Page 4

TUCKER

T he morning bell pierced the perfect veil of sleep.. The sound was so loud that it scared Cael from his bunk, and he crashed onto the floor. The curse of swear words that left his mouth was enough to wake me.

“Are you okay?” I laughed as I rolled over in bed to find him still lying on the floor. The siren blaring so loud it was rattling the shitty single pane windows.

“Spring Camp is actual hell.” Was all he said as Baker shuffled down from his bunk.

“Liam, stop. What are you doing…” Cael cried out. “Stop walking around. It implies we’re getting up, and I’m not leaving my bunk for at least…hey, where the hell is Logan?” He sat on his elbows and stared at the empty bunk before looking at me.

“Dunno.” I scowled and flipped my comforter back.

His bed was made so neatly it looked untouched.

But that wasn’t true because I’d watched him get into bed.

“Doesn’t matter, get up.” I kicked him gently in the ribs and grabbed my towel from the end of my bed. “You know what that sound means, and if we aren’t out there in two minutes…”

“Doc will make us do it twice,” Baker finished my sentence in passing.

“Sadists, you’re all fucking sadists.” Cael pushed off the floor in his boxers and flipped me off before leaving the cabin.

“Oh, hell no!” He yelled the second the cold spring air hit his nipples. He spun on his heel and tried to go back into the cabin. “Dean Tucker, I swear-” Cael snapped.

“Lake, now.” I pushed on his chest as he tried to get past me.

“Franklin,” he sneered, thinking that the stupid name my parents had given me would shake me.

“Cael,” I responded, “get in the lake.”

“I hate you, I hate grandpa. In fact, I hate this entire team!” He declared as he stomped backward down the steps toward the path and fell into a group of players.

I sighed and joined the slow shuffle toward the lake. Most of the team resembled a horde of zombies, half awake and freezing cold.

“You got him out of bed?” Arlo fell in time with my steps in a hoodie and sweats, a beanie pulled down over his ears. His nose was red from the cold, but it was obvious that he had been up for a while. He must have been on a run when he heard the alarm go off.

“Credit goes to Doc.” I shrugged and pointed to where Silas leaned against the camp office wall, cranking the metal arm on the siren box attached to the cabin. “He’s going to get the cops called on us again.”

“Oh, leave him alone. It's the only time I see him smile. Besides, he pays the fines. We can’t really say shit.” Arlo laughed and stepped behind me as the path narrowed. “How’s Logan doing?” He asked tightly.

“Couldn’t say. Dude doesn’t talk, and anytime he opens his mouth rude things come out.” I rolled my neck around on my shoulders to try and wake up. “He wasn’t in his bed this morning.”

“What?” Arlo looked at me and shook his head. “So where the fuck is he?”

“Beats me. I'll deal with it if he doesn’t show up for practice later. I think giving him some space is for the best. It had to be overwhelming to be dropped into the middle of camp like that,” I said.

“It was here or the Nest. Neither place is ideal,” Arlo said as the trees separated and the lake came into view. “They’re waiting for you.”

“Captain goes in the water first. You know the rules.” Van and Cael stood on the edge of the dock, waiting for me with their hands rubbing their arms to keep warm.

God, this is going to suck.

“Get in the water, Franklin, or we’ll make you,” Cael snapped, and that time the full name irritated me.

“Call me that one more time and I’m spitting in all your meals for the next two weeks,” I said with a smile, chucking my towel at Arlo before sprinting.

“We’ve shared more than spit in the last two years; what kind of threat was that?!” Cael laughed but it was enough of a distraction.

I ran straight toward Cael and watched the panic on his face as I dropped my shoulder at the last second and hauled him up into a clumsy carry before throwing both of us into the frigid water.

The water was so cold every muscle in my body seized for a second, making it hard to push myself back to the surface. I broke the water, gasping for air beside Cael, who was already moving toward the sandy beach as more players tossed themselves into the water.

He dragged himself to shore just ahead of me, turning back to say something smart when all hell broke loose. A few of the players on the dock were shoving and pushing.

“Get in the fucking water Logan!” Todd yelled, stepping into Josh’s face and grabbing at his clothes.

“Found Josh,” Arlo hollered from the shore with a sick amusement in his voice.

I glanced at Arlo, silently pleading for help, but he stepped back. It wasn’t his fight anymore. I surged forward, the ice-cold water ripping against my frozen thighs.

“Back off, man!” Josh snapped and stepped back but slammed into another player behind him who reached for his shirt. “I said back off!” He tried again as Cael and I rushed from the rocky shore to the dirt path and onto the dock.

“Hey!” I barked out and tried to get between the shoving bodies, but they were deadlocked. “Guys, come on!” I yelled, just trying to find an opening. Cael slid across the dock behind me and grabbed Todd by the waist, chucking him into the water with a loud splash.

“Toss them!” he ordered, and before he finished, I wrapped my arm around another body, throwing him backward off the dock and into the lake.

Josh was still fighting with Baker, who refused to back down to the newest team member with his fist raised. Cael wrapped him up and bulldozed him off the dock with a shocking blow that had them both in the water.

“Enough,” I barked as Josh pulled his arm back to hit me. “What the hell is wrong with you!”

“Fuck you! I was defending myself!” He argued and made to push past me, but I was bigger than him by a landslide and blocked his path. “Move, Tuck.”

“It’s Captain, and no ,” I warned him, stepping into his space, my shoulders eclipsing his.

“I’m not getting in that lake,” he growled and took another step back, recreating the distance. His sweater hung loose around his throat, hat crooked from the scuffle, but it didn’t look like he’d actually taken any blows.

“It’s tradition, every Hornet in the lake,” I hissed at him.

“I’m not a Hornet.” He snapped back and shoved past me too quickly for me to stop him.

The sound of bats hitting balls was therapeutic. The sharp ding of metal echoed as the guys stretched and people chatted to themselves. I adjusted my sweats, making sure they were tied before shucking a Hornets tank over my head and tossing my hat.

I thought I would have to search for Josh, but he paraded into the dining hall for breakfast like nothing had happened at the lake. He confused the hell out of me. One moment, he was shaking with rage, eyes so dark they looked black, and the next, he was plastered with a smug grin, shoving eggs into his mouth.

He tossed a ball with Cael a few feet away, and part of me wanted to march over there and ask him what his problem was, but I knew it wouldn’t solve anything. And he wouldn’t confess anyway. He was a lockbox. I just couldn’t figure out what he was hiding.

Ella's words echoed in the back of my mind: “ figure out what he needs.”

Easier said than done when the guy didn’t fucking talk. Even as he warmed up with Cael the two remained silent, Cael taking one for the team by pairing up with Josh. They both focused on the ball hitting their gloves as everyone glanced over with dirty looks that gave away their exact feelings.

Neither side was making this easy; both growing more volatile by the second.

“Alright, huddle up,” I called out as I walked to the pitcher’s mound. Everyone gathered around in a loose circle. Josh stood back from them with his arms crossed over his chest and a red Lorettes hat pulled down over his dark curls. “And get the new guy a better hat.” I scowled, but the sound of Ella giggling echoed from the dugout as she took off in a jog toward the office.

We were supposed to run regular drills that morning to warm everyone up and ease them into the routine, but something was eating at me. With Josh shaking everything up, we needed to think outside the box. Typical drills would keep us active but not unite us as a team.

“I want everyone to form a line,” I said with a clap, and they all looked at me like I was insane. “Now!”

Everyone scrambled into line with Josh at the very end, staring at me over Cael's shoulder, his dark eyes always on me.

“Shirt.” I snapped my fingers at Van and he nodded. "Skin.” I pointed to Jensen. They moved left and right as I went down the single-file line, half the team stripping their shirts until I got to Josh. “Skin.”

“No.” He shook his head at me, and I could tell it was about to be a fight. His jaw clenched, and his hands flexed at his side as he tilted his chin up at me.

“What is this—authority issues?” I asked him, turning my hat backward on my head and cocking it to the side.

“I just don’t have some sick obsession to get naked like the rest of you,” he grumbled.

“It’s a fucking scrimmage, Logan. It’s not a strip club.” I laughed. “You’re a skin.”

“No,” he repeated.

“Aye.” Cael stepped in, stripping his shirt off in one go. My eyes flickered to his toned chest. I forgot how hard the ridges of his stomach were when he was in shape, making my heart race. “I’ll switch with him,” he offered, and Josh shrugged.

“Pick your captains,” I said to the two teams. I could feel Arlo’s eyes on me, and as much as it made me nervous to step outside the box he had drawn for me, I had to do this my way.

Once the boys did as they were told, they stood in awkward huddles, waiting for their next instructions. I stared around at them and smiled. “Good, now even out and pick your positions.”

It was clear that they were confused by the way they looked around at each other. Van’s eyebrows scrunched together as he turned to Cael.

“Has he lost his mind?” He asked and Cael responded with a flat, “maybe.” It was another minute before they started to communicate. They grumbled around for a little while, but after a couple of minutes, they figured it out and returned to me.

“What the hell are you doing, Tucker?” Van asked, standing forward as the shirts’ captain.

“First base, third base, left field, and shortstop will all be blindfolded for the game's duration.”

Everyone had something to argue about the moment the words left my mouth, but Josh narrowed his eyes at me, silently questioning the order.

“You’ll have to rely on each other to catch, hit, and throw the ball,” I explained. “Communication is our sharpest tool on the field, and as of right now, some of you don’t understand that. So until you do, we play like this.”

“This is going to get someone hurt,” Jensen grumbled.

“Good thing we’ve got Doc.” I smiled at them. I walked to the benches, digging around in one of the equipment bags until I got my hands on some of the bandanas we kept inside to hand out to fans.

“You sure they aren’t going to blow up on each other?” Ella asked as I straightened out.

“I’m counting on it.” I winked at her and jogged back to the field, handing each team some blindfolds. “Ella, Arlo, and Nick will be umps. Their word is law. You start arguing you’re on laundry for the week.”

Cael’s eyes caught mine for a second before he covered the bright blue with a sigh. “Atta boy.” I clapped a hand to the back of his head and led him to the batter's box. “Shirts, you’re in the field first.”

“What, no coin toss?” Josh said with a forced grin, making me want to slap the expression off his smug face.

“You burned your one favor, Logan. Mound. Now.” I waved him off and stood back. Players were guiding their blindfolded teammates to their positions, and eventually, everyone was ready to go.

“Play ball,” Arlo barked out.

“Alright,” Josh sighed, rolling the ball in his hand. “Cody,” he said, “I’m going to count to three and throw the ball. Underhand, softball,” he described.

“Softball?” Cael adjusted his stance. “...alright.”

“Just swing,” Josh said.

Everyone could hear Cael trying to get the timing right on a softball pitch as Josh counted out loud and released the ball. Everyone fell silent and the sound of the bat cutting through the air with one smooth swoosh echoed through the treetops.

“Strike one.” Arlo’s voice was harsh compared to the silence.

“Go again,” Cael said, pinning his shoulders back, determined to hit his mark. Ella’s brows pinched together from behind second base, watching Cael carefully to ensure he didn’t hurt himself. “Logan, throw the ball.” Cael whistled into the air.