Ken POV

I had to wake up six thirty in the morning while it's still dark outside. Sora made breakfast, pancakes, although no one dared to taste it because it looked like burnt pieces of crap. Who ever knew practice was this early. We barely had enough time to get ready when coach Baver gave us a call and told us to report outside. I was stuck with Davis again. Yeah, Davis, the kid everyone despise because he talks too much. He's not that bad once you get use to him, and surprisingly he always stood up with me in everything, the kid could be a good friend at times when you need someone to talk to.

Sora and Tai got their wish, they begged to be together and Mr. Baver agreed by letting them help with the younger kids down at the west fields. I grinned as they walked down the road all smiling and blushing. Those two were meant for each other, although Sora wasn't as interest in Tai as the boy was interested in her. Davis tucked at my shoulder and tilted his head toward a group of girls behind us, sitting crosslegged in a semi circle. I could tell by his eyes that he was looking forward to coach those girls. He whispered into my ear, "This is a hot place to be."

I chuckled, and approached the group of female soccer players, Davis followed.

Coach Baver introduced us to the other trainers and coaches, then turned to face the group. "All right listen up," he said in a sterdy voice, and ended the small chatters, "This is Ken Ichijouji and Davis Motomiya, they're asistant coaches who will direct you when I'm gone." He headed me a clipboard with a list of name and whispered to the two of us, "I have to get going, you check the attendence first and then start by warming them up. Got it?"

"Yeah," I murmured as I took the clipboard.

"'Warming them up...I like the sound of that," Davis muttered as Mr. Bever joggled away from the group. I hate it when Davis act like that, as if he's so popular around girls. The truth is, Davis never went farther than kissing a girl on the cheeks, not that I knew of.

My nerves were builting up when I spoke, putting on my loudest and brightest voice, I begin reading off the clipboard, the list was in alphabetical order by last names, "Uh, let's take a quick attendence right now, Abigail Adams?"

"Here." someone raise her hands.

"Nana Aswen."

"Here."

"Lindsey Baron."

"Right here."

I had some trouble pronouncing some of their names. Especially Pewi Kumoegabese's, my tough twisted into nots as I blurred her last name, someone giggled and a girl with tanned skin raised her arm. She looked African, all though had a Jamaican accent. I continued reading off the 38 names on the list until I got to the last one, Jessica Wolahan. I expected her to show up, this time with her golden hair tighted in two pigtails. Ever since that last barbarque outside, I was interested to see how Jessie played, seeing her stealing and controlling one ball after another on our first day here, I knew she was good. She called out and winked at me when I read off her name at the bottom of the list. I gave her a smile back.

"We going to start out doing some stretches," I said, turning to Davis, "Uh Davis, why don't you instruct them while I go get a drink of water,you're the one who's so excited about warming them up, here's you chance."

Davis rolled his eyes at me and stepped forward to get their attention. I backed up to the nearby water fountain as I watched him hulariously, trying to get them to do jumping jacks.

Glancing down the hills, I saw Tai and Sora's group, doing the same thing. After the warm ups, the other group would join with ours and get seperated into teams, then we would get an idea as of how each of them played. Tai waved an arm directing our way and the group followed him. It looked like they were done with warm ups.

"There will be eight teams total," Tai said, throwing pennies of either green or red redeemly, once he threw out four green one and four red ones he spoke again,"the people who has pennies are the captains and they chose their own teams." Jessie was one of the captains, I can tell through her delighted face that she knew who to pick, she marched over to Pewi, who nodded and got a red penny from the duffle bag. There were several other girls she asked, all strongly built and physical fit.

"Let's gather around," I shouted to the clump of girls,"the teams you chose are going to be perminant throughout the rest of the summer. You didn't get the people you wish, doesn't matter, get to know them and play your best. Remember, it's not always about being on the best team, play tough and love your team, that's how you win." I heard a round of applause as I finished speaking, some even cheered. When I was on a school team, those speeches were always my inspirations, it's wonderful that I get to make one on my own. After Mr.Baver, the head coach, assigned each of us to two teams and trainers for each team, I was put to teams 3 and 4 along with Mr. Riley and Greta.

As I walked along the path uphill to a newly curved out soccer field with the rest of the group, someone tucked me on the arm. To my surprise it was Jessie.

"Hi, guess you'll be coaching us," she said.

"Yeah," I slowed down the pace and turned to face her, "I'm looking forward to see how you play."

"I could use more practice."

We were falling behind, I raced to catch up with the others, Jessie sprinted with me as we reached the cluster of people. "How old are you?" I asked.

"Fifthteen, I'll be turning sixteen in the fall," she said proudly.

"Oh, where're you from?"

"New Jersey. You're from Japan right?"

"Yeah."

Her eyes were on me as I answered her, "When did you come here?"

"Just a week ago," I said to her.

"Wow, you don't have much of an accent," she stated.

"Yeah, I started learning English in first grade. So I guess not."

She nodded, each time I talk to her, she's beginning to sound more like Yolei. Sometimes it creeped me out when I looked at her and saw Yolei's face features planted on her head. I shooked my head and kept walking, Jessie followed me like a pet, slowing down and speeding up at my pace and resumed to our conversation. I didn't minded all her questions, in some ways she does act like Yolei, just trying to be friendly and cute.

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Taichi's POV

So I'm not going to stay with Sora all day. But no problem, she was coaching with two other men at the field next to mine. I watched her flawless ways of ordering from the sidelines and showing the players the best tectics to take on the offense. Sora is such a tomboy, it's something that made her stood out, when we were young, she used to kick my ass at everything I do. During break she came up to me on the bleachers and offered me a bottle of water. I accepted it and drank deeply. Sora was sweaty on her neck and forehead. She didn't look to healthy with the black curves under her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked and examined all her movements.

She placed her head on her palms, supporting it by her arms. I gently set my arm around her shoulders and urged her to speak.

She sighed and finally confronted, "I'm just worrying about Mimi, I called her last night and she seemed pretty desperate. She told me that if she doesn't pay the fine, she'll be placed in jail again. I'm her friend, I don't want her to suffer like that."

I didn't know how to respond, I searched for words to calm her down, but my throat wasn't working despite of all that water I swallowed down. Softly, I planted a kiss on her forehead. It's hard to tell what she was thinking. I certainly didn't mean the kiss as an excuse to get her attention. My muscled tighten as her eye sight rested on my face. Sora probably felt my exaggerating heartbeat because she suddenly chuckled, blushing wildly. "What?" I tried to act innocent, but she didn't buy it. Instead she changed the subject back to Mimi.

"Anyways, so what do you think Mimi's going to do?" she looked up and asked.

"Well, we can give her part of our salary."

"That'll help, but 50 thousand is a lot of money. I don't think that's enough. "

"Sora, you worry too much. Mimi's a smart girl, she'll take care of herself," I said. Sora nodded and smiled at me. Soon, break was over and we got back to training. Sora looked active for the rest of the day, and she was in a much better mood.

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6:45 PM

back at the cabin.

Practice was finally over. They got back to their cabin and Sora collapsed onto the coach with sore legs and a bruced knee. "You okay Sora?" Tai asked.

"I'll be fine."

Tai opened the fridge and got her some ice, "Here, this will cool you down," he tossed it into her hands.

"Thanks."

Davis sprinted up the stairs to the gray laptop sitting on the desk. "Ken, I'm going online to play a game whether you like it or not."

Ken didn't pay attention to him, he opened the closet door and kicked the soccer ball in. "I don't know," he finally said, "Do I have any mails?"

Davis opened his mailbox, there was 1. Sighing, he got up from the chair and handed it over to Ken.

"It's from Yolei, isn't it?" Davis asked and positioned himself comfortably in his bed.

Ken opened it and found another one of those emails from his girlfriend. "Yup," he answered Davis. The email dress was Yolei's, but as he read the message, his face turned into a frown.

Ken, it's Izzy. Surprise. I'm over Yolei's house doing our project...you know, the one she told you about, and we just read your message. What happened to Mimi? Is he okay? Did you say she was arrested? Please email me and tell me what exactly happened, my email address is (A/N: the email address is retarded, I know, couldn't think of something better)

Ken showed a look of dissapointment on his face, Davis noticed and asked him what's wrong. This is one of those times when Davis could be a good friend to talk to but Ken didn't feel like speaking. It wasn't that he's upset because of Izzy concern's about Mimi, he was mad because Yolei was so open with Izzy that she even shared their messages with him. Those messages were suppose to be private, just between the two of them. Ken knew it was wrong to think that, Yolei and Izzy were just friends, they had always been close because of their shared interest in computers. Ken never had a problem with that, but this time he wasn't so sure as to what to think. Maybe it's just jealousy, he thought, but he had never been the jealous type before, except the time when his brother got all the attention being the smart one in his family. After that tragic incident, his brother's death haunted him in his dreams, he was afraid that it was his foolishness and strong desire to vanish Sam that got his dear brother killed. He wanted Sam to disappeared, and he got his wish. The flashback suddenly made him shiver as a cold feeling swirled against his stomach. This was how his felt before, envy, but this time towards Izzy. He shook his head, hoping all this stupid thoughts will go away.

"Ken, are you okay? You seem distracted," questioned Davis.

"I...I am fine," he lied, "I am fine, really." No, I'm not fine, a statement made up his mind, his lips dried up,somehow he couldn't speak to his friend about it.

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A/N: This is a little longer than my other chappies. I just found out that I'm blabbering too much. But please review!