Junior Year Box Set

“You do realize your dad and I only want what’s best for you. You have a ton of potential and show a lot of leadership skill. I’m sure you would make a terrific officer in the Marine Corps.”

“When did you get so bossy?”

“When I began to care about you,” I said, stopping so I could turn and look her in the eyes. “We talked about this. Going in as an officer is your best route. To do that, you have to get your degree.

“I’m not saying not to join when the time comes. If that’s what you want to do, I support you. I’m just saying do it right.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“You’re right, I can’t. If I decide to do something, you can’t stop me, either, but if you talked to me, I would consider what you said. You could probably convince me if it made sense,” I tried.

“I could always just hurt you.”

“Yes, yes, you could.”

“Okay, fine. You win,” Cassidy said, throwing her hands up.

“You know this is for the best. I’m not just being bossy.”

“It’s okay if you are. I like that you care enough to stop me from doing something wrong. Most people aren’t such good friends,” she said and then took my hand.

“So, David. Why didn’t you pick me as your girlfriend?”

“Because you really don’t want me to. You and I have too good a thing going to mess it up,” I said.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” she said and considered it. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I asked, not believing she would be so easy to convince.

“Yeah. I trust you to make a good decision. But know if you don’t pick Brook, I might have to hurt you.”

“I’m sure she appreciates that you would do that for her.”

She just giggled. It completely ruined her badass persona.

◊◊◊

When I came back, I found Nicki and his men in the lobby with their bags.

“You taking off?” I asked.

“Yes. Fritz has everything under control. Pia talked to some people down here, and they now know to leave you and yours alone. You should be fine from here on out.”

“Thanks. I’ll be sure to call Pia and thank her and Tony. I really appreciate your help. We all felt much safer knowing you were here,” I said, shaking his hand.

“I had a good time. If I were at home, I’d be sitting around listening to my wife complain and eating too much of her pasta. I would’ve missed out on tiger cubs and a bar fight. I haven’t been in one of those for at least ten years. It brought back good memories,” he said.

“I wouldn’t expect Tony to get into many bar fights,” I observed.

“No, he’s a good kid, for the most part. When he gets into trouble, it’s a little more serious,” Nicki said cryptically.

We said our goodbyes, and I thanked each of the men who’d accompanied Nicki. They seemed a little uncomfortable with my addressing them directly, but that was just me being me.

When I got back to my room, I called Pia and thanked her. She conveyed Tony’s greeting and that he said he still owed me. I wasn’t sure what to think about that, but I would rather have Tony happy with me than not. I had a feeling he wasn’t someone I ever wanted to cross.

◊◊◊ Monday August 22

Today was the day. The Gold Medal Game for the COPABE Pan Am ‘AAA’ Championships. In the afternoon game, Mexico had won the Bronze Medal by beating Nicaragua 4–0. Even before that game, we now knew which teams would advance to next year’s WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, Canada. That was considered the World Championship of U-18 Baseball.

The Team USA people showed us the list of teams that had qualified so far. From the Americas, there was number 2 United States, number 5 Cuba, number 6 Canada, number 8 Mexico, and number 18 Nicaragua. Asia was sending number 1 Japan, number 3 Korea, and number 4 Chinese Taipei. Finally, Europe was represented by number 9 Italy and number 10 Netherlands. Of the ten teams qualified to this point, nine of them were ranked in the top ten in the world. The Americas had produced the last two winners.

It was nice to know that we’d given next year’s team a leg up, but we still had a game to play. During warm-ups, I took a moment to reflect on baseball this year. It all started with making the movie in December and the opportunity I received to work with a batting coach. Dad was always saying that you never knew where the next opportunity would come from. That was why he had us work a room whenever we got the chance.

I thought our high school season had gone well. We’d gone deeper into the state tournament than we did last year. I suspect if we hadn’t had all our skill players playing seven-on-seven football, we might have done more. I was sure the seniors would go out for baseball this year. It’s possible we would put together a season that would make Moose happy.

I’d come into the Team USA competition without many expectations. I simply wanted to see how I would stack up against the best baseball had to offer. Making Team USA and being named captain had put those worries to rest.