Hello again. Anything new you need to know this chapter? Shibuya is apparently near Odaiba. For this story, Odaiba High School and Shibuya High School are old rivals. Most of this is from Ken's perspective. Well, it's all technically third-person perspective, but you get to see into his mind a lot.
Thank you to SugarSprial for reviewing and shame on the rest of you for not.
"Hey, Cody." TK welcomed the youngest to the group. "Find everything OK?"
"It wasn't that difficult." the shorter boy replied indifferently.
TK was the only one in the group able to notice the lie through his tone. Cody had never been able to express much emotion. He was always trying to seem as though he had everything under control. TK, knowing the truth, quietly said "Cody, is it really worth it considering you're not gonna know where anything is?"
Cody looked around the room. Apparently, he was the sole person who had heard TK. TK had a way of doing that—talking quietly enough so that only one person could receive it, but they could understand perfectly even without him leaning over or whispering. The two shuffled a few feet away from the rest of the group, so Cody could pull out a map of the school, and TK could explain it without embarrassing him. Cody was self-conscious about so much even though the others had never shown any interest in judging him.
Kari had seen the two leave and wanted to make sure that nobody was tactless enough to ask them why they had left. By nobody, she had obviously meant Davis; he had the least amount of tact out of all of them. Deciding it was the safest idea, she struck up a conversation with him. She started with the first idea to pop into her head that would interest him. "So Davis, earlier you said you have a game really early this year. When is the game?"
"This week, on Friday. It's gonna rock."
She laughed, knowing Davis heard the one topic that could get him excited even in school. He was obsessed with soccer. She knew that Davis would never give a true answer to a question such as "How's the game gonna turn out?" so she was forced to ask, "How much are you going to win by?" with slight sarcasm in her voice.
"Five-nothing easy. We're gonna dominate 'em." He had never had a confidence problem, rather he has one, but the problem is having too much.
Ken, who was listening to the conversation, gave Kari the answer to the question she had actually wanted to ask. "It's supposed to be a really close game. I think that Isamu, our goalkeeper, has improved a lot since last season. He's going to be quite difficult to score on, especially with the new defensive system we're going to use."
"Like I said," Davis added, refusing to give up his position, "five-nothing easy."
Cody and TK quietly slipped back into the group hoping to that their absence was not noticed by the others. They were not sure if it was or was not, but nobody mentioned anything about it, so they decided against trying to figure out the answer.
The talk eventually drifted towards school once again. They decided, after a bit of discussion, to compare schedules. "Let's see," said TK looking over the pieces of paper, "me, Kari, and Davis all have Chem first hour." He paused to search for more similarities, "Kari, we have pretty much the same schedule. Only difference is sixth hour." They went on comparing until they heard the bell ring. Davis, Kari, and TK walked away in one direction leaving the others to go their separate ways.
"This is it," said Kari, her voice was a bit nervous.
"There's three seats in the back. Let's get those," said Davis obviously wanting to stay as far away from the teacher as possible.
TK simply yawned. He followed them to the seats without complaint. The second bell rang. "OK," TK thought to himself, "the teacher should be here any minute now. This class in going to be really boring. Where is he?"
The second after TK had finished his thought and old man walked into the room as if on cue. "Good morning class," he said in a tone that showed he hated school just as much as the students. "Welcome to 'An Introduction into General Chemistry.' Chemistry is the study of matter and its change in chemical reactions. The base unit, the atom, was first theorized by the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus and was later..."
Davis threw his head back against the chair. It was thirty seconds into the class, and he could not stay focused. It was going to be a long year.
Friday night eventually came after what seemed like a much longer time. The bright green of the grass contrasted beautifully with the intense blue of the sky. Students from both Odaiba and Shibuya high schools filled the bleachers. They talked among themselves, catching up with friends they had not seen in the summer, waiting for the game to begin. One side of the field exploded with applause as the Shibuya players entered; the other side booed their entrance. They were followed shortly after by the Odaiba players while the cheering and jeering switched sides. There was a few minutes of stretching and warm-ups before the game finally began.
Shibuya started the match passing back to their defenders. "OK," thought Ken, "stay calm. Watch them carefully. Look for a weakness." He watched Shibuya like a hawk while he stood at midfield. "There! Number fourteen." He saw a Shibuya player nearly miss a pass. "It's too late to do anything about it now, but save it for later. Fourteen might make mistakes. Just stay calm, Ken. They haven't done anything yet."
As he was thinking, Shibuya passed it to the side of the field and started attacking Odaiba's side. The defense was too quick. They cut off the middle and any chance to pass; the forward took a shot from the outside, an easy save which led to an Odaiba attack. Down near Shibuya's goal, Ken received the ball and passed to Davis; a defender shifted to the pass. Then, Davis gave it back to Ken. He shot, but his attempt was not fruitful.
"Don't get rattled," Ken said in his head. "That wasn't a good opportunity. I should've taken a few steps closer. No. I won't second guess myself. I'll get plenty of opportunities. We'll win. It won't make a difference."
The game continued without much more excitement until Ken got the ball at midfield. He looked up at the scoreboard. "Twenty-two minutes," he thought, running down the field. He saw Davis open, but decided not to pass. Number fourteen was running at him. He maneuvered around quite easily. "A few more steps. Now!" He crossed the ball to Davis who rocketed it to the net. The goalie dove, stopping the effort, but deflecting the ball to Ken a few feet in front of the goal. It was an easy score.
Every Odaiba player ran to Ken and Davis in celebration. The goal was also greeted with cheers from one side of the crowd and silence from the other. While walking to the center, Ken noticed the brilliant shades of orange and hues of pink in the sky. The sun was setting even though it seemed like moments ago the sky was bright and blue. Time flies outside of school.
Another kickoff and the game started again. Shibuya tried to run down the field immediately. They were stopped and forced to slow their game. They passed to each other looking for a hole in the Odaiba defense. It was difficult to find, but they found it and dashed into position like a well-trained army. They passed around within the penalty box, searching for an opportunity. Odaiba's defense forced them to one side. A Shibuya player took a shot that, fortunately for Odaiba, hit the crossbar. The goalkeeper quickly scrambled for the ball. He grabbed it before the offense could reach it. He dumped it as far as he could.
Odaiba endured more attacks while waiting for an opportunity of their own. Near the end of the half, they found their chance. Ken ran down the field with the ball. He noticed the positions of his teammates and his opponents. "A few feet to the left," he thought. "I can get through. Fourteen is the weak-point." He veered away from the center. With a bit of footwork, he passed fourteen. The net was in sight. It was just him and his prey. The goalie ran towards him. The angle had been eliminated. A no-look pass to Davis and an easy shot for him. Now it was two-nil. Ken noted forty-three minutes on the clock. The half ended without further incident.
The members of the crowd talked to each other during the break. They recalled the best plays. They discussed strategy. They resumed their pre-game conversations. They tried to pass time before the second half began.
"We should win this game pretty easily now," said TK. "We just need to stall for time."
"It isn't impossible to get two goals in one half," Cody responded. "We can try to get one more for security."
"Our defense is too good. They won't be able to score twice." TK paused to think before continuing, "I think we should just try to keep it far away from our zone. If we keep our forwards back, our defense will be unbeatable. If they go on the attack, we could get caught out of position."
A roar of applause defeated any chance of Cody responding. The players were coming back onto the field. The hatred of the Shibuya fans had become substantially quieter after the devastation in the first half, but Odaiba was as loud as ever.
It was Odaiba's kickoff. They took it and passed backwards. They passed around the team, waiting for the game to end. Shibuya obviously would not allow this to continue unchallenged. The attacked cause Odaiba to dump the ball as far as possible. Shibuya attacked, and Odaiba defended. The ball was kicked down field again. This half was going to be a boring one.
The few scoring opportunities for Shibuya yielded nothing. The ball, caught by Odaiba's goalkeeper, was tossed to Davis. He ran towards the other net giving Odaiba their first bit of excitement this half. The defense forced him to the side. He passed backward to Ken.
"Good." His mind was racing. "A few steps to the left. One more and..." His thoughts stopped. He was on the ground with a Shibuya defender on top of him. Davis ran over and ferociously pushed the opponent off of Ken. The two started a fight that was broken up by the officials before it could escalate to other players. It earned both the Shibuya player and Davis a red card.
The call decided that the two penalties of the fight negated each other and that the original penalty stood. Ken had a penalty kick to take. He placed it in the upper-right corner of the net. He scored again. Looking up at the clock, he noticed it was in the eighty-seventh minute. Odaiba continued stalling for the remaining time. The goal made Shibuya give up any remaining effort. The game ended without excitement or incident. There was a celebration in Odaiba that night.
Well, what did you think? Please review.
I promise next time there's going to be action unless I have to cut the chapter short. I'm going away on the 20th and want an update before then. With any luck, it shouldn't be too short.