Strike One

Chapter 1

"ELIZABETH! Get up or you'll be late for school!" My mom yelled from the kitchen. I groaned then sat up and checked my phone like I do every morning. I saw that I got a text from Alexis. It read, "Morning girl! Meet me at the park and we'll walk to school. Don't forget your softball clothes and gear bag, try outs are today and we have to get there early to warm up. It's gonna be a lot harder to make the team this year because we are in high school now. See ya soon. Love you!"

I texted her back, "Love you too! See ya in a few!"

I got up and put on some clothes. I chose to wear my skinny jeans and a black crop top. I put on my white slip on vans and got my softball bag together. For tryouts I got my softball pants, one neon pink sock, one neon green sock, my jersey from last year, and my black cleats.

I got my backpack and put all my books in it. I walked downstairs to see my mom in the kitchen cooking breakfast, dad on the recliner reading the newspaper, and Eliot, my older brother, sitting at the table eating.

"Mom, I'm gonna walk to school with Alexis so I'm leaving. Bye love you!" I gave her a kiss on the cheek then walked to my dad and gave him a kiss on the cheek. I know what your thinking. Why would a 15 year old kiss their parents? That's so weird. Well I give them a kiss on the cheek before I leave because anything could happen and I don't want them thinking I don't love them because I do.

"Wait! Aren't you going to eat? You don't want to starve!" My mom is always so concerned. Don't get me wrong sometimes it's nice but other times it's annoying. Just like now.

"I'll be fine mom. If I'm hungry, I got money so I'll buy breakfast from the cafeteria. I got to go so I'm not late. Love you!" And with that I ran out the door to the park where I met Alexis.

"Hey girl! Where you been? I've been waiting for 10 minutes!" Alexis was easily annoyed. Make one sound that isn't natural? Annoyed. Talk for two minutes? Annoyed. Late 10 minutes? Annoyed.

"Sorry. My mom was trying to make me eat. I also forgot to set my alarm last night so I woke up late. Oh my word! Did you get a hair cut? So cute!" Whenever she gets like this I like to compliment her to make her forget.

"I did! How'd you know?" She gets easily distracted by people complimenting her looks. She has beautiful, wavy brown hair that now goes to just above her shoulders. She has green eyes that turn an aqua color in the sun and freckles on her nose and a little on her cheeks. She isn't super tall but she isn't short.

I had straight black hair that goes to my mid back. In the sun it shines and almost looks like a navy blue. I have brown eyes and no freckles. I wear braces and sometimes I need glasses. I am kinda short but I like to think of myself as fun size.

"Lucky guess." I answered. "We better hurry so we're not late. If we're late one more time we get detention so we would miss tryouts if we're late." I warned.

"Oh shoot! Your right. We have ten minutes and it's a fifteen minute walk! We need to sprint." She said while starting to run.

We sprinted to the school and ran across campus to our homeroom. We got there just as the bell rang. We walked to our desks which are right next to each other in the back of the class.

"You just barely made it. Your lucky I was stalling for attendance. Otherwise no softball for you two!" Karry whispered. Karry is our other friend. She isn't as close as us but we are still friends. She doesn't play softball with us. None of our friends do. Just me and Alexis.

"Elizabeth Johnson?" Ms. Catowski called out.

"Present!" I replied. She looked at me a little surprised.

"Alexis Kollins?" She looked like she was ready to mark absent until Alexis answered,

"Here!" Ms. Catowski looked up in disbelief. We aren't late that often so it kind of hurt.

Alexis and I looked at each other and did our little handshake because we get to do tryouts.

Now we just have to get through the rest of the day.