The Boy Next Door

play ball!

Did you meet his teammates?" Asks Katie, smiling and offering a seat between her and Annie.

"Yeah," I say.

"They're nice, right? Caleb's really close with Kurt, Alex, and Connor. They're such sweet boys."

"Uhhh..."

"It's starting!" Hayley shrieks.

"I'm so excited to watch my first baseball game!" I say.

"It's your first baseball game?" Asks a man sitting behind me, I turn around. "Oh, sorry! I'm Chuck, Alex's father."

I smile, "yeah, it's my very first."

"Katie was telling me about how you moved here from England, but she didn't mention this was your first ever game!"

"Ebony's really excited!" Says Annie, joining in the conversation. Suddenly, music plays and everyone stands up. A woman standing in the middle of the baseball field begins to sing. Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light. Hayley looks at me with wide eyes and reaches over to me with her hand that's not covering her heart, and lightly pulls my arm up, signaling for me to stand. Still confused, I stand up. Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight I look over to Hayley, and she wiggles her fingers covering her heart. I bring my hand to my heart like she is, and she nods. Then she points her head towards something, and I realize I'm supposed to be looking at the huge American flag, so I do. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. The song ends and we sit.

"What was that?" I ask. They all laugh.

"I'm so sorry, Ebony! Of course you don't know the Star Spangled Banner, it's the national anthem of America."

"Ohhhh, that makes so much more sense!" We all laugh, Katie gets out the vlogging camera and I sing them the national anthem of England, God Save the Queen. They all clap once I'm done, including people I don't know, who I'm quickly introduced to. I tell them about England and explain as much as I can about rounders, a British game like baseball but with a few differences. I think I'm giving correct information, I've never really played it out of gym class. Soon, the game's starting. We can see Caleb okay from where we are, but his back is to us. Annie, Hayley, and I climb down from the bleachers and get right up close to the field, we're only separated from the game by a very tall chain linked fence that wraps around half of the field. I'm assuming it's to stop balls from hitting the crowd. The pitcher, who I don't recognize, throws the ball. Caleb catches it! I jump up and down, cheering for him. The pitcher throws again, and this time the batter hits the ball. He runs to the first base and then stops. A few more turns like that happen and then Caleb catches the ball. Then he catches it again, and suddenly he's taking off the catcher padding.

"Guys! Why is he taking it off? He'll get hurt if the ball hits him!"

"It's time for the Gray Sox to play offence," says Annie. I look at her, confused. "Offence means Caleb and his team all bat the ball. He goes 5th."

"Oh, okay." I say, relived my boyfriend's not going to be pelted by balls with no helmet. The first few boys go, and so far there's only been one out. Then Caleb goes, he hits the ball really far and makes it to second base. He clutches his side where Connor punched him and doubles over, with a pained look on his face. It kinda looks like he just has a really bad cramp but I can tell that's not what it is. The boy batting after him is Kurt, he hits the ball very far and Caleb makes it to third. Then it's another boy who get's an out, and then the next one hits it relatively far. Caleb sprints for home, but the ball is almost back to the person near first base. All of a sudden, he falls. I scream, but then realize he's sliding into home. My expression of horror quickly becomes happy, and I jump up and down clapping. I'm not totally sure how many points whatever he just completed is worth, but I know it was good. He stands up, his face scrunched in pain, and enters the dugout. Soon, another boy gets an out and it's time for Caleb to be the catcher again. The game goes on, and then soon it's over, Caleb's team won! I had a hard time following the game at times, but I really loved watching him play. When all the little kids run out to look at the baseball field once everyone's done playing and everything's put away, I run out to Caleb and jump on him, I throw my arms around his neck and put my feet up around his waist.

"THAT WAS BRILLIANT!" I shout, and he laughs.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Eb!" I take his baseball cap off and put it on my head backwards, and then take a selfie and post it on my Snapchat story. "That hat makes you look cute, bub!" He says.

"Have you seen it on you?" I kiss him and he puts me down. Caleb and I go say goodbye to Alex and Kurt. It's clear they know what Connor did.

"It was nice to meet you, Ebony!" Says Alex.

"Yeah, I hope you had a nice time!" Says Kurt.

"I really did, you played very nicely."

"Okay Eb, time to get in the car." Says Caleb.

"Right, bye guys!"

"Bye, Ebony!" They say.

We met up with Katie, Annie, and Hayley. Katie insists she takes a picture to text to my Mum. Then we get in the car. "So," says Caleb "we have something we need to ask you, Ebony."