by J. K. Rock
I hadn’t joined his team.
“Where’s a batter?” Gollum called again, tromping closer to the dugout in his metal spikes and raising a dust cloud that reached us faster than he did. “Come on, folks! We want to get this game in before the rain hits.”
“You’re supposed to lead us off, Brittany,” Rafe announced, picking up a hastily scrawled roster that Siobhan had put together before she got called away for a message from home. “Should I take over as manager in case Siobhan doesn’t come back?”
“It depends.” Zach Desanti rose from his spot on the bench. He had a sturdier build than Nick—thicker and more muscular, but not as tall. Dark stubble covered half his face, but his brown eyes were the same. He wore his Chicago White Sox baseball cap, a big league big deal in our little North Carolina camp. “How’s your swing? We don’t want to lose a good hitter.”
Ugh. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I guess I hoped that maybe Nick’s family wasn’t as bad as they’d sounded.
“I stink at batting,” Brittany announced, pulling off her helmet and passing her bat to Rafael. “Why don’t you go for me and I’ll manage?” She looked around at all of us, unaware the whole field had been waiting for her to come to the plate. “I’ll have this dugout cleaned up in no time. No more sunflower seeds in here, starting now.”
Rafa hid a smile as he handed over the clipboard and picked up a different bat on the way out onto the field. “When is it my turn?” Nia asked beside me on the bench.
It bugged me that Brooke hadn’t asked Nia to be on her team. Instead, she’d picked Nick over her personal assistant/friend.
“Brittany will tell you when to go out. You can’t hit because your sprained arm is still healing, but you can run the bases for me if I get a hit, okay?” We’d talk about this before, but her pale face and jittering knees said she was nervous.
“Dig deep, dig deep!” Brittany shouted, making me realize that Rafael had gotten a hit and was on his way to first.
Cameron threw the ball in from the outfield, however, and Jackie made a clean catch at first base to get our runner out.
“Crud.” Brittany peered back down at the lineup sheet, her blonde ponytail falling onto the paper. “Maybe Eli can get a hit.”
In an effort to have a fair game, Gollum had told us that there couldn’t be more than three people from the same cabin on any team. We had to have the same number of boys and girls. We also had one guest—Zach— and one alumni counselor with us, while Nick’s team had one visiting mom and another alumni counselor. We’d done pretty well making the teams even, although I noticed all the boys hit early in the batting order.
“So?” A bubble popped beside my ear on my other side, and I turned to see Alex. She wore eye black under both eyes and a pink baseball cap with a glittery letter “A” sewn on the front. Her dark ponytail stuck out the gap in the back of the cap, the same way mine did. “What’s up with Nick trying to take Eli’s head off?”
On the field, Eli scrambled out of the batter’s box as Nick’s second pitch whizzed by his face across the plate.
“Um…” How much to say? I peered at Zach standing in the batter’s circle. “Nick and his brother are pretty competitive.”
“Really?” Alex scrunched her nose as she looked from Nick on the pitcher’s mound to Zach practicing his swing. “I get that because the world revolves around my older brother, ‘Mr. Perfect,’ while I’m—you know— me.” She rolled her eyes. “But Nick’s got fame and gold medals. You wouldn’t think he’d need to—whoa!”
Eli danced out of reach of another inside strike. Even Gollum flinched, and he stood behind the catcher with a helmet.
My heart squeezed tight at the look on Nick’s face. Focused. Determined. Didn’t he see that the kid he faced was a friend? Or was he only concerned about the scoreboard?
“He wants to beat Zach at baseball,” I said when I could breathe again.
Eli struck out, and Nick’s brother strode to the plate. Whistles and clapping broke out in the stands. The news of our major league visitor had been passed around during the bonfire last night, and the turnout for Gollum’s Family Day seemed better than ever. A lot of locals had made the drive just to see Zach.
Alex slapped away a bee. “Nick wants to win the baseball game because it’s Zach’s sport.”
“Right.” I’d never been competitive so maybe I didn’t get it. Even during swim meets, I focused on beating my personal best.
But for Nick and Zach…their expressions were dead serious.
“Show ‘em how it’s done, Zach!” a man called from the bleachers.
A wiry guy in a red track suit leaned against the fence. Since I hadn’t noticed him there before, he must have come down from the bleachers to get a better look. His light hazel eyes, dark hair, and tanned skin meant he had to be Nick’s father…who was rooting against his own son. Despite my anger at Nick this summer, I felt for the guy. That sucked.
Nick’s jaw tightened, and a muscle twitched beneath his eye. He stared down Zach from behind his glove, spinning the ball in his right hand until he had the correct grip on it. His hips and shoulders turned, then his whole body came forward in a powerful delivery. The ball was thrown hard. Anyone else would have missed. But Zach teed off on it.
Crack!
The sound of the bat connecting with the ball sent a twinge of disappointment through me even as the crowd cheered. Mr. Desanti pumped his fist in the air, high-fiving some of the other parents around him.
“That one’s gone!” Alex led the cheer as our dugout erupted in shouting and whooping. Beside me, Nia jumped up and down while Brittany went around highfiving everyone.
I held up my hand for the high-five, but my eyes never left Nick. I knew he’d been on edge lately, but seeing his father celebrate Zach’s hit and knowing he hadn’t bothered to show up for Nick’s Olympic moment really burned me.
“Come on!” Alex called, waving the team out onto the field to congratulate Zach on the homerun.
I brought up the rear, but I still went out with them and felt like a traitor as I smacked hands with Zach. Funny, though. Zach didn’t look any happier than his brother as he crossed the plate.
“Enjoy it while it lasts!” Brooke called from right field as we jogged back into the dugout. “Your team is still going down!”
Next to me, Nia stopped. Turned.
I looked at her as she stared at her former idol.
“You stink!” she screamed, her cheeks bright red.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I put a hand between her shoulder blades and tried to steer her back in the shade with the rest of the team, but she didn’t move for a long moment and I felt the pound of her heartbeat right through her.
Brooke put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue like a six-year-old.
I tensed right along with Nia.
“Hey, right field!” Nick shouted to Brooke from the mound. “Let’s get our heads in the game.”
At his sharp tone, Gollum pulled up his mask and jogged over to the mound for a little one-on-one chat with Nick. Because Gollum was protective of Brooke? Or because Nick looked ready to flip out?
“Guess Nick knows how it feels to be the one who gets overlooked and picked on,” Alex told Nia and me as she darted out of the dugout with a bat to stand in the hole. “Don’t let her get to you, hot stuff.” She tugged on Nia’s braid.
“She pisses me off.” Nia’s cheeks were still bright red, but she trudged into the dugout beside me as play resumed.
I watched Brooke adjust her hat and sunglasses in the outfield, her movements jerky and a little awkward. Was she rattled by Nick calling her out in front of everyone? She barely got her hat straightened when a ball came flying her way off Julian’s bat. She missed the catch and had to chase it down in a grassy corner of the field.
“I don’t think she’s having the best summer either,” I told Nia.
“That doesn’t mean she can take it out on me,” Nia grumbled, picking at the
cotton batting sticking out from under the ACE bandages wrapped around her wrist. “It’s not my fault no one will give her a dumb record deal. And who cares if her family gets evicted? I’ve been through it. It’s not like your life is over.”
“She’s getting evicted?” I murmured, too shocked to say or do anything more than pull her close. Before I could think of something comforting, Alex hit a pop fly right at the other team’s center fielder and it was our turn to take the field.
Brooke was having trouble getting a record deal? And her family needed the funds to save their home? I wasn’t surprised a producer hadn’t signed her, but I could relate to her fear of losing her home. Weird that Brooke and I had faced the same problem.
I spent the next forty-five minutes puzzling out sibling rivalries and family dramas as much as I played the game. I was in right field, so I didn’t see much action defensively. As for hitting, I was the ninth hitter and only got on base once. What preoccupied me more was seeing Brooke and Nia argue, plus the tension between Nick and Zach. If the sibling thing was so tough, how would I ever survive my father’s new household with five other kids? I was still learning how to speak up for myself. To lead and not follow—sometimes, at least. What if my step-siblings were terrible? I’d become wallpaper again.
The crowd cheered, and I looked up to see Brooke flying around the bases so fast her hat came off her head.
Brooke got a hit? Panic spiked through me as I worried I’d missed a ball that came my way, but it was Alex in centerfield who scrambled to retrieve a line drive. Turned out Brooke had been a talented softball player before she’d started singing, so she was actually their number two hitter. All afternoon, my mind was a million miles away today as my summer at camp ticked down to real life. I knew our team had been winning before this inning because Brittany kept us updated on the score along with her progress in cleaning up the dugout every time we came off the field. Last time, we’d been ahead 5-4 before the bottom of the ninth inning, with two new spider webs safely relocated to under the bleachers. No surprise that that bench closest to our dugout was now empty.
When Brooke stopped on third base and the crowd quieted, I looked to see who was up next. The number three hitter. Which would be…
Nick.
“The winning run comes to the plate,” Jake shouted from Nick’s dugout in mock-game commentary.
“Come on, Nick!” Brooke trilled from third. “Bring me home!”
Nick strode into the batter’s box, and I could see some kind of exchange between him and his brother, who was our catcher. Zach rose out of his squat behind home plate, and once again, Gollum seemed to be settling Nick down. I also noticed that Nick’s father didn’t stand at the fence when Nick batted the way he did when Zach came to the plate.
It wouldn’t be enough for Brooke to score, although that would tie the game and send us into extra innings. Nick would need a big hit here.
Should I root for him to be humbled after all the times he’d waved the whole competitive flag in my face this summer? Or should I hope he got a big hit and showed his father that Zach wasn’t the only one who could crush a ball with a stick?
When Nick swung and missed, my chest tightened. Who was I kidding? A part of me would always be on Nick’s side, even if I needed to be on the opposite team from him. Just because I couldn’t be with him didn’t mean I couldn’t root for him. A little, at least. Especially since his father was currently studying his phone up in the bleachers. The jerk.
Come on, Nick.
For once, Brooke and I wanted the same thing.
Buster was our pitcher and he wound up. Stepped. Let loose a fast ball high and outside.
Nick tattooed that ball so hard I think they saw it on the other side of Lake Juniper. The dejected moans from my team were audible only for a split second before the cheers from Nick’s team took over. Brooke crossed the plate and waited for Nick to finish running the bases before leaping on him. His team crowded around to congratulate him. Zach peeled off his catcher’s mask before trudging into our dugout.
Nick’s father was off the bleachers before Nick even made it home. A woman lingered by the fence though, and I was pretty sure it was his mom, even though she hadn’t sat with Nick’s dad. So maybe someone besides me—and Brooke—had been rooting for Nick to get a hit. Even if he was way too competitive. Even if he’d changed from the guy I’d fallen for so long ago.
I was happy he’d gotten what he wanted because I sure hadn’t.
Pulling off my baseball mitt, I stalked toward the dugout past the home plate party. Nick stepped away long enough to catch my eye. Or tried to, anyway. He stepped in front of me, but instead of a big victory grin on his face, his eyes looked sort of bleak.
“Kayla, can we talk?” He put a hand on my forearm, and even now, my heart did a hop-step that stirred butterflies.
“About your big win?” I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. I just couldn’t imagine what he wanted to talk to me about anymore. “I can’t, Nick.”
I was done letting my old feelings for Nick lead me around. I wasn’t a follower anymore.
“Just for a minute—” He might have said more, but Brooke burst away from the rest of the crowd to grab him by the arm.
“Come on, Nicky! You’re our hero!” she cooed, drawing him away from me.
“It’s okay. The game’s really over now,” I reminded him. “You won.”
“Hey, Kayla!” Cameron shouted to me as I walked down to the beach for the luau party later that night.
Instead of a traditional barbecue to top off the Family Picnic Day, Gollum had suggested a luau to the camp staff and everyone had jumped in on the idea.
“Wanna get lei’d?”
Cameron held out an arm full of brightly colored silk floral garlands. He wore a blue one around his neck and had twisted a green one into a kind of floral crown. It matched his blue-and-green beach trunks and a white tank. With his tanned good looks and his sandy hair tipped blond from the sun, he definitely made a sort-of tempting offer. It’s a shame I didn’t like him that way. It could have been a fun summer if I had.
“Cam, I’ve told you—”
He rolled his eyes and strode closer, picking out a pink lei to hand me as his flip-flops smacked his heels. Behind him, the beach was already full of families, alumni, and three small bonfires. There were even a few little flames out on the water in big, floating floral candles that must be anchored somehow on the bottom of the lake. With a food tent draped in paper flowers and tables all covered in bright grass skirting, the party looked really festive.
“Kayla, you’re too easy to tease, you know that?” Cameron dropped the pink garland over my head and grinned at me. “It took most of the summer, but I get it…you’re not going to give Cam the Man another chance are you?”
“I’m sorry—”
“Don’t say that.” His eyes went serious, which was a rare thing for my ex-boyfriend. “You don’t owe anyone an apology for a damn thing. Not me and not the hotshot snowboarder.”
It was the first time he’d ever really acknowledged my old friendship with Nick, and I wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe I frowned or something because his expression relaxed and he surprised me by taking my hand and squeezing it in a friend kind of way.
“What?” My heart thumped. If live-in-the-moment Cam had guessed my secret, then anyone else could have.
He shrugged and let go of my hand. “I don’t know the deal with you two, but if you’re still friends, you might try talking to him. His dad was a total jerkoff to him before his folks left. I don’t know what the deal is there, but dude, they put way too much pressure on that kid.”
Nick’s parents left?
It wasn’t my problem, I reminded myself. But the way his family changed him…it sucked.
“We’re not friends like that anymore,” I told Cam, my throat catching on the words. I fingered the pink silk flowers on the garland he’d given me. “This is really pretty. Thanks, Cam.”
�
�Okay, then.” He nodded. “Just thought you’d want to know. But I’m glad you like the lei. You think Piper would like one?” He twirled a green garland around his finger and looked down the beach where a bunch of the Munchies’ Manor girls were dancing. It looked sort of like the Cupid Shuffle, but with a lot more rump shaking thanks to Alex’s lead. “She’s into cycling, right? And that’s green.”
“It’s recycling. You’d better get that right if you want to talk to her.” I smiled, imagining them together. It could work. “But yeah, I think she would.” I had to admire Cam. He never quit with the flirting. “But I wouldn’t try the ‘wanna get lei’d’ line on her.”
“Too much?” His tone sounded genuinely surprised.
“Yes! Too much.” Laughing, I started down toward the food tables where Rachel and Brittany tied grass skirts over their shorts. I stopped after a few feet. “And Cam!” I shouted to him as he headed toward the other girls. “Good luck.”
He shot me a thumbs-up sign, the sinking sun behind him leaving a purple smudge of color in the sky.
“Kayla!” Brittany called as I got closer. “Come try the huli huli chicken!” She held up a skewer and waved it like a magic wand. “And do a huli huli dance!”
She swung her hips in a way that turned boys’ heads from all over the beach, her purple skirt layered over white shorts.
I hurried toward them, more than ready to think about hula dances and parties. I needed this. Needed my friends before my whole world imploded this fall. Milan? New Jersey? It was all I could do to think about Juniper Point. I nearly ran right into Nick.
“Hey!” I held my hands out on impact and blinked to process who was suddenly standing in front of me.
Six-foot-plus of handsome boy in a light blue T-shirt with the most troubled eyes I’d ever seen.
