I don't own Ruroni Kenshin or any of its characters. If I did I'd be rich and live in Beverly Hills instead of Missouri.
Chapter 2: 1st Training Session
"Erica! Why did you have to jump on me and embarrass me in front of Kenshin?" Kaoru huffed indignantly.
"Kenshin is an old friend of mine! We go way, way back to middle school! He saw me anyway. I think that you are just angry 'cause I cut your time talking to him short," Erica said as they entered the dugout. Megumi was yelling at Sanosuke about something. Erica and Kaoru sauntered over to Megumi since Erica needed some tape. "Pardon me, Megumi I need tape for my ankle and that thingy for my nose so it won't get broken again."
"Oh of course J. I'll get that for you right now. Please sit on the bench and take your shoe off so I can wrap your ankle," Megumi requested. She brought over her medical kit and took out some tape and a strip to put over her nose. While Megumi taped her foot Erica peeled the strip off the sticky part and placed the strip on the bridge of her nose. She felt the wire in the strip to make sure it was on the right parts. "All done J. Put your shoe back on and warm up with Kaoru."
Erica quickly pulled her sock and shoe on and laced it up nice and tight. When she finished she gave it a nice whack and grabbed a ball and Kaoru and ran onto the field. Kaoru and Erica quickly went through some stretches before warming up by throwing the ball to each other by flicking their forearms to get it to each other kneeling on their throwing leg. After that they backed up to 20 feet apart from each other and start throwing again.
After about five throws each they backed up about five feet. Eventually they stopped around 150 feet Erica at home and Kaoru out in left field. Kaoru jogged in when she threw her last throw and went up to Erica and threw her arm around her. They together went to the dugout and sat on the bench. They hadn't noticed that the men who were there were speechless and gapping at the pair. Because while they have well defined arm muscles they were relatively short Erica at 5 foot 6 inches and Kaoru at 5 foot 3 inches looked as if they couldn't even throw the ball from the mound to home. Erica noticed that they were being looked at while she putting her shin guards on.
"What you've never seen a female catcher before or a female second baseman? Geez get your asses warmed up before the coach gets out here. It isn't too late to be cut still ya know!" Erica said with strength. The men looked at her with mild surprise on their faces and ran onto the field so that they too could warm up.
The Head Coach, Tony Spanks, came out into the dugout. He looked around at the people in the dugout and spat at a man who was tying up his shoe. The man quickly tied up his shoe and ran onto the field with his glove. Sanosuke and Kenshin came out as Erica was strapping her shin guards on. Sanosuke looked at her and asked Kenshin a question in a low voice so that Kaoru and Erica couldn't hear.
"I thought that you said that Erica can't play any sports anymore. So why is she strapping on catchers gear?" Kenshin sighed.
"She wasn't supposed to, but a good friend of hers specializes on knees and the bones and stuff fixed it so she was out for 2 ½ years. But now she is the starting catcher according to the coach."
"You said that you hadn't kept in contact with her. I thought that you two couldn't be just friends." Sanosuke said as they walked onto the field.
"I have been since I found out that she was a huge victim of the 'Incident'," Kenshin said as he got down on one knee and flicked the ball to Sanosuke.
"Oh," Sanosuke said weakly. "Poor girl. Do you know who she lost?"
"Everyone but 'our' group that she loved she lost. So not us two, Misao, Aoshi, Soujiro, and Enishi. Speaking of which, she recently called me about Enishi. He is trying to con her into dating him by showing her our pictures from Middle and High School."
"That rat!"
"My thoughts exactly Sanosuke, now come on warm-ups are over." They jogged over to the coach who was talking to the 5 girls who would be on the team. They had already for sure tried out and made the team. Erica walked over to Kenshin and Sanosuke.
"Coach already knows who he's going to cut but is going to be a dick-wad over it and keep those players in suspense. Why he told me, I don't know. And don't ask me to tell you who cause I'll get suspended-."
"Yeah, yeah! We know that you haven't ever been suspended for anything so you don't want to start now."
"You guys know me all to well. As much as I love Florida I'd rather be in St. Charles. You know my favorite saying, 'We are home Toto! Oh! There's-.'"
"'No place like home!' Alright Erica they are some old friends of yours right? So why do you persist on saying old fashioned stuff like that!" Kaoru broke in standing in between Sanosuke and her.
"Geez, Kao! You still aren't miffed at my breaking up your argument with your favorite player whom you couldn't stop talking about on the plane while I was trying to sleep now are you? Well it's not my fault that I have a sympathetic soul and if Kenny had gotten annoyed with you he would have just said so and left leaving you all heart broken and everything. So listen up girl! This is a good friend of mine who I happen to know very well and you will not annoy him when you first meet him for real got it! The only one who got away with that is Misao but, you know her; cute, talkative little thing that she is."
As Erica had been giving the speech to Kaoru, the boys had slipped off to their positions for practice Sano the first baseman for today and Kenshin shortstop. Sanosuke also plays third base and outfield and Kenshin also plays center field. Several of the men were waiting for the coach to come out of the dugout to start practice. Kenshin and Sano shook their heads. They knew that he wouldn't come out until Kaoru and Erica went to their positions.
"Hey! Johnny!" Kenshin yelled. Erica turned around at her familiar nickname. Kenshin raised his hand to his mouth and yelled again, "Get to your positions!"
Kaoru and Erica looked at each other and shared a giggle and booked it to their spots. The coach finally moseyed his way up to the mound and looked around at the players on the field. He made that one sound that guys make before they spit and well, spat, before he started talking.
"Well now that the pansies have finished their gossipin', I will now be whippin' all of you boys, and girls inta hardcore women and men. Now hop to it pansies." And that meant, basically, let the 'festivities' begin. They all scrambled to their positions. Pitchers going to the bullpen, the two other (male) catchers behind home, and the base men and outfielders in their preferred spots. The two other catchers tossed a ball between them since Erica was taking the balls that were being thrown in.
The main hitting coach was hitting the balls out to third, then short, and so on until everyone had gone through with the ground balls. The next thing to do was to catch pop-ups and through them home to 'tag' the runner out. The last one was hit straight up to Erica who loudly yelled that she had it but she ran to far forward and ended up doing a backbend when she caught it. She slowly lowered herself to the ground so that she wouldn't hurt her wrist. When she stood up and dusted herself off she noticed that the diamond was eerily silent. She looked up and saw that most of their faces were ones of shock, except for Kaoru and Kenshin who looked like they could care less since they knew her. She chuckled to herself.
"Haven't you men ever seen a 'A League of Their Own'? Man you guys don't know what you are missing!" the few who had seen it started chuckling and returned to practice which continued on until lunch.
Author's Note:
Hey everyone! I just want to let you know that if you have any questions regarding the technical terms that I may use in this story please ask me instead of going to someone who may not understand what I mean. I myself play softball so I know the rules and plays and terms. I really thought that this was a great idea for a story. I want all-out honesty from my reviewers so don't hesitate to be brutally honest. Thanks.
To my reviewers:
lily-petal – thanks so much for the comments and for being my first reviewer!
Doctor Kiba – thanks for the comment!
Lella/Missi – thanks for reviewing my good friend.