1.15 ▫︎ APRIL, 1934 ↦ BUCKY
The next day after school, the evening sun was not so bad that day at baseball practice. For nearly two hours, Bucky had not left the pitcher's mound and his shoulder ached like hell. He collapsed onto the dugout bench where the assistant coach was waiting with ice wrapped in a cloth. "Thanks, Coach," he said. The old man was not paid enough for what he did here, but Bucky knew that this was his passion. He would not have stayed on the team if it was not for Coach Meyers.
"You need to take it easy for the rest of the day, son."
Bucky sighed, glancing at his feet. He knew that Coach did not want him boxing. And he knew it was bad for his arm to be overworking it like this. "This is my last year," Bucky countered. "I'm putting myself all in. Champ here, champ there. Bada bing bada boom."
Coach Meyers frowned. "Alright then Barnes. I'll see you tomorrow." Bucky stood up and grabbed the fabric wrap and began to fasten the ice to his shoulder. As Coach Meyers stepped out of the dugout, he turned to Bucky once more. "And I know you have been training for your championship, son. I know the reward may be tempting, but remember to take care of yourself. You cant take care of everyone."
And with that, he left Bucky alone. He headed back to the located room and changed back into his clothes. Brown trouser, a white undershirt and green button up over it. He left his left arm out of the sleeve so ice could have room to alleviate the inflammation and pain in the shoulder.
As he was lacing his shoes, another guy came in. Bucky looked up to see his class and teammate, Bill Werther.
"Seems like you've got first locked down," Bucky noted. "What a play you made earlier."
Bill smiled. "Not too bad yourself, Barnes."
"Too bad you can't hit my curveball, or you'd be the whole package."
The first baseman scoffs. "Well at least I can hit a pitch."
Bucky chuckled as he swung his bag over his arm.
Bill pulled his shirt over his shoulders and spoke again. "Say, Bucky, are you headed over to Goldie's right now?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I'm gonna train for a few hours."
"Do you need a sparring partner?" Bill asked
Bucky smiled, shaking his hand. "Sure thing, pal."
The wall from the school to Goldie's was about 4 blocks, and it didn't take them very long to get there and get wrapped up.
"Where's Rogers?" Bill asked as he slipped on his leather padded helmet.
"He said he was going home after school." Bucky said with a shrug. "Who knows what the punk is actually doing."
Bill snickered as he pulled his gloves over his wrapper hands. "I swear it's like that guy asks for his ass to be kicked."
"He really does," Bucky agreed. "I can't keep up with him."
"He's a pretty swell fellow. I don't know why he doesn't hang around."
Using his teeth, Bucky pulled the laces tight and tied them in his second glove. "Well, you know... some of the guys aren't that nice."
"Roy?"
Bucky gave him a look of agreement.
"Well, prom is coming up? You always have a date of some sort. Who are you taking?"
Bucky knocked the ice off his shoulder, which had mostly melted away and stretched his arm across his chest. "I dunno, Bill. I guess it won't be hard, but I sure didn't get closer to finding a date Saturday."
"Oh yeah? What happened?"
"I took a Manhattan girl I met in town to Coney Island. I did not like her. She was stuck up." He jumped around a bit loosened up. Bill did the same. "Acted like a kid from Brooklyn was not good enough for her and called my money dirty. She was mean to Steve too. The girl who went out with him was nice. I think they would have went out again if Catherine hadn't yanked her away when she left early."
"Damn, Buck," Bill said, bumping him on the shoulder with his fist as he stepped into the ring. "Can't win 'em all."
"No, you can't," Bucky sighed, following him into the ring. "And that girl— She's coming here afterwhile."
Bill pressed his lips together. "Why is she coming here?"
"Well, she says she wants to apologize."
Bill scoffed. "She's probably smitten with you." He began to bounce foot to foot. Bucky did the same, hitting his gloves together.
"Maybe she'll be dizzy for you." He held his arms in front of his face, ready to block any jabs or uppercuts.
"I'll hit first," Bill threatened.
"Do then, hoss."
And he did. But Bucky swiftly dodged to the left. They bounced around and then Bucky got a hit on the side of his head. Well Bill went to dodge that Bucky came in and hit his ribs.
They were only sparring so neither of them hit very hard. Bill was no stranger to boxing. He and Bucky did it together at the YMCA for a few years. Bill quit to work and play more baseball. And he could never beat Bucky, who had been the champion since the second year he boxed. The time creeped by, but they never stopped.
"Save your left," Bill reminded me. "Be just as strong with your right hand. No matter how many matches you win using your southpaw as a secret weapon, every fighter you will face will be surprised."
And he would. His right hand was just as fast as his left, he just had to remember to keep it that way.
"Keep your arms up, you're inviting nose shots," Bucky told him more than once.
Catherine Carlisle entered the gym during a heated round. She wore a red dress with orange buttons fastened up to her neck and all the way down to the end of the dress that ended below her knees. Her shoes were the fine Oxford's Bucky has seen all the well-off women wearing. "Mr. Barnes!" she called out as Bucky took a blow to the chest. He didn't seem to hear her as he swung at Bill again. Bill ducked... right into Bucky's second swing.
"Mr. Barnes!" Catherine called again. Bucky may not have heard her the first time, but he did the second time. He used his surroundings to mess with her a bit. He felt she may have deserved it just a bit. He dodged a hit by Bill and jabbed.
"Mr. James Barnes!" Catherine said again, this time yelling over the loudness of the entire gym. It got quiet very suddenly. Bucky slowly lowered his fists and turned to look at Catherine, his lips forced into a straight line. All the men in the gym turned to look at Bucky and the woman who had screamed his name.
"Now look what you've done there, Kitty. You've made yet another scene." Bucky could see Biul try not laugh without even looking at him. She huffed.
"Well obviously an inside voice was not going to get your attention whilst you were wailing on the man to you left."
Bucky scoffed. "You really don't approve of my sport, do you kitty?"
"It is a vile excuse for a sp--" Catherine stopped herself. She was here to make amends, no matter how badly the Brooklyn boy fired her up. She straightened up and cleared her throat.
"I do not know many boys my age," she started.
Bucky looked at her with doubt in his eyes as he rested his elbows on the ropes. His taut muscles tensed, then relaxed as he leaned his weight into his shoulders. "What, do you hiss at them and send them running away with their tail between their legs? Let me just tell you something, kitty: I am no scared puppy. I am not a boy either. So you wont find me wasting any time on something that has not benefit."
Catherine took a quick step toward Bucky, wavign him off. "Oh, Mr. Barnes, you have it wrong. I'm trying to keep my claws to myself. But see, I attend a school. My sister and I are seniors, ad well... theres the prom coming up."
Bucy raised his eyebrows in dismay. "Prom?" He picked himself off the ropes and gleaned back to Bill. He folded his arms over his hest and sighed. "Prom isn't exactly--"
"Wait, let me finish," Catherine interrupted.
Bucky sighed and gestured with his hand to go on.
"It's an all girls privates school. We don't know many boys our age. It just so happened hta al the boys at the country club are just too young or just too old and you gave to signed waiver that the boy is attending another school as a senior and has had no made no infractions or mischief. So, it had been hard to find a date for both of us. Wilma and I were hoping that you and your friend would be our ticket, but it didn't go so well. I would just talk to make amends for the occasion , if you were okay with that."
"I wasn't exactly planning on going to get my own prm, kitty. I had a wrestling match."
Catherine sighed. "Well, sorry to trouble you during your... ah..." she looked around ht gym... "training."
She tried to walk out before Bucky called out, stopping her. "Cat!" he called. She turned around. "Let me finish, why don't ya?"
"Alright, then."
"What day is your prom?"
She told him the date. "Well, I suppose we can both serve as tickets to a prom, because I happen to have no prior engagements. But you have to let me bring a friend. So your sister can have a date."
Catherine glanced behind him at Bill and approached Bucky closer at the rope, took off her glove, and held it out for him. Bucky shook it. "I guess we have a deal then."
"Yes, a deal. But I refuse for that friend to be Steve Rogers," Catherine appealed.
Bucky frowned: he had meant that friend to be Steve. Steve needed to have a good time at ta prom. But he had already shook on it. "How abut Bill here?" Bucky asked, pointing back at Bill. Bill srtepped forward in to th conversation. "You up for it, pal?" Bucky asked him.
"Depends," he said, "Is your sister as fun as you are?"