The Soccer Ball's Tune

Chapter One

Alyse Minamoto

The stars were beautiful that night. It was the one thing he smiled at when remembering the night it had happened. He had been scared, but he couldn't deny that there had been a since of unwavering anticipation of the adventure that was sure to come.

"KAMIYA! KAMIYA, you get your ass back here right this instant!" People turned there heads, sighed, and went back to work. The short haired blond woman was often seen running through the building, screaming out curses like there would be no tomorrow. The cause? That was an easy guess.

"No way! Do you think I wanna' commit suicide?" The brunette ducked as the woman chucked her left high heeled shoe at his head with all the strength she could muster.

He was about to turn his head, stick out his tongue at her and insult her poor aim when he saw the senior vice president turn the corner... BAM! He and the woman both stopped short, and the entire hallway usually filled with chit chatting, keys being hit, papers printing, things falling and ruffling papers was uncannily silent. No body dared move, the main two characters of the scene didn't even dare to breath as the shoe, thank god the high heel had missed his face, fell and landed with a loud echoing clank on the tile floor.

His eyes had instinctively closed and now they slowly opened. He looked murderous.

"Ms. Smith, Mr. Kamiya." He said it like he was trying to contain his anger. His face was getting redder by the second.

"Yes, sir?" Ms. Smith said, looking positively scared out of her wits.

"My office. Now." He turned and started walking from the direction he came from. They followed, getting encouraging looks and thumbs-ups from the people who worked in the hall.

The man, or actually he could still be considered a boy, was named Taichi Kamiya. He was only 22 years old and already the vice-captain of the United States Soccer Team. The woman, Juliana Smith, was the teams manager.

As they entered the vice-presidents office their smiles frozen on their faces dropped and frightened looks came instead. Taichi blinked and said, "It wasn't my shoe ya' know." Pointing at his feet, indicating that he had in fact both his shoes on and neither of them were high-heels. He got a cold glare from Ms. Smith and simply smiled at her.

"You have a violent temper Smith-san. It's not my fault. Maybe you just shouldn't be our teams manager anymore. It's so sad that you're having to leave us. We-" He started to pretend he was weeping and was wiping his eyes with his fists and everything when he was interrupted.

"Kamiya." The vice-president said, rubbing his temples with his index fingers.

"Hai?"

"For one: Stop using that blasted Japanese language. We're in America. English is perfectly fine. For two: She's still your manager, as she's the only one besides your teammates who can actually deal with your hysterics without becoming hysterical themselves. For three: I have a punishment for you both."

"You mean more hysterical than she originally is, right?"

"Kamiya!" She glared at him.

"Nani? Smith-san no baka."

"I'M NOT A COW! ARE YOU SPEAKING SPANISH OR JAPANESE HERE?"

"Excuse me! You're punishment will arrive at 5 o' clock in the morning at each of your apartments. I expect you both to be wide awake, completely sober and ready for the horror of you lives. Now, get out of my office!" He pointed towards the door, "Now!"

"I wonder if we'd be better off getting drunk." Taichi said, grinning as he left the office.

"Even if we would be, you seem to have a problem with getting drunk. In fact," She turned around and looked at him questioningly, "I've never seen you drink before. I mean I know you've only been allowed to drink for a year and two months but really. You don't even drink at birthday parties." She'd closed her eyes and raised her head before that last sentence, as if trying to recall him ever drinking. When she brought her head back down and asked, "How come?" She noticed he wasn't there.

She turned her head all directions and then saw him talking with one of his teammates like he hadn't been listening to her at all. She sighed and thought, 'Whatever happened to him before he came here... I hope he gets over it.'

"Great… The horror was a photo-shoot. And interviews! No! I don' wanna' do it! Smith-san! Smith-san! Zachary! Michael! Jeremy! Help me! Terry! Travis! Alan!" He looked ridiculous. A big African man wearing a black suit and lifted him in the air and was holding onto him by the waist, walking into the building where he would get his photo-shoot taken. He was struggling, kicking, and waving his arms about while literally screaming for help! His teammates were not coming to his aid when he needed them but were actually following him while having huge grins on their faces.

"You deserve it Tai."

"Yeah Tai. You never take pics with us."

'Oh, those evil bastards...' Tai thought before he was rudely dropped into a chair and just before he could make his escape, at least 10 woman, all with frilly clothes and over done make-up, rushed over and started undressing him, dressing him, applying make-up to him and playing with his hair... His hair!

"No, no, no! No touchy the hair!"

"Oh, sorry!" That's right. No touchy when it comes to the hair. He had cut it a while back and had never, ever forgiven himself for it. He was so happy when it grew back. His hair was meant to be long and sticking out all over the place.

It took a few moments but he blinked himself out of his reverie after the woman stopped touching him. Now they were going, "Oh my god!", "He's so good looking.", "I wanna' marry him.", "Lucky girl whoever's got him around her fingers." and even just plain "Wow."

Taichi rolled his eyes. He had been rather popular in Japan, as he had been, well, him. But ever since he'd come to America every girl he'd met, besides Ms. Smith, had wanted to either sleep with him, eat him, mug him, or just plain stare at him until they learned how to sleep while still looking at him.

"Pictur' tim!" A loud voice yelled from the room next to the one he was in and he could already tell whoever it was had a really thick accent. Worse than his own.

"Nowz, coulds yooze goz ahead and loo'... loo'... shexie? Plays?" Everyone looked stupefied. What in gods name did he just say? Taichi unfortunately, had a guess what the guy wanted. He sighed, and complied.

He was wearing tight black pants, black dress shoes and a silky dark blue button up shirt. He undid the first three buttons and his team was yelling at him, "Ooh! You gonna' strip for us Tai? Oh, I'm gonna' feint. He's so hot." They were all exclaiming the same things and acting as if they'd gone weak in the knees but they all had huge grins on their faces and were trying to keep from laughing.

"Yeah yeah. Shut-up you guys." He laid down on the green carpet and laid his elbows on the ground, head resting on his fists. He smiled, and looked... Good enough to make the guys who were acting like they'd gone weak in the knees to actually lose their balance and fall, still staring at him.

"H-hey? You guys? Is it weird to see him like that? Or is it just me?" Zachary said, half upside down on the ground.

"I think it's weird."

"Yeah."

"Me too."

Taichi rolled his eyes again. He couldn't believe he actually called them friends. They were just way too strange for comfort. "As if I'd ever go for one of you anyway."

After several position and outfit changes Taichi was left sitting in a big blue chair with his red, white and blue soccer uniform on. It was interview time and the reporter people looked scary. His teammates each had their own seats and decided, "Okay, it's time for you to fuss up some answers Tai."

"Mr. Kamiya. You are one of the most sought after bachelors in all of New York and half the country. Is there a special girl who's caught your heart and tucked it away?"

Taichi smiled and shook his head, "Sorry but not quite."

"Sir, the inter-nationals are coming up and your suited to play against the Kyoto team of Japan, correct? How do you feel about going up against your own country?"

"A game is a game, right? Who cares who I'm going up against. Besides I'm in America, I'm playing for America and as far concerned right now I'm pure American."

"How is it you don't have an accent at all?"

"A gift, maybe?"

"How come you've never come out before to let us "Americans" be able to put a face and a personality with the ever popular name Taichi Kamiya."

"I just... don't like publicity."

"Mr. Kamiya, what are you looking for in a lover?"

Everyone paused, and waited for his answer.

"What do I look for in a lover? Blond hair, blue eyes, and damned good singing voice."

"That seems to be directed towards someone you know. Is it?"

He smiled. "Actually... It just might be."

w/ love

Alyse