SC: Wow, I haven't had this sitting on my computer forever… sorry guys. ^=^* It'll get better, I swear. Nothing more motivating than writing a chapter when I've got a paper due the next day. Also, I went back and edited chapter 4 a little bit. Nothing that'll change the story, but in case you wanna go check it out.

Disclaimer: Blah.

Chapter 5

Batter Up!

"Oh my god, why did we ever stop coming here?" Carson demanded. "I could've been doing this for a year."

Annie laughed. "Glad you enjoyed yourself, squirt. And thanks for helping us clean up." She added after a moment. "We usually end up spending another hour or two doing this."

Zach grimaced. "Every night? Dude, that must suck."

"Not every night. Usually just at the end of the week." Nari corrects. "But opening week is always a real mess."

"Not to mention that Ed totally ditched us." Annie muttered.

Alexa leant against the handle of her broom. "Yeah… where is Ed?"

"I don't know- as soon as we closed, he ran off. Just told me he had to deal with something. He didn't even put his guitar up." Annie shrugged. "Well, whatever. We're pretty much done, so you guys can head home. Me and Nari'll just make Ed clean up the rest."

"All right. We'll come back, probably several times, before we leave." Alexa said, hugging both girls.

"Looking forward to it." Annie said. "And if you see Ed out there, kick his ass back in here!"

"Gotcha." Alexa yelled over her shoulder. "Let's go home boys and girls. Shotgun!"
"Aw, man, come on Alexa!"

"No way am I sitting in back again."

"My boyfriend drives, I ride shotgun. Deal with it."

"Alexa, be nice or I'll banish you to the back seat."

"…you're no fun, Warren."

"You guys having fun last night?" Aria asked her eldest daughter the next morning.

"Mostly." Alexa answered.

"Mostly? What happened?"

Alexa shook her head. "Don't wanna talk about it. I just want to go lay in the pool for the next twelve or so hours and see if I can get a sunburn."

"Oh, there'll be no lazing about today, kiddo." Troy chuckled as he walked in, pulling a baseball cap on. "We're having the family softball game today."

Alexa groaned. "You guys couldn't have at least gotten rid of that while I was gone?"

"Not a chance, Alexa." Peter laughed, coming in behind his dad. "That's the best part of this. And think of all the family bonding you get to do."

"Woo. You guys get to kick the kids' team's ass at softball." Alexa muttered, waving an invisible flag.

Troy clapped a hand on her back, and Alexa felt a slight static shock. "Cheer up, Lexi. You can get your friends to play."

The slow, Cheshire-like grin spreading across Alexa's face should've been their warning. "Yeah, all right."

"Softball?" Magenta asked dubiously.

"Yeah, it's another family tradition I wish they would've gotten rid of." Alexa explained. "C'mon, please? Otherwise it'll just be me, Carson, and the twins versus the rest of the family."

"That's a little unfair."

"Well, normally we get to have some help, but since you guys are here…"

Will groaned half-heartedly. "That's not fair, you can't guilt trip us!"

"Watch me. I'll get Lily in here and have her do the puppy-dog eyes. No one can resist."

"We'll play, we'll play." Warren said, holding his hands up in defeat. "So, any rules? No powers?"

"We-ell… technically, yeah, but that usually goes out the window by the fourth or fifth inning." Alexa said. "Only real solid one is you can't get more than four feet off the ground, to keep us fliers from just popping up and catching every ball. That's taken off when someone when super strength comes up to bat though." She shrugged. "Otherwise, it's just regular rules."

There was the sound of laughter and footsteps coming down the hall. "Let's go play some ball, boys and girls!"

Alexa glanced toward the door, then back at her friends. "Also, my uncles can get a little competitive."

"Captains, come flip a coin." Troy yelled, standing on the pitcher's mound. Alexa and Peter walked out to the middle of the field. "Lexi, call it."

"Heads, up to bat." She said, crossing her arms. Troy flipped the coin, smacking it down on the back of his hand.

"Heads it is. Kids, up to bat!"

"Old farts, to the outfield!" Alexa called, ducking underneath Troy and Peter's arms as she ran back to home base.

"You're gonna get hurt." Warren admonished, tugging the blonde's ponytail.

"Shut up and take the bat." She ordered, shoving it against his chest.

Warren raised an eyebrow. "Captain's not going first?"

Alexa grinned. "I wanna see if you can play. Now shoo." Warren rolled his eyes, stepping up the plate. Troy wound up, throwing the ball with enough force to rival a few professional pitchers. His jaw dropped at the satisfying 'crack' as Warren swung the bat and sent the ball flying.

"Well, damn." Alexa grinned as Warren sprinted past first base and over to second before Elliot tossed the ball back to Aria. Snowsong tossed the ball back to Troy, then smiled over at her daughter's boyfriend.

"You're going to fit in just fine." She said, patting him on the shoulder. Warren took this as a compliment and turned back to watch as Alexa stepped up to bat. Then he realized that he'd gotten off lucky- the moment the bat was in Alexa's hands, the taunting started.

"Holy crap."

"Yeah, she told you the boys were competitive, didn't she?"

Alexa's first hit went foul, right toward Peter's head. "She's got really good aim." Warren noted.

Aria nodded. "Well, at least she aimed for the visible one this time." She muttered.

Alexa's second swing knocked the ball into the outfield, and she made it to first.

Eight innings later, the two teams were tied. Robert, who played as the game medic, was busy looking at Magenta's hand after she'd caught a hot fly ball- and that's in the literal sense. "Maj, I am so sorry. Seriously, I mean…"

"Warren, stop it. Apologies are not your thing." Magenta laughed. "Look it's fine. I think you did the irreparable damage to my glove." She said, holding it up to reveal the smoking hole in the palm.

"Guess you got a lotta practice lobbing those fireballs at me freshman year." Will observed from over his shoulder. Warren dug his elbow into his stomach- having no effect, as Will went off laughing.

"All right, you're good. No more flaming fastballs, Warren."

"Don't worry about it." Alexa said, coming up and smiling up at her boyfriend. "Cuz I'm pitching the next out." She said, holding up a slightly less crispy ball.

"And now I'm worried." Magenta said, grabbing her destroyed glove.

"Shush, you." Alexa ordered, walking back out to the pitcher's mound.

"Easy hit." Peter taunted from home base.

Alexa let out a dry bark of laughter. "Please- you are gonna be my last out." She told him cockily, winding up to throw the ball. The sound of a car pulling up the dirt driveway distracted the group.

"Hey, Amanda's back." Louis said, recognizing the car as the one his older cousin had taken from the garage earlier that morning.

"About time, she's been gone all day." Eileen said, standing and brushing grass off of her legs as she moved to walk over to the car.

"Who's that in the car with her?" Daniel asked, running up next to his aunt. His eyes widened as the passenger stepped out of the car. "Oh my god."

The ball dropped out of Alexa's hand.

"What the hell is wrong with that girl?" Troy demanded, running over from third base.

Will shielded his eyes with a hand. "Is that… isn't he the guy from…"

"Keith." Warren snarled.

"She really doesn't like Alexa." Layla gasped.

Carson looked over at her sister, her eyes widening as she saw blue flames licking up her sisters arms and shoulders. She ran over and put a cold hand on her sister's, smothering the flames. "Alexa, come on." She said, pulling her toward the house, and away from Amanda. "Come on, Alexa." Carson repeated insistently, pulling her sister off the field.

"Come on, let's go." Magenta said as the group of them ran after Carson and Alexa.

They came into the house only a moment after the two sisters, but were hit by a substantial wave of heat. Alexa was standing in the middle of the room, flames on high power, looking as though she was ready to tear her hair out. Carson was doing her best to keep the rest of the room from going up in smoke. "That bitch! What the hell does she think she's doing?"

"Trying to get under your skin?" Carson suggested. "That's the only reason she would bring Keith here."

"It could just be because she's a bitch." Magenta suggested. "Alexa, can you turn it down? It's already ninety eight outside." With a sheer exertion of will, Alexa managed to tone down the flames to a smolder.

The door opened again, and Aria came inside. "Well, the living room isn't on fire yet, so that's a good sign."

"No, that's Carson." Zach said, nodding to the tired looking cryokinetic.

Aria squeezed her youngest daughter's shoulder before turning to her eldest. "Keith is going to be leaving in a few days. He has a round trip train ticket."

"A few days isn't soon enough." Alexa snapped, the flames rising. Warren put a hand on her shoulder, and Alexa looked back at him with a guilty expression before extinguishing the angry flames.

"I'm going to my room." She muttered, taking Warren's hand off her shoulder and running upstairs.

Aria grabbed Warren's sleeve as he moved to follow her. "Just give her some time." She said, patting his shoulder before heading back outside.

Warren Peace liked to think he was a good boyfriend- at least, that's what his friends and girlfriend told him. However, apparently forty-five minutes of patience was all his 'good boyfriend' side had, so he headed upstairs and knocked on the door of the girls' room. "It's open."

"Hey." He greeted, stepping in and pushing the door shut behind him.

"Hey." Alexa said, smiling and sitting up. "What took you so long?" Warren guess that it was supposed to be funny, but it came out sounding almost sad.

"Sorry." He said, sitting down on the bed next to her. "You okay?"

"I… I don't know, Warren." She confessed. "I mean, I thought I was over it. I really did. But then… I don't know. When I saw him there, with Amanda, it was freshman year all over again. Felt like my heart was getting torn out of my chest. Except I don't want to feel like that, because I've got you, and I'm happy."

Warren put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her up against his side. "Hey, that's normal after what happened between you and him." He paused. "You know I'm here for you, right?"

"Mm-hmm, and I appreciate that more than you know." She said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "You're an awesome boyfriend, you know that?"

Warren grinned and kissed her forehead. "Thanks. You do also know that I would be more than happy to make Keith's little accident freshman year look like a minor injury if you asked, right?"

Alexa laughed. "As much as I love when you get violently overprotective, he wasn't actually hurt when I blew up his experiment. Just got really messy."

"Your self-restraint is amazing then."

"Thank you. But Keith… he just isn't worth it. I'll be fine, I'll just avoid him and Amanda like the plague."

Warren smiled and gave her a quick squeeze. "That's my girl. Now, come on. Magenta and Layla have decided we're going to the mall to do some stress relief shopping."

"Ooh, mall crawling. Just like home." Alexa laughed. "C'mon, you've got the license." She said, standing and pulling him after her.

"Is that all I'm good for?" He asked, only half-serious.

"Yep." She giggled, pulling him over and putting her arm around his waist and putting his around her shoulders. Warren rolled his eyes and shook her a little, trying to knock her off balance as they went down the stairs.

"So… you like when I get violently protective?"

Alexa grinned. "Yeah. It's kinda hot."

Warren smirked down at her. "Good to know."

"I like it better when you stay out of detention, though. Keep that in mind please." She said, rolling her eyes.

While it wasn't quite the big city mall they were used to, it certainly was big enough to send them in three different directions. While Magenta and Layla kidnapped Alexa and took her shopping, the boys headed to the nearest video game store to browse the new releases. Eventually, Warren got tired of Will and Zach's 'PC/Console' feud, waved goodbye to Ethan, and headed out to find the book store they'd passed on their way to GameStop.

He quickly found the section he was looking for, and started browsing the books there. He ignored the presence of another person behind him, until he spoke. "You're Warren, right?"

Warren stood slowly and turned around, his eyes narrowing into a glare as he realized who was asking. Sun-bleached blonde hair framed a tanned face, falling down the speaker's back in a short ponytail. "We haven't been properly introduced." He continued, a small hint of southern twang accenting his words. "I'm Keith. I think we should talk."

SC: That boy is very brave… or very stupid. I haven't decided which yet. But, after months of inactivity, I have risen from the depths of Writer's Block Hell!

…and no, I am not a zombie, so your brains are safe. Reviews are much appreciated, the next chapter is already being planned out as I'm typing this, so there won't be nearly a year in between this time. I hope.

Ja ne
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