Sidelines: Ace of the Diamond

Chapter One: Meetings

Airi stood motionless, her left hand tightly clenched around the strap of her bag as her eyes watched the field. It was rare for the place to ever be completely empty and have a chilling silence. The equipment was neatly put away, waiting for the players to return from lunch and begin afternoon practice. High school baseball was grueling work; she envied them.

Without thought, she reflexively moved her right knee. The muscles flexed with a faint soreness as her knee tensed. Baseball wasn't just grueling, it was cruel.  Any effort could easily be taken away and become useless. She knew better than anyone how unforgiving mistakes could be no matter the level of talent and abilities. 

Again, her hand tightened as her ears filled with the long gone, distant noises of an energetic crowd roaring with excitement. The tips of her fingers tingled against her bag and the memory rush sent her heart racing.  It had been a moment she never wanted to forget, but then the crack of the bat deafened her ears. Her heart stopped. Everything fell away from her and soured. 

The moment passed and Airi focused on the field in front of her again. The sound of two distant voices pulled her back to the reality of the situation. She had over stayed her welcome in her past. There was no need to be caught in it.

Airi was quick to turn on her heals and start to head back towards the main campus grounds. She lived far enough and was at school on an academic scholarship to qualify for a room in the academic dorms. It wasn't as common for nonathletic students to reside in the dorms so it was a rather small building tucked towards the back of campus. It was a nice place to hide from her actual life.

But the conversation behind her had sparked her interest and her pace slowed to a halt. Airi rested behind one of the large metal posts that supported the large netted wall as she listened. One of the voices was one she was familiar with. She had the luxury of sitting behind the boy in every one of their classes. Airi had a hard time believing he could actually be the same loud and overly enthusiastic person she'd seen on the field in comparison to the constantly sleeping student.

"How about we work on the numbers today?" The voice wasn't as familiar, but still one she knew for other reasons.

No matter how hard she tried, pitching always pulled her in. Sawamura was no exception. She had seen him pitch enough and heard enough talk about the different ones that he was able to throw. Airi couldn't help but listen to them actually talk about it.

"You're actually asking me to pitch? Something seems wrong about this situation, Miyuki," Sawamura was quick to respond. 

Airi had seen the two second year pitchers argue enough in class about who gets to pitch to know that it was a rather odd situation to come up. But she wasn't surprised, Sawamura had been doing better from what she heard and it made since that the third year would want to catch for him. Pitchers were confident, but needed catchers to be successful. That was something else she knew from watching her brother. One without the other meant nothing.

"I mean if you don't want to I can easily go ask--" even without seeing it, Airi could hear the sly smirk in Miyuki's voice before getting cut off by the pitcher's protests.

"You already said you would, you can't take it back now!" Airi was surprised to hear such protest in his voice. 

Without even realizing it she had risked a peak around the corner to see Miyuki in a fit of laughter at the Sawamura's protests. To little surprise the overly observant catcher was quick to see her spying on the situation. He righted himself and gave her a kinder smile than his normal seemingly permanent mischievous smirk.

"Are you going to hide back there forever? Or is it another day of watching practice from a distance?" Needless to say, Airi was caught of guard by his directness. She had heard about it before, but to actually experience it was surprisingly intimidating.

"Sorry, I, uh, didn't mean to eavesdrop," Airi responded hesitantly as she stepped out into clear view. She scratched the back of her head, ruffling her blonde hair. 

Miyuki looked her over and she felt the tops of her ears begin to burn. The resemblance between her and her brother was almost uncanny. Both had the sandy blonde hair, ice eyes, and mildly petite but fit bodies. When she had decided to come to Seidou, though, she had put the effort into separating the relation between her and him. Airi knew that it didn't matter what school she went to because it was inevitable that he would be known there too. It just so happened he sparked a rivalry with her school.

 Thankfully most people at school only knew her by her first name and no baseball players paid her enough attention to make the connection.  

"I didn't know that you'd watched our practices before, Airi," Sawamura noted in surprise. Miyuki glanced at him in disappointment at the boy's lack of observation.

"You guys have been the talk of school since last summer, I thought that I'd see what all the fuss was about." It was an obvious lie.

Airi had heard enough stories about Miyuki to know it wouldn't mean much to him. There was a reason her brother had wanted him to join his team, but she had admired his resolve to stand on his own. 

"I don't think we've actually had the chance to meet," Miyuki chimed. "He said it was Airi..." She hesitated to answer. He was fishing.

"Narumiya... second year," Airi could barely force the response out. 

She had confirmed his suspicions with a single name, but she couldn't tell anything about his reaction. Miyuki didn't hate her brother, however, to has a sibling snooping around practices was a different story. 

The two stared at each other as if trying to read the other's intent on what to do about the given information. It would be easy enough to tell him that she wasn't prying for Mei's sake, but the reality hurt too much. Her right leg tensed again and her left knuckles whited with tightness. The  subtle movement was enough to draw his attention to the faded large scar that covered most of her knee and part of her upper thigh.

"I'll be going now," she finally declared to break the silence. "Sorry to interrupt your practice," she tacked on as other players began to come into view.

Neither boys attempted to stop her as she turned on her heels again and headed off. The back of her knee exposed that the scar hooked around most of her knee. Miyuki pondered the possibilities.

"Wait, did she mean as in Narumiya Mei?" Sawamura asked in realization.

"A year," Miyuki sighed, "You have been in class with that girl for a year and you just made the connection?" He was in utter disbelief at just how dense the pitcher actually was. "Some how you never cease to amaze me at how much of an idiot you can be." Miyuki paused for another moment as he watched the girl continue away without a second look back.