The boy sat on the bleachers to watch her soccer practice. Although she was called captain by the rest of the team, it wasn't because of her superior skill, he realized. She was proficient enough at dribbling and passing, but what really set her apart from her team was her leadership. She wasn't just an ordinary leader either. She controlled the pace of the team's movements. On offense, she and her teammates implemented a speedy attack that any defense would struggle to keep up with. On defense, she appeared to be everywhere at once. A natural ball hawk, and she never seemed to run out of energy. It wasn't because she was any more athletically gifted than her teammates. She was just putting in twice as much effort, and having fun doing so.

It was no wonder she was a key member in the soccer club. Even though he had no clue what was going on, her control of the game alone left him feeling impressed, as well as slightly envious. It wasn't something that he could dream of doing in a million years.

Still, as good of a soccer player as she was, he knew she could be just as good of a singer, if not better. He was sure of that. Singing came naturally for her. She had the unbridled potential to change lives with her voice. But she didn't know it. She just had to realize it. And if he could help her…if he could help her become someone that great…

Then…his life wouldn't be such a waste after all...

That was all he truly needed.

After practice was over, he rushed over to the field. The girl looked at him apprehensively. Having just finished her soccer practice, she wasn't in her best condition. He was probably coming over to tease her, she figured.

"Can I talk to you?" He said.

She opened her eyes wide in surprise. She had not expected something direct like that. Seeking reassurance, she looked over at her teammates, quickly dismayed to find knowing smirks on their faces.

"S-sure." She responded nervously. "What do you want to talk about?"

The boy looked at the other girls hesitantly. Though he wanted to ask her about the song right away, he stopped to consider what would happen if the girl didn't want to be an idol. Not to mention saying something of that nature may get her teased. He didn't want any of them to get the wrong idea.

"…Would you mind if we talked later at a restaurant in a couple hours?"

"A-at a resturaunt?!" The girl repeated, taking a step back. The boy, surprised at such a rapid reaction, instinctively stepped forward, reaching out a hand to see if she was okay. The soccer girls tittered in the background, whispering words he could not hear. The girl, however, was close enough to make out some of the phrases.

"Ooh…is he asking her out?"

"Never thought she'd be before me, I'm so jealous~!"

"And he's not that bad looking is he? I mean, yeah, our captain could probably do better…"

"Isn't that the guy who's like, failing every subject? Of course, she could do better!"

"But to ask it in front of all of us? Say what you want, but I like a guy with guts."

"What do you think she'll say?"

The girl felt trapped. Behind her were a crowd of her gossiping teammates fervently discussing and observing her as if she were a show of some sort. In front of her stood the boy who still had a hand held out. Oblivious to whispers about him, he continued to move forward. She continued to retreat backward into the babbling group, into the giggles and whispers, into uncertainty.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see her tall senior smiling at her reassuringly.

"It's your choice." Her twinkling eyes seemed to say.

She looked at the boy. She took a deep breath. And then she nodded.

"...Okay."

She closed her eyes, bracing for the 'oohs' that would surely come from her teammates behind her.

The group of girls behind her, however, remained quiet. Unbeknownst to her, her senior was presently fixing them a scorching glare, effectively hushing the gossipers.

"Great!" The boy let out a sigh, relieved that she was fine with it. "Um, where do you want to go? I don't have that much money...the fast food place next to the school alright with you?"

The girl nodded blankly, her mind still having trouble comprehending what she had agreed to.

The boy sighed in relief. Having finally set up a chance to talk with the girl about her song, it had felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off his chest. Not wanting to stick around the girl and her group of teammates, the latter of which were oddly glaring at him as if he had murdered someone, he hastily turned around and left with one final phrase.

"See you at 6..."

At 5, the girl arrived at the local fast food joint. She was well aware that she had arrived early; she was the only one there and had to wave off the bored waitress a countless number of times. After practice was over, she had rushed to her room and took a shower. The rest of her time was spent on deciding what to wear. Once she had finally decided after looking over her wardrobe a few times, she was too nervous to think of anything else to do, so she simply left early. Upon arriving, it occurred to her that an hour was an awfully long time to wait. But she wasn't going to go back now that she was here. Making her way to a table, she sipped on a diet cola and watched the clock, shifting restlessly in her chair to get in a comfortable position.

An hour was long enough for her mind to wander. Why was she so nervous? She hardly knew the boy. In fact, the soccer practice was the first time she had ever spoke to him. He was in one of her classes as well, her physical training one. But he never drew attention to himself, like the other boys in their class. It was quite the surprise that he would ask her out like this. It wasn't some sort of trap, was it?

She hoped not. This was her first date, after all. And what a terrible experience it could be, with a boy like that! She had to wonder why she agreed in the first place. She blamed it on her tall friend. Had her senior not intervened, she could of easily ran away from the whole mess that she was in. And her teammates in the background, just waiting to tease her for whatever decision she made...surely the pressure must of got to her head. No matter what happened on this date, it was not her fault!

And no matter how much she didn't want to admit it, she knew her heart fluttered a little when she thought of the word "date". Just as it did back there...

But that was neither here nor there. Finishing her thoughts, she glanced expectantly at the clock. Five minutes had passed. Incredulously, she checked again. Only five minutes? There was still just about half an hour left! She sighed and leaned back in her chair, only to correct her posture rigidly as someone approached her table.

It was the waitress. The server rolled her eyes before asking the girl if she would like a refill. Sheepishly, the girl handed over her cup. She leaned back in her seat and took long deep breaths. She had to calm down. Relax. Luckily for her, she had a foolproof way of doing just that.

The girl shut her eyes and with it, the world around her. Singing softly to herself, she recited her favorite tune, and dreamed about her upcoming soccer match.

A little more than half an hour later, the boy arrived at the restaurant, now considerably more crowded considering the hour. He was a little late, he realized, but considering the nature of his meeting with the girl, he was sure that it would be okay. It was possible that she had not even arrived yet, since he had more or less forced the time upon her as he was fleeing the piercing scowls of her teammates.

Keeping that in mind, he gave a description of the girl to the waitress and asked if she had seen her arrive yet. The waitress rolled her eyes in an unprofessional manner and pointed at a direction at the far end of the restaurant. The boy thanked her and made his way over, too pleasantly surprised of the girl's punctuality to notice the waitress muttering darkly under her breath.

He couldn't find her. Had she already left? He turned around to reconfirm with the waitress but she too was nowhere to be seen. The boy took a step back and took another look at the corner. A group of friends were noisily eating and chatting in front of him. Behind them were a few smaller tables with cushioned seats prompted up against a wall. A few couples were eating there, as well a pair of boys who were by their lonesome. At the end of the row, a girl in a soft white sleeve dress who was not eating, sat slouched against the back of her seat, drooling slightly. She was asleep, he realized. Definitely a weird combination, the boy thought, but if she had been there long enough to fall asleep, perhaps she had some idea where the girl he was looking for was. He made his way over to her before a thought struck him. How was one supposed to wake a sleeping girl? Maybe he should tell her he was concerned for her safety? But he was going to ask her something right after. How was she going to react? As he pondered these questions, he was able to get a longer look at the girl. She had pretty brown hair which was tied back in a ponytail. Much like the girl he met back then, he thought. In fact, she had the same face and complexion. Wait…

His jaw dropped in realization. He had never seen the girl out of an athletic uniform. Was it possible that this girl in the pretty clothes...was this her?

There was only one way to find out. Reaching out a trembling hand, he grabbed her shoulders and gave her a shake.

The girl murmured sleepily before finally opening her eyes. As she tried to clear her head, she saw a blurry outline of a figure in front of her. Oh, it was that boy, she figured out.

Huh?

She snapped awake and hastily wiped the drool off her mouth. How embarrassing! She had fallen asleep. The soccer practice must have taken more out of her than she had thought, and then she had burned her brain with worried thoughts for an hour. And now, oh geez, this was all going wrong!

"Were you waiting long?!" She blurted out.

"Not as long as you were, it seems." The boy responded with a smile. She was here after all.

The girl blushed and stared at the ground. "S-sorry. I didn't mean to make you wait."

"But you were here long before me." The boy chuckled.

"Y-yeah. But I'm still sorry."

"It should be me who apologizes. Were you waiting long?"

"N-no! I just got here!" The girl responded desperately.

The boy knew immediately it was a lie. Who falls asleep upon arriving at a resturaunt? But he was glad she was trying to be kind to him. It wasn't something he was used to.

But business was business. He had come here for one reason and one reason alone. To become a part of greatness. He just had to find out if greatness was willing.

Sitting down opposite of her, he conjured the friendliest smile he could.

"Let's talk."

The girl blushed. This was her chance to clear up her mistake. Agreeing to something like this was too much. If she could just speak up at the beginning, so he could understand...

The boy, unaware of his companion's anxious movements, opened his menu.

"What would you like? Cheeseburgers sound alright?"

The girl opened and shut her mouth, not uttering a single sound. The boy, not looking up from his menu, took her silence as a yes and waved the waitress, who had since reappeared, and confirmed the order.

Upon hearing the order and writing it down, the waitress gave the silent girl a mocking glance.

"Oh? And here I thought you were a confused anorexic." She muttered, just audibly, before turning away.

The boy frowned at those words.

"Well, that was...rude." He stated. "We should talk to the manager about her." Turning to face the girl, he gave another attempt at a friendly smile. "Now, about what I wanted to talk abo-"

"This is too fast!" She blurted out, much to his confusion. "I-I don't even know you that well!"

Well, that was certainly a valid point, the boy thought. He was a little disappointed she was starting to have second thoughts now, of all times. But, if he could just say what he needed to say-

"T-this is my first...date."

...Uh, what? What did she just say? He must of misheard.

"Sorry, what?"

"It's my first date, okay? I-I didn't think it would happen like this!" She covered her head, hiding her face. "I...have n-nothing against you, of course...it's just..."

"Date?" The boy repeated. What was this? This had to be a joke. Why would someone like her think she was going on a date with someone like him?

Though, now that he thought about it, there was no reason for her to be this well dressed, since this was only supposed to be a short talk. Had she really thought this was a date? He thought it over. What reason would she think it was a date when he had simply asked her to talk to him at a resturaunt? Put simply, an ordinary boy had asked an ordinary girl to go out to eat. Alone.

...

...Oh.

Realizing this, the boy put his hands up and tried to clear the misunderstanding.

"This isn't a date!"

"I-it's not?"

Aw crud, he thought as he looked at the girl. She looked panicked. Or was it simply confusion? He wasn't great at reading emotions. Average, at best.

Regardless, he couldn't leave it like this. Not when he needed her to have a level head.

"It can be if you want it to be!"

"Wha-!"

Oh, that didn't quite work out, he thought. She looked a little bit more panicked now. Or was it more confused? No, it was definitely panic, seeing she was looking at him like he was a monster and trembling in fear.

"Er, that is, um..." The boy sighed. "I just wanted to talk to you about your song..."

"My...my song?" The girl repeated, gaping at him.

"Yeah...your song...the one that you were humming while you were playing soccer a few hours ago."

"O-oh...that song...Wait, was that why you called me out here?"

"Well I- yeah. Yeah it was." He admitted sheepishly.

Simple things. It was a simple thing to do. All he needed to do was to talk about her song. That was it. And yet, somehow even this he had screwed up. The girl was surely not going to talk now. How, how could he be so incompetent? Why could he never do anything he wanted?

For the corner of his ear he heard soft laughter. Turning, he realized it was the girl. Was she mocking him? No...he didn't get that vibe. Curious, he stared at her. What was going on in her mind?

The girl eventually took notice of the boy's gaze.

"S-sorry." She tried muffle her laughter as she spoke. "It's just that...I was so worked up over this. And...well, it was just silly, wasn't it?"

Yeah, he thought. Yeah it was.

It was a while before the two were able to talk to each other normally. By the time that the absurdity finally settled in, the waitress had already come and gone, dropping off two wrapped cheeseburgers with a disgruntled expression at the two of them.

It had been ten minutes since then. Two fully wrapped cheeseburgers lay on the table, completely ignored, as the boy finally got to talk to the girl about what he came for. Though it was she who first broke the silence.

"So what exactly did you want to ask about my song?" She frowned. "I still don't have a name for it."

"That's fine." he quickly reassured her. "I didn't come here to ask about that."

The girl peered curiously at him. It was a little weird, she thought. Why would someone be so interested in a boring school girl's creation?

The boy paused to think. Would it throw her off if he asked her directly if she thought about being an idol? Likely, it was just one song after all. A song that was so amazing that it had saved a boy with no motivation in his time of need. A song that had the mysterious and powerful ability to cheer up anyone no matter who they were and what they had gone through. A song that he knew the rest of the world needed to hear.

But the girl didn't seem to think the same way about it. To her, it was some arbitrary tune to hum to herself or sing to her friends when they needed it. And keeping that in mind, the boy decided to ease into it.

"How did you come up with the melody?" He asked her. Finding more about the origins could help lead into more discussion, he figured.

The girl looked surprised at the question. 'You called me out to ask that?' her face seemed to say. Nonetheless, she replied, figuring she should if he was willing to go through so much trouble to hear it.

"I'm not sure." She answered truthfully. "It was something I came up with one day, you know? On a whim." She tilted her head slightly, attempting to recall the memory. "I think one day I was pretending to be a singer, and I made it up, and it's been stuck in my head ever since." She paused before adding. "Oh, yeah, I remember, my family was in the middle of a falling out, and I wanted to sing it to cheer someone up. No, to cheer everyone up, together." She scratched her cheek, sheepishly. "I guess it's kinda embarrassing to say it out loud."

The boy's heart soared when he heard she was pretending to be a singer. But he managed to stay calm as he asked.

"Did it work?"

"Did it...? Oh, my family? Yeah, I brought them all together and sang it to them, and they made up afterwards. I don't think it was the song by itself though. Just all of us there together, doing something as a family, realizing how wonderful it is. That's what really did it, I think. And I guess that's why I've kept this song near my heart this entire time," the girl finished. She had a happy look on her face. It must have been a good memory.

Hearing her story and seeing the girl looking that content, the boy couldn't help but smile as well. Even though it wasn't something he was used to, he always seemed to be smiling around her. She was really something special, that girl.

And he knew she was simply discrediting herself for something incredible that she had done. Her family had been falling apart, and she was the one who brought them all together, and she was the one who sang for all of them, and she made them realize how wonderful it was to gather as a family and listen to their little girl sing such a joyful melody. It was hard proof that she had amazing power-

She just needed to figure that out.

"You pretended to be a singer, right?" He asked.

The girl nodded.

"Yes. Just a small girl's fantasy."

"Did you...ever want to become one?"

The girl widened her eyes, surprised at the question. Seeing this, the boy was glad he didn't lead off with the question, but still he wondered if he asked too soon. The girl hesitated on her response.

"Well...I...it's not like I never dreamed about being a singer, but...I mean, I don't know. Trying to be a singer is tough. The competition for that field is super strong and filled with talent. And, well, I'm just me. What chance would I have, against them?"

"I think you would have a chance."

"...Really...?"

The boy nodded. He was expecting a response like this. In fact, he thought the same thing quite often. But this was different. He had tried and failed first. She never tried. She could actually do it.

The girl still looked unsure.

"I don't know...y-you're not just saying that to be kind, are you? I gave up that dream a long time ago. And to just be told that...are you sure?"

The boy vigorously nodded. He made sure to look straight in her eyes, to attest just how serious he was and exactly what he thought of her.

"I'm positive."

The girl held his eyes for a few seconds. But just when he thought he had convinced her, she shook her head and turned away.

"No, I don't think I can do this." She glanced at him. "I just don't know. I don't know if I can throw away everything else to chase after an old fantasy. And no offense to you, you're a really nice guy...but I've just met you today. You've only heard me sing once, too. So, uh, don't take this the wrong way...but I don't know if I can trust you."

The boy felt crushed. He had come this close, she was just about to agree, he felt it. But in the end, he just wasn't good enough. He couldn't blame her. If he was in her position, he would of done the same thing. Who would trust a lazy, useless delinquent out of the blue? It was a miracle that he had gotten her to talk for this long. He just simply wasn't qualified to make such an important decision for her.

Then in that case, he would just have to bring her to someone that was.

"How about you sing for the choir club? I know their teacher."

The girl looked at the boy, her mouth dropping open.

"You're in choir?!"

"Well, not exactly..." He clarified.

"Ah, sorry! I didn't mean to be rude, it's just, well, you didn't look the type..."

"Yeah, I get it. So, how about it though?"

"...I can't. I'm in soccer club."

"Just take one day off? Just sing once for the club. That's enough. Let the teacher hear your voice."

The girl sighed.

"Just once? Well...okay. I guess it couldn't hurt."

The boy gave a silent whoop. He had done it. Surely the teacher wouldn't mind being bothered one more time. And when the snobby sponsor heard her voice and told her how great she truly was, she couldn't ignore the professional guidance.

And then she would be well on her way to greatness. And then he could say he was a part of it.

Turning to leave, the boy called out to the stunned girl.

"See you tomorrow afternoon!"

He had gotten up and was about to walk off when he realized that he was about to force the time on her again. This time, he had no excuse for doing so.

"Does that work for you?" He reaffirmed turning to face her once more.

"Yes, but-"

"Great! See you then!" The boy bounded out of the building with excitement.

Now alone, the girl looked down at the table. Two unwrapped cheeseburgers sat returning her gaze. The boy's sudden departure had caught the attention of the waitress from before, and the service worker was currently staring at her warily.

Apologizing quietly, the girl got up and exited as well, leaving the sighing waitress to clear the table of the untouched meal.