It was 95 degrees, the hottest day of the year so far. In my left ear I hear kids laughing and parents talking about how nervous they are about the game. In my right ear I hear my team, there nervous too but not for the same reason as the parents. As I stare forward I see the straight lines of chalk going from home to first base and third. Without one speck of chalk out of place. “How do they get the lines that straight. ” I wonder. I’m trying not to think of who’s going to be here any minute now. As i’m thinking though I hear the gate to the softball field open. She’s here. Kaylah.
The “bigshot” who’s ALWAYS making sure people know she’s the best player on the team. “Hey guys” she says to us. “ Are you ready to see me hit another homerun today hahaha. No, no i’m just kidding around of course im going to hit more than just one… Well you all know that. ” I roll my eyes. My names Samantha, i’m 13 years old and I LOVE sports, but i’m not what you would call “good”. Well i’ve never really been good at sports but I try them all, and everyone is super nice about it even if they lose because of me. Kaylah however, makes sure everyone knows when they’re doing bad or needs to “fix” themselves.
When the game started Kaylah of course was the first to hit because the coaches knew she could get on base. She hits a homerun(as usual) and we all cheer for her because well, were her team. When she gets back she tells us that this is what we all need to do but that we won’t be able to win because we can’t hit as good as her but she looked at me and said “Especially you. ” That was it. That was the final straw. I took my bat and ran to home plate. “I’ll get it this time! ” I assure myself. The ball comes in but it’s so fast I barely see it go by. “STRIKE 1! ” the umpire yells.
“I can’t do this. I think to myself, “ I’ll never be as good as her. ” “You got this! ” my teammates cheer “Ok, ok i’ll try,” I think to myself. The pitcher throws the ball, and I swing with all my might. “STRIKE 2” He yells from behind me. I hear a chuckle from one of the parents. One more chance. The ball comes flying in. I swing “ STRIKE 3 YOU’RE OUT! ” He shouts. As I walk back I hear Kaylah laugh. I hate being laughed at. At the end of the game I stay an hour late practicing. I’m going to get a home run this season, I don’t care how much i have to practice. Even if I need to practice everyday all day.
My best friend Krista, who’s also on my team, helps me practice a lot. Shes back up pitcher for Kaylah. Krista’s a really good pitcher, maybe not as accurate as kaylah but definitely the fastest in the league and usually throws strikes. When she throws the ball I can feel a blow of air come along with it. She throws them one by one until the bucket that used to hold all of them is almost empty. I swing at them with hope every time, that maybe just maybe i can hit one. As I swing I get tireder and tireder but i’m also getting angry. Angry of the fact that i can’t hit.
Angry at all the parents who would chuckle as i would strike out, and then Kaylah comes across my mind, Making me want to scream with rage. Krista throws the last ball and with my all these things in my mind I take the rest of my energy and swing. “Clink”. I hear the ball say when it meets the bat. Krista looks at me. “WOW, you hit that one all the way to the fence. Here throw me a ball see if you can do that again! ” She starts to throw the next ball and I take everything I thought of and put it into my swing. “Clink” it says again. “Oh my goodness you passed the fence by a mile! Krista yells.
I know what to do now, i’m ready for the game. The next day I get to the game with a new skip in my step and a smile full of pride on my face. This is it, this is the game I finally show my skills. I feel like I had been waiting years for this, even though it’s been only a day. Kaylah goes up to bat and gets a triple. Not what she usually does but still amazing. I wait for two more girls to go up. They strike out but it’s finally my turn. Kaylah huffs as I go up because she thinks she will not be able to get home and score a run because i’ll strike out.
She doesn’t know what I can do now. I step up to the plate, looking at my team then at Kaylah, she looking at me with disgust. “ I cant believe her, how dare she has no faith in me! In anyone! UGH” I think. The pitcher throws the ball, faster than krista. Faster than Kaylah, but it’s no match for me. I step, I swing, and the ball goes flying. It goes past the pitcher, past the fielders, even past the outfielders, and over the fence. I take a second to glance at my team, kaylah and the parents who didn’t believe in me. When I look at my team and the parents there mouths are open in shock.
When I look at Kaylah she frozen in disbelief. No one says anything. The silence is broken by Krista. “SAM RUN! ” Everyone joins in cheering and chanting my name. I guess since I never hit I wasn’t used to running the bases but I took off. When I got back to my team I was so proud of myself. So proud I kept reminding everyone of how awesome it was. After a while they all started to ignore me when I brought it up. Some of them even rolled their eyes at me when I said anything about hitting. As the game went on I was waiting for my turn.
When it finally came I turned to my team and said “Watch me do THAT again. ” I went up and all the players backed up because they knew i could hit far. The pitcher winded up and threw as fast as she could, but still I hit it all the way past the fence. As I run I hear my team cheer. I LOVE when people cheer for me. “Being good really pays off” I blurted to my team by accident when I got around the bases but they got offended and stopped talking to me. They were not supposed to hear that. Krista came up to me at the end of the game. “Sam, um we need to talk.
See the girls and I think that you’re kind of being just like Kaylah. You know, bragging, kind of implying were not as good as you. ” She said. When she said this all her words went straight to my heart. I thought being good would be better but it’s turning me into a bad team player instead. “Oh no,” I said “ Am I really? ” She shook her head yes. “I didn’t even realize. ” I walked over to where my team was “ Um hey, I’m really sorry about earlier I didn’t realize how I was acting and I didn’t mean to brag I just um got a little excited. ” I insisted. “It’s ok. We get it.
It’s exciting to hit a ball far. ” One of my teammates said. “I wish I could hit a ball that far. ” “Yeah me too. ” They all agreed. “Well, why don’t we all stay and practice. I can teach you how to, it’s actually really easy once you learn. ” I said. They all seemed to smile at what I said. “Ok we will stay. ” They all agreed. For the next few hours we all practiced and at the end we were all closer, and definitely better at hitting. We talked laughed and just had a good time. “Ok see you all in a few days on Thursday at our next game! ” I said as I waved and they waved back.
Thursday couldn’t come soon enough, but when it finally did I wasn’t the only one of my team that came to the game with a smile and a new skip in my step. Instead it was all of my team. “Hey! ” I greeted them as they opened the gate. Throughout the game we cheered for each other and no one bragged. Except the occasional one from Kaylah. I really wish that in the beginning I knew what was going to happen because I wish I could remind myself throughout the season to always be a team player no matter how good or bad someone is at the sport, and that you should even if you’re the best or worst player on the team.
