A Baseball and Glove for Company

[William Brady]

For the last half hour, Brady had been wandering up and down Laguna's central park with a baseball and glove in hand as he repeatedly threw the small ball a few verticle feet into the air before letting it fall into his mit. Of course, this wasn't really the greatest practice for him, as it was so second nature to him by now he really did not have to think about catching the ball anymore, but Brady was bored and needed to find away to pass his time.

He knew he should most likely go home and see if his mother needed his help at all with any small chore, but Brady understood very well what else would be waiting for him. For he could anticipate a small army of young girls screeching his name and yelling for him to play with him the moment he stepped through the door, which were indeed his beloved younger sisters. But even though they were dear to him, Brady was still quite tired from the baseball practice he had an hour beforehand and did not quite have the energy gathered to please them.

And so he decided to stay in the park a bit longer with only his baseball and mit to keep him company. He did not exactly mind this, as baseball was a major portion of his life, but despite himself, he could not help but to feel as though a bit of human interaction would do him well at a time so uneventful as this, even if it seemed unlikely.

[Wendy Hawkins]

Wendy walked into the park, knowing for sure that baseball practice was over and so she could avoid an awkward situation of getting hit in the head with a fly ball. That's what had happened the last time she came to the park during their practices, and never repeated the experience, being careful to wait until they were over before making her way to the quiet sanctuary of the park. She was reading as she walked inside, taking no notice at all of the outside world around her, letting the book swallow her up in a sort of 'If I can't see you, you can't see me' theory. Usually it worked quite well, not to mention it was a rather good book.

Her feet took her in the direction they did everyday after the baseball players were done, and she was so used to the journey, and so sure that no one would be about, that she didn't even bother to look up from her book as her sneakers treaded quietly in the soft grass. She liked the bench to the left and a bit behind the baseball diamond, as there was a big tree there, and most people didn't stick around there. However, shockingly enough someone was still there, and it was Wendy's misfortune to come crashing into him, convieniently coming from the opposite direction he was facing so he wouldn't have even seen her coming. She should have listened when they told her that if you Assume, you make an ass out of you and me. But apparantly that was one lesson she hadn't paid much attention to.

((Hmm... well... here's Wendy for you... ))

[William Brady]

Now that he found himself suddenly pushed forward in a way he had certainly not been expecting, the baseball that Brady had recently thrown into the air flew rapidly downwards in a spiralling motion until it finally struck his foot, landing neatly upon his last three toes. Normally, this would not have hurt him at all, as he was usually seen wearing his cleates after school wherever he had practice. But for one reason or another, Brady had decided beforehand to change back into his more comfortable shoes for the walk home, which exposed the toes on the end of his feet. Therefore, when the baseball made contact, it actually did hurt.

Refusing to swear outloud, a habit he had learned long ago from living in a household of six younger girls, a string of cuss words instead simply repeated only in his head as he bit down on his lip and squeeze his eyes shut. Several short moments went by before he opened his eyes, the shock of pain gone, he discover his 'attacker' was a girl most likely close to his age.

"Well, hello to you there." He said simply to her with a wry smile appearing on his features, not quite sure what to say as he was positive it had been an accident. After making this simple greeting, he then bent down to inspect his wounded toes, watching as they turned a pinkish red coloring before his eyes.

[Wendy Hawkins]

Wendy was relatively unharmed, though her book had slammed into her at the impact, it hadn't really done much damage. She was silent for a moment, staring at the ground. She hadn't even had the guts to glance over at the person she'd crashed into, afraid they'd be extremely angry with her for her clumsiness, or lack of attentiveness... one or the other. However she was startled out of her thoughts when she heard a voice speaking, and even more startled at the fact that it didn't seem angry at all. In fact it could almost be considered amused, which just left Wendy so shocked she looked up to meet the face of the boy she'd run into.

"Hi," she just about squeaked, her brown eyes still as wide as saucers in her face as she watched him bend down to inspect his toes. "I'm so sorry... I wasn't looking where I was...going..." she said, trailing off as she realized that she had her book up over most of her face and had simply been watching him over the top of it, an unconcious effort to hide herself but only ended up with her looking even more like an idiot. She quickly snapped the book shut, her cheeks now blushing crimson as the rest of her face was revealed. She really wasn't quite sure what she was scared about anymore, maybe just the fact that he wasn't angry. "A-are you alright?" she added quietly, though not quite as muffled as the book wasn't up over her face any longer.

[William Brady]

Brady offered her a geninue smile perceiving quite clearly that she was nervous at the moment for reasons he could not understand why as he had never exactly seen himself as the scary type. And though Brady did not possess any extraordinary social grace as he was not a capable sweet talker nor did he have a stunning sense of humor, he did have a sort of ease around him that he hoped would help comfort her.

"Well considering my toes were the victims instead of my pitching fingers, I'd say I'm perfectly alright." He answered, unaware of the fact that a lot of what he had to say often mentioned baseball one way or another.

"And what about you, you seemed to have gotten smacked their in the face." He continued, glancing at her face with his chocolate brown eyes contorted by a squint as he look for marks for the accident.

[Wendy Hawkins]

Wendy smiled ever so slightly, and for the first time in a while she was 100% in the here and now... though only because she'd had her thoughts literally knocked out of her. Usually she walked around in a blissful half daydream, thinking about books, or thinking up poems or rhymes, or in general just daydreaming. In fact that was mostly what she'd been doing when she'd crashed into him in the first place, though now that there was no distracting daydream tugging at her conciousness she felt very self-concious and aware of herself. Nothing in particular, but just the way she was dressed, her hair, how the blush was slowly fading from her cheeks. If she'd been in her normal daydream she wouldn't have noticed any of it, but she took a deep breath and continued on, trying to maybe make up for some of her stupidity.

"I'm fine, nothing broken I promise," she said, her smile widening ever so slightly. She felt very... not awkward, or out of place, simply out of her element would be the best way to put it. "Well look... we certainly started off wrong, and again I'm sorry I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm Wendy, Wendy Hawkins," she said, holding out a hand for him to shake, the other one holding her book, because her bookbag was already full. She was at least trying to be... normal... social... maybe alive would be the term, as she'd gotten so wrapped up in her dreams and stories that her real life tended to seem like a commercial break before she could get back to the interesting stuff.

[William Brady]

Brady could not help but to notice as she spoke that she was carrying a ridiculous amount of books of her person in several places. For books occupied both of her hands and it appeared that the large bulge in her backpack could more than likely be blamed for this as well. While at the same time, the old and worn bag slung around Brady's shoulder carried only his math book which happened to be the thinnest book he had received this year.

"Nice to meet you Wendy." he said, having to bend his knees slightly to have his hand reach the level of her's of the books she carried made it dificult to do in a more graceful fashion. "I'm Brady.." He stated without heisitation, never even occurring to him that perhaps he should introduce her with his actual first name, even though hardly anyone ever used it.

[Wendy Hawkins]

"Pleasure to meet you Brady, even if the circumstances weren't necessarily the best," she said with a slight shrug, having to tilt slightly to maintain her grip on both books, however this also made her bookbag start to drag her down so she almost lost her balance, as she was a rather light and tiny girl to be carrying such weight, yet she was used to it by now and had gotten quite good at mastering the art of leverage in order to make sure it didn't pull her flat on her back. She could feel her daydreams starting to creep back on her, drawing her in, but she quickly pushed them away, deciding to try real life, if only for a little while. So she cast Brady a slight smile, and then realization dawned on her.

"Oh I've seen you before... You were the one pitching when I got smacked in the head with a foul ball... I think," she said, her smile widening slightly, she still had the lump from that one. "I don't blame you or anything, don't worry," she added quickly, not wanting him to feel guilty, it wasn't his fault that she'd been reading off by herself and the ball just happened to come over in her direction and smark her hard over the head. She hadn't exactly been paying attention to the players warnings either, lost in her reading like always.

[William Brady]

A look of guilt instantly crossed over Brady's features at these words, as he apparently remembered the incident quite well. For he had been pitching for awhile to his friend Doug, who wasn't exactly the best batter on the team but he had really smacked the ball today. Of course it had been a foul ball that just happened to land perfectly upon some girl's head, who he now knew to be Wendy. At the time, he had been quite amused by this occurence as the chances of it happening had been slim, but now seeing Wendy before him, he could see clearly that it really hadn't been funny at all.

"Oh.." He stated before he paused for a moment. "That was you?" He asked biting his lip as he glanced up to meet her eye, but he was quite relieve to see her smile as though all was forgiven, and could not help but to smile in return.

"I'm really sorry about that..we had quite a few foul balls hit today. Coach was really getting mad at us." He added with a small grin accompanied by a loose shrug, as again, he was not aware that many of the things he had to say centered around baseball.

[Wendy Hawkins]

"Quite alright, I can't say I'm completely innocent, as I had been a bit too absorbed in my reading to hear any of the warnings shouted out to me," she said, with a slight laugh and a shrug. She hadn't even been reading, more just daydreaming while staring down at a page in a book, but she said reading because she thought it would sound stupid if she said she'd been daydreaming. "Plus you guys yell all the time anyway, I thought someone knocked it out of the park or something... not that it was about to land on my head," she said, and would have put a hand to feel the goose egg now located there but both were holding books. But she was able to laugh at herself now, after she'd quickly ran off to have a good cry where none of them could see... it did really hurt.

"Your coach yells a lot too, its kind of entertaining to watch if you don't mind me saying so," she said, of all sports Baseball was one of her favorites to watch. She liked how baseball still kept ties to older times, with the same uniforms with the long socks and jerseys, unlike basketball where they'd changed the uniforms so the guys shorts hung down by their knees. She also loved the sounds, the crack of a bat hitting a ball, the sound of someone sliding into home. Wendy was a girl that picked up on little details like that, which was probably the reason why she was such a good writer. She decided you could write quite a good poem on baseball, and thought she might try sometime and see.

[William Brady]

"Yeah." He agreed with a chuckle as he pictured his coach clearly in his mind. "When he get's angry, his bald head turns bright red and a vein sticks out near his ear." He continued, shaking his head to keep himself from breaking his words with a burst of sudden laughter.

"And it's kind of hard to take his seriously when his stomach begins to bob up and down. If it wasn't for the fact that he yells so damn loud, I think half the team would give up listening to him and just point and laugh." He finished with a wide grin, knowing the guys on his team quite well and finding nearly everything they did humorous as he was quite close to them all. This was unstandable, as it was bound to happen when he had played with most of these guys for years, not just on the Highschool team but on traveling teams as well that he had been on in grade school and junior high.

[Wendy Hawkins]

Wendy just rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, her smile widening. She thought it would be rather fun to have a group of people to talk with about such things... and then Wendy automatically went duh, like friends?! though silently of course. Wendy was just a loner mostly, because she was always thinking and dreaming about something or someone else, and it annoyed most people to no end. She'd never even been on a team or anything, because she wasn't athletic, and rather shy. Of course running into someone was a good way to break the ice, and she found herself more comfortable around Brady then most people, maybe because he just seemed very relaxed and easy going.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to be on a team... I'm not athletic in the least, and I'm deathly shy, so I'm not really into drama... And anyway, I've never been on a team of some sort, though it seems like you guys are pretty close," she said, grinning slightly. She was serious, but then her tone turned to a sort of mocking, teasing tone... though no less sweet. "I think it's sweet... all that male bonding stuff, you know?"

[Brook West]

Brook wandered into the park, she looked around and then sat down on the grass. She slowly took off her black sandles, feeling the grass against her feet. The grass tickled her feet so she unzipped her back and pulled out a pair of socks and put them on. Then she pulled out a pair of black sneakers and put them on too. She put her sandles in her bag and then took out a soccer ball. Brook stood up and started to kick the ball around. Because she wanted to get so practice in before her soccer practice, a few days from now. She was only going to practice 10 minutes or so and then... well, she didn't know. It's not like her parents cared or she had friends to hang out with. She was just alone and she hated it.

[William Brady]

"Male bonding?" He repeated with a grin before he shook his head. "I suppose you can call it that..though what it really is is just a bunch of guys being forced to to be around each other all the time. We're just all lucky we all generally like each other or we'd have problems."

He continued as his grin widened over his classic, all-American features. "But you've never played any sport before? Ever?" He asked, amazed by this as baseball played such a dominating role in his life that he couldn't imagine a life without anything like it.

From the corner of his eye, he then looked over and saw a girl about his age kicking a ball around. He heisitating before he offered a small wave, though he was unsure if she saw it or not considering the fact that she seemed a bit preoccupied at the moment.

[Wendy Hawkins]

Wendy followed his gaze, glancing over at the girl playing soccer by herself. Wendy would have liked to invite her over to the conversation, but she made the excuse that she didn't have a very loud voice. In reality she was just shy, so she watched the girl for another moment before turning her attention back to Brady, smiling slightly as she did so. He just was so easy going and comfortable, that it amazed Wendy that someone could just act like that... she was the kind of girl that always had some sort of nervousness in her, even when talking to her parents.

"No, not really... I mean in gym of course, but I just never really liked playing sports all that much," she said with a slight shrug. "Probably because I don't have a competitive bone in my entire body, but I love watching sports," she said, and though it seemed unlikely, she truly did. She just liked all the sounds and activity, the pressure and drama that you can feel during just about any sort of game or competition. Her love of watching sports would also partially explain why she'd chosen a spot right by the baseball fields in which to do her reading and writing, schoolwork or otherwise.