star player - h.s.

chapter 1

Amelia

I had spent my entire life at the baseball field. Ever since my brother Elliott started playing in 5th grade and me in 4th. It was pretty much all I had ever known, I had grown used to it. In all honesty, it became sort of my home over the years, somewhere comfortable.

So now, I sit here on the bleachers, warmed from the sun, waiting for the home opening game to begin, just like I do every year on March 8th. I look slightly to my right and see the big "P" on the backstop. Standing for Pepperdine University.

All my life me and my brothers' biggest dream was to go to Pepperdine, so four years ago when he got his acceptance letter in the mail indicating that he got in, I was so elated for him. And then the following year when I had also received my letter in the mail with a bolded, On behalf of Pepperdine University, we are excited to offer you admission to the class of 2025! at the top. He was so excited for me, already planning to take me to all of the "cool spots" on campus. My brother and I have always been each other's biggest supporters, for as long as I can rem-

"Mils! Come over here!"

I get pulled out of my thoughts, as I hear my dad yell at me from the dugout.

My dad is the head coach of the baseball team here, and I've never met someone that loves their job more than him. He takes such great pride in being these boys' coach, that he would probably do anything for them.

"What's up dad?" I say stopping at the edge of the dugout, looking in.

"I wanted to get a photo of me and the team together before the season starts,"

I look down at the camera slung around my neck and shrug, "yeah why not, let's do it!".

I'm the unofficial team photographer, and have been since my freshman year when I brought my little point shot camera to one game and after that my brother would steal it and send the photos to himself and the rest of the team. For some reason they loved it, so from then on they've asked me to get photos of them that don't go on any social media accounts or websites.

"Round 'em up boys! Get your asses over here!" He yells at the team before they all start jogging over to us from left field where they were warming up.

"Mils is going to take a picture of all of us like we've done many times before. You know the drill. Just do what she's asking, so we can get this over with and you can go back to what you were working on."

I start to pull them by their arms and move them into the spots that I want them to stand in. As I make my way down the row I get to Mateo. Basically to sum a long story up, Mateo is my twisted ex boyfriend that took my heart out of my chest and stomped on it until it shattered into pieces. That I may or may not be recovered from. I mean hey, it's only been six months so it's still pretty fresh.

"Hey Millie, long time no see," I can practically hear his smirk.

Grabbing his arm and moving him to his spot, which might I add is in the front row, I mutter, "please just make this easy for me." I hear him shoot back, "sure, whatever you need, baby." and I can feel my body physically grimace, rolling my eyes.

As everyone else gets secured in their place, I do a once over to make sure they all look good where they are.

Pulling the camera up to my face to take the photo, I catch a sudden movement in my lens and see Eli with his hand behind his teammates head. "Elliot Alexander Grainger, put your hand down!" I yell at him, making the entire team snicker.

After I had snapped a couple of photos and dismissed them, I started making my way back into the dugout until I heard my name being called from my brother, wanting me to come take a photo of him and Harry.