Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 8: Worrying the Baseball Idiots

The day Sora got promoted to first string came much earlier than she had anticipated. After having performed very well in two practice matches of the second string, the coach had been pleased and wanted to try out if the blue haired girl would be able to keep the quality of her play constantly high when having to cope with first string standards. While eating three bowls of rice for dinner wasn't a big problem from the beginning, things sure started getting busier even though she still acted as an infielder.

Besides practice, school classes, homework, her study sessions and tutoring the first years and her classmates, also the café was beginning to make arrangements for the winter and the Christmas and new year's season. The young and very cute manager Tomoko whom Sora (and also Sawamura to her big surprise) had started to call Tomo-chan, had already asked her if she could work some additional shifts because she was short on employees and the young girl had agreed as long as it would fit into her schedule.

However, even though her teammates had been very supportive and they also had celebrated her promotion to first string with a party in her dorm room, the blue haired girl had to face certain problems. Like having to form a battery with Miyuki who was doing fine with his recovery since they had begun with the additional massage therapy on a regular basis. Since the young captain had been struggling with fatigue at first, they had filled in the coach and the doctor with what the two teammates were doing and had received approval. After a few days, the brown haired catcher was back to his normal malicious self, so there was no doubt he would be able to practice again once winter break and the training camp started.

Being even closer to all the first-string members now surely didn't only have advantages, especially since some of them were way too observant and curious. While the guys from second string hadn't thought much of Sora not showing up to bathe or shower or change together with them, of course the first-string team had to notice and to care. Kuramochi was constantly mocking her for being shy or having an inferior complex or privacy issues, while the young girl really was at a limit with her excuses.

Also going to her part-time job had become an adventure because Sora truly had the feeling that she was being watched or something like that. There was always someone of her teammates around her. The blue haired girl barely had some privacy left and she had to create her opportunities to be able to sneak out with Sawamura.

Miyuki and Kuramochi had both started to hang out in her dorm room frequently, as much as the young southpaw and the green haired shortstop still insisted on Sora being his videogame partner, so she also had to visit him in her rare free time. Otherwise, that guy would be sulking, claiming the young girl ignored him on purpose which wasn't true. It was kind of exhausting to have so clingy friends.

And then there was still her bad conscience. The closer her friendships with the guys were getting, the more Sora wished she wouldn't have to lie to them like she did. But the more she also tried to convince herself that the others wouldn't treat her like that if they knew she was a girl. This back and forth was wearing her out just as much as school, practice and her job. It was getting a bit much.

Luckily the blue haired girl had Sawamura she could talk to and she also did video calls with her family, especially with her brother Ten whenever she had some time left, mostly before going to sleep. But a pang of loneliness in her heart remained. She was feeling alone, homesick and as much as she was enjoying her time with the baseball team and the practice, she was also aware she didn't fit in hundred percent.

Time was flying, it was getting colder and darker outside, the weather was getting on her nerves and winter was approaching in a high speed. There wasn't much time left until winter break and the training camp would be starting and Sawamura was already excited to no ends.