Home Run Kiss

Five

"Run, run, run!" 

Granger picked up his pace, rushing past me and Coach Dawson. Just watching him made me breathless, though I was a huge runner as well. He was running faster than I had ever run in my life. He slid into home plate, rocks and dust flying up into the air. 

"Well done," Coach said, clapping slightly. I watched as Granger stood up, his chest rising and falling quickly. He had an exhilarated grin on his face as he walked over to Coach and me. I heard the other baseball boys crowd up around us. "Amazing practice tonight, guys. It's only the second practice, and I'm thinking that this might be our best year yet."

The overwhelming stench of sweaty boys rushed over me, and I had to hold my breath. I knew that they had just practiced, but didn't they use deodorant beforehand? Thankfully, I wasn't going anywhere with them anytime soon, though I did want to invite them to the bakery since I accidentally left the cookies there. I didn't have enough time last night to make multiple kinds of cookies, so hopefully they will all like peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. 

I realized that the boys were heading toward the school, so I spun around and ran after them. Granger and Noah were walking with another guy in the back of the group, so I picked up my pace. Finally reaching the boys, I said, "Why are you guys so fast?"

"It's kind of our job," Granger said, laughing. "Why are you so slow?"

"I'm not." I looked over at the two other boys and said, "Would you guys like to come to the local bakery? I work there and made some cookies for the baseball team, but I forgot them there."

"Definitely," the other guy said, grinning. His light hair was stuck to his forehead, and I noticed that he had really dark roots. He stuck his hand in front of Noah and Granger, and I grabbed it. "I'm Xian by the way. Xian Tan."

"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling. His hand is warm and sweaty in mine, so I secretly wiped my hand on my leggings. "Can you guys tell the others about the cookies? I don't want them to feel left out."

"Sure," Noah finally said, his voice surprising me. For such a small limbed boy, he sure had a deep voice. "We'll meet you over there, alright?"

"Okay." 

I grinned at the three boys, and then diverted from them. Ever since I agreed to be the manager of the boys baseball team, I decided I'd drive to school everyday. According to Sophie, I needed to use my car for things during practice, like getting all of them coffee from Starbucks. I wasn't sure why that was needed from me, but it was easier just to drive everyday. 

Since I parked near the baseball diamond, it was easy for me to throw my things in the backseat after school. I didn't have to lug my things through town when I had to work at the bakery. Maddie told me I was getting lazy, but I knew my parents were grateful that I was using my car that they bought me when I got my license. Mom was especially happy that I was driving because she hated when I would walk to school. She was afraid that I would get taken by random people or that someone would hit me because they weren't looking. It was a good thing that I didn't tell her about the red car that nearly hit me, or else she would have freaked. 

Sliding into the front seat of my car, I turned it on. The heat blasted out of the vents, and I happily sighed. My eyes fluttered shut, and I reached out toward the vents. Today had been unnecessarily cold, and I wasn't smart, so I didn't bring extra clothes. Feeling slowly came back in my fingers and toes, which was a good sign. I didn't want Dad to yell at me when I got to the bakery, especially not in front of the baseball boys.

The drive was a short one. One of my favorite things about this town was how small it was. Everyone knew everyone here, and it was nice to know that everyone actually cared about me. They all knew about my father's bakery, they knew that Abuela was sick, they knew a lot. Though, I could see that might be a bad thing, knowing everything about people in town. I believed that there were more goods than bads, though, so my opinion stayed the same.