Forbidden Protege

Ch. 1: Moving In (Part 5)

"Yeesh. For a second I thought Ryo-san was gonna murder you," Kuramochi said under his breath. "He may look small and unintimidating, but that guy is terrifying." Alexia noticed Kuramochi seemingly shaking a bad memory away and chuckled.

"No kidding. Best not to upset him," Miyuki agreed, breaking his long silence through the confrontation.

"He scared you into silence? He must be terrifying then," Alexia laughed as she sat her lunch tray down next to Kuramochi and across from Miyuki. Kuramochi took his seat to the right of Alexia and she turned to greet the boy sitting on her left. "Hey. Do you mind if I sit here?" She smiled at the boy and his cheeks turned a light shade of red.

"N-no that's fine. Um, my name is Kawakami Norifumi. It's a pleasure to meet you," the boy introduced himself. Alexia's face brightened up and a big smile grew on your face.

"Mochi-san told me that there was a side-arm pitcher named Kawakami. Is that you?" Alexia asked energetically. Kawakami stuttered a bit, surprised by her sudden burst of energy and nodded. "Great! It's great to meet you, Kawakami-san."

"U-umm, yeah. So, is it okay if I call you Alex-chan?" Kawakami asked timidly. When she nodded happily Kawakami continued, "You can call me Nori, too. I don't mind."

"Alright then, Nori-san. I'm gonna be starting at Seido as a second year. I'm not sure which class I'm in yet though. There were some issues to be ironed out since I'm transferring technically in the middle of my Junior year in America, but Junior year translates to a second year here," Alexia explained. Miyuki nodded, and was about to ask how classes were structured in America when a certain loud-mouthed pitcher decided to make his appearance.

"Miyuki Kazuya! Catch for-."

"No," Miyuki cut off the annoying first year. He took another bite of his rice and tuned out the brat until he heard him choking on his own saliva. Miyuki looked at him from the corner of his eye and saw the brat staring dumbfoundedly at Alexia. He began laughing and Alexia chuckled.

Alexia looked over the loud first year. He had messy brown hair and big brown eyes that currently looked like they were going to pop out of his head. Alexia guessed him to be about her height and he looked athletically inclined, but certainly not as well-developed as the other players she had met. The way that he was staring dumbfoundedly at her right after making a huge racket yelling for Miyuki, Alexia felt fairly certain on who this person was. She turned to Kuramochi, pointing at the rowdy newcomer. "Is this the 'Bakamura' that you were telling me about?"

"Indeed."

"Ha?!" The insult seemed to break the younger boy out of his stupor. "Who're you calling 'Bakamura'?! My name is Sawamura Eijun and I'm gonna be Seido's ace! Who're you?"

"E-Eijun, calm down. I'm sure that she has a good reason for being here," a pink haired boy said as he set his tray down next to his friend. Alexia looked over at the boy and noticed that he resembled Ryosuke a lot. He was also short statured and had the same shade of pink hair. The only noticeable differences were that this boy had his bangs brushed forward in front of his eyes and that he lacked the unusual aura surrounding the other.

Alexia sighed. She had lost count of how many times she had introduced herself to people today. She kept it short: her name, her grade, the fact she was joining the team, and that she didn't care what he called her, just not by her full surname. The boy nodded along, surprising Alexia by his quick, whole-hearted acceptance of her presence on the team. She furrowed her brows. "So, it doesn't bother you at all that I'm a girl playing baseball?"

"Nope! I mean, in Junior high school, one of my teammates was a girl! Although she only joined because we didn't have enough people to play otherwise, but still! As long as you can keep up with the training, I'm all for it!" Eijun said, beaming. Now that he knew Alexia was a part of the team, he was overly friendly with her.

"Glad to hear it," Alexia nodded, happy with that. She turned to the loudmouth's friend. "So, what's your name?"

"Kominato Haruichi. I play second base and I'm also a first year," the boy said timidly. He nodded and smiled, obviously trying to reassure Alexia that he was also fine with her being on the team.

"Nice to meet you. So, mind me asking if the other Kominato on the team is your elder brother?" Alexia ventured, emptying the last of her rice into her mouth.

Haruichi nodded. "Yeah. Aniki is the team's starting second baseman and he bats second." The slight adoration in his voice didn't go unnoticed by the girl.

"Nice~," she drawled out. "Sounds like you look up to him." The boy blushed a light pink and Alexia knew she had hit the nail on the head.

"So," Miyuki broke in, "are you excited to be starting classes on Monday, Miya-chan?"

Alexia nodded. "Yeah, it's going to be different being in a classroom with a completely different structure than what I'm used to, but I'm also looking forward to it." She cleaned the last bit of food off her plate. "I'm planning on getting everything around tonight for class tomorrow, so that I can go and officially introduce myself to the team during morning training, but the coach said I could miss all the practices tomorrow to make sure that I'm settled in. I'm not... sure... if... Why are you all looking at me like that?" Alexia looked at all the boys with bafflement. They were all staring at her like she had grown a third head and she had no idea why. "What's wrong?"

"U-umm, you just finished eating really fast," Kawakami stated, stuttering a bit.

"Yeah, and you ate four bowls of rice like it was nothing...," Kuramochi explained. Alexia looked at his tray that still had at least a quarter left and Miyuki's that had more. Even Kawakami who had sat at the table first had some food left on his plate.

Alexia laughed nervously. "Well, I've always been a big eater and food portions are larger in America. Not to mention, I'm used to lunch time being really short so only having about fifteen minutes to eat all my food." Alexia scratched the back of her neck as Eijun applauded her appetite and Miyuki laughed.

While she knew she hadn't made all good firstimpressions, Alexia was feeling certain that she'd fit right in at Seido. Or atleast, she wouldn't be a total outcast.