Bases Loaded Jam (Bases Loaded Jam Series #1)

Ch. 13: Dancing off the Bag (Huey/Jordan)

Huey

I made my way back to my friends. But not without walking up to a security guard and telling him to keep an eye on the fraternity that caused a ruckus. As soon as I made it back to our area, the softball team clapped for me.

"That was really brave of you," one of them said.

"You're a hero," another one chipped in.

"It's no big deal," I said.

"Oh it is Huey," Jimmy mentioned. "You went toe-to-toe with those big men and gave them an earful."

Everyone clapped for me. I looked around and saw Jordan, who winked at me. I was flattered. I had learned discipline from my Dad, who at times, gave it to me when I did something wrong. He was never abusive to me, but tough love was part of my life. So in a way, I gave those brothers some tough love. I think Dad would've been proud of me.

Then, it was time to head for the stadium. As we got closer, I thought about all the times my Dad and I went to football games at this stadium. We didn't go to many games, but when we did, they were fun to attend. It was nice to see the team wearing burnt orange jerseys and white helmets with an orange longhorn on them play on the field. If I were a football player, Texas would've been the school of my choice.

We weren't sitting close to the field, but we had a great view of our sideline. When the Texas players ran out onto the field, we cheered. We then sang our fight song called "The Eyes of Texas," and held up our pointer and pinky fingers to make a longhorn. I had to teach Jordan how to do her longhorn sign. It was a little awkward touching her hands, but she didn't seem to mind. After the national anthem and a flyover of military jets, the game began when Georgia State kicked off to us.

It was a great day to be a Longhorn. We hammered Georgia State 51-9 and already, everyone was thinking national championship. But some of the best highlights were occurring in the stands. Stacia and some of the other girls were keeping a "butt count," in which they tried to see which Texas football player had the most attractive butt. Jimmy was keeping an eye on the Texas cheerleaders and tried to take pictures of them with his phone. Wade and Rose, who barely communicated, started striking up a conversation. It seemed as if Rose was looking to help Wade get confident socially. As for me and Jordan, we talked about football and the plays that were being made. I also found out that she wanted to go to USC because that was her dream school.

"I hated Texas," she said. "After they beat USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl for the national title, I didn't want anything to do with them."

"Well look where that feeling got you," I said. She looked at me and smiled. Life was going great.

After the game, the softball players to me and the rest of their dates to a restaurant. Well, it was actually a place that also had some dancing too. But that would come later. We ate dinner and chatted before it was time to hit the dance floor. I wasn't much of a dancer, so I stayed back and watch everyone else dance. Jimmy and Stacia were getting crazy with their dance moves as Jimmy went from doing the hose to the robot while Stacia was shaking her hips.

I then turned and saw Wade and Rose dancing. Wade was suddenly starting to get out of his comfort zone and he started to dance. Before long, he was on the ground using his body to spin in a circle. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I don't know if Rose had something to do with it, but Wade was becoming a dancer. When Wade was finished, the crowd clapped for him. Then, Rose grabbed him and kissed him on the lips.

"Damn that girl," said a voice.

I turned and saw Jordan sitting at the table beside me.

"I thought she was into girls," I wondered.

"She is. But whenever she sees a guy down on his luck, she wants to help him and make him feel good. It's not using him, but getting his confidence back up."

"Wow," I had to say I was impressed.

There was a part of me that wanted to ask Jordan to dance. But I was worried she would think I would look stupid dancing. Maybe I would ask her and we'll have fun looking stupid in trying to dance. However, my insecurity got the best of me. The softball players were calling for Jordan to dance and she looked at me. I didn't know how to respond.

I didn't need to respond.

Jordan

The whole time we were at the restaurant and dance floor, I kept waiting on Huey to ask me to dance. I wasn't a good dancer, to begin with. But I just felt like dancing with him would make me forget about my dumb dancing and just having fun.

However, he just sat there on a table and watched the whole dance take place. It was making me annoyed. I don't know why I wanted him to dance with me. Yet, I have the other team players telling me to come dance with them. I wanted to join, but I didn't want to leave Huey behind. I looked at him and waited for him to say the word. But he still sat there and watch.

Finally, I decided that I would make the move. If he wasn't going to ask me, I was going to force him to dance. I got up and grabbed his arm.

"Come on," I said. "Let's dance!"

"No," he replied. "I can't."

"I'm not taking no for an answer. We're dancing."

I pulled him to the dance floor where we joined the others. Soon, I started to try to dance and come up with moves I could think of. But Huey stood there not knowing what to do.

"C' mon Huey," Jimmy shouted. "Make the ladies impressed."

Then everyone was irking Huey to start dancing.

Huey

The pressure to dance started to get to me. It had been a really fun day until this moment. I couldn't let this day end with disaster. Hell, Wade was having more fun than I was on the floor and he's not used to this stuff.

Well, I was going to have to make myself look like an idiot. I quickly thought about the first dance I could think of. Amazingly, the music changed and then Gangnam Style came on. Ah-ha! That was what I needed and I immediately did the dance.

That was when everyone, including Jordan, clapped and cheered for me. I kept doing it and before long, we all started to do the dance. The music changed multiple times that night and we kept dancing. Some dances I did were good while others were just terrible. Yet at the moment, I didn't care. I was just having fun and Jordan seemed to enjoy my dancing.

Jordan

The only thing I enjoyed was that Huey wasn't the best dancer and yet, he was having fun. I was glad to know my date wasn't someone who would compete on Dancing with the Stars. It didn't matter to me because we were just two stupid dancers that danced because we were enjoying ourselves and I liked it that way.

Then, it was time to go back to the dorms. Everyone on the softball team had a great time while their dates were glad they were picked. I felt happy and relieved to know the day was over. We took the boys to the car and thanked them for coming. I had a chance to speak to Huey.

"I have to say that you impressed me a lot today," I said. "Not only with the family and standing up to the fraternity and helping the family, but also on the dance floor. What can't you do?"

"Now, now," he said. "We still barely know each other. So I don't want to take credit."

"I more than barely know you. You're just amazing. Do you know that?"

"Thanks for making this day have a controversial ending."

I punched his chest. He grimaced in pain for a bit, but I knew he would be fine.

"Come on Jordan," I heard a teammate of mine shout. "Say goodbye to your date."

There was one thing left to do.

"Well, goodnight," I said to Huey. Then, I kissed him on the cheek. It wasn't anything special. But our unofficial tradition required us to kiss our dates on the cheek to end the date. Huey looked at me and smiled before taking off for his car with Jimmy and Wade.

I watched him walk for a few moments before heading to join my teammates. We had work to do for our upcoming season.