Lightning in the Dugout

Marcus stood in the dugout, clutching the bottle of vitamin-fortified water like it was some magical elixir that could fix everything. His brother Jay had sworn it would give him 'energy, little man,' but Marcus mostly just felt like a fraud holding the bright pink bottle.

"You good, bro?" Carlos asked, nudging him. "You look like you're about to yak."

"I'm chill," Marcus lied. "Just hydrating."

Varsity baseball tryouts. The moment he'd been obsessing over since last summer, when he'd watched from the bleachers while Tyler—who had zero rizz but somehow made the team anyway—actually hit a home run. Now Marcus was seventeen, this was his last shot, and his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

The vitamin water tasted like artificial strawberry mixed with anxiety.

Coach Miller blew his whistle. "Marcus, you're up."

He stepped to the plate, the aluminum bat feeling foreign in his grip. The pitcher wound up, and Marcus's brain short-circuited. Strike one. A voice from the bleachers—probably Tyler's crew—laughed. Of course they were watching.

Then it happened.

Lightning cracked across the sky, so close the air smelled like ozone. Rain started falling—not a drizzle, but a full-on downpour that turned the dusty field into mud within seconds.

"EVERYONE INSIDE!" Coach Miller hollered.

The team scrambled for the dugout, shoving and laughing. Marcus ducked under the metal roof, soaked to the bone, pink vitamin water forgotten on the ground where he'd dropped it. And then he saw her—Amina, the girl from his English class, shaking water from her curls like it was nothing.

"Wild, right?" she said, catching his eye. "Nature's just chaotic like that."

"Yeah," Marcus managed. "Guess that's it for tryouts."

"They'll reschedule." She smiled, and something shifted in his chest. "You've got a nice swing, though. I watched before the storm."

He'd been so focused on proving himself to the guys on the team, he hadn't even noticed she was watching.

The rain kept falling, lightning flashing every thirty seconds like the sky was throwing a rave. Standing there, wet and miserable and failed, Marcus realized he didn't need any special vitamin water or magic tricks. He just needed to show up.

"Thanks," he said, grinning. "That actually means something."

"No cap," she said. "See you in English."

He walked home in the rain, leaving the vitamin water behind. Some things you outgrow.