The alarm clock that Jaime had set before we fell asleep was ringing loud in my ear, I open one eye to see I did not recognize the room I was in. Startled I jumped up and fell off the bed waking up Jaime who I had forgotten was there. I then let out a giggle as I remember everything from yesterday. Jaime, now awake, throws a pillow at my face. "Weirdo" she says with a half smile. Ricky then swings open the bedroom door wearing nothing but pajama bottoms and holding a stuffed bear like a mighty sword ready to defend us from absolutely nothing. I start to laugh while covering my eyes because the only people I've seen like that is my brothers. I obviously move some fingers to get a better look at his slender but muscular body. Jaime yells, "boy what are you doing!?" "I heard a scream and a loud thud so I'm here to find out what's going on" he says still half asleep. "What were you going to do with a stuffed bear" asks Jaime with a bit of an attitude. I uncover my eyes and continue to laugh while saying, "Sorry i freaked out didn't recognize anything at first." Ricky throws the stuffed bear at me and says with a laugh and a wink, "silly girl we would never take someone but I'd love to keep you anyway." My face is all kinds of red after hearing him say that. "Alright player out of my room we have to get dressed and so do you" says Jaime while closing the door. She looks back at me and says with a grin, "so what are you going to wear?" "Well I was just going to go with what I usually wear. Shorts, a t-shirt, and my cleats." "Hmmm well since it is just softball practice I guess that'll do, but what do you plan on doing with your hair and face?" "A ponytail and my face" I say laughing. I mean what else was I supposed to say other than the truth. I'm practicing for my first game so who cares what I look like, I'm going to end up all sweaty and gross once I'm done anyway. "Well why not some eyeliner and some eye shadow?" "Have you ever played a sport before? Looking good isn't part of the game, having fun and winning is." "No I haven't but why do something and not look good doing it?" "Okay fashionista you do the looking good part on yourself and I'll stick with being practical" I say with a smile. "Suit yourself." I roll my eyes while getting up to grab my clothes to go into the bathroom to change. "Hey where are you going?" "To the bathroom to change" I say a bit confused. "Okay but you don't have to, changing in front of other girls is no biggy. We all have the same equipment anyway." I think about it and she's not wrong so I stay and get changed. I put on my Tye-dye t-shirt, black shorts, knee high socks, and my cleats. "Whoa girl you got a nice booty in them shorts" says Jaime with a whistle. I didn't think a girl could make me blush but here we are. Never been told I have a nice butt before either so that was nice. "Thanks." "You're welcome." I glance at the clock on her night stand and see we have fifteen minutes to get to my house for my mom to take us.
I freak out and rush out the door to again slam into Ricky. "Oof! Girl this has become our normal" he says with a laugh while rubbing his chest. "Sorry I can't seem to stop crashing into you" I say while blushing and looking away from him. I notice a sweet smell coming from him and I can't help but smell his chest. "You like it" he asks with a laugh. "Oh uh yeah you smell great" "Hey you two love birds going to get a move on kinda have to hurry" says Jaime staring at us. "Yeah I'm ready" I say while walking away. They both start walking to catch up with me as I'm already running off the porch towards my house.
"Dang she's pretty fast and looks great" Ricky says to his sister while running along side her. "Have you looked at her butt in those shorts?" Ricky looks towards me and smiles, "I have now and it looks fantastic." "So when are you going to break up with Andrea to date Lala?" Ricky's smile goes away. "I'm not sure. I do want to break up with Andrea soon but I'm not sure if I want to date Lala right away. She seems to be a bit shy and new to everything. I mean have you seen how much she blushes around me? I just don't think we're on the same level yet. "Alright not like you two don't have time to grow a great friendship first." "Yeah taking things slow will be best for the both of us."
I finally get to my house and walk in. I forgot to put on deodorant or even bring it so I better go inside to do that. Mom just finished making a cup of coffee and is already dressed to go. "Morning sweetie, are you all ready to go?" "Yeah just need some deo for my beo" I say laughing towards the bathroom. I hear my mom laughing too. My siblings are still sleeping thank goodness I really don't want to have to ride in the back of the Rodeo just to fit everyone in. Ricky and Jaime finally get here and greet my mom. "Morning Jenn" they both say together. "Morning to you both. All ready to head out?" "Oh yeah and ready to see Lala do her thing" says Jaime. "Yeah plus it'll be nice to go to town, been a little bit since we've gone" says Ricky. "Lala! We have to go! or else we'll be late!" yells my mom. I come out of the bathroom and say "okay, okay. I'm here lets go before you wake everyone up." We all laugh and walk out to the Rodeo to hop in. "Shot gun!" yells Jaime. "Sweet I get to sit in the back with you" says Ricky with a smile. "Uh okay but I have to sit next to a window in case I get sick." He looks at me and asks "do you get car sick?" "Yeah but it doesn't always happen." "Well that's good to know, guess I won't take you on a ride in my go-cart when it's done." "Hey you said I'd be the first to ride with you!" yells Jaime a bit irritated at Ricky. "Don't worry you will be, I promise" he says reassuring her.
They seem to have a good relationship and I'm a bit jealous. My older brother and I are nothing like those two, not even close. I know if anything happened to me he'd be upset or take out whoever hurt me, but other than that nothing else. We hardly ever talk to each other and when we do sometimes it's just to argue.
The ride out to the park where I'm meeting my team seemed to go by fast. I was super excited because this will be my first actual practice and my best friend is on my team so i was double excited. Charlie has been my best friend since the second grade and we used to live across the street from each other. We kind of just clicked and after my dog died we became even closer. She was like another sister to me and I love her so much. She was definitely more of a tomboy than me. Her arm was in a full cast when we first met and that was from her trying to climb up a tree in her front yard. She lost her grip and fell.
One day she yelled at me from across the street because I was trying to climb up my tree. She was trying to warn me about falling but was amazed at how well I could climb. I've been climbing trees for years, so I was pretty confident in what I was doing.
We finally arrived at the park we're going to practice at, I grab my gear to hurry up to get into the field. I was so excited to see Charlie I had totally forgotten about Jaime and Ricky. I dropped my bag at the gate and tackled Charlie to the ground we both fell laughing. We stood up and hugged. "Long time no see" said Charlie with a laugh. "Right! Seems like it's been forever!" I say smiling. Ricky and Jaime get into the field and stand in front of us. They seem to be a bit uneasy so I say "Hey these are my new friends and neighbors, Ricky and Jaime. They wanted to come see me during practice so here they are." "Nice to meet you, I'm Charlene but my friends call me Charlie" she says with a smile. "Okay kids practice is about to start so if you're just here to watch you have to go sit on the bleachers or on the grass near the gate" yells one of the coaches. "See you two after practice then" says Charlie while grabbing my arm to run towards the coaches.
"Alright girls since its our first practice together lets get to know one another first" says the lead coach. "Who here wants to go first?" Almost all the girls but me and a few others raise their hands. In my head I'm thinking, 'not me not me don't pick me.' Then I here "Lala does!" It was Charlie next to me yelling that I did and I look at her like 'seriously! who's side you on?' "Alright, Lala you go first. Just stand up, say your name, and something about yourself." So I do as instructed; I stand up and say "my name is Lala and I'm super excited but nervous to be here. I've never been a part of a sport before so this is all so new to me" Everyone says hi and then my name. I begin to blush and sit down. Then all the girls do the same after me and when it gets to Charlie's turn she stands up to say "Hey my name is Charlene but you all can call me Charlie and I'm excited to win every game this year with all of you. Oh and make some new friends too." "Alright that's everyone lets get out on the field for some warm up exercises!"
We all stand up and run out to the far side of the field and the lead coach says "Okay this time I will lead the warm up but next practice one of you will lead and it'll just rotate between all of you. You will all count together after me for each exercise."
While we were all exercising I couldn't help but glance at Ricky once in a while to see if he was looking at me and he wasn't which gave me some relief because it would be weird if he was. "Hey you okay" asks Charlie. "Oh uh yeah I'm great." "Good maybe you'd like to focus then. If you want to be good you have to practice good too." I understand why she's concerned I tend to start things and not finish them out of fear. "No worries. I got this." I begin to focus on our warm up and am feeling the burn because I'm not use to this yet. I'm huffing and puffing at the end of our run which thankfully is the end of our warm up. I have sweat dripping down my face and the coach lets us have a short water break before seeing how well we do on the field. I walk over to the fence where my mom, Ricky, and Jaime are all sitting. "Looking good out there. Did you feel the burn" my mom asks with a laugh. While grabbing my water bottle I laugh and say "I'm still kind of feeling it but I also feel pretty great." "Still nervous or are you better now" asks Ricky with a smile. I gulp down some water before answering. "Oh yeah I feel great and the girls are awesome!" "Alright girls come on back" yells the lead coach. "See you guys later" I yell rushing back to the field to join my team.
"Okay so I'm going to pitch the ball while one of you gets into the catcher's gear and another one of you grabs a bat. I just want to see who can bat and who could use some work. So Precila why don't you be catcher and we'll go alphabetically with batters, which means Alaina goes first." I'm a bit nervous to bat because I'm the only left handed girl on this team so I'll be doing everything backwards and I don't want to be laughed at for it. My mom seems to be just as nervous or worried because now she's really watching us.
I still have a little bit before it's my turn to bat but right now it's Charlie's turn. She's got a good stance where the coach hardly has to repostition her or tell her what to do. You can tell in her eyes she's ready. The coach pitches the ball and Charlie hits it with her bat. She hits it hard too and it ends up in the far left side of the field. Almost all the girls even me are in awe of what she just did. The coaches smile at her and say "That was perfect! Absolutely perfect! If you girls can bat like Charlie there isn't a team who can beat you! Well done Charlie!" Charlie smiles with a 'I know' kind of attitude. She walks back into the dug out all kinds of happy and gives me a high five. "That awesome! How'd you do that!?" I ask truly curious. "Been practicing at home with my dad everyday for the past two weeks." "Well it paid off!" There were three other girls before me and they all did okay but could use some work. I was so nervous I swear everyone in the dug out could hear my heart beat. "Hey Lala it's your turn" says Charlie. "Oh uh yeah okay" I say fumbling to put on my helmet and grab my bat.
I walk out to the home plate and give my best stance. "Okay bring your hands slightly together on the bat. Feet a part. Look at the pitcher and only swing the bat down the middle when you're ready. No lumber Jack swings." As the coach is getting ready to pitch the ball to me I hear "she's left handed!" Of course it's my mom but the coach ignores her and so do I but she continues. The coach throws the ball and I swing with all I have. I hit the ball down to third base and I smile because I actually hit the ball. My mom is still yelling that I'm left handed and then my coach yells "I hear you but she did great doing it her way so chill!" "Mom did you see me I actually hit the ball!" Ricky and Jaime are whooping and hollering, I feel like a star.
The last two girls take their turns hitting the ball and then the coaches gather us all in the dug out to talk with us before sending us home. "Okay girls great work. A lot of you did good but some of you can improve but all in all you did great. For our next practice we'll work on catching and figure out who fits where out on the field. Before you leave today we need to get your shirt sizes so we can order your jerseys. Once we get your shirt size go ahead and go home." Charlie and I wait for the other girls to give their shirt size before giving ours. "Medium" says Charlie. "Large" I say after her. "Alright see you girls in two days but we might not have your jerseys until game day in about two weeks."
I hug Charlie before running to my mom, Jaime, and Ricky. "Good practice today sweetie and sorry for yelling I was just trying to help" says my mom while wrapping her arm over my shoulders. "Eh it's all good. I know you were." "Okay let's go I'm starving" I say holding my stumoch. "Well do you guys want to go get something from town" asks my mom. "Are you sure? We did just move" I say a bit concerned. "I have some money to splurge." "Sweet. How about McDonald's then? I love their fries!" "I'm down" says Jaime. "Me too" says Ricky. So away we go to get some lunch then go home.