As he was deep in thought, he felt a nudge from beside him.
“What’s got you so serious?” Steve asked, his voice containing some concern.
“Just trying to calm down my rumbling stomach.”
“Pfft, wouldn’t you just do that by eating something?” Steve looked at him like he was stupid, wearing a punchable face.
Ken didn’t take the bait however, merely nodding and walking towards one of the tables.
Seeing that he didn’t receive a vicious retort, Steve’s eyes widened in surprise. Usually, Ken would say something witty in response, but this time he simply ignored him.
This only served to ring some alarm bells in his mind. One good thing about Steve’s personality was that he had quite an expansive emotional intelligence, giving him the ability to peer through the outer layers of people.
His face turned a little serious as he followed Ken. The two didn’t return to the table until their plates were full, finally digging into the long awaited meal.
Armed with a knife and fork, the two surged into battle, decimating the population of their plates. The silence was almost haunting as the last vestiges of food was successfully shoveled into Ken’s mouth, sparing not even a speck of rice.
However, the worst had yet to come. Perhaps because he was in a somber mood, Ken helped himself to another full plate, reenacting the previous battle.
Once again, the plate was cleared efficiently, leaving no remnants behind.
Steve finished his plate, sitting back in the chair and looking at his friend. Ken’s face was rather handsome, but he looked rather strained while wearing his brooding expression.
“What’s up? You look constipated.” Steve asked abruptly.
Ken glared at his friend for a while before letting out a sigh. There was no point in agonizing over his lack of action, particularly since it was in the past now.
“Have you already figured out what path you’ll take?” Ken asked, his voice low.
“Hmm? What, like college and stuff?”
“Yeah…”
Steve shrugged, “I didn’t even plan on trying to be a professional athlete until you miraculously told me that I had the potential to make it.”
Ken blinked a few times, it was true that he was the one who originally pushed Steve to make use of his potential. If he hadn’t come along, it was likely that Steve would have just had a regular life.
“If you weren’t training me, I would’ve just joined a random college and studied something like business I guess.” Steve was rather dismissive, but Ken could feel the gratitude in his voice.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Ken said. It seemed that he wouldn’t get anywhere talking to Steve, especially since the guy was so haphazard about the whole thing.
Seeing that Ken was still in his mood, Steve felt it was prudent to speak up. “Look man, we only just finished our Junior year. Even if you wanted to plan for your future, we can’t even do any official visits to Colleges yet.”
“What’s the point in having a well thought out plan right now? The College you pick might not even be somewhere that you really want to go by the time you finish school. Or maybe they have another great pitcher and you won’t even get any play time.” Steve continued, making some good points.
Ken was deep in thought for a while, not responding right away. “So what are you saying? I should just remain passive until its time to graduate?”
Steve scoffed, “I never said that. There’s plenty of ways to cast your net wide when it comes to attracting scouts from Colleges. First and foremost, tournaments like the WWBA are great to get national exposure.”
“Secondly, keeping your profile up to date on sites like Perfect Game. You can upload videos of you pitching, or batting. There’s also the showcases that Perfect Game put on every few months.”
Steve was like an encyclopedia as he labeled all the things that Ken could be doing. In reality, Ken was dumbstruck at just how much the guy knew.
“You can also reach out to those coach’s and staff on that list you got from the coach. Although they can’t respond back to you until September 1st, you can direct them to your profile and speak about your intentions.”
After finishing, the guy sat back in his chair and flashed his friend a grin. “See? I know some things.”
Seeing the haughty expression on Steve’s face, Ken felt the urge to punch him. For some reason, even though his words had helped greatly, the guy’s face was extremely punchable.
“How do you know all this?” Ken asked, using his world class discipline to stop himself from leaning over and at least slapping the guy.
“I guess you could say that I’m a good listener.” He said, shrugging.
Ken didn’t doubt him. From what he knew of Steve, the guy was able to join any and all different social circles. Many of his teammates were already seniors, and likely would have talked about these things amongst each other.
Yet since Ken had only been in the team for a couple of months, he hadn’t been a part of such conversations.
“So? When are you going to do these things?” Ken asked, a small grin forming on his face. It was one thing giving someone else advice, but Steve was in the same situation as Ken. No, he was even worse off.
While Ken had a lot of interest from scouts, Steve likely had almost none.
“Eh? I dunno man. I’ll get around to it eventually.” He said lazily, reclining on his chair.
Ken’s features darkened. “Alright, how about I add 50 modified burpees for every day that you postpone these things.”
This time, Steve’s smug expression instantly disappeared from his face. “W—Wait… I’ll do it okay! Damn it…”
Feeling satisfied, Ken smacked his friend on the arm, flashing him a grin. “Atta boy. Maybe if you get good enough we can even go to the same College. That way I can keep an eye on your training.”
Steve’s face paled, ‘Please no…’ he cried inwardly.
Steve knows how to shoot himself in the foot.
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