Chapter 2

The fall season was flying by and, by the looks of it, Anna had won the spot for starting short stop for Arendelle's softball team. School wasn't as hard as she had thought it would be and she loved her housemates. It was shaping up to be a great junior year.

"What's going on at the boys' field?" Anna asked Rapunzel as they made their way down the steps into the dugout to take off their cleats and put away their gear from practice.

"Scrimmage against Weselton State. Flynn is supposed to start so I was going to head over to watch. Want to come?" It was a Friday evening and Anna didn't have much homework so why not. They made their way towards the stairs at the back of the dugout to head to their lockers in the team room.

Apparently they weren't the only ones heading to the scrimmage. Tiana was obviously joining them to watch Naveen catch but Anna was surprised by how many people were there to watch. Including some of their boy crazy freshman teammates. Anna loved good girl talk, but when it came to watching baseball she liked to focus on the game. So after all the girls settled in behind the home team's dugout, Anna made her way to an empty part of the stands a few rows back from her friends. Sliding her team issued backpack off her shoulders, Anna removed a small notebook and a pen from her bag. Luckily, they had arrived just before the line-ups and national anthem played. Anna only wrote down the jersey numbers of the starters of Weselton State with their position. But for Arendelle she wrote down the names along with their numbers and position. "Now for your Arendelle Aggies," the announcer paused for the crowd's cheering, "Leading off, in center field, number 14, Aladdin Ababwa. Batting second, at second base, number 20, Eric Sailor. Batting third, playing left field, number 3, Adam Evermore. Batting clean up, the short stop, number 27 Kristoff Bjorgman."

Although the announcer didn't deliberately pause this time, there was another eruption of cheers. Mostly from the young females in the crowd. Anna only rolled her eyes when some of her younger teammates were included in that group. Anna turned her eyes back to the field as the aforementioned player jogged from the dugout towards home plate. Just as his three teammates did before him, he bumped knuckles with the two umpires and made his way down the first base foul line. For each guy, the tall short stop shared some sort of quick handshake before standing next to Adam in line, waiting for the rest of the team to be announced. She recalled Flynn calling this guy Bjorgman the night at the hitting cage but now she knew his first name was Kristoff. After writing the rest of the line up down in her note book, Anna's eyes roamed over the field. She watched her university's team, outfitted in white, taking their warm up reps before the top of the inning.

The right fielder, Philip Hubert, had an interested curve to his ball. That could be bad with a play at the plate.

She could hear Aladdin's laugh from here as he was joking around with Adam in left field.

Shang Li, third base. He was fidgeting a lot between ground balls and kept glancing up into the stands behind him.

Eric at second looked comfortable, steps were a little choppy but he's shorter so he can make it work.

John Smith, first base. Big guy, too much eye black. Keeps readjusting his hair under his hat.

Kristoff Bjorgman, short stop.

Anna paused writing the notes on her paper to take a better look at the man in the middle infield. She did have to admit, he filled out the uniform well. He wore his crisp white uniform with the pants up, high cuffed. Which she preferred, she was old school that way. Kristoff moved well to the balls that John was throwing to him from first. He practiced his backhand, along with some flips to Eric at second. Every move was smooth and deliberate. And his arm was strong. He purposefully stood at the edge of the grass to air his arm out on the last throw before balls had to be rolled in and Naveen threw it down to second.

Anna jotted down what she saw and waited for Flynn to face the first batter from Weselton.

Flynn had ensured a boring first four innings. No one had gotten a hit, let alone even gotten on base. When Weselton did make contact they only managed to hit ground balls in the infield. Nothing too exciting.

Arendelle was currently leading 5-0 and were up to bat now. No outs, Eric on third, Adam on first with Kristoff up to bat.

Anna's number one philosophy of hitting was simple—the first pitch is usually the best pitch. And watching Kristoff's first two at bats, he seemed like he agreed. Both at bats he swung at the first pitch which then resulted in a 2 run home run and a double off the wall. If the Weselton pitcher was smart he would definitely not throw Kristoff a first pitch strike.

Wack.

What. An. Idiot.

The ball soared down the first baseline just grazing the white painted line on the grass. The right fielder had been pinching in towards center as that was where Kristoff hit his previous double. The ball rolled to the corner and rattled around, giving Kristoff just enough time to slide into third before the throw got to the base. Cheering erupted from the Arendelle dugout and fans as Kristoff popped up form his slide and asked for time from the base umpire. He then removed his helmet and shook out his sandy blonde hair, wiping his face on his sleeves. Giggles blossomed from her teammates, a few rows below Anna. She couldn't tell if she was annoyed with her obsessive friends or herself for also having a reaction to the boy on the field.

Two innings later and the score wasn't any better. Arendelle 11, Weselton 0. But Kristoff was up again and he was a single away from hitting for the cycle.

Weselton was on their fourth pitcher at this point and by the looks of him, he had to have been a true freshman. But, he did have a wicked curve ball and had just finished striking out Adam. Clearly the pitching staff had learned by now not to give up a meatball on the first pitch to the blonde short stop. The guy was nibbling though; none of his pitches were great, except the curve ball. But a good hitter could deal with one of those. Kristoff had already fouled four of them off.

On the next one, the freshman made a mistake and left it hanging a little too much. Lucky for him, Kristoff only chipped it into the outfield. There was his single.

Except, Anna looked on in confusion, he wasn't slowing down. Kristoff was going to second. He was surprisingly quick for his size and almost made it. But the throw was right on line and the Weselton's second baseman was waiting for him when he slid in. Anna watched him as he jogged back to the first base dugout, her gears turning the whole time. As he reached the foul territory and was nearly to the stairs, he glanced up at her. Not wanting to be caught staring at him for the second time, Anna focused back down at her notebook and wrote some more comments.

After the game had ended, Anna rejoined her teammates and friends.

"Great game huh?" Rapunzel asked.

"Flynn pitched great, how is his elbow feeling?" Anna asked.

Rapunzel bit her lip and looked to the sky, "He says it's fine but I still make him do his exercises and stretches twice a day. He was such a baby after the surgery I never want to hear him like that again!" Tiana and Anna laughed at the image.

"We're gonna head to the dining hall with the guys. They're always ravenous after game, you coming?" Tiana asked Anna as they started making their way down the bleachers. Anna thought it over for a second, "Nah, I've got a bunch of work I should get started on. I'll see you guys back at the house."

"Don't wait up!" Tiana called as they exited the stadium.

Anna only felt a twinge if guilt for lying to her friends. But the truth was it was a beautiful night and there was nothing better than an empty field under the lights all to yourself. When everyone had cleared out of the stadium and the crew had packed up the press box, Anna was truly alone. The huge lights, she knew, were on a timer so she had at least twenty minutes until she was in total darkness. That was more than enough time to just sit and think. Or lay and think, as she was, staring up at the darkening sky.

"Hey."

Anna's body jumped so bad she nearly fell off the bleachers. "Shit!" The curse involuntarily came out of her mouth. Regaining her balance, Anna stumbled up into a seated position, her hand clutching her frantic chest. "Holy shit dude! Ugh!" Anna couldn't even form a real sentence yet because her adrenaline was pumping so hard.

A laughing Kristoff Bjorgman was standing two rows down from her, freshly showered in jeans and an Arendelle Baseball pull over. "Sorry about that," Kristoff still had a grin on his face, obviously not that sorry.

"Uh- it's fine." Anna just stared at him, confused by this interaction.

"So..." Kristoff started.

Now it was Anna's turn to laugh, "Soooo?" She dragged out, teasing him.

"We haven't officially met yet, I'm Kristoff." Even though he was still two rows below her, he leaned up and stuck his hand out for her to shake it.

Anna chuckled and raised an eyebrow at the gesture, "Anna Agnarrsdottir." She had to brace her left hand on the back of the chair in front of her to reach his hand.

"So..." before Anna could taunt him again, he finished, "What were you writing?"

She was taken aback by the question, she hasn't expect him to ask her that. "Uh, I was, uh, just doing some homework."

"Has anyone ever told you you're a bad liar?" The smirk from the night at the hitting cage had returned.

Was he flirting with her? In reality, Anna had learned how to be a great liar. She could think on her toes quickly and always come up with something believable. Just like telling her friends she had homework when she just wanted to enjoy the quiet stadium. Was she losing her touch?

"Fine, so it wasn't homework." Not giving up any more details.

"Soooo?" Kristoff asked, mimicking Anna from earlier.

"Just some notes."

"About the game?"

"Yeah I guess."

"What do you mean 'you guess'?"

"Dude is this 20 questions?"

"I've got like 15 more questions if it is."

Anna couldn't help but laugh at that. Not wanting to drag this on any long, she gave in, "I just keep notes on the players during the games I watch. It just something I do."

"Yeah?" Kristoff asked, a skeptical look on his face. "Anything I should relay to my team?"

Anna paused for a moment, his hazel eyes never losing contact with hers. "Well you better hope that Shang asks that girl out soon or he's going to boot every ball that comes to him."

Kristoff chuckled, "He's been too nervous to even talk to her so we might be out of luck. Who else?"

Anna debated sharing her insights, "Isn't this weird? I don't want to come across like I'm ragging on your teammates."

"If you noticed that stuff with Shang you must have a good eye."

Anna rolled her eyes at his obvious form of flattery, "Fine, Hubert needs to aim about six feet to the right when throwing home or he's going to miss Naveen every time." Kristoff looked confused at her tip. "He snaps his wrist like a pitcher not an outfielder. I'm guessing he pitched a little in high school and hasn't refined his mechanics since."

"Oh shit. That's- you're- yeah, damn, ok." Anna stayed quiet as she let Kristoff mull over the information. When his eyes returned to her's, he had a handsome smile on. "And how did I do?" The familiar smirk was back and Anna's stomach jumped just a little.

"You played fine."

"Oh come on, I know you had to have written down something for me." His stupid face was too handsome for Anna to refuse.

"I don't have any tips for you, just...observations I guess."

"Like?"

"Like the fact that you crowd the plate while they call the pitches but at the last second you back off hoping they'll take the bait and throw you down the middle." A smile stayed on his face but his eyebrows knitted together in contemplation. "Or that you could have stopped at first on your last hit and had the cycle but you pushed it anyways. I think most people here thought you were stupid for that."

"Oh yeah, and what did you think?" Kristoff's smile was gone, replaced with an intense look.

"That you know it's fall ball and hitting for the cycle against shitty Weasletown doesn't matter as much as pushing your limits to see what your body can do so you'll be ready when it actually matters."

"I- uh, hmm." Kristoff's was truly speechless. The guy who always had an under-the-breath remark was stunned by this new girl's insight.

Without warning, the lights above them all shut off and they were left in total darkness. Anna burst out laughing from shock. Kristoff soon joined her and the two were a strange sight indeed.

"Well I guess that's my cue." Anna said as she grabbed her backpack and walked down the stairs.

"Hey, uh" Kristoff said as he wanted to stop her, "So, can I have your number?"

Anna debated for a second, "Hmm, nah."

Seeing the shocked look on his face, even in the dark was so satisfying. Clearly he wasn't told no a lot.

"But we've got some mutual friends, let's see how bad you actually want it." And with that she continued out of the stadium towards the parking lot.

Before Anna even walked into her house, her phone buzzed from her sweatshirt pocket. Seeing a notification from a new number made Anna's stomach flip. Opening the iMessage, she watched as a gif of Usher dancing came across the screen with the words 'U got it u got it bad.' in the box.