No Matter What

May 25th

May 25th

I had a softball game today. I invited Grandpa Clark and Grandpa Brooks to show up and see me play. I was put as the closing pitcher and first in the batting lineup.

The commentator for the game was my school's Vice Principal.

"Up next to the plate is our lucky number seven, Roxanna Brooks." The Vice Principal says.

There were lots of people cheering for me. My grandfathers were the loudest cheer leaders.

I step up to the home plate and take my position.

"Eye on the prize, darling!" Grandpa Clark hollers.

"Eyes wide open buttercup!" Grandpa Brooks yells.

"Eyes wide open." I mutter to myself.

The pitcher of the other team stares at me dead and cold. I stare the pitcher down.

I have my bat tap my feet and the center of the home plate. I practice a swing. Then I assume my position.

The pitcher assumes her position, looking directly to the catcher's mitt. She picks up her left leg with the ball and mitt close to her face. I wait for her to throw as she waits for me to lose concentration.

The pitcher throws the ball. This comes ball comes by very fast.

When that ball got close to me, I hit it, heard a crack and the ball went sky high, flying towards the outer field.

"She hits the ball and cracks the bat in half!" The Vice Principal shouted. "Look at that ball fly."

I toss the other half of my bat towards my grandfathers. Then I ran to first base as fast I could.

Everyone in my school starts to cheer for me at the bleachers.

"Look at Lucky seven go at lightning speed!" The Vice Principal said.
When I get to first base, I decided to keep on going to second base because the ball was still flying.

As I ran to second base, the Vice Principal yells, "The ball is out of the park!"

Everyone went crazy.

After that I just jogged the rest of the way until I stepped onto home plate.

"Forget Lucky seven, Lightning Brooks, the great advance of the game." The Vice Principal said.

After stepping onto home plate, I go to the stands to meet up with Levi, Gracie, Blaze and my grandfathers.

"You broke your bat." Blaze said.

"That wasn't even mine at all." I say as I take off my helmet.

Levi hugs me from behinds and whispers in my ear, "This is what happens when you show your true self." Then he tries to kiss my neck.
I chuckle as I try to push him away.

"Darling." Grandpa Clark said.

"Buttercup." Grandpa Brooks said.

"Grandad." I said. "Grampers."

Both of them hug me and tell me that they are proud of me and could not wait to see me pitch.

I went back to the dugout, sat at my spot on the bench, drank water and rested.

Fifteen minutes later, I was able to pitch. Within, six minutes, I struck three people out.

Then we had two more innings. For those two innings, the other team had fifteen players go and twenty of them took turns loading the bases while my team was hitting home runs like it was no problem.

In the end, my team won the game. The score was fifteen to twenty seven.
This went down as the greatest softball game in our school history.

My grandfathers decided to celebrate at PF Chang's. My grandmothers met us there. My grandparents let me invite Levi, Gracie and Blaze to join us.
Over at our dinner at PF Chang's, Gracie got an very important email. Her phone goes off which caught my attention.

"You guys, I just got an email from of my college choices, Temple University." Gracie said. "I wanted to major in Photography."

"Read it honey, this is giving me chills." Grandma Clark said.

"Just to let you all know, I got accepted to New York University and The New York Film Academy." Gracie said. "Let's open this one."

Gracie clicks the email.

The suspense was killing all of us.

"I got in!" Gracie shouts. "I got into Temple University."

I shot out of my seat and went straight to hugging Gracie. She just got accepted to all of her three dream colleges. Everyone was ecstatic.

Then Blaze's phone goes off three times. That caught my attention.
Blaze's eyes bug out. That also caught my attention.

"What's up Blaze?" Levi asks.

"PACE University just contacted me." Blaze said. "I want to major in Directing."

"They just started doing Directing." I said.

Blaze reads the email. "Guys, I got into PACE."

This was great news. Two great friends of mine are going to college.

"I also got accepted to New York Film Academy and The American Film Institute too." Blaze said. "I found out earlier this week."

"You got into The American Film Institute?" Gracie asks Blaze. Blaze nods. Then Gracie says, "I guess you wanted to have a more closer flight to home than I thought."

"I put American Film as a safety because of the move Grace so chill it." Blaze said. "We made it to our college choices, be happy for the both of us."

"Okay Blazie." Gracie grumbles.

"Okay Grace." Blaze says as she playfully punches her twin's arm. "It's always you with the bad mood."

"Sure it is." Gracie said.

"I think your grandparents should get us the check now." Levi mumbles to me.

"Good idea Levi." Grandma Clark said.
The waiter comes to our table and Grandmother Clark says, "Check please."

We all skipped dessert and went to the town's bakery to get tons of sweets. When all of us went back to my house, all of the sweets were gone within a matter of seconds.

Levi, Blaze, Gracie and I were literally fighting over getting at least a tiny crumb of each sweet that my grandparents bought for us. As I was fighting for my sweets, all four of my grandparents were laughing at me. I can't believe that my own family was laughing at my struggle. That is so not funny.

Levi was too generous, not getting as much as he wanted to get. I thought it was cute but it also got me very annoyed. I don't know why but I just did.

The twins went home and Levi and I went into my room, cherry knotted and cuddled for an hour before he had to go back home.