10

There was a lot of truth in Olive's words. I turned to Charlotte who was fussing over her camera. She was right there -only a few feet away, but she might as well have been on the other side of the moon and all I could do was look.

"I guess we just don't have it, Olive," I said to her.

"Well, unlike you, I have tried talking to Nora," she said and tossed the ball to me. "She handles herself so cool. And I'm there sweating like a pig, screaming panic in my head, some idiotic blah blah coming out of my mouth. You have a better chance than me, Darci."

I was just as a romantic hopeless as she was, and I didn't know why she had so much faith in me.

"Hey! You girls are here, too?"

We turned to find Tonya, Melissa, and Nora walking towards the field.

"Oh geez, what's up with today?" Olive said.

I agreed. It was as if we were on a mission to run into our crushes. Olive and I stopped talking as they came to join us.

The other girls had come with the same mind as we did. The victory had given them hope, and they wanted to be better and impressed our coaches.

So we started doing a bit of practice together.

I tried to see what Olive saw in Nora. Of course, Nora was pretty and a great player, but she was just as human as the rest of us.

"Did you see the look on Stefanie's face at the end of the game, Darci?" Tonya said. "She was so jealous."

"Yeah, you did us all a favor and shut her arrogant face for once," Nora agreed. "I can't stand that girl sometimes."

"She thought she was the only star in the universe," Melissa added.

"Exactly."

"Come on guys, it was a lucky shot," I said. "Besides Felik and Grigor want us to work together."

Now, look at what I was doing. Taking the role of the Kapitan already?

Charlotte was talking to Margaret who showed up from the cafeteria with some cans of soda.

"Working hard, aren't you?" she smiled brightly and waved at us. "Come and have some refreshment!"

We had only been here for half an hour but we decided to take a break as it was a hot day. We shared the food we got from the Matryoskha. Everyone had quite a bit of fun, laughing and joking. We were having a really great time.

After Margaret said goodbye and left in her tiny toy car, we resumed our practice.

Charlotte wanted to record some baseball techniques, so we took turns to demonstrate them as best as we could.

I always froze when her camera lens directed at me.

"Darci, look over here!" she yelled. "You keep turning away. I can't see your face clearly."

I blushed and tried to do what she said, but it was still awkward.

Then Olive pretended to run the homerun like I did yesterday. I thought she was trying to impress Nora. But when she slide over the ground, her legs got knotted like a pretzel. Olive ended up face first and smashed her chin hard in the dirt.

"Olive!" we cried.

There was blood everywhere, gushing down the hand holding her chin. The shock had drained color off her face, and she was white as paper.

"It's not that bad, isn't it?" she stammered. Nora came with a bottle of water to clean the dirt.

"Let me look," I said, and we saw the gash. "You're going to need stitches."

"Oh no..." Olive said.

"Oh yes," I said.

It wasn't worth going home. So we brought her to school hospital.

Olive was on the bed in the casualty cubicle. I sat on a chair next to the bed, like I was her mother or something. The others stood at the foot of the bed. A really friendly nurse Jane cleaned up Olive's chin.

"My bet would be three stitches. But it could be four. Any of you girls like to have a bet with me?" Jane joked cheekily. We knew that she just wanted to ease our shock.

"We're high school kids. Our available chase for gambling on personal injury is limited," Melissa mumbled.

"Fair enough," the nurse said. "The doctor'll be here soon and she'll sew you up as good as new."

Jane flashed us a smile, then scooted out through the curtains. Suddenly we realized we had forgotten our equipment on the field, so Melissa and Tonya volunteered to go back and get them.

"I'm a bit parched, Darci," Olive said. "Can you get me a drink?"

"Sure," I said. "What do you want?"

"I'm dealing with incredible pain right now, so anything's fine."

I nodded and turned to Nora and Charlotte.

"You two want anything?" I said.

"No, I'm fine," Nora said. "I want to see the sewing part."

"Oh no, you don't want to see me scream my gut out, do you?" Olive said, looking embarrassed and slightly panicky.

Nora laughed.

"Baseball isn't my only passion," she said. "I want to be a nurse, too."

Olive looked smitten when she heard that. I could imagine her adding 'compassionate' to the list of things to describe Nora, the goddess.

"Oh dear, I don't think I can watch," Charlotte said then turned to me. "I'll go with you, Darci."

When the doctor arrived, we left the room together. Charlotte and I went outside to find a vending machine. While we walked down the corridor, I figured I should say something, start a conversation. I practiced a few things in my mind but when I opened my mouth, my voice squeaked a bit halfway through. "How's it going anyway?"

"I'm sorry?" she asked.

"Your baseball doco."

"Oh well, it's okay, I think. You should see some of the clips."

Why would she want me to? She was just being polite to pass the time, I guessed.

"Uh yeah...I'd like that," I stammered.

"When are you free then?"

I looked back at her in surprise. I didn't think she was serious.

"Huh?"

"When do you want to see the clips?" she said.

"Oh...uh...whenever..." I stuttered.

"I'd really like another opinion, seeing as I don't know much about baseball. I mean, it could all be garbage," she said dejectedly.

"Don't say that. You've been working hard," I said. "I'm sure it's still worth something."

She smiled at me. "Thanks. I hope so."

We found the vending machine in a corner behind the swinging doors. As I stood in front of the machine, I dug my hand into my pocket for some spare changes. I was getting for the six of us but had only four cans of cokes before I ran out of coins.

"Here I think I have some," Charlotte said, rummaging in her bag while walking forward without looking. She tripped and her bag swung from her shoulder. I saw her camera also spill out, and I lunged forward to rescue it. Charlotte did the same, and we collided with each other. Everything else fell to the floor. Luckily, the camera dropped safely into my hand.

"Wow, good catch, Darci, thanks!" breathed Charlotte.

We were actually hugging each other with my back against the wall. My face burned hot in a flash and I couldn't breathe. I hoped like crazy that I didn't look bright red. If I turned my head a tiny bit, we would be touching noses. I was having a breathing problem and mumbled something, not daring to look at her.

"Sorry," Charlotte said and straightened herself back. "My silly fault. Clumsy me."

"No problem," I said.

"I wish I had some motor skills like you," she said and giggled. "Do you reckon famous documentary reports do this stuff? They would be in serious trouble in the wild being like me."

I handed her the camera and went on my hands and knees, trying to retrieve our drinks. I had forgotten every word of English I'd ever learned. All I could do was pick up the rolling cans like my life depended on it.

Charlotte put her camera away and helped me.

"So when is your next practice?" she said, probably just filling the silence.

"Uh...this Thursday evening before the next game," I said.

"Can I come along then?" she said, smiling. "We can look at my footage afterward. What do you think?"

I didn't know what I thought but I nodded back.

"Yes...yes, of course."