187/A Pitch

A Pitch
Date of Scene:	01 August 2023
Location:	Cafeteria Plaza
Synopsis:	Ren and Chiyo run into each other during a snack run. Though he's not successful in recruiting her into the baseball club, Ren is happy to have Chiyo as a new friend anyway!
Cast of Characters:	Ren Morimoto, Chiyo Sakai

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Ren Morimoto has posed:
    With school out, the campus is much quieter than it used to be, so it's possible to hear the occasional CRACK of wood impacting ball as the baseball team practices out at the sports complex. Though that particular noise has been silenced in the last few minutes.

    The reason being, the whole team is gathered together on a walk to the cafeteria, where they're hoping some kind of food can be purchased even during the off-time.

    And they're in luck. Maybe the cafeteria itself isn't working at full capacity but the school store certainly is, so soon enough the team has filed out with snacks and bevs from the stand. Ren, the team's shortstop, is of course among them, and his bag is positively loaded down in comparison to the one or two things his teammates have chosen.

    They all gather at one of the longer tables, the chatter in the area ramping up as the team talks amongst themselves while still hyped on post-practice adrenaline.

    Ren himself drifts away from the conversation, sipping from a bottle of green tea as he takes a stroll around, still cooling off from the exercise.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Many clubs were still meeting of course, and while Chiyo was still an avid member of Manga Club she had grown more confident since she'd begun to make more friends. Which meant she wasn't providing snacks *every* session anymore. This caused some grousing from those who had become a bit too used to her generosity, and meant that there were some girls who were now coming in to hit up the shop as well.

Chiyo is among their number as she reaches for a bottle of green tea to purchase, and considers a bag of spicy himemaru rice crackers. Those were always tasty with a nice cold drink.

Many of the girls scoot to the side wall to watch the baseball club members giggling among themselves leaving Chiyo the last to check out at the register. She hadn't really looked around too much to realize it was the baseball club in here yet. That one guy had seemed friendly, though she hadn't really had time to speak to him the few times she'd seen him.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    There was a slight delay in the checkout line as Ren's considerable stash of goods had to be processed. It's a lot for one kid to eat, earning a few side-eyes from folks here and there, but Ren himself seems perfectly oblivious to any outside opinions on his purchase.

    That or he just doesn't care. Hard to say, based on his perfectly pleasant expression. He smiles at the worker behind the register before departing, passing by Chiyo as he goes. And he does notice her, offering another smile, but he doesn't linger in the shop.

    Instead he lingers outside, still holding onto his overstuffed bag as he waits for Chiyo to wrap up. Some of the other boys at the table claimed by the baseball club try to call him over, but he waves them off. He's definitely waiting on purpose.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai blinks as she spots the boy she'd run into a few times now. For a moment she tries to recall his name as it was only told in passing, so she lingers in the store perhaps a bit more than intended. It's her turn up to queue quickly enough so his wait outside isn't long at all.

With her bag of chips and her tea tucked away neatly into the shop bag she steps out. Only to glance to the side again in surprise seeing Ren there still. "Oh!" A smile is quickly flashed with a polite nod. Maybe he was going to speak to her about the baseall team again? "Hello again. Ren, wasn't it?"

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    Legs crossed at the ankle, Ren looks perfectly comfortable waiting. He's not doing anything in particular, not even looking at his phone. But when Chiyo exits the store he stands up straighter, smile still firmly in place. "Hi Chiyo," he says in greeting.

    "Yes, I'm Ren. Ren Morimoto." He rubs the back of his neck, looking somewhat self-conscious with a wry sort of smile, but then he gathers up his courage and forges on ahead. "I was wondering if you'd considered my offer to join the baseball club. You've got a really impressive throwing arm! We'd love to have you on the team."

    He claps his hands together and puts on his best smile. "At the very least, if you'd be up for coming to some of our practices and seeing how we play, we'd really appreciate it," he adds.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
'An impressive throwing arm' is a phrase she hadn't really ever expected to hear. She'd always been rather careful to wear shirts with sleeves that were slightly puffed to avoid showing off the muscles she had. One hand reaches up to squeeze against her opposite arm reminding herself of that fact she'd hidden beneath the fabric.

"I... I don't think I can, Morimoto-kun, I'm sorry. I'm already involved in a few clubs, and I help my Ojiisan at our shop often, so I don't have a lot of free time." Plus she had that other thing she'd been spending time on lately which she had to keep in mind. Still. She chews on the inside of her cheek a moment quite clearly debating. "That's probably why I can throw so hard, actually. We make our own mochi and I help to pound it."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to come watch once," she agrees quietly with a small smile, willing at least to make that concession.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    It looks as if, to some degree, Ren was expecting the rejection. His smile only falters slightly, dimming the tiniest bit, but he nods along with Chiyo's explanation. "I understand," he says, and to his credit, Ren sounds sincere.

    The mention of a shop seems to catch his interest, making his head tilt to the side a little, but he doesn't follow up on his curiosity. Not immediately, though he does visibly perk up at the mention of mochi. A mochi shop? The excitement seems to almost telegraph across his face.

    Ren loves mochi!

    "We'd love that! You'll have a great time, I promise. I can text you our training schedule, that way you can just pick whatever time is most convenient for you, okay?" And now out comes his phone from his pocket, thumb poised at the ready to put in a new contact for Chiyo.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai relaxes minutely when it seems he takes the rejection well. She had at least offered to go watch though, so she was hoping it would lessen the blow a bit. Really what did she know about baseball to begin with? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to go. Maybe she could ask some of her new friends to tag along to cheer him up too.

His reaction to mentioning what she did for a job though does spark her own interest. She knew that look rather well--Who didn't like sweets? Probably some people, but none she'd really met in her life so far. Even those that claimed they didn't usually would enjoy a bit of mochi here and there. It was so versatile!

"I could... I could bring some snacks with me, too," she offers. "If you think they'd like." Given his phone is out she takes her own out too. It's an older style flip phone but still in good condition. It's even got a cute little charm on it: A plump little Bao with a smiley face on one side. Of course it bobs and bounces against her fingers a bit oddly but that's because Bonito was always a bit restless after being in her purse for so long that he had to 'get a peek' at what was going on once out.

"I'm just in manga club myself, but we don't do much. It's easy to work with their schedule."

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    Ren seems the sort not to take things personal, so maybe that's why Chiyo's partial refusal to join the team hadn't bothered him. It's also possible he's just hopeful that the magic of watching baseball will be enough to convince her.

    But he's at least self-aware enough to know that his own baseball fanaticism is fairly unique. Ren doesn't expect Chiyo to suddenly develop the same obsession.

    "The team would love that! We're always hungry, especially after practice." He gestures over to the table where the rest of the club is sitting, eating their snacks. A few of the guys notice and wave at him.

    He tucks his phone back into his pocket after they exchange numbers and Ren sends a text confirming who he is (well, sort of):

hi it's me! *cheeky smiley face emoji* *baseball emoji*

    He nods his head towards the tables and asks, "Do you want to sit down for a while?"

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai looks over to the table with the others that Ren points out. Not as if it was hard to miss the boisterous boys at a table all dressed in practice clothes. Still, she halfway hopes none of them get the wrong idea if she does join them. She'd already pretended to be Koji's girlfriend to help Usagi and Darien and that was enough talking about her going around for awhile.

A quick glance around lets her know that the other manga club members have already run off leaving her to sigh a single time. They always seemed to do that on her. Great bunch they were. "Sure, I'd like that," she agrees to Ren with a quick nod.

The emoji greeting on her phone is glanced at a moment only to respond with a little typed out smiley face :) an a mochi dango emoji becuase... well that was kind of waht she was known for.

"I think we're in the same class, too? You're grade ten, right?"

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    It's definitely hard to miss the group from the baseball club, clustered together as they are, and a couple of the guys let out an enthusiastic cheer as Ren returns to the table with Chiyo in tow. But Ren quells them with a lifted hand and a shake of his head, seemingly to indicate Chiyo's lack of interest in joining the team. One of them goes "Aww man!" but other than that they seem to still accept Chiyo's presence at the table with no issue.

    When Ren sits and starts emptying his bag onto the tabletop, it becomes obvious just how much he bought. There are chips, and candy bars, and chocolates, and rice crackers, plus a couple bottles of green tea and a strawberry milk. It's a lot, and based on Ren's appearance he's not the type to overeat. Maybe he's just really, really hungry in this particular moment.

    "Yeah! I'm in grade ten," he confirms. "I dunno if I've seen you around, but I try really hard to focus on the teacher. Otherwise I get super lost." There's some laughter included in that admission.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai ducks her head in a half-bow toward the rest of the team with an aplogetic smile as she joins them. "Sorry!" At least they don't seem too upset. The fact that they were willing to welcome a relative unknown to the team as well... Well that part was kind of nice to think about. At least they were all good people.

Sinking down to sit across from Ren as he unloads his haul, she regards it with a bit of surprise. "Wow, you must really have worked up an appetite during practice, Ren-kun," she remarks while simply taking out her bag of spicy rice crackers, and her single bottle of green tea. Sure she could eat more herself but she usually had snacks through the day when she really needed it. Eating a lot all at once wasn't very lady-like, either.

The little bag she has is pinched between fingers to tear open the edge careful to keep it from popping the contents all over the table. That was the danger of packaged snacks sometimes. "What do you like other than sports?"

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    It's a lot of food, to be sure. In fact, it's enough food that it makes a mountain on the table, partially blocking sight of Ren until he pokes his head out over the top of it. How did that bag contain all that?!

    "Oh, uh... yeah," he says, laughing a little self-consciously. He rubs the back of his head. "Yeah. I've had a busy few days... really burned a lot of calories, y'know?"

    And with that he tears open a bag of chips and digs in. He's not scarfing, not quite, there's a definite sense of him trying to control himself to some degree, but he's chewing fast and making a lot of headway in a short amount of time. Then he cracks open the strawberry milk and takes a drink.

    "I like going to the movies! That's my favorite thing to do, I think, besides playing baseball of course. I'm in the English club so that I can watch the imported films with their original audio, no dubbing necessary."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"Oh?" Chiyo blinks at the mention of being in English club. That actually was pretty impressive, especially if he could follow along well enough with movies. "I'm not so good with my own English. You must be very smart!" Ah, but what about her? What does she do other than what she'd already stated?

"I like... Well, I like manga, and flower arranging. Helping my Ojiisan at the shop. Lately I've been enjoying trying new foods though. Oh!" She grins suddenly recalling. "I've also started visiting the arcade. I never played many games but I wanted to try the Sailor V game."

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    That causes Ren to duck his head down in good-natured embarassment. "Nah," he begins, but some of the other team catch on to the conversation happening, and one reaches over to rub his knuckles into Ren's hair. This earns a quick yelp and some smacking of hands.

    One of the other baseball club members says, "Ren-kun's a total geek! He's always studying!"

    "I *have* to otherwise I fall behind," Ren mutters as he tries to flatten his hair back down (to little success).

    But the other members of the team sitting nearby are engaged now, so a conversation begins about the arcade and the Sailor V game. One of them even claims to have played it before.

    Ren smiles over at Chiyo as they talk and snack, happy to have made a new friend. Even one that doesn't want to play baseball with him. That's okay! He likes Chiyo just the way she is.