"Tamsin, throw him the ball correctly! Don't confuse him," Lauren Lewis shouted towards her wife through the fence.
Tamsin's green eyes pierced the blonde all the way from the pitcher's mound and she gulped down her next valkyrie put her right hand in her glove, swung her arm downward, and threw the ball slowly to her son.
Ethan's bat came swinging around him and he almost pivoted around as he lost his balance again. It had been his fourth attempt at trying to hit the ball and he was already wishing for the game to be over. He was no good at something like baseball.
Lauren thought sadly to herself, as she watched her son deflate, how she wanted to teach the boy the finer points of science that day, but was dismayed as Tamsin came into the house with a mit and bat; ordering them to come with her to the field. Thankfully, Tamsin had been fortunate enough to buy a six pack of beer for Lauren as she sat alone in the bleachers.
She wanted to go down, and teach her son how to accurately perceive the vector and the speed in which the ball was coming at him, to ensure every time he'd hit it, but Tamsin had made very daring orders for her not to move.
Or else.
So Lauren sat on the bleachers, trying to shout out helpful hints to her son after a near miss. Opening another beer, it was only her second, she watched as Tamsin said something to the boy from the pitcher's mound and Ethan nod. She swung her arm again, and this time Ethan skimmed the ball and it made it's way back to Tamsin.
"Go, Ethan!" Lauren shouted, excited her son had at least hit the ball.
The eight year old boy looked back, his cap was covering most of his face, but Lauren saw the brilliant smile he gave her as he raised his bat over his head, showing her he acknowledged what she said. Sitting back down smiling, Lauren looked at Tamsin and the valkyrie was smirking as she picked up the in-coming ball.
Picking it up, she put it in her glove, and ran over quickly to Ethan's side. Getting behind him and taking his hands into hers, she talked to him as she showed him the appropriate swing to use. The boy nodded and Tamsin stood in front of him, bending down to be at eye-level, and said a few words of encouragement.
Lauren didn't know what those words were, probably something like 'hit the ball like it's those asses at school' or 'make mother proud' Lauren could only guess.
She watched as Tamsin walked back to the pitcher's mound, Lauren watching as she went with a smirk on her lips and a glisten in her eye, and picked back up her glove. Lauren's eyebrow rose as Tamsin stayed down for… a little toolong. Tamsin looked her way after bending back up again, and Lauren hid her smirk with a swig of her beer.
The valkyrie smiled and looked back at Ethan. "Okay, champ, just like we talked about."
"Just like we talked about…" Ethan readied his bat.
Tamsin held the ball in front of her, making sure Ethan focused in, swung her arm back and let it go.
Lauren's eyes followed the ball and her breath hitched.
Ethan closed his eyes, swung his bat forward, and a loud crack ripped through the air. The ball went flying! Over Tamsin's head, and into the out field the ball sailed, and sailed, and sailed.
Tamsin threw her cap down onto the mound and ran to her son, picking him up in a gigantic hug and twirling him around.
"I did it! I did it!" Ethan screamed and giggled. Lauren joined in on her son's victory chant and clapped her hands wildly from the bleachers. She cheered, whooped, and applauded until Tamsin let him down, fake punching him across the jaw in motherly affection.
"I knew you could do it," She whispered to him, and the boy nodded, a smile wide on his lips. And just like that, he knew he really could do it.
Smiling up at his mother he said with such finality it made Tamsin's heart almost break, "Let's do that again."
fin