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Ava had been right. Larry had set the pitching machine up for baseball. Victoria let Emily know during first period, so she snuck into the empty gym during her prep period for a peek. She looked the machine over closely but couldn’t see any way to make it fit a softball. And there certainly weren’t any extra attachments lying around. She became angry with herself for not being able to figure it out, and she was even angrier that she wouldn’t dare ask Larry for help.
After several minutes of staring at the ancient machine, she gave up and went back to her room. She looked at the piles of papers that needed grading, and then opted instead to flip open her laptop and check the weather report. Tuesday: 31 degrees and snow flurries. Probably shouldn’t be practicing outside on that day. But Wednesday was supposed to be 50 degrees. And Thursday and Friday, 55 and 58.
During lunch, Hannah unwittingly prophesied to Emily. “My dad took me to the batting cages in Rockland yesterday!” she said, her voice high-pitched with excitement. “And I actually hit the ball!”
Seconds after the final bell rang, Emily had beaten half the kids out of the building and was on her way to James’s house. She didn’t even wait for him to invite her in, which she knew he was reluctant to do. She just brushed past him. He left the door standing open three inches in case anyone was watching and might think the two of them were about to sin.
“What time will you get back from fishing tomorrow?”
He scrunched his brows. “Why?”
“I was wondering if you wanted to help me take my entire team to the batting cages in Rockland?” She tried to make this sound fun, as she knew it wouldn’t be much fun for him.
After several seconds of processing, he asked, reasonably, “Don’t you have a batting cage in the gym?”
She was prepared for this argument. “Yes, but this will be way better. Outside, fresh air, several girls batting at the same time, and then we can all get ice cream!”
“Are you sure they’re even open? And it’s going to be cold tomorrow, you know.”
“Yes, they’re open.” Thank you, Hannah. “And yes, it will be cold, but they won’t be outside for very long.”
“And you have a budget for this? Or is Travis Payne footing the bill?”
“No, I’ll pay for it. How much can it be?”
“At least five dollars per kid for balls and then at least five dollars per kid for ice cream. Plus the ferry fares.”
Yikes. She hadn’t really thought about that part of it. “You don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“I do think it’s a good idea, but I don’t think you should go tomorrow. Most of these girls have never hit a ball before, right? And I’m assuming they don’t all have batting gloves, as we didn’t buy any yesterday”—(James and she had gone to the mainland the day before to buy DeAnna’s gear)—“so batting in that cold is going to cause a wicked sting, and then they’ll all be afraid to bat for the rest of the year.”
Drats. She hadn’t thought of that.
“So, I think it’s a good idea, but I think you should do it on Friday.”
“Yeah?” She didn’t try to hide her surprise. “And you’ll go with us?”
“Of course. You might also want to invite a parent or two along. Though, Jasper wouldn’t be my first choice.”
She looked up at him quickly, but his eyes were twinkling.
“So why don’t you tell me what this is really about?” he asked. “Can’t get the batting machine to spit softballs?”
She didn’t know if he was a brilliant detective, he just could read her that well, or both. Whatever it was, she loved him for it.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
He looked at his wrist. “We’ve got time. Let’s go take a look at it.”
“Really?” She wanted to kiss him. Over and over again.
“Well, I’m not promising I can fix it. But I’ll try.”
––––––––
Within ten minutes, James had found the softball attachment and two buckets of batting machine softballs deep in the bowels of a storage closet Emily hadn’t known existed. They patiently waited for the baseball team to finish practice, and then, after another twenty minutes, James had the rickety machine firing softballs. The girls huddled around the cage, most of them champing at the bit. Emily told them over and over to get their fingers out of the net.
While James tried to get the relic to fire strikes, Emily forced the girls to endure a basic batting stance lecture. They all acted as though they understood and would do as she instructed—she knew that for most of them, neither of these things were true.
Juniper went in first. And of course, she hit every strike. It was difficult to tell how hard she was hitting it, but at least she was hitting it. While she was on her second bucket of balls, Hailey came alongside Emily.
“Miss M? Some of us are worried about the batting helmets.”
Oh no. Not again. “What about them?”
“Well, not to be mean, but DeAnna has had lice, and so no one wants to share with her.”
“Has had lice? As in she doesn’t have lice now?”
Hailey gave her a “be reasonable” look. “Come on, Miss M. You’ve got to understand this. We’re not trying to be mean, but DeAnna doesn’t even shower. Her hair is super greasy even if she doesn’t have lice. Can’t she just have a designated helmet?”
At first, Emily didn’t know what to do. Then she decided not to do anything. “I’m not going to do that to her. You and the other girls who are worried might want to go buy your own helmet.”
Hailey stood there for a few seconds, then appeared to give up, and walked away.
Ava’s form was terrible, but she made contact with nearly every pitch. And to her credit, she did at least try to implement Emily’s corrections.
And Hannah—sweet Hannah—Hannah was a thing of beauty with a bat. Over and over—crack! Over and over James would duck or dodge the line drive trying to injure him as he fed the machine. “Nice work, Hannah!” Emily praised. “I had no idea you had that in you!”
“I told you I like to hit things,” Hannah said, giving Emily a broad smile as she took off her helmet. Then she rubbed her belly. “Finally those extra Doritos and Funny Bones are going to come in handy.”
Emily smiled. “I don’t think that’s it. And none of that stuff during softball season.”
“I didn’t see that specified in my contract,” Hannah said and sauntered off.
She looked at Thomas. “Shoot! I forgot all about contracts! I was supposed to have them sign one, wasn’t I?”
“You were supposed to,” Thomas said. “But don’t worry, this is the first official practice, right? So you’re not even late yet.”
“Maybe not, but I will be! I don’t even know where to get such a thing,” she whispered out of the side of her mouth while looking into the cage. It was Sydney’s turn, and she couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.
“Want me to go find one and make copies?”
She looked at him. “Seriously?”
He shrugged. “Sure, why not? I’m not super busy right now.”
“How are you going to find a copy?”
“I have my ways.”
“Thomas, what would I do without you?”
“You’d have to go teach at a real high school. I’ll be right back,” and he was off.
––––––––
The girls acted as though it was perfectly normal that Thomas was the one handing out the contracts, and then signed them without so much as glancing at the content. Emily wondered if she should have gone over the contract with them, but it was already 5:30 and she figured the basketball players, at least, had probably read it before. Besides, how many of these girls were drinkers or smokers?
