We Come Alive 5

"Don't Make Me Look Dumb."

Saturday morning rolled around and Ricky was on edge. Today was the day he had to prove to everyone that he could successfully pull off coaching a team. Today was the first game of the baseball season.

The Grand Ridge baseball team had loaded the bus and road to their away game. The entire time, the bus was full of the players playing music loudly and yelling on what seemed like the top of their lungs. Neither of which were helping Ricky's nerves and his heart pounding out of his chest.

~

After a 20 minute drive, the Jaguars arrived to the game. Ricky lead them to their dugout for them to drop their stuff off before stretching. Ricky took a few deep breaths as he walked outside the dugout to instantly hear his name being called.

Ricky turned around to the bleachers where their family and friends were. A smile grew on the Egyptian boy's face seeing Andrew sitting in the bleachers with Madison next to him, holding onto his arm and Avery, Madison's younger sister, sitting next to her on her phone.

Ricky walked over to him and did a handshake with Andrew. "What're you doing here?" He chuckled.

The Asian boy shrugged, fixing the cap on his head. "Had to come see this first game. Stephen invited me. Had to come see you fail, you know." Andrew joked with a wide smile.

Ricky rolled his eyes, turning his attention to Madison. "Hey, how are you? Sad you're engaged to a dumb ass like him."

Madison laughed, laying her head on Andrew's shoulder. "No, I'm very happy with him. My future husband. How are you? I heard you're dating Manny, how's that going?"

Ricky chuckled nervously. "In a bit of a rough patch right now, but I really feel like I've found the one, you know."

Andrew shook his head quickly earning a pinch from Madison which made him laugh. Madison turned to Avery then to Ricky. "You remember Avery right?"

Ricky nodded, "Yeah. I see her around the school sometimes. What's up?"

Avery looked up from her phone and smiled softly to him. "Hey, Ricky."

Ricky whipped around when he heard Mateo whistling for him. "I gotta go, but I hope y'all enjoy the game." He said quickly before running off to the field. When he got there, Mateo gave him a look which Ricky ignored.

Ricky just mumbled assuring words to himself under his breath. He finally looked up at the team and sighed. "Don't make me look dumb."

~*~

The first and second inning went great for the Jaguars, but the third inning was when it started falling apart. They were having a real rough time getting the ball around the field to get outs.

Clover caught the ball from the outfielders who threw it to her, but she kept her eyes on the batter. She smirked sweetly, dropped it, and threw the ball. The batter hit it with force making it soar through the air. The ball landed it the middle of the outfield, but the outfielder missed it.

Ricky stood just off of the doorway of the dugout and groaned. He watched them throw the ball around, before being forced to throw it to Clover when the batter got to second base.

"This sucks." Stephen scoffed, slouching in his seat.

Ricky glared at the Jewish boy, who shrugged his shoulders, before turning his attention back to the game. He whistled sharply to get the catchers attention. Ricky rubbed his nose as a signal making the catcher nod and give Clover a signal.

Clover nodded once, threw the ball, and smirked when the catcher caught it. They did that two more times, getting the batter out. She laughed with a sinister smile when she caught it from the catcher. She didn't stop laughing when she whipped the ball to Jose. Jose caught it with ease and tagged the runner who tried to get pass him and to third base.