I've mentioned this already, but I'm pretty good at soccer.
It took no time for me to find my place on that team. I played in the front, and my main role was to set up formations and pass to our main striker to shoot the ball. And I was very good at this.
In that very season, we were the champions in our league. Not only that, but we qualified for this big, nationwide tournament.
Keep in mind that this was a school that focused on training students in specialty fields. While some were there for soccer, there wasn't a huge emphasis on that club in particular. The nationwide tournament was something that we would normally qualify for anyway, but this time we were ranked a higher seed than ever before. This was a big deal.
My coach, the tall girl, told me I was the star of the team. Ever since I joined the team, we went on an unprecedented winning streak.
She said I was just like my mother. I controlled the field and seemed to have a head start on everything. I had been playing for a while up to that point, so I guess I just had a good read on things.
I hummed my mother's song on the field too, which was apparently what she did before me as well. It started one day when there was a simple miscommunication on our team, and two of our teammates got into a fight. I put on my headphones and hummed while smiling at them.
"Is she...trying to cheer us up?"
"Yeah...I guess she is. Er, yeah, we shouldn't really fight over this. How about we just try that pass again?"
And it broke them up just like that. We returned to normal and I made it a habit ever since to bring my headphones to the field and hum whenever my teammates needed it. This resulted in many things.
But most importantly in my opinion, I brought smiles to my teammates faces.
Well, figuratively at least.
You see, I learned very quickly that smiling all the time was impossible. There were even a couple of times that it slipped off my face, usually when I made a mistake or something. A lot of players would also have to keep a smile off their face to focus.
Smiling was definitely important, but what was more important was the meaning behind a smile. People need to be happy. They need that to make any situation better. And while I saw my teammates get around their opponent or pass through them, I knew that they were happy. They had a smile on their face, even if you couldn't see it.
At the end of the game, when all the dust had settled and we won, both teams would meet in the middle, and shake hands. Sometimes, one of our players would pant heavily, preventing a smile on their face. But I could still feel their happiness. I had heard them yell in triumph when the game ended. I watched them hug their teammates. I felt happy too.
The other team would meet us, but they would look the same! Panting heavily, they looked just like us. That would mean they were happy as well. Because they must have felt the same way. They must have had the same metaphorical smiles under the face.
That's what so great about soccer. No matter who wins, everyone is happy. That entire year, I had assumed this to be true. That soccer brought happiness. That the opponents we beat were just as happy as us.
But then the national competition started. Well, you see, there were problems right away.
In our school we split our soccer clubs by gender. There was a boys group and a girls group. For the national competition, however, the clubs were integrated.
My coach had wanted me to stay in the front, since that's where I was most comfortable. The boy's coach however, an angry looking man, had insisted on putting his striker in that position. Things were getting heated, you see.
So I did the natural thing and broke up the conversation by agreeing to move the mid line. The boy's coach smiled at me.
"Finally, a girl that know her place."
I smiled back at him, glad I could bring a bit of happiness to him. My coach however, did not look as pleased for whatever reason. I walked with her all the way back to the field, humming my mother's song and asking her to smile before she finally did. It was a little different from her normal smile, but a smile is a smile, I supposed.
Throughout the tournament, we had a good run. Match after match we won and advanced first out of preliminaries and then into the playoffs. Things got harder, but we made a comeback in the quarters, and into the semis we went.
All the while I had done what I've always done. I hummed, I played, and I brought smiles to everyone's faces. But progressively things got weird. Just last game, in the quarters, I witnessed some of our opponents crying after we beat them.
I couldn't comprehend it. Soccer was supposed to bring happiness. What were they doing? Was crying just another way to smile? I assumed it was true. It had to be after all. I walked up to some of our crying opponents.
"You guys look happy!" I said. "You must be having a good day!"
This got me a pretty weird reaction. A couple of them ran off, not responding to what I said, a few shouted something quite loudly at me which I didn't understand, and one of them got up and shoved me away. My coach, the tall girl, rushed on over and took me away.
"They're happy right?" I asked her. "Why did they shove me away?"
This got me a very strange look from my coach. She stood there and looked over me for a good minute, a very confused look on her face. Finally, she gave me an answer.
"They probably didn't want to share their, um, happiness, with you," she said in an unsure manner. It made sense to me though. Happiness was a very valuable resource.
"Got it," I said.
Eventually it was time for our semi final match. Things were going great. Our team was in high spirits and once we won, we would appear in the middle school national championship match for the first time in our school's history. My teammates were giddy with excitement. It was the most amazing atmosphere.
Then something went really wrong.
I'm not sure what happened. It must have been something during the game. I took my position in midfield as was usual, and I saw serious faces all around me- smiles under them of course.
Well, everyone looked serious except for one person. A boy stood across from me, his messy blond hair blowing in the wind. That person was my matchup, the person I was supposed to guarding. The boy's coach warned me about this player. Apparently he was one of the best in the entire nation. I better not screw up, he said.
With that in mind, I had expected him to be the most serious one of us all, the greatest passion in his mind and the widest smile-metaphorically- on his face.
But he was entirely apathetic.
I expected him to change when the game started, but even when the whistle blew he had an uninspired look on his face. He received the kickoff and stared at me dully.
"Hey," he said. "Do I was strawberry or cheese flavored ice cream?"
I blinked at him confunded. What? His question made no sense. Why was he talking about ice cream when the game had just begun?
"Well, it doesn't matter- here I come!"
"Huh?"
I snapped back to attention, but before I had time to react he had somehow moved past me already.
It was the strangest thing. I didn't even realize how he had done it. And before I could even think about it, a horn sounded and a white haired girl had scored a goal for the opposing team. 0-1.
He trotted back to midfield and regarded me coolly. I was nervous. Swallowing hard, it was my turn to receive the kickoff. I expected him to challenge me really hard.
But surprisingly, I dribbled right past him. He stood there and let me pass it off to my front line without any challenge whatsoever. Soon the boy that had replace me at my position scored and now it was 1-1.
"What are you doing?!" The white haired girl screamed at her midfielder. "Get your head in the game!"
The guy shrugged her off and he received the kickoff. This time I was prepared. No way I was letting him rush through me again.
But that was exactly what happened. I was helpless as he made one move around me and soon the horn blew to signal that the white haired girl had scored again. 1-2.
And then it was my turn and I walked right past him again. I passed it off again, buzz! 2-2.
This cycle continued for the entire game. It was the most eccentric game I had ever played. I couldn't stop him. He wouldn't stop me. There were about 15 minutes left and the score was 12-12. He had the ball again, but this time as he went to make his move, I randomly stuck out a leg. To my shock I felt the ball touch my foot and I ended up with it.
"Oops," he said carelessly. 13-12. We were ahead.
"You!" The white haired girl screamed at her midfielder, but she was so mad her speech came out impaired and she sounded like she had yelled 'shoe!' . "What was that?!"
"What? I made a mistake? It's no big deal," he said to her.
"Do you realize this is the semifinal of the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP?"
"So what? It's just a game."
"You. If we win, I'll buy you any ice cream you want."
The blonde guy brightened up considerably after hearing that and for the first time all game, I saw a smile on his face.
"You mean it?"
"Yes!"
"Okay! Then- for ice cream!"
He had the ball again and he glared at me with a fire he hadn't had all game. This was what I was expected from the beginning, but for it to come all of a sudden in the last minutes of the game.
He rushed at me fiercely and I stuck out a leg again, but this time I had no luck. He jumped over me and shoveled the ball off and within seconds the blare of the horn signaled a tie game. 13-13.
"That's what I'm talking about!" The white haired girl yelled back at him. "Now don't you dare let her walk past you again!"
"I got it!" He yelled back at her, and so I was met with my first real challenge.
I gritted my teeth as I focused, trying to figure out how he would defend me. I tentatively fainted to the right for a split second, and I saw him jump. He was quick, and he recovered very quickly. But it was evident to me- defending was not his forte.
As he jumped back, I rushed straight at him. He got himself in position just in time-only for me to quickly crossover and dribble to my left. Instinctively, he slid down and try to jar the ball away with a slide tackle, but it was already too late, I was out of his reach. A couple seconds more and I would be past him-
BAM! I tripped over something and fell on the turf. Dazed, I turned around to see a silver haired male had ended up with the ball. He was also a midfielder for the other team, and up to this point he had not really looked like anything special. Suddenly though, he had got me.
"Needed a little help, you?" He smirked at his blonde teammate on the ground, before dribbling past us.
"I could have gotten that myself!"
"Whatever. Noa, move!"
I could only watch as I lay on the ground as the midfielder passed it off to the white hair girl. It was a weak pass, but our defense had long been worn down throughout the entire tirade of shots they had gone through. The white hair girl caught the ball and lined up once more-
"Now! We can do it!"
The horn blew once more and the whistle blew shortly after. 13-14. We had lost for the first time.
Immediately there was this pain I felt. I attributed it to the spill I took from the ground. It was completely natural after all. I watched the other team cheer and swarm their striker, laughing and smiling just as we would have if we won. That was natural. I tried to smile, weakly, along them.
That wasn't natural. I looked around. My team had their heads bowed. Some were panting heavily. But none of them had the happiness I felt before. None of them would have smiled if they had the chance.
"Outscored by a girl!" the boy's coach was yelling at his striker, who had sitting on the turf with his head buried in his hands. "Do you realize how stupid that made us look?"
I tried to hum. But the song didn't come out right. I was too exhausted to try to sing, and my voice was too soft. I couldn't get my teammates to smile.
Our opponents lined up in the center of the field, cheerful as ever. It was time for the handshake. I brightened up a little. If I couldn't do it, surely our opponents could cheer up our team.
Our team lined up. I shook each one of their hands with a cheery grin and a hearty "Good game." I was met with a few raised eyebrows, but the opposing team generally returned the smile right back.
That reassured me. I had not lost the power to make smiles happen. I just needed to try.
Once the handshakes ended our team walked back to the sidelines, a dejected feeling hanging in the air. I stood out in front of all of them.
"Everyone!" I said. "Cheer up!" Then I hummed my mother's song.
I didn't get very far, however, when I was interrupted.
"Are you crazy?!" the male striker yelled about two seconds into my humming. "If you hadn't let that midfielder get past you 15 times, we would have won that game! Aren't you ashamed?"
"You cost us that game!" The male coach roared. "We worked so hard for this, and you treat it like it's a joke?! What is your problem?"
Before I knew it, the whole team had turned against me and were yelling together. Since they all yelled together, I couldn't pick up what they were saying.
"E-everyone, if you would just listen to the song…" I stammered, but I was drowned out. I was sure that if they would just listen, everything would be alright, but I just couldn't get it out.
I thought I had failed. Eventually the outrage had settled down and we were ushered into the locker rooms. I kept getting unhealthy glares from my teammates, and so I wanted to be out of there as quick as I could. I was the first one to leave the locker room.
"Ah, Milky Way." The boy's coach was the only one out there to greet me as I emerged from the lockers. "I was thinking about what you said, and you're right! We really should cheer up."
That caught me by surprise and I looked incredulously at him. He was the last person I expected to take in what I said. Had my mother's song reached him after all?
It certainly looked that way as he met me with a wide smile.
"Anyway, I'm glad you were the first one out. Come with me, I'll lead you to our bus."
He gestured to me. Elated, I followed him. If it had reached him, surely it had reached everyone else too. I would just have to wait.
"Here we are. Get on in now."
He had surprisingly led me quite some distance. I blinked before realizing I had no idea where we were. This wasn't the parking lot as I had expected, but instead we were in the middle of some trees. Cigarette butts littered the ground, but that wasn't where my attention was focused. I gasped as I saw there wasn't a bus at all, but a rocket ship right before my eyes!
"Ah, yeah, we decided to use a different way back." he said with that same smile on his face.
It was hard to believe, but he was the teacher after all. I shrugged and walked in.
"Great, the rest of us we'll be there in just a second. Don't move!" he said and walked away.
Don't move. That was a command that I was all too familiar with.
I explored the interior of the ship, curious of just how we were going to use it. I don't know how long it was, but as I was remarking that there wasn't much room for all of my teammates and coaches I felt the ground start to rumble. Suddenly, the ship had taken off.
Panicked, I stumbled my way around trying to find the driver. We were leaving way too early! My teammates weren't on board yet!
Finally, I found my way to the head of the ship, and I heard voices.
"Thanks for letting me drive your ship Neris! Yowza, this is awesome!"
"Oh, it's no problem. I rarely use it after all. Anyway, Earth soccer, huh? They aren't that bad."
"See? I told you! Serena wanted them in the Galaxy league for a reason!"
"Hehe, I can see why! They've got some amazingly fragrant girls, right?"
"What? Um, no."
"Kuma, you pervert!"
I did a double take. A miniature talking rabbit, bear, and a racoon were sitting around and they were discussing our game. Next to them a cat slept soundly and at the helm of the ship, and a tiny pig was sitting in the driver's seat. But what was more amazing, was that as I looked out of the window in front of them, I saw nothing but stars.
...The boy's coach must have led me to the wrong ship.
On accident of course. No way he would lead me to a random ship on purpose.
And besides, even if he had, my teammates would surely start looking for me once they realized I was missing.
I was sure I'd be back at school in no time. Sure of it.
But in the meantime-
"Um, excuse me?" I spoke up and the talking animals jumped and looked at me in shock. "What is this place?"
That's it. That's my story really. After a while, I've wandered around quite a bit. Once the ship had landed I boarded another one, but that one led me to some place filled people that looked liked angels. Haven't really found my way home yet.
I see that look you're giving me. I'm not stupid. He abandoned me didn't he? The boy's coach was a smoker and after the game he must have stumbled upon the ship by chance as he was smoking in the woods. He led me there and sent me off into space so I would never see them again.
It's a pity really. The last sight I ever got to saw of my old team back on earth was them all yelling at me. If I had a little more time to get my song off- surely I could have gotten them all to cheer up and smile by the end of it. Surely I would.
Don't you look at me like that! I know what you're thinking. And I'm telling you, I definitely could have done it! I've done it over and over before and I've done it over and over since!
I was put into this 'Galaxy League' thing with the angels see, and it's some sort of intergalactic soccer competition. I have a new soccer team now, and I've made each and every single one of them smile since I've arrived!
And I learned from my mistakes too! When I sang to my teammates back on earth, it was just a matter of bad timing. There's no way that I will fail again this time!
No way a soccer team will ever abandon me again! I'm sure of it!
What? Why am I crying? I'm not crying. No, you misunderstand. These are tears of joy! Why? Uh...because…
Because now that I've finished my story, we're going to have that smiling contest now! That's right! You promised, didn't you? I've got to continue my streak after all. I'm up against you! Got a problem with that?
Now smile! SMILE! You have to, it's the rules after all! Whee~! Lalala~! Smile!
That's a good smile! Okay, here we go. You ready?! 3! 2! 1!
…
…
…
Haha. I lost...
