Chapter 27: Baseball Ends

Monday April 27

I opened the door to my apartment to let Duke out. I was surprised when he went towards the back of the garage, like he was stalking something. I had a mission though, so I let him have his fun. Mom bought doughnuts yesterday. She always bought us two each and only two Bavarian Creams. Dad and I had made a game of hiding them, because they were our favorites. We both knew we were not allowed to eat them, because Mom explained what would happen if we did.

As I walked across the front of the garage towards the backdoor I saw a little movement at the edge. I stepped back away from the corner of the garage and wondered if this was a new game Duke had learned. I wanted a little room if he decided to spring his trap. What I saw made me chuckle. Precious was crouched down, ready to ambush Duke. I was impressed that he was smart enough to circle around and come up behind her. He slowly stalked the unsuspecting cat. I was almost to the backdoor when he struck.

I give him high marks on his plan, but the execution needed a little work. I had just opened the backdoor when Duke rushed forward and nipped Precious on the butt. His momentum caused him to roll the now distressed feline. Duke broke for the backdoor to escape. It was like watching National Geographic when the hunting cat would flail away, and make a giant swipe with their paw to bring down their prey. Precious made one of her loud yowls, which sounded like a bob cat, got lucky, and sunk her claws into my pup's rump.

Duke sensed his impending doom, and sprinted through the backdoor with the crazed cat stuck to his butt. It was one thing to let the two of them play outside, but to let them inside was a very bad idea. I made it into the kitchen to the sounds of a major fight going on. I guess Precious took offense to being stalked. That was her job! It was also apparent Duke was pissed. I had never heard such ferocious growling.

Duke was now big enough to do some serious damage. I didn't want to have to take an injured Precious home to Brit. For some reason she loved that cat. I grabbed Duke's collar and jerked him off the pinned feline, which gave her a chance to escape. Duke and I looked perplexed as Precious darted deep into the bowels of our home. He started wagging his tail, because he was happy he was victorious. I hoped Precious was not hiding, because I didn't have time for this mess.

"What the hell just happened?" Mom asked, and from her tone I guessed she was not happy.

Mom was not in the mood for half a story, I explained my hero's exploits in detail.

"So, you're telling me the Callahan cat from hell is loose in my house?"

"We should probably go find her?" I suggested helpfully.

Mom glared at me, so I gave Duke the command to get the kitty. It turned out, either Duke was a terrible hunter, or Precious was the Queen of Hide-N-Seek. We came downstairs to confront a pissed off cat owner.

"What did you do to my baby?" Brit demanded.

"He and his hound chased her into my house," Mom told her.

"Well, if she was scared, you won't find her anytime soon. I'll come by after school, and get her when she comes out."

"Sit down, and have a donut," Mom offered, as she put a plate out with my Bavarian Cream on it.

This week was jammed packed with school activities. Wednesday was our last home baseball game, and Friday kicked off the State Baseball Tournament. We had already locked in a slot, and the final home game would help decide our seeding. Then Saturday was Prom.

The word, on the school grapevine, was that ticket sales for Prom were not very good. The senior ass-hats had made this a big final party of the year, and frankly, not many people wanted to join them in the festivities. Because ticket sales were so poor, our Prom had been switched to the gym.

If I'd known, I wouldn't have bought tickets. I guess if I knew Harper would flake out on me, I wouldn't have bought them either. On Sunday, Sarah and I had locked horns. I refused to go to Wesleyan's Formal this year. She finally relented when I explained I had no desire to run into Harper, so soon after our breakup. Even though I wasn't devastated, I didn't need to see her there with Alex. While my best guess was she wouldn't take Alex, but why tempt fate. There was a high probability I might punch him if I saw him again.

The upcoming dance was the talk of our lunch tables. I quietly sat back and listened as I tried to figure out what was in today's lunch. The sign said it was Beef Stroganoff. I always thought the dish was supposed to have a creamy sauce with sour cream in it and egg noodles. This tasted like they'd used canned turkey gravy, and it looked like there were leftover spaghetti noodles mixed in. I was pretty sure it wasn't even beef. I wasn't eating this. I got up to go see if they had any sack lunches left.

"Where are you going?" Wolf asked.

"I'm getting something else."

He smiled and grabbed my plate. I swear he would eat anything. I went up and found the sack lunches were gone. I sweet talked the lunch ladies into making me a Rueben. It was what they were having. When I came back to the table no one was happy with me.

"How come you get special treatment?" Gina complained.

"Yeah, what's the deal?" Alan asked.

I just glared at them. I saw Pam and Mona eyeballing my sandwich. If I engaged in conversation, the girls would end up talking me out of it. I just stuffed a big bite in my mouth, and grinned at them. Pam and Mona made Gina and Jeff move so they could sit on each side of me. Wolf about lost his hand when he reached across to snatch some chips. Pam smiled at me and leaned close and sucked my earlobe into her mouth and nipped me. The momentary distraction gave Mona time to steal half my sandwich. When I went to grab it back Pam got the other half.

"Guys, no fair!" I complained.

"If you learned to share, you wouldn't have these problems," Wolf advised me.

"Shut up, I gave you my lunch already," I said as he grabbed more chips. I was still hungry, so I would have to go back up and see what I could get. "Who all wants something else to eat?"

It seemed everyone did. I made Mona and Pam go with me to see if we could get sandwiches for everyone at our table. I explained to the lunch ladies that the girls had eaten my sandwich and everyone wanted something else to eat. Good looks and charm didn't work this time. I paid her for a big loaf of rye bread, a couple pounds of Swiss cheese, sliced ham, mustard and individual bags of chips. She even threw in paper plates. For what I paid I could have ordered everyone pizza and had it delivered. I think the lunch ladies made a profit on me.

"That's more like it," Alan said.

Pam made me a sandwich. I wasn't taking a chance this horde of locusts wouldn't eat it all before I got to eat. While everyone ate their sandwiches, Gina quizzed me about Prom.

"Are you and Harper renting a Limo this year?"

"Harper and I broke up over Spring Break."

"Oh please, don't tell me we are going to have to find you a last minute date again," Cassidy moaned.

Last year had been a disaster. Ford had set me up a faux girlfriend for publicity. Between her dad, who tried to pimp her out, and her, being a raving bitch, it had been a disaster. I ended up at Prom stag. I smiled when I remembered what happened after Prom. If it worked out even half as good I would have a night to remember.

"Settle down, I have a date lined up," I assured them.

They all turned and looked at Pam. She gave a nervous laugh and waved her hands.

"It's not me."

"So what did you do to Harper to make her dump you?" Alan asked.

"Alan, don't distract him or we'll never get the story out of him," Gina warned.

"Can we have the leftovers?" a freshman from another table asked.

I looked around and everyone who wanted a sandwich had gotten one, so I let the freshman take the rest. Lunch must have really sucked for them to be brave enough to come and ask for food. Then again, they were growing boys.

"You guys would love Chicago. We should plan a day when the Cubs are in town and go to a game," I told them.

"Where all did you go?" Jeff asked.

Gina threw her hands up in the air when she realized Jeff, Alan and I were playing our misdirection game. We always did this if we didn't want to talk about something. Gina got out of her chair next to Mike and came and sat in my lap. I looked at her boyfriend and he just shrugged. She grabbed my face so I would look right in her eyes.

"You can tell us all about Chicago after I get a few facts," she said as I just nodded.

"Who are you going to Prom with?"

"Sarah."

She took a deep breath to keep from yelling at me. I made the mistake of smirking. She now had my ears in her grip, which made me much more forthcoming.

"She goes to school at Wesleyan and stayed at Harper's house over break. I met her last year when I went to Modeling Camp during the summer. She and I worked together last week. When Harper broke up with me, Sarah volunteered to be my date. We're just friends."

"What kind of friends?" Gina asked.

"None-of-your-business kind of friends," I informed her.

"If we could arrange an alternative to Prom, would you be interested?"

"Are any of you going to Prom?" I asked.

"If we had something else to do, I wouldn't mind skipping it. My brother and his friends are being dicks," Cassidy told me.

It seemed everyone felt the same way.

"For grins, what all do we need to do to put our own dance on?" I asked.

Gina started ticking things off on her fingers.

"Location, band, decorations, chaperones, tickets. I'm sure other things like drinks and food."

"I'll call my dad and see if he can cut me a deal on the Country Club. Who knows a band?" I asked.

"Cora's roommate is dating a DJ. Maybe I could talk him into doing it," Pam offered.

"I could make the tickets," Alan offered.

"I could ask my dad to be a chaperone," Mike suggested.

"Let's make some calls and everyone meet me before baseball practice. Are you sure you guys want to do this?" I asked.

Everyone seemed to really want to if we could.

I made Gina go with me to an empty room and called my dad. He went and found the banquet manager. We told them what we wanted to do. The Prom Committee had put a deposit on the room, which would have gone towards the event at the Country Club. Since they canceled last minute, the Country Club was keeping the deposit. The banquet manager was willing to apply the funds to our event. I guess they had pissed him off. Since my dad was an employee they would give us his discount. Between the two, it would cover about half the cost for the room, set up, and tear down.

He gave us an idea of different things they could do, food and beverage wise, and ball park costs for the different options. All we had to do was confirm no later than tomorrow morning and give them a firm count by Thursday evening.

I was shocked when about forty people showed up before baseball. I guess people disliked Brad and his buddies as much as I did. I was even more shocked when members of the Prom Committee showed up. I addressed them first.

"Dan, Lisa, I hope we are not stepping on your toes," I said.

"Not really. Tommy Cox and Brad Hope have taken over the planning for the event. We have some decorations if you guys want them. We would rather go to your party," Dan said, which shocked me.

"Before we do this, we haven't antagonized them lately. Do we want to risk them being jerks the rest of the school year?" I asked.

"They wouldn't sell me a ticket to Prom, because they said I didn't fit in," Yuri told us.

For the next five minutes, we heard similar stories. If I had known they were bullying the kids, I would have confronted them. The more I heard the more I wanted to pound one Tommy Cox. It seemed when they let him come back to school, after Christmas Break, he had been busy behind the scenes.

I put Gina and Cassidy in charge, and they recruited Mike. He had no choice since he was Gina's boyfriend. Dan and Lisa agreed to help, which made everything easier. They had already worked to plan Prom, so they knew what all needed to be done. Pam and Mona also volunteered. When Yuri saw who was on the committee, hot single girls, he joined also. I talked Alan and Lily into helping, since they could get the word out either through our sports data base, or my twitter account.

When we were done, Jeff and I went to my house to get Duke. Jeff went in the back door first and started laughing. I came in to find Duke and Precious in his crate. The cat must have come out of hiding and Mom found her at lunch time. They were both looking at us wanting to get out. I wasn't about to open the door without some kind of protection. I'd had Precious claw and bite me way too many times. Then I remembered I had Jeff with me.

"Grab an extra leash and put it on Brit's cat. I'll go make us sandwiches. Oh, and close the mud room door in case the kitty gets out. Mom doesn't want her running loose in the house."

I just had gotten started making us sandwiches, when all hell broke loose. I heard a loud yowl from Precious, and a scream from Jeff. Duke added to the racket by barking. I heard a couple of thuds.

"Son of a! OH MY GOD! OH MY effing GOD! HELP!" Jeff screamed.

I felt bad, but I couldn't help laughing. I pulled the door open an inch to see what was going on. Jeff was hunched over with Precious attached to the center of his back. It looked like both of his hands were bleeding. Duke was all the way in the back of his crate. Whatever vibe the cat was giving off, seemed to have him scared.

I eased into the mud room and picked up a leash. I snapped it into Precious's collar and handed it to Jeff.

"There you go," I said trying to keep a straight face.

"Fuck you Dawson! Get this cat off of me!"

"Are you sure? It might hurt," I said reasonably.

"As sure as I am going to kick your ass if you don't!"

Some people have no sense of humor. I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a picture. Precious hissed at me, this made it a keeper. I about shit when she launched herself off of Jeff's back at me. I guess she recognized me as someone who antagonized her. I snatched her out of the air by the scruff of her neck. I made Duke get out of the crate and stuffed the cat from hell in. I was amused to see the hair on Duke's back was up. He was wary of all the hissing going on.

I took Jeff into the kitchen and cleaned him up. I made him take his shirt off and made a face.

"How bad is it?" Jeff asked.

"I don't think you need stitches," I said.

"You do know I'm going to have my girlfriend kick your ass," Jeff threatened.

"Hey, buddy. No need for that."

"I think I'll have her do it right after practice, so everyone will see you cry like a little girl."

"How about I just cry? There is no need for Cassidy to get involved."

"Nope, she hasn't kicked anyone's ass in a while. She has been giving me funny looks. I think this will kill two birds with one stone. You get what's coming to you, and she gets to vent her frustrations," Jeff said.

"If you need some ideas to help Cassidy relieve some stress, I'm your guy," I teased him.

"Shut the fuck up. I'm trying to be mad at you," he said when a little smile creeped onto his face.

After practice everyone seemed to be hanging around. I then saw a bunch of people following Jeff and Cassidy to the baseball field. The little shit told on me. I looked for an escape route and I found my teammates had blocked my exit. I gave them a look.

"Nice," I hissed at them.

Cassidy stomped up and was pissed. This didn't look good.

"I hear you made my boyfriend bleed. You do know I believe in an eye for an eye. I think you need to bleed," Cassidy proclaimed.

"Hang on; I didn't do anything to Jeff. I actually helped him."

Cassidy turned to Jeff. It sounded like he hadn't told her the whole story.

"You knew that cat was evil," he started.

"Whoa, you have heard plenty of stories about the cat from hell."

Cassidy was trying to decide what to do. I thought I might be able to head things off before she chose to hurt me.

"I'm a lover not a fighter," I told her and waggled my eyebrows.

What is the point in being a movie star slash model if you can't get a girl to keep from kicking your ass by flirting with her? Cassidy grabbed my thumb.

"Pitching hand! Pitching hand!" I said as I went to my knees.

"Give me your other hand," she ordered.

I'm no dummy, so I held it out for her so she could get it in the same hold as she released my right hand. Once she had me on my knees she leaned down and kissed me. She turned to Jeff.

"Happy?" she asked.

"He didn't cry," Jeff complained.

I stuck my tongue out at him, and everyone laughed. Cassidy set me free and explained if I ever let Jeff get hurt again she would be back. I was careful not to make any remarks about my best friend being a pussy. I would save that for when he and I were playing Call of Duty. I would probably have to off him. I know it's not really the right thing to kill a teammate, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I was sure Alan would agree. He might even help me kill Jeff, six or seven times. Friendly Fire sometimes happened.

Unbelievable! I have never seen a cat suck up to anyone as much as Precious did when Brit came home with me from baseball practice. You have never heard such pitiful meowing, as when she saw her come through the back door.

"How did you get the leash on her," Brock asked as he leaned in so only his brother and I could hear.

"I had Jeff let her cling to his back," I told them as if I were parting them with some pearl of wisdom.

Bryan looked at Brock and began to chuckle.

"Think again little brother. I'm not getting anywhere near Precious after the day she's had. She would tear me to shreds," Brock said as he started to back up.

I looked up in time to see Brit open the crate. I swear the cats eyes glowed red as she stared me down. Even Duke was smart enough to find something else to do at that moment. I about kicked Bryan's ass as he used me as a human shield. Precious had the big tough brothers fearing for their lives.

"Come to mama, baby," Brit said as she picked up her cat.

As she walked out the back door, Precious hissed and swatted at me.

"That's right, protect mama from the bad man," Brit cooed.

I was looking for my protection. He was peeking around the side of the house behind me. I guess he figured if I got maimed, he would have a head start.

I had a big smile on my face when the triplets had just gotten home and I heard a muffled squeal and then Get her off of me. I hoped it was Bryan who got to play with Brit's kitty. The whole human shield thing irritated me. Maybe I could get him to play Call of Duty with Jeff, Alan and me, later. A little Friendly Fire would do him some good.

Tuesday April 28

When I got to school I was looking for some people. My plan for killing Jeff and Bryan had been an epic fail. Jeff was a very smart guy, so I should have figured he knew what I was going to do. I hadn't counted on Bryan and Brock turning on me also. I was okay with it until Alan set up as a sniper and camped my spawn locations. That is where you come back to life after you die in the game. It is considered very poor gaming etiquette to camp (wait) for an opponent to come back to life. They are defenseless as they are reborn and you can kill them over and over again. You can only listen to 'Oops, my bad' 'Sorry' 'I thought you were on the other team' so many times. Many games have rules about killing your own teammates that include apologies. Then Alan put together a video clip of me getting wasted in the most entertaining ways. It might have been funny if it was someone else. I did die spectacularly several times.

I got even though. I logged off. I received more than one inappropriate text calling my manhood into question. I called Ty Wilson, my friend at Washington High, and got his logon. He had played with us several times. They let him join their team for the next game. When we all spawned to start the game I hosed them all down with my machine gun. I think Ty was in for a rude awakening the next time he logged on to play.

I came storming up to everyone and saw Cassidy out of the corner of my eye talking to Gina. They were lucky she was there.

"You guys suck," I said, as my way of saying good morning.

"Bite me Dawson. You let the cat from hell attack me," Jeff said still whining about playing with Precious.

"How did you get Ty to kill us all? Did you go whining to him about how unfair we were being?" Alan asked mimicking my voice.

He made me sound a little shrill. Surely I hadn't sounded that bad. I wasn't about to tell them Ty gave me his logon. I figured he needed to find out the hard way. He had killed me more than once, on purpose. Maybe I started it, but he should have been the bigger man and chalked it up as a learning experience.

"I have a question," Bryan said. "Why in the world did you give Cassidy your other thumb? Couldn't she just have snapped them both off?"

"Ah, you have much to learn," I said gathering the guys around. I didn't need Cassidy overhearing me. "There were two reasons, well maybe three, as to why I did it. The first was she did have my pitching hand and it was a little uncomfortable. The second was Cassidy is nothing if she isn't honorable, so I knew if I made the offer she would accept it and not take advantage. The third is she is my friend and her dad told her not to hurt me. Finally, Cassidy knows exactly how much pressure I can take before I am really hurt."

"That was like five things," Alan offered helpfully.

"Plus, if David had wanted to get away he could have. Shiggy taught him how to counter that move," Jeff shared.

"Yeah, that works so well," I said as I rolled my eyes. It might work once out of every ten times. The other nine would result in a dislocated thumb. No way would I want that to happen.

The bell rang. I ran up and scooped Cassidy up and put her on my shoulder. She didn't even squeak. She stole my baseball cap and put it on as I walked into the school.

"What are you doing?" Gina asked.

"She defeated me in combat yesterday. I'm carrying her to her locker as her reward."

Cassidy was doing a royal wave to her subjects as they parted to let us through. All was fun and games until her dad saw us and made me put her down. I was pissed when she scampered off with my baseball cap.

At lunch we confirmed that our Alternate Prom was a go. Stacy Clute, Alan's girlfriend, had come up with the name and artwork. Someone had the ingenious plan of doing a hog roast, and the Country Club would provide age appropriate beverages, and side dishes, so we could have a sit-down dinner.

We got food from Lisa, the girl who was on the original Prom committee. Her dad owned the hog farm. He agreed to sell us a hog at his price, and he had everything we needed to do a hog roast. Lisa's uncle said he would do the actual cooking of the pig. We just had to provide the beer.

"We've already sold forty tickets, and none of you have bought any yet," Lisa told the lunch crew.

It turned out the price for tickets was less than what I'd paid for my Prom tickets. I noticed the tickets specifically said there was no dress code.

"What's this about?" I asked.

"One of the biggest complaints about Prom is people have to get dressed up. Buying a dress is expensive," Stacy said.

"What if they want to get dressed up?" I asked.

"I hope most people do, but for the ones who can't afford it, or don't want to, we want to include them," Gina said.

"I have a question," Mike said. "What if a couple from another school wants to come?"

"I would say that if we have room, after everyone who wants to go from Lincoln, then it would be fine," Wolf gave his opinion.

"Who wants to come?" I asked.

"I talked to Ty Wilson from Washington. Their Prom may get canceled because of what happened."

At their Spring Fling dance, a car load of teens were injured when the driver lost control and it flipped. They had all been drinking at the dance, and the school board was concerned about their potential liability. It looked like their Prom might be canceled this year.

I sat back and let them debate the pros and cons of allowing Washington to share in our dance. I knew before they even began what the answer would be. It all comes down to small town values. We look out for each other, and the kids from Washington were in need. Gina said the ballroom at the Country Club would seat 300. It was decided to give half the tickets to Washington to sell.

I was just glad I didn't have to organize this thing. We were lucky to have Dan and Lisa helping. They had worked on the Prom Committee from the first of the year, and knew almost everything we needed and where to get it. What I was happy to see was the confidence everyone seemed to have. Alan, Jeff and Mike had really stepped up. I know for a fact that my best friends, Alan and Jeff, could not have pulled this off a year ago.

Uncle John had encouraged me to delegate to help build other leaders, and I was seeing what he was talking about. They no longer needed me to hold their hands. They could take things on and see them to fruition. Uncle John had explained to me that I could only do so much on my own. When I learned to delegate, and through that responsibility, helped others grow; well, that's when I could really impact things.

As I sat there reflecting on what my friends were accomplishing made me realize I had more work to do. This summer we needed to get ready for football next year. My goal was to be a three time State Champion. Schools would be gunning for us this year and we would have to work even harder to meet the challenge. I knew we needed a plan. I also needed to get everyone's buy in, including the coaching staff. I assumed Tim and I would still be captains. Jim would be a senior. I thought he could take Bill's spot as the third captain. I needed to get the three of us together and schedule some time with the coaching staff.

Wednesday April 29

The baseball coaches had met yesterday and decided I would pitch today and Justin would start in the first game for the State Championship Tournament. If we won we would play again on Saturday. The good news was the State Tournament was being played at State University. It would be almost like a home game for us.

Tonight we faced our conference rivals, Eastside. We were pretty sure there wouldn't be any carryover from the hostility during football. There had been a little tussle during basketball this year, but nothing got out of hand. If things got chippie I could always uncork a fastball into someone's back. I had learned, that even with our high impact shirts, it hurt and would discourage me.

Tonight was senior night, so Bill, Trevor and Lou would be honored. All the parents had also been invited, so we had a nice crowd as I walked down to the bullpen to warm up. Adding to the festive atmosphere, the boosters had setup a hospitality tent and were selling $1 hotdogs. These were the big ones, so you felt you were getting your money's worth.

All the proceeds were going to the booster club. They were raising money to buy a couple of JUGS Football Passing Machines. State had two they wanted replaced. Coaches Hope and Diamond had checked them out and they were in good shape. Mrs. Sullivan had bought them out of her pocket, but the booster club insisted on raising some money to help defray her cost.

I made a point to give money to Pam and Mona so if someone wanted a hotdog, and didn't have the money, they could get a couple. I was thinking in terms of our JV team or little kids. I about decided I needed to have a talk with them when I saw them paying for Eastside to get some food. Then I remembered baseball pants weren't designed for carrying a wallet. Plus the goal was to pay for some equipment, which would help our team.

Personally stayed away from eating any hotdogs before the game. I found I tended to have a nervous stomach when I was pitching. The last thing I needed to do was to throw up in the bullpen. Things were going to be a little tense tonight. If we won, we could possibly get the number one seed in the tournament. The other thing which had me nervous was Tim was not catching me tonight. Lou was our backup catcher and a senior. Moose made the call that the seniors would start their last game.

Shiggy called a halt to my loosening up in the bullpen and we all went out and did our pre-game drills. I found a good sweat helped me with my pre-game jitters. The other thing the new warmups did was help the whole team get ready. We had made a name for ourselves by scoring on our opponents early. Shiggy seemed to have a knack for getting us focused.