Several hours later, Carly was sitting in the dugout at her softball game, just hoping that she wouldn't get called to bat very much. The worst was when she had to be in the outfield, or at first base, when she had to worry about catching the ball. She hated the pressure of being relied on to catch a stupid ball. She didn't care about this stupid game. Her two friends had joined, and that's the only reason she had. When this season was over, Carly was definitely going to move on to something else.
Angela, one of the mean girls, was sitting just a few bottom-widths away from her on the bench, and Carly realized she was staring at her. She turned her head to see a rather amused look on her teammate's face.
"What?" Carly asked her.
"Oh nothing." She shrugged, obviously about to say something. "I was just admiring your pigtails."
Carly studied her for a few moments, sensing she was not being sincere about her comment. "Thanks." She said suspiciously.
"I mean, it's pretty gutsy that you'd come to a softball game with those things. Who are you, Pippi Longstocking?" She referenced the fictional character with red hair and pigtails that stuck out to the side.
The girl sitting next to her giggled loudly, making a futile attempt to mask it. "Yeah, it's not Halloween for, like, seven months."
Carly felt her face turn red with embarrassment, and anger that those girls just thought they could make fun of her. Why was she such an easy target? Did she just look like someone that would be easy to pick on? They didn't bother the other girls, only her! She closed her eyes and thought about what her therapist had told her to do when the girls started making fun of her.
"You know, I don't like it when you make fun of me." She told them, trying to hide the tremor in her voice.
The two girls stopped laughing and looked at her, wondering if she was actually serious. After a few moments, they burst out laughing once again. "Oh my God! Did you see the look on her face?" Angela said.
"I'd like you to stop." Carly said bravely, but the girls just continued to laugh at her. Some of the other kids were looking now too. Angela reached out and took hold of one of her pigtails, and began to jiggle it around. Finally, Carly snapped. She turned her little body to the side and gave Angela the hardest push she could muster up.
"Hey!" Angela protested. The coach had picked the exact wrong time to look at his team on the bench, and had witnessed Carly pushing her teammate. Since Carly was such a quiet kid, and he didn't know her very well, he assumed she was the one causing trouble, and rushed to judgment.
"Stokes!" He yelled at her. Carly cowered and felt her eyes well up with tears. "I'm not gonna have that on my team! You're out the rest of the game."
Carly had never been in trouble with anyone but her parents before, so she felt like the worst piece of scum on earth. Only really bad kids got kicked out of games. Her face reddened, and she heard Angela and the other girl laughing at her. She just wanted to go find her parents, but now she was afraid that she'd be in trouble with them too. Surely, they would side with the coach. They always sided with the adults.
Luckily for Carly, Nick had been watching the whole thing. He stood up from his place in the stands, and told Sara to load Nolan up in the car to go home. He worked his way over to the dugout and walked up to the gate.
"Carly, c'mere." He instructed her. Carly didn't know it was the coach he was upset with and not her, and immediately burst into tears. However, she stood up bravely and obediently, and slowly walked to where her father stood in the doorway.
"Excuse me, Coach Latimer." He called his name. The coach turned around to look at Nick. "I think you missed the fact that Angela and that other girl have been making fun of my daughter for the last five minutes. Carly pushed her in self-defense."
Coach Latimer just chewed his gum and studied the tall, square-jawed man. He then narrowed his eyes at the other two girls in question. "Girls?" He asked them, waiting for an explanation.
"Sorry, coach." They both mumbled.
He shook his head. "You can both sit out also. But Mr. Stokes, my decision still stands. I'm not gonna have pushing in my dugout. Carly's out."
"Then I'm pulling her off the team. You should find a better way to look out for some of the quieter girls on this team." Nick took his daughter's hand and squeezed it, letting her know he had her back. "Let's go, darlin'."
Carly sniffled as Nick started walking quite briskly towards the parking lot, not looking back. She was quite relieved that he seemed to be on her side, but still in the back of her mind worried she was in trouble. This had happened before – that he'd stuck up for her, but when they got home, found out she was still in a world of trouble. This time was different though. Those other girls were being really mean to her. Her father had been stressing to stand up for herself, but Carly knew that pushing wasn't the best way.
"Daddy, I'm sorry." Carly sobbed for good measure. She really was sorry, but it felt good to stick up for herself. Actually, she was quite proud of herself.
"I know you are, sweetie. We'll talk about it at home." Nick told her, his voice low, fighting to stay calm. He wasn't mad at Carly, of course, but at how the coach was handling the team. Carly was the sweetest girl you could ever meet, and she couldn't even enjoy being on a softball team because her coach wouldn't look out for her.
"Are you mad at me?" She sniffled worriedly.
Nick slowed down a little and let go of her hand, and put his arm around her shoulders instead. "Carly, I'm not mad at you." He assured her. "Pushing is not my favorite thing, but Angela was picking on you, which is not okay. We'll talk about more at home. We just need to leave."
Carly nodded and sniffled still all the way to the car. He opened the door for her wordlessly, and her mother turned around to check on her.
"Carly, are you okay, sweetie?" She reached out and patted her knee supportively.
"No, I got in trouble with the coach!" She started bawling again as Nick closed the door and walked over to the other side of the car.
"What happened?" Sara reserved her judgment, because Carly was not the type of kid who got in trouble with adults…at all.
Carly choked on her sobs as she tried to compose herself enough to explain. Nolan looked at her with a certain amount of awe. It was hard to look away when someone was so obviously upset about something. As a three year old, he almost had to just watch. "An…Angela was makin' fun of me and she grabbed my pigtail, so I pushed her, and the coach said I couldn't play!"
It wasn't so much that she couldn't play – she couldn't care less about that – it was the fact that an adult wasn't happy with her. To Carly, that was the worst thing in the world.
"Ohhhh, I'm sorry they were picking on you, Carly." Sara said soothingly, rubbing her daughter's leg. Nick got in the car and looked at his wife, obviously displeased. He put the keys in the ignition and pulled out immediately. Sara sighed and looked again at Carly. "We'll talk more at home, okay?"
Carly nodded and wiped at her wet face, trying to calm herself down more. Her mother didn't seem angry with her either. Nick and Sara began to share a hushed conversation in the front row about what had happened.
"Nick, you're not mad at her are you? She was getting picked on." Sara whispered, afraid he was angry with their daughter.
"No. It's the coach I'm pissed at. Carly's gettin' picked on and he does nothing about it. When she takes it into her own hands, she's the one that gets in trouble."
Sara reached over and rubbed his bicep, trying to calm him. It didn't seem right, but there was something appealing about Nick sticking up for his kid. It warmed her heart somehow, to see that Nick understood his daughter so well, and that she wouldn't push someone without a valid reason.
"It'll be okay. We can talk more later." She assured him softly as he sped a bit down the road.
"Yeah." Nick looked over at her for a moment and patted her hand on top of his arm. He then kissed it and took a deep breath, feeling a little calmer now.
Ten minutes later, they had parked in the driveway. Carly slid out of the car silently and meandered her way into the house, bummed by the way her afternoon was turning out. She felt her father's hand on her shoulder, and he gave it a light squeeze. He didn't do that when she was in trouble, so that was a good sign. Once they were all inside, Sara set up Nolan in the living room with a snack and some juice, and Nick took his youngest daughter up the stairs, pausing for a few moments to say hello to Riley in her bedroom. He led her to sit on her decidedly girl bed, and he was reminded again how out of her comfort zone she was in the first place playing softball. Nick knelt down in front of her to be closer to her eye level, placing his hands on either side of her.
"Do you still think you're in trouble?" He asked, noting how worried she looked, and how she was on the verge of tears. She nodded wordlessly and rubbed her eyes as she waited for him to continue.
"Well you're not, really." He assured her. "What those girls were doing was not fair, and it was downright mean. And I'm proud of you for sticking up for yourself."
"But I pushed her and you don't like it when we use violence." Carly pointed out, remembering every lecture he'd ever given her vividly.
"Yeah. And you probably shouldn't have done that." He acknowledged. "You could've gone up and told the coach, or tried to ignore her." Nick paused. "But I understand why you pushed her. I saw what she was doing to you, and I know that doesn't feel good."
"No it didn't." She whispered, looking down at her feet.
"Do you wanna play softball anymore, baby?" He posed. "And don't think about what your friends think, just you. Do you want to play softball?"
Carly paused and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I don't like it that much."
"No, you don't seem to." Nick admitted. She was far too big of a girly girl to play sports in his opinion. Of course, he would always support her in whatever she did, but he also wanted her to do things that made her happy, not her little friends. "It's okay to quit softball if you don't like it. It's not worth it if you're miserable. Sports are supposed to be fun."
Carly nodded but stared at her feet still, disappointed in herself. She'd begged her parents to let her join, because she knew they thought she couldn't do it. And they'd let her, and now she wanted to quit.
Nick gently raised her chin with his finger so she was looking at him. "Hey. You're my little girl. I'll be proud of you no matter what."
Carly's eyes welled up with tears, and she wasn't sure why. She'd had a heck of a weekend really, with all that had gone on when Riley was babysitting, and her bad experience at the game. Nick gently tugged her forward to give her a hug, and she threw her arms around his neck. Being in his arms always made her feel better. It was like magic every time. She cried freely for about a minute as Nick rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.
"You know you can always come talk to me, right? And you can tell me anything." Nick told her, hoping she would always be open with him. She nodded into his shoulder, and suddenly felt a bit of a pang of guilt. Carly always told him everything. She bet she should really tell him about what happened when Riley was babysitting.
Carly pulled back and wiped her eyes. Nick tucked some hair behind her ear, and noticed she looked like she wanted to say something, so he just waited. "What's up, baby?" He prompted her when she seemed to be having trouble.
"I…I haven't been very good this weekend." She admitted solemnly, but knew she would feel better once she'd spilled the beans to him. If she didn't, there would be that icky feeling in her stomach and her heart for a long time.
Nick wasn't sure what she meant, but listened intently. "Why's that, darlin'?"
She paused and looked a little afraid to continue. "You can tell me."
"When you went out with mommy to the movie, Nolan was annoying me, so I pushed him too, and we spilled stuff all over the carpet, but Riley picked it up."
Nick nodded in understanding, but really didn't think that was something worth getting all emotional and worked up over. Carly was overly emotional sometimes. "Well, thank you for telling me, sweetheart. You could've just told me."
"But I'm supposed to be nice to Nolan. I'm sorry." She apologized and continued without thinking. "Riley didn't tell cuz she promised not to if I kept her secret."
Nick's eyebrows furrowed. This sounded fishy. Carly realized she'd spoken a little too much, and began trying to backtrack. "Um, just kidding. I mean, Riley was just bein' nice and she said she wouldn't tell."
Nick fought back a smirk at what a bad liar she was. At least he could still tell with her, and apparently not Riley. Something was going on, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
"Carly." He began in not quite a warning tone, but one that let his daughter know he had caught in to her fib. "You need to tell me the truth. I get the feeling something went on I need to know about."
Carly swallowed and scratched a part of her arm, even though it wasn't itchy. She avoided his eyes again, and stumbled on her words. "R…Riley made me promise not to tell you."
Nick cleared his throat. Apparently, Riley was at it again, and not being too great of an influence on her younger sister. "Well, Riley shouldn't be asking you to keep secrets from me. I think you better tell me what happened."
"Do you promise you won't get mad at her?" She asked him.
Nick sighed at her request. "Well, if she did something that was dangerous, then no, I can't promise I won't get mad at her. If she did something wrong, she needs to face the consequences."
The young girl in question swallowed nervously again, hoping that Riley wouldn't find out she had tattled. She hadn't done it on purpose, though. Their father had made her tell, and Carly hoped that even Riley understood that lying to his face was not a good idea.
"Okay. But don't tell her I told." She started off. "When you were out, she called Cody on the phone, and she's gonna sneak out tonight."
Nick's eyebrows jumped up at the confession. Here he was, thinking Riley had grown up so much over the last month, and she was going behind his back once again for a cheap thrill. She'd forced her younger sister to lie for her, and she'd managed not to come clean to him even when he'd taken a week off her grounding, and let her take a break from chores that day. Obviously, he still had a ways to go with that daughter of his.
"Thank you for telling me, baby." He told Carly, always wanting her to tell him the truth. At least one of his daughters listened to him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go have a word with your older sister."