STORY STARTS HERE: The roar of the crowd was deafening. The sight and smell of the stadium was overwhelming. It was almost too much for the 13 year old girl, sitting on the bench in the dugout. The suspense, the action, the intrigue. All happening, a life changing event, and Kelly Cataconi was right in the middle of all of it. What was to happen? Would her dad strike out? Or hit a home run? With all the possibilities, she didn’t know what would happen. It was just up to fate to decide. Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, and a full count. (3 balls & 2 strikes) One more pitch, and it would be over. All the suspense, everything. After this, everyone would know who won the whole thing. And the loser, well, they would have to wait until next year. (Provided that they make it that far.) The batter got into position. The wind up, the pitch, (Kelly was holding her breath now.) and the bat made contact with the ball! It flew over the second baseman’s head, then over the center fielder’s, and going, going, GONE! Out of the park! The Cubs had won the World Series!!! The whole stadium was on their feet, cheering, and waving the blue “W” flag. She could finally breathe! They had done it! In all her life, she had never been this excited. She felt like she could scream of happiness. Later, when the game was over, Kelly was waiting until the team had finished getting packed up. She didn’t mind waiting, especially since it was the last day there, before the off-season. “Ready to go?” Kelly’s dad asked her, when he got out of the locker room a few minutes later. “Yeah…” “What’s wrong?” “Nothing, it’s just, I have to wait a whole season until I see Wrigley again.” “Don’t worry Kell, spring will be here before you know it.” “I guess. It’s just, I really will miss coming here every day in the summer. Now I have to go to stupid school. I’d rather play Baseball all year.” “Wouldn’t you get tired of it? From playing it all the time?” “No. I wouldn’t.” She answered, looking up into the empty stands and thinking about how she wouldn’t be able to experience it until the winter season was over. (She hated winter, just for that reason.) “I love coming here.” “Haha, ok. Well, we’ll see what we can do next year.” “Thanks dad.” Kelly said. “I think I’m ready to go now.” “Good idea.” And they went off to the exit of the stadium. It turns out, she wouldn’t have to wait too long before it was her turn. Chapter 2 Stereotypes The reason that Kelly hated school was because she was pushed around and people made fun of her. Especially the girls, because they thought that playing baseball was a “Boy’s sport”. And that she was weird, just because she didn’t go to the mall, or care about makeup, or anything like that. So just because of that, they started calling her names and talking about her behind her back. Whenever someone would say something mean about her, she would try to stand up for herself, but that just made it easier for them to target her. So that’s why she befriended boys. At least, she knew that playing baseball with the boys wouldn’t be a problem. They didn’t care about any of that stuff. All they wanted to do was play baseball. All of them did. Well, Kelly knew that all the ones in Jadeville did at least. Besides, there were SO MANY baseball diamonds, that most of them weren’t even used half of the time.
Well, here she was. The following Monday, Kelly’s class was outside, near the school baseball field, trying to choose captains. It was an awful chaotic scene, kids trying to raise their hand to be chosen. And multiple, trying to push their way to the front to be seen. But finally the P.E teacher, Mrs. Holland, picked the captains. “Attention! The captains are Kelly, Ian, Jaden and David. Start to pick your team.” She told the class. When the captains started picking teams, Kelly heard one of her classmates say, to his friend next to him,“ I don’t want to play with a girl, they aren’t good enough to play baseball. She should just stick with softball. Like all the other girls.” “Ahem.” Kelly interrupted. “ really? That’s what you think? For your information, I have a (more than) respectable .375 AVG.” “And no, thank you. Not ALL girls want to play softball.” The boy didn’t say anything. Stunned, because he didn’t expect her to hear him. (or maybe it was the SUPER high batting average. Who knows.) He started to open his mouth, but didn’t say anything. “Yeah, you didn’t expect me to hear you, did you? Or expect me to say something about it?” She thought, and kept on picking kids for her team. When everyone was finished picking kids, Kelly went with her team, and motioned for them to follow her in the benches along the 3rd base line. Then, when everyone was settled in and seated, she got to explaining what needed to be done. “Ok everyone. I know it’s almost winter, but that’s no time to get our guard down. We need to give it 100%. (“Even though it’s only a middle school game.”) She added to herself. “Since when are YOU the captain? You were probably only chosen, because your dad’s a baseball player, and you think that you’re better than all of us.” A kid shouted out loud, interrupting her in mid-sentence. “A-” she couldn’t believe her ears. Who in their right mind would say that? She DIDN’T think that she was better than everyone else, and she didn’t like people judging her on her dad’s reputation either. “No one picked me, except for Mrs. Holland, and she just picked us randomly. I also don’t think that I’m better than everyone else. I’m just a regular girl. Who just happens to like baseball.” “Yeah, well, regular girls don’t have dads that play for the Cubs, OR play baseball.” He remarked. Kelly just scoffed. Her usually soft green eyes, now glaring right at the doubter. “Alright. Well, if we want to play baseball, you guys gotta listen.” And with that, everyone quieted down and listened to what she had to say. After that was done and over with, her team played Ian's team. In the end, when the bell rang for next period, Kelly’s team had won, 8-1. “Hey, good pitching.” Ian told her, as they were walking back to the building. “Thanks, your batting was pretty good too.” “Eh, I’m not THAT good of a batter. I play left field. Much better than my batting.” He replied. “Yeah, I saw you out there! Really good! I’m not really much use in the outfield. Just either hitting or pitching. ’’
