We Come Alive 5

GPA

Tuesday afternoon, Ethan had been spending his day with his girlfriend Christin since the two were starting to drift apart from their vastly different lives. He was currently walking with one arm around her shoulders while she walked him to the baseball field.

"Lavender and gold?" Christin scoffed. "Those are not going to be our wedding colors."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "What'd you think then? Don't say something ugly either."

Christin held onto Ethan's hand that was hanging loosely over her shoulder and smiled up at him. "How about black and red? I know you look good in black."

Ethan smirked, looking down at her for a moment then up at the field. He noticed some of his teammates hanging around in the parking lot talking with friends before they were forced to be on the field.

"It's a deal." He looked back to her. "Alright, you go. You can't be late for work." He told her, letting her go and planting a quick kiss on her lips.

Christin put her hand on his chest and smiled as they stared at each other for a moment. "How's date night looking? I'll wear red?"

"And I'll wear navy blue." He winked. "We can sit in the visitation room for an hour and a half together, two hours if I do my chores later."

Christin giggled and gave him one last kiss after she had retrieved her keys from her bag. "Have fun at practice. When's y'all's next game?"

Ethan shrugged his shoulders, checking his phone for the date. He could hear Christin swinging her keys in her hand and saying polite hi's to the athletes passing them.

"Sunday. You coming with me to the fundraiser Saturday?" Ethan wondered, shoving his phone in his back pocket.

Christin gave him an unsure look. "I got to?" She hissed, not wanting to do it.

"All the girlfriends are going." Ethan informed her. "And boyfriends." He added, glancing over at Jose and Colby talking and laughing a few yards away.

"Fine." Christin agreed. "I'll be there. I don't understand why the football team has to go."

Ethan shrugged, muttering his goodbye while Christin walked off to her car. Ethan walked to the baseball field and even walked through Diego and Mila's conversations they were having in the grass field between the parking lot and the baseball field.

"Hey, Ethan." Mila called out to him.

Ethan waved to her while he kept walking. He was getting prepared to yell at Clover to come hang out with him, but didn't when he noticed her showing her engagement ring off to Baylor, who didn't seem to interested, while Ricky was setting up the field for Hurst.

Ethan casually walked to the dugout and dropped his bag in the usual spot he put it. That's when he noticed Stephen sitting on the bench looking depressed.

"Your dog die, buddy?" Ethan questioned, flopping down beside him.

Stephen shook his head. "No. He's fine. It's this whole Jessica thing. I ain't never realized how much heart break hurts. It ain't helping that y'all wanna be all loved up around me. Love is overrated."

"Hell yeah." Ricky interjected, hearing the tail end of the conversation when he tossed the unused orange cones into the corner of the dugout.

Ethan waited for Ricky to walk away before he said anything to Stephen. "Listen, dude. It ain't all that bad. It'll get less and less painful as time goes on. Your first heartbreak is always gonna be the worst. Just lace up your cleats, grab a bat, and swing for the fences. Maybe that'll help. Mateo use to always tell me that pain is temporary, what you do to ease the pain is what's permanent. Don't do anything we would do, you're the child of the group. The pure one. Just ask one of us for help and we'll be there. You're one more heartbreak closer to happily ever after."

"For a drug addict," Stephen mumbled, "you're pretty good at this advice thing." 

Ethan shrugged. "It's a gift."

The two looked up when they noticed a familiar dirty blond haired, blue eyed white boy walking into the dugout. They didn't have much time to greet one another when they heard Hurst blowing his whistle as he walked onto the field.

"Start your warm ups!" He yelled.

Ricky walked away from the middle of the field and ignored the players jogging pass him to start their warmups in the outfield.

"Where you been?" Ricky asked Hurst, giving in to be the first to speak between them.

Hurst shook his head. "Nowhere. Just had to handle some paper work real quick. I didn't know there was as many issues with these kids as there actually is."

Ricky snickered, looking back at the twenty players in the outfield. He crossed his arms and went off to walk into the dugout. "You'll get use to it."

~**~

After practice was over, most of the players went into the locker rooms to cool down for a few minutes, which the coaches didn't mind. Ricky leaned against the wall adjacent to the boys' locker room door. He waited patiently as athletes from different spring sports filed out and left the school.

Ricky glanced up when he noticed a Brazilian boy walking out with a red and black SnapBack covering his brown hair. Ricky stood up straight, getting Baylor's attention, and walked towards him.

"Hey, I got you this." Ricky offered, holding out a packet of papers to him.

Baylor frowned, taking the packet from his coach who was only a year older than him. "What is this?"

"It's a packet of work your English teacher says will boost your grade." The elder answered. "I keep my promises. Your GPA is atrocious, so I have my work cut out for me."

Baylor snickered, flipping through the packet while his bag was on his back. "Hate to kill your dreams..." He handed the packet back to Ricky, "I'm shit at reading and writing. I don't know a single thing when it comes to English."

Ricky rolled his eyes, but lead Baylor out the back door to go outside. "You speak English, so it can't be that hard." He pointed out. "I'll take you to the library and tutor you myself. English was one of my strong suits."

Baylor didn't protest, just followed Ricky to his white Jeep and got in. He didn't say anything while Ricky drove them to the library. When they arrived, they found a table, one of the books Baylor was reading in class, and got to work. They spent hours sitting in the library working and getting the packet done before Baylor had to go home to his hectic life. Through the time they were there, Baylor kept getting messages from his brother asking where he was. When Baylor said the library, his brother said to come home right away. When Baylor said no and he needed to study, his brother agreed to let Baylor be for a normal teenager for the night.

Ricky ended up tutoring Baylor for the rest of the night and even drove him home when they were done. Baylor didn't get home until 10 o'clock that night. His brother Oscar didn't show it, but he was proud that Baylor wanted to have a future outside of the gang.