Living With Animals

Chapter 20

Clairas P.O.V.
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"Okay, Jacob, you have a shirt under your jersey right?" Coach asks.

"Yeah," he says, unbuttoning the jersey and handing it to me. I slip it over the white t-shirt that i'm wearing, and he hands me his cleats as he finishes taking those off.

"Hurry!" Jacob exclaims. I give him a death glare and he gulps.

I stand up on my tiptoes and snatch Jacob's hat, setting it on my head over the curly wig.

Coach calls the umpire over, and elle him the ch age in the lineup, convincing him to let me play, and I straighten out my uniform.

"You look great, Claire. Now remember y-," he starts and I cut him off.

"I don't need your fucking input. I've played baseball for 12 years...I think I can figure it out," I snap.

"I'm sorry, Claire. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Well you did," I respond,'pointing a the red print across my cheek.

"I said i'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't always cut it," I answer, grabbing his too big baseball mitt and running out to the team which is huddled at the pitchers mound.

"Y'all ready?" I ask.

"Yes, here's the plan. This hitter, #15, always hit to right center. So you, the center fielder need to back up where you'd tart and catch the when he hits it. When you catch it, throw it into Mace and the next hitter is up. He usually bunts, so we are all going to play up. But we want the outfielders to play back in case he changes up," Alex, one for he pitchers, starts.

"The third batter hits over to third, so Brady is going to catch the ball and whip it to first and all three outs are done. If we can do that, we go into batting and can end the 9th inning. As of right now, we're tied. So whoever is going to bat, will bat and hopefully, hit a home run. But, we am suck at home runs so hopefully someone can be batted in. If we can score, and they don't score, then we win."

"Alright. Got it," I agree, and run out to center. I play far out and a tad to the right and the first batter steps into the box after few practice swings. I can see that the batter is Dylan, so I can confirm that what the boys said is right. I know where all of the boys hit to.

The first pitch flies by the batter and is a ball. Same with the second. The third is a strike and he misses but he hits the fourth. As we suspected, the ball hits out to right center and ah dive for it, getting the catch, but almost completely ruining the leggings that I am using as baseball pants.

The second batter steps up to the plate, and I recognize him as Owen.

Alex throws a pitch and I can assume his one of the less experienced pitchers. He's thrown to balls and is now throwing his third. He has no strikes so far.

Another pitch is thrown, and it's a ball, so Owen is given a walk to first.

I see Carter walk up to the plate, and the first pitch he sees, he slams, right towards Brady, our third baseman. Brady misses and O quickly run to left field as our left fielder also missed it. I pick the ball up as owen makes his way to third and Carter to seconds. Owen touches third and heads home, and I chuck the ball to Aspen, our catcher. He's able to catch it and tags Owen out and when Carter realizes Aspen has the ball, he starts sprinting.

Aspen throws the ball to Brady, but Brady misses and Carter makes his way home. Being where I am already in left field next to our left-fielder, I grab the ball and once again Aspen catches it. He's able to tag Carter out, and our three outs have finished without scoring.