Hotbox by Delia Delaney Page A

Jay. It wasn’t a big deal to me. I’ve never had a prob l em with curfew until I met you—” That sounded really bad, and t he look on her face confirmed it. “What I mean is that I’m not really a problem player; the coaches have other guys they worry about more than me—”
    “Until now,” she replied. “Because of me, your coach is now checking up on you.”
    “It’s not your fault; you didn’t even know.”
    “Yeah, but I don’t want you to start slipping with stuff because of me. I couldn’t… I don’t want you to get in trouble, okay? Now that I know, you’re gonna be more careful, right?”
    She really did look worried and it confused me.
    “I will. I’m sorry.”
    She took a deep breath and gave me a hug. “Okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    “Can’t I walk you to your car?”
    “No,” she said with a half smile. “That’s your punishment.”
    She gave me a kiss on the cheek and headed out the door.
    “I miss you already,” I pathetically announced from the doorway.
    She paused on the sidewalk for a few seconds, loo king me over with contemplation. F inally she gave me a relenting smile as she shook her head . Then she made her way back to me, took my face in her hands, and gave me a kiss that almost knocked my legs right out from under me.
     
     
     
     
    B efore I knew it, the rest of the week went by and it was May . My team had a big t ournament we were hosting at our school, so baseball was pretty much what I had going on for the next four consecutive days.
    Jayden had invited me to several activities she had plans for that weekend , but when she looked at the tournament schedule, she pretty much knew I couldn’t come. We had opening ceremonies on Friday night, two games on Saturday, one game on Sunday if we were in the winner’s bracket but two if we were not, and hopefully the ch ampionship game on Monday night .
    Our school had two baseball fields. Friday night held a game on each field, but first, every team was required to be on the main field for opening ceremonies. As the hosting team, Coach Tucker also wanted us to attend the games for that night as well .
    After arriving early to prep the fields and take care of other necessary things, we began to assemble with the other players for the National Anthem and the introduction of teams . I noticed Coach Tucker grumbling with Coach Farland and a couple of tournament officials below the announcer’s stand. They came our way and announced the ceremony had to be delayed twenty minutes because the anthem singer was running late , and they hadn’t been able to find anyone to replace him right away . Tucker hated it when things didn’t go as scheduled, especially if it made our school look bad, and he was really ticked off .
    I stepped up to him and said, “Hang on, let me see if I can fix this.” Based on what Cali said, this was definitely last minute and I was sure Jayden would do it. She must have left work early to be here; she might regret that now…
    I caught Jayden’s attention and waved her over . With a questioning look she made her way down the bleachers. I met her at the bottom and had her walk with me.
    “What’s going on?” she asked.
    “Do you want Tucker forever in your debt?”
    “No,” she smiled.
    “Okay,” I said, trying to make her walk quicker. “Can I be forever in your debt?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Then will you do me a favor?”
    “If you buy me a hot dog.”
    I laughed. “I will buy you hot dogs for the rest of my life. I need you to sing the a nthem.”
    She stopped. “Ty…”
              “Please, Jayden. I know you can. We really, really need somebody right now .” I did my best to plead with my eyes and she finally sighed.
    “Fine.”
    “Yes! Come on…”
    The only bad thing was that they really did want her to stand on the mound to sing, and I felt terrible about that. I could tell she was really apprehensive , and s he didn’t want her name announced either, but