49 – Ball Games

Dave's team ended up being on defence first. They grabbed the mits and headed out to the field.

The girls avoided the bases like the plague leaving it up to the guys to cover those. He ended up becoming the pitcher himself.

He looked back at Kate who was in the outfield hoping no one would need to rely on her severely lacking baseball skills, but she gave Dave an encouraging thumbs up when he looked at her.

Mara, who was also in the outfield, sneered at her. "You make such a cute couple. Two losers. A match made in heaven." she said sarcastically.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Right... and whose boyfriend ganged up one someone with two friends and still got beaten up so hard he couldn't come to school the next day?" she asked facetiously causing Mara to grumble. It did cause Mara to stop antagonising her though which excited her.

Things were going well and he was even able to eliminate a few batters.

Their team was getting quite excited since the other team had only managed to score a few points and their turn as batters was almost coming up.

Finally Jeffrey was up to the home plate as batter. He sneered at Dave.

"You can do it baby!" Mara yelled from the outfield.

Dave just rolled his eyes not expecting much from Jeffrey.

Jeffrey swung a few times to loosen up before stepping up to the plate.

Dave wound up and threw the baseball. Jeffrey looked confident and swung, but missed completely leading to some embarrassment.

"Strike," Coach Brown said.

Jeffrey looked kind of frustrated, but took a deep breath to calm down and get ready for the next pitch.

Dave caught the ball that the catcher threw back with a smirk which only annoyed Jeffrey further.

Dave threw the ball again. Despite not having a lot of experience in baseball he managed to score another strike as the equally inexperienced Jeffrey swung wildly and missed again.

"Strike two!" Coach Brown announced.

Jeffrey was turning red, but managed to contain himself. He knew how to behave himself around the teachers to keep his reputation at least passable.

On the third pitch Jeffrey managed to luck out and he hit the ball head on. This actually sent the ball hurtling straight for Dave's face.

With the surge of adrenaline everything seemed to slow down for Dave. He could see Jeffrey's venomous smirk when he noticed the ball was going to hit him in the face. Jeffrey dropped the bat and started running towards first base excitedly. Dave could also see the ball closing in rapidly.

They weren't actually wearing helmets so getting hit in the head was actually a concern. Thankfully he managed to lift his hand to catch the ball moments before it hit his face. He sighed in relief as the adrenaline rush wore off his breathing still rapid trying to calm him down along with his palpitating heartbeat.

Kate standing in the outfield jumped excitedly. "Great job!" she shouted.

Then Dave immediately threw the ball to second base to eliminate another of Jeffrey's team mates.

Jeffrey hadn't even managed to make it to first base.

"And you're out!" Coach Brown yelled.

Jeffrey wasn't able to contain his anger anymore. "Fuck!" he yelled stomping off the field.

When Jeffrey got back to the bench he looked over to Mara, but instead of support when she saw him look at her she looked away from him seemingly embarrassed by his performance. He gritted his teeth shooting an aggravated glare at Dave, dumping all the blame on him instead.

Dave seeing their little interaction could only feel just a little bit of happiness. Step one of his plan was destroying Jeffrey's social status and making Mara disappointed with him after all. If she also happened to feel regret over trying to use and abandon him, that would be the cherry on top. He didn't believe she had enough of an actual heart to feel bad about what she did to him, but she was narcissistic enough to regret missing out on the better option if he managed to prove he had been the better choice and she had missed it.

The rest of Jeffrey's team seems disappointed since not only had he been struck out, but had even managed to get another eliminated.

The rest of the inning passed rather quickly and Jeffrey's team had only managed to score a few more points.

The teams switch and Jeffrey seems adamant to be the pitcher. Could he make it any more obvious that he wants to try winning back some of his pride?

It seemed he was annoying his teammates even more after it turned out his performance wasn't anything impressive. He might even have managed more balls than strikes even leading to a few walks.

He didn't realise the looks they were shooting him though, too focused on Dave as he scooted closer and closer on the bench until it was finally his turn to go up as batter.

Dave grabbed a bat and stepped up to the home plate looking confident. Their team was ahead and all the bases were loaded.

A hush settled over both teams. Everyone was aware this moment was the reason Jeffrey had insisted on being the pitcher and ruined their inning. They were curious to see what would happen.

Jeffrey wound up and threw as best he could. Dave swung, but just barely missed the ball leading to his first strike.

Jeffrey smirked. He felt like it was his time for some payback.

Dave breathed in deeply to calm himself down before focusing back on the ball that was back in Jeffrey's hands. He pulled back the bat preparing for the next pitch.

Jeffrey threw as hard as he could trying to get another strike.

This time didn't go according to plan as Dave managed to hit it dead on sending it flying full force with a loud crack. Dave immediately let go of the bat and dashed for first base. The others on the bases did the same.