Bold is English speaking.

Chapter 2

The sun was setting as the players all changed out of their workout clothes and back into the school uniforms. Rin was leaning against the tall fence that was near a corner of the building and watched the players come out of the clubroom. She had both of her headphones in her ears and her head bobbed slightly at the song that was playing.

Her head came up as Nana and Kakeru walked past. "Wait, Nana," Rin called as she pushed off the fence and pulled one headphone out of her ear.

The pair stopped and looked at the foreigner. "You're not going to change?" Kakeru asked curiously. Rin looked down in surprise; she was still wearing the clothes that she had practiced in. She looked up and gave the striker a quizzical look.

"Why would I change? I'm fine." She glanced down at herself one more time.

Nana chuckled and explained. "Usually, after practice, the players change out of their workout clothes." She indicated the Enoshima uniforms that the two wore.

"But can't you just change when you get home?" Rin asked, completely at a loss.

"Well, some live far away," Nana said.

Rin slapped her forehead and sighed. "Forget I even asked." She fell into step beside Nana as the trio left the school. On their way, the two girls talked about some of the games that Rin had played since Nana had left and Nana told Rin about her playing for Nadeshiko Japan. When she told her this, Rin had whistled in amazement. "Nadeshiko Japan, huh? Wow, that's impressive. You beat me by a long shot! I'm only on the U-17 team right now."

Nana laughed. "Well, I bet it's because you like to play mind games with your opponents. You can't really do that in the WNT."

"That's true, I guess," Rin mused. She did like to mess with people's heads during a game, but that's what most of her team's plays were centered around, tricks and uncertainty. They walked in silence for a few blocks when Rin suddenly stopped at a side street. "My apartment is this way," she pointed down the street. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!" She waved as she began to walk away.

"Bye!" Nana called back.

"See ya!" Kakeru said.

Rin smiled and turned around. She walked slowly down the sidewalk, enjoying the silence and the crisp air that was brought on by the setting sun. She reached down to grab the stray headphone and reached up to put it back in its place in her ear. Her step quickened with the upbeat song and a happy smile spread across her face.

She was eager to get home and eat ramen and then go to bed. She had to get up early for her first day of school.

Rin was fighting for her life in a medieval suit of armor against a pack of blood thirsty bandits. She was backed up against a sheer drop and the bandits were getting stronger and stronger with every passing moment. What the heck kind of dream is this? Rin cursed as her sword clanged repeatedly against the bandits' weapons. As her sword connected again and again, the metallic clangs turned into a strange beeping sound. What the heck is that annoying beeping? A rush of panic brought Rin to the waking world and she bolted straight up in her bed.

She whipped her head around frantically, her loose hair whipping her in the face and obscuring her vision. What? What is it? I can still hear it! Then she realized that it was her phone alarm, telling her to wake up for school.

She looked at her night stand where she had put her phone the night before and grabbed it. She turned the alarm off and sat there in a daze for a second before groaning and falling face first back onto her pillow. "I dun wanna go ta school!" She lamented. She snuggled back down and dozed off.

Twenty minutes later, she shot back up, her heart thumping in her chest. She looked around her room, disoriented. She realized that she had fallen asleep again. It was now 8 am and school started at 8:30. She flew out of bed and started to get change. She looked around for her uniform and saw it hanging over a chair. She grabbed it and started pulling it on.

She flew through her bathroom routine and then she raced out of the door, grabbing a breakfast bar on the way out. She had her school bag slung over one shoulder and her sports bag on the other. "Dammit! First freaking day and I'm late!" She mentally hit herself for falling back asleep.

She was late to school and she ran through the halls to where the teacher's lounge was. She met her homeroom teacher just as he was leaving. "Ah! Mr. Yoshida, sorry I'm late!" She bowed in apology. The homeroom teacher smiled at her.

"That's okay; just make sure to be on time from now on."

Rin nodded. "I will be." She followed him to the second year homeroom and was told to wait outside. Standing outside the door, she could hear the teacher say that they were going to have a new student join them.

Rin quickly checked her reflection in a window and winced. Since she had had no time to properly brush her hair, it looked as if she had just rolled out of bed…which she had, in fact. She sighed and shrugged to her reflection. There was nothing she could about it now.

"Rin Faolin, please come in." Rin opened the door and stepped through. She had one hand tangled in her hair as she tried to smooth out the knots in her hair. She looked up briefly and gave a small bow.

"I'm Rin. I'm from America and I love soccer." She gave her hand a hard yank and winced as her hand came free along with pulling several hairs out of her scalp. She rubbed her sore head and grabbed the hanging hairs and threw them in the garbage.

The class was abuzz with murmurs, which didn't seem to affect Rin in the slightest. She looked at the teacher, "Where do I sit?" She hid a yawn behind her hand as she waited for his reply.

Mr. Yoshida pointed to an empty desk beside a tall boy with glasses and short black hair. He looked vaguely familiar, Rin thought as she walked down the aisle and dropped into the seat. She looked to the front of the classroom where the teacher had told the class to open their literature textbooks to page 667.

She glanced over at the kid next to her and whispered. "Can we share? I don't have any textbooks yet." The boy nodded and Rin slid her chair over to sit next to him. She leaned her elbow against the desk and rested her chin on it as she followed along. Pretty soon, her eyes started to close and soon, she was fast sleep; her head perfectly balanced on her hand.

"Hey, hey, wake up, class is over." Rin groggily opened her eyes and started when she was the boy's face.

"Sheesh," she grumbled as she felt her heart to be sure it hadn't burst out of her chest. "What? What's over?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Class. You slept through most of it." He was putting his notebooks and textbooks back into his bag. Rin just mumbled an okay. Now that she half awake, she stared at the boy, the fact that he looked so familiar, bugging her.

He caught her staring and asked, "Why are you staring at me?"

"Oh, you look really familiar. What's your name?" Rin asked, not taking her eyes of him.

He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze and opened his mouth to answer, but he was suddenly cut off by a loud and cheery voice yelling, "Ryoma!" A blonde teenager tackled the glasses wearing kid.

"M-Mako, get o-off!" The black haired boy gasped out. His friend let him go and turned around to face Rin.

"Hello, Rin. It's a pleasure to have you in our class." He held his hand out.

Rin just stared at him, blankly. "Excuse me?" She knew these people?

Mako tilted his head in confusion. "Yeah, you came to our practice yesterday. I'm Hyoudou Makoto; this is Oda Ryoma and Araki Ryuichi." He pointed to himself, and then the black hired boy and last was the long brown haired boy.

Rin blinked and then her face lit up in recognition. "Oh! That's where I knew you! I remember now!" She chuckled and tapped her head, "I have a bad memory."

Mako just smiled. "Want to eat with us?"

Rin looked at the clock and saw that it was, indeed, 12:15 pm. She had really slept through class. She stretched. "Sure."