Nice Pitching!

He’s pleased with the positive feedback he’s received from Mihashi; he doesn’t mean that sarcastically in the slightest. He understands that expressing affirmation, let alone most thoughts and feelings of his, is difficult for Mihashi and it’s something he can understand himself.

Luckily, he’s observant enough to be see when he’s attempting or wanting to make the signal and when he isn’t and even if it’s a false call? It’s a fun game for the class, so no one loses.

Right, class—there’s a good chance they may have finished the worksheet already. But they can wait, he can compensate for his absence next call.

Or just get someone to substitute for him.

Wait. The only teacher in this hallway who would even be willing is—

Ugh…

"It’s fine, this will not take very long and I doubt the class will mind. However, I will ask E—…my husband, to watch over the class. Go to the field. I will meet you there shortly."

He looks behind him and down the hall to glance at the door to the Italian classroom, and he doesn’t even want to question the ridiculous amount of noise let alone what the noise is being caused by from that room. His expression is one of judgement.

"Unless you want to come with me…"

Mentioning class seemed to have been a good idea. He allowed himself a bit of praise before the realization that Connor would have probably remembered about the class soon anyways washed that small sense of satisfaction away.

The class didn't seem to be of incredible concern right now and Connor still meant to take him to the field. Before he could wonder whether that was a good idea, Connor said he could get someone to substitute. A very smart solution!

But- to the field. By himself.

Pushing his index fingers together nervously, he looked down, eyes swimming around to glance at different spots on the floor.

He wasn't all that great at directions for all his locating ability. He could get lost. Or what if another teacher stopped him and he couldn't figure out how to say where he was going? They might think he was trying to sneak out.

The Italian class room didn't seem all that appealing of an option either, with how loud it was, but it was certainly better.

"W-with you, so they won't think... I'm leaving...!"

+lifescratching (closed)

"Then we will do that from now on. Do not hesitate to give me the signal, regardless of what we are doing."

It wouldn’t be an interruption—it would be necessary.

He would buy him a baseball, or maybe a softball since his students weren’t all necessarily adept with the sport…he would draw a smiley face with a sweat drop near it to represent Mihashi. And he would keep up at his desk or in his pocket, ready to toss it at him and go into review mode at any given moment. Sounded like a plan!

Mihashi seems to not be entirely comfortable with the idea of pitching in the hallway…right, pitching in such a closed space would probably be considered a bad and destructive idea…oops.

"Do you want to go outside and pitch? We can go to the field."

He nods his head a few times to show that he understands. Not hesitating will be hard for him to do, but he'll try to get past apprehension and do it. It's just a slight motion and it can help in the class some. Yes. This will be good.

Mihashi squeezed the ball in his hand slightly as he waited for a confirmation from Connor. Throwing in the hall would be difficult, but he could do it. Or they might just go back to class, since they'd already found a solution, though he still wasn't feeling his best.

O-Outside? Connor just offered to let him go out and pitch. If he could have somehow vocalized two exclamation points with no words included, he would have. As it was, he just sort of got halfway through an overenthusiastic nod before pulling back in towards himself.

"B-But don't we... class..." Looking back down the hallway, he ran his fingers over the ball. He didn't want to keep Connor for too long. The class could finish the worksheet and get rowdy without him there... or someone might leave... Mihashi didn't really believe any of his classmates would do anything bad but if they would he didn't want to be responsible for it. Or, even worse, for Connor to get in trouble for it.

+lifescratching (closed)

He notices an instant shift in demeanor the second the mentions physical objects—ah, it looks like we’ve got something there.

"Baseball helps calm you down? I see."

He begins to bounce the ball, catching it before extending a hand over towards Mihashi and beckoning him to take it.

"Can I see how you pitch? I have an idea."

He suddenly squats, positioning himself as if he were a catcher on the field, hand out between his legs as he braces himself.

"You can pitch during class—so long as we incorporate it into the lesson.

What I propose is that whenever your anxiety is overwhelming you, whenever you find it necessary, signal me like a catcher would for a slider.”

He holds up three fingers to demonstrate and ensure that they were on the same page.

"I will stop my lesson and hand you a ball. I will ask a student questions from the review, you will both stand up and you will gently pitch a ball at them, they will catch, and then answer. If their answer is incorrect, you pitch and they catch again, and we move onto another question. If they are correct, we move onto the next student, and so forth, until the review is over. Thoughts?"

#lifescratching #[it took me forever to #reply bc school sorry!!]

He nods in confirmation of the question. Yep. Pitching helps. Pitching at home, at least. He's got a little practice area that he's built up on the side of his house and he'll spend hours out there tossing the ball, trying to get even better. He doesn't really feel it's worked so far, though.

See... show him. His pitching? At school. Right now. He reaches for the ball eagerly at first, excited to pitch, but also nervous, and draws his hand back. He's a bad pitcher. That's why his team lost. It's not even worth it to show him. But... He takes the ball. Connor asked to see. It will help him calm down, too.

Taking a few steps back, he listens to Connor's suggestion for how to handle being overwhelmed. He thinks this sounds like a very good idea, really.

"Yeah!" That's... not quite thoughts on the subject, Mihashi. But it still got across that he liked this proposition. He took another few steps back. The hall wasn't quite big enough for him to stand as far away as he needed to to pitch right. That would mess with his throw.

He shifted from foot to foot as he tried to figure out how to work around that as well as the size of the ball and took his stance. He looked to Connor to try to see if he still wanted him to do the ball-throwing thing.

+lifescratching (closed)

He nods at him, taking a step or two back to make room for him to leave his desk.

"Take your time. Follow me. The copy room is not far from here."

He tries to match his student’s pace as he approaches the door, holding it open for him before leading him into the hallway and right beside the water fountain.

He’s obviously not going to drink from it since he’d have to squat in order to do so anyways, but it was a nice spot.

"It seems you have not been feeling well this period. I am not here to rebuke you, but I am concerned, that’s all."

His voice is soft, but still firm. He clasps his hands as he leans against the wall.

"There is no shame in feeling afraid, or worried, or nervous. Even when others feel as if there is nothing to warrant those feelings, there is no shame in simply feeling. Or being yourself."

He then takes out a small, red ball from his jacket. That one jacket seemed to carry half of the school’s inventory. He squeezes the ball in one palm at a leisurely place, still speaking all the while.

"…When I feel anxious, I find something sturdy to physically stimulate myself with—a stress ball does the job. But sometimes, objects with sentimental value are more apt."

He fiddles around with the feather in his hair before continuing.

"If there is something I can do to help you, whether it be excusing you from class when you are overwhelmed or not, do not hesitate to let me know. You are my student, and I am your teacher. I will not shame you."

Once he's up from his desk, he follows after Connor, keeping himself small and trying to avoid attention. Most of the students are focused on their assignments, now, but standing up in classroom always invites at least a little attention. Once all eyes are off him, he picks up his pace just a little, scurrying into the hall.

They walk just a moment until they reach the water fountain, and then Connor pauses. Mihashi almost keeps walking, realizes that his teacher has stopped, and quickly takes a step back, facing towards him.

He's concerned about him. For him. About the fact that he doesn't seem to be feeling well. It's not really surprising to hear as much as it is refreshing. People caring about him isn't something that occurs to him. But at least one person really cares about him!

Connor continues to talk and Mihashi listens along. No shame in being afraid or nervous. He's not really ashamed of those things. They're just things about him. But he's not sure how to word that he dislikes other aspects of himself more than the anxious bits. He doesn't enjoy being anxious or anything, it's terrible, but he's never blamed that on himself. Lots of other things, yes, but not that.

The next topic few sentences are actually helpful, though. Something sturdy to help calm himself. That sets him thinking. Something sturdy. Ball. It's familiar. Pitching! Pitching helps him calm down. When he focuses on it, there's nothing else but the ball and the target. Now to communicate this idea.

"B-Baseball!" Well, that's a start. He searches his mind for more words, desperate to get something else out to elaborate on that idea. "I do... pitching to... calm, but that's not really... something you can do during school... "

+lifescratching (closed)

Connor observes his students well enough to pick up on tics, mannerisms, the works—it’d be difficult for him to not especially take notice of his students’ more blatant anxiety and states of panic.

He always spoke to Mihashi softly, often crouching or sitting down to meet him at eye level, keeping his tone gentle but his words concise to mitigate his worries. He sees bits of himself in him—he may have been socialized to conceal it, but he was prone to experiencing severe anxiety himself, to a point where getting more than maybe an hour worth of sleep at most and properly interacting with others occasionally became impossible.

So he understands, and he accommodates him as best as he can. He sees the jitters, hears the tapping of a pencil, it’s akin to the way he fiddles with the feather in his hair and rapidly brushes his fingers back and forth over his blade when he’s anxious—and he decides that it’s best that acknowledge this now.

"That’s enough for today. Complete the given assignment—it’ll serve as a review of today’s lecture. Understood?"

He approaches Mihashi’s, lightly tapping its surface to divert his attention. He discreetly slides a small note to him that reads: “It seems as if you are not feeling well. That is alright. I would simply like to talk to you.”

"I need to make copies for next week’s lesson plan. Would you mind accompanying me?" He asks lightly.

The lesson draws to a close and Mihashi is relieved that there's no longer a specific voice that he's expected to focus on. The quiet murmurs of the students around him now that the lecture is over are somewhat grating and he's concerned for a moment that someone might potentially attempt to interact with him, but he dismisses that. He hasn't really done the making friends thing. No one would do that. At least he hopes they wouldn't.

He's still staring at his paper, trying only now to avoid being noticeable, shrinking down so no one will speak to him. He's jolted by the tapping on his desk and looks to the side, seeing Connor's hand on its surface, flinching away slightly and feeling is heart skip, then settling back and looking at the note.

Ah... Connor noticed. Of course he did. It wasn't hidden all that much. Mihashi didn't wonder if he'd stopped the lesson just to talk to him- he usually didn't think about things that deeply. He just knew that he felt bad taking up someone else's time, and he felt bad that he hadn't been paying attention to today's lesson.

Still, it was beyond him to say no to going with Connor. He was friendly and spoke softly. It wouldn't be so bad. Getting out of the classroom could definitely be good.

"O... Okay." He managed through brain fog, standing up slowly on kind of quaking legs. Moving around would also probably help.

+lifescratching (closed)

Mihashi was naturally anxious. It was sort of his default setting. There were very few times when he wasn't feeling nervous about something (or everything), and the number of times was even less at school. The combination of people and academic expectations was just too much for him to be calm.

But today was abnormal. He was, for some reason, more on edge than usual. Learning wasn't really his strong suit on a good day, but today it was all but impossible. Spoken words were blending together into a terrible overstimulating background noise and he just wasn't able to keep up. He felt like he could hear everything happening in the room, but couldn't properly process any of it.

Hiding his anxiousness was something that had never even passed through Mihashi's mind. He was always quite visibly anxious. His leg would just not stay still, bouncing rapidly, and he fiddled with his pencil, trying and failing to take notes.

He looked around the classroom every couple of seconds, trying to see if anyone else was maybe struggling...? Of course not. His eyes flickered to the clock and he leaned forward over his desk, pulling up his shoulders and staring down at his paper. He pressed his mouth in a tense line and tried to just focus on breathing.

+paletrenchcoat (closed)

The dormitories! That made a lot of sense. Okay, Dick could handle this!

"The dorms, huh? They should be…" Dick looked around at the buildings bathed in the orange glow of sunset. For some reason, an ominous feeling seemed to come over him, but he dispelled it without much thought. After all, he knew the route to the dorms… didn’t he? "Ah… They should be this way, pal! I’m heading there too, so we can go together."

Dick began to walk in the direction he had pointed to, signaling Mihashi to do the same. “You were in drama this afternoon too, right? Do you remember me? The name’s Dick Gumshoe!”

He followed after Dick with another nod, wringing his hands together. Alright. He had found help. He'd done it. Actually help had found him, but he'd managed to talk a little and explain his problem. He was feeling a little less panicked, now. He could rely on this friendly guy and make it back to the dorms. Since he was going there, too, this wasn't troubling him too much. That was a bonus.

The upperclassman mentioned drama class and Mihashi opened his mouth before finding words, then shut it quickly, answering with an "Mm!"

"I remember!"

Yes, he was in drama with him. He remembered him. It was kind of hard not to. Gumshoe was a really big guy. Kind of intimidating, actually. But he was a nice person! Oh, name. Mihashi had to respond with his name now, right?

"Mi... Miha.. shi Ren." Yep, that was it.

+paletrenchcoat (closed)

…Room!

Room.

…Room??

It began to dawn on Gumshoe that he had never actually interacted with this particular classmate before, and was therefore not actually… prepared… for such a vague response.

There was a several-second period of cold silence between the two. A sudden breeze blew by and reminded Dick that he was still standing face-to-face with the freshman, and furthermore, that he wasn’t going to get anything else out of him. What was… What was he going to do?? How was he going to help this kid?! “Room” could mean anything, anyplace, there were tons of rooms on the campus and…

…Actually, wait. It was late evening, right? If anything, this kid should have been heading to bed, so maybe..

"Do you… Do you mean the dorms? Are you trying to get to the dorms?"

No immediate reply came from Gumshoe and Mihashi panicked. Ah. Room was too vague? Probably. He tried to fashion another answer in his mind but now that he'd said room, it was all that would bounce around in his head. He thought of his bed and his clothes, books that he had, but no words that would actually help the situation came to him so he looked around frantically again and bounced in place. He just couldn't say still.

Then Dick said it- Dorms. Yes! He perked up and nodded quickly.

Now that the word had been found, other words flooded to him.

"Dorms! I was trying to find... and I got lost so I... I wanted to ask..."

+paletrenchcoat (closed)

Usually, after someone had replied to him, Dick would realize his loudness and return to a normal tone of voice and demeanor. Unfortunately, however, Mihashi’s response echoed Dick’s outburst in volume, failing to return the student to his senses.

"AH, SO YOU’RE LOST, HUH? WHATCHA LOOKIN’ FOR? MAYBE I CAN HELP—"

It was at this point that Dick finally came to a realization, on his own, that he was screaming at a lost first-year. Not only that, but he was attracting attention, and a few people had even stopped to watch the debacle unfold. He paused in embarrassment and could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks.

"… Uh… Um." He hesitated for a moment; he likely just scared this freshman half to death and should probably apologize. "… Sorry about that, pal. Didn’t uh, realize how loud I was being…"

He scratched the back of his head, a signature trait of his. It was a petty apology at best, but maybe he could make up for it by giving the kid directions? “…… Um, So! You say yer uh, lost? Whatcha lookin’ for?”

Another loud strand of words poured from his upperclassman's mouth and Mihashi shrunk down. Loudness was bad and regardless of what was being said, loud voices translated to anger and shook up Mihashi's ability to speak. He shrunk down slightly, wondering if Dick was irritated with him for being lost? The smile usually would suggest otherwise.

A beat of silence passed and then he continued in a softer voice, which was a great relief to Mihashi. He could actually process what was being said to him. He sort of jumped again with the apology, unused to actually being apologized to, but he couldn't think of a way to properly acknowledge it and instead watched him until the topic of being lost came up again. Right! He was lost. He looked around quickly and then looked down.

"R-" Okay, that was the start of a word. He thought of the dorms and tried turn that image into language. "Ro- Room!"

+paletrenchcoat (closed)

Dick had had quite the schedule this afternoon—chorus and then drama, one right after the other. After only a couple classes of chorus he’d detected a pattern: the course always threw off his sense of volume after an hour of loud harmonizing (“ENUNCIATE!!” Red would always bellow from the front of class). But was worse about today was about how, in drama class, their preparations for a musical had led them to even more voice warm-ups and practice.

And thus, when he thought to help his shy, nervous classmate from drama looking around helplessly and in obvious distress, the stage was set for a disaster.

"HEY, PAL!! YA LOST?!"

The attempt to plan a script in his head had taken his attention away from actually seeking help. Mihashi looked at the ground, repeating what he'd already come up with in his head. The dorms. He got lost and was looking for the dorms. That's all he had to say, that he was lost and looking for the dorms. Should he include that he was from the school? Maybe that would be a good idea...

Fully caught up in these thoughts, he failed to notice Dick approaching. Suddenly Dick's existence was forced upon him as he let out a particularly loud greeting, and Mihashi jumped straight upwards and stiffened.

Having been caught up in his thoughts about being lost, he automatically echoed the last words he heard, which were, coincidentally,

"L- LOST!"

He put his hand over his rapidly thumping heart when his body returned to planet earth and leaned over slightly, breathing heavily. Blinking the startled tears from his eyes, he looked up at Dick, trembling slightly. Uh. Uhhhh. Okay. Script lost.

+paletrenchcoat (closed)

Hopelessly lost. That's what Mihashi was. He hadn't been going to Tancho Academy long, but he had been going long enough that he shouldn't have been able to forget where the dorms were. Somehow he managed just that. He'd been searching for about an hour now and he still hadn't found his way back.

He was beginning to panic. Well, he'd panicked the minute he realized he didn't know where the dorms were and hadn't calmed down since, but he was getting sincerely concerned now. A few students had passed him by- he was still on the campus and all- but he failed to ask them for help. He'd simply faltered in place and stuttered, not attracting their attention.

Now he paced and tried to find the words necessary to ask the help of the next person he saw, eyes flickering around to catch anything that might clue him in to the location of the elusive dorms.