Cindy at bat

They were all tired. It had been a tough weekend. Cindy was keeping notes of everything In her little black book. If she kept track of everything then she could remember thing better. Her mother was also videotaping the games. Her team, the Angles slow pitch soft ball team, were in nationals. It was double elimination and they had already lost one game.

They had gotten a lot of money,20,000 form a Go-Fund-me page. No one thought that was going to happen. It was amazing. They got new uniforms and got first class plane tickets and a wonderful hotel. They even got new bats. The money left over was given between the girls. Cindy felt like they already won since they had so many people cheering them on.

Cindy had already hurt herself. Her slider was on wrong so when she slid into second base, it had bloodied her leg. Everyone was there, helping her clean the wound. There was blood on her black book. Ewe. Still, she wanted to keep writing in it.

Cindy was hot. They were one their last game on Sunday. Game after Game. Cindy played catcher, so she couldn’t keep the band aids on and still crouched between the home plate. It had to be at least ninety-seven degrees out. She felt dizzy. Her leg had stopped bleeding but didn’t look good. She wore a blue tank top style jersey and black softball shorts and, of course, her slider, now on right. Everyone else on her team had one the same, or similar, clothes on. They weren’t wearing much, but that was good. It was hot enough.

“Are you okay?” one of her coaches asked. They had two to coaches, both of them were father’s of girls on the team, Tom and Randy.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” Cindy said, panting.

“You don’t look okay.”

Her father gave her a sports drink. “Here, drink this. I’ll make you feel better,” he said. They were on break. All of them were under a tent, hanging out. All twelve of them and their parents were in the shade.

Cindy took the drink and chugged it. He was right, it did make her feel better. She smiled. “Thanks,” she said. It did make her feel better. Her leg still hurt a lot, but she didn’t want to say anything. She wanted to be able to help he team win.

“OK girls!” the Tom said. “It’s time to warm up!”

Everyone got up and started throwing the ball back and forth, playing catch. It had been a good hour since their last game, so they all had to warm up.

Cindy wasn’t the best at softball. She had trouble throwing the ball and missed the ball with the bat more times than she hit. It was fun though, and everyone was nice. Then they got the news. The team they would be going against was the Bears. The Bears were in the Angel’s local team. It had been amazing that they had both gotten here and amazing that they would be in the finals against each other. The problem was, the Bears hadn’t lost a game. The Angels had to beat them twice in a row to win the game.

Cindy felt confident though. They had beaten the Bears ever time they went against them in their local league. Her team was tired and exhausted, but Cindy was still hopeful.

It was soon time for their game. They were up to bat first.

It went back and forth on who was winning, even going to a tie. Their pitcher was good. Cindy had trouble throwing the ball. She was placed in right field when she wasn’t catching and sat out more than any of the other teammates. Cindy was okay with that. She had fun and she enjoyed spending time with her teammates.

The problem was Cindy didn’t have many friends. She was shy and just bad at making friends. The other girls were all friends though. They ‘d and out outside of practice and games. Cindy didn’t have that. She wished she had friends like that. Maybe if she did something cool at the game, they’d invite her out too.

The game was almost over. They were going to lose! How could they lose? Everyone was going on empty. The bases were loaded, and it was Cindy’s turn at bat, two outs Everything one was on her. She took a deep breath and went to the plate.

She hit the ball! Way in the air! Right into one of the Bear’s gloves.

They lost.

Cindy felt like crying.

“You did good,” one of the girls said. “We’re all going to the local sandwich place. Want to come with?”

Cindy brightened up. “I’d love that.”

“Yeah, second place isn’t bad. We’ll just bear the snot out of them at locals,” another girl said with a laugh. Cindy felt happier than she had in a long time.

When they were in the shop, they were selling scratch offs. Why not? She was having a good day, with everyone being nice to her for once, so maybe she’d get lucky. She wrote down in her black notebook.