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━━━━━━ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ━━━━━━
June 10, 1962
A PROUD GRIN WAS EVIDENT on her glossy red lips as the younger boys ran up with excited yells and questions. But there were two boys hanging back. One with an admiring smile, and one with his arms crossed and reluctant, glaring eyes.
"Okay, the chick made a lucky swing, so what?!"
"Ham, when was the last time ya saw a chick holding a baseball bat? Never!" Kenny retorted, earning laughs from Josie's siblings. Speaking of which, they were both proud and happy, but were showing it in a different way - Tulip was grinning and bouncing on her heels excitedly, while James still had his arms crossed and a suspicious look in his eyes, but they crinkled with a smile when he caught Josie's gaze.
"You boys really need to stop obsessing over stereotypes, and start acting like real men." His voice caught their attention when he started walking over, a mischievous glint in his eyes, which made the younger boys nervous and start to cower into Josie. This has been the first time he spoke, and they now noticed how tall and intimidating he really was.
He stopped in front of them in silence, observing them with narrowed eyes. They all shuffled under his stare until he decided to stop messing with them. He held out his hand with a playful smile. "James Appleton. And that badass chick who hit that ball is my sister. Josie Appleton." Tulip came up from behind him, popping her pink bubblegum while staring at them blankly. James starting resting his arm in her shoulder. "And this is Tulip. The girly one of the bunch."
"'Sup, dudes." They had all calmed down when James decided to lighten the mood, but when Tulip came up to them, they starting getting nervous all over again. She was beautiful: she had big, curly black hair, a pink crop-top with a leather jacket with no sleeves, and a cute black skirt that went down to mid-thigh to top it off. Her makeup was flawless, too. She had a bit of eyeliner on that gave a her a cat-like look, shiny pink lipgloss and highlighter that just made her bone structure look sharper. So yeah, with a girl like that around, the sun wasn't the only thing making them hot.
"Hey, Josie!" Benny called out, running up to them. He had a charming grin, showing off his pearly white teeth. "That was great! Where'd you learn to hit like that?" All the boys turned to her, waiting for her answer with curious eyes.
It certainly wasn't Dad, Josie thought bitterly, He was too fucking busy drowning in booze and liquor to even notice us. But she didn't say that, instead she said, "Just some kids back at home. Nothing major." She said with a casual shrug.
