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On Monday morning, Emily felt like a little kid on Christmas. She was almost embarrassed about how excited she was to start softball. James and she had gone to the mainland after church to buy softballs—she’d sprung for these—and she had placed an order online for all the other equipment. On her way to her classroom, she stopped into the office to hand Julie an announcement and then practically ran out of the office to avoid Julie’s commentary. She still heard it.
“She expects me to read this?” Julie said to the empty office.
So Emily wasn’t really surprised when Julie didn’t include her notice in the morning announcements. Not surprised. But still furious. People announced ridiculous stuff all the time—if Julie could announce the special ed teacher’s lunchtime scented wax sale, then surely she could announce this. Emily asked the librarian to cover her room and then made a beeline for the office, hoping Julie wouldn’t be at her desk. She was, but Emily decided she didn’t care. She grabbed the microphone and flipped the on switch before Julie could protest. Then, though Julie tried to grab the mic out of her hands, Emily said, “Sorry for the interruption. We forgot one of our morning announcements. Softball pitchers and catchers will start today in the gym at four. Please wear sneakers and bring your gloves if you have them. And the Piercehaven softball team would like to give a special thank you to Travis Payne, who generously donated the funds necessary to make this softball team happen.”
She gave Julie a smile that she knew was evilly smug and set the microphone down with exaggerated care.
“You are so lucky Mr. Hogan isn’t here,” Julie said through gritted teeth.
Emily didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just walked away with an uneasy feeling in her gut. She knew this was a pattern with her. Occasionally, she would be filled with an almost supernatural bravery, and she would do something she thought wonderful, but then soon after, she would be overcome with dread of the consequences. Hurrying back up the hallway to her room, she tried to push the dread out, telling herself she’d done a good thing, but then Kyle stepped out of his classroom.
“You never cease to surprise me.”
She smiled and continued.
“Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you,” he said to her back.
Victoria beamed at Emily when she walked back into her classroom. “We really got all the stuff?”
Emily thanked the librarian and then flashed Victoria a smile she no longer felt. “Yes, Mr. Payne bought us everything, and Noah, Noah’s father, and Mr. Gagnon fixed up your field. So we are good to go.”
“That musta cost Travis a bundle,” Victoria said.
“Don’t worry,” Tyler said, “he can afford it.”
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At four o’clock sharp, there were five girls and two surprises in the gym. The first surprise: Alongside stalwarts Hailey, Chloe, MacKenzie, and Ava, stood Juniper. The second surprise: Beside Juniper, stood Thomas.
“You know managers don’t have to come to practice?” Emily said to him.
“You kidding? I wouldn’t miss this.”
Emily looked at those present. “Where is everyone else?”
Juniper rolled her eyes. Hailey answered, “A lot of them are still in the locker room.”
Emily was annoyed. “Why? I’m guessing they’re never late for basketball practice?”
Hailey shrugged. “This isn’t basketball, Miss M.”
“I could go get them,” Thomas said. He was trying to be funny. No one laughed, and Chloe elbowed him in the ribs.
Emily headed for the locker room and met two more girls on the way out. “You’re late,” she said, and they looked chagrined. She stormed the door like a gunslinger entering a saloon. “What are you guys doing?”
They appeared to be doing very little. Hannah was tying her shoe and everyone else was watching her. Hannah looked up. “We’re coming, we’re coming, geesh.”
Emily waited for them to exit before she followed them out. Then she approached her gaggle, the sight of which cheered her. This was her team. Her team and Thomas. “OK, guys. I’m so, so glad you’re here. But one thing: I’m not going to scream at you and make you run for being late, but I am going to ask you to respect your teammates and me enough to show up on time. OK?”
Most of them nodded. Emily noticed that DeAnna was missing. “Anyone seen DeAnna?”
“I don’t think she’s going to play, Miss M,” Hannah said.
“Did she tell you that?”
“No, but she’s never played a sport in her life.”
“OK then. Let’s get warmed up.” Emily took them through a series of dynamic stretching that she had found on YouTube only a few hours prior. Once they’d done that, she asked them to partner up and play pass.
And then Emily’s pie in the sky fell to the floor with a splat.
Three girls didn’t even have gloves, but it didn’t matter because softballs were flying everywhere except into the softball gloves. Emily had never seen such a mess. Scarcely three weeks ago these girls had been athletic prodigies; now they looked like ungainly scarecrows flopping their limbs around. She couldn’t even imagine what Juniper must be thinking. Someone is going to get hurt. “Wait!” she cried. They stopped and looked at her expectantly, and her horror tempered a bit. She took a deep breath. “I apologize. I should have given more specific instructions. MacKenzie, Chloe, Juniper, Jasmine, Sydney, Ava, Hailey, and Sara, you stand on this line.” She put her foot on the sideline. They followed her instructions. “Now put about four feet between each of you.” They spread out. Then she walked about ten feet away from them. “Now the rest of you line up here”—she pointed—“across from them, so that all of our balls are going in the same direction,” she said. “Approximately,” she added.
They all stood looking at her. “OK. Go ahead. Throw.”
They threw. And immediately the gym filled with the loathsome sound of balls banging into folded up wooden bleachers. A softball hit senior Allie Cousens square in the chest. She swore. Emily thought Allie hadn’t played a sport before and chose to pretend she didn’t hear the curse. “OK, everyone, we’re just getting started, so just throw the ball nice and easy.” She could practically hear Juniper’s eyes roll at that one. She did hear Thomas laugh.
She made her way down the line, dodging a couple of stray fires and found MacKenzie calmly catching and throwing the ball. Thank you, Father. “Lookin’ good, MacKenzie.”
MacKenzie gave her a half-smile that quickly faded. “You regretting this yet?”
Emily stepped closer to her. “Regretting what?”
“Starting a softball team!” MacKenzie said quietly, but with feeling. “We’re pretty terrible.”
“We all have to start somewhere, and we’re going to be fine. But you’re a little correct. I didn’t expect such a rough start. Didn’t these girls play pass in the yard with their dads growing up?”
MacKenzie snorted. “Yeah. With a basketball.”
Emily couldn’t help it. She laughed at this as she made her way down the line. Of course, Juniper looked amazing. Hailey didn’t look terrible. But after that, it was a somber state of affairs. Chloe looked a little like a seagull.
“Hey!” someone screamed from the doorway. Emily didn’t need to turn around to know it was Larry. But she turned anyway. So did all the girls. “You going to pay for all this damage?” Larry shouted.
Emily looked around, afraid she had missed a window breaking or something, but Larry didn’t give her a chance to decipher his ambiguity. “Those bleachers are fifty years old!”
Emily didn’t know what to say. A few of the girls giggled. “Thank you,” Emily managed, “we’ll be more careful.”
“You better be!” Larry shouted. He sounded completely unhinged. “Or we can put a stop to this whole softball nonsense!” And he vanished, leaving Emily to wonder how on earth the custodian could put a stop to an athletic team. The scary part was, Emily thought he probably could.
“Come here, guys,” Emily said, trying to appear cool and collected, when she felt shaky and near tears. The girls gathered round. “Please ignore that. It is completely normal for people to miss balls on the first day. But I’m going to make a small change, so we make less noise for Larry. Hailey, would you please take Jasmine, Lucy, and Allie to that corner over there and go over the basic mechanics of throwing. MacKenzie, please do the same in that corner with Sydney, Victoria, and Sara. And would the rest of you please stay here with Juniper.”
Everyone obeyed. Juniper looked at her over the top of the glove she was chewing on. “You want me to teach these girls how to throw?” she said.
“Not teach them,” Emily tried. “Just help them to refine their technique.”
“Why can’t you teach them to throw?” Juniper said. “Aren’t you the coach?”
Emily fought to keep her voice under control as she said, “Juniper, go over to the corner there and have a seat.”
Juniper looked at the empty corner and then looked at her, appalled. “You’re telling me to go sit in the corner? What am I, five?”
Emily took a step toward her. “I’m telling you to either go sit in a time out or get out of my gym.”
Juniper stood there for a few seconds, seeming to gauge her sincerity, and then went and sat in the corner. Emily waited until she had done so and then turned to the small group and asked for a ball. Ava handed her one. And then Emily showed them how to throw a ball.
