“I’m sorry, but wedon’t.”
I didn’t want to add my baseball status, but I was desperate. I couldn’t be at homeanymore.
“I’m a starter on the baseball team thissemester.”
“I’m aware of that, and congratulations on the starting position. But, starter or not, there aren’t any dormsavailable.”
I think he saw the desperation in my eyes and I realized that I needed to backoff.
“You’re staying at homecurrently?”
Inodded.
“How are things athome?”
“Fine.”
“Just looking for a change ofscenery?”
“Yes. You know how it is; I just need moreprivacy.”
My counselor gave me the necessary paperwork to apply for a dorm next semester. Since everything seemed to go so fast, I had better make sure I filled this outearly.
On my way out of my math class, Tiffany Henderson caught up tome.
“Hi,Ryan.”
“Hey.”
“Where are youheading?”
“Practice field. I’m done with classes for theday.”
“Wow, lucky. I still have four togo.”
“I took a heavy load of classes during the fall semester since I needed a lighter one for baseballseason.”
“That’s right. You’re starting for the Trojans this year.” I smiled at her as we walked out of the building. “So, you’re good at math, I’ve noticed. I suck at it. I need to get back on track before the semester gets away from me. Think we could have a tutorsession?”
“Yeah, sure. What night works for you?” I asked and stopped to get my planner from mybackpack.
We arranged it for Sunday morning; the day after my firstgame.
“Good luck on Saturday and I’ll see you Sunday morning. Just come by mydorm.”
I headed to the locker room to begin changing for practice. I had to be careful. The team locker room was square in shape, and all of the lockers were along the walls. I didn’t have any rows to dash behind. Practice didn’t start for another hour, so I decided to change into shorts and a t-shirt, and go into the gym to work on some weighttraining.
Skyler, a guy on the team, was in there and when he saw me, he waved meover.
“Hey, Ryan. Can you spotme?”
“Yep.”
I followed him to the bench, and he laid down under the bar. While I watched him push the weights upward, we spoke about the upcoming gametomorrow.
“Do you have family coming out to the gametomorrow?”
“No, not tomorrow,” I quicklysaid.
