Sunny felt someone shaking his shoulder. He slowly opened his eyes and was instantly blinded by the bright lights in front of him. He quickly rubbed his eyes until they adjusted to his surroundings. He saw he wasn't home but in his town's plaza.

He saw his mom getting out of the car and heard Aubrey getting out in the back.

"Come on, sleepy head. We're picking up tonight's dinner."

Sunny continued to rub his eyes as he exited the car. He was perplexed about why they were at the plaza when he knew they had food at home, but he wouldn't argue with her. He sensed Aubrey coming up behind him and she smiled at him.

"I'm staying over for the night," Aubrey cheerfully whispered, and Sunny tiredly nodded. He was glad to hear that his girlfriend was staying over, but he was exhausted and he didn't think he'd be a good host for her. He hoped Mari could spend time with her so she wouldn't be bored.

The trio entered Gino's and the smell of pizza blasted them. It was unsurprisingly busy given the day and the time they arrived, and Sunny even saw some of the kids from the tryout. There was a small line by the counter, which was being held up by a handsome young man.

"I don't get it. You have it on the menu," he argued. The man behind the counter folded his arms and shook his head.

"I keep telling you, kid, to order something else. It's an abomination that it's on there!"

"But you keep selling it to us."

"Why can't your family just be normal?" The man mumbled before sighing. He placed a large pizza box on the counter and rang up the register. "Tell you what, son, cancel the order and I'll give you another pizza half off."

The young man blankly stared at the cashier.

"Just give me the sandwich," the young man answered bluntly and the man behind the counter grumbled before slamming a tightly wrapped long sandwich on the pizza box.

"Fine, but you better not order any more hero sandwiches from my store!"

"We both know we're going to have this argument again," the young man sighed before taking his order.

When he turned around, Sunny and Aubrey were able to recognize the young man as their friend Hero. Aubrey waved at him and the young man smiled and returned the gesture with a wave of his own.

"Hey, Hero! What are you doing here?"

"I'm just picking up dinner. My family is celebrating Kel after his basketball tryout today," Hero told her. "He believes he has a great shot at making the team, and from the way he played today I believe he'll make it too."

"That's amazing, Henry. Tell Kelsey I hope he makes the team," Sunny's mom told the older boy.

"I will," Hero then looked over at Sunny who was having some difficulty keeping his eyes open. "That secret work Mari told me about must've taken a lot out of Sunny."

"Oh yeah, he worked really hard today," Sunny's mom said with Aubrey nodding in agreement. Henry smiled before looking at his watch.

"Well, I better be going. It was good seeing you guys and let's meet up for a picnic sometime. I feel like we rarely get together since Sunny and Mari started practicing for their recital."

Hero left and the trio got in line. The line moved quickly, and because Sunny's mom ordered over the phone, their pizza was ready when they reached the counter. Sunny's mom paid and they got to their car before the steam could even rise from their dinner.

They made it home, and all of the lights were on. Sunny could see Mari peering through the curtain, and when he opened his car door, she was already walking to the car.

"There you guys are. You were gone for hours, and now we don't have much time to practice," Mari complained. She didn't notice how tired Sunny was or the pizza in her mom's hands. She grabbed Sunny's arm and started pulling him to the house to squeeze out as much practice time they had left for the day. She didn't stop until she heard Aubrey's voice pick up in her ears.

"Hey, Mari, I'm staying over for the night."

Mari turned around, and it was then she noticed Aubrey standing awkwardly behind her mom, who was carrying a pizza box. It was then her mood flipped as she let go of her brother's arm and rushed over to give the young girl a big hug.

"Hey, Aubrey! It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too!" Aubrey exhaled as the older girl squeezed out the oxygen in her lungs.

Seeing that his sister was preoccupied, Sunny took the opportunity to sneak into the house. He wanted to head straight to bed, but he smelled bad and was also a little sweaty from the tryouts. He was also hungry and he didn't want to go to bed hungry. His mom always said you'd get nightmares if you went to bed hungry.

Sunny jogged up the steps and got his pajamas before moving to the bathroom. He took a quick bath, got dressed, and made his way downstairs. He found his sister and Aubrey chatting at the dining room table and his mom walking in with the pizza and some plates.

Sunny took his seat, a slice of pizza, and started eating. Mari and Aubrey continued to talk as they ate. Sunny was too tired even to try to listen in on their conversation. He was almost done with his first slice when Mari asked a question that almost made him choke.

"So, what was the secret thing you needed Sunny for? We missed a whole afternoon's worth of practice, and why was Aubrey with you?"

Sunny started panicking. He didn't think of an excuse for Mari, and he didn't know if his mom or Aubrey came up with one. He looked at Aubrey and the look in her eyes told him she had nothing, and he didn't see his mom anywhere. It wasn't until a glass of grape soda was placed in front of him and seeing his mom's smile calmed him down.

"We helped the church," his mom answered. "Ever since he helped out when he missed school, the preacher has been asking me to bring him whenever he needs help."

"I guess that's fine, but why was Aubrey with you?"

"Sunny asked me to help!" Aubrey quickly answered.

"And how come neither of you asked me? I would've been happy to help out," Mari said in a hurt tone. Sunny sunk into his seat and avoided eye contact with her.

"W-We thought you c-could u-use a br-break from everything after all the h-h-hard work you do."

Mari stared into his soul as he sunk deeper into his chair. He was pleading with whatever deity that could hear him to make Mari believe him. He hated lying to her because of all the stress she made him feel whenever she pressed him on the topic.

"Hey, Mari, I was wondering if we could watch CAPT. SPACEBOY tonight," Aubrey quickly butted in. "Kel always talks about how he and Sunny are almost done with the Beckett trilogy and I wanna catch up!"

Mari turned her attention to Aubrey and smiled wide.

"Sure we can! If we start now we'll be done with the McKenna trilogy by midnight!"

Mari left for the living room to set up for their movie night. Aubrey slowly followed after her and before she left the room, Sunny mouthed the words "thank you" to her. She gave him a thumbs-up in return before she left. Now alone, Sunny released a deep exhale from what transpired.

It was getting harder to keep his secret from Mari. With the recital looming closer he could tell she was starting to get more on edge and more suspicious of him. He was already bad at lying to her, and now that his extra lessons excuse had run its course he had no cover story to tell her. That is if he makes the team.

He messed up a lot during the tryouts, and if what Luke said had any truth to it, he was fighting an uphill battle.

Sunny lost his appetite and excused himself from the table. He went straight to his room and ignored any of the calls from the girls asking him to stay. He didn't bother to turn on the lights, choosing to trust his senses and his memory of the room and where his bed was.

He found his bed with little trouble and crawled under the blankets. He rested his head on his pillow and tried his best to block out any worries he had about the team or his sister as he fell asleep.

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

Sunny slowly opened his eyes. His room was dark as the only light source was the moon shining through his window. He turned to the clock in his room and saw it was 10:45.

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

Sunny quickly turned to the window in time to see a pebble bounce off the glass. He got out of his bed and walked to the window and saw Kel tossing a pebble to himself. When the energetic boy saw him he started waving him down. Sunny playfully rolled his eyes before grabbing his sweatshirt.

Sunny sneakily moved down the steps and into the living room. The audio from the movie's main menu played throughout the room as both Aubrey and Mari were passed out on the couch. He tipped-toed past them, quietly left the house, and caught up with Kel who greeted him with a wide smile.

"Come on, HOBBEEZ will close soon!"

The two boys ran to their hangout spot. They ran through the doors of their favorite shop, scaring but also annoying the shopkeep.

"Oh come on! Why do you two always come in ten minutes before closing!?" Kel lightly chuckled and the shopkeep sighed. "Ah, you always leave when we close. Just don't make a mess."

The two boys thanked him before moving to the comic section. Since it was late, they were browsing through the titles to find anything that they would be interested in reading on another day. The shelves were filled with books they'd read before or missing titles of stories they wanted to read. Kel grabbed a comic off the shelf and shook his head.

"I can't believe they're deciding to turn this new run of CAPT. SPACEBOY comics into a movie. It's the worst run of the franchise," Kel said in a disapproving tone.

"I-I don't k-know. I-I th-think you're the only o-one that hates it."

"What!? The issue is full of cliches and callbacks from previous and better iterations of CAPT. SPACEBOY," Kel argued before grabbing another comic. "Look, in CAPT. SPACEBOY and the Voluptuous Space Mermaids, when Captain Spaceboy first meets the mermaids they are beautiful but become ugly as the story goes on when he finds out they're evil. In the newer run, they're ugly off the bat! And don't get me started on his newly introduced evil brother."

"I-it was a n-nice touch to introduce s-something new into th-the s-s-series. I-It was starting t-to get r-repetitive," Sunny countered and Kel had a look of betrayal on his face.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing from you! You actually think that this new run is good!?"

"I-I think it's un-underrated, b-but i-it pales in c-comparison t-to Hugo Thatcher's first r-run with the s-story," Sunny said and Kel nodded in agreement. Sunny then pulled one of the author's comics off the shelf and flipped through it. "He w-wrote a l-lot of good s-stories and m-made e-each character feel im-important."

"Something that the newer issues get wrong," Kel said. "Look at Pluto; he was a part of Captain Spaceboy's crew but he wanted to be free to do his own thing so he ran away. That was something Hugo and every other author got right about his character. But in the new series, they have him as some lackey to Mr. Jawsum. They never explain why and act like he betrayed Captain Spaceboy, which is something he would never do!"

"I-I understand what y-you're s-saying," Sunny said.

Pluto is Kel's favorite character and whenever Pluto is portrayed poorly in a comic book, game, or movie Kel would always consider it to be bad. Sunny couldn't blame him because he's like that too. In any media that makes his favorite characters look bad, he always tries his best to avoid it. Unless it had the Slime Girls in it, but that was for different reasons.

He's a huge fan of their experiments and nothing else.

All of a sudden, there was a faint alarm and the shopkeeper cleared his throat to get the two boys' attention.

"It's 11 o'clock, we're closing. If you plan on buying anything, bring it up to the counter. If not, get out, or else I'll lock you in all night," he warned them like he always did.

Sunny and Kel placed their comics back where they found them and left before the shopkeeper even moved from the counter. They made their way back home and tried their best to avoid the park. Around this time the park was filled with partying teenagers or homeless people looking for a place to sleep.

"It was fun hanging out with you, Sunny. I always love it when we do this," Kel said.

"Y-Yeah," Sunny said. He looked over at the basketball court and saw some teenagers playing basketball. He saw one of them make a shot from the center of the court and thought it was amazing. "Hero s-said you had your b-basketball t-tryout t-today."

"Yeah, I did great! I'm making the team for sure," Kel said confidently and Sunny looked down dejectedly.

"B-But w-what if you don't m-make it?"

Kel stopped and thought about it for a second. He then smiled brightly and clenched his fist.

"Then I'll try again next year!"

"Huh?"

"I'll keep trying until I make it. It doesn't matter if it's this year, next year, or when I'm 35! I will make the team!" Kel said with a voice full of determination. "My dream is to become a pro basketball player and not making the team this year won't stop me!"

"Y-You seem very d-determined."

"Yeah!" Kel smiled before patting Sunny on the back. "So what's your dream?"

"M-My dream?"

"Yeah, what do you want to do in the future?"

"What I w-want to d-do…?" Sunny repeated.

He never thought about what he wanted to do. He liked drawing and coming up with stories, but he didn't think he could make a career out of it. He also didn't want to do anything with music after Mari ruined it for him. Outside of those things, he had no other interests.

Is that it for him? Is he doomed to be a failure in the future? It's what he deserves for not being able to play his violin correctly. Mari would probably be happy to see him struggle in the future.

He should just go and die.

"H-Hey, don't worry about it. You still have a bunch of time to figure out what you want to do," Kel spoke up. Sunny took a deep breath and nodded.

"Y-You're r-right," Sunny said.

The two boys soon made it back home and said their goodbyes. Sunny quietly opened the door and the main menu audio was still playing. He quietly sighed, walked upstairs, entered his room, and crawled into bed. He felt himself falling asleep until he heard the door open.

"Hey, Sunny, are you up?" He heard Aubrey whisper. He nodded and heard Aubrey walk up to him. "Is it OK if I sleep here with you?"

Being too tired to fully react to what she said, Sunny moved over to create room for her and lifted his blanket. He felt her slide into bed and snuggle up close to him as she wrapped an arm around him.

"Thanks."

Sunny nodded and moved closer to her. He fell asleep shortly after and had one of the best night sleep he ever had.

His nerves were getting to him as this was the most stressful day of his life. He tried to take as many deep breaths as he could to calm down, but that only made it worse. He had to escape, but he couldn't. He needed to know if he made the team.

A day has passed since the tryout and he hasn't heard anything from any of the guys. Now, he hasn't seen them at all since the tryout and he only ever sees them at school or the center, but his point still stands. He tried to take his mind off of it by practicing with Mari yesterday, but she was very aggressive and more of a perfectionist because of all the missed time they had. He could still feel his blood pumping in his fingertips.

"Hey, Sunny, are you excited?" Sunny picked his head up and saw Alec in front of him. "I couldn't sleep at all, I was so excited."

"E-Eh, uh, u-umm…" As Sunny struggled to speak, Alec noticed his heavily bandaged hand.

"What happened to your hand?"

Sunny flinched and quickly hid his hand in this sweatshirt pocket. Alec looked at him worriedly and was going to ask more questions, but JJ came up to them on the bleachers.

"Hey, they're about to post the final roster."

Sunny quickly moved past Alec and ran down the bleacher steps. Alec continued to watch him worriedly but followed after him.

The trio walked up to a big group of boys who were huddled together. The two coaches were standing before them and Coach B was holding a clipboard.

"Alright, before we let you see the roster we want you to know that this wasn't easy. You all did amazing on Friday and we made some difficult choices," Coach B announced. "If you don't make the team I hope you don't give up playing because I know one day you'll make a team's roster."

"You are all great players," Coach I said bluntly.

"And I would like to say one more thing. If you make the team, practices are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but we'll let you know when we schedule a practice on another day. Games are on the weekends. We have our home games here and we have a bus to take us to our away games," Coach B informed them. He then unclipped a paper from his clipboard and pinned it onto the board behind him. "We have your names organized by Forwards, Defencemen, and Goalies so it's easier to find your names. Please be respectful to the guys who didn't make the team."

The coaches moved out of the way and everyone swarmed around the board. Sunny stayed behind and watched everyone's reactions. Some were happy and others appeared heartbroken. He looked over at Mikhael and saw he looked stunned. Sunny assumed he didn't make the team and he felt bad for him after all the hard work he did.

The swarm died down, giving Sunny a clear path to the board. He took a deep breath and swallowed his fears before walking up to the roster sheet. He was too nervous to look for his name so he first checked the Defencemen to see if Mikhael did make the team. He assumed they listed the names in alphabetical order so he started from the top.

Defencemen:

Rudy Adolphus

Finneas Bailey

Mikhael Baker

Sunny had to do a second take. Mikhael's name was the third one listed. He looked over to the boy again and saw him smiling while being congratulated by Rudy. He was happy for him until he realized he had nothing else to distract him.

He swallowed his fears again and looked at the Forwards section. He knew that if his name was on there then it would be at the bottom, but he wanted to hold off on the heartbreak that was waiting for him. He started from the top and slowly worked his way down. He saw Alec's and Victor's names and the further he went down the more dread he felt. He was getting close to where his name would be and he could feel his heart beating out of his chest.

Claude Rhett

Elliott Rockwell

Beau Saxton

Sunny Suzuki

Wyatt Taysom

Sunny paused and looked back up. He saw his name on the list. He was so exhausted from all his stress that he couldn't properly celebrate. He did manage to smile.

"Are you kidding!?" Sunny turned and saw Luke, who was fuming. "All these other losers get a spot, but me!? This has to be a mistake!"

"It's not a mistake, Luke. You just weren't good enough," Alec said, coming out of nowhere.

"But I made the team last year!" Luke whined.

"And you weren't good enough to make it this year. Maybe if you practiced more instead of thinking you were entitled to a roster spot then maybe you would've made the team."

Luke puffed his cheeks before storming off.

"You'll regret this! This won't be the last time you see me!" He yelled and Alec rolled his eyes. He then turned to Sunny and smiled.

"Congrats on making the team, but let me warn you, it's only going to get harder. I hope you're ready."

Sunny gulped because he was scared of what his future held for him.