Stealing First

Chapter 4

With the beginning of the Spring Tournament, the baseball team training intensified which meant Charlie saw less and less of her newfound friends outside of class. She still saw Ryo a few times a week for cram sessions as he was motivated to ensure his English would meet the admissions requirement for some of the top-tier universities and colleges, but between baseball meetings, games and practice there was little time for fun. Charlie had also begun to notice the fatigue setting in for the baseball players, with Kuramochi regularly napping in class and Sawamura being so tired he made even less sense than usual.

"Are you sure you added the right amount?" Charlie's brow furrowed behind her safety glasses as she peered into the beaker. Nothing was happening. Something should be happening by now.

"Of course! I checked the textbook and everything. Maybe we should just add a little more?" Sawamura grabbed the glass bottle and made to pour its contents into the beaker.

Charlie grabbed his hand to stop him. "Sawamura! Chemistry is an exact science, you can't just go adding bits here and there! It's dangerous! Here, give me that bottle." She snatched the bottle from her confused lab partner and looked at it more closely. She rolled her eyes and sighed. No wonder nothing was happening.

"Sawamura you idiot! You grabbed acetic acid instead of hydrochloric acid. We have essentially been staring at salad dressing for the past 20 minutes." Her voice had a clear ring of frustration.

"What?! No, I... uh really? Haha, oh sorry, Charlie I guess I'm just a bit tired today. I have extra running in my training menu this week and morning practice was brutal. I'll fix it I promise, I'll just go get the right stuff." He dropped his head and began to work towards the chemical storage room.

"Nevermind, Sawamura. We will run out of time to redo the experiment today. I'll sort something out," responded Charlie, feeling a little guilty about losing her cool with her classmate. After all, she knew what he was like and should have known better than to let him collect the chemicals in the first place. She could also see how hard he was on working to improve his pitching to help the team, and she admired his dedication. "Here, help me clean up."

Sawamura brightened at her softened tone. "You're the best, thanks," he yawned and began washing up the glassware.

 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

With fifteen minutes to go in her Japanese study group, Charlie found herself yawning too. She had been dedicating a lot of time to improving her written language skills, having decided she would like to study at the University of Tokyo after graduating. If she could pass the admissions test, that is. She was hoping to study psychology, and the university only offered the course in Japanese, so she had a lot of work to do. "C'mon Charlie, focus," she muttered to herself, shaking her head to clear it. She couldn't afford to be tired when there was still so much to do.

She also had to maintain strong grades in her other subjects too. Given the vinegar debacle with Sawamura earlier that week her father had asked a favour of her science teacher, who had agreed to allow her to use the lab above the administration building to redo her experiment. Her father was currently away on a school trip with the third-year students but had left his classroom key with her so she could complete the task properly before the project was due. She was surprised that he trusted her so much – he would never have lent his key to the Charlie he knew back in Australia, so she took this as a vote of confidence in her new attitude and behaviour.

After leaving her study session, she stopped by one of the vending machines and grabbed herself a sports drink and some snacks to see her through the evening's work before heading up the stairs to the science lab. She carefully set up everything she needed and took out her book to write her notes for the report. She was finding it hard to concentrate and realised how eerily quiet it was in here with no one around. The students were long gone and the last teacher had passed her on the way out, reminding her to lock the stairwell door as she left. Charlie took out her phone and scrolled through her Spotify playlists, looking for something to match her mood. She stopped on the 'Japansese Rock' playlist that Ryo had made for her after discovering their shared love for indie, rock and punk music. Perfect she thought as she turned the volume up and pressed play. She nodded at the upbeat sounds now echoing around the room and turned her focus back to the task of dehydrating sugar.