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June 2020 #1 - When she smiles
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Just a fun little short:The Away Game…
Janet was fed up with her brother, and his telling her how much what she was doing would devastate their parents. If she couldn’t be truthful about things, then what was the point.
Janet was confident that her mother would be alright, shocked but she’d recover. Her father, on the other hand; he was another issue altogether. When he found out, there would be fireworks. She couldn’t imagine him getting physical, but the verbal assault might be just as painful to bear.
Today was the culmination of Janet’s entire season. Softball was never going to be a career for her, but she was the best fast pitcher at regionals. There were only four players that could hit her, consistently, and three of them were on the Orioles.
Janet looked at the reflection staring back at her in the locker room mirror, the long blonde hair and the piercing blue eyes were as much a weapon as her arm. She knew how intimidating she looked on the mound, whether the girl facing her down was gay or not. If they weren’t lusting after her, they were jealous. One was as good as the other.
It all worked on everyone but Samantha Willis. Sam was in a league all by herself. She was the best all-around player in the state, and if there was a professional softball league, she would be heading there without a doubt.
It was two years earlier, during the summer softball camp at Leckhampton, that Janet first set eyes on Sam. They were both freshmen, and not much was expected from either of them that year.
“So, the Orioles, huh?” Janet pondered, as she and Sam relaxed after a long afternoon of three-inning scrimmages.
“Yeah, you?” Sam rolled over onto her front, her cleavage catching Janet’s eye as she leaned up to catch her staring.
“Uh, Lakers, sorry.” Janet looked away.
“If you like what you see, I don’t mind, you know.” Sam grinned.
Janet knew that she was all about girls since the seventh grade. When all her friends started lusting after one boy or another, she just couldn’t understand it. Slowly, they all paired up with someone, leaving Janet to figure out what was wrong with her. She knew that there were girls that just liked girls, but she had a hard time coming to terms with the idea that she was one of ‘those’.
“It’s alright, you know.” Her health teacher had told her. “It’s perfectly natural.”
“What’s that?” Janet blurted, caught off guard as she watched Cynthia Taylor walk out of the classroom.
“It’s alright to like girls.” The relatively young woman had kind, caring eyes, with long brown hair that twirled around her face as she leaned over Janet’s desk.
“How do you know?” Janet defended, straightening herself in the chair.
“Janet. How could I not know?” The teacher sat in the desk in front of hers, swinging so she was sideways in the chair. “However you feel, and to whomever you’re attracted, it’s not a choice. It’s just the way your wired.”
“I can’t be a…”
“Lesbian?” There it was, the ‘L’ word that Janet had so desperately tried not to think about. “You know, you’ll find you’re not as alone with your feelings as you might think you are.”
“Do you mean…you?” Janet asked, almost afraid to.
“Oh, I think my husband would be disappointed if I was.”
Janet turned six shades of red. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Listen, I’m going to give you something that I think you might benefit from, a lot.” She held out a card, a small rainbow embossed across the top left. “This is an LGBTQ group that meets once a week after school. It’s all kids your age, so there’s no reason to feel weird or anything.” The teacher grinned. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
It wasn’t long after that that Janet discovered who her true friends were. A core group that she felt closest to, still hung out with her, and not without having to deal with issues of their own for it.
Even though Janet loved the group, and had had a few dates with some of the girls, it was difficult, for all of them. Most had not come out to their parents, which made anything but the most covert meetings next to impossible.
And, so things had gone for some time. Slowly as they grew older, the other girls came out, but Janet was left feeling as though her parents just couldn’t handle it. This was pounded into her by her older brother Brad, who just knew that they both would just drop over dead to learn that their only daughter was a lesbian.
“It’s alright, you know.” Sam had repeated, Janet once again staring down the cleft between Sam’s ample breasts.
“I’m so sorry.” Janet gushed, burying her face in her palm.
“I don’t mind because I like it.” Sam grinned.
“Like what?”
“Oh, brother.” Without anything else said, Sam reached up and pulled Janet into her, their lips colliding for a wet, and awkward kiss. As soon as Sam released her, Janet shot to her feet, looking around to see who might have seen them. “You need to loosen up, girl.”
Janet knew she was right. She had gone in mortal fear of someone seeing her as anything but the straight-laced, morally grounded kid she knew she wasn’t; the one her parents saw her as, and therein lay the problem.
She spent the rest of that summer, in and out of Samantha Willis’ arms. It was wild and wonderful, and over all too soon.
“Hoskins!” A voice called to Janet from behind the partition. “Let’s go. The bus is waiting.” Their coach knew her ritual and allowed her the room she needed. She was, after all, the reason they were 18 and 0.
The Orioles were already warmed up by the time their bus arrived and were gathered around their bench, listening to some words of wisdom from their coach, no doubt. Her blonde head poking conspicuously above the rest, Sam looked up to give her a wink. Janet felt a twinge at her core, driving down and coming to rest at her center. “Shit.” You really are going to have to concentrate.
The first six innings were a wash, each side scoring only one run. The Orioles were at-bat, and as Janet took the mound she realized that Sam was up first in the order. Knowing her usual stare-down was useless, Janet wound up with her fastest burner, which skimmed by Sam almost unawares. She could see Sam swearing under her breath, smacking her bat into the plate, almost daring Janet to do it again; which she did, twice.
Janet never remembered seeing Sam so livid as when she left the diamond, throwing her bat into the dugout and nearly catching her coach in the leg. After the chewing out, Janet couldn’t help but notice the stare she was getting from Sam. If looks could kill.
The Lakers ended up taking the game and taking Regionals that year. Much to Janet’s disappointment, it was the last time she saw Samantha Willis before she headed to Geneseo.
Janet finally did come out to her parents before she left for college. Feeling she at least owed them the truth, she was only mildly surprised when they both waved her off, saying they had known she was gay and had come to terms with it years before. Strangely enough, Brad was nowhere to be found that day.
During her sophomore year, Janet had taken up with a local softball team, who were more than excited to have a pitcher that could actually get the ball over the plate, much less at a pace they had never seen. Janet was happy to play, if only as a distraction from school.
They played other local teams, mostly, save for one which was a bit of a drive from Geneseo. Just outside of Rochester, The Swiftlets as they were called, hailed from Henrietta and were the toughest team on the schedule. It was their first meeting of the season and it was no surprise for Janet, that it was an away game.
During the ride, it was hard for Janet to get the memory of regionals out of her mind; off to face the toughest team on their turf. It inevitably made her sad remembering how things had ended between Samantha and her, and it was impossible to think of regionals without thinking about Sam.
As they filed off the bus, Janet couldn’t help but notice that the stands were packed. This was just for fun, right? She asked herself, because this crowd looked serious. Unlike their mismatching uniforms, the Swiftlets had perfectly paired tops and pants and if Janet didn’t know better, she’d have sworn she was looking at a semi-pro team. “We’re playing these guys?” She asked one of her teammates.
“Yeah. Hard to believe they’re in the same bush league as us, huh?” she joked, but then grew serious. “Just close your eyes, and it’ll be over before you know it.”
“Have you ever beaten these guys?” Janet asked.
“We’ve never scored a run on these guys.” She corrected.
As they rounded the corner to take the field, Janet almost dropped to the dirt in shock. There, standing not twenty feet from her, was Samantha Willis.
“Well, I heard these guys picked up a hot-shot pitcher.” Janet overheard Sam say to her teammates, as she eyed her up and down. Then, to her surprise, Sam gave her that same knowing wink she had years before.
“You know her?” Janet winced and nodded that she did. “We’re doomed.”
Well, in fact, it turned out to be a good game. In the end, however, the Swiftlets pulled it out in the last inning. A home run Janet had allowed off the bat of none other than Samantha Willis.
After it was over, and the teams had filed away from the field to celebrate or commiserate with their comrades, Janet went looking for Sam.
“You’ve still got it, Hoskins.” A coarsely feminine voice admitted.
“Hi Sam.” Janet turned to see her leaning against their empty bus. “So do you.” Sam had changed out of her uniform and into some painted-on jeans and an equally flattering top. “Listen, Sam, I never…”
“Forget it, I have. I think we’re even now anyway.” Sam winked, but the insinuation was far more meaningful than her pre-game gesture. “You still shy?”
“Hell no.”
Brooklyn wrote: "Just a fun little short:The Away Game…
Janet was fed up with her brother, and his telling her how much what she was doing would devastate their parents. If she couldn’t be truthful about things,..."
Fun story :) I like that the girls are the athletes, and coming into their own in more ways than one.
Please give us your poems, flash fiction, haiku, short stories, drabbles or novellas, as inspired by this image. Any length, any topic, just have some LGBTQ element, and keep it YA. I look forward to reading your creations.