一番 (Number One)

十

The night after the Miyas went home, Aire cautiously went back to her shared room with Katsuyuki. The boy was laying there, on the lower bunk. He did not even spared a glance towards Aire, so the girl decided to ignore him too.

"I'll turn off the lamp." She stated as she went to the upper bunk.

It did not take a long time for her to fall asleep, and in a blink morning had come. Aire was awoken by the noises Katsuyuki made as he was getting ready. The girl then hurriedly changed her clothes and followed the red haired boy outside.

They walked in silence and did not even bother to converse. By the time they got in the field, lots of students were already there.
"Oh!" Someone exclaimed, making the others looked his way. A wide grin appeared on the sky blue eyes' boy before he came to the roommates. "Katsu! Aire!"

"You have some nerve to call me Katsu." Katsuyuki grumbled as Aire scowled.

"Narumiya Mei." Aire stated.

"Geez, don't be such a party pooper, you two." Mei laughed them off while resting his right hand on Aire's shoulders. "Let's just go with basic name. We're friends, aren't we?"

Katsuyuki looked at Mei for a while before storming away. Aire was frowning at the red hair's back when Mei nudged her.

"How's rooming up with Katsu?"
"You know about me rooming up with Katsuyuki?" Aire raised her eyebrow.

"Well, Katsu and I have known each other for a while now." Mei shrugged. "So I know your history."

Aire's eyes widened, but beforr she could say anything, the coach called the new kids to gather around. They introduced themselves and the training began. At first, they had to do a string of warm-ups and exercices before then divided into groups based on the results of the exercises.

There were three groups of first years in total. The first group was the ones that excel in almost every exercises. This included a dark skinned first year that Aire learnt his name as Carlos. Katsuyuki and herself were in that group too. The teenage girl expected for Mei to be in the first group too, remembering how a prodigy he was, yet it was proven wrong when he was placed in the second group. Mei might be an excellent pitcher, but he did not have the first group's strength.

"That Mei," Carlos sighed and shook his head as he watched Mei protesting being in the second group to the kantoku. "I've told him to keep exercising but he's too damn stubborn."

"That aho was too angry and prideful to even think straight." Katsuyuki snorted.

"Why would he do that?" Aire frowned, clearly did not umderstand why would someone let their emotion took control and gained nothing from it.

"It's Miyuki." Carlos answered. "He decided to ditch us and go to Seidou in the last minute."

"Miyuki...?" Aire hummed, finally remembered the megane kid that could not wear his glasses correctly.

"It doesn't matter though. With or without Miyuki, we'll be undefeatable." Katsuyuki bluntly stated.

"Of course we will!" Carlos put his arms around both the red haired boy and the female teenager. "We're awesome, that's why!"

Before Aire nor Katsuyuki could respond, the kantoku blew his whistle. They got into a game. The first year 1st group against the first string, the 2nd group against the second string and the last group against the last string.

They were having the game in turn since the kantoku wanted to access everyone's ability. As if a mandatory, the 1st group vs 1st string went first. Both group played aggressively. Yet somehow, the 1st year group had the upperhand in the game.

Mei narrowed his eyes, a satisfied smug grin painted his face. The kantoku who stood beside him also narrowed his eyes. They watched how Aire kept barking orders to her teammate, Katsuyuki kept giving a killing aura, and Carlos kept trying to cheer his teammates. The three of them made a weird combination, but still a good teamwork.

The match ended up with the first string winning by a mere score difference. The first group was not bad at all, Aire hummed in satiafaction before her attention turned to both Carlos and Katsuyuki. Afterall, those two outshone the others. If they're being added to the first string with Mei with them, their school would definitely be difficult to be defeated.

And as if to confirm Aire's thought, the sound of a ball met the mitt was heard. Even from far away, Aire could hear Mei's smug 'Ha!' The girl exchanged glances with both Carlos and Katsuyuki before chuckling.

Yeah, they'd be jusy perfectly fine. She thought.

When the night came, the kantoku gathered them in the field and made some review. Aire noticed how he generalized his lecture, but when he pointed out some things-his eyes darted to the people who were involved. He did not only comment on the regulars, but also to the first years.

"You might not have the experiences like what your upperclassmen have." The kantoku closed his speech before looking at the trio first year 1st group and Mei. "But your journey has just begun. Give it all you've got, then I promise you that it'll worth your time. That's all. You're dismissed."

"Osu!"

Mei went to the trio first year before ranting how he was not supposed to be in the first group and how it was humiliating for him to be put in the second.

"Well, you should have trained like we all did in the break." Carlos pointed out. "Not just moping around and throwing tantrum like that just because Miyuki decided to not be with us."

"Ha?!" Mei came closer to Carlos and would have face to face with him if it were not for his height. Instead, he looked up, glaring at the taller guy heatedly which gained a chuckle from Carlos.

The quartet walked lazily to the cafetaria. Mei and Carlos were a bit ahead of Katsuyuki, while Aire was the last. She looked up to the dark sky, not noticing the red haired slowed his pace so they would walk side by side.

None of them said anything after that, but they sure were bonded now.