A/N: I'm sorry that I never update. Sometimes life just throws things at you and you don't have the time or the want to even brainstorm about your story. Unfortunately, life seems to hit me more than most authors. I hope you'll stick with me anyway, because you guys are amazing! I love reading your reviews! Keep it up!

Chapter 3: A Night in My Life

All too soon I had to get up off my bed and attempt some homework. Yep, homework on the first day. They gave us a family health history worksheet in Health and in English our teacher already assigned us a new book to read. I decided to read the book chapter first, since I got a lot of my traits from my dad, so I wouldn't be able to accurately complete my worksheet until he came home from work. I was pretty sure I was medically in trouble though, because my family was prone to cancer and type two diabetes. Lovely. At least I was healthier than most of my family. The chapter went by quickly, but when I glanced at my phone I noticed it was already almost four. I had gotten home at 2:45, so that meant a spent a lot more time sitting around than I thought. My dad would be speeding in the door at 4:20, expecting me to be ready for softball practice. I changed into shorts and a t-shirt, then dug under my bed for my ankle brace and my cleats. Once those were on I went downstairs to fill up two big water bottles for me and my dad. He was also the coach of my team.

Right on time he rushed in the door, quickly going upstairs to change into his shorts. Once he came back down to check the messages on our answering machine, I went upstairs to my parents room to get a hair tie. I swiftly grabbed a green one and tucked it into my pocket before my mom could notice and then grabbed a black one and made sure she saw me checking it out. I was positive she would never notice the missing one. I put the black one in my school bag and put my hair up with the green one. My dad and I walked out the door, Lily in tow. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't even noticed that she was home. She was already talking a mile a minute about her day at school. I slid in the passenger seat of our mini van, and she slid into the back, still chattering away. I could already feel my customary headache coming on.

"Lily, is there any way you can stop talking for a while?" I asked, a bit irritated.

"Is there any way you could stop eating for a while, fatty?" I gasped, shocked and hurt. But that was just the way Lily always talked to me. I turned around to look her straight in the eye.

"You know what, you little brat, I don't feel like putting up with your attitude today!"

"Kayla, that's not the way we talk to people!" My dad scolded me.

"But Dad!" I whined. "She called me a fatty!"

He sighed. "She's ten. You're fourteen. Be the mature one."

"She's almost eleven…" I muttered under my breath to myself.

"And you're almost fifteen." He retorted. So it was going to be one of those days. I glanced back to a smugly smiling Lily. I glared back.

We reached the field without any further incidents, miraculously. I hopped out of the van, grabbed my bag, and walked over to the dugout. I clipped my bag to the fence and tried to block out the babbling of my teammates. All they ever talked about was who did what with which guy. Oh, and now that it was football season, they talked about how cute the football players were. The freshman team conveniently had to practice in the outfield because our school was too poor to have enough space for all the teams to play on. So we had to cut down our practices to avoid killing the football players with fly balls to the outfield, as fun as that would be.

My dad came over to me and asked if I wanted to do some pitching. I agreed. Not only did I live pitching, it got me away from my crazy team. I started warm ups, the easy part. It felt great, and I could already tell my form was on today. I moved farther away from my dad and started my second warm up. Finally I moved all the way to full distance. I dipped down low and sprung out, my arm whirling around to send the pitch all forty feet to my dad. Around 55 miles per hour, not bad for a 14 year old. I worked on my targeting, then my other pitches. My change up was practically floating through the air, perfect. My drop dropped right at the plate and my curve started to curve at the right spot. My rise was a little too flat but all in all, a very good day.

Our coaches finally told us to start stretching. This meant just as much talking about gross stuff but in what they thought was code. They assumed that the male coaches wouldn't understand what they were talking about. I laughed to myself. Not only were our coaches smarter than the girls gave them credit for, most of them had sisters. My dad walked over.

"You guys need to talk softball, not boys. We let you practice next to football so that should be a good compromise." He smiled to show he wasn't angry, it was just a reminder.

"Ok John." They all agreed, turning their attention towards the football players. I rolled my eyes. So did my one friend on the team, Taby. Once we stretched, we played catch to warm up our arms. Mine hurt a lot lately, from a lot of innings pitching all year and not much rest in between using it again. We took grounders next and everyone batted off the pitching machine. Practice was over before I knew it. Our coaches talked to us for a while and then we helped them carry all of the equipment back to their cars. It got back in the front seat of our van and glanced at my phone. 8:30. Wow, practice was longer than I thought. My phone quietly started ringing in my hand. The screen was flashing Mom. I hurriedly answered it. My ears were promptly assaulted with yelling.

"Where are you guys? Why isn't anyone answering my calls?!" "I answered your call Mom." I pointedly reminded her.

"Don't sass me! Where's your dad?"

"Talking to the other coaches, like he does after every practice."

"Fine. Tell him to stop at Taco Bell there's no food in this house."

I sighed. Big surprise. There was never any meal time food because she never went shopping. "Ok Mom, see you soon. Love you. Bye."

Just then my dad came to the car.

"Mom's in a bad mood. And she wants Taco Bell."

"Alright."

We drove in silence. We reached Taco Bell and I begged to go through the drive thru. My dad preferred going inside because they often forgot something, but it took so much longer, and they'd been getting better at accuracy. He grudgingly agreed and we pulled around to the menu. I ordered a Crunchwrap Supreme and Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes. I loved Taco Bell. We got our food and checked to make sure everything was there, which it was. Five minutes later, we were home. Daisy greeted us like usual, and so did my angry mother.

"About time! Where have you guys been?!"

"Taco Bell!" I said, refraining from adding a "duh!" to the end.

"Taco Bell does not take half an hour!" She insisted.

My dad stepped in. "Yes it does. And how would you know if you never go? You just stay home and watch TV all day!"

Wonderful, a full blown fight. Lily and I took the food bag into the kitchen and tried to tune out my parents yelling. I grabbed my food and set it aside, helping Lily get hers onto her plate. Then I ran upstairs with mine and blasted my iPod. I hated when my mom had these angry nights. She would yell for no reason and claim she was under all this stress, when she didn't even work. I was used to it, but that didn't mean it didn't irritate me beyond belief.

I bobbed my head to the music. I really wanted to sing along, but I knew my mom would yell at me. Then I remembered my health worksheet. I got all worried but then I also remembered that I wouldn't have to turn it in the next day, rather the day after the next I breathed a sigh of relief and dug into my food. Once I was happy and full I took a quick shower and crawled into bed. My family had already dismissed my presence, more worried about themselves than anything. I fell into a deep sleep despite the continuous yelling of my mom.

A/N: Sorry there was no Seth this chapter, I decided to give you a glimpse at Kayla's home life. Please review!