“Hey, hey…” It’s the next day and already there’s Taisei poking at my arm right before classes begin. “Guess who’s joining the baseball club?” He pulls up a piece of paper that has all the required signatures and information pertaining to that club.

“Nice.” I take it from him to read through it. “How come you didn’t mention it earlier?” This isn’t the first time I’m seeing him today. We literally walk to school together so I’m surprised he waited until now.

“I’m actually keeping it a secret from Juria right now.” Apparently he wants to surprise her after school today by showing off his skills. Interesting move. Not something I would do, but he’s always been one to add flair to everything. “I can’t wait until she sees me step up to the batter’s box.” Look at him, all giddy in his seat.

“It’ll certainly be quite the announcement.” I say. “So, are they looking for another member?” Since this is the sport he decided to do, obviously I was going to ask this question. Even though they want me to do things on my own. I do actually enjoy baseball.

“Nah, not unless you want to warm the benches for us.” Unfortunately for me, the team’s got all their starters and even a fair number of backups. It seems our school is going to be stacked for our roster. Sure do feel bad for our rivals, but not that bad. Hey, wait a second… Did he just say I’m not good enough to start? “It’s cool though, you can always watch from the stands.”

“Of course.” One does get a nice view from there. Now that I think about it, that also provides another opportunity. Juria did tell me I should be more open to dating. Taking a girl out to a ball game makes for a good date if you ask me. Not that I would know what constitutes a good date. I’ve never been on one before.

“Juria’s not into sports though…” He says aloud to himself. It seems that Taisei’s thinking, and I don’t like it when he thinks. That’s because it usually means I gotta do something for him. “Since she’s not going to watch a game on her own if she doesn’t think I’m playing. I need you to invite her to come see our game after school today.” And there’s the favor I need to do for him.

“What? You’re already playing a game?” It’s only been two days into our year.

“It’s not really a game.” He answers. “Think of it more as scrimmage, a warm up to get our year started.” When he says it like that, it makes sense to me. “Fine, it’s not like I don’t like going places with Juria.” They tell me I shouldn’t stick around with them too much, and already he’s telling me to hang out with Juria. No big deal, but I wonder if her friends will want to come along?

“I hate baseball.” That’s what Hinae says to me when I come over during lunch to ask. The others were more receptive to the idea and Juria already accepted my offer. However, there’s always someone who’s against the idea. “But I’ll come anyway.” It’s clear she’s only doing it because of me. For whatever reason, she doesn’t trust me. So this girl’s going to be acting like a babysitter and guard for her friends.

So that’s going to be our group as we find ourselves a good spot on the stands. Just me and a bunch of girls who are older than me. No wonder Juria said I must’ve been popular, even if this wasn’t what she meant.

“I’m surprised you invited me to watch a game with you.” Juria says as she get seated. The two of us are seated next to each other, with her friend Hinae hawking over to her other side. She does want to make sure I don’t pull anything, but I’m not otherwise certain why she feels this way about me. “Especially after what I said yesterday.”

“But you still accepted my offer.” If she wanted to, she could’ve easily turned be down and told me to invite some other girl from my class. Of course, given the circumstances, I’d try pretty hard to get her to come to the ball game today. There’s no way I’d let her miss out on this surprise.

“It’s not like I don’t like spending time with you either.” She sticks her tongue out to me. “So take it as me being a little selfish.” Once everyone is gathered around the field, the announcer makes the call to begin the game. It’s not supposed to be a serious battle, since this is a game between the members of the same team. Though the excitement of a new season has got everyone, including myself, a bit hyped up for the future. I can’t believe the stands are packed just for an exhibition game.

There, we get to announcing the first person up to bat. To even my own surprise, it’s Taisei. Seems like he’s going to be the team’s lead off man.

“Oh my gosh!” Our surprise for Juria worked as her jaw drops from hearing his name and seeing her own little brother get into the batter’s box. “So he decided to play on the baseball team?” She eyes over to me as I respond with innocent whistling. “You already knew, didn’t you?”

“I might’ve.” I reply with a smile.

“We’re really here just so those guys can surprise you?” Hinae’s not as happy with the surprise. Thankfully this wasn’t targeted for her.

“Ah cheer up Hinae.” Iyo give her a pat on the back. “There’s tons of fun to have here, don’t be such a downer.” As someone on the outside looking in. I have no clue how this group of friends came to be. They all seem so different, and they also don’t seem to care about what each other thinks. At least in regard to anything relating me. Obviously I don’t see them all the time together, so I’m sure most of their time spent is more enjoyable than this.

“I hope nothing bad happens.” Syaa comments as we watch Taisei work the count. So far, he’s swing and missed on the first pitch. Hopefully that’s just him knocking off some of the rust since the two of us hit the batting cages. Other than that, he’s managed to get a couple of balls in there for a count of two balls and one strike.

“Come on Taisei, hit it out of the park!” Juria cheers out to her brother, along with most of the crowd hoping for a good hit to start things off for the season.

“A base hit is good too.” I say, not yelling it out like her. It would be a great confidence booster to not just get out on his first at-bat. Even though this isn’t a serious game, it’s a way to show off to the others and work on your skills.

The next pitch comes in and… Bang! It lights it up with his bat. Too bad that it goes in the complete opposite direction he wished it went. Instead, the ball finds itself flying upwards and towards the stands instead. While where people sitting behind the batters box might have that fence protecting them. Where we are, which is towards the side to get an angle on the batter and pitcher, doesn’t have that same protection.

As luck would have it, the ball is sent careening well over 100 miles per hour right towards us. “Watch out!” Instinctively, without even thinking if it would hit one of us. I put myself between Juria and the ball. Even though I didn’t know where it was going to hit, I chose correctly that it was targeted at her. Which is good for one thing, but bad for another as I feel the hard baseball slam right into my chest as I get laid out on top of her.

Hideumi!? Hideumi, are you all right!?” Juria cries out my name.