Strikeout

Chapter 6

The next day went by very slowly. Gabbie's parents seemed upset with her all day. When the time finally came to go to the ball field, her and Grayson got in his car. Before they left, their mom came to the car and knocked on the window. Gabbie rolled down her window and looked at her mom.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Gabbie?" she asked.
"Yeah," Gabbie responded.
"It's a bad idea," her mom argued.
"Well it's not to me. I can't let down my team, and I definitely can't let Tyler win. I'm doing it. And I don't care if you like it or not," Gabbie stated.
"Fine," her mom sighed while walking away. Then the siblings drove off.
When they got to the field, Grayson pulled up by the entrance and dropped Gabbie off.
"Play hard, Gab," he said as she got out of the car. "I'm gonna go park." Gabbie got her equipment out of the back seat and walked to the team's locker room.
When she entered the locker room, she noticed that she was the first one there. She said hello to her coach, and went ahead and changed into her uniform. Soon enough, the team started to get there and change.
"Are we wearing out white uniforms today, coach?" Hailee asked.
"Yes ma'am. Baseball is wearing red," coach said.
"You ready, 20?" Tatum asked.
"You know it," Gabbie responded. "You?"
"Yup," said Tatum. After a few minutes, the team put their equipment in their dugout and began to warm up. While they were warming up, the baseball team came out to begin warming up, too. Tyler, Charlie, and Shawn gave the girls nasty glares, but the rest of the team said hello. After they warmed up, the teams sat in the dugout, chatting and waiting for the game to begin.
"Will the coaches and team captains please come to the plate with their lineups?" the umpire yelled. Gabbie and her coach walked up to home plate, and Jonah and his coach walked up to the other side. They exchanged their lineups.
"Let the girls be home, ladies first, am I right?" Tyler yelled.
"No, the girls are home because this is their field," Jonah said.
"I want a nice, fair game. Play clean," the umpire said. "Shake hands." Their coaches shook hands, and Jonah and Gabbie shook hands.
"Good luck, Jonah," Gabbie said as she shook his hand.
"You too, Gabbie," he said. Then they walked back to their dugouts.
"Alright, girls, are you all ready?" asked Coach. The girls all shouted "Yeah!" in unison.
"Alright, everyone," Gabbie started. "This is a big game. We have a point to prove. A point that shouldn't even have to be proven. But all we need to do is play hard and do our best. We aren't just representing us. I think that we're representing all of the girls sports teams. Look up at our side of the bleachers." The team looked up at the bleachers to find it packed full of people from their school. "There's the volleyball team. And there's the field hockey team. Some of the girls' basketball team is over there also. Even some of the football players are cheering us on! Let's not only play this game for us, but let's play for them, too." There were a few whoops and hollers from the team.
"Let's do this!" Tatum exclaimed. "Tigers on 3!"
"1, 2, 3, Tigers!" the girls yelled as they took the field.
"Play ball!" the umpire yelled as the first batter stepped onto the field. It was game time.