BEEP BEEP BEEP. 

I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I look up and it's 5:30 a.m. Oh my gosh How did I sleep past my alarm? My family is just about to walk over to the diamonds from our hotel on the complex. I hurry up and get ready to play. I am nervous, because these past few years I have started to realize that I haven’t been playing as well as other years. It might be because I’m playing with other girls on a different team. 

As soon as I finish getting ready we head over to the fields. On the way there I say, “Lainey this game is way too early for me.” 

“Yeah, but we gotta play hard so we can make it to the championship tomorrow!“ Lainey says enthusiastically.

We are just walking into the complex when I see this really nice black car drive by. It seems very familiar. I wonder, Is that Natalie and her family? How could her new team be in this tournament?

“Lainey, if Natalie’s team is here we have to beat them so badly because I’m still very mad and hurt that she left the team. I don't really like her. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coach Jason, and the rest of the team is mad also,” I said.

“YES, we really do. It’s not just you, I also don’t really like her anymore. It doesn't help that you guys used to be bestfriends,” she said.

We finally make it to the field that warm ups are on. I get my cleats on, and get ready to warm up for our back to back games. I'm playing catch with Lainey, and realize that Natalie and her team are here. They are for sure not on our side for pool play. I scream, “What if we play Natalie’s team in this tournament?” 

Everyone looked at me, especially Natalie. She gave me a dirty look, and walked away. What did we do to deserve this? She was the one that betrayed us. We didn't betray her, I thought. I just rolled my eyes and walked away. 

One of the girls on my team said, “I looked at who is in this tournament, and I saw they were here but they are in pool B, we are in pool A. The only way we would play them is tomorrow during bracket play.” 

Oh, thank goodness we might have a chance of taking home the trophy this weekend, I thought. Just as warm ups are done, coach Jason says “Ladies, we need to play our hearts out this weekend. The number one team in the state is in this tournament, and we want to see them in the championship. Let's play these two back to back games super good!” 

I just roll my eyes when I hear that because I know that my ex best friend is on that team, and she is the number one pitcher in the state. At that moment the umpire tosses the coin, and we go out onto the field because we are the home team. I am very athletic but at times I don’t have confidence, so hitting and fielding isn’t going very well right now. After a tough first game, we won three to one, only because they dropped Lainey’s hard pop fly and we scored two runs to seal the win. 

Before the second game the coach yells, “GIRLS, you need to have confidence, and believe in yourself or we will not win. We got this!” 

My mom bought me my favorite bubbl’r; the blue one. Now I’m happy and have confidence, for the next game in ten minutes. While we are walking back from the concessions, my mom says, “If you hit a homerun you can go to lululemon and pick out whatever you want, but you need confidence in the box.” 

“Ok, I will hit a homerun now,” I said very excitedly. 

The next game starts, we are guests. I’m the number three batter so I think I could get lululemon right now! Both of my teammates before me strike out.  I get up to bat and strike out looking. Now I'm very frustrated with myself and have lost my confidence once again. That game I only had one at bat. The game went very slow, but fortunately we won the game one to zero. The rest of the day we go back to the hotel, and rest up for our big day tomorrow.

That evening we found out we are the number one seed, so we play at nine thirty. I hate early games. When we play the early games they are cooler, so I prefer not waking up early to play in the cold. While I’m hanging out with my team eating pizza, they always talk and talk while I just sit there and be quiet. I feel like if I say less then nothing bad will happen. 

It’s Sunday, at seven thirty in the morning, I’m getting ready to play and ask my parents, “Is it possible to play Natalie today for sure?” 

“Yes, if you win your first game you will play her or the team they are playing in the championship game, but they also have to win their first game at ten thirty,” says my dad. 

As I drink my daily bubbl’r for the day I wonder, what's going to happen if we play Natalie and beat them, how would she act after the game? Just knowing her I know she will blow a huge fit about it. All of us walk over to the fields for warm ups all pumped. We are the number one seed playing the eight seed. I have confidence we will win the first game and get to the second game, I tell myself.

Throughout warmups we listen to our warm up music getting all pumped up for our early and cool crisp softball game. Coach says, “Let’s take some pop flies and grounders girls.”

 I get in line, I’m first up. My heart is beating so fast that it feels like a motorcycle speeding down the highway.  I really don’t wanna get yelled at by the coach, only because of one mistake missing the ball. He is about to throw it up and hit it when I see Natalie. She looks at me, gives me a dirty look and goes off and talks to her fake friends. Coach hits it and I catch it successfully in warm ups. Meanwhile, about five minutes later we start, we get the home team because we are the one seed. The pitcher on our team pitches a perfect first inning, it’s our turn to bat and I instantly realize, I could earn some lululemon if I have confidence and hit a home run. 

Unfortunately, I struck out at both of my at bats the first game. My coach comes up to me after the game and says, “Bailey, you need to have confidence and stop getting down on yourself. You are an amazing softball player, and have great potential of becoming even better if we get that mindset and confidence there.” 

“Okay, coach I will work on that, we better win this next game, because I have something against her after she left the team,” I say.

“Yes, we better win this next game, especially if it’s Natalie and her team. I don’t really like her, it's not just you,” my  coach said. 

We head back to the hotel so we can all rest up before the championship game. Soon we will find out who is going to the championship game from the other pool. “We play Natalie’s team, so you better play your heart out. Even though they are the number one team you can still beat them,” my mom says. 

“We gotta head down to the fields!” I say screaming. While we head down there everyone is pumped up to play Natalies team. Warmups start and we are warming up like we never had before, no one has had major errors. Since we are both seed one we have to do a coin flip to see who’s home and away. We win the coin flip so we are home. 

Coach says, “GIRLS, if we play how you all warmed up, we will do very well in this game you got it, team on three. One, two, three team.” We sprint out onto the field, everyone with positive mindsets. 

The defense in the first inning was awesome, one hit to me in the outfield, I caught it with so much confidence. I get into the dugout and get my helmet on, grab my bat, and put my batting gloves on. I’m a little nervous because Natalie is the best pitcher, I really hope I don’t strike out. Lainey is the first in the order, she gets four balls straight in a row, after her is Zoey she gets a base hit right past the shortstop. I think, how are we doing so well right now? 

I’m up the score is zero to zero, and I’m so frightened. Natalie pitches the ball, the umpire calls it a ball, my heart stops beating so fast, I really thought it was a strike. The coach for their team calls time out. He knows what I can do because I'm so strong and tall, but that’s only when I have confidence, and right now I don’t know if I have that. The next three pitches Natalie pitches are strikes, I get furious with myself. I get back into the dugout and everyone says, “Hey you went out swinging that’s all that matters.” 

That’s true, I try to tell myself. After the next two people strike out, we didn’t score any runs. Later in the game we get another at bat, the score is zero to zero still, it’s the top of the order in the sixth inning. This is the last at bat or we go into extra innings. Lainey and Zoey both get base hits, I come up to bat ready to attack and show them who really is going to win. All of a sudden it starts to rain. The clouds colliding into each other sound like they’re fighting.  first pitch Natalie pitches me down the middle because the ball is wet from the rain. I smoke it out of the park and we win. We are all excited, line up for high fives and after we get through the line we get trophies and pictures taken. When we gave the other team high fives Natalie slapped everyone’s hand really hard. Natalie all of a sudden walks towards me and says, “Nice hit, I had a feeling you would do that, as soon as it started raining I could feel that coming.” 

“Thanks, you guys did really well too, I have to tell you something. I know you don’t really like me ever since you went to that new team, you have had something against me since. However, I feel like we really need to talk again because playing this game isn’t the same without you. I always had confidence when you were on my team. Now I feel like I don’t,” I say.

“Yes, I have felt the same way,” Natalie said. 

As she gave me a hug we started crying because we realized we really do support each other while we play. After that, we went to Lululemon, for my home run and she helped me find some cute clothes. We both realized why fight about being on different teams when you could just be friends with each other and help each other out.