"Hey, hey, listen up," said Billy's father over dinner Wednesday night. "I have some exciting news."
"I'm getting a new car?" asked Brent.
"I'm getting Brent's car?" asked Mike hopefully.
"We're going on vacation to Hawaii again?" Billy beamed from his seat.
"Oh yeah! Those Hula dancers were hot," Mike laughed and high-fived Brent. "When are we leaving?"
"Woah, calm down! That's not the news. The news is I got four tickets to this Friday's baseball game," Billy's father said, smiling.
"The one that's sold out? No way, Dad!" Brent raved.
"Yep son, picked 'em up today."
"Well, why'd you get four tickets?" asked Mike.
"Because I thought we could make it a family affair," said Billy's dad, glancing over at Billy quickly. "You know, me, you, Brent, and Billy."
Baseball? Why would I want to go to that, thought Billy.
"You guys all get to miss school Friday. We leave out early that morning. What do you think about that, Billy?"
Everyone turned to look at him, and he mushed his mashed potatoes down with his fork. They all knew that he hated sports. What did he think about it? He thought it was stupid and just another way to make him feel even more less connected to his own family.
"That sounds fun and all, but I don't think I should go," he finally said, smiling falsely before shoving a fork full of potatoes into his mouth.
"Oh, come on now, Billy. Go," his mother encouraged him. "You'll miss school, you'll get to dress down for once, you'll eat nachos and hotdogs until you barf. It'll be fun."
"I don't even like nachos," he shook his head, hoping they'd leave the subject alone.
For a moment, his mother and father exchanged glances as if they were trying to read each other's minds, and his father said, "Billy, you're going, and that's that. It's what men do. We bond over sports."
Everyone tucked back into their food, and Billy rolled his eyes and ate the rest of his meal quietly. This sounded like anything but fun. This sounded like trouble.
"Baseball?" Eleni laughed loudly. "Is he serious?"
"Oh, Billy. You're going to look so cute with your giant foam finger," Michelle laughed and flipped a page of her magazine.
After dinner, Billy had called them over to his house to hang out and give him advice on what he should do about the whole father and sons outing that weekend. So far, they weren't helping.
"Guys, this isn't funny," Billy sighed, stopping from sketching Michelle lying there on his bed with her ankles crossed in the air. "He even made some lame comment. It's what men do."
"Do you even know anything about baseball?" asked Michelle in a sneering tone.
"No, do you?" he shot back at her.
"No, but I know that first base doesn't mean making out in baseball terms," she rolled over and hopped up off of his bed. "And what are you going to wear?"
"Michelle, it's a baseball game, not a fashion show," chimed Eleni, searching through Billy's closet.
"It's Billy we're talking about. His life is a fashion show," said Michelle.
Eleni ignored her, turning around towards Billy holding an old hat that his father had bought him three years ago. The thing was a forest green color and looked simply horrid.
"I have an idea," she said.
"You're going to help me get out of this?" Billy asked hopefully, but for some reason, he didn't like how she was staring at him.
She simply smiled at him and slipped the ugly, baseball cap on her head.
"HEY, BATTER BATTER BATTER!" Michelle yelled obnoxiously and let out a rather loud giggle.
Billy scowled at her and continued to roll the plastic ball in his hand. It was Eleni's fault that they were out in his large backyard at 8 o'clock that night, using flower pots for bases, and using Brent's baseball bat and ball. If Brent found out, Billy would be spitting out teeth, but luckily he had gone over to his girlfriend's house and Mike went over to his friend's place as well.
"I don't feel like doing this," Billy protested.
"Just throw the ball," Eleni stood impatiently, leaning on the bat with her hip poked out defiantly.
Billy huffed in annoyance and threw the ball weakly towards Eleni. She swung and hit the ball, knocking it clear across his backyard.
"Goodness, woman!" Billy watched the ball fall near some hedges and Michelle ran to go get it. "How'd you learn to hit like that?"
"I do have an older brother," she smiled, walking up to him and handing him the bat. "Ok, it's your turn. Just concentrate and hit it as hard as you can."
Billy took the bat and headed to the flower pot, er, home base plate.
"Pitcher's got a big butt," Michelle laughed as she handed Eleni the ball, and Eleni laughed and shook her head.
Billy was happy that they were having so much fun, but he could've been doing better things like sketching or watching MTV or something. It was dark even though the back porch light was on and he could barely see the outlining of his friends.
"Ok, Billy, are ya ready?" called out Eleni.
"No!" he whined.
"Well get ready 'cause I'm pitching it to you," she said, and before he could respond, he watched a white ball being hurled at him.
He went to swing the bat, but it was a lot heavier than it had let on.
"What's going on?" said someone behind him, and he spun around. The ball smacked him hard in the arm.
"Who is that?" Billy squinted.
"Zack. My parents heard some commotion so they sent me over here to see if everything's ok," Zack stepped into the light so that the outline of him was visible. "What're you guys doing?"
Michelle seemed to appear at Billy's side instantly. "Hi Zack!" she squeaked out.
Eleni ran up as well, removing Billy's old hat from her head and wiping off a bit of sweat from her forehead. "What's up, Zack." Just playing a little baseball. Billy's going to a game this Friday."
Billy rolled his eyes at the reminder and picked up the ball that had rolled near Zack's feet.
"We'll keep it down," he muttered more to the ground than Zack, rubbing the spot on his arm that the ball had hit. "I doubt the game will last too much longer."
"Baseball? I thought you hated sports. Remember when our dads made us play tee-ball that one year? You cried every time you had to bat," said Zack, sounding cleared surprised at the news. Michelle laughed out loud and pinched Billy's cheek.
"Yeah, well, I don't want to go—"
"—But his dad's making him. Male bonding experience and all, you know," Michelle explained.
"Oooh, I get it," said Zack, nodding in understanding. "Dude, my dad did that to me a couple of years ago, a few months after I had been playing in the band. He got all weird on me, talking about he was worried that the only hobby I had was music, and a man needed a sport."
"What'd he make you do?" Now Billy was interested.
"Dude, Hockey," Zack cringed, and Billy winced. "It was freezing cold, and watching guys get rammed up against the glass and smearing slobber all over it was not my idea of fun. I mean, if I wanted to see that, I could just hang out at Dewey's while he's drunk. But I looked like I wanted to be there and cheered and stuff so my dad never gave me a hard time about it afterwards. Plus, the nachos were awesome."
"I hate nachos," Billy mumbled, but no one seemed to hear him.
"Well, I better get going. See you guys in school," said Zack, ready to make an exit and go back next door. "And Billy, I swear this works. Just looked excited and clap whenever everyone else does. He'll be off your back in no time."
"Wait! Do you want to play with us?" asked Michelle.
"Nah, I was in the middle of writing a song when my mom made me come over here. I'll play it for you sometimes, when it's finished," he said directly to her.
Billy and Eleni exchanged glances and held in snickers and eye rolls.
"I'd like that," said Michelle waving him off. When he disappeared from sight, she turned to them and tossed her hair, wearing a large grin. "We should play baseball at 8 o'clock at night more often."
Then continued the game until Michelle said her legs were hurting her, and Eleni's brother called to say he was on his way. Billy saw then off, hurried up the stairs to place Brent's things back in place, and hurried into his own room. He thought about Zack's advice and decided that it didn't hurt to try, and just maybe he'd end up liking the outing.
After finishing up the picture of Michelle from earlier that night, he fell asleep drawing a hockey player being slammed up against the Plexiglas.
A/N: So.. I have a really super duper long and exhilarating explanation as to why I haven't updated in literally forever.. and I was totally going to type it out.. but I'll just spare you from it and offer a huge apology. :( -look at that sad, begging-for-forgiveness face. You've probably forgotten about the story anyway lol but I'm not just going to leave it hanging. No! I shall finish the unfinished!
This chapter was short, like many of the others will be but I'm hoping it'll be enough to keep readers a bit interested, interested enough to keep reading. The next chapter has not been written ahead of time SOOO it might be awhile for a posting, but I promise it will NOT be as long as last time. Umm.. wow.. it's been so long that I kinda forgot how to write a proper author's note.
Oh yes! I'll admit to you, I do not like sports so I don't know any of the rules and how everything works and all that so please just.. ignore any ignorance I may spread about baseball and its ways. I'm going to do the best I can and I'm far too lazy to actually research it for the moment. So when the game comes up, just go with it lol and fight the urge to tell me how dumb I am. I can't argue with my brain when it has an idea although it would be nice to sometimes.
On that note, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and we'll be getting to the "action" later :). If anyone has any suggestions on how to better the story let me know, and please review. Thank you :).