Head over Heels || brance

I

Bruce Yamada stared at Finney Blake, his eyes narrowed as he watched the boy take steady breaths, his hand gripping the ball that he was preparing to throw. After a third deep breath, Finney pulled his arm back, hiking up his knee as he threw the ball in Bruce's direction.

This would be the third throw. The ball came fast, but Bruce had already caught onto Finney's pitches, he had been playing baseball with him for years now, he knew how the boy would throw.

The ball bounced off the metal bat, flying into the sky as it headed above the chain fence that enclosed the field. Bruce dropped his bat, jogging lightly to the bases.

He made eye contact with Finney. He saw him let out a tiny sigh before he smiled slightly at Bruce as he nears third base.

The crowd cheered, his team cheered. Bruce won the game. His team ran over to him, chanting his name while slipping in compliments of his hit as he reached home base.

Bruce had always loved baseball. At first he felt it to be a burden, he liked to play it alone in his backyard, balancing his ball on a post for him to swing at. But his father found his form and his ability to lose many balls into the neighbours yards, a skill.

Bruce wanted to enjoyed ball as something that wasn't competitive, but his father enrolled him into spring baseball and he had been doing it for almost six years now.

He has grown to love it. Even if he didn't get to decide to.

"Great hit." Bruce turned around to see Finney walking over to him with an obvious jealous smile after their team lost.

"Speak for yourself, your pitch is great, man." Bruce smiled, patting his shoulder. "You get better every year. Maybe next game you'll get me."

Finney chuckled. "Highly doubt it."

The conversation ended as Finney's sister called his name. He gave a small wave as he headed her direction. Bruce turned toward his team which were now getting congratulated by their friends and family, Bruce sighed as he knew his father and mother were probably sitting happily on the bleachers waiting for him.

He grabbed his bag from the dugout before rounding the fence and seeing their smiling faces. His mother was the first to run over, pinching his cheeks softly before kissing one.

"Bruce, you did great!" His mother cooed, fixing his hat.

"Better than last game." His father chipped in.

Bruce's baseball team was in the top three for the state. Most of the wins came from Bruce and that was because his parents put so much pressure on him to be the best at everything he did.

He won last game and the one before that and the one before that. It was exhausting that a sport he loved turned into a never ending challenge of victory.

They walked to the car, Bruce climbing into the back seat as his parents got into the front.

"I wish Amy would participate in activities." His father sighed.

Amy was Bruce's little sister, only by four years but she had better control of her life than he did. She did what she wanted and never took her parents' nagging and begging, if she didn't want to, she never did.

Bruce wished she would do something, anything, just to get their parents off his back sometimes. She had so much freedom, their parents stopped trying to get her to be a star child to follow in Bruce's footsteps.

She always told Bruce to explain to their parents how he felt or just ignore what they want and become his own person, but he felt like his parents wouldn't recover from his disobedience.

They had controlled everything he did, who he'd had become. He was the most popular and loved boy in North Denver, he was the highest student, he was athletic, he was handsome, he was smart, he was a dream man. He was a perfect person.

But sometimes Bruce wished he could wake up and be the opposite of himself.

-

It was now Sunday, Bruce wasn't excited to go to school tomorrow whatsoever. His weekends were never enjoyable as he spent Saturday playing baseball and on Friday evening his parents made him either practice baseball or study for classes and Sunday's were probably the worst.

He had no obligations on Sundays. He could do whatever he wanted, but the issue was that he didn't know what to do, he was used to have jam-packed weekdays and weekends that having that one day of peace and loneliness was uncomfortable.

He sat at the kitchen table eating cereal while glancing over the newspaper that the paperboy just dropped off when his sister walked in the room. She had her walkman in her back pocket with the headphones draped around her neck.

She was dressed and humming to herself as she searched the cupboards.

"Where are you going?" Bruce asked, before taking a spoonful of Raisin Bran and popping it in his mouth.

"Out." She replied, turning to him before bringing her gaze back to their empty cupboards. Tomorrow was grocery day, so they didn't have much, hence why Bruce was eating Raisin Bran. "I'm not coming home tonight. I'm going over to Stacey's, but just know that when I come back, Mom is going to be pissed at me."

Bruce furrowed his eyebrows at her. "Why?"

"I'm getting my ears pierced."

Bruce widened his eyes. His parents weren't fans of jewellery that had to go through the skin. Bruce wanted to applaud her for being so brave, but he knew she wouldn't have a hard time hiding it as she had clip on earrings for the longest time.

He didn't say anything to her after that, he knew that no matter what he said, no matter what he expressed, she didn't care. But she walked over to him with one more thing on her mind.

"You should come with." She smiled as she leaned on the table.

"To Stacey's?" She laughed and rolled her eyes as he took another bite of his cereal.

"No idiot, to get your ears pierced, I bet you could pull it off." Bruce almost choked, the cereal launching into the back of his throat as he took a shocking breath in.

Was she crazy? Him, get his ears pierced? Bruce Yamada with earrings? His parents would put him six feet under. Amy was able to lie and say she had clip-ons on, but he couldn't use that excuse, his parents would be so upset with him.

She sighed as she stood up.

"I know one day you'll stop with this annoying golden child act, and it better be soon because you are so boring." She left the kitchen leaving him to lean back in his chair and finish his cereal in quiet again.

He didn't think it was wrong to be the golden child, of course he wouldn't choose to be it, but it came with some pros. His parents had immaculate trust in him and respected him way more than they did Amy. He had a lot of friends, his parents praised him and would flaunt him around. Sometimes it was good to let his parents parade him like some kind of gold medal.

She wouldn't get that.

Amy grew up seeing how Bruce was treated and when she never took interest in anything, her parents tried forcing her into their interests, or Bruce's interests, but that wasn't her. As time went on and she became her own person, she wanted to distance herself from the reputation her brother held.

Bruce had overheard people say that families always had to have one good child and one delinquent to function properly and add challenges to parents' lives. He, however, disagreed. Amy wasn't a bad kid, she still respected her parents and listened to them most of the time, she just wasn't like him.

Bruce decided he'd do nothing today.