Susie gestured toward Marlee and Lisa and then said to Sam. "Do you see what we have to put up with?"

Sam shrugged. "I feel your pain, sister."

Coach Gellar walked into the dugout. She stopped and regarded Susie for a moment before saying, "Nice of you to make an appearance, Torres."

Susie had no idea how to respond, so she simply nodded.

Once the coach turned her back, Sam rolled her eyes. Susie appreciated the support, but the support earned Sam a playful smack from Lisa.

"Be nice, eh?" Lisa admonished.

"Okay." Sam stuck out her lower lip like a scolded little girl.

"Nor'easters," Coach Gellar barked, "bring it in."

Susie leaped off the bench and joined her teammates in the loose circle forming around their coach. "Here's the starting lineup."

Susie was, but wasn't, surprised when Coach Gellar didn't call her name. She had missed two weeks, five games in all, so there was no reason to think she would be plunked back in the starting lineup. At least not right away.

After the brief team meeting, Susie and her teammates headed out to the field to run their laps, stretch, and loosen up their arms. She was allowed to take a few balls in left field during the team's pregame warm-up, but not much else.

Rachel, the girl starting in left field for the Nor'easters, took Susie aside after the warm-ups. "Nice of you to show up, slacker."

Susie laughed. She and Rachel had been bantering back and forth in the outfield since middle school. "I got tired of the easy life and decided to see what you bums were up to."

Rachel regarded Susie thoughtfully for a second. "You know I don't want your position, right?"

Susie nodded.

"I hope Coach Gellar comes to her senses right quick, because, hon-ee, I hate left field. Center field is where this girl belongs." Rachel pointed to herself.

"It's kind of out of my control." Susie glanced at their coach to make her point.

Rachel followed her gaze. "Uh, yeah. She's a force of nature, ain't she?"

"Yeah." Susie nodded. "Good luck out there and don't worry about me."

Susie watched the starting players get ready for the game and flung herself at the far end of the team bench.

Coach Gellar walked to the dugout fence. She let her gaze fall on Susie for the briefest of moments, dismissing her promptly.

"Miller," Coach Gellar called, "go coach first base."

The pain of her coach's rejection hit her hard. Susie gripped the edge of the bench until her knuckles turned white. Betsy Miller? Susie thought. She passed me over to anoint Betsy Miller as the first base coach? Betsy was the worst player on the team. She couldn't even read the coach's signs, so how in the world was she going to coach first? Susie blinked back the sting of tears.

Marlee sat next to her. "Hey."

Susie didn't look up. "What?"

"Stop that."

"What?"

"Every single person on this field," Marlee whispered, "including everybody in that Elmhurst dugout, knows that you should be in the starting lineup. Coach Gellar knows it, too."

Susie felt her throat tighten. She blinked back more tears.

"And," Marlee continued, "this'll blow over soon. Coach Gellar likes to be in control. Of everything. I've only been on this team for three weeks, and even I know that, so you should, too."

Susie nodded.

"Just let her throw her weight around a little. Let her show you she's the boss of you, and then everything will go back to normal."

Susie rolled her eyes. "Everybody's the boss of me. My mother. My coach. When do I get to be the boss of me?"

Marlee's eyes softened. "When you and I make our home together."

Susie smiled in spite of her foul mood. They'd only been going out for three and a half months, and yet they wanted the same thing. "Do you promise?"

"I promise." Marlee turned toward the field. "Oops, I'm on deck." She stood up to go, but turned around and wagged a finger. "No moping. This is a mope free zone. There's no moping in softball."

Susie's fake smile became real as she watched Marlee swing the bat in the on-deck circle. Marlee's legs were so strong, probably from all that pitching. Susie felt a twinge of desire wash over her and settle deep in her belly. She reached for her water bottle and splashed cold water on her face. It didn't work. Her libido was still in high gear and now her face was wet.

As the game wore on, it became clearer and clearer that Coach Gellar was not going to put her in the game. At the end of the sixth inning, the Nor'easters were beating Elmhurst by a score of 7-0. Marlee, Lisa, Sam, and the rest of the starters ran off the field to get ready to bat in the top of the seventh, and probably last, inning. Sitting alone at the far end of the bench, as far away from Coach Gellar as she could get, Susie had all but given up for the day.

"Torres," Coach Gellar yelled down without looking.

Susie snapped to attention and cringed as she sprinted to her coach like a trained puppy. "Yes, Coach?"

"You're pinch hitting for Tanya."

"Okay." Susie tried not to feel the slap of the words. Coach Gellar hadn't said she was going to play in the outfield. No. She was going to pinch hit and then sit back down on the bench. To further add insult to injury, Susie checked the lineup card and realized that Tanya had made the last out of the previous inning and her batting spot probably wouldn't come up at all. Thanks, Coach. You're an ass-- Susie halted the curse in her head when she caught Marlee's sympathetic smile.

"Sorry," Marlee mouthed.

Susie nodded and rolled her eyes trying not to let her anger bubble any closer to the surface than it already had. She slinked back to the far end of the bench so she wouldn't be in the way.

Sam called a quick huddle with a few of her teammates. Susie wondered what they could possibly be talking about. All they had to do after they batted was keep Elmhurst from scoring more than six runs. Easy for a team like the Nor'easters.

Rachel was the leadoff batter. Susie noticed her crowding the plate more than usual and wasn't surprised when she got hit by the first pitch. The Elmhurst pitcher had been throwing inside pitches the entire game to brush batters off the plate. The next batter for the Nor'easters also crowded the plate and promptly got hit by a pitch. Susie had to laugh. Her teammates had lost their minds.

With runners on first and second, Sam stepped into the batter's box.

"C'mon, Sam," Susie yelled from her dark corner. This ought to be good. Sam was a good hitter. At least one run should score.

"You go, Two," Marlee yelled using her nickname for Sam. "Hit it out there." Marlee stood up. "I'm on deck. I gotta get ready."

It was just as well. Poor Marlee had been suffering in self-imposed incarceration in Susie's dark loser-of-the-day corner.

"Get a hit," Susie encouraged.

Marlee waggled her eyebrows in response, grabbed her helmet from the bench, and headed to the line of bats leaning against the fence.

"We'll take it, Two," Marlee yelled.

Susie looked up. Sam had walked to load the bases. "Ho, ho," Susie cheered under her breath. Lisa was the cleanup hitter, and that meant trouble for Elmhurst. Lisa had been named to the all-county batting team during the last school year, so Elmhurst didn't stand a chance. Especially because there was no way the pitcher would pitch around her. Not with the bases loaded.

Susie caught the blood thirsty gleam in Coach Gellar's eye. She obviously liked going for the kill. Marlee was right. Coach Gellar liked to be in control, and it certainly looked like the Nor'easters were just that.

Lisa could have knocked the ball out of the park for a home run, but fell behind in the count, and dinked a weak grounder over the second baseman's head. It didn't look like she'd swung the bat all the way around. Rachel ran home making the score 8-0, and all the other runners advanced safely to the next base. Marlee stepped into the box as the fifth batter of the inning. Susie did the math and realized that as the number nine batter she might actually get a chance to hit that inning.

Susie stood up and gripped the chain link fence. "C'mon, Marlee! Give 'em heck." Susie was stunned when Marlee crowded the plate. "No, no, no," Susie hissed under her breath. The last time Marlee had gotten hit by a pitch, she ended up in the hospital. "Don't do it, Marlee," Susie yelled toward home plate. It wasn't worth it.

Too late. Marlee turned to get out of the way of the pitch and got hit square in the back.

"First," the home plate umpire called and pointed toward first base.

The athletic trainer started to run toward Marlee, but Marlee waved her off and trotted to first base unfazed by just getting hit by a fastball. Another run came in for the Nor'easters. The score was 9-0.

"Time," the Elmhurst coach called and headed toward the pitcher's circle for a conference with her pitcher.

Susie wished she had a camera. Sam stood on third base, Lisa on second, and Marlee on first. The bases were full of her friends.

The next Nor'easter batter got up and walked. Sam scored giving them a 10-0 lead. Susie was officially on deck and stood up to get her bat from where it stood gathering dust against the fence. She plunked on her batting helmet and waited by the dugout gate. The Elmhurst pitcher walked the next batter, and Lisa scored making it 11-0.

Susie walked onto the field feeling rather strange. She took her practice swings in the on-deck circle and tried to make sense of her role in the game. Pinch hitting was new for her. Coach Gellar gave the batter at the plate the take sign, obviously wanting to milk as many walks out of the Elmhurst pitcher as she could. It worked. The batter walked, and Marlee crossed the plate for their twelfth run.

Susie high-fived Marlee as she passed by. Marlee called back over her shoulder, "Ducks on the pond, batter. Hit away."

Coach Gellar must have thought that was a good idea, too and gave Susie the green light. Susie almost laughed when one of the Elmhurst outfielders groaned and then backed up toward the fence. Her outfield teammates did the same.

"That's respect, Sus," Sam called from the dugout. "Show 'em what you've got."

Susie swallowed hard and took a practice swing. She needed to get a big hit to prove to Coach Geller that she didn't belong on the bench. She needed to prove that she belonged back in the starting lineup.

The Elmhurst pitcher took the sign from her catcher. Susie let the outside pitch go by.

"Ball," the umpire yelled.

The next pitch hit the dirt for ball two.

Susie stepped one foot out of the box and looked at her coach for the sign. Sometimes on a 2-0 count, Coach Gellar would flash the take sign to lay off the next pitch. No such thing. Hit away. With a grin, Susie stepped back in the box and got ready. A sweet fastball came right down the middle of the plate. She swung hard, putting all her anger and frustration into it, and sent the ball rocketing toward deep left field. She sprinted toward first base knowing she had hit at least a double, hoping she could leg out a triple. Betsy waved her on to second base. Susie sprinted and looked at her coach. Green light. Her adrenaline kicked in as she stomped on second base and headed toward third. She expected her coach to throw up a stop sign, but she didn't. Her teammates screamed for her to score, so she threw on the after burners and rounded third toward home. Rachel stood behind the plate yelling for her to slide. The catcher crouched down. The ball was on its way. Susie leaned back, threw her arms up and slid desperately hoping that home plate was somewhere underneath her.

She had no idea where the ball was, but didn't need to. The umpire threw her arms out to her sides and yelled, "Safe!"

Susie's teammates stormed her from the dugout.

"In the park grand slam," Marlee yelled in her ear over their shouting teammates. "My hero."

Susie was on top of the world. Once free from her teammates, she trotted back to the dugout. She looked toward her coach expecting some kind of smile or thumbs up, something to indicate that she was out of the doghouse. Nothing. Her coach kept her nose in the scorebook, presumably writing down the play. Susie shrugged. Whatever. She didn't live to please Coach Gellar. Still. It stung.

Susie sat down in a thump. This time she sat in the middle of the bench instead of in self-imposed exile. Every single one of her teammates congratulated her again. It felt good to be part of the team again.

Marlee plopped down on one side of her. Sam and Lisa on the other. Sam looked Susie straight in the eye and said, "Like I said before, we've got your back."

Susie looked at her friends wide eyed. Why hadn't she realized it? "Dios mio, you guys totally set that up for me, didn't you?"

The grin on Marlee's face gave it away.

"Yes, I do," Susie said looking up to the heavens. "I've got good friends."

She looked back down, but a particular blonde-haired spectator in the bleachers caught her eye. "Uh, oh." She pointed toward the bleachers. "Houston, we've got a problem."

Her friends turned to see where she was pointing.

Marlee gasped. "Bree." She groaned and hid her head in her hands.

Almost in unison, Susie, Sam, and Lisa said, "We've got your back."

Chapter Twelve.

Two-by-Four PLAN A WAS to deliberately delay their exit from the dugout after their win against Elmhurst. The idea was that Bree would get bored waiting for them and leave. Susie tried not to laugh as Marlee moved like a robot in slow motion.

Susie snuck a peek through the dugout cinderblocks. She frowned when she saw Bree taking up residence on the bleachers. "Muchachas?" Susie whispered. "Plan A has officially bombed. On to Plan B?" Marlee, Sam, and Lisa nodded their understanding. Sam and Lisa flanked Marlee on either side. Susie moved in behind all of them. "Got your keys, Marlee?"

Marlee nodded. The plan was to move as a group toward Marlee's van, dive in, and drive away. They would come back later for Sam's car, once the fields were Bree-free.

"Guys," Susie said, "if Plan B doesn't work then we go to Plan C."

"What's Plan C?" Marlee whispered over her shoulder. "Make a run for it even if she's in the middle of a sentence." Everyone chuckled, and Sam reached behind her to give Susie a playful smack.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Ready everybody?" Susie asked. They all nodded.

"Okay, go." Marlee pushed the gate open, and they collectively power walked toward the van.

Out of the corner of her eye, Susie saw Bree push off the bleachers and head toward them.

"Hurry," Susie urged. "She's gaining on us." They walked quickly, weaving their way through the cars. "Hurry, hurry," Susie urged them on. Bree was almost on them. They reached the van, Marlee had her key ready, but then the unimaginable happened. The keys flipped out of Marlee's hand and tumbled end over end to the pavement. Everyone groaned.