Chapter 7

He was finally finished running the ten laps coach had given him for being late to practice and Jason was pissed. He wasn't mad at his coach, no, he understood that Jeff Webber was trying to instill discipline and prove the point that he was the boss and what he said was law. Jason was pissed at himself.

For as long as Jason could remember he had taken pride in his work. He was good at what he did and most everyone around him knew it. He never flaunted his talent, but he always followed the rules his coaches had ever put in front of him. Being late to practice, though a simple mistake was not something Jason was happy about. The worst part about all this now was that he knew Coach Webber disliked him.

Since Jason had given up on school and pleasing his parents, he had relied on himself to succeed in what he chose to do. It wasn't like Jason was afraid to fail, he was just afraid to fail and have to go crawling back to his family. They were nothing to him now; they turned their back on him when he decided to make it on his own.

Jason trotted the whole way back to the locker room. He needed to be alone; he needed to blow off some steam. Slamming the door Jason slammed his fist into the closes locker swearing as he did so. That was when he heard a noise coming from further inside the locker room.

The only reason he had allowed himself to have his little outburst was because Jason believed he would be the only player left who hadn't left for lunch. Jason had tried over the years to discipline himself not to show emotion. He had just learned that when there were emotions involved it could only lead to trouble and heartache. So in the face of everyone Jason would become a statue and never show any form of having a heart. It was how he got the nickname "The Borg".

Jason walked further into the locker room to see just who it was that caught him at a weak point. He knew that if it were a player he could just shrug it off and make a joke of it. If it was one of his coaches he could apologize and make sure they knew he would be able to keep a cool head when he was on the mound. Jason knew that he could play this off for just about anyone, however, Jason didn't expect to find this particular person in the locker room and was shocked into silence in their presence.

There kneeling in front of Steven Webber's locker with her hands in his gym bag was a young girl. She appeared to be very young. She was a brunette with her hair done in braided pig tails. She looked up at him with expressive sapphire eyes that read of fear. Great now here was something else he could be mad at himself for, he had frightened a young child. Wait, what was she doing in the locker room with her hands in a player's belongings? Was she some kind of kleptomaniac, stealing form all the players? Or was she some crazed fan of Webber's trying to get some kind of trinket while no one was around?

"You know you're not supposed to be in here," Jason said as he finally found his voice.

The young woman pocketed whatever it was she took from Webber's bag, zipped it back, placed the bag back into its proper place and closed the locker. She stood then and Jason saw that she wasn't very tall and this only confirmed his earlier suspicions of this being too young of a girl to be in a baseball locker room. "I just needed to get something from Steven's bag." She told him in a very soft voice.

"Yeah? What's that?" he asked her as he stepped closer to her. He wasn't quite sure why he was invading her space. He guessed it was because he was sticking up for his teammate. If this young Swimfan teenage girl was trying to get one over on Steven he wasn't going to allow it.

When Jason had stepped closer to her she had stepped back and now she was pressed against the lockers. "I don't see how that's any of your business." She said to him, her voice becoming a bit louder then before. Even with her back literally against the wall Jason could tell this kid had a bit of a fire in her belly. If she were just a few years older and not jailbait he could actually see the two becoming friends, or more. But she was too young to even think those kinds of thoughts. She had to be what, 15 at best?

Jason was now standing in front of the girl, a mere two feet from her. "I don't think you should be taking things that don't belong to you, so whatever you took if you put it back now and I won't tell anyone you were even in here." He was trying to reason with the girl and get rid of her all at the same time.

She straightened herself up and moved a little closer to him, "I don't care if you tell anyone I was in here. I got what I needed, and besides Steven owes me this."

Jason moved even closer and got a little more in the girls face, "Look kid…."

"Who are you calling a kid?" she asked

"I don't care what your issues in life are, but you're not stealing anything today, so just put back anything you may have taken or I'm calling security in here."

That set a blaze to her eyes and Jason could see the fires burning. "Go ahead," she said as she narrowed her eyes at him. When Jason didn't make a move for the shock of being challenged, the girl just stepped around him.

He reached out and grabbed her elbow. "You're not leaving here until you put back whatever you stole." Jason was beginning to lose his patience with the teenage hellion.

"Let me go you big ape." She struggled to free herself from his grasp.

"Not till you put back whatever it is you took." Jason didn't know why he was fighting with this young kid. There was just something about her that he couldn't put his finger on.

That was when the third person in the locker room made themselves known by clearing their throat. "Morgan?" Luke Spencer questioned the pitcher. Jason let go of the girl.

"She was going through Steven's bag," he began to explain to one of his coaches. "I was trying to stop her from stealing whatever it is she took."

Luke looked at the girl with his eyebrows raised in question and gave her a chance to explain herself. "I only took what Steven said I could get. Trust me the last place I would want to be is here, but Steven wouldn't get it so I had to come find them."

"Find what?" Luke asked.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of car keys. "I was gonna take his truck to lunch with Zander." Luke shook his head in understanding. It was clear to Jason that Luke knew exactly who the young girl was and it was also becoming obvious that this girl was at least a few years older then he had first thought.

Yet Jason still couldn't help himself he had to get a jab in. "Are you even old enough to drive?" he spat at her.

This caused the fire to burn in her eyes again as she glared at him. "Shut up."

Luke just chuckled at their interaction. "She's fine Morgan, if she said Steven told her to get his keys than he probably did." Looking at the girl he continued to speak, "the next time he tells you to come into the locker room, don't. Now get out of here. I spied Zander outside of my office window talking to Sarah."

"Oh no!" the girl exclaimed as she ran out of the locker room to find whoever the Zander person was.

Luke then turned to Jason "I'm not sure what was going on before I got in here but you might want to do yourself a favor and stay away from her. I'm not one to go messing in anyone's personal life, but I am telling you that one's off limits." With that Luke turned on his heal and headed back to his office.

Jason threw his glove as hard as he could at his locker. What the hell was up with him? It was only the first day and already his head coach thought he was an arrogant player who didn't respect anyone, his pitching coach and childhood idol thought he was into jailbait, and that girl brought out some kind of fight in him.

Plopping down on the bench that was in front of his locker, Jason just placed his head in his hands and let out a loud sigh. He had a feeling this was going to be a very long season.