'Was this the reason why he piqued my interest?' she asked herself. Perhaps. It was most likely that. But the only way to be sure was to observe him pitch up close. She couldn't wait to witness his pitching but if he keeps being disrespectful then she wouldn't be able to see it until next year. If she was lucky, that is.
Azusa walked all the way to the fence to pick up the ball that Sawamura threw as if it was magical and would give her the answers. It was absurd but she did it, nonetheless. She bent over to pick up the baseball since she couldn't afford to waste much time before the managers scold her again.
" Oi , what are you doing with that ball?" she heard someone asked her prompting her to turn around to see who it was. And lo and behold it turned out to be the pitcher.
Azusa narrowed her blue eyes at him. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and he wasn't that much taller than her. "This?" she asked holding up the baseball.
" Hai ," the pitcher said with a nod and then he shot her a confused look. "Wait. Aren't you a girl? What are you doing here?"
"I'm a manager, which is quite obvious judging from my uniform. Are you dumb or what?" she replied with a snort.
The pitcher clenched his fists in anger. "Who are you calling dumb?"
"You, you baka pitcher," Azusa deadpanned.
"My name is not ' baka pitcher' you blondie!" the pitcher yelled in anger. "It's Sawamura Eijun!"
Azusa rolled her eyes while putting her hands on her hips. "I don't care," she said nonchalantly. "But don't ever call me blondie again!" she warned with a menacing finger.
"Blondie! Blondie! Blondie!"Sawamura yelled.
Now it was Azusa's turn to get angry as she growled." Baka pitcher! Baka pitcher! Baka pitcher!" she yelled back."Why are you even here? Don't you have to be running laps anyway? Since I doubt the coach is going to allow such a dimwit like you to join practice," Azusa chided.
"Why you?" Sawamura hissed. "I just wanted to see the ball."
Azusa snorted again. "Why? Were you going to ask the ball why it curved?"she mocked despite the fact that the only reason why she came to this side of the field was just for mere curiosity. But there was no way in hell that she would admit that to him.
"That was just a fluke! I could do it if I was a given a second chance!" the pitcher said.
Azusa burst out laughing. "There are no second chances when the stakes are this high."
Sawamura was taken aback and blinked in confusion showing her that her statement had some type of effect in him.
"Azusa-san! I'm already done!"Haruno yelled from the opposite side while waving her hand in the air.
Azusa waved back. "Coming!" she said to haruno before turning to Sawamura for one last time. "See you baka pitcher!" Azusa added with a wink before leaving to catch up with Haruno.
"My name is Sawamura Eijun!" the pitcher angrily reminded her but it was to no avail since Azusa didn't turn around.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Good work girls! See you tomorrow bright and early," Takako said with a faint smile.
Standing alongside each other, Haruno and Azusa bowed at the same time. "Thanks."
They were at the entrance of the campus, and night had fallen upon them along with the end of practice.
"Good night!"
" Oyasumi," both Haruno and Azusa said to Takako for the last time and started making their way home.
Azusa sighed in relief despite feeling her aching muscles and numb feet. "Thank goodness is over, right?" she asked Haruno as they both silently walked down the dimly lit streets.
Haruno nodded. "Yes, it was such a long day."
"And we have to do it all over again tomorrow,"Azusa said with a sense of dread.
"Don't remind me. My feet hurt so much,"Haruno said with a shudder. "But also... I don't want to complain too much. After all, it was my dream to become a manager."
"And it's also the first day. We can't seem like whining babies,"the blonde manager added.
Haruno nodded. "Yes, you're right..." she said and then glanced at Azusa. " Ne , was it your dream to become manager too?"
Azusa's eyes widened in surprise since her question caught her off guard. "Something like that... You can say that," she vaguely replied as she avoided the other manager's gaze.
Haruno didn't seem too convinced with her answer and stopped to a halt. "I have to go this way now," she said, pointing to an alley on her right.
"I still have to go straight to get to the bus stop," Azusa said pointing to the street ahead. "So see you tomorrow and don't be late! My excuse won't work again."
Haruno nodded. "I'll wake up early. I promise. See you tomorrow!"
"Bye!" Azusa waved her newfound friend goodbye before continuing to walk towards the bus stop. Thankfully it was not that dark and the streetlights along with the lights of the convenience stores made it less scary for her to walk home alone at night. She had to make it home in one piece or else her parents are going to have fit and get all overprotective since she was the youngest of four. She also promised them that she was going to be fine since she could take care of herself so she couldn't prove them wrong.
Azusa quickened her pace to a power walk since she didn't want to risk anything, despite the fatigue that was settling in her muscles. Perhaps she was getting paranoid but even before Haruno left she was feeling as if someone was following her. She didn't hear any unusual noises but couldn't shake the feeling of a presence behind her. It was an odd eerie feeling that she just couldn't shake.
Then she heard the faint sound of footsteps.
'What's that? Is someone really following me? Should I turn around? No, don't turn around. That's stupid!' she berated herself and decided to walk even faster to get to the bus stop even faster.
But the footsteps were getting louder which meant that someone was indeed following her.
"Who is it?" she finally asked as she turned around despite not wanting to.
"AHHHH," someone screamed.
"AHHHH," she screamed as well while covering her eyes.
"Why did you have to scare me like that?" the mystery person asked her.
Azusa's heart rate quickened since she immediately recognized the voice. "Mei?" she asked, withdrawing her hands from her face.
"Yo," he simply answered with a grin gracing his lips.
Azusa narrowed her eyes at him. "Why did you scare me like that?"
Mei scoffed. "Me, scare you? You were the one who scared me !" he replied in an indignant tone.
Azusa gasped. "How did I scare you when you were the one following me, you idiot?!"
"I wasn't following you," he said, rolling his eyes. "I was just making sure that you got home safely,"he retorted.
"Same difference!"
"No, it's not!"
"Yes- you know what? Forget it," she said, shaking her head. She wasn't going to continue with the argument. "What are you doing here? Don't you have to be at Inashiro?"
"That's what I came to ask you!" Mei said in a demanding tone while glancing at her sky- blue eyes. "What are you doing here? Why did you decide to go to Seido at the last minute and abandon me? I thought you were going to Inashiro with me. You're such a bad sister!"Mei whined.
"Why not go to Seido?" Azusa deadpanned, ignoring his childish outburst.
"Because they're never going to nationals,"Mei replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
Azusa scoffed. "And how do you know that?"
Mei smirked. "Because I have my all-star team now," he said in an arrogant tone. "Even if Kazuya decided to go to Seido as well."
The younger blonde glared at him. "Your arrogance is going to get the best of you again, Mei," she warned. "Someone will give you a taste of your own medicine."
"Perhaps," he conceded with a shrug. "But one thing I know for sure is that is not going to be Seido. So why don't you come to Inashiro when there is still time so you can be on the winning side?"
Azusa clenched her fists in anger. "Even if I knew for good that Seido was never going to nationals, I still wouldn't go to Inashiro with you and your all-star team. You're so arrogant and self-centered that it's irritating to no bounds. So forget it and stop wasting your time!"
Mei pouted. "But why?" he demanded. "You've always been there helping me.I thought you were on my side."
She glared at him again. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Mei."
"But yours does," he said. "It's always been like that."
"No, it does not!" Azusa angrily exclaimed. "And if you think that, then you're nothing but a self-centered idiot! I'm not going to Inashiro!" she yelled before running towards the bus stop on her own.
"You're going to regret it, Azusa!" Mei yelled as she ran away.
His claim fell on deaf ears. Azusa knew that she was not going to regret her decision of choosing Seido over Inashiro. She was tired. She was tired of it all. Mei was right. She's been with him for all of her life playing baseball and helping him improve every step of the way. Azusa was always content tracking his progress but as time passed by she was seeing herself only living in the shadows of the great Narumiya Mei. But not anymore. She had to find her own path; away from Mei. But that was something that someone so selfish as Mei wouldn't understand.
He wouldn't understand that she was tired of living in the shadows.
But she was going to show him.
She was going to show and prove to him and to everyone else that she was more than a shadow.
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net