Over the last couple of years, Mom had stopped coming to my baseball games. She said it made her 'too tense.'Now she seemed to show interest in seeing me play. I guessed she probably felt bad, because Dad went to coach the Blue Belles, and there was no one to come to my games.Felik and Grigor found out that we were training on our own almost every day and started bringing their friends to help us. Mitko would work with April and Olive on pitching and catching. But we also got Zoya (the young woman who gave us ice cream and turned out to be a very classy hitter). They'd divide us into small groups and work on particular skills.At first, there were just five of us show up. Then Rosie, Susan, and even Harper came. Stefanie was the last to join. She accused us of trying to exclude her f

The score was a tie between the Rejects and the Wanderers. The extra innings were needed to break the tie.Olive was a pitcher. She stood on the mound while everyone in our team watched in anticipation. At last, Olive threw a fast-speed ball, which went into Harper's glove neatly. We breathed a sigh of relief.Another pitch.Olive took a deep breath and held another ball in her hand. Then she raised her left knee up before sending another flying ball. It went into Harper's glove again. As we did in training, she threw it back across the field, Olive ducked so that it could pass on to Tonya, but a Wanderer ran like a wind and slide through the ground to steal the base before the ball was caught."Safe!" the umpire cried.

On Sunday afternoons, Grigor, Felik, Mitko, Zoya, and the bakery owner Polina would gather in the room with other patrons above Matryoshka. In the midst of steam of coffee, they huddled in front of a huge flat-screen TV to watch Charlotte's videos of the previous games.Once the coaches found out about Olive's baseball brain, she became the key part of 'the Tactical Team'. They would analyze the game, debate about the latest strategies used by professional leagues, and plan next week's training schedule.I tagged along with Olive, not because I wanted to discuss the tactics, but because Charlotte was also there in those Sunday sessions. But I didn't understand half of what they were talking about, and my eyes would wander away from the screen to the blonde girl. At one point, she turned as if she could feel my stare and caught me lookin

It was windy on the last game before the Final. Wind so vicious, it ripped straight through clothes and made your skin sting with cold. Everyone walked with their heads tucked in, hearing nothing but the rush of air in their ears. We were a visiting team. The Tiger Cubs's field was on top of a hill with no trees at all to cut the blast of the wind.A couple of men were struggling to put up the banners. The banners were tangled, blowing back into the men's faces.Other Red Thorns fans were also turning up for the game.Susan got out of her car, being roused by her dad. I couldn't hear what they were on about but the angry booming voice of her dad was loud from here. At the other end of the car park, Harper was scrambling to find her gloves and helmet on the car floor. She was crying and

The rain bucketed down nonstop for the next two days straight. I walked past the Matryoshka, but I didn't run into anyone from the team or any of our supporters. The footpath was damp, the chairs were tipped up against the tables and there were hardly any customers inside.I was going to the Thursday training as usual. Surely things would turn around and go back to the way they were. I imagined Felik and Grigor cruising in their Bentley with their cool shades. Felik would crack a few jokes and Grigor would make some great speech and the Rejects would be high spirited again.When I arrived at the diamond field, the place was deserted. The surface of the park was so soggy all over and in the middle, there was a shallow lake.I was about to give up and go home when I spotted Margaret. I d