Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 10: Baseball Idiots hanging out

"There you go. You can do it if you only try!" she praised his efforts.

"So why is it so important for you to have that job that you even go to the trouble of keeping it a secret and breaking the curfew?" the green head asked looking up from his textbook. "Can't relax without being busy as a bee?"

"Well, that's also a reason to be fairly honest..."

"Also? Meaning there's another one?"

"Thirteen, not fourteen"

"Huh?!"

Kuramochi gave her a puzzled glance and she sighed, tapping his answer with her pencil.

"It's thirteen", the young girl repeated. "Here"

"Ah! You're right. Dammit!"

"Concentrate, idiot!"

"Sorry, sorry" the shortstop grumbled displeased. "What's your other reason then?"

"Mochi!"

"What?"

"Math. Now!"

Kuramochi glared at Sora, closing his textbook and dropping his pencil stubbornly.

"Oh, no! Not again! You're trying to avoid things again, won't have that! No secrets anymore, I can't handle... Spill it!"

"Good grief... Who are you? My dad?!" the blue haired girl complained. "Will you start reading my diary and try explaining me about the birds and the bees?!"

"Hyaha! For you that ain't necessary. You know more than enough!"

"Do I now?!"

"Sure as hell you do! Now stop beating around the bush!"

"Ugh, fine!" Sora stretched her legs to sit more comfortably and Kuramochi pushed away his school material. "Don't tell anyone though"

The green haired boy's eyebrows shot up.

"I mean it, Mochi. I won't tell you anything ever again if you throw me under the bus!"

"Alright, but no promises for Miyuki. Just in case"

"It's not a captain's matter!"

"That's for me to decide here"

"Seriously, why do I trust a guy like you...?" she sighed in desperation.

"'Cause ya know I won't stab you in the back. I'd only tell Miyuki if it was a really serious matter and you know that, so don't be such a pussy!"

"I pay for food and lodging myself"

"..."

"Yeah, you heard me"

"Say what?!"

"Unlike the sports scholarship the academical scholarship only covers the school fee because usually the normal students wouldn't live in the dorms, right? And since my parents just opened their family business and my brother is also going to college and our family moved into a new house, I thought that all of that was expensive enough and my family doesn't need any more financial burden, so I work and pay for food and lodging at Seidou myself. And if you tell anyone, you're more than dead! You've been warned! Now satisfied?!"

Kuramochi stared at her with wide and disbelieving eyes.

"Hell, Sora! Why don't you talk to coach?!"

The girl snorted about the obviousness and gave her friend a look.

"Because he would talk about it with my parents since I'm underage and my parents would tell him that they wouldn't have a problem paying for me which I don't want", she explained matter-of-factly. "Besides, I like my job at the cosplay café. Just the right place for an anime and videogame otaku like me. Gotta try out many nice costumes"