Don't you love a good cliffhanger? I DO!
I'm sorry to those who don't fancy them, but if you haven't noticed I love doing them.
I'm also sorry if the last chapter seemed a bit rushed, I was just excited to get it out before I went to practice that day.
ALSO, I would like to share that writing about how Brittany was nervous before her game brought back softball feels and I got nervous like I always did before a game. Lol.
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Brittany laid there for what felt like an eternity, praying that she caught the ball. Jen ran over to her, holding her hand out.
"Sooner are you okay? Is your back okay?"
She opened her glove, to see that the ball was sitting in the pocket. She sighed a breath of relief, stood up with the help of Jen and threw the ball to Wehi who was waiting at the edge of the infield.
"Nice catch." She high fived Brittany with her glove and smiled. "Santana told us about your back injury this morning. How come you never mentioned um before?"
"I don't know, most times I forget about it that's why." The crowd was still roaring. It was certainly a spectacular catch. She could see Santana smiling from the pitchers mound, where she was talking to Rachel.
The girls got the next two outs off of the girls that followed the lead off hitter for Kealakehe. One, two, three. Just like that. Everyone hustled infield to start off the bottom of the first inning.
"That was a great start to the game. Nice grab, Britt. Had me holding my breath for those couple seconds." Rachel fist bumped her as she continued talking. "Let's get it started girls. Hits on three. One, two, three."
"HITS!"
Rachel dropped her glove and her visor and slipped on the helmet that Quinn gave her. She stepped out onto the field and watched the pitcher as she threw some warm ups. Once her timing was down, she stretched a little.
"The girl that's their pitcher, she is super inconsistent. She may throw fast, but you never know where their gonna go." Wehi was leaning up against the fence next to Brittany, who was getting her batting gloves on. She stepped out onto the field, and into the batters box.
Brittany watched as the girl threw her first pitch, and it was way too high. Second was too low, and third was just right but Rachel let it go by because Coach Sue signaled for her to not swing at the first strike. Santana was banging on the fence now. Brittany looked back at her girlfriend, who had the black lines painted under her eyes. It was sort of smeared now, probably because she was sweating. If there was one thing about Santana, it was that she would sweat really easily. Which wasn't a bad thing, it was just something that Brittany noticed the more they practiced together.
"C'mon Rach you got this. Don't jump."
Rachel's hands gripped the bat just a little tighter, as the next pitch was released. She swung, and it was a nice line drive that landed just past the short stop. She rounded first base, hoping that she'd get a chance to get to second but it didn't happen.
The crowd clapped, and now it was Brittany's turn to step into the batter's box.
She had never been the best at hitting, but the more Brittany practiced the better she got. Freshman year, her batting average was 0.00. It was her first time playing softball. When she was younger, she played little league. Of course she went on to Coach Pitch, then Minors and Majors followed. But never had she played softball. So getting adjusted to the pitching change was hard for her. Hitting a ball that rose was much harder than hitting one that came down. Sophomore year was a little better, but not by much. It wasn't until junior year that she really started to blossom. She was hoping that senior year would be her time to shine, and she prayed that all the time that she spent with Santana at the batting cages would pay off.
Brittany took a breath, and just as she was about to step out of the batters box, she heard someone call her name. She looked back to see that Santana was smiling at her. She didn't say a word to her, yet Brittany's confidence was boosted by a million.
"Be patient." She mouthed to her.
Brittany nodded and walked towards the batters box. She kept one foot out, as she looked down the third base line at Coach Sue who was giving her a signal. Bunt. She knew that was gonna be the signal. As much as she wanted to try and hit it outfield, she had to listen to her coach she prepared to do as she was told. She brought her left foot into the box and squared up with the plate. The pitcher stepped back and flew herself forward as she released the ball. Brittany brought her bat out in front of her and hit the ball so lightly that it slowly bounced down the third base line and she took off for first base.
Breath. Breath. That's all she kept telling herself. Moving Rachel to second was the main priority but making to first without getting out was an added plus. She watched as the first baseman was anxiously waiting for the ball. She kept looking back at Brittany then looking back towards the third baseman who was fumbling over the ball. The team was screaming, hoping that would give Brittany a little bit of a boost to make it to first.
Her left foot hit the base, and the ball arrived not a millisecond later.
"SAFE!"
The crowd went wild, which killed Kealakehe's morale. Nalani's grounder resulted in her out at first, which brought Santana up to bat. She was wearing the helmet that Brittany got for her at Christmas, which made her really proud. The first three pitches were balls.
"BALL BALL BALL
GOOD EYE!
BALL BALL
BALL
GOOD EYE!
BALL BALL BALL BALL BALL BALL BALL
GOOD EYE!
GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE
BALL!
GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE
BALL!
GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE GOOD EYE!
BALL!"
The team was chanting from the dug out, and they were loud. The pitcher finally threw her first strike to Santana, and she let it go by just as Rachel did. The next pitch headed for her and she swung. She pulled it towards left but it landed in foul territory. The count was full now, and Brittany could see the look of anticipation in Santana's eyes. She wanted to hit it. The pitcher hurled the ball towards the catcher and Santana swung. The sound was beautiful. It flew just left of the third baseman. And once it got past her, Rachel took off for home and Brittany followed.
Coach Sue was wailing her hands in the air, motioning for Brittany to take off towards home. She rounded third base perfectly and headed towards home plate. Brittany could hear the team yelling louder, which only meant that the Kealakehe girls were relaying it home. As she got closer, she slid hoping that she'd make it before she got tagged. A huge dust cloud formed, only to reveal that Brittany beat the ball.
She got up and dusted herself off, and walked back into the dugout. Rachel met her at the gate, high fiving her. Brittany turned back towards the field and pointed at her girlfriend who was now standing on second base. Santana was clapping, and blew a kiss at her.
The rest of the game went real smoothly. Not one Kealakehe girl made it home that day- and by the bottom of the fifth inning, it was 11-0 meaning that they won by TKO. They huddled by the dugout.
"Good game ladies. That was a well-deserved win. Waveriders on three. One, two, three."
"WAVERIDERS!"
"Dragons on three! One, two, three."
"DRAGONS!"
The girls lined up to shake hands with the Kealakehe team. They were definitely not happy, and as the girls told them good game, they got no response back.
As they cleaned up their dugout, Coach Sue started talking about what they would be doing after the game.
"You guys have the choice to either eat here, which they have like shoyu chicken and stuff. Or we can go over to the mall and grab something from the food court there."
"Food court. Definitely." One of the girls said.
"All in favor?"
Each girl raised their hands and with that they loaded up the vans and headed back into Hilo so they could eat at the mall. Nalani had her speakers with her, and in the van they played music. The speakers in the van were blown thanks to the paddlers.
"Eh. Nalani. Gimme your ipod. I like pick one song. Please."
Santana was sitting on the outside seat of the third row. Brittany sat next to her with Jen on her left. Nalani passed her phone back and Santana scrolled threw the list of songs until she finally found the one she was looking for. The song started, and Brittany didn't recognize the song at all. Although it seemed as if the rest of the team knew it. It wasn't slow, but it wasn't fast either.
And of course, Santana started singing.
It feels like i was born to love you. mhmm yea.
Like i was born to love you but i, i was scared to be.
Sorry if i hurt anyone. mhmm.
But when i saw you with my red eyes,
That time itself had gone.
It was like no matter what song Santana sang to, whether it was a faster reggae song or a slow hawaiian one- she sounded amazing. It was like there was no way she was ever capable of sounding bad.
You were young and i was full of hope,
Man it was hard and i could not cope.
I made you leave, i made you leave.
But see i always put my children first,
A love so pure that sometimes it hurts.
Thats how i live, oh thats how i live.
Brittany always got lost in the sound of Santana's voice. She didn't even realize that her phone was ringing. It was Quinn.
"Hey Q!"
"Britt. How'd you guys do? I thought I was gonna catch your voicemail but it seems as if the game is already over." Brittany covered her free ear so that she could hear Quinn better. "Sounds like a party over there. I'm guessing you it was a good game for the team?"
"Very. We won, 11-0."
"That's great! How'd Rach do? She hasn't texted me back yet." Brittany looked over at Rachel who was passed out in the front seat. She understood, the performance she put on today was one of the best she had ever seen from any pitcher.
"She's actually asleep. But she did great, you should've seen her out there. I think she had like four strike outs."
"It was 6, babe." Santana chimed in.
"6. Sorry."
"6? Wow. She is much better than she lets on." Brittany could hear that Quinn was listening to local music.
"She's pretty humble. Which is weird, because I expected the exact opposite. Do I hear Ekolu (E-ko-lou) playing?"
"Yeah. Rachel made this playlist for me and I haven't listened to the entire thing yet. I'm glad you guys did good today. I'll let you get back to the team. Text me okay?"
"I will. Love you, Q. Text you in a bit. Bye."
And she hung up. They were in Hilo now and the girls got out the van and headed their separate ways in the mall. Rachel, Santana, Brittany and Kalei stuck together. Brittany let Rachel know that Quinn was waiting for a text and she thanked her for the reminder.
"Chinese?" The girls all agreed and they each bought a plate from the chiniese restaurant. They sat and talked about the game and discussed strategy for the next game they'd be playing, which was the next day.
"I heard that Waiakea (Why-Ah-Keh-Ah) has some big hitters this year."
"Kalei, they always have big hitters."
"Yeah, but I heard that some of the girls from Hilo transferred over and now they have this ridicuous squad. Remember that short filipino girl from Kea'au (Keh-ow)? The one that pitched and we couldn't hit off of her for shit? Yeah. She transferred. And so did the girl from Kam."
"Nah that's alright, we don't gotta worry. We'll be fine."
They continued talking for about half an hour when they saw the rest of the girls heading outside. Everyone loaded up into the van and they headed home. It was dark now, and a lot of the girls were just listening to music or sleeping. Brittany was just sitting there thinking about the game. She was sitting next to window, while Santana was laying her head in her lap and laying down on the seat. Jen's parents picked her up from the mall so they had the back seat to themselves. Light snores were coming from Santana, which Brittany knew that meant she was exhausted. She gently ran her hands through her hair as she went over the game in her head.
She didn't think she did too bad today. At bat, she was 2 for 3. While Santana was 3 for 3 with a RBI double and a triple at her last at bat.
Once they got back to Honoka'a, the two girls went back to Santana's place. Santana showered first, then Brittany. By the time she was finished, Santana was sleeping. She hung up their jersey so they could air out over night then layed down next to her girlfriend. The last thing on her mind before she fell asleep was the game the next day.
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Their second game was scheduled for 6pm on Saturday against the defending Divison I BIIF Champs, Waiakea. Which meant, that they would be playing under the lights. Brittany had never played under the lights before, but she always wanted to. She knew that lights were a bit different than playing in the sun but she also knew that it would be a little colder so she enjoyed that.
Santana spent most of the day chillin, while Brittany played Xbox. They would be leaving for Pahoa around 12 in the afternoon, so they could watch the Pahoa and Kohala game. Both of the girls parents were making the trip out to Pahoa to watch the game tonight, which only added to the excitement.
When they reached Pahoa, the stands were filled with people. Which was expected, since they were in Pahoa. The game was up and up, it was the bottom of the 7th and the score was tied 4-4. A grounder to short stop was fumbled which caused a Pahoa girl to make it home and win the game. Once the field was cleared, the Honoka'a and Waiakea teams took the field to warm up. Waiakea had a deep bench, with about fifteen or sixteen girls on their squad. Which was expected, since they were a much bigger school.
The nerves reappeared, but Brittany was able to shake them off before they took over her system. She spotted her parents sitting in the bleachers next to Santana's mom and she wave at them. The team had a lot of confidence coming off of the 11-0 win against Kealakehe.
"Alright, don't let the win yesterday get to your heads. Today is a new day, it's a new game, against a much better team. As long as we keep our heads in the game, we'll be fine. Don't let them intimidate you, they're just another team. Remember to communicate, be vocal with each other."
They broke the huddle and took the field. Rachel took a couple warm up pitches and then signaled to the umpire that she was ready. The first Waiakea player stepped into the batters box and immediately Jen and Angel backed up. Brittany followed, she figured that the girls knew these players much better than she did so she just followed their lead. The count was 1-2 now, and Rachel was ahead in the count. Santana gave her a signal and she nodded. She wound up, and threw a fastball just above the girls knees. The ball soared into left, and Brittany sprinted so she could cover Angel just in case the ball got past her. It took a couple bounces and hit a dip in the ground that caused the ball to bounce towards the left while Angel was running right.
Brittany scooped the ball up and threw to Nalani. But by that time, the girl had gotten safely to third. What the fuck? She thought to herself. The Waiakea stands were going crazy.
"That's alright, ladies. No outs, runner on third." Wehi yelled. No outs, runner on third echoed a couple times as Rachel began to pitch again. The girl hit a hard grounder to Kama who fumbled the ball in her glove. Once she got a good grip on it, she threw it to first. But her throw was too high, and it went over Kalei's head. She quickly turned to get it as the girl on first took off towards second, and the girl on third made her way home. Kalei ran back onto the field to make sure that the girl at second wasn't going to make a run for third.
Santana ran towards Rachel, and the rest of the infield followed. Jen and Angel made their way to center field.
"What's going on?" Brittany was watching as the girls in the infield were talking.
"Santana isn't happy with what's going on. The girls are rushing their throws and stuff, so she's trying to calm them down. Hopefully they do, or it'll be a long night."
Everyone headed back to their positions and the game continued. By the time the top of the inning was over, Waiakea had recorded 3 runs- while Honoka'a had accumulated a ghastly five errors. As they all ran back into the dugout, the tension was high. The infielders were frustrated, nothing was working in their favor.
"Let's just get some hits and get some runs up on the board." Rachel was already on deck, timing her swing to Waiakea's pitcher. As Rachel stepped into the batters box, Brittany started warming up on the side.
With a ground hit to first, Rachel was easily tagged out. Brittany was no different, a hard grounder to third which she hoped would slip past the third baseman but she stopped it and threw her out just in time. Nalani struck out, which ended the first inning. And just like that, the girls were back on the field. The rest of the game was no different, Waiakea getting 2+ runs every at bat, while Honoka'a were struck down with the 1, 2, 3 outs at bat. They had tons of errors, which included a grounder to center that got past Brittany because she had her glove out to the side instead of in front of her.
By the bottom of the fifth, it was 10-0. They needed just one run to keep the game going, which put the pressure on the first three that were up to bat. Wehi was up first, and with a pop fly to right, she was out. Rachel struck out next, which made her disappointment in herself that much more noticeable.
"Hey Rach, head up. Don't worry we still got this.." Was all Brittany heard as she walked up into the batters box. With two outs, there was definitely a lot of pressure on her shoulders. She didn't want to be the reason that the game ends. That's the last thing she wanted. Very quickly, she was down in the count and she started to get nervous. She stepped out of the batters box and looked over at Coach Sue who was motioning her to calm down and watch the ball. The Waiakea pitcher threw the ball and Brittany connected. It skipped past the short stop and Brittany made it onto first. Nalani hit a line drive towards center, which was too shallow for the center fielder to pick off in the air. Brittany made it to third, while Nalani was on first. And with that, Santana stepped into the batters box. Brittany had all the confidence in the world for her girlfriend. The first two pitches were balls, which was surprising because the pitcher had been very accurate all night. Anxious to hit, Santana swung on the next pitch and missed. She readjusted her helmet by pulling on the cage, and then brought her bat back up above her shoulder. Another pitch, a strike.
"BOO!" The crowd yelled. The ball seemed like it was way to inside to be a strike but the umpire called it one anyway.
2-2, Santana squared up once again. The next pitch came straight down the middle, but to everyone's surprise- she missed. The game was over. The teams ran back to their respective dugouts and huddled before going to shake hands.
"It was a tough game girls, right back. Right back."
They yelled Warriors for Waiakea, then their usual Dragons.
After shaking hands the girls, with their heads hanging- they cleaned up their dug out and headed back towards the van. Majority of the team were staying in Hilo at the hotel that night, so they all made their way back into town and got settled in their rooms. Brittany and Santana were sharing a room with Rachel, and the other girls all split the rooms evenly.
Santana was quiet for most of the ride back, and didn't really say much while they were getting settled in their room. Brittany didn't know what to tell her, she tried talking to her and telling her that it was okay but she knew it would take much more than that for Santana to feel better. They put their bathing suits on and headed for the jacuzzi downstairs. Brittany wanted some time alone with her girlfriend, so she spoke to the team and they agreed to give them some space for a while.
She knew that Santana had a every strong passion for the game. And that telling her that it'd be okay wouldn't be enough. They sat in the jacuzzi for a couple minutes, not saying a word to each other.
"Babe talk to me, what's on your mind?"
"The game. I can't believe I struck out. It was supposed to be a hit. And you should've came home." Santana was looking down. Brittany knew that she was super disappointed and that made her heart hurt. All she wanted was to make her feel better. "It's my fault we lost the game."
"Now you know that ain't true. There's a lot of things that happened during the game that contributed to the reason why we lost tonight. Don't beat yourself up over this."
"Yeah but I had the chance to keep it going, and I screwed it up."
Brittany moved next to Santana and put her arm around her. "Well if I would've stopped that grounder that got past me, they wouldn't have gotten two runs. So if anything, it was my fault. Because that was their 9th and 10th score."
"No Britt it wasn't your fault-"
"Exactly. So it wasn't yours either." Brittany moved from next to Santana to in front of her. She took her hands in hers. "I know you love softball, babe. And I know you love to win. But if you beat yourself up like this after every loss, it's gonna hurt your confidence. And I don't want that. Like you were telling Rachel, keep your head up. You're a great captain, and the girls know it. I know it. We'll just pick it up tomorrow for the game against Kohala. Okay?"
A smile creeped onto Santana's face and Brittany knew that she had accomplished her mission. "I love you. You're amazing you know that?"
"So I've been told." Santana kissed her, lingering there for a couple seconds.
"CANNONBALL!" The girls turned to see that Jen and Wehi were jumping into the pool. The rest of the team followed, with Rachel being the only one from the group walking over to the jacuzzi to join Santana and Brittany.
"How's the arm doing?" Rachel walked down into the jacuzzi and submerged her entire body up to her neck.
"Sore. I didn't grab ice after the game. Stupid yeah?"
"I told you to grab before we left, Rach." Santana was rolling her eyes. Brittany always found it a little amusing when the girls would argue. It was like they were sisters. "Lucky the hotel get ice machines."
"Yeah yeah I'll just grab um later. You okay though?"
"I'm good." Santana looked over to Brittany and smiled.
The girls spent about another half an hour in the jacuzzi then headed back up to the room. After they all showered and got ready for bed, Rachel called Quinn to tell her goodnight. Brittany had gotten all relaxed and was half asleep, half awake. Her eyes weren't open but she could hear everything that was going on. She was in spandex and her sports bra, which was her usual sleep attire.
"Yes babe. Okay. Goodnight I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye."
"I don't know how you do it Rach, how you can be away from Quinn like this."
Santana was stroking Brittany's back, which made her relax even more.
"I don't really have a choice, San. I mean she's in Oklahoma." She laughed a little but they continued talking.
"You know what I mean okay. I don't know if I could do that with Britt. It's hard enough spending a night away from her."
"She really got you good, San. I've never seen you like this before. You're completely head over heels for this girl aren't you." Brittany could feel Santana's hand waving in front of her face, as if she were trying to see if she was awake.
"I am. I love her. I mean, look at her. She's gorgeous even when she sleeps." Brittany wanted to smile so bad but held it back. "I love everything about her. Everything. She always knows just what to say to me."
"You better not screw it up, I swear to God. I'll kick your ass if she fuckin' leaves you." Rachel started to laugh a bit. "But on a serious note. Did you ask her to spring formal yet?"
"No, I haven't. But I plan to soon. It's what, couple weeks away? I never even pick a dress yet."
"Make sure you ask her, I'm going by myself. I told Q I would go stag." The girls talked a bit more but Brittany was fighting a losing battle with the sandman so she gave up and allowed herself to go to sleep.
Santana turned the light off and got under the sheets. She ran her hand down Brittany's side and placed it on her thigh. "Goodnight babe," She whispered. "See you in the morning, my love."
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OKAY.
So, what I forgot to mention is that the chapter with Quinn surprising Brittany and Rachel, I forgot to add a super important detail. Winterball.
Every year, on the last day we have school before winter break, we have winterball that night. And I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT BECAUSE I WAS TOO CONCENTRATED ON QUINN SURPRISING THE GIRLS.
Which is why, I have added Spring Formal (Which we don't have) and I will still have Jr/Sr Prom later in the story.
I feel like an idiot, because winterball was something I looked forward to every year and I overlooked it.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
Feedback would be lovely! ;)
Song used in this chapter is called Feels Like by Katchafire