Here's the third chapter!

MIZZOU21 - Haha I like it when you review! Yeah I agree about the filler chapter, and I'm really glad that you like the friendship between the two girls. I wanted to make it relatable, and I kind of based it loosely on the friendship with my own best friend haha.

SPURLUNK - Thanks for catching my mistake! I am not always good with that kind of stuff, but I always want to improve. Ahh I know, I'm sorry for leaving you hanging! But I've never been good with writing long chapters, and I like to keep them short because I get kind of bored when I write them really long, and tend to ramble and such. I really like Cullen too, he's fun to write and he reminds me of my close guy friend haha. And you will soon find out about Logan :)

CURIOUSCONTRADICTION - I am really trying to work on the punctuation. It is my weakest part when it comes to writing, and since a lot of people who are reviewing are mentioning that, it's making me work harder in fixing it. Thanks for letting me know though! And thanks so much for the links, I read through them and they really helped! Thanks also for the suggestion about Logan.

OFFHANDMUSINGS - I'm glad you enjoyed the back-story about Randy. I really wanted to make him interesting, and I'm glad you liked it haha. I knoooww, I'm working on writing longer chapters, but it's actually really hard for me to do. But I think they're getting longer as I go along haha.

My eyes were shaded by my oversized sunglasses. My heart was pounding underneath my favourite baseball shirt – the one with the quarter length purple sleeves and white body. My lucky cleats were tied tight and I was ready. But my nerves on the other hand, were anything but ready. I was shaking and I felt my palms starting to sweat like they did whenever I got nervous.

I watched as the boys ran three laps around the diamond, laughing and joking around. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I hated being the black sheep in the middle of all the white, fluffy ones. Well I guess in this situation, I was the white one and they were the black ones. I shook out my arms, hoping to release the nerves. I got this.

There was no way I didn’t have this in the bag.

Taking in a deep breath, I started to walk over to the field. My ball bag slung around the shoulder, and I held onto the strap with a death grip, as if my life depended on it. As soon as I reached the field the boys had just finished their laps for warm-up. The coach spit and focused his eyes on me. I smiled.

“Hi. I’m Hol—” He cut me off before I could even get my name out.

“A girl,” He crossed his bulky arms across his chest.

I raised an eyebrow, and smirked. “Thanks for pointing that out sir. But I’m Holli. And I’m here to try out.”

He howled with laughter, and the boys that had gathered behind them joined in, following along with their coach. It was pretty obvious that they listened to everything he had to say – on and off the field. And if he wasn’t on board with having a girl on the team, then it was clear that the boys wouldn’t be either. Great.

But I wasn’t worried. It wasn’t like he could not let me join just because I was a girl – that was against the rules. If I was good enough to make the team – no matter if I was a girl or boy – then he would have to let me play. Well not let me play, but let me be on the team. I assumed I would be warming the bench for a little bit, that is until I proved that I was ten times better than Toby.

“I thought I told you that softball tryouts are on Friday,” Jarvis said as he turned his hat around so the brim was facing backwards. With all the boys standing around me in a half moon formation, it was kind of intimidating. But I pushed that feeling away. Dropping my bag onto the dirt I cocked my head to the side slightly and said, “So are we just gonna stand around, you guys trying to scare me away? Or are you actually going to try and scare me away with your skills?”

* * *

My hat was taking the position of a sweatband. I felt disgusting – my clothes were covered in red dirt, my long bangs were sticking to my forehead, my hand was cramping, and my left shoulder was killing from when Toby threw the ball right at it. On purpose of course. But I shrugged it off and jogged to first base, crouching into my running position. He lifted his glove to his face, and pulled up his left leg slightly, now in the pitching position. His eyes were focused on the Jarvis, the bat catcher. I took a few steps closer to second base. His eyes were still focused.

Perfect. A small smirk formed on my lips as I took one last step closer to second base. Jarvis made a peace sign between his crouched knees. Toby spun around, and the ball came flying towards Logan, the first baseman.

“Shit!” I mumbled as I dove back to first base before Logan could tag me out.

“You’re lucky, bitch,” He shot at me as he got into position once again. I shrugged it off. Did he honestly think that calling me names would get me to leave? Think again Logan. “Next time, you’re out.”

I laughed. “Right, watch me.” I took my lead of the first base once again, determined to steal the base. This was my favourite part of the whole game. I got such an adrenaline rush whenever I was about to steal a base.

Logan’s eyes were boring into my back; I could feel them on me. My palms started to sweat underneath my gloves and my heart started to race, like I was about to dive off the highest board at the swimming pool. I got this.

Toby wound up once again, and Jarvis made his sign. Toby’s ball was about to leave his hand. I crouched lower, turning my foot towards second base. He pulled his leg up higher – my heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, and I was pretty positive that Logan could hear it from a couple feet away. His eyes were still on me.

And I bolted. I heard the coach yelling at Toby in the distance, but my focus was all on the base. I completely blocked out the yelling coming back from Logan at the base I had just left in the dust. My cleats were pounding on the red dirt, and I felt the cool breeze hit the back of my neck.

The base was close, and I was pretty sure Toby was going to throw the ball to him at any moment, but I could make it – I knew I could. When I reached sliding distance, I crouched down and stuck out my leg, it touched the base as soon as I heard the slap of the ball in the second baseman’s glove.

I got up, my foot still on the base. I wanted to dance, I wanted to jump around and hug Toby for being such a slow idiot.

“You’re out!” Landon, the boy playing second base shouted.

I stopped dead in my tracks. “What?!” I yelled in disbelief, my arms dropping to my side. There was no way in hell I didn’t make that. “Coach!”

Everyone turned to look at the coach who was lounging on the dugout bench, a bag of Spitz in his hand. He pulled up the brim of his hat, and set the clipboard he had been writing on next to his thigh. “Landon, don’t be bitter. That was safe,” I smiled, a warmth spreading in my chest. I smiled a toothy grin and continued to wipe off the dust from my pants. “Good work Holli. Now that was a steal! Toby didn’t even see it coming, did yah?”

Toby was silent from the mound.

Someone needed to put him in his place, and it looked like that someone was going to be me. He spun around on his heel and sent one of the dirtiest looks my way. I waved, and flashed him the bird quickly. He rolled his eyes and turned around.

As we all waited on the batter who was up to hit the ball, I felt a hard shove. Regaining my balance I turned towards Landon and slapped him on the shoulder. “Fuck off dude, no need to get jealous.”

He scoffed, “Right, cause I’m jealous of a little girl who thinks she can make the team all because of one little steal. Get real, and get off the field. You don’t belong here.”

“If you’re trying to throw me off my game, you’re going to have to try a little harder than that. Maybe you and Logan can get together and think up of something better than calling me a bitch, and giving me a light shove. Grow up, and don’t make me embarrass you again.” I stood straight, my confidence dwindling. I shook my head, and retied my ponytail. No – this jackass was not going to bring me down. I just made the best steal of the game, and I was on top of the world.

These boys have no idea what they have got coming.

* * *

The boys were all sitting in the cool, shady dugout with the coach. I gripped my water bottle tighter so my fingers made little dents in the plastic.

Tryouts were over, and I was exhausted. Softball tryouts were nothing like baseball ones. We only played one game, and that was it. But today we had played a game, and then done drills, and after that when I finally thought that it was time to go home, we had to run laps. I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion. Now we were all sitting in the dugout – well they were sitting, I was standing off to the side. It was pretty obvious that they still wanted nothing to do with me, even after my amazing play.

Earlier today I had thought that yes, they wouldn’t want me to try out but after I showed them that I could actually play they would warm up to me and realize that without me, they can kiss their championship trophies and the win goodbye. Just like last year.

The coach cleared his throat, and stood up from the bench. A pile of spits fell off his large stomach and onto the ground. I held in a laugh. “So, good tryouts today boys,” I dug my toe into the dirt. “And uh… Holli. So, as you all know I can only keep twenty five of you. And uh… there’s about thirty here. So um… well I have to cut five of you. This didn’t happen last year, so uh…” He trailed off and looked down at his clipboard. Had he actually written anything on there? Whenever I looked over at him, he had been either digging in his pants, or his bag of Spitz.

My heart started to pound – cut five people? What the hell! I did not count thirty people here, there had to be only twenty, if that.

“Uh, coach?” I piped up. The boys all turned to look at me. Toby rolled his eyes, Jarvis spit out his chew, and Logan crossed his arms across his chest. I was slightly grossed out by Jarvis at this point. He was always chewing, it was nasty.

“What?”

“Well, it looks to me like there are only about nineteen guys here, twenty including me,” His eyes bored into mine. “So maybe you don’t need to cut anyone...” I trailed off, spinning my toe deeper into the ground.

Coach tapped his clipboard against his thigh, and flashed his eyes around the dugout. “Hmm… well.” His finger bounced from everyone’s head, around the small area. He cleared his throat once again. “I guess you’re right Holli. My mistake – there’s only twenty of you here. No cuts!”

Everyone cheered, and I blushed ever so slightly. I had just saved five people – one of those people being me – from being cut from the team. Looking around, I expected a few thanks, or maybe even a high five if I was lucky.

No such luck.

The boys still sat on the bench, looking up at the coach expectantly.

“So wait, let me get this straight,” Toby finally spoke up, after a few moments of random chatter. “That means she,” He jutted his finger at me accusingly, “Gets to stay on the team?”

Uh oh.

The coach looked over at me once again, as did all the other boys. Toby smirked at me, and raised his eyebrow. His baseball cap was sitting on top of his head, making it look a few times bigger than it already was. Probably so he could hold in his ego.

I was now strangling my water bottle, waiting for his answer. He couldn’t cut me from the team – he just couldn’t!

Coach started walking over to the stairs leading up to the diamond. When he reached them, he turned around, tossed his clipboard into one of the boys’ ball bags and nodded his head. “She definitely gets to stay on the team,” And with that, he made his way up the stairs, and out of sight.

It was silent in the dug out. The boys were frozen, and I was shaking with happiness. I made it! I was on the fucking baseball team!

Toby ripped his hat off his head, “This is fucking bullshit!” He shouted, standing up in rage. He stormed past me, but didn’t leave. He reached the stairs and threw his hat at me angrily. It hit me on the foot.

I looked down at it, and then back up at a fuming Toby. I followed him up the stairs, and he was walking towards the parking lot.

“Good throw rookie!” I shouted after him, laughing. “Don’t expect to be pitcher for that much longer, with that arm!”

He didn’t look back, but instead held his middle finger over his shoulder and flipped me off.

I chuckled to myself as I went back into the dugout to grab my bag. As I was putting my things away, the other boys breezed past me until I was alone in the dug out.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder I made my way to the stairs. Before climbing up them I was overcome with happiness, and did my little happy dance that I do whenever I get an urge. It was a habit – Taylor was rubbing off on me.

I looked up into the bright sun and squinted. A huge shadow was casted over me.

“Oh god, what do you want?” I pushed past Jarvis, who I realized was only maybe a few inches taller than me, and I was pretty short. It was amazing no one ever made fun of him for his height. Maybe it was because he was Toby’s step brother.

He stepped back, allowing me to step out onto the green grass and stayed silent. I cocked an eyebrow. He waited for me – why? Jarvis readjusted the strap of his bag looked everywhere but my eyes.

“I just wanted to say, congrats on making the team,” He paused and looked down at his shoes. “And I’m sorry for being an asshole. You’re obviously a good baseball player. I definitely underestimated you.”

I was in shock. Complete and total shock. What the fuck? My eyes were glued on him, looking for anything that would give me a clue as to why he was doing this. It had to be a joke or something. The boys probably made him wait, then he was going to trick me into thinking he was my friend. Well, I am no idiot.

“Jarvis, I’m not an idiot. Where’s Toby? And why did he tell you to be nice to me? Or wait, I know! It was Landon – he’s still pissed about today when I made that steal, isn’t he?”

Jarvis cocked his head to the side slightly, and knitted his eyebrows. “Uhh… no. I just wanted to apologize.”

I laughed, and slapped my hand on his shoulder. “Right and I’m wanted on this team. Good one kid.”

With that, I continued my way to Taylor’s idling car that was sitting in the parking lot waiting for me. She popped the trunk and I tossed my bag into the trunk then hopped into the passenger seat. She looked at me expectantly, bouncing up and down in her seat.

“What whaaat!!” I threw my hands up and waved them around. She squealed and grabbed onto my shoulders, shaking them with delight. We did our happy dance in our seats together and cheered.

“I’m so happy for you Holl!” She shouted as we finished dancing and making complete fools of ourselves. I smiled and did a quick shimmy before I buckled up, and we tore out of the parking lot.

So here is the third chapter! I tried to make it longer because that seems to be what everyone wants. I've always kind of had a problem with writing long chapters, because I tend to get bored and frustrated when they get really long. So hopefully that explains why they are on the shorter side haha.

I enjoyed writing this chapter because of the tryouts! Hopefully you all enjoyed it. :)

A few questions you can answer in your review if you choose to.

1. What did you think of this chapter?

2. Did you enjoy the tryouts part? Why or why not?

3. Have you ever tried out for a team?

4. What do you think of the boys so far?

5. Do you think Jarvis is up to something?