Chapter Text
A shrill scream erupts from across the field as Min hurls her next pitch at Akarsha. The shriek belongs to the latter, as she shields her face with her arms and lifts a defensive knee. The ball bounces off the blockage, and falls into the grass.
“You’re supposed to catch the ball, asshole!” Min barks, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify the sound.
“Then maybe don’t throw your Triple Minburger Deluxe 2000 at me!!” Akarsha shouts back defensively. “Some of us are still learning here!”
Min scoffs. “That wasn’t even my knuckleball. I was going easy on you.”
“You good there, Noelle?” Akarsha looks to the side. Very far into the outfield is Noelle, crouching in the sun. She looks out of breath from the whole ordeal of simply just being there.
“I’m fine.” Noelle does NOT look fine.
Min scratches her head and shrugs after Akarsha gives Noelle a thumbs up and a smile she doesn’t see. Diya, who has been sitting on the bench and observing instead of doing the homework she was supposed to be finishing, frowns. She’d have to talk to Noelle later about staying hydrated.
“Ok, now throw the ball back to me and watch how a real pro catches!”
“I was already gonna!” Akarsha picks up the ball and dramatically winds up for a little too long, to Min’s frustration. Moves include her pantomiming the cooking of a burger and the chopping of a tree.
“Can you just throw the fucking ball already?”
“No… I’m manifesting.”
Min groans loudly, but prepares to catch the ball anyway.
Finally, after channelling Ace of Diamond , Akarsha throws the ball spectacularly and yells “SUPERSONIC FIREBALL!!!”
Diya’s eyes widen as the ball sails gloriously over the field, following the path of the ball as it reaches the peak of its arc, then gracefully careens past where Min is standing, even shooting past Diya and…
And…
Shit. Akarsha’s pitch is heading straight for a group of guys walking by. The tennis team, judging by the uniforms. One of the guys points out the stray ball with a shout, causing most of them to move away from where the ball will land… except for one unlucky guy, looking confused as to why everyone is backing away from him. It’s only when the ball is swiftly closing in on him does he realize that he’s about to totally clocked .
For a moment, visions of vicious and visceral Tennis and Baseball team beef flash through Diya’s mind. The boy is frozen in place, like he’s being held in place by invisible strings. Diya understands the feeling of being a deer in headlights; she pities him, until she detects a flash of black in the corner of her eye…
Ah .
He no longer needs pity. Diya relaxes; her mouth, originally drawn taught, curves just very slightly up.
The ball is fast, but Min-seo is faster. She may not admit it, but she’s short, which is some sort of a gateway to being light and fast. With a great dive, Min propels towards the ball with her mitt reaching out, the ends of her jacket fluttering from the created wind.
She catches it, obviously… but not without crashing into the guy. Min doesn’t even seem to notice him squirming underneath her-- she gets up without a care in the world, turning to Akarsha and hollering.
“I GOT IT!! Told ya it would be easy!!”
And, in the distance, a faint reply from Akarsha: no you didn’t!
“Dude…” one of the tennis players says. Only then does Min notice the tennis team, all taken aback by what just happened.
Min blinks. “Oh, shit. Um… you guys good? Why’s this guy writhing in pain on the floor?” Min leans over and looks at the guy like he’s the weird one. She squints at him, then takes a step away. “Maybe you guys should take him to the nurse or something.”
“Uh… yeah,” replies one of the tennis players. A few of them come over and help the guy up. “How you feelin’, Jones?”
“I’m fine,” says the guy-- Jones? Diya wasn’t sure if that was his first or last name. “The ball didn’t hit me, just, uh…” He glances at Min before his eyes dart away. “...thanks.”
Min has her arms crossed. She furrows her brow before looking around. “Wait, what?”
Homework completely forgotten, Diya subtly leans her good ear closer towards the interaction. Jones mumbles something, looking embarrassed. Nobody says anything, so Min nonchalantly leaves. Once she’s out of earshot, the guys all start saying stuff, and the sounds just clump together to Diya. It sounds teasing, like the sound of the class going oooooooo when somebody gets called up to the principal’s office. They walk away, and Diya finds herself watching for some reason. Then Min goes back to the field and throws a fastball to Akarsha, just to prove she can pitch things that aren’t a knuckleball.
“Not like I’m gonna need to,” Min reinforces. “Diya’s my personal catcher. We’re baseball married.”
“So what if I’m catching instead of Diya?” Akarsha deadpans.
“You won’t. It’ll always be Diya,” Min replies like it’s obvious. She’s still practicing her fastball though, and Diya knows that she’s only practicing that for when she’s playing against the other members of their team. There’s something like pride gently bubbling within her, seeing Min warming up to Akarsha.
Suddenly, Diya remembers her homework. She sighs, and gets back to crunching numbers. Then she remembers that Noelle is still out there on the field, so she happily puts aside her homework to go collect her and bring her back to the bench.
-
Noelle and Akarsha are engaging in their pre-class rituals. Today, Akarsha has drawn out an square cross, creating four squares. In the bottom left corner and top right corner, the word No is written; while in the bottom right corner and top left corner is Yes . She stacks two pencils on top of each other, perpendicular, until they’re perfectly balanced.
“Charlie, Charlie, are you there…”
Akarsha very obviously blows on the pencil, so the pointy part points at yes. She gasps.
“Charlie is among us! There is a spirit here!”
Noelle and the ever-present need to be correct refutes the statement. “This is foolish and we both know it.”
Akarsha places a firm hand on Noelle’s shoulder. “Then… how is the pencil moving… on its own?!”
Noelle buries her face in her hands and mutters something.
“So? Any dying, burning questions to ask Charlie? I know you’ve got some, Frenchman!”
Noelle agonizingly lifts her head. “Questions…?”
“They gotta be yes or no questions, yeah.”
“I have a question. Will you ever stop being such a nuisance?”
“That doesn’t count, you have to ask Charlie…”
Noelle sighs. “Charlie. Will Akarsha ever cease her buffoonery.”
“No no, you have to say Charlie, Charlie .”
“ Twice! But why?!”
“Because!”
“WHY??”
“IT’S THE RULE!! I DON’T MAKE THE RULES, MAN. I’M A PLAYER. I PLAY THE GAME.”
Diya watches with amusement-- then surprise, when Min suddenly strides in the room.
She immediately stands up from her desk. “Min.”
Min, face all grumpy and scowly, immediately brightens up at the sight of Diya. “Diya!”
In a very necessary act of parkour, Min slams her hand on an occupied desk and swings her body over it, then weaving around a few more desks, just to get to Diya. She plops herself at the desk right next to her.
“But-- what are you doing here? Don’t you have class?”
“Yeah. With you!”
“You… do?”
“I got moved to your class.” Min says proudly. Noelle, previously occupied with explaining to Akarsha in great detail why Charlie, Charlie isn’t real, whips around.
“You what?! ”
“Yuuuup. It was super easy. Once you throw enough staple studded ninja stars at the teacher, they strangely don’t want you around anymore,” Min shrugs. A hint of a grin plays at Diya’s face; classic Min. She always threw paper stars at everyone in class when they were kids. Never at Diya, though.
“Here I thought one idiot in class was enough… now there’s two . God! Don’t you dare pull stunts like that here,” Noelle hisses, as Akarsha starts to burst into a fit of awed hilarity.
“Pfff, as if. Diya’s here. There’s no need. Why would I wanna be anywhere else?”
Diya blushes, maybe.
“Well-- you can’t sit there!” Noelle exclaims. “There’s a seating chart. That’s someone else's seat.”
“Dude,” Min reclines, putting her feet up on the desk and her hands behind her head. “Fuck the seating chart.”
Noelle is about to lose it (Dealing with both Akarsha and Min at the beginning of class? Poor girl.); until a brunette boy in a band t-shirt walks up to the desk. He looks bewildered. Diya realizes that she recognizes him.
…Since when has that Jones kid been in her class?
“Excuse me… Min-seo, is it?”
Min doesn’t say anything. Just glares at him. The boy swallows nervously, but soldiers on.
“You, uh, you’re in my seat…”
“Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, punk?” Min snarls. Diya recoils-- she’s in guard dog mode. There was no way she was going to give up that seat. Diya considers asking Min to not fight this guy, but then something happens that makes her suddenly not want to anymore. Jones flushes with a scarlet color, and looks a little… bashful…
???????, Diya thinks. Her fists curl in her pockets.
“It’s fine.” Jones says quickly. “You can keep it. And, uh…. Yeah. Uh. Nevermind. It’s cool. You’re cool.”
He walks away in search of another seat. Min looks smug; she flashes a grin at Diya. “See? Nothing’s gonna keep me away from you.”
Akarsha looks at Noelle. She mimes smoking a pipe and adjusting a monocle. Noelle looks at her like she’s strange but catches her drift.
Diya feels… on edge. Alarm bells ring in her mind, and she has no idea why. Min is here. Noelle and Akarsha are here. Her friends are with her. Noelle has fried rice for lunch that she’ll get to eat later. Yet, she has a bad feeling about the near future…
Class starts, though. The thoughts are swept away as the teacher instructs them to take out their textbooks and turn to page 14.