Play Ball

New School

If you've ever moved, then you know it sucks. Packing up all of your things, saying goodbye to your home, but most importantly saying goodbye to your friends. In my case, the friends that I've known since kindergarten.

You're probably thinking that I'm in a family that moves around all the time because of one of my parents jobs or something. But no. We're moving because my aunt is starting to go crazy.

My younger half-brother Ryan and I have been living with her since our mom was deemed unfit to take care of me. This was almost 13 years ago. I'm 17 now, and Ryan is 8. They took Ryan out of her custody almost right after he was born, and I'm kind of glad because that kid is so important to me.

Anyways, we lived with my aunt Allison, and I actually had a fairly typical upbringing thanks to her. She's one of the coolest people that I know, and I'm thankful for her everyday. But now, she's making us leave our home of 13 years because she's sick of the weather in Minnesota. She hates the cold, the snow, the dry air, and everything in between. So now I have to say goodbye to all of my friends, teammates, and school. Needless to say... I'm pretty livid with her.

We're on our way to South Carolina, and while Ryan and Allison blast Taylor Swift and attempt to sing along (emphasis on "attempt"), all I can think about is my team. I've been playing softball for as long as I can remember. The warm, sunny days in summer, playing with my girls, and goofing around during drills is the definition of a perfect day to me. Now I know what you're thinking - that we probably sucked. It was the opposite actually because we won nationals two years in a row. The girls on my team were some of the most hard-working girls I'd ever met. I put in my due-diligence as well because I also wanted to be the best.

I just hope that whatever softball team there is at this new school, that they take it seriously. Because while I do agree that having fun while playing is very important, I play to win.

One week later

It's the first day of school. Well... for me. It's actually January, so it's the start of the second semester. I haven't even stepped foot in my new school yet, but I'm supposed to arrive early this morning to have some kid named "Luis" show me around. I'm happily obliging because the last thing I wanna do on my first day is get lost. Been there done that.

I quickly get up and scarf down a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crush, and then even shove a handful of cereal into my mouth after I finish my bowl. I don't know what they put into this stuff, but it's like amazing cereal on drugs. I then get dressed with a simple hoodie, jeans, and sneakers, and I'm out the door and hopping into my car. It's taken me a long time to save up for a car, but the freedom is so worth it. I'll probably have to get another job here though to pay for gas and whatnot.

The drive to school was short. I love that already because I won't have to get up earlier just to make time for the trip. My speciality is getting up around ten minutes before I have to leave, so you can obviously see I don't like to skimp out on my sleep. This morning however, I alloted myself an extra two minutes, so obviously it's a pretty important day. School starts at 7:30 everyday, but I'm supposed to be here at 6:45 this morning and go to the front office.

My first impression upon arriving at this school is how huge this place is. It must be three times the size of my old school. As I park and step out of the car, I look all around and see just how large the school property is. On the left side of the school there's at least 4 baseball fields. Next to them are netted batting cages, and copious amount of bleachers. There looks to be fields and utilities for almost every sport you can imagine encircling the school. Not only that, but everything looks very well kept up and expensive.

Am I at the right school?

Looking above what I presume to be the main doors is a large sign that says 'Raywood High School'. Yup, that's where I'm supposed to be.