University of Maryland
September 2 2012
Nanaba huffed as she glanced at her watch.
6:05pm
"Where are they?", Nanaba asked looking at her roommate.
"Nan, chill the games not until 6:30, Brian said they would be here soon, they said his roommate was looking for his batting glove"
Nanaba rolled her eyes, "of course one of them has a batting glove, probably a try-hard".
"Well he did play baseball in high school, so he might be our key to getting one of the awesome league championship shirts", her roommate Maggie replied.
"How did you meet this Brian again?"
"He's in my public speaking class". Maggie said tie her cleats. Maggie had been the one to convince Nanaba to join their intramural softball team. She played as a kid but when she grew older soccer and volleyball had been her sports, she had also wanted to play basketball but her mother didn't think it was "proper" a girl play so many sports. Still they needed girls for the co-ed league and Nanaba thought it might be a good way to branch out.
Growing up Nanaba always felt so constricted by her mother, she was old fashioned, and was very harsh on Nanaba about her being more of a Tom boy growing up. She remembered the night she told her mom she had dropped out of the debutant club her senior year, that was the first and last time her mom slapped her.
Right after her high school graduation her father had finally had enough. Nanaba and her dad had agreed to not press charges if Nanaba's mother agreed to the divorce, and to no longer interfere in her life. Now Nanaba didn't have any contact with her mother or her super conservative side of the family. She and her dad were able to bond that summer, and she loved watching her dad get to enjoy life again.
When he had helped move her in to her dorm, he stressed how this was the time for her to "be a beautiful butterfly" and really "find herself", and try "new things".
So now here she was with one of her roommates softball gloves, waiting on the last part of her team.
"Might as well warm up while we wait", Maggie said, excited to relive her softball glory days.
The girls tossed the ball back and forth and Nanaba was surprised how easy it seemed to be 9 years old again.
"Yo, your all-stars have arrived!!", shouted a loud male voice.
"About time", Nanaba muttered under her breath as the group of guys and 2 other girls walked up.
"Sorry we are late, had to find my batting glove, won 2 state championships with it"
Nanaba looked to see who the culprit for their tardiness was, and immediately she felt her heart flutter.
The voice belong to a 6ft 2in muscular guy, with light brown hair, the hint of a mustache coming in, and some chin whiskers. He was wear a green t-shirt with faded letters and athletic shorts.
"We got plenty and of time, it's only 6:10, Nan here is just a stickler for time", Maggie said with a laugh.
Maggie already knew the girls who had joined them, as one of them was from her home town and they had played travel ball together.
"Oh yeah this is my roommate Mike", (pronounced "Mike")
Nanaba felt like she suddenly had to fix her pony tail. She took out her hair tie and gathered up her long blonde hair again. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Mike looking at her. Her heart fluttered again.
When she was done with her hair, Mike was upon her stick out his massive hand. "Hey, I'm Mike, and you are??"
For a split second Nanaba forgot her name. Going to an all girls Catholic school she didn't experience many crushes in her life time, and wasn't expecting this guy to so quickly knock her socks off.
"It's Nanaba" she said, finally finding her words again.
"Nanaba, that's a cool name, but I kinda wanna call your Babs", Mike said with a warm smile.
"Babs???", Nanaba was puzzled but at that moment the student umpire was calling for captains and checking student ids.
While Nanaba was outwardly confused at the nickname, she secretly loved that he had already had a nickname for her.
****************
They came of the softball diamond with their first win of the season. The master batters beat Sigma Xi/Alpha Phi 6-1.
Turns out Mike was not only a stud, but was also a stellar baseball player, with 2 home runs that night, and holding down first base.
When in the dugout the two exchanged shy glances, and some flirty banter. She couldn't hide the blush when he cheered for her every time she went to bat. But thankfully Mike or her nosy roommate couldn't see.
As they were all walking towards the dorms, Mike fell into step with Nanaba. "For someone who hasn't played softball since she was a kid, you were pretty alright Babs".
"You weren't so bad yourself, I guess your lucky batting glove came in handy".
The two discovered that they had the same professor for Calculus, and exchanged numbers for "study sessions". But both their hearts were beating so hard as they enter their contact info into each other's posts phone.
When it came to part ways, Mike took a bold move and pulled Nanaba into a side hug, sending her heart beating a million miles a min.
"See ya later Babs", he said with a smile
"See ya later Mikey" she said with a laugh.
She had turned before she could catch Mike blushing like mad.
To be continued.....
