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All the girls showed up on time to the second pitchers and catchers practice. Even DeAnna. Also Thomas. Emily’s heart was warmed at the sight. “Hailey, do you remember the stretches we went through yesterday?”
“Yep.”
“Could you lead your teammates through them again?”
“Yep.” She headed toward the sideline, and her teammates followed, except for DeAnna.
“Did you get my sneakers yet?” DeAnna asked expectantly.
Emily chuckled. “DeAnna, I promised you sneakers at lunchtime. How could I have possibly gotten them yet?”
DeAnna shrugged. “Well, I can’t do anything without them.”
Emily looked down at her feet. She was wearing a pair of weathered Converse high tops. Emily looked at her face again. “First of all, when you said you didn’t have sneakers, I thought you meant cleats, which is what we’ll all be wearing when we get outside, and we will be getting outside soon. I will help you find cleats. But for now, those will do.”
“But I don’t have a glove.”
Emily looked at the rest of the girls, who were now a third of the way through warmups. “You don’t need a glove to stretch out. Now go join your team.”
DeAnna’s eyes grew wide. “You made me join this team and now you’re being rude!” Then she stomped off toward the rest of the girls, leaving Emily to wonder if the child knew the definition of the word rude.
After stretches, Emily asked those with gloves to line up in pairs to throw overhand. “In a minute, we’ll switch out and some of you can lend your gloves to those who don’t have them yet.” They began to throw, but there was a noticeable lag in chitchat. Emily took this to mean they were concentrating. She was wrong. They were conspiring.
Chloe approached her. “Um, Miss M? The girls don’t want to share their gloves.”
“What? Why?”
“Um, because it’s kind of gross.”
Emily didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t think it was gross, but she also couldn’t make anyone share her glove. “Are you telling me that you, Chloe, are not going to share your glove with a teammate?”
Chloe looked guilty. “If I do it, then the other girls will get mad and feel like they should.”
“They should.”
Chloe looked guiltier. “Please don’t make me, Miss M.”
“I’m not going to make you, but I am disappointed—”
“You have to understand, Miss M. It’s not everyone. It’s just ...” Her voice trailed off.
“It’s just what?”
“Not what. Who. It’s just that no one wants to share with DeAnna.”
“What? Well, that’s incredibly unkind of you. Just because you’re not friends with someone—”
“It’s not that, Miss M. It’s that ... well”—she lowered her voice even more—“she’s just ... dirty.”
A vision of Stephen King’s Carrie flashed through Emily’s mind, which made her even angrier than she would have been. “That’s enough. I don’t want to hear another word,” Emily said through an almost closed jaw.” Then she raised her voice to everyone. “I’ve changed my mind! We’re going to do things a little differently—”
Juniper had sprinted over to her, so she stopped talking. “They can use my glove. Just rotate them all through it. It’s not like I need to practice throwing.”
“Really?” Emily said.
Juniper gave Chloe a disgusted look. “Yeah, really.” Then she trotted over to DeAnna and handed her glove over.
“Never mind,” Emily said loudly. “It seems we have a plan. Carry on.” She looked at her precious Chloe. “Get back in line.”
“Miss M, I’m sorry, but please try—”
“Just go throw, Chloe. I’m not angry. Just go throw.” Chloe left, her head down and her shoulders slumped. Emily wasn’t angry, not really. But she did hold Chloe to a higher standard because Chloe professed Christ, so she should know better. But immediately on the heels of this expectation came Emily’s own guilt. Chloe was still just a kid, Jesus or no Jesus, and she was still learning. And there was no doubt that someone else had sent her to Emily as the team’s spokesperson.
“What was that all about?” Thomas said. He had approached from behind.
“We have four girls without gloves. The girls with gloves didn’t want to share. So I was going to make them do something else, but then Juniper offered to share her glove.” As Emily spoke, Juniper was helping DeAnna with her throwing form. What an unpredictable child.
“So what you’re saying is, Juniper’s the hero?”
Emily thought she heard a touch of admiration in his voice. “I don’t know about that. But she’s doing a kind thing, for sure.”
After they’d thrown for a while, Emily sent MacKenzie and Juniper down to one end of the gym and lined everyone else up as they’d done the day before, with Hailey back-to to the gym pads.
Again, it wasn’t pretty. But this time they went through the line several times and at least the girls began to relax. At first Hailey did a lot of chasing as the pitched balls sometimes landed nowhere near her, but then Thomas took over that duty, leaving Hailey to catch only the balls in her immediate vicinity, which allowed for far more pitches. Emily thought perhaps it would be better to have one of her athletes chase the balls down, but Thomas seemed to be having so much fun.
After a while, Emily switched Hailey out with Ava, who actually did a better job of catching the ball than Hailey had. “Nice job, Ava! Are you sure you’ve never played softball before?”
Ava beamed at the praise. “No, but I used to play Little League.”
“Really? I bet you were adorable.”
“I don’t know about that. But I loved it. Was pretty bummed when I got too old to play.”
Ava was a senior. Seemed the Piercehaven softball team had formed in the nick of time.
