Bear in the Batter's Box

Marcus stared at the gummy **vitamin** his mom left on the counter. "For energy," she'd said, like some orange gel bear was gonna fix everything that went sideways freshman year.

He grabbed it anyway. Today was make-or-break—**baseball** tryouts, and if he didn't make JV, his social life was basically cancelled. His **cat**, Binx, wound around his ankles like she knew. Binx was the only one who'd seen him cry over that calculus test last month.

"You got this," he told himself, though his stomach was doing gymnastics.

At the field, Coach Miller was already barking orders. Marcus's hands sweated through his batting gloves. Last year he'd struck out in front of everyone—THE defining moment of middle school humiliation. This year needed to be different.

Then his phone buzzed. His sister: "MASSIVE **bear** in our backyard!!! Mom freaking out!!!"

Marcus stared. A bear. In their subdivision. While he was here pretending he was about to be some baseball hero.

Something clicked. He was so busy performing—trying to be the athlete, the chill guy, whatever version of Marcus people would actually like—he wasn't even living his own life. Meanwhile, an actual bear was just showing up, being its bear self, not caring what anyone thought.

"You okay, Marcus?"

He looked up. Chloe, the girl from English, was watching him. She'd seen him strike out last year. She'd seen his red face and trembling hands.

"Yeah," he said. "Actually, no. There's legit a bear at my house right now."

Chloe blinked. Then she laughed. Not mean-laughed. Real-laughed. "That's... kinda iconic?"

"Right?"

"Go see it. Tryouts'll still be here tomorrow."

So Marcus bailed. Grabbed his bike, pedaled home like his life depended on it. The bear—some massive black bear—was just chilling in their backyard, eating from the bird feeder like it owned the place.

It looked at him. Marcus looked back.

Neither performed. Neither pretended.

Just a kid and a bear, existing in the same weird suburban moment.

His mom came out, phone in hand. "Did you make the team?"

"No," Marcus said, and realized he was smiling. "But I saw something way cooler."

Sometimes the stuff you can't plan is the stuff that actually makes you you. That night, Binx curled up on his chest like she approved. The gummy vitamin sat untouched on his nightstand.

Some things you just don't need to fake.