It was a sunny day when I moved to this Tokyo. It was also the day that changed my life forever.
My family and I moved to this city due to my parents' works. My mom was an Olympic gymnast, who won several gold metals; while my dad was a very famous movie director. As the beloved child of these two very accomplished people, a lot of pressure is put on me to do well in things that I involved in. Oh, I am rambling on.... I even forgot to introduce myself.
I am Stella, Stella Fujisaki.
Here is my brief look: I am a six grader. I am half Japanese and half Spanish descent, so I have more of European look. I have wavy strawberry raven black hair that reaches to my mid-back. My eyes are sapphire blue. Lastly my skin tone is pale peach color. The rest is in the story.
Most people when they move to a new place will feel anxious or unease, but for me it is quite different. Do you know why? It is because my best friend is moving with me. Her name is Erika Takatou. At first, I was quite sad to move away from Osaka. When I went to say goodbye to Erika-chan, I was surprise to see her house full of boxes that are already packed and a sign on the front door saying the house is to be sold. It turns out that her dad's work requires them to move and as you can guess the designation, Tokyo!
It was such a nice sunny day. As I was running, the sakura petals danced around me. It was my favorite season, Spring. The sound of ball hitting the ground, it was from the nearby tennis courts. Curiosity overcame me, I walked closer. Two people were playing against each other while another was sitting on the bench hitting a tennis ball on the brim of the racket. The interesting thing was that these three people looked identical. It was the first time I ever saw triplets. The only way I could identify them was by the color of their shirts and their hair styles.
The one sitting wore an overall black jacket with yellow trimming; he had his hair spiked up. The one on the left of the court also wore the same jacket but with green trimming, he had styled his hair in a bob cut. The last one also wore the same thing but with red trimming, he had bangs that parted in the middle. Overall, they were really good looking, but what I was really interested in was their athletic skills. As I immerse in this intense tennis match, I didn't realized that I was late to my meeting place; when I looked at my iPhone, I was already 20 minutes late. Even though I really wanted to continue admiring their skills, I had to get going.
When I came to the park, the first thing I saw was a boy about my age chasing a soccer ball with Zach, my best friend's dog. It seemed that they had been playing for a while now from all the sweat the boy had.
"Hello, Erika-chan. Sorry, I was late. I was destracted by something on my way here. What is going on?" I greeted as I walked up to my friend while my eyes didn't look away from the two pair.
"Oh Stella-chan! He is Shou-kun, I just met him. He wants to practice soccer with me, so I have him play Zach to see his level. But what I see is that he seems to be a beginner, it won't be much of a practice if he cannot even steal the ball from Zach."
"Don't say that, if he steals the ball at least once then let's practice with him."
"If you say so."
A while later...
"So, are you gonna give up?" Erika shouted.
"No! No way! I'm not giving up!" Shou shouted back, but his voice was even louder than Erika-chan's. Erika-chan was loudest person I had known, it was shocking to see there is someone that can be louder. But I got to admit though, he got good spirit. I could see his eyes burning with determination. I gave a small smile.
But as time goes on, Shou-kun seemed to be getting more desperate as he grew more tired. I was worried that he will become dehydrated as he was sweating buckets. The more intense he was looking at the ball, the more Zach seemed to be scared. Shou-kun showed an expression that made him like he was trying to get the ball's soul. The poor Zach couldn't take the awkward silence anymore and moved the ball to his left, Shou-kun followed. Oh boy, it looked like he fell for it again. At first I thought Shou-kun would fall for Zach's trick again, but I was wrong. He kicked the ball up and fell on his butt. The ball ended up on his stomach, while Zach looked at him with a confused bark.
"Aha! So it's my win right?"
"I don't know, you only got it once. Zach what do you think?" Erika answered.
"Eh?! But that's the momentum! I already got it!" Shou-kun whined. He even got on his knees and bowed down to her. "Please, practice with me!"
I could see that Erika didn't know what to do. It was the first time someone actually bowed down to her. I kneeled in front of him and grabbed his wrist to pull him up gently.
"Ok. We will practice with you as long as you don't get on your knees again. My name is Stella, Stella Fujisaki." I calmly said while giving him a closed eyed smile. However, I didn't see his face that was turning red right now, but Erika-chan noticed and smirked.
Each of us drew a circle on the ground and went inside. WE just kicked the ball around practicing passing. But Shou-kun soon missed his kick up and Erika-chan had to do a direct pass, causing the ball to fly away. I could see Zach wanted to participate too, as his head followed the ball. Zach went to get it, but I stopped him, causing Zach to try and stop his sliding galore with a confused bark. It was barely a workout for Erika-chan and me, but Shou-kun was sweating like crazy. He really seemed to be a beginner at soccer even if he had the passion for the sport.
It was soon time to go, the sun was setting. Erika-chan and I walked together, I lived further away from her but her house is on the route to mine. As we were walking while telling each other of our new schools, I found out that we will be going to different ones. It was then the sound of ball hitting metal coming from our right caught our attention. We were looking down at a soccer court by the river side. There was a blonde boy; I immediately noticed that he was shorter than me. It couldn't be helped; my height was my sore topic, so I was surprised to find someone that seemed my age to be shorter. He was kicking a soccer ball to the goal from a certain distance; I didn't think he was aiming at the goal itself but the upper corners of the goal. Every shot was perfect demonstration of control. We broke away from looking at him when Shou-kun came running at us, asking if we can join his team that he was currently forming, the Momoyama Predators. However, Erika-chan laughed and declined before I could try to politely decline.
"Shou-kun, do you know who is that?" Erika-chan asked. It wasn't a surprise that she is interested, the boy was clearly skilled. But I noticed her cheeks were much redder than usual. I know, she is also interested in more than just the boy's soccer skills.
"That is Kawahara International Heaven's Aoto-kun. He was in the city semifinals last year. Our team beat them 4-3."
It was a bit shocking. If I based the skill of the team on Shou-kun's then I was sure that the team's level won't be as strong. It was wrong of me to take something by the face value, but I wasn't the only one that also thought the Predators aren't strong based on Erika-chan's shocked face. As we walked a bit closer to talk to Aoto-kun, well it was mostly Shou-kun doing the talking, I saw a pair of prettiest eyes I have ever see. Apparently Erika-chan thought so too, I think it was the start of Erika-chan first serious crush. In the end, we didn't get to play with Aoto-kun and we parted ways.
