The Game of a Lifetime (Ainsley J., Grade 5

SILENCE! I was thinking. They were wondering if we were asleep. Don’t turn on us, don’t turn on us, DON’T TURN ON US! I thought, directing these thoughts towards Julian. He told them that we were asleep. Thank god, I thought. My parents responded, thinking that they heard us. OH NO! I thought. Julian motioned for us to quiet down and said that it was his dog, Kobe making the noise. After confirming we were asleep, they had a little small talk and hung up. Then, all of a sudden we started cracking up. It was a fun and unforgettable night. This was a time in which my siblings brought out the good part in them. You really don’t know when they’ll be the pests or the loving family you want them to be. Maybe fun activates their nice mode, or maybe it’s just a mystery of the brain itself. Even though siblings may make it seem like all they want is to make you mad, they are family, and they are still there for you.

The Game of a Lifetime By Ainsley J., Grade 5

A cool towel pressed against my sweaty face. The 110 degree heat had cooled down to 100 as the sun set behind the mountains near Acton, California. The town, if you could even call it that, was home to one market, a few houses, more farms, a boatload of cattle, and the best 8U softball players in California. This place was in the middle of nowhere and the perfect place to play underground softball during Covid 19. It was always boiling and we played on baseball fields, not softball. But each and every one of us was playing the game we loved, the game we had missed for so many months and still weren’t supposed to be playing. It was our fifth game of the day. I looked up at the other dugout already knowing who I’d see. The Firebyrds. They were our rivals and had been since they beat us 1-0 in a tournament in Arizona. I’d been wanting to play them again, but hadn’t gotten the chance to until now. In a championship game. I could finally get revenge for that dinky RBI on a changeup that gave us a ring that said FINALISTS instead of CHAMPIONS. I reached under the bench to grab my broken in, floppy glove. I didn’t have to look at the clipboard to know I was pitching. Ruby, my catcher, and best friend didn’t have to look at the clipboard to know she should get her gear on. Some things are just routine. A few innings after the game had begun it was 2-1. We had gotten our run by a blast by Vivi that made me feel like I could touch the sky, but when I let up 2 runs that feeling disappeared and was replaced by one of defeat. I threw another pitch which they hit again and I watched, frustrated, as another Firebyrd crossed home plate. Ruby made a gesture from behind the plate telling me to take a breath. I did. Suddenly, I remembered why I was out here. It was why I got up at 5:00 every weekend during the summer. It was because I loved softball. I loved being out here with my team. I loved this game. And I knew right then we were going to win. In the bottom of the 4th, we had already closed the gap and made the game 3-2. The Firebyrds had gotten one out and Ruby was on third. I walked up to the plate, and I looked up at Jaws. In our house, we called her tooth as a joke, but Jaws fit her much better. When you went up to the plate against her it felt like her fastball had its own jaws and it would bite you in half. To the teams she faced, she was nothing short of the shark in the movie. She was probably a foot taller than me and wider as well. You could barely tell her shirt was white through the cloud of dirt that was on it. In my spray-painted pink helmet that I got when I was 5, I looked like a little girl, which I was, and she looked like a monster. I dug my cleats into the dirt, trying to look fiercer than I felt.