Fast Pitch by Nic Stone

Author:Nic Stone [Stone, Nic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

When I do manage to actually fall asleep? En route to the game.

It’s an hour-and-a-half drive to the little country town where we’ll face off against the Midville Mighty Ducks. (That’s a mascot for you.) And within ten minutes of hitting the highway, I’m down for the count.

I wake to disco-loving Laury’s phone in my face. On the screen is an image of me, knocked out, mouth open, drool running. Laury, Cala, and Hennessey are all facing me, with Khyler on my left and Britt-Marie on my right, trapping me in a circle of ridicule.

Laury is grinning. “Good nap, Slick?”

The other girls laugh.

“I hate you all,” I reply.

“Let’s not use the H-word, ladies,” Ms. Erica says from the front seat. I swear that woman has supersonic hearing. “We must edify!”

I shut my eyes so I can roll them without anybody seeing (and tattling like a six-year-old). “Yes, Ms. Erica,” we all say as one.

“Okay, everybody out!” from Coach Nat. “We’ve got some duck butt to set on fire!”

Britt-Marie snorts. “Coach, you are clearly taking those ‘suburban dad’ aspirations pretty seriously with jokes like that.”

“Zip it and get outta my van, Hogan.”

We all laugh. Which feels pretty good.

The good feels don’t last, though. As we exit and make our way to the playing field, it becomes pretty apparent that this maybe isn’t friendly territory for a team like ours. Moments like these, I want to check a calendar to see what century we’re in. Certainly doesn’t feel like the twenty-first.

“Sheesh, do they know the Confederacy lost the war?” from Britt-Marie (of course).

“Will you shush?” I say. “This is not the time!”

Because in addition to the parking lot full of vehicles with Confederate flag emblems on them, the looks coming at us from the people said vehicles belong to? Yeah, this feels far worse than the evil eye B-Cubed threw my way after ending my season three years ago.

And it’s not just me.

“Hey, Captain Lightning?” Cala says under her breath as she steps into stride beside me. She links her arm with mine. “I don’t like how those people are eyeballing us.”

“Me neither, Quickfire,” I reply.

By the time our feet touch the field, it’s clear that we’re all feeling…off.

And I have no idea what to say.

There’s a nervousness that runs through our warm-up. Some dropped balls here and there, and nobody throwing or running as confidently as usual. Before the game begins, Coach Nat and Ms. Erica pull us into a huddle inside the dugout instead of on the field.

And Coach’s pep talk is…different. I’m pretty sure we can all feel her discomfort. “Uhhh…so this is…umm…” She looks at her feet, and me and my teammates all peek at each other. The last time Coach Nat couldn’t find words was after Hennessey’s dad passed away last season.

This is no good.

“Okay, listen to me, sweet babies,” Ms. Erica says, jumping in. And we all turn to her. “All of you are old enough to know—and have probably felt—that the world ain’t always a nice or fair place for bright and bold young royals like you.

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