Chapter one: The Arrival
"Haruno-chan will you please sit down for a moment!" echoed it in the girl´s dorm. After this, a low rumbling sound broke the silence and it sounded like someone had tripped over something.
"Ouch." joined a young and soft voice of another women the noise.
"Because of this, I said, you should sit down. Time isn´t passing faster, even if you´re running back and forth the whole time." said the first voice of the older girl to the younger. Sachiko briefly looked at her roommate and shook hopelessly her head when Haruno started running again across the room.
"But Umemoto-senpai aren´t you nervous? After all we get a new roommate. I´m so nervous and excited, that I just can´t sit and wait." Sachiko could see the excitement in Haruno. It was not just visible in her eyes, but also in her actions. If Sachiko had not moved away Haruno´s school bag, the girl would have tripped over it just like she did a few minutes ago over Sachiko´s neatly ordered staple of baseball books.
Because she would again tripped over something and fell down, when Sachiko quickly would not had pushed it aside.
"Calm down!" Sachiko continued. "Takashima-san is going to pick her up. They will be here at any moment." But it did not work. The younger girl simply did not listen to the older one and so Sachiko finally gave up. Still, Sachiko had to admit that she herself was a little bit curiously about the new girl. An exchange student, who was coming to Seido in the middle of the school. /How may she be?/ she asked herself and noticed the nervousness raising in her body as well. This all because of Haruno.
"Stop it!" Sachicko was shouting again. "If you have too much energy left, go to the Baseball field and join Sawamura and Furuya. They definitely are still running."
At the same time at a different place, something else was going on.
It was a smooth landing. An unexpectedly smooth one in comparison to her last stopover, where the plane was shaking so heavy due to the currents of a cyclone, that she felt her lunch trying to leave the inner vaults of her stomach. It wasn´t her first flight and so she wouldn´t have been surprised, if it had been turbulent as well. In comparison to some of the other 500 passengers, she didn´t need to be waken, because she had not slept the whole flight. How could she? She was too nervous. After all it was Japan. The country of her dreams and now she was here. So she wouldn´t fall asleep like that. The adrenalin in her body simply wouldn´t let her. The excitement was just too big. In this moment, it didn´t matter, that it was night. Who cares? But how could all the other people sleep? Weren't they excited? She wondered.
After the plane came to halt, all passengers applauded to the crew and the pilot spoke the welcome cliché. Then the real tumult began. There were far too many people, who wanted to get out in the narrow gangway. It seemed to be always the same. No matter where it was a train or a plain. To not get overrun, she forcibly had to wait. Then the "meeting" with the other transfer students had to wait. After all it isn't her fault. When she finally left the plane, she was searching for her group which was standing in a corner not far behind the bridges that lead to the passport control. They were already waiting for her and the moment she arrived, her supervisor started to talk about the typical manners in Japan with the intension to remind them about how to be behave properly. She rolled her eyes mentally.
/And here it is, yet again/, she thought and tried to smile to cover up her annoyance. They had been about this at least a hundred times. She could tell this even in her sleep. So what could go wrong? It was logical, that she would behave normal and not hug or give a hello kiss to everyone. If the Japanese really thought, that all people in the world would do this, then they were completely on the wrong track. Still, her supervisor went through the topics again and after some time she and the other three students got bored. To make it even went faster and to show that they understood, the four started to speak unison the rest of their supervisor´s speech. The adult smiled satisfied to this and gave them their first information about their new schools and most important of all, who was going to which. There were the school names of Inashiro and Yakushi, but they wern´t associated with her name. Only when Seido was mentioned, she knew where she was placed in. She also got the information, who her new supervisor from now on was. Someone called Rei Takashima, which sounded feminine. However, the girl couldn´t be entirely sure, whether this person was a man or a woman. There was the chance, that there was a man with a very feminine name. You never could tell. Here a man could also have a name like Nagisa, Haruka, Makoto or Rin. In this country everything was possible.
After all the important information were given, the only thing left was the passport control which she hoped would be fast. Thank God there was no delay and all could pass quickly. Now she just had to find Rei Takashima, so that she could get out of the airport. But when they reached the entrance hall of the airport, she simply was overwhelmed by the huge crowd of people. How should she find her new supervisor within these masses? Worst of all, how does he or she look like? She had no idea. It would have been helpful, if they had shown her a picture of this person. She tried not to panic and hoped to spot someone in the masses looking for her. This, however, wasn´t so easy, because the majority of people were taller than she was. The girl turned to look to the others of the group, who, like her, tried to overview the area. It seemed that everyone had the same problem with looking for someone they had never seen before. Sighing she was about to let hang her head, when she finally discovered something similar to her name. Her heart leaped. Quickly she tried to find it again and indeed there was her name written on a cardboard sign - or something alike, because it was a bit misspelled in the middle. But she didn´t care. Right now she was too happy, that she finally had found the right person. She glanced and smiled to the other three. They figured out that she found her supervisor and was leaving.
´Drop me a line after you have arrive safely and let me know how it is. If there are sweet girls around. I´ll come over ´, said the first one and hugged her goodbye. She sighed dramatically at the last comment from him. The whole procedure was repeated and she chuckled.
´We will meet again, so don´t miss me too much.´ she just said. After all it wasn't the moon where she was going to. Still, the whole situation was a little bit weird. At the beginning, when the three had met, they all had been strangers who became friends during their crash course within the last two month. It was sad, that none of them would be in Seido with her. She waved them goodbye, before she went her own way.
While walking towards the person holding up her name, she recognized the person as woman and examined her. She was definitely a woman and a damn pretty at that. Shining, black hair was strict tied up to a ponytail and oval glasses sat on the tip of her nose which must have slid a bit down, because the women pushed them up. Despite, the fact that this whole image gave her a very stern appearance, the girl didn´t care about it. With a smile on her face she went to the women, who just recognized her and smiled back. Shortly before the woman the girl stopped and introduced herself. She also bowed a little, just as they had learned.
´Welcome in Tokyo. I´m Takashima Rei. Nice to meet you´ the person said and bowed a little as well. ´Now we´re going to pick up your baggage and then drive you to your school dorm. You are already expected.´ The girl nodded joyfully and followed Takashima. At the baggage carousel they wait. It turned out, she wasn´t the only one, who travelled with a black suitcase. Many were passing her and she often had to look twice before she finally found her own. Well, if she had chosen a flashy neon pink one, as her dear mother had had suggested, she would not have difficulties at all. But since she simply hated pink she decided to go for a plain and classical black one.
By and by her suitcase came and she and Takashima-san left the airport. Instead of leaving the airport by taking a shuttle bus, train or Takashimas car, they took a cab.
/Wow, which school has the money for such luxury/, she thought /or was the school so nearby, that it did not cost very much?/ The longer they drove the more raised the sum of the taximeter. /Seriously, what kind of school is that please?/ after a while she gave up on pondering. Very well then. She should be fine with this. If the school wants to pay for her arrival in this grand manner, they should do so. Then she started to look out of the window and tried to decode some ideographs. This however, was difficult and she didn´t succeed because the cab drove very fast and very often, she couldn´t even make out a single sign. Nevertheless the shrill colours in the inner city brought to her mind, that she was in Japan for real. Somehow facing the reality made her nervous and her legs couldn´t rest for a moment and she let them shake up and down. Rei observed the whole scenario for a while. She was amused to see, how the young girl reacted to so many kinds of things.
´Did you have a nice flight? ´ she asked to distract and the girl to calm her down. The moment the girl was facing her, Rei had the impression to listen to the working process of the girl's brain as she was searching for the right words to answer to her question.
´Yes I did. Without any complications. I just couldn´t sleep.´ the girl answered hesitatinglz beacsue she didn´t want to say the words wrong.
´Good,´ Reu said, ´ then you will sleep like a log. You don´t need to be nervous. You are sharing the room with two other girls. The first one is younger than you and her name is Haruno Yoshikawa. The other one is at the same age and in your parallel class. Her name is Sachiko Umemoto. So you won´t be alone at school tomorrow. Both are very nice and will help you as much as they can and don't worry about your language skills, you will speak fluently in no time when sticking around Haruno. She is very talkative which should help you improving.´ Rei spoke slower than she would talk to a native. In this way, she wanted to make sure, that the girl can understand everything and when the look in the girl´s eyes showed a little calmness, Rei knew that she had said the right thing. After all, it must be a bit scary to be in a foreign country without anyone you know. But it looks like the girl could pull herself together very fast, which means that Rei didn´t need to worry much in the future.
´Thank you.´ the smaller girl said. It weren´t many words, but the black haired woman definitely knew, how to comfort people. /It was good to have somebody like her around/, the girl thought. From this moment on, the ride didn´t take long. It took just as much to get the whole important information, such as her room number 205 and class number from her supervisor and, of course, the time when her courses would start tomorrow morning.
When they arrived at the campus Rei paid the driver and both got off the car. She only needed to pick up her baggage from the car´s trunk before they could move on. Right before the entrance, however, her nervousness came back to her and so she wished for a second she could go back at the airport again. What if the girls did not like her? What if she wouldn´t survive? What if? This question was never really helpful. She racked her brain with these questions and flinched as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to her left side and saw how her supervisor smiled encouragingly at her. It was silent on the campus. Which was not surprising as it was already very late just the lights in the dorms exposed, that the pupils did not sleep by now.
´Actually you can hear loud voices from the training fields at this time. But for now, they all have a rough time.´ she heard Rei talking to her and looked at her curiously. What did she mean, with hearing loud voices at this time and if this was usual, why not today? Before she could shape the correct question in her head, Rei spoke again: ´But the situation will settle down. Then you can accustom to this.´
Afterwards she was pushed in the direction to the girl`s dorm. Thus, she picked up her suitcase, briefly oriented herself and began to search for her room. Rei didn`t go with her and stayed where she was. Room No. 205 was upstairs in the second floor the fifth door. She took a deep breath before she opened the door and went in. The lights were still on and, as soon as she closed the door, two girls stood in front of her. Both were equal in their height. The shorter girl wore bunches and exanimated the newcomer closely. Sachiko wanted to say something like ´Hi´ but this didn`t happen. At the very moment, the lager girl just stumbled over her own feet and fell down, when she wanted to come over to her new roommate.
It sounded like ´Ouch´ and ´Haruno´ all together. The new girl bent down to help and asked: ´Are you alright?´ The taller girl nodded. With a grin the new roommate gave her hand to get the girl up from the floor. It looked like Haruno was a little bit clumsy, but it loosened the whole situation by a bit and all three girls laughed. She realized, that she would feel comfortable here.
When Rei heard the laughter from the apartment, she was relieved and sure, that everything would be fine now thus, she left the dorm. She had followed her just in case, but everything was alright.
´Still up this late, Rei-chan?´ at the entrance to the girl`s dorm she heard a voice right beside her.
´Yes. A new transfer student has just arrived and I had to take care of her. Are you done for today Miyuki-kun?´ The boy looked at her with his typical smirk and nodded. /Who changes school in the middle of a year?/
But the boy couldn`t fool Rei. She has known him for years now and so she knew, that his smile wasn`t always honest. Besides, he had dark circles around his eyes, which underline his tiredness. This nevertheless didn`t wonder her at all. First, there was the loss of an important game just before the Koshien tournament. Then, a few days ago, there was the practice game, which also didn`t go too well. There was also the mental blockade of Eijun Sawamura. These things weren`t easy to handle. Especially for someone who just started to be the captain. And if this wasn`t enough, the guy watched the loss of the game over and over again.
´You`ve just started to be the captain of this team. Don´t push yourself too much.´ she warned. Although he was still young, he knew exactly what he wanted. Well if these things have something to do with baseball, of course.
´Are you worried about me, Rei-chan?´ she heard his cheeky reply. And when she saw his grinning face she asked herself why she was worried again. It looked like he was fine. So she ignored this and with a sigh shook her head.
´Go to bed little boy. Tomorrow the new semester starts also for you.´ she said and left. From tomorrow on it could be a very exhausting semester for Seido and all his students. Hopefully it might be a good year.