Tsubaki stood as the teacher continued to talk before he let her go, "Yes, sir...yes sir...I'll do better. Thank you." she responded. She guided herself out after bowing and going her merry way, making sure it looked like she wasn't breaking inside before she shut the door and screamed at herself, putting her hands over her head. She ran out to the softball field.

"I can't believe that I'm not doing better! After all, I did, and the grade still wasn't enough?" she growled, "Ugh!" She whacked the bat, and the ball went out into space.

A perfect homerun, but Tsubaki didn't notice she was too busy running the bases, an automatic habit after you've been playing this long. And her playing was as good as she was, she didn't even hear that her best friend had yelled and applauded.

It wasn't until she landed and felt the hand on her back after scoring that she realized that she'd let herself leap and run without thinking about it and that she was only close to being out. She suffered a bit as she got up and brushed herself off. She smiled at the others as they cheered on and went off the field to Nao.

"Are you alright?" Nao asked with her usual look.

"Yep - you know me," Tsubaki assured, accepting a whole bottle of drinking water. "Gotta stay focused."

"Yeah, but this time looked like you were out to kill someone or something. Is everything fine?" Nao asked as Tsubaki's face went red with a realization of how unsettled she was and cursing her friend for being able to see through her. A good friend would like her to act like that and pretend not to notice. . . of course she was a good friend.

Tsubaki sighed, "Bad grades," she revealed.

"Yeah," her friend coaxed.

"I don't know I've been trying so hard to get into the right scores and grades and everything, but it just seems like I haven't got it. It's annoying...it's frustrating, and I want to get into the same school academy rather badly," she spoke, pouring some water on her head as she continued.

"Yeah," Nao said thoughtfully. "I don't know if you've done this, but, maybe, have you been studying? Perhaps you could try this app that I got from here or youtube. They could help. Or maybe some music.

"I already listened to music. You know that."

"Of course... you did."

Tsubaki flushed. "I - err... I'm up to bat again," she announced, taking up the bat from the next girl who was up to bat. . .

"I can't believe that she said that!" she grumbled, reddening furiously as she was waiting for Watari to end his match before he and she went up to go get Kosei, who was up in the music room not having anything to do, so they would have to go up and fetch him.

They did this every day, so they weren't worried, and it seemed perfectly normal. Walking towards the room, they found him playing madly; Watari listened to it and hummed along, "Not bad... he's been playing certainly well these past few days. I'm starting to get concerned that his fingers might fall off, something I'm honestly not sure about him - maybe we should force him to stop for a while. You know, take a break..."

"No-no," Tsubaki spoke as if she was in a trance. "It's beautiful..."

"What?"

"Nothing!" she quickly answered, hoping that she hadn't talked out loud again. "Anyways - Kosei! It's time to go. The school bell rang hours ago."

"Oh... yeah - sorry I was so focused that I forgot."

"That's exactly why we're here, don't you worry about it. I'm hoping that you'll not mind if we swing by the ice cream place on our way home, I need to stock up," Tsubaki chuckled cheekily. This was the perfect making of an excuse to make their time together longer.

"Um... sure."

"Go ahead. It's not like it'll kill you to say what you're doing or playing." Watari teased, showing Kosei while they walked out.

"It's not a love song for anyone; it's Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. I already told you." Kosei said.

"Yeah," Tsubaki said. "Going in now- and that's correct! But it's Beethoven "Moonlight" Sonata, III - "Presto Agitato," Tsubaki muttered, causing Kosei to laugh.

"You sure do know your composers," he commented.

Tsubaki beamed, and Watari rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, if I told you, players, from soccer, you'd both be clueless and not know what to do," he quickly spouted, sliding his thumb across the surface of his phone. He was feeling left out. "I assure you."

Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Well, you better stay out of trouble while I'm in."

"Don't worry," Watari said as Kosei nodded and swiped open his phone to check on something. Tsubaki smiled to herself as she walked in through the store.

She quickly found all of the ice creams that were there and bought all that she could carry and then quickly walked back to the register with the lady who always checked her out with a sigh. "Back again?" she grinned.

A little while later, she was back outside, "I'm back, boys!"

"You got all the ice cream you needed?" Kosei quizzed.

"Of course she didn't, look at the bag it's about to burst, you bought them out again, didn't you Tsubaki?"

"What? Do you have a problem with it?"

"Well, not now, but say if Kosei san wants to go out and eat ice, I have to say no because I know that you bought then all out!" he shouted dramatically, making Kosei burst out in laugher.

Tsubaki snorted. "Like Kosei would go back out with you."

Watari looked at Tsubaki with a look that said, "what's the harm if it doesn't work?"

"Well, you never know." Wataris hissed.

"Ohh, I know." Tsubaki countered, sticking out her tongue at him with Kosei laughing at the two.

He was happy to be able to spend time with both of them. It was like old times, the best moments when they were all together.

"Alright, I'll see you, tomorrow guys," Watari announced as they parted. "Don't forget, tomorrow's the day, yeah!"

At their door, Tsubaki waved him on as she stopped before him, "Good night Kosei. I'll bring my mom's food for you when you're ready for it."

"Okay, thanks..." he smiled, and before she could move, he prevented her from doing so - right on her tracks. "I always love your food!"

Tsubaki stopped. 'What's that you say?" she asked - stunned.

"I always loved your mom's food!" he grinned sheepishly and waved to her, "I'll see you then! I've gotta get all this homework done and get practicing."

"O-oh. A-alright!" Tsubaki stuttered, cracking up a huge smile. "Me too - I've got music to listen to!"