The Girl Next Door

Part Ten

The humidity is beginning to seep into her brain, triggering an illusion to create another girl to appear at the plate. She wipes the sweat from her head for the umpteenth time and squeezes her eyes shut in a desperate attempt to regain her focus. Her upper arm is burning with vengeance as her fingers slip around the ball to blindly search for the red thread. She inhales sharply and exhales slowly to calm her nerves and decides her best option is to allow her body to take complete control and pray that muscle memory kicks into play.

"Strike three!" She hears the ump scream before her mind accepts the fact that she already released the ball.

Then the heavy weight of someone crashing into her back and almost knocking her over, snaps her back to reality. She somehow finds the strength to keep her knees from buckling before Lily swings around on Emma's shoulder to land directly in front of her.

"Swan, that was amazing!"

"We still have another inning," she counters as they jog together back to the dugout.

"Who cares, we are crushing them!" Ellie exclaims from somewhere behind them.

Green eyes drift toward the bleachers in search of her biggest fan. Those raven locks are piled high upon of her head, in a messy bun, with a few loose strands attempting to escape. She follows a few water droplets descending slowly against Regina's glistening chest before they disappear into her pure white dress. A light, summer dress, that is perfect for the excruciating heat wave that's torturing their town today. The hem of the dress is mid-thigh, exposing a lot of bare skin since her legs are elegantly crossed. Even though a pair of giant framed sunglasses are taking up half her face, Emma can still feel those dark eyes on her.

Emma plops down on the metal bench without an ounce of grace, and chugs down her now warm water. She can practically feel any energy she had left in her body evaporating from her soul from exhaustion.

"Swan!"

"Yes, coach?" She quickly replies, perking her head up toward the sweaty old man to offer her undivided attention.

"You are done," he coldly orders, prompting her to jump to her feet in fear that she may have screwed up sometime during her game.

"I can finish coach," she vows with conviction, even though her legs feel like jello and her head is spinning at an alarming rate.

"Relax, Swan, I know you can. I just rather save your arm for the next game. You did good Swan, now it's time for your teammates to take some of the heat," he chuckles at his own word play and exits the dugout without further argument.

She falls heavily back down onto the bench, somewhat relieved, and closes her eyes for a brief moment to alleviate the strain tensing in her muscles. 

"Hey!"

She nearly jumps out of her own skin from the sudden voice reverberating around her. She whips around abruptly to find her girlfriend beaming with excitement.

"Jeez, Regina! You scared the crap out of me!"

"I'm sorry," Regina apologizes with those thick, seductive lips, morphing into an adorable pout. "I brought you a cup of ice to add to your water bottle."

Her girlfriend dangles the large styrofoam cup in her face, inspiring Emma to jump to her feet. They both stretch on their tip toes to pass the cup over the chain link fence with two matching lovesick grins plastered across their faces.

"Thank you so much," Emma says, opening up her water bottle and pouring the ice into the warm liquid.

"You're welcome very much." Regina presses her body flush against the metal fence, her eyes dancing with love. "So proud of you," she whispers, causing Emma's heart to swell and she's so happy her cheeks are already flushed from the heat, otherwise the embarrassment would be evident upon her face. Emma bites down on her bottom lip to fight back her smile as her eyes drift down to fiddle with her water bottle. "I'm going to head back so you don't get in trouble."