"Yeah, I was wondering about something out of the ordinary," Dad asked.
I laughed to myself. I couldn’t help it. "Hmm, out of the ordinary. I don’t know. Does getting nailed by your catcher in right field count?"
"Excuse me?!?" Dad asked.
"I had sex with my catcher in right field, after tryouts. I didn’t know if that’d be out of the ordinary or not. Then again, I suppose it would be, because most girls don’t have their very own catcher. So I doubt anyone else could make love with their catcher in right field after tryouts. Maybe a catcher. But it’d have to be Brady, because Mike’s the only other catcher and he told me that was his first time fucking in the outfield. So, yeah, I guess that was out of the ordinary. In fact, I’d be willing to wager that I’m the only program participant that ever fucked her catcher in right field." I was grinning like a nut by the time I was done.
Mom and Dad were laughing. "Dear, you’re babbling," Mom said.
"Yeah, I am, ain’t I?" I laughed.
"Yes," Mom replied. "So is this sexually satiated babbling, or lovesick babbling?"
"A little bit of both," I admitted. "Not that I’m not-what did you say-sexually satiated, because I am. But this may very well be my dream guy."
"Really?" Dad asked.
"Hey, I’ve never kept secrets from the two of you. You know what some of my previous relationships have been like. You know how much I’ve had to hide. Think about it. I’m dating a baseball player. He made love to me after tryouts. You know what I look like after I’ve thrown."
"Eyeblack and all?" Mom asked, incredulously.
"Eyeblack and all. And after I struck him out."
"You’re kidding," Dad said. "Did he hit you?"
"Oh, yeah, after the strikeout he ripped a double. He hit.390 last year. He’s one of Coach Morris’s legendary MTO’s." They cracked up, they both knew what that stood for. "We went at it for a while. We were pretty evenly matched. But I can get him out. He still wanted me."
"There’s two sides of that, you know," Dad said. "He hit you, you said. You still wanted him."
"It’s funny. I’ve never had any kind of relationship with a ballplayer, so I never knew how I’d react to that. Mike said it was foreplay. Strangely enough, I agree with him."
"Sounds like quite a guy," Mom said.
"Yeah, he is. It’s new, so we’ll see, but do you know how nice it is for once not to have to hide parts of myself?"
"Yeah, I can see that," Dad said. "Good for you, Lil, I’m really happy for you."
PART FOUR THURSDAY
Thursday dawned. I was in a hell of a mood. There’s a surprise.
Sat down, ate breakfast with Mom and Marina. Told them all about it. Hustled myself to school.
I got there early. Grabbed the school paper, which had just come out. Figured I could read it while I was waiting-figured I’d have to wait for Lily since I was so early. I went over to the parking lot. Surprise, surprise-she was waiting for me, sitting in her car. She got out the minute she saw me coming.
"I’ve been waiting for you," she gave me a come-hither grin.
"Oh, goody." I walked over to her, and we wrapped each other in a soul kiss.
"You know what’s a pity? You’re not in any of my classes," she told me. "I’d rather get relief from you."
"Yeah, me too," I agreed. "Hey, if you need it, take it. It’s The Program. Plus, one of two things is going to happen today. You’re either gonna get felt up more, or people are going to avoid you."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because you’re about to have a bit of notoriety around here." I held up the school paper. Right there, on the front page, was a picture of her-pitching, in the nude-and the big headline: "Girl Makes Westport Baseball Team; First Time In History."
"Oh, geez. I should’ve expected this."
"Yeah, I should’ve too. It’ll be alright." I took her in my arms. "Your catcher will protect you."
"Oh, will he?" she grinned. "How? By kissing me senseless so I don’t care about the notoriety?"
"That sounds good." So I did. The rules against PDAs were still on the books at Westport, but, in wake of The Program, they really weren’t enforced. Especially in the parking lot a half hour before school.
I broke the kiss, and she grinned at me. I grinned back, and looked down. She was wearing a sleeveless white blouse with flowers on it, and a knee-length flared knit skirt.
"You know what? You’re gorgeous even with clothes on," I told her.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. And even without the dirt and the grime and the eyeblack."
She just giggled. "You’re the best, you know that?"
"I’m glad you like what you see," I joked. "Hey, we only have that team meeting today. It’ll only be about an hour. You want to go out on a real date? Dinner?"
"Love to. Burger Hut or real food?" she laughed. "We can always go to The Mariner nude."
"That’s an idea, but we could always do that after the game tomorrow-it’s kind of a tradition among some of us to hit The Mariner after a Friday game."
"Oh, great. Cool."
"For today, though," I said, "I was thinking more about Luciano’s."
"Oh, yeah! I love that place. Only been there twice, but I love it." Luciano’s was a good Italian restaurant in town. "Can’t get nekkid there," she laughed, "but that’s cool. I’d love to go there with you."
"It’s a date, then," I said. Then I kissed her again. It went on for a good long time. Until we heard a sports car vroom into the lot. It pulled into the space next to where we were, and the driver yelled, "Hey! Get a room!" It was Ed.
"Don’t spoil my fun, Ed," Lily teased him.
"Of all the people on this whole wide earth, only you would consider him fun," Ed teased back.
"Oh, yeah? Made your travel plans to Latvia yet?" I put in. Lily was, of course, confused-so I explained my earlier joke to her.
Eddie teased us for another minute or so, then went in. We were still cuddling.
"Almost time to go in," Lily told me.
"Yeah. Darn."
"I know." We started to walk to the entrance. "I have a surprise for you," she continued.
"A surprise?"
"You’ll see." I swear she shook her hips in front of me when she walked away after she said that. She positively sauntered. Hadn’t seen that before.
We got to the entrance, and all the kids were gathered around for the daily unveiling. We hadn’t really put on a show, so I decided to do a little. I went up the stairs ahead of her, and yelled, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Westport High’s newest ace pitcher, coming soon to a clothing-optional ballpark near you, Lily ‘Pedro’ Woodard!!!!"
She giggled through my whole spiel, then bounded up the steps, bowed to all four points of the compass, and then flexed her pitching arm. I thought she might’ve been embarrassed by my little speech-I did it on the spur of the moment-but she was enjoying it. Little did I know that she had a little show of her own planned.
"Thank you, thank you. Mikey, can you start the disrobing today?" I shrugged, and started peeling off my shirt. "Now, you all might like to know that that beautiful guy over there getting naked-well, he and I made love for the first time yesterday evening." Shit! She said that? "Right after I made the team. Those of you who use the baseball diamond for a cut-through, look out for the cumstains in right field. We wouldn’t want any accidents." SHIT! "And now we’re going out. All done, honey?" I, now naked, nodded, bemused. This girl sure was unpredictable. And, boy, did she have-there’s no other word for it-balls. "OK, now, since we were already naked, because of The Program, there was no grand unveiling. I thought about us undressing each other here today, but we’ll have plenty of time to do that. Then, I had a better idea." Her shirt came off.