Everlasting
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About this ebook
High school softball: high-stakes, high-competition, only a handful of college scholarships available. In this world of lightning-fast pitches and soaring home runs, friendship and family means everything. From best friends to parents to new sparks of love.
Friendship, the backbone for success and happiness...
But only ones strong enough, to survive.
For these five young women, the bonds of friendship bend to the breaking as they struggle to understand themselves and their dreams. These fives stories in Chrissy Wissler's popular Little League series include: "A Pitcher's Unexpected Date," "A Catcher's Christmas Wish," "Stolen Bases, Stolen Kisses," "Softball Baby," and "Off-Balance."
Chrissy Wissler
Chrissy’s short fiction has appeared in the anthologies: Fiction River: Risk-Takers, Fiction River Presents: Legacies, Fiction River Presents: Readers' Choice, Deep Magic, and When Dreams Come True (writing as Christen Anne Kelley). She writes fantasy and science fiction, as well as a softball, contemporary series for both romance and young adult (Little League Series and Home Run). Before turning to fiction, Chrissy also wrote many nonfiction articles for publications such as Montana Outdoors, Women in the Outdoors, and Jakes Magazine. In 2009, Inside Kung Fu magazine awarded her with their ‘Writer of the Year’ award. Follow her blog on being a parent-writer at Parents and Prose.
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Book preview
Everlasting - Chrissy Wissler
Everlasting
A Little League Collection
Chrissy Wissler
Blue Cedar Publishing
Contents
Introduction
A Pitcher’s Unexpected Date
A Catcher’s Christmas Wish
Stolen Bases Stolen Kisses
Softball Baby
Off-Balance
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About the Author
Also by Chrissy Wissler
Introduction
Often times, at least in my experience, friendship and family go hand-in-hand. If someone is a close friend, the kind of person you call when you’re facing dark moments or when you’ve got joyous news, they’re more than just a friend.
They’re family.
It’s also been my experience that friends—and family—take a lot of work. At least if you want a good and honest relationship. Disagreements, miscommunication, and straight-up fights (sometimes involving tears) are just part of the process.
One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was stand up for myself.
To my parents.
Whether it was some unfair softball practice screwing up a well-planned date or the day I quit softball, it was never easy. Gut-wrenchingly tough, actually. Every time. A feeling I hope carried over in the stories, A Pitcher's Unexpected Date,
Stolen Bases, Stolen Kisses,
and Off-Balance.
Standing up to parents is never easy (and I swear never gets easier), but worth it to stay true to yourself.
Of course, dealing with family can be challenging (after all, you can never return them or upgrade to a newer, better version of Dad), but friends can be equally challenging. Often times, more so. Especially if they’ve got their own agenda (for good or bad). Or if they keep secrets. Both which happens in the stories, A Catcher's Christmas Wish,
and Softball Baby.
But what’s really amazing is when you work through all those rough times, when you don’t give up and instead open yourself up and leave it all on the table (regardless of the consequences), you may end up with something even greater.
The kind of something that’ll last years.
The kind of something that’ll be everlasting.
So this is me, leaving my stories on the table for you to read, and hopefully, to enjoy.
—Chrissy Wissler
Torrance, California
April 17, 2014
A Pitcher’s Unexpected DateA Pitcher’s Unexpected Date
Alice glared at her mother, placed her hands on her hips, and mentally counted to ten. Not that ten was a magic number, but if the glare didn’t work by ten, then Alice was pushing into the ‘you’re grounded territory .’
Right now, she didn’t care.
Sweat dotted her forehead. Several strands of hair escaped from her ponytail and they clung to her face, easily sticking from the sweat and heat. Another hot day on the softball field and the warm, nearly July weather was reminding her what she was fighting for.
A July fourth date.
It wasn’t fair and she wasn’t about to sit back like a good girl and let her mom ruin her life. She’d promised Alan. Promised.
Didn’t that mean anything to her mother? If Alice’s life didn’t ‘fit’ into the softball schedule, than she just what? Tossed it out the window?
Hell no. Not again.
Alice shifted her stance, digging her cleats further into the dirt. The movement caused the bandage on her knee to pull and she winced. She may have been called safe when she slid into second, but she’d be feeling that sting for the next several days.
And she’d be showing it off every chance she got.
You are not going.
Mom placed her hands on her hips and gave Alice glare for glare.
She might be shorter than Alice by a few inches, but that never stopped her from trying to A. tower over Alice, and B. attempt to control every piece of Alice’s life. Not today; not over this.
It’s not fair. There was no game on the schedule. They can’t just go poof, let’s have a tournament that weekend!
Alice threw her hands up, unable to stand still any longer. We had a deal.
I don’t care if it’s fair or not. You have a tournament. A big one. You’ll just have to cancel your plans with that boy.
‘That boy’ who she’d been dating for six months. Six months! And her mother couldn’t even acknowledge his name.
‘That boy’ was what did it.
He has a name,
Alice growled. And we’ve been together for months. Or is softball the only thing you notice anymore?
Oh, she knew it was a bur and would use it for all it was worth. Her mom wanted to control everything, but she had this little habit of only paying attention when softball and school were involved. Oh, her mother knew, and conveniently forgot whenever it affected her plans.
Alice’s plans? Well, those didn’t matter too much.
That ‘deal’ they’d made? It only existed as long as her mom wanted it to exist.
They were alone on the field. The dugout a graveyard of sunflower seeds and empty dixie cups. That hot, southern California breeze was having a field day knocking those cups over.
Her teammates had taken one look at her mom’s storming face and took off. She didn’t blame them. They had mothers of their own to deal with.
But none of them had a mom quite like hers.
Even Coach Steele had abandoned her.
That was fine. She could fight her own mother battles.
Alice balled her fists. I promised Alan we’d see the fireworks together. I promised him four weeks ago when the Artesia tournament was canceled.
Her mother shrugged, as if Alice’s concern equaled that of a broken fingernail. Actually, her mom seemed to care a lot more when it came to the broken nail.
You’ll be in San Diego. It’s a big tournament and there will be college scouts. I’m sorry but you’ll just have to cancel.
It was Alice who always canceled her plans. Never her mother.
But what the hell could she do about it? That was the thought that drove her crazy, just made her want to throw her fists in the air and scream.
She couldn’t do anything. She was seventeen. She didn’t have her driver's license yet, didn’t have her own car. And all her softball friends would be down in San Diego too.
There was nothing she could do and she absolutely hated her mother for it.
Alice spun on her cleats, snatched up her bat bag, and stomped to the car. Her scraped knee protested, pulling the bandage even more and pain shot up her leg.
Good pain though, she told herself, good pain. War wounds.
At least she had one thing to be happy about. None of the other girls had gotten a scraped knee as ugly as hers. Although Jenny's thigh, and the raspberry she got from sliding, was pretty close.
It was a small consolation prize considering she had to give up a romantic, firework filled evening with Alan.
This really, really sucked.
And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
Alice stared at her pink cell phone, hoping some magical power would make it ring and Alan would call her back. Not that she deserved him to call back. Not after she canceled on him.
Again.
It