Lonely

Chapter 65, Hanger

Arianna walked into the room just then, followed by the ever faithful Jasper.

“Ariadne said you needed to see me.” She said simply. Sadie nodded.

“Roxi told me something. Sophia was hiding, and Roxi was skimming through the cameras looking for her. She said that she saw three monsters go past. She said they didn’t look like they were going to attack, they looked like they were going somewhere.” She explained. Arianna paled and looked at Jasper. He sighed.

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, actually. What you guys said about the monsters being smarter made me think. They are designed for a war. When a war comes out, they are designed to adapt to how they need to fight it to their best advantage, just as all of you have powers so your chances are better. It is their way of evening the playing field. They have a base, not far from here, I’m afraid. That’s probably why they went so close to here without attacking. We need to get to Lonely.” He said.

We all were silent. “What does this mean for the battle?” Boomer asked.

“Fortunately, we did plan for something like this to happen, and we will still win, I know it. We didn’t plan on it happening quite so fast, though. We need to go to Lonely early and get to the real training.” Arianna said.

“When will we leave?” Dodger asked. Jasper seemed to think about it.

“The sooner the better.” He looked at Arianna.

“When can you have the van ready?” he asked. She let her gaze travel, then it snapped back to him.

“Probably tomorrow evening.” She said. I didn’t really understand what they meant, but didn’t know if it really mattered. The room was silent. Sadie stood up and clapped her hands together.

“Well, until then, the kids wanted to play baseball. They’re getting it set up out back.” She announced. Arianna smiled.

“That’s great. We’ll be out in just a minute.” She grabbed Jaspers hand and dragged him out of the room.

“I don’t know what they meant about, ‘the van’, but it better not involve me being stuck in a Minnie van for numerous hours.” Liam complained. Levy snorted.

“It’s only a mini can ‘till it runs your ass over, than it’s a full sized van.” He said. Max nodded in agreement.

“Come on. We’d better go outside.” Sadie said, leading the way. We all followed her out side, where there was a rush of commotion around us. Libby was constructing two dug outs on the yard. Sully was helping Sophia look for things to use for bases. Ryder was going through and making all the grass turn brown in straight lines for the base paths. Ariadne was sitting on the ground with her eyes closed, trying to focus on the weather to make it perfect for playing ball. Roxi was helping Jett carry bats and a bucket of baseballs out onto the field.

“Guys! You’re ruining Arianna’s yard!” Sadie cried, marching towards them. None of them stopped what they were doing.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to take the dug outs apart neatly after the game, and Ryder’s gonna make the grass come back in full, then Sophia is going to make sure it is the perfect color.” Libby explained, finishing with the first dug out. Sully grunted as he tried to lift a rock out of the ground. It was flat on top and apparently perfect for the bases. Boomer went over and lifted it effortlessly out of the ground and carried to over to where Sophia and Sully instructed.

Nicco went around with Ryder, helping to brown the grass with fire. The others sat wandered off while waiting. Sadie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. I wove my fingers through hers, and she looked up at me.

“I’m just tired. And now we’re leaving and I don’t even know anything about it, and I haven’t talked to my mom about all the stuff I’ve been learning. I’m just getting stressed, you know?” she said. I squeezed her hand.

“Don’t worry. Everything always works out.” I paused, wanting to lighten the mood.

“Like, even though I’ve never even played baseball and all I know about it is that you hit the ball and run, I’m going to play, and it’s all going to work out.” I said. She smiled, and the weight on my shoulders seemed that much lighter.

Finally, we were all gathered in a circle. Jasper and Arianna had been picked for team captains and were about to choose who would be on their team. Jasper rubbed his jaw with his thumb.

“Levy.” He said. Levy stepped forward and punched Jaspers arm. Arianna made a face.

“I get Boomer, then.” They smiled widely, obviously pleased that it was between him and Levy. They continued picking teams, occasionally disputing over fairness like kids. In the end, I was on Jasper’s team with Levy, Sophia, Dodger, Nicco, Roxi, Jasper, Sully, and Libby. The kids all pranced around excitedly until Jasper came over and gave us the game plan. I had no idea how to play this game, but I intended on learning, Jasper put his hand on the base of a bat. Arianna put her hand on top of his, and he put his over hers. They continued this until they reached the top of the bat and Jasper’s hand came out on top. He put Sully up to bat first.

I can’t say that I had ever heard of baseball being played like this game was. Levy hit the ball only a couple feet, but made a home run in three seconds flat. Sully hit the ball, ran a few steps, then disappeared and showed up on second base. Libby hit the ball , then ran, and at the same time sent a board flying off the dug out to distract them for a moment. Little Sophia hit the ball and then turned the color of the back ground and sprinted, ducking under arms. No one wanted to get a six year old girl out anyways.

Dodger had no tricks up his sleeve, saying that we were ruining the sport by cheating, but made it to first base anyways. Nicco literally set the ball on fire so one could catch it. Roxi found a blind spot through one of the cameras and aimed the ball in that direction, but got out when Ryder grew a vine and she tripped over it. We couldn’t exactly call a cheat because everyone in this game was cheating. Jasper barely touched the ball, but it flew higher than I could see into the sky.

Finally, we had three outs and changed sides. It was just as interesting. Boomer was up to bat first and hit the ball farther than we could see, and it went deep into the woods. Levy took off after it. He was back just as Boomer was about to go into home, and he would have him out but something stopped in his tracks and he threw the ball to the ground. Sadie grinned at me. Ariadne got hit in the eye, and Jett had to play doctor on her.

By the end of the game, I realized I was doing something I rarely did. I was having fun. Sadie was watching me, seeing how I felt. Libby took the dug outs apart. Ryder went through and grew all new grass, and Sophia rolled around on the ground to make sure it matched. I had a feeling that was more for fun that anything else. Boomer and Levy joked with each other, knowing they were fairly evenly matched. Dodger grumbled about cheating, and Nicco and Liam argued over which team was better.

Sully and Ryder wandered off to go make a fort in the woods, Sophia and Libby tagging along. Jett brushed up against me, and then crawled under a wooden table. Max slept under a tree, and I wondered if anyone would bother waking him up. It was already beginning to get dark. Ariadne lied on the ground and stared at the sky as she often did. Jasper and Arianna drifted to a bench on the garden. The night was peaceful and warm, and it seemed as if nothing should be wrong. Everyone was happy.