As the sun went down, the bright, white lights began to flare on in the field. As I stood in the center of the chalk outlined pitcher’s mound waiting for the batter to approach, I stared at the light to my left as it flickered on and off. I looked to my right into the Bakersfield Bombers dugout, only to see Laurie Bianca Friedman, a incompetent softball player who always thought she was better than everyone else, glaring at me with an evil smile.
Since we were five, Laurie always tried to be better than me. When we were six, Laurie ripped a bleach blonde Barbie doll from my feeble hands and yanked the head off of the doll. Since then, we both played on opposing softball teams, the Bakersfield Bombers and Worcester Warriors, who had always been …show more content…
As usual, both Laurie and I were the starting and closing pitchers for the most important game of our little fifth and sixth grade lives. This would be the day that would either fuel Laurie’s reputation, or destroy it forever, and I was ready to take on the task of crushing her.
Due to the fact that we were on the Bakersfield home field, their team captain, who just happened to be Laurie, got to choose heads or tails for the coin flip. Laurie chose heads and I was stuck with tails. The umpire flipped the dull coin high in the air and it landed on home plate. Both Laurie and I stared at the coin, only to see heads face up, making the Bombers the home …show more content…
However, the last inning was the most tense. The score was 4-3 with the Warriors in the lead, but the Bombers still had their last plate appearances. I knew this was going to be my last inning with the Warriors forever because I was aging out of the league that year, so I called a team meeting on the pitcher's mound. I called the players on the bench out to the circle, but not the coaches. As the two girls from the bench ran to the mound, I began to talk to ten girls who had been on my team since I was seven. As we all rambled on for about a minute and a half, I called for hands in and began to count. We yelled a cheer and a booming roar came from our parents and coaches.
The first batter to approach was Ava, an inexperienced player who had just learned to play softball a few months prior to the game. An easy batter was a perfect opportunity to gain a strikeout. I threw two blazing fastballs and a plodding changeup to her and an easy out was acquired. Lucy, a short brunnette appeared in the batter's box and I received a sign to throw a drop ball. I nodded my head slightly and threw a perfect pitch to her. She looked dazed as the umpire called the pitch a strike. I threw three more pitches, a ball and two strikes, to Lucy and then watched her vanish from the batter's