Alex popped a painkiller into her mouth and drank some water.
The second day of school had been brutal. She wondered if Senior Year would be worse and she did not look forward to it.
Fortunately, she only had one class left.
Unfortunately, it was gym.
They had been instructed to wait out in the field. Most of the guys in her class goofed around the grass while the girls sat in groups on the bleachers, talking among themselves. Alex sat at the highest bench. Their teacher didn’t permit to bring any belongings to class. If spotted, the item would be confiscated for a week. So Alex could only watch the fiasco in front of her.
She could hardly wait for it to be over.
A little while later, she could see someone’s stare on her from the corner of her eye. She peeked at the person absentmindedly, like a reflex.
It turned out to be the girl from this morning, Lauren. She sat by her friends on the lower benches. As they talked, Lauren didn’t pay attention to them. Her mind was on the boy who sat alone.
She had seen him earlier during lunch and she had also heard the whispers about him.
Some of the students thought he wanted to become popular so he befriended the top 4 famous guys. Others thought differently since Alex left the group with an unfinished tray of lunch.
Lauren… Lauren had followed him out and almost ran towards when she saw his lips turn white but before she could reach him, he had already walked away, acting as if nothing of the sort happened.
Perhaps he didn’t want to alarm the others so he had left? Lauren wasn’t sure.
When Alex caught her staring, she felt the blood rise up in her cheeks. Then, she felt it flow towards her ears when he smiled at her.
“Yo, Alex, my buddy!” A voice boomed. Lauren knew that voice well. She heard it every morning since they were neighbors. She huffed and peeked at Alex.
Alex had a frown on his face as Max Peyton climbed up the bleachers to sit next to Alex. Lauren felt a wave of envy. Sometimes she wished she had Max’ confidence.
“I’m not your buddy” Alex grumbled, scooting away from him.
“Hey, hey” Max let her scoot away but he didn’t leave either. Placing his elbows above the backrest, he said, “You’re Logan’s friend. We’re buddies now and I have full faith that you are not stingy as that green-eyed monster so if you can let me copy your homework sometimes…”
Alex threw a pebble that she found beside her feet, aiming it at Max’ jaw, “Go do your own homework, lazy ass.”
“Ouch! That was bloody good aim” Max rubbed the sore spot, “Did you ever think about joining our team?”
“Never” Alex smirked, hitting him with another pebble.
“Now, that’s just—”
“Alright, class!” Their teacher’s voice boomed through a megaphone, “For this semester, we have baseball for the guys and softball for the girls. For today, we’ll walk through the basics. And by the end of the class, I’ll give everyone a chance to stand at the home plate. If you hit the ball, you get bonus points. If you fail, you don’t get any. Let’s get started. Everyone up!”
The students split into two groups. Since some of the school’s official baseball team were part of the class, their teacher had them teach the guys while he taught the girls’ group.
Alex would have preferred to stand at the back of the group but she wasn’t exactly tall enough to do it. She ended up in front to watch the demonstration. Their baseball players did a good job at lecturing and in no time, everyone took turns to hold the bat.
When her turn came up, Alex’s legs felt like jelly. The bat had a weight to it that she didn’t anticipate. So when the ball came rushing in, it brushed under her bat and landed on the catcher’s glove.
A few snickers came from behind her.
Alex sighed.
“Hey!” Max nudged a guy’s side, “No laughing at my new friend!”
Alex wanted a hole to appear on the ground and swallow her whole.
As she left the home plate, Max came up to her and patted her back, “Don’t worry, bro. I got your back. You can get them back next time.”
Alex ignored him and patiently waited for their teacher to finish the class.
“Time for our last activity of the day” their teacher informed them, “Boys line up for your turn on the home plate. This isn’t a test yet but a mere bonus practice. If you score today and failed the test later on, you’d still get a passing mark. If you don’t score today… well, you still have some time to pass the test. Batter up!”
“Hey, teach! Alex wants to volunteer first! He seemed to be interested in joining a sports team!” A student snickered from the bleachers. No one could tell who it was.
Their teacher frowned, looking over at Alex for confirmation. Everyone waited for his answer. He didn’t say anything… but when Max was about to open his mouth, Alex made his move.
Lauren watched as Alex walked over to the home plate with his head bowed. Their teacher’s frown didn’t disappear but he nodded at the baseball team to get ready. Then, he stood behind the catcher in case anything happened.
Lauren’s heart raced. This was the first time she saw Alex targeted as a form of mockery.
At the outer corner of the field, Principal Parker walked with an architect to talk about the school’s expansion when he chanced upon the class’ activity.
He stopped talking mid-sentence and stared hard at the field. His eyebrows scrunched together as Alex grabbed the bat and positioned in place.
Baseball? Baseball?! Whose idea was it to have baseball for gym? If anything happened to that girl, Ethan would have his head removed.
Alex planted her feet firmly onto the ground and locked her knees. The pitcher had a small smirk on his face. She didn’t like it one bit. If they thought they could mess with her, they thought wrong.
Her grip on the bat tightened and her eyes narrowed at him, daring him to give it his best shot.
The pitcher pulled his arm back and threw the ball with so much force, a whoosh sounded in the air as it left the pitcher’s hand.
Even Steve Parker could hear it. Oh, no… his face ashened in horror, who is that student and how dare he try to get himself expelled?!
And then, a sharp and resonant ‘Crack!’ echoed throughout the field. The ball flew up high and soared through the air.
Max stood up and fist pumped the air, ‘accidentally’ hitting the idiot who made Alex volunteer, “Home run! Yes! I love you, man!”
As the audience watched the ball disappear from sight. Alex ran towards first base. Then, she turned towards the second base and third base until she came back to the home plate.
“Woo!” Lauren shouted, clapping her hands. Her cheer influenced the rest of the class and they all clapped.
As Alex dusted off the dirt on her uniform, she caught the eye of the pitcher. She smiled, saying, “Good game!”
The pitcher smiled back and jogged up to her.
He praised Alex’ skills and asked her to try out but their gym teacher, the baseball team’s coach, instantly rejected. The reason being Alex already had a club and he wanted full commitment if a student would join their team.
Alex merely bowed her head in apology and rushed out to change her clothes.
“Mr. Parker, are you alright?” The architect asked.
Steve Parker had been standing on the same spot for over 10 minutes now and he hadn’t said a word when the student hit the ball.
Is Alex really a girl? Mr. Parker thought to himself, Or did Ethan pulled my leg?
“Uh, Mr. Parker?” The architect tried again.
