Head Over Heels

1.

"Hey, who's that in the opposing dugout?"

A few of the Nishiura players glanced over their shoulders to where Sakaeguchi had been staring. A lowered head with chayenne locks could be seen just over the edge of the dugout on the other side of the field. The rest of the team continued to listen to the remainer of Shiga's life lesson. A yawn slipped through Hanai's lips as he casually glanced in the direction of the slight commotion. His eyes widened in surprised.

Why was there a girl here?

As Hanai opened his mouth to make his discovery known, he felt coach's firm grip pushing down on his head.

"AH!"

"As I'm sure you've noticed, we have a guest!"

When Coach made the stranger's presence known, Mihashi and Abe finally joined the party and snapped out of their own world. While the boys gathered around their coach, Momoe glanced expectantly at the redheaded girl. As their guest finally lifted her head, her sapphire eyes passed over the team and caught Abe's steadfast eye contact.

It was like a punch to the gut...Abe could barely catch his breath as his own forest green orbs met the girl's. Yet as he tried to keep his composure, his eyes never left hers.

Because...well...it looked like she had experienced something similar. As she pulled herself out from the dugout, her once porcelain face paled. She broke eye contact with the catcher, who was avoiding his team mates' glances by standing the farthest out of the circle.

What the hell was that? He had no time to be distracted by girls...

The girl stood next to Momoe, scratching the back of her neck with a nervous laugh as the coach wrapped an arm around her.

"This is the captain of our softball team. Fujioka-chan is watching our team for some ideas for her own team."

The girl smiled, finally returning to her normal state and bowing politely to the baseball team.

"My name is Nami Fujioka. I hope you don't mind my intrusion here."

Her outward formalness startled the boys, who quickly bowed back politely.

"Not at all! Welcome!"

Momoe silently thanked her boys for being so polite with a proud smirk.

"She'll be here for a few practices since her team practices primarily in the evenings, so be nice!"

As the team began to disband, Tajima wrapped an arm around Sakaeguchi and started to gabber about how "great girls were gonna be at their practices" before getting a stern glare from Momoe.

"And no getting distracted!"

---

Abe was starting to get irritated.

Despite all his drills with Mihashi, pitching and catching, the light haired boy was fidgetting like crazy.

Just because of this stupid distraction.

The catcher had had enough, tossing his mask to the ground and causing the pitcher to jump. Considering Mihashi was easy to spook, the boy was already avoiding Abe's glare like his life depended on it.

"Are you kidding me right now?!" The catcher had a handful of Mihashi's practice jersey in fist. Mihashi sputtered and whimpered, stealing his gaze away towards the girl who was curled up with a large sketch pad in the dugout.

Abe's angry gaze followed Mihashi's nervous one towards Fujioka, and he rolled his eyes dramatically. The catcher released his pitcher, the boy flopping on top of the sandlot with a soft thump, before marching over towards the softball captain.

Halfway to her position, the girl's eyes peeked up towards the pitcher and catcher only to see Abe's annoyed expression marching towards her. As nonchalantly as her body allowed her, she closed the sketch book on her lap and unfurled from her position to sit up with her feet on the ground. A small notebook lie open on the bench next to her, furiously scrawled notes and diagrams filled the pages.

Even as he approached her with annoyance, she greeted him with a friendly smile when he knelt down to peer at her in the dug out.

"Is something wrong, Abe-san?"

The boy scoffed, darting his annoyed expression away and suddenly feeling very sheepish.

"Listen, I don't want to sound rude but is there anyway you could move to the other dugout? Mihashi's a little distracted by girls and at least that would be farther from us."

The girl chuckled, standing from the bench and brushing dust off of her uniform skirt. Her sketch pad and notebooks were gathered securely in her arms.

"No worries, I'm actually about to head out anyway."

"Thanks." He nodded towards her, turning on his heel to hoping to avoid the breath taking eye contact that ailed him last time they shared glances.

"By the way, you have incredible form."

Her comment caught him off guard, his form freezing on the spot. Hesitant, he glanced over his shoulder and caught the girl leaving the dug out with her school bag over her shoulder, her usually tied up locks cascading over her shoulders in waves.

"T-Thanks."