My oldest friend/old writing partner/source of inspiration over the years/twin sister visited my town this week with her husband and son, and we chatted about this fic and where it should go with this chapter and beyond - honestly owe her beyond a dedication for helping me so much!
Thank you to chellekathrynnn, lucefatale, WickedlyMinx, LarissaValentiMeedachi2613, souverian, Ghostwriter71, and Love. Fiction. 2020 for your reviews. There's a glitch in the system at the moment so your reviews aren't coming up on the page and I can't reply yet, but I have the emails and will respond as soon as they come up and I can! It's something to do with a backlog in the servers apparently!
Chapter 18
"Are you listening to any of this?" Emmett complained loudly, throwing his hands up.
Esme had long since escaped in favour of setting up the baseball field in "the clearing", though she'd found Carys' inability to fully grasp Emmett's love of the game more amusing than he did.
"I am...," Carys assured him with a sigh, wishing she still had an ally in the conversation. She was still feeling strange after her encounter with Bella - and the way she'd assumed Edward had been talking about a vampire when he'd told her about her - and the length of the baseball 'chat' was grating on her nerves.
Emmett looked about as disbelieving as Jasper, who had taken Esme's place by his side when she'd left and was firmly in his brother's corner when it came to the importance of baseball.
"Okay then," he announced, dropping his head to his hands, "go ahead. Tell me..."
Carys sighed again and rolled her head back and forth against the sofa cushion, wondering how on earth she was supposed not to have at least understood some of it, considering they'd been talking for well over an hour.
"Right," she began, listing it off on her fingers as she sat forward, "baseball usually has nine players in each team but we're playing with less. Baseball uses gloves, rounders doesn't - though the balls are pretty similar and definitely as hard. Baseball bats are longer than rounders bats." Probably making it easier to hit the ball, she added to herself, knowing if she brought that one up again Jasper would probably somehow find himself able to have a heart attack. "Four bases, same for each game - just with baseball you get three tries to hit the ball before you're out-"
"Strikes," Jasper corrected seriously.
Carys just about managed not to sigh and rub her temples again. "-yeah, three strikes, versus rounders where you hit the ball with your bat and if you hit it or not, you have to run... All in all, baseball seems like the easier game - less risk of injury at least."
"Baseball players get injured all the time!" Emmett complained, holding his fists in the air as he dropped his head back.
"Try being on the receiving end of a ball whacked right at your boob, and all you have to save yourself is an ungloved hand," she argued absentmindedly as she rubbed at her right hand. "Still twinges sometimes when it rains."
When Jasper and Emmett didn't respond, she continued on through her memories, wincing as she came to a particularly bad one.
"I only became Captain for a bit because the old one took a rounders ball right to the neck... One girl just about got out of the way of a ball and pulled her hamstring when she slipped straight into accidental splits. Nothing compared to Tracy Haverland though - took a rounders ball to the-"
"What kind of school did you go to!?" Jasper asked her, clearly horrified by the sheer number of painful injuries she was listing off as if they were nothing.
"A normal one." Carys shrugged - it wasn't really abnormal to be injured, and that was only if you were playing in PE, let alone on a team.
Emmett frowned, puzzled by the ease of her response. "I take it rounders was very competitive at your school then?"
"Not really," she responded, tucking her legs under her as she leaned an elbow on the back of the sofa. "What makes you ask?"
Emmett and Jasper shared a look before they sat back in unison, lips blurring.
When they continued talking rudely, Carys thought, and excluding her from their conversation, she pushed her sleeves up to her elbows and rested her head on her shoulder.
That was how Esme found them an hour later, just as Carys' eyes began to droop.
"Lunch is ready!" She announced happily, joining Carys on the sofa.
"Lunch?" Emmett, Jasper, and Carys asked in unison.
At least in Carys' case, it was an excited response as she pushed herself up straight. Not only would lunch mean freedom, but it would also mean adding some much-needed fuel to her system - she'd slept through dinner the night before despite Carlisle's attempts, and hadn't had so much as a cup of coffee all day.
"For Carys," Esme informed them slowly. When the other two vampires continued to stare at her, she added, "Humans need to eat more than once or twice a day. You know this..."
"Yeah," Emmett argued, waving a hand in her direction, "but Carys hardly eats when she comes to visit..."
Carys smiled and untucked her legs as Esme looked affronted, feeling yet another surge of gratitude towards her friend for her thoughtfulness.
"I hope I'm not supposed to take that to mean you've not been feeding her, Emmett," Esme snapped in warning, cutting off any thought her adoptive sons might have of arguing. "No wonder she's so skinny!"
"Not really skinny to be honest," Carys countered, shaking her head as she stood and cracked her back. "But I've lost a few pounds since I started coming here, so you definitely need to get more food in - if not for my sake, for Bella's."
What she didn't add as she made her way to the kitchen, was that she had a sinking feeling - not just that they wouldn't have forgotten to feed Bella in the first place, but that it said more about how they saw her than she might like.
She dismissed the thought as she entered the kitchen to find Alice standing on a chair, staring at a large pot on the stove which was filled to the brim with cheesy pasta as if it might rear up and bite her hand off if she wasn't careful. If she had a stick, Carys thought she would be poking at it.
Maybe it was just that they hadn't had Esme around to remind them.
Carlisle returned to the house just in time to join them as they headed out, and Carys caught his expression when he saw her in the tight-fitting clothes Alice had lent her and instantly decided it was safer to ride with Emmett.
Emmett took one look at the two of them and smirked, though he waited until Carys was safely buckled up in the back with Esme and Alice and had nowhere to run before he commented.
"Whilst we wait for Rose... Anything any people in the back want to tell us about their weekends?" He asked, adjusting the rearview mirror so he could meet her eye.
Carys tried to ignore the hitch in her breathing as she turned expectantly to Alice, hoping desperately that he might be talking about her or Esme.
Alice preened as she leaned forwards and tweaked the ends of her hair. "I wanted to go and pick up some bits I ordered the other week, but it was too sunny, so-"
"Not you, Alice."
Alice frowned at her brother for a moment before grinning widely as she cottoned on and joined him, staring at Carys.
Carys sank in her seat and turned the other way. "Esme? Good weekend?" She asked, hoping they hadn't noticed her slightly shrill tone.
Rosalie climbed into the front, sniffed, and twitched the rearview mirror so that she could glare at her as she pointedly rolled down Emmett's window, asking, "Don't you have another car you could stink up?" When Carys turned her head and sniffed her shoulder lightly, she added, "With your blood."
"Oh... Well..."
"I had a lovely weekend, thank you, Emmett," Esme announced, ignoring Rosalie's comment. "I finished my plans for the new house in Ireland, and I'm thinking Siobhan might like to spend a few days there every so often, but we'll have to see if she thinks-"
As Esme carried on talking and Emmett was given no choice but to start the car and head out, Carys reached across and squeezed her hand appreciatively. Esme squeezed back, and by the time they made it to the clearing - which wasn't all that far in the first place - she knew a lot more about the minutia of architecture than she'd ever expected to, and Emmett had finally stopped grumbling and sending her calculating glances every few seconds.
If she thought that was going to be the end of it, she would have been sorely mistaken, but luckily for her, Emmett was just about as subtle as her mum when it came to planning his moment, so Carys was expecting it when he rounded on her as she jumped down from the Jeep and had to walk the last of the way to the pitch.
"Bet you ten thousand dollars and pick of first up to bat if you can hit the ball... Sixty metres or more."
Ten THOUSAND dollars?! Carys thought to herself, eyes widening as she held her breath for a second. Ten. THOUSAND. DOLLARS!? TEN. Thousand. Dollar-
"What's she doing?" He asked Alice, waving his hand in front of Carys' face as his sister hopped out behind her and they began to walk - or, amble along absentmindedly in Carys' case.
"Trying to work out if she could hit it that far maybe?"
Ten. Thousand. Dollars. I could do SO MUCH with that. That's like. That's like. Carys' mind whirled as she tried to work out just what she could do with that amount of spare money rolling around. She could take a holiday - somewhere fun and... Make it all-inclusive... And she could get a new car, and still have more than enough to get an entire new wardrobe and not need to budget quite as much for the year. She could-
Carlisle joined them and wrapped an arm around her waist as he asked, "What did you bet her?"
"Ten thousand dollars and first pick if she can hit the ball sixty met-"
"That'd be it," he cut in, kissing Carys' cheek as they began to leave the well-worn path. "I've been reminded many times about the value of money in the past year and a half - you might want to lower your-"
"Deal!" Carys announced, surprising him as she held her hand out in front of her. It was only after she caught sight of Emmett's mischievous grin when they'd shaken hands that she realised she didn't know what she'd have to do if she failed.
Carlisle took the opportunity to pull Carys flush against him, staring down at her as he grabbed the backs of her thighs and lifted her legs to either side of his waist in a fluid motion.
"Carlisle! What are you doing!?" She hissed her surprise, clutching his shoulders.
"We need to run the rest of the way," he told her with a grin, adjusting her in his arms.
"Couldn't you have told me that first?" She argued, sliding her arms around his neck as Alice's high-pitched giggle disappeared quickly behind her. "Instead of-oomph!" She broke off as his lips descended to hers, her stomach dropping as she closed her eyes and hungrily kissed him back.
It wasn't until she heard Alice's laughter and Jasper's whooping suddenly cut back into earshot that she realised her stomach drop was courtesy of Carlisle's speed.
She whacked his shoulder as he let her slide down his body and held onto her until she steadied herself.
"I hate you," she grumbled, pushing away as he had the decency to appear faintly chagrined.
"Carys!" Emmett yelled across to her as he held two bats high above his head by the boulder Rosalie was settling herself on. "Less kissing, more betting!"
He refused to tell her what her forfeit would be if she lost as he handed her a bat and waved her across to the plate - or on the entire walk across the massive field -, citing the fact they'd already shaken hands and she was therefore locked in to the bet.
Carys, thinking again about the name-brand food she could buy if she didn't have a food budget and the fact he was likely to make her tell him about her weekend if she didn't win, was determined not to lose - and told him as much as she double-checked Alice was able to throw at a human speed.
As it turned out from her demonstration, she was more adept at doing so - almost as adept as she was at hopelessly tossing the ball a couple of feet and declaring she'd twinged her weak shoulder, which was apparently her go-to for getting herself signed off PE.
"Right," Emmett announced, dropping to his haunches beside Alice as he rubbed his knuckles. "I'll give you three strikes and you're out, seeing as you're still human - but use 'em wisely Thornton, you'll-"
"How do you know that name?" Carys asked him, bristling as she looked behind her to where Carlisle crouched, not making eye contact with the right part of her body. "I'm a Vale," she snapped as she turned back, rolling her shoulders and swinging her bat as she narrowed her eyes at Emmett, "so if you must use Thornton, it's Thornton-Vale, thank you very much."
Emmett shared a look with Alice - and Carlisle, through Carys' legs. "You really don't like your name, huh?"
Carys concentrated on her bat as she assumed the position she'd been taught for rounders, and tried to stop herself from glaring quite so much. "Considering the last time I saw my dad was when I was seven and he was arguing so much with my mum he sped us off the road and broke my arm, not very much, no. But that's not why we're here, so-" she took a deep, centring breath and sank down just a little further as she nodded to Alice, "-sit back and watch yourself lose a few grand, Cullen."
Emmett whistled and raised his eyebrows, but when Alice caught his eye, he nodded. "Okay. First pitch."
Carys concentrated on Alice as she ignored the rise of nerves and bounced lightly.
Alice threw.
Carys swung.
And missed.
"Fuck," she whispered under her breath as Emmett laughed. She hauled in as deep a breath as she could and kicked back a little, nodding once. "Again."
Now that she knew just what was coming for her, and how it was coming, she was sure she could do it.
Alice reared up, threw...
CRACK!
Carlisle, Alice, and Emmett turned to watch the ball with Carys, though they likely kept sight of it longer than she did in the low light.
"What!?" Emmett barked as the three Cullens turned to stare at Carys in shock.
She shrugged and kept her expression nonchalant, though she was sure Jasper could feel how amazed she was from across the field - and probably how much her body protested her actions. "Did I not mention I was Captain for a bit?"
"Eighty metres!" Esme shouted from across the pitch, holding the ball up in the air.
"I think you owe Carys quite a good deal of money," Alice announced, a slow, impressed grin making its way across her face.
"Cheque or cash?" Carys asked him, still trying to hide how surprised she was that she'd managed it at all, let alone on her second try. "I'd be happy to accept either - but I'm guessing we're not going to go with bank-transfer - for tax purposes, of course."
Emmett was still gaping at her when Jasper came to join them and Esme settled herself beside Rosalie, sitting on the large boulder by the edge of the field about a quarter of a mile away.
Jasper grinned and nudged Carys' shoulder, taking the edge off her surprise. "So... Who's first up to bat?"
"Hmm.." Carys glanced at Carlisle as he joined her again and flipped his bat, sending her a particularly warm look from beneath his lashes. Her heart stuttered as she sighed and then dropped her gaze to the ground, clearing her throat. "Which team's Carlisle on?" She asked lightly.
"You can't give him everything just because he's cute!" Emmett argued hotly. "Stop looking at her like that, it's muddling her brain!"
Carys giggled as she realised a way she could get her own back on Carlisle, and high-fived Jasper when Alice raised her hand - and Rosalie, despite how far away she was sitting and the disinterested look on her face, waved and pointed behind her just before Bella and Edward came into view at the edge of the field. "If you left me sleeping this morning, you field first!"
She earned herself a tinkling laugh from Alice as Carlisle sighed and tucked his bat under his arm. He stepped behind her again, pressing his hands to her back, and she was just about to ask what he was doing when he adjusted his hold and pressed.
Carys felt a momentary flash of pain as her back cracked, but then sighed in amazement.
"Where've you been all my life?" She asked him over her shoulder after he'd reached up and cracked her neck as well. The relief she felt was probably indecent, judging by Edward's face as he and Bella stopped to chat with Esme, but her back had never felt so good.
Carlisle kissed her cheek and winked, turning his attention to his children when Rosalie joined them and Alice darted off to greet Bella, Emmett following her after giving Rosalie a meaningful stare.
"Did he have to bring her?" Rosalie asked bitterly, examining her bat when they were gone.
"Yes, he did," Carlisle told her softly, reaching out to rub her arm. "It'll be okay, Rose," he told her, just before thunder rumbled through the forest and out towards town. "Alice says it's time," he added to Carys' with an excited grin.
Carys held a hand over her mouth as she yawned.
When Jasper looked his interest, she smiled. "Sorry, you can blame my mum, she used to let me sleep by the window and count the Mississippi's when I was little...," she explained a moment before Edward slid to a halt by his side, followed almost immediately by Emmett and Alice.
Esme was interestingly the only one of them to have thought to wait for Bella, and as Carys watched their progress, she realised that she was more right about Esme and humans than she'd imagined.
"Positions!" Alice announced, scattering her siblings with a word.
Carlisle dropped a quick kiss to Carys' lips before he darted to stand between the first and second bases, and she dropped her bat to the side and ran towards Bella when Emmett stepped up to the plate.
They waited, it seemed, until the second she reached Bella's side, before an impossibly loud CRACK! rent the air, echoing off the mountains, and she stumbled, covering her head as she dropped to her knees.
"Thunder makes you yawn, but baseball scares you?" Esme joked.
Carys turned to watch the game as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Thunder can't hit me, a dodgy hit could," she argued breathlessly. She glanced at Bella and smiled before the game captured their attention again. "What'd I miss?" She asked, noting Carlisle and Emmett running so fast between bases that they appeared blurred.
"Out!" Esme cried, pointing at Edward as he appeared suddenly at the treeline and held the ball aloft, grinning widely. "Emmett hits the hardest," she told them with an affectionate grin, "but Edward runs the fastest."
"Esme's umpire because they cheat," Bella explained, blushing when Carys smiled at her again. She turned back to watch the game, and Carys waited a few seconds before she joined her, captured by the incredulous expression on her face.
When she did, she could completely understand it. The way they played wasn't just fast, it was hell for leather - she didn't think she was the only one of the two who found it difficult to keep up.
Jasper stepped up to the plate and hit his ball low across the ground - something Carys would have expected less from baseball judging by the store Emmett set in the idea of home runs earlier in the day, but she didn't have long to dwell on that before Carlisle snatched up the ball and raced at Jasper when he approached first base, crashing into him with an almighty boom.
"Carlisle!" She exclaimed hollowly, freezing in shock despite the warning she'd had from Jasper about hard tackles, noting Bella's more physical reaction as she jumped up beside her.
"Safe," Esme called in a calm voice, and Carys thought she was smirking at their reactions.
Perhaps it had something to do with the wink Carlisle spared her as he hopped up.
"Is it just me," Carys asked Esme coyly under her breath, far too quietly for Bella to hear even though she knelt beside her, "or is Carlisle looking pretty damn good for his age...?"
Esme didn't take her eyes off the pitch, so it wasn't until Carys found herself tipped over a few seconds later that she knew she'd heard her.
"Are you alright?" Bella asked from beside her, completely clueless as to what had just happened judging by the look on her face.
"Yep," Carys assured, popping the 'p' as she tried to hide her smile. "All good, just lost my balance for a second. Enjoying yourself?" She added when Rosalie captured her attention, darting around the bases on Emmett's heel.
"Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it?"
"Pretty incredible, I me- BOOOOO!" Carys dropped her head, covering her head with her forearms as she made herself as small as possible following her reaction to Edward catching Rosalie out after they'd been so close to both sliding in to home. It was equally for her embarrassment as it was for the fact Edward took the opportunity to sprint across to Bella.
"What do you think?" He asked Bella, sending Carys a speaking glance just as she unveiled her face.
Carys shrugged and missed part of their conversation as she grinned across the pitch at Carlisle, trying to keep some of her less PG thoughts from her mind when he twirled his bat about.
She tuned back in just in time to hide her reaction when she heard Bella say: "-it would be nice if I could find just one thing you didn't do better than everyone else on the planet."
Bit strong, she thought to herself, not begrudging Bella her opinion so much as wondering exactly what Edward was supposed to do so much better than the others - he was only a little faster than Carlisle, after all - but she knew she didn't know as much about Edward as Bella must.
Edward's lips tipped up in a half-smile reminiscent of Jasper as he stared down at Bella.
"I'm up," he said quickly before he rushed off.
Carys had to admit he played exceptionally well, but as she clapped her hands over her ears to cover them from the reverberating boom when Carlisle knocked one out of the park, she could see Carlisle played better. It wasn't that the others weren't as good, but he seemed to encompass each one of their individual strengths - power, carefully planned plays, speed, and agility.
She caught his eye as he and Edward both made it home and high-fived Alice, and tugged at the neck of her tight-fitting baseball jersey, imitating being burned as she bit her lip.
Alice kicked him lightly in the stomach when he took a deliberate step towards the side of the field, and Carys ducked down again with a laugh.
After each team had played, they seemed to switch things up completely, and Carys lost all semblance of what was happening by the time Esme had called them to heel a few times when things got a bit rowdy, and Carlisle was back up to bat with Edward crouched behind him to catch.
She was just about to ask if the seeming lack of rules was normal for baseball, when Alice gasped - much like she had in the record shop all those months ago - and Carys stood up as she came to and shared a quick look with Edward, who immediately dashed across the field to Bella's side.
"What's going on?" Carys asked quietly, staring at Edward, who ignored her question in favour of sliding an arm around Bella's waist.
"Alice?" Esme asked as the others joined them, her voice strained.
Carlisle appeared and wrapped his arms around Carys' waist, standing rigid behind her.
"I didn't see - I couldn't tell," Alice whispered, clearly terrified of whatever she'd seen, her bright eyes huge.
Carlisle's arms tightened and locked as he pressed his chest to Carys' back, but he sounded calm and in command of the situation he asked, "What is it, Alice?"
Jasper leaned over Alice protectively as she began to speak, and she pressed a hand to his chest over her shoulder for support.
"They were travelling much quicker than I thought," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I can see I had the perspective wrong before."
"What changed?" Jasper asked her, leaning further as if he could tuck her away from the worried stares of the others.
"They heard us playing, and it changed her path," she fretted.
Carys shuddered even as she wanted to take a step forward and let Alice know that whatever she was talking about was going to be okay, but when the vampires surrounding them shot glances at Bella and then her in turn and Carlisle's arms tightened again, she realised she had no idea what they were talking about - but judging by their expressions, it was far worse than she imagined.
"How soon?" Carlisle asked over her shoulder, sharing a look with Edward who appeared to focus his mind on something.
"What's going on?" Carys repeated in a thready whisper as her hands came up to rest upon Carlisle's forearms.
"Less than five minutes," Edward informed him quickly, scowling as Carys' question was ignored yet again. "They're running - they want to play."
"Can we make it?" Carlisle asked calmly, glancing at Bella as he gripped Carys' waist so hard she winced.
"No, not carrying-" Edward broke off as he flicked Carys a look. "Besides, the last thing we need is for them to catch the scent and start hunting."
"How many?" Emmett asked Alice as Carys' mind finally pieced together the parts of their conversation.
"Three," she replied anxiously.
A pit formed in Carys' stomach as her breath hitched and her ears began to buzz. Vampires? Were they talking about vampires?
She tried to concentrate on Carlisle's hands as they flexed and he eased his unyielding grip from her waist just when she thought she might need it most. Her hands gripped his and she tugged them back into place.
"Let's just continue the game," he told them all, a little too calm and cool for Carys' liking if she was right about what was happening. He squeezed her hip. "Alice said they were simply curious."
Simply curious? she thought in horror, Simply curious!?
If they were as harmless as Carlisle was trying to make them sound, why were they so worried? Why was it so difficult for Carlisle to release her? Why was Edward deciding he would switch places with Esme and placing himself in front of her and Bella as Carlisle moved to stand less than a hundred meters away, in a fielding position none of them had occupied before? Why were they all scanning the forest as if waiting for a threat to materialise?
Esme and Alice followed Carlisle's lead and seemed just as wary to move too far.
"Take your hair down," Edward told them, refusing to take his eyes off Bella, though he turned his head a little to include Carys in the command.
Carys' movements were a lot less smooth than Bella's, her hands trembling as she had to try twice to rip her scrunchie from her hair. She winced as her hair pulled, but the small pain seemed to snap her mind back - seemed to focus her enough that the buzzing cleared as she sank slowly to her knees again.
She wasn't in control enough to hide her fear until Edward caught her attention with a pained look and she dropped her head, covered herself with her long hair, and tried to focus on her breathing.
In. Out. In. Out. It's fine. Carlisle says it's fine. In. Out. In. Out. Slow. Carlisle says it's fine, she chanted, over and over, trying to make her mental voice as quiet as possible so as not to disturb Edward too much.
"The others are coming now," Bella said softly.
Carys raised her head just enough to stare at her as she gritted her teeth, tried to stop herself from dwelling on the thought that it was damn near the most obvious thing she could have said at that moment.
"Yes," Edward agreed softly, far more worried than Carlisle appeared when Carys caught his eye, setting her back a few chants before he continued. "Stay very still, keep quiet, and don't move from my side, please."
"That won't help," Alice told him quietly as she spared Bella a glance, "I could smell Bella from across the field."
They're just being cautious, Carys added to her quiet chant. Carlisle says it's fine. In. Out. In. Out.
"I know," Edward growled to his sister. Glancing at Bella as she whispered something to him, he added, "Whether they were thirsty."
He met Carys' eye as she gasped, her already round eyes widening further.
"It's okay," he told her, failing to sound assured, "they're not."
But they are vampires? They're dangerous? Do you know them? she whispered in her mind.
"Yes... Potentially...," he added unhappily as if she'd pulled the pronouncement from him by force, "and no..."
She found it difficult to concentrate on the mockery of the game the rest of the family appeared intent on continuing, save for thinking they weren't kidding anyone with the change in enthusiasm and force of play when Carlisle barely tapped the ball and stopped immediately he reached first base, standing closer to where she knelt.
If they were trying to appear as if they had nothing to hide - or, were doing it for her and Bella's benefit, they were failing miserably - and not simply because Carlisle only lasted about five seconds at the longest before he turned his head towards her and tried to give her a reassuring smile. It was less and less convincing every time.
Still, it gave her something to concentrate on other than the way Edward scanned the forest and muttered angry apologies to Bella beside her.
Hearing the words "stupid, irresponsible," and "so sorry" in a single sentence wasn't really helping set anyone's mind at ease, she thought to herself.
And then he froze.
Stood and angled himself in front of them, less than half a step away, holding his arms behind him to shield Carys as much as Bella.
Carys saw Carlisle and the others turn to follow his gaze across to the trees.
She slid her hand slowly across to Bella's, trying to make her movements as slow and careful as she could, and squeezed.
Bella squeezed back, just as hard.
Three figures made their way onto the field, one by one, spacing themselves out amongst the trees.
Carys' chant died in her mind.
She squeezed Bella's hand harder.
A/N: my twin sister took a rounders ball to the neck, and each of the injuries I mentioned did in fact happen to girls from PE class at school and our rounders team... And more... And nope, not even playing too competitively!
