Chapter 34

CHAPTER34

“Ishared my cupcakes with you,” Mikey mumbled hollowly as she watched the man who was slowly destroying her will to live finish off the chocolate fudge cupcake with extra buttercream frosting.

“And they were delicious,” Uncle Jason said while Mikey was forced to sit there, swallowing hard as she glanced at the clock above the whiteboard, noting that it had been five minutes since the bell dismissed her for the day before glancing back at Uncle Jason.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Mikey asked as her gaze shifted to the windows and stared helplessly at the baseball field in the distance, the same one that she’d been dreaming about stepping onto for the past nine months, and the same one that she should be making her way to now, but instead, she was sitting here at the mercy of the man who’d helped himself to her pudding at lunch today.

“You waited until the bell rang to hand over the cupcakes,” Uncle Jason said, pausing to finish off the bottle of juice that he’d helped himself to from her backpack, “I took exception to that.”

“I didn’t want to distract you from the lovely lecture that you gave on the French Revolution,” Mikey said with a hopeful smile that quickly died away when Uncle Jason’s eyes narrowed dangerously on her. Grumbling, Mikey admitted, “I felt that it was in my best interest to distract you so that I could make a run for it before you had a chance to bring up the paper that I handed in today.”

“I see,” Uncle Jason said, nodding absently as he picked up the paper that she wrote off the desk. “What do you think about this class, Miss Campbell?”

“Honestly?” Mikey asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she watched Uncle Jason nod and found herself admitting the one thing that she’d honestly never thought she’d say. “It’s my favorite class.”

Over the past few months, she’d realized just how much she really loved history, thanks to Uncle Jason. She’d never been a big fan of school before and only went so that she could play baseball, but now, she actually looked forward to going to school.

Not that she would ever admit that to anyone.

“Did you get help writing this paper, Miss Campbell?” Uncle Jason asked as he glanced down at her paper.

“No,” Mikey admitted, swallowing hard as she watched him flip to the next page.

“Sebastian didn’t help you?” Uncle Jason asked, throwing her a questioning look.

“He’s been busy,” she said, worrying her hands together as she found herself regretting her decision not to accept Jonathan’s offer to help her when she had the chance, but those damn creepy smiley faces that he loved drawing on her work…

“That’s an understatement,” Uncle Jason murmured as he finished reading through her paper and-

“If baseball doesn’t work out, you might want to consider a career in history,” Uncle Jason drawled as he looked up and shot her a wink. “You should probably start running, Miss Campbell.”

With that, Mikey released the breath that she didn’t realize that she was holding, grabbed her bag and raced for the door, yelling, “Thank you!” and felt her lips pull up into a smile at the sound of Uncle Jason’s chuckle as it followed her out the door and into the hallway. From there, she raced down the hallway, past the teacher’s lounge, cut through the foreign language department wing, through the tech wing, out the door that led to the courtyard and back inside through the dining hall doors and into the front hallway where she took a left and made her way to the girls’ locker room.

Less than a minute later, Mikey was dropping her backpack on the floor, opened her locker, and-

Realized that she really had to use the bathroom.

“Damn it,” Mikey muttered pathetically as she grabbed her clothes and debated her next move, only to decide that it was time to multitask.

Decision made, Mikey quickly made her way past the lockers and showers and into the tastefully decorated bathroom. She made her way to the first stall, quickly closed the door behind her and locked it and did what she needed to do as she stripped off her school uniform, tossed it onto the bathroom floor and-

Felt her stomach drop when several pairs of well-manicured hands reached beneath the stall and grabbed her clothes. That was followed by the sounds of giggling along with the unmistakable sounds of them running away.

“I probably should have seen that one coming,” Mikey found herself mumbling as she sat there in her underwear, nodding for some reason and-

“Definitely should have seen that coming, too,” Mikey said into the darkness when the lights suddenly went out.

Sighing heavily, Mikey finished what she was doing, felt her way to the door, where she fumbled with the latch for a minute before she finally managed to make her escape. As she felt her way to the sink, she couldn’t help but wonder why they were still making her life a living hell.

She’d thought that they’d get bored and move on, but apparently, the brochures the guidance department handed out on how to deal with bullies were wrong. She should probably let them know that, but later, much later, right now, she had to figure out how she was going to pull this off in her underwear. She could wrap herself in one of the shower curtains and make her way to the front office so that she could raid the lost and found and hope for the best.

It wasn’t the best option, but something told her that it was her only option at the moment. Decision made, and she really wished that there was another option, Mikey swallowed hard as she followed the bathroom counter with her hand and quickly made her way back into the pitch-black locker room and into the shower rooms, where she realized that her fan club had thought of everything.

Not knowing what else to do, Mikey made her way back into the locker room and nearly sighed with relief when she saw the light pouring in from the pool. Wondering what else they had in store for her, Mikey reluctantly made her way to the pool. She paused by the double doors, making sure that Nicole and her entourage weren’t waiting for her on the other side and when she didn’t see anyone, she stepped onto the expensive tile only to sigh heavily when she spotted what appeared to be her backpack and clothes at the bottom of the pool.

* * *

“Where’s Campbell?”

“She’s not coming,” came the response that had Sebastian frowning as he looked up from the book that he was reading to find Nicole and her entourage hanging out by the fence.

“What do you mean she’s not coming?” Coach Jackson demanded as he looked up from the iPad in his hands.

“We heard Mikey say that she didn’t have to go to tryouts,” Nicole said, only to have one of her friends add, “She said something about only having to show up when she felt like it.”

“They’re lying their asses off,” Jonathan bit out as Coach Jackson’s expression turned furious.

“No kidding,” Sebastian said, shoving his book back into his bag as he went to go find Mikey when he spotted her making her way towards them, completely soaked from head to toe.

Trying to make sense of what he was seeing, Sebastian watched as Mikey quickly made her way over to him and dropped her backpack on the ground by his feet, where a puddle immediately began forming before she reached over and-

“Hey!”

-began manhandling him.

In seconds, Mikey managed to yank his sweatshirt off and was pulling it on with a satisfied sigh. Ignoring the murderous glare aimed at her, Mikey said, “I’m sorry I’m late, but all of my clothes and my backpack somehow ended up at the bottom of the pool. Once I managed to get them, I realized that I had also somehow managed to get locked inside the gym. Thankfully, the windows above the bleachers weren’t locked, so I managed to wiggle my way through one of them, and once I hit the ground and remembered how to breathe again, I decided that it would be a good time to put all those laps to good use and headed this way. Thankfully, a stranger offered me a ride, but don’t worry, I said no when he offered me candy because I know better,” Mikey said, even as she stuck a lollipop in her mouth and waved to the elderly groundskeeper waving goodbye to her as he drove past the field in his golf cart.

“Jesus Christ,” Coach Jackson mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Nodding solemnly, Mikey said, “That’s exactly what he said when I explained stranger danger to him.”

“Maybe you should go inside and change,” Coach Jackson suggested on a resigned sigh.

“I’m good,” Mikey said, shaking her head as she continued enjoying her lollipop while Sebastian noted the predatory gleam in Nicole’s eye as she watched her.

“Please tell me that your glove wasn’t in your bag,” Coach Jackson said, even as he gestured for one of his assistant coaches to grab a glove for her.

“I asked my trusted sidekick to keep an eye on it for me,” Mikey said with a gesture for him to hand it over.

“Stop calling me that,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he reached inside his bag and grabbed her glove.

“You know you love it,” Mikey murmured, handing her lollipop to him as she took her glove.

“Ready?” Coach Jackson asked with a warm smile as he gestured for her to join them.

With a nod, Mikey headed for the field, leaving behind a muddy trail as she said, “Incidentally, I’m going to need a note for my teachers about my homework.”

“Your homework was in the bag?” Coach Jackson asked, frowning as his gaze shot to her ruined backpack.

“Sure. We can say that,” Mikey said, blinking as she joined the rest of the students trying out for the team as Coach Jackson was forced to turn his head and cough as he struggled not to laugh.

Popping the lollipop in his mouth, Sebastian grabbed her soaked bag that weighed a ton and opened it, wondering if they’d be able to save her iPad only to chuckle when he saw that her bag was filled with baseballs, sports magazines, snacks, and one of his sweatshirts.

“Can you salvage any of it?” Cole asked as he dropped down on the bench next to him.

“Just the baseballs and my sweatshirt,” Sebastian said, pulling the items in question out of the bag and set them aside before he grabbed the ruined bag and made his way to the trashcan set up by the fence. By the time he got back, his cousin Elizabeth was joining them.

“Why is Mikey soaking wet?” Elizabeth asked as they watched Mikey quickly make her way over to join Braxton as they waited for tryouts to start.

“I have a pretty good idea why,” Sebastian said as he glanced at Nicole and her friends, who were all laughing their asses off as they pulled their phones out and took pictures of Mikey.

“I’m taking care of it,” Jonathan said as they watched Mikey give Braxton a fist bump before making her way to the pitcher’s mound.

“At least they didn’t ruin anything important,” Cole murmured as he glanced at the wet pile on the bench.

“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Coach Jackson yelled, drawing their attention back to the field in time to watch Braxton toss his baseball cap to Mikey before he settled behind home plate.

“I thought Braxton was trying out for first base,” Elizabeth said, frowning as they watched him gear up as he took his spot behind home plate.

“He changed his mind after working with Mikey for the past few months,” Jonathan said as they watched Braxton get in position. “He’s the only that can handle her fastball without flinching.”

Sebastian watched as Mikey put the baseball cap on backwards before holding up her glove. In seconds, a baseball was flying through the air and landing in her glove. Mikey slowly exhaled as her gaze locked on Braxton. Sebastian waited for Braxton to give a signal, but nothing came. Instead, Mikey gave her head a barely-there shake that had Braxton adjusting his stance and-

“Jesus Christ!”

-catching the ball that flew through the air a split second later and slammed into his glove.

“One hundred and two!” one of the assistant coaches announced as his stunned gaze flickered from the small device in his hand to Mikey.

“That’s my girl,” Sebastian said, slowly exhaling as he watched Mikey get ready for the next pitch.

“Christ, they’re good,” Cole said in awe as they watched Mikey and Braxton for the next hour.

They didn’t bother with gestures like most players did, they simply shared a look, readjusted, and executed the play. He’d never seen anything like it. They anticipated each other’s moves on the fly, communicating with a single look as they sized up the batter and took him out, leaving him struggling to figure out what happened as one of the assistant coaches yelled, “Out!”

After an hour, when none of the batters managed to hit the ball, Coach Jackson switched Mikey and Braxton out so that he could see what the rest of them had to offer. Sebastian watched Mikey as she cheered everyone on, held his breath every time she stepped up to bat, and screamed her name the loudest when the bat in her hand connected with the ball.

Three hours later, Coach Jackson called everyone in and gave them a speech that was nothing like the one that Coach Dilmore gave last year that tore Mikey’s world apart. He thanked everyone for their time, told them that he wished that he could give everyone a spot on the team, and when he announced that he would be announcing who made the team by the end of next week, Sebastian mentally prepared himself for the long week ahead.