Strikeout

Chapter 4

After practice, Gabbie walked over to the baseball field to watch part of the game that was about to begin. She sat down in the front row of the bleachers. Some of her friends on the baseball team smiled and waved when they saw her. Sure enough, Jonah was pitching, with Charlie behind the plate, catching. Before Jonah walked up to the mound to warm up, he walked over to the fence and said hi to Gabbie. While she watched the game, she noticed some of the team's weaknesses. She was friends with most of the boys on the team, and part of her felt bad about it, but she really had to win this game to prove a point to Tyler. For instance, Zac liked to swing at low pitches. Ryan, on the other hand, liked the high ones. Charlie never charged for the ball on bunts and never went after ground balls. At the top of the sixth inning, Gabbie decided to leave. Before she left, though, she went over to the dugout to say goodbye to Jonah.
"Bye, Jonah! You did great!" Gabbie said.
"Thanks, Gabbie. Talk to you later?" Jonah responded.
"Yeah, see ya!" she called as she walked away.
"See you," he said. She turned around and saw her older brother, Grayson, waiting for her in his car.
"Hurry up, Gabbie, we ordered Chinese food!" he yelled as Gabbie got in the passenger's seat.
"Why's your brother driving you? Is it because girls can't drive?" Tyler shouted while warming up at third base.
"No, it's because I don't have a license yet, you moron," Gabbie responded, annoyed.
"Tyler, I swear to God! Shut your fat mouth for once and focus on your game!" Grayson yelled.
"Aw, you need your brother to defend you? How cute!" Tyler insulted. Then, Grayson, currently filled with rage, gets out of his car and starts towards Tyler. Gabbie rushed out of the car and pulled Grayson back.
"I don't need him to defend me," Gabbie stated. "He's just a halfway decent human being. Not that you know what that is." Gabbie then dragged Grayson back to the car.
"He's such a-!" Grayson started.
"Grayson!" Gabbie cut him off. "Calm down. Jonah told me today that we can't let him know that bothers us. Take it like water off a duck's back."
Grayson took a deep breath. "Alright. Sorry."
"It's fine. And thank you," Gabbie said.
"For what?" he asked.
"Standing up for me," she said. They sat in silence for a few minutes until they pulled into their driveway.
"Can I ask why Jonah told you that?" Grayson questioned.
"About not letting him know it makes us mad?" Gabbie asked.
"Yeah," Grayson confirmed.
"Well... I may have almost punched him in the nose," Gabbie said.
"Atta girl!" Grayson grinned as the two of them high fived. They got out of the car and went into their house to see their parents sitting at the table, eating dinner. The two of them sat down with their parents, eating and chatting about their day.
"I have a game tomorrow," Gabbie stated.
"Huh? No, your game is on Sunday," her dad corrected.
"Yeah, we're still playing on Sunday, but we have a game tomorrow night at 5, too," Gabbie explained.
"Who are you playing?" Gabbie's mom asked.
"The baseball team," she said. Her dad nearly spit out his food, and her mom looked at her, dumbfounded.
"What? You can't play them, they're boys!" her mom exclaimed.
"Yes, we can," Gabbie said, a bit shocked her parents didn't agree.
"Who started this?" She then asked.
"One of the baseball players," Gabbie told her.
"Not very gentleman-like, if I do say so myself," her dad said.
"So you all don't support this at all? You think we can't do it?" Gabbie raised her voice.
"I don't think you should do it or can do it, but if you want to do it, you can find yourself a ride," Gabbie's mom said.
"I don't support this at all," her dad stated.
"Fine then. Grayson, will you give me a ride?" Gabbie asked.
"Sure. I wanna see you all kick their-!" he started.
"Grayson, you'd better not say what I think you're about to say," Gabbie's mom said.
"Anyways, thanks for supporting your daughter," Gabbie said angrily while getting out of her chair and going up to her room.