Passion

“GOOD MORNING FUTURE STATE CHAMPION!” I groaned and put my pillow over my head attempting to block out the annoying sounds of the person yelling in my room. “Come on Cammy, you’re the last one to wake up,” Luke whined as he tugged on my feat trying to pull me off the bed.

“Lucas Kingsley I swear on my mother’s grave if you make me get up I will castrate you.” I warned, and as quick as those words left my mouth his hands let go of my ankle.

“Camille Henderson you are a bitch,” Luke mocked and then started to jump on my bed.

“If I get up will you bring me pancakes and bacon?” I asked with my eyes half open, Luke grinned and ran out of the room. I threw the blanket off my body and stretched my hands over my head. I quickly put on my uniform and brushed my hair, when I finished Luke was sitting on my bed with my large stack of pancakes and bacon. I jump on the bed next to him and started stuffing my face, when we both finished the mountain of pancakes we went down stairs to meet up with the rest of the team.

“Look whose up,” Derek smiled in my direction and I frowned.

“Morning sleeping beauty, are you ready to kick ass?” Oliver asked passing by me with a plate full of donuts, I grabbed one that was chocolate and quickly took a bite out of it so he couldn’t take it back.

“Thanks Oli,” I smiled at him as he fake glared at me.

“Hurry up you fat pigs, we have to be at the field in less than 30 minutes.” Coach yelled walking right passed our table and onto the bus waiting outside.

“Hurtful,” Luke pouted and I patted him on the head.

“Don’t worry about him; he is just jealous that you’re my fat piggy.”

***

The game against team number two was very intense, we were tied the entire game. But finally we pulled together as a team and we managed to bet them, meaning that we were going to play in the championships. We all hat ball park food for lunch, which consisted of: hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos and lots and lots of sunflower seeds. Once we finished with our ‘special lunch’ we went to the park nearby and started playing, but we got kicked off by our coach claming he didn’t want us to get hurt before the ‘biggest game of our lives.’

“Cam, can I talk to you real quick?” Coach asked, I gave him a confused look but nodded and followed him around the building. “Look cam, I know Derek has been pitching but he is starting to get worn out and even he agrees he needs to take a break. So what I’m asking you is for you to pitch for at least the first half of the game maybe more, can you do that for me?”

“Of course sir,” I nodded my head, one thing these boys here haven’t seen is me pitch and I couldn’t wait to show them just how we ‘little ladies’ do it.

***

“Play ball,” the ump called and we ran to our positions. I took my rightful spot on the mound; I looked around at my infield, Oliver on first, Derek on second, Mitch on short and Ross on third. I turned to face my catcher, Luke. I smiled at then looked at my audience, not only were all the teams in the entire championships here but they were also broadcasting this game all over Florida on ESPN. I took a deep breath and started to warm up my arm, the ump signaled to me that I had one more pitch left. I pitched the ball and it went straight into Luke’s glove without him having to move an inch.

“Nice pitch Cam, keep it up!” I herd Derek yell from my left. The team we have been waiting to play, the Eagles stating there in there white and gold uniforms. I saw the twins and smirked at them, they gave me a disgusted look. Next I saw Blake I nodded my head at him and he returned the jester.

“First batter,” The ump called out from behind the plate the slightly blonder twin ran out and took his position. I pitched my lucky fast ball and he didn’t even swing, I smirked. Pitch after pitch I was making these boys look like complete fools, and it made me happier and happier each time the umpire yelled strike.

This game quickly turned into a no hitter, for both teams. We may have been playing our top defense, but our offense was horrible. The score stayed at 0-0 for most of the game, I was the first one to get a hit. I knocked an inside strike clear over second baseman’s head, good for a single. After that hit both teams just started pulling it together, finally starting to play an interesting game. The score soon added up to 12-10 with us ahead, but at the end of 8th inning we were tied. Our team hit good, but not good enough to score. All we had to do was keep them from scoring and going into an extra inning.

The first batter was up, a scrawny right fielder. Poor boy hasn’t hit anything the entire game, and I wasn’t about to let him start. I struck him in a heart beat and the next batter hit a fly ball that was caught. I wiped the sweat off my face as it got pretty close to my eyes, and took a good look at the batter, Blake he wore his gold and white uniform in such a cocky attitude it made me wanna slap him into next week. I threw the ball right into his strike zone as fast as I possible could; he swung and missed by a few inches. I pitched my second pitch and he hit it, but it went foul. Two strikes no balls, the entire game was resting on our shoulders, and I looked at the score board once more it still read 10-10. I moved a piece of hair out of my eyes and I pitched the last pitch, he hit it and he hit it hard. I watched helplessly as the ball made its way over the fence, homerun.

I wanted more than anything to just fall over and cry right there, all those months of hard work for nothing, we were a joke, a failure and most of all I proved all those guys on the other team right, I was a loser. I sighed and walked back to the dugout, were all the coach could do was pat us on the back. I looked around at all the faces of my teammates, disappointment. They counted on me to do one small thing and I failed them.

“Come on Cam, cheer up! You have three more of these state things to go to, and to kick ass at! It’s not the end of the world.” Coach attempted to cheer me up, but in my eyes I failed the team, if I had pitched a little more to the left it would have made him hit it to third, and it would have been an easy out.

“WAIT!” One of the moms on our side yelled, Derek’s mom I’m sure. He noticed his mom running towards the field, and put his face in his hands muttering some very unfriendly words. “The last batter cheated,” she stated as she finally made it to home plate, this seem to cause everyone to snap out of what ever they were doing and look at her.

“Excuse me?” There Coach looked shocked that this woman would even say something like that about his team. “I’m sorry little lady, but maybe you should go back to knitting a pretty little scarf and let the big boys handle this one.” This pissed me off, not only are the complete sexist towards me, but also toward Mrs. Fisher, oh shit was about to hit the fan. I ran out there with Derek hot on my tail, I marched straight up to there Coach and looked him in the eyes.

“Excuse me sir, but this is a free country and I know your tiny brain can’t comprehend this, but that means that this ‘little lady’ over here can say and do what ever she wants. And if she says that one of your players might be cheating I would at least give here the respect that she deserves and let her plead her case, got it big boy?” I told him poking him in the chest for dramatic effect.

“There is no need for you to be rude young lady.” I’m sure I turned 100 different shades of red, but at this point nothing mattered more to me than making sure that this guy went down and went down hard.

“You have to be kidding me; just because I am a female does not under any circumstance mean that I can’t kick ass in a sport I love. This entire week I’ve been getting nothing but hell from you and your players, and the funny thing is I pitch at least 15 mph faster than anyone here. Respect that old man.” I turned and headed back to our dugout, I expected to be yelled at by Coach but instead he gave me a high five.

“Damn right you are! I really do not like that guy he needs to go.” He chuckled and walked on the field. “Now what were you saying Mrs. Fisher?” He asked politely.

“Well uh you see that bat the batter was using is illegal in the state of Florida,” she turned towards Blake and held her hand out for the bat, which he reluctantly gave to her “You see right here” she pointed to little incision marks “They cut it open and put weights in it, making it heavier than the normal regulation bat.” She turned towards the umpires “having an illegal bat makes the hits that were hit using this bat to be exempted from the schedule.” She finished and the look of shock was written clear all over our faces.

“She is right,” one of the umps spoke up and the rest nodded there head agreeing.

“Hold up now, we won.” There Coach tried to argue, but the trophy was taken out of his hands and place into mine. The announcer walked down to the field and smiled at us.

“According to regulation 5.33.2 which says all bats must be no more than 42 inches in length and smooth and round. But the length rule is not universal.” He paused taking in a deep breath “Bat length can be no more than 3 inches greater than the number of ounces the bat weights. And the bat the Mr. Blake Hill was using was exactly 37 ounce bat, which is 4 ounces past the regulation bat. Therefore your team has been disqualified and the runner up takes the title of state champions.” He turned towards us and smiled “Congratulations state champions of 2010-2011.”

“Can I have a word with you?” one of the scouts asked me as we were all celebrating, I smiled and nodded my head following him around the corner. “I don’t know if you know this or not but you were pitching an average of 72 mph, some baseball pros can’t even pitch that fast.”

“Wow really? That’s amazing,” I told him smiling of course I knew this I was asking Coach about my speed the entire game.

“Yes but there is only one problem,” I frowned.

“What is it?”

“Look Cam, you’re an extremely talented baseball player, and I know that you’ve probably worked your ass off to get where you are now.” He took a deep breath, “but your school is not going to help you get noticed,” he handed me a card and smiled. “Call me if you wanna talk, there is this school in New York that trains future MLB players and if you go there you can expect a full ride to any school of your choice.”

“Uh thanks but I’m happy were I’m at,” I smiled at him trying to give him the card back.

“Keep it if you change your mind,” he told me before walking out into the parking lot.

I looked at the card Mr. Kenny (850)793-4300, turning small town heroes to big time legends.

I stuck the card into my coat pocket and headed for the bus, but one of the twins stopped me when I was almost there. “What do you want?” I asked rudely.

“To apologize for being a dick head, and for not giving you the chance you disserved.” I tried to walk around him but he grabbed my arm bring me back to face him. “Cam, you may not believe this but you’re going to go far, so do your self a favor and call that guy.”

“Can I leave now?” I asked.

“One more thing,” he gave me a huge bear huge “thank you for helping me over come my sexist ways.” After those words left his mouth a melted into his hug, I gave him a smile and got on my bus. I couldn’t help but smile, we did it, were the state champs.