Strike Zone by Derek Jeter

Author:Derek Jeter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Published: 2020-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

It was Tuesday after school. Time for the Yankees’ second game of the season. This time, Derek’s dad was in the stands along with Sharlee, who had, as promised, brought along a big white cardboard sign with the words “GO, AVERY!” on it.

She looked as excited as Derek had ever seen her. He sure hoped the team—and Avery—came through for her.

He’d been thinking about Avery, especially since his mom had lost out on her promotion. He realized that up until now, he’d barely spoken two words to her. He’d finally broken through after their first game, but then Avery’s mom had gotten overheated with the coach.

Derek noticed that she’d dropped Avery off today, along with those two older boys he figured were her brothers. But she herself hadn’t stayed. Maybe Avery had asked her mom to stay away, he thought. Too much of a distraction, worrying about whether she was going to blow up at the coach again?

Or maybe Avery’s mom was just busy today with something else, like his own mom, who’d had to stay late at work for a meeting.

“Hey, Derek,” Vijay called to him. “Let’s toss it around.”

They started playing catch to warm up their arms, waiting for the rest of the ballplayers and fans to arrive.

“Hey, Avery!” Vijay motioned to her, inviting her to join them.

Vijay didn’t care if the team had a girl on it, Derek noticed. He always just accepted everybody for who they were. Derek decided that if Vijay could be seen playing catch with her, so could he.

“You see that little girl over there with the sign?” Derek asked her, pointing over to Sharlee.

“Ha! Cute!” Avery said, cracking a rare smile.

“My sister.”

“Really? Wow!” She seemed genuinely touched. “That’s so sweet.” She turned and waved at Sharlee, who acted like she’d been singled out by the most famous ballplayer ever.

Avery waved again, then got back to business. Soon, most of the other kids arrived, and her rosy mood faded back to dark gray. Game time was approaching, and the Reds looked like a tough team to beat.

Derek decided that since he didn’t really know her, he could only judge Avery by her play on the field, and the way she acted off it. So far, he had to say, she’d earned his respect.

If it were just him and Vijay, and others like them, who had to play with her as a teammate, it would have been okay. But it was her on the one hand, and Pete, Harry, Norman, Elliott, Ryan, and who knew who else on the other!

If only his dad had been their coach—the whole thing would have been straightened out by now. He was sure of it.

Coach Stafford and Coach K seemed not to want to deal with the problem. Were they just pretending not to see or hear what was happening? Didn’t they care about the kids they were coaching? Didn’t they care about the team?

Maybe it was because Avery’s mom wasn’t there, or maybe it was because she had argued with the coach.

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