Tough Scenes

I woke up feeling refreshed as ever. Today is going to be a great day. It's our first game of the year. To be fair it's only a practice game. We are playing Titan preparatory. A city prep school that's not too far from 100 oaks. I feel like a kid waking up on christmas. I get my equipment bag in order and head to the practice field.

First person I see on the field is Dave. It's been a couple days since the incident at the dorms. I'm glad it didn't escalate and it seems like nothing will come from it either. I guess we both decided to sweep it under the rug.

The team does some individual stretching and light jogging as warm ups. Not too long after we finished the bus delivering the titan prep team arrived. The whole team catches glances at Titan but no one is staring daggers, it's really just quick assessments of the other team. Titan is, and always has been a powerhouse school. Of course we're not going into this game to lose, we're going into this game to get better.

Both teams have warmed up. Since we're the home team we are fielding first. I jog out to my spot at shortstop and look into the bleachers. It being a practice game not a lot of people came to watch, but the number is still greater than i expected. I see Brooke with a few friends, others from my class came to watch, but it's mostly the parents of the kids on my team. The man pitching for us today was the same kid who was with Dave during the incident at the dorms. Rollie was his name. He's a solid pitcher. He doesn't throw very fast but his placement is nice and he has a decent pitch repertoire. As he winds up, I get into an athletic stance with only one thought crossing my mind. "Hit the ball to me." I watch Rollie throw, then I hear the ping of the bat. The ball takes on hop then shoots towards me. I field it with my glove and threw it to first. Damn, that felt great.

The setting sun glows over the practice field. The people on the bleachers are packing up. The team is in the dugout, waiting for the coach to return to the dugout and say some words before we leave. I look over at the electronic scoreboard. 10-1. We lost. Our one run comes from a solo home run I hit in the 5th. I really thought we had a better chance but the problems became very clear. We were hitting fine. Our main problem was the errors, offensively and defensively. 5 people got caught stealing. The team probably made a total of 7 or 8 errors this game. We even had 2 people get picked off at first. It's all very irritating.

"At least it was just a practice game." Someone said. I wasn't sure who it was but I hated that type of attitude.

I pop up from my seat "Just a practice game? If we're playing like that during practice, how do you think we'll play during real games? We looked awful today." I didn't sugarcoat anything. I was annoyed, very annoyed.

"Chill out, CB. Like he said it was just a practice game." Dave said.

I turned to him. "I don't care if today was a practice game, a world series game, or a fucking sandlot game. Losing always, always sucks. Before telling me to chill out lets talk about the pop fly you let drop. That was the very definition of a routine play."

Dave shoots up from his seat and rushes over to me. We get into each other's face and start screaming back and forth before a loud voice from outside the dugout barrels towards us.

"GOOD, GOOD!" Me and Dave stop our bickering and look over toward the coach.

"I'm glad to see you guys fighting. It means this loss didn't make you give up. It was a real shit show today guys. Recognize your mistakes, fix them, and get better. Keep your chin up boys, we're only just starting."

With the end of those words everyone packed up and headed out to the dorms. I stayed sitting for a bit, Jorge next to me.

"You coming?"

"Nah, i'm going to hit off the tee for a bit." Jorge Shrugs at my response and gets up and walks towards the dorm. I move a tee to the batting cage and start swinging. The sun fully set, the lights on the field turned on. They leave them on every night.

"Tough loss?." I recognized the voice. It's Brooke. Without even turning my head towards her i respond.

"Yeah." A couple minutes in silence. I finally turn to look at her.

"What are you still doing here?"

"I had committee work so i didn't get to watch the rest of your game."

"You didn't miss much, What time is it?"

Looking at her phone she tells me. "Almost 9:00."

I let out a sigh. Guess it's time to pack it up. I look over at Brooke who is still looking at me.

"Hey, I'll walk you home."

She looks at me and smiles. "Thank you."