Up at Bat

Chapter 1

Being catcher is a very interesting thing, having your crush pitch to you, it is a boys and girls game. The ball leaves his strong hand, as you catch the red dust ,from the ball, flies in the slight wind.

"Strike 1!" The umpire exlames.

    Ethan winds up again for another fastpitch. The batter just slow from hitting the ball,

"Strike 2"

    Ethan is the best pitcher on the team, the game is 18-17 in our favor, bases loaded, 2 outs and 2 strikes. The audience feels the tension between the two teams. You nod to Ethan, he notices and nods back. It's a curve ball, the batter swings and misses and a happy feeling fills your body when the ball meets your catcher's mitt.

"Strike 3! That's the ball game!" The umpire says with half delight.

    The game is over, we won! Ethan immediately walks towards me,

"Great job Megan, you are a great catcher!"

"Well I cannot be a great catcher without a great pitcher, Ethan!"

We walk to the dugout together, side by side. Until Rylyn sees us, she has a crush on Ethan, Rylyn used to be my best friend. Ever since Rylyn dated Michael, she left me in the dust. Now she goes for Ethan, Nuh-Uh I am not letting that happen. Rylyn cuts in the middle of Ethan and me, and glares at me. Ethan gestures for me to go to the other side of him, I do so. Rylyn flirts and flirts her heart away, when Jayla notices and walks to my side,

"Hey Megan, Ethan, you guys were great!" Jayla is 2nd basemen and hates Rylyn, like me. She is also my best friend.

"Hi, Jayla."

   We glance over to Rylyn and Ethan, Rylyn's head is on Ethan's shoulder. I can see Ethan is irritated, so am I. Jayla taps my shoulder, I know what she's about to do,

"No" I whisper, but she ignores me,

"Rylyn, Ethan does not like Termites on his shoulder, so get off." I can see Rylyn got pissed real fast.

"If I am a termite, what are you?" Jayla knows her tactics, and has a comeback to everything thrown in her way.

"I will give you a ratio, Rylyn: Ethan as Termite: Panther, Jayla: Megan as Dog:Cheetah, oh wait you dont know math, I'm sorry." A smug smile went across Jayla's face.

"Uggh," Rylyn scoffs as she hears this, and turns away, she cannot stand a fight.

Going to the dugout is treacherous, because the coach always edits or corrects our performance. When everyone else is high fiving you. My mom got me out just in time though, then Ethan runs to me and says

"Hey, wanna go to the food court?"

"Ummm," I looked at my mother for permission, she nodded, "Sure!"

"Great, come on!"

"Is Rylyn coming?" I may be irritated by her, but I do not hate her.

"Nah." My spirits lift as he says this, no jealousy, no competition, no upper-hand. Asher, his little brother, speeds up to meet us as we watch my parents car drive away.

"Bubba!" Asher exclaimed as Ethan picks him up.

"Hey Asher!" Ethan says, "How did we play?" at that moment Asher notices me and says,

"Megie!"

"Hey!" It took hard work to earn that nickname. We look at the street and notice my mom's car had left, so we did the same. As we walk away, Asher had gotten out of Ethan's arms and just held his hand for a while. When we past the baseball diamond, Asher held my hand. We walked for a little more, and we passed the Gelato truck, and we waved at our other teammates. The only thing I didn't notice was Asher put me and Ethan's hands together, when I noticed I didn't make a scene, but I blushed and looked away. Ethan didn't seem to mind, Asher was on the other side of him. I still carried on the conversation, asking if he is going to the 8th grade formal and he replies,

"I cannot go to any dances until I am 15."

"But you are 14, isn't that enough?"

"Not for my dad..." He looks disappointed, I feel him squeeze my hand a little harder. In all of my fantasies he was taking me to the big 8th grade formal, I was hurt by this, yet still kept a straight face. We walk a little more and finally arrived at the food court. When we go in, we immediately spot Rylyn and her friends.