Clock in || Securitywaiter

14

"Focus on the ball Mike, you can do this!" His dad encouraged him.
"Hit it Mike!" Garett smacked the chain link fence, jumping up and down.

Mike turned his gaze away from his little brother and focused on the pitcher, who stuck his tongue out at him and mouthed the word 'tranny', Mike took a deep breath, gripping his bat tightly, getting in position.

The ball wasn't fairly thrown and went straight for his left eye, it would most definitely bruise and should've hurt, but the amount of rage Mike held in him stopped him from feeling anything. He threw his bat to the ground, removed his helmet, and went straight for the pitcher, tackling him to the ground and beating the shit out of him until an adult intervened and pulled him off.

~

"There's something wrong with your kid Henry, she isn't stable, I mean it was clearly an accident, things like that happen, it's baseball, she should've known what she was getting into, you should've know, begging me to let her in when she isn't even a real boy. I just can't continue to let her be apart of this team if she's going to continue to beat up other kids like that, maybe have her see a doctor or something for her anger issues"
"Mike is a real boy, and he doesn't have anger issues, that other boy's been bugging him all season- hell all the boys have, and he's been so good about it up until now, just wanting to play baseball like the rest of them, there isn't something wrong with him, he just reached his breaking point. Goodbye scum."

Garett stood and watched as Mike started throwing all his baseball gear angrily into a trash can, Mike was about to remove his cleats when his father stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, what's going on? We can find another team, there's no need to do all that"
"I don't want to play baseball ever again."
"You're just saying that because you're upset, I'm sure you'll change your mind when-"
"No. I don't want to play anymore, I hate baseball, I'm not changing my mind."

Henry didn't say anything more about it, he just took Mike's stuff out from the trash and they went to their car. He didn't acknowledge it, but he could easily hear Mike sniffling in the passenger seat, he should've said something, he should've comforted him, but instead he just asked him and Garett what they wanted for dinner.

He'd hoped that Mike would change his mind and want to get back into baseball, but he never did, in fact, Mike had gotten rid of anything and everything baseball related in his room, he even told his parents to never mention it around him again, they listened unfortunately, and any chance of Mike getting back into the sport was lost.

Mike had decided that it was no use trying anything anymore, because he just didn't have a shot if people knew he was trans, he didn't say anything anymore, and watched kids around him keep their distance as to not "catch whatever disease she had", he eventually just accepted that that's how things were for him, that that's how they'd always be, and it was better to keep a low profile so no one would ever suspect him of anything.

...

"He's not your father"

He'd been thinking about those words since he'd first heard them, rethinking his entire life, if his dad hadn't been who he thought he was, then who was he? And the way William talked about Mike, insinuating that he was his..no, it couldn't be true, he couldn't possibly trust someone that killed his brother and attempted to do the same with him and Abby, he probably just wanted him to get curious enough to go back to Freddy's for answers.

He knew William was dead, but that didn't mean anything, those kids were dead, yet they had spoken to Abby and nearly killed them, it was almost like dying had made them stronger. As much as he wanted to continue to avoid the truth, he knew that things would only get worse, if William could break his wrist in a dream, what else was he capable of? He really didn't know what to do.