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            *                 *                  wish i may
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                                           wish i might

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 ("( 0 )  ( 0 )")           ~Connected by Stars~

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    *      C h a p t e r  1       *             *          *
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*            *       H i g h  S c h o o l  S t a r s   *
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He toyed with the pair of rabbit figurine sitting on his bed side table, a token of friendship from his childhood friend Karen. He smiled weakly at the bunnies, sitting back to back, hoping that it would someday be the pose that he and Karen would have. With a sudden rush of excitement, he picked up his cell phone and called his friend.

"Hello?" Karen's sweet voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Um, hey Kar'n." He said.

"Oh, hi Kevin, what's up?"

"Just wanted to check if you're asleep or not," Kevin replied.

"Not yet, I was just about to."

"Oh, okay then," Kevin said, "I won't bother you then, good night."

"Good night." Karen replied from the other end and they hung up.

Kevin slumped onto his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling; every inch of it was covered with pictures of him, Karen, and their best friend--Ken. Kevin turned over on his bed and picked up the guitar that sat next to the bed. He caressed the polished wood then positioned his hands on the guitar. He thought for a while and began to play a soothing melody of a gentle love song, humming softly to himself. The lights of the stars seems to have dimmed in the music.

***

The usually dull campus has suddenly become a lot livelier and a stage has been set up on the snow-covered soccer field. A drum set was on the stage, as well as Kevin's guitar and two microphones. A shrill ringing traveled across the school, signaling the arrival of lunch. Usually at this time the cafeteria would be full of people, full of chatters, but today was different, there were no students in the cafeteria, scaring the poor lunch monitor to death.

Students surrounded the stage on the soccer field, with girls pushing and shoving each other to get to the very front. Then, followed by a series of screams and cheers, Kevin and Ken stepped on to the stage. They positioned themselves next to their instruments and a suspenseful feeling filled the air. Kevin picked up his guitar and Ken readied his drum sticks. Then, without warning, techno music played in the background, making the girls scream more and more. Kevin's hand moved madly on his guitar and Ken's hands moved rhythmically as he hit the drums. Microphones close to their mouths, they began to sing.

Never, never, never again,
Shall I let you fool my heart,
Never, never, never again,
Will I be your slave.
Never, never, never again,
Shall love my blind my eyes,
Never, never, never again,
Will I fall in love!

So they sang, one song after another, followed by series and series of cheers. Until at last the shrill ringing filled the air again, disappointing the excited students.

Kevin put down his guitar and picked up the microphone. "Thank you, thank all of you for supporting K-Squared!"

Yes, K-Squared, that was the name given to him and his best friend. Both of them are equal in love for music and equally creative when it comes to writing their own songs and lyrics. This love and creativity inspired them to start their own band, named K-Squared because both of their first names start with the letter K. After launching their first performance at the school talent show they became widely popular and known throughout the school, also causing lots of girls to fall head over heels. So many people call themselves the number one fan of K-Squared, but Ken and Kevin knew the real number one fan would be their other friend--Karen.

Kevin has invited Karen to join them many times, to make them K-Cubed. But Karen, who isn't really confident in singing, rejected the offer. A real pity, too, considering Karen has such a beautiful voice. However, Karen's amazing literary skills helped them out when they have trouble thinking of good lyrics to go with a song. The three friends are inseparable.

Kevin and Ken walked down the hall of the third floor, attracting much attention. Having no class that period, the two celebrities headed for the library. As soon as they stepped into the large comfortable environment, whistles sounded everywhere as they were greeted by some of their closest friends, who called themselves the Klub.

"What's up, Klub?" Kevin said.

Members of the Klub cheered and dashed to greet their friends. "That's was sick!" Said Jeff, a blond who seemed to work out twenty-four-seven.

"Please," said Ako, a Japanese girl, "that was like, totally beyond sick."

Jolin, a girl with long, dyed hair, walked up to Ken and place her hands around him, "That was excellent," she said in a seducing voice.

"Er, thanks," Ken said and nervously played with his own long, brown hair.

Kevin took out his mirror and straightened his short, black, spiky hair, then looked over to Ken and managed to hide a laugh. Ken shot him a "help-me" look. Kevin sighed and shouted, "Hey Klub! Party today after school at Ken's!"

"All right!" Shouted Jeff and the commotion was enough to bring Jolin away from Ken and the Klub left the library, singing K-Squared's songs.

"Thanks," Ken said. "But why my house?"

"Did you want me to charge you for getting her away?" Kevin winked and followed the Klub out the library.

Ken buried his face in his hands and groaned. Someone walked up behind him and patted him on the shoulder; it was Karen.

"Hey um, nice job today," Karen said.

Ken turned around to look at her. "Oh, thanks."

"So..., I guess I'll see you later." Karen said.

"Yeah..." Ken said and Karen left. "...later."

***

The atmosphere was extremely lively at Ken's house. The Klub seems to have invited other people from school, with so many people packed in the house there was complete chaos. Ketchup and barbeque sauce stained the white carpets of the living room, several fights broke out between Jeff and Grace, another member of the Klub, about which song was better. Ken had to run back and forth to prevent younger siblings of the guests from touching and messing with his drum set and in-progress lyrics and songs.

At long last the night fell upon the city and the party came to a close. Guests began to leave one by one, leaving Ken standing in the middle of the living room, amongst all the food stain, soda cans, paper plates, chip bags, and..., well, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped in horror. Kevin passed by the dumbstruck Ken, winked at him, and left the house.

"I'd rather you charge me!!" Ken shouted angrily at the closed door. With a sigh of frustration, Ken bent down and began picking the trash off the floor. He picked up the ones in front of him and wheeled around to pick up the trash behind him only to be met by another pair of hand. He looked up; it was Karen.

She smiled, "Let me help you."

Ken went a bit red in the face, "Thanks." He managed to utter and both of them resumed their work. More than once during the cleanup did their hands meet when targeting the same piece of trash, and every time this happened they would blush, stand up, rub their hands and relocate themselves in a different area, and when Ken's parents returned from work late at night the housed looked exactly the same before the party.

Ken drove Karen home and went back home, tired and weary, he marched into his room and slumped onto his bed immediately, feeling that all these tiredness was totally worth it. He removed his shirt, stained with sweat and filth, and went to sleep with a satisfied smile. Somewhere in another house, Kevin did the same, and stared at the rabbit figurines before at last shutting his eyes.

***

School followed the next day, the school was still as lively as ever and students were still discussing events of the previous day. Kevin sat under a tree near the gym, under the shade with a pad of paper, it was just him and the sparrows chirping overhead. He twirled his pen around between his fingers. Then, with a surge of inspiration, he began to write. Fans would walk by him without squealing or much chatter, for they all know that Kevin is in his writing-mode. When he's writing, Kevin seems to be blocked out from the normal world, there would be nothing except him, his pen, and his paper, he'd stop when he feels like it and nothing could distract him from it..., well, almost nothing.

"Kevin!" A voice greeted him. That was the only voice in the world that could save Kevin from his possessed mode--the voice of Karen.

As an automatic reaction, Kevin's head raised to smile at his childhood friend. "Karen!" He replied. "You came just in time! Come here!" He motioned Karen to sit down next to him and she did so and sat down with him beneath the tree.

"Here," he said energetically, passing the pad of paper over to his friend, "It's a new song that I've been writing, how'd ya like it?"

Karen examined the lyrics carefully, smiling and aww-ing occasionally. "Yup, it's a good song!" She confirmed at last. "But I think you should change this word..., it doesn't quite fit it with the rest of the romantic words. By the way, you misspelled that."

"Oh," Kevin scratched his head apologetically and crossed out the misspelled word. "So what's up?" He asked after making the correction.

Karen let out a small gasp, "I almost forgot why I came to find you!" She exclaimed. "Some people in the office wants to see the 'famous high school stars--K-Squared.' Ken's already there."

"Oh?" Kevin said, amused. "Who are they?"

"I have no clue, but they've asked to have a private meeting with you guys." Karen shrugged. "Anyway, you better get there soon. I still have classes next period, I'll see you later!" She winked at him and left.

Kevin smiled to himself and picked up the book bag, patted the dirt off his pants, put the lyrics into the bag, and headed for the office. As soon as Kevin had stepped into the office he was greeted by Ken, panting and stuttering, apparently out of excitement.

"K-K-Kevin!!" He dashed towards his partner. "Oh my God, you are not going to believe this!"

"What?" Kevin asked, but Ken had already grabbed him by the hand, leading him to the meeting room. "Ken," Kevin said, "what's going on?"

"You'll see," Ken winked as he opened the doors to the meeting room.

Four men in black and a woman in a peace dress stood up from their seats and greeted Kevin. One by one they handed him their business cards and asked him to be seated. Kevin looked at the cards and stared in disbelief, he felt as if his heart's going to explode any second. Printed rather small on the top of each card were the words "Universal Records."

"I won't take up too much of your time, Mr. Takagi." The woman said. "We have long heard of the achievements of you and your friend, Mr. Sato. Some of our agents actually visited your school yesterday for the private concert of K-Squared, and they were very impressed. Our executive was there as well and he was extremely pleased!" One of the older men smiled. "So, we decided that you guys definitely have the potential of becoming professional celebrities and we hoped that you would join us and become a member of Universal Records."

Kevin opened his mouth, and closed it, opened it again, and closed it.

The woman smiled and continued, "We have approved of your abilities so there will be little training required, and since you guys have written so many songs already I am sure we can release your first album within half a year, and all you need to do is sign this contract." She took out a piece of paper from her briefcase and put it on the table between them.

Kevin opened his mouth for a third time, and closed it. He tugged at Ken's shirt and looked at him to find Ken staring at the piece of paper with opened mouth, stunned and not being able to utter a single word.

The woman smiled and retrieved the paper. "Perhaps you need some time to think about it, I understand. You have my card, don't you? I'll be waiting your call." She smiled and stood up with the four men and they bowed and left the office.

Kevin was still holding the card when he left the office, staring at it with a stunned expression; this was just too incredible, too unbelievable, too good to be true. He pinched himself. It hurts...it's real!

Footsteps came from behind and a moment later Ken's hand slapped his back, "Hey pal!" He said energetically. "So what about it?"

Kevin looked at his friend, "This..., it's just..., I don't know what to do!" He groaned.

"How can you not?!" Ken said and looked at him in the face, eyes filled with energy. "We're going to be famous! We're going to be stars!"

"Oh, I don't know..." Kevin said and turned away. "It's going to be a big twist in our lives, becoming a celebrity. And what if we're not successful? What if we couldn't handle it? What if-...oh, what the heck, just let me think about it." With that, he departed, leaving Ken standing there, both frustrated and worried and hoping that Kevin would accept the offer.

***

"I don't know, Karen..., it's too sudden." Kevin said through his cell phone. Sitting on his bed in his dark room, lit only by starlight.

"Come on, Kevin," Karen urged, "It's an opportunity too good to be missed! You're going to regret it!"

"But-"

"Isn't this your dream though?" Karen asked. "You've always wanted to share your music to the world, and now you have a chance to do so! Maybe this isn't the way you want it done, but you've got a chance to fulfill that dream!"

Kevin remained silent.

"Kevvy," Karen said. The use of his nickname has soothed Kevin's worried mind. "Look out your window, look at the stars."

Kevin turned and gazed at the night sky, the stars littered across it like diamond, emitting soft, comfortable rays.

"Dreams are like stars," Karen continued. "They're so beautiful, so wonderful, so longing. But they're so, oh, so far away. But if you seize the chance to pursue, then one day, it will be fulfilled, one day, you will hold the night sky in the palm of your hands."

A single teardrop slid down Kevin's eyes. Karen was right, this was an opportunity that shouldn't be missed, and this is the one chance that he has to fulfill his dream, to share his music with the world. He smiled, "Alright," He replied hoarsely.

Karen smiled as well, "Promise me, Kevin. With the night sky as witness, promise me you'll fulfill your dream and you won't give up on it."

Kevin gazed longingly at the stars, "I promise you."

"Good..., well good night."

"Karen!" Kevin shouted suddenly.

"What is it?"

"Erm..., thank you and, um..., I erm..." He let out a soft laugh. "Nothing, just thank you."

"You're welcome." Karen said. "Good night."

"Good night..." With a beep from the cell phone they hung up.

Under the stars,
In the darkness,
To my cell phone,
I whisper in silence,
I love you, I love you,
Under the stars,
I must confess,
How much it is that I love you.

***

Kevin and Ken sat in a cafe, the card in their hands, and punched in numbers on their cell phone. They lowered the card and looked at each other. They nodded, and Kevin punched in the final number.

"Hello?" Came the voice on the other end.

"It's me..., Kevin Takagi."

"Oh, hello, Mr. Takagi!" The woman said excitedly. "Well, have you made a decision?"

Kevin took a deep breath. "We accept your offer."

*************************** C o n n e c t e d  b y  S t a r s ***************************

That concludes the first chapter of my first original fiction. Hope you guys like it, please review it, it's my first original fic so I need a lot of support! Any comment is welcomed!