I answered like he was an idiot because that was exactly what would have happened.
Coach Jackson never fucked around. If you weren’t cut out for Fullton State Baseball, he wouldn’t waste your time or his. Players had been dropped from the program during fall before—good players too. And none of us ever knew about it until it was too late and the guys were long gone.
“So, I’m good then?” Matt righted himself.
“You’re still here, aren’t you?” Colin said. “Now, stop freaking out and pull it together. You can’t act like this tomorrow,” he warned, and Matt nodded, but I could tell that he was nervous.
“I almost forgot.” I snapped and walked back over to my bag, unzipped it, and pulled out a container. “Sunny baked for us.”
Before I even had the words out, all three of them were surrounding me, trying to pull the box out of my hand. I almost dropped it to the floor, but I knew Sunny would kill me if she found out.
“Give them to me!” That was Dayton. He sounded like an animal.
It made me fucking laugh, so I let go, and Dayton looked around the room, thrusting his fist in the air like he was victorious in battle. Peeling open the lid, he pulled out two cookies and handed the container to Colin next. Matt whined but waited his turn.
“You have the best girlfriend,” Colin said as he inhaled one of her creations.
“I know.” I smirked, knowing that there was a whole other box of cookies in my bag, just for me.
*
The next morning, my alarm woke me up at five thirty on the dot. I tossed the covers off my body and stepped into the shower, turning it on cold. It was fucking miserable, but the cold water had been proven to wake up your senses, improve circulation, increase your metabolism, and help your body heal quicker. I always felt more alive and awake after a freezing shower.
All four of us met in the living room, each of us grabbing a banana as we headed out the door. The semester wasn’t starting for a couple more weeks, but for us, this was day one of the season. My last season. Dayton’s last season.
When we walked into the weight room, Coach was waiting with a list of workouts he had broken down by player and position. We checked the pages for our names and went to our respective areas to start training.
Two full hours later, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted. I grabbed a protein bar and a protein shake from the fridge. If I downed it all too fast, I’d puke, so I nibbled at the bar first before inhaling the rest of it.
Coach told us to meet him at the field at one. We were free to go until then. The four of us piled back into Dayton’s car and headed home to crash. I sent Sunny a text, telling her I loved her and that I’d call her later, and then I passed out with my phone in my hand, still sweaty and gross.
Practice that day was a little rough, to be honest. We had kinks to work out with the new starters. They were still learning Coach’s signals and our hand calls even though they should have had them memorized by now. We looked like a team who had just come off a ten-month vacation and not touched a ball the entire time. Coach Jackson looked like his head might explode.
Thankfully, I had my shit together and only got yelled at once. When Coach split us into teams so we could play against each other, I was excited to hear him tell me that I was batting leadoff. When I stepped up to the plate to face Dayton, we both grinned at each other and tried not to laugh. Coach Carter told Dayton to strike me out, and Coach Jackson told me to knock his head off.
It was surreal but probably not unlike playing pro ball when you faced off against people who were your friends off the field. You both wanted to win the “battle at the plate.” I knew that Dayton wanted to get me out, just like he knew I wanted to hit the shit out of the ball.
So, when the first pitch curved at the last second for a strike, I shook my head as I stepped out of the batter’s box and gave him a look. He’d been working on that pitch during the