Mysterious life of Bechloe

Softball

"Iv, come on we're gotta get to your first practice!" Chloe called.

Ivy ran downstairs with her brand new softball pants, socks and belt on. "I'm ready, I think. Am I forgetting anything?"

"Nope, everything else is in the car. We have the team meeting first anyway." Chloe smiled. "I'm so excited!"

"Me too!" Ivy replied.

They drove to the place where the meeting was going to be held and went inside. "Oh by the way, I checked the list and Allie's not on your team."

"Aww," Ivy said sadly.

"You'll still see her around though," Chloe replied.

When the girls all showed up, Chloe went to the front and smiled at the girls. "Hi girls! I'm Chloe and I'll be your coach." The girls anxiously glanced around at each other and Chloe smiled nervously. "I started playing softball when I was 5 and I stopped after high school to pursue singing in college. I was gonna join an adult league but then I got hurt and ended up in a wheelchair, so I decided to coach my daughter Ivy!" Ivy awkwardly smiled at the group and Chloe laughed. "There will definitely be some things I'll have to figure out along the way but I'm really looking forward to this season." She paused and looked up the girls who still looked really anxious. "I know some of you are probably thinking something like 'how on earth is she supposed to coach us she can't even walk,' but I know I can do it! It'll just take some thought and figuring out along the way, but I'll definitely manage. "My whole life since I got hurt is basically me figuring things out and how to do things on my own, so I pretty much have the hang of it. Trust me, you guys are in good hands, I promise!" The girls smiled and Chloe laughed. "Does anyone have any questions?"

"How did you get hurt?" A girl asked.

"That's a very long story for another time," Chloe said with a small smile. "I'll tell you guys, I promise. Just not yet."

The girl nodded and Chloe smiled anxiously. "How about we play the name game. We'll all go around and say our names and our 3 favorite things. I'll go first. My name is Chloe, you can call me Coach Chloe or Chloe or Mrs. Beale, it doesn't really matter actually. And my 3 favorite things are my daughters, my wife, and music...ooh but cheese its are good too."

Ivy smiled sweetly at her mom. "I'm Ivy and my 3 favorite things are my moms..well my family in general because I guess my little sister deserves some credit, music, and my mom's pancakes because they're amazing."

Chloe smiled. "Aw thanks honey. Piper do you want to go next?" She asked the girl sitting next to Ivy.

"Uh sure. My name is Piper and my 3 favorite things are softball, food, and writing." Piper smiled shyly.

After all the girls went, they went outside to the softball field. Chloe pushed her way out onto the field in front of the girls. "Usually my wife will be here to help out even though she's never played softball in her life, but she had to take our other daughter to a class at the library so I'm by myself today. So out of everyone here, who hasn't played before?"

Ivy and a girl named Kaylee raised their hands.

"Ok, everyone else go warm up with stretching and playing catch and I'm gonna work with Ivy and Kaylee for a little bit. The girls followed Chloe out of the dugout and she smiled at them. "Ahh my newbies."

Kaylee smiled. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Oh of course not!" Chloe said. "It's actually a great thing because it's a learning experience for all of us! I get to learn how to coach from my wheelchair and you'll learn how to play softball! This is awesome! So Kaylee, what's your basic knowledge of the sport?"

"Well I know some of it because I grew up watching baseball but I know there's 3 strikes and 4 balls and on ball 4 you get a walk and on strike 3 you're out. I know how to play catch and I'm probably ok at hitting, I just have bad form I think."

Chloe smiled. "You know a lot that's great! See where my problem comes in is teaching you guys how to hit, pitch, throw, and run the bases properly since my legs are basically useless and most of softball involves using your legs. I'll just have to figure that out along the way too."

Kaylee smiled sympathetically at Chloe. "I'm sure you'll do great Mrs. Beale."

"Yeah mom it'll just take some time and then momma can come in and hopefully you can explain things to her so maybe she can physically show us how to do them."

Chloe smiled. "You guys are the best."

Ivy laughed. "Well duh."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I can try to teach you how to run the bases if you want."

"Sure," Kaylee replied.

"Ok, so when you're planning on running to second you have to tag first base with your outside foot and run to second. That way you take less steps, getting there faster."

"Oh ok, like this?" Ivy asked, running from first to second, doing exactly like Chloe told her to.

"Perfect!" Chloe said excitedly. Kaylee did exactly the same and Chloe had a huge smile on her face. "Maybe this won't be so hard!" She said happily. "Ok guys I'm gonna work with pitchers now so how many of you pitch?"

3 girls raised their hands and walked over to Chloe. "Ok I need catchers too," Chloe said.

2 more girls walked over to Chloe. "Okay great! Can Courtney catch for Erin, Ashley catch for Brianna and I'll catch for Elise."

Elise smiled at Chloe. "Did you catch back when you played?"

"Yeah, I was more of a pitcher than a catcher but I caught whenever they needed me to," Chloe explained. "How many pitches do you throw?"

"Well I do ten of each warm up then I throw 50 pitches. I'm hoping to get up to 100 by next month."

"Wow, that's impressive!" Chloe said.

Elise started doing her warm ups and moved on to real pitches. Chloe caught almost every one and threw them back. "You're really accurate, now we just gotta add the speed."

"Oh I'm slowing them down a lot," Elise said.

"Why?" Chloe asked.

"Well I don't want to hurt you," Elise shrugged.

Chloe smiled sweetly at the girl. "Aww you're so sweet, but seriously, I'm fine," Chloe replied. "You're really good, I don't want you to hold back because you're scared to hurt me."

"Ok," Elise replied. She started pitching harder and every single one was just as accurate.

"Elise oh my gosh you're amazing!" Chloe said excitedly. "I might actually need you to show everyone else how to do it at the next practice because well obviously I can't."

"Oh I'll totally do that for you," Elise said. "Just out of curiosity, do you have any function in your legs?"

"Yeah, just a little," Chloe replied. "I can stand for about 10 minutes at a time and I can take a few steps on my own."

"Wow that's great!" Elise said. "I bet you'll be walking soon."

"Yeah I think so too!" Chloe said. "Hopefully I'll be able to be a better coach next season."

"You're doing great already, Ms. Beale. I think this is gonna be a great season! I'm so glad you're coaching us too."

"Aww you're so sweet," Chloe said. "I'm so glad you guys are so supportive of me. I was a little hesitant at first, but you all are so nice and I think this actually might go really well."

"It will, I promise," Elise said. "Alright, I don't want to tire my arm out too much."

"Ok," Chloe replied. "You did so great today!"

"Thanks Mrs. Beale!"

The rest of the practice went really well for Chloe and she was so glad the team bonded so well! She couldn't wait to see how the rest of the season went!