The Upset

Chapter 2

Thankfully I have my own set of keys for my dad's car. I walked to the staff parking lot and stopped in front of my dad's blue Ford Mustang Shelby Gt350. I got my stuff and walked back down to the field.

I get down there and set my bag down. I see my dad out on the field talking to a couple of guys. I walk up to join the talk. As soon as I get there they all turn their heads towards me. Straight away I notice Zander and his posse.

"What are we talking about?" I ask no one imparticular.

"It doesn't matter. Get off the baseball field," Zander says to me while glaring.

"And why would I do that?" I question him while looking him right in the eye.

"Baseball is a guy's sport. We don't want a bitchy girl on our team," Zander says with venom in his voice.

"Now wait just one second. This team is not yours, it's mine. In fact, you aren't even on the team," my dad says with a hint of anger in his voice. It's no doubt that he's pissed about someone calling his daughter a bitch.

"What do you mean not on the team? I've been starting pitcher since I got into this school," Zander replies.

"What I mean is that your old coach is gone. Starting today there will be tryouts until the end of the week. I know most of you have been sent here on a scholarship so if I don't think you have what it takes to be on this team then you will finish out this year and then you won't be returning on a baseball scholarship. Everyone give me ten laps! If you walk, say goodbye to being on the team."

I start jogging at a steady pace. The last thing I need is to be tired after running my ass off. I can already imagine all of the boys laughing at me. I quickly shake off the thought and keep going.

I am now on my last lap. Everything is going well. I'm in front of most of the guys. Well, I was until someone tripped me. I ate dirt literally. I spit the dirt out of my mouth and got up. Who do these guys think they are? I'm most likely better than most of them.

Everyone is drinking their water in the dugout when my dad comes in.

"Okay everyone I want you guys to go to the positions that you normally play at on this team except pitchers and catchers."

I didn't notice that there are so many people here until now. Two people at each position. What's the need for so many players?

"There will be cuts. There are 14 spots on my team," my dad states no doubt realizing the same thing I just noticed.

Since there are two catchers I decided to go with the pair that's not Zander and Justin.

"Hey is it okay if I join you guys?" I ask them both.

"Yeah sure. I'm River and this is Jax." River says while pointing over to Jax, the catcher.

"Violet," I reply.

After our short introductions, we start to warm up, and I get to know a little about River while doing so. I found out that he came here with a scholarship. He is really a 3rd baseman, but in the one game, he had to fill in as a pitcher for his team. The old coach for this team saw him pitch and offered him the scholarship. This is the best school in the country for baseball so for him to turn this opportunity down would have been crazy. After a couple of rounds of pitching my dad calls us over.

"Okay everyone meet me at the mound!" my dad yells.

We all run over to see what he has to say.

"I will be separating all of you into two teams. We are playing a full game, so I hope none of you have homework tonight."

He tells us that we get to decide what the batting order is and where everyone will play. Not that that part will be hard. I was put at the bottom of the lineup. I'm not too surprised considering almost the whole team is sexist.

The game was going one way. It is obvious that during practices they would use River for a live pitcher so they already knew what to expect. The other team kept cranking them over the infielder's heads.

Luckily enough the outfielders on my team were really good and we only let five scores while River was pitching. In the end, it ended up being a tied game with me finishing out the last two innings.

My dad talked to us all about what he saw and then told us to get some sleep. My dad was packing up everything while I put everything in my bag. I could hear Zander bitching about me trying out, but I didn't really listen because I know he's just worried he'll get his spot taken by me.

After I pack everything up I head to the car and put my stuff in. As soon as I shut the car I get a call. I look at the caller ID and realize it's my brother.

"Hello?"

"Where the hell are you?" my brother yells in my ear.

I look around to see if anyone was around before answering him.

"Dad made the whole team play a game. Just go without me. There is no way that dad will let me go with you if you come here."

"Okay but you are coming to my next one Xepher."

"We will see."

I end the call just in time to see my dad coming up to the car. He gets in and right away starts to ask me about how my day went.

"How was your first day at school? Did you make any friends? What did you think of tryouts today?"

"That's a lot of questions at once dad. My day was good. I talked to a few people. Too soon to call friends. Also, tryouts were interesting. I actually have something to talk to you about."

"What is it Xepher?"

"River Stewart. He doesn't want to pitch. He would tell you himself, but he thinks that he'll lose any chances of being on the team if he tries out for anything else. Before coming to this school he was a third baseman. I just think that you should put him at third and see how he does."

"Okay, thank you for letting me know."