Knowledge is Power

When I walk into the gym with my bags, I see that Emily and her friends are already in here. I put my bag with everyone else’s. I count everyone who is here including seventh graders. In total, there are forty-two girls. Twenty-five seventh, seventeenth eighth.

The coaches introduce themselves and tell us to start jogging. I start jogging making my way to the front, all of these girls seem to jog really slow except one girl. She is keep up with me. We start talking; she introduces herself as Olivia McCoy. She asks to throw with me; I accept. She explains she plays for the New York Garnets. They came in fifth place in the national tournament; our team beat them. I ask her what positions she plays; she says she plays short and catcher, but pitches sometimes. Though she pitches, she doesn’t like it. She basically only did it to make a connection with the pitcher which smart. I tell her my positions, but she says she already knew since I was on tv for the national championship.

By the time the coaches say circle up for stretching, Olivia and I have lapped the others, and most of them are red in the face like a cherry.

Emily, Madison, and another girl head to the middle and lead stretching. They have obviously done this before.

After stretching we get our gloves. All of the girls get a ball, and just start throwing. That is a bad idea. You could pull a muscle if you do that. Olivia and I start out six feet away doing wrist flicks where you flick your wrist from your shoulder. Then we back up, and start throwing, but without stepping. It makes you use your core muscles. After that we back all the way up, and start throwing: hard. Line drives back and forth.

After twenty-ish minutes, the coaches call us over to split up the seventh and the eighth graders. We go into the auxiliary gym to hit in the cage. We get in groups of three, and two groups of four. Olivia and I are in a group with a girl named Emma, and her twin sister Ellie. I get my helmet, batting gloves and bat. We hit off T-s, each taking turns.

There are five groups and five stations. There are two T stations, two soft toss, and then the cage. Our group is the last in the cage. The coach(whose name is Brian Foster) talks to us before going into the cage one at a time. He asks us who is a lefty and a righty. Then who is both. Emma and Ellie are both righties. Olivia and I can do both. The twins hit first. Olivia goes after. By now, everyone has packed up with their gloves out since we go to feilding next. Everyone watches Olivia drive the ball one after another. Then she switches to left, and slaps a few. When I go into hit, he tells me to bunt a few then swing. I do as I am told. I drive the ball where his head would be if he hadn’t have ducked. After driving some more, I switch to left where I bunt, slap, then hit some more.

We head back into the main gym. The assistant coach Mike Kelly hits us ground balls while Coach Foster takes the clipboard and evaluates us. I field the ball perfectly then throw it back to him. Emily, who is a little heavy set falls over trying to get hers, then throws it way over Coach Mike’s head. We go through the line a few times then do pop flies.

The seventh grade comes back in. All the coaches tell us to take a knee; they give us a talking to then dismiss everyone but pitchers and catchers. Olivia, myself, Emily, two other eighth graders and like fifteen seventh graders. They separate pitchers and catchers. There are seven catchers in total including Olivia, myself, Alex(an eighth grader), and four seventh graders. The rest are pitchers. I pitch for the first half then catch. Every pitch I throw is a fast strike to Olivia. I throw change ups, drop balls, screwballs, rise balls, and curveballs. I am able to throw all five different pitches. Some girls in college can't even do that.

Emily can pitch okay, but most of the pitches she throws are balls. I see her look my way with a glare every once in awhile.

When I go to catch she looks at me with a death stare. I let it go, and get my catchers’ gear on. I come back in, and catch for a seventh grader. She definitely hasn’t pitched before now. Maybe at home, but not to an actual catcher. Her balls are going everywhere. I have to jump and move for every single one. I think she has pitched two strikes, but they were very slow, like change up slow.

They say that there will be two more days of tryouts, tomorrow, and Wednesday.

“But the school formal is on Wednesday,” Emily blurts out cutting him off.

Coach Foster gives her an irritated look, “We are going to do them during the day on Wednesday. We have already discussed this with the teachers and principals. We will see you all tomorrow.”

I say goodbye to Olivia then walk home after they dismiss us. I pack my softball clothing in my bag then put it by my backpack. Surprisingly, I don’t have any homework so I’m free to workout and I can go buy my dress for formal. Carter asked me; I accepted. I guess we are boyfriend and girlfriend now. We’ve been on one date already. He took me out to eat at a nice resturant. I ate grilled chicken with a side of rice.

I hear my Ethan call everyone in for dinner. I grab my salad then go to my room to eat.


The days go by fast. Olivia and I talk while we wait for our names to be called. We sit in the far back of the gym while everyone else is playing ‘down by the banks’. We talk about who we would pick for the team and who we think are good. It’s pretty obvious that we are the best.

“Hey, um, do you think I could join the Titans?” she asks. “We just got a new coach for the Garnets, and I don’t like him. He’s too easy on us. Doesn't make us work enough.”

“Maybe. We have an opening. One of our girls is moving to Ohio for her dad’s work,” I answer. Hannah is leaving; she plays shortstop. “Lucky us.”

“Why would that be lucky for you? Your friend is leaving.”

“I meant lucky us because she was our catcher,” I say winking.

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“GlenAnn!” Coach Kelly yells.

“Well, that’s my que,” I say picking up my bags.

She says goodbye as I walk away to the athletic office.

I feel a little awkward sitting in a small room with two guys staring at me.

“Congratulations, you have earned a place on the eighth grade team,” Coach Foster says shaking my hand. Coach K. shakes it too.

“Thank you,” I say.

“Now we just want to clarify what positions you play and what your softball experience has been,” Coach K. says.

“I pitch, catch, and play first. All in all, I can play any position if needed also. I played for the East Falcons(another travel team) when I was ten and eleven. I then switched over to the Titan organization. I’ve played for them for two years so far, and won the national championship last year.”

He writes it all down in a blue notebook.

“Excellent. Here is the practice schedule. There is optional practice over spring break. Do you have any questions?” Coach Foster asks.

“Yes. Am I allowed to practice and play with my travel team during the season?”

“Yes. There are no restrictions as long as you come to the school practice before everything else,” he says.

I shake their hands again then go to the cafeteria where I wait for Olivia.

“I made it!” she yells.

“Oh, you did?” I say sadly. I’m going to act like I didn’t make it. “That’s cool.”

“What’s wrong? Did you not make it?” she asks softly.

“No!” I exclaim. “I’m on the team!”

“Sweet!” she says. “You had me going there.”

We walk to my house and eat some fruit, then my mom drives us to my practice. By the way, our tryouts took a little longer than expected, so we didn’t have to go back to class.

Okay, the dance is at nine. My practice is two hours long. It’s two o'clock, so practice will end at six, and start at four..

We get here a couple hours early, so I can introduce Olivia to my coaches. They’ll probably have her throw around, and do some other stuff to try out, but I’m not worried.

“Hey KenKen,” Max yells for the trainer’s room where he is getting his ankle taped up.

I stop in the doorway, “You know I don’t like being called that.”

“Whatever,” he says waving me off.

Max is on the 16u baseball team.

We keep walking through the halls while people call out my name and say hello.

“You’re pretty well known around here aren’t you?” Olivia asks.

“Yup.”

We take our bags to the indoor field where 16u is practicing then Olivia follows me to the coaches office.

“Hey coach,” I say sitting down in a chair that’s in front of his desk. Olivia sits in the other.

He’s going through some papers and doesn’t even look up.

“Coach?”

“I’m busy. You aren’t supposed to be here for another two hours,” he says irritated.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask in a sarcastic tone. Olivia looks at me sideways.

“I’m trying to get a replacement for Hannah, but all the girls that I have contacted don’t make the cut. Now stop talking, so I can get this paperwork done for the tournament next week. Go lift or workout, just stop pestering me.”

“I came early so, my friend Olivia could try out. She’s the catcher for the New York Garnets, but is looking for a new team.” By now he is looking at me like I’m an angel. “But, we’ll just leave, and stop ‘pestering’ you.”

I get up, and even turn around to walk out the door like how business people do.

He stands up, “Hold up! Let’s go to the field, and see what you got.”

We join the 16u; they are schrimaging. I pitch; Olivia catches.

Ball: outside. The girl on first tries to run to second. Olivia drills it two the second baseman(woman) on her knees. Out.

I throw a couple of wild ones to get her moving. She catches all of them then gives me an odd look. I shrug then throw a screwball that went outside to strike out the batter. She swung, it clips the end of the bat, and rolls a few inches in front of the plate. Olivia doesn’t hesitate to grab it, and shoot it down to first. Alyssa doesn’t even make it to the base when the coach calls her out.

We leave the 16u girls to finish practice and go to the batting cages. The 14u baseball guys are using one of the cages, and the 16u is using two. We get the last one. My coach puts the speed up to fifty five which is the average speed of what I can pitch. She drives a few; I stop watching, and start talking to the baseball players. Tye says they got first in the Babe Ruth Tournament this past weekend.

“Wish I could have came.”

“Why didn’t you,” says a blond kid who must be new because I know just about everyone in the Titan organization. He runs his hand through his hair, and leans against the column with his helmet under his right arm and bat in the left. “I’m Carter by the way.”

“Oh, wow. That’s a cute name…” I tease.

He smiles, and looks down. So do the other guys, but they’re chuckling more than smiling. They know what happens when someone tries to flirt with me.

“Oh, not because of you,” I chuckle. He looks up as if to ask why. “It’s only cute because it’s my boyfriend’s name,” I say in a girly voice.

“Oh,” he says blushing. “You have a boyfriend?”

“Yup,” I say in another girly voice. “And he’s super cute. More than you.” I point a finger at him.

“What did you say?” he says with anger in his voice.

“Kendra! Let’s go!” my coach yells from the door.

“Got to go. Bye!” I yell skipping away.

All the guys are cracking up now. Tye is actually on the ground, rolling. I smirk.

“I thought you had a boyfriend. What would he do if he found out you were flirting with other guys.”

“Some new guy was trying to flirt with me, so I kinda led him on then threw him off a cliff,” I say bouncing my head back and forth.

“So you acted like you liked him then dropped the ball that you has a boyfriend?” she says. “Nice.”

“And the best part was that his name was Carter!”

“Ah ha ha ha,” she laughs.

We laugh together then keep walking down the hall. We left our bags in the indoor field room by the way.

“Hey!” we hear and turn around. “You two! Stop right there!”

Notes

HOLA
-A.D.R.