"I cannot rest without you next to me."
CLAYTON
What was the cherry on top to my stressful school week?
Losing the game against George Ranch.
The surprise written on everyone's face was hard to miss - far's more so, though - and I didn't dare to glance over where Lucy was watching me crash and burn. I stopped looking over at her once my pitching went wild in the third inning. There was subtle clapping from the opposing team, but other than that, nothing. Coach had stopped yelling orders at us and let us trail the walk of shame, one I had expected to take a week prior.
I told far I needed to practice harder that week. I told him and he assured me we wouldn't lose to a team as bad as George Ranch. I couldn't even remember the last time their team had beaten someone.
"Thanks a lot, Clayton." Zeke shoved his way passed me into the dug out, throwing his mitt hard at the ground.He was grumbling incoherent words under his breath, no doubt curse words filled with anger. Losing was not a part of his plans. Hell, losing was not a part of anyone's plans that night.
I remained silent with my eyes hung low. There was nothing to say.
Instead I packed my own mitt into my bag, ready to leave before Lucy approached me.
The last time we had lost a game was last year, sophomore year, but it wasn't all on me. Our hitting was off as a team, so there was no one to blame specifically. There was no doubt it my mind though, that then I was the total blame for losing. We were up four to two before Coach put me in to pitch and then it went down hill from there. I walked more batters than they got actual hits. That cost us seven runs. Seven.
I gulped at the severity of the situation.
"Boys, we played hard today. Whether or not that is a good thing, I'm not sure, but we tried. That is all that counts. Next week we play Dolby High, so expect a tough match." Coach droned. "Practice Tuesday. See you boys there."
Zeke didn't even join the team huddle. He was busy packing up his things and preparing to storm out like the tornado of emotion he was. Zeke wasn't the best at baseball, but he did have a talent at leaving in a dramatic fashion.
"One, two, three. Stingers." I mumbled.
We dispersed swiftly. Or more specifically everyone else dispersed from me in a hasty fashion. Coach was the only one to approach me with a get-em-next-time sort of gaze, but other than that, nothing. Not that I had expected anything in the first place.
What I did expect from far was exactly what I got. He made his over to me slowly, each second dragging on and on. He wanted me to dwell on everything I did wrong so I could better myself in the future. So when he asked me what went wrong, I spoke immediately.
"I threw out my arm practicing so much," I admitted through clenched teeth. "Should have stuck to the schedule, like you told me to."
He nodded his head, not necessarily disagreeing, but he did want more. "Okay, what else?"
I rubbed my cheeks, sighing. I knew exactly what he wanted to hear. He wanted me to admit that having Lucy there to watch me play was the unnerving sore that messed with my head.
"My head wasn't exactly in the game," I sugarcoated.
He probably would have pestered me more if it wasn't for Lucy heading in our direction. She made me sigh from the embarrassment I felt about letting her down, but also from how great she looked wearing my team's spirit shirt.
"We'll talk more about this back at the house, Clayton." He gave me a rough pat on the back with a serious expression. Then he turned towards Lucy. "Hello, Miss Lucy. Tell your dad we need to go bowling this weekend, please."
"Yes, sir. I will." She smiled sweetly.
Right then I wanted to tell Lucy Walker how charming she was. She wasn't even trying with her soft smiles and anxious rubbing of her hands, but she was.
Far left with a wink at the two of us, causing me to groan and throw my mitt at him. I expected Lucy to be mortified, but instead she was collected. She either understood far's obscure humor, or she did not see it as anything. Well, that was until I made it into something. The awkward silence following was as much as my fault as the loss was.
"So, uh, the game. Sorry to disappoint." My lips pressed into a thin line.
Her long hair was pulled up in braid of some sorts and she was busy messing with the tip of it. "No, don't apologize. It happens sometimes."
Another silence fell upon us. The crowd was dying down as the seconds passed.
"Could you see okay from your seats?" I asked stupidly. Of course she could. There was a reason why she sat around there every time.
She nodded as her teeth dug into her bottom lip.
Tonight was just a compilation of failures from the one and only Clayton Hugh. Now I suddenly couldn't talk to a pretty girl. What next? I would fail at driving and hit a tree head first?
"Are we allowed to go on the field right now even though it is over?" Lucy suddenly asked.
My brows rose with interest. "Uh, yeah. Why?"
What she did next was more surprising than the Stingers losing to the Bulls. She gestured towards my pitcher mitt sitting in my baseball bag, motioning for me to hand it to her.
Despite my confusion, I shook off the excess dirt it collected while in my bag then handed it off.
"Why don't I show you how to throw a pitch?"
- - - - - - - -
Lucy Walker was a girl full of surprises. Not only was she an avid scrapbooker and writer, she enjoyed baseball nearly as much as I did. Well, that might be stretching it, but she definitely respected the game and enjoyed throwing a ball.
"You throw pretty well," I stated aloud, catching yet another one of her pitch. The throws didn't hold much speed, but they were precise and accurate. The opposite of what I was that night. "Did your dad or brother get you into baseball or something?"
Lucy gleamed a little brighter with my compliment then smiled. "Actually, no. Neither of them are fans."
I threw the ball back to her. "Oh. Then where did you learn all the technique and stuff?"
She stepped off the mound with a sheepish grin peeking out. It was cute. "To be honest?"
"Yeah." I ushered, returning her shy smile.
"I was never a fan of baseball until I came to watch the school's team play freshman year." Lucy sighed in a dreamy sort of way. "You all were so good. Y'all still are." She loaded up to throw. "J.K. only goes to the games for the cute players, but I don't judge her for that. Mateo is a real cutie."
A part of me was flattered Lucy grew to like baseball from watching my baseball games, but the majority of my concentration was set on her thinking Mateo was cute. Real cute.
I squeezed the ball in my mitt tighter. "Mateo?"
The look on my face must have been funny, because Lucy chuckled at my reaction. I knew we were only friends - barely even that yet - but a little love in my direction would have been the boost I needed to uplift my mood entirely. Granted Lucy was already doing a great job at making me feel better.
"You're by far the best player though," she noted eventually.
The best? That was almost laughable now after the disaster of a game.
Which was exactly why I scoffed, disagreeing completely.
"So what you had an off day? You have had, like, over one hundred other games where you were awesome, Clay. Aren't you the same number ten who hit a grand slam last week, or did I mistake you for Mateo?"
"No way, that was me," I corrected her immediately, standing up straight from my crouched position. When even was the last time Mateo hit a home run?
"Has Mateo ever hit a home run on the Stingers?" Lucy asked, her nose wrinkled in a wry way.
"I think the better question is when was the last time he made contact with a ball." We snickered. "I swear that guy has the best of luck. He walks nearly every time up on the plate."
I was only slightly guilty for making fun of Mateo, but that was in no comparison to what those boys are probably saying about me.
"I don't even think I walk that much."
She was poking fun at her sleepwalking, and I loved that.
"So, about your sleepwalking. . . Have you ever tried to get rid of it - if that even makes sense?" I kicked at the grass, my once clean white socks painted with orange dirt and green stains as we headed towards the parking lot. "Surely there is a way to stop the sleepwalking if you find the source of the problem, right?"
I watched her with caution, hoping she did not take my curiosity the wrong way. That tended to happen a lot. But when she shrugged, I eased up.
"I went to counseling before with this doctor, but we stopped years ago. He said there is a chance I might out grow it eventually, but I don't have high hopes with that happening." I noticed she was mimicking my kicking movements. "I am not a fan of false hope."
I agreed completely. False hope only made failure all the more worse. Exactly why far should not have given me his so called "pep talk". Maybe he was the actual fault to all of this; he jinxed me.
"I totally get what you mean, but --" I stepped in front of her, walking backwards, "-- what do you have to lose?"
She was frazzled by the new formation we were walking in, but not enough to stop her from thinking over my question. I knew Lucy was a busy girl with school, friends, family, and other things, but she wouldn't lose any of that by making her sleepwalking vanish. It might possibly make her feel better about herself, because I could tell she wasn't exactly proud about her walking. On the other hand it interested me to no end.
"Nothing, really," she whispered at first, almost to herself. "Nothing at all."
I turned back around once we got close to the parking lot, my car not too far away. "Then why don't you try something? Anything? I bet there are tons of methods if you look them up."
Lucy appeared much more confident when I glanced back towards her. "I guess I could give some stuff a go." She bobbed her head up and down. "But I won't do anything medical related. I hated the pills Dr. Elver gave me." Her frown was fleeting thankfully.
"Then it's settled." I unlocked my car with a huge grin. "I'll help you out, of course."
Her silence struck me as a bad sign, since she was on the fence about the whole idea, but eventually she got there. I watched her eyes swirl with determination, no doubt the exact image I was mirroring. She was fragile though, so the plan had to start off slow.
"Okay, then, Dr. Hugh. What first?" A ghost of a smile hid well, but not good enough for me to miss it.
I let out a loud, abrupt laugh.
"I'll have to talk to my partner Google first, Miss Walker. Until then, how about we go get some milkshakes at Sonic before I drop you off?"
"Sounds good Dr. Hugh. . . Sounds good."