As the Gumen dispersed onto the shrunken baseball diamond, Brian proudly plucked a bat from a pile of shiny aluminum softball bats and practiced his swings. Jeff Timmons took the mound as pitcher. Grinning widely, he heard his own song, "Because of You," float out of the speakers. Amanda and Katie moved as close together as they could without Chris at short stop shooting accusing glances at them. "Hey Katie!" Amanda whispered loudly.
"What?" she looked startled.
"Justin wanted me to be on his team! He was fighting over me with Abs!"
Katie restrained herself from rolling her eyes. "I know!" she exclaimed. "This is so cool!" If she had seen Lance’s thoughtful face when he spoke of her, she would have thought it was even more cool.
From in front of them on first base, Rich turned around. "You girls ready? Brian’s about to bat."
"Yeah!" they shouted back to him.
Brian stepped up to the plate, pointing to the outfield. Jeff tossed the ball underhand. He misjudged his aim, and the ball flew carelessly at Brian’s head. Brian ducked out of the way and watched the ball crash against the fence in amusement. "Hey man!" he laughed.
"New pitcher!" Justin Jeffre and Drew Lachey hooted from the Pirates’ dugout.
Next to Justin sat Tim and the girls, who were also booing the amateur pitcher. "Even I could do better than that," bragged Tim.
"Do you play softball?" asked Kevin next to him.
"No," Tim admitted, "but I have pitched before." He didn’t add that the extent of his softball career had taken place in the backyard, pitching to his older sister.
Jeff’s next pitch was sill a little wild but good enough for Brian to send soaring high into the air. It was barely too high for little Aaron to reach, camping out at second base, so Katie scrambled in to help him. She lifted her glove up in hopes of catching the ball on a fly. It landed on the tip of her glove and bounced on the ground. Brian was safe on first. She handed the ball to Aaron, who through it in to Jeff. "Thanks, Katie," Aaron said before returning to his post.
"No problem," she replied in a daze. She loved how her name always sounded so good when a celebrity that she admired said it.
Isaac jumped up from his seat on the bench between Erin and Scott. Snatching up a nearby bat, he hurried to the awaiting home plate. "Good luck, Ike!" Rebekah said shyly. He turned around from the plate to smile sweetly back at her.
"Oh, Habeker (Theresa and Amanda’s nickname for Rebekah)," Theresa giggled, "Ike wants you bad." Rebekah and Erin laughed.
After two fast strikes, Isaac was out. Trying to hold his head high, he flung the bat against the ground and approached his bench. "It’s OK, man. We all strike out," Justin T reassured him while getting ready to bat.
Rebekah made Theresa and Erin move closer to Scott, so Isaac could sit between her and Theresa. Just as planned, Isaac took the vacant space. "I guess I’m a little rusty on my softball," Isaac told her.
"That’s OK. I’m terrible at hitting," consoled Rebekah. "I prefer volleyball over softball anyway."
"Yeah," agreed Isaac. "I’m better at soccer. When do you plan on batting?"
"Never," Rebekah said flatly. Isaac looked a little surprised. "I’m not gonna embarrass myself on national TV!" Rebekah justified her reasoning. "Besides, how hard will it be to find someone to bat for me?"
"Hey, Habeker," interrupted Theresa. "Sing your Taylor song for Ike."
Rebekah’s face turned red. "Oh, look, Justin’s batting," she changed the subject.
Justin swung wildly at Jeff’s first pitch but missed. "Come on, Justin!" his team shouted for him.
"Go, Justin!" Amanda echoed from the outfield.
"He’s not even on our team," Katie reminded her.
"Who cares? He’s hot!" replied Amanda.
"Back up!" Chris screamed. "He’s gonna hit it behind you." Howie, Katie and Amanda obediently moved farther back from the infield.
As the pitch came at Justin, he held the bat out and bunted it. This caught everyone off guard. Jeff and Rich sprinted toward the softball, stalled between the pitcher’s mound and home plate. Amanda ran in to cover first base. As soon as she was on the base, Jeff recovered the ball and shot it at her. Justin ran faster although the ball was practically in Amanda’s glove already. Before she could catch it, he wrapped both arms around her, forcing Amanda off of the base. His head was touching hers as he tackled her away from the ball. "Hey Amanda, what’s up?" he murmured. The ball whizzed past her ear, and Justin didn’t take the time to apologize. Instead, he rounded to second base.
Laughing, Rich returned to his position. "Nice job covering the base."
"Hey, I tried. I didn’t know he was going to tackle me," Amanda defended herself.
