Emmett happily walked behind the other men as they made their way to the baseball field. He wasn't even a little uncomfortable carrying a large canvas sack on his back that looked as though it could hold a couple of grown men. He didn't even know what was in it. He just knew he was asked to carry it by Alice. But he would shake it around occasionally to figure out what was in it, knowing Alice wasn't around, so she wouldn't yell at him for it. But he still had no idea.
Once they arrived, Emmett immediately dropped the sack, and he could distinctly hear what sounded like wood. Everyone looked at him strangely. He just shrugged and told them it was Alice's. Once they heard that, they just ignored it. Alice did odd things on occasion. Carlisle handed over the baseball bat he was carrying to Emmett, who began some practice swings. Carlisle then began tossing the ball around with Jasper and Edward.
"Where are the girls anyways?" Emmett asked.
"I don't know; they tried hard not to think about it. It was almost as if they wanted to surprise us or something?" Edward speculated.
"They were all very excited about it," Jasper nodded.
When Emmett heard Jasper's voice, it was as though he just realized he was there. He decided to check with him, he was always with Alice so he should know, "What's in the sack?" he suddenly asked.
"Do you know Jasper?" Carlisle also couldn't hold back his curiosity.
"You can open it," he smirked, looking at Emmett.
Emmett eagerly made his way over and opened it, revealing dozens of baseball bats and baseballs. He was baffled, but so was everyone else except Jasper. He just shook his head as he chuckled to himself.
"Why?" Carlisle asked him.
"I have no idea. She said we would need it for the game," he shrugged.
"She doesn't know the rules yet; maybe she thought we would need multiple for each of us?" Edward posited.
"This is too many for even that theory!" Emmett said while rifling through the sack to see if there were different types or all the same. He discovered they were identical and dropped them back in the pack, immediately losing interest, "when are they going to get here? They're taking forever."
"It's been thirty minutes since we left home. Be patient," Carlisle said.
They heard rustling from the direction they had come from, and all turned their attention that way. Esme took the lead in capri pants and a pink flowy short-sleeved top. In contrast, Alice and Rosalie followed in high-waisted shorts and sleeveless blouses.
Esme approached Carlisle, who embraced her while looking at his daughters, "And Serafina?"
Rosalie smirked at Alice, who had a large, excited smile, as they both stood to the side and allowed Serafina to walk out. She wore longer high-waisted shorts than the other two and a shirt similar to Esme but in black. She was incredibly uncomfortable because it was the first time she wore shorts. Even as a child, she wore her princess dresses. She couldn't help crossing her arms as though trying to block them all from viewing her.
Carlisle gave her a loving smile, "You look lovely no matter what you choose to wear. But you'll see this was the best outfit for what we will be doing today."
Emmett gave a low whistle, "The legs on you and Rosie." Both women glared at him while he spoke but softened their expressions after hearing his following words, "You two are going to be putting me to work. I bet I'll put on my threatening big brother act a lot in the future." He finished while shaking his head.
"They finally got you out of white. This color suits you better. I've seen your mind. The pure innocent white you throw on is false advertising," Edward said.
Serafina narrowed her eyes at him but then sharply turned away, repeatedly thinking, 'I'm ignoring you.' While Edward chuckled to himself.
"You look great, Miss Hart," Jasper smiled.
"Wait, how did you know her size?" Emmett asked, "I've checked her out loads of times, but with her dresses, you wouldn't think you'd be able to guess her size so well."
Rosalie was embarrassed but didn't show it on her face, "Esme is good at sizing. Even just looking Serafina over, she got it right." Rosalie wasn't going to admit that all the times she hugged, was held by, or even held Serafina had helped her to figure out her size. She felt somewhat like a pervert at that. She couldn't admit it out loud. She glanced at Edward, but he was grinning at Serafina. She breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed they may have been having a conversation and Edward didn't hear her thoughts.
Esme was confused. Although she had a general idea about Serafina's size, when she had given the possible outfits to Rosalie to double-check, it was Rosalie who had told her the dimensions were off. Rosalie was the one that gave her the proper measurements. But when she was about to say something, she saw a distinct look in Rosalie's eyes, "Lucky guess." She shrugged. When she turned to look at Rosalie, she definitely noticed she mouthed a thank you to herself. She didn't understand but didn't give it much thought as she turned her attention back to the family.
Before anyone could say anything else, Emmett sprang forward, "Who cares? Let's play some ball! Oh, but before we do, Alice, what's with all the baseball bats and balls?" he asked, turning to look at Alice.
"You'll see!" she gave everyone a mysterious smile and skipped to stand beside Jasper.
Everyone huddled up and listened to Emmett explain the game. He used many terms they didn't understand, and Edward would pop up and clarify when he heard anyone's confusion. Once they finished explaining, they decided to play a game or two with no enhanced abilities, just like a human.
Serafina was the first up to bat. She swung and hit the ball on the first pitch. When running, she accidentally took the bat to first base with her in her excitement. When the ball she hit straight up came down, it was caught by Emmett. In her anger, Serafina set the baseball bat on fire. All men had eyes on her and gave a loud "Oh" as they realized there was a reason for the large number of baseball bats in the sack.
Alice just giggled and said, "You're half right." Before taking her position as the next up to bat.
After the first game, they got the hang of things but were quickly bored. It wasn't until the second game that Alice suggested using their enhanced abilities to play. They all had a lot of fun just racing around the bases. But they noticed with their enhanced strength; they went through many baseball bats and balls.
Serafina didn't help. She had a habit of burning her bat whenever she was caught out. She had finally decided to cheat, and whenever she hit the ball far and out of sight, she would burn it so that they would never have a chance to catch it. But Edward heard her thoughts and tattled on her. They tried to make her pitcher, but the ball would habitually catch on fire mid-throw. She admitted she thought it would be faster if it were on fire which only made them laugh as they explained that wasn't how it worked. By the end of the day, she was furious. And they were all completely out of bats and balls. Everyone laughed at her while Rosalie held her hand to calm her down.
"I don't understand how you can be so bad at this game. You know it's easy for us to catch if you hit the flyout ball, yet you keep doing it," Emmett laughed as he carried the empty sack.
"You know what? I don't even like baseball. It's boring!" Serafina glared at the large man.
"You only don't like it because you're horrible at it. What happened to you helping Rosalie beat us?" Edward mocked.
"I didn't mean in baseball. I meant I would physically beat the shi-" Serafina began as she moved as though about to break away from Rosalie to harm Edward physically.
"I'm going to be honest; I don't care much for it either," Esme piped up, giving a bit of a grimace at admitting it out loud. Her timely honesty drew everyone's attention, "Don't get me wrong. I love our family time! And I most definitely want to be involved. But is there a position I can do where I can still be there but not playing?" she hesitantly asked.
"You can be a catcher! Or umpire the game," Emmett said excitedly, "Or a catcher who umpires the game! Perfect!" he said as though everything was solved.
Carlisle just smiled at his son, "You can." He said, turning to Esme. "And Serafina can cheer us on from the sidelines." He added.
"Cheer you all on from the sidelines. Hmph," she grumbled, "I'll only cheer for mi hermosa Rosa."
Although she said it very lowly, they all still heard and couldn't help laughing. They were discovering Serafina could be very childish and petty. But it was good. It meant she was willing to show her true self to them, so they didn't mind. They all kept up the teasing as they went to the Cullen residence. Serafina had calmed down and joked back. She was still somewhat restrained, but everyone saw her loosening up. It was a successful family day, in their opinion.
Only a couple of days later, they found out that hikers and hunters were traveling through the woods when they were playing. They had told the townspeople of strange loud noises they had heard. They weren't entirely sure if there was an earthquake as they could've sworn they listened to what sounded like boulders crashing down and lots of trees breaking. They said it eerily echoed through the forest. But the strange thing was they didn't feel anything. When trying to find the source of the sounds, they came up empty-handed and figured it must've come from further in. Carlisle heard the gossip from people in the hospital and told the family. They decided they would have to be careful when playing in the future. They also decided to look into other stronger items to possibly use as bats. They'd figure something out.