Chapter 1
Enter, Ayame Toyoku!
"GOAL!"
Ayame Toyoku screamed and raised both of her fists to the air as she scored the last minute goal that would make her team the champion for this year's interstate competition.
All of her teammates, from Amanda to Hazel, ran to her with the same over-the-top smile that Ayame had. May and Suzy carried Ayame on each of their shoulders as the whole team roared along with the crowd.
"A-YA-ME!"
'The recent back-to-back championship of the Lady Lions Football Club started at the debut of supposed Japanese soccer child prodigy, Ayame Toyoku.'
"A-YA-ME!"
'There are also rumors that the 12 year old girl will be given a spot in the USA's U16 national team.'
"A-YA-ME!"
'She shows a lot of compromise and may even be the future star of football in the females division.'
"A-YA-ME!" The continuous chants were slowly becoming less by the second.
'That is, if she ever recovers from her injury.'
All over the field, evil laughter was heard as Ayame widened her eyes at the cackling faces of each person, including her teammates. Not able to take the pressure and humiliation, the girl screamed.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!" I opened my eyes to see a face extremely close to mine. Without thinking, I punched the person's cheek without a second thought, making the person jump back.
"Itai! What was that for?!" Otousan said, holding the spot that made contact with my fist.
My eyes widened in realization, "Oh, sorry." I chuckled. "At least I didn't damage anything that wasn't already broken."
He glared at my reply, "Where did I go wrong in raising you to be the sweet feminine daughter I've always wanted?"
"Maybe it was the part you kept buying me toy guns and soccer balls as a kid." I deadpanned. As a single dad, my father didn't really know how five year-old girls' interests differed from boys', so he ended up with a slightly violent, soccer-addicted, and ill-tempered daughter. The ill-tempered part is all me though, meh.
"Yeah, well, besides that." He swayed his hand to the side as if sweeping aside my comment. "Anyways, we're here."
Eh? I look to the side and saw a two-story house that was painted a pale brown color. It looked normal… Outside, that is. I stepped out of the car and walked into the house.
Upon entering, a big stairway covered with red carpet immediately came into my view. To the left side from where I was a doorway. It was a large room, with a flat screen TV on the wall with speakers covering the wall. A large couch was placed in front on the screen. Behind the couch was a long table that contained tons of DVDs, a popcorn maker, and a mini-fridge.
Just kidding.
Mwahahaha. I'm so evil. Anyway, what really happened was that I entered the house to be greeted with a semi-American set-up. There was a small kitchen that was connected to the dining room and of course a living room, where there was a TV set up. Upstairs were two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Opening the last door, which was the second bedroom, I gasped in awe. The. Walls. Were. Painted. GREEN. I felt someone come up behind me, which was probably dad… or maybe it's a Voldemort! Oh God, what if I become The Girl Who Lived?! Then I can finally meet Draco and his hotness. I wonder if I'll be in Slyth-
"So what do you think of your room?" Otousan asked, interrupting my inner rant. I took a moment to look around my room and saw that all my previous belongings were already placed in the room. The soccer medals and trophies, Naruto stuffed toys, Harry Potter and Avengers posters were all placed in their respective places.
Hearts started to appear around me when I turned into my chibi-form and fell on my knees, "IT'S PERFECT! Thank you for fixing my room, otousan! Green reminds me of Loki! So that means I can fall asleep with him on my mind and dream of him every night now!" I stated with a dream-like gaze.
Pause scene. Now, you may be asking why I am acting such a girl if I was brought up as a child with boy things. You see, my fellow girl teammates influenced me to become more girl-like when they saw that I—how can I state this plainly— was a tomboy. Thus, a psychotic fangirl was with a soccer obsession. But they didn't succeed in getting me to wear dresses. Cue victory pose! Play.
Otousan sweatdropped and silently muttered, "I shouldn't have asked." He shook his head at me. "Anyway, I'm glad you like it. I take it that your flight went well?"
I nodded at him enthusiastically with a small snicker, remembering how I spent the whole ride watching movies and annoying the flight attendants.
"Good. Oh, and you start school this Monday at Seishun Gakuen."
My eyes widened at his words, "Nani! Already?!"
"You already missed about two weeks of school, kid!" Otousan said while wagging his finger at me. "Besides, today's Thursday so you still have three days to rest."
"Demo-"
"No buts! That's final." He playfully smirked.
"Fine." I muttered, defeated. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was only doing this to make fun of me by using his 'fatherly authority'. Oh wait, I do know better. I rolled my eyes at otousan's immaturity and lied down on my new bed.
He laughed smugly at his so-called victory and walked towards the door. "Good girl."
After otousan left, a few minutes passed with nothing but the sound of the TV from downstairs filling my room. Looking around my room once more, my eyes landed on the soccer trophies and medals on top of the cabinet and started thinking about my current situation.
'Will I ever be able to play as well as before? How long will it take for me to recover? What If they give my spot on the team to someone else?' I sighed to myself. 'Calm down, Ayame, don't overthink things.'
My thoughts slowly drifted back to the day I almost lost everything I worked hard for...
In the large, green soccer field, a lone figure stood near the goal line. The girl had almost been there the whole afternoon, spending her day soaked in the sun, but time flew by her and nightfall had befallen. The bright moon that in the dark sky was her only light right now since the place had officially closed an hour ago.
Ayame was breathing heavily as she planned how to make her goal, imagining that there were opponents along the field. Although the pain of her right leg almost made her want to stop her from playing for the night, she knew that she couldn't. She won't lose to some minor ache. She just can't.
With one last big breath, she ran towards the middle of the field, zigzagging along the way with incomprehensible speed. Once she reached the ball, Ayame made no hesitation to run a little more forward and kick the ball with full force. She watched the ball speedily come contact with the upper left side of the net. Goal!
Panting heavily, Ayame once again ran to the ball. Before coming to a stop, she felt a sudden jolt in her right leg and fell down. It was so painful that the girl had started to shed small tears. She looked at the bandage that covered her right thigh and began to unwrap it. On the back of her thigh was large bruise that almost reached her knee.
"Kuso." She muttered, looking at the disgusting purple blotch on her skin. She started to calm herself down by steadying her breaths, but the sharp pain was still there, as if her muscles were ripping apart. Steadily, she tried to stand up but felt more pain on her thigh and decided that trying any more would be no good.
"Help!" Ayame shouted to anyone, anyone that could be near. Although she doubted that anyone would be here at this time of day. Last time she checked it was already 9pm. "Is anyone here! Help me, please!"
After a minute of shouting, a figure appeared next to the gate of the field. "Please help me!" The girl in the field shouted to the person. The figure ran to her, unveiling a boy with a cap on his dark green hair, which reminded the injured girl of seaweed, covering his eyes from the girl's view and a large bag slung on his shoulder.
"Call 911." Ayame told him through her clenched jaw. He nodded in reply and took his mobile from his pocket and dialed the number.
"There's a girl here who has injured herself. She can't stand up and there's no one else with her besides me."
"Okay, thank you." The boy hung up and kneeled down next to me, taking a look at the large bruise.
As he observed the bruise, I looked at him from under his cap and found myself staring at sharp hazelnut eyes. He lifted his gaze to me and said, "You injured your hamstring badly."
She scoffed, "Tell me something I don't know." Even when she was hurt, the twelve year-old girl still had her prideful and stubborn nature intact. She tried to pull her right leg towards her but ended up with more pain through her body. "Itai!"
"Don't try to move, it'll only hurt more." The boy advised her, putting a hand on her lower leg. "Wait for the medics to arrive."
Ayame looked at him and nodded, replying with a short thanks. The girl held his gaze for a moment before the distant sound of the nearing ambulance met their ears.
Not soon after, two guys arrived first and started to carry the injured girl. They placed her on the stretcher and hurriedly brought her to the ambulance. In less than half a minute, the girl was out of boy's sight.
"Thank you, seaweed boy!" Hearing the girl's faint shout, the boy smirked, tugging his cap down to hide his amused eyes.
I shook the memory from my head, not wanting to recall any further than that. Unconsciously, my hand went over to the same spot where my bruise was. The bruise had become smaller over time, time that she had spent doing nothing but lay down. I shook my head and decided that I didn't want to spend the rest of the day thinking about the events that occurred less than a month ago.
I stood up from the bed and walked downstairs. "I'm going to take a walk around, I'll be back before dinner time!"
"Alright! Be careful!" Otousan replied from the couch.
After tying my shoes, I shut the door and began to walk to a random direction. Just when I was about to turn around another corner, I suddenly felt my body bump into something— someone, to be more exact.
I looked up with wide eyes and found myself staring at a boy with his eyes closed. He had chin-lenthed laight brown hair that covered his forehead and was wearing a school uniform with a big bag over his shoulder. A tennis bag, I think.
"Gomen, I didn't see you there." Closed-eye boy said with a small smile. Of course you didn't see me! Your eyes are closed!
I sighed. People here are so weird, no wonder otousan ended up like that. "It's fine, it was partially my fault too anyways." I stared at him. "Demo, you shouldn't walk with your eyes closed."
We ended up staring at each for a few minutes before the guy put his hand near his mouth and started laughing lightly. I felt a vein pop at my head at his reaction, "Oy! What are you laughing at?!"
"Gomen, It's just that I meant that I couldn't see you because of your height." He said, still slightly chuckling.
"Are you calling me short, you closed-eye freak?!" I pulled a fist at him.
"Not at all."
"Hmph, whatever." I muttered, turning sideward while folding my arms with closed eyes.
"Gomennasai, I didn't mean to offend you," I opened one of my eyes reluctantly at his apology to see him with a wider smile than earlier. "My name is Fuji Syusuke. Are you from around here?"
I stared at him carefully to see if he was just pretending to be nice. Seeing that he seemed sincere enough, I faced him with a defeated sigh. "Ne, that street around the corner there." I pointed to my right.
Fuji turned his head to the direction that I was pointing at and smiled at me, "Saa, I see… I live near there."
I blinked at him. "Hontou?" He nodded.
"Saa, I guess we'll be seeing each other around often." He said, his smile unwavering. I suddenly smiled at the thought of not being friendless anymore, even if it was with someone so unusual.
"Yeah, I guess so. I'm Toyoku Ayame." I said, grinning up at him.
"Nice to meet you, Toyoku-san." Fuji glanced at his watch. "It's getting late, I'll be going now then. Ja ne!" He turned his back and began to leave.
"You too, Fuji-san. Ja!" I waved at him, watching him walk to the same direction I came from.
Maybe I'll get to meet more interesting people like him.
A/N: Hi guys! I hope I did well for my first ever story and I would love it if you guys reviewed so that I know what you guys think. This story is mainly for my entertainment so it won't be a real serious story and more on humor. Anyways, only the first chapter will be in Ayame's POV, the rest will be in 3rd Person, mainly due to the fact that I wanted this chapter to be on knowing more about our heroine. So yeah, thanks for reading!