“Then you tell me why Jayden would do this.” I sat the can on the coffee table and leaned forward.
“Hudson, don’t you see? You’re givin’ him a golden opportunity here. We’ve only got a few games left. We’re poised to make a run at the city championship. Scouts go to those. And with the media all over you, they’ll be at all our games. Make sense now?”
Unfortunately, it did. “He’s using me.”
“Pretty much.”
“Still doesn’t make it right.”
“Nah, it don’t. But can you really be mad at the kid? He ain’t goin’ get the shots that the rest of you get. And he can play college ball. The rest of the guys ain’t gonna. They might try and get on the team, but Jay’s got a chance to really get on the field. Other than Delvin and Ollie, the other guys will be goin’ off to college or the military.”
“Why not Delvin and Ollie?”
“Prolly headed for construction jobs. Don’t get me wrong, kid. They’re good boys, but college ain’t for them. They know it.” He chugged his soda. “Let me ask you something. Do you even know what most of these boys wanna do after high school?”
“Daniel wants to be a doctor. Adam wants to work with computers. Calvin and Reggie both talked about going into the Army.”
He grunted. “Army.”
“T.C. mentioned that he wanted to draw comics once.”
“But you don’t really know much about them, do you?”
He was right. Other than Daniel and Adam, I didn’t know them. They were just guys I played ball with. I shook my head no.
“These boys live in a different world than you.” He held up his hand to stop me from interrupting. “I’m not sayin’ that you’re slummin’ or nothin’. Like I said, these kids aroun’ here ain’t bad. They ain’t all super poor. Hell, most of ‘em ain’t slightly poor. Jay’s the only one who ain’t got much. His momma works two jobs just so he can live in a better neighborhood and go to a better school. But don’t you go and feel sorry for him either. He won’t have any of it.”
“He still didn’t have to talk,” I said without much conviction.
“Nah, but he did and now we have to move past that.” He looked toward the stairs as someone clumped down them. “That’s what this is all about. Get it all out. Get past it. If we don’t, this team’s as good as cooked.”
Ian, Reid, and Gil came down first. They didn’t say much except to point out that they didn’t talk to Wakefield. Daniel and Adam came down a moment later. They were up to something but didn’t share. The rest of the team showed one right after the other, with Jayden walking in last. He reeked of guilt and had a look of defiance on his face like whenever he faced a pitcher that had gotten him out before.
“Alrigh’, now that you’ll are here, let’s get it out in the open.” Coach leaned against the wall, giving his recliner up to Jayden. “This ain’t gonna be a free for all, got it? We’re gonna do it like you’ll are in school. So if you got sumthin’ to say, raise your hand.”
They guys looked at one another, except Jayden. I stared at him. Ollie raised his hand and Coach nodded at him.
“I didn’t say anything, Vic,” Ollie said. “Just so you know.”
“I know, Ollie. It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t,” Adam snapped without raising his hand. “We agreed not to talk. Vic asked us not to and one of us did anyway. That is not okay.”
“Yes, it is –” I began.
“Whoever talked is a coward,” Daniel jumped in. He glared at Jayden.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now we ain’t gonna name call,” Coach barked.
“It’s true, Coach,” T.C. defended. “He needs to come clean and own up to it. Or he is a coward.”
I stood up and said as loud as I could without yelling, “It doesn’t matter, guys.”
They started talking at once. Except for Jayden, who glared at me.
Coach let out an ear-piercing whistle and the guys shut up.
“Just listen to me, okay?” I begged. “It doesn’t matter who talked.” Coach nodded as I took on a role I hated: politician. “We need to move on. Can you guys do that without calling him out?”
Adam stood up. “No. Sorry, Vic. This isn’t just about you. He let us down. All of us. He needs to apologize like a man.”
“No, I don’t,” Jayden roared. He got in Adam’s face. “I didn’t do a damn thing wrong.”
“How in the hell can you say that?” Daniel yelled, getting in between them. Adam gripped Daniel’s arms and held him back.
“I didn’t tell Vic I wouldn’t talk to Wakefield. I didn’t go to that little get together where she confessed that she’s just a poor rich girl who isn’t understood at home.” He changed his voice to sound like a toddler as he said that. Then he grew somber, “Wakefield asked me what I thought of her on the team. So, yeah, I told him. And there’s no way I’m apologizing for it.”
Daniel tried to break free from Adam’s grip.
“Stop it. All of you!” Coach shouted and growled at the same time. The guys stopped moving like his voice froze them in place. Coach nodded to me. “Vic, speak your peace.”
I nodded and looked at Jayden. “You’re right. You didn’t make any promises, but I did ask the team as a whole. That included you. Everyone agreed. Majority rules.” I sat back down. “I don’t know why you did it. I don’t care either. It doesn’t matter now. The damage is done.”
“What damage, Vic? How in the hell did this hurt you? It’ll only help your daddy in the polls.” Jayden jabbed his finger toward me.
I shook my head and tried not to become overly emotional. I closed my eyes to calm down and let it seep into my voice. “Look Jayden, you don’t know anything about me. You’ve never bothered to learn. You prefer to think I’m some joke. You think I’m a mockery to everything you hold on a pedestal. But you don’t get it.” The room was silent except for the ticking clock on the wall. “Go play softball then. Try. See how it feels when they tell you that you can’t. Try out for volleyball next year. Or join the girls’ track team. Oh, but you can’t because you’re a boy. Because you’re the ‘superior sex’.
“I’ve told you guys that I’m not playing baseball because of some grand scheme to prove girls are as good as boys. I’m not trying to make a point. I could’ve played softball. I could’ve gone to Europe. But I wanted to play baseball. It’s a different game and you all know it. And I love it.
“After this summer, I’ll never get another chance to play competitively. So, Jayden, I’m sorry if you think my motives aren’t pure. Tough. I just wanted to play ball and be a normal person for once in my life. You’ve taken that away from me.” I looked around at the team. “Now you guys are going to have to deal with what it’s like to be Victoria Hudson. Welcome to my hell.”
Coach put his hand on Jayden’s shoulder. I could tell I hadn’t gotten through to him. He didn’t care.
“There may not be other reporters at the game today,” I continued. “If it hits the national wire, and it probably will, the chances of more reporters showing up are pretty good. So, talk. Don’t talk. I don’t really care anymore. You think I’m some privileged princess. Fine, live in my world then. But I have to warn you, this will be way worse than anything I’ve had to deal with in the past.”
“What do you mean worse?” Calvin asked.
“My father’s going to announce his candidacy for President. The press has been speculating this and it’s true. The media eats this stuff up. It’ll get political. Heck, you may even have to deal with tabloids.” I looked at Daniel. “They’ll go after you and your family first. I’m sorry.”
Daniel nodded. Saying it out loud made it real.
“And, guys, the Senator is coming home. Tonight.”
Even the clock went silent.
“He was going to write the story anyway,” Jayden mumbled.
“Yeah, but you fuelled the fire,” Coach said. He stepped into the center of the room. “So here’s what we’re gonna do. First, n
o one talks to the media. I ain’t kiddin’. You talk and you’re benched. Got it?”
Everyone nodded once in unison.
“Second, we meet here before every game the rest of the season. We go as a team. We leave as a team.” He looked around at each one of us. “It’s almost two now. Y’all got your gear?”
A chorus of “yeps” and “yeahs” echoed in the suddenly smaller basement.
“Third, y’all are gonna get over this thing with Jay. We can’t change it. We need to move forward. As a team.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Look, kids, you’ll probably gonna make the tourney. Hell, you got a damned good chance to win it. Don’t let some stupid crap blow that outta the water.”
We grouped into cars. Daniel climbed into the passenger side of my car while Adam and Reggie jumped in the back. Daniel used my cell since his was dead to call his parents and warn them what to expect. With Aunt Rita in town, they were coming to the game.
“Oh, this is not happening,” I blurted out after he hung up.
“What?” Daniel asked. “What else could possibly go wrong today?”
“Remember when I said my father was coming home tonight?”
Daniel nodded. I could feel Adam’s eyes boring a hole in my head from the back seat.
“He’ll be home in time for dinner.” I glanced at Daniel in time to see his face fall.
“Okay, the freak-out was warranted.” Daniel called his father again and relayed the information. They started arguing in Korean.
Adam distracted me by asking, “How big will this media circus be?”
I shrugged. “Today, I’d say mostly the local news. It may only be Wakefield though. In about a week,” or less, “it could explode.”
“Why a week?” Reggie asked as Daniel hit the end button on my phone for a second time.
I cringed at the thought. “Because, if things go as they usually go, my father will play this up to his full advantage.”
The parking lot was full. I squeezed into a newly formed space on the grass. As a team, we walked to our dugout with me in the center. The stands were crowded and lawn chairs lined the fences again. I spied Mom in the bleachers in a deep conversation with Pepper. They didn’t even bother to try to blend in now. Wakefield was easy to spot. He lingered near our dugout. Then I saw someone totally unexpected talking to him. Or rather at him. Robert Belton, my father’s campaign manager. He nodded toward me but didn’t crack a smile.
It was our second meeting with the Panthers. The first one did not end in our favor. We knew it would be tough going in. We huddled in the dugout before warming up.
“Well, I’ll say one thing about all this attention, Hudson,” Reggie said, smiling into the stands. “I’m going to get a few phone numbers out of it.”
I followed his gaze to a couple of girls. He waved at them and nodded. I jammed my elbow in his side, making him double over.
Daniel and I walked onto the field when Daniel touched my back. Barely. But it was enough to hear Wakefield say, “Thata boy.”
My head dropped.
“Sorry,” Daniel whispered as he pushed by me.
The guys joked around like it was any other game. After we stretched and warmed up, we gathered in the dugout for Coach’s pep talk. Daniel stood on the opposite side of the circle and didn’t even look at me. This was going to be harder than I thought.
The Panthers started swinging their bats. I felt their eyes on me as we ran onto the field and the cheers erupted. I did my best to ignore it but couldn’t stop my face from burning. Jayden tossed some grounders and T.C. moved closer to me.
“Hey, Vic.” He smiled. “How’s it feel to be a celebrity?”
I ran up on a grounder and threw it as hard as I could at Jayden’s head. Then I turned to T.C. and snapped, “It feels like everyone is watching my every move. It feels like I’m under a microscope. And it sucks.”
“Bet it does.” He leaned over so only I could hear him. “But thanks.”
Jayden looked bored as he tossed another grounder my way. “For what?” I asked as I threw the ball.
“I wanna play college ball. The scouts that usually show aren’t going to look at me twice with Jayden around. Maybe now there’ll be someone that will.” He reached down to touch his toes. “I mean, if some new ones show. People will come to see you and I’ll be right beside you. Maybe I might get a shot.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I hope they do.”
After my chat with T.C., I relaxed a little. Maybe some good could come of this mess. I focused on the task in front of me: the Panthers. We had one advantage over them. Me.
I was benched when we first played them but not today. I put on my game face and ignored the crowd, even as they chanted my name when I stepped into the batter’s box to lead off the bottom of the first.
Their pitcher walked me on four straight pitches. None of them even came close to the plate. Ollie hit into a double play. Jayden hammered the ball into deep right center, but they played him to go deep and had no problem making the out.
And that’s how the game went. Back and forth, no one scoring. Adam pitched more like Nolan Ryan than a seventeen-year-old boy. By the sixth, he was still working on a no hitter.
I was set to lead off our half of the seventh. The Panthers’ pitcher hadn’t walked anyone since he walked me in the first. He was almost as unhittable as Adam. T.C. and Reggie had the only hits of the game, but they never made it past first base.
In the sixth, I found a pattern he’d settled into after he struck out Adam looking.
I nabbed Ollie as we started back into the dugout. “He’s pitched fastball, fastball, curve then breaker.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Just watch the catcher from the corner of your eye to know where he’s throwing, but that’s what he’s thrown the last two innings.”
Ollie nodded. I relayed the pattern to Jayden. He snorted. But if I got on and Ollie got on, I knew Jayden would listen. I couldn’t believe that the catcher let the pitcher settle into such a pattern. Or that we hadn’t noticed it before.
I dug my left foot into the box. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to take the first pitch. The catcher shifted inside.
He threw the fastball at my ankles. Too low. Ball one.
Same set up. Again, I planned on taking the pitch. Right at my knees, but it caught the corner of the plate. Strike one.
The next pitch was the one I wanted. His curveball had been left hanging in the middle of the plate one too many times. No one had been able to take advantage of it. I knew it was coming and I knew I could rock it.
He wound up and threw the pitch, right down the middle.
The bat cracked as it connected. I took off as the ball went sailing into a gap in left center. I rounded first. When I touched the bag at second, their left fielder picked up the ball. But he was near the fence and I knew I could make it. My legs burned as I hustled. Coach was screaming at me, forgetting about signals. I don’t know what he said. All I could hear was my ragged breath and my feet pounding against the infield dirt. Then he threw his hands down like he was pushing the air out of his way. Momentum was on my side. I had to dive in head first. My hand slid under the third baseman’s leg, hitting the bag before his glove smashed into my back.
“Safe,” the ump shouted. “Safe.”
I called time.
The ump nodded, granting. The third baseman took his glove off my back and walked to the mound.
“Not your prettiest slide, kid,” Coach growled as he knelt beside me.
My thighs burned from scrapping along the loose rocks. “Yeah, but I made it.” I dusted off the dirt as I stood with my right foot on the bag. Blood started to seep through the thick white fabric of my pants on my left knee. That’s when I felt a burning sensation eating through my leg. Great. “Get me home, Coach.”
Ollie followed my lead. He took the first two pitches then hit the same hanging curveball over the second baseman’s head. I trotted home with little effo
rt. My knee hurt, but I ignored it. I stood in the dugout, cheering as loud as I could as Jayden smashed the second fastball over the fence to make it three nothing.
That was still the score as Adam almost lost his no-hitter in the top of the eighth. The batter smacked a line drive to my left. I dove for it. The ball bounced off my glove and into T.C.’s. I fell hard on my left side. My knee burned and I felt the skin tear. When I looked down, the spot of blood had grown into a patch.
“You okay, Hudson?” T.C. asked.
“Yeah, thanks for the save.” I got to my feet and dusted my pants for a second time even though it was pointless.
“Just doing my job.”
A new pitcher held us to our three runs, but that was all we needed. Adam was lights out. He struck out the side in the eight. There was a scare in the top of the ninth when their left fielder hit a long fly ball into right center. Reggie ran it down, making a diving stop. It was a thing of beauty, especially since Reggie wasn’t the guy anyone expected to dive for a ball. The crowd, thankfully, recognized the effort. An easy grounder to T.C. ended the game.
We jumped on Adam, knocking him to the ground in a dog pile. After a few playful punches, we let Adam up and headed toward the dugout. I limped along. My knee started throbbing at some point, but I didn’t notice it until the game was over. When I looked down at the patch of blood, I saw a field. I sat on the bench with my leg straight out. Daniel sat beside me, beaming like the rest of the team.
Then he saw the blood on my pants.
“Ah man, Vic, when did that happen?” He lifted my leg and put it over his lap.
“When I slid into third.” I winced as he tried to pull my pant leg up to my knee. “Ow.”
Coach handed Daniel the first aid kit that we hadn’t needed all year. Why was I the only one getting hurt on this team?
“Vic, I need to cut the pants,” Daniel said as he slipped the scissors under the elastic.
Coach stood over us. Daniel cut along the seam on the outside of the leg and stopped just above the knee. He tugged the fabric away from the cut. I almost fainted when I saw how much blood hadn’t soaked through my pants. Then he poured rubbing alcohol over it.
Extra Innings Page 15