"More than just a hat!" ((BH6 Fanfic!))

Chapter 6: Chewn Leather, Part 2

Tadashi's POV

I was very surprised to find her digging through my things. I would never have thought she'd become this desperate just to find a mitt. She sat on her knees holding the mitt tightly to her chest. Her eyes looked guilty and let down at the same time.

"Look, Tadashi, I'm sorry for going through your stuff. I promise I didn't look through any papers or notebooks. But you said you didn't know where my mitt was! You lied! Why, Tadashi? I've never known you to lie. Especially not about something as important as my mitt," she cried. Tears formed in her eyes. Tears of guilt and sorrow. She dashed out of my room and I heard her run out of the shop. She had left.

Aunt Cass came upstairs. "Sweetie, what happened? I just saw Chántel run outside."
I looked at my aunt. She seemed genuinely worried. "I kinda upset her."
"How? Why did she leave?"
"Her mitt. I told her I didn't know where it was. I was going to give it to her after school, at the field. But she came here and found it. She got upset that I had lied to her about it and left."

Aunt Cass walked over to me and hugged me. I set my bag down and hugged her back. She let go and held Chántel's mitt out to me.
"She dropped it on her way out," Aunt Cass said as she left the room.

I set the mitt on my desk. I closed the drawer and threw myself into my chair. I stared at the mitt for a while then I picked it up. Why was it so special? It was a piece of leather in a certain shape used to catch a ball. Then I noticed something.

On the inside of her mitt, written on the bottom in sharpie, was a note.

To my beautiful great-granddaughter. May your days be filled with catches from your lucky mitt!! Love, Papa Hopper

No wonder it was so special. I remember her telling me that her great-grandfather on her dad's side had taught her how to play sports with the boys. Baseball. The story was that only a few years before she moved here, her great-grandpa died of cancer. It was a memory.

I looked at the message on the mitt over and over again. Then I noticed that on the back of the mitt was written,

Chew the leather when the ball is pitched. You'll catch it every time.

I had to get this back to her. But how? She wouldn't want to see me after this mistake.

Hiro walked upstairs. "Dude, what's up with Chántel?"
"I upset her."
"She's outside the cafe with her scooter. And she's crying. Thank goodness she doesn't wear eye makeup. Otherwise she would be a mess."

She was still outside? I had to give the mitt back. Now.

"Woah, where do you think you're going?"
"Downstairs to give this back to her," i gestured at the mitt.
"Too late, bro. When I walked into the cafe, she was putting her helmet on and leaving."

I missed her. And I didn't know what hotel room she was in. I wouldn't be able to give it to her until her next shift at the cafe. Since tomorrow was Saturday, then no school, I would be home all day. And she still has to work. I could give it to her then.