Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 11

There were no more major issues with Aaron for the next week, and Mr. Eaves had been good on his word. He and Mom had a long conversation Saturday before she went to work. I wasn’t allowed to attend, but afterward, she said she’d agreed to let him fight the case. She was clearly still worried that we’d lose and it’d wreck us financially, but he’d managed to convince her to do it anyways. That alone made me feel better about our chances, since Mom was the most stubborn person I’d ever known. If he could convince her to do something she’d been so set against, he could convince a judge or whatever that I hadn’t attacked Aaron.

By that next Tuesday, I’d pushed most of the thoughts about Aaron and the court case to the side and focused on my next big challenge, our first actual baseball game. Both varsity and JV were playing against Martin Ridge High School, which was way out on the far western tip of the state near the Tennessee and Georgia borders. Marcus had played them last year and said they had a good team, despite being a pretty small school up in the mountains.

Varsity had played their game on Monday and had won, which they’d been bragging about all day leading up to our game. Harry had made one of the runs and was letting it go to his head, thinking he was MVP. Considering the game had gone six to four and three of those runs had been made when Charlie Hume, the team captain, hit a home run with two on base, it was clear to everyone else what an ass Harry was, but he didn’t let that stop him from talking shit.

Better yet, one of the other runs was made by Marcus, along with catching a possible run-scoring line drive on a diving catch in the sixth, ended the momentum the other team was on the verge of building. More surprising was hearing from Kat that Hanna, who’d never shown much interest in sports, bragged about him to everyone else at lunch, talking about how her boyfriend was a baseball star.

They’d had a pep rally for both teams the day before instead of sixth period to celebrate the beginning of the baseball season. It mostly focused on Varsity, where they even announced the names of each of the players, but it was still a weird experience. I’d gone to two of the pep rallies for football last semester, but I had been up in the bleachers and had more or less ignored it, while talking to Hanna and a few of the others from our lunch group instead. Sitting in plastic chairs on the floor of the gym while most of the student body looked down on us from the bleachers was way more attention than I wanted.

I knew Hanna would say I was being ridiculous and point out that there were a bunch of us down there and no one was looking at me, specifically. She’d also have reminded me that I had no problem when I was up on the stage where everyone was definitely staring at me, but the experiences were very different. I’d built up to playing in front of an audience. When I first started, Willie was the person everyone was watching, and I only moved to the front a little at a time. By the time I started playing in front of an audience, I’d had time to get comfortable with it. Maybe I was being ridiculous, but knowing that didn’t make me any less nervous.

Since they were coming to play at our field, we didn’t get out of any classes like Varsity did for the pep rally. Luckily, my last class was conditioning, which was reduced to just stretching and some simple warm-up exercises, so David and I weren’t too worn out for the game. Despite the fact that the game wasn’t until five-thirty, most of the rest of JV had managed to talk their way out of sixth-period early, so we spent the last half of class just messing around, everyone trying to shake off their first game nerves.

My guess was this was pretty normal, since Coach Dean spent most of the time in his office, letting us slack off until the bell rang.

“All right, knock it off,” he said to get us to quiet down. “You have an hour until you need to be back here to get suited up and get ready for warm-ups. If you’re going to get something to eat, keep it light and don’t stuff yourself. The last thing you want to do is yack on the field. I’m posting the lineups over here, but if you’re late to warm-ups I will bench you for someone else, so watch the time.”

With that, he tacked a sheet of paper up on the corkboard on his door, which he shut behind him, leaving us to our own devices. There was a rush to see who was starting, almost smashing me against the door, since I’d been one of the closest when the stampede started.

“Get off,” I said, pushing back from the door, forcing back the people trying to smash me into it.

While we’d already started settling down into our individual positions, the lineup was still a surprise for most of us, as were the pitchers, who’d been battling to see who’d get to start and who’d sit on the bench this game.

I was batting fifth, which wasn’t one of the premier slots but wasn’t terrible either. I’d been managing good control off the ball but I still didn’t have the power that some of the other guys who were higher up in the order did. My conditioning buddy David was listed as a relief pitcher for this game. I knew he was hoping for either the starting or closing spots, since depending on how it went, there was no guarantee he’d see game time as one of the relief pitchers.

“Hey, man, it’s just the first game,” I said as we pushed our way out of the scrum.

“Yeah. Coach told me I still didn’t have enough on the ball to start, but I’d been hoping for closer. My slider’s been looking good and I’ve almost got a curveball going.”

“All they’ve seen is practice so far, which is different than playing. Just keep cool until you get a shot, and show them you can make stuff happen.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that, although we need to start getting some more upper-body work in the rest of the week. We’ve been doing too much other stuff.”

“I can live with that. Since it’s just us in class, let’s talk to Coach about what you can do to build up more speed on the ball. I’m about to go grab burgers with my friends, you wanna go with us?”

“Yeah, thanks,” he said, grabbing his backpack.

Although he’d briefly met Hanna and Kat a few times, this was the first time we’d all hung out. Around the corner from school was a small hamburger and hotdog stand with a few picnic tables out front that did a lot of business with students after school let out. I hadn’t had a chance to eat there before, since I had training at the Blue Ridge right after school, but both Hanna and Kat swore by it.

David initially struck me as a reserved kind of guy, but he fit in easily once we all got talking while we ate. I thought at first he might have been put at ease by me and Marcus both being there, since he spent a lot of time with both of us in practice, until I noticed him continuing to glance at Kat. I don’t think she noticed, but he was completely glued onto her every word every time she spoke. I hadn’t considered it before, but I liked David and thought he’d make a good match for Kat. Considering her last boyfriend, David would be a significant improvement. We weren’t close friends or anything, but he was a good guy and didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d take advantage of her condition.

I kept it to just a single chili-slaw dog and some chips, since I knew my stomach sometimes got nervous before a game, but David really packed it away. Marcus tried to warn him not to eat so much, but I think he was trying to eat his nerves away.

Since we were just around the corner and had to go get ready for the game, the other three took off, promising to come back and watch the game, while David and I walked back to the school.

“So what’s up with your friend Kat?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, playing dumb.

“Like, is she single? I know she dated Aaron and I heard a few thi…”

“Slow your roll, she’s not like that. Aaron’s an asshole and took advantage of her.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. She seemed cool and I figured if you were hanging out with her she was probably okay, especially considering how Aaron feels about you. I just didn’t know if you two … you know.”

“We’re not together if that’s what you’re asking.”

He nodded and we walked a few more steps before he said, “She’s hot.”

“Yeah, she’s good-looking,” I said, pausing a second to consider my next words. “I don’t want to make it sound like I’m trying to talk you out of anything, but I want to give you a warning. She has some … issues. She’s not nuts or anything, but she’s got some personal stuff going on, which is why Aaron was able to take advantage of her so easily. I’m just warning you now, ‘cause I’d hate for anyone to try and do that to her again.”

“I’m not like that, dude.”

“I know. Her thing makes it easy to do even if you’re not meaning to though, so you have to be careful is all. I’m just giving you the warning now so you’ll know why I might have to kick your ass later.”

He laughed and gave me a shove, “You and what army.”

We hit the parking lot and turned up towards the school before he said, “Seriously though, I wouldn’t try anything. Could, you … ya know, put in a good word for me.”

“Sure. I’d rather she date someone like you than end up with someone like Aaron again, anyway. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if she’s wanting to date right now, 'cause he messed her up pretty good.”

“Hey, if she’s not, she’s not. Gotta shoot my shot though, ya know.”

“Hey, I know. I’ll find out and give you the sign, how about that.”

“Thanks, man,” he said.

We were one of the first ones back and went to the locker rooms, switching into our uniforms. We talked until the rest of the guys showed up. The more time I spent with him, the more I found I liked David. He was really down-to-earth and pretty funny. Giving him and Kat some more thought, I could see them working out. It’d be nice if it did, ‘cause we’d have a guy in our group finally. Although Hanna was dating Marcus, he was pretty busy and had his own set of friends, so he didn’t hang out with us much, making it just the girls and me. I know a lot of guys would envy me my position, but Hanna was much more like a sister than anything else, and the strange balance Kat and I had made with her DPD precluded any kind of romance. I loved hanging out with them, but sometimes they’d get going on something that I had one too many Y chromosomes to follow.

The Coach had stepped out to check something out on the field and we were all waiting on him to get back when Harry and a few of the varsity guys that had bought into his bullshit pushed through the locker room door, strutting like they owned the world.

“You kids ready to go out there and lose today?” he said, noticing me and walking in my direction.

“Screw you, Harry.”

“Seriously, these guys aren’t that good and we creamed them, so imagine how embarrassing it will be if you screw this up? Hell, they might have to find a whole new group of guys to replace the seniors next year, 'cause I don’t think any one of y’all are going to be up for it. What do you say, guys, they’ll lose ten nothing?”

He must have been living it up, finally having minions of his own, instead of just being one of Aaron’s hangers-on.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Torres?” one of our guys said.

“Hey, I’m rooting for you; I just want you guys to understand what’s at stake. The first game is when they decide if they should cut anyone and change them out for one of the guys who didn’t get picked at tryouts. My freshman year a lot of the guys got nervous and screwed up hard on our first game and almost a third of the team got cut.”

I could see some of the guys looking back and forth at each other and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he was doing. Trying to get into my head made sense, but next year some of these guys would be his teammates, and he was here heckling them.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Coach Dean came in saying, “I appreciate you guys in here offering moral support, but if you aren’t on this team, get out.”

While he couldn’t have misread Harry’s intentions more, pointing out that Harry was in here doing the opposite would just cause more problems, so I opted for just glaring at him as he and his buddies left, chuckling to themselves.

“All right guys, although tonight’s game is the first of our schedule we’re going to treat this just like our scrimmages. We have a lot of games ahead of us and most of you haven’t played in high school before, so the important thing right now is just getting some experience. For tonight, just go out there and play like we’ve been practicing. Once we have a game under our belts, we’ll be able to look at what went right and what went wrong, and hopefully learn a few things. Reid, since Jonah has decided it was okay to be late to the warm-ups, I’m putting you in as closer. Okay, let’s go and warm up.”

We ran out on the field to half-full stands, mostly made up of parents and friends of people playing. Baseball might be the big sport at Wellsville, but we were only the junior varsity and didn’t get the same turnout. I know more than a few guys were thinking back to Harry’s taunts as they looked at all the empty room on the bleachers and the completely empty fence line. The night before, our small set of stands were full and people lined the outfield fence for the varsity game the night before, making it a pretty stark contrast.

Although it had only been chilly for most of the day, the sun was already down behind the mountains and the temperature had started to drop as everything got covered in a shadow. I think we were all anxious to get going so we could keep the blood pumping and stay warm, since the long sleeve shirts under our jerseys weren’t helping all that much.

Things got off to a rocky start. Tim Green, a blond sophomore with a hell of a fastball but not much else was opening for us. Harry’s taunting must have worked, because his first pitch went into the dirt just to the left and behind the batter. Our catcher scrambled to get a hold of the ball, but it was a good thing no one was on base. His next pitch was decent, although a little low, being called a ball, but his third pitch went wild again, going behind the batter and missing him by inches. Finally, he put one over the plate, although with a lot less speed than I’d seen from him in the past. The batter got a big piece of it, sending it sailing between first and second. The right fielder tracked it down pretty well, but they still got their first hitter on base, which was never a good way to start a baseball game.

This continued for the rest of the first inning, with almost every batter getting a hit. Thankfully, some of those hits had popped up enough to get caught, but we still ended the inning down two.

Our turn at-bat didn’t go much better, with our lead-up hitter popping one up right at the center fielder, who snagged it easily. The second batter did manage a good bouncing grounder that got him on first base, but it didn’t matter when the next two guys both popped up, retiring the side.

The second inning went just as badly, with Martin Ridge picking up another run on the back of an unforced error when our right fielder overthrew the third baseman who took too long to recover it. We did manage to hold them to the one run, which was at least better than the first inning. When we went up to bat again, I was up first and had my shining moment when I whiffed hard on every pitch thrown to me, including the last one where I almost looked like a cartoon when a batter misses and wraps their arms around themselves like they’re made out of rubber, spinning around like a top. Just like everyone else, I was in my head, thinking about all the stuff Harry said despite not wanting to.

I didn’t make the biggest fool of myself out of the rest of the team, however. That honor went to David, who found out why you shouldn’t eat so much right before a game. On a strip of dirt just past the third base that was used for warming up pitchers, David was helping get one of the relievers ready by catching for him when he suddenly kneeled forward and threw up all over the ground in front of him, making loud retching sounds.

The coaches moved the pitchers warming up downfield a few steps and put stuff around the mess to keep anyone from stepping in it while one of the guys from varsity helped David off to the locker rooms to clean up.

By the beginning of the fourth inning, Coach Dean had enough and called time.

“Okay, hopefully, you guys have got all that mess out of your systems. You all played better than that at practice and when you tried out. I’m not going to mince words, there were some guys cut from the team that would like another shot, so this would be a good time to show us why you got picked. None of you would have made the team if we didn’t think you could do this. Now go out there and play some actual baseball.”

We filed back onto the field, sober. I know I was now in my head about what was happening and I was pretty sure everyone else was the same way. It could go one of two ways, either we’d get ourselves turned around, or this thing was going to go down in flames.

Thankfully, we managed the first one, more or less. Tim didn’t throw any more into the dirt or almost hit any batters, although he still wasn’t striking them out. Our fielding did get notably better with a halfway decent catch in left field and then an honest to God double play when the batter hit a grounder right at our third baseman. I think the double play was the confidence booster everyone really needed to turn things around and start playing like we had in practice.

By the sixth, we’d held Martin Ridge to just one more run and scored four of our own. David had gotten cleaned up, and was out pitching, striking out one of the three batters he faced. I was just happy we’d managed to turn it around, and hoped we wouldn’t have this same issue next time, now that we had a game under our belts. I knew later in the season we’d be playing much better teams from some of the less rural districts and was glad we’d hadn’t started with them. A better team would have been able to run up the score more on us in those disastrous first two innings, which could have tanked our confidence for the rest of the year, if we managed to stay on the team at all.

In the bottom of the sixth, I was up again and we were in good position. With two runners on base and no outs, Coach Dean had the batter before me swing for the fences, figuring we’d either get a home run or a pop-up fly that would allow the runners to advance to second and third base.

“Don’t worry about powering the ball or anything fancy,” Coach Dean said as I made my way out to the plate. “Just get it out into the outfield and get a run-in. We still have two outs and it’s worth getting thrown out to get the game tied up.”

“I’ll do my best, Coach.”

They’d switched to their closer, who I hadn’t batted against yet. He’d clearly seen me bat earlier and tried the same pitch that had tied me up on my first go around, putting the ball low and outside to see if I’d chase it. I was paying attention and laid off, getting ball one. The next one he tried throwing past me, and my timing was a little off. I only caught a piece of it and shanked it foul, over the right-field fence. The third pitch he tried to catch me with a curve, but it clearly wasn’t one of his better pitches, and it broke very late. I caught all of it and sent it sailing between the shortstop and second baseman, landing far back in the outfield, almost equally between the center and right fielders.

I didn’t stop to see where it went; taking off as soon as I felt contact and saw it wouldn’t foul out. As I reached first, I could see the outfield starting to make a throw to either third or first and the first base coach telling me to go to second. I kept my head up like they’d taught me, keeping an eye on the fielders and ball position as I ran hard for second.

We’d already had one run go in as the ball reached third and Barney Platt, our first baseman and one of the few juniors on junior varsity, had cleared third base and was halfway home when their third baseman caught the ball. We were tied with that first run and I was going to make it to second easily, but the real showdown was happening at home plate. Barney wasn’t a great player, but he’d played last year and had more experience than the rest of us. He threw himself down, sliding headfirst into home as their catcher caught the ball, his arm swinging down.

I could have probably rounded and made a try for third, but I stopped on second, engrossed in what was happening at home plate. There was a pause and then the empire yelled, “Safe!” giving us the go-ahead run. It was a hell of a slide and everyone was high-fiving Barney as he dusted himself off and trotted back to our benches. The next batter struck out so I didn’t get further than second, but a stand-up double with two runs batted in was good enough for me.

David did well, striking out two more batters back to back. The third hit a grounder right at me that I was able to scoop up easily, getting the ball to Barney with time to spare, ending the game.

There wasn’t wild celebrating or anything as we lined up to shake hands with the other team. We were just happy to have survived the experience and knew we’d be hearing about it at practice tomorrow.

We’d won, though, so it was still good enough for me.