Sliding into Home (10 page)

“My girls are state champions. They don’t need any distractions. Now, please be on your way.”

“But—” Joelle began again.

“Please!” The coach barked. Then she whirled around and headed back to the field.

She’s worse than Coach Carlyle
, Joelle thought.

The Greendale Academy team quickly resumed their drill. But Joelle noticed that Nikki looked back at her over her shoulder.

“Wednesday night! Seven o’clock at the Greendale Public Library!” Joelle called.

Then she turned and ran off the field before Coach Azline threw her off.

A
ll those fliers must be paying off
, Joelle told herself a few days later. People were definitely hearing about the Eastern Iowa Girls’ Baseball League. More letters about girls’ baseball were beginning to show up in the
Gazette
and on the newspaper’s website.

Joelle scanned them eagerly each morning. Some of them were good.

Others were not so good.

Joelle skimmed over the letters on other topics and looked for another one on baseball. She was particularly interested in a letter signed by a rec center employee.

Joelle liked Mr. Tibbett’s “urging” the school board to allow her to play for Hoover. But it didn’t look like that was ever going to happen. That was plenty clear to her now.

So now that she’d finally found an alternative, this Mr. Tibbetts was worried about girls not signing up for programs at the Greendale Recreation Center. What about all the girls
who lived in those dinky little towns around Greendale that didn’t even have rec centers? They had to come all the way to Greendale for sports. Maybe an area baseball league would give them an opportunity to have a team in their own community.

Joelle sighed.

There was always somebody somewhere telling her no.

“So what are we going to do now?” Joelle asked Elizabeth’s dad after dinner. She had brought the newspaper over to the Shaw’s house to show them. “I’m not surprised some people were against the idea of me playing on the Hoover team. But now they don’t even want me to form a separate girls’ league.”

Mr. Shaw glanced at Joelle over the top of his glasses. “We’re not going to let a few letter writers get us down, are we?” He put the paper down beside him on the couch and Elizabeth picked it up.

“But what if some of these people actually show up at our meeting and make a big stink?” Joelle asked, frowning.

“Oh, I don’t think they will,” Mr. Shaw said. “What we need to do is to find out how many girls around here want to play baseball. If just a few show up, then those naysayers don’t have anything to worry about. We won’t have a league. But if a lot of girls want to play, well … then we’ll have to deal with some of these questions. Especially about where we’re going to play. There is a shortage of playing fields around here. But we can work something out.”

“Okay,” Joelle said, trying not to sound discouraged.

“Hey, Joelle.” Elizabeth looked up from the editorial page. “Look at this. All the letters against you are from men!”

“What?” Joelle grabbed the newspaper from Elizabeth. She hadn’t noticed that before. But Elizabeth was right.

Maybe she should write a response to all those guys. At least she could bring up some of the positive points that no one else had mentioned.

As soon as Joelle got home, she went straight to her computer and started typing.

Joelle reread her letter. She’d just thought of that last part, about the rec center sponsoring their league. Brooke was the one who had put the idea in her head. Joelle hadn’t paid much attention to Brooke the other day in band when she’d asked whether the rec center was going to sponsor their league. But it was a pretty good point. If the rec center sponsored the Eastern Iowa Girls’ Baseball League, they would supply the coaches, the playing fields, the equipment, and the schedules. Plus, they would get the money from people who signed up. Everyone would be happy. Maybe the guy from the rec center would read her letter and realize what a good idea that was.

Joelle thought about showing her parents her letter, but they were out on a bike ride. And what could they possibly object to, anyway?

She transferred the file over to her parents’ computer so she could e-mail it to the newspaper. She added a brief note that said, “Please publish this before Wednesday.” She wanted the letter to get there before their organizational meeting.

A few minutes later, Joelle was surprised to find a return e-mail from the newspaper.
Wow,
she thought.
That was fast.

Great,
Joelle thought.
A form letter.
And thirty days from now, the organizational meeting would be long past. She needed to tell her side of the story
now.

Joelle decided to call up Linda Monico and explain the situation. Surely the editor would understand. The phone number for the editorial department was right there on the
Gazette
website. Joelle was surprised when the editor answered the phone herself.

“Hey, Joelle.” Ms. Monico talked as if she and Joelle were old friends. “You sure have sparked a lot of debate around town.”

“I know,” Joelle said. “Um, I was just wondering why I can’t write two letters to the paper during the same month.”

“Newspaper policy,” the editor explained. “We can’t publish the same people’s opinions all the time. We need to give other folks a chance to be heard.”

Joelle sighed. Another policy. She was getting awfully tired of small town policies.

“But this is a whole new thing,” she pointed out to the editor. “The last time I wrote about not being able to play baseball in school. This time it’s about starting a girls’ baseball league.”

“I’m sorry, Joelle,” Ms. Monico said firmly. “Both letters are on the same subject, from the same person. You can submit the
new one to the Reader’s Opinion section of our website if you’d like. But we can’t use it in the paper.”

Well, the website’s better than nothing
, Joelle decided. But before she hung up, she had another idea.

“Hey, you’re always looking for news stories, right? Maybe instead of printing my letter, could someone interview me about the girls’ baseball league? You know, do a whole story about it.”

Ms. Monico paused for a moment. “Well, I guess I could check with the features editor. Or maybe sports. It might be possible to send a reporter out to cover the organizational meeting and do a follow-up story,” she said. “We’ll have to see.”

In other words, no promises. “Okay, thanks, Ms. Monico,” Joelle said. She hung up and went straight to the newspaper’s website. She pasted her letter into the form on the site, but it was too long. She had to do it in two pieces. It wasn’t as good as a letter in the paper. But at least her opinion was being heard
somewhere.

Joelle was about to shut down the computer when she noticed her In Box. She’d been so wrapped up in other things that she hadn’t even noticed the e-mail from Jason. She immediately clicked on it.

Joelle bit her lip. “I’ll always need you, Jason,” she said softly as she shut down the computer.

“Okay, people,” Mr. Hawkings said at the end of class on Tuesday. “Our trial begins next Monday. I hope you’ve all been practicing your parts.”

Joelle gulped. She’d been so busy thinking about the league, she hadn’t had much chance to prepare for the trial.

“Here’s how things will work,” the teacher went on. “Each lawyer will present an opening statements. Brooke, since you’re the prosecuting attorney, you’ll go first. After the opening statements, Brooke will present her case and call her witnesses. Joelle, you’ll have a chance to cross-examine Brooke’s witnesses. Then Brooke, you’ll be able to question your witness again if Joelle brought up anything you want to explain. When you’re out of witnesses, Joelle will call her witnesses. You’ll cross-examine and she’ll redirect. When both sides are finished, you’ll each make closing statements and then the case will go to the jury. Any questions?”

Nobody raised a hand. The bell rang and kids began stampeding for the door.

“You may as well give up now, Joelle,” Brooke said with a smile as they left the classroom. “This is an open-and-shut case. You don’t have a chance.”

“Don’t bet on it!” Joelle told her. She knew Brooke was just pretending to be kidding.

“Yeah, watch out, Brooke,” said another girl behind them. “Joelle always has to win. No matter who she hurts along the way.”

“Hey!” Joelle spun around. “That is
so
not true!”

“Whatever you say.” The girl shrugged and walked off down the hall with Brooke. Brooke turned and waggled her fingers at Joelle.

“I don’t hurt people just to get what I want,” Joelle muttered, slumping against a locker. “I don’t!” The idea that anyone would think that really made her mad.

Then she thought of Elizabeth. Hadn’t her friend said right from the start that she didn’t want to play baseball? She’d made that totally clear. Yet Joelle had sort of pushed her into it. Was it because she needed Elizabeth’s dad to coach?

Joelle squeezed her eyes shut.
Had
she hurt someone to get what she wanted?

Elizabeth seemed into the whole league deal now. But maybe that was all an act. Maybe she still felt like she had no other choice.

“Hey, Joelle!” Kailey came up beside her. “Anything wrong? You look upset.”

Joelle looked away. “Kailey, do I seem like the kind of person who doesn’t care about other people as long as I get what I want?”

Kailey raised her eyebrows. “No. You seem like the kind of person who doesn’t give up. But I don’t think you’d ever hurt anyone on purpose. Why?”

Joelle shrugged. “That’s what some kids think, I guess.”

Kailey waved a hand. “Oh, don’t listen to them,” she said. “You’re doing a good thing with your baseball league, Joelle. Breaking new ground. Creating new opportunities.”

“Too bad everyone else doesn’t see it that way,” Joelle said, sighing.

“They’ll come around,” Kailey told her. “Wait and see.”

That night after supper, Joelle called Elizabeth. “Hi, it’s me,” she said when her friend answered. “I need to ask you something.”

“Sure. What is it?”

Joelle took a deep breath. “Do you really want to play baseball or did you just get dragged into this whole league thing by me and your dad?”

Elizabeth didn’t answer.

“Elizabeth?”

“Well, I do like being part of something big like this,” Elizabeth said. “I like the other girls. And it’s good for me and my dad to have something to do together. Something to focus on besides my mom.”

“But?” Joelle prompted. She could tell there was a “but” coming.

“But I’m just not sure about this, Joelle,” Elizabeth said. “I play for fun. I don’t take it all as seriously as the rest of you do.”

So, I am the kind of person who bowls people over?
Joelle asked herself. Just like the girl at school said. She’d been totally insensitive to Elizabeth’s feelings, acting as if playing baseball was the only thing that mattered.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said.

“No,
I’m
sorry,” Joelle said. She cleared her throat. “You’re my best friend, Elizabeth. I get a little obsessed about stuff sometimes, especially baseball, but I never meant to force you to do something you didn’t want to do.”