Around Life's Bases - The Bottom Of The First

On the way home Callie chatted excitedly with her friend Matt, and her favorite "coach" who had given her the strength to make that amazing game-winning play.

"Jesse, I can't believe you guys made it!"

"Me either. I thought the slave driver was going to keep us late again."

Jesse smiled as he ran his fingers over Callie's MVP trophy, much smaller than the team's trophy, but still holding much significance in Callie's four year softball career. Their after-school drills had really paid off. "I wish I could still help you next year." Callie looked up at him, disappointment in her usually bright eyes, when Matt turned around from the front seat.

"Ya, Westchester is really going to miss their star first-baseman, uh, woman!"

Callie, Matt, and Jesse had been growing up together since they were in diapers. She and Matt Ballinger had been going to the same school for their whole lifetime, and Jesse McCartney lived across the street and two houses down. Unfortunately, her father's management was going to relocate to the "big city" once school started. At first, she didn't find the idea all that bad. She knew Jesse and Matt's friends from the band lived in the city, and they were always kind to her. It was moments like these, though, that tore her up inside. She was going to miss her friends alot.

"Thanks, Matt," she laughed, her eyes their normal blue pools of sun again, gleaming back at him. "But that's not until September. We have a whole summer to enjoy." She started singing the old rhyme she learned from the big eighth graders way back in the fifth grade. "No more pencils, no more books...."

"No more falling asleep during one of Mr. Sanchez's boring lectures, then waking up in a puddle of drool." The three friends laughed and enjoyed another special moment they shared. Matt always knew how to put a smile on her face.

Mr. Ballinger pulled up to Callie's three story Victorian, the beautiful front porch wrapping snugly around the house, the six windowed gables piercing the warm, sunny sky.

"Thanks, Mr B," she said as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "Mumsie and Pops really needed the extra time to pack."

"You're very welcome," he said, with the same bright smile that his son had inherited from him. "The boys will be back here at 6:30 sharp."

"Great. See you later!" Callie called to the boys as they waved from the car's open windows. She happily skipped into her massive front hall, removed her filthy cleats, and ran into the kitchen to tell her parents the good news.

"Congratulations, honey!" Linda hugged her daughter while Mike gazed at the beautiful trophy.

"You know what? I think this trophy is better than any Championship trophy that the even the Yankees could win!" Mike mussed his daughter's flyaway braids. "Now young lady, you have exactly..." He looked at his silver sports watch. "Forty minutes to shower, change and pack for Hampton Beach! Get to it!"

"Matt, Jesse's here!" Dave peeked into his younger brother's atrocious room, carefully dodging a flying array of shoes and t-shirts.

"Just send him up!" Matt's muffled voice came from under his once wrinkle-free bed.

"Hey man, are you alomst.......what the heck?" Jesse came bounding in from the hallway, utter disbelief consuming his perfect facial features as he stood in the midst of Matt's room.

"I just need.....to find...my...A-HA! Gotcha!" Matt held up his sneaker in triumph. "Found it. Now let's boogey!"