Concrete Angel

It did get out. All of it. Our school team was in the paper for beating the other team but the fight made the front page. One of the small newspapers headlined it and then the others followed lead. Then it was online. Then it was on the local news.

"Our team has become famous." Jake says at practice that week.

"More like Scotty and Joey became famous for beating the shit out of that sore loser." Zach says and coach fusses at him for cussing.

"More like Elizabeth is famous for almost pitching a no hitter." Chris adds in.

"More like for being the cause of the fight." Zach mumbles.

"I don't want to be famous. I don't even want to be in the paper. Can we just play now?" I say groaning and grabbing my glove. The rest of the team nods and we go out to the field. Our next game was against a better team and with the way our publicity was going we were expecting a lot more newspapers and news teams to be there. Coach had already given the turn the other cheek and walk away speech to Joey and Scotty.

Later that evening I was called down to Ms. Smith's office. She nodded to the phone before leaving the room. I slowly picked it up.

"Hello?" I say timidly.

"You're in the news." Howard's voice says.

"I didn't mean to be." I say quietly.

"No more fights please." Howard snaps.

"I promise." I say.

"If this gets to big, you'll have to quit."

"Quitting isn't in my vocabulary." I snap getting angry. Baseball was all I had left. It was the only thing that made me feel okay. It was the only thing that connected me to Johnny.

"You might have to learn it soon."

"Are they okay? I saw the updates." I say in a quiet voice changing the subject. I wanted to know. I knew he would have information that wasn't on the news.

"From what I hear they are. I'm not allowed to have any contact. It's for their safety. He wants me dead as much as he wants you. It's better for him to think I've just disappeared. I'm lying low." Howard says just a quiet.

"You haven't heard anything?" I whisper in a begging voice.

"Johnny won't leave the house. He said he's staying there in case he comes back. His parents are in a hotel down the road. Both places are covered by the cops." Howard mumbles.

"I've got to go. People will wonder." I say firmly refusing to talk anymore. That was all he had for me and I knew it. Howard said goodbye and hung up. I put the phone back down and laid my head on Ms. Smith's desk. Oh Johnny....what are you thinking?

"Elizabeth, are you okay?" Ms. Smith says quietly. I jumped up not realizing she had even come back into the room. I nodded before standing up slowly. Ms. Smith paused in her actions watching me open the door. I bite my lip before muttering a thank you and leaving.

"Izzy! There you are. I was wondering where you had got off to." Joey says as I exit the elevator. I smile brightly at him surprised at how easily my mood could change once he was around.

"Here I am." I say smiling as he throws an arm around my shoulder.

"So the guys were thinking that we'd have a movie night in celebration of our new fame." Joey says as we walked towards the room. I sighed loudly but agreed. Movie night meant scary movies but that wasn't what bothered me. What bothered me was that this new fame needed to disappear.

"You don't like the publicity do you?" Joey says quietly.

"I don't need it Joey." I say seriously as we sit on the couch waiting for the rest of the boys.

"We'll keep you out of the papers. Well, your face. That's probably the best we can do. Your name and the fact that you're freaking amazing is only going to get bigger from here on out." Joey says just as serious. I nodded knowing that he would make sure my face stayed out of the news and that was better than nothing. I couldn't quit. I couldn't give this up. Baseball was something I'd done ever since I was young. Johnny got me into it, he was my inspiration.

"Thank you. Just so you know, if we get to big and my face is everywhere I'll probably have to quit or leave." I say quietly and Joey just glances my way trying to seemed unbothered. He wouldn't say anything else but I could tell he was vowing to make sure that didn't happen. It made me happy that he would feel that way.

"Hello lovebirds!" Scotty shouts entering our room. I shout a hello back and mentally remind myself to get that key back. The guys surround the couch and pop in a movie. I smile as I realize it's actually a comedy and not a horror movie. They were becoming considerate.

I glance around the room at my friends and just felt at home. It worried me because all of that could change in a moment's notice. I knew that but at the same time I enjoyed the routine I had fallen into. I enjoyed my friends. I could actually say I had friends. And at that one moment I finally was starting to think that things might not go bad, something I haven't thought in ages.

The next few months were hectic but regular for a ball season. We had so many games that I lost count. We were dominating though, that much was clear. We didn't always have no hitters but we never lost. It was like our whole team was in sync with each other, even Zach. We knew how to play our cards and we did it very well. Each time we won a game it was like we gained ten more papers. Soon we were gaining TV channels. Joey kept his promise, he even got the rest of the team in it. Whenever there was an interview to be done with me they made sure it was no cameras, they were always bombing my photos and blocking my face or making it a bad photo, or they would just hide me completely. Group shots were the best because they'd put me in the middle and no one could see me since they were all taller. The media hated it. They made comments that we just laughed at. I had become popular enough for them to make headlines about how I couldn't be caught in a picture, which just made their attempts try harder. School was the same, busy as ever. All the attention that guys had given me just started up again as we won, but this time I could easily say that I had a boyfriend and wasn't interested. It was a nice easy routine of life that I had become used to. I was happy about things and about life. It was strange for me. I hadn't had that luxury in years. I should be worried about Leon roaming around but he seemed to have disappeared for a bit. There were no more sighting and nothing was happening to my family. I had baseball to focus on which helped with the not worrying thing.

"Izzy, focus." Joey says as I stared at the fans outside the dugout.

"There's hundreds of people here." I mumble glancing around once more.

"More like thousands. If we win this, we go to state." Zach says smiling brightly at the thought.

"Thousands?" I say biting my lip.

"Izzy, it's okay. You can do this. No problem. Just focus on me. Focus on us." Joey whispers squeezing me with his arm. Cameras were flashing from everywhere so I turned and faced away from the crowd praying this was all going to be okay.

"We can do this. We haven't lost yet and we're not about to start now." Coach says and the boys all cheer loudly.

"This team hasn't been defeated either but they don't have our players. I've seen them play and they make careless errors. That's where we'll get them at. We can't afford any errors. I believe in you. In all of you." Coach says and I suddenly have the a bright idea to help cover my face. I slowly let my hair down and place my cap over it. It helped but didn't hinder me from seeing.

"Let's do this thing." Joey says throwing his hand in. He was team captain but he never really said much more than that to us at the beginning of the game.

We all went out there and cameras flashed even more. I ducked my head down and took a deep breath. I stood on the mound and each player tapped my hand as they went to their spot. It was like a ritual of ours. It never failed us. Joey tapped my hand last and I gave him a small smile as he took his place behind home plate. It wasn't an easy game. They were good. They were better than good but coach was right, they were careless. They got outs because they attempted to steal at the wrong moments or let us score because of someone not being in their right spot when a ball came to them.

It was a rough game but we came out on top. 11 to 9, the last point was barely made within the last inning making us two ahead of them. Cheers we spread all around and that night was complete celebration. We all were in the common game room partying it up and on every TV were different channels of the news we were on. And soon every TV had my face on it. At some point during the game after I had thrown the ball they caught a shot of me watching the ball being hit and the way my head turned it made my hair blow behind me, showing my face better than any other picture I had. I stared at the TVs and Joey made his way across the room.

"Izzy, what does this mean?" Joey asks quietly breaking me out of my trance.

"I'm not sure Joey. I'm just not sure." I say back more worried than I had been in months.