Love of the Game (Miyuki Kazuya X OC)

Chapter 12

I wake up to a banging on the door. "Alex, make it go away!" Grace grumbles sleepily. I sigh. Out of both of us, she is not a morning person. I rub my eyes warp my blanket around myself, and drag my feet to the door. I glance at the clock at 4:30 am and grumpily back at the door. "This better be good!" I open the door to see Miyuki.

He stares at my grumpy face and bedhead and laughs. "Not another word. What is so important that you are interrupting my sleep?" I snap.

He laughs. "You know we have morning practice at 5:00 am, right?"

My eyes widen. "No one told me we had practiced before and after school!"

Miyuki was about to say something, but I held up my hand. Still clutching my blanket, I grab one of my pillows and throw it up to Grace, ensuring that it lands on her face "Grace, get up. We have practice at 5 am!" I yelled in English before she could launch the pillow back at me. She glares at me before yawning and rubbing her eyes. Successfully waking Grace, I turned back to Miyuki, who was smirking. "Anything else?" I ask him.

He nods. "Coach would like to meet you both in his office because you forgot to meet him yesterday."

I facepalm, "I can't believe I forgot!"

"I told him it was our fault. We held you both up by hanging out in your room. He understood and said it was fine. It was more important to bond with the team." He finishes with a smile.

"Thank you! Give me 10 minutes to get ready." I smile as he nods, and I shut the door. I run into the restroom faster than the slow-reacting Grace and tell her we have 10 minutes."

"Darn it!" I hear her quicken her pace. I change into my practice uniform and brush my teeth. I run out, and Grace rushes in dressed to brush her teeth. I walk to the mirror while brushing my hair into a loose ponytail. Grace comes out as I slip on my socks and cleats. She put her hair into a messy braid. We grab our bags while stuffing the jerseys into our pants and run out the door. The temperature is already humid. "Ugh! Do we have to wear long sleeves under?" I complain to Grace in English. Grace nods in agreement.

Miyuki stands up from a nearby bench and asks, "what took you guys so long?"

I scoff, offended, while Grace glares, saying, "We only took 11 minutes." I nod in agreement. Miyuki puts his hands up in surrender. I don't blame him. Grace is less of a morning person than I am. I yawn and say, "Lead the way."

He nods and starts walking. He stares at the uniform and smirks. "They didn't have one in your size?" He teases, and I glare daggers at him. He laughs, and I pout sulkily, and Grace pats my head. I was only at the average height of 5'3, and Grace was 5'7.

We made it to the coach's office with 15 mins to spare. Miyuki knocks on the door. "Come in." We walk in and see the coach on the office couch. His shades were on, and he glanced at us from his papers. "Please sit down." He motioned to the couch across from him. I sighed and sat down in the middle of Grace on my right and was slightly startled when Miyuki sat on my left. I glance at the smirking boy next to me but quickly turn to face the coach. "I asked you two here to tell you the school has allowed your old school's team to come. I have also spoken to your old coach. He only had one request and in exchange, they would observe our practice game and practice with us while they are here on the condition that when they play against us, you both will play with them." He finishes.

We both grin at each other, happy to play with our team again. Miyuki grumbles, seeing our happy expressions.

"Why should they play with them? They are already part of the team." I sigh, and Grace says, "Technically not."

Miyuki looks confused, and Grace turns to look at me. I shrug. "We are not allowed to play in official games. We are not officially signed into the school until the fall." I paused and then saw Miyuki's expression, still confused. "We came here on the school and coach's request to adjust to life here and get better adjusted to the team."

Grace nods. "My sister has been captain for a while, so she wanted to ensure we could fully trust each other before we got to share the field in an official game."

Miyuki contemplates and says, "Then why do you guys get first-string numbers." I sigh and the coach says, "I am going to give them numbers, but they won't get to play that way. They will have a better view of the game from the dugout." The coach pauses when he sees Miyuki's confused face. "They have high baseball sense." Miyuki's eyes widen with the realization he turns to stare at us. Grace smirks. "Alex is better at it than me, but together, we can see things the other doesn't." She says and I rub my hand on my face, "Grace, I told you not to brag for me. I am not that great.".

"Sure, because everyone can control their speed and accuracy when pitching." She paused with an eye roll and continued before I could scold her. "And everyone can perfectly access the other team's potential, pitch calls, pitch sequences, pitch speed, and talent."

Both coach and Miyuki stare at me in surprise. I feel my cheeks heat up and hear Grace snickering from beside me. I shake my head. "I... well... it's not wrong, but I can't analyze everything myself because sometimes I concentrate too much on the game or get to pitch and get distracted. I relied on my catcher, co-captain, and Grace to gather information to keep me focused and help me confirm my analysis. So really, I am just one part of four." I say flustered.

They both stare at me like I just grew another head. I feel my face flush, and I hide my face in my hands, not knowing what to say or do. After a long moment of silence, I look up and notice the looks of confusion. "She doesn't like to brag, take credit, or believe a win was because of her efforts alone. She is too humble and undervalues herself and her contributions to the team. So, I do it for her." Grace explains smugly, looking very pleased with herself.

I sigh. "There is no I in the team. You can't play baseball by yourself." The coach, stunned along with Miyuki, says, "I could not have said it better myself. We'll end today here; please head to practice. You have class later."

We nodded, following Miyuki out once we were away from the office. I sulkily say, "I forgot we had classes starting today." Grace nods in agreement and adds, "And we have to wear a uniform." I nod. "With a skirt" We sigh, depressed. It is not like we hate wearing skirts. Skirts were acceptable but wearing them every day, even when it was cold, was ridiculous. Although I would be lying if I said I didn't prefer wearing shorts to a skirt.

Miyuki laughs. "You guys don't like school?"

"Well, not really, we like learning. Sort of, but I would rather be playing baseball, and Grace is just lazy. And now we will have to do all our homework in Japanese. How complicated."

"We have never had to do so much mind-numbing homework in Japanese," Grace adds.

He doesn't stop laughing at us until we reach the field. I saw that the team started warming up by running around the field. I look at Grace, and she nods. I drop my baseball bag and start running at a nice steady pace with both of them for the first two laps. Grace waves me ahead, allowing me to pick up my pace "Only a slightly higher jog, we still have school and practice in the afternoon." She says, slightly out of breath. Not wanting to waste my energy, I nod and start jogging slightly faster. Soon, I catch up with both Tetsu and Mochi. They turn to me, surprised but nod their greetings, and I return it. I keep pace with them for the rest of the warm-up, using their speed to control the speed of my jog.