Chapter 24

The following weekend was a fun one for Kiana. Her softball team, the Washington LadyCats, had a tournament. It was in a city called Kent, which was about twenty minutes west of Seattle and a little to the south. Kiana was really excited because it was her first tournament with the team, but at the same time she was also a little nervous since it was the first time she had played in an actual game since the car accident in LA. She had been practicing with the team a lot lately, usually three or four times a week, and she had been doing quite well, but every player knew that games and practices were completely different animals. Just because you did well in practice didn’t mean you would do well in a game.

The fields were nice and there were four of them total, all sitting around a central building that had restrooms, storage areas, and a concession stand. There were twenty-four teams in the tournament, most of them from Washington, but also a few from Oregon, California, Idaho, and British Columbia. Their first game was against a team from Washington called the Edmonds Express, and, as could have been expected, Kiana got off to a slow start. She played well on defense and made several nice throws during the first three innings, but she struggled batting. Her timing was off and the Express’s pitcher threw some nasty changeups that fooled her badly. As such, she struck out during her first at-bat, then grounded out weakly during her second.

“Don’t worry, Kiana,” Michael said. He sat in the bleachers with the rest of the parents and fans. “You’ll get the next one.”

Much to Kiana’s dismay, sitting right next to him was Christine. That irritated Kiana immensely since softball was supposed to be a dad and daughter thing, not a dad, daughter, and girlfriend thing, but she decided she would have to deal with it later. At that point in time, she had to focus on softball and softball alone.

She got her next at-bat in the fifth inning. At that point, they were losing 4-3 and they had two outs, but at the same time they had two runners on base (Stacy on second and Veronica on third), so it was a golden opportunity for both the team and Kiana. If she could get a hit, even something as weak as a bloop single, both runners would score and they would take the lead.

“Here we go, Kiana,” Michael cheered. “Keep your hands up, your chin down. Eyes on the ball.”

The first pitch was a fastball and Kiana got a piece of it, but barely, and sent it flying over the first base dugout.

“Foul ball,” blue said. “One strike, no balls.”

The next pitch was in the dirt, as was the one after that, so Kiana let them go for balls, but the one after that was pure heat, straight down the middle of the plate. Kiana whipped her bat around, as fast as she could, and lined the ball straight back at the pitcher. The pitcher tried to stab at it with her mitt, to knock it down and grab it, but it was moving too fast and it went right past her and into center field for a single. The parents, fans, and her teammates cheered as Veronica and Stacy raced from their bases and scored easily. The Express’s center fielder tried to throw the ball to home plate to get Stacy but it wasn’t even close. She slid under the catcher’s tag easily.

As such, Kiana was all smiles as she stood on first base. Thanks to her, they were ahead 5-4, and that actually ended up being the final score. At the end of the game, all of the girls clapped her on the back and gave her hugs, and even though it had been a long time since her last game, she quickly started to remember why she had always enjoyed softball so much. The excitement and camaraderie were unparalleled.

Their next game was against a team from British Columbia called the Bearcats. Kiana thought it was pretty funny – the Bearcats against the LadyCats. Being from southern California, she hadn’t played too many games against Canadian teams but the other girls warned her about them right from the start.

“They’re usually pretty good,” Stacy said. “And some of them are downright awesome.”

The Bearcats appeared to be no exception. They jumped to a quick lead when their center fielder hit a double in the bottom half of the first inning, then they added to the lead in the third when their first baseman hit a triple down the third base foul line, scoring a runner from second. In the meantime, however, Kiana and her teammates battled back, scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth when Stacy hit a single, and two more in the bottom of the fifth when Hailey hit a massive triple off of the fence in left field (for a minute, it looked like it was going to be a home run). In the end, they ended up winning 4-2 and Kiana finished with two hits of her own, a double in the third and a single in the fifth.

Unfortunately, their next game, and the final one of the day, wasn’t nearly as fun. It was against a team called Missfits Fastpitch and the Missfits’ pitcher was amazing. Her name was Paige Parker and she was a tall, thin girl with long, brown hair. Over the years, Kiana had faced a lot of pitchers but she had never faced anyone who could throw as hard as Paige. The ball sounded like it was exploding every time it hit the catcher’s mitt. And if the velocity wasn’t enough, Paige also had pinpoint precision and could aim the ball exactly where she wanted it to go.

“This girl is the real deal,” Kiana said as she watched Paige warm up.

“Tell me about it,” Stacy said. “The last time we faced her, she struck me out three times. It was brutal.”

Stacy wasn’t kidding. Paige was completely overpowering and she struck out the LadyCats’ first six batters, including Kiana. Kiana managed to foul one pitch away but the other two blazed by her so fast she could barely see them.

So the game was pretty much a disaster from the start. The Missfits took the lead in the third inning when their shortstop hit a double, scoring a runner from first, and they scored two more runs in the fourth when their first baseman hit a single to the gap in left center. In the meantime, Paige continued to blow the LadyCats’ batters down, one by one. Veronica managed to get a single off of her in the fourth inning, to break up the potential no-hitter, but that was the best they could do and the final score was 3-0.

Overall, though, Kiana was still pretty happy. Two wins in three games was pretty good, and to her it just felt good to get back on a field and play some games again.

But then something completely unexpected happened. Kiana had just rounded up her belongings and packed them into her softball bag, and she was walking toward the parking lot where Michael and Christine were waiting for her, when she heard a voice from a few feet away.

“Amanda? Is that you?”

Kiana froze in her tracks. Amanda was a name she had not heard for a long time.

She turned and her eyes got big as she realized who was speaking. It was a player from one of the California teams that was participating in the tournament. Kiana recognized her instantly. Her name was Taylor Danielson and they had been teammates a few years back when they had both played for a team called the Orange County Ladybugs. They had never been super good friends and they had only known each other for one season, since they had moved onto different teams the following year, but even so, it was clearly her.

“I can’t believe it,” Taylor said. “Everyone said you died. Something about a car accident.”

Kiana was instantly torn. She really wanted to talk to Taylor and ask her how her friends in southern California were doing, but then she remembered she couldn’t. Doing so was a security breach that could jeopardize her new identity. And if her new identity was jeopardized, she might be forced to get a new one, and then she and Michael would be forced to move again (which was something she absolutely did not want to do).

“The other girls aren’t going to believe this,” Taylor said. “I can’t wait to tell them.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled her cell phone out.

Kiana had to think on her feet.

“Excuse me?” she said.

“I can’t wait to tell the other girls. Back home. They’re gonna flip when they find out you’re alive. But of course they’re probably not going to believe me at first. We’ll have to send them a photo.”

“Back home? What do you mean?”

“Anaheim. Where we’re from.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m from Seattle. I’ve lived here my entire life. My name is Kiana.”

There was a long, awkward silence as Taylor stood there, looking at her with a dumbfounded expression on her face. It was clear she was confused, and for a few brief seconds Kiana was convinced she wasn’t going to buy it. But finally, and much to Kiana’s delight, she did.

“That’s amazing. You look just like a girl I used to know. Her name was Amanda Anderson. The two of you could have been twins.”

Kiana was instantly relieved but she tried to stay cool and not give anything away. “I must have a common face. I’ve had the same thing happen a couple of times before.”

Taylor shook her head. It was obvious she was still mystified. “You sound like her, too.”

Kiana shrugged. “Sorry. I’m not her. And I really need to be going. My dad is waiting for me.”

“Okay. Sorry if I bugged you.”

“No problem.”

Kiana slipped her bag over her shoulder and hurried off as fast as she could. She didn’t want to be around Taylor any longer than she had to. She felt terrible about lying to her and she knew the longer their conversation continued, the more lies she would have to tell.

That was one of the few things Kiana hated about being a secret agent. You had to lie to people, sometimes frequently, and sometimes those people were your friends.