“Are we really doing this?” asked Perez. “Yes we have to do this, if we don’t we could die,” replied  Archer.

“What if we get caught?” I asked. “Yeah, if we get caught we could be in big trouble,” said Ray, agreeing with me.

“We are not gonna get caught though,” Archer said.

“But-”

“No we have to do this now, I can’t live through my next class,” Said Archer interrupting me.

“Ok, let's just do it,” I said.

We stepped out of the bathroom and walked through the hallways casually, so no one would suspect us of anything suspicious. The hallways were completely empty, all the children were outside the school playing in the playground and the teachers were either in class working and watching over the children playing on the playground. Perez, Ray, Archer, and I walked the hallways for what felt like hours before we saw the exit. Just when we thought we had successfully gotten out of school, Mr.Mixer, the math teacher appeared in front of us  “What are you boys doing,” he asked.

“We are-”

“We are researching the school,” said  Archer, interrupting me once more.

“What for,” asked Mr.Mixer.

We all looked at each other nervously, as Mr.Mixer asked us the question. We weren’t actually doing any research, we were on our way to get out of school and go home because the classes were too boring to endure. In this small village known as Shiralin, we have only once school which is from kindergarten to grade 5. The school is quite small and technology free, so if someone doesn't come to school, or if someone is late, the teachers barely notice it, that's why me, my best friend and cousin Archer, my best friend Ray and my other best friend Perez mostly run away from school and spent our time in the local shops buying food or playing games.

“Mr.Mixer, we aren’t actually researching the school, we are taking Archie to the nurse's office,” said  Perez confidently. Thanks to his quick thinking as always we have just been saved.

“Well, Why did Archie, say you were-”

“Because he got hurt, and he is mad and he is also mad about the math homework you gave us,” Perez replied before Mr.Mixer could finish the question.

“Archie I am sorry for the homework if it’s too hard you can come to me for help,” said Mr.Mixer, “Oh, sorry for halting you, you need to get Archie to the nurse's office.”

“Yes we do,” said Perez.

We moved towards the nurse's office until we were out of Mr.Mixer’s sights. Once he left we swiftly exited the school. “I think we should spend time away from our houses because it’s too early for school to end and if we get home right now then our parents will suspect us,” said Perez.

“No, I have to get home and finish my homework now,” I said.

“Ok, you do whatever you want, but if you get in trouble don’t drag us down,” said Perez.

“Bye!” I said as I started running towards my house.

“Bye, Ash,” Perez, Archie, and  Ray, replied moving the opposite way direction from me.

School is supposed to end at 1:30 and then I am supposed to get home at 2:00, but today we left the school at 10:00, so I took my time getting home.

I got home at 10:25, which was much a lot earlier than usual. I quietly opened the front door and peeked inside the house. I saw my grandpa and grandma, sitting on the kitchen table. Grandma was knitting a scarf or a hat, and grandpa was listening to the radio while looking outside the window.

The kitchen was about three meters away from the front door and to the right of it. My room was upstairs, and the stairs were a meter away from the front door and parallel to it. After a few seconds of thinking, I quietly and swiftly opened and closed the door and ran upstairs being undetected by my grandparents. "Mission successful" I whispered loudly when I got into my room undetected. I closed the door and started doing my homework, I finished my math homework in a few minutes, and then I spent 30 minutes on my reading homework since I had to research some words because I couldn’t understand them. Once I finished all of my homework which took about 40 minutes, my grandma came into my room bringing my favorite chips and a glass of Pepsi with her. I tried to hide from her but I was too late.

“Did you run away from school again, Ash,” my grandma asked quietly.

“No,” I replied nervously.

“Ash, do you know how dangerous that is,” My grandma said in a quiet and serious tone, “you are 8 years old Ash, what if someone or something, attacks you, or kidnaps you?”

“You underestimate my power grandma,” I said with a smile on my face.

“Oh do I now?” My grandma asked.

She put the chips and Pepsi down, she grabbed me, lifted me in the air, and lightly slammed me on the bed. I fought back, I lightly tackled her and then she pulled out her secret weapon, the ace up her sleeve, she started tickling me, and before I knew it I was defeated. After tickling me to submission she got up and started leaving my room.

“I will defeat you next time,  Granny,” I said as she was walking out the door.

She stopped, looked at me, and replied, “You will never defeat me, I am too powerful.”

“We will see about that,” I replied.

“Oh, Ash your mom is coming home tonight, I just wanted to let you know,” said grandma as she walked out the door of my room, leaving me stunned and scared.

I spent the rest of my time until 2 o'clock, worrying about why mom is coming, "did she find out that I have been running away from school, am I gonna be grounded, will I be in trouble," I said to myself, worrying my head off.

"Ash! Ash, come out," I heard a voice from outside my window.  I quickly rushed over to the window to see who it was. It was Archie, my cousin, he probably just now arrived home. Since the village is everyone lives really close and almost everyone knows everyone. My family from my Mom's side lives in the village just meters away from each other. My uncle Richie Archie's Dad lives about 10 meters to the right of my grandparents' house, the house I live in and my other uncle Steve lives just to the right of uncle Richie's house. My father whom I never knew doesn't live in the village nor does his family.  I ask my mom about my father, who he was, where was he from, but she always ignores my questions and says that he left us.

"Ash, hurry up, let's go your late," said Archie.

"Yeah, sorry I am coming, I got distracted," I responded.

I rushed down the stairs and through the front door of the house, screaming at my grandparents that I will be back later.

"Race you," I said to Archie as I took a 5-meter lead, but before I knew it he caught up to me and overtook me.  Archie is the fastest and strongest out of all four of us, we almost never play tag because Archie is impossible to catch.

We got to our secret spot, which is a patch of largely flat land the size of an Olympic swimming pool, in the middle of the forest. We use that land, our land, to do a lot of different activities like play frisbee or cricket, a sport that we fell in love with by accidentally watching it on TV, we also sometimes camp there, just the four of us.

"Are we working on the treehouse again," Ray asked

"Yes, we are," Perez replied cheerfully.

"We need to do something, else the treehouse is taking too long," I said.

"We have to work on the treehouse, this is our land but we need to make it a home and to do that we have to make the treehouse," said Perez attempting to give a motivational speech.

"That didn't make sense, but fine let's just do it," I replied.

We started working on the creation of our treehouse, Most of the resource that we needed for the treehouse-like ropes, screws, glue, and flat pieces of wood, we stole from my grandparent's farm. We also cut off a few branches from the trees to make the roof out of them.

While we were working hard on creating our treehouse, I didn't realize how dark it was. I looked at the yellow Spongebob watch that my mom got me, it was 8 pm.

"Guys, it's 8 I have to go," I said running off towards my house.

Archie came after me, "Why are you running?" he asked.

"I didn't tell you?" I replied, "My mom is coming back home."

Archie and I rushed through the front door of the house, my mom was sitting in the corner of the living room on the brown singular couch, which was my favorite. My grandparents' sat to the left of her on a different couch, and uncle Richie and Steve were on the right.

"Hello, Ash," mom said, with a smile that was covering up the anger that she felt towards me for being out so late.

I ran into my room and slammed the door behind me.  Tears rolling down my eyes as I got into my bed and covered my self under the blanket. I couldn't get the thoughts of leaving my grandparents, my uncles, and friends, behind and moving someplace else.

*Earlier that night*

"Ash do you know what time it is?" Mom asked.

"Sorry, I didn't realize it was this late," I responded.

"Well, pay attention to the time next time, I got you the watch for a reason, Ash," she said, "by the way what were you doing out so late?"

I nervously looked at Archie, wondering if I should tell her about the treehouse. He gave me our secret 'yes' sign meaning I could tell her the truth, we have many of those signs that we created together in our free time. The 'yes' sign is where you hold the thumb of your right hand with your left hand. I told mom everything about the treehouse, and our secret place and the flat open land in the middle of the forest which was our land. After talking about our secret land mom said something that I never even thought of, "Ash, I have admission you to a new school, in Tokyo."

I was shocked, a new school, in Tokyo, which was really far away from Hokkaido, where I currently lived. The smalled village that I lived in was on the outskirts of Hokkaido, and if my new school is in Tokyo than I have to leave my whole family and all of my friends here, which I don't want to do.

"We are leaving, this coming Friday," Mom said to make matters even worse.

*Next morning*

When I woke my eyes were itchy, probably from crying last night. I went downstairs to the kitchen, where mom was sitting, she was looking at her phone and eating while grandma cooked breakfast. I didn't like it, I didn't like it at all, why does grandma who is old have to cook, and my mom is just waiting for the food to come to her. I wanted to help grandma but I knew I couldn't, last time I tried to help her I messed things up. I sat at the table on the opposite side of my mom.

"Ash, have you thought about what I told you last night?" she asked, while still staring at her phone.

"I am not going," I said.

"Ash, what do you want to be? What is your favorite job?" she asked.

"I want to be a professional baseball player," I responded. It's hard for me to hit a fastball in baseball but when I make contact with the ball I can hit it further than everyone in my class, other than Archie, he hits it really far.

"Do you know most people in Japan want to be professional baseball players," she said.

"So what," I responded.

"Every person that wants to be a professional baseball player starts playing baseball at a very young age for their school team," she said, "here in this school you won't be able to become a pro baseball player, but if you go to your new school you will be able to become really good and maybe a pro because the Tokyo school has one of the best team in all of Japan."

"I have to tell my friends about it," I said, confused about what I wanted to do, go to Tokyo, or stay here.

At 1 o'clock I went to our secret land. No one was there because they were probably in school right now or maybe they ran away again. I lay down in the grass, the best grass in my opinion because unlike other grass this wasn't itchy at all.

"Wake up sleepyhead," Said Ray breaking through my peaceful nap.

"I must have fallen asleep," I said as I yawned.

"Why weren't you at school," Perez asked.

"Archie didn't tell you?" I asked.

"I thought it would be better if you tell them," Archie said.

"Tell us what," Ray asked, expecting something bad.

"My mom got me into a new school, in Tokyo," I said, sadly.

"When are you leaving?" Perez asked.

"This Friday," I responded.

"What, that's so soon," Ray said.

"So you are leaving in three days," Perez asked.

"Including today yes," I responded in a quiet voice.

"But I don't know if I should go, that's why I wanted to tell you guys," I said, "My Mom said that the school in Tokyo has the best baseball team in Japan right now."

"That's so cool," said Ray.

"I want you guys to tell me if I should go," I said.

"Really, you are asking us, they have the best baseball team in Japan, I really think you should go," Ray said, whit smile on his face, he genuinely wanted me to go there.

"Yeah, same you should go," Archie said, with a smile that was obviously fake.

"Perez, what do you think?" I asked. Perez was like the leader of our small group, his opinion was just important as Ray and Archie's.

"I don't care if you go or stay it's your choice, you decide," Perez said, looking away from me.

"Ash I really think you should go, you can probably become a professional baseball player if you go to Tokyo," Ray said holding my shoulders with his hands.

"I'm gonna go home, I have homework," Perez said walking away from us.

"See you," I yelled out.

Ray, Archie, and I headed over to my house to play video games. We spent the rest of the day playing videogames until Ray and Archie had to go home.  I stayed in my room reading an old comic book that Perez gave me for my birthday, but I never read it back then. After I while my mom came into my room, "So, Ash what did you and your friends decide?" she asked.

"Ray and Archie said that I should go," I said.

"What about Perez?" she asked.

"Perez was being really rude today, he said he didn't care," I responded.

"I don't think he was being rude, I think he was just telling you that it's your choice, you decide not them," my mom said.

"Come on tell me, what did you decide?" she asked again.

"I think I will go," I said, I was still confused if I made the right choice but if I can play baseball than I think it was the right choice.

To me, Fridays feel really sad for some reason I don't know why but Friday is a sad day to me. It was 8 in the morning when my grandma's knocking woke me up. I opened my room door for her, she rushed in and grabbed me and carried me to the washroom.

"You are late," she said.

"It's only 8 though," I said.

"yes, and you're late," she repeated.

"I will help you clean up," Grandma said.

she sat me in the bathtub and started washing my feet.

"Do you know the first time you came to this house you were a few months old, your mother played with you in the field, while I and your grandpa fed the farm animals, then your mom got a call she got up to get better reception leaving you there," My grandma said trying not to cry " When she got back to you, you weren't there, you couldn't walk, so we looked everywhere near the house, and when we couldn't find you we thought a stray dog has snatched you," grandma continued telling the story while having difficulty talking because she was trying not to cry. "Wh..when we finally thought a stray dog had taken you away, Perez's father brought you to us and said that you were crawling along the road, after that incident, I always kept you close," she said now fully crying, tears rolling down her eyes.  Now she moved on to washing my hair, "do you remember all the pets you made  at this farm?" Grandma asked.

"Yes," I responded, my voice cracking because I was on the verge of crying.

"Your first pet was a stray puppy that you found somewhere, you two were inseparable, wherever you went the dog followed, and then when he died saving you from the brown dog-"

"It was black, the dog that Jackie saved me from was black," I said interrupting her.

"Wow, you remember that,  but anyway, when he died, you cried for three whole days, which amazing because I have never seen anyone cry for that long," Grandma said with a smile on her face now.

I got out of the bathtub and went to my room, my grandma waited outside while I got dressed. I held her hand and walked downstairs to the kitchen with her, both of my uncles and aunts were there as well as grandpa. I sat down at the kitchen table, attempting to eat my breakfast but I just couldn't maybe I was too sad to eat. My grandpa started telling me about the time I hit him with a rock, accidentally.  "Luckily you were only three so you couldn't throw a rock that hard, but you could throw it harder than any other three-year-old that I know, I was piling up the rocks from the fields where we grow wheat and rice and all other plants, I guess you tried to help me, cause you grabbed a rock and threw it to where I was piling them and it hit me right on my newly bald head,  after you started crying because you thought I would die," he said, with a smile on his face but tears were rolling down mine.

After my mom ate breakfast we started walking towards the car, when I stepped outside the house I saw Ray, Archie and Perez sitting outside on the porch, all of them seemed pretty sad.

"Don't you guys have school today?" I asked through all the crying.

"Our parents said that we can meet you," Ray said.

"And I basically live here so yeah," Archie added.

"Ms.Arnold, can we take Ash to our secret spot, we have to do something?" Perez asked my mom.

"Can you make it back in 15 minutes?" she asked.

"Yes," Perez responded quickly.

"Follow me I have got an idea," Perez said running off.

Ray, Archie, and I followed him. We got to our secret spot.

"Guys, first of all, I have a name for this place, we will call it ARAP Heaven, secondly let's carve our names on the tree where we were suppose to built our treehouse as a reminder to finish it when Ash comes back," Perez said.

Without hesitation we all agreed to what Perez said and then ran back home. Everyone was waiting when my mom saw us she started hugging her parents and brothers one by one than she got in the car and waited for me. For a moment I had forgotten about all of this, I had forgotten that I was leaving, but now I am back in the present tears rolled down my eyes as I hugged all three of my best friends. The friends that I have spent my whole life with, then I hugged my uncles, who loved me as much as their own children, then I hugged my grandparents, the people who basically raised me because I never knew my dad and my mom was always on business trips. I hugged my grandparents for extra-long, as tears were rolling down my eyes. I then walked away from them and got into the front seat of the car. My mom started driving I could still see my uncles and grandparents standing there as we continued driving, they waited until we turned the corner and they were out of my sight.

We left my grandparent's house in Shiralin at 10 in the morning, and we arrived at our new house in Tokyo at 1 in the night. My mom said the ride was going to be long but I didn't expect it to be this long, it was almost 15 hours. My Mom drove the car inside the garage, once the car was parked I slowly got out and went through the only door in the garage, it leads to the inside of the house. I went through the door and walked through darkroom until I hit something, I couldn't see what I hit, I used my hands to feel what I hit and when I realized it was a couch I jumped on it and fell asleep in a few seconds.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of my mom talking on the phone, "Sorry, I won't be able to attend the meeting today, I am staying home with Ash, he was really sad about leaving his grandparents, so I think I will just keep him company today, and show him around town, I will just try to keep his mind off his grandparents."

"Who was that?" I asked through my yawn as I slowly opened my eyes.

She turned around and looked at me, "You're finally awake," mom said.

"Who was that?" I repeated the question, more clearly this time.

"That was the principle of your new school," She said.

"Why do you have a meeting with the principal?" I asked

"Haven't I told you already?" she asked.

"No," I responded.

"Oh, you must have been asleep when I told you last night, I am the vice principal at your school," she responded.

"What? Why-"

"Enough with all these questions here eat your food," mom said as she brought breakfast for me. The food looked delicious, a bowl of rice that was hot, bacon that was beautifully cooked, and still sizzling.

"Wow, you know how to cook," I said when I saw the food. I have never seen her cook, so I didn't expect her to be able to cook.

"After you eat look around the house, it's a pretty big house," mom said.

After finishing my breakfast I did what my mother told me. I looked around the house, on the first floor was the kitchen and living room which were combined together to make a large room. The hallway that leads from the entrance to the living contained a bathroom on the right and a room for the washing machine as well on the right. A bit further along the right just before the door to the living room, there were stairs that lead to the second floor, on the second floor were three different rooms and another bathroom. My room and my mom's room was up there as well as an office room where my mom probably did her work. I went downstairs to the living room and through a glass door which leads to the backyard. The backyard wasn't too big but it wasn't small either. The backyard was half the size of a baseball diamond. After I looked at every part of the house my mom took me on public transport to show me around the area. She showed me most of the different routes that lead to the school, as well as some small shops and restaurants that I might be interested in. This was all amazing but it would have been much better if grandma, grandpa, Ray, Archie, and Perez were here with me, I thought to myself.

After Saturday where I spent the day sleeping and exploring the house and the rest of the area from school to my house, the weekend went by quickly and before I knew it, it was the first day of school.

Monday, 8:45 am

I am sitting in my class, so far I knew that this school was huge. There was a large indoor gym, which had a large basketball court and two small ones it also had two volleyball courts. Outside there was a large playground and three tennis courts right next to the playground. There was also a large field that contained two football fields and finally, there was a baseball field, my favorite part of the school. Unlike the school in Shiralin, this school was a large building that contained students from kindergarten to 12 grade. In this school, I was placed in second grade, which was surprising at first but then I realized that I had been held back in my old school, since I missed many classes, homework assignments, and I constantly ran away from school. After school, one of my teachers helped me get to the baseball field where I played baseball with students from third to fifth grade. The students in my class, second grade, were really bad compared to the people I played with in Shiralin. Compared to Ray the 5th graders here could just barely pitch harder than him. When we got to hitting practice, the fielders moved really close because they thought that I wasn't able to hit the ball far, so when the ball came I hit it over the heads of the outfielders and all they could do was stare as the ball flew over them. The coach a fifth-grade teacher looked really surprised when he saw how far I could hit the ball. After practice one of my fellow second graders came up to me and told me that I was going to be on the baseball team, he also told me that I am one of the top 5 hitters on the team which made me really happy.

*3 years later*

Today is the last practice before my final baseball tournament of elementary school starts. I knew we were going to win, just like we have been winning for the past three years, two out of the three years I have been named player of the tournament, which was amazing for me.

This was the last pitch of today's practice, Shirin was batting, he was the second strongest hitter on the team. Two strikes, zero balls, I pitched the ball to Shirin, he hit it straight back at me, to my right. I quickly reacted and used my right hand and tried to catch it. I didn't have a glove on my right hand, but I unconsciously reacted to the ball which seemed like it was moving faster than a bullet, I reached for the ball, it hit my index finger and deflected to third base where Sho caught it comfortably. Everyone went over to Sho to celebrate his catch, while I sat there on the ground holding my right hand. I was in pain, I was in unexplainable pain, but I didn't cry or scream, I sat there with my right hand in my left, trying to twist and turn my finger and it hurt like hell. Coach noticed, he rushed over to me, and soon after everyone followed, "I think my finger is broken, Coach," I said calmly.

"Don't worry, it's not broken it's probably just twisted or something, let the nurses check it out," he responded.

Shirin came with me to the nurse's office.

"Do you really think it's broken?" he asked.

"Yeah, it hurts like hell," I responded.

"Sorry," he said with a sad wavering voice.

"Don't worry it's baseball these things happen," I responded cheerfully, which kind of cheered him up.

"Well, it's your fault anyway for trying to catch the ball barehanded," he said.

"It was just a natural reaction, I couldn't do anything about it," I said.

We got to the Nurse's office, they looked at my finger, stretching, twisting, and turning it, then they asked me a few questions about what happened. After about 15 minutes, they told me that I should go to the hospital, and get an x-ray of it, by then Shirin had gone back to practice and probably told the coach that I won't be able to play anymore today.

The next day while my team was at the baseball tournament-winning and having fun, I was stuck in math class with a cast on my hand. For the next few days, since I couldn't play baseball and I didn't want to watch, I watched the football team practice. I walked behind the goal as they played, and then out of nowhere the ball came at me and hit me on my right eye. The football player that hit me came to apologize while the rest of the players surrounded us. They insisted that I take a penalty, against the team that hit me with the ball, so I did. I stepped back about three meters from the ball, I aimed at the top right corner of the goal, I ran in and kicked the ball as hard as I could. The ball flew and missed the goal by about 2 meters.

After 2 weeks the cast came off my hand but I still wasn't allowed to play baseball, so I kept watching the football team play.

Today was a Friday and it was the last day of school before winter break, only seven people came to football practice, the seven guys that came wanted to just play a match, but they had an odd number of players, so the coach invited me to play. I told him I couldn't but he insisted and got me to play, I played in goal.

At the end of practice, the score was 7-1 for my team. I only let in one goal and that was when it was 3 on 1. The football team's coach, Mr.Han was really impressed with my goalkeeping and invited me to play for the football team, I really enjoyed the game I played today so I said yes.

Soon before I knew it, I was in middle school playing football as a goalkeeper, and I loved it until a better goalkeeper replaced me. I was on the bench, which I hated so I left being a goalkeeper and played midfielder. At first, I would just kick the ball in front of me and ran after it, a strategy that worked very well since I was so much faster than everyone else, but soon enough I learned to dribble that ball keeping it close to my feet.

In middle school, I played football for all three years, the first year of middle school I didn't make the A team and our team won, the second year our team was undefeated and the lowest score we won by was 3-0 which was the final, and in the third year we lost, we got to the finals and I assisted in the goal that we scored but soon after the opponent scored and the game went to penalty shootouts. Everyone before me scored comfortably, I was the fourth penalty taker for my team, I kicked the ball as hard as I could and it went through the goalkeeper's hands into the net. After I took my penalty and barely scored, it was our captain's turn, He kicked the ball over the goal and we had lost the final game.

Before I knew it I was in 9th grade, I was in high school,  the first day of school was Wednesday, I got my class schedule met my homeroom teacher and my classmates. It didn't feel as interesting as I was expecting. On Thursday I signed up for the football team with a lot of other people, our first practice was tomorrow on Friday.

*Next Morning*

It was Friday and the day of my first football practice in high school. I breezed through the day like the wind through trees. It was 3:45 in the afternoon, I put on my football uniform and went out on the field to train. The girls' football team already started training on the second football pitch. After a while of waiting for the coach, he came out and we started our first training. It didn't really feel like practice because we played a match for the whole time. After Practice I walked home alone today since my friend, Kageyama, who I usually walk with had a doctor's appointment. As I walked along the sidewalk I saw a shell-shaped crystal that had the colors of the rainbow. I picked it up to admire how beautiful it looked, and then a man wearing a hoodie came from behind and told me it was his, without any hesitation I gave the crystal to him and kept walking my eyes fixed on my phone. I walked into a fence, when I took my eyes off my phone I realized I was on the school grounds, on the football field, along with other classmates of mine, and some of my friends from other schools that I made throughout the football and baseball tournaments.