The Truth about Me

T-ball stinks

After the whole mess with the cancer and stuff last month mom and dad have been very careful with me and they barely let me do anything by myself. I have been begging them to let me do stuff, I have begged them to let me climb trees and play the games with the other neighborhood kids. But they only let me do what the little girls are doing, and not the little girls that can out boy a boy, but the ones that sit and play with barbies and tea sets.

I am the type of girl that can out boy a boy, I even tried peeing standing up (that did not work out too well.) I love playing baseball and football and riding my brother's skateboard. I can out boy my brother - but that isn't much of a challenge. I love doing anything that will get me dirty or that I will get a bruise or two from. Since the whole cancer thing I haven't gotten into any mud fights or gotten any bruises from a frisbee or baseball or falling off of something tall. I was sick of sitting with the little girls, today was the day that I was going to change that.

"Mom!" I yelled from the play room.

"Yes Sweetie?" She asked as she appeared at the door.

"Mom, can I go play baseball with the boys? I promise I won't get hurt just please let me go play." I pleaded with my mother, giving her the puppy dog eyes.

"Sweetie you need to start acting like a young lady and not a little tomboy, so no you may not go play with the boys." She said as she bent down to my level and kissed my forehead before leaving the room.

"Well Sally we are just going to have to go play without her permission then." I said to my doll quietly.

I slipped on a pair of jeans and one of my play shirts and a pair of old tennis shoes. I walked out of the play room and shut the door quietly and went up the stairs. I reached the front door and I grabbed my hat from the shelf and snuck quietly out, making sure that the door didn't slam. Once outside I sprinted for the baseball fields behind the row of houses. I got there and sat on the grass as I watched in disgust as the boys, all of them, played t-ball. Why on earth would they even want to play t-ball, we were big kids, I could even hit a fastball pitched by one of the older boys. Since we were so good at normal baseball why did they have to bring in the t-ball set, that was for the beginners.

Since I had come this far I didn't want to go home and get in trouble for doing nothing, so I stood up and walked over to the line of boys and waited for my turn. As I waited for my turn to come I stood there watching the other boys swing and miss, swing and miss, swing and oh they-missed. I wondered how hard this really was, I thought that I could do this, I rarely ever miss a ball when it's pitched to me why wouldn't I be able to hit one that's stationery.

It was my turn to bat, Mickey McFarling handed me the bat and I readied myself to hit the ball. I stood feet shoulder width apart, the bat almost touching my right shoulder, my left over my right. I let the air out of my lungs, closed my eyes and counted to ten, then I opened my eyes took a breath in and swung the bat and at the same time I heard the bat hit the ball I saw it sailing over the boys' heads. I dropped my bat and I ran around the bases and the boys just looked at me in awe. Apparently I was the first person to actually hit the ball out of all of the boys. They were dumbfounded that a girl had beat them at their own game.

I came back to home plate and I took the bat and the ball and then I knocked over the t-ball stand and said, "go get your mits boys, we are going to play real ball."

At that point all of the boys broke off in a sprint to their homes to get their mitts and I told Mickey to grab an extra one for me. I stood there waiting for the boys to come back, practicing my pitches as I waited.

"Hey Joy where's your brother at these days? He never comes to our little meetings and such anymore." Henry asked as he comes back with Mickey and hands me a glove.