Artemis catches the baseball as it came to her. She couldn’t believe she had been talked into playing baseball with her friends from school. She normally didn’t like playing sports, but her mother and aunt thought she should get out and socialize more. So, when her friends Kelly and
Mark asked her to play. She was a little hesitant at first but gave in.

“That was a nice catch, Artemis.” Billy had seen Artemis catch the ball.

“Thanks, Billy.” Artemis blushes some from Billy’s comment.

She didn’t know why she blushed, but she did. She noticed that he has been really nice to her since they started playing. She watches him as he catches the ball coming towards his location.

“You’re out!” Larry was enjoying playing catcher.

Artemis heads towards the bench and takes her place. They had managed to find enough players to play baseball. She was on Kelly’s team along with Billy.

Mark, Anthony, Brenda, Susan, and several other kids from her school and the private high school were on the other team. Their team was leading 5 to 4 and Kelly was up to bat. Artemis watches as Kelly bunts the ball and sprints towards first base.

Kelly was on their high school softball team. Artemis watches as Anna steps up to the plate.

“Strike, one!”

Artemis watches as Anna misses the first ball thrown at her.

“Strike, two!”

“You can do this Anna. I know you can.” Artemis could tell Anna was nervous.

Anna watches as Anthony smirks at her. She was going to knock that smirk off his face. She watches as he throws the ball at her. Just as it gets right where she wanted it, she swings and knocks it way out into the backfield.

Anna watches as the out fielders’ players chase the ball down. She runs the bases as she watches Kelly run as well. The two of them end up crossing home base by the time the ball is found and thrown back.

“I told you, you could do it, Anna.” Artemis was proud of her friend.

“Thanks, guys.” Anna was proud of herself.

For the rest of the game, Artemis manages to hit two home runs like her friend Anna. She also gets hits by the baseball. She went to catch it and instead of catching it with her glove. Her shoulder got hit instead, leaving a nasty bruise.

After the baseball game, everyone headed over to Anthony’s house. His parents invited everyone over for a cookout.

“Hey, Artemis. How is your shoulder feeling?” Billy walks over to Artemis with a soda in his hands.

“It hurts to raise my arm.” Artemis was glad for the pain pills Anthony’s parents gave her for the pain.

“You need to be more careful.” Billy hands Artemis the soda he got for her.

“I miss calculated when I went to catch the ball.” Artemis thought for sure, she was going to catch it.

“Well, at least you and Chuckie didn’t run into each other as Anna and Carol did.” A playful smile appears on Billy’s face.

Anna and Carol had run straight into each other while trying to catch the ball coming towards them. Both girls ended up on the ground with the ball hitting Carol on her back.

“That was funny. I never thought I would see something like that.” Artemis had seen players do that on television and such, but never in real life.

“Too bad no one caught it on video. It would be nice to playback.” Billy takes a sip from his soda.

“Those two will never live that down. So, what is your school like?” Artemis had heard Billy went to an all-boys private school.

“Boring, all there is are nothing but boys around you. I wished I went to a public school.” Billy hated his school.

“Why did your parents enroll you in that school, if don’t mind me asking?” Artemis was curious.

“My parents thought it would keep me out of trouble. They didn’t want me going to school with a bunch of girls and getting distracted. Plus, according to my father. It would look good on my college applications.”

“What are you planning to study in college?” Artemis hasn’t thought about what she wanted to do when she gets out of school.

“That’s the thing. I don’t want to go to college. I want to go to a trade school. I like working with my hands.” Billy liked when he volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.

He learned a lot from the guys he worked with. Originally, it was to have something good on his school records. However, after his second week of volunteering with them. He found he liked it a lot.

“I know what you mean. I like working on the bicycles I manage to find and refurbish them. I want to learn how to weld and paint them, instead of sending them out.” Artemis has already talked with her mother about learning how to weld and paint.

“Exactly. I don’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps. He wants me to be a finical adviser or a stockbroker. He thinks physical labor is for low
IQ people.” Billy knew his father had a high option about himself.

“I would hate to burst his bubble. My mother is extremely smart and good at what she does. She might be a grease monkey, but without them. People like your father would be walking to work.”

“That’s what he doesn’t understand. He is good at what he does and loves it. However, I like what I did and want to make a career out of it.” Billy knew his father won’t like his choice.

“Well, you should tell your father what you want to do. I’m thinking about doing more with my bicycle job. I want to be able to design bicycles as well. I’ve seen some really neat things people have done with them. You should see some of the things the Chinese and Japanese do with them. I also just bought a bunch of bicycles from Amsterdam. They had a bunch for sale.”

“Did that cost you a lot of money?” Billy was curious.

“I had to apply for a small business loan, but the shipping and the container they will arrive in was the most expensive part of it. I’m going to
have to store the shipping container at my mothers’ garage.” Artemis was glad her mother was behind her on this.

“Wow! You must have bought a lot of bicycles.” Billy wonders what type Artemis bought.

“About two hundred of various bicycles. I’m still not sure what all of them are, but I do know there are a few we don’t have here in the US.” Artemis saw the inventory list of what she bought.

“Well, let me know when they get here. I want to know what you got.” Billy wanted to see what an Amsterdam bicycle looked like.

The rest of the evening Billy and Artemis spend time with each other. Artemis was enjoying Billy’s company.