Chapter 9

Thursday morning was like a postcard. I dropped the top and picked Kim up. “I love my truck but this is nice,” she said on the way in and I couldn’t have agreed more. I needed to remember to thank Mom for such a great choice.

During morning announcements, we learned there would be an assembly during last period. Teams would be recognized and our ‘It’s Academic’ team would be chosen. Great. About two minutes later, we all jumped at the sound of thunder. Crap. I raised my hand.

“Yes, Mr. Pierce?”

“I’m an idiot. I left the top down on my car. Would it be possible to correct that problem?”

“Let me see if I understand this. Aquaman would like to protect his 1 FISH from getting wet. Is that correct?” I nodded. “While you’re gone, we’ll be discussing irony. See if you can think of some examples,” she said and I took off to raise the top.

I dashed outside and saw dark cumulus clouds rolling in. They hadn’t been there ten minutes ago. Life in the Lowcountry. I raised the top, locked it in place, and spotted a parking space closer to cover. We might want that later. After moving the car, I reached back for an umbrella but all I could find was one that Mel left the last time she’d been a passenger. Better than nothing.

I thought it was better than nothing until I got out of the car and raised it as the rain began. It was bright yellow with ducks on it. Could there possibly be a more embarrassing design for a guy? Still, it kept me dry as I walked back to the building. Of course, Coach Miller was standing at the door, watching.

“Fashion statement, Slugger?”

“It’s Melanie’s,” I answered a bit sheepishly. “It works.”

“I heard you had a great day on the diamond, yesterday. Three for three with five RBIs. Not too shabby, Aquaman.”

“Thanks, Coach. Did you know Coach Hamilton doesn’t call them baseball games? He calls them meets now, because I said it once last season.”

“Makes perfect sense to me. Nice job, Aquaman. I’m proud of you. Hey, you made your goals for swimming this year. You have goals for baseball, too?”

“Yes, sir. I think if I break a foot this afternoon, my averages should hold up.”

“Quit while you’re ahead, huh? Mrs. Middleton let you save the Fish. Better hustle back.”

I shook water off as I walked back toward class and when I got there, I was mostly dry. I walked in and handed the wet duck umbrella to Mel. “You found it,” she whispered. Her mom looked at it, saw that it was wet, and managed to keep from laughing at the thought of Aquaman protected from the rain by her daughter’s ducks. Kim saw it and hid her face in her hands to keep from laughing. Fine.

At lunch, a couple of the squad gave me a lesson on how “It’s Academic” was played on TV although none of us knew what to expect for the assembly. I was pretty confident that I wouldn’t be asked to sing.

The entire high school easily fit in the bleachers on one side of the gym and that’s where we were. We all knew the drill and squeezed in as though it were a group photo. Mr. McClusky told us that he was proud of us for having a great year, then added that there hadn’t been any deaths or arrests and I know he was only half kidding. I’m not sure why he seemed to look at me when he said that.

He invited the cheerleaders to join him on the court and Miss Bentz congratulated them on their year and their performance at state competition. They gathered in for a group photo with Miss Bentz and their big trophy and we all applauded. The basketball coach thanked his team for the effort. I thought he was going to make a joke about their height but he kept it simple, and talked about their dedication and effort.

They gave the microphone to Coach Miller and he called ‘all the fish’ to the pool. We went down front and Mr. McClusky congratulated the team on winning our conference and dominating at regionals and State. We got our picture taken with all our trophies, including the team conference trophy we hadn’t seen before. It was pretty big. Nice.

Mr. McClusky told us one of the teachers was out on maternity leave, basically because she’d gone into labor that morning. He mentioned a couple of upcoming events and then talked about It’s Academic. He invited those of us who had signed up to compete to come forward. We sat at a couple of tables facing the bleachers. We each had a little bell and different colored flags. He explained that Mrs. Middleton would ask a question and as soon as we wanted to answer, we were supposed to ring the bell and raise the flag. Miss Durand had the job of figuring out who was first to raise their flag.

Mr. McClusky asked if there was anyone in the stands that wanted to compete. I was a little surprised to see Kim walk down out of the stands. They started to set up another station for her but she grabbed my red flag and walked it three seats down, gave it to another student, and handed me their light blue, sort of aquamarine flag. Then, she walked back into the stands to much applause. It was pretty funny.

I took stock of who I was competing against. Both Lani and Lori were down the row. Cherry Davis, one of our relief pitchers was going to give it a try. Alice Littleton wasn’t really a surprise but Marci was. There were three other kids that I didn’t know very well for a total of nine. The first five kids to get five correct were on the team. We would get one point for a correct answer but lose one for a wrong answer. Not only that we’d be sidelined for the next question. Wrong answers hurt.

Mrs. Middleton gave us a silly test question so we could ding our bells and raise our flags. She warned the audience not to help. With that, we were ready to start.

“What musical term indicates a chord where the notes are played one after another, rather than all together?”

Ding. “Arpeggio,” and Alice had a point.

“What color does gold leaf appear if you hold it...”

Ding. “Green,” and I had a point.

“Who collaborated with Karl Marx to produce The Communist...”

Ding. “Engels. Friedrich Engels,” and I had two points.

“A crepuscular animal becomes active at what time?”

Ding. “Evening or dusk, I guess,” and I had three points. This was easy.

“What Scottish poet’s works inspired the book titles Of Mice and Men and Catcher in the Rye?”

Ding. “Robert Burns,” and Lani had a point.

We kept playing until we had our four team members and one backup. Lani, Alice, Marci, and I were on the team and Cherry was our backup. Everyone was dismissed back to their classes except the five of us. Apparently, Kim didn’t get the memo and came down to join us.

“Nicely done,” Mr. McClusky said. “I’m sure the five of you will represent us just fine.

“I’m glad Alice is on the team. I didn’t know any of the musical questions,” I said.

“You know some weird stuff, Jack,” Lani said. “I mean really weird. Did any of you know what crepuscular even means?”

“That is a pretty unusual word, Jack. Spelling bee word?” Mr. McClusky asked.

“Guys, he read the encyclopedia,” Kim said, but no one believed her.

“You read the encyclopedia? Are you serious?” Marci asked.

“Yeah. Kind of a weird thing to do, I guess.”

“No kidding. How long did that take?” Mr. McClusky asked.

“About seven years or so,” I said, deciding to tell the story. They obviously wanted to hear it. “Do you remember the movie Dr. No? My step-dad took me to see it when I was seven. There’s a character in the movie. Ursula Andress played Honey Ryder. I was only seven but I thought she was beautiful. She was awkward but she knew stuff and when Bond, James Bond asked her how she knew what she knew, she said she’d read the encyclopedia.”

“And you wanted to be just like Ursula Andress,” Marci said and we laughed. It was pretty funny.

“No. I was seven. I thought that if I read it, then when I met her, she’d be impressed and she could be my girlfriend.”

“You never told me that.”

“Well, by the time I turned eight, I knew that part was silly but by then I was on the Cee or Dee volume and I was kind of enjoying it. I finished about a year ago.”

“And you remember a little or a lot?” Mr. McClusky asked.

“It depends. I remember more than you’d probably guess but it depended on a lot of things. I started really paying attention when I got to Jade for some reason. I think I was ten and started taking it more seriously. Zythum is an ancient malt beer brewed in Egypt in case anyone is interested. Last word in the encyclopedia.”

“Dang, Aquaman. That’s crazy. It’s great for It’s Academic but how much time did that take? And how much of your brain did you waste?” Cherry asked.

“Too much, if you ask Sherlock Holmes. He thought we only had so much room for memory and he didn’t want to waste it on stupid stuff.”

“I bet he never went into a bar and ordered a zythum, either,” Cherry said and it was worth a laugh.

“Well, Pierce, I bet you never guessed you’d have the opportunity to use it. If you’ve never seen the show, I highly recommend watching it this Saturday morning. I’ll leave it to the five of you to work out a strategy. Nice job, all of you.”

I was the only one who had never seen it. They told me the basic outline. We had to have a team captain. That person would speak for the team and they would introduce us. They expected the basics like name and where you wanted to go to school. I suggested Lani for the team captain. After a bit of discussion, she agreed. I’d never seen the show and Lani watched it every Saturday.

Kim and I didn’t need to bother with going to PE because of the crappy weather. It’s hard to play baseball or run track in a downpour. We went back to my house and hit the weights hard. During swim season, the wrong kind of workout before a meet could really destroy your performance. It didn’t seem like I had anything to worry about with baseball. I thought Kim would suffer if she had a heavy leg day and then a practice the next day but, so far, it hadn’t seemed to bother her.

When we finished, I drove Kim home, dropping her as close to her front door as I could. Back at the house, I started in on the buttload of homework I had. Using the spelling checker on my computer seemed like cheating. Not using it seemed stupid. It didn’t catch very much and there were a lot of words it was unfamiliar with, especially for chemistry. Having made and saved a template for each class had been a smart idea. I had a different floppy disk for each class.

When I finished, I noticed I’d already used up half the paper and I was going to need some new floppy disks as well. I’d never been to Computerland but did know that was the place to go for all that stuff. Friday was the day to turn things in, play a baseball game, and bid Mrs. Edris a fond farewell.

I think teachers slow things down after they collect papers because they know how much time they’re about to spend grading them. If I was a teacher, I wouldn’t have anything due on Friday, especially if the weather was going to be great for the weekend and that was the forecast.

The bus ride to Prep was a lot noisier than any swim team bus ride I’d been on. The difference was crazy. Maybe it had something to do with the level of confidence we had after clobbering Northwoods. I thought I’d save myself for the party on the way back, if there was a party.

We had pretty much the same lineup and since we were the visiting team, we were up first. Is there anything like being the first person up to bat for an away game? All eyes are on you and the pitcher and it’s sort of a duel. Southeast Atlantic Prep’s pitcher was a tall kid with an unusual throwing motion. I watched him warm up, looking for tells. It was hard to focus on his hands and mannerisms when his entire body seemed to be doing some sort of disjointed dance.

I looked to see where the alleys were and which field had the closest wall. Nothing. I couldn’t get a read on anything. I stepped into the batters’ box and watched for the first pitch. He smoked it right down the pipe and I didn’t even swing. It wasn’t that it was too fast. It was that I hadn’t had enough time to figure out where it was coming from. His second pitch was outside and I started to get a feel for it.

He threw another ball, this time, low. Bingo. He had two pitches. Just two. I saw his shoulder hunch before he threw a changeup. It wasn’t a big deal but I remembered seeing it during warm-up and hadn’t connected the tell with the pitch.

His next pitch was a fastball and I tipped it foul. I hit the next fastball solidly, but I got around late and it went screaming into the first base dugout, where the Prep team scrambled to get out of the way.

I fouled the next pitch to almost exactly the same place and got some angry looks. Sorry. Just defending the plate. I tipped another two, then sent a ball deep to left field but foul. I was getting his rhythm figured out and he was getting frustrated. He’d thrown ten pitches to the first batter. I looked to our third base coach. He gave me the sign to defend the plate. I was looking for either ‘swing away’, ‘look for a walk’, or ‘defend the plate.’ I got the last one.

He had to keep throwing strikes or he’d put me on base with no outs. I’d load up and see what happened. I hit two more fouls down the left field line. He took a little off the next pitch and I hit it squarely. I really hit it. One, nothing Cyclones. I didn’t look at him as I ran the bases. He’d done everything he could to get me out and I’d driven one deep.

I got high fives in the dugout and told the guys what I’d seen. He wasn’t easy to sort out but being at the plate for twelve pitches made a difference. Our next three batters all struck out. Before we took the field, Coach Hamilton told me I was off to a helluva start and that making their starter use twelve pitches and then hitting a home run was very definitely a productive at bat.

Rusty had a great start and they went down in three straight batters. Nothing had left the infield, and that meant I was bored. I knew it was best if I never saw a fly ball but I’d like to see one every now and then. In the third inning, I lined one straight to the shortstop and the ball got to first base long before I did. It was my first out of the year. I didn’t like it.

I came up to bat in the sixth with a one, nothing lead and a man on second and third, with one out. It was the best scoring opportunity we’d had. My job was to try to hit the ball to right field, as deep as I could. Even if it was caught, at least one run and maybe two, would score. I could tell after the first low and outside pitch, that he was getting tired. We had only gotten three hits and three walks but everyone had been hitting foul balls and he’d been to a full count a bunch of times.

On his second pitch, I did just what I was supposed to do and hit it deep to right center field. It looked like an easy out, but I took off running just like Pete Rose would have. I saw Thumper was still on second, waiting for the catch so he could take off. It was late in the afternoon and their right and center fielders were trying to get a line on it but neither one had called for it. At least I hadn’t heard them. At the last minute, the right fielder took a couple of steps toward center field, then they both called for it and the ball hit the center fielder’s glove and dropped between them.

“Go, Thumper. Go, go, go,” I hollered as I rounded first and he took off. Thumper wasn’t the fastest guy on the team but I thought he could make it home. I made it to second and started for third and looked at Cherry. What do I do? I started for third. I looked back toward centerfield and saw their right fielder had the ball and had launched it for home. He had a great arm and it was going to make it to the plate on the fly.

The catcher’s eyes were big as saucers. He saw the ball coming but he saw Thumper coming, too, and Thumper was a lot bigger than the ball. Thumper wasn’t slowing down so I ran to third. The ball and Thumper got to the catcher at almost the same time and there was a collision at home plate. The umpire was wound up, ready to signal an out when we all saw the ball rolling away from the catcher. He’d dropped it. Safe.

Thumper hadn’t wanted to run over a fellow catcher. First, Thumper was a nice guy and he didn’t want to hurt anyone. Second, he was a catcher and didn’t want to see Prep return the favor. He stood there, trying to figure out how to help. Their catcher got to his feet, but he looked like he didn’t know whether he should shit or dance. Ronnie used to say that and it’s the first time I’d ever seen anyone quite that confused. He had blocked the baseline before he caught the ball so it was his own fault but I didn’t much like seeing him hurt.

We had a timeout while their catcher tried to get back to reality. I talked with Cherry. “You told me to come to third, right? Thumper didn’t go home because I was pushing him, right?”

“I was just passing on what Coach was hollering. If Thumper wasn’t so slow, or their fielder, Brooks, didn’t have an arm, that wouldn’t have happened. You should be out, by the way.”

“I know it. What happened?”

“I think they both lost it in the sun. He’s tough to hit, huh?”

“Not so much now, but it was really tough to get a read on him.”

“Yeah. He’s almost sidearm. I’m not sure but I think it’s really bad for your shoulder. You ever watch girls’ softball?” I shook my head. “They can have the same pitcher pitch a doubleheader. The underhand motion is a lot easier on your arm. If I pitch more than three or four innings, my shoulder hurts for a day or two.”

Their catcher was ready to go again and our game got back underway. I was on third with one out and a three-run lead. When I’d run the bases after my homer, I hadn’t looked at the pitcher. When I hit a triple or got to third on an error, or whatever they would call it, I hadn’t looked at the pitcher. But now, I was on third and it was hard not to. I had a pretty good lead off. He looked at me, deciding whether he was going to throw it to third or not. I knew I could get back in time. I waved. I don’t know why, but I waved at him. I think he was about to lose it but he put his attention back on the man at the plate.