To the Moon and Back... Remember? (Hayes Grier Fanfic)

Chapter 8: Practice

~Kamree's POV~

"I don't know whether to cry or laugh or scream." I said.

Hayes wiped a tear from his eye before I could see it fall.

I saw.

"Awww! Hayes!"

He shyly smiled. "Shh... Nash will hear." I laughed and shook my head.

"Hey Kamree?" I turned to Nash. "If you want to get to practice on time, we need to leave really soon."

"Aight. Leggo." I wasn't trying to be funny, it just kind of came out. Apparently it was funny enough that the boys had to hold on to each other trying not to laugh.

"What?!" I didn't understand why it was so funny.

Nash shook his head. "Nothing. C'mon." He and Hayes bit their lips trying to muffle their laughter.

I grabbed Sky's hand and followed the boys out. We drove back to their house and I slipped on my softball sliders and black pants over that. I tugged my royal blue knee socks on and pulled a baby blue Racquet and Jog shirt over my head. Then I grabbed my bat bag and cleats and threw my hair into a ponytail.

When I got back to the car, I put the address in the GPS. Before we got too far into the road trip, we stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch.

We jammed out to Bruno Mars and Jessie J the whole way there.

Practice was at 3. We left Chick-fil-a at 12:30 and pulled into the field parking lot at 2:30.

"I don't think I've ever been on time before." He pulled up to the gate and let me out. "It'll be over around 4." He nodded as I turned around to go warm up. I figured they would go see another movie or let Skylynn play at the park.

I was greeted in the dugout with squeals and hugs.

"Hey! Did you hear about Sadie?" Cleo asked.

"No, what about her?" I asked, lacing up my cleats.

"She broke her shoulder." Callie said walking by.

"Her shoulder?!" I exclaimed. "How do you break your shoulder?!"

"No one knows. She won't talk about it." Cleo dropped her voice. "Some people say she's faking it..."

I shook my head. She's not like that. She loves pitching too much to fake it.

Callie tossed me a ball and we ran out into the outfield to loosen up before we started.

We were goofing off when my coach called me over to him.

"Layne!" He shouted. "Come here!" I tucked my glove under my arm and ran over to him.

"Yes sir?"

"Sadie's out for a couple games. Prove yourself and you can pitch in the game tomorrow."

I stared at him for a second in shock.

"Seriously?" I finally managed.

He laughed. "Yes. Now go warm up."

Sadie is one of the best pitchers in our district. She's the only one that ever pitches. She's good and she knows it but she's not mean about it.

Sure, I can goof off on the mound and get the ball in the catcher's glove, but... I've never been the actual pitcher before.

After 10 minutes of warm up, we went ahead and started.

Cleo on first base, Callie on third, Bailey on second, Kendall as catcher, Alexis playing short stop and the triplets Logan, Reagan, and Meaux in the outfield.

I took my place on the pitchers mound and rubbed some dirt on my hands to dry them. Coach was going to give me a couple warm up pitches before he put in a batter.

I placed the ball in my glove and my glove on my thigh. I brought the ball backwards, and then in one movement, stepped with my left and brought the yellow sphere in a windmill motion. It felt clean until the release. I let it go too late and the ball soared over Kendall's head.

I went through the motions again, remembering to release earlier.

Too early.

"Let's go Layne. Shake it off."

I did as I was told.

This time, I released the ball as hard as I could; the threads skinning my fingers.

There was a loud 'whack' and a shocked Kendall behind the plate.

There was something burning in the pit of my stomach telling me to keep doing it like that. I wasn't nervous anymore. Being right there felt natural. All that mattered was the catchers glove and the ball.

No person-- nothing could throw me out of this zone.

By the end of 15 batters, 2 had made contact with the ball.

Coach called everyone onto the pitchers mound. Once everyone was there, he looked at me.

"Where did that come from?"

I didn't like everyone's attention on me so I smiled and looked at my cleats.

Thankfully, he didn't push it and began telling us about the game the next day.

We ran back into the dugout and packed up. I slipped my feet into my Sanüks and sighed.

So much better.

I said my goodbyes as the other girls filtered out.

Someone poked their head around the corner.

"Hey." I said.

"Hey?! That's all I get?!"

I laughed. "Hello your Royal Highness."

"Thank you." He said crossing his arms and sitting next to me.

"So... who taught you to pitch like that?" Hayes asked.

"Wait, you were there? You saw me?" I started thinking about all the times I messed up and kicked myself for them.

"Yes! You were BEAST!"

I smiled and shook my head. "Whatever. C'mon. I'm STARVING!"

I slung my bag over my shoulder and followed him to the car, ignoring the sharp pain in my pitching arm.