don't get me wrong, I'm not weak. I'm just not strong...

Coach began walking towards the school's building. I had grabbed my stuff when everyone else did. Well, everyone except for a particular blonde who was still sulking. I began to walk away but Blondie showed no sign of moving. Sighing I grabbed the stuff left behind by the other guys, assuming it belonged to him, and began to walk over to him. "Oi! Mr. Suoh! We're going!" I said doing so. He looked around and immediately jumped up. "Catch!" I said throwing his stuff at him. I then began running after everyone else. That should make him hesitant to report anything to the chairman. I thought to myself.

"Stop lying."

"Oh, shut up!" I muttered under my breath.

I had caught up to everyone well before we arrived at the room, Blondie however barely made it. "Okay now," Coach said turning to us. "We'll use basic stations. You should all know how to use them, if you have any questions just raise your hand." Of course when we entered the room it was unnecessarily grand. 'I swear.' Luckily enough it was being used by the tennis team. Coach deadpanned as he shut the door. "Okayyy then. I suppose we'll do interviews..." I'm pretty sure we all deadpanned after that comment.

"Interviews?" One of the boys asked. "What do they have to do with soccer? I mean come on, it's not like we're asking for a job right?" Most of the guys agreed. I expected one of them to point out that it was another test of everyone's personality. What I wasn't expecting was who did or how he did it. It was that darn blonde again.

"It's obvious isn't it? If we all are still here it means that we simply adore soccer. If we didn't we wouldn't be here. Now we only want people that are beautiful inside." He had been posing throughout his entire explanation. Changing it after every sentence. I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes more than humanly possible in those 30 seconds.

Coach Hibiki was still deadpanned. "Well, yes. I suppose you could phrase it like that. I wanted to do them tomorrow since it would've been the last day but..." We all understood what he meant. 'I don't want any girly people.' Or maybe that was just me. For being so considered about other peoples' personalities he was extremely harsh on girls. "Well, this way please." We all followed him through the hallways and towards a room labeled 2D. "Okay, I'll be taking you one at a time. Please wait here till I call your number. Number 1 you'll be first." Hinata stood up and followed coach into the room.

A certain blonde approached me saying, "Hi!"

"Ah... Hello Mr. Suoh." I said attempting to filter out my annoyance.

"So you didn't forget about me!" He said happily. Groaning, I got up and got out some of my homework from my math class. I thought that I may as well be productive while I wait. They were all pretty easy, finding the values of x's and y's were no trouble. However, blondie looking over my shoulder was a problem.

"May you please stop." I asked not even trying to hide my annoyance this time. "I can't focus."

Acting oblivious to my statements he asked, "Hey, are you a second year too?" I gave a shook my head no. He suddenly gasped, "Are you a honor student then!?"

Glaring, I asked, "What of it?" It was just my luck to run into someone this annoying, but to teased by someone like that? Well... I guess this must be what I bargained for I suppose.

"COOOOLLLL!" He squealed. "I can't believe this! Another commoner! Ooooo just wait for when Haruhi hears about this!" Annoyed, I got up and walked to the opposite side of the hall. He just wouldn't shut up. Everyone was stuck listening to blondie ramble on and on till number 8 was called. Lucky for all of us that happened to be him. When he came out though, he looked locked into a depressed shock. All I could say was that he was quiet, and it was peaceful.

When coach Hibiki poked his head out of the room and said, "Number 11." I put my homework away and got up and walked in. The room looked like it was more of an interrogation room more than a school room."Hello 11."

"Hello." I greeted him while taking the seat across from him.

"Well, first things first," I said "You are Tsuratsi Rosaku correct?" I nodded. "Okay, you are also an honor student right?" I nodded again. "Okay, so why would you come to Ouran High?

"Ummm... Do I have to answer that one?" I asked hesitantly.

He answered sternly, "Yes."

"Well... The soccer program is pretty good and I thought that rich kids would have trainers which would make scrimmaging against them interesting and help me polish my skills." I paused, "The academics here are pretty standard here with the exception of money management which is on a much higher scale than I'm use to . Not to mention that it would look pretty good on a resume and college." I said listing all the reasons except the one turning point.

He just hmmed and continued, "So, how long have you played soccer?"

"This would be my eighth year." 'Easy question' I thought to myself.

Nodding, he said "Okay, how old are you?"

"15"

"So, why do you like soccer?"

Shrugging I answered, "Well, I suppose it has to do with the fact that it's competitive and I've been doing it for a while now but I can't tell you what exactly. I just like it."

He began jotting stuff in a blue spiral notebook, "What would you do if teammate was looking upset?"

"I don't know if I could do anything. I'd try to ask what's wrong but I don't know what I'd do afterwards. People are easy to read but if you don't know them it's hard to pinpoint the problem, much less cheer them up."

"What makes you a good soccer player?"

"I'm fine with being aggressive and I can be really fast when I want to of all I'm determined and will be on this team no matter what."

"What are you bad at in soccer?"

"Well... my biggest weakness would be that I occasionally do high kicks that can be called fouls."

"Mmhm, what do you think a soccer team needs?" He asked.

"Team work, communication, understanding, determination, willingness to be aggressive, speed, control, trust, heart, and a goal."

"Okay, what do you think we need to avoid at all costs?"

"Tension between players, cockiness, big egos and the 'blame game'."

"How do you think a leader should act?"

"Kind and firm, knows what to say and when to say it, and experienced. He has to know what he's doing, not to mention good at it. He obviously can't be rude and harsh, if he's that he'll sap the team spirit away. However, he needs to have his own personality and seem human."

"Interesting..." He scribbled something down again. After a few more questions he asked, "What would you do if a girl was looking upset?"

Obviously I was shocked, this was a horrible question to ask. Especially considering the fact that I was me. I kept on thinking, What do I say?! Should I lie? I didn't know what to do. I kept a poker face, but I was mentally screaming. "Well..." I paused. "No comment."

He looked at me like I had said the most stupid thing in the world. "What do you mean no comment?!"

"Just what I said. I don't think this is a fair question, so I'll skip it."

"What do you mean unfair?"

"A normal person would say that they would ask what's wrong, however... given the amount of disdain you've directed towards girls that could make someone say what you want to hear rather than what they think. Besides, you can't just say a girl. you could be talking about a 3 year old or a 13 year old. So, I think this is unfair, we either betray ourselves or drop the team which in and of itself would be a betrayal to ones' self as well." I walked out of the room angry and waited.

After we had gone through everyone Coach came out and began talking about how given the complaints he'd received no one would be thrown out of tryouts till tomorrow, when the final team would be chosen. On the team there would be a grand total of 18 players. However, our results today would factor into our overall qualification, so we would try extra hard if we felt that we had done poorly.

The interviews took much longer than yesterday's tryouts. Groaning I grabbed my stuff and hurried off campus praying that the city bus was still there. By the time I had reached the bus stop, the bus had already left. I walked the half hour home instead of waiting an hour for the bus.

Final Day of Tryouts

I had just finished stretches before Coach Hibiki had gotten there. He seemed to be in an extra foul mood today, granted there were more girls here than ever before. It seemed like there were also guys in the stand, six to be exact. I was pretty annoyed that they all seemed to be flirting with all the girls in the stands. It seemed that all the guys at this school flirt with all the girls at once. I was incredibly relieved reminding myself that no one knew I was a girl.

After Coach had gotten here he said that we were going to do simple drills. I think that we were all relieved to know that there wasn't gonna be another personality test. I felt kinda doubtful, put me in a game and I could do anything, in drills I had a bit of trouble focusing. We began with a simple shooting drill while rotating out goalies. Hibiki would pass us the ball and we were suppose to shoot it with only one touch. Red head Hinata kicked placed the ball so perfectly I was genuinely impressed.

On my first turn I got it just high enough so that the goalie couldn't reach. My second was on the ground just right of the left post, however, I was lucky that it had made it in. The third was beautifully placed but the person in goal was Fotoshi, and he was able to stop it by using the goal's top bar to swing on.

After a few more turns we switched to a basic passing drill. We'd get the ball and pass it to the person in front of the opposite doing so we'd get in the back of that line. It was simple enough. The next was a 1 minute, 1 on 1 scrimmage, basically we'd go against a random person and try to get the ball and score in a 2 foot goal. Following that drill, we had dribble in and out of a long string of cones. The last drill we did was just dribbling and shooting. There were no defenders, no goalies, no obstacles, the only limitation was that we couldn't go past the penalty mark. Something was wrong, these were all really simple drills. I looked at the coach, he was writing stuff in that notebook of his, wearing the most bored expression ever. What's he plotting? I wondered.

Ignoring my thoughts I went back to watching everyone's response and capability shown in the drills. Some had amazing control while no speed, others had perfect coordination but faltered with aggression. Me, I can't say I was good or bad at anything, if I did, it would be bias. However, there was one person in particular that had kept on kicking his ball way to far. I think he had broken 6 windows by the time tryouts were done. It was that confounded blonde again. When it seemed like he had no control it wasn't a fluke. He had repeatedly tried the exact same kick that I had stopped in the scrimmage.

"Well that's all for today guys!" Coach hollered, "Bring it in!" Everyone jogged over to coach who was standing by all of our stuff. "From what I've seen these past three days has been good. The results of the tryouts will be posted in the chairman's room, after lunch tomorrow. The ones who make the team will meet here after school. You are dismissed."

I had packed up my bag and slung it over my shoulder. I had already turned away when a certain irritating voice called out, "Hey! 11!" I turned around to see non other than the loud-mouthed blonde.

"What?" I asked, expressionless.

"This way!" He shouted grabbing me by the collar and dragging me towards the bleachers at impossible speeds. He finally stopped in front of the bleachers waving very charismatic at the six boys that came today. "HEY! HARUHI!" He shouted. By glancing at them I saw that, one wore glasses, two were orange haired twins, another had black hair and a strong build, another looked like an elementary student, the last one had large brown eyes.

"Huh?" I asked.

The six boys made their way down the stands. "Calm down Boss." The twins said, in synchronization. "You wouldn't wanna make Haruhi upset right?" The one on the left said. "Of course we'll make him feel better if you want?" The one on the right said.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY-" Before Blondie could finish his sentence he was interrupted by glasses boy.

"Ahem" He said clearing his throat. "Who was it that you wanted to introduce us to?"

Blondie looked like he had just remembered something. "Oh! Yeah!" He instantly changed his attitude from a hyper/angry one to a more serious and gentlemanly(ish) one. "Haruhi, this is 11. 11, this is Fujioka Haruhi." He said gesturing between me and the one with abnormally big brown eyes.

I looked at him with disdain and irritation, "My name is not 11. Now may you please leave me alone." I turned around and began to walk away.

"But you and Haruhi are both honor students!" That made me stop and turn around.

"What?" Haruhi and I asked, synchronizing just as the twins had.

I more shocked than anything. This guy was an honor student too? He had to be rich, I mean he is wearing the school uniform