Chapter 19
Quarter to 10 o'clock the next morning the Booth's sit on the bleachers over looking the softball field.
"What's her number?" Bones asked Parker.
"00, she is the catcher Tempe, you can't loose her in the field!" Parker laughed.
The Taylor High Lady Penguins, all decked out in their purple uniforms, were warming up, Coach Roth was hitting fly balls to the outfield, while they all threw the balls back into Aderyn. She already had on her shin guards, and she easily caught the balls that were being thrown back to her, flipping a ball to the coach when he needed another one, all the while still talking to him with no break in the conversation.
When it was time to warm up the pitcher before the game started, Aderyn walked into the dugout and a minute later walked back out with her chest protector and facemask. She squatted behind the plate, Lauren Ollier, the starting pitcher, wound up and threw the ball, when Aderyn caught it there was a audible 'pop' from her glove. She rolled forward onto her knees and tossed the ball back to Lauren.
Booths eyes went wide, Aderyn rocked back onto her feet ready for the next pitch, she did the same for the next three pitches, all of them 'popped' in her glove. Then she shouted, "BALLS IN, COMIN' DOWN!" The pitch was in the dirt; Aderyn shifted and dropped to her knees seamlessly, and moved her glove in between her legs to block the ball. She scooped it up off the ground and made a perfect throw to second, from her knees.
"You weren't kidding were you? That throw was right to the second baseman's glove!" Booth said not taking his eyes off Aderyn.
Trey, Brett, Ema, and Becca all sat down next to Parker, in front of Booth and Bones. Ema had her camera with her and was ready to take a bunch of pictures.
The other teams lead off hitter got a base hit, and on the next pitch tried to steal second. The first baseman called out, "She's going!" Aderyn caught the strike that Lauren had just thrown and had the ball to second before the runner was within ten steps of the bag. The umpire had run out from behind her and growled, "OUT!" The girl walked back to her dugout with her head down.
The next batter flied out to the center fielder, "TWO DOWN!" Aderyn yelled from her position behind the plate. "Let's get this one and go get some runs!" Lauren struck out the last girl to the plate, and Aderyn rolled the ball toward the rubber, she pulled off her mask as she was running toward the dugout.
"Lead off is Moore, Herbert, Smith, Sanders! Let's go girls!" The other teams pitcher walked the lead off hitter, Skyler Moore and then Megan Herbert singled out to the first baseman. Andi Smith hit it between the third baseman and the shortstop for a single moving Skyler to second. Aderyn stepped up to the plate, the first pitch was wild and the catcher could not stop it, Skyler and Andi advanced to third and second, putting them both in scoring position. The next pitch was perfect, Aderyn stroked the ball into deep left, hitting the fence, Aderyn had already rounded first and was half way to second when the left fielder got to the ball, Aderyn was half way to third by the time the ball hit the cut off. She slid into third, after Sklyer and Andi scored. The crowd was on their feet, Aderyn stood up and dusted herself off, and she had a huge smile on her face.
The Lady Penguins were up 6-2 and they were in the top of the 5th inning, and the first six pitches that Lauren threw were in the dirt. Aderyn looked behind her, "Can I get a time out Blue?"
"TIME," The umpire growled out and Aderyn jogged up to Lauren and took her mask off. She was gesturing with her hand, and then to her glove, she patted Lauren on the back and then ran back behind the plate, as she pulled her mask back on.
"Bring it right here, Lauren, right here!" She yelled, a little muffled because of her mask. Lauren struck out the next two girls, looking, the next girl up to the plate hit the ball to deep right field. Aderyn threw her mask off and kicked it away. The ball hit the relay as the girl that was on first rounded third. "BRING IT HOME!" Aderyn and a few others called out. Aderyn placed her self in the third baseline in front of the plate, the girl that was running toward her was huge, 5'11, around 190 pounds, compared to Aderyns 5'6, and 140 pounds. Aderyn caught the ball and turned to stop her, the girl plowed into Aderyn, and she reached out and tagged her with her glove before she was knocked to the ground. "OUT!"
When Aderyn was run over by the elephant and was knocked down her ankle got tweaked. She stood up and stumbled, favoring her left foot, Lauren ran up to her and grabbed her arm. "Can you walk?" she asked.
"Um, not really, it is more of a stumble at the moment." Lauren helped her to the dugout, a few minutes later Aderyn limped out of the dugout, to the concession stand to get some ice for her ankle. She kept watching the game as she made her way to get ice. Occasionally she would yell out to her teammate who was at the plate. When the inning was over Aderyn was still not ready to go back out on the field, so the back up catcher, Maria Murray went in for her. Aderyn had stopped icing her ankle and was walking back and forth in the dugout, trying to get her ankle to feel better, so she could be put back in the game for the last inning. She walked out to talk to Parker, Booth and Bones. "Hey Parker, you don't happen to have your ace bandage do you?"
"No, I was thinking about that, it is in my bag at my house." Parker said, groaning as Murray made a bad play.
Trey looked up from the game, "I have my bag in my car, and I have an ace bandage in my bag if you want it." He said casually.
"Please!" Aderyn said. Trey smiled then jumped off the bleachers and ran to his car. He came back and handed her the bandage.
"Do you need help wrapping your ankle?" Bones asked
"If you don't mind, Coach Roth kind of sucks at it." Bones stood up and walked in front of her as she sat down.
"Yeah, Coach Roth wrapped my ankle once, and I lost feeling in my toes, but the wrap slid off my ankle." Brett said, he grumbled as Murray made another bad play.
"How does that feel?" Bones asked Aderyn after she wrapped up her ankle.
"Perfect. Thank you!" She got up and jogged back to the dugout, testing her ankle.
At the bottom of the inning, the other team had scored four runs, to tie with the Penguins. When Lauren walked back into the dugout she sat next to Aderyn, who was flexing her ankle, "You feeling better? Murray is killing us out there!"
"I could barely watch, I hate to think of what will happen to you guys next year."
"Yeah, unfortunately I had to watch, as she dropped a third strike, over threw second, and as she missed the throw from Skyler for the out at the plate. You up for catching next inning?"
"I think so," Aderyn stood up and then crouched down into her stance.
Coach Roth walked up to Aderyn and leaned in close to her, "Please tell me that you feel up to playing."
Aderyn smiled up at him, "You bet Coach! I shouldn't hit before I pay though… I am not sure how running would be on my ankle right now."
"You may not even get up to bat, so we won't worry about that just yet."
Aderyn did not have to bat before she went out in the field, but she would be batting fourth in the next inning. She had on her knee guards and was flexing her ankle when the inning was over. She pulled her chest protector over her head and grabbed her mask and her glove and jogged out on the field. "We've got to hold them ladies! 1,2,3!" Aderyn called out.
Aderyn squatted behind the plate, and hung her head a little, then pulled her head up ready for the pitch. Lauren walked the first girl up to bat, and then the second, Coach Roth pulled Lauren out of the game and put in the reserve pitcher, Kendra Brown. All of Kendras' warm up pitches were strikes. Kendra then struck out the next girl up at the plate. When Aderyn caught the third strike the girl on second took off for third for the steal. Aderyn flipped the ball out of her glove as she turned to third, then caught the ball in her right hand and fzipped it to the third baseman, Skyler. Skyler caught the ball and swiped her glove to the base, to block the runner, and make the out.
"One down ladies! Two more then we can go win this game!" Kendra called out then took her place on the rubber. The next girl up was the girl that ran Aderyn over; she smirked at Aderyn then took her place by the plate. She swung at the first pitch, and missed, giving Aderyn the turn to smirk at the girl. On the next pitch the girl popped it up behind the plate, Aderyn swiped her mask off and flung it to the side and looked up to find the ball, she spotted it and yelled "MINE, I GOT IT!" She reached up and caught the ball, making the second out of the inning.
Aderyn looked at the girl, shrugged then said to her, "Better luck next time." She tossed the ball back to Kendra, and then went to get her mask. She looked up at Parker and yelled to him, "Could you get me some ice for when I am back in the dugout?" Parker nodded then jumped up to get her some ice form the concession stand. The next girl up flied out to Andi in left field, bringing the top of the inning to a close, and the Lady Penguins one more chance to win the game, and not have a tie.
The girls ran off the field and into the dugout, Parker was waiting for Aderyn with her ice. "Thank you so much!" Aderyn said grabbing the ice from him. "I have three batters in front of me so hopefully that will be enough time to ice my ankle some."
"No problem, good luck, you'll do great, I know it." Parker kissed her on the cheek and then walked back to the bleachers. Aderyn went into the dugout and put her ankle up and put the ice on it. Trying to get her ankle to stop hurting so much. Skyler hit a single and got on first, Megan was a sacrifice bunt, but when the other team fielded the ball they went to throw Skyler out, and over threw the second baseman, not making an out at all. They walked Andi, so the bases were loaded when Aderyn came to the plate. Coach Roth gave her the sign to swing away, Aderyn smiled and nodded. She stepped back into the batters box, the first pitch was a ball. She got a swing away sign again, this time she fouled it out, the next pitch was perfect, right down the middle, Aderyn leaded back and swung her bat, drilling the ball to the fence, very close to where she hit it before, only this time she stopped at first because of her ankle, but the other three were able to score. They had just won their game 9-6, they lined up to shake hands with the other team and when Aderyn got to the girl that ran her over, she dropped her hand, so that she would not touch Aderyn. Aderyn just smirked and shook her head.
Booth, Bones, Parker, Trey, Brett, Ema and Becca were all waiting for Aderyn when she limped out of the dugout with her bag over her shoulder. Parker noticed that the bag looked really heavy, so he grabbed it from her.
"I can carry it!" She said making a grab for the bag.
"Your ankle is hurting you, let me." He said firmly.
She grumbled, and Parker thought he herd her say "I'm fine, you crazy…"
But what he was he didn't hear because at that point Bones said, "How about we all go out and get lunch? Mt treat."
Everyone looked around nodding, Trey said, "I'm in!"
"Where does everyone want to go?" Booth asked the group.
"I am really craving some coconut shrimp from Red Lobster, Seeley! Please let's go to Red Lobster!" Bones said in an almost whine.
"I think that sounds amazing!" Parker said.
"Okay, can anyone here drive a stick? Because I don't think that I can drive right now, my right ankle being sprained and all." She asked the group.
Parker, Trey and Brett were all staring at her, eyes wide.
"What?" She looked at them all. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Booth chimed in, "You can drive a stick." He said it as a statement not a question.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Well you see teen-aged boys think that it is something that is very attractive for a girl to be able to do." Booth told her.
"Trey has been trying to get me to let him teach me how to drive his car for a while now." Becca said.
"So, Trey, you could drive my car for me?" She asked looking at him.
"No, I have my car here, and as Becca just said she never learned to drive it."
"I can do it, I am just really surprised that you can drive a stick!" Parker said, "Me and you in your car then?"
"Yeah I guess," she said, by the look on her face she was still trying to figure out what the big deal was.
"We'll follow you dad." Parker called out while he put Aderyn's bag in her trunk. He then got in on the drivers side. "How is your ankle doing?"
"Hurts, hopefully it won't make me sit out the next game."
"So you really know how to drive a stick?!" Parker asked incredulously.
"Nope, I push my car to school every day. Of course I can drive a stick, you are driving me car right now!" She said sarcastically. "Maybe you are not as smart as everyone thinks you are." She added, softly almost to herself.
"It is just that most girls think that it is really hard to do." Aderyn narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to say something, but Parker cut her off before she could start, "I know, I know, you are not 'most girls', which is something that I really love about you."
Aderyn's eyes got really big, but just then her phone started ringing, playing "When everything is wrong I come talk to you, who makes things all right when I'm feelin' blue. You are such a blessing, and I won't be messing, with the one thing that brings light, to all my darkness. You're my best friend, and I love you, and I love you , yes I do." Aderyn answers the phone, "Ryan, my love! How are you doing?... I haven't talked to you in forever!... No I am busy tonight, not to mention that I got ran over by a train in my game today, and I sprained my ankle… next Saturday? Hold on a sec." She turned to Parker, "Parker, How long do you think it will take with Tempe next Saturday?"
"Um, well knowing Ange, you guys won't stop until you have everything, she thinks, that you need."
"So forever?" She laughed.
"That is good possibility." Parker Laughed too.
She went back to her phone conversation, "Ryan? I don't think next Saturday is going to work out…Parker?... Parker is," She took a small breath, "my boyfriend…yes, yes now shut up… No… No… No… fine I will ask him…" She turned to Parker again, she closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them, to see Parker smirking at her. "Stop it, you are both enjoying my pain to much." She took another small breath. "Okay Parker, do you want to go with me when I hang out with Ryan, and all them the next time I can find a free night?" She said it very fast.
"Who is Ryan?"
"One of my best friends."
"One?"
"You have two best friends, I just happen to have four!"
"Ha ha ha, I would love to go with you."
"Okay, so the next free night that we can find… No, Ryan, I have plans tonight… That is not what I am doing tonight…" Parker could tell by her voice that whatever Ryan had guess was right on the mark. "Okay so maybe I am going to stay at home a read! I am allowed to do that you know, you are not my daddy!... What am I reading? Ummm,…" She looked over at Parker and made a funny face, "No, it is not a book that I have read before!" She mouthed to Parker 'Give me a book, any book!'
Parker laughed, but before he had tome to think of one Aderyn had. "OH! Nicholas Sparks new book!... What it's called… Umm, Lucky something… It is about this guy who finds this picture of a woman, and that picture becomes his good luck charm or something… That is too a book!...No…what about Josh?... I wouldn't even be able to get to the Werner's basement, I have a sprained ankle right now and cannot scale a mountain to get there, which is what you need to do to get to the Werner's basement!...FINE! I will ask him!" Aderyn turn to Parker yet again. "Parker are you busy tonight?"
"Nope."
"Would you want to go down to Meetze with me this afternoon to hang out with Ryan?"
"Sure, I'll have to ask, because it is a school night and all that."
Aderyn went back to her conversation with Ryan, "Okay, but if Parker's parents or my foster parents say no, then it will have to wait…" In the time that it took Aderyn to have this conversation they were at Red Lobster. "Hey Ryan, we are about to have lunch, so I will call you when I know if we are coming up… I don't know about that… that's part of it yeah!... Okay, well I need to get off of here…. Yeah, we won, but it was a close game, because I got hurt and we had to put my horrible back up catcher in… Okay, love you buddy! Bye!" Aderyn hung the phone up, "Sorry about that. I have been playing phone tag with him for a really long time, and the last three times that we were going to get together the plans have fell through. I haven't seen him since Christmas Break."
"It's fine, I could tell by the way your face lit up when you were talking to him showed me how much he means to you." Parker smiled and wrapped his arm around her waist as they were walking into the restaurant, Parker supporting most of her weight.
"Yeah, he has been there through it all for me, and he still treats me the same as he always has. So do Kyle, Nick and Emily, they are some of the best people that I know."
"Kyle, Nick and Emily are your other best friends?"
"Yep! They are all amazing!"
"So… Why didn't you want me to meet Ryan?"
"Because most people, guys especially, don't understand that we are just friends. Ryan is like my big brother, and the last guy that I took to meet him tried to punch him because he gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye, like he always does."
"So… you were worried that I would want to fight him?"
"Not really, it is more of the fact that I really like you, and I don't want to mess this up, and Ryan is a very… different kind of person, and he tends to be very abrupt." She is talking very fast, "He has a really strong personality and he just doesn't really think before he says what's on his mind. Sometimes he offends people-"
Parker interrupted her, "Stop! I get it!" Parker laughed, and opened the door for her.
Booth was at the hostess stand, "We need a table for eight."
The woman standing there smiled, nodded and looked at her floor plan. "It will be about fifteen minutes, what's the name?"
"Booth."
"Okay, we will call you when your table is ready."
"Hey dad, on the way over here, Aderyn got a call from one of her friends from back home wanting her to come hang out, and she would like me to go with her. Can I?"
"Where are you from Aderyn?"
"Meetze, it is just south of Warrenton, about an hour from here."
"Yeah that's fine. When would you be leaving?"
"Probably right after I take a shower and change." Booth nodded his head. "I am going to call my foster parents." Aderyn hobbled outside.
"So why is Aderyn in foster care, we never got to ask you?" Booth asked.
"Her mom died of cancer and her father is in jail, for something that his business partner did, you know the guilty by association thing."
"That sucks."
"Yeah, she said that he might be paroled in a few weeks though."
"When does she turn 18?" Bones asked.
"Next month sometime, what will happen to her once she is 18?" Parker asked starting to get a little nervous.
"Most likely she will stay with her foster parents, she can until she is 21, as long as she is in school and has a plan to support herself."
Parker is quiet for a while, thinking about all that, when their table is called, "I'll go get Aderyn."
Parker walked outside and saw Aderyn sitting on a bench, with her back to him, talking on the phone. "Ryan, I really do not want to talk about it okay? I just don't want him there…," She said angrily, "I don't care if he wants to see me, if he is going to be there, I am not!... I bet Nick or Emily would be okay with a visit, I haven't seen either of them for a while… I am not trying to give you ultimatums, but if Josh is there I am not. Period… ,"Aderyn sighed, "Thanks Ryan… It is 12:30 now, so I am guessing that we will leave here at about 2:30 or 3… Yeah, I am sorry, my ankle is killing me, and I really do not want to see him, okay?... Thanks, I love you… See you later today." She hung her head.
Parker took a step toward her, and sat next to her on the bench, "Hey Aderyn, you okay?"
"Yeah, my ankle hurts a lot." She paused, and looked up at his face, "But you weren't asking about that were you?"
Parker shook his head, "I was not trying to eavesdrop, I just didn't want to interrupt you."
"I know, can we talk about this later, I don't really want to do this, and then get lunch with your parents?"
"Yeah, that's fine." He puts his arm around her, pulls her close and kisses her temple. "They called our table, so let's eat hun?" She says with a smile.
"Yeah I am pretty hungry." They stand up, but Aderyn almost falls down, Parker catches her.
"You okay? I am asking about your ankle now."
"Yeah, it just hurts."
"Okay, Tempe will have something for you," He pulls her up, again supporting most of her weight, and they walk into the restaurant for lunch.