Disclaimers: I do not own any of the characters or particular things connected to them from either universe. They all belong to J.K. Rowling or studio Sunrise. Any other possible characters, as in OCs, are all mine.
Summary: Harry lives with his successful parents in London and is on the road to becoming a world-class player in tennis. Having been homeschooled all of his life he jumps at the opportunity to attend a public High School and experience regular teenage life. Will he be able to fit in or will his past get in the way of that?
Pairings: Heero/Harry.
Warnings: SLASH. AU as in another universe, meaning there will be no magic or Gundams in this story. If you have to have your Harry gifted with magic and your G-boys mecha crazed; then I suggest looking for another story. Oh, and another thing; this is not a 'Harry is an unhappy and abused orphan' fic. His parents and god father are all well and alive in this; just slightly altered to suit my plot, so I'm sorry if I mess up any persons' perceptions of any characters. Just to be clear; it would be better for you to expect most, if not all, characters to be, more or less, OOC with the altered conditions.
Author's note: Hi again! I've been really in a writing mood recently so here's another chapter of SC. You're lucky, it's nearly a thousand words over my usual word count.
As you will notice I'm gonna try and not delve too much into the school subjects and only mention them in passing. What is of interest is the people Harry meet right, and not what his actual education. Not that education isn't important, but you get what I mean. It would take too much time to explain the contents of every single lesson here. You'll just have to use your imagination. XP /Lin
Second Chances
Chapter 3
"The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss."
Thomas Carlyle
If time had been going at the light of speed before, then it had made a drastic u-turn and adopted a speed slower than that of a true Sunday driver. However staring at the clock as the minutes and seconds ticked by, maybe wasn't such a good idea and urging it on didn't seem like such a spectacular idea either for that matter.
At one time a girl had thrown him a short curious look that had had Harry startled for how to react to and he eventually thought he'd try smiling at her. It must have come off as more of a grimace though; since the girl had frowned at him like he was some weirdo. She returned to her conversation with her friends; the others throwing him glances and giggling.
Harry felt himself grow more and more uneasy and hesitant. His sudden jolt to a chair falling over nearby showed that his strings were getting tighter by the second.
It came as a relief when the students started clearing the room in small groups to go off to wherever their classes where gathering. He purposefully waited them out and saw the cobalt eyed boy leave with his two friends when the majority of the teenagers had vacated the cafeteria.
He breathed a sigh when he was alone again; the others already long gone leaving just him and lunch lady of course, who started collecting forgotten trays and trash left out on the tables.
Harry was startled out of his musings when she finally came over to his table.
"You alright dear?" She said and smiled softly at him.
Harry looked up into pale brown eyes enveloped by strands of graying hair. He fumbled with his words before answering her.
"Just nervous I guess." He swallowed. "I wonder if I'll fit in?"
A knowing look entered her eyes and Harry was comforted by the familiarity he felt towards her that was similar to some of the older maids back home. She retrieved his tray and paused for a second.
"Don't worry about fitting in, you'll find your place soon enough. Just give it time." She gave a short nod at him and walked back to behind the disk; Harry's tray being the last one.
He sat still for another few seconds before he rose to his feet; a determined look in his eyes.
The hallways were almost empty of students; they must have gone to their respective classrooms already, he thought. He brought out the slip of paper he'd been given and found the letter and number of the classroom he was supposed to go.
He needed to get to classroom A219 on the second floor and fast. It was only ten minutes left or so for him to get there. A directional description accompanied the number and he found that the classroom was located on the second floor in the main building. Walking quickly he found a staircase that took him to the next floor and checked of the numbers one after the other.
The short journey took him to a classroom further down the hall and standing outside the wooden door he felt his nerves adding extra speed t his thumping heart. He could hear laughter and shouts from the individuals within and see the blurred images of bodies through the frosted glass window that had the numbers of the classroom glued to it.
He grasped the knob and swung the door open slowly. The chatter of the room grew loud as he entered and he took in the students sitting in groups on chairs or upon the desks themselves. Several threw him glances; probably thinking it was the teacher but seeing that it was just another student they went back to talking again.
Standing still for a moment, Harry shoved one hand in his pocket while the other finally closed the door. He tried finding an empty seat without really looking into anyone's eyes and spied one just at the back of the room. Right beside familiar cobalt blue that had Harry falter a bit in his steps when he noticed the other was looking at him. He cast down his eyes; pulling out the chair and dumping his bag to his right, while concentrating on a discolored spot on the desk.
He was in the same class as the Asian teen. What were the odds of that ever happening, he thought.
The door opened again to reveal a strict looking man with glasses; holding a stack of papers that he put down on the teacher's desk. The man seemed like any other teacher; or so Harry thought since he hadn't met any typical teachers and he was only basing that judgment on the few movies he'd seen. Dress pants, shirt and a tie made out the man's outfit for the day. Dark blonde hair was brushed back; only a few short strands hanging freely onto his forehead. Semi-dark blue eyes scanned the classroom and everyone immediately quieted down. Impressed by this simple action Harry began wonder what kind of teacher he would be.
"Most of you know me already but for those who don't, my name is Treize Kushrenada and I will be your homeroom teacher for your senior year."
He turned to the white board and wrote his name in a neat and tidy handwriting in the upper left corner.
"I will also be teaching you in History so we will be seeing more of each other later this week. First, any questions so far?"
No one opted to speak up and he took this as a sign to continue on. The man went on to talk a bit about the school itself that seemed to be a standard subject of each starting year, along with school rules and other important information.
Harry tried to keep up with the man's speech but he soon felt himself growing more lost by the mass of information to take in all at once. He ventured a look at the Asian teen to see the other with his face and eyes turned to the windows. Watching the boy as discreetly as he could, Harry took a better look this time around to really observe the other's features, or as much he could see from his angle.
The boy seemed bored; like he'd been through this before and which probably was the case too. He had his chin supported in his right hand and face turned away from Harry; really only giving him a good look of his messy chocolate brown hair and none of his other facial features.
Meanwhile Mr. Kushrenada was finished with the last required facts that they had to give the students.
"Now that we're done with that, let us do a short introduction of ourselves, starting with you on the corner there." He said, taking to leaning back on the desk and addressed a male student sitting at the front row.
The student in question, an African-American, blinked in surprise and was quiet in thought for what to say.
"Only your name and favorite interest is fine if you can't think of anything more to say." Kushrenada said to help the boy along.
"Dean Thomas, I play soccer." He said with an enthusiastic smile.
"Good. Next?"
"May Kerensky… I like hanging out with friends and going to the mall." A smaller girl said.
The rest of the names were a blur to Harry and it went on until they had gone through almost every one of them, except for Harry and the other boy. The class's focus had shifted with each student and they all turned around in their seats to follow each one of their introductions.
When another row had ended, Harry realized that it was soon his turn and twisted in fingers in slight apprehension for what was to come. His mind had begun thinking up different reactions the other students might have to what he had to say. Maybe they would all laugh at him? Ignore him or stare at him? What was worst?
"Yes?"
Harry shook himself out of his thoughts and noticed that he now had the teacher and the whole class's attention. He felt himself twisting in his seat and trying not to meet anyone's eye for fear of ridicule.
He was so out of his comfort zone; that was for sure! He'd much prefer a half days of practice with Sirius instead of this, he thought wildly; trying to collect his thoughts long enough to utter a comprehensible sentence.
"H-harry Potter." He grimaced inwardly at his stuttering.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Potter, you transferred here from England, am I right?" The male said, showing interest in the tone of his voice.
The few students that hadn't been paying attention to the introductions now turned fully in their seats to observe the new student; a few craning their necks to get a better look at him.
"Y-yes…" Harry replied and wished that they would all stop staring at him like that.
He thought he heard someone whisper, 'so that's how a British accent sound like!' and 'I've never seen one from England before'. He sunk even further down into his seat; almost wishing the chair would swallow him up and spare him from this torture.
"Any interests?" Kushrenada asked after a while of waiting.
"Oh!" Harry let out, hitting his knee into the desk and reddened at the light laughter that rang out in response.
They must think of him as a pansy or something with how insecure he was being and acting, he thought miserably.
"Uhm… well, I play, tennis…" he trailed off in a weak voice and buried his eyes deeper into the wood.
God, somebody please kill him right now! Sirius would die of laughter if he saw him behaving like this, for sure.
Harry was too into his own embarrassment to take notice of the Asian teen until the boy spoke up at the teacher's request; quieting down any residue laughter.
"Heero Yuy. Computers and soccer." He delivered in a short response, looking straight at the teacher and almost daring the man to ask him to offer more than that.
The teacher though only had a small smile at the end of the presentations and reached out for a section of the papers that he had earlier put to the side on the desk. He split them into five separate piles and had each student from the front row pass them back to the others.
"This is a copy of the school rules and other things that I have already talked about, so there will be no excuses for rule breaking in the future." He added as the papers traveled down and a few students groaned empathetically at this.
A piece of paper landed on Harry's desk but he didn't look up because of his red face.
Kushrenada took the remaining papers in hand.
"This is your personal schedules, before you go please come to the front to fetch yours."
The teacher wished them a pleasant day and the students began filing out; retrieving their schedule before escaping the classroom.
Harry raised his head in time to see the Asian teen fish up his things, grabbing his schedule and leave the classroom in a sedate pace; never casting a look back into the classroom and Harry.
Harry sighed audibly and thumped his head into the desk.
"Attending High School is quite a leap from home tutoring, Mr. Potter."
The raven haired teen flinched and nearly went crashing into the floor with surprise as he hadn't been aware that the teacher had yet to leave the room himself. He'd thought he'd left with the students.
Kushrenada sported a humored expression when Harry directed his focus onto the man again. The man held out a sheet of paper to Harry.
"I didn't mean to startle you." He said, light amusement lacing his voice.
Harry righted himself, collected his shoulder bag and stood up gingerly.
"No… that's alright." The British teen said and accepted his schedule.
"If you have any questions concerning school, please feel free to ask my anytime. I understand that this is a whole new environment and experience for you." The teacher went on to say.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Harry replied a bit stiff; his little scene from earlier still fresh in his memory.
The man didn't take any notice of or comment Harry's mild rigidness.
"You're most welcome. I would be happy to hear of how your stay here is coming along whenever you feel the need to. Don't feel shy to come by my office." The man gave Harry a last look before checking his wrist watch. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a staff meeting to attend. I will see you tomorrow then, Mr. Potter."
"Uh, yes."
The man made his way back to the teacher's desk; fetching his papers.
Harry bit his lip.
"Sir?" Harry asked suddenly.
"Yes, Mr. Potter?" Kushrenada turned back to him with a questioning look in his eyes.
"About my having been home tutored, could, could you please not mention that to the others?"
The man paused in his actions to think about the teen's query.
"I see no problem with that. May I ask why though?"
The raven haired shuffled his feet on the ground.
"It's just, I don't want them thinking of me like, you know, some rich brat…" He finally said awkwardly.
"I understand." The man's features softened slightly and he smiled warmly. "I won't mention it in class or around the students and forward your wish to the other teachers at the same time."
"Thank you sir!" Harry said, feeling better.
The man left the teen standing alone in the classroom. He'd been worrying about how his teacher would be like but he was happy to know that he was a decent guy.
He left the room not long after the other; looking forward to get out into the fresh air again and escape the stuffiness of the classroom.
"So how was school?" Sirius asked as soon as Harry had gotten over the threshold into their house.
Harry bent down to remove his shoes.
"It was alright." He said after a while.
"Alright? That's all?" Sirius said and followed Harry into the living room.
The teen swung his bag onto the couch and threw himself against its backrest; letting out a large sigh of emotional exhaustion.
"It's the only the first day." He said in way of explanation.
"Well, yes, but just alright?" Sirius persisted and joined his god son on the couch; arms resting on his knees.
"We were supposed to introduce ourselves." He said.
Sirius raised an eyebrow at this that seemed to say 'what's so wrong with that?'.
Harry frowned, not really willing to go any further than that.
"They laughed at me."
Sirius cocked his head.
"What'd you do?" He asked.
"A fool out of myself." Harry said and budged when Sirius sent him a look. "I stammered and hit my leg in the desk, what else do you want to know? The point is that I made a fool out of myself and they think I'm weird." He let out in rushed and glum voice.
The older man smiled sympathetically.
"Harry, it takes a little more than that to be branded a weirdo or something similar to that. Trust me, I've been there and even spent quite a few holidays there." He finished with a comforting grin and nudged the youth in the side playfully.
Harry scrunched his eyebrows and purged his lips, but he couldn't help the small smile that still sneaked its way through.
"That's it lad! Don't let the others get you down just because they happened to laugh at you." Sirius swung around to fully face Harry; a leg bent on the couch with the other touching the floor. "Look, if you happen to do something like trip or stammer that makes the others laugh. Just laugh with them and see it for what it really is; a funny little accident and a perfect ice breaker for conversations."
"That's easy for you to say."
"No one's an expert from the start. Why do you think you have to keep practice tennis to get better?"
Harry avoided his god father's look with a small pout. He kind of always disliked it when Sirius was right about things. The man always became so smug and cocky for a couple of days at least when he sprouted the occasional useful advice.
He yelped when a large and rough hand ruffle his hair; making it look all the more like a bird's nest. He growled at the male while fending off the hand.
Sirius launched at the teen and pulled the struggling youth to him; holding him around the waist with one arm and rubbing down hard on Harry's scalp.
"Quit it!" Shouted Harry and pulled at the arm holding him in place.
Sirius laughed.
"Not until you stop beating down on yourself and start acting like a man!" He sent back and kept up his ministrations despite the frequent protests from the bundle in his arm.
While Harry felt his scalp hurting a bit from the treatment it wasn't enough to cause real damage and his god father had perfected this torture technique ever since he was a child.
When the man eventually let go of the youth Harry took a breath full of air when he was released. He glared at the man who seemed indifferent to it and merely reached for the remote; flipping on the TV.
Harry appeared offended for what lasted for a few seconds before shaking his head miserably. Some things never changed.
After the small 'pick me up' yesterday from his god father, Harry felt a bit more secure going to his second day of school. He was relieved to see that no one commented about the day before and he was being blissfully ignored by the other students. The bad thing though, was that they had already established social groups between each other and spent all of the breaks talking to each other.
If he hadn't felt like it yesterday then Harry certainly felt left out today. Even that silent Asian teen was involved in a conversation with that Dean boy; well, the conversation was mostly kept going by the dark skinned boy and, Heero was it, added a comment here and there. Harry didn't mean eavesdrop, but he gathered that they were talking about the try outs to the soccer club later this week on Friday.
Dean had been in the middle of talking about any promising new freshmen when the Mr. Kushrenada entered the classroom with a small wagon trailing after him.
His first official and public lesson in history had consisted of signing off that you'd received your new school literature. They started off on American based history and Harry felt sadly lost trying to keep up with what the teacher were talking about. His notes at the end of the lesson looked more like incomprehensible drabbles than real handwriting. He'd have to work on listening and writing at the same time.
Math was a bit better and he actually had no problems keeping up with the class as soon as he had sufficiently figured out Ms. Une's teaching methods. Numbers were that he were already familiar with was definitively easier compared to old American presidents, no offence. He supposed all countries had different focal points when it came to teaching history.
The day seemed to go by much faster than it had yesterday and left Harry feeling more empty-headed at the end of it. He hoped it would all get better when he got more used to it all in due time. He couldn't expect to get it all at the second day right?
Third day saw some progress when a girl had said hello to him when he'd arrived for his biology lesson. It was a girl from another class and he'd been, more than a little, thrilled at the real first verbal contact with another student since he got there (he didn't count bumping into people).
She'd introduced herself as Cho Chang and invited him to sit with her. They'd talked a bit about school and she'd been interested to hear about him coming from London. Then asked about how it was living there, Big Ben and what not that had entered her mind at the moment.
He'd been in the middle about hearing about her earlier years in school and her friends when the female biology teacher, Sally Po, walked into the classroom. She'd whispered they could talk again next lesson if he wanted.
He had an equal experience as history in this new subject and had felt out of depth in biology; having only touched on the theoretical parts during his homeschooling until now. It struck him in hindsight now how different attending a public school really was from what he was used to, but he was determined not to let it pull him down and keep him from doing his best.
Slowly but surely people began to say hi to him now and again when he went to and from class and he did his best to do the same in return.
By the fifth and last day of school that week, he had managed to make contact despite his awkwardness with two other boys in his class, Danny and Chris, of whom the latter was already a member of the tennis club since his freshman year. He'd been happy to hear that Harry was going to try out for the tennis club and promised to cheer him on later on that afternoon.
Chris was a dark brunette born in the US with an Italian mother and American father. The boy had offered some more information about his coach and bragged about how he thought Zechs was the best coach he'd ever had. Harry had nothing to worry about he'd told him and given him a friendly pat on the shoulder before his friend butted in thinking the other was bragging a little too much about his club.
Danny was of a lighter shade of hair color than that of his friend and played for the school's soccer team. Apparently so did Dean and Heero from their class and Harry had sent a short look in the Asian teen's direction at the admission. He should've guessed it from the introductions.
The Japanese, well half really which he'd also learned from his new friends, teen didn't like to talk that much, or at least he didn't volunteer in conversations and such without a good reason or if his friends or fellow team mates approached him. Though Danny said even him, being on the same team, sometimes had problems approaching the boy. He seems like the kind of guy to enjoy being on his own you know, the brunette had said and added that despite that he was a damn good player.
Harry could relate to the want and need of being alone sometimes, but he guessed Heero preferred it around the clock. He couldn't help wondering what the teen were up to if he was on his own most of the time. He had mentioned computers on the first day, so maybe he sat with his computer when he got back home? Harry enjoyed the occasional computer game and net surfing but he had a hard time imagining sitting in front of it more than one to two hours, at the most, every other day or so. He was more of the athletic type of guy; he flourished when he was able to work up a sweat and enjoyed the great feeling you got after practice.
It was another thing that Harry had noticed lately and that was his curiosity to learn more about the cobalt blue eyed teen. Well, at least more than what little he got from the other two boys. Like how was he when he played soccer and was around more close friends. He wondered if that braided teen and other Asian teen were two of those. They had seemed close.
Afternoon came rolling along and various students spread out to attend the try outs, go home or if you were a member of a non-athletic club; go to the appointed classroom for club activities.
Harry was standing by his locker; putting the books he needed for homework in his shoulder bag before retrieving his sports bag with his tennis rackets that he'd brought with him today for the try outs.
"Hey, Harry!"
The raven haired teen spotted Chris coming his way with a similar formed bag of his own slung over his shoulder. The boy's eyes shone with excitement as he came closer.
"You ready?" He asked.
"As much as I'll ever be." Harry grinned.
They arrived at the tennis courts and Chris showed him where the boy's dressing rooms were located. They shifted into shorts, t-shirts and appropriate shoes and went off with their bags in hand to a collecting group. It seemed to consist of mainly freshmen and one or two sophomores that appeared to be trying out for the second time.
Chris wished him good luck and went to join senior and sophomore members of the club standing on the side waiting for the try outs to start. The dark haired teen sunk into a conversation with his peers while they observed the newcomers.
Harry was curious to see how the older members how the club were on the court; truth be told, he hadn't played that much against people his own age. He'd mostly played against his god father and old friends to the man offering to give Harry an extra edge by matching up with him. You didn't have a former pro player as god father and coach for nothing.
"Can I have your attention please?"
The group's chattering quieted down when Zechs, the tennis coach, came into view with a clipboard in hand. He was dressed in black and white Jerseys with the school emblem and 'Irvington High School Tennis Club' sowed onto the front. Harry noticed that some of the seniors also had the same dress or only the jackets on.
"When I call your name, step onto the court and wait for my instructions."
Harry watched the first two freshmen got called up and enter the court. The rest of them gathered along the fence and he felt a bit bad for the two boys as they were clearly nervous by all the people watching. He'd learned to shut everyone else out when he was playing to keep from getting distracted, but before that he'd been a mess so he could empathize.
Apparently they were supposed to play a best out of three games match against each other and through that it would be determined whether you passed or not.
The game started and ended pretty fast with Zechs interrupting them after the first game and thanking them for their participation. They'd evidently failed the try out and this made Harry aware of how strict Zechs really was. Not a surprise though if you considered that they won the state championship last year. Obviously not anyone could join the club without some skills to show for it.
They passed through a number of names with only two freshmen having passed so far and just barely.
Harry had settled down to sit on the ground; waiting for his turn considering his surname had to be among the last ones. He watched the group diminish until only ten or so students were left standing; another freshman and sophomore having joined the other members of the club.
"Harry Potter." Zechs called.
Finally it was his turn! Harry thought and agilely got up to his feet from having stretched his legs. Never forget stretching.
He reached a hand into his bag and pulled out his racket; the black and emerald glistening in the overhead sun. Pushing open the gate he walked onto the court.
To his surprise though; it was not another student that walked up with him but the coach himself who had removed his jacket and held a racket in hand. Harry sent a look in Chris's direction who only shook his head; he didn't get this situation either and the majority of the members were eyeing first their coach confusedly and then Harry.
"I thought you'd get more of a challenge playing against me." Zechs said in a way of explaining and the confused seniors turned curious eyes on Harry with that comment. "First serve is yours."
Somehow his wish of not standing out too much had been gruesomely crushed, sort of, by the tennis coach. He'd thought he'd play a short game against a freshman and that would be it. He couldn't very well deny the coach himself; so he took up a position on the opposite side of the court.
Zechs picked up a few balls from a basket, putting some in his pocket and shooting a few over to Harry. The teen caught them with his racket and deposited all but one in his pocket.
He volleyed the ball a few times, before taking up his position. He felt his focus sharpening and he only had eyes for the ball, court and his opponent. Grasping the ball and throwing it up in the air; he swung his racket back before swinging it back in a powerful arch and shot the ball over the net.
The long haired blonde man was already there though to return it back with nearly no effort at all.
They started up a long game for the first point and Harry finally managed to win the first point by returning a short volley by the net.
He righted himself up and didn't notice his breathing until cheers erupted from the sidelines. He saw Chris shouting at him and grinning a mile long with an incredulous look in his face shared by the boys standing around him.
Harry felt his cheeks go red with joy and embarrassment and he turned his attention back to the coach.
"You reached up to expectations and then some Harry."
"Thank you sir." Harry said.
"Didn't I tell you to call me Zechs?" The man said smiling.
"You did si-Zechs." The teen caught himself from doing it again.
"No question about passing. I'll see you next week in practice."
Harry exited the court after the man and was met by a gesticulating Chris and the rest of the tennis club behind him.
"Harry! I didn't know you were that good. You should have told me!"
"It's nothing…"
"Nothing?"
Harry winced slightly at the high pitched voice and so did some of the other students too.
"You managed to take a point from Zechs; no one has done that before."
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"No one? Are you sure?"
"Yes!" Chris answered and some other seniors added their voice too.
"How long have you've been playing?" A dark skinned boy asked from behind Chris.
"Uh, must be, since I was six…" He trailed of when he saw the looks on the others faces. "Did I say something wrong?" He wondered when he got no response.
"That's over ten years!" Someone said disbelievingly from around the back.
"But that explains how good he is." Another voice said.
"Sure does." A tall dark blonde boy said and nodded.
"We're so going to take the championship this year with you here." Chris said excitedly and grinned again.
Several voices shouted their agreements and some began talking eagerly amongst each others.
"Me?" Harry said a bit confusedly, the crowd of students circling him disturbing him a bit, albeit he was still glad. "Didn't you win last year?"
"We did." Confirmed Chris. "But last year's team was made up of only seniors who have all already graduated."
"Oh." Harry let out.
That explained it.
After they had gone back to the changing room and having changed; the members began to break up after a while and waved good bye to Harry and Chris as they went out the door.
Harry pulled on his regular shirt and sat down to tie his laces.
"You gotta show me some of your moves sometime." Chris said as he put his shoes back into his bag.
"Moves?" Harry queried with a slight frown.
Chris shook his head and took a swing with an invisible racket to make his point.
"Yeah, moves, like tips or something."
Harry blinked before replying.
"Ah, sure."
"Nice." The boy smiled and walked out the door. "See you next week!"
"See you!" Harry called back and saw the teen leave.
He got the laces on his last shoe done and made a last check to make sure that he didn't accidently leave anything behind.
The late afternoon sun shone down on him but it was still pleasantly warm outside. The grounds were totally deserted; or so he thought.
The closer he got to the soccer fields he could hear shouts and yells coning from the one closest to one of the school buildings.
He came up behind a row of bleachers and rounded them before stopping in front of the field. Five youths from different races were passing a soccer ball between each other and he instantly recognized three of them.
One of them was the messy haired teen, Heero, and the other two he'd seen with him in the cafeteria. He didn't recognize the last two but the tallest of them seemed to have some Latin-American origin and a weird hairstyle that didn't seem to be anything but in the way of his sight. The last one was a light haired blonde teen had more normal hair. At least it wasn't long or set strangely.
Harry could tell from their small play that they were all good; but the braided one and Heero seemed to be a notch above the others when it came to technique.
He slipped both of his bags to the ground and leaned onto the railing as he observed them.
Memories of his childhood playing with the local team surfaced and he smiled faintly in remembrance. They were good memories and he missed those times a little. While he had no regrets about choosing tennis, it was still a one man's sport. There were doubles but you could never play in a team like in soccer and that's what he missed most of all. He missed the camaraderie and friendship between the players and that if you screwed up the others jumped in to support you, while in tennis Harry had to rely on solely himself.
Sighing to himself, Harry turned to pick up his bags.
"Watch out!" A voice yelled from behind him.
Looking up and back to the field, Harry saw a ball coming straight towards him and he barely had the time to raise his hands and deftly caught it before it could do a number on his face.
He blinked a few times at the ball and then heard footsteps coming his way.
"Hey, are you okay?" The braided teen came up to him with a raised eyebrow when he eyed the ball in Harry's hands. "Nice catch."
"Thanks." Harry replied automatically.
He noticed the other four watching him with various looks and the purple eyed youth, he wondered if he wore contacts, suddenly frowned at him for a few seconds before his eyes alighted.
"You're that guy!" He shouted and pointed at the raven haired teen.
"'That guy?'" The other Asian boy asked with a delicately raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, from first day of school, I thought I'd seen you from somewhere before." The braided teen said smugly like he was pleased with his newfound knowledge.
He looked Harry up and down.
"You're kind of tall for a freshman." He observed. Harry must've been about the same height as him.
"That's because he is a senior." Heero said behind the long haired teen's back.
Harry noticed how Heero's cobalt blue eyes stared him down while he said this. He shuffled his feet uneasily. What was up with that look?
"A senior?" The boy turned surprised eyes first to Heero and then back on Harry again. "But..."
"Maybe he's a transfer student?" The blonde spoke up and looked expectantly to the raven haired boy.
"Yes, from England." Harry answered.
"Cool!" The other youth said while the blonde shook his head.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Quatre." He held out a hand to Harry which the other shook.
"Harry."
He let go off Harry's hand and turned to the others.
"This is Duo." He motioned to the braided youth who gave a wink and grin in return. "Trowa is the tall one, Wufei to the left and the last one is Heero." Quatre finished introducing them.
"I know." Harry said and reddened a bit at the weird looks he got from the response.
"We're in the same class." Heero said.
"You've never mentioned you got a transfer student in your class." Duo complained like he couldn't believe this vital information had been kept from him.
"Now you know." Heero deadpanned.
"I hope you didn't exert yourself." Duo threw back annoyed. "Question; you ever play soccer before?" He asked Harry.
"I used to play football; I mean soccer, from when I was six and until I was twelve." He replied.
"Which position?"
"I was the goalkeeper, but-"
He yelped at the hand that grabbed a hold of his arm and the ball fell down to the ground.
Duo pulled him under the railing; Harry barely managing to duck so as to avoid getting the metal rod straight into his forehead and dragged him onto the field.
"Oi!"
The others followed behind and Quatre hurried to catch up to them.
"What do you think you're doing Duo?" He said when he came up alongside Harry; throwing looks between the two.
"I was wondering the exact same thing." Harry let out confused and annoyed; wondering if he should call for help. Not every day near perfect strangers started pulling you around by the arm was it?
Duo ignored them both; only letting go of his arm when they'd reached the goal and he left Harry standing there to go and search a bag that was probably his. He fished out a pair of gloves that was for goalkeepers.
Wait here now, Harry thought dimly as the gloves were shoved into his hands. Is he really…
"Maxwell, what's gotten into you now?" The Asian teen, Wufei, asked exasperatedly.
"He said he was a goalkeeper."
"So?" Wufei said with a raised eyebrow.
"So…we don't have a goalie." Duo supplied, sighed and took it upon himself to shove Harry's hands into the gloves.
Wufei rolled his eyes.
"I know that, but you can't just grab someone. Besides the try outs were earlier this afternoon."
"And?" Duo said and took the ball the other teen had picked up; backing away from the others and the goal.
He placed the ball at the mark for penalty shoots and backed up again.
"Hold on." Harry said.
Duo took a few quick steps and kicked the ball, hard, to the lower left hand corner.
By instinct Harry threw himself at the ball and clutched it to him, as he rolled once on the ground before coming to a stop. He breathed out and blinked once, twice, before sitting up looking dazed.
"I caught it." He said, sounding astonished, and stared down at the ball in his hands.
He raised his head to see the other four staring at him with shocked faces, and then a whoop of joy from one braided, and had to be crazy, teen.
"We've found our goalkeeper!"
This brought the others out of their shock only to enter a new one.
Harry dropped the ball.
"What?"
AN: Haha! Oh dear…Harry's in trouble now. Kind of. XP I noticed that as a consequence to adding Zechs into the story, I've started an avalanche of OZ teachers…sort of. So now I've also added Treize, Une, Sally and then Dean Thomas as a fellow, soccer crazed, classmate to the story, Cho Chang is there too and who knows who else I'll add… I wonder how Doctor J would be in chemistry… :grin:
Do you guys think listening to Celine Dion will make you unusually mushy and sappy? Since I've wanted to just throw Harry and Heero together to see what happens for quite some time now after listening to her non-stop for an hour or two now. XP That would really mess up my plot though…