Windmill Windup (11 page)

Laurie soon settled down and retired the side. Now it was time for Kelly to do a little windmilling of her own. She headed
to the mound, full of confidence and enthusiasm. Suddenly, she wanted more than anything to beat her old team, to ruin their
perfect record. It hit her that until today, she’d still seen herself as part of the Devil Rays.

Now, for the first time all season, she felt herself a true Diamondback. She wasn’t on the wrong team after all, any more
than she was in the wrong family.

She mowed down the Devil Rays in the first, and again in the second and third. Three innings, nine strikeouts. A large crowd
gathered around field number four, where they were playing. They had heard what was going on and came to witness her performance.

In the fourth inning, Kelly came to bat again. Ahead of her, Allie had just hit a home run to make the score 4–0. This time,
Kelly did not go after the first pitch, knowing that Laurie wasn’t about to give
her anything fat to hit. Instead, she let the count go to 3–1 before smacking a sharp double to center field.

She didn’t score that inning, but in the sixth, when she came up for the third time, she drove in Allie, who had doubled ahead
of her, with another Conroy Comet. The score was now 6–0, D’backs, and an upset was in the making.

The Devil Rays finally broke up her no-hitter in the seventh and last inning, with two infield dribblers that went for singles.
Then Kelly struck out Sue Jeffers for her twelfth K, to end the game with a shutout. Kelly leaped into the air, throwing her
mitt skyward as she danced on the mound with Allie and her other D’back teammates.

The stunned Devil Rays hung their heads, unable to believe they’d just been obliterated. It was their first loss of the season,
and their aura of invincibility would never be the same.

Who knew how the season would work out? Kelly didn’t, but she didn’t even care. The important thing was, she was a Diamondback
now. Ken, her mom’s new boyfriend, had helped her get there, by making her a whole player again, someone who could hit as
well as pitch and play defense.

So what if he wasn’t perfect? At least he wasn’t a
total idiot, like she’d thought he was. If her mom liked him, Kelly would accept him, even if he was a semi-jerk some of the
time. After all, she wasn’t exactly perfect herself. She’d welcome him into their home, especially if he kept on coaching
her to be a better ballplayer.

“Hey, Kelly!”

Kelly turned around and saw Ryan standing there, smiling broadly at her.

“Hi!” she said, feeling her cheeks flush red. “Were you watching the game?”

“Uh-huh! I caught those home runs of yours. You were awesome!”

“Um, thanks,” she said, kicking a little dirt up with her cleats. “Your dad really helped.”

“He did?” Ryan asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Yeah. Didn’t he tell you?”

“Uh-uh. I guess he didn’t want anyone to know.”

“Oh. Well, that was nice of him, huh?”

“I told you he wasn’t a bad guy.”

“Yeah, well, I guess you were right,” Kelly admitted. Then she saw Allie smiling and waving to Ryan, who waved back. “So,
did you ask Allie to the May dance?” she asked.

“Um, no. I kind of changed my mind about that,” he said. “I thought I’d just show up solo and dance with whoever.”

“Oh,” Kelly said, secretly pleased. She had been planning to do the same thing.

“So, um, I was wondering, maybe you and I could, like, go to a movie or something sometime…,” he said. Looking up, Kelly saw
that his cheeks had a bit of red in them, too.

“I thought you said…,” she began.

“I know,” he said. “But, well, we could go to a movie over in Canterville. Nobody knows us there.”

“Cool!” Kelly said, allowing herself a secret smile. “Hey, I can keep a secret if you can!”

“Excellent!” Ryan said. “Well, see you around, then.”

“Right. Bye.” She waved as he wandered off, feeling a rush of happiness wash over her.

“He’s so cute, isn’t he?” Allie’s voice came from over her shoulder.

“Oh, he’s okay, I guess,” Kelly answered offhandedly.

“Come on, D’backs,” Coach Beigelman said, smiling broadly. “Let’s line up and shake hands!”

They lined up, a winning team, to shake the hands
of the team they’d beaten. Kelly stuck her hand out to slap her old buddies five. When she got to Sue Jeffers, she stopped
to give her a hug. “Hey,” she said, “don’t worry, you guys are still the team to beat.”

“Yeah,” Sue said glumly. “Well, you were awesome, girl.”

“Thanks.”

“See you in the playoffs, huh?”

“Yeah. See you there.”

Kelly walked toward her mom and Ken, feeling like she was on top of the world. What had she been so worried about, anyway?
Life was change, and nothing ever stood still forever. She had a new team and a new member of the family — and maybe even
a new secret boyfriend.

Life was good, and as long as she stayed loose and went with the flow, it was only going to get better.

Read them all!

Baseball Pals	Double Play at Short
Baseball Turnaround	Face-Off
The Basket Counts	Football Fugitive
Catch That Pass!	Football Nightmare
Catcher with a Glass Arm	The Fox Steals Home
Center Court Sting	The Great Quarterback Switch
Challenge at Second Base	The Hockey Machine
The Comeback Challenge	Ice Magic