To flood everything behind you; to not worry about the consequences of your actions.

"Hoshizora, please read the next paragraph for us."

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, the very last day of Summer, and Rin wished more than anything that she could just be outside right now, running around in the warmth of the sun. Her leg bounced under the desk as she daydreamed of running and playing and having fun. The classroom was stuffy and humid, like an educational swamp, and it made her crave that fresh, warm air even more. She sighed.

"Hoshizora."

Her mind wandered back to yesterday's softball game. It had been their tenth game of the Fall season, and the team was undefeated so far. They had won the much more important national Spring series earlier in the year, and were currently the best high school softball team in the country; it was the school's first national win in a long time, and Rin had been named MVP. She hoped to win this season too, even though the Fall season didn't mean as much since a lot of schools weren't participating. She sighed again, remembering the awesome home-run she had hit last night, and the cheers and chants from the crowd. Softball was awesome.

"Hoshizora! I said read the next paragraph!"

The teacher's voice startled her out of her daydreams, and she stood up hastily. "Nya? Oh, uh, Sorry! Umm… what page are we on?"

Before the teacher could begin to loudly lecture Rin about needing to pay attention in class, the bell rang, shrill and echoing throughout the crowded classroom. Rin had to stop herself from doing a celebratory fist-pump for not having to read the paragraph in question, as the teacher left and lunch break began. As other students filtered out of the room, a different rambunctious ginger slid into room, almost knocking over several girls in the process.

"Honoka-chan, you don't have to sprint over here, you could just walk," Rin said, chuckling.

"I have something really important to tell you though!" Honoka said as she plopped down in the empty seat next to Rin, slamming her hands down on the desk excitedly.

"Whoa, really! What is it?" Rin also slammed her hands on her own desk.

"Uh… it's really nice out today. And also that I missed you. And that I missed Hanayo-chan, too. Speaking of which, where is she?" she paused in the middle of opening a package of melon bread to look frantically around the room. She caught the tiny brunette's gaze as the girl in question made her way to the door.

"Kayo-chin where are you going?" Rin asked extra loudly, just to make sure the other girl heard her, causing a few of the other lingering girls in the class to recoil at just how loud it was.

"...-er club…"

"You what?"

"I said I have to go submit something to the newspaper club," Hanayo shouted back before scurrying out of the room.

"It seems like she has to do newspaper club stuff a lot," Honoka furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Well she is in the newspaper club," Rin snickered as she took her own lunch, a bento with cold soba noodles, out of her bag.

"That makes a lot of sense actually."

From the seat behind where Honoka sat, several loud coughs erupted, followed by the grating sound of a metal chair clanging across the floor. A few seconds of silence followed before the girl at the desk all but stormed out of the classroom, mane of red hair swirling around her shoulders like a flame as she left. The two orange-haired girls tried their best not to stare at her through the classroom windows as she stomped down the hall.

"Jeez, I almost forgot she was there. That Nishikino girl is seriously scary," Honoka said, her voice weirdly cautious, like she was afraid the redhead would hear her even though she was long gone.

"Yeah, I don't really know what's up with her. She leaves in the middle of class for no reason sometimes and the teachers don't even say anything. She didn't go to our middle school, right?"

"I heard her parents are in the mafia and they fled here from Greece or somewhere, and I think they might kill people. I bet she's so quiet 'cause she's afraid she'll spill their secrets," Honoka explained between bites of her bread.

"I'm pretty sure that's made up."

"Even us upperclassmen don't wanna mess with her. I heard she tried to set the home-ec room on fire once," Honoka waved her bread in the air, gesturing for emphasis. "I think she's in the Art Club. Maybe the Art Club is just a cover for the Murder Club."

"I was there, she wasn't trying to commit arson, she just burned the hell out of an omelette. Why are you so convinced that she murders people?" Rin asked curiously after slurping down most of her noodles.

"I dunno, I guess she just has a face that says 'I could kill a guy if I wanted to and get away with it'; a Murder Face®."

"That's not a real thing," Rin raised an eyebrow at her just as the warning bell rang. "Do you think you should maybe go back to your own classroom before Umi-chan finds you?"

"She'll never catch me, I'm a master of escape," Honoka grinned, which made Rin smile and laugh a little in return. "See you at practice!" the upperclassman called out as she dashed out of the room in the same speedy fashion that she had entered it.

"You're not even in the club, Honoka-chan! You- jeez, okay, don't say bye to me or anything."

Rin always felt like she shined brightest on the baseball field. Just standing out in the dirt with the sun shining down on her cleared her head. All her insecurities and all of her worries fizzled up when she felt the familiar weight of the mitt on her hand, the dirt getting kicked up around her feet as she moved. It was the only place she could really focus.

She stood ready on first as their pitcher, a tall, serious girl with hair like a riptide, wound up a pitch. Though it was just a practice game, that girl always pitched like her life depended on it, like she thought it would dishonor her family if a pitch connected; she was the team captain for a number of reasons, but her no-nonsense attitude was certainly the most important one. She let the ball fly out of her hand, the girl at bat hitting it less like it was a softball and more like it was an annoying fruit fly. It rolled weakly to Rin's feet, where she picked it up and waved it in the air above her head.

"You're out, Nico-chan," she called, trying to look apologetic but not able to suppress the amused grin on her face.

"God dammit!" the tiny girl at home plate cursed, chucking her bat towards Rin. It flew about three feet before bouncing and rolling limply across the foul line, the clanging of the aluminum almost sounding like laughter. It was laughing at Nico for having weak baby arms. Rin was trying really hard not to also laugh at Nico for the same reason.

"Watch your language!" the pitcher shouted. Nico ignored her.

"If you're so fuckin' good, why don't you show us how you hit that home-run yesterday, then," she said, stomping over to first and yanking her helmet off, all but throwing it at Rin.

Rin shrugged, tossing the ball back to the pitcher's mound and handing Nico her mitt. She hustled over to home plate, grabbing the bat from where it lay in the dirt. "If I hit it outside the fence, you owe me a thousand yen!"

"Rin, don't distract Nico. She's supposed to be practicing her swing," the pitcher said with a sigh, her eyebrows knit together in annoyance even though she was already winding up a pitch.

"Don't worry, Umi-taichou. She can practice losing this bet in a second instead," Rin said with a grin. The captain loosed the pitch towards her, and Rin swung with the strength of at least one and a half very small lions. Maybe more.

The bat slammed into the ball, causing it to sail through the air, arcing over the fence and directly into an open window on the third floor of the school. Rin dropped the bat and she could've sworn she felt her heart stop when she realized that window in particular was the window of the art room.

"Oh no," Rin whispered. Suddenly Nico and Honoka (who had been sitting in the dugout despite not being in the club) were in her face, wishing her good luck and prematurely mourning her death.

"It was really nice knowing you, Rin-Chan. I'm gonna miss you," Honoka whimpered, actual tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry it has to end like this but can I just say, god damn, I'm glad it's you and not me. I'm too beautiful to die."

"Wait, guys I don't really have to go get it, do I?" Rin looked over at Umi with an expression that was pleading for mercy. "We have plenty of extra softballs. We don't need that one. Right…?"

Umi sighed. "You need to go get it, Rin. You have to apologize to the Art Club for disturbing them."

"I don't have to pay up for the bet if you're dead, right? Just clarifying."

The trek up the three flights of stairs to the art room was probably the most nerve-wracking thing Rin could ever recall doing in her fifteen years of life. Coming back from a four run deficit in the bottom of the last inning would probably be less terrifying to her than this. In her mind there was a pretty good chance that she could actually die. Her legs were shaking as they carried her up the final flight of stairs and around the corner; the art room was the first door at the top of the staircase.

She knocked sheepishly at the door. After a few moments of no reply, she started to knock again but missed as the door swung open suddenly, revealing a tall redhead who looked so angry that she could have very well exploded. Rin stopped her knocking motion in midair to avoid punching the girl in the chest and possibly causing a nuclear detonation.

"Hi, uh, I'm from the softball club," Rin began, forcing her best smile even though sweat was starting to bead on her forehead and she was clearly vibrating. Quite frankly, she looked like she was in pain. She was afraid of pain becoming an actuality for her in the near future. "I'm here to uh, get that ball that may or may not have, um, flown in here. I wonder how that happened, haha."

She spotted the ball laying on the ground in a splatter of cyan paint, next to an assortment of paint tubes and a container full of brushes that were scattered about. She assumed those all used to be on the table. Gulping, she suddenly ducked past the redhead, scrambling for the ball. Her sneakers slid across the paint puddle as she turned, trying to bolt back for the door, but she lost her balance, instead skidding into the table and knocking more containers off of it. She visibly cringed as art supplies clattered to the floor, paint dripping off the ball in her hand. The door slammed closed, and the furious redhead stomped over to her.

"I'm really sorry, I-I didn't mean to. I'm sorry please don't murder me," she sputtered, waving her hands around apologetically and accidentally flinging paint off the ball onto the surrounding area. "I'll help clean this up. I'm really really sorry."

"...name."

"Huh?"

"What's your name?" the redhead asked forcefully, her voice obviously betraying her anger. Her reddened face and her body language also betrayed her anger. She was very clearly very angry.

"I-i-it's Rin. Hoshizora. We're in the same class?"

"Get out," the other girl said quietly. She didn't have to tell Rin twice. The ginger raced to the door, spewing more apologies all the way, even as she escaped down the stairs and around the corner.

Ckik here. It's the fanfic you've all (probably not) been waiting for! I started outlining this in November. It is now July. This is probably my biggest project yet.

There's not enough RinMaki content for my liking. I almost wish somebody else would write this instead. (Fun fact: Hanayo wasn't originally intended to be in this, but I put her in at my proofreader's insistence because she fucking loves Hanayo)

The working title has been "Perimeter" since I started on it, simply because I didn't want to think of a real title. The current title took me hours to think of.

Comments, Questions, Concerns? Mail in a postcard and I'll be back to you within 8 to 10 business days. See you next week.