Katie, Batter Up!

by Coco Simon

  “You can do it, Katie!” Alexis called out, and my mind flashed back to our practice session.

  Think, I said. You know what to do. Bend your knees. Don’t hold the bat too high. Don’t swing too early.

  But when Coach Kendall’s first pitch came speeding toward me, I was so scared that I swung before it was even halfway to the plate.

  “Just relax, Katie,” Coach Adani said behind me. I took a deep breath and tried to focus. When the next pitch came, I forced myself to hold off swinging. Then I swung wildly.

  “Foul ball!” Coach Adani called out as the ball veered off sharply to the right. At least I hadn’t struck out.

  I did strike out on the next turn, though. And then I hit two more fouls before I managed to get one near first base. I ran like crazy, and the only reason I was safe was because poor Maggie dropped the ball three times as she tried to pick it up.

  It’s over, I thought, my heart pounding. For better or worse, it’s over.

  After all the girls had a turn, Coach Kendall had us all gather in a circle. “We’ll put the team list in the front hall on Monday morning,” she told us. “Those of you who don’t make the team will be put on our alternate list. But no matter what happens, you should all be proud of how you performed today.”

  “Thank goodness that’s over,” I said out loud as the coaches walked away.

  “I know, I was so nervous,” said a voice behind me. It was Maggie.

  “Me too,” I agreed. “I almost threw up my breakfast.”

  Maggie laughed, and we started walking off the field together.

  “So, I guess none of your friends are trying out?” I asked, hoping desperately that I would not end up on a team with Sydney.

  Maggie shook her head. “Sydney’s trying out for cheerleading,” she answered. “So is Callie. And Bella is on the swim team.”

  “How come you’re not trying out for cheerleading?” I asked. I thought Maggie did everything that Sydney did.

  Maggie looked embarrassed for a second. “I could never do a cartwheel, no matter how hard I tried,” she admitted. “Plus, I kind of want to do my own thing, you know? I really like softball. It’s fun.”

  I suddenly realized that talking with Maggie wasn’t so bad once she wasn’t with the PGC—or making fun of me in gym. But then I heard Sydney’s voice.

  “Mags! Over here!”

  Sydney walked up with Callie and Bella. “Maggie, oh my gosh, you are soooo sweaty!” she said, wrinkling her nose. (Of course, Sydney looked like she just stepped out of a makeup chair on a movie set.) “And, ew, gross, is that grass on your pants?”

  Maggie looked flustered. Instead of answering Sydney, she started trying to rub off the grass stain.

  “Yeah, you should have seen her,” I said. “She dove to make this amazing catch.”

  Sydney looked at me like she had just noticed I existed.

  “And what did you do?” she asked. “Accidentally throw the bat instead of the ball? Or maybe you knocked out the catcher with your silly arms.”

  Now it was my turn to clam up. I don’t know why, but somehow it was easier to stick up for Maggie than to stand up for myself. Besides, what could I say that would make any difference?

  Maggie didn’t tell Sydney that I didn’t stink at softball, and I couldn’t blame her. But I could blame Callie, who just stood there like she did last time and let Sydney be mean to me.

  “Come on,” Sydney said, nodding to her friends. “We need to get to that sale at Icon. But, Maggie, you definitely need a shower first. And please do not get any gross dirt in my mom’s car!”

  I really don’t get Sydney sometimes. How can someone who looked so pretty and so sweet be so mean? Was she born that way? Did she squirt milk from her baby bottle at the other babies in the hospital? It’s a mystery.

  “Good luck, Katie,” Callie said as she walked away. She said it kind of soft, and it didn’t seem like Sydney heard her. She turned back around fast and just then Emma and Alexis ran up to me.

  “You did great, Katie!” Emma said.

  “I kept a record of how everyone did when they tried out,” Alexis said. “I think you’re in the top thirty or forty percent.”

  “So, does that mean I didn’t totally stink out there?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” she answered. “It also means you’re probably good enough to make the team.”

  “I hope you’re right,” I said. But now that I was close, I had another reason to get nervous.

  If I made the team, I’d actually have to play softball games. In front of people. With rules and winners and losers.

  I grabbed my stomach and groaned. “I should never have eaten those Grainy Flakes.”

  CHAPTER 13

  I’m Happy! … I Think

  So did you have fun at tryouts?” Mom asked as she drove me home.

  “Are you kidding? I was so nervous!” I said. “It was fearful, frightening, ferocious, and freaky—but definitely not fun. Why, are they supposed to be?”

  “I guess not,” Mom said, and she sounded a little worried.

  As we drove through town I remembered something that took my mind off of the tryouts.

  “Can we make a quick stop at Food City, please?” I asked. “I need to get some blueberries for the cupcakes.”

  Remember that blueberry frosting? I was going to ask Mom about it, but then I looked online to get some ideas. And I thought I had a way to make the perfect icing.

  “Do you think you can help me try out this icing?” I asked Mom when we got home with the blueberries.

  “Sure,” Mom replied. “But why don’t you take a shower first?”

  “Good idea,” I agreed. “I don’t think sweaty cupcakes would taste so good.”

  A few minutes later I was squeaky clean, and Mom and I were setting up the food processor to begin my icing experiment. First I made a basic buttercream icing with butter, sugar, and vanilla. Normally we add a little bit of milk to make it creamy, but I wanted to hold off on that until I added the blueberries. I didn’t want the icing to get too runny.

  Then I put the blueberries in the food processor and with Mom’s help we pureed them until they were supermushy. Then I put a strainer over the bowl and poured them into the strainer. The blueberry juice went into the bowl and the skins and seeds and stuff stayed in the strainer.

  Next I poured the blueberry juice into the icing, a little at a time, and beat it in. It was a pretty, light purpley-blue color. But we were going for robin’s-egg blue. So I added a couple of drops of gel color, and the blue became bright and happy—just like a robin’s egg.

  “What do you think?” I asked Mom.

  “I think it’s a lovely color,” Mom said. “And I also think we need some cupcakes to go with it!”

  I thought making cupcakes with my mom would take my mind off of softball, but when I was making the batter, it hit me.

  I was making cupcake batter—and I was a terrible softball batter. Why could I be good at making batter but not actually be a good batter?

  “Batter up!” I said, pouring the cupcakes into the tin, and Mom laughed.

  And so I thought about the tryouts for the rest of the weekend. The only thing that cleared my mind was going on a run with Mom.

  Monday morning I got on the bus and sat with Mia, like I always do.

  “Sorry I missed your tryouts,” Mia said. “How did it go?”

  “Okay, I think,” I said. “Alexis did her magical calculations, and she thinks I’ll get in.”

  “You don’t sound happy about that,” Mia said, noticing the nervousness in my voice.

  “I’m not sure how I feel,” I confessed. “If I don’t make the team, I’ll feel like a loser. Plus, I’ll disappoint everybody. But if I make the team, that means I’ll have to play in games and that makes me nervous.”

  Mia nodded. “I get nervous sometimes before a game. But usually it goes away when I start playing.”

  Then she noticed the cupcake box in my hand. “W
hat’s that? It’s not Friday.”

  I opened the lid a little bit. “I tried to get that blueberry icing right. What do you think?”

  “It’s so pretty!” Mia cried. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a sketchpad. “I did some designs over the weekend.”

  Mia showed me a sketch in colored pencils of a cupcake cake. On the bottom round layer, the cupcakes had green icing with flowers in pretty spring colors on them. The top two layers of cupcakes had blue icing and little birds on them. It looked absolutely beautiful.

  “Oh, Mia, that’s perfect!” I cried. “We can leave the blueberries out of the bottom ones and just use green food coloring.”

  “I found tiny cookie cutters shaped like flowers and birds,” Mia said. “We can get different colors of fondant and roll it out and then cut out the shapes.”

  “Grandma Carole is going to love these cupcakes,” I said.

  George looked over the back of our seat. “Did somebody say cupcakes?” he said, eyeing the box.

  “Sorry, George, these are for my friends,” I said.

  He made a sad face. “Aw, come on. I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

  I giggled. “Forget it, George!”

  Then the bus pulled up in front of the school, and I started to feel nervous all over again.

  “Come on,” Mia said. “I’ll go with you.”

  We walked up to the bulletin board in the front hall, and there it was: SOFTBALL TRYOUTS RESULTS. I took a deep breath and stared closer.

  The list was alphabetical, so I saw my name right at the top: KATIE BROWN. I couldn’t believe that I made it!

  “Oh my gosh! I made it!” I said.

  “I knew you would, Katie!” Mia said happily, and she gave me a hug.

  I scanned the rest of the list and saw that Beth, Lucy, and Sophie had made the team, but Maggie was listed as an alternate. I felt kind of bad for her. I knew how much she wanted to play.

  Then the opening bell rang, and I had to run to homeroom. I was dying to text Grandma Carole, but there’s no texting allowed in our school.

  When I got to the cafeteria later, I saw that Alexis and Emma were at the table already with Mia, instead of in the lunch line. They were all smiling.

  “Congratulations!” they cried, and Alexis took her hands out from behind her back and presented me with an open cardboard box with four cupcakes inside. Each one was decorated to look like a softball.

  “Thank you!” I cried. “These are so awesome. You didn’t have to do that!”

  “It’s exciting,” Alexis said. “Plus, I wanted to test out my cupcake idea.”

  “But what if I didn’t get on the team?” I asked, teasing.

  Emma held out another box of cupcakes. These said, “World’s Best Friend” on top.

  “Alexis had a backup plan,” Emma admitted.

  “Of course I did,” Alexis said.

  I held out my cupcake box. “Well, I brought cupcakes too,” I said. “I did a blueberry icing test.”

  “How are we possibly going to eat all these cupcakes?” Mia wondered aloud.

  I had an idea. “I’m going to give one to George.”

  I picked up one of the blueberry cupcakes and walked across the cafeteria to George’s table. On the way I passed the PGC table. Sydney was talking very loudly to Maggie.

  “I don’t understand why you’re upset, Maggie. You’re lucky you didn’t make the team,” Sydney was saying. “Why would you want to wear those ugly uniforms and get all dirty and sweaty just to play that boring game?”

  Maggie looked like she might cry. “I—I just like it, that’s all,” she stammered.

  Then Callie spoke up. “Leave her alone, Sydney. Maggie wanted to be on that team really bad.”

  Well, it’s nice that she’s standing up for Maggie, I thought as I walked past. It would be even nicer if she would stick up for me once in a while.

  When I reached George’s table, I put down the cupcake in front of him.

  “You looked so pitiful before,” I teased him.

  “Thanks, Katie,” George said. “I promise never to call you Silly Arms again.”

  If I had known that all I had to do was bribe George with cupcakes, I would have done that a long time ago.

  “I hope you remember that,” I said to George.

  Then I walked back to my table, where my friends were waiting to celebrate with me.

  CHAPTER 14

  Can I Actually Do This?

  So practice started on Monday after school and lasted until six thirty. By the time Mom picked me up I was sweaty, starving, and exhausted. And I still had to do my homework!

  I have to say that I didn’t do too badly in practice. But I still couldn’t stop worrying. Every time I was in the field, I kept worrying that I would drop the ball or make a bad throw. And every time I was at bat, all I could think about was striking out. Which I did, a few times, but I got a few hits, too.

  I think Coach Kendall knew I was nervous. Whenever I got up to bat, she would say, “Relax, Katie! Just have fun!”

  Grandma Carole said the same thing when I called to tell her I made the team.

  “You’ll do great, Katie! Just have fun!”

  Even my Cupcake Club friends had the same idea. One day at lunch, Mia asked me how practice was going.

  “It’s hard,” I said. “And I keep worrying that I’m going to mess up.”

  “Just have fun,” Alexis said. “Like we did when we had batting practice with Matt.”

  I thought about it. Practicing with Alexis and Matt had been kind of fun. But that’s because they’re my friends, and it didn’t matter if I did good or not.

  “I’ll try,” I said, but I knew I was kidding myself. I mean, how can you “just have fun” if something isn’t fun?

  Which is exactly what I asked my mom. “Everybody says ‘just have fun,’” I said. “But how do I do that? It’s not like I can turn on a switch in my brain or anything.”

  “I think everyone means to just relax and not take it so seriously,” Mom said. “It’s important to do your best, but in the end, it’s just a game.”

  What Mom said made sense, but it didn’t change anything. I still couldn’t shut my brain off whenever I was at practice.

  I did notice that one person was having a lot of fun—Maggie. Even though she was an alternate, she came to every practice. Usually she was the first one to arrive. She asked to play different positions, too. One day she was in the outfield, the next day she’d be playing first base or at shortstop.

  “You never know when coach will need me to play,” Maggie told me. “And I want to be ready.”

  Maggie messed up a lot on the field, but she didn’t let it get her down. She even made friends with the girls on the team really fast. I still didn’t know some of their names.

  One Tuesday we got our game schedule, and I saw that my first game was just four days away, on Saturday morning. We were playing the team from Fieldstone at their school field.

  “Are you sure the game is this Saturday?” I asked Coach Kendall. “I mean, we’re not actually ready to play another team, are we?”

  “Playing another team is the best way to get experience,” Coach Kendall said. “And a lot of their players are new, just like you. It’ll be fine.”

  The Friday night before the game I didn’t sleep very well. I dreamed that I kept swinging and swinging and striking out, and everyone in the stands was pointing and laughing at me.

  The game the next morning was at eleven, but once again I woke up superearly. Thankfully, Mom woke up early too, and we went for a run. The sound of the chirping birds and the gentle breeze blowing through the trees in the park all helped to calm me down a little bit.

  When I got home I changed into my softball uniform: gold baseball pants, white socks, black cleats, and a blue shirt that said PARK STREET MIDDLE SCHOOL in gold letters. I put my hair in a low ponytail, so I could fit my hat over it.

  I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I
looked just like a real softball player.

  “This is it, Katie,” I whispered to myself.

  Even though the game started at eleven, Mom dropped me off at ten, so I could warm up with the team.

  “I’ll be back later,” she promised. “And Katie—”

  “Please don’t say, ‘just have fun,’” I said.

  Mom smiled. “I was going to say, just do your best and you won’t have anything to worry about.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” I said.

  I got out of the car and ran toward my team. On the other side of the field, the Fieldstone girls in their black and gray uniforms were warming up. It might have been my imagination, but I swear they all looked bigger and stronger than all of us.

  To warm up, we did some exercises and then practiced throwing and catching. The whole time my head felt like it was full of cotton balls—so full of fear that I pretty much drowned out everything all around me. It was a really weird feeling.

  We were walking to our dugout when a loud cheer erupted from the stands, and I looked up. Alexis, Emma, and Mia were holding up a big sign that said, GO, KATIE! Mom was sitting next to Mia, and sitting next to Mom was a lady with white hair, wearing a blue T-shirt and a gold baseball cap.

  I couldn’t believe it. “Grandma?”

  Grandma Carole saw me looking and started waving like crazy. “Surprise, Katie-kins!” she yelled.

  I felt like everybody was looking at me, which was embarrassing, but I was still happy to see Grandma. I ran over to the stands, and she climbed down to meet me by the fence.

  “I came a week early to surprise you,” she said.

  “I can’t believe it!” I said.

  Grandma grinned. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything. Go get ’em, Katie-kins!”

  I was really happy that Grandma was here, but now I really didn’t want to mess up. I gulped hard and ran back to the field.

  CHAPTER 15

  Are You Sure Those Other Players Aren’t Professionals?

  It felt good to have my own personal cheering section, but I also felt like it was extra pressure, too. Like everybody would be watching my every move.