Kismet

Kismet

“Next!” the teacher yelled.

Allison went up to bat. I would be after her. It was school PE game time.

I was the newbie. We had just moved here from another state during the summer. I was eleven, sixth grade. At my old school we hadn’t gotten to baseball. Our outdoor gym days only involved running around the building in the play yard. I only knew about baseball because my brother played it with the kid next door. They pretended to be on teams, just them, one kid each team, in a small side yard. There were five kids in my family, only one boy.

Allison had been talking to the two girls behind me when she got called. Quite talk, laughing, whispering so I couldn’t hear what they were talking about.

“Next!” the woman yelled. Allison went up to bat.

My turn next! I was nervous, I’d never tried to hit a ball with a bat before. I started to walk, but then the girl behind me pushed past! And, the other one stepped in front of me, so she would be next!

I quietly said, “They’re after me…” But nobody heard, and I didn’t really know what to do. But then, I didn’t know anything about baseball either… so, I just backed up.

Once our team struck out, I ended up in left field. I had no idea what that meant, but nobody hit a ball toward me so I just stood there looking around until we went up to bat again. Which, I didn’t have to do…

We played baseball for three weeks. I never “played” not even once; nobody knew.

Oddly enough, the gym teacher, who kept forgetting my name, gave me an A! Apparently, not getting into trouble counts a lot in sixth grade… Kismet.