Number Two: Where Was My Heart?

Sena looked at the phone numbers in his cell phone as he walked home that day. There were only three people in there: Mamori, Kurita, and now Moto. Sena smiled. There were now three actual players on the team, too.

Actually, there was four, counting Sena. To everyone except for Hiruma and Kurita, Sena was just the team manager and all-purpose gopher. But Sena was also the team's secret weapon, Eyeshield 21, so named because of his uniform number and because of the tinted eye shield that kept his identity a secret.

Sena didn't like keeping that secret from Mamori. He had known Mamori since grade school, and the two of them kept virtually no secrets from each other. Sena considered Mamori to be his closest friend. Kurita was a good friend, and Moto would probably become a good friend too. Hiruma… well… if it were up to Sena, he'd avoid him at all costs. But Hiruma pretty much ran the show… unfortunately…

Sena began to walk to the corner, where he usually met Mamori after school to walk home. But as he neared the corner, he saw a tiny little girl with shoulder-length black hair, wispy bangs, and a red headband in her hair. She was trying to get a Coke out of the soda machine, but the machine appeared to be jamming.

"Come on!" she yelled, kicking the machine. "I gave you five hundred frickin' yen already! Give me a damn Coke!"

Sena avoided the scene. He had seen this girl before, while passing the Tea Ceremony room. Normally, she appeared very calm and relaxed when practicing her art. She must have had a bad day.

Sena walked past the girl (who was now kicking the machine) and to the corner, where he saw Mamori waiting for him. The two began to walk to their houses.

"Hiruma seemed rather restrained today," Mamori sighed. "Same attitude, but a bit subdued."

"Yeah," Sena agreed. "Maybe Moto had something to do with it."

"Maybe," Mamori repeated. The two of them used to never run out of things to talk about. But ever since Mamori and Sena got involved in football, they were so tired by the time they got home that they didn't feel like talking. The rhythmic clacking sound echoing from Mamori's Mary Janes and Sena's sneakers was all that could be heard as they walked down the street.

Mamori smiled. "Did you see Kiyoko trying to get that soda out of the machine?"

"Oh, her name is Kiyoko?" Sena blinked. "Yeah, I saw that. Isn't she a quiet person, though? Why was she so mad?"

"Usually she's quiet," Mamori explained. "Today she lost her book bag, failed her PE test, and forgot to bring something for the Tea Ceremony lunch meeting. She's really mad."

"How do you know all that?" Sena asked.

Mamori smirked. "Kiyoko is one of Umi-chan's best friends. She was in a really bad mood when I saw her with Umi-chan."

Sena nodded, and the two of them turned with a right curve in the road. A plastic bag flew through the air, and a street lamp began to flicker, confused by the sunset's alternating light and darkness.

Mamori turned to her house, waved goodbye to Sena, and went inside. She dropped her book bag on the floor and walked into her room. Shutting the door behind her, she took a look at the pictures on her desk. Her and her girl friends, her and Sena, her parents…

"I hate keeping secrets from him," Mamori whispered as she looked at Sena's picture. "But he wouldn't know what to do if I told him…"

Kurita put the all-purpose equipment box on the ground in the football team's room. Hiruma pulled a football tournament bracket off of the wall and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it in a trashcan near the television. He frowned, putting a safety latch on a pistol in the corner of the room.

"Moto seems like a good person," Kurita mused as he hung up his uniform. Hiruma tested the blinds.

"Wow, the blinds work," Hiruma muttered before replying to Kurita. "Yeah, he seems like a nice enough guy. Good player, too." Hiruma went silent again, playing with the blinds. Up and down. Up and down. Up and -…

"Why are you doing that?" Kurita asked.

"It's kind of fun," Hiruma shrugged. He became quiet again. Kurita began to make some tea.

"You're awfully quiet today," Kurita observed. "What's up with you?"

"It seems like Moto's hiding something," Hiruma admitted. "He was constantly shifting around, like he wanted to say something… and real fidgety…"

"Maybe he's frightened," Kurita offered, smiling. Steam was beginning to rise from his teakettle. Kurita took the lid off of his teapot and turned off the oven to cool the water down slightly. "I'm sure that Moto's not used to people shooting off rocket launchers at school."

"I think it went beyond that," Hiruma frowned, opening the blinds again.

"Do you want some tea?"

"I'll pass." Hiruma looked out of the window. A thin girl was beating the crap out of a Coke machine, yelling just about every curse word in the book and getting more ticked by the minute. Kurita took his tea and dumped a few dozen sugar cubes into it. Hiruma stared at the stubborn Coke machine, then at the flustered girl. She wasn't yelling anymore, but she looked really mad. A small smile spread across Hiruma's face before he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Kurita asked.

"Remember yesterday when we needed a gear for our tackle dummy and I took it from the soda machine?" Hiruma grinned wickedly.

"You… huh?" Kurita asked. "Why'd you take it from the soda machine?"

"So I could watch people get pissed off when their soda won't come out," Hiruma answered indifferently. He watched as the girl kicked the machine again for good measure. Nothing happened.

"They'll figure it out eventually," Hiruma shrugged before grabbing a water bottle off of the table and drinking from it.

Kurita took a sip of tea. "How'd you get it out of the soda machine?"

"Damn, this is funny," Hiruma commented, ignoring Kurita's question. He took another swig of his water bottle.

A/N: I waited a bit to do this next chapter. I wanted to make sure people would actually read the story… (sweat drop) I have no self-esteem…

A/N 2: I'm gonna sound like an idiot, I know it –

Hiruma: A little late for that.

Sena: (embarrassed by Hiruma's bluntness) Keep going…

Okay… what does WAFF mean? I see it a lot, and I feel like a dork not knowing what it is. Something to do with romantic stories, I know…

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Eyeshield 21. Does ANYONE on FFN actually OWN what they write about? Rhetorical question, don't answer that.