Storm, Meet Raine

New Coach in the Making.

Give me your thoughts.
___

HER.

"Carter," Coach calls me over, effectively stopping my running. I heave a deep breath before turning around and jogging back to him.

"What's up?" I breathe out harshly, placing my hands on my hips.

"It's our last game tomorrow." He flips through his clipboard. "I need more from you."

"More what?" I lean my weight on one side while simultaneously swiping the sweat from my brow.

"More everything, but specifically, hits." He shows me the clipboard after he stopped turning pages, and pointed to my name with a pen. "Look at your stats and tell me a trend you see."

Looking at my name, it has markings of my batting percentage, runs batted in, home runs, on base and slugging percentages. Really, the only thing that stood out was in my three years of playing college baseball, I have yet to hit a home run, and when I hit, majority of the time, I reach second base.

When I voice that, he grins, "See, I knew you were smart."

I give him a pointed look.

"Look, Carter. We've won the College World Series three years in the row, thanks to me when I was here, and Storm when he came in." The pen travels up to Carson's stats that are close to impeccable. The dick.

"So what does he have to do with me?" I frown, taking my eyes away from the clipboard, and focusing on Gardner.

"Aye Carter!" Hunter, who is running side by side with the dick himself whistles to me, "You should wear those shorts more often!"

He made it clear that he was staring at my ass. Carson pushes him forward, and slaps him on the back of the head, giving him a look I couldn't see because he had turned around quickly. But I did notice when he looked back at me.

"Three more laps for you two, Storm and Hunter!" Coach blows his whistle, and I'm sure the entire team heard Hunter's cries of pain from Carson clocking him. I didn't see where, though.

"I want you to pay close attention to Storm, Raine." He uses my first name to let me know he's serious about his words. "Watch him. On the field and off the field. If I don't see improvement by our first game back home, you're benched."

You know that feeling when you forget your food in the oven because you were binge watching some series?

Yeah, that's how hard his words hit my heart. I lost my breath just like you'd lose your breath by high tailing it out of the living room and into the kitchen.

And my heart clenched like your heart would clench when you open the oven and see your food a crispy charcoal color.

"You're kidding." I managed to choke out, looking back to see the guys finished with their laps except for Hunter and Carson.

"I'm not, Raine. I hate to sound sexist, but understand where I'm coming from. You know I love you." He tosses his clipboard to the ground. "You have to play at same level that the rest of the guys are playing. This is a college men's baseball team. You have to learn how to play like a man, but maintain your femininity.

"You should keep your eyes on him—not during workouts because you finish faster than him. He should be looking at you during those; I'll talk to him. But when we bat, you need to focus on him—his form is insane. It's better than mine, and that's saying something."