Author's Note: I'm late for Maki's birthday... Anyway enjoy this fresh outta of the stadium one-short shot fanfic!

It was the last inning,the home team, Otonokizaka, scoring 9, against Utx which scored 8, but even with that score, the tension was high. Utx's runners were in scoring position, with the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st base being occupied; 3 balls, 2 strikes but the tomato lover pitcher was tired after 25 consecutive pitches and 7 k's.

The crowd of both teams stood from their chairs to watch the most probably, the last ball of the game if it wasn't a foul one. A duel of Otonokizaka's best Pitcher against Utx's best Batter whose got 2 balls out of the stadium in the last 3 innings.

Maki closed her eyes to prevent her excitement and also to calm herself, the silence of the crowd and the narrator tensed her, everyone expected something, but then she heard the Phrase that always managed to calm her on those moments and never failed to fill her mind with confidence: A yell coming from the little devil of the third base.

"MAKI!YOU CAN DO IT! DO YOU HEAR ME?! STRIKE TSUBASA OUT!"

And when Maki did her best pitch, followed by the sound of a Ball getting caught by a glove, Nozomi's "NICE PITCH MAKI-CHAN!", the crowd's loud cheer and the suddenly running of the team to hug Maki and congratulates her, the game ended.

Destiny or not, the day right after the game was Maki's birthday. Thought, the Otonokizaka team didn't have the knowledge of the matter because Maki is a Tsundere that doesn't want her friends to worry about things like doing a party for her and blah bla blah. With that, the first year had the chance to have a peaceful birthday playing piano at home. Unfortunately for the pitcher, in her team stood 3 girls whose curiosity and dumbness had no limit.

In the start of the day, everything was normal, Nozomi and Eli greeted her at the School gate and got to their class, thought it was odd for Nico not being with them, maybe she got tired of being the third wheel. Umi and Kotori greeted her when they passed through the first year's floor, with the oddness of Honoka not being with them. And lastly,Rin wasn't in the classroom.

"Maki-chan, good morning!"

Hanayo's low voice made Maki get back to the real world rather than trying to discover the conspiration behind the trio's disappearance.

"Good morning, Hanayo." She answered while getting ready for the class before the teacher.

"Are you worried about Rin-chan?"

Maki didn't need to turn her face to see the rice lover's smile.

"Uh...kinda- I mean, Honoka and Nico-chan- I also didn't see them today."

"Hmmm...Maybe they got to an arcade late yesterday and are really tired so the reason for their tardiness."

"It makes sense..." After all, they are that idiot.

"There's no way they would miss a day like today, right?"

"Ueeh- What is the occasion? There's nothing special today that I remember-"

"Maki-chan... We're having a party because of yesterday's game- Maybe you forgot about yesterday?"

"A-Ah Yeah! It is just that yesterday I was so cool that it felt like a dream, but, I totally remember."

Hanayo looked completely confused by her out of character quote but let it slip as the teacher entered the room, signaling the start of the class.

Rin came at the second period, during the P.E class, so Maki thought that it was just a coincidence.

During one of her Illuminati confirmed thoughts, she imagined the idiotrio suddenly breaking her house to a rock night and Maki wanted to cry, but it looked like it wasn't the case.

At lunch time, everyone made their way to the clubroom in order to lunch together while celebrating their victory against UTX, which gave them a pass to the Nationals. Maki was the first to enter in the clubroom, for spiritual reasons (Rin pushing her), and was surprised by a bucket of confetti right on her face.

"Surprise Maki-chan!" even with her eyes closed to avoid the confetti to enter on her eyes, Honoka's voice was unmistaken.

When she finally could see something after the confetti fell off her face due to gravity, Maki couldn't remember any moment happier than this one; The clubroom filled with posters saying "Happy birthday Maki!" "To Otonokizaka's best pitcher!". The group hugged the teary girl while laughing. Still, something was missing, Maki just couldn't put a tomato on it, but something was wrong.

"Wait." As Maki's voice soared through the room, everyone got off the hug."Not that I care or something but where's Nico-chan?"

"Hmm~ So your party is useless if not by the presence of your beloved senpai, Maki-chan?" Nozomi said with her usual mischievous tone."So we alone can't fulfill your happiness nya?!" Rin tried to look hurt, but the "nya" ruined it.

"So we alone can't fulfill your happiness nya?!" Rin tried to look hurt, but the "nya" ruined it.

"Maki, I thought we were more special than the satan spawn."

"Eli- What does that even mean !?"

Before any other embarrassing quote could be said, the sound of a loud thud of the door in the left side of the clubroom made everyone quit it.

"FEAR NOT MAKKI! BECAUSE I'M HERE, AND WITH YOUR CAKE!

"Nico-chan!"

"You don't have to praise me for my work of art on this magnificent birthday cake," Nico said while getting closer to Maki, cake in hands, it looked like one of those weird romance novels scenes "Because I know you can't just-"

Sadly, because of a miscalculated error in the clubroom, a misalignment on the carpet made Nico trip, just like when she worked in a cafe shop and dropped the cookies(1).

"Ah- Shit."

"..."

"Jesus christ Nicocchi."

"I- Happy birthday Maki-chan?"

"That cake is outta here! You can say goodbye to that one! Home run nya~!"

Everyone looked dead inside, after Rin's joke, Maki had a giant cake on her face, Nico wanted to laugh but it was her fault, the end.

Bonus: Bakatrio Baseball Jokes.

"Nico-chan! What did the baseball glove say to the ball?"

"What?"

"Catch nya later!"

Slowly the integrants of the Otonokizaka started to get away from the clubroom to escape from the joke hell.

"Hey Honoka, what has 18 legs and catches flies?"

"I have no idea Nico-chan!"

"A baseball team"

Then, when the only one left was Maki, they turned the attention to her.

"Hey Maki, do you know why I made the cake?"

While cleaning her face with her hands a with a sudden urge to kill the trio for forcing her to listen those horrible jokes, she knew there was no chance to exit now.

"Why you did the cake Nico-chan?"

"Because I'm the Batter."