Three Strikes

Leo's baseball cleats sat in the corner of his room, gathering dust since he quit the team three weeks ago. His friends didn't get it. Why walk away from starting varsity shortstop as a sophomore? But Leo couldn't explain the hollow feeling in his chest every time he stepped onto the diamond.

"You coming to Tyler's pool party?" his sister Maya called from the hallway. "His parents got that new padel court installed. Everyone's trying it."

Padel. The sport that had taken over their suburban town overnight — tennis's cooler, trendier cousin that all the popular kids were suddenly obsessed with. Leo had zero interest in becoming a poser.

"Nah," he muttered, scrolling through TikTok.

"Come on, Leo. You haven't been out in weeks. It's gonna be so awk if you don't show." She paused at his door. "Besides, Jordan's gonna be there."

Jordan. The one reason Leo considered going. The one person who made his stomach do that stupid flip thing every time their lab pairs got assigned together. The person who'd texted him last week: heard you quit baseball. everything okay?

The pool party was exactly what Leo expected — too many people, too much noise, Tyler's older brother's playlist blasting. Leo stood by the fence, nursing a flat Sprite, watching Jordan dominate at padel. They moved like they'd been playing forever, laughter mixing with competitive grunts, sweat glistening on their shoulders in the summer heat.

"Leo!" Jordan spotted him and waved their racket. "Want the next match? I need a partner before Tyler and Sarah absolutely destroy me."

"I don't play," Leo said, but Jordan was already dragging him onto the court.

"Baseball player, right? You've got hand-eye coordination. It's literally the same thing but way more fun."

It wasn't the same thing. The ball bounced weirdly off the walls. His reflexes were all wrong. But Jordan kept laughing every time Leo whiffed a shot, this genuine, unselfconscious sound that made something loosen in his chest.

"You're literally trying too hard," Jordan said after his twentieth miss. "Just swing. Stop thinking about mechanics. Baseball brain, I swear."

Leo's next shot went wide and splashed directly into Tyler's pool, sending a wave of chlorinated water over several unsuspecting partygoers.

Everyone froze. Then Jordan doubled over laughing, and Leo started cracking up too, really laughing, for the first time in weeks.

Later, drying off on pool chairs with their feet in the water, Jordan said quietly, "You know, it's okay if baseball wasn't making you happy anymore. My parents thought I'd play soccer forever, but here I am obsessing over padel like it's my personality."

Leo watched the sunset reflect off the pool's surface. "Yeah. Maybe."

"Want to play again tomorrow?" Jordan asked. "I promise to teach you how to actually serve."

Leo realized his cleats could stay in the corner. "Yeah. I'd like that."