"That was fun," Rin said as the pair walked back from the elementary school. They played a lot of games with the little kids and taught them some tricks. Rin had put on a show of her favorite freestyle routine which had all the kids watching with wide eyes at the way the ball seemed to spin and fly up on its own.

"Where did you learn the freestyle?" Nana asked as they walked.

"I saw a girl at a weekend tournament practicing and it looked amazing. I watched a lot of videos and practiced. Lots of practice," she rolled her eyes, yet her face had an amused smirk on it.

"Can you use it in a game?" Nana asked, interested.

Her companion shrugged, "Kind of, well, it's a bit different from regular juggling, as you know. I've never tried it in a game, but I would imagine some tricks would be useful, while others won't be."

Nana nodded, "That makes sense."

The two walked in silence for another couple seconds before Nana asked, "Do you miss everyone in America?"

"Of course," the answer was immediate and delivered without hesitation. "However, I have met a bunch of new and amazing people here, so I'm not lonely." She grinned at Nana and the girl smiled back.

"That's good; I was a little bit scared that you wouldn't like it here at first. You didn't seem too enthused that Enoshima didn't have a girls' soccer team."

"I wasn't happy about that, but I got to spend a lot of time with the boys and you, so I'm not complaining, too much. To be honest, the break has been nice." Rin laughed, at home, she was always complaining about practices and the strict diets the coaches put them on. Here, she didn't have to worry about any of that.

"Oh yeah," she snapped her fingers as she remembered something; "Coach said that there's no practice Saturday and Sunday of next week because of a funeral or something."

"Oh right, he told me a couple of days ago. It's so sad that his grandmother died," both girls sighed in sympathy.

"I know, all my relatives are still alive; I can't imagine if one of them died," Rin thought about her grandparents, both sets were in their early seventies to late eighties, but they were still full of live and energy. To lose even one would be devastating.

"Well, hopefully that doesn't happen for along time." Nana said. "Let's run, I'm late for dinner." She started jogging towards the school and Rin fell into step beside her.

At the school, they saw Kakeru and Ryoma waiting for them; everyone else had already gone home. Kakeru and Nana walked home together and Ryoma awkwardly walked with Rin to her apartment.

"Where did you guys go?" Ryoma asked, finally breaking the silence between them.

"To the elementary school to play with the munchkins," Rin answered with a light laugh.

"M-mun-what?" Ryoma asked, stumbling over the English word.

She laughed, "Munchkin means little kids, you know," she held her hand at waist height as she explained.

"Oh," he narrowed his eyes as he mulled over the unfamiliar word.

The rest of the walk was spent in silence with Ryoma internally freaking out in his head and Rin debating if she should start a conversation or something to break the tense silence between them. Her palms were starting to become sticky with nervousness. They reached her apartment without saying a word and they stopped, each turning to each other, waiting for the other to say something.

"Yes?" Rin prodded him in the stomach with her finger. She might as well start it off, seeing as she was trying hard not let her emotions show on her face. Ryoma wasn't looking too good either; he looked like he was about to pass out from how red his face was and he was stubbornly keeping his mouth in a straight line.

"Huh? Uh, um…" Ryoma replied intelligently. He cleared his throat and nervously put his hand on his neck as he looked at a place just over her right shoulder. "Uh, see you tomorrow, I guess." He tried to smile, but it came out as more of a twist of the lips.

Rin smiled and lifted a hand in farewell, heart thumping loudly at his embarrassed expression. "Okay, see you tomorrow, then."

Ryoma looked like he wanted to say something else so she waited a second before deciding he wasn't going to say anything. She opened her door and waved to him again as she slowly closed it, giving him plenty of time to say whatever was written all over his face. A part of her wanted to hear what he would say and another part didn't.

"Yeah, see you," he muttered to himself as the door closed and he walked away, head a mess and mad at himself. He kicked a pebble in the road and heaved a heavy sigh as he ran a hand through his hair.

Behind the door, Rin exhaled her pent-up breath and peeked out of the window to watch Ryoma walk down the street, slapping himself in the head as he went. She couldn't help but notice how adorable he was.

"Wait, where the hell did that thought come from?!" She quickly ducked away from the window and went into the kitchen.

…

Down the road, Ryoma was berating himself for his mind going blank during the most opportune moments. I'm such an idiot! How come I couldn't think of anything except, "See you tomorrow,"?! Now she thinks that I'm weird! This is just fantastic! Way to go Ryoma. He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face as he walked. Another time, he resolved. I'll say something another time. I have to do it before someone else does.

…

Rin lay on top of her covers with her hands behind her head as she stared blankly at the ceiling. Her thoughts raced around in her head and it was giving her a headache. She couldn't figure out her feelings for the tall midfielder. Of course she has had crushes before, but she had never truly dated or even liked someone the way she did now.

She had plenty of male best friends at home who were all drop-dead gorgeous and deserved to be supermodels, but none of them made her heart beat quite like it did whenever she saw Ryoma. She groaned and rolled onto her side and slapped her hands over her face in frustration and embarrassment.

She didn't know how to deal with these strange feelings and it was killing her. Why am I so caught up on a guy?! She berated herself for her indecision. No one had ever caught her interest before and now, here she was, wallowing in confusion and indecision.

I need to get a life, she told herself. Ryoma was just another guy that happened to make her feel like her skin was going to catch fire whenever he looked at or talked to her.

"What do I do?" She groaned as she rolled back and forth on her bed, head gripped between her hands. "I don't know what to do!" She didn't want to ruin a great friendship, but at the same time, she felt like she could take a chance.

"I'm not like Jamie, I can't do this whole dating and love thing!" Jamie was a friend who played tennis and she was beautiful and had a line of boys out the door trying to date her. She was beautiful, smart, kind and always knew what to do when it came to dating and love advice. Rin looked at her phone and debated on texting her all-knowing friend, but decided against it. If Liz or Tsubaki caught wind of her being torn up over some guy, they would never let it go.

Maybe I'll just keep being his friend. That way, I don't mess anything up. I'd make a sucky girlfriend anyway. Rin finally thought. Being friends really did seem the safest route. She had no idea of his feelings and she was not comfortable with putting herself out there like that; to make herself so vulnerable towards another, especially a guy.

This way, everything will stay the same and nothing will be awkward or weird. It's all I can hope for at this point. With a final sigh, she sat up and crawled under her covers and pulled them up to her chin. Just forget about it, Rin, and go to sleep. You don't want to mess this up. A final sigh escaped her lips as she rolled onto her side and fell into an uneasy sleep.

It's been nearly two weeks. I can't believe it; it feels like it's been two months since I last updated.

So this is not the last chapter, I think the next one will be and I'm trying to figure out a good ending and make it long to apologize for the crappy quality of the rest of the story.