Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 5: Eavesdropping Baseball Idiots

After a few days of settling in, Sora got accustomed to her new way of living and developed a solid everyday routine for herself. She would have breakfast with the rest of her teammates, attend morning practice if there was any, go to her classes with Kawakami, Kuramochi and Miyuki, spend lunch break either with her classmates or with the other first years if Sawamura came and picked her up after his own lessons, in the afternoons she would have baseball practice with the second string until dinner and after that she had made it a habit to accompany Sawamura with his late individual practice of running laps and playing catch ball. Sometimes he would train with one of the other catchers than Miyuki in the bullpen, but mostly he appreciated the blue haired girl joining him. Since he was her guard for the bathroom anyway, they could as well stick together.

In the evenings, the young girl often met up with Kawakami, Shirasu and sometimes also Watanabe to do homework and study, because honestly speaking Miyuki and Kuramochi sucked great deal or just chose to ignore their assignments completely, which she didn't want to get associated with because she did have an academical scholarship after all and she wanted to live up to that.

Her free time on the other hand was occupied by the green haired shortstop who dragged her to his room whenever he had the chance to play videogames. Sometimes also his pink haired fielding partner Kominato would come over, but since the calm boy was much more reasonable than Kuramochi, Sora had to keep his company alone most of the time. Luckily it was also Sawamura's room, so at least the brown haired pitcher would be present occasionally, joining the gaming session or watching his teammates play and giving his comments from a place on his bed.

In only a short amount of time the young girl had spent with the members of the first and second string, she had been able to get to know them much better and she also had come closer to them which scared her. Not that she didn't like those loveable baseball dorks, no, on the contrary they were already way too precious to her for her own good. After what had happened to her with her other two teams, with people she had known for her whole life since Grade School or even earlier, befriending the Seidou members now while constantly having to lie to them was really frightening. Because she knew they wouldn't want her on the team if they were to find out about her secret. They only tolerated her and were nice to her because they thought she was a boy, but facing that reality was hard when she was hanging out with them and having so much fun.

She couldn't trust them. No, she shouldn't trust them too much. The only one Sora could trust in the whole team was Sawamura, because the young southpaw knew her secret and because he wouldn't judge her for it. In fact, he was the first guy who would like to have a girl on a boy's baseball team, much like he had accepted Wakana in his Junior High team as well. His presence alone was very reassuring for the blue haired girl. The pitcher was a good friend.

What really troubled her was coach Kataoka wanting to team her up with Miyuki as her catcher. Forming a battery with her captain wasn't exactly her first priority. Usually encounters with catchers didn't end all too well for the blue haired girl. Luckily, she had some time until he would be fully recovered.

Right now, Sora was glad and satisfied with having another chance to play baseball again. She would be willing to abandon the pitcher position and just play infield, even in the second string for good if the coach wouldn't promote her to first string as a field player. It was enough for her to be able to play and to participate in official matches. As a girl in a male powerhouse team that was all she could possibly ask for. It hadn't have to be the mound, the ace position or nationals for her. She barely had one year and a few months left anyway before going to college.

The young girl sighed and looked at Kawakami, her current project partner in history who seemed to struggle with the passage in their textbook. She also glanced over her shoulder, snickering slightly at Kuramochi and Miyuki who had been paired up together. With a mischievous glint in her sky blue eyes, she nudged Kawakami a bit and gestured discreetly in the direction of their two teammates.