Sibling Rivalry

Call it sibling rivalry. I couldn’t help myself. I knew Janie was only dating my brother to get to me. Why should I care? I wasn’t interested in her. At least not at first.

See, Janie is in my grade and my brother is two years older. Pfft, she is a marginal ball player at best. She only joined the league to tease me. She’s never picked up a bat in her whole 16 years of life.

So why would she pick softball of all the sports to try to emulate. There goes our chance of winning the state competition this year. True, she is still on the bench. She doesn’t have a position on the field yet. She doesn’t even know what fielding means.

Every day after school she come strutting in her little skirty-short- thing and her knee high socks and her silly hair ties and flaunts herself.

Geez, Billy’s sitting in the bleachers with his buddies. Probably talking smack about Janie when I know he barely ever got to 2nd base. This I heard last week in the shower room. He’s such a turd for brains.

“Hey Beth.”

Shit she saw me staring at her. “Janie.” I nodded and finished tying my cleats.

“Do you have time to practice this weekend? I really want to learn to throw better.” Her smile looked sincere enough.

“I thought you were going to the fair with Billy this weekend?” I looked over at my brother again.

He was giving me his evil eye. We have had words about his girlfriend giving me too much attention. His developing masculine ego was being challenged. At least that’s how I saw it.

“Well, there are two days to the weekend and I’m only going to the fair one of those days.” She pouted and crossed her arms.

Putting on my ball cap I walked past her and picked up my glove. “Let’s go shag some balls, girlie. Let’s see how much remedial training you really do need.”

Janie squealed and jumped up and down, running to catch up with me.

We had about ten minutes before coach came out and practice really began. “Janie, you take first base today. Let’s see if we found a spot for you yet.” Coach Lana was such an optimist.

No one would ever say Janie is only on the squad because her father is the superintendent, nooo.

“Beth, third base and start tossing some over to first. The rest of you to the batting cage, let’s start swinging.”

The first couple of throws were light, I didn’t throw too hard. But as Janie became comfortable with moving around the base I began putting more energy into my throws….a little too much energy.

“Ow! Why did you throw the ball so hard, Beth?”

She had the whiniest voice I swear. “Janie, this isn’t whiffle ball. You need to toughen up.” I hope she gets the picture soon she just doesn’t belong on the field.

“You did that on purpose!” She was having a temper tantrum.

I rolled my eyes and began tossing the ball up in the air by myself and catching it, pretty much ignoring her.

“Beth, not so hard, ok?” Coach was taking her side.

“Coach, I can’t help her. I’ve tried, she’s a mess and can’t catch a ball if it flew into her glove.”

“We were all inexperienced once, Beth.” Coach tried to reason with me. I knew she was right but all I wanted to do was take Janie into the shower and wash all those little dirt marks on her body. Well, how about wash the dirt off her body from us rolling in the grass together…

“Hey Beth, you gonna play ball or stand around and stare at my girlfriend a little longer?”

Just hearing his voice set me off. I turned and began walking over to Billy ignoring my coach and other teammates.

He walked toward me and stopped one inch from my face. His eyes just one inch higher than mine. “I said you practicing ball or just flirting with my girl?”

I pushed him back about three feet with one big push to his chest. “I don’t need to flirt with your girlfriend, Billy. I can get any girl I want. It’s just your girlfriend keeps flirting with me. If you can’t handle her, maybe I should.” I turned abruptly and smirked, walking back to the field.

“Ok girls, head to the showers. We’ll pick this up tomorrow.” Coach dismissed us.

Janie hadn’t said anything else but sat on the bench and watched me push my brother.

I grabbed my hat and glove and headed into the building. I gave Billy a side glance as his girlfriend rushed in beside me as we entered the school.

Janie slipped her arm into mine and stopped me from entering the locker room with the rest of the team. “Beth, I want to spend more time with you, not Billy.”

“Why would you want to spend time with me Janie? I didn’t think I was your type.” I leaned back against the wall and crossed my arms and legs, just staring at her. I could see her face redden and her chest raising in excitement. I wasn’t going to make this easy on her. She was my brother’s girlfriend after all.

“Dang it, Beth, I don’t want to be with Billy, he is a loser. I want to be your girl! I want you to kiss me and take me to the fair and teach me to do the things you like…” She was out of breath.

Without saying another word, I pulled her against my chest and put my arms around her waist. “I don’t think you know what you are getting yourself into, being my girlfriend.” I still wanted to give her an out.

“Try me.” She stared back at me.

I gave in and kissed Janie hard on the lips and pulled her hair back. “My girlfriend.”





1,000 words