Eighteen Months Before

 

The summer I turned fourteen, my mother couldn't afford for me to be on the community team any more, so Aaron offered to sponsor me. He paid my fees for the regular season, and for the tournament season as well. Mom was so grateful to him that she let me spend twice as much time practicing, to show him that I was using his investment wisely.

In June, Aaron and I were practicing in Haylee's front yard, getting ready for the first big tournament of the year. My arm was off that day, so Aaron kept reaching way out of the strike zone to catch my wild balls.

"Watch your landing leg," Aaron said. "Finish tall."

Pitching is all about physics—you have to use your body just right to move the ball with a mixture of velocity and control. I wound up again, concentrating this time on my posture at the moment I let go of the ball.

Haylee sat down on the front porch. She often sat there, watching us, but today she was glaring. She looked from Aaron to me, put her head in her hands, and sighed a sigh that Mom would have described as passive-aggressive.

I don't know if Aaron noticed the glaring, or just got sick of reaching to catch pitches that should have floated into his glove. Either way, he called a break, and went inside for some water.

I sat down next to Haylee on the front steps.

"Not going well?" she asked.

"Brilliant deduction," I said.

"I can't tell the difference in the pitches," she said. "Just on your face."

"Well, if I pitch like that at the tournament, I won't get left in for an inning."

"You guys are going to be gone all weekend?" Haylee asked. That's what the sighs were about. She already knew that we would—the tournament was up in Redwood City, so all the girls were staying in a hotel.

"Yeah," I said.

"Figures."

"Why don't you come?" I asked. But Haylee shook her head. She'd come to a tournament once last year, but she hadn't wanted to hang out with any of the other girls, only me. She ended up watching movies with her dad all night instead, and didn't speak to me for two weeks after.

She gave another laborious sigh. "Everyone knows what's going on, you know."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I braced for nastiness. When Haylee felt left out of things, she got mean. But nothing prepared me for what she was going to say.

"It's obvious to everyone the way he's coming on to you."

I wrinkled my eyebrows. "Who?"

She looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world. "My dad. Why do you think he pays for all this?"

I should have told her it was a sick thing to say. But I just sat there, my skin growing cold. It wasn't true, was it? Aaron might as well have been my dad, just like Haylee was practically my sister.

She sat there, waiting for my reaction.

"It's not like that," I said finally.

Haylee jumped to her feet. "Fine," she said. "Don't believe me. You'll see." She ran into the house and slammed the door.

I sat on her porch, shivering. When Aaron came back out, I shook my head.

"I'm not feeling so great," I said. "I'm going home."

He said something about hoping I'd be well enough for the tournament, but I was already on my way down the driveway.

The next time I saw Haylee, she was smiling again. She didn't mention the things she'd said, and I could almost believe that conversation had never happened.

But at the tournament, I made sure to stay with at least one of the other girls at all times, unless I was out on the field. It couldn't be true, what Haylee said.

But if it was, I sure didn't want to find out.