Page 30 of The Third Baseman

“No, I only want to go to M.I.T. I’ve wanted to ever since I was a kid.”

I’m not sure I really understood what she was studying, but maybe we weren’t that different. I could definitely understand the drive to want something that badly. “Yeah, I get that. I’m the same with baseball. What are you going to study at M.I.T.?”

“I’m studying a combination of aeronautical science, aerodynamics, and physics. I want to work on rockets going into space.”

“Like the one on your shirt?”

She looked down and brushed her fingers over the little embroidered patch. “Yeah, something like that. This is the N.A.S.A. space shuttle logo. I want to work there one day.”

“Really? I like that you know what you want, and you’re going for it. Me, too. I’ve always wanted to play baseball, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Oh, yeah?” She turned slightly in her seat. “Good for you. I’ve never seen you in tutoring.”

“Do I look like someone who needs tutoring?” I shot back, only to see her cheeks redden. I definitely wanted to do that again.

“No, nooo,” she stuttered, “I just meant a lot of the student athletes get tutoring.”

“They do if they’re going to college.”

“You’re not going to college?” Her eyes widened like she’d never heard anything so preposterous.

“Nope. I’ve been busting my ass since I was a kid because I’ve always known that all I ever want to do is play ball, so what’s the point of delaying it? I’m going to get drafted in July.”

She looked like she was about to list off exactly what the point of going to college was, but then decided against it. “What does that mean exactly? You get picked by a team?”

I chuckled; this was not a question I’d ever been asked. I wasn’t sure I’d even met anyone who didn’t know what the draft was. “Do you know anything about baseball? Or sport in general?”

She shrugged. “Not really, I mean I know some of the teams from the students I’ve been tutoring, although they just want to get to college, so we talk about colleges. My dad watches baseball, but I’ve never paid much attention.”

“I guess you’ve been too busy studying to graduate early.” I heard her scoff quietly. “Well, it means that one of the Major League teams is going to pick me to play for them. I’m hoping The Dodgers, because I’ve only ever wanted to play for The Dodgers. I guess like you and N.A.S.A. or M.I.T., I don’t know what I’ll do if someone else gets there first,” I added.

“So then you’d be playing for The Dodgers?”

“No, then I’ll have a couple of years in the double As; the junior teams,” I explained when she frowned. “The Dodgers minors’ teams are all over the country, but I’ll probably be in Tennessee.”

She nodded slowly as if she understood, then reached into her backpack and pulled out a roll of LifeSavers. After popping a pink one in her mouth, immediately the sweet candy scent hit me.

“Ohhh, that’s where the smell comes from.”

“What smell?”

“You smell like sherbet.”

“I do not,” she snapped, which I also liked.

I was liking a lot about this chick that I’d only just become aware of.

“You do. I smelled it earlier too. It’s okay, it’s not a bad smell.”

She handed the roll to me. “You want one? I have different ones if you don’t want any of these.

She fished out another couple of packets, and I took one from her. “Wow, you really like those, huh?”

“I eat them when I want to think, or when I’m a little nervous. It gives me something to do.”

“I make you nervous?” I used my teeth to ease a LifeSaver out of the packet she’d given me. Cherry.

“I’m in a vehicle with a strange boy, so, yeah.”

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