Lightning in the Batter's Box

Marcus adjusted his snapback, trying to look like he belonged at Varsity Stadium. The social pyramid at Northwood High had him firmly wedged somewhere between 'theater kids' and 'that guy who always carries a laptop,' but tonight he was climbing. Literally.

"You good, bro?" Jenna asked, not looking up from her phone. She was perched on the aluminum bleachers, her Instagram feed probably more interesting than Marcus sweating through his vintage baseball tee.

"Yeah, just gotta fix the announcer's cable before the game starts." He held up the tangled mess of coaxial like a dead snake. "Mr. Henderson said if I don't get this working, I'm benched from AV club for a month."

"Nerd," she said, but she was smiling. That counted for something.

The sky was turning that weird purple-green that meant either tornado weather or just a really aggressive Instagram filter. Lightning forked across the horizon, close enough that the hair on Marcus's arms stood up. First baseman Leo Martinez—the Leo Martinez, who'd already committed to State—was warming up near the dugout, his swing smooth and terrifyingly confident.

The announcer crackled to life. "Testing, testing," Marcus said into the microphone, his voice booming across the empty stadium. Jenna laughed. He grinned, feeling brave for the first time all night.

Then the PA system went full demonic screech, and a popup bear mascot—someone in the giant fuzzy costume—tripped over the same cable Marcus had just fixed. The bear went down hard, taking Marcus with it.

They landed in a tangled heap of brown fur and gangly limbs. The crowd was already filtering in, and Marcus caught at least three people holding up phones. This would be on TikTok before the first pitch. He was dead. socially, permanently dead.

But then the bear's head came off, revealing Leo Martinez's best friend, Tyler, who was supposed to be the mascot but was clearly

"Bro, you good?" Tyler whispered, horrified.

Marcus started laughing. He couldn't stop. Jenna was wheezing so hard she fell off the bleachers. Even Leo stopped warming up to crack up at the absolute disaster of it all.

The lightning finally broke, rain cooling the summer heat. Marcus grabbed the cable, reconnected it properly, and dialed it back to earth.

"Starting lineup in five," he said into the mic, voice steady.

Jenna high-fived him as she ran for cover. "You're not a nerd," she said. "You're the legendary bear-wrangling AV guy."

The baseball game got rained out, but Marcus went home with Jenna's number and a completely new reputation. The pyramid, it turned out, had some flexibility built in.